NFL SuperPro Takes the Field

NFL SuperPro Special Edition #1
“Fourth and Goal to Go”
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Penciler: Jose Delbo (chapters 1 and 3), Bob Hall (chapter 2)
Inkers: Tom Morgan, Mike DeCarlo, Kim DeMulder, Bob Hall
Letterers: Janice Chiang, Chris Eliopoulos
Colorist: Evelyn Stein
Cover: Joe Jusko
Assistant Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor: Bob Budiansky
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
Released: June 25, 1991

The question may no longer be asked in any official capacity, but the answer remains ever the same: Yes, I am ready for some football.

I'm also almost always ready to read comics, and Marvel and the NFL joined forces in 1991 to target the Venn diagram of fans like me with the introduction of NFL SuperPro.

I bought the first issue of the series that came out in August of that year and... that was it. I don't know if it was budget or availability or something else that kept me from following the series, but combining football and superheroes should have been enough. It has since become a target of mine at showss and in back-issue bins. I've managed to get 10 of the 12 issues of the series, and the story that introduced him... if not the issue itself.

The first appearance was “NFL SuperPro Super Bowl Special” #1, for which Mike's Amazing World gives a release date of Jan. 1, 1991. I ended up with a copy of “NFL SuperPro Special Edition” #1, apparently a reprint from nearly six months later. MyComicShop.com is selling the Super Bowl edition for $3.20 compared to the $3 even my copy would fetch in Very Fine condition.

Krunk.

This issue opens with the living embodiment of the NFL logo roughing up some armed thugs unloading chemicals from a truck. We soon learn NFL SuperPro is actually mild-mannered reporter Phil Grayfield, who specializes in investigative sports journalism (thanks to his double major in journalism and criminal justice). He's on the trail of an illegal steroid ring in both his day job and his crimefighting alter ego.

Phil's real in with the NFL players he's interviewing is that he used to be one of them. He's chatting with some former teammates on the Chicago Bears when he witnesses a particularly massive rookie, Carl Bennings, getting rather violent with his teammates in a practice ahead of their game against the New York Giants. Phil and his cameraman, Ken, manage to link the rookie to a professor with ties to Jakobs Pharmaceutical. But while Phil investigates that angle in his colorful costume, Ken is digging into his background.

Ken soon figures out that Phil and SuperPro are one and the same, so Phil launches into his backstory, filling in the origin that was briefly recapped in my single contemporary issue. A star linebacker at Notre Dame,* he was the No. 1 overall draft pick by the Philadelphia Eagles before back-to-back preseason injuries led to him getting cut. The Bears signed him but his career ended when he hurt himself again saving quarterback Ron Macedon's son from a potentially deadly fall.

It's never good when your knee goes "porp."

Phil got a job with the TV show “Sports Inside,” where he landed an interview with reclusive football fan and collector Rudy Custer. But thieves followed him to the mysterious superfan's home and tried to make off with valuable items, tying Phil up with game film (??) and starting a fire to cover their tracks.

Rudy could afford all sorts of memorabilia because of the patents he earned as an inventor. Among his creations was a prototype football suit that was the safest and most durable uniform ever created. Why, it could even stop bullets! But it was too expensive to be used throughout the league.

Fortunately, it's in a display case that Phil breaks – along with the vat of experimental plastics used to make it. That, the fire extinguishing foam and chemicals from the film (???) combine to not only allow Phil to survive but come out of the experience with superpowers like enhanced strength and speed.**

Phil dons the SuperPro suit, saves Custer and gets his blessing to keep the getup. Back in the present, Ken is so impressed he decides to help bust the steroid ring.

The duo use some pretty circumstantial evidence to link Bennings to Jakobs Pharmaceuticals, then confront the professor, whose guilty conscience causes him to spill the beans on the whole scheme. That includes telling them Bennings is set to take the final stage of a new super-steroid a few hours before kickoff.

As people should expect when doing experimental anything in the Marvel Universe, the steroid causes Bennings to mutate, growing into a tumor-covered giant who rampages outside the stadium. SuperPro arrives to battle him and save a kid, but only wins when the young man's body is overwhelmed and he dies of a heart attack.

Phil breaks the story, the professor takes the fall for Jakobs, and Phil enjoys a bagel with his girlfriend.

OK, obviously the idea of a football-themed superhero is a little out there and a lot of this felt forced, especially some of Phil's gridiron-themed quips (“You missed the first down marker by the length of a chain,” he tells one of the thugs in the opening sequence). But it's not all awkward. The story of Phil's cut-short career rings true, the steroids theme was timely, and the idea of the suit as an experimental advancement in safety is even more timely today.

Since this was done in conjunction with the NFL, it was interesting to see real teams used, with accurate uniforms and referencess to figures like Bears coach Mike Ditka and Eagles head man Buddy Ryan. Some of the football references were awkward – I don't think divisional foes like the Eagles and Giants would play in the preseason and how did the Eagles have the top draft pick if Phil was their missing link for a Super Bowl title – but it was a net positive.

NFL Superpro is a character I'm glad exists, just because the concept is so weird. And although not everything worked, there's an earnestness to it that lets me laugh with it rather than at it. If it was a cash-in, at least it wasn't phoned in.

I was hoping to do a read-through for the blog, but I'm still short issuess 10 and 11. Plus, I've got to finish Secret Defenders. But since I haven't managed to increase my inventory of Kickers Inc. over the last year, I figured this would be a fun way to start football season. And I was not disappointded.

* Who, I would be remiss not to point out, were just upset by my alma mater, Marshall University! Go Herd!

** Scoff if you like, but it's less random than the Flash getting struck by lightning and doused with a host of chemicals.