NFL SuperPro #10: Training Camp Fight

NFL SuperPro #10
“A Bunch of Guys Sitting Around in the Woods Beating on Tom-Toms”
Writer: Buzz Dixon
Penciler: Jose Delbo
Inkers: Mike DeCarlo and Don Hudson
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Marie Javins
Cover: Delbo and Joe Sinnott
Editor: Dave Wohl
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
Published by: Marvel
Released: May 5, 1992

SuperPro encounters his most offbeat set of antagonists and allies yet as the series hits double digits – a feat some modern comics can only dream of.

Phil Grayfield and Ken Reed are less than enthused when their boss assigns them to cover a men's retreat that draws many athletes on the promise to unleash the inner superhero in participants. He suspects it's a scam, and it is, but not exactly how he thinks. The man in charge at Camp Runamuk, Carragone, is actually experimenting on his guests to give them super powers. You can tell he's trouble right from the start because he's stroking a cat like so many villains ... although this one's stuffed.

Phil and Ken size up the other guests, breaking them down into two groups: pros and nerds. From the latter group, a quartet of old college pals – CPA J. Pennington Pennypacker, mortician Frank Moody, actuary Kwong Dae and government clerk Tubby Walsh – are starstruck by Phil. He gravitates instead toward a trio of pro athletes, but it turns out golfer Hubert Carlyle, baseball player Pete Petunia* and surfer Edwin Dood aren't clients. They claim to be staff members but are actually the ones bankrolling Carragone's experiments to get powers of their own.

During an evening exercise where the men gather around a campfire in Roman garb “to link as brothers in the common bond of testosterone,” the pros lead individuals back to Carragone's lab, where they're blasted with strange rays that seem to have no effect. But after Phil gets the treatment, Carragone's equipment detects that he actually does have powers. Since he apparently hasn't read any of the preceding 10 issues, Carragone thinks his process has finally worked.

Petunia wants his own powers in time to win the pennant race** and demands a test of Phil's abilities. A quartet of gun-toting thugs jump Phil in the woods, only to be dispatched handily. The nerdy foursome that tried to befriend Phil overhear Dood and the other sinister pros making plans to arm themselves and go after him.

They're brought back to the mansion, where Phil, having changed into his SuperPro gear, and Ken have headed to try to call the police. 'Pro does battle with the guards and pros, until Carlyle launches a grenade at him with, of course, a golf club. But as Kwong starts making calculations about the fight with astonishing speed, the erstwhile hostages realize Carragone's process may have worked on them after all.

Soon, Kwong comes up with a formula to apply the precise amount of force to break the handcuffs holding them, and Tubby uses his massive gut to knock some of the henchmen out. Moody deduces they've all gotten powers “based on our innate abilities.” Since he's a jogger, he now has super speed. And before you can question that logic, Pennypacker starts... shooting pennies at people, or, as he puts it, throwing money at his problems.

SuperPro destroys Carragone's machine, and his newfound allies announce their codenames: the Calculator, the Girth, the Streak and the Almighty Dollar, Together, they are... the Happy Campers!

Yes, there are some head-shaking/scratching moments in this issue, but the first word I'd use to describe it is fun. Dixon's clearly not taking things too seriously here, having a few laughs at new age-y retreats. As odd as the premise is, it does make sense that unscrupulous folks in the Marvel universe would be trying to duplicate superhuman abilities, and who better to bankroll them than professional athletes looking for an edge?

Their reveal may have been just for laughs, but there's some poetic justice to the guys who were there as friends and not taking themselves too seriously coming out on top against the unscrupulous pros seeking a competitive advantage regardless of who got hurt in the process.

Sadly, the Marvel Fandom wiki indicates this was the first and only appearance of the Happy Campers, as well as Carragone. Frankly, he's the one I'm most curious about. Well, actually, it's his stuffed cat.

Delbo, who has handled most of the interior art on the series, delivers a striking cover that looked to me initially like SuperPro bursting in on a group of generic thugs. But most everyone on the cover is recognizable from the story within. I was not familiar with Delbo's pre-Pro work, but Dave of Dave's Comic Heroes Blog fame was and you can read more about that here.

Speaking of my content-creating associates, this issue completed my “NFL SuperPro” run thanks to podcaster extraordinaire Ed Moore. You can check out his work here and listen to him, me and host Billy D. discuss the sprawling Thor Eternals saga over on Billy's “Magazine and Monsters” podcast.

Up next: SuperPro hoops it up.

* - I'm sorry to admit it took me more the one pass to understand that reference.

** - You don't suppose he's betting on his own games, do you?