Dynamite Entertainment
Creators: Kevin Smith, Phil Hester, Jonathan Lau, Ivan Nunes, Simon Bowland, Alex Ross and Jason Ullmeyer
Release date: 2012
Bottom line: I was pleasantly surprised by this book, and I owe it all to Scott Gardner.
I've talked before about what a mixed bag I often find licensed properties in comics to be. Some are really good; but others really, really stink. On top of that, while I like a lot of Kevin Smith's movies, his comics work has also been a mixed bag for me. I really liked his relaunches of Daredevil for Marvel Comics in 1998 and Green Arrow for DC in 2001. Can't stand his work on Batman, though. Batman: Cacophony from 2008 was horrid.
So when I heard the news that Dynamite Comics had secured the license and planned to resurrect the idea of The Bionic Man, I was skeptical. Hearing that Kevin Smith would be the writer didn't change my mind. And the tragically botched attempt at a "Bionic Woman" reboot on television from several years prior was the final piece of evidence in my mind. Modern creators weren't handling Steve Austin or Jamie Summers right. No need to waste money on this comic. Nothing good could come of it.
And I never had reason to second-guess that opinion. Not until I listened to Scott Gardner rave about the then-new title on an old episode of one of his podcasts, Comics Monthly Monday.
A brief aside: For those of you who didn't read my post on podcasts, in a nutshell, I'm anal. I like to listen to podcasts when I exercise. But when I find a podcast I like, I want to listen to it from the beginning. I have more than a dozen I like to listen to, but my time to do so is quite limited, and many of the creators involved have been podcasting for quite a while. Long story short, I'm listening to podcasts from several years ago, not current ones. Right now, I'm listening to early 2012 podcasts because I just finished the 2011 episodes of my favorite shows. And it was during the December 2011 episode of Comics Monthly Monday, I'm pretty sure, that Scott, one of the three co-hosts of the show, was raving about the issues of The Bionic Man that he'd picked up.
He spoke so highly of the book and its faithfulness to the heart of "The Six Million Dollar Man" television program that introduced most of us to the concept of cyborgs and Col. Steve Austin (Yes, I know the show was based on the novel "Cyborg" by Martin Caidin from 1972, but the vast majority of the show's fans only learned about the book after first watching the show it inspired.), that I decided to give the series a try in trade.
The opening arc takes no less than 10 issues, all of which are collected in this larger than usual trade paperback collection. And Scott Gardner was quite correct. This series is very, very good.
It isn't the 1970s television program re-presented in comic book form. It has been updated for a modern audience. But in updating the concepts, the creators involved did not lose sight of what made fans of the television program love the show. The name was simplified to The Bionic Man because $6 million doesn't carry the financial heft it used to, but Smith finds a way to work in a special significance for the figure in this modern story as well. Also here are the red track suit; familiar phrases like "Colonel Steve Austin. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology." and "We'll make him better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."; Max the bionic dog; that cool sound effect from the show when Steve's bionics are being used. It's all here, maybe in slightly different contexts, but in ways that make sense in this new story while also showing a love for what has come before.
That's part of what makes this such a great comic. It's also why I liked the 1998 movie "Lost in Space" so much when it was not well received by most. That film had a lot of nods to the old TV show, while still forging its own path and finding a new story to tell. So many reboots or relaunches of old concepts today seem to say, "Let's take this old property and fix what's wrong with it." Well, if it was popular enough in its day that you are considering bringing it back, maybe you should have a little more respect for the old property. Maybe some of the ideas and concepts then will seem hokey today, but rather than poke fun of the property for that, find a new reason to make those elements relevant. Because quite often, those are the same elements that made the concept popular the first time around.
The Bionic Man is not an old episode retold in a new format. There are a number of changes and different concepts in this story that make it fresh. But it doesn't forget that there's a reason for the show's popularity. This book is well worth checking out whether or not you ever watched "The Six Million Dollar Man." I definitely think so. Thanks, Scott!
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