'Mazing Man

At the start of mainstream comics slide into dark, brooding, violent comics in the late '80s - early 90's, a relatively unknown title appeared out of the DC Comics publishing house that recaptured the "comic" in comic books. 'Mazing Man came out in 1986, the same year as Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and had a short and disappointing run of twelve issues.

'Mazing Man tells the story of Sigfried Horatio Hutch III, a four-foot former mental patient, who lives in Brooklyn with his friend Denton. After having met in a mental ward, Denton allowed Hutch to live with him. Soon after moving to the neighborhood, Hutch found a helmet with the letter M on it and decided to become a superhero, taking on the name 'Mazing Man. Dressed in his yellow helmet, with matching cape and boots and wearing polka dotted underwear on the outside of his clothes, Hutch patrolled the neighborhood, doing good deeds ranging from cleaning out the gutters to rescuing a child from in front of a speeding truck.

Hutch was supported by a cast of colorful characters. Denton was a comic book artist who inexplicably looked like a dog. His sister, K.C., was divorced, directionless, and unhappy with her life. Their neighbors included Brenda and Eddie (a possible nod to Billy Joel's song Scenes from An Italian Restaurant), the happily married couple and Guido, the stereotypical Italian single guy. Apart from these main characters, there were an array of quirky neighborhood people, like the latino woman with the baby with no hair and the sour woman who did nothing but mumble.

The comic was cute, well-written, and refreshing in its lack of violence. I remember coming away from reading an issue thinking that there needed to be more comics like this. Unfortunately, the title never gained popular support and only ran twelve issues, with a number of single shot specials after that, before finally passing away.