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| Art by Ross Andru (layout) & Harry Rosenbaum (painting) |
A black leather-clad biker breaks into a drug den to rescue a captive woman.
After announcing himself as "Hell-Rider", he tosses around burly cat-costumed criminals like they were action figures, and seems on the verge of victory when suddenly his superhuman strength dissipates and he is easily captured.
Trapped in the fiends' reinforced cellar, the dazed biker reflects on how he ended up in this sorry situation...
Graduating from law school, Brick Reese took a motorcycle trip across America to "find himself" and linked up with a group of bikers called "The Wild Bunch"...after beating the $h!t out of the whole gang, lived a life of hard-riding, hard-drinking, hard-screwing fun!
Being drafted into the Army ended that, and being badly wounded in a Viet Cong attack almost ended his life.
But an army surgeon offered the now-crippled Brick a chance to test Q-47, an experimental drug that could enhance the healing process.
Q-47 worked beyond anyone's expectations, not only healing Brick, but enhancing his strength and reflexes!
Honorably-discharged from the Army, the now-rejuvenated Brick Reese returns home...
You'd think we'd go immediately to Part Two, right?
Nope, because the next chapter in this tale can be found HERE and HERE,starring comics' first Black super-heroine!
After reading that tale, be here tomorrow when we introduce another piece of the puzzle...
Then, we'll run Part 2!
This story from Skywald's Hell-Rider #1 (1971) was written by Gary Friedrich and illustrated by Ross Andru (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks) and Bill Everett (greytones).
and the Batman tv series
, superheroes were in vogue again!