From 1995, New Warriors #66, "Return to Springdale" Written by Evan Skolnick, pencils by Patrick Zircher, inks by Andrew Pepoy; and dedicated to Speedball co-creator Steve Ditko.
Robbie Baldwin dreams up the title page while sleeping on the train back to his hometown: trouble with his mom, possible time-travelling problems incoming, and malfunctioning powers; so he was headed home in search of answers. Arriving in town, his dad is late picking him up, so he Speedball's up and bounces home; just missing an alliterative pair of thugs chasing Niels, the cat that got the same powers in the same accident as Speedball.
Robbie was in kind of an odd place: his parents were separated, and he was living with his mom, who was acting on "Secret Hospital," the same soap opera I think Mary Jane Watson had a stint on. His dad knew his secret ID, but was district attorney and the town was supposedly "the only 'one' in America with an ordinance against costumed vigilantes," so he had to willfully ignore his son's activities.
The next day, as Speedball heads to the lab where he got his powers, two villains, the Harlequin Hit Man and Sticker, manage to catch Niels. Speedball finds his usual doctor had the day off, but those villains and several more are there, seemingly with the run of the lab. Speedball is able to thrash his old bad guys once again, but then gets gassed. He wakes up, strapped to the wall with Niels, courtesy of his old foe...Clyde!
Clyde claims all of the villains Speedball faced in Springdale were his "failed experiments," and that he was "the greatest enemy you never knew you had!" Speedball had earlier even saved him from another experiment, a giant rat. (That was in the last issue of his own book, which I probably have floating around here somewhere...) Clyde wants to suck the powers out of him and Niels, which is hurting the cat, who horks up a kinetically powered hairball! Clyde is shaken like a paint mixer, setting up a MST3K reference; as Speedball sees a mysterious figure in the "kinetic dimension" his powers come from, that looks like him.
Later, Robbie tells the cops, and his dad, Niels defeated all the baddies. Wink! The cat would go on to further nonsense, before becoming a Pet Avenger, and is currently the pet of Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch!
Also this issue: Justice tries to manage the team and his love life, as he thinks it's too soon to propose to his long-standing girlfriend, Firestar. Sabra also calls up, from Israel, to hit on him, just to complicate matters. And the Scarlet Spider makes an appearance, since this was during his time on the team; which almost turned the book into a de facto Spider-Man title. Secret identities also meant something back then, as Scarlet is still reluctant to unmask for the team.
I understand Speedball has moved back to Speedball again, past his trauma from Civil War and time as Penance. I think he would be more fun if he was portrayed as complete rag-doll physics; like every time he hit a wall or something he looked like his spine was folding in half, but was fine.
So so much horrible-ness. There actually exists a cat that has same powers as Speedball and he never became his pet sidekick earlier? Jesus christ.....talk about bottom of the barrel, much like those villains.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of, I swear Harlequin Hit Man must be a Ditko homage because he looks exactly like something He'd have drawn.
I dunno, I kinda like the idea that small towns across America are generating their own Z-level supervillains. And Niels may have been a running joke for Speedball's series: he and the cat got powers the same time, but Speedy never knew how they worked exactly, and thought if he could catch the cat, he could have his scientist friend study it. Never came close to catching him, that cat was bouncing around town for months...
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