Super Mario Adventures - Mario Vs. Wario

Mario Vs. Wario

Immediately following the end of Super Mario Adventures, Nintendo Power concluded the epic with a ten-page story based on Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, which ran in their January 1993 issue and was later reprinted in the graphic novel. This comic was last seen in the Greed School part of the official North American Wario Land 4 website. In this story, Mario receives a letter from his childhood playmate Wario, who is inviting him over to his castle to "catch up on things." What Mario doesn't know, though, is that Wario is secretly plotting revenge for how much of a bully Mario was to him in their childhood. In the road between his house and Wario's castle, Mario encounters several of the bosses from the game, but doesn't suspect that they're out to eliminate him. Eventually, he reaches the castle and finds a giant Wario waiting to pummel him. In the fight that ensues, Mario finds that Wario's new size is thanks to a plug on his overalls, which he then pulls off, deflating Wario to his normal size (which is apparently the same size as Mario). Wario is upset about Mario bullying him again, but Mario, realizing this, apologizes. The story ends on them playing cowboys again, with Wario once again vowing to get even.

A year later, immediately following a comic adaptation of Star Fox, another Mario vs. Wario comic ran in the magazine, this one published in the January 1994 issue. Here, Mario and Wario (who is now drawn in his official size from the games) are invited to Princess Peach's birthday party, and they both recall of the Princess' infatuation with a super deformed doll in the likeness of Samus Aran (perhaps foreshadowing the Super Metroid comic adaptation that started in the next issue). Wario heads off to the toy shop, only to find that "some guy" with "a big black moustache" already bought the last Samus doll there was. Being Mario's doppelganger, Wario assumes Mario was the customer, buys a jack-in-the-box, and has it wrapped in the same packaging. At the party, Wario sees that Mario's gift looks just like his and switches his gift with Mario's when the human plumber isn't looking. But when Wario presents Mario's gift to Peach, she opens it up to find it's a jack-in-the-box (which apparently scares her). Then, when Mario presents "his" gift, Wario claims it to be his gift, but it is also a jack-in-the-box. A big fistfight emerges between Mario and Wario until they finally realize that neither of them had the Samus doll, and it is revealed that Luigi was the one who bought it for Peach. This second Mario vs. Wario comic is the only installment of Super Mario Adventures that has never been reprinted.