Issue(s): New Warriors #27
Cover Date: Sep 92
Title: "Dark sides"
Credits:
Fabian Nicieza - Writer
Darick Robertson - Penciler
Larry Mahlstedt - Inker
Eric Fein - Assistant Editor
Danny Fingeroth - Editor

Review/plot:
This isssue, an Infinity War tie-in, mostly focuses on Speedball and Rage. Speedball is out picking up pizza for the heroes at Four Freedoms Plaza when he runs into Rage fighting his doppelganger.

Speedball messes up and attacks the guy in the familiar Rage costume, forgetting that he just gave Rage a new costume last issue. And the doppelganger gets away.

Speedball explains that Rage wasn't included in the Warriors that are with the other heroes dealing directly with the Infinity War situation because he was added to the team too late for Jim Starlin and Ron Lim to be aware of him without Night Thrasher or Chord coordinating things, the team is kind of a mess right now.

Rage tells Speedball that his own doppelganger is said to be on a rampage in his hometown, so Speedball heads there. Rage then has a rematch with his doppelganger, and absorbs it.

Speedball makes it all the way from Manhattan to Connecticut in apparent record time. He finds that his town has turned against him, thanks to the actions of the doppelganger. Speedball is at least able to demonstrate a new use of his powers, stopping the bullets fired at him by the police.

Speedball then catches up with his doppelganger, which is attacking his mother.

Hmmmmm. Dark Speedball looks a little different than Penance.

Speedball is able to stop the doppelganger with another unusual use of his powers. Note that unlike Rage, he's completely rejecting his dark side.

Speedball's father, who was leading the police against the doppelganger, finds out that his son is Speedball.

Meanwhile, Rage finds that he's more violent, and doesn't like it.

But when Speedball meets up with him again at the end, Rage says that he can control his dark side.

We do get a fun moment with the rest of the team, with Nova bragging about being put on the expeditionary force.

Night Thrasher says it's because Captain America is still holding a grudge against the Warriors over the whole stealing a Quinjet thing. I'd say that most of the adult heroes probably have a problem bringing teenagers into space to fight a mega threat like (they think) Thanos, but Nova does have deep space experience moreso than the others.

Speedball seems to cover an implausible amount of distance in what i'd think was meant to be a short amount of time. And the evil twin thing is inherently silly, but of course that's what Fabian Nicieza was stuck with. And i actually think this is one of the better Infinity War tie-ins, in part because it doesn't just repeat scenes from the main series. It uses the opportunity to look at how Speedball and Rage deal with their dark sides, and it gives us some developments for Speedball, both powerwise and in terms of his father discovering his secret ID. Artwise, this is the second issue by Darick Robertson, who is following Mark Bagley. I find the art at times to be alarmingly zany looking, but then again we are dealing with Dark Speedball, so what should i expect?

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - developments for Speedball

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place during Infinity War #3. At the end of that issue, just as the expeditionary force is leaving, we see Speedball show up with the pizza. Both Rage and Speedball's doppelgangers are named - Enraged and Blackball - but these are their only appearances.

References:

• A footnote just points to the Infinity War series, but it was Infinity War #3 where Speedball was sent out to get pizza.

Crossover: Infinity War

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

"Blackball" somehow reminds me of Captain Pollution, Captain Planet's "evil twin."

Some guys try to murder Speedball, and he's so conscientious, he doesn't even let the bullets bounce off him because they could hit his attackers. Weird for him to get picked as one of the poster children for reckless heroes.

@Mortificator- to be accurate, these were cops tricked by the Magus, not normal murderers. But you're right, Speedball being the poster boy for careless heroes never made sense. As this story demonstrates, Robbie and his father don't get along because they're so much alike- the same strong sense of right-and-wrong.
"Speedball seems to cover an implausible amount of distance in what i'd think was meant to be a short amount of time."
This might have been deliberate- Nicieza has said that he intended to hint that Robbie's kinetic energy manipulating abilities were more powerful than Robbie knew. So it's possible that Nicieza intended for Robbie to have subconsciously used his powers to speed up his journey.

So the Magus deems Speedball important enough to get a doppelganger, but what about the Kree and Shi'ar heroes, isn't he worried about other races than humans? And how do these doppelgangers do anything important, they don't stop any heroes and are constantly defeated, some threat the Magus is...

I love the zanier aspects of the art though.

It wasn't scanned, but I liked the opening splash of Speedball bouncing around carrying a stack of pizzas. Nova trolling the rest of the team is pretty good too though.

"how do these doppelgangers do anything important, they don't stop any heroes and are constantly defeated, some threat the Magus is..."
From the Wiki entry on Infinity War -
"The Magus sends the doppelgängers to Earth to distract the heroes, and the evil version of Mister Fantastic detonates a gamma bomb when the heroes assemble at Four Freedoms Plaza."
That was their only purpose. The Magus knew they wouldn't be much trouble for the heroes. However, since he was able to replace Iron Man and Mister Fantastic, he scored minor victories. Iron Man turned the heroes against each other after Mr. Fantastic lured them all to his headquarters.

Not a fan of Rage's new outfit. The original had its problems, but I can see a young kid who doesn't have a lot to spend putting on a luchador mask and a leather jacket and thinking "Yeah, now I'm cool!" This new thing is just very bland.