Find This Book At: Amazon (Softcover) Half.com (Softcover) Ebay (Search by Title) Ebay (ISBN/Softcover) View our database entry Includes Issues: Sandman Mystery Theatre 5-12 Issue Dates: August 1993 – March 1994 Creators: David J. Hornung, Gavin Wilson, John Costanza, John Watkiss, Karen Berger, Matt Wagner, Richard G. Taylor, Shelly Roeberg

This review may contain light spoilers. Skip To The Verdict? »

“Go no further,” intones the Sandman towards Miss Belmont.

“Therein lies only bloodshed and death. No place for the curious.”

His well meaning warning is strikingly wrong, of course.

Those of us with Dian Belmont‘s inquisitive nature understand that bloodshed and death is of precise interest to humans.

We have to know why such things happen, why such evil is in the world.

Does The Sandman have answers?

Probably not, not to the big why, but such a book, such stories, can point the way to understanding and show the right paths to take in a twisted world.

Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol. 2: The Face and The Brute follows The Tarantula (recently reviewed) in collecting Matt Wagner‘s Vertigo series about the 1930s adventures of original Sandman Wesley Dodds.

Like many titles published under the mature reader imprint of DC Comics, Sandman Mystery Theatre is focused on tales of crime and horror. And while this book is not explicitly supernatural, there is a slight hint of mysticism in the air.

As the title implies, there are two stories here, precisely doubling the volume of the first book in the series (along with double the cover price, of course.) Unfortunately, previous artist Guy Davis, who won me over in the last volume, isn’t featured here.

The first is The Face, illustrated by John Watkiss, revolving around conflict in Chinatown. This story pushes the racial tensions hinted at in the first book to the forefront.

The second story, The Brute, with art by R. G. Taylor, hangs under a cloud of class warfare, with a heavy focus on those who suffer most from poverty – the children.

You’re forgiven if it sounds like the book is a little preachy from that description. Both stories are more complex and one sentence summary won’t do them justice.

Still, it’s worth noting that these themes (and especially in this time period) are well worn in other forms of literature, and are perhaps more notable here for their publication as comics and inclusion of a masked adventurer.

It’s almost as if Wagner is covering the basics first, making sure his audience has familiar ground to step from.

Of course, these stories were produced more than 15 years ago, and although the themes are familiar from literature published more than half a century ago, the SMT stories are very forward for the comics of the time.

While sophisticated in technique and adult oriented, they don’t often succumb to being dark just to be dark – the hero is still a hero and a moving one at that. Additionally, Dian is one of the best female characters I’ve ever read in comics.

Belmont continues to be the main character in The Face, which revolves to a large extent around her friendship with Jimmy Shan, an dashing gentleman she met while working as a Law Clerk.

There’s a gangwar on the verge of eruption in Chinatown and as a man of intellectual means but humble beginnings, Shan’s involvement is sadly assured.

Complicating things further is the mysterious Face, a strange character destined to clash with the other weirdness in the night, The Sandman.

The most interesting turn of events is that while Dodds succeeds in tracking the Face to his lair, it’s Dian who actually prevents his next killing at that very moment. The lass proves her tenacity and intelligence once again.

John Watkiss works with bold linework and the hatch filled uneasiness of the first story isn’t to be found here. It may sound like an improvement, but the result isn’t as perfectly suited to the title.

The strong and lithe frame of the impressive Shan is quite intriguing, but I wasn’t as attracted to the way Watkiss works with the main characters.

Dian and Dodds seem much less expressive, with Wesley carrying a more standard Bruce Wayne-ish frame.

While The Sandman looks pretty slick, his mask is also more sleek, less baggy and realistic. Honestly, though, it’s not that he doesn’t look good – it’s that I enjoyed how he seemed kind of awkward.

Him being cool seems a step back from his more unique characterization in the previous volume.

The Face’s true nature is suggested mostly in shadow for the first part of the story, and when Watkiss actually reveals him it’s a bit of a disappointment.

Spoiler [He looks more like grampa than a self mutilating maniac]

While there are some panels of beautiful design, which seem to fit the era wonderfully; there are also some absolute misses. (See thumbnail to the right.)

It’s hard to express it in a single panel – I often find that a problem with bad art is it becomes good if you stare at it long enough.

In any case, things were strange enough to pull me out of the story.

Dian often portrayed the most awkwardly, a shame since the weight of the plot is on her shoulders.

Even though I’ve seen Watkiss do some amazing art, I was underwhelmed here.

In The Brute, Dodd’s investigation of a wealthy fight promoter soon spirals into variety of horrible events related to man’s lust and vices.

A young fighter with a daughter to support tries to do the right thing and the elder fight promoter seems incapable of doing anything but terrible wrongs.

One thing I didn’t mention in my first review was the one page dream scenes that accompany Dodds’ adventures – they have brief appearances of Dream from Gaiman’s Sandman, and suggest a sort of precognition. These nightmares are entirely missing from The Face but return in The Brute. I suppose the creators decided they did help set the tone.

The art for The Brute is perhaps halfway between the work in previous arcs – thinner lines, but also the thinner figures. Dodds is characteristically serious but without quite as much feeling in his eyes as when Davis draws him.

The young boxer, Ramsey, is expressive though, especially towards the end where his pain radiates off the page. And the primary villain of the story moves between smarmy business dealings and gritted angry teeth with admirable rendering.

Everyone suffers from some staleness – that problem some artists have where their figures seem to be standing still, mouths wide, instead of actually in the midst of action and conversation – but the characters new to this arc much less than our reoccurring cast.

There’s a problem, perhaps, with a rotating team of artists. When the one who introduced the characters does so well, it’s hard to find footing near that peak.

Between the two stories, the further development of our heroes is the fascinating, as well as being the most satisfyingly executed.

It’s in the details of the slightly threadbare twists and turns where this book suffers. For a “Mystery Theatre,” the actual mysteries are extremely predictable, as was the “shock” moment in the second book, which provides Ramsey’s final motivation.

I feel that if you have anger more at the storyteller for allowing their pawns be so amazingly stupid than at the bad guys for doing what bad guys do, then it’s something worth mentioning.

Spoiler [Ramsey leaves his daughter with a smelly old hobo in his hobo shack while he looks for work. Even in the 1930s, I just can’t believe that the loving father – who has shown no signs of mental retardation so far – would be so amazingly niave, and then shocked at the results.]

While the victims of the terrible circumstances are mostly understandable and human, the big league sinners seem less so.

The eventually revealed string puller in the first book has quite thin motivation and simple profit and pleasure is on the mind of the second.

A lesson could be taken about the shallow needs of mankind; those with evil in their hearts motivated by the basest of desires.

But it wasn’t entirely gratifying as a morality play.

Perhaps my main complaint with SMT: The Face and The Brute is that it feels like Wagner has much better in him.

It’s 12 issues in and the scene is just being set, intriguing characters over familiar stories (in slightly different settings, perhaps), nothing a reader of the crime or gritty superhero genre hasn’t seen before.

The players are the strength, but the scenario has yet to startle me.

Verdict:
3.5 out of 5. Wonderful character development weighed down by hit or miss art and too many predictable plot points.

To newer readers, the stories may seem quite fresh and even disturbing, but those with a fair amount of experience will get more out of the subtle character growth than the actual “mysteries.”

Essential Continuity:
There are moments here that make this book valuable for fans interested in Dodds and Dian.

SMT isn’t a particularly important series to the rest of the DCU, but holds a historical cornerstone, well representing the “mystery men” of early adventure comics and their transition to more recognizable superheroes – all with a dark and modern storytelling approach.

Read first:
You should read Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol. 1: The Tarantula first. There is more general discussion in the verdict section of that review.

Read next:
The next book is Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol. 3: The Vamp. We’ll be looking into it soon as we review our way through the DC Universe!

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Find This Book At: Amazon (Softcover) Half.com (Softcover) Ebay (Search by Title) Ebay (ISBN/Softcover) View our database entry Includes Issues: Prestige Issue Dates: 1990 Creators: Bob Harras, Bob Wiacek, Daryl Edelman, Ken Bruzenak, Mark Chirello, Mike Mignola, Walter Simonson

This review may contain spoilers. Skip To The Verdict? »

Wolverine in the Savage Land, wrasslin’ dinosaurs.

Walter Simonson riffing on Turok: Son of Stone. Mike Mignola channeling Frazetta.

And for some reason Logan is played by Benicio Del Toro in this comic.

All that makes for a book worth checking out, right?

Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure is a Marvel Comics prestige format (thin, squarebound, advertising free, small graphic novel) from 1990.

In it, we find a self contained story in 48 pages.

Light on continuity, easy on the eyes, the book stands out from many of the other Marvel releases of the time.

Unlike the book featured in our previous Marvel prestige review, Ghost Rider / Wolverine / Punisher: Hearts of Darkness, this release isn’t accompanied by any such gimmicks as a four page fold out cover spread, nor burdened by a fanserving crossover.

In fact, it’s a straight up Wolverine book, nary a fellow X-Man in sight. Of course, Logan himself may be more than enough to draw in the true believers.

My favorite stories from this era were the Patch tales penned by Claremont in Wolverine’s new ongoing (and collected in Wolverine Classic).

This book ties in well enough there. The short and hairy adventurer is sent a ticket to a Broadway premiere, where he’s pulled into a confrontation with some kind of cyborg assassin. That’s a pretty standard day for a Marvel hero, but the cyborg also smells of the Savage Land, a patch of terraformed earth in the Antarctic where dinosaurs still roam.

The Savage Land is a historied Marvel setting, but you don’t have to be familiar with it; just know that Logan ends up in loincloth and warpaint soon enough. He actually takes a bit of vacation (not sure where this fits in time-wise, but who cares – it happens pretty often in superhero books that one issue will take months and the next tells the events of a single day.)

The conflict eventually leads to Apocalypse (this isn’t a spoiler ’cause the guy is on the cover) and some enjoyable mayhem.

Walter Simonson‘s story is straightforward, narrated by the prehistoric-style shaman of the “Man-Apes” (not expressly named in this book). There are always some issues that will rear their head around portrayal of tribe social structures by western white culture, but this book is nowhere near the travesty of Avatar.

Of course Wolverine ends up as the honored member, but we all know he is the best there is at what he does.

And the Man-Apes are kind of portrayed as of a semi-Caucasian heritage, though everyone (including Logan) is darkly colored.

Anyway, the story isn’t about Dances with Wolves style white guilt, it’s about punching dinosaurs and tearing up cyborgs.

And you’ve got to have some kind of prehistoric tribe to put the conflict in context, right?

So let’s let it slide, this once.

Points to the creators for having a Frazetta-style female with some variety to her character.

Gahck is strong and intimidating, a far cry from the disappointing archetype we encountered back when we reviewed Tor Vol. 3 [NSFW] (which actually came out after The Jungle Adventure.) The book won’t win any points for female bonding or pass the Bechdel test, but at least the relationships here aren’t entirely predictable.

There’s some cheesecake, but much more for those interested in Mr. Howlett’s well-furred chest.

My need to discuss these issues is more from a desire to see interesting stories than my ingrained liberalism (though I have been trained to notice it.)

Far too many writers take the easy and predictable way out in portraying tribalism and women, so it’s always nice to get a story that I can read without cringing. Cringing too much, anyway.

Moving past the social aspects, I wanted to make some brief notes about this book’s place in Marvel continuity.

I said it was pretty light, but there are a few things of interest.

First, the not so spoiler:

Tthis book apparently features Wolverine’s first meeting with Apocalypse, who had only been around for a few years at this point, and only in X-Factor.

Second – and this is a spoiler – outline the text to read: [Wolverine apparently has KID in this book, revealed on the last page. There was some intense debate about this a few years back, but the kid is named in the Marvel handbooks and everything, so there.]

As far as I know, the above hasn’t been reflected at all in modern continuity, but if you’re keeping track, it was a bit of a WTF moment on the last page, because I’d forgotten all about it.

Simonson’s enjoyable story aside, the real draw of this book was definitely Mike Mignola‘s art. I’m not deep enough in the Marvel Universe to follow every character or title, so when I impulse buy it’s often for exciting illustration or some really wacky premise; this book had a bit of both.

Mignola is, of course, the progenitor of Hellboy, which he’s currently most well known for. He’s done a fair amount of work on superhero titles, but the ones I have are relatively obscure. For DC, there was the Starlin penned Cosmic Odyssey and the finally collected Batman/Starman/Hellboy crossover.

On this title, Mignola is perfect. His prehistoric denizens are a combination of hulking frames and moving expressions. His backgrounds are sparse, but perfectly composed. His dinosaurs are appropriately menacing and evil lairs full of the requisite mechanical doodads.

Mignola’s strength has always been in creating panels full of drama and tension, composed almost entirely of shadow and the odd figure. There’s plenty of that here, but also some moving portraits and more tender moments.

I mentioned earlier that Wolverine seems to be played by Benicio del Toro. It was a silly remark, but I hold to it. I hope you don’t take it as a negative, because I’d certainly see a film with that casting.

It’s the big lips and squinty eyes – sometimes sad, mischievous at the best of moments, and full of rage when you’d expect.

As for Gahck, she’s shapely and powerful. I admire the way Mignola has drawn the women. Great beauty combined with realistic proportions.

There is the odd Liefield foot (angled to a suggested point instead of fully fleshed) and many feet hidden behind cleverly placed tiny hills – but you don’t really notice this unless you’re nitpicking for it. And I actually like the dynamic motion reinforced by those slashed foot impressions, especially in silhouette.

Mignola more than makes up for a few cropped feet by perfectly rendering an entire sequence starring Logan’s little piggies. They are the best there is at what they do.

Finally, the villain is a lot of fun to look at.

I’ve always thought Apocalypse had a kind of silly design (like many Marvel characters, I’ll admit) but here his armor is downplayed into a single color and form, while his head is given a gigantic mouth reminiscent of South Park’s Canadians.

I love it, he’s like a giant evil Muppet.

Maybe that’s not what you’re looking for in your Apocalypse, but it tickled me.

Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure tells a tale of action that could take up a miniseries of four times the size in today’s comics.

It’s compact, well paced, and accompanied by some sterling art.

And this book can be found for a dollar at many used comic shops!

What are you waiting for?

Verdict:
4 out of 5 stars. This adventure gives a lot of bang for your buck, especially if you like Mignola’s artwork, all wrapped into a tasteful little prestige book.

Great package, great value.

Essential Continuity:
Not really. While Wolverine himself is central to the Marvel Universe, this book isn’t.

There are some events in here that reflect continuity and plenty of name dropping, but I highly doubt anything is essential.

It’s a good display of Logan’s character, though, one of his more enjoyable stand-alone stories.

Read first:
There has been intense debate about good starting places for Wolverine.

His original introduction (collected in many places, such as Wolverine Battles The Incredible Hulk) is of interest mostly to aficionados, as his battle with The Hulk doesn’t have much of what makes him so lovable today.

The Weapon X miniseries is kind of tough to start with as well, since it answers many questions but also spoils some of the intrigue involved in his early stories.

It’s quite possible that the best way to get introduced, for someone entirely new to the X-Men family, is watching the X-Men movies. It’s how my fiance did it, and she now understands him as well as most comic fans. Plus Hugh Jackman, rawr.

If I had to direct you to a single volume, I would suggest the oversized hardcover The Best Of Wolverine Vol. 1. That book collects his first appearance in The Incredible Hulk, the 1982 Frank Miller/Chris Claremont miniseries, a crossover with Captain America, Uncanny X-Men #205, and the Weapon X story from Marvel Comics Presents, which I mentioned before.

Reading that book straight through is as good an introduction to the character as any I’ve found – and a lot of the other “origins” books will only serve to thoroughly confuse a new reader.

Read next:
Wolverine is one of the most popular characters in the Marvel Universe (and even pop culture in general!)

You can simply follow the Wolverine tag list to read all his books in order.

I highly recommend the Wolverine Classic trade series, which was also from this era. Marvel Comics Presents Wolverine was a favorite when I was a kid, but I honestly can’t tell you if it’s any good from recent experience. Hopefully I’ll review them soon!

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Find This Book At: Amazon (Softcover) Half.com (Softcover) Ebay (Search by Title) Ebay (ISBN/Softcover) View our database entry Includes Issues: Sandman Mystery Theatre 1-4 Issue Dates: April – July 1993 Creators: David J. Hornung, Guy Davis, John Costanza, Karen Berger, Matt Wagner, Shelly Roeberg

This review is spoiler free! Skip To The Verdict? »

Of the original roster of the world’s first superteam, only Justice Society of America member Wesley Dodds has held a contemporary ongoing of real length.

The Golden Age Sandman’s re-told adventures ran for 70 issues from 1993-1999.

This book, Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol. 1: The Tarantula, collects the first four issues of that series, written by Matt Wagner and drawn by Guy Davis.

It’s quite possible that the Sandman was selected to receive a Vertigo series primarily because of his shared nomenclature with Neil Gaiman’s successful Modern Age  reinterpretation of the concept.

But I like to think that the gas masked crime-fighter has enough of his own appeal to sustain a story.

I’ve always been interested in him from his various DCU appearances.

He possesses a unique look, a mix of regular clothes and strange but functional headgear, which stands out among the cowl and cape crowd.

Since my love affair with the heavyweights of the Vertigo imprint is well known, it’s perhaps surprising that I’ve never read any Sandman Mystery Theatre until now. I’m not sure why, honestly.

In any case, I approached this volume with more than my average amount of excitement.

Upon first read through, I was disappointed. The art was jarring, the plot moved slowly. This was the start to the series I’ve heard so much about? It seemed alright, satisfying my basic cravings, but not amazing.

Often my initial impressions are correct, verified and reaffirmed through careful examination.

But I also felt a sense that I had gotten more than I thought from the book, that something was subtly working on me.
I slept on it. I read it again.

This Sandman volume is really something. Subtle is indeed the word.

My initial problem was a transition directly from the bombastic world of pre-crisis and mid-90s superhero comics and the done-in-one in your face storytelling contained in the recent Jonah Hex titles.

Sandman Mystery Theatre, at least in this volume, has a very different approach to comics.

The book is a slow burn, a building of tensions. Characters are introduced, fleshed out slowly and brought to a climax that is more about their individual evolution than action packed confrontation.

The mystery here is a twisted affair that plays across all four issues, but the real focus is the reintroduction of Dian Belmont and Wesley Dodds.

Dodds has been taken from the standard superhero frame to a moderately pudgy intellectual, someone who looks like he really could have invented a gun that fires various gasses  from canisters (the most famous being sleep inducing, obviously.)

The experimental gas itself seems to carry more danger than I remember from Golden Age comics, Wesley treating it with some reverence and surprised at possibly traumatic side effects.

His costume, while iconic to us modern readers, seems to be a fairly realistic 30’s affair – nice clothing of the time, gloves to avoid fingerprints and an obviously functional gas mask.

While this new/old Sandman is quite striking, he actually only makes sparse appearances in the persona.

Also, while the story is narrated by Wesley, the real focus of this first book is Dian.

The district attorney’s daughter, she comes out as the most astute observer of the bunch, putting things together without the benefit of as much insider information as her father or the resources of the Sandman.

She makes for an enticing driving force in the story, the kind of character we don’t see enough of in mainstream comics – a relatively normal person who is much more than just window dressing “supporting cast” for the title character.

That being said, the supporting cast contains a fair amount of interesting characters as well.

Little moments, interactions between various characters – the book is filled with chatter.

It was this which threw me off at first, since not everything seems to serve the story directly.

But what Wagner is doing is some wonderful world building.

These late 30s stuck with me, finely elaborate from the first couple pages.

While I’ve been introduced to Matt Wagner‘s writing and art through his Grendel and Batman trades, he didn’t draw this book – it’s done by Guy Davis, who has a very different style.

I’ve actually seen his work before on B.P.R.D., some of which you can see at Davis’s website. But his more recent drawings look very different from the Sandman work.

You can see the resemblance in the faces, but the linework is much thinner here with more hatching instead of bold shadows (the shadows possibly being a Mignola influence for that Hellboy universe art.)

While the world of this Sandman seems very much a real world – little science fiction or magic, at least yet – it still is dreamlike simply because of the art.

The faces are constantly shifting, the backgrounds contain no straight solid lines. Shadows have hatch patterns that sometimes spill into the surrounding areas, popping out dots of ink around the panel. Everything wavers just a little bit.

It’s art that I may not have expected in a book under a DC imprint, though it does remind me of some Gaiman Sandman issues.

Because I was pulling this from a shelf full of superhero books, it took some getting used to. For example, I might normally critique an artist for having some faces that are “off,” pulling the reader out of the story. Here, every face is off – or at least shifted to emphasize expression much more than likeness.

This isn’t to say characters are unrecognizable.

Though I did have trouble distinguishing between two different wide-faced older gentlemen or permed brunettes – which was particularly annoying when a kidnapping victim seemed to be a main character -  most of the characters have distinct traits.

Small mutterings aside, on the second readthrough I decided I quite liked the style. It’s different. Along with the pastel colorings by David Hornung, the book had its own unique feel separate from the rest of the DC Universe – part flashback to an earlier era in history and part allusion to the dream-related nature of the hero.

I particularly enjoyed the presentation of the Sandman himself. I mentioned the costume before, but it’s worth noting that Davis’ style – playing hatches and curved lines off each other – allows Dodds’ gas mask and goggles to be surprisingly expressive.

Some of this is accomplished by allowing us to see his almost frightened eyes through the glass, but often it’s simply angle and shadow portraying mood.

Sandman Mystery Theatre: The Tarantula runs for just 9.95 cover price – often less than half that used. That’s a bit over 100 pages of very interesting comics for around the price of one brand new issue.

The introduction, by pop culture historian Dave Marsh, is a bit more gushing than I feel this first collection warrants (and he gets some things wrong about The Endless in Gaiman’s Sandman – that’s me being a geek and caring), but the book really is worth checking out.

Wagner and Davis have done a fantastic job introducing the era and characters and I feel like the stage is set for some every exciting storytelling. While this particular plot only seemed to skim the surface, I’ve retained a healthy amount of excitement for the oncoming volumes in the series.

Verdict:
4 out of 5. A well developed introduction to very intriguing people living and operating in an uncommon setting. It moves at its own pace and Davis’ art may not be for everyone, but the low price point makes it well worth the risk.

The 1930s haunt you after reading this book and while the actual mystery in this volume isn’t as exciting as the building relationships between characters, Sandman Mystery Theatre is unlike any other superhero book on the shelves. (Calling a superhero book is up for debate, but this is a retelling/reinvention of stories about a JSA member, so I feel the expectation is fair.)

Essential Continuity:
Yes, for the Wesley Dodds Sandman – JSA Member and player in many DCU events. He shows up in a lot of places.

While not as popular as say, the Jay Garrick Flash, I still consider him to be important to have some passing knowledge of for DCU buffs.

Read first:
This book takes place relatively early in the DC Chronology, after the DC Westerns and Enemy Ace, but before the Golden Age of heroes (and the revealing of Batman and Superman to the world.) So you can jump right into this particular volume without doing any catch up reading.

You may want to read the Golden Age Sandman stories collected in The Golden Age Sandman Archives Vol. 1, but by event date half of that book takes place after this series. Some of the stories are retellings, though, but you can read either set first. For modern readers unused to Golden Age comics, SMT may be more interesting.

Neil Gaiman‘s Sandman series was also technically written before this one, but neither is directly linked enough to require reading in any particular order.

Read next:
The next book is Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol. 2: The Face and the Brute. We’ll be looking into it soon as we review our way through the DC Universe!

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Update: This giveaway is now over and winners will be contacted.

Update 2: The winners have been announced!

Here’s the weekly giveaway!

Hey, it’s Christmas this week! And nothing says Christmas like a post-earthquake Gotham City hellhole.

So I’m giving away the critically acclaimed Batman: No Man’s Land Vol. 1 through Vol. 5 to one lucky yuletime kid.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a kid to enter. (I’m not.)
Nor do you have to celebrate Christmas. (I’m Jewish.)

You just have to want it bad enough.
(And leave a comment and be randomly chosen.)

But if you don’t get chosen, don’t cry yet. I’ve also got four copies of
Ghost Rider / Wolverine / Punisher: Hearts Of Darkness
(which we previously reviewed.)

So four runners-up will each get a copy of that 90s gem. Or, if you hate Batman or something, you can choose to get the Marvel book instead.

Are you excited? I’m excited. It’s a big stack of comics.
And nothing goes with eggnog like Batman.

(Or, if you’re Jewish, nothing goes with cold morning Chinese leftovers like Ghost Rider.)

The Rundown:

(1) Main Prize: Set of Batman trades: Batman: No Man’s Land Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, and Vol. 5. Over 1000 pages of comics including some hard to find out of print volumes.

(4) Runners Up: Ghost Rider / Wolverine / Punisher: Hearts Of Darkness Original Graphic Novel

(5) Winners: One primary, and four secondary, randomly selected from the comments on this post.

Eligibility: You must be registered and logged in when you comment to be eligible. You must also be in the continental USA for shipping purposes. If you are overseas and want to pay for the shipping yourself, feel free to enter, but keep in mind that it will probably be more expensive than just buying the book.

Deadline: You have until 11:59 on Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24th, 2010. The winners will be contacted soon after.

Good luck everyone!

You can see the previous giveaways and results here.

Find This Book At: Amazon (Softcover) Half.com (Softcover) Ebay (Search by Title) Ebay (ISBN/Softcover) View our database entry Includes Issues: Doc Savage 1-8 Issue Dates: October 1972 – January 1974 Creators: Ernie Chua, Frank Giacoia, Frank Springer, Gardner Fox, George Roussos, Jack Abel, Jean Izzo, Jim Mooney, Jim Steranko, John Buscema, John Costanza, June Braverman, Kenneth Robeson/Lester Dent, Klaus Janson, Richard F. Buckler, Ross Andru, Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Tom Orzechowski, Tom Palmer Sr., Tony Isabella

This review is spoiler free! Skip To The Verdict? »

The original superhero.

It’s a weighty claim.

While Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze is missing some features that historians might argue would make him a full fledged superhero, he certainly was one of the earliest and most influential science adventurers.

The absolute first superhero might be Nyctalope, who debuted in french pulps in 1911. But not many have heard of that guy.

Likewise, the masked comic adventure The Clock, from 1936, isn’t particularly memorable.

Those that are interested in the intricacies can lose a few hours in the Superhero fiction article at wikipedia.

As for the Man of Bronze, he’s one of these primordial characters to have moved past the Golden Age of pulps and comics.

Originally appearing in a Doc Savage Magazine run that started in 1933, the pulp literature character was introduced as a “peak” human. Trained from birth by a team of scientists and experts in every field, Clark Savage Jr.’s intense daily exercise regime and supreme intellect keep him at the top of his game as the perfect adventurer.

Along with five other rough and tumbling experts that he met during World War I, Doc Savage travels the world, using his ingenious inventions to solve mysteries, right wrongdoings, and aid the oppressed and needy.

Doc was created by Lester Dent, who under various pen names (such as Kenneth Robeson) wrote some 181 Savage stories.

He’s seen many homages, including notable ones in Warren Ellis’ Planetary and the Alan Moore’s Tom Strong, and is still in print himself, having been included directly in DC’s 2010 First Wave title.

Also published by DC this year is Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, which actually collects a Marvel comic that ran in the early 70s.

This Bronze Age title, in turn, reworked some of Lester Dent‘s earliest stories from 1933 and 1934.

There are four stories here, The Man Of Bronze, Death in Silver, The Monsters, and Brand of the Werewolf, each taking place across two issues.

The first couple stories are adapted by Roy Thomas and Steve Englehart with Gardner Fox and Tony Isabella handling the latter two. Ross Andru does the majority of the pencils along with help by Richard Buckler.

There’s a good smattering of talent here and don’t let the mix scare you. This book is very consistent, with no jarring differences between writers and artists, delivering a fun adventure story in a mix of the original pulps and Kirby influenced Marvel house style.

When I first sat down with the book, the comic historian in me was very excited by the Savage name. The Jim Steranko cover didn’t hurt either.

I have to admit that the first few pages were kind of jarring. Instead of a nice historical introduction, there’s a bit introducing the cast. While not badly written, sometimes such pages are a hint that the book you’re opening is overburdened by continuity.

Also, the character design for Savage is really weird – perhaps accurate to the magazines, though I’ve seen some much more human looking versions – but he looks like a cross between a manhunter robot and a genie addicted to tanning beds.

Luckily, Savage grew on me, and I needn’t have worried about the continuity. While the story seems to jump right into the action (with some very Bronze Age Marvel villain designs) it works perfectly like that. I think the book actually opens with an adaptation of the very first pulp story, so it must have worked like this right from the start.

You needn’t know much more about the characters than Doc’s mastery of just about everything and kind nature, Monk’s gorilla type frame holding the brain of a genius chemist, or Ham’s role as a well dressed lawyer with a sword hidden in his cane. They’re adventurers and you get to know them by watching what they do best – adventure!

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I expected it to be interesting and fun on a level similar to many older comics, getting by mainly on a sense of fauxstalgia (nostalgia for events and styles that were popular before you were born).

But while many of the plots are similar to stories I’ve read before in Golden and even Modern Age comics (probably because these Savage stories were influential), I was also kept constantly on my toes.

As an example, Batman aficionados might want to read The Monsters, which was originally published in April 1943 and was probably quite influential on the 1940 Batman storyline about Hugo Strange. I’d have a hard time believing that Kane and Finger were not familiar with Lester’s work, not that there’s any stealing – just some fun parallels.

Creators like Gardner Fox, who were around for both stories, must have been particularly excited about this project. In fact, I’m willing to bet most of the artists and writers treated this one as revisiting a childhood treasure.

Without having read the original shorts, I feel like the adaptation is faithful. Elements like slightly offensive ethnic stereotypes are still there, but alongside the good factors as well – strong female characters, for example. The dialogue is modern enough while still retaining a very pulp feel.

There’s a no-apologies craziness about the whole series of events, rather explaining afterwords than ruining a surprise with unneeded build up.

Characters constantly display new skills, which some how makes sense while remaining unexpected. We know these guys are badass and part of the fun is them topping past feats.

Just as surprising and perhaps a little confusing, is the use of gadgetry. It seems (and the art style might be a factor here) to be much too advanced for the 30s, when these stories supposedly take place. But interestingly enough, many of the inventions (like television, advanced submarines and helicopters, rapid-fire firearms) were featured in the original stories.

Never underestimate a speculative fiction author.

Ross Andru illustrated this book right at what many would consider the height of his career.

He had just come to Marvel from DC Comics and was working the newly launched Defenders and Marvel Team-Up, soon working as the regular artist on Amazing Spider-Man. Only a few years later he would co-create The Punisher.

His work here isn’t quite as memorable as some of those other issues (and the design for Doc Savage isn’t nearly as aesthetically sleek as The Punisher and his overly broad build can see quite awkward at times) but it’s still great for the book.

It’s worth talking a little bit more about how terribly ridiculous Doc looks here. Little blue vest?

And in the last issue, a little blue furry vest? And that spray tan and widow’s peak?

Not at all the Doc I always thought of from the covers of pulp paperbacks, but by the end I couldn’t help loving it, at least with a healthy dose of hipster-like irony.

I’ll admit that Andru isn’t my favorite artist of this era, as I always felt his work was stuck partway between the angular intensity of Jack Kirby and the sleek musculature of artists like Neal Adams.

There were some times where I was reminded of Kirby more directly, mostly with the Fabulous Five that assist Savage – for some reason always conjuring memories of the Newsboy Legion and other early Kirby creations. Especially the broad face and meaty hands of Monk.

Andru was an admirable craftsman, though, and his compositions flow with the action, keeping the story moving at a thrilling pace.

While Savage himself feels a bit too smooth at times, seeming less than human, many of the other characters have striking features.

It’s especially obvious when Andru plays with the light in a scene, creating dramatic and sometimes terrible effects.

I think his best work is in The Monster Men and the first issue of Brand of The Werewolf, where the more monstrous adversaries allow him to really let loose.

I’m not sure why the reigns had been handed to Rich Buckler for the last issue.

Perhaps because Andru was working on three issues of Spider-Man, two of X-Men, and a Marvel-Team up from October to December of 1973, so he may have just been busy.

In any case, Buckler, along with Tom Palmer, who inked most of the work, and Jack Abel do a fine job with the last issue. I didn’t even notice the switchover on the first readthrough, since I was ambling along with my full attention on the action. The art here has perhaps a little bit more hatching instead of smooth lines, but it’s not particularly evident.

Altogether, Doc Savage: The Man Of Bronze was a big bundle of fun.

I didn’t have high hopes, since you never know what to expect with a book that’s been uncollected for so long.

I wish there was a bit of a historical introduction in this volume, but I understand the more direct presentation since it’s a set of stories that can appeal to all ages of readers hoping for some quick hopping adventure.

Forty years past his creation, then another forty  past the adaptation, Doc Savage still stands strong.

The Man of Bronze can brave danger with the best of em.

Verdict:
4 out of 5.

Both an excellent introduction to a classic pulp hero and some fun comics that stand up to the test of time, Doc Savage: The Man Of Bronze comes highly recommended.

Pick it up for the kid inside, the kid you know, or the culture historian pretending to be past childish things.

Essential Continuity:
Doc Savage doesn’t have a very large publishing history in comics, and his origin isn’t really as important as his adventures.

I’m actually not sure if the origin story is ever told as more than a couple blurbs or mentions. But this is a good place to start.

Read first:
For the comics reader, you can start here. We also place it very early on our DC timeline. It’s in the 30s, right after Showcase Presents Enemy Ace, taking place in WWI.

But if you are interested in the original pulps many of them (along with a lot of scholarly publication) are available on Amazon.

I’m not an expert on all the various print runs, comics being more my thing, but it seems a lot has been collected past the original magazine format.

Read next:
As far as trades go, Doc next shows up in Doc Savage: The Silver Pyramid, which collects the late 80s DC miniseries.

There are also some contemporary trades (probably why DC published this one), Doc Savage: The Lord of Lightning and First Wave.

I haven’t read any of these others yet, so I can’t guarantee they will be as high quality as this book.

I personally reccomend Planetary and Tom Strong, as mentioned before in this review. Both have some examination of this kind of science adventurer, in addition to being good reads.

This book also got me in the mood for some classic Kirby art action, and I might jump into the recent Newsboy Legion hardcover if I can find the time.

Finally, if you’re following along on our review journey through the DC Universe Recommended Reading Order, our next book is Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol. 1: The Tarantula.

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