Hell-Rider – Volume 01 Issue 01

Brick Reese was not your typical California rich kid waiting around to inherit his father’s fortune. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he set off to make his own way in the world. Over the next year, he would become involved with some of the worst elements that society had to offer. Drugs, women, alcohol, it was all there for the taking. But it was a small biker gang that would become his new family in a time of political unrest within the United States of America. 

Then the letter came. Brick Reese had been drafted for the Vietnam War. His life, as he knew it, was over. After sustaining life-threatening injuries in the rice patties, he agreed to participate in a secret drug experiment conducted by the U.S. Army’s medical research division. The Q-47 drug was only supposed to help Brick heal at an extraordinary higher rate. Unknown to the doctors, the chemical gave him so much more.

Now Brick Reese has decided to use his new-found abilities to help those in need. In the shady world of Hollywood entertainment, a new force of evil is on the rise. It will take guys like Reese and his new persona as Hell Rider to take back the streets from those who choose to do harm. Can the young veteran keep up with the demands of being an attorney by day and a secret crime fighter by night?

The new darling of the Las Vegas music scene, Marian Michaels, had her name on every producer’s lips. Her looks were hot, her voice even hotter. There was only one thing her adoring fans did not know. Marian was the masked crime fighter known as the Butterfly. 

Will this foxy young singer be able to help free her girlfriend from the diabolical heroine kingpin known only as the Claw? What are Marian Michaels’ ties to the Los Angeles biker gang known as the Wild Bunch? How does she know the man who goes by the crime fighting name of Hell-Rider?

There’s no other outfit tougher in the Oakland Bay area than the biker gang known as the Wild Bunch! They’ve seen everything, taken on the baddest hombres this side of the Rio Grande, and never been defeated. Now their reputation is on the line as Animal, Deke, Slinker, Curly, and the lovely Ruby race for their lives to escape the international criminal organization led by the Claw.

Will the Wild Bunch be able to deliver the heroine filled boots to Brick Reese in Los Angeles, California? What’s the secret behind the Claw’s supercharged limousine of death? Which biker holds the true key to Marian Michaels heart? 

The race is on! The Claw’s final destination is the Desert Village Hotel and Casino! Without the hidden stash of super-heroine, his crime organization wouldn’t have the money to build their terrorist army to overthrow the United States government. Nothing will stand in his way, even a masked crime fighter known as the Butterfly and her friend, the feisty redhead named Ruby.

Elsewhere, the Hell Rider has just rescued Julie Storm from the Claw’s Commune, but she has been injected with a lethal dose of narcotics. Now he is tied up at the local hospital with serious accusations by the chief medical officer. No matter, the Wild Bunch has also fled captivity and floors it back towards Las Vegas. The question still remains if they can reach their friends before the Claw murders them all!

Skywald Publishing’s Hell-Rider series is a bizarre mix of 1970s biker and blaxploitation films, combined with the Marvel superheroes genre, and topped off with the sleaze of a Penthouse Letters forum. The one thing this magazine is not, and that’s for the kids. Hell Rider is all man, baby! So get ready to read some true grit in this 1971 publication for those of adult sensibilities. 

Inside these pages you will be introduced to a plethora of antihero types, one of which will become the prototype for Marvel Comics’ Ghost Rider character, which would debut just two months later (August 1971). Hell-Rider is his name and he has a very complex backstory. But no one should forget the Butterfly. She is credited as being the very first black female superhero ever to be published in comic books. There is definitely a Foxy Brown about her. Her high-tech gear and martial arts skills would give Batman a run for his money. 

Overall, this was a very interesting read, but sadly Skywald founders Sol Brodsky and Israel Waldman would drop this series after just two issues. If you are looking for some oddball vintage comics to read, look no further. The Wild Bunch was my favorite part of this whole spiel. I’m giving Issue one of Hell-Rider a solid four out of five stars.

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