First appearance: All-American Comics#85 (May 1947)
Abilities: Peak human strength, master of all sports
Worst act: Theft, attempted murder
Quote: "Me..."Crusher" Crock...bounced? You're nuts!"
Created by: John Broome (script), Irwin Hasen (pencils), and John Belfi (inks)
Given that this is the 29th, an unusual day for the month I'd figured I'd take a look at another personal favorite of mine.
The Sportsmaster might be my favorite Green Lantern foe, besides Solomon Grundy. Here's a guy who decides to tackle a dude who could level a city block armed with nothing more than a tennis racket. That is a level of dedication one rarely finds today.
His backstory, at least in 1947, is fairly straight forward. Crock is a pro football player, but not one the fans can root for; no, Crock makes it a point to injure at least one player in every game. While this might get some tut-tutting from a cable sports pundit today and a slight fine, Crock finds himself banned not only from football but ALL professional sports.
Not sure they had that kind of power back then, but whatever.
Deciding to strike back at the world that mocked him, Crock decided to rob a polo match. He immediately runs into the Green Lantern and apparently falls to his death.
You can't keep a good crook down though, and he was soon brought back. One thing that made him stand out from other crooks? The Huntress
Not the Batman/Birds of Prey supporting character, no, but the 'Kill Wildcat and mount his head on my wall' character. She and Crock run into each other and soon sparks are flying. Seeing two villains fall in love was a different approach back then and it works. Huntress was also a fairly tough cookie in her own right.
One thing I also liked about the Sportsmaster was his costume(s). Every time he showed up he had a different one with a different sports theme to it. He dressed as a baseball player, a polo rider, and even a tennis player too. Nowadays they have him in a goalie in tactical gear, but I thought it was cool.
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