In 2014, Dynamite Comics got the rights to Doc Savage. They had been doing The Shadow comics for a couple of years, so it was expected they might get the rights as well.
So far we have gotten a mini-series, an annual and an upcoming special. It remains to be seen what else we will get.
Dynamite’s Doc kicked off with a eight-issue mini by Chris Roberson that tries to bring Doc to the modern era. Most issues are set in a different decade, telling short stories of Doc, but tied to a bigger story. Often showing the changes in Doc, his aides, and the like.
Issue one is set in 1933, and Doc and his men deal with a threat created by a madman that causes people to go crazy and attack one another. Doc is able to put a stop to it. Issue two is set toward the end of the ’40s. We are introduced to Pat Savage, whom we are told is also an adventurer with her own group called “Patricia, Incorporated.” This is a change from the pulps, where Pat owns and runs an exclusive spa.
In addition, we are told here that Pat sometimes covers for Doc when he’s at his Fortress of Solitude. Another change, as in the pulp Doc always tried to keep her out of trouble. The villain this time has an aging ray, and his and his men are taken to Doc’s upstate “college,” but take it over. Pat is hit by the ray before Doc takes back the college, but is able to save Pat and de-age her.
Issue three is set in 1961. A still young Doc and Pat are about to reveal something he’s been working on for awhile. A serum to extend life extracted from silphium, a plant found in “Fear Cay,” which is now run by Doc as Orion Station. Doc has been using it, and it’s what he used to save Pat’s life in the previous issue.
By now Doc’s original aides have retired except for Ham and Monk, who hope for the release of silphium. We are introduced to several new aides: astrophysicist Rock and anthropologist Torchy, and at the Orion Station there is Wool and Dex. Wool and Dex are from “Gold Ogre,” which had a group of four youth who helped Doc instead of his five aides. No idea if the other two also joined Doc. But tragedy strikes in the form of Arachne, a criminal group that once tried to take over the Valley of the Vanished, but Doc and friends came to the aide of Queen Monja. Arachne nukes the island, destroying the only source of the serum, along with Wool and Dex.
Issue four is set in 1979, were Doc and associates Pat, Rock and Torchy must avert a tragedy caused by a former Doc associate, Watts. We also met a young girl who will become a future associate, Roughneck. Issue five I was not able to get, so can’t comment on it.
Issue six is set in 2000, and we see the Doc has setup a worldwide network to help people. There is a website and call center, and a fleet of craft to send rescue crews to where ever they are needed. We again meet some new associates, Axum and Happy, and met the young daughter of Rock and Torchy. But problems occur when a rogue Russian hacker decided to take down Doc’s network, which has an effect on various vehicles, as many are computer controlled or assisted.
Issues seven and eight wrap up the storyline, bringing it up to 2014. A doctor who worked at the upstate college has revealed its secrets. And the doctor has foolishly operated on one of the graduates, so he has now reverted to his evil ways and forced the doctor to do the same with others. They have now banded together with the Russian hacker from issue six to take down Doc, using his network and the technology seen in the first issue. Doc and a few of his aides are able to shut things down, but not until there is damage around the world. The daughter of Rock and Torchy earns her nickname, Longshot. There is also an unnamed young man among the aides who has the same skin and hair coloration as Doc and Pat, so some have wondered if that is Pat’s son. (We never hear of either Pat or Doc having a family life of any kind in the series.)
Frankly, the episodic series has problems. We don’t get to really know any of the new aides we are shown. It seems, similar to the first DC Doc series, that the aim of the series is more to get Doc into the modern age than in telling a ripping good story. There are a lot of elements that are not in line with what we know from the pulps. Some I noted prior, but also Doc seems to always carry his superfirers and uses them. The idea of new aides coming on board makes sense. We saw this in the “Old Man” stories. But here Doc and his work becomes more public than in the “Old Man” stories. Not sure which approach I like.
We also got a “Doc Savage Annual,” which had a stand alone story by Shannon Denton. Set prior to “The Man of Bronze” in 1930, it shows Doc and his men already in action against bad guys, a group calling themselves the Sea Spider Society. We also learn that during WWI, there was another member of Doc’s group, a Hopi Indian named Jimmy Cross, so we get an interlude where they go to his funeral. I had problems believing that Doc and his aides are shown fighting together in the trenches of WWI. This is very unlikely, as you would not have a group of officers doing this (a Lieutenant, Major, Lt. Colonel, Colonel, and Brigadier General). Long Tom is absent from the group, but Johnny is shown as a private when as far as I know, he was not a soldier in WWI (some have speculated he was working as a spy). I didn’t see the purpose of this whole interlude or the additional of this old friend as it didn’t affect the main story.
We also see Doc shacking up with a girl down in Mexico. I had a problem with this, too, as it doesn’t fit with his character. What seems a little interesting was the hints of connections between the “Science Society” (the real group behind the Sea Spiders) and Doc’s father and his training of Doc. But nothing comes of this.
Dynamite has already put up a listing for a collection that will include the eight issues mini-series, along with the annual.
The upcoming “Doc Savage Special” is a double-size issue, which will have a story focused on Pat Savage. As I write this, it’s not out yet.
We’ll see what 2015 holds for Doc at Dynamite.
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