The Mighty Crusaders, Vol. 1

I'm a big fan of MLJ/Archie's Red Circle line of heroes. They're just so darn difficult to find. Their golden and silver age books are ultra rare and too expensive for my wallet. The bronze age titles weren't massive sellers and so there's not a lot of those issues floating around. In the 90s, DC had the rights to them and touted them as !mpact Comics, only to be brought down once more by poor sales. (I'm doing pretty good at collecting these ubiquitous dollar bin floppies.) Then there's the modern age stuff. Why didn't anybody tell me that there was modern day Red Circle books out there?

Under the imprint Dark Circle, Ian Flynn and Kelsey Shannon linked together every incarnation of the Red Circle heroes in this 4-issue miniseries from 2017. It's been a couple of years after the last version of the Mighty Crusaders disbanded after the colossal battle with longtime Crusaders enemy, the Brain Emperor. Friends died in the conflict. Public support for heroes waned. Communities rebuilt. But now with the return of a second generation of super-villains, Joe Higgins, now referred to as the Broken Shield believes that the time for another incarceration of the Mighty Crusaders has come.

Unfortunately, this new group is far from a cohesive unit. Their leader, the latest to carry the name of the Shield, Victoria Adams, is too much of a loner and has trouble delegating to her teammates during a crisis. It doesn't help that legacy hero, the Fly, undermines the struggling new leader's every command. It also doesn't help that Higgins added another legacy, the over-confident Web to the lineup without the Shield's knowledge. Old-timer Steel Sterling is secretly battling the effects of time. Former Crusaders leader the Comet is with the team. However, the nightmares of that climatic fight with the Brain Emperor have left the hero's confidence rattled. Then there's the wild cards: Jaguar and Darkling. The Jaguar is teetering on the edge of insanity as the ancient god that shares her body is demanding sacrifice while the mysterious Darkling, the most powerful of all the Crusaders, is only on the team to prevent her from becoming a villain.

This book also comes with an exclusive short-story about the Mighty Crusaders predecessors, the New Crusaders. Also written by Ian Flynn, this story is supposed to bridge the reader between the two more recent superhero teams. I probably would have liked this story if not for Flynn himself. In this book's foreword, Flynn warns readers that the new team might have connections with the New Crusaders that left them confused. Thus the inclusion of the prequel story. Well, I actually felt like the main story didn't need the extra tale and that short was more confusing and unnecessary than Ian Flynn intended. Possibly even worse, that clunky short had an unintended consequence; it's put me off from wanting to read New Crusaders: Dark Tomorrow. 

Kelsey Shannon's art was so lively and animated. In fact, it looked like the storyboards that you might see for a cartoon show. There's been rumors of a Mighty Crusaders cartoon series since the 80s. I've pretty much given up hope on that project. So if Shannon's artwork is as close as we'll ever get to seeing the Red Circle heroes on the tube, I'm fine with that.

A very good opening salvo. I love that these guys can't seem to get along! I'm excited to see what's on store in volume 2. I just don't know where to find it. I found this book on a total lark at Ollie's and I didn't see any other similar books. Well, it turns out that's because there is no volume 2. Despite a promise of more story and this book being labeled 'Volume 1', these guys just didn't catch on and were quickly shelved. The Red Circle guys just can't catch a break!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.