NFL Superpro #1

Well folks, today is the beginning of football. I’m ready to cheer on my Steelers. In preparation to the kick-off of the 2014 season, I decided to ready what many consider the worst comic book of all-time. That’s right- I read NFL Superpro #1!

  The book was published in 1991 and was collaboration between the NFL and Marvel Comics. The book stars Phil Grayfield, a retired football player whose career was ended due to injury. He’s now a sports reporter and during an interview with a sports collector, he’s knocked unconscious and trapped in a burning room filling with practice films. The chemicals melt and give Grayfield super powers. Along with an experimental football player’s uniform, the ex-athlete fights crime while simultaneously committing copyright infringement.

This being the first issue, I thought it would be the ‘origin’ issue. Alas, that all happened in the NFL Superpro Super Bowl Special, which I also own but was saving to read during next year’s Super Bowl. Thankfully, Marvel did devote a whopping 4 panels in explaining how Grayfield became Superpro.

Now I’m about to commit some comic book heresy- issue #1 wasn’t that bad! Yes- the premise is corny. If burning celluloid would give you super powers, I’d set a movie theatre on fire right now and breathe deep. Also, if your running around in an experimental football uniform that bears the NFL logo and you were the Commissioner of said league would you not A) sue the guy for wearing unofficially licensed material and B) figure out who had said uniform and trace back how it ended up in this vigilante heroes hands? It’s not one of the most well thought out premises, I’ll give you that.

However, if you look at this as an un-official 'Marvel Team-Up' between Superpro and guest hero, Spider-man; the book isn’t terrible. True, the two heroes never officially meet but in terms of Marvel Team-Up’s reputation of introducing new heroes to fans in hopes of garnishing a fan base, Superpro was better than some of the crap I’ve read in the pages of MTU. (Speaking of Team-Up, apparently Robert Kirkman wanted to bring Superpro back for a story but couldn’t due to copyright and the best he could do was have Stilt-Man brag about beating Superpro up once. Okay, if Stilt-Man can defeat you, maybe you should hang it up.)

The art was okay for 1991 standards. It was gritty and a little sexy. There are some pretty cool fight scenes. The dialogue stunk, unless it was Peter Parker/ Spider-man. Those parts were pretty good. I would say instead of treating this book as garbage, look at it as a B-movie. It’s so bad, it’s good.

Instead of considering Superpro the worst comic of all-time, I see this as the Plan 9 from Outer Space of comic books. I paid 50 cents for this in a bargain bin and I am sure some folks would say I paid too much. However, if I find the other 11 issues in this series in a dollar box, I’d snatch them up. They’re always good for a laugh.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars