REVIEW: 1st Issue Special #5

Edited, written and drawn by Jack Kirby
Inked and lettered by D. Bruce Berry


Review by Will Dubbeld

Ah, 1970s DC comics . . .
That particular decade and the one following hold many of my favorite tales from the halls of Distinguished Competition. Not cut from the same cloth as the downright bizarre and ofttimes asinine 1950s-60 DC books, the '70s and '80s walked that line between rock solid storytelling and sublimely weird. Spinning off of an avalanche of counterculture and societal change, books like Brother Power and Swamp Thing reflected a sort of changing of the guard between the Gold and Silver Age and that which was to come. 1st Issue Special, in my mind, was an important (though hardly pivotal) part of that movement.

As near as I can tell, 1st Issue Special was fundamentally a 'tryout' anthology book. 1 issue dedicated to a particular character or story, throw it against the wall, see if it sticks. It spawned some hits (Warlord) and quite a few misses (Dingbats of Danger Street, Lady Cop . . . ), and Manhunter from 1st Issue Special #5 seems to fall somewhere in the middle.

Plot/Pencils: Steve Ditko
Script: Roger Stern
Inks: Bruce Patterson
Colors: Tom Vincent
Review: Madman

Even if I wasn’t a fan of Speedball, I’d have bought this book just for the cover. We’ve got a cannonball smashing through a brick wall, an anthropomorphic mouse blasting away with semi-auto gun of some sort, a mysterious silhouette of a man about to toss a rope, an alley cat, and Speedball caught in the middle. This action-packed covers’ built-in tagline sells the issue and asks the question, “Will even Speedball, the Masked Marvel, be able to . . . beat the Basher . . . follow the Freak of Science . . . and trap the Two Legged Rat?!”

Well, then . . . suddenly I must know the outcome and fate of my beloved kinetic ball speedster.

In the first little short titled, “Beware the Basher”, our beloved Speedball finds himself struggling to control his Speedball powers while trying to apprehend a thug called the Basher that’s been picking off police officers. There is absolutely nothing extraordinary about Basher. It’s later revealed that Basher is a Police Academy dropout working as a bus boy and just really hates cops. The Basher's weapon of choice is some sort of cannonball thing that he shot-puts at unsuspecting police. Someone had rent due and was cranking out pages . . . lame. Speedball actually does little more than slow Basher down, but the police take Basher down.