Somebody’s First Comic Book: Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom (1962 Series) #30

Wondering what Somebody’s First Comic Book is all about? The explanation is on this page!

TITLE: Inferno!

CREDITS:

Writer: Roger McKenzie
Art: Dan Spiegle
Publisher: Whitman Comics

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: None, but “Solar”? So this guy has sun powers, right?

IMPRESSIONS: When the story kicks off, we seem to have a bunch of scientists very excited about a man named Eric Dante, who has scheduled a press conference about some top-secret project. As everyone is getting ready, we see Doctor Solar save a town from a bursting dam by using his powers to hold back a torrent of water until the National Guard can evacuate everyone. Watching a guy hold up a force field for two and a half pages may not be the most exciting thing in the world, but the inner monologue cues us in on the fact that Solar here has radioactive powers that sort of leave him separated from the rest of the human race, although apparently he’s not so radioactive that he can’t save a kid and a puppy once the force field drops.

Our scientist friends go to visit this Dante guy in a bubbled underwater city he’s calling New Atlantis. Solar (who apparently can shape-shift) disguises himself to mix in with them, and figures out that Dante is actually planning to kill all of the scientists and other notables in the city. Turns out he’s actually an evil robot called King Cybernoid. I’m guessing Doctor Solar has fought him before, and he does it again, and saves the world. Pretty straight forward. But… wait, what’s this? There’s another story in this comic!

TITLE: Where Angels Fear…

Writer: Roger McKenzie
Art: Frank Bolle

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: None, again, but the character is named “Magnus Robot Fighter: 4,000 A.D.” I’m going to take a wild guess and say this is about a guy who fights robots in the year 4,000.

IMPRESSIONS: Magnus, according to the caption at the beginning, fights evil robots who have rebelled against their human masters. Apparently this Roger McKenzie guy had a serious anti-robot prejudice. Magnus is looking for a girl named Leeja Clane, who has been kidnapped by one of these evil robots. We get a quick flashback sequence that tells us that:

A: Magnus was raised by a good robot to fight the evil ones.
B: This Leeja is his girlfriend, and…
C: Her father is a senator in “North Am.”

Magnus tracks down the evil robot, destroying a bunch of other robots along the way, and finally finds the big bad, who (in case we couldn’t figure it out) actually has the letters “EVL” stamped on his chest. Presumably, they do this so Magnus knows which robots to fight and which ones to allow to continue vacuuming the high-rises of North Am.

Overall, this comic is fairly easy to understand. Solar gives me everything I need to know to understand his predicament and, while it’s clear the bad guy has been seen before, I don’t really need to know anything about him to get the story. Magnus, similarly, is easy to understand. Man fights robots, evil robot kidnaps his girlfriend, man fights specific evil robot. Minus points for stereotypical gender roles, but a bonus for clarity.

GRADE: B+

The Authority (2003 Series) #7

November 2, 2003

Quick Rating: Below Average
Title: Godhead Episode Two

The Authority faces down with the Church of Transcendence.

Writer: Robbie Morrison
Pencils: Dwayne Turner
Inks: Sal Regla
Colors: Wildstorm FX
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Ben Abernathy
Cover Art: Dwayne Turner
Publisher: DC Comics/Wildstorm

I should disclose here, in the interest of fairness, that I’ve never read an issue of The Authority before. This issue, however, didn’t particularly inspire me to start now. Like too many “mature readers” comics, this book seems to take the freedom of the label and throws in a few f-bombs and violent scenes more for shock value than any attempt to actually tell a mature storyline.

The Authority, in this issue, enters combat with what appears to be a generic “evil cult,” not unlike stories I’ve read in dozens of other superhero comics ranging from Spider-Man to the X-Men. The only real difference here is the sheer power level of John Clay, leader of the “Church.” He packs a lot more punch than William Stryker ever did, but that’s not enough to make this story stand out, or even to make the story really interesting.

I haven’t seen Dwayne Turner’s work since his days on Chris Claremont’s Sovereign Seven, and he’s still a decent artist. Unfortunately, he hasn’t really developed much either, with a lot of his characters still looking like he’s doing a Jim Lee riff (this particularly stood out when I looked at pictures of Midnighter, which immediately made me think of Lee’s recent run on Batman). Some of the later battle scenes looked very rushed, however, like he didn’t really have time to polish the artwork.

Perhaps if you’ve been a fan of the Authority for some time, you’ll enjoy this issue. For me, though, it just didn’t ring any bells.

Rating: 4/10

Uncle Scrooge #330

May 29, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Flying High and other stories

When Donald Duck wins a fortune from Scrooge in a bet, how far will Scrooge go to win it back?

Writers: William Van Horn, Dave Rawson, Per Hedman, Gorm Transgaard, Pat & Shelly Block & Carl Barks
Art: William Van Horn, Torres, Manrique, Gattino, Marsal & Carl Barks
Colors: Susan Daigle-Leach, Egmont, Barry Englin-Grossman & Scott Rockwell
Letters: William Van Horn, Jon Babcock & Susan Daigle-Leach
Editor: Arnold T. Blumberg
Cover Art: Branca
Publisher: Gemstone Comics

Every issue of Uncle Scrooge has its high points and its low points, depending on the writers working on each individual story, and quite often the low points are not because the story is entertaining, but because the writer sacrifices some of the truest parts of Scrooge’s characterization for the sake of a plot point. Fortunately, that only happens in one of the stories here.

Van Horn’s “Flying High” is a very nice lead story. Donald Duck believes he has suddenly come into luck, and uses it to win a $5 million bet with Scrooge. Scrooge, of course, can’t take this lying down, and schemes to win his money back. This is on of Van Horn’s better efforts, using the basic nature of both characters to build a satisfying story. His artwork has the usual slightly fanciful quality he employs. His stories always look a little like dream sequences compared to the other artists in the issue.

It’s Rawson and Torres’s “Like Well-Oiled Clockwork” that falls flat this issue. When Scrooge’s secretary, Miss Quackfaster, goes on vacation, everything in his office starts to fall apart, and he decides to prevent her vacation to save a fortune. The individual beats of the story are funny, but the basic premise is flawed. To think that the fastidious Scrooge is that dependent on someone else to run his company, where he’s left utterly helpless in her absence, goes against the essence of the character as Carl Barks created him. Sure, kids won’t notice, but the older hardcore fan (of which there are many of us) will be disappointed.

Hedman and Manrique contribute a cute short story in “The Guinea Pig.” Donald and Gyro Gearloose get into an argument that sends Donald on an inventing spree, resulting in a giant gardening machine, which predictably goes haywire.

Transgaard and Gattino’s “Nuts After Nuts” is the longest story in the issue, and one of the best as well. One of Scrooge’s explorers returns from South America having found not precious jewels or valuable ores, but a new breed of nut that’s so tasty it sends everyone who eats it into spasms. Scrooge decides to launch an new brand of cereal, but a competitor chases him to the distant valley where the nuts grow to prevent him from getting the upper hand. The “Scrooge versus a competitor” storyline is one of the stock plots that you get over and over again,, but to complain about that would be like complaining about Ralph Kramden launching another get-rich-quick scheme. As long as it’s done well, as it is here, there’s no problem with it.

Pat and Shelly Block and Marsal contribute the three-page short, “The Secret Fishing Hole.” Huey, Dewey and Louie go fishing with Gus Goose, only to find that they have very different goals at the fishing hole. It’s a very cute little story that amounts to an extended joke with a great punchline.

Finally, we get a reprint of Carl Barks’s “Titanic Ants.” Scrooge and his nephews head to the annual Billionaire’s Picnic, which (as picnics do) gets invaded by ants. These ants, however, happen to be three feet tall, the result of an experiment by a nearby scientists. It isn’t one of Barks’s greatest efforts, but there’s nothing wrong with it. That’s the great thing about these characters – they work just as well in this plot borrowed from a B horror movie as they do in epic, Indiana Jones-style adventures.

The good in this issue outweighs the bad, and the art is universally fantastic. This is my favorite all-ages comic month after month, and if you’ve got kids you want to get into comics, this is the best way to do it.

Rating: 7/10