NFL SuperPro Set to Return?

Earlier this week, word leaked out that the NFL's current officially-licensed comic book might recruit the star of the NFL's best-known licensed series from the past. That's right, folks - The Beat's sources tell them that NFL SuperPro may make an appearance in Action Lab's NFL Rush Zone comics. NFL SuperPro is one of those strange properties that probably should never have happened, but for which some people have an irrational fondness, probably in part because it's so self-evidently strange and silly. Looking every bit as '90s as any character ever has, NFL SuperPro is exactly what it sounds like–a superhero character created by Marvel and the NFL who is the avatar of truth, justice and football–or something like that, it's really hard to get very far into his Wikipedia entry with a straight face. The character had his own series for a year, and it was so reviled that writer Fabian Nicieza has never totally lived it down. According to the character's Wikipedia entry, the veteran writer admitted to writing the comic for the free football tickets that were a perk of the job–which really isn't all that surprising when you look at it. Of course, not everybody's a fan: when we spoke with Chicago Bears defensive lineman Israel Idonije and his collaborators on The Protectors last month, series writer Ron Marz assured us, "Nobody has any affection for NFL SuperPro." According to The Beat, NFL Rush Zone: Guardians of the Core is "based on a TV show about a kid named Ish who must save the universe by shouting 'Enter the Rush Zone!' and manifesting a super-powerful football uniform." Both properties are owned by the NFL, with their respective comics published under license to the comic book publishers in question, making a crossover a serious logistical possibility.