Dojo Classic - Agents Of Atlas!

When I dug out my collected volume of Agents of Atlas it was with the intent of re-reading the vintage and totally awesome story which introduced the 1950's "Avengers" in What If? #9. But after enjoying that, which I reported on here, I was intrigued by the main stories in this volume which collect the 2006 six-issue limited series by Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk that re-introduced these stalwarts from a time gone by by a new monicker, specifically the "Agents of Atlas". Under some handsome portrait covers by Tom Coker we get a rock-solid story filled with adventure and action and splendid characters.

It's a tremendously entertaining name for a super group, at once evocative but also direct and even alliterative. Apparently the first choice was "Secret Avengers", but that got taken for other purposes. I'm very glad as the forced change to this name apparently affected the story which was eventually told and I have to report right now that I love that story. It's been nearly a decade since I read it, so it was sufficiently hidden in the recesses of my memory for the story to have a pretty jolt all over again. The big surprises I remember sort of, but there were lots of smaller reveals and flourishes which I'd totally forgotten.

The heroes involved are Jimmy Woo, Gorilla Man, Marvel Boy, Namora, Venus, and M-11 the Human Robot. The nominal villain of the piece is the notorious Yellow Claw who it seems actually prefers the more nuanced translation of "Golden Claw", a man with a multitude of secrets. This story is in many ways a secret origin for a team which hardly existed at all, as we learn (with some changes made for modern continuity such as the elimination of 3-D Man from the mix for instance and the absence of sundry super-villains) not only how these heroes were assembled but why and the truth as they say might well set you free.

This is a story with a host of wonderful surprises for the longtime fan of Marvel Comics. Lots of neat little jots and motes are here and there offering fresh insights to things long thought settled or forgotten or both. We learn what really happened when Doctor Grayson took his son to Uranus to presumably escape the Nazis, and what has happened to the hero "Marvel Boy" since then. What we thought we knew is wrong, all wrong. Namora is brought back from the dead in a clever move which is at once elegant and simple without undoing ages of precious continuity - a sleeping beauty indeed.

We learn secrets about the "goddess" Venus and that information makes her at once less and more than she had been before, with a terrible secret laid bare. Given what Marvel has done with its god pantheons over the years, this fix was exceedingly effective and added some grim danger to a character who at times seemed too breezy. And ultimately we learn the secret of M-11 (the Human Robot) and how that particular secret in many ways leads to the real reason the Agents of Atlas were assembled so many years before. And after decades in side roles or limbo the character of Jimmy Woo becomes more real and more important, crucial even to the history of all the world.

This is a rich evocative series, which draws on Marvel lore but then deals almost exclusively with characters limited to the story at hand. Blessedly no Wolverines or Spider-Men are malingering to uptick sales. This is story with a beginning, a middle and an exceedingly glorious end. After this tale, the broader Marvel Universe came calling and subsequent stories (which I've not read to be fair) involve the Agents in various crossover events. Sales apparently were never all that strong and after about five years of pushing them Jeff Parker moved on to other more lucrative projects.

I've purposely stayed vague about the details, so as not to spoil any of the treats this story has. If you have not sampled this wonderful yarn and can find the collection for cheap then I heartily recommend a story which will warm your heart with the simultaneous glow of nostalgia and of really real human drama.

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Flash Gordon - Freedom Fighter!

One of the best four-letter words is "Free". While I was a fan of the King Features comics from Dynamite a few years ago, I didn't get the Flash Gordon series for whatever reason. Since then, I've eyeballed the trade collection several times but never popped for it. The other day while leaving my local comic shop I saw a stack of the trades by the door. That usually means the owner has despaired of selling them and is offering them up as a giveaway and I confirmed that with the shop keeper and yes indeed this series by Jeff Parker and Evan Shaner is now in my grubby mitts. I have a hard time resisting free.  And as it turns out, the story is even better than I expected. It moves along at a dandy pace and moves across the myriad landscapes of Mongo with proper aplomb. I find I am almost always impressed with the stories written by Jeff Parker. The core of this particular story is Flash Gordon himself as we learn, in a way which was most affecting, just why he's a hero that an entire civilization could wrap its hopes up in. It's really quite good -- I would've paid twice the price.

Here are some of the covers. Of course with Dynamite you can never see all of the covers because they print so many different ones.

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Gorilla Men!

Gorillas and pop culture have been linked forever. Nigh human creatures of immense strength are a savory draw for any writer or artist. Certainly DC Comics made the most of them with their unusual but weirdly savvy policy to feature gorillas on their covers when they noticed that such comics sold better. Marvel had its share of Gorillas and as a necessary offshoot Gorilla Men. This volume features one of those Gorilla Men, but also pays homage to many others.

Ken Hale, the Gorilla Man was first excavated by Don Glut as part of the ragtag 50's Avengers who popped up in the pages of the What If? #9. This is one of my favorite issues of the run under a dynamic Jack Kirby cover. I was not alone as these Avengers popped up again in the pages of Avengers Forever by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco. That appearance led them to get their own limited runs under the name of Agents of Atlas.

And among the stand outs in this series by Jeff Parker is Gorilla-Man. So much so, that he eventually got his own stand alone limited series.

The series offers up a nifty little story which slowly but surely is actually Ken Hale's secret origin and we get insights into the character far beyond the limits of his other appearances. We see him as young orphan scooped up from poverty by a charismatic man and who becomes swashbuckling adventurer long before he sought immortality and so became the Gorilla-Man.

Also in these issues are stories of other Marvel Gorilla-Men, not the least of which is Arthur Nagan, leader of the notorious Headmen. We get his origin story by Weird Wonder Tales #7 from its original 1950's source, the twenty-first issue of Mystery Tales.

We also get the two-part story by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby of the Gorilla-Man who became so by use of the powers of science.

And finally we get the story of Ken Hale himself from the vintage pages of Men's Advnture. And for those patient enough to follow this post this far, here's a treat, the full story of how one man became a gorilla.

I found this volume for tiny money and enjoyed it thoroughly. If you find it cheap I recommend it mightily, despite the somewhat indifferent cover which reproduces the first issue's. The interiors are much much better from the across the whole of Marvel history.

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Future Quest!

Just learned about this intriguing project here. Many Hanna-Barbera projects were mentioned (a Flintstones reboot, another Scooby-Doo variation, etc.) but the only one I'll be getting is Future Quest which re-imagines (I hope not too much) the great Hanna-Barbera superheroes from TV all those many decades ago.

The Phantom Cruiser, The Herculoids and The Quest Team by Eric Shaner

If this artwork is any indication, they are cleaving relatively close to the originals which being designed by Alex Toth were always exceedingly sleek and modern.

Space Ghost, Meteor Man and Coil-Man battle a Rogues Gallery by Shaner

I will happily add one new comic to my list if it promises stories as handsome as these glimpses from artist Evan Shaner suggest.

Jonny and Hadji See a Ghost by Shaner

The article linked above mentions Jeff Parker as the writer and that's a solid choice as he's someone who's done some smart things with classic and nigh-forgotten heroes in the past. (Agents of Atlas was one of the last Marvel Comics I thought got it right.)

Darwyn Cooke (Love the darker Frankenstein Jr.)

This will be a great reason to dig out those dvd collections and give those Hanna-Barbera greats another viewing (as if I needed a reason). 

Looking forward to this one...in the future (as Criswell once said).

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Secrets Of The Golden Claw!

When I dug out my collected volume of Agents of Atlas it was with the intent of re-reading the vintage and totally awesome story which introduced the 1950's "Avengers" in What If? #9. But after enjoying that, which I reported on here, I was intrigued by the main stories in this volume which collect the 2006 six-issue limited series by Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk that re-introduced these stalwarts from a time gone by by a new monicker, specifically the "Agents of Atlas". Under some handsome portrait covers by Tom Coker we get a rock-solid story filled with adventure and action and splendid characters.

It's a tremendously entertaining name for a super group, at once evocative but also direct and even alliterative. Apparently the first choice was "Secret Avengers", but that got taken for other purposes. I'm very glad as the forced change to this name apparently affected the story which was eventually told and I have to report right now that I love that story. It's been nearly a decade since I read it, so it was sufficiently hidden in the recesses of my memory for the story to have a pretty jolt all over again. The big surprises I remember sort of, but there were lots of smaller reveals and flourishes which I'd totally forgotten.

The heroes involved are Jimmy Woo, Gorilla Man, Marvel Boy, Namora, Venus, and M-11 the Human Robot. The nominal villain of the piece is the notorious Yellow Claw who it seems actually prefers the more nuanced translation of "Golden Claw", a man with a multitude of secrets. This story is in many ways a secret origin for a team which hardly existed at all, as we learn (with some changes made for modern continuity such as the elimination of 3-D Man from the mix for instance and the absence of sundry super-villains) not only how these heroes were assembled but why and the truth as they say might well set you free.

This is a story with a host of wonderful surprises for the longtime fan of Marvel Comics. Lots of neat little jots and motes are here and there offering fresh insights to things long thought settled or forgotten or both. We learn what really happened when Doctor Grayson took his son to Uranus to presumably escape the Nazis, and what has happened to the hero "Marvel Boy" since then. What we thought we knew is wrong, all wrong. Namora is brought back from the dead in a clever move which is at once elegant and simple without undoing ages of precious continuity - a sleeping beauty indeed.

We learn secrets about the "goddess" Venus and that information makes her at once less and more than she had been before, with a terrible secret laid bare. Given what Marvel has done with its god pantheons over the years, this fix was exceedingly effective and added some grim danger to a character who at times seemed too breezy. And ultimately we learn the secret of M-11 (the Human Robot) and how that particular secret in many ways leads to the real reason the Agents of Atlas were assembled so many years before. And after decades in side roles or limbo the character of Jimmy Woo becomes more real and more important, crucial even to the history of all the world.

This is a rich evocative series, which draws on Marvel lore but then deals almost exclusively with characters limited to the story at hand. Blessedly no Wolverines or Spider-Men are malingering to uptick sales. This is story with a beginning, a middle and an exceedingly glorious end. After this tale, the broader Marvel Universe came calling and subsequent stories (which I've not read to be fair) involve the Agents in various crossover events. Sales apparently were never all that strong and after about five years of pushing them Jeff Parker moved on to other more lucrative projects.

I've purposely stayed vague about the details, so as not to spoil any of the treats this story has. If you have not sampled this wonderful yarn and can find the collection for cheap then I heartily recommend a story which will warm your heart with the simultaneous glow of nostalgia and of really real human drama.

Rip Off

Kings Watch!

We Three Kings

As much as I hate to say it, I will likely be buying a Dynamite Comic this fall. The news that Dynamite will be teaming up the iconic King Features trio of The Phantom, Flash Gordon, and Mandrake the Magician will get me to travel where haters-of-pointless-endless-alternate-covers fear to tread. Also of interest is that the writer is Jeff Parker, who wrote some of the last comics I really liked from Marvel, specifically the very clever and intriguing Agents of Atlas books. So Parker has a nice track record with this stuff which gives me hope it won't suck too much. He talks about the upcoming project dubbed "Kings Watch" here. It's mentioned that he created the logo, which I like a lot. That kind of attention to detail speaks well of what he has planned.

Marc Laming Jungle Action

The artwork for Kings Watch by Marc Laming looks to be pretty good too, if not my ideal. The characters appear to be pretty much on the classic models with an eye for movement and action.

Ramon Perez Alternate Cover

Putting this trio together makes sales sense, but actually could make for a haphazard story. Defenders of the Earth was a lot of fun, but I definitely relegate it to the kiddie cartoon category. I expect a bit more from comic books like this. Phantom and Mandrake can work together fairly straightforwardly, but Flash could might bend the premises of both a bit much. We'll have to see. I very much look forward to seeing what Parker and company can come up with.

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