The best of the bunch

The Owl trade
Dynamite Entertainment
Creators: J.T. Krul, Heubert Khan Michael, Alex Ross, Vinicius Andrade and Marshall Dillon
Release date: 2016

This book was a happy coincidence. Three other trades caught my eye while surfing the web a few months ago. I added this trade only in an effort to raise my purchase total to a level that would net me free shipping. The other three trades ended up being mere eye candy without much substance. But this gem ended up making the entire purchase worthwhile.

The story springs out of the Project Superpowers concept Dynamite used to bring back a number of characters that were no longer in print and free of any copyright constraints. I read the initial series from 2008 and wrote about it here, but in a nutshell, a huge number of golden-age comic characters were locked away in an urn for half a century before being released back into the modern world. Following the initial series, a Volume 2 version was published alongside a number of limited series spotlighting many of the characters in solo adventures.

This trade collects the four-issue limited series focused on the Owl, a vigilante from the early 1940s. Much like Batman, the Owl has no special powers or abilities in his original incarnation. Rather he had a costume meant to shock and frighten criminals and a number of themed gadgets that helped the hero keep his advantage and defeat his foes. By day, the Owl is Yorktown police detective Nick Terry, and he is frequently joined in his later adventuring by Owl Girl, his real-life girlfriend and confidante, Belle, a newspaper reporter.

Like most of the other costumed heroes trapped for decades inside the urn, the Owl emerges slightly changed. His costume is more dramatic and modern-looking, and the Owl now has some new abilities that help him stun and subdue the more jaded criminals of today. This series focuses on Terry’s efforts to fit back into society and help mankind while haunted by the past he has lost. Owl Girl was not trapped inside the urn as the Owl was, thus robbing this hero of the happy ending and possible family he’d been fighting for. His story is very much one of a man out of time trying to find his place.

Complicating matters for the Owl, is his discovery that the criminals aren’t the only ones who have changed in his absence. A new brand of hero flies through the night skies over Yorktown. And the Owl fears this new crimefighter is no better than the criminals she maims and kills with abandon.

This trade was a joy to read, and I’m glad I finally discovered it. If you aren’t familiar with Project Superpowers, everything you need to know to follow this story is right here in these pages, and J.T. Krul weaves a truly engaging tale. The artwork, while not the best I’ve seen, isn’t bad. I especially like how Heubert Khan Michael switches up his style for the flashback scenes of the Owl’s earlier life, giving those panels a true golden-age feel.

A rough time for Bond, but it’s great for the readers

Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007: VARGR tpb
Dynamite Entertainment
Creators: Warren Ellis, Jason Masters, Guy Major and Simon Bowland
Release date: 2018

I have a complicated relationship with 007. Most people seem to fall squarely into the “love it” or “couldn’t care less” camps when it comes to Ian Fleming’s creation. I’m more in the gray in-between area.

I never saw a Bond film in the theater until Pierce Brosnan was allowed to take on the role; I was a fan of “Remington Steele” growing up and was happy to see him finally be allowed to play the famous British MI6 agent. Brosnan’s four films were also the only Bond films I have ever owned on VHS, although I did not replace them when I updated my collection to DVDs.

While Brosnan rates a very high second-place, my personal favorite Bond is and likely always will be Sean Connery, the first and best. I have seen all of his turns as 007, some many times, but never in a theater and never did I feel the need to own them. But I’ve watched them all on television.

Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby never had much impact in the role for me, and Roger Moore’s Bond always seemed more tongue-in-cheek. Nothing wrong with that really. Bond has always had his humorous side, to varying degrees. But Moore seemed to take it to an extreme and to be playing the role more as a farce than anything else.

That just leaves Daniel Craig. Reportedly, his take on Bond is quite good, but again, I haven’t caught any of his Bond films in the theater. I want to see them, but I prefer to see them in order. And I still can’t find his version of “Casino Royale,” the first in which Craig played James Bond, without having to pay a high fee for the privilege. So I have yet to see any of the Daniel Craig Bond films, but I have seen and enjoyed Craig in other roles.


During my time as a comics collector, several companies have tried to translate James Bond in comics form. I’ve yet to feel strongly enough about any of them to purchase them, though, with the exception of a three-issue prestige format Bond tale that Mike Grell wrote and drew titled “Permission to Die.” I own that series, but bought it secondhand and still have yet to read it.

All of that serves as my introductory thoughts on the character when I heard that Dynamite was going to publish a James Bond ongoing written by Warren Ellis. Ellis can be hit-and-miss with me, but I happened to see a few preview pages online of the first story arc, “VARGR.” Both the name and the preview pages intrigued me, as they were meant to do. Those preview pages, by the way, are some of the 10-page opener for the first issue and serve as the Bond film-style opener that has nothing to do with the story proper. Bond pursues the man who killed 008 and puts that case to rest, then roll the opening credits.

What follows is a solid tale that has a number of twists and turns; appearances by a number of familiar Bond characters like Moneypenny, M and Q; the inclusion of bionic body parts (another intriguing aspect of the story); and several instances of sharp, quick-witted dialogue that seem perfectly in character for this famous British espionage agent. I could see this story being made into a film quite handily.

In fact, I liked this first 007 story arc enough that I have ordered the second trade, “Eidolon,” and another Dynamite James Bond trade from a different creative team, this one based largely on the name — “Hammerhead” — and the obvious aquatic theme.

Good job, all! I hope the future volumes continue the trend of quality.

It's all about respect for the source material

The Bionic Man Volume 1: Some Assembly Required tpb
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!

Finally a chance to sit and read

The Lone Ranger/Green Hornet No. 1

Dynamite Entertainment

Michael Uslan, writer

Giovanni Timpano, artist

Pete Pantazis, colorist

Hey, Kiddie Cops, long time, no see! Work is still keeping me hopping at a crazy pace; so much so, in fact, that this is the first comic I have had time to read in nearly six weeks. Now maybe that had something to do with it, but I very much enjoyed this comic. So much so that I wanted to share.

I’ve liked most of what Dynamite has done since obtaining the rights to Lone Ranger comics, and while I have avoided most of the more modern takes on Green Hornet, I also very much enjoy the character and his ties to the Lone Ranger. So I decided to give this six-issue mini a try. And if this first issue is any indication, this series is off to a great start.

This tale is set in 1936-38 with an aged John Reid (the Lone Ranger) still around to help shape the beginnings of his grand-nephew, Britt Reid’s origins as the Green Hornet. Michael Uslan uses the setting and time period to tie real-world events and figures into the narrative to very great effect. Further, he uses some pass Green Hornet stories, particularly GreenHornet Year One by Matt Wagner and Aaron Campell to flesh out some of the early career of the Green Hornet. I absolutely love it when creators take something done before and build on it rather than going the everything-you-know-is-wrong route to erase and re-write history. It doesn’t hurt when the tale the current creator is building on is one I have read and enjoyed.

This is still only the first issue of a six-issue series, and I don’t want to spoil the story twists and historical tidbits by revealing them here (half the fun is discovering them in the story as they come up), but this was a nice story to return to my hobby with, and I recommend it highly!

That Worked Out Nicely

The Twilight Zone Vol. 1: The Way Out
Dynamite Entertainment
J. Michael Straczynski, writer
Guiu Vilanova, artist

Last time, I touted the idea of trying new books by borrowing them from the library instead of buying them. It's a great way to cut down on the comics budget, and you can always go back and buy a copy later if you like it enough after reading it to want to own it. But that certainly doesn't mean to ignore a good bargain when you find one, either.

I recently took my nephew on a comic shopping trip out of town to visit some comics stores we don't typically visit due to distance. I hadn't planned to buy anything specific myself on this trip; it was mainly at the request of my nephew. But at one of the stores we visited, I found a pretty good deal on a book I'd planned to request from the library in a few months.

I've always liked "The Twilight Zone" television program, and when it was announced several months ago that Dynamite Entertainment and J. Michael Straczynski were going to produce some licensed comics based on the concept, I was curious. I have read and enjoyed a number of books in the past written by Straczynski, especially when he is working with original characters and ideas. The Twilight Zone is a licensed comic, but not really involving pre-existing characters, so this title would certainly fit into my preferred Straczynski-reading category.

And this trade did NOT disappoint!

"The Way Out" collects the first four issues of The Twilight Zone series telling a complete story of a crooked financial executive who is about to be indicted for his crimes. Seeking a way out, he finds an agency that offers to give him a new identity, a new appearance, an entire new life to escape punishment for his crimes. And the man is quite happy with the deal until it becomes obvious that someone else has stepped into his old life as he stepped out of it. Some of the twists in the story are more obvious than others, but the entire tale is an enjoyable read.

A while back, I criticized another trade for not giving me a satisfying chunk of story. That is not a problem here even though this trade collects fewer single issues than that one did. Straczynski's story has something more going for it to boot. It is obvious that some of the supporting characters in the main story in this trade also have some very strange things going on in their lives. Presumably, their stories will be explored in more detail in future issues of this series. But rather than making the main story seem incomplete, these other situations feel more like a bonus that will pay off later.

If you've wondered about giving this series a try or hadn't heard about it before, I very much recommend it. You'll be glad you gave it a chance. I know I was!

This Ain't Your Daddy's Bionic Showdown

The Bionic Man Vs. The Bionic Woman: Artificial tpb
Dynamite Entertainment
Keith Champagne
Jose Luis, artist

I decided to pass when Dynamite first announced a new ongoing title updating the concepts and characters from the 1970s television show "The Six Million Dollar Man." Licensed properties in comics are a hit-and-miss bag of chance with me, but the ones I feel hit their mark and that I enjoy are usually the exception, not the rule. That ongoing series launch was also being written and updated based on ideas by Kevin Smith, also a hit-and-miss variable for my personal tastes.

But I admit I was a bit curious about The Bionic Man. That curiosity increased when the companion title, The Bionic Woman, was announced as another new ongoing. And finally, with both series having several issues under their respective belts, a miniseries was solicited pairing the two title characters together. Or rather, against each other. I figured to wait for the trade on the mini and sample both updated characters for a smaller investment.

I once sought out and read "Cyborg," the 1972 novel written by Martin Caidin upon which "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman" television programs were based. That novel's Col. Steve Austin was not exactly the character as played each week on television by actor Lee Majors, but Majors' Austin is the one I am most familiar with and enjoyed as a kid. Same goes for Lindsay Wagner's Jamie Sommers. I enjoyed these characters so much, I own copies of all three made-for-TV reunion movies from the late 80s and mid 90s; they're still fun to watch.

When I cracked open this trade, I had high hopes but pretty low expectations. What I found was an equally mixed bag. It is assumed that if you are reading this miniseries, you are already familiar with these characters and their world from the new, ongoing titles; very little setup or exposition is offered. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that both Austin and Sommers work separately as agents of the OSI (Office of Scientific Intelligence) under Oscar Goldman, just like in the shows. A past relationship between Austin and Sommers is hinted at but not detailed; they work together rarely but well and seem to have a mutual attraction but also something that has forced distance between them. All of that matches up pretty well to what was established in both television series.

Most of the updating seems to have taken the form of de-aging the two leads considerably and modernizing their language and mannerisms. That was a tad off-putting, but not at all unexpected. It was something I could live with.

The depictions of both Austin's and Sommers' bionic abilities, however, was all over the map. They are depicted in this miniseries as performing feats far beyond what they ever did during the runs of their respective television and movie histories. Nothing in this series seems to contradict the established extent of the pair's bionic enhancements: Austin has two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye, while Sommers has two bionic legs, an arm and an ear. In this series, both make jumps and other uses of their bionic legs which seemingly would damage their spines unless they, too, were bionically enhanced. Both routinely use both arms to crush things when only one arm is bionic, but then this was an error made on the television programs, too. For example, using a normal arm as leverage while bending something with a bionic arm; that normal arm wouldn't be strong enough to provide sufficient leverage against the force exerted by the bionic limb.

But beyond this, several times Sommers' and Austin's bionics are said to have self-repairing capabilities, and the cyborgs seem to be able to control each individual bionic component independently of the others, almost like a Transformer or something. That's definitely an upgrade from what they used to be able to accomplish. The two OSI operatives are even described at various points as being off-line and even re-booted remotely in the field by techs back at the office. Are they cyborgs or flat-out robots?

Overall, this isn't a bad story -- a foreign power has created its own bionic juggernaut but not perfected the process, and this failing cyborg attempts to lure, kidnap and reverse-engineer Austin and Sommers for his own benefit. I was pleasantly surprised by how much from the bionic heroes I knew from TV had been incorporated into this updated version. But these are still different people, harder people, more cynical than the heroes I knew from my youth. Realistically, this miniseries has made me curious to try a collection or two of the regular Bionic Man and Bionic Woman series to learn more. But it hasn't inspired me to spend money on them. Instead, I may try to seek out more from my local library to see how the regular monthly series stack up against the TV shows and this series. Or I might just try to newly announced Six Million Dollar Man Season 6 series from Dunamite; maybe it will be more my style based on the name.

Or Maybe I AM Getting Too Old

The Green Hornet Vol. 1 tpb: Bully Pulpit
Dynamite Entertainment
Mark Waid, writer
Daniel Indro and Ronilson Freire, artist

I was pleasantly surprised not long ago by the fresh take on the Batman mythos presented in the original graphic novel Batman: Earth One, then rather disappointed in Superman: Earth One, a similar updating on the familiar beginnings. This book is somewhere in between. The writing is great as one would expect from a veteran writer like Mark Waid. And the artwork is crisp and clear, as one would expect from an action/adventure story such as this one.

And yet, I'm just not feeling it.

In his introduction, Waid explains how he developed the plot of this story, and it sounds interesting, if not quite as original as Waid claims. The Green Hornet's alter ego, Britt Reid, owns a daily newspaper in Chicago. Waid's idea was to have Reid experience some success both as the crusading journalist and as the Hornet, and end up eventually "believing his own press and stumbling hard over his own ego." Take away the newspaper angle and that story HAS been told before, by Waid himself, as well as a great many other writers. A familiar basic plot does not make a story bad, by any means. Familiar plots are re-told in any number of new and creative ways to very great effect all the time.

I am even quite willing to give Waid props on his characterization in this volume. Quite often when a writer wants to take an established character and show him or her making mistakes early on that helped teach a lesson and shape the individual that character would eventually become, the writer ends up making said character act "out of character" to bring about the error in judgment. Waid avoids that common writing flub here. His Britt Reid/Green Hornet behaves consistently throughout this narrative.

My problem with the story is that I just personally don't care for the way Reid/Hornet is acting here. And I don't like how quickly former partners the Hornet and Kato are placed at odds with each other and physically battle each other. Where is the friendship and devotion to each other these two characters should have in order to carry out the mission they have set for themselves?

Another problem this trade suffers from is incredibly decompressed storytelling. The great bulk of this trade, collecting the first six issues of the series, is almost pure setup rather than a complete story unto itself. This is the second time I have run across a trade that did not present a complete narrative in and of itself. Comics are a continuing medium; it is not unusual for the stories to continue from issue to issue for years, yet still, most trade collections offer a satisfying beginning, middle and end within the framework of the ongoing continuity. This book does not. Perhaps that is a new path comic storytelling is destined to take, but I'm still of the mindset that a single trade should contain a single story even if several trades tell a much larger narrative.

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Just a quick "heads up" before I go: Stop by this Friday for a special second post this week!

Now Presenting The Fourth And Final Member Of The Team -- At Last

The Lone Ranger 19
Dynamite Entertainment
Ande Parks, writer
Esteve Polls, artist

I am really liking the work Ande Parks and Esteve Polls are doing on this title. The stories go deeper than even Brett Matthews did on his incredible 25-issue re-telling of the Ranger's origin in the first volume of this series from Dynamite; Parks gets these characters and presents them as the "classic" versions despite some updating from Matthews' run. And Esteve Polls' art is fantastic for this series.

But one of my absolute favorite things about this run is the attention these two creators have paid to previously "untouched" portions of the legend. A previous arc gave a great deal of back story to the Ranger's "faithful Indian companion," Tonto. I'm not aware that Tonto's origin has ever been nailed down previously as even the tribe he belongs to seems fluid in some re-tellings.

This time out, Parks and Polls give us some details about Scout's back story, and appropriately enough, Scout's story is tied into Tonto's history in a very nice fashion, completing the transformation as Tonto becomes the man we are familiar with.

For those who don't know -- and shame on you if you don't -- Scout is Tonto's horse, and he is every bit as valued a member of this western justice team as Silver, the Ranger's steed. Both horses are often portrayed as very intelligent animals who actively assist their human companions in remarkable ways. And Silver has long had an "origin" story just like the Ranger. At the conclusion of that tale, Silver chooses to stay with the Lone Ranger just as much as the Ranger selects Silver. Now, Scout has a similar origin with a similar choosing scene.

This is an excellent done-in-one comic, and a tale any Lone Ranger fan ought to consider reading!!

Warped Reflections

The Lone Ranger annual 2013
Dynamite Entertainment
Shannon Eric Denton, writer
Matt Triano, artist

Having the hero confront a darker, twisted version of him- or herself is a familiar comic book plot, but I don't think I've ever seen it applied to a western hero like the Lone Ranger before. I'm sure it likely has (and feel free to chime in if you know of an instance), I'm just not familiar with an example. That is what this annual does, however.

Acting solo while Tonto takes care of some personal business, the Lone Ranger tracks down a killer who is targeting anyone associated with a former outlaw. I say former because the one-time stagecoach robber is now a "respected" politician. But 11 years ago, back when Bob Burdine led a different kind of gang in criminal activities, he also killed a sheriff who had apprehended him.

That killing leads a mystery man in a mask, a man given the name Devil-Gun, to track down and kill anyone ever associated with Burdine and his criminal activities past and present. And Devil-Gun is quite proud of the inspiration he got from reading about the exploits of the Lone Ranger.

The writing on this book is its best feature; the art isn't bad, but it's a little rough and sketchy looking for my tastes. But Denton does a nice job of defining the differences between Devil-Gun and the Lone Ranger in the final confrontation. The Ranger makes it clear that what he does is not about punishing the guilty; it's about protecting the innocent. Spoken like a true hero!

Now That's More Like It

Merciless: The Rise of Ming tpb
Dynamite Entertainment
Scott Beatty, writer
Ron Adrian, artist

This four-issue limited series tells Emperor Ming's back story and leads directly into Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist, a series I actually found a little bit disappointing. I actually read Zeitgeist first because I received that trade in the mail a few months before this one. Not sure if the collection for Merciless was delayed for everyone or if maybe I just ordered mine late and had to wait longer for my copy to arrive, but I did order Merciless before Zeitgeist. If I'd read them in the "proper" order, maybe my perceptions of both series would be different, but that ship has sailed.

On the whole, Merciless just read better to me. Maybe it was because there were fewer expectations in the story of Ming's younger years, a subject not often breached before, versus the more well-tread path of Flash Gordon's adventures featured in Zeitgeist. I mean no disrespect to Zeitgeist scribe Eric Trautmann when I say that it might also have been the writing. I have read a number of things written by Scott Beatty and liked almost all of them. I have read only a handful of Trautmann stories and found those few a more mixed bag when it comes to lining up with my tastes.

Ming is not the only familiar character in this tale of his rise to power on Mongo. Of course, most of the races of Mongo are familiar to those who have read the exploits of Flash Gordon -- Frigians, Arborians, the Lionmen and the Hawkmen, among others -- but we also are introduced to a younger Prince Vultan before he became ruler of the winged denizens of the Aerie. We also see a young scientific researcher named Klytus rewarded for his efforts by Ming and elevated to being the new emperor's second-in-command. And we witness the birth of Ming's heir, Aura, another character quite central to the later Flash Gordon tales.

But mostly this tale centers on Ming's cunning and ruthless rise to power. His father, the Emperor Krang, seems to be an emperor in name only. Rather than ruling over the other kingdoms, he is head of a council of rulers who enjoy a shaky non-aggression pact with each other, a pact that is often broken and reformed with the whims of any of the various players.

That changes quickly once Ming decides to usurp his father's title. He does not win every one of his early campaigns, but he learns quickly from defeats and ultimately, with a few well-placed, decisive victories -- and one nasty bit of genocide -- to pull the other people of Mongo into line under his reign. And once Mongo is under Ming's complete control, he sets his sights on the rest of the universe and beyond.

As always, the Alex Ross designs and covers for this series are simply beautiful. But Ron Adrian does an excellent job, too. Adrian follows Ross' designs for these characters so closely, a casual observer might even miss the fact that one artist is responsible for the covers and another for the interiors. Kudos all around, gentlemen!

I Want To Like It So Much

Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist tpb
Eric Trautmann, writer
Daniel Indro and Ron Adrian, artists
Alex Ross, plotter and art director

Beautiful, photo-realistic covers and story concepts executed by others seems to be Alex Ross' stock-in-trade these days. The artist admits he works too slowly to handle the demands of being the sole artist on a monthly series. But when he does provide the art for the odd book from time to time, it is well worth the wait.

Adding to my appreciation for Ross' work is the fact that we are of the same mind on a number of areas of interest. Almost 15 years ago now, he collaborated on a series of picture-book style projects with Paul Dini focusing on Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman and the entire Justice League. More recently, he worked on a two-year maxi-series featuring the Justice League titled simply Justice. All of these books revealed an underlying appreciation Ross and I have in common for the old "SuperFriends" television cartoon series.

We also share a fondness for the source material for this Flash Gordon collection -- the original Alex Raymond newspaper strips, the 1979 Filmation cartoon series and the 1980 feature film starring Sam Jones, Melody Anderson and Max von Sydow. Ross cites his goal to tell the definitive Flash Gordon story, combining elements from all the previous incarnations of the character. I can appreciate that goal, and I can see the influences of each of those sources in this collected 10-issue series from Dynamite.

I also like how Ross incorporates real-world events into the story. The Flash Gordon comic strip debuted in the 1930s, so this story is also set in those times. The evil emperor Ming's advance invasion force from Mongo comes to Earth, and the aliens ally themselves with a charismatic figure who seems to be rising in power in Europe -- Adolph Hitler. While Flash, Dale Arden and Prof. Hans Zarkov are battling Ming's forces on Mongo, there are also battles going on here on Earth, between Mongo forces teamed with Nazis fighting against a resistance at least in part made up of rebels from Mongo and Ming's rule.

There is much to like about this series, and I really do appreciate a great deal of it. I think the problem comes in with this project being a little too ambitious. Some key parts of the story seem glossed over in favor of the overarching story. For instance, when Flash and his companions first travel to Mongo, they are quickly captured. Ming takes a liking to Dale and decides to keep her for himself, tries to make use of Zarkov's scientific genius for his attack on Earth, and opts to dispose of Flash by sending him to a gladiator-style tournament. Nothing new here, that is all established lore for the characters. Flash not only defeats a few opponents in the tournaments, but over time, he gains their trust and loyalty and uses them to begin forming an army to challenge Ming's tyranny.

It is an often-repeated concept simply because it is so great. And it is great to watch. But it is missing here. In just a couple pages, we see the beginning of Flash's first experience in the arena. Then some beautiful panels of random battle scenes. And then the unity has already been achieved.

Amid all of this, we get "voiceover" dialog boxes of Flash explaining the significance of the title of this collection, "Zeitgeist," which is very well written, but it's not the rallying speeches I expected to read. And this is just one example where familiar scenes are omitted simply because they are well-known. It's understood that they happened, but they are omitted here. I wish they were still there simply because they are the moments when the hero shines.

This series includes some great scenes, some incredible action, but it is missing some key things I expect from a Flash Gordon story leaving what almost feels like the Cliff's Notes version of what should be a rousing tale. Your mileage may vary, of course.

I'm Left Scratching My Head A Bit

The Boys
Wildstorm/Dynamite Entertainment
Garth Ennis, writer
Russ Braun, Darick Robertson, John McCrea, Keith Burns and Richard P. Clark, artists
*** mature content warning ***

I don't read only superheroes in comics, but I'm also not one of those people who is embarrassed about enjoying superhero comics. I enjoy the escapism and the adventure in older comics where the heroes are always right and the villains are always beaten and everything exists in a black-or-white, yes-or-no reality. I also enjoy some of the moral gray areas that tend to crop up in more modern comics. And when done right, I occasionally enjoy a tale where the "heroes" are not necessarily that heroic.

Garth Ennis takes that idea to the extreme in his epic The Boys. In the world Ennis and his illustrators create for us, all superheroes are "manufactured" by a single company and treated as a commodity. In the interests of profit, the company churns out as many heroes as they can with the resources available to them, and as a result, most of these heroes aren't really all that heroic. They are more accurately described as self-centered, sex-obsessed idiots with god-like abilities and little or no impulse control. The general public isn't aware of this, of course, but that is the reality.

The Boys in this world are a small off-the-books government entity created to keep an eye on the superheroes of this world, slapping them down if they get too far out of line with their various antics and depravities. The team is made up of five individuals, all of whom have their own reasons to hate the "heroes" of their world. Billy Butcher is the leader of The Boys, and obviously the most sadistic of the bunch. Mother's Milk, The Frenchman and The Female round out the rest of the group as the series opens, but they quickly add Hughie to their number after his girlfriend is killed in an "accident" involving superheroes.

This series started out at Wildstorm but was canceled quickly by that publisher; it seems the property was just a little too extreme for them. It soon found a new home at Dynamite and resumed publishing with only a short break. I didn't pick up the series from the start; it wasn't even on my radar at first. But the title got a LOT of publicity when it was canceled by Wildstorm and later picked up by Dynamite. I was curious after that point, so I bought and read the first five trades to try out the series. I was intrigued in spite of myself. Parts of the story and illustrations repulsed me, but I was very caught up in the story of Hughie as he becomes a part of the world of The Boys. I didn't buy them, but I did borrow the next three trades from my local library to continue on with the story.

After those eight trades, I was current with the series and had to wait for another to be released. In the meantime, I kind of lost interest with the series and might have never finished it, but I learned that the series was coming to an end shortly. The series as a whole consisted of 72 regular series issues and three limited companion series, all of which are collected in 12 sequentially numbered trades. (I mention that the trades are sequentially numbered because the three limited series have a particular place in the overall narrative, and are numbered as such in this series, but that isn't normally the case.) Anyway, with a definite ending in sight, I returned to the series and read those final four trades once they were all released.

Overall, I'm glad I read this series. It was very well written and illustrated by these talented creators. Hughie's story and wanting to find out what would happen to him and his new girlfriend, Annie, kept me coming back. I cared about the characters, and wanted good outcomes for them. Despite some of the simply horrendous things they do for their jobs, I also enjoyed reading about Mother's Milk, The Frenchman and The Female. These were also characters I came to care about through these issues.

Butcher is another matter. His character seems easily as depraved as the super-powered maniacs who also populate this universe. His life could have turned out much differently, but it didn't. Whether that is his own fault or the fault of the circumstances around him is open for debate, but ultimately, Butcher is not a very nice man. Having said that, this team of creators is so talented, that once we finally get Butcher's back story in the 10th trade -- which collects the final limited series, "Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker" -- I began to feel some empathy for even this character.

This series did not end in the way that I expected it to. Likely that is a point of credit for Ennis; despite all his clues, I did not see coming the specific ending to the series that I received. In fact, truth be told, I'm not entirely sure I completely "get" the ending. I understand all of the points that are spelled out, what happened and why. But I feel there is maybe something deeper than those surface details I should be getting from this book that I'm just not quite grasping. If you don't mind, or can look past, the graphic violence of the series, it is a good one.

Chuck Dixon, Man Of Action

The Lone Ranger: Snake of Iron 1-4
Dynamite Entertainment
Chuck Dixon, writer
Esteve Polls, artist

Wow!

Chuck Dixon has written a ton of comics. Some I've read. Many I haven't. Of the ones I haven't, it was usually because I had no interest in the subject matter. Because of the ones I have, I have liked them all.

I'm guessing here that the reason this four-issue story was made a miniseries was because Dixon is not the writer of the regular Lone Ranger title; Ande Parks is doing a wonderful job writing that book. However, if Parks ever needed a break, Dixon could likely slip right in and take over. Even the look of this mini matches the main title because regular series artist Esteve Polls turns in his usual spectacular job on these pages.

This mini also offers up two stories in one as it opens with the Lone Ranger and Tonto separated. Tonto has traveled north to take care of some business while the Ranger has remained in the southern plains. The two are both headed to Texas to meet back up, Tonto by rail and the Ranger via Silver.

Taking another cue from the main series, this book does not shy away from the poor treatment of many Native American tribes by government officials. Some younger Kiowa braves defy their chief and begin raiding homesteaders. They have been particularly stirred up by the many sightings of a Spirit Horse, a huge beast whose return foretells a great change. The Lone Ranger happens upon a small band of Kiowas attacking a rancher and his son. After saving the lives of the two whites, the Ranger convinces the braves to take him back to their chief, who explains their reasons for leaving the reservations in Oklahoma. The Ranger promises to look into the mysterious Spirit Horse sightings if the tribe will stop attacking settlers. Along the way, he runs across some profiteers who are encouraging the Kiowa unrest and enlists the aid of a traveling journalist from Chicago and a garrison of soldiers from Fort Griffin. Oh, and he solves the mystery of the Spirit Horse in a most unexpected fashion.

Meanwhile, the train Tonto is riding on is ambushed and derailed by what appear to be renegade Comanches. Tonto's fellow passengers are an odd collection of characters trying to hold off the attackers and stay alive in the bitter cold wilderness. Some step up to the challenge and try to help save as many lives as possible. Others seem to be interested only in saving their own necks. One passenger in particular knows the real reason the Comanches are after the train, but even once this deceit is uncovered, there is little that Tonto or the others can do to defuse the situation. In a desperate ploy, Tonto frees his mount, Scout, from the stable car and sends the pinto to find the Lone Ranger for help. Then Tonto returns to the task of trying to keep as many on both sides of the conflict alive as possible for as long as possible.

All in all, this book was a great read filled with action and spotlighting both characters as equal partners in their cause of justice. That's comics worth reading, Kiddie Cops!

Running Off The Rails

Zorro Rides Again 7-12
Dynamite Entertainment
Matt Wagner, writer
John K. Snyder III, artist

I reviewed the first half of this 12-issue series here and gave it high praise indeed. This was a wonderfully written narrative that served to weave together elements from many of the previous film, television and comic versions of the Spanish hero of Alta California, while still feeling like a natural progression from Wagner's earlier Zorro series for Dynamite. And the writing was beautifully complemented by the art team -- penciler, inker and colorist. This series was truly a joy to read and enjoy!

Was.

I don't know why a switch was made in the art team for the second half of the series, but there was, and the new artist does not compare favorably with Esteve Polls. Most of the figures are still recognizable, but the art is nowhere near as clean and polished as it was in the first half.

The coloring, too, pales by comparison. Where the first half of the series was lavishly colored in desert tones, many of these pages are colored monochromatically.

I'm afraid I can't lay all of the blame for the drop in quality at the artist's feet. Wagner's writing seems a bit off for the second half of this narrative. Diego de la Vega seemed to have a definite plan of action he was pursuing as Zorro in the first half of this series, and many of his actions stemmed from events depicted in Wagner's earlier Zorro series. But in the second half, there no longer seems to be a definite end game in mind. Worst of all, the story does not seem finished at the conclusion of the 12th issue. Now maybe that was by design as this is not intended to be the final Zorro story ever written, but with the number of characters who did meet a final end or resolution to their stories in the first half, it seems quite a letdown to have so many characters left in limbo at the end of this second half.

There was such promise at the beginning, that this final failure seems all the more painful to read.

At Last It Can Be Told

The Lone Ranger 7-8
Dynamite Entertainment
Ande Parks, writer
Esteve Polls, artist

Most people can tell you the basic origin of the Lone Ranger: He's the sole surviving member of a posse ambushed by the outlaws they were tracking. Those are the basics even if one doesn't know some of the details like the outlaws, the Butch Cavendish Gang, ambushed the Texas Rangers at a place called Bryant's Gap or that the Lone Ranger's mask -- first a device to hide his true identity, John Reid, from the Cavendish Gang as he hunted them down and later to make him a symbol for justice, more than just a man -- was cut from the vest of his brother, one of the Rangers killed in the ambush. Other details might change from time to time with different tellings; for instance, sometimes John Reid was deputized as a Ranger specifically for this fated posse and other times he was a full-time Ranger before the posse. Even Silver has a definite origin.

As far as I know, however, there is no definitive origin for Tonto.

I have heard bits and pieces of a background for Tonto, but when such details are included, they sometimes contradict what might have been revealed in other places. That makes me think such details are the invention of specific writers trying to rectify Tonto's lack of a background. Even the specific tribe to which Tonto belongs is often ignored or contradictory from other sources when included. I know several times in movies and television programs, the Lone Ranger and Tonto are shown coming in contact with Apaches, but that doesn't mean Tonto is an Apache.  I have heard or read at least two tales that refer to Tonto as Potawatomi, and that is how Wikipedia lists his heritage.

These two issues of Dynamite's The Lone Ranger are the first installments of an arc titled "Native Ground" that attempts to give this version of Tonto a background. The very few scenes that take place in the comic's current continuity show the Lone Ranger carrying the gravely wounded Tonto in a wagon. Tonto was beaten, stabbed and shot in the last arc, "Hard Country." The Ranger is taking Tonto home at his request as only Tonto's own people would be able to save his life at this point, if such a feat is even possible. The Ranger is stopped by several warriors on the edge of Ute lands until he explains the situation. Then they grudgingly agree to escort the pair to their chief and let him decide their fate.

The bulk of the story pages deal with events from several years in the past. Tonto is not the chief or anything, but it is clear he is a respected warrior within the tribe. That means he also has his detractors among his fellows. In this incarnation, Tonto has a wife, Chakwaima, and a young son, Tacome, maybe 3 or 4 years old. His extended family also includes Chakwaima's mother and a young brave named Kahnaka. Kahnaka is old enough to have already gone through a vision quest and is considered a man in the eyes of his tribe, but is still quite young and inexperienced. The youth's father is dead, no mother is mentioned, and Tonto has "adopted" the young man, giving him counsel, guidance and, when needed, protection.

Nobody is trying to make the case that American Indians had an idyllic existence during the progressive expansion of white settlers across the country, but Tonto's tribe is depicted as being content and happy. Of course, that means that tragedy must soon strike, as Tonto surely would not abandon a still living wife and child to traipse around the frontier dispensing justice.

This was a great glimpse of an earlier time in Tonto's life. I feel for the character that it could not last.

I Love It When Series Come Together

Green Hornet: Year One tpb Vol. 2: The Biggest of All Game
Dynamite Entertainment
Matt Wagner, writer
Aaron Campbell, artist

Matt Wagner has crafted a truly incredible origin story with this yearlong epic. Much like his work with that other great pulp hero for Dynamite -- Zorro -- Wagner dances between the childhood, formative years of his two heroes and their first year operating as masked vigilantes. In this case, the two heroes are Britt Reid -- the Green Hornet -- and Hayashi Kato -- the Hornet's aide, Kato. Their respective stories begin in 1921 half the world away from each other and culminate in their debut and early successes as crimefighters in 1938 Chicago taking down the notorious crime boss, "Skid" Caruso.

Obviously, I've also read the first trade collection of this series, The Green Hornet: Year One Vol. 1: The Sting Of Justice, but I read that volume before I started posting these reviews once again. Both volumes together tell the complete tale of the origin and debut of this dynamic pair. I've never tried Kevin Smith's more modern take on the Green Hornet legend, an ongoing series also published by Dynamite. Smith's comic writing can be a bit uneven for my tastes -- some things I've really liked; other things I've hated. But I was drawn to the Year One nature of this series, and I was NOT disappointed.

Wagner weaves in historical tidbits to help add credence and believability to his narrative. He also provides a staggering amount of detail that I believe is wholly original to his narrative about how Reid and Kato meet each other and join forces. What's more, Wagner's Green Hornet is not infallible. Reid is not perfect, making mistakes along the way; and while he has the heart of a crusader from an early age, he learns his hand-to-hand fighting abilities from the much more physically adept Kato, and gets some engineering help designing his signature Hornet's Sting gun and the Black Beauty from an old friend of his father.

Aaron Campbell deserves kudos for adding to the story by creating such visually accurate depictions of the vehicles, weapons and technology of the 1920s and 1930s. Both these graphic novels feel like watching a well researched period film or documentary of the times.

These two trades make an excellent standalone epic of the origins of the Green Hornet and Kato. But one other factor that enhances my own appreciation of these tales is how well they fit into the narrative of other Green Hornet tales I've read. I reviewed the first 14 issues of Now Comics' Green Hornet series here. That series traced the evolution of the Green Hornet from Britt Reid to his modern-day successor. When that series focused on Britt Reid's Hornet career, however, it chose to depict his final case. Therefore, nothing in those comics contradicts what can be found in these with just a few minor date discrepancies, making them nice companion pieces in my collection.