In the mid-80's, Archie Comics took a chance and expanded their line beyond Archie and his pals, reviving their "Mighty Heroes", who'd been around since the company was known as MLJ Comics back in the Golden Age. Anyone who felt that the Archie brand wasn't their bag but were adventure/superhero fans were meant to be the target audience.
Unfortunately, the Red Circle line, later rechristened "Archie Adventure", didn't last very long. For me, it started one night when I was going into Albany for an event, and, while waiting for a bus connection, I stopped at a local newsstand and picked up an issue of the revived Blue Ribbon Comics. The headliner was The Fox, in this case a 2nd generation hero picking up where his father had left off years before. Through local comics shops, I was able to pick up as many Red Circle/Archie Adventure titles as I could. It was a nice alternative to DC & Marvel, but, as noted, it didn't last, ending after about 2-3 years. DC would pick up a license to reboot many of the characters or concepts in 1991 under the Impact banner, but that, too, was short lived.
In 2013, the Red Circle label, first established by Archie in the 70's for a horror anthology book, has been revived again. The two local comics shops in the hometown hadn't been carrying the first of these new titles, the New Crusaders, but, as I was thumbing through a recent Previews catalogue, I caught sight of The Fox. finally being granted his own series. I subscribed through my neighborhood shop straight away.
The Fox captures the whimsical spirit of the 60's, and the drama of the 80's incarnation all in one neat, nice package, as presented by veteran writer Mark Waid (Green Hornet) and illustrator Dean Haspiel, whose artistic style is a mix of Steve Ditko, Alex Toth, & Carmine Infantino. In fact, Haspiel's cover work evokes memories of Toth in particular. As disenchanted as I've become with DC's "New 52", and being uninterested in "Marvel Now", I'm always looking for alternatives. This is one that should stick around for a while this time, provided it gets enough attention. Unfortunately, Archie devoted all their media attention in October to Afterlife With Archie, which promptly sold out its first printing. Once again, Archie's heroes have a steep climb to make.
The success of Free Comic Book Day was bound to lead to something similar being created for Halloween. I'm not sure exactly when Halloween Comicfest started, whether it was last year or this year, but amazingly, it didn't get the same kind of attention as the spring tradition, even though Halloween fell this year exactly 8 days before "Thor: The Dark World" is to open in theatres. Unlike FCBD, the neighborhood shop has no restrictions on the books you can pick up for free, so I grabbed as many as I felt I needed.
Highlights:
DC is reissuing the classic maxiseries, Batman: The Long Halloween, by Jeph "Ear" Loeb & Tim "Garage" Sale, as a (presumably hardcover) graphic novel, meant for Christmas shoppers. DC also is showcasing another Bat-book, Batman: L'il Gotham, which looks like it was drawn with watercolors. Not my idea of a fun read, but the kids might dig. Archie is reviving Archie's Pals & Gals just this one time, in an ashcan format filled likely with reprint material you'd find in the digest books carried by Walmart, Rite Aid, and other stores. Their other entry isn't an ashcan of Afterlife, but rather a preview of Sonic: Lost World, based on Sega's latest Sonic The Hedgehog video game, which will be on a lot of people's shopping lists between now & Christmas Eve.
Marvel is reissuing Thor: God of Thunder 1 & doing a special 1st issue of Ultimate Spider-Man (based on the inanely lame TV show). The latter also includes random pages of Steve Ditko Amazing Spider-Man artwork, rewritten with bad jokes which does a disservice to Ditko & Stan Lee's original stories from the 60's. Avoid at all costs! Image serves up an ashcan of Robert Kirkman's Super Dinosaur. Kirkman, the creator The Walking Dead, has become Image's most prolific writer in years. Over at Dark Horse, Art Baltazar's latest, Itty Bitty Hellboy, gets the ashcan treatment as well. It's meant to be DH's answer to Baltazar's Tiny Titans series at DC, where he is wrapping up The Green Team, which, oh, by the way, ends its run in January after 8 issues. Itty Bitty Hellboy aspires to be a homage to Harvey Comics' Hot Stuff and its ilk from back in the day, but Hellboy isn't meant for this sort of thing. Avoid!
Idea & Design Works (IDW) is the new home for Cartoon Network properties previously published by DC. Samurai Jack merited only a 1-shot from DC about 10 years ago, but IDW had just released the first issue of a new series earlier in October. About a week later, The Powerpuff Girls followed. Ben 10 appeared in a CN anthology book at DC, but his comics rights are shared by Viz, which is doing a Ben 10 Omniverse book, based on the current series. IDW is adapting the original Ben 10. Meh.
We reported a week ago that CN was putting Beware the Batman on the bench due to low ratings, and giving the series the same kind of shabby treatment accorded other CN series that are favorites of older fans, not the target demographic CN is looking for, which, in this writer's estimation, would be tweens and under, something in the vicinity of 6-9. Fortunately, DC has come to the rescue with a comics version of Beware, released 10 days ago. Producer-head writer Mitch Watson made his comics debut on the sampler released in May, but isn't writing the book. Maybe he should give comics a shot, since CN has turned their back on him in recent months. The book looks nice, and picks up the story as seen on CN. I'm still not on board with a younger, 20-something Katana, but whatever. If CN history is any barometer, this will be, sadly, a short-term series, and it shouldn't be.
We give both The Fox & Beware the Batman a rating of A-.
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