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Damage Control #1

Jun 1991
Dwayne McDuffie, Kyle Baker

Damage Control #1 cover

Story Name:

The Sure Thing


Synopsis

Damage Control #1 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4 stars

Thunderball tries to rob a bank, hoping he is not caught by a superhero as they are out of his league. Too bad, Spider-Man shows up….

On their day off, John Porter is moving to a new apartment with Albert Cleary and Ray Lippert helping him get settled when they receive an emergency call directing them to Washington Square Park. They arrive and are met by foreman Lenny Ballinger—and no disaster. Momentarily though, Spidey and Thunderball show up with their battle and the famous arch is damaged. Spidey easily webs up the bad guys and takes off, leaving a riddle: the last several calls to Damage Control have been similar: they are summoned before anything is damaged with the supers showing up a few minutes later—so who is calling them? Police Lt. Steve Sure thinks he knows why and accompanies them back to DC HQ…

…where Head of Marketing Henry Ackerdson unveils his idea brilliant idea: a Damage Control movie. The reaction is mixed, especially after Henry introduces the writer/director, A.J. Lociciero, an artsy type who can’t tell a story. Lt Sure arrives with John, Albert, and Lippert, to confront boss lady Robin Chapel with his theory, namely that Damage Control itself is causing the disasters they are being paid to clean up after and once he can prove it, he intends to arrest everybody. Intern Robbie “Speedball” Baldwin eavesdrops and plans to be on hand if anything nasty goes down….

In space, a glowing green ball has learned to master its newly-gained powers and so returns to Earth….

DC gets a call that something has happened at Yankee Stadium so John and Robin head over accompanied by Lt. Sure and A.J.; they meet Lenny and discover there is a ball game in progress—and that another fan is there: the Hulk. And Hulk, a true baseball fan, is annoyed that they assume he will be the one causing trouble. But then another wild card shows up: the New Warriors (Firestar, Night Thrasher, Namorita, Nova), summoned by Speedball….


 

Review / Commentaries


Damage Control #1 Review by (May 12, 2020)

Review: First issue in the third and (so-far) final limited series for the gang mainly drops the plot threads of the rest of the series viz. who is calling DC, the green ball in space, the movie, and the hints of cosmic activity. The standout bit of this issue is the new artist, Kyle Baker, whose style is a lot edgier than that of regular art guy Ernie Colon and more resembles the satirical scribblings of Jules Feiffer for an odd comparison. Henry’s idea for a movie comes at an awkward time in the history of Superhero movies (1991) when all he can point to as a successful trend in such films are ROBOCOP 2, BATMAN (the first one with Michael Keaton), and the She-Hulk movie which was never made (check it out on Wikipedia’s She-Hulk page). In retrospect, this seems like the silliest joke in the comic. Another silly joke is the inclusion of Spider-Man in a rather unnecessary fight scene to justify putting him on the cover; welcome to the world of marketing, kids. Hulk, though, is a hoot as big green monster who just wants to enjoy a ballgame on his off day without being profiled by the law.



> Damage Control comic book info and issue index

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
Statue Hulk (Battle of New York) 1/10 - Infinity Saga - BDS Art Scale - Iron Studios
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Kyle Baker
Kyle Baker
Robbie Busch
Kyle Baker (Cover Penciler)
Kyle Baker (Cover Inker)
Kyle Baker (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in alphabetical order. All stories.

Firestar
Firestar

(Angel Jones)
Hulk
Hulk

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Nova
Nova

(Richard Rider)
Speedball
Speedball

(Robbie Baldwin)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)
Plus: Namorita, New Warriors, Night Thrasher (Dwayne Taylor).

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