I had previously posted on an interesting pulp-style comicbook series that stars a 1930s-era aviatrix and adventurer, Athena Voltaire. She gets pulled into matters dealing with the occult and Nazis.
At the time I had only read the Compendium volume from Dark Horse, which has the earlier stories, but hadn’t gotten the followup collections of the comicbooks.
Created and written by Steve Bryant (with early assistance from co-writer Paul Daly), there are four collections so far, with art by several, with three more planned. Each reprints four issues of the comic published by Action Lab Comics, though they usually have a Kickstarter to fund the collections.
The collections are:
- Athena Voltaire and the Volcano Goddess (2017)
- Athena Voltaire and the Sorcerer Pope (2018)
- Athena Voltaire and the Golden Dawn (2018)
- Athena Voltaire and the Terror on the Orient Express (2022)
- The Devil’s Sea (TBD)
- The Ritual of Sarnath (TBD)
- “The Wrap up” (TBD)
Athena is the daughter of a stage magician, and learned various skills helping him in his act, as well as in the circus they traveled with. Then she joined an air circus, learned to fly, and now operates in Los Angeles as a pilot-for-hire.
There are only a few recurring characters, though they aren’t in every story. There is a mysterious British SIS agent, Desmond Forsyth, though it’s hinted that Forsyth may not be his real name. Lieutenant, later Major, Klimt is a recurring Nazi foe. There is a mysterious man known only as “Mr. X” whose face is swathed in bandages, who seems to be working both sides (British and Nazis), but probably is really working for a mysterious group called Golden Dawn, who seems behind a lot of things. There isn’t a standing team of associates that tags along for each story, though there is the mysterious Brotherhood of Shambalha that helps out in the background at times, and has the support of a millionaire tied to them.
Now, as the author has worked out an overall storyline, this allows for hints and subplots that will pay off later. So a scene or a hint may not make sense in a story that will in a later volume.
First up, Athena Voltaire and the Volcano Goddess has her going to Hawaii to fight Nazis and the titular volcano goddess. She is working with Desmond on some island in the South China Sea (do we return to it in a later work?) in a mission for millionaire Caine Foster. She meets up with her dad, who gives her a necklace needed for Pele. She also meets and kind of teams up with movie actor Carter Charles. He’s a co-star of a movie about Athena. In Hawaii, they met an interesting whip-wielding police detective, Chang Apana. It would be nice to see him again. Major Klimt is the leader of the Nazis, but at the end, she goes in a different direction.
In Athena Voltaire and the Sorcerer Pope, Athena has to stop Nazis from getting an artifact that belonged to Pope Sylvester II, who some claim was a sorcerer (he’s a real pope and he was so accused). We meet a female associate of Desmond: Pippa Nightengale. And we (and they) are introduced to the mysterious Mr. X. Athena and Desmond soon meet up in the quest for the item, also dealing with Nazis the whole way. They stop them, but the lead Nazi, a Baron von Strum, gets away. Will he be trouble again?
And in Athena Voltaire and the Golden Dawn, she is off looking for a previously unknown work by Leonardo da Vinci, contending with Nazis (again) and, now, mobsters. Athena meets Pippa in this one, our Nazi baron from the previous issue returns, and we meet a medium who works for the Golden Dawn, one Herr Toterman. When you see what happens with the Nazis at the end, you’ll wonder exactly where the Golden Dawn fits into things.
In Terror on the Orient Express, we have a take on a couple of movies, as Athena is heading from Istanbul on the famed train. But a passenger has brought along something he got from Mr. X — and it’s killing fellow passengers. Athena is meeting a friend (from one of the stories in the prose collection) and also encounters a fellow adventurer, Benton Quinn. I have no idea where they previously met. The intro story actually has a trio of short, prior adventures of Athena: one in Antarctica, and two from her youth. Oh, and the Nazis are invading a certain island in the South China Sea. Hmmm. And Major Klimt is there.
I’m not sure when the next one is coming out, or sure if any of the individual comics have come out yet. There should be a Kickstarter for the collection later this year for the next one, which is what I prefer. But I’ll keep my eye out for it.
