Loose Cannon (DC Comics) (Ltd. 1995) [COMICS]

Loose Cannon was a four-issue miniseries featuring Eddie Walker, a crippled Metropolis homicide detective who, at sunset, turns into a raging, multi-hued anti-hero.  Loose Cannon apparently debuted in Action Comics Annual # 5 as part of the "Bloodlines" crossover, and this series was his chance at a big breakout.  In all honesty, it is very 90s and pretty brainless, Image-quality stuff.

Issue # 1 features Loose Cannon battling a super serial killer named Killrok, and features guest appearances from Superman and Maggie Sawyer.  While he's in his Eddie Walker persona, Maggie orders him to track down and arrest Loose Cannon (not realising, of course, that they're the same person).  This seems like a problem to Eddie, so he fakes his own death!

Issue # 2 has "Bounty, Inc." trying to capture Loose Cannon (Bounty, Inc is a group composed of "Traxx," "High Kick," and "Bomber"--I think this is why it took a long time for comics to become mainstream!).  They manage to figure out that Eddie Walker has some sort of connection to Loose Cannon, and succeed in driving him out of town.  Eddie holes up with a waitress friend before Bounty, Inc. catches up to him, and then there's a big slugfest that Loose Cannon wins.

In Issue # 3, we get the classic/cliché "misunderstanding" between heroes that leads to a battle between Loose Cannon and the Eradicator.  Crazy, anatomy-defying muscles are everywhere--as I said, it's the 1990s!  Loose Cannon is pretty much like a (slightly more intelligent) Hulk, and the Eradicator defeats him by taking him into outer space where he can't breathe and then letting him plummet to Earth.

So in Issue # 4 I realise that the different colors Loose Cannon's skin becomes is a reflection of how strong and tough he is at the time.  When time travel is invented, I'll go back in time and tell writer Jeph Loeb that having "white" be the highest level of power is not a decision that will age well.  Anyway, Martian Manhunter appears and takes Eradicator away.  Eddie reveals the truth of his alter ego to Maggie Sawyer and his girlfriend.  "Not the end."  Bleh!

According to my intensive research (Wikipedia), Loose Cannon has popped up from time to time in the DCU in the decades since this mini-series, but has never become a major character.  If these four issues are any indication, that's probably a good thing.  Remember, I read these so you don't have to!