The idealistic storybook lives of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys is over. Brothers Joe and Frank are at odds with each other. Their father was killed by a dirty cop. Nancy's father turned state's evidence and lost his law license. The town of River Heights is in serious economic peril if the new company from China bypasses them for another burg. But this is nothing compared to the death of one Nancy Drew, female super-sleuth!
Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Death of Nancy Drew #1
Written by Anthony Del Col
Art by Joe Eisma
Published by Dynamite Entertainment
Rating: Teen Plus
Retail: $3.99
The Death of Nancy Drew is a sequel to Anthony Del Col's previous Dynamite team-up of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Following up from 2017's The Big Lie, things definitely went from bad to worse. And as Joe Hardy investigates Nancy's mysterious death, the teen detective begins a slow spiral into paranoia for he's convinced that the accident was no accident!
The artwork in this series is covered by Joe Eisma. The Morning Glories artist goes full noir in this series, thanks in very large part to colorist Salvatore Aiala.
Fans of gritty reboots like Riverdale, or even the new Nancy Drew series on TheCW, will love this new mystery series from Dynamite Entertainment. Writer Anthony Del Col (Kill Shakespeare) has already riled up fans of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys by killing off one of the most beloved characters in teen fiction. In this first issue alone, not only is Nancy Drew no more and the Hardy Boys are no longer a team but other characters from young adult novels are seeing their lives upended.
For example, the Bobbsey Twins, whom I didn't know were even affiliated with Nancy, Joe or Frank, find themselves facing poverty after their father loses his business due to some questionable practices. Whose next on Anthony Del Col's hit list; The Box-Car Children? Encyclopedia Brown? It's seems like nobody from our childhood who solved mysteries is safe!
Speaking of childhoods, this is a teen and older rated series. This a quantum leap from those original chapter novels first published in the 1940s and 50s. This is a Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mystery is that is little bit more grown-up.
This series is dropping at the perfect time. A new release in the second wave since comics returned, those of us who have been closed up inside their homes for nearly 2 months will have a chance to exercise our brains in this intriguing mystery. This new miniseries will make you ponder. Everything you thought you know about the teen mystery sleuths of your youth is wrong!
Can you solve the mystery before it's too late?
Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Death of Nancy Drew #1 will debut in print on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2020!
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.
There’s nothing like a good mystery to read in anticipation of Halloween! It always helps to have a great detective to solve it! Family Comic Friday has not one, not two, but three classic sleuths on hand to solve this conundrum! Just us, along with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, as we solve The Case of the Missing Adults!
Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Case of the Missing Adults!
Written by Scott Bryan Wilson
Art by Bob Solanovicz
Colors by Valentina Briski
Published by Dynamite Entertainment
Pages: 108
Retail: $12.99
Bayport High School has a new student. Welcome Ms. Nancy Drew! Only her first day of school is a strange one as all of the school’s teachers and adult staff have disappeared!
In fact- all of the adults of the surrounding town of Bayport have vanished as well!
On the case are the brothers Joe and Frank Hardy! Can these amateur gumshoes find out the truth behind all these missing grown-ups? Maybe if the two siblings can stop fighting each other long enough over all the silly stuff bros fight over! Okay- probably not! It’s a good thing Nancy Drew is along to help solve this mystery too!
I really enjoyed this reboot of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew! All of your favorite companions are along for the ride; including Chet, Biff, Ned and Callie. The Case of the Missing Adults is a massive team-up of epic proportions for fans of Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon.
Taking over the writing duties for those legendary authors is Scott Bryan Wilson (Batman). Wilson peppers in a hearty amount of humor and science in this graphic novel for readers 9-12 years of age. Sure, this book is rather silly at times, but there’s a fairly solid mystery involving missing parents and self-moving skeleton!
Don’t worry! The skeleton isn’t scary. But there is one clue in this mystery that never got solved. It involves the constant smell of the insides of a water pistol. Was that part of the mystery a red herring? Or did Scott Bryan Wilson take a page out of fellow mystery writer Dashell Hammett’s playbook and he forgot to get around to that piece of evidence?
So not all of the dots to this story connect. But The Mystery of the Missing Adults was an enjoyable read! The artwork and coloring was quite good and the antics of the brothers Hardy and Nancy Drew was enough for me to overlook it. Though I really want to know just what the inside of a water pistol smells like!!! Maybe some further adventures of these teen detectives will reveal that oversight!
Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Missing Adults will debut in digital
formats on October 23rd, 2019. Hardcover copies will hit stores on November 5th.
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
