Kickers, Inc. is a 1986 comic book series published by the New Universe imprint of Marvel Comics. The series was initially written by Tom DeFalco and drawn by Ron Frenz.
It stars Jack Magniconte, quarterback for American Football team the New York Smashers, who suddenly acquires superhuman strength, speed, and toughness.
The series was one of eight titles launched to introduce the New Universe, a shared world unrelated to the existing Marvel Universe. It was initially billed as “the world outside your window”, a setting that only diverged from the real world when a single Mass Empowering Event granted some people superpowers.
In Jack's case, unaware of the impact of that "White Event", he incorrectly attributes his powers to his brother's experimental Intensifier - a device designed to steadily improve sportspeople's reflexes, strength, and stamina. Unlike other test subjects, Jack shows an immediate change - his hair turns white, he gains more muscle and he becomes physically superhuman.
Keeping the full extent of the changes secret, Jack helps the Smashers finish first in their division and win the Superbowl. He's increasingly uncomfortable with his performance on the field, though, feeling that he's cheating, and that his advantages have taken all of the joy out of the sport.
Aided by his wife Darlene and three of his teammates, Jack sets up a new foundation (the eponymous Kickers, Inc.) to find challenges off the field, using his new abilities to help people.
But as the team's adventures continue, Jack's idealism is repeatedly dented by a world that seems full of shades of grey - and every part of his life seems to be under ever-increasing stress. Is he going to lose control?
DeFalco left the series after the first five issues, with Terry Kavanaugh and Ron Altaville initially replacing him as co-writers for the next three, after which there was no consistent creative team. However, Kavanaugh and Altaville returned to write the final issue.
The first issue was released September 2, 1986. The last issue (#12) was released June 2, 1987.
After the series was cancelled, Jack briefly reappeared in another New Universe title, D.P. 7, and later became a major character in the shared world's grand finale miniseries, The War.
Once the New Universe was connected to the Marvel Universe, versions of Jack also appeared in Quasar and as part of the Secret Wars event.
An Untold Tales of the New Universe: Kickers, Inc. back-up story was published in New Avengers in 2006, as part of an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the New Universe. A version of Jack Magniconte also appeared in the newuniversal reboot of the New Universe concept.
Kickers, Inc. includes the following tropes:
- Aborted Arc: There are some elements that run right up to the final issue, when the series was Cut Short, but also a few dangling threads from earlier issues:
- Suicide's reliance on opioid painkillers (Demerol) after his various injuries. The penultimate issue shows Brick calling him out on it, but he secretly takes some later.
- Christine Chase's pledge to fire Jack and destroy his life. The last couple of issues mention his suspension by the commission, but nothing further.
- Darlene's mysterious weakness. The penultimate issue mentions that she's waiting for test results, but nothing more is ever said.
- Fist, one of the foreign terrorists in the second issue, is said to be behind the intimidation campaign a couple of issues later (an effigy hanged in Jack's locker, a sniper's warning shot through a football). But he never actually returns and it's never mentioned again after that issue.
- Accent Interest: Doubles as an Establishing Character Moment. In the first issue, Jack comments on how Brick Wall loses his rural accent whenever he starts talking about finance and tax arrangements.
- The Alcoholic: Homeless alcoholic Hobie witnesses a woman's murder by "a hairy lizard monster" at the circus. When the police assume it's just drunken nonsense and refuse to investigate, he calls the Kickers number to ask for their help.
- Almost Dead Guy: Jack's brother Steve is shot dead by the crooks he's in debt to towards the end of the first issue. He lives just long enough to tell Jack that he's sorry and it all got out of hand.
- Ambiguously Human: A variant. Given the wider New Universe setting, murderous circus Beast Man Felina might just be human - or she might be a paranormal. It's never really explained.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Dasher asks Jack if his Wilfully Weak exercise routine - designed to exhaust him and drain his powers - might actually be increasing his strength and stamina in the long term, in the same way that a normal person's exercise would. Jack hadn't even considered it. He's spotting for Dasher's weightlifting routine while they talk, and so shocked he loses hold on the weights...
- Bad Boss: Christine "C.C." Chase, the widow of the Smashers' original owner, who decides to wager the team's future on a public tennis match against Jack, then discreetly warns him that unless he throws the match, she'll have him fired and destroy his reputation. On the day, Jack wins and, in public, Chase seems a Graceful Loser. Then, once the crowds are gone, she fires him, has the football commission reopen their drug investigation, and vows to destroy his friendships and his marriage.
- Banana Republic: The Caribbean island of San Leandro, where villain Vargas recently took power in a coup. The Kickers are tricked into going there to rescue two folk art dealers - who are actually American military test pilots.
- Beast Man: The murderous Felina is a circus performer, a furred and clawed catwoman. Whether she's a paranormal or a human playing the role isn't revealed.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The final issue has a charity race in Canada, which Jack's distracted from by mysterious footprints. He then comes face to face with Bigfoot. Or at least a Hologram of Bigfoot - a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax staged by the CIA.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Downplayed. The Kickers visit the Clinic for Paranormal Research to help them decide whether or not to assist guest stars D.P. 7, who say they're on the run from the clinic's sinister management. Unfortunately, the Kickers have never encountered Psychic Powers before - and Clinic employee Charney is able to tamper with their minds a little, setting up a Let's You and Him Fight scenario when they next see D.P.7.
- Career-Ending Injury: Discussed several times, sometimes with other Kickers arguing that Jack should make the best of his new gifts because none of them know if, or when, this might happen.
- It does actually happen to the Smashers's rookie Hawkins, who leaves the pitch on a stretcher with a broken spine.
- Jack accidentally hits Chicago Comets player Stanton too hard, leaving him with a serious neck injury that may end his career.
- Circus of Fear: Slightly downplayed. The performers we meet are a bunch of thieves and killers, but the circus itself isn't trying to be creepy.
- Cliffhanger: The series is Cut Short, so ends with the revelation that CIA agent Templar staged the fake Bigfoot and UFO sightings during the charity race, and has recordings of Jack using his 'edge'.
- Crippling the Competition: When Smashers' rookie Hawkins suffers a Career-Ending Injury due to a late tackle from the Wreckers' star player Thornton, Jack starts to suspect this was Hawkins' intent.
- Crossover: Issue #5 guest stars the paranormals of D.P. 7, giving the Kickers their first encounter with superhumans other than Jack. Unfortunately, a little telepathic tampering from D.P.7's enemies turns it into a Let's You and Him Fight situation.
- Cut Short: Cancelled after issue #12, leaving a Cliffhanger (CIA agent Templar seems to be aware of Jack's abilities) and a handful of Aborted Arc subplots that might have been revisited.
- Death by Origin Story: Steve Magniconte, Jack's brother, is killed in the first issue. He can't replicate the experiment that seemingly empowered Jack and the gangsters be borrowed money from want his debts repaid. His death prompts Jack to start focusing on helping people and Kickers, Inc. sets up in Steve's old building.
- Differently Powered Individual: Everyone refers to Jack's "Edge". The standard New Universe terminology is actually "parability" for the power and "paranormal" for the person - but Jack doesn't know that. Even when he meets D.P. 7 he doesn't see a connection between their abilities and his.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: Jack breaks several of Dasher's ribs when he tries a long pass shortly after his powers manifest. He gets better at judging (and concealing) his strength later, but towards the end of the series his Wilfully Weak training regime seems to backfire as he's tired, making mistakes and feels he's losing control.
- Do with Him as You Will: Jack's approached by mob boss Don Cannelloni, whose son committed suicide after joining the satanic coven that the Kickers are investigating - a cult that secretly doses members with hallucinogenic drugs. The Don wants to know who’s responsible but Jack refuses to help him. Later, when the cult's leader escapes prosecution, a disillusioned Jack tells the Don's men exactly who they're looking for.
- Driven to Suicide: Implied for Don Cannelloni's son, who was secretly dosed with hallucinogenic drugs by the satanic coven he got involved with.
- Duality Motif: Circus performer She-Man presents as a long-haired blond woman on their left side and a man with short dark hair and a moustache on their right. Their outfit is split the same way - one half a suit, the other a long dress.
- Eat the Evidence: It's very strongly implied that the circus folk feed their murdered colleague Matilda's body to Whitemane, the circus's albino lion. They try to get Whitemane to kill and eat Suicide Smythe, too - but the lion's now feeling very full after his previous big meal.
- False Cause: Jack uses his brother's Intensifier machine - and seemingly overloads it, triggering his powers - the morning after the White Event. Everyone initially assumes his powers came from the Intensifier, and Steve can't work out why he can't replicate the process on other test subjects.
- Freak Out: Air hostess Susie snaps and tumbles into madness on a particularly stressful day, pulling a gun, hijacking the plane and demanding the pilot fly her to Shangri-La.
- The Gambling Addict: Steve Magniconte, Jack's brother. At the start of the series everyone thinks he's given up, but he's actually slid back into the addiction. His debts swiftly get him killed.
- The Ghost: Late in the series, Brick mentions that he's got three kids. We never see them, learn their names or learn anything about his family life. The trope is downplayed a bit, though, as they're not regularly mentioned.
- Graceful Loser: Subverted. Christine "C.C." Chase, the Smashers' owner, wagers the team's future on a public tennis match against Jack. Jack is discreetly warned that if he wins, he'll be fired and C.C. will destroy his reputation. He does win, though - and C.C. takes the loss unexpectedly gracefully. She's just waiting until all the witnesses are gone before making good on her threat.
- Happily Married: Downplayed and subverted. Jack and Darlene are a genuinely happy couple at the start of the series. However, all the stress that comes with his powers, the potential loss of his career and the life and death stakes of their adventures really takes its toll, especially when Jack starts keeping secrets.
- Hates Being Nicknamed: Jack's wife Darlene occasionally gets called Darl, so Suicide can't resist nicknaming her Doll. Darlene absolutely hates it, and challenges him every time it's used.
- Hologram: The Bigfoot and UFOs Jack sees in the final issue are a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax arranged by the CIA.
- Intimidation Demonstration: After the Smashers' rookie Hawkins suffers a Career-Ending Injury and the other team laughs about it, Jack decides to meet the player responsible - the Wreckers' "Ugly" Mack Thornton - and show just how strong Jack really is. Knowing how angry Jack is over Hawkins's injury, Thornton is utterly terrified by the end of the next game. Every time Jack tackles him he's expecting to be maimed.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Mrs Diaz tells the Kickers that her husband's being held for ransom - and the team's resident jerk Suicide immediately scoffs at his captor's asking price. He's absolutely right - Diaz and Stevens are US military test pilots, not art dealers, and the Kickers are being manipulated.Thomas "Suicide" Smyth: I got one li'l problem, Brick. I don't understand why Vargas expects a million bucks - for two small fry "art" dealers. Level with me, lady. Was your husband into something nasty - like running drugs?
- Middle Eastern Terrorists: We never find out exactly which country Amed and Fist (the two terrorists with the huge combat robot) are representing, but they seem to fall into this category.
- Mushroom Samba: The satanic coven the Kickers investigate turns out to be an unethical research project secretly testing hallucinogenics on coven members. One member later commits suicide - and Jack starts punching demonic hallucinations after the cult leader doses him. We don't see exactly what a smaller dose does to Dasher, but he has a bad couple of days.
- Neighborhood-Friendly Gangsters: When the Kickers get called in by an old lady who's seen a "monster" wrecking her garden, the Broken Skulls say that the locals should be calling them, not outsiders. Suicide retorts that if the Skulls did their job protecting the neighborhood, maybe that would happen. The end of the issue (after the Kickers have dealt with the threat) actually shows the Skulls fixing her garden.
- Robot Soldier: The 'monster' reported to the Kickers in the second issue turns out to be Amed and Fist's combat robot, which is tough enough to be a challenge for Jack.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: There's one story where the Kickers are expecting this, but find themselves confronting a real giant robot. There are also two stories that play this straight, though:
- The satanic coven summoning demons is actually a cynical research project sending members on a Mushroom Samba, using them as Unwitting Test Subjects for hallucinogenic drugs developed for the military. The demons and visions are all due to the drugs.
- The final issue's Bigfoot and UFO sightings are Holograms staged by the CIA, seemingly to get more evidence of Jack's powers.
- Self-Disposing Villain: After her Freak Out, hijacker Susie shoots Jack, not knowing that he's bulletproof. The ricochet hits her in the throat, killing her.
- Shout-Out: At one point in the penultimate story, Sledge Hammer! is playing on tv in the background. Sledge's "Trust me - I know what I'm doing" catchphrase contrasts with Brick and Suicide getting held at gunpoint by the mob.
- Slipping a Mickey: On the mission to San Leandro, Jack raids a drugs cabinet in villain Vargas's camp, then pours the tranquillisers he finds there into the camp's water supply.
- Super-Speed: Downplayed Trope. Jack's much faster than any normal human, but can't quite keep up with a speeding car.
- Super-Strength: Jack's powers significantly boost his strength, although his Wilfully Weak training regime tends to reduce it again. Guest star Dave Landers (of D.P. 7) may be even stronger than Jack is.
- Super-Toughness: Jack discovers that he has some level of this, with most gunshots bruising him, and sometimes drawing blood, but not doing serious harm (although he takes care to shield his eyes). This also causes some trouble with drugs tests for his sports career, as needles sometimes break.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Jack's starting position on his heroics - which gets increasingly worn down as the series goes on.
- When it looks like the police can't touch a satanic cult leader who was secretly dosing his coven with hallucinogens, a disillusioned Jack shares the man's identity with a mob boss who lost his son to the cult.
- Jack's upset when he accidentally kills a drugged circus lion while fighting to save Suicide.
- On San Leandro, he has to pick up a gun and shoot at Vargas's troops to protect his friends - but aims low, for the legs.
- Finally, at the end of the San Leandro mission, he's put in a position where his only options are to open fire on more of Vargas's troops - shooting to kill - or letting them shoot his wife. He kills them, but is haunted by it afterwards.
- Throwing the Fight: When C.C. decides to sell (and relocate) the Smashers to pay off her gambling debts, Jack ends up wagering their future on a public tennis match against her. She sends her boyfriend to warn him that if he wins, he‘ll be fired and she'll destroy his life. Jack chooses not to throw the match, despite the threats.
- Took a Level in Cynic: Jack goes this way after he's tricked in San Leandro, unwilling to trust anyone who asks the Kickers for help. At one point he's about to wash his hands of a people trafficking case, letting the police deal with it (despite the dire consequences for the family being threatened) and trapping Suicide and Brick in a room so that they can't intervene. A phone call ultimatum from Darlene partially snaps him out of it, but the cynicism lasts a while.
- Trauma Conga Line: Downplayed a little, but Jack's life starts spiralling as the series goes on. He accidentally hospitalises another player (probably ending their career), he's the subject of a drugs investigation, his marriage is stressed by the secrets he's now keeping from his wife, his boss has fired him and has also threatened to ruin his life. And his grand plan to help people - Kickers, Inc. - ends up compromising his Thou Shalt Not Kill principles and dragging him into cases where he's manipulated or dealing with uncomfortable shades of grey.
- Unwitting Test Subject: The satanic coven the Kickers investigate hides a scheme to secretly test hallucinogenic drugs on its members. Their leader was researching military applications until he lost his funding, so invented the coven as a way to continue. The coven members even pay him a tithe, believing the visions are truly mystical.
- Wham Episode: Issue #10, "Deadly Force", in which the CIA manipulates the Kickers into a rescuing two test pilots from San Leandro. When faced with soldiers about shoot his wife, Jack is forced to abandon his Thou Shalt Not Kill philosophy. The experience leaves him cynical and shaken for the rest of the series.
- Wilfully Weak: Jack regularly trains himself into exhaustion, as playing professional football with his full powers feels too much like cheating. Unfortunately, this sometimes means that he's not at full power for his Kickers work either.
- Worf Had the Flu: Jack's attempts to remain Wilfully Weak backfire when he runs into other superhumans for the first time, clashing with the paranormals of D.P. 7. Fortunately, The Big Guy of that team, Dave Landers, doesn't realise Jack also has powers, so he's pulling at least some of his own punches - but still delivers a pretty comprehensive beat down.
- Wrestler of Beasts: When a case takes him to a criminal circus, Jack ends up fighting a drugged white lion. He accidentally kills it, which leaves him a little shaken.
