“In Altered States, the familiar becomes the unfamiliar and the known becomes the unknown. Heroes from across the ages are transported from the worlds and identities they recognize, to strange and terrifying new worlds and identities.”
With those words, Dynamite Comics launched a set of four one-shot comics with some of their licensed characters: Red Sonja, Vampirella, The Shadow, and Doc Savage in early 2015. All four had covers by Billy Tan, but different writers and artists, though David Avallone wrote both the Doc and Shadow titles.
This series reminded me of the old DC Elseworlds. I have no idea if we will see more of these.
Doc’s one-shot is built around the idea of “what if Doc Savage became his namesake?” Set in May 1934, it has Doc along with his aides and cousin Pat at the “Crime College,” which seems to provide laboratory space where Doc is working on a new experiment. Using a drug based on psychotropics obtained from the Mayans, he hopes to give himself first-hand experience of the mind as a primal human.
The experiment goes awry, and Doc reverts to the mind and body of a “cave man.” Even his features changes, and he breaks out. His aides work to bring him under control, and he hurts some of them before they do. It seems the experience was more than expected, but looks like everything returns to normal. But we get an epilogue set a month later when Doc and friends confronts John Sunlight, where Doc seems to lose control and beats the hell out of Sunlight. So maybe the effects haven’t truly left him.
As an alternate story, I thought this was okay. The art is passable, by Dave Acosta. The aides weren’t draw too distinctive in terms of build or the like. Johnny is given glasses; Ham has a mustache and a walking cane. But the rest aren’t too clear, and Monk isn’t very ape-like.
Sadly, the confrontation with Sunlight is off as he doesn’t show up in the Doc stories until 1938. And Sunlight acts as though he already knows Doc and is on a first name basis.
If you’re a Doc completist, you’d probably want this. But I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to get it.
The Shadow one-shot is built around the idea of “put the Shadow in a futuristic setting.” Here, The Shadow is in a meditative state (again with the Eastern mysticism with The Shadow?) when he is contacted by a future civilization in need. (Think of Marvel‘s Doctor Strange when he would separate his consciousness from his body.)
The civilization is threatened by an alien race and needs someone of The Shadow’s skills to direct their defenses. Which he does. Of course, what is not answered is for how long, and what about his body back in New York?
Frankly, like the Doc comic, my take was “meh.”
Dynamite hasn’t made use of the Altered States concept since, so don’t know if this means the first go-around didn’t pan out in terms of sales.
