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Stan Lee's Sloppy Seconds In The Silver Age Sixties

The earliest known use of the phrase sloppy seconds is in the 1950s. But it was Stan Lee who popularised it a decade later.


The earliest known use of the phrase sloppy seconds is in the 1950s. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest evidence for sloppy seconds is from 1953, in Berkshire Evening Eagle of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. A crude term referring to a person having sex with another, after they have already just had sex with a third party, it can be used to demean someone's worth. Or simply a derogatory term for something that is a leftover. The movie, Grease, made a phrase out of "sloppy seconds just ain't my style." But one of the earlier uses in print is from, of all people, Stan Lee, repeatedly. In Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and more.

Stan Lee's Sloppy Seconds

Such as Fantastic Four #27 from 1964 in which the Sub-Mariner broods over his desire to have Sue Storm as his bride. He disguises himself and travels to the surface world to fight the Thing and the Human Torch before revealing himself to Sue. Reed goes after Namor alone, fighting off Ben and Johnny when they try to calm him down.

Stan Lee's Sloppy Seconds

Or in Amazing Spider-Man #27 from 1965, in which the Green Goblin brings Spider-Man's limp body to the Crime-Master, for to mobsters attack Spider-Man, only for him to break free.

Stan Lee's Sloppy Seconds

In the very same issue, Spider-Man takes a tip to retrieve a lost camera and the narrator gets in on the action.

Stan Lee's Sloppy Seconds

While Daredevil #20 from 1966, in which Daredevil crashes in on some crooks that are snooping around inside the Nelson and Murdock law office and fights them off. Wondering why they're looking for his alter ego, Daredevil follows them to his home, and quickly sneaks in and allows them to capture him so he can find out what's going on.

Stan Lee's Sloppy Seconds

And there are more and more examples. The question should be why did Stan Lee like this phrase so much, did he understand what it meant, and who told him? Of course these days, there is no doubt…

Stan Lee's Sloppy Seconds

That's what you get when you mess with multiple She-Hulks…


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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