Issue(s): Speedball #10
Cover Date: Jun 89
Title: "Some pig"
Credits:
Mary Jo Duffy - Script
Steve Ditko - Plot
Steve Ditko - Penciler
Dan Day - Inker
Mike Rockwitz - Assistant Editor
Terry Kavanagh - Editor

Review/plot:
The final issue of Speedball just embraces the madness. As the cover says, mutated pigs...

....killer chickens (does one of those kids have a mohawk?)...

...and other giant creatures that let Ditko just be Ditko. Much more fun.

I love "I hope he dies".

I think we also get a definitive position on the question of newspaper vs. television reporters. To television reporters, facts are irrelevant.

Of course it's the print reporter who wants the chicken to come forward.

The one thing that we have to pay attention to is the appearance of "Clyde", the hapless lab assistant that is the cause of all these giant creatures. Later in New Warriors, he comes back and claims to be behind all of the villains that appeared in this series. And that's not plausible in the first place since the majority of these villains had their own origins or literally didn't have or need "origins", but beyond that it's not really plausible because Clyde is pretty clearly a goof in this story. He's originally working for a scientist that has developed an animal growth formula, but after the giant pig incident the scientist loses his mind and Clyde tries to continue the experiment on his own. It turns out he's friends with "Claude", the cat hating assistant to Doc Benson in this series, and Claude gets him a job with Benson and Clyde starts stealing supplies to continue his experiments. But Clyde is very clearly interested in a very specific thing; he's not exactly a bad guy, just interested in seeing his work rewarded.

And as the experiments get out of control, he's obviously not happy about it.

Which isn't to say he doesn't get pretty criminal by the end of this issue, but the idea that he was behind early plots in this book is hard to see at his point.

In the end he's killed by a giant rat.

Speedball never does catch Niels in the original series.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A