How I got the book is beyond me. I'm thinking I got the book as a prize from my dentist. But, he only carried Archie and Harvey Comics. Maybe I had a real bad cavity and as a reward my mom took me to the comic book store before going back to school. Anyways, I had the comic book in my backpack and so I used it to craft my letter.
Flash forward 24-years later and I still had never read Dakota North #1. Over time, I lost that issue and actually forgot about the bodyguard/ private investigator. Then a year ago, while in vacation in the Smoky Mountains, I was reading a trade paperback collection of New Avengers titles. Low and behold, somebody was using the services of one Dakota North for a case.
Remembering that Valentine's Day assignment and feeling a little guilty having never read the book, I made it my mission to find the comic and give it the read it properly deserved. Over the course of a few months I found the entire series of Dakota North. It wasn't that very hard as only 5 issues were published. (Jump ahead another year and I had forgotten I had the complete series until it was time to take another trek up those same Smoky Mountains. Well, I decided not to procrastinate any further!)
Dakota North is considered the 2nd to last nail in Marvel editor Jim Shooter's coffin at the House of Ideas. Lots of time and money was spent on this series. With it's contemporary style and characters drafted in real life fashions, Dakota was a critical success. Sadly, it was a huge flop financially.
Comics featuring women wasn't unheard of in 1986 when Dakota #1 was published. But those titles didn't find much commercial success and it was even harder for an entirely all-new character to get any love from fans of the Big Two publishers- especially if the character had zero super powers. But, Shooter was a man who could obviously see the future and he took a gamble on the feisty redhead. Sadly, the visionary editor bet heavily on red about 30 years too soon.
In this premiere issue, North is hired to protect an up-and-coming designer whose been getting threats over his revolutionary new style. Posing as a model, North keeps a close eye on her client and intercepts several deadly attacks aimed at him. Normally, just risking your neck to save the life of a total stranger (albeit a payer customer HOPEFULLY) would be enough stress in anyone's life. But Dakota's world is going to get a little more hectic when her baby brother, teenage rebel Ricky North moves in!
Created by writer Martha Thomases and artist Tony Salmons, Dakota North #1 wasn't half bad. Salmons art style looks like a series of sketches you'd see a fashion designer create for the new fall line. It was outstanding but just a little too highbrow for the Marvel Universe of 1986.
The storyline so far is interesting as are the characters. They do still have some rough edges to them but hey it's the first issue: give it time! The star of the show isn't Dakota, however; it's her brother Ricky. He's rude, crude, and is given all of the funniest lines. I hope to see more of him in the remaining 4 issues of the regular series turned unfairly into a limited series without any warning (more on that in my review of issue #4 and 5!)
It took me a quarter of a decade to read this issue, but it was worth the wait. I'm hooked on Dakota North and I'm not so embarrassed to have written that love letter to her sight unseen. I just hope she don't let me down in the next issue.
Worth Consuming
Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.
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