Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!
Up and Down (and Up and Down and Up Again) With DC Comics' SILVER AGE Series (PART ONE)
B+. B+. D-. A-. C-. A+. C-. C+. B-. A+. B+. A+.
That averages out to a solid and perfectly respectable "B."
Unca just thought he'd go ahead and get that much decently out of the way, first.
Given some of the (quite frankly) half-assed assessments and off-the-
mark maunderings he's noted on the various and sundry comics message boards regarding this series, this past month or so...
... well: Unca just thought a wee, small dram or dosage of comparative
sanity might well be in order, at this juncture. 
Initially conceptualized and ramrodded by the consistently top-notch Mark Waid (with some measure of assistance along the way, one presumes, afforded by editors Dan Raspler and Tony Bedard), DC Comics' twelve-issue SILVER AGE limited series was intended, plainly, to serve as heartfelt paean to those heady, halcyon days before the greater portion of the comics industry had noisily and messily soiled itself, storytelling-wise.
(For those of you playing along, at home: this means, obviously, prior
to the errant publication of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS #1 through #12, inclusive.)
Writers still weren't wholly incapable of appreciating (and sharing, with the fortunate reader) the marvelous, inescapable silliness inherent in the whole Fighting-Evil-Whilst-Gallivanting-About-In-One's-
Underthings schtick; the good, golden coin of four-color f-u-n
was still being esteemed more highly than that of its counterfeit, "continuity";
and people still read the bloody damned things, as a result. (Let's
not even think about getting Unca started, here, all right, people...?)
To that end, then: the collective of craftsmen working alongside the estimable Waid, in this instance (Kurt Busiek, Geoff Johns, D. Curtis Johnson, Karl Kesel, and Tom Peyer, among others), employed best efforts to write in the recognizable style of such Silver Age storytelling pioneers as (say) John Broome, Gardner Fox and Robert Kanigher; with everything the conjuring of said names implies, to the thoughtful reader and/or aficionado.
The end results of said efforts were, in a word... mixed, certainly.
SILVER AGE SECRET FILES #1 (July, 200; various writers and artists) makes this point manifest, and then some.
The greater storytelling portion of said comic is given over to D. Curtis [CHASE] Johnson's "prelude" to the rest of the series, entire; a Justice League of America story entitled (appropriately enough) "The Silver Age."
Serving as the reader's introduction (how d'you do?) to said series' appointed mega-villain, Agamemno; Johnson's effort does a better-than-
credible job of aping the larger particulars of Gardner Fox's trademarked Silver Age JUSTICE LEAGUE "style," overall. To wit:
*** ... teammates banter, good-naturedly, without snarling and snapping and ending up threatening to bloodily disembowel one another, over this perceived slight or that one. (Unca misses that, actually. He misses it quite a lot.)
*** ... the plot, itself, is admirably cogent and straightforward; with principal characters (as well as their respective abilities and motivations) obligingly introduced to the (potential) new reader, for sweet clarity's sake.
*** ... the accompanying artwork, provided by one Mike Collins -- late of DC's short-lived PETER CANNON: THUNDERBOLT series, if Unca is not much mistaken -- is handsome and uncluttered; serving to move the story smartly along, sans any unnecessary arm-waving or hullabalooing.
It's a nice, unassuming little piece of work, in other words. (Nor should
said assessment be read as "praising with faint damns," either. Unca reads
plenty worse than this, alas, each and every month. Whole
lot more often than he bloody used to, at any rate.)
The two "back-up" features bringing up the rear, however, pretty much illustrate, in miniature, where everyone else involved with "the SILVER AGE Project" went right...
... and (occasionally) howlingly and hysterically wrong.
On the plus side of the ledger, first, is Mark Waid's economical (only four pages long) and efficacious Dial "H " For Hero effort; a nicely rendered (by original series artist Jim Mooney) combination introduction and explication of said series' central conceit: young Robby Reed's miraculous and transforming "H "-Dial.
(It's worth noting again, surely, that Mark Waid ably accomplishes the twin feats of Introducing and Advancing the Character in a swift, scant f-o-u-r p-a-g-e-s, all told.
(Longtime comics readers will readily recall, doubtless, how it was once an accepted part of the working comics writer's craft to be consistently capable of doing precisely that: working competently within the "short-short story" parameters of such once-vital anthology titles as [say] HOUSE OF MYSTERY; STRANGE ADVENTURES; WEIRD WESTERN TALES; and THE WITCHING HOUR. "Fast in and faster out," in other words; with no pointless padding allowed betwixt reader and resolution.
(In structure as well as spirit, then, in other words: Mark Waid
gets a great, big "A," storytelling-wise.)
Comparative newcomer Jason Hernandez Rosenblatt, on the other hand -- re: a rather drab and pointless The Hawk and the Dove Meet The Creeper five-pager -- fares considerably less well, alas; utilizing a style which might reasonably lead one to wonder, in its marked condescension for the characters, why he'd even bothered in the first place, really.
Overall Grade, then: B+. (One full grade point deducted for the unfortunate Hawk/Dove/Creeper miscue.)
This allows us to segue, nicely, to the actual "Chapter One" proper: SILVER AGE #1.
(A Brian [CAMELOT 3000] Bolland cover, boy. Now, that's
what Unca calls starting things out right -- !)
If "Pawns of the Invincible Immortal!" [SILVER AGE #1; July, 2000; Mark
Waid, author; Terry Dodson, artist] suffers in execution at all,
said shortcomings (Black Canary as a charter JLAer, as opposed to Wonder
Woman; Lex Luthor as a Donald Trump wannabe, rather than a cunning
criminal super-scientist; etcetera) are almost certainly editorially imposed
ones, from above, in service to the dark, fannish god "Kawntinuity." (...
and showing a lamentable lack of faith, on someone's blue-penciling part,
in the very nature of this series, ultimately. I mean: if
you're gonna freakin' call it SILVER AGE, f'cryin' out loud... then bite
down on the bloody bullet, whydon'cha...?)
That much being decently confronted and commented upon, however: the Waid/Dodson tag-team acquits itself right honorably, actually.
In the course of a scheme engineered by the aforementioned Agamemno -- and aided and abetted, in turn, by Lex Luthor -- the startled members of the Justice League of America find themselves rudely shanghaied out of their own rightful forms, and into those of some of their most dreaded and implacable foemen; a longtime storytelling standard of the Silver Age, and one (if handled properly, at any rate) with a little fuel still left in its engine.
(For those who haven't yet read the comic in question, and were wondering: Superman/Lex Luthor; Batman/Penguin; Aquaman/Black
Manta; J'onn J'onzz/Dr.Light; Atom/Chronos;
Flash/Mr. Element; Black Canary/Catwoman;
Green Arrow/Felix Faust; and Green Lantern/ Sinestro.
NOW do I get to win Ben Stein's money...?)
Waid's script is filled with pleasantly humorous little "touches," throughout -- Batman's manifest disgust at being trapped in the Penguin's pudgy, out-of-shape body being Unca's chiefest favorite, among these -- and Dodson's renderings, accompanying, are polished and blessedly uncluttered, throughout.
After being imprisoned by the transformed villains (and promptly freeing themselves from said durance vile, via some cleverly engineered and applied teamwork), then: our assembled heroes-in-wolves-clothing scramble on various missions designed to remedy their unfortunate collective situ...
... leaving the real guys free (for the nonce) to set about Doing Some
Very Bad Things, Indeed.
Overall Grade, then: B+. (Next time out, fellahs: make it allllll the way "Silver Age"-y. And let the fanboys go
pound sand.)
Now, then: about those aforementioned bad guys...
"The League Without Justice!" [JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1; July, 2000; Mark Millar, author; Scot Kolins, artist] is -- with one sole auctorial exception -- one muddled and misguided mess, right from the proverbial git-go.
Turning our attentions, reluctantly, from the attractive (and nicely appropriate, stylistically) Ty Templeton cover: we are "treated" (not really the word wanted, here) to an unstintingly mean-spirited exercise in violent excess; with a final, four-color body count capable of eliciting low, admiring whistles from even the most jaded and hardened of SPAWN-
weaned fanboys.
"Green Lantern," "Flash," "J'onn J'onzz" and "Black Canary" take turns cruelly
slaughtering various members of the star-spanning Green Lantern Corps.
"Superman," "Aquaman," "Atom" and "Green Arrow"lay waste to an entire, miniaturized
civilization. "Aquaman" coolly commands every sea creature
within immediate telepathic "reach" to shred and devour one another.
(Unca's read Jim Starlin-authored comics with less bloodshed and carnage
going on in 'em, f'chrissakes -- !)
The one, sole neat "bit," earlier alluded to, is the one in which an excited "Green Arrow" lobbies hard (and -- ultimately -- successfully) to talk his felonious fellows into pausing just long enough to "remove these masks, and we'll find out who [the heroes] really are!"
"But why waste time with such useless information?" a puzzled Agamemno inquires of the faux archer. "Their secret identities will be meaningless, when we rule time and space!"
"Isn't that what we always say?" the much-vexed villain counters, heatedly. "Wouldn't it be nice to have a little insurance if -- Hell Forbid -- things go wrong?"
"I agree!" Not-Really-"Black Canary" seconds, nodding. "Lord knows how many times I've had Batman trussed up, and been too over-
confident to remove that darned cowl!"
The only thing Unca has to say regarding the artwork, in this particular, is that Mr. Kolins is capable of doing much, much better.
Overall Grade, then: D-. And only because Unca doesn't really like handing out "F"s, as a general rule.
Thankfully, for all concerned: Karl Kesel was waiting patiently
in the wings, with bucket and mop.
"A Small Matter of Time" [CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN #1; July, 200; Karl Kesel, author; Drew Johnson, artist] was an unalloyed delight, from beginning to end; with the aforementioned Kesel [THE HAWK AND THE DOVE; SUPERBOY] indulging his oft-expressed enthusiams, re: the four men "living on borrowed time," to the gleeful, storytelling fullest.
Drawn to the scene of a putative "crime" being committed by "Chronos" -- in actuality, an increasingly grumpy and dispirited Atom -- Ace, Rocky, Red and Prof find themselves (inadvertently) reduced to weeeeeeeee li'l bitty size; and still wind up giving a wonderful, wise-
cracking accounting of themselves, on all counts.
Any minor quibbles Unca has with this comic, ultimately, are with Mr. Johnson's contributions to same; said gentleman's faces, in particular, demonstrating the sadly all-too-prevalent reliance, nowadays (in Unca's estimation, at any rate), upon artistic "cheating" and shortcuts.
(That being said, however: Unca hastens to add that the young gentleman does display a happy faculty for panel composition, throughout; and -- if afforded sufficient opportunity -- shows every evidence of being able to outgrow the shortcomings aforementioned.)
Kesel's CHALLENGERS functions quite nicely as a "stand alone" comic, really;
and Unca does not hesitate to heartily recommend it to anyone out there
who normally appreciates and enjoys lucid plotting; fine, sharp dialogue; the
Silver Age Challengers of the Unknown; or just plain ol' good funnybooks,
really.
Overall Grade, then: A-. And if DC had any
bloody sense at all, they'd give Kesel an ongoing CHALLENGERS OF THE
UNKNOWN monthly. Like, yesterday.
So: two "B"s; an "A"; and one "D" (shoulda been an "F," really), then.
Not too shabby, so far, as these modern-day comics "events" generally go.
(Anybody here remember GENESIS? MILLENNIUM? How 'bout WAR OF THE
GODS? Or *shudder* ZERO HOUR, f'chrissakes. Want Unca to
stop, now...?)
Let's move along, right smartly, to Page Two, then...
... where the results are considerably more... ahhhhhhhh... wide ranging.
The SILVER AGE Limited Series (PAGE TWO)
The SILVER AGE Limited Series (PAGE THREE)
The SILVER AGE Limited Series (PAGE FOUR)
The SILVER AGE Limited Series (PAGE FIVE)
The SILVER AGE Limited Series (PAGE SIX)
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