This Might Be Marvel’s Wildest Superhero & I Really Wish He’d Make a Comeback

Marvel Comics has been the name in superhero for decades now. Their distinguished competition struck first in the Golden Age, setting the standards for the superhero (Captain America, Human Torch, and Namor were all big, but not Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman big), but Marvel would hit back in the Silver Age, taking the superhero out of the heavens and putting them in the streets, with the people. Since then, the House of Ideas has become a juggernaut, creating every kind of superhero you can imagine. When you think of Marvel, you think of Cap, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and the like. However, they’re just the tip of the iceberg, as Marvel created one of the wildest characters imaginable – NFL SuperPro.

Once upon a time, Marvel (and DC) were considered tastemakers among young Americans. Comics were always a part of every marketing blitz you can imagine, with the company putting out licensed comics like Conan the Barbarian and Star Wars, the firsy of many more coming in the years to come. Using Marvel Comics to reach its large audience of kids who spent their parents money was common, especially after the massive successes at Marvel in the early ’90s. The NFL decided to team up with the House of Ideas in 1991, leading to a character that many have called the worst of all-time.

NFL SuperPro Is Everything Wrong – and Also Awesome – About Licensed Comics

The comic industry has changed a lot over the years, something that it’s really hard to convince your non-comic reading friends of. There’s this idea that comics are for children that has been ingrained in the minds of the public, even if current comics are marketed towards a demographic of older people. The reason for this is simple – for years, comics were mostly for kids. Sure, there were comics for older people, but for the most part, comics were a part of everyone’s childhood.

NFL SuperPro might seem like a weird character today, but when the character debuted in 1991’s NFL SuperPro Special Edition #1, it wasn’t all that surprising. I was an ’80s kid, so I can only speak to that decade, but back then, seeing a crossover between Marvel (or DC) and a major corporation was normal. These were the days of Tandy Computer Whiz Kids, Kool-Aid Man comics, and the Hostess Fruit Pie ads. The ’80s were when corporations realized that marketing directly to children through their entertainment was the best idea imaginable (why do you think we live in the pop cultural landscape we do today?), so seeing a Marvel and NFL crossover wasn’t a surprise.

The NFL went to Marvel with the idea of creating a football-based superhero, with editor Bob Budiansky put in charge of the project. The publisher was having a problem getting the NFL to okay their design, who also wanted a more acclaimed writer on the project, with the editor eventually approaching rising star Fabian Nicieza for help making the hero work. Nicieza figured that he could get season tickets out of the situation, as he’s said in many interviews, so he agreed. He took the NFL’s notes and created a new hero.

NFL SuperPro stars Phil Grayfield, a rising star in the NFL who loses his career because of a knee injury he got trying to save a child. He eventually became a sports reporter, reporting on the game he loved, and ended up interviewing an NFL superfan who just so happened to be a scientist. He had created an indestructible football uniform, one that would revolutionize the game. However, a group of thieves interrupt the interview, stealing everything but the uniform and starting a fire. Phil is exposed to burning chemicals and gains superpowers, saving the scientist and donning the uniform as the new NFL SuperPro.

So, reading that, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that the character was created in the ’60s and ’70s, because that origin is the most classic Marvel origin you could imagine. Nicieza went for classic comic cheese with the character and the NFL was okay with it. NFL SuperPro Special Edition #1 led into an ongoing series and if you were a boy in the early ’90s, I guarantee you saw that first issue somewhere. In fact, there’s a good chance that a relative bought it for you. I’m sure it seemed liked the ultimate boys comic for the boomers of the day and their weird toy/gender hang-ups. It was also insanely overprinted.

This was par for the course in 1991; books like Spider-Man (Vol. 1) sold massive amounts and Uncanny X-Men was a big seller. This was the dawn of the collector bubble, when Marvel realized that they could slap a #1 and “collector’s item” on the cover, and it would sell. Unfortunately, NFL SuperPro wasn’t doing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #1 numbers; it wasn’t doing anything close to that. Nicieza only lasted five issues, the special and the first four issues of the series, replaced by Buzz Dixon. Issue #6 started a minor controversy thanks to Hopi villains that Hopis representatives thought were racist, leading to the issue being recalled.

This was basically the only bit of attention the book got. It lasted 12 issues and then the character disappeared completely. Marvel tried using crossovers with Spider-Man and Captain America and to boost sales, but nothing worked. Not long after NFL SuperPro debuted, we got X-Men #1 and X-Force #1, as well as an entire reboot of the X-line. No one cared about the football playing superhero and he went the way of the dodo. He’s never appeared again; Robert Kirkman wanted to use him in Marvel Team-Up in the ’00s, but copyright issues stopped him. The ’90s would be quite a decade for Marvel, but NFL SuperPro played no role in the rest of it.

NFL SuperPro Is One of the Strangest Moments in Marvel History

I think, for a certain generation of Marvel fan, NFL SuperPro is one of the strangest things you’ve ever seen. However, for older fans, the character is just one of those weird little pop cultural crossovers you used to get. I remember once seeing “Agent 23”, which was Michael Jordan as a superhero. Comics were once a huge part of childhood; they were everywhere decades ago and things like this were par for the course. NFL SuperPro is an example of something that we saw all the time back in the day.

These characters were rarely ever anything other than the most cliche you could imagine and NFL SuperPro is a perfect example of how these kinds of superheroes worked. They usually had the most lame origin you could imagine, showed up emblazoned in logos and then disappear. NFL SuperPro was the kind of thing that even the kids who liked comics and football laughed at. A character like this, played for laughs, could definitely work in the present day, so it might be time for Marvel parent company Disney to dust this one off and talk to the NFL.

What do you think about NFL SuperPro? Are you old enough to remember the first issue? Sound off in the comment section below.