I was really hoping I’d like this New Pulp-inspired comic, Adventureman (Image Comics), from Matt Fraction (really Matt Fritchen) and artists Terry and Rachel Dodson. The first issue, a triple-sized one, came out, and I picked it up.
At first glance, it seems interesting. We have Adventureman, a larger-than-life pulp hero in the mold of Doc Savage, who has an group of diverse associates, in a final fight with a band of their worst villains lead by Baron Bizarre. Defeated, we find out that we are being read the last Adventureman story, which ends on this cliffhanger.
It’s being read by single mom Claire to her young son, who is upset at this turn of events. Through a series of bizarre events, a strange young lady, who appears to the readers (at least me) to be one of Adventureman’s associates, pops into the mom’s used bookstore and leaves behind a previously unknown Adventureman novel. But she is chased by some shadowy figures and driven away in a car. Clearly this will start the adventure.
I guess what the reader should pick up is that Adventureman and his associates and enemies are real, but that through some kind of magic spell, not only did the villains defeat them, but changed reality so that no one remembers them as being real. Maybe they are all alive, but in some other reality. Maybe they can break through and return, but I’m not sure if that will happen.
We are also given some background materials by Matt Fraction giving his inspiration and ideas in creating this series, as well as information on the characters, along with some artwork. But it’s here that we see this won’t be as good as I had hoped, as well if you read more clearly the story.
While it seems Fraction has read some pulp works (he mentioned reading Philip José Farmer‘s Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life and The Spider novels, but nothing else), it seems he doesn’t have much love for the pulps. He slams them for being “racist, sexist, and colonialist.” While some of these elements existed in most of the literature of the time, it wasn’t as widespread as he thinks it was. Frankly, the New Pulp authors are doing a better job than he is of raising above some of this within their works.
In the creation of Adventureman and his enemy, they seem more like over-the-top comic book characters than the more realistic, if a bit larger-than-life, pulp characters. The names aren’t what pulp heroes would have, nor do you have such superpowers or magical powers in the pulps. And if he’s a pulp hero, why are his adventures in fancy hardback books instead of pulp magazines (or reprinted in cheap paperbacks)?
Claire and her family are strange, as in unlikely. At a family dinner, we see Claire and her six sisters, along with their father (their mother being dead). The parents are Jewish, but Claire’s sisters are all ethnically diverse, so I have to assume all are adopted or fosters (as well as being around the same age). And futher unlikely, all are outstanding experts in their fields and unmarried. Claire seems to be the only average person, being a single mother and running the used bookstore of her deceased mother. She is also handicapped by hearing loss.
But we are lead to believe that she will be the hero of this story, somehow taking over the legacy of Adventureman. Uh, ok. Not my idea of a female adventure hero. We have Pat Savage, Domino Lady, The Tocsin, and many others to follow from the pulps themselves, as well as New Pulp characters like Vic Challengers are better models.
Overall, this shows Fraction’s poor understanding of the pulps.
Now, the artwork is great. I’m not familiar with the Dodsons, but they do excellent work. Someone should get them to do a pulp or pulp inspired series without Fraction.
I’ll not bother with the rest of the series. I see a collected edition — I assume to contain the first three or four issues — is planned for November. I might get it to see how it turns out. But this strikes me as another disaster like the Dynamite take on The Black Bat or most of DC’s First Wave works.
I haven’t been reading this column for very long but it seems that you gush over the stories and novels of every newcomer who thinks they understand the pulps and has a word processing program on their computer. You’ve sounded like a naive cheerleader rooting on the sidelines for a last place team. So I’m surprised to see a negative comment. To me that’s encouraging. Not that I want all negative reviews, I just don’t want all positive ones.
When Adventureman was announced I was fairly excited for it. That the Dodson’s were handling the artwork sold me on the series. They are terrific (at least to my liking). I haven’t read the first couple of issue yet, so I can’t praise your review or argue about it. But I do agree with you about Dynamite and pulp. They do not understand what makes pulp work. Most people (at least today) don’t know what it is. They think it’s nothing but gaudy violence, weird villains, and lots of death. Even when they leave the characters in their native time period, the writers have the characters acting unlike themselves. The Spider, Black Bat, Doc Savage, much of The Shadow — just not good stuff. The artwork was often bad, too (with minor exceptions, of course, especially the Year One run of the Green Hornet — I liked it) It’s not just Dynamite, either. Now Comics’ handling of the Green Hornet was terrible, too.
Your review, though, has given me something to think about as I read through the first few issues. And a reason to read your next review. Thanks.
Clearly you haven’t been reading my blog very long because I have had several negative reviews. I did NOT care for the Dynamite Black Bat series (I even dropped the comic and later picked up cheap the trade paperback, which only served to cement my dislike), nor did I care for Moonstone’s first take of the Black Bat (until folks like Ron Fortier was able to take over that character there) and have been critical of others works, such as DC’s First Wave line and others here and there.
In my reviews of other new stories of classic characters, if I felt a story did NOT do justice to the character, I would state as much. I had some problems with the most recent Ravenwood collection because of this.
As to original works, like new pulp, I have been critical at times when I felt it warranted. The first Wild, Inc story had problems I hope are fixed in the next one. And at times I’ve been critical of too many typos and bad production values.
In fact, in some ways “Adventureman” reminds me of DC’s First Wave. Only difference is using new characters rather then original. So my problem here is no love or even respect for the source material of pulps, as well as what I see as tiresome ‘sjw’ nonsense that seems to be too present in much of the current comic medium. Compare that with “Incognito” and other works by Brubaker, which gives a different take on pulp without being a fanish copy, but also showing respect for the original. Am curious to get his new “Pulp” comic story.
At this point, like Dynamite’s Black Bat, I will NOT be getting the following “Adventureman” comics but may (may) get the collection just to see how the storyline works out. I just feel that excellent artwork aside, that I will most likely NOT like the story.