Comics’ Greatest World, a short-lived superhero universe created by Dark Horse in the mid-1990s, introduced several new characters. The most famous is probably Barb Wire, due to the infamously bad film adaptation of the same name starring Pamela Anderson, and Ghost, whose comic book exploits lasted long after the rest of Comics’ Greatest World faded into obscurity.
The image at top is Art Adams’ original art for the cover for the first appearance of my favorite CGW character, Hero Zero.
Hero Zero was CGW’s answer to Ultraman: a thirteen year-old boy, David McRae, with an intelligent alien artifact embedded in his body that gave him the power to grow into a super-strong armored giant that could fly and fire energy beams.
Hero Zero’s first battle was with a creature called the Mesa Monster, a Manda-like dragon that had a body made up of numerous combined demons.
Unlike many of the other CGW characters, Hero Zero never got his own comic book. He had several adventures guest-starring in other books over the next two years before he finally got his own solo book again, albeit a one-shot.
Wait, did I say solo story? Sorry about that. Hero Zero was a guest-star again.
Godzilla may have gotten top billing, but this was really Hero Zero’s story. The two gigantic powerhouses battle it out outside the 1995 San Diego Comic Con, which David McRae is attending with his dad and best friend. During the course of the battle, a huge chunk of debris hits a bus evacuating people from the scene. David’s dad is injured, and his best friend is killed.
Furious, Hero Zero calls on more power than he ever has before and defeats Godzilla, but is unable to kill the kaiju. Hero Zero then dumps Godzilla in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Hero Zero starts flying home but reaches his time limit for being powered up. He reverts to David and falls into the ocean himself.
David is rescued by the Navy and brought back to shore. David is upset at his best friend’s death, which he feels he could have prevented. David then and there swears to never become Hero Zero again, and as far as I know that was his very last appearance.