Super Mario in Die Nacht des Grauens
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Super Mario in Die Nacht des Grauens (referred to as simply Die Nacht des Grauens in the second part, English translation: Super Mario in The Night of Horror) is the name of a 12-page comic in two parts, the first one being published in the 5/1996 issue of the German Club Nintendo magazine. The story was not continued until one year later, when the second part was published in issue 5/1997. It is the only comic in the magazine to be continued after such a long break.
Plot Synopsis
Part One (5/1996)
It is shortly before midnight, and a heavy storm is coming over New York City. Mario and Princess Toadstool, who live in a huge skyscraper in the heart of Brooklyn together with various other Nintendo characters, are enjoying the comfortable atmosphere and their midnight dinner. They are just about to kiss, when suddenly a lightning strikes and puts the building into complete darkness. Mario lights a candle and decides to go down to the cellar, in order to check the fuses. Toadstool is uneasy about letting Mario go down alone, but stays in the room as she is even more afraid of going to the cellar herself. When opening the door of the room with the fuse box, he meets Kirby and Link, who also have apartments in the skyscraper and went down to check the fuses. Suddenly, they hear some strange whispering, coming out of Wario's room. Link, who obviously is afraid of doing it himself, asks Mario to carefully open the door and check what is going on.
When doing so, the plumber does not believe his eyes. Wario's room is full of monsters and other characters from horror films and stories, such as Jason, Chuckie, and Leatherface. In the middle, Wario and Abigor, a demonic creature, are sitting at a table, debating. Abigor's plan is to take the skyscraper over, in order to have enough rooms for all his diabolic fellows. He asks Wario, who is the caretaker of the apartment building, to give him the keys. Wario likes the plan but asks what he is getting out of the deal. Abigor replies that he is able to manipulate Toadstool's brain. She would ignore Mario and instead fall in love with Wario. Zealously, he immediately signs the contract and hands the keys over to Abigor. In this moment, all the monsters stream out of Wario's room to search their new apartments matching their keys.
After Mario and Link have seen this, they don't know what do; especially Mario is desperate because of Toadstool still being alone in their apartment. Kirby, however, stumbles across a chest which reads "Van Helsing", the name of the man who defeated Count Dracula. The three friends open the chest and find a number of weapons inside, such as a rapier and a crossbow. There is also clothing and some test tubes inside. Soon they realize that they can use all these items to defeat the monsters, and try out the clothing and the weapons. Kirby also tries the red serum in the test tube, followed by Mario and Link, and immediately their appearance changes and they turn into aggressive ghostbusters with special weapons and abilities: Mario gets a whip, Link a firesword, and Kirby the ability to inhale his enemies and to burn them with his fire breath.
In the meantime, Chuckie has found "his" apartment, which actually belongs to the Kongs. Donkey and Diddy are watching TV, when Chuckie bursts in, preparing to attack. However, in this moment, Mario, Link and Kirby open the door and attack all the monsters coming in their way by using their special abilites. After a short time already, the monsters flee the fight, and even Abigor has disappeared. After Mario and his friends have said good-bye to Donkey and Diddy Kong, they contentedly doff their clothing and weapons and put them away into the chest again. Link thinks they might need it again, but Mario believes it is best to put the chest into a dark corner of the cellar so nobody would find it. After this is done, Kirby realizes that he is tired, and the friends decide to go to their apartments and to bed. Mario opens the door to his apartment, expecting to find Toadstool sleeping. However, she still sits in her armchair. Mario, who only sees her back, talks to her, but she doesn't reply. When he finally sees her face, he finds that she has turned into a zombie, with a wan face and cavernous eyeholes.
