Beowulf - Dragon Slayer!

Beowulf - Dragon Slayer adapts the famous Old English epic poem into comics form. It was not first to do so and far from the last. Michael Uslan and Ricardo Villamonte are the creative team on this effort. Save for Beowulf getting a strange superhero-like visual treatment (his helmet is supposedly a minotaur skull), the story begins much like it does in the original Anglo-Saxon poem. A monster named Grendel assaults the hall of King Hrothgar and when Beowulf gets wind of this, he heads out to help. 

Once again, this series was part of DC's attempt to grab some of the Conan the Barbarian business with a raft of heroes from various mythological settings. Beowulf stands up quite strong amongst this company which saw most all of them gone after a year. 

The one previous attempt to adapt the poem was Thane of Bagarth by Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo over at Charlton comics. The setting of this back-up series for the Hercules comic was after the events of the Anglo-Saxon epic. The adaptation has quite a legitimate feel, not unlike that of Prince Valiant. But eventually it gives way to a science fiction influence. The same thing will happen at DC. 

Beowulf and his men along with Nan-Zee head off for a quest into Hell where they fight all manner of creepies and even a tame dragon and ultimately do encounter Satan. The point of this meandering lost on me, save that it prolongs the story. The upshot is that he is sent on a quest by Satan to find two things to perk him up sufficiently to defeat Grendel. 

The quest through Hell continues. Grendel is still threatening Hrothgar's kingdom while Beowulf and his compatriots confront sundry menaces including a serpent. It is from this serpent's venom that Beowulf derives some powers enough to face Grendel, almost. Now he must find called Zumak. 

Having survived the rigors of Hell, Beowulf and his band run into warriors dedicated to fighting Vlad the Impaler and they get swept up in that conflict. They discover that the Zuman is not there. 

The introduction of flying saucers well and truly jumps this little series off the rails. Not unlike the earlier Charlton series we get sci-fi tropes dumped into a Beowulf environment. Strange to say the least. In this instance we get Atlantean servants of the space gods who pick up Beowulf and Nan-Zee just in time for the to witness the destruction of the advanced city. Beowulf even meets another epic hero from an even earlier tradition. 

Cast adrift the pair eventually arrive in Crete where they are led to the famed Labyrinth in which they find a Minotaur and ultimately the Zumak. Beowulf is now fully-charged and ready for Grendel as he and his gal head for Heorot at last. Meanwhile Grendel who is plotting against Satan. The arrival of Ric Estrada on layouts made this the most readable issue of this benighted series. 

This little series was a major disappointment for me. I'd hoped they had told a good yarn about the great Anglo-Saxon hero, but that's not what happens. Uslan's script is meandering, and Villamonte's artwork is at times bewildering. The addition of Nan-Zee affects the story not at all, save that it gives Villamonte the chance to draw a chick in a bikini for the entire brief run. The character I'm most interested in is Grendel, who we do get at length dragging away victims and bellowing about his sad lot to Satan. One character called the Shaper is a magician and some of his spells are fun to decode as they are the same variety as what Zatanna uses. One reads "Happy Birthday Cindy".

But comics were not done with Beowulf. 

Beowulf is one of those pieces of classic literature to speaks to my fanboy heart. Not unlike the mythology of the Greeks and Romans, or the Nordic sagas, we have a story which bonds reality with myth in a way which makes it immediate and potent. The poem serves a lot of masters, but at its core it's the story of a noble man who wants to defend people from predators and who wants to make the society better. The story has not been adapted to comics all that many times. Classics Illustrated never touched it (to my knowledge). But the first time I ever chanced across the poem itself being adapted to comics was when Jerry Bingham produced it for First Comics as their initial graphic novel in 1984.

I've never been completely satisfied with the result. To be fair, I'm not a huge Jerry Bingham fan, always considering him a workmanlike talent who was able to produce pages which successfully evoked both Neal Adams and John Buscema without the immediacy or drama of either. But compared to the soulless stuff I see on the stands today, he was a master. Still, he was above average of the day, and I like his stuff more and more as the years grind away. It turns out Beowulf was a labor of love, produced by Bingham pretty much on spec and finding a home at First Comics when he bargained to draw some of their books for them. I like that a lot. 

Bingham discussed the "graphic novel" several years ago on his blog here. He discusses how he came to be aware of the poem and how he finally was able to bring this remarkable work to fruition. He also discusses some of it weaknesses, weaknesses I agree make it less than a work which was completely successful. To my mind it lacks the grit and necessary darkness of the poem, allowing superhero tropes to overwhelm a story which is at its core a horror tale. You can also see quite a bit of the artwork from the series.

But whatever the deficiencies might have been to my mind, Jerry Bingham was able to bring Beowulf to the page and then bring it to the newsstands and that's no mean accomplishment. I congratulate him and wish him well. He seems to have done well for himself outside the world of comics and for a guy who I considered a middle of the road talent has become quite a compelling painter. But when the name Jerry Bingham comes up for this comics fan, the first thing I will think of is Beowulf. I rather think he'd like that. 

Here are later adaptations of the poem that I've come across. 

(2006)

(2007)

(2008)

(2016)

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Justice Incorporated!

Justice Inc. #1 is titled "This Night an Avenger is Born!" and purports to adapt the novel of The Avenger by Kenneth Robeson. This time "Kenneth Robeson" was Paul Ernst who wasn't the creator of Doc Savage, but just one of several men who wrote under the house name devised by Street and Smith. Having just read the original, this is pretty concise adaptation of the original, though of course they had to drop several details. The script is by Shadow veteran Denny O'Neil and the artwork this time is by Al McWilliams, an artist while somewhat lacking in dynamics was pretty good at street level realism. The cover is by Joe Kubert.

The Avenger was the outsider in the new raft of heroes DC was launching in 1975. The others all have a sword-and-sorcery or barbarian adventure feel to them. Justice Inc. is an urban crime adventure ripped from the pages of a Street and Smith pulp designed specifically to feed from the relative popularity of Marvel's Doc Savage. This is much the same situation as when The Avenger was first concocted in the those bygone pulp days.

The story begins as Richard Benson and his wife and daughter board a plane. Mysteriously during the flight Benson's wife and daughter disappear and he is knocked out during a fight with thugs on the plane. He wakes up three weeks later in hospital with his skin having gone ghostly pale and his facial muscles paralyzed. Quickly he uses his skills as a world adventurer arming himself with "Mike" his slender gun he keeps hidden and "Ike" his throwing knife. He returns to the airport, but soon is in struggle with a giant who turns out to be the Physicist Algernon Heathcote Smith or "Smitty". Smitty is a fugitive, wrongly convicted and he agrees to help Benson. They board the plane, gunplay ensues, and they find a map to a distant island. Getting into disguise as an old man the Avenger boards the ill-fated plane again and off they go until he's threatened to be thrown out of the plane sans parachute. It seems the scheme is to kidnap and drop certain controlling shareholders in Acme Motor Company to coerce them to sign over control of the company. Benson learns his wife and daughter were thrown from the plane and killed. He himself is thrown from the plane but he has a hidden parachute. He confronts the thugs who killed his family and the mastermind a man he thought was at first a victim. He is saved from killing the man in revenger by Smitty who then bonds with The Avenger to form Justice Incorporated.

There is a text piece by Allen Asherman about the history of The Avenger. Next time will see more on this DC comics series when Jack "King" Kirby takes the helm. But even before that we got to enjoy The Avenger guest-starring with The Shadow. 

The Shadow #11 is a humdinger as it guest-stars another pulp hero DC was trying to kickstart, The Avenger. The issue is written by Michael Uslan (his second effort on the series) and drawn by new regular artist E.R.Cruz who also does the cover. The story is titled "The Night of The Avenger" logically enough, following the established pattern.

The tale kicks off with the Shadow on the trail of some stolen munitions, a threat he takes so seriously that he calls in many of his reserve agents but before orders can be given the meeting is attacked clearly indicating a traitor in the Shadows team. The leader of the attack force is captured and is revealed to be Smitty, an agent of The Avenger. We cut to the Avenger's headquarters where he is visited by Margot Lane who gives him the Shadow's location. The Shadow later indicates that Margot is the traitor, or at least that's what his notes might indicate. (Special note though, it's a neat touch when Shrevvy is reading the debut issue of Detective Comics).

The two teams of crimefighters end up at a summer resort in New Jersey at a lighthouse where Oriental villains are discovered. One calls The Shadow "The Dark Eagle" and we suddenly realize the threat to the Shadow is from someone who knows his secrets. The Avenger's team show up and gunplay ensues, but the battle is halted when The Shadow seems to realize the true nature of his opponent. The debate crimefighting technique meanwhile discovering that both Smitty and Margot have been controlled by another mastermind, specifically it is revealed almost immediately to be Shiwan Khan. There's more gunplay, Khan attempts to escape in a submarine but is locked in battle with the Shadow and then a well-placed grenade from The Avenger blows the sub up. The Shadow survives and the teams go their seperate ways with The Avenger hoping that someday he won't have to bring The Shadow to justice.

Solid issue, if a tad jammed. But I like that feeling in my comics. To heck with decompression, give hyper-compressed comics!

Visit the Internet Archive to read this actual issue at this link. 

Justice Inc. #2 is a great departure from the debut. Denny O'Neil is still scripting, apparently adapting a second Robeson story titled "The Sky Walker". The big shift though, that replacing the realistic if somewhat somber Al McWilliams is the legend Jack "King" Kirby. Suddenly the comic is possessed of an energy, but an energy derived at the cost of the noir mood of the debut.

The story begins with a train derailed through mysterious means. The Avenger comes across the wreck and some looters and takes action alongside Smitty. The looters don't seem to have been the cause of the crash, but soon The Avenger sees the culprit, a man seemingly walking in the air. Cut to the mansion of Robert Gant, an inventor and who is attacked and killed. His attackers are themselves attacked by his black servant Josh and his black maid Rosabel who drop their subserviant stereotypical speech patterns when not in the presence of white men. The Avenger appears to help and finds help in the college-trained Phi Beta Kappa man Josh and Rosabel who join Justice Incorporated. Soon this new team sees a skyscraper tumble to the ground and they stop to help. Benson goes onto the offices of Abel Darcy the man financing the deceased Gant, and quickly takes on his identity to gain access to his files. He is discovered soon after proving Darcy's guilt and the battle is on. The Avenger and Josh are captured but escape in time to confront Darcy, the Sky Walker who uses Gant's twin inventions an invisible airplane (hence the apparent sky walking) and a sonic cannon capable of the destruction seen so far in the story. The Avenger takes to the sky in a plane and shoots the villain down by causing the sonic ray to destroy the plane sending the mastermind plunging to his death. There is a text piece by Allen Asherman about a possible Justice Inc. movie and possible casting choices.

While not probably true to roots of the character the use of "King" Kirby on the title really gives it a boost it needed. The stories zing along with a typically robust Kirby vigor. Kirby was finishing out his contract with DC at this stage, after the disappointing Fourth World affair. But being a true pro, his work is always of interest, and highly desirable.

Justice Inc. #3 is an original story by writer Denny O'Neil with artwork by Jack Kirby and his ace inker Mike Royer. The cover is by Kirby with inks by Al Milgrom.

The story is titled "The Monster Bug" and it features a returning villain and introduces Fergus MacMurdie. A group of thugs led by Colonel Sodom threaten Fergus MacMurdie a renowned chemist and try to coerce him to help. The Avenger shows up saying he's been tracking Sodom since he escaped The Shadow's agents (Sodom was also the villain in DC's The Shadow #5 though he seems to have suffered a demotion since then when he was "General Sodom" - more on that later this month) and a battle breaks out. So does a mysterious chemical called the "Monster Bug" which becomes a vapor that transforms the wife of MacMurdie into a hideous monster who is then quickly shot down by Sodom who then escapes. MacMurdie is quickly gathered up by Benson and Josh and becomes a member of Justice Inc.

Next the team figure Sodom will target the next most prominent chemist in town, so The Avenger uses his flexible face to become a duplicate of the man and the team goes out on the town as decoys. The plan works and Sodom and his henchman attempt to apprehend Benson but Sodom transforms some of his men into monsters and battle for life and limb erupts. The monsters are subdued and the team quickly reassembles to go after Sodom after learning his hideout's location from a captured henchman. They then pursue Sodom as he goes after the famed chemist again, but during the final fight the "Monster Bug" infects Colonel Sodom and in a fit of madness he crashes through a wall and falls many stories to his presumed death.

This is a pretty solid issue, and it does blend the world of DC's pulps. The Avenger showed up in The Shadow series before this issue. (I'll get around to this review eventually.) Jack Kirby continues to be a draw, no pun intended.

Justice Inc. #4 completes the run. It's another original story by O'Neil and again Kirby and Royer are on the artwork. The cover this time is by Joe Kubert, who it turns out was producing several covers for DC and especially for Kirby's books as this was at the very end of his tenure at DC before returning to Marvel.

The title of the story is "Slay Ride in the Sky" and the story begins as the Justice Inc. team follows an airliner in a small plane to investigate airliner disappearances, just as the airliner is attacked by a flock of gulls. The gulls prove more than a nuisance as they explode effectively downing the plane in the sea. The team itself is set upon by gulls and their plane too explodes but they parachute to safety. Once down they swim to help survivors from the larger plane, but a boat appears, and gunmen shoot down the helpless people in the water. Enraged, The Avenger and his team apprehend the men who indicate they don't know who masterminded the plot. Cut to MacMurdie hours later in his lab and he identifies the explosive as "Tintiabulum" a new and experimental explosive not yet on the market developed by Olympia Laboratories. The team heads there and confront the owner Jason Lynn but soon after his denials of guilt an explosion rocks the office killing him. The Avenger and his team survive ,and Benson takes on the identity of the slain Lynn and heads to see Rufus Comb the chairman of the airline which has been suffering the tragic explosions to their aircraft. It turns out Comb is the villain, and he knows of Benson's ruse and captures him taking him and Smitty to a blimp, the base of operations for the scheme to bilk insurance money for the destroyed aircraft and then head to safer climates. Benson and Smitty escape and a fight breaks out on the blimp. Benson chases Comb as he attempts to escape in a small plane. During the battles gulls show up homing in on a most dangerous signal and explode the blimp. The Avenger knocks Comb off the plane to his doom and intercepts the falling Smitty and the pair fly off leaving the villains to fall to their much-deserved deaths.

And that's it for the series. Four issues didn't really seem to be enough to find out what this series could do. The first two issues were truncated adaptations of the original pulp novels and the last two issues were original. The Avenger's team itself was barely organized by the end of the run. The letters pages in issues #3 and #4 talk about the fact they really need to do multi-part stories in the series, but the editorial response is strictly negative to that idea. I find that approach quaint in the modern world of comics and especially DC where the saga rolls on in an unending fashion these days.

The crossovers with The Shadow were fun as well, and if the books had continued it's likely that there would've been more of this kind of thing. One clear problem for the series was Josh and his step 'n fetchit characterization, which in the comics is presented as a ruse by the extremely well- educated black man to put his white opponents off guard. Still, it's uncomfortable to read such dialogue in anything approaching a modern comic. You can tell that they were nervous about this presentation as it never goes on too long.

Next time we meet Claw the Unconquered.   

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The Lone Ranger And The Green Hornet!

Dynamite lets me down again. I had rather high hopes for this team up of the Lone Ranger and the Green Hornet, two classic heroes bonded together by their creators. Fran Striker created the Lone Ranger and Tonto, and George Trendle owned him as he proved to be a very successful western radio star. Later this same duo tried to update the concept of a white masked man assisted by an ethnic partner and so created the Green Hornet and Kato. Putting them together in a single adventure requires no small amount of manipulation, particularly when you decide to include a veritable rogues gallery of villains both real and fictional as well as a cavalcade of classic heroes of the pulps, radio and early TV among actual historical figures. Sometimes a soup can be too thick to enjoy. 

I give Michael Uslan high marks for trying. His name is what got me to try out this Dynamite volume. My history with Dynamite is spotty at best. They are fantastic as coming up with loads of pretty and dynamic covers for intriguing concepts with heroes with great pedigrees, but they are equally weak at producing well produced graphic stories. Giovanno Timpano has a heavy lift with the barrage of characters he was tasked to draw and sadly he fell short. Too many faces are the same and only costumes can help to clear things up. Uslan's script is so dense with homages that the forward momentum of the story is sacrificed. This is a mash up of his favorite things and it is fun to see heroes like the Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet, Tonto, Kato, blended with real historical folks like Jesse Owens, Eliot Ness, and President Teddy Roosevelt, among many, many others, but there's just too many of these nods. I will admit seeing the Green Hornet ride a white stallion while the Lone Ranger drove the Black Beauty got a chuckle out of me.

This is a great idea for a comic. I just wish these were better comics. Dynamite strikes again. Below are the covers for this limited run. These covers are pretty good. 

(John Cassaday and June Chung)

(Jan Duursema and Stan Mandrake)

(Jan Duursema and Stan Mandrake)

(Jan Duursema and Stan Mandrake)

More Green Hornet action tomorrow. Don't turn that dial. 

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Nights Of The Shadow Thirteen!

The Shadow #11 is a humdinger as it guest-stars another pulp hero DC was trying to kickstart, The Avenger. The issue is written by Michael Uslan (his second effort on the series) and drawn by new regular artist E.R.Cruz who also does the cover. The story is titled "The Night of The Avenger" logically enough, following the established pattern.

The tale kicks off with the Shadow on the trail of some stolen munitions, a threat he takes so seriously that he calls in many of his reserve agents but before orders can be given the meeting is attacked clearly indicating a traitor in the Shadows team. The leader of the attack force is captured and is revealed to be Smitty, an agent of The Avenger. We cut to the Avenger's headquarters where he is visited by Margot Lane who gives him the Shadow's location. The Shadow later indicates that Margot is the traitor, or at least that's what his notes might indicate. (Special note though, it's a neat touch when Shrevvy is reading the debut issue of Detective Comics).

The two teams of crimefighters end up at a summer resort in New Jersey at a lighthouse where Oriental villains are discovered. One calls The Shadow "The Dark Eagle" and we suddenly realize the threat to the Shadow is from someone who knows his secrets. The Avenger's team show up and gunplay ensues, but the battle is halted when The Shadow seems to realize the true nature of his opponent. The debate crimefighting technique meanwhile discovering that both Smitty and Margot have been controlled by another mastermind, specifically it is revealed almost immediately to be Shiwan Khan. There's more gunplay, Khan attempts to escape in a submarine but is locked in battle with the Shadow and then a well-placed grenade from The Avenger blows the sub up. The Shadow survives and the teams go their seperate ways with The Avenger hoping that someday he won't have to bring The Shadow to justice.

Solid issue, if a tad jammed. But I like that feeling in my comics. To heck with decompression, give hyper-compressed comics!

 Visit the Internet Archive to read this actual issue at this link. 

One more to come.

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The Shadow Reports #13

The Shadow #11 is a humdinger as it guest-stars another pulp hero DC was trying to kickstart, The Avenger. The issue is written by Michael Uslan (his second effort on the series) and drawn by new regular artist E.R.Cruz who also does the cover. The story is titled "The Night of The Avenger" logically enough, following the established pattern.

The tale kicks off with the Shadow on the trail of some stolen munitions, a threat he takes so seriously that he calls in many of his reserve agents but before orders can be given the meeting is attacked clearly indicating a traitor in the Shadows team. The leader of the attack force is captured and is revealed to be Smitty, an agent of The Avenger. We cut to the Avenger's headquarters where he is visited by Margot Lane who gives him the Shadow's location. The Shadow later indicates that Margot is the traitor, or at least that's what his notes might indicate. (Special note though, it's a neat touch when Shrevvy is reading the debut issue of Detective Comics).

The two teams of crimefighters end up at a summer resort in New Jersey at a lighthouse where Oriental villains are discovered. One calls The Shadow "The Dark Eagle" and we suddenly realize the threat to the Shadow is from someone who knows his secrets. The Avenger's team show up and gunplay ensues, but the battle is halted when The Shadow seems to realize the true nature of his opponent. The debate crimefighting technique meanwhile discovering that both Smitty and Margot have been controlled by another mastermind, specifically it is revealed almost immediately to be Shiwan Khan. There's more gunplay, Khan attempts to escape in a submarine but is locked in battle with the Shadow and then a well-placed grenade from The Avenger blows the sub up. The Shadow survives and the teams go their seperate ways with The Avenger hoping that someday he won't have to bring The Shadow to justice.

Solid issue, if a tad jammed. But I like that feeling in my comics. To heck with decompression, give hyper-compressed comics!

One more to come.

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The Shadow Reports #11

The Shadow #9 is titled "Night of the Falling Death". (All the titles begin the same way now it seems.) This one offers artwork by Frank Robbins with inks by Frank McLaughlin. Joe Kubert though does the cover. The script though is done by Michael Uslan and there's definitely a different tone in the story.

It concerns a smuggling ring which somehow uses Nigagra Falls. A man on death row points the Shadow towards a villain named "Murdock", but apparently that's all and several "Murdocks" fall unders suspicion. Shrevvy focuses on one who turns out to innocent and the Shadow sends Shrevvy away on vacation, clearly a rebuke. The Shadow in this story is much more stern with his aides, less sympathetic. Eventually the action ends up at the Falls with Lamont Cranston and Margot Lane getting "married" to cover the investigation. The Murdock they are looking for turns out to be a woman who does some daredevil stunts at the Falls and she and the Shadow battle on a rope across the Falls before predictably she tumbles to her death.

One dandy addition to this issue is a two-page text piece on the history of The Shadow. It's titled "The Shadow: A Dossier" and it's written by then DC staffer Anthony Tollin, the same Anthony Tollin who is currently gracing us with some wonderful Shadow Double-Novel reprints.

More to come.

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