Who's This? A quick turtle.
The facts: Fastback's fortunes are tied into the Zoo Crew's. He first appeared in the comic insert in New Teen Titans #16 (February 1982), then every Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew comic, including the Oz-Wonderland War, The Last Ark, World's Funnest and Convergence.
How you could have heard of him: The Convergence event had Fastback appear most prominent in the Speed Force issues.
Example story: Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #18 (August 1983), "Here Comes the Sun!" by Jim Engel and Ernie Chan
The issue that gave all the Zoo Crew members their own logos also gave us a Fastback solo tale, and it starts in Timmy Joe Terrapin's everyday life as a janitor at a local TV station. It's one of the most unglamorous secret identity jobs in the whole of comic book canon, but Fastback has got YOUR back, cleaners of the world.
The problem with the weatherman is that he's always wrong, despite having a massive telescope, his own RADAR, and a giant bat-computer to help him with predictions. He goes to the roof to check the equipment and at the same time, a plane overhead accidentally sends its cargo - a giant, 20-million-dollar telescope lens - flying, or really, DROPPING, right between our flustered meteorologist and the sun. PSHHHHHHH! And by the powers invested in the comic book medium, we get --- SOLAR BEAR!
Solar Bear decides to do his broadcast as normal, transforming in a bright flash that blinds every viewer, even one T.J. Terrapin who was watching TV in the Zoo Crew's Z-Building. But there are stray sunglasses on the TV table, and they help a bit. So it's turtle V bear at the station as we finally get to see what THIS speedster can do!
Yah! You have to use the shell! But wait, did he just expose himself to Solar Bear's turtle soup-making powers?!
OUT of the shell, eh? Even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles didn't use THAT trick. For his next trick, Fastback takes a page out of the Flash's playbook, which says there's no foe you can't defeat by running in circles around them real fast. The most Fastback runs, the more Solar Bear starts to overheat. There's no place for the heat to go inside the eye of the hurricane and he goes SUPER-NOVA!!! Or, as it were, he exhausts himself.
So all's well that ends well. Fastback is proclaimed a hero, and goes on the news to tell all the blinded citizens out there that they should buy some sunglasses which will fix them right up. He even gets a sponsorship deal out of it.
You can tell this was the early 80s when X-Men was king, because Fastback's Southern accent is annoyingly written as pronounced (like Rogue) and it's a BIT much. But who doesn't like a good turtle? AND a good speedster. He's both! As a kid, he was definitely one of my Zoo Crew favorites.
Who's Next? The match the Legion made.
Comments