SUPER SPORTSUPER SPORT
Real Name: Inapplicable, likely Super Sport
Identity/Class: Terrestrial robot (fringe character)
Occupation: Former Olympic athlete
Group Membership: Compu-Bots
Affiliations: The Lump, Rita Racquet, Sledge-Hammer Fists
Enemies: Captain America (Steve
Rogers), the
Superhero Special Action Squad (Captain Marvel/Mar-Vell,
Daredevil/Matt Murdock, Falcon/Sam Wilson, Hulk/Bruce Banner, Human
Torch/Johnny Storm, Iron Fist/Danny Rand, Iron Man/Tony Stark, Power
Man/Luke Cage, Shang-Chi, Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Thing/Ben Grimm,
Thor/Thor Odinson)
Known Relatives: Inapplicable
Aliases: "Brother," "S.S.," "The Ultimate Athlete" (see comments)
Base of Operations: Unrevealed
First Appearance: Captain America in "The
Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to Color (1976)
Powers/Abilities: Super Sport was a Compu-Bot, programmed to excel in every field of athletic endeavor. As such, Super Sport possessed Olympic-level skills in at least boxing, weightlifting, skiing and track, if not more sports.
He was also programmed with the ability to fly and
his body housed a bomb capable of exploding on contact.
Height: 6'2" (by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Inapplicable
History: (Captain America in
"The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to Color (fb) - BTS) -
Super Sport was a computerized Compu-Bot, programmed in every field of
athletic endeavor.
(Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport"
Giant Comics to Color (fb)) - While in a human guise, Super Sport
competed in "the Games" as an experienced boxer, weightlifter, track
and field star, and skier in an effort to earn the title of world's
greatest athlete. According to Super Sport's account, he won a gold
medal "in every event." During one such event, however, the equipment
was not properly checked and a subsequent accident sidelined Super
Sport. Confined to a wheelchair, Super Sport felt as if the world had
given up on him but, still determined to prove himself the greatest
athlete, Super Sport trained himself to walk again through sheer will
and eventually trained himself back into the shape he was once in.
(Captain America in "The
Challenge of Super Sport" (fb) - BTS) - Super Sport gathered together
athletes superior in their field and convinced them to join him as his
agents. Super Sport proved to be the only person to have ever defeated
his agent, boxer Sledge-Hammer Fists.
(Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport"
Giant Comics to Color) - Super Sport watched an in-depth television
profile on Captain America and became determined to acquire Cap's
shield in an effort to press Captain America into competing against him
for the title of world's greatest athlete. Donning his costume, Super
Sport monologued about how, once Captain America was removed, he would
become a new hero for the world to admire and he thought back to his
past competing in "the Games" and the accident that had once sidelined
him. Deciding that it was time to return to his dreams of becoming the
greatest athlete, Super Sport announced his plans to defeat Captain
America and, unaware of Cap's true identity, decided to kidnap Steve
Rogers, whom Super Sport recognized as having some sort of connection
to Captain America.
A short time later, Super Sport sent some of his goons to a local gym where Steve Rogers was working out and had them attempt to kidnap Rogers. Quickly changing into his Captain America costume, Rogers defeated the goons but lost his shield in the process. Acquiring Cap's shield during the distraction, Super Sport decided to use the shield as a bargaining chip to get Captain America to compete in his challenge. The following night, Super Sport appeared on television and publicly challenged Captain America to compete against a special team personally selected by Super Sport in exchange for his shield's return. He then announced that he had beaten his team himself and that, should Cap beat his agents, he would have to face Super Sport himself. Super Sport continued, saying that he wished for no police involvement and gave his word to return Cap's shield if he were defeated.
Informing Cap of his location in
the local stadium, Super Sport greeted Captain America when the hero
arrived and bragged about his self-proclaimed superiority to Cap before
reminding him that he detested physical violence. Reminding Cap that
their agreement was merely a business arrangement, Super Sport
convinced Cap to agree to his challenge and Super Sport introduced Cap
to his first challenge: a wrestling match to the finish with his
gigantic agent, the Lump. After Cap defeated the Lump, Super Sport
commended Cap on giving a good account of himself, much more than even
Super Sport had expected, before revealing Cap's second challenge: a
boxing event against the concrete-handed Sledge-Hammer Fists. When Cap
succeeded in defeating Sledge-Hammer Fists as well, unaware that Super
Sport had planted a miniature receiving device on Cap during the fight,
Super Sport admitted Captain America's talent before ushering Captain
America to his next challenge: a tennis match to the finish with Rita
Racquet, who used poison-dipped tennis balls. Reacquiring his shield
during the match against Rita, Captain America readied himself to fight
Super Sport himself, only to see Super Sport admit that he could not
win against Cap.
Super Sport then proclaimed that he might personally
be defeated by Cap, he could still destroy the hero, and he unleashed
the gigantic Compu-Bots, revealing himself as a human-size Compu-Bot.
Explaining how each of the Compu-Bots were programmed in athletic
endeavors, Super Sport unleashed a kung fu Compu-Bot against Captain
America, only to be surprised when the kung fu Compu-Bot was
intercepted by Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Shang-Chi then announced
that more Compu-Bots were incoming and revealed that the Superhero
Special Action Squad had arrived to assist. Once the Superhero Special
Action Squad had defeated the Compu-Bots, Captain America was left to
face Super Sport alone. Proclaiming that Cap still had to contend with
him, Super Sport revealed himself to be a living bomb, programmed to
explode on contact. Announcing his plan to fly up then crash down on
Captain America to explode, Super Sport flew into the air, prompting
Cap to hurl his shield at the robot. Gloating that he could easily
escape Cap's "stupid" shield, Super Sport was hit by the shield and
exploded, apparently destroyed. Looking over the mess of the downed
Compu-Bots in the stadium, Captain America was then confronted by a
police officer, who wrote Cap a ticket for littering despite Cap's
expectations of a commendation. Frowning, Captain America wondered if
the Superhero Special Action Squad would help him pay the $50 fine.
Comments: Created by uncredited writer and artist.
The Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to Color was a large-size coloring book published by Whitman in 1976. According to the copyright, the book was copyrighted 1976 by Marvel Comics Group and the book was produced under license by Whitman. Therefore, it sounds like Marvel owns Super Sport!
For being such an odd story (Super Sport is given an origin as former Olympic athlete, only to be revealed as a robot?), the story has all sorts of nods to the actual comics, such as Captain America being a member of the Avengers, his real name of Steve Rogers and the references/appearances of several other heroes active on Earth-616. I wish a writer/artist was credited. The art has a vague Jack Kirby quality to it and I can't help but wonder if perhaps it was Kirby, who simplified his art somewhat to make it easier for kids to color...
"The Games" was obviously meant to be the Olympic
Games.
Despite never being called anything else, it seems
likely that Super Sport used some sort of human name as an alias when
he competed in "the Games."
While Super Sport's true form had robotic eyes and no hair, his human form did have hair (or at least simulated hair) but it was unclear what color eyes and hair his human form possessed since the coloring book was black & white.
Additionally, while Super Sport's official coloring is unknown since the coloring book allows children to color their own adventure, the former owner of my copy of the coloring book had Super Sport wearing a gray mask and belt, blue shirt and trunks, purple pants and yellow gloves with black arrows on them (an image too large for me to scan for this profile). Similarly (as you can see from the image), the former owner of my coloring book considered the Lump to have pale green skin, brown trunks, gray hair and black boots. As you can see from the image below, the former owner also considered Sledge-Hammer Fists to wear a blue helmet with a yellow stripe, a white tank top, green shorts with a black stripe and black boots.
I wonder why we never heard anything else from the
Superhero Special Action Squad....perhaps they disbanded after their
single mission to assist Cap...? Then again, the story ends with Cap
hoping they might help him pay his littering ticket so perhaps they
disbanded rather than chip in to pay the $50 fine...
Profile by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Super Sport has no known connections to:
The Compu-Bots were computerized robots programmed
with nearly every field of athletic endeavor, apparently each one
representing a specific athletic field. One of the Compu-Bots, Super
Sport, became obsessed with earning the title of world's greatest
athlete and utilized a human guise to compete in "the Games." Following
an accident that left him wheelchair-bound, Super Sport regained
mobility and decided to prove himself worthy of the greatest athlete
title by besting Captain America. When Captain America ultimately
passed all three of Super Sport's challenges, Super Sport unleashed the
rest of the Compu-Bots against the hero.
The Compu-Bots were each programmed with skills in a specific athletic field.
--Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to Color
Known as the "World-Famous Manhandler of the Mat," the gigantic Lump was an agent of Super Sport. Sent after Captain America as Cap's first challenge from Super Sport, the Lump used his strength to hurl Captain America but Cap used the Lump's size against him, knocking him off-balance. Angry, the Lump lunged at Cap, only to be picked up and defeated. Terrified, the Lump begged for his life and Captain America remarked that the Lump was lucky he wasn't being turned over to the Hulk.
The Lump was large in stature and was extremely strong, though not to a superhuman degree.
--Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to Color
Known as the "Menace of Tennis," Rita Racquet became an agent of Super Sport and was sent against Captain America for Super Sport's third challenge to the hero. Revealing that her non-regulation tennis balls were coated in poison, Rita served several of the tennis balls at Cap, who managed to hit them back at Rita. Commending Cap on his tennis skills, Rita revealed her radio-controlled Atomic Ball and explained how Super Sport had placed a receiving device on Cap during a previous challenge and how her Atomic Ball would seek out the receiver and explode on contact. Further explaining how her racket would not activate the Atomic Ball's explosive qualities, Rita hit the Atomic Ball towards Cap as Super Sport gloated about a perceived early victory. Captain America managed to reacquire his shield at the last second, however, and intercepted the Atomic Ball with his shield, exploding it and thereby defeating Rita Racquet.
Rita Racquet utilized a tennis racket and
gadget-laden tennis balls including poison-dipped tennis balls and the
exploding Atomic Ball.
--Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to Color
Sledge-Hammer Fists was an agent of Super Sport adept
at boxing. He was pitted against Captain America in Super Sport's
second challenge to Cap, whom he knocked aside. Hitting Cap a second
time, Sledge-Hammer bragged about his skills as he prepared to bash
Cap's head between his two concrete boxing gloves. Unfortunately for
Sledge-Hammer Fists, Cap ducked and Sledge-Hammer Fists smashed his
concrete gloves into one another, shattering them. Reeling at the
damage to his hands, Sledge-Hammer Fists announced that his defeat was
all Super Sports fault and admitted he should have known Cap could not
be beaten.
Sledge-Hammer Fists was a talented boxer and wore boxing gloves resembling too large concrete blocks.
The Superhero
Special Action Squad
The seemingly short-lived Superhero Special Action
Squad was a group of superhero Captain America allies that came to his
aid when Super Sport attempted to destroy Cap using Compu-Bots.
Answering to Cap's orders, the Superhero Special Action Squad each
squared off against a single Compu-Bots and, working together, they
defeated the Compu-Bots. Minutes after the Compu-Bots' defeat, the
Superhero Special Action Squad departed, leaving Captain America to
finally defeat Super Sport. Following Super Sport's destruction,
Captain America was issued a citation for littering and he wondered if
the Superhero Special Action Squad would help pay the $50 fine.
The Superhero Special Action Squad consisted of:
Shang-Chi, Power Man, Human Torch, Falcon, Iron Fist, Captain Marvel,
Hulk, Thing, Daredevil, Iron Man, Thor and Spider-Man.
images: (without ads)
Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to
Color, p37, splash page (Super Sport, main image, & Compu-Bots)
Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to
Color, p38, pan1 (Super Sport unmasked headshot)
Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to
Color, p3, pan3 (Super Sport in human form, unmasked headshot)
Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to
Color, p5, pan1 (Super Sport in pre-accident human form, running track)
Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to
Color, p19, pan2 (Lump)
Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to
Color, p33, pan3 (Rita Racquet)
Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to
Color, p24-25, pan1 (Sledge-Hammer Fists)
Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to
Color, p40, pan3 (Superhero Special Action Squad, first image)
Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to
Color, p41, pan2 (Superhero Special Action Squad, second image)
Appearances:
Captain America in "The Challenge of Super Sport" Giant Comics to Color
(1976) - uncredited writer, artist & editor
First Posted: 06/10/2020
Last updated: 06/10/2020
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
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