Review: ‘The Sting of the Silver Manticore’

The Silver Manticore is an interesting New Pulp hero.

“The Sting of the Silver Manticore” is an obvious homage to many fictional characters from pulps, radio, TV/movies (including serials), and literature. Its author, P.J. Lozito, also mixes in a lot of other characters who are homages of others. It’s almost confusing trying to figure out who is being referenced, especially when you have some characters who are obviously a mix of two to three others.

The Silver Manticore has appeared in two prior stories in Pro Se Presents. One uses the 1930/’40s Manticore (the main character here) and the other uses the ’60/’70s Manticore (who appears in the later part of the book).

At first glance, the Silver Manticore is a mix of the Green Hornet and The Shadow. As the main story is set in the 1940s, he is obviously based on the radio Green Hornet. He has a background based on The Shadow (with a hint of G-8 as his old spy moniker was G-9) with some hints of The Copperhead, the hero of the Mysterious Doctor Satan movie serial.

We soon learn that there have been many Silver Manticores in the past, with previous ones taking on the equivalent roles to the Man in the Iron Mask, Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro, and The Lone Ranger. In later sections of the book, others take up the mantle of the Silver Manticore. The final one is in an equivalent role of the TV Green Hornet (with a new character based on the Bruce Lee version of Kato).

The Silver Manticore’s main foe is Hanoi Tsin, obviously meant to be Fu Manchu. Another associate is Siam Khan, who I think is meant to be a nod to Shiwan Khan, The Shadow’s Fu Manchu-like foe. Other foes are based on Fantomas and other such villains. The Silver Manticore is aided by others (similar to The Shadow), including analogues to The Spirit and his associates, The Shadow’s Harry Vincent, Operator #5/Secret Agent X-9, Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D./U.N.C.L.E., and Doc Savage and his associates.

Overall the book is pretty good. I did feel there was too much dropping of foreign words at times that made it confusing to understand what was being said. There were also issues with proofing. A few times sections were in italics for no apparent reason, I caught a few typos, and in one case a cross-out that should have been removed.

I do look forward to further Silver Manticore stories. The setup is such that the author could delve into prior characters as well, and there is stuff to take this “character” further.