Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Joshua Williamson: Writer
Eduardo Francisco: Artist
Stefani Rennee: Colors
Dark Horse Comics is up to issue #6 of its Captain
Midnight comic book title. The series is a modernization of the
famous Captain Midnight hero who originated within a 1930's radio
program and has evolved over the decades through various comic series and
publishers. The Captain himself is WWI U.S. Army pilot Jim
Albright, an inventor of early high tech that allows him to function
as a flying caped crusader. The current Dark Horse series updates the
premise by having the Captain time travel via the Bermuda Triangle to 2014,
where he battles former familiar baddies including the
organization "Black Sky," a secret government unit that's using
his invented technology for evil purposes. The title is scripted by
Joshua Williamson with art by Eduardo Franco and colors by Stefani Rennee.
Issue #6 is part one of a two-issue story arc
entitled "Mission: Midnight!" The plot features two alternating
storythreads. In the main, lengthier sub-plot, Captain Midnight develops a
strategy and implements an assault on a secret Washington D.C. location of a
Black Sky unit. We're introduced in this effort to two allies of Captain
Midnight, Federal Agent Marvin Jones and Rick Marshall, an historian of the
Captain's pre-time travel exploits. As the trio prepare their Black Sky
attack plan, we presented with the technical details of the Captain's
self-invented technology that allows him to function as
a superhero.
The second, briefer sub-plot focuses on Charlotte
Ryan, the granddaughter of Joyce Ryan, Captain Midnight's love interest from
his earlier life. Charlotte visits the now-elderly Joyce to discuss her
grandmother's past issues in the relationship, whereupon Charlotte vows to
bring the time traveler to visit his aged love for a confrontation. The
issue #6 storyline ends in a dramatic cliffhanger to next month's story
segment, as both Captain Midnight and Agent Ryan appear to be thwarted in their
Black Sky attack by a superstrong freelancer-for-hire bad guy named Hollow.
The standard for success for a comic book that
revises an old pulp-era hero is two-fold: to present an entertaining plot and
to make credible the challenge the handling of the old-school character's
adjustment to both our modern era popular culture and the style of modern-day
comic book storytelling. Captian Midnight happily succeeds very well on
both counts. Writer Joshua Williamson does a great job of giving us a
well-paced action-adventure storyline and more importantly, fleshes-out
very well the various personalities of the Captain's new allies. On the
second count, the creative team also does a solid job of addressing those
man-out-of-time story nuances. I liked the Captain's realistic reactions
to learning of 2014 societal developments including the constant presence
and use by everybody of the internet.
Most intriguing of all is the plothread centering
on his aged love, Joyce Ryan. So far, the situation is being presented with
heartfelt and realistic plotting, and it offers some very interesting story
possibilities as their eventual interaction with each other will unfold. As a
final review comment, I also enjoyed the structuring of Captain Midnight's
personality and speech as a 1930's era do-gooder. His dialogue and
mannerisms truly present him as a fish-out-of-water time traveler and only
reinforces the storytelling possibilities for this new series.
So in sum, a positive thumbs-up review
recommendation is well-deserved for this new title, which reinterprets and
extends the storytelling of an iconic Pulp-era superhero crusader into the
world of modern-day comic book adventuring.
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Joshua Hale Fialkov: Writer
Manuel Garcia: Pencils
Marta Martinez: Colors
Dark Horse Comics has recently published issue #1
in a new series entitled Skyman. An inside-the-front-cover narrative
connects the series to the Captain Midnight comic book reviewed above,
explaining that in the decades since Midnight's Bermuda Triangle disappearance,
the U.S. military has used his superheroing technology to create The Skyman
Program, consisting of a secret U.S. Army unit of Captain
Midnight-style flying caped crusaders. The new comic book is written by
Joshua Hale Fialkov with pencils by Manual Garcia and colors by Marta Martinez.
The issue #1 storyline presents a Skyman Program in
disarray, as an expelled unit member goes berserk and in a very brutal
multipage scene, murders innocent people while spewing an offensively racial
rant against President Obama. As social media broadcasts the carnage and
rant, the President and U.S. Army General Abernathy move to revamp
the program, adding to the lily-white battalian a handicapped African-American
Army veteran hero named Eric Reid. Reid signs-on with the plan when he
learns that wearing the Skyman technology temporarily restores his ability to
walk.
The second half of the premier issue moves the
gameplan into action. We witness the training regiment of Eric under the
tutelage of his sadistic Skyman handler Lieutenant Sharp.
Racial tensions build between the pair, resulting in a violent fight
between the two that doesn't resolve the conflict but at least leads to some
wary mutual respect between them. The issue concludes with Eric's
dramatic airborne entrance to a public rally in Washington, D.C., where he's
enthusiastically introduced by the president as the first Skyman Program unit
member to be publicly identified by his true, unmasked identity.
This is a very interesting companion title to
Captain Midnight, that both interconnects the heroing worlds of these titles
while presenting two storyverses that are very different from each
other. While there's a Golden Age Pulp Era innocence and gentleness to
the world of Captain Midnight, alternately the Skyman storyworld is
full-throttle real world 2014, full of story characters brimming with
anger, bigotry and the ability to carry-out pure brutality on innocent
victims. The bridge between the two comic books is the common Captain
Midnight technology, but the directions that each creative team chooses to take
in exploring storytelling have no commonality yet. Its inevitable that
the worlds of Captain Midnight and The Skyman Program will eventually
cross-connect in both titles, and it should be fascinating to see how that
head-on collision meets and explodes in potential plot opportunities.
On its own, Skyman offers the same high
quality scripting, character development and decent artwork that Captain
Midnight offers. A tip-of-the-review-hat is also deserved for the
creative team's skillful approach in exploring the issue of present-day
racism within the context of the script. The dialogue and the issues of
resentment and anger among all parties to the story are presented in a very
literate manner and are equal to the effort that acclaimed creator Neal Adams
produced in his iconic Green Lantern-Green Arrow series at DC Comics back in
the 1970's. There's the potential here for a multi-issue comic book
storyline that goes beyond standard reading entertainment to join Neil Adam's
work as an example for making some important statements about the nature of
racism and the lessons we can learn on the subject from a well-crafted work of
fiction. Time will tell whether this title heads in that literary direction or
not.
So Skyman succeeds as a new comic book issue
on three counts: as a worthy partner title to Captain Midnight, as an
entertaining and well-produced comic book read in its own right and as a new
addition to the long lineage of Amercian comic book titles that address serious
societal issues in both an entertaining and literate manner.
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Kieron Gillen: Writer
Joe Bennett: Pencils
Scott Hanna: Inks
Marvel's latest Iron Man title is up to issue #20
and presents part 3 of a 5-issue story arc entitled Iron Metropolitan. An
inside-the-front-cover narrative summarizes the tale to-date which interweaves
two sub-plots: Tony Stark and his newly-found brother Arno constructing high
tech cities of the future, and the now-dead supervillain the Mandarin's famous
set of 10 rings gaining sentience and searching for evildoers as their new
hosts. The comic book is scripted by Kieron Gillen with pencils by Joe
Bennett and inks by Scott Hanna.
Issue #20 kicks-off with a fast action battle
scene, as Tony Stark/Iron Man confronts Abigail Burns, a left-wing journalist
who has become a Human Torch-like host to the Mandarin's former seventh ring,
called Incinerator. The battle continues for about two-thirds of the
issue, as the duo fight to a standstill while Abigail spouts her
political philosophy against Tony's plans for his cities of the
future. The final third of the storyline focuses the plot back on the 10
Mandarin rings themselves, as Tony visits a top secret Avengers storage
facility and discovers that the now-sentient rings have escaped the facility
and are off in search of various hosts in order to create a team of
supervillains. The story segment ends in a one-page bridge to next
month's part four, as the rings become aware of Tony's discovery and
communicate with each other a decision to accelerate their evil plan.
This is a decent comic book that delivers
solid entertainment for a few reasons. First, it breathes two
fresh story elements in the very long-running and familiar Iron Man storyverse,
both the introduction of Tony's brother Arno and the concept of the Mandarin's
rings having artificial intelligence. I was very intrigued with the
concept of Arno being disabled to the point of having to live in an iron lung,
a very creative metaphor for Tony's brother being entrapped by his necessary
life-giving technology while Tony is alternately empowered by his life-giving Iron
Man high tech. Its a neat fictional concept and lends itself well to
some interesting future story opportunities. Secondly, its a very fun and
interesting idea to give the Mandarin's rings each their own sentient
personality and particular power, such as ring #7/Incinerator bestowing Human
Torch-like powers on its wearer. Its as if the 10 rings themselves
constitute a League of Supervillains and should also provide some entertaining
direction for upcoming story segments. Third, the artwork provides a very
appropriate style for the action-adventure concept of this storyline.
As a minor constructive criticism, I found the
action battle scene between Iron Man and Abigail too long as it ate-up
two-thirds of the entire issue. But I see the point of the lengthy albeit
a bit tedious scene, given that this is a 5-issue story arc and that the
ongoing conversational banter between the battling duo is crucial to the
overall multi-issue story concept. I personally would have preferred
a shortened battle scene to allow a page or two of issue #20 to address the
cities-of-the-future project that Tony and Arno are obviously working on.
But I'm sure that a reading commitment to the entire 5-issue series will
provide a nice overall balance to the two alternating sub-plots.
So in sum, this latest issue #20 of Iron Man
deserves a positive thumbs-up review recommendation for succeeding as an
entertaining and creative comic book read, both as a stand-alone story
segment and as the midway-point installment in its wider, five-issue story arc.
Contest Winner Announcement!!!
Our latest contest challenged you to build
on the review in our last column of an Archie Comics title in which the
zombie invasion reaches Archie's hometown of Riverdale. We asked you to
suggest another comic title that you'd also like to see receive the zombie
treatment! And our contest winner is (drumroll, please...) Mike Dooley,
who nominates the comic book title Eternal Warrior published by Valiant
Comics to next be infected by the zombie horde. For the uninitiated,
this title features the past, present and future-day warrior adventures of
Gilad, one of three immortal brothers born thousands of years ago. The
title is connected in storyverse concept to Valiant's Archer & Armstrong
series. Mike writes that "Eternal Warrior currently has a plotline
ongoing in the year 4000. Since the hero will obviously still be around then,
it stands to reason that he might encounter a zombified world at some
point." A very good observation and interesting zombie story
proposal. Congrats to Mike as the winner of our first prize $10.00 gift
certificate to our favorite zombie-free sanctuary, That's Entertainment!
Please note: That's Entertainment is in no
way affiliated with the "zombie-free sanctuary" joke listed
above. It is the policy of That's Entertainment to welcome all zombie
customers as well as qualified zombie employees. The store appreciates
its many past and current zombie customers and is proud of its many past and
current zombie employees.
New Contest Challenge!!!
We're at a slow point this month in our annual
Boston pro sports calendar, with the NFL season over, Major League Baseball
(MLB) spring training yet to start and the NBA and NHL slogging along in their
respective mid-seasons. So Good King Leonardo has decreed that we turn
our contest challenge focus to the next two weeks of the Winter Olympics in
Sochi, Russia. Your challenge is e-mail us at
Gordon_A@msn.com no later than Wednesday,
February 19 and tell us which among the many scheduled Winter Olympic
sports is your favorite to watch and why you're looking forward to
watching it on that non-stop, 24/7 two-week television coverage. Please
note that our $10.00 first prize gift certificate to That's Entertainment is
redeemable for regular retail merchandise or in-store, ongoing specials, only.
That's all for now, so
have two great Winter Olympics-watching (Go U.S.A.!)
and comic book-reading weeks and see you again on
Friday, February 21 Here In Bongo Congo! |