E-Man #2 [1973]

E-MAN #2 [1973] backs up the lead story by Joe Staton and Nicola Cuti with a new character, Killjoy, in an untitled and uncredited 8-page story.  Obviously it's by Steve Ditko (credited with both writing and art in contemporaneous issues of THE COMIC READER), and for convenience  let's call it "Killjoy And The Flame".

The story opens up with three single page scenes, as villains Robber Hood, General Disaster and Jungle Jake (and their various themed henchmen) find their capers foiled by a silent acrobatic hero named Killjoy. After being bailed out thanks to the Mr. Hart of the "Foundation To Protect The Guilty From Justice" they team-up to defeat Killjoy, joined by the mystery woman The Flame.

The two original Killjoy stories (the second in E-MAN #4) are a highlight of Ditko's work of the career, a melding of his mainstream super-hero work, his independent philosophical work and his often over-looked sense of humour into a seamless package.  The second story was actually one of my earliest exposures to Ditko, so will always be more dear to me, but this is also great.

Ditko acquired the rights to the story at some point and did a few reprints of it in black and white with a few minor shading additions over the years, most recently in THE HERO COMICS NO. 26 [2018].