The Fox returns to comics!

The Fox is coming back!

Hot on the heels of the successful New Crusaders title, Archie's Red Circle imprint will be releasing an all new Fox comic later this year by Dean Haspiel and Mark Waid!

The Fox is my favorite of all the Mighty Crusaders characters, and his absence in The New Crusaders really had me bummed. I'm glad to know now that his lack of appearance there meant he was being primed for his own title! I am fortunate to own his action figure from the 80s toyline and I'm excited to be able to read some new adventures starring the character soon!

Official Press release:

Eisner Award winning writer Mark Waid (Daredevil, Thrillbent) and Emmy winning writer/artist Dean Haspiel (Billy Dogma, HBO’s Bored To Death) are teaming up to launch a brand new series – THE FOX. Taking place in the Red Circle universe, this exciting creative team will deliver an innovative, action-packed superhero story starring the fabled pulp hero.

This thrilling new addition is a shake up to the Red Circle lineup. The previously solicited New Crusaders: Dark Tomorrow will receive a new release date in early 2014. The critically acclaimed New Crusaders series received high praise and year-end “best of” acknowledgements, dubbed "one of the most enjoyable and surprising books on the stands" and response to THE FOX will no doubt echo that sentiment.

The first volume, New Crusaders: Rise of the Heroes, is now available for order in Previews. In addition, this summer’s forthcoming New Crusaders: Legacy TPB features both new and iconic stories including Alex Toth‘s run on The FOX, and contributions from comic book legends Steve Ditko, Carmine Infantino, and more.

For more information visit RedCircleComics.com

ABOUT RED CIRCLE COMICS:
Red Circle Comics is home to Archie Comics’ super hero properties, most notably The Shield, The Comet, The New Crusaders, and The Mighty Crusaders. Consisting of super heroes who emerged during the Golden Age of comics and remain relevant today, the Red Circle stable of characters have a storied history that continues to grow denser with the highly publicized New Crusaders launch.

ABOUT ARCHIE COMICS:
Archie Comics is one of the leading mass market comic book publishers in the world and the home to a wide array of the most popular humor, action-adventure and superhero characters in entertainment, including Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica, Reggie, Kevin Keller, Josie and the Pussycats, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The New Crusaders, The Shield, Li’l Jinx and many more. Archie Comics have sold over 1.5 billion comics worldwide and are published around the world in a number of languages. In addition to comics, Archie characters have been featured prominently in animation, television, film and music in various popular incarnations.

via Comic Book Resources

Mighty Crusaders

Back in 1984 toy manufacturer Remco released a series of superhero action figures based on little known Archie Publishing superhero properties. Many of these superheroes were old forties 'also-rans,' making them pretty unique on the '84 scene and something my now 36 year old self would have been all over like four color ink on newsprint.

Alas I had no idea these guys existed back then, I only discovered the existence of these toys in the internet age. But thanks to the magic of the swap meet, I now own two of them!

First up is The Fox. Originally debuting in 1940 and probably my favorite of all the Mighty Crusader toys because of his Batman-esque vibe, news photographer Paul Patton used his alter ego to get sweet shots of crimes as they happened (sounds like a familiar friendly neighborhood wall crawler, doesn't it?)

His costume is pretty straightforward and simple and reminds me a bit of Wildcat.

Fox's chest symbol was the head of a fox in his original comic art, but it has been highly stylized/simplified for his action figure debut.

The second figure I found is the Buzzard. Buzzard reminds me a lot of Spider-man villain The Vulture, another balding old man with flight capabilities. The Buzzard (and Fox for that matter) originally came with a load of sweet accessories, but sadly both of the ones I found came with nothing. Not sure how difficult it would be to rectify that (probably not very) but they are still pretty cool as they are, so I'll probably not sweat it.

According to MightyCrusaders.net, Buzzard did not make his debut until 1985, so maybe he was created first for this toyline and later appeared in a comic book? I don't know, I'm no Mighty Crusaders expert.

Regardless, these are pretty fun little guys and of course I got them on the cheap - $3 for the pair!

Whenever I would see these toys online I assumed they were the size of original Masters of the Universe figures based on the similarity of their construction. But these guys are actually only about 4.5" tall, making them a little more fun in their cute, compact size. They do sport an action feature, a spring back fist for superhero punches! Aw yeah uppercut!