Issue(s): Marvel Super Heroes #4 (Spitfire & Speedball stories only)
Cover Date: Dec 90 / Winter 90

Spitfire
Title: "Ember when"
Credits:
Scott Lobdell - Writer
Ian Akin - Penciler
Ian Akin - Inker

Speedball
Title: "This is our story"
Credits:
Scott Lobdell - Writer
Ron Wilson - Penciler
Don Perlin - Inker

Review/plot:
Spitfire:

The last time we saw the Golden Age hero Spitfire (in Captain America #253-254), it was said that her powers had faded. It's now implied that she's psychologically suppressed them due to an experience during World War II.

When she's brought to a hospital to be treated for cancer, and finds that the cancer is suddenly in complete remission, it's suggested that she might still have her powers. And then they manifest when Spitfire sees a nurse being abused by an abusive ex-boyfriend.

Speedball:
Ok, what's going on here? I've been operating on the assumption that Steve Ditko drew a ton of Speedball stories and that there were a bunch left over after the character's series was canceled, and that's why they've been appearing in this series. But here we have a Speedball story by a completely different creative team. Surely Speedball wasn't just so popular that Marvel felt the need to produce even more Speedball stories? I mean, that can't be the case, since his book was canceled. So i don't know where this is coming form.

It's actually a not-terrible story, though. A South African girl named Shara was exposed to radioactive vibranium. She's been brought to Doc Benson's lab for treatment. Speedball, who works there in his Robbie Baldwin identity, strikes up a friendship, and more, with Shara even though her diagnosis is terminal.

He even tells her his secret identity.

However, before Shara returns home, an earthquake in South Africa kills her family. Shara goes crazy and develops vibration based powers that cancel out Robbie's.

She eventually comes to her senses but is killed by the avalanche she creates.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: These are the only two stories that take place circa publication date. The Nick Fury/Spider-Man, Daredevil, Wonder Man, and Black Knight stories are all covered in separate entries.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I wonder if that last Speedball panel was intended as yet another Dark Phoenix reference.

For as goofy as his stories were, Speedball sure did see a surprising amount of death back then...

"Speedball sure did see a surprising amount of death back then..."

Thankfully, that also included the "death" of his atrocious comic book.

Spitfire's back The return nobody demanded.

Is it me or are these Marvel Super Heroes stories just not very good from the sound of things?

It's not just you David. These are inventory stories that never saw print. Their only reason for being published is for Marvel to make some quick dough on stories already paid for. So we're getting the absolute worst stuff.

I didn't realize Don Perlin was still doing work for Marvel at this point.

His job at that point was art director, which basically involved training new artists for Marvel.

I like Ditko's Speedball for the sheer goofiness and "so bad it's good" aspect. A Speedball without Ditko bores me to tears. He doesn't chase a cat once in this!

But were these really inventory stories? Lobdell was fairly new to Marvel, and comics, at this point, and while there is inventory material in MSH--like the lost Claremont/Vosberg Ms. Marvel issues--more of the material seems to me to be either too short or by creators who are too new for these to be inventory stories. Or in the case of Squirrel Girl, you have new characters. The only place I could imagine most if these stories having been originalky intended for is Marvel Comics Presents. And it is the case that a lot of MCP-commissioned stories got pushed out by making Wolverine a regular feature, and maybe others got pushed out by Ghost Rider. But I still have the nasty feeling that a lot of MSH crap was commissioned specifically for this series.

Hey, maybe it was like "The Producers"---could Marvel make money by losing money, through an insurance scam? ;-)

The Squirrel Girl story was a full 22 pages, so i suspect that it was intended for a regular issue. The shorter stories could have been Marvel Comics Presents overflow, or creator try-out work. This book's semi-predecessor Marvel Fanfare published a few short stories that were identified as try-outs that they decided they might as well publish. It's also possible that Marvel just commissioned lots of short stories knowing they could be published in Marvel Comics Presents, or Marvel Super Heroes, or in the backs of annuals.

Walter,a LOT of the material in Marvel Super Heroes was inventory- the Ditko Speedball stories, all the Iron Man stories except the Squirrel Girl one, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch story in Marvel Super Heroes 10, the Ghost Rider and Black Goliath stories in issue 11- or was intended as a fill-in for the regular series (e.g. the Namor story in Marvel Super Heroes 10).
The Squirrel Girl story makes me wonder- when was it written? Ditko's first issue at Valiant was cover dated September 1991 and according to Shooter, he had already become desperate for work by the time he was hired. I wonder if the Squirrel Girl story was originally supposed to be one of the fill-in stories between Iron Man 250 and Byrne's run.