THE NEW YORK SMASHERS
of Earth-616

Membership: Corbin, Johnny Dare, Tyrone Hammer (Hogun the Grim), Magniconte, Bobby Steele

Purpose: Competitive sports team

Affiliations: Eric Masterson, Kevin Masterson, Marcy Steele, Ben Urich, Phil Urich, Sateesh Vanamala

Enemies: None

Base of Operations: Michael W. Brenzie Stadium, Manhattan, New York, USA

First Appearance: (hat with logo seen) Thor I#436 (September, 1991);
(other team members) Thunderstrike I#1 (June, 1993)

History:

(Thor I#436-437) - Wearing a cap with the New York Smashers team logo on it, player Bobby Steele went looking for Eric Masterson.

(Thor I#438) - Bobby finally met Eric Masterson face-to-face; Eric instantly recognized Bobby as the Smashers' starting quarterback. Bobby was married to Eric's ex-wife Marcy and explained he wanted to adopt Eric and Marcy's son, Kevin, which upset Eric.

(Thor I#444 (fb) - BTS) - The New York Smashers failed to make the playoffs.

(Thor I#444) - For Christmas, Bobby gave a copy of his '12' New York Smashers uniform to Kevin Masterson.

(Thunderstrike I#8 (fb) - BTS) - Although he had helped lead the Smashers to their longest string of winning seasons, Bobby's performance began to slip. He started taking steroids, thinking it would compensate.

(Thor I#456 (fb) - BTS) - Marcy brought Kevin Masterson to see Bobby at the field. Kevin hoped to get autographs from players Magniconte and Corbin.

(Thor I#457 (fb) - BTS) - However, Bobby didn't show up and Kevin missed his opportunity to get the autographs.

(Thunderstrike I#1) - Three of the other Smashers joined Bobby Steele in making an appearance on one of Marcy Steele's infomercials while she celebrated the grand opening of her new 'Salon Steele.' Bobby and the other players left, supposedly to have beers together, but Bobby told the others he was tired from their personal appearances and they let him go.

(Thunderstrike I#5 (fb) - BTS) - The Smashers' front office told Bobby it was his fault the team had been stumbling and threatened to cut him from the Smashers.

(Thunderstrike I#9 (fb) - BTS) - Now getting over his steroids use, Bobby went to a party at Eric Masterson's apartment. He gave one woman an autograph and when she asked him if he thought the Smashers would make the playoffs, he replied they would if he had anything to say about it.

(Thunderstrike I#12 (fb) - BTS) - The Smashers' owners informed Bobby they were considering trading him to a team in Los Angeles, California.

(Thunderstrike I#16) - At Michael W. Brenzie Stadium, the Smashers' coach had a meeting with Bobby and officially informed him he was being traded, making Bobby upset.

(Thunderstrike I#22) - Bobby returned to the stadium to clean out his locker and made peace with Eric Masterson.

(Green Goblin I#2) - "Joltin'" Johnny Dare was serving as running back for the New York Smashers when gamblers tried to force him into fumbling some games, threatening to harm him if he didn't comply. Johnny took his story to Ben Urich of the Daily Bugle. Ben's nephew Phil Urich was a big fan of Dare. The gamblers hired the Rhino in an attempt to punish Dare but he was protected by the police and Phil's alter ego the Green Goblin.

(Journey into Mystery I#508 (fb) - BTS) - The New York Smashers continued to fall upon hard times as they prepared for the next season. The team was owned by a billionaire who had "fumbled almost as many marriages as his place kikcer has blown key field goals. The owner claimed the team was "rebuilding." The Smashers hired Tyrone Hammer as their new offensive coordinator; unknown to them, Hammer was in fact the Asgardian Hogun the Grim, who had been cast into a mortal guise by Odin to spare him from Ragnarok.

(Journey into Mystery I#508) - Tyrone Hammer oversaw the Smashers' training at Adelphi University in New York, where the Smashers sparred against a college team. Tyrone was approached by Barry Landers, Freddie Moyer and Donald Velez, who were, like him, Asgardians wearing mortal identities. Landers, Moyer and Velez had determined Hammer was a fellow Asgardian but Hammer refused to meet with them until after practice was over. When practice finished, they explained to Hammer what they'd learned about their true identities and warned him about the Men in Black who were serving the god Seth against them. Hammer admitted he'd already fought and defeated the men in Black. They welcomed him to their team of "Lost Gods" and when Donald asked if the Smashers had a chance of reaching the playoffs "anytime this century," Hammer answered, "Not without me."

(Thunderstrike II#1 (fb) - BTS) - After his retirement from football, Bobby Steele was still recognized for his time with the New York Smashers. When Kevin got into a fight with another boy at school, the situation was resolved when the boy's father, Sateesh Vanamala, turned out to be a huge fan of Bobby and the Smashers; Bobby autographed a football for Sateesh.

Comments: Created by Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz and Al Milgrom; based on the New Universe iteration created by Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema.

    DeFalco and Frenz created the New York Smashers as part of their New Universe series Kickers, Inc. but they were never satisfied with how the book turned out because (according to Frenz) they were under pressure from Jim Shooter to emphasize the Kickers' exploits on the gridiron, whereas DeFalco and Frenz envisioned the series as a high-adventure book in the style of DC Comics' Challengers of the Unknown, with the football team being a small part of the book; consequently, they only created Kickers, Inc. I#1-3 together (DeFalco also wrote plots for issues #4-5, then he was done). Kickers, Inc. wound up receiving the worst reviews of all the New Universe titles, but DeFalco and Frenz clearly held some affection for what it might have been, given that they worked the Smashers into the regular Marvel Universe and later the MC2 universe!

    The "Corbin" and "Magniconte" mentioned in Thor I#456-457 would be 616 counterparts to Jack Magniconte and Dallas Corbin. Of course, maybe their full names were "Maurice Magniconte" and "Cordwainer Corbin."

    When the Marvel and DC Universes merged in JLA/Avengers I#3, there's a Daily Planet newspaper with a headline reading: "Smashers Beat Meteors 21-8." This references the Metropolis Meteors, a DC Universe football team.

Profile by Prime Eternal.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The New York Smashers of Earth-616 are an alternate Earth version of:

• THE NEW YORK SMASHERS - of Earth-148611, American Football League team--Kickers, Inc. I#1