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Post by coke & comics on Feb 8, 2016 1:42:17 GMT -5
I think he's always had a following. His popularity has grown over the years and reached its height much later. But he was a successful character created in the era. Well, he was a blatant rip-off of Deathstroke created in the era. Later writers turned him to a character some find interesting (personally I don't). I saw Liefeld at a con recently and he was asked about the Deathstroke connection. He claimed Deadpool was not based on Deathstroke. There are key differences: 1) The color scheme of their otherwise alike costumes 2) Deathstroke's name is Slade Wilson with an SL. Deadpool's is Wade Wilson with a W 3) Deathstroke is a compelling character. |
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Post by tingramretro on Feb 8, 2016 5:34:22 GMT -5
I much preferred him as Penance. At least the guilt over the Stamford accident and the self-harming/self-loathing that followed made him an interesting character. Speedball just seemed really dull and a bit lame...with a rubbish costume. I tend to agree. I want to like Speedball, but he's just not remotely interesting. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 8, 2016 15:16:57 GMT -5
I didn't find Penance interesting at all.. just generically emo. What was really interesting was Speedball AFTER Penance... he was a teacher at Avengers Academy... and trying to move past Stamford. Helping train young heroes, but at the same time still having self-harm issues. It's really, really a shame they just made him back into comic relief after the series ended.
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Post by TheQuestion on Feb 8, 2016 17:47:41 GMT -5
I think Speedball was just Ditko trying to get a paycheck doing
what his personal philosophy allowed him to do for Marvel in
the late 80s (meaning really outdated, harmless stuff, without
being as interesting/strident/weird as his personal, indie work).
I found his short-lived series charming (and I'm always willing
to look at Ditko art, almost regardless of what it is), but there
just wasn't much there character and story-wise. If it had come
out in 1964, it would've been perceived much more favorably.
One thing that did bug me about Speedball's Ditko series: he
was seemingly never referred to as 'Speedball', but rather as
'The Masked Marvel', in the stories. Why call him Speedball then??
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Post by Nowhere Man on Feb 10, 2016 2:51:52 GMT -5
Speedball is a lot like Longshot for me. Both have a ton of untapped potential that we just haven't seen yet.
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