Justice League of America #70 (On Sale: January 23, 1969) has a great Creeper cover by Neal Adams."Versus the Creeper" is by Denny O'Neil, Dick Dillin and Sid Greene. A juvenile would-be super-hero called Mind-Grabber Kid becomes jealous when he is ignored in favor of the Justice League heroes. When alien visitors come to Earth, he leads them to believe that the JLA is composed of enemies of humanity. Meanwhile, the super-team, at Batman's instigation, investigates the activities of the new crime-fighter known as the Creeper.
The JLA, the Creeper, aliens, and a gang of crooks all come together in a four-way battle at the nuclear power plant. After the aliens overcome the League by mimicking their powers, the super-heroes are about to be murdered by the crooks, but the Creeper intervenes and saves them.
A repentent Mind-Grabber Kid explains matters to the aliens, who depart in peace. Reprinted in Justice League of America Archives Vol. 8 HC. Being just a kid myself, I hoped I would see more of Mind-Grabber Kid, but it never happened. This is his one and only appearance.
Edited by Julius Schwartz.
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2 comments:
While hardly a return appearance in the sense you mean, Mind-Grabber Kid did show up again in Bulleteer #3 from Grant Morrison's Silver Age-inflected miniseries Seven Soldiers. In that story, we see MGK has become an adult and is still trying to launch a career as a superhero, remembering his one adventure with the JLA as the highlight of his life and refusing to give up hope while pondering where he's gone wrong.
It's not a sneering or disrespectful portrayal -- in fact, I'm afraid I identify with it more than I'd like -- and there are some hints Morrison may have written the character as a kind of self-portrait.
Sounds like a great use of a forgotten character. Thanks for the update.
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