Description

Hero Hotline (1989)                               Comics Lot
Features a 2-panel cameo by The Flash… The Fastest Man Alive!
Writer: Bob Rozakis
Artist: Stephen DeStefano
Inker: Kurt Schaffenberger
Colorist: Bob Rozakis
Letterer: John Costanza
Editors: Brian Augustyn, Dick Giordano & Mike Gold
Covers #1,2,3,4 by: Stephen DeStefano & Karl Kesel
Covers #5,6 by: Sven DeCarlo & Pete Picasso

When you need a hero really badly… who you gonna call? Hero Hotline!!When things are at their grimmest, when it seems there’s no hope and none of the big name super-star super-heroes are around to help you, who you gonna call? Why, just dial 555-HERO and you’ll be in touch with Hero Hotline. They’re the newest team of super-stars in the firmament of the DC Universe, and a finer bunch of good guys you couldn’t hope to meet. Hotshot…Private Eyes…Mister muscle… Diamondette… Microwavabelle… these are just a few of the members of the most unusual gang of heroes in town, and they’re always there when you need them.

Story/Spoilers
In issue #1, “Hero Hotline”, Microwavabelle reports to work where Ms. O’Flaherty, a newspaper reporter, is waiting. Microwavabelle tells her about Hero Hotline. Stretch is assigned to retrieve an engagement ring, dropped down a sewer. He takes Private Eyes with him and together they collect it and return it to the owners. They tell the heroes they dropped it during an earthquake which occurs again. Private Eyes identifies the source of the earthquake as coming from within an adjacent building but is unable to see inside due to lead-based paint on the walls. Stretch slips between cracks in the door. Mister Muscle has been assigned to visit a battered wife named Mrs. Bartoli. He brings her literature and listens as she recounts her and her husband’s early days. Mr. Bartoli returns drunk and accuses his wife of having an affair. He attempts to hit her again but Mister Muscle grabs his arm, hurting him, and threatens to return if Mr. Bartoli strikes his wife again. Voice-Over and Fred are assigned to meet with Mrs. Culligan, an elderly woman who reports three-foot tall Martians visiting her every night. Voice-Over barely contains his amusement but leaves Fred to spend the night as look-out. Stretch enters the building and spots supervillain Quakemaster who is trying to recover stolen money which he had previously buried before the building was erected. The Coordinator sends all available heroes to the scene and they fight Quakemaster. Although Diamondette manages to break his jackhammer, Quakemaster is still able to fight them all. Stretch realizes that Quakemaster’s exo-skeleton is augmenting his strength and resistance. All the heroes hold Quakemaster immobile while Diamondette shatters his armor. Mister Muscle is then able to knock him out. The heroes return him to Hero Hotline HQ where the police are summoned to take him into custody. Stretch is assigned to rescue a cat from a tree and the rest of the crew go home for the night.

Next in issue #2, “Hostages On A School Bus”, At 9:25 the next morning, Hot Shot is dragged into the office by his mother who is upset that Hot Shot has been assigned to the night crew. Fred, meanwhile, reports to Voice-Over, and the Coordinator, that he fell asleep while staking out Mrs. Culligan’s house. When he awoke, Mrs. Culligan was missing. The Coordinator orders them both to try to find her. While searching the house they find an alien-looking gun. The rest of the crew watch a breaking news story of a group of masked gunman, called the United Fighters for Freedom, which have hijacked a school bus and are holding the children hostage until their demands are met. Microwavabelle spots one of her kids on the bus and begins to leave when the Coordinator orders her to stop fearing her involvement will escalate the situation. She reluctantly agrees but watches the developing events very closely. Stretch is assigned another cat stuck in a tree case and calls his daughter, Eloise, to postpone their lunch meeting. He goes to the address only to find a large number of trees and the child is unaware in which tree the cat is. Stretch requests Private Eyes’ help but Private Eyes is being assigned to a new case. After searching, Stretch calls his daughter and reschedules their get-together for dinner at seven. Eventually the cat is found, sleeping in a box in a garage all the time. At 10:47 Ralph Bartoli and his lawyer, Eric F. Schuster, arrive to file a lawsuit against Mister Muscle and the Hero Hotline. Mr. Bartoli has his arm in a sling but is seen repeatedly waving and pounding it in anger. They soon leave. Private Eyes is spending time with his fiancee, Melanie, when he is assigned to help locate a missing will. As he is leaving, the situation with the gunman and school children escalates and Microwavabelle, unable to stand idly by any longer, heads to the scene. The Coordinator orders Diamondette, Mister Muscle and Private Eyes to the scene. Microwavabelle arrives prompting her daughter, Ruthie, to proclaim “It’s my mommy” which is overheard by one of the gunmen. She grabs Ruthie and hands her over to her colleague, Joey, who holds her at knifepoint. Microwavabelle disarms him but the woman pulls out a grenade and threatens the rest of the kids. The police try to restrain Microwavabelle and, while all the attention is on her, the rest of the heroes act. Diamondette slices through the bus and Mister Muscle pries it open allowing the kids to begin to exit. The woman again threatens to use the grenade but Private Eyes discovers that it is a fake. The heroes take the criminals down. Private Eyes goes to his appointment to search through dozens of boxes and stacks of paper to look for the will. Eventually he finds it. At 3:40 Microwavabelle returns to the office, with her kids in tow, where the Coordinator begins to criticize her for her actions. Daughter Naomi, instead, chastises the Coordinator who agrees and allows the family to leave for the day. Before they can leave, Voice-Over and Fred return with the alien gun but Dwight identifies it as a toy.

Next in issue #3, “Snafu Is Back In Town”, At 9:07 Microwavabelle brings her children to work as they have no school and she couldn’t get a babysitter. As such, she is assigned to show new employee Terry Carbone, a.k.a. Lightning Eyes, around the office on his first day. Because Mrs. Culligan has now been missing for “a full week”, the Coordinator assigns Private Eyes to assist Voice-Over and Fred in finding her. Private Eyes identifies some dirty tracks which, with Soozie-Q’s assistance, is identified as likely coming from a basement. Private Eyes uses his x-ray vision to find Mrs. Culligan. They go downstairs but quickly hide when they hear others approaching. Mrs. Culligan is approached by two young girls in Martian make-up who appear to be scheming her out of her money. Voice-Over and Private Eyes scare the two into thinking they’re also being attacked by aliens and scare them off. Mister Muscle gets a call, implied to be from Ralph Bartoli, where they decide to meet at eight p.m. to settle their differences out of court. Stretch is assigned another cat stuck in a tree and also finds the cat’s owner. Diamondette gets a call from Alberto Rosario asking her to open Pandora’s Box on national television later that morning. The Coordinator gives her the day off. At 10:30 she appears on the show and opens the box but the show is interrupted by a news announcement that super-villain SNAFU is causing havoc at the Stock Exchange. All available heroes converge and take on the villain. Voice-Over sneaks up behind SNAFU and uses his speakers’ amplifiers to overpower SNAFU with noise that knocks him out. Back on Alberto’s show, it is revealed that Pandora’s Box was empty. The heroes return and Melanie arrives to take Private Eyes home to rest. Stretch is assigned to rescue a child stuck in a well and manages to do that without most of his body leaving the office. After chastising the parents and the media, Stretch also takes the rest of the day off. Voice-Over seems to have lost his voice implying he, too, will leave early. At 8 p.m., Mister Muscle goes to meet Ralph and is almost struck by shadowy figure wielding a monkey-wrench. Mister Muscle disarms the person who runs away with Mister Muscle threatening him.

Next in issue #4, “Bombs Away”, At 9:01 the next morning Mister Muscle’s wife calls to report him missing and Soozie-Q is able to locate him in an alley behind a bar apparently in a drunken stupor. Stretch is sent to bring him back. Hotshot, meanwhile, has taken the morning off to move into his new apartment, an ordeal made worse by his guilt-tripping mother. He arrives at the office and spends some time talking to Zeep who is trying to recruit him for his Heroes’ Union. Hotshot is soon given an assignment. At 12:17 Mister Muscle arrives, having captured an unnamed masked criminal, only to be promptly arrested for the murder of Ralph Bartoli. He is escorted to the police station. The Hotline begins getting calls from a person who says he has been kidnapped but the signal keeps ending in a high-pitched screech. Melanie arrives to take Private Eyes to get their mariage license. Voice-Over, Microwavabelle and Diamondette leave for lunch and Fred gets locked inside the men’s room. Hotshot meets with Mr. Piersall who smokes in bed. His three sons called Hero Hotline for help and Hotshot tries unsuccessfully to warn him of the perils. Finally Hotshot uses his powers to set the bed on fire as a demonstration and the sons are forced to put out the fire themselves. Hotshot leaves the angered client. Back at the headquarters Stretch discovers that the men’s room is locked as he is given an assignment to rescue a cat stuck in a roof drainpipe. At the restaurant, an employee shows the three eating heroes a block of ice containing a body that was delivered, he hopes, by mistake. By 1:47 the heroes bring it back to the office where the body is identified as the Americommando despite the Coordinator’s insistence that it isn’t the real one. Hotshot returns and is told by the Coordinator that he must pay for a new bed for Mr. Piersall. All the heroes have now returned and chaos prevails as they simultaneously try to 1) get Fred out of the men’s room, 2) free the frozen person and 3) listen to yet another call by the kidnapped person. Private Eyes discovers that there is a bomb inside the fake body of the Americommando, which is activated by the screech at the end of the kidnapped person’s call, and Diamondette slices the body and ice open allowing Stretch to get rid of the bomb. At the police headquarters, Mister Muscle recounts his story for the seventh time during which it is reiterated that the wrench was the murder weapon and that only Mister Muscle’s fingerprints were found on it. Zeep leads the bulk of the night crew into a union strike.

Next in issue #5, “Lo, The Firebug”, Stretch updates his daughter, Ellie, on the Americommando bomb, on their way to have dinner where Ellie updates him on Mister Muscle’s murder case. At 7:20 the next morning, Microwavabelle takes her kids to the subway station as their still scared of school buses. Microwavabelle stops a pick-pocket. Upon her return the Coordinator congratulates her and Voice-Over, impersonating the Coordinator, jokingly promises her a bonus. At HH Headquarters, Private Eyes x-ray scans all the people entering the building. Hotshot gets assigned to purchase a new bed for Mr. Piersall. He has it delivered and reveals it to be a waterbed. Stretch, now happy to be getting cats out of trees after having to deal with bombs, is assigned a pet in a tree and ordered to take Voice-Over with him. THe residence belongs to an attractove woman in a bikini and Voice-Over immediately begins flirting with her while Stretch searches the tree. He finds the pet and begins flipping out when the pet, a large python, wraps itself around him which also freaks out Voice-Over. The Coordinator, watching the scene, enjoys his own private joke. Back at headquarters a car crashes into lightpole just outside the building and all available agents (Miscorwavabelle, Private Eyes and Diamondette) are sent outside. Diamondette is forced to perform an emergency tracheotomy while Microwavabelle gets the gawking crowd away from the car which is about to explode. When Soozie-Q fails to respond to the heroes requests, Private Eyes scans the building and finds everyone being held hostage by supervillain Firebug. The other heroes return and Stretch takes charge drafting a striking Zeep into action. Hotshot is sent to the hardware store to get some flame retardant spray, which Stretch sprays onto his suit. Microwavabelle drops Voice-Over onto the roof. He makes his way to the office where he and Fred stage a fight that distracts Firebug long enough for the heroes to enter. Stretch holds Firebugs arms long enough for Diamondette to sever Firebug’s suit’s napalm tanks and Zeep soaks up the volatile liquids. Stretch wraps himself around Firebug who ignites burning his costume completely off. At Mister Muscle’s trial the evidence of the murder weapon, the wrench, is presented and it is revealed that the only fingerprints on it are Mister Muscle’s. Ellie points out the inconsistencies as the wrench belonged to Ralph Bartoli and he was found not wearing gloves – which would suggest Mister Muscle wiped off everybody’s fingerprints but his own. Later, Mrs. Bartoli testifies that she saw Mister Muscle kill her husband from her apartment window. Stretch and Ellie have dinner at the Coordinator’s residence where they discuss who hired Firebug and the possible outcome of Mister Muscle’s trial.

Finally in issue #6, “Could Be”, At 9:27 Microwavabelle gets a phone call about her daughter and leaves in a huff. When she gets to the address, which appears abandoned, Soozie-Q’s monitoring screen malfunctions. Fred gets a call from Alberto Rosario inviting him on the show that day and Fred leaves. At the trial Mrs. Bartoli testifies that Ralph made numerous calls to Hero Hotline to verify that Mister Muscle would meet with him. The Coordinator, who has been monitoring the trial, orders Soozie-Q to search the Bartoli’s phone records and finds a call to Eric Schuster. Stretch informs Ellie via a note he delivers and Ellie calls Mr. Schuster to the stand. Mr. Schuster provokes Mister Muscle who threatens him leading to a brief altercation. Meanwhile Diamondette and Private Eyes are sent to help open a safe with a broken lock. As soon as they leave, the remaining men in the office start planning Private Eye’s bachelor party. Once Diamondette opens the safe, Soozie-Q’s monitor on them fails. Hotshot is sent to a luncheonette with a power outage to cook their rapidly thawing burgers. Upon entering the building, Soozie-Q’s monitor goes out. Voice-Over is sent to an apartment where a resident has been hearing strange sounds in the walls. As he enters, the monitor on him fails as well. The Coordinator deduces what has happened to Ralph Bartoli and gives Stretch some questions to ask Ellie. He goes to the court. Ellie asks Schuster about his exorbenant fees and his feelings when he learned that Ralph decided to settle out of court. She accuses him of going over to the Bartoli’s after the phone call, angry about losing the fee, and confronting him – a confrontation that got physical and resulted in murder. Mrs. Bartoli stands up and admits that Schuster killed Ralph and threatened her to testify against Mister Muscle. With that, the charges against Mister Muscle are dropped and Eric Schuster is arrested. The Coordinator asks Soozie-Q where all the heroes are and she plots their locations – their all in the same block, an area abandoned and soon to be razed. The Cooridnator, expecting a trap, orders Stretch and Mister Muscle to rescue the others. Soon, the Calculator arrives and reveals he had been responsible for the various attempts. He had calculated the odds of him defeating all the heroes and opted instead to lure all the heroes into various traps. Just then the heroes return and capture him. At 10:30 Alberto’s show comes on but Fred develops stage fright and is unable to speak.

Comics lot contains: Hero Hotline (1989) Issues #1-6. DC Comics

Comics are bagged & boarded and will be carefully / securely packaged then shipped via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that it arrives to you perfectly and quickly.

First Printing
Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: 1989
Format per comic: FC, 32 pages, Comic, 10.25″ x 6.5″
UPC: None Stated

Collectible Entertainment note: Comics 1,2,3,4,5,6 are in Very Fine condition.  Beautiful Set!  Please See Scans!!  A must have for any serious Hero Hotline collector and/or enthusiast.  A fun & entertaining read.  Recommended.

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