Many great characters came out of the pulps, but it’s sad that few were as successful in other media such as comics.
Take Street & Smith’s The Avenger. He was S&S’s attempt to repeat the success of The Shadow and Doc Savage, this time by combining of elements of both, and making the character more colorful like the new comic book characters. Yet he hasn’t done so well in that media as I’ve shown in previous postings.
Now, Dynamite has tried again, and we have what I think (despite some issues) is the best comic book version of The Avenger so far.
Some background. The Avenger is really former globe-trotting adventurer Richard Henry Benson, who has a range of skills and abilities, including knowing how to use two special weapons — Mike and Ike, a special .22 pistol and a throwing knife — and he’s wealthy, too. Losing his wife and daughter to criminals turned his hair and skin stark white, and caused the muscles of his face to become malleable. He is joined by others who have lost loved ones to criminals, and they formed “Justice Inc.” In some ways, they become a sort of new family.
His associates are: Algernon Heathcote “Smitty” Smith, an electronics genius; Fergus “Mac” MacMurdie, a pharmacist and chemist; Nellie Gray, a diminutive girl who is a martial-arts expert; and last but not least, an African-American couple, Josh and Rosabel Newton, who are Tuskegee graduates. The last to join is Cole Wilson in a story that has The Avenger be “de-powered.”
After the recent mini-series by Michael Uslan, I, like other fans, were probably worried about this one. But its writer, Mark Waid, has spoken on how big a fan of The Avenger he is, this seems to hold true.
The first four issues form a single story of invisible men and creatures running around. Justice Inc. needs to find out the cause of this and put an end to it. Overall I thought I was pretty good.
The second story begins with issue #5. This one actually adds in Cole Wilson, as well as a bit about The Avenger’s origin, so to speak, as we meet the man who taught Benson how to make use of his new abilities to impersonate almost anyone. Here, Justice Inc. goes up against a new threat that has targeted them.
I had issues with the artwork and how certain things are shown. Not sure how much was due to Waid or the artist. Bleak Street, the short street that Justice Inc. is located on, and their headquarters building are not shown accurately. One time the street looks like a dangerous alleyway with bums on it, and their building seems quite ordinary. Mike, The Avenger’s gun, is not a Luger, nor would he do a body shots with it. He only used it to “crease” the forehead of bad guys, and knock them unconscious. Ike doesn’t seem to been shown correctly, the cross-guard appearing larger than I would image. Finally, The Avenger’s face is shown to be much more elastic than I think is realistic. The artist needs to be provided with information on these things to bring them in line.
In addition, Smitty and Mac would not be experimenting on the second floor of their headquarters. Mac was set up in a pharmacy around the corner, and it’s there that the two had their labs where they created the gadgets used in their war on crime. They also have The Avenger wearing the outfit we see on the Warner Brothers’ paperback covers. He did not wear this in the pulps, but I will give these a pass as artistic license that people expect.
Despite these problems, I found the stories well written. Will it catch on? Time will tell. I hear they have already cancelled this series with #6. But maybe like Doc Savage, they will go to a series of mini-series.
