NFL SuperPro #8
“Vengeance”
Writer: Matthew Morra
Penciler: Herb Trimpe
Inker: Mike DeCarlo
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Marie Javins
Cover: John Romita Sr., Ron Frenz and Joe Sinnott
Editor: Dave Wohl
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
Published by: Marvel
Released: March 3, 1992
We're on our third writer in as many issues and fourth overall but our first SuperPro adventure that hasn't been rendered, at least in part, by Jose Delbo. Since sharing penciling duties with Bob Hall back in the Special Edition introducing our hero, Delbo has been the only SuperPro artist.
But Marvel wrangled a decent enough backup: legendary Hulk artist and Wolverine co-creator Herb Trimpe. And that's with a cover credited – like issues 1, 3 and 4 – to John Romita Sr.!
If only the issue was that exciting.
The story opens with Captain America foil Crossbones roughing up the hired muscle of a mysterious figure bent on revenge against SuperPro. I figured it had to be Marco Sanzionare or Buck Sutter attempting to hire Crossbones, since 'Pro's other foes seem less likely to work through intermediaries.
Speaking of SuperPro, he's doing his day job as Phil Grayfield, reporter for “Sports Inside,” about to cover an anti-drug press conference featuring his ex-teammate Ron Macedon, three non-fictional NFL figures and a dude cameraman Ken thinks is really ugly (his words, not mine).
Phil departs the press conference when he sees a guy in a trench coat and hat leaving the locker room and notices the door knob is broken. Naturally, this leads him to put on his costume and try to tackle the man, who is revealed to be Crossbones.
The two come to blows, and Crossbones slices 'Pro's leg with a thrown knife. The wound nearly paralyzes SuperPro, who is saved by the timely intervention of, you guessed it: Sleepwalker. No, actually, it's Captain America, who has been pursuing Crossbones since he was fired by the Red Skull. At this moment though, he decides not to chase the villain so he can save SuperPro's life, like so:
Crossbones coated the knife with cobra venom, which Captain America says is his modus operandi. Having read very few Captain America books in this era, not even the ones where he turned into a werewolf, I'll take his word for it.
After a pep talk and an offer to use the Avengers' gym sometime,* Cap departs and SuperPro discovers that, while he was out, police found drugs in Macedon's locker. Phil knows this must be a frame job because Ron is the most anti-drug guy he's ever met. Back in the familiar territory of trying to clear the name of a falsely accused football player, Phil and Ken get to work.
Regardless, Ken's hackitude yields the clue they needed from the police report: the label on Crossbones' coat, which includes the tailor's name and address. Yeah, that old chestnut.
Once they get the address of the coat's owner from the tailor, Ken hacks into... something and finds the blueprints of the house. An armed security guard is no match for SuperPro, and the two go crashing to the skylight to land at the feet of...
Marco Sanzionare.**
Sans armor, maybe because the last time he wore it didn't work out so well, Sanzionare explains his plan was to have Crossbones make the people closest to Phil suffer. But wouldn't you know it, Crossbones screwed the whole thing up by breaking the locker room door and leaving Sanzionare's expensive, custom-made coat at the scene of the crime. Sanzionare declares he's the one who's going to kill SuperPro, and, well, it doesn't work out.
Crossbones then takes his shot, but 'Pro turns the tables by turning out the lights and using the infrared visor Ken installed in his helmet. This isn't one of those Batman-has-exactly-the-device-he-needs-in-his utility-belt situations. Ken talked about it earlier; I just glossed over it in the summary because I was too busy complaining about his casual super-hacking.
Sanzionare fails to shoot SuperPro in the dark, then both bad guys get away. But SuperPro is able to clear Macedon's name, possibly because Captain America came along to the press conference too.
I try to be positive in these posts, and there were some fun and funny moments, but this might be the low point in the series for me. The “drugs are bad” message was exceedingly generic. I mean, I don't disagree, and I certainly didn't expect or want a debate on the medicinal value of marijuana. But it just felt like a prop that didn't really say anything else.
As excited as I was to see Trimpe's name in the credits, the art was pretty pedestrian. And now I must insert my usual disclaimer that it's exponentially better than anything I could do. But it seemed like it wasn't quite as classic as I expected or very modern either, like Trimpe was trying something different that didn't quite land.
The clues, like the conspicuously expensive jacket leading them to the tailor, felt forced. But perhaps I'm asking for more complexity than is required of what may very well have been a comic aimed at youths who like superheroes and football and need to know that drug abuse is bad.
It was neat to see Anthony Munoz, Derrick Thomas and, best of all, Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs in the issue. I've had enough Eagles and Giants talk in this series. I love Gibbs so much I don't even hold it against him that he unintentionally led me to believe as a child that my favorite team would just naturally be in the Super Bowl every couple of years.
* - Isn't that how D-Man got on the team?
** - I was kind of hoping for Coach Sutter. And Mercy. Wait, am I into bad girls? I did read a lot of comics in the '90s.
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