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Big Belly Burger is a fictional chain of fast food restaurants in the DC Comics universe. It has appeared in a wide number of comic book titles and stories, as well as on the television programs Arrow and The Flash.

Fictional history

Big Belly Burger was created by writer John Byrne in Adventures of Superman in June 1988. The fast food chain was given its initial appearance by penciller Jerry Ordway. The restaurant was inspired by Bob's Big Boy, a real-world chain of restaurants.

In DC Comics publications, Big Belly Burger is said to be one of the largest fast-food chains in the United States. Founded in Coast City in the 1950s, the chain is now nationwide. The chain is well-known in the DC Comics universe for its French fries, milkshakes,, and large hamburgers. Its signature menu items include the Belly Buster, the Belly Bloater, and the Cheesemeister Deluxe. The Big Belly Burger mascot is a smiling, bearded, red-haired man with glasses who bears a striking resemblance to John Byrne himself. The mascot is often depicted holding aloft a plate on which a large hamburger sits. Variations of the mascot also appear, such as a mascot with an upraised arm and no plate or the mascot with clenched fists on his hips. Beginning about 2008, a Big Belly Burger logo was depicted. This logo consists of a large red circle with a heavy black border, a smaller white smiley off-center at the top of the red circle, and two three-fingered cartoonish hands (one in the red circle, one opposite the smiley at the top of the red circle). The image looks like a rotund person, smiling person. Big Belly Burger also has a catchphrase, "It's Belly Belly good" (a play on the words "very very good"). Some Big Belly Burger locations are depicted in the comics as having a "playplace", an area where small children can play on jungle gym equipment and slides.

Various stories have shown Big Belly Burger to be a subsidiary of LexCorp. The company enjoys widespread brand awareness, and only O'Shaughnessy's (a fictional chain of bars with an Irish theme which also appears in DC Comics) may have more locations and be better known by the public.

Notable appearances

Superman

Big Belly Burger has appeared more often in Superman comics than in any other DC Comics publication. One notable appearance was in a 1990 story in which the villainous magical imp Mr. Mxyzptlk animated a Big Belly Burger mascot statue and used it to fight Superman. In 1999, Superman characters Jimmy Olsen and Perry White were depicted in an advertisement for the fast food chain:

Jimmy Olsen: You'd better hustle with those Big Belly Burgers, Mr. White. Perry White: Great Caesar's Ghost! I'm grilling as fast as I can, Olsen... and don't call me Chef!"

Booster Gold

The superhero Booster Gold was once depicted as working (for a brief time) at a Big Belly Burger. He also is depicted appearing in Big Belly Burger television advertisements, and a Big Belly Burger sticker appeared on Booster Gold's coffin along with other corporate sponsors (including Soder Cola, Cap's Hobby Shoppe, EZ Caskets, Guardian Cigarettes, Lit Beer, Pep Cereals, and Vertigo Comics).

Son of Vulcan

Big Belly Burger made two appearances in the Son of Vulcan limited series comic book. The first issue of the publication depicted Big Belly Burger as the location where 14-year-old orphan Miguel "Mikey" Devante worked when he met the superhero Vulcan and received his powers from him. The fictional restaurant appeared again in the limited series' final issue, after Devante defeated a group of supervillains.

Other heroes

The DC Comics alien Nix Uotan is depicted working at Big Belly Burger during his exile on Earth in 2008. The superheroine Skyrocket of the superhero group Power Company also was depicted working at a Big Belly Burger in order to earn money prior to becoming a hero-for-hire.

In other media

Television

• Big Belly Burger regularly features in the Arrow television series. Big Belly Burger made its first appearance in the third episode of the first season, when John Diggle brought Oliver Queen and Tommy Merlyn to the restaurant after they were beaten by Max Fuller's henchmen. Diggle's sister, Carly, is a waitress there. It makes another major appearance when Oliver Queen, John Diggle, and Felicity Smoak meet at the Big Belly Burger where Carly works as they plot to capture a jewel thief known as The Dodger. A Big Belly Burger is where The Canary first appeared in the second season premiere episode. Felicity Smoak announced toward the end of the second season that she's no longer patronizing the restaurant: "No Big Belly Burger, though; it's giving me a big belly."
• Big Belly Burger is also regularly featured in the television series The Flash. The restaurant makes its first appearance in the show's premiere episode, and The Flash locates a villain after being told the attack is occurring near a Big Belly Burger. The series depicts the Flash as needing to eat a large amount of food to replenish the energy expended by running. In the episode "Revenge of the Rogues", the hero is shown having several hundred Big Belly Burger hamburgers (whose wrappings lie in a pile next to him). Eobard Thawne mentions that he's a fan of Big Belly Burger in the season one finale: "What? No Big Belly Burger? It's one of the few perks of living in this time. We're out of cows where I come from." (He's seen later in the same episode eating a Big Belly Burger hamdburger, drink, and fries.) Hunter Zolomon of Earth-Two (posing as Jay Garrick) remarks that every Earth in the Multiverse has a Big Belly Burger. A Big Belly Burger meal is one of the first things Harrison Wells of Earth-2 asks for when he meets the Flash.

Video games

• Big Belly Burger is referenced in DC Universe Online. It is a Franchise Briefing that can be found in the Little Bohemia and Chinatown districts of Metropolis and in the Burnley and Diamond Districts of Gotham. There are four parts that comprise this briefing.
• Big Belly Burger is referenced in Batman: Arkham Origins. There are billboards throughout the city advertising the restaurant. There are also discarded burger wrappers and drinks in the Gotham City Police Department.
• In Lego Dimensions, Green Arrow tells Homer Simpson that he'll take him to Big Belly Burger if Homer helps him track down Hank Scorpio.

References

Notes

1. The advertisement plays off the running gag in Superman comics in which Jimmy calls White "Chief", and White orders him never to do that again.

Citations

1. Adventures of Superman #441 (June 1988).
2. Flash Vol. 4, #32 (August 2014).
3. Superman #59 (September 1991).
4. Adventures of Superman #480 (July 1991).
5. ^ Final Crisis #3 (September 2008).
6. ^ Adventures of Superman #463 (February 1990).
7. Black Canary, Vol. 3 #1 (September 2007).
8. Superman Secret Files and Origins, Vol 1. #2 (May 1999).
9. JLA Classified #6 (June 2005).
10. 52 #4 (May 2006).
11. 52 # 18 (September 2006).
12. Son of Vulcan, Vol. 2 #1 (August 2005).
13. Son of Vulcan Vol. 2 #6 (January 2006).
14. Power Company #1 (April 2002).
15. Guggenheim, Marc; Kreisberg, Andrew (October 24, 2012). "Lone Gunmen". Arrow. Season 1. Episode 3. The CW.
16. Schwartz, Beth (February 20, 2013). "Dodger". Arrow. Season 1. Episode 15. The CW.
17. Kreisberg, Andrew; Guggenheim, Marc (October 9, 2013). "City of Heroes". Arrow. Season 2. Episode 1. The CW.
18. Mericle, Wendy; Schwartz, Beth (April 23, 2014). "Seeing Red". Arrow. Season 2. Episode 20. The CW.
19. Kreisberg, Andrew; Johns, Geoff (October 7, 2014). "Pilot". The Flash. Season 1. Episode 1. The CW.
20. Schapker, Alison; Godfree, Grainne (October 21, 2014). "Things You Can't Outrun". The Flash. Season 1. Episode 3. The CW.
21. Wu, Kai Yu; Geoff, Johns (January 20, 2015). "Revenge of the Rogues". The Flash. Season 1. Episode 10. The CW.
22. Stanton, Gabrielle; Kreisberg, Andrew (May 19, 2015). "Fast Enough". The Flash. Season 1. Episode 23. The CW.
23. Meiojas, Julian; Walczak, Katherine (October 20, 2015). "Family of Rogues". The Flash. Season 2. Episode 3. The CW.
24. Sokolowski, Ben; Godfree, Grainne (November 3, 2015). "The Darkness and the Light". The Flash. Season 2. Episode 5. The CW.

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• Green Arrow
• Fictional restaurants