Kickers, Inc.

Kickers, Inc.
Cover to issue #1
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date(s)	1986-1987
No. of issues	12
Main character(s)	Kickers, Inc.
Creative team
Created by	Tom DeFalco Ron Frenz
Written by	Tom DeFalco Mary Jo Duffy Ron Altaville Terry Kavanagh Mark Gruenwald Dwight Zimmerman Adam Blaustein Howard Mackie
Artist(s)	Ron Frenz Howard Bender Paul Ryan Rod Whigham Larry Alexander Alan Kupperberg

Kickers, Inc. was a twelve-issue comic book series published by Marvel Comics from 1986 to 1987 as part of the New Universe imprint. Created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz, the series featured a group of former professional American football players for the fictional New York Smashers team who became a group of heroes for hire, calling themselves "Kickers Inc." They were led by Jack Magniconte, a Smashers player who gained super-human strength and endurance from a combination of exposure to radiation from the "White Event" and an experimental muscle-enhancing device.

Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz created the series, then titled "Mr. Magnificent and his Team Supreme", for the New Universe line before the concept of the New Universe itself had been fleshed out. Frenz explained,

They were going to have a vehicle called the Ultramobile that could travel all-terrain and it was much more broad adventure, à lá the Challengers of the Unknown. As things started to form, there was more information about what the New Universe was going to be trickling down from [editor-in-chief Jim] Shooter. We found out Shooter was pushing this idea that the books would be ultra-realistic. Tom wanted to do very tongue-in-cheek, seat-of-your-pants adventures. The characters were going to be off-season football players, but he was seeing something much broader. When Tom saw that Shooter wanted things more grounded in realism, he tried to take the strip back. But Jim wanted a sports book. Tom tried to tell him it wasn’t a sports book, but Shooter told Tom, ‘Trust me, it’ll be great. I want it for New Universe.’

DeFalco and Frenz modified the series according to the New Universe premise, but Kickers, Inc. still did not fit well within the New Universe's stated editorial goal of being more grounded in realism than the regular Marvel Comics Universe, its stories, characters and concepts being recognizably based on standard superhero tropes. The series also suffered from creative instability to an even greater extent than the rest of the 1986-87 New Universe lineup, with nearly every issue being produced by a different creative team. DeFalco himself lost interest early on; half of issue #3 and all of issues #4 and 5 were scripted by guest writers over DeFalco's plots, and by issue #6 neither he nor Frenz were involved with Kickers, Inc. at all. It was canceled with issue #12, along with other New Universe comics such as Nightmask and Merc, though Jack Magniconte continued to make occasional appearances in the remaining New Universe titles.