Police Comics #1 Facsimile Edition

Take a good look at this 1941 premiere issue of Police Comics, published by non-defunct Quality Comics. Off to the side, there's Plastic Man, a one day member of the Justice League and future star of his own animated TV series and numerous solo titles. Underneath is the Human Bomb, a long-time member of the Freedom Fighters of Earth-X and occasional reservist of the All-Star Squadron. Coming in 3rd is the Phantom Lady, another member of the Freedom Fighters and star of her own solo title (twice) in the 1950s. Let's not worry about the clean-up hitter, the Mouthpiece. The world will never see him again after issue #13. Instead, I want you to focus on whom the editors choose to be the star of this anthology: The Firebrand!

Wearing a red bandana and mask, red pants and a see-through shirt, the Firebrand didn't have any super powers. He was just a bored socialite who decided to become a vigilante for kicks. After issue #13 of Police Comics, the Firebrand would also be shelved. Though, he would make a few appearances with the Freedom Fighters under DC's banner. However, his new home wasn't all that welcoming to him, unceremoniously being killed off by a super powered foe in the never published Cancelled Comics Cavalcade before just being retconned onto the sidelines and replaced by his sister in the All-Star Squadron reboot in 1981. 

Yes, Firebrand made his debut in the pages of this book. But so did Plastic Man, the Human Bomb, Phantom Lady and the Mouthpiece (remember, I told you to forget about him.) With all of these first appearances, I have to ask: why did Quality Comics choose the Firebrand to be the lead off character of this book?

Reed Crandall was the co-creator on Firebrand. He was a wunderkind writer for Quality before scaring the pants off of me in various E.C. horror titles. Maybe they were trying to build up his participation on this book. But why not give Crandall credit on the cover and not just the splash page on the Firebrand's opening story?

Based on his lack of powers, maybe Quality was trying to compete against National's (now DC) Batman. But in 1941, Batman wasn't even in the top 10 best selling superheroes. About to enter into the second World War, it was patriotic heroes like Captain America and mega-strong heroes like Captain Marvel and Superman that were dominating newsstands. Yet, for several issues, Quality kept banking on the Firebrand to be the hero to lead the title. Finally with issue #5, the publisher realized that they had a hit with Plastic Man and he became the cover star for a majority of the title's 127 issue run. 

I wish I was able to have owned an original copy of this book. However, it's a facsimile edition from 2024. Though I've read the origin of Plastic Man several times before, I still wanted to own this book. I've never read any of the other stories inside previously and I love going back in time exploring the ads and editorial material. It was a good read. The main superhero takes were the best. The other stories involving vigilantes or average Joe's taking on various criminal elements were the weaker stories. Mostly because of how over-the-top the dialogue was. Lots of cheesy one-liners and over use of 'criminal slang' that I've never encountered in my frequent watching of crime noir or as a teen devourer of Philip Marlowe. 

Oddly enough, there's very little presence of policemen in a comic book titled Police Comics. There's not even a single story starring any of the boys in blue. I find that strange. Rather strange.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Spirit Archives, Vol. 3

I could have finished this book in September. Only there was a Halloween story. So, I took a break until the week before All Hallow's. I read that seasonal tale and progressed until I hit the Thanksgiving story. Hitting the breaks again, this was my last Turkey Day read for 2023. I then kept reading until there came a Christmas caper! So I waited until I got a little bit closer to Santa's arrival. And then I forgot all about this book. 

I had picked up a collection of all of Will Eisner's Christmas Spirit stories. I think after I did the review, I probably got all mixed up in my head and combined that book with this one and just moved on. Thankfully, working on my comic book inventory and filing, I realized that I still had this book to finish. To my delight, I didn't mind all the delays because I really, really love The Spirit. 

This collection is early Will Eisner Spirit. At book's start, the Spirit has only been running in syndicated Sunday newspapers for a year. This edition marks the beginning of year 2 of the Spirit. Eisner's genius is showing through. However, many of those iconic villains have yet to be introduced yet. Arch-enemy, The Octopus and femme fatale P'Gell are about 5 years away from becoming a part of the Spirit's Rogue's Gallery. Childhood love turned law breaker Sand Sarif won't come back into the former Denny Colt's life for another decade. Despite some of these notable absences, there are still some memorable characters to be found inside.

The pint-sized P.S. Smith causes trouble for the Spirit and baddies alike for at least 2 hilarious stories. Spirit sidekick Ebony White has a number of misadventures with his cousin and other family members. And we can't forget Commissioner Dolan's daughter Ellen, who is madly in love with the Spirit. She works so freaking well as the Gal Friday and Kate Hepburn to the Spirit's Cary Grant/Spencer Tracy. But she's also great on her own; especially in a romp where Ellen joins an all-women's football team that's playing a team that is nothing but tough guys in drag attempting to beat the point spread!

By the start of break #1 in my reading of this book, I took to Amazon to buy up a couple more volumes. I knew that my wife wasn't going to get me these for my birthday or Christmas, so I was clear in buying up a couple of books. Thanks to remembering that I needed to review this collection, I went back to Amazon to snag a couple more. These Archive editions are not cheap. They retail for $49.99 and many are either out of print and that means whatever copies of those I manage to find are not cheap. But hopefully, I wind up with all 26 volumes and the complete run of original Will Eisner Spirit stories in my possession.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Archie #1 (2015)

Archie #1 came out with over 20 variant covers.
This is the cover to issue #1U, art by T-Rex.

    

 74 years after his debut in issue #22 of Pep Comics, the powers that be decided to reboot Archie Andrews and his gang. Tackling that momentous task are Mark Waid (writer) and Fiona Staples (art.) Now Archie is a character that's going through many incarnations- Little Archie, a caveman, a rocker, a zombie, and countless other roles. But at the heart of each story, the Riverdale gang was wholesome and innocent.

   Archie couldn't decide between Betty or Veronica. Jughead was lazy and addicted to food. Reggie was also trying to one up Arch and Moose and Midge were the perfect couple. That was the Archie gang in it's very essence; whether they were living in colonial times or performing a parody of MASH (as the Archie Players.)

    It's not like Archie didn't adapt with the times either. Moose wasn't stupid, turns out he was dyslexic. Archie entered a bi-racial relationship with Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats. Even a gay character moved into town in the form of Kevin Keller.

   So why did Archie have to be completely remade? Don't get me wrong, I love Mark Waid. If you've read my blog much, you'll know how much I am a fan of his recent work on Daredevil. Waid is a great writer and when I met him a few years back, at a mass signing he was only 1 of 2 who actually talked to the fans and not just grunted 'hey' before passing the book to the next guy to sign.

   In Archie #1 Archie and Betty have just broken up but neither is sure if that was the right thing to do or not. Complicating matters is that Betty decides to go to a school dance with another guy as Archie keeps avoiding her. But thankfully, the day is saved when Archie fills in for the lead guitarist who is a no-show. However, things are not all hunky dory as at the very end of the book, Arch walks past a giant billboard proclaiming that Lodge Industries are moving into town.

    That's right folks, Veronica doesn't even appear in this book. Along with that, Jughead is more of a slacker than ever before as he doesn't even have food as a motivator for him to do anything and Reggie is virtually a non-entity.

From what I can tell about the future of this book is that when the Lodge's move to Riverdale, the love triangle between Archie/ Betty/ and Veronica will begin and I am assuming so will the Archie/ Veronica/ Reggie one as well. Why did we have to reboot Archie for that? Presumably, Mr. Lodge's company moving to town will impact someone, probably Mr. Andrews, into losing their job and Veronica's dad will probably be more cunning in trying to remove Archie from the picture altogether. But, you don't need a reboot to do that stuff either.

   Making Archie black or gay, or even a woman would be a true reboot. All Mark Waid does is take a beloved childhood icon and make him unrecognizable with new art and designs by Fiona Staples. But again, why do that at all? It was just announced this weekend at Comic-Con that Archie and the Ramones will be teaming up for a special issue. The artwork is to be in the classic Archie Comics style that have thrived for over 40 years.

   This issue also reprints the very first appearance of Archie in that issue of Pep I mentioned earlier. It's supposed to show the reader that times change. Yes- the Archie of 1941 looks very different from the Archie of 1970,96, or 2014. But so did Superman, Batman, and Captain America when they first arrived in the Golden Age of Comics. But with all of these characters, their iconic looks evolved while maintaining a timeless style that any child could point out of a line-up. (Don't believe me- take a picture of Batman from 1938 and a picture of Archie from this issue. The child will instant point out Batman but be clueless as to who this red-headed guy is.)

My point is: the Archie gang of 2015 looks more like kids you would see at the mall- not Pop's Chok'lit Shoppe.

   If this was a book made up of completely new characters, I would be singing it's praises. For a contemporary look at teen life in the New Millennium, it's flawless. But as the next generation's Archie- it lacks depth, nostalgia, and recognizability.

    Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.