Speedball #5

Speedball — the bouncing, blue-suited Masked Marvel — leaps into chaotic action on this January 1989 issue, as the cover by Steve Ditko and Bruce Patterson pits him simultaneously against three wild threats: a menacing animal creature mid-air, a spiked wrecking-ball weapon streaking toward him, and a snarling, crouching villain at lower right. The cover copy cheekily challenges whether even Speedball can handle the Basher, follow the Freak of Science, and trap the Two-Legged Rat all at once. With Ditko also handling interior art alongside writer Roger Stern, this issue promises the kind of energetic, layered storytelling that made this era of Marvel genuinely fun.