We recently got the ninth volume in Airship 27‘s Mystery Men (& Women) series of New Pulp characters. This series is kind of like DC’s old Showcase comicbook or Street & Smith’s Crime Busters in providing a variety of New Pulp characters. Sadly, we haven’t gotten many who have spawned their own series.
In Vol. 9, we get another quartet of stories, including one character returning from the previous volume, and another who appeared in another series and is getting a solo story. As usual, each story gets several illustrations by Rob Davis.
In a story of redemption, Steelgrave is a former cop who happens to have enhanced strength and durability in Jaime Ramos‘s work. Years ago, he faced a foe who caused an ecological disaster in Detroit, which he has been blamed for. Now when his foe returns, will he be able to confront and defeat him? And what might the future hold for him?
From Jonathan W. Sweet, we get a solo adventure of his character The Black Wraith. She first appeared in the second Red Jackal volume, where it was hinted the two characters had prior adventures. Here she works alone and we learn more about her. She is Charlie Cook, a female detective operating in Washington, D.C., where she usually has female clients. Here a female senator approaches her about being blackmailed, and Charlie (as well as her identity as The Black Wraith), finds out there is much more to it. And we get the setup of a future enemy for her as well. Hopefully we’ll see more of this character soon, as well as some of the secondary characters.
Mark Allen Vann operates Xepico Press and has his own line (or universe) of New Pulp characters, which I have reviewed here and encourage people to check out. He first presented Killdevil in volume 8, who is Stephen Killdare, the Devil’s assassin. Killdare is a hired killer, working for a local mob boss. This time he gets involved with protecting a woman who is being targeted by her own husband. What makes this more complicated is she’s married to a mob boss. And is the daughter of a congressman. How did this happen? Adding to the mix is a crazed killer called the Bone Carver. This won’t be the last story of either of these two.
Zig Zag Man, really athlete Anthony Zigler, is the star of Jarrett Mazza‘s tale. Zig Zag Man has to use he abilities as a thief due to a debt to No-Face, a gangster leader. Can he get out of his debt and have a better life? He has one more job to do. What will happen then? I felt this one was more comicbookish than pulpish.
As always, it’s another great collection of stories. I’m not sure when we’ll see the next volume. I very much want to see more with The Black Wraith, but certainly, more Killdevil stories would be nice as well.
