Miss Fury and Masks

Ever since Dynamite advertised her appearance, it was only a matter of time before they advertised a series with Miss Fury. Written by Rob Williams (a host of Marvel credits to his name that I never read) and art by Jack Herbert (one of Dynamite's more capable artists, doing admirable work on Kirby Genesis) and a host of covers by Alex Ross and a host of others that are unknown to me and from the ones shown, none of which are particularly striking.

In the article at CBR,  it talks about the story being about the original Miss Fury and make it sound like she's bouncing between the past and present.  But, for all it's talk about being about the original character, it doesn't actually sell us on or talk about the original character. The places it does, it gets it wrong such as referring to her as a pulp heroine. She never appeared in the pulps. She was created and appeared primarily in newspaper strips though Timely (aka Marvel) reprinted some of them in comic book form which arguably had the effect of making sure she was still remembered years later. Also, it seems they are going down the same path they did with the Shadow and the Black Terror and over-literalize aspects of the character. With the Shadow, they took the question and answer of "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows" and turned it into a literal super-power. With the Black Terror, took the name and skull & crossbones on his costume and went overboard with pirate themes though it has nothing to do with the character. With Miss Fury, well, there's this bit of hyperbole: "As witness to generations of bloodshed and violence, Miss Fury has lots of righteous rage… and anger is her fearsome power." Of course, anger and fury is NOT her power. If any it's that the costume is supposed to bring her good luck though she suspects it might also bring her bad luck.

To add insult to injury, there's no mention about the strengths of the original character: the gorgeous artwork, an early female character created, written and drawn by a woman (Tarpe Mills), the many interesting and colorful villains and supporting cast and love interests that she populated the world with. From the interview, you don't get the gist at all that they read anything of the original character other than possibly a brief bio with a pic somewhere.

Gotta love the pic of her in the bath in the article. Why is she wearing gloves? And, half the newspaper is apparently submerged in the bathwater! On one hand, wonderfully drawn and sexy, but the end result is one of total stupidity. Based on what a man thinks a woman does in a bathtub perhaps?

Masks: The chinks were there in the advertising and in the first issue. But, with the second issue, the comic goes off the rails and pretty much completely throws the central concept under the bus. The idea of this being a series featuring the original pulp heroes was already a bit stretched to include the Green Hornet and Kato, but at least they seem close to their original incarnations as did the Shadow. The Spider looks like the Dynamite comic version but at least the signs are that they are taking the cue to being more faithful to the pulp version. But, the advertised use of Black Terror and Miss Fury, characters who don't fit with either the time frame of the story or concept gave me pause. And, then you have a Zorro who is a whole new creation. The downside is that we don't get legitimate characters that are better fits than these.

With the second issue, we have a different artist. The layouts aren't as dizzying as Ross' but the artist is poor on backgrounds and clarity of action. We have a scene of Miss Fury changing from evening dress into costume, but there's no way she was carrying that costume on her and no mention of it. We see the Green Lama, but because of legal issues, it's a magic-using hero instead of the pulp hero. Gee, if you were going to have to use a magic based hero, why not Mandrake or Chandu who already fit that role?

"It's the Black Umpire! Three Strikes, You're out!"

Because, this isn't about actually using the original characters in character. This is driven home when everyone is played up second rate to the Shadow and the Green Hornet to everyone, including his side-kick. We get scenes made to play up the cool factor of Kato, but not Green Hornet. Wentworth in the pulps was called "the Master of Men" and he's a powerful, charismatic, dynamic personality and easily a peer and equal of the Shadow. Won't get that here. Meanwhile, the Black Bat basically gets a whole new origin. It's cool to see Tony Quinn going into action as Quinn, but it looks like this is where he's going to get blinded and lead him to becoming the Black Bat, essentially giving us a whole new character who just happens to use the same name and motif. Looking at his portrayal on a future cover, my first thought, "It's the Black Umpire! Three Strikes, You're out!" Once they stopped being true to the original characters though, the whole point and draw of this mini-series is lost. I'm not seeing some little known favorites teaming up in a slam-bang adventure because most of them are for all intents and purposes new characters. For example, what makes John Byrne's Captain America/Batman crossover fun is that it works and is true to all of the characters involved. Part of the whole point of crossover stories is the fidelity aspect to the characters involved. The more faithful you are and make it work, the better the story is. Once, you start making changes to the characters willy-nilly to force them into your story instead of making the story work, you're losing the whole point and producing at best a second rate book.

I don't doubt that some of the decisions are business related. With Project: Superpowers, Dynamite secured comicbook trademarks on the Green Lama and Black Terror. But, it's been over a year since they were last used and trademarks must be used to be kept. Yet, by the same token, there's bad business decisions being made as well as there is a lack of consistency between titles. Dynamite has the Black Bat appearing here and getting an origin. However, Dynamite is also pushing a Black Bat comic that has the character getting a different origin and different costume. While the Spider looks the same here as he does in Dynamite's ongoing series, the two are largely different characters with completely different relationships to their supporting cast. It's a failure at generating a synergy and interest between the books.

Masks and other comics

Masks #1: A solid if unexceptional first issue focusing mostly on the Shadow and the Green Hornet and Kato and laying down the foundation of the threat, of the "Party of Justice" taking over control of the city of New York, its police and courts. Likewise, the painted artwork by Alex Ross is pretty to look at. I personally chose the Francavilla cover. He is one of the stronger artists with a more unique style and approach to layouts and colors and perfectly suited to the pulp and noir storytelling feeling of such a book.

I don't know much about the particular Spider novels that serve as the inspiration and source for the plotline. Kudos to Dynamite to running an ad for places to get more about it. However, I've read several that have a similar set-up and feel.

There are questionable things concerning it, still. The story is to feature the Black Bat and we see him as Tony Quinn his alter-ego here. However, it's from the time before he was blinded and became the Black Bat. He's one of the few pulp heroes whose origin is pretty much given and does not leave much wiggle room to fit in another epic. In his pulp origin, he's a lawyer as seen here, only is blinded by a criminal who smuggled in some acid (the chemical not the drug). An act that will seem familiar to most comic fans as that's the origin for both Two-Face and Dr. Mid-nite. He retires from Law and becomes a recluse. He's visited by the daughter of a slain sheriff and agrees to an eye-transplant with the lawman's eyes. The operation is a success and leaves him with the extra ability to see in the dark, though he still has the acid scars around the eyes. With the sheriff's daughter and two other aides, he decides to let the world to continue think he's blind while he remains retired, acting as a sometimes consultant and the masked and costumed vigilante the Black Bat.

Nor does this crossover actually line up with the portrayals of the Spider in his own comic. Visually, he looks the same, but this is set in the late 1930s and his pulp novel while the main series is full of retcons and set in the present day. Time will tell if his supporting cast will be at least truer to the pulps or to the retcons. The story continues the Bruce Lee influence of Kato, which makes it hard for Green Hornet to seem really a peer of the likes of the Shadow and Spider.

Conversely, the upcoming covers featuring the Black Terror have him in his classic costume and not Alex Ross' redesign. But, Miss Fury is being shown in a re-designed costume.

Storywise, the main thing that doesn't really add up is the discussion between Britt Reid and Lamont Cranston concerning Law and Justice. Thematically, it fits as the Party of Justice is about a group taking over and subverting the law with criminals being enforcers and agents of the new corrupt laws, leading to men of justice becoming outlaws. However, the discussion doesn't really fit. Reid as the Green Hornet is a man who fosters the idea of him as a criminal, to act outside of the Law. If he truly believed in the Law over Justice, he wouldn't be a masked vigilante but fight solely from within the system as a crusading newspaper publisher. It's a scene for the sake of the story and not growing out of the characters.

Otherwise, the writing is solid. It introduces the heroes, a brief hero vs hero fight (though it should be the Shadow vs Green Hornet, Shadow vs Kato is akin to Batman fighting Bucky or Captain America fighting Robin... even the tv show got that right and had Kato fighting Robin), A discussion of the heroes in civilian identities over the problem. We get the introduction or teases of a couple of other characters but otherwise see the criminal group in action, enforcing the new laws. Ends with the heroes fighting overwhelming odds and the addition of another hero to the ranks. The writing is tight. It doesn't try to introduce every character at once. Where it does offer glimpses of future heroes, it's in scenes that also serve in showcasing the corruption of the Party of Justice and building storytelling tension. There's talking, but also plenty of superhero action.

While Ross did the artwork on the first issue, he's not the artist on the subsequent issues and as far as I know the future artist hasn't been announced. The cynic in me is so that retailers and readers will have to commit at least to the first couple of issues. Ross is a good painter. However, he's not a great storyteller. Panel flow is often clunky and he overuses his trick of casting the viewpoint beneath the characters to make them seem larger than life. Combined with tilting the angles of the panels making it seem some heroes are flying and shifting the viewpoints from low to high can cause a bit motion sickness. It feels as he's almost approaching each panel individually without much regard to the storyflow from panel to panel. His Lamont Cranston looks like an old man, and I've never found his women to be all that attractive. So, the scene of the Cranston and Margo in the Cobalt Club doesn't really give a feeling of jazz, glamour, or sophistication.

There are many that don't see a problem with the portrayal of women in comics. One can look no further than this comic to see the gap and issue. This comic will feature heroes from pulps, radio and comics the Shadow, Spider, Green Hornet and Kato, Zorro, Green Lama, Black Bat, the Black Terror and Miss Fury. Among all those men, one woman out of all of comics and pulps from the era though there are several that would fit. Instead of the oddballs such as Zorro and the over-powered Black Terror, women heroes like pulp's Domino Lady and comics Woman in Red, Invisible Scarlet O'Neil or Phantom Lady would  better fit. To add insult to injury, one of the alternate covers of the first issue featuring Miss Fury is her half out of costume as is one of the future alternate titles. There is no similar depiction of any of the male heroes.

There are a few other male pulp heroes I wouldn't mind seeing over the Black Terror and Zorro either: Jim Anthony, Phantom Detective, the Black Hood, Angel Detective, the Park Avenue Hunt Club, Operator 5, the Avenger, Secret Agent "X", the Crimson Clown, the Ghost, the Purple Scar, Skull-killer and the Octopus/Scorpion. Maybe the latter can be the next story. A sequel to the the Octopus and Scorpion pulps, clearing up some of those loose ends and having the two villains teaming up with Wu Fang bringing various pulp heroes together again.

Another big flaw is that at the price of comics today... the first page is wasted to a black title page with credits and acknowledgements. The second page is all black with the publisher information at the bottom... the story doesn't start til page 3!!? Why aren't those two pages just one page? Or better  yet, at the bottom of one of the story pages as most comics do? Sure, that would mean reducing a page of Ross' artwork or putting non-story text on it, but it would free up two more pages for art. At the very least, print some of the alternate covers, original pulp covers or sketches on the pages. Seriously, an all black page at the front of the book? Before I even began the story I had a bad taste in my mouth.

Talon #2: Ok, second issue (or 3rd if you count the zero issue) and there's a guest-artist? Right on the heels of Snyder online praising the work of the artist. I'm out.

Aquaman #14: Like Masks, a set-up issue, following up the the events of the last issue and setting up the next arc. It tells us what happened with Black Manta, though not a single mention of The Others.

This issue has been billed as a good jumping on point, but it's not really. Because, for the most part it is incredibly dull with a lot of talking and Aquaman not doing much. We get some heavy handed dialogue as to why Aquaman is cool and tough, while Black Manta turns down an offer to join the Suicide Squad. Only, there's nothing to tell new readers who or what the Suicide Squad is. There's a tease in dialogue concerning Garth. However, as this is a new reality, how much this Garth will be like the old Garth remains to be seen. A long dialogue between Ocean Master and Aquaman concerning past events. A scene with Vulko as an Atlantean body washes onshore conveniently near where he's been in exile. A bunch of disparate scenes, with little to tie any of them together, especially if you've not been following the title and very little action, but a whole lot of talking. The only scene with oomph is Black Manta asserting his Bad @$$-ery while in prison while talking about Aquaman and turning down the Suicide Squad.

Pete Woods is the guest artist for the title and he does a good job, didin't really miss Ivan Reis. Being aware that it was a guest artist, I looked to see if the odd widescreen panels would occur. The answer to that is "yes" and there was a page with just 4 extreme vertical panels. Woods does a better job at disguising it though, there's not a lot of empty space or odd croppings of figures other than a couple. This leads me to conclude that while Reis is the flashier artist especially when it comes to the figures and faces and with more finer line detail, Woods is actually the better storyteller and better at executing the script. And, that much of the fault of the odd panels and its effects on the storytelling as well as padding out the comic is coming from the writer and not the artists. Will be interesting to see what new artist Paul Pelleitier will be able to do.

For a recent birthday, got a few comics related stuff. First, up was Guardians of Being by Eckhart Tolle (great name) and Patrick McDonnell. It's a book using Mutts strips to impart a little zen like wisdom to the reader. This generation's Gospel According to Peanuts or The Tao of Pooh.

I love McDonnells artwork. I would have no problem with him being listed as the best cartoonist working today. His drawings appear almost deceptively simple. A few lines here and there and he all the movement, mood and likeness that is needed. More than any other cartoonist on the newspages captures the sheer emotion and range. When the size of comics has reduced most strips to talking heads, his have running, dancing, nut-throwing, tail-wagging... his characters seem always to be in the midst of life, even if they are just sleeping.

He's an artist that knows his history. Not just comic strip history, a big fan of Charles Schulz and George Herriman. But, his strips also reference classical and pop art with abandon, especially if you're lucky to have a Sunday paper that includes the header, a title panel that is trimmed by many papers, so artists are prone to make the first panel superfluous. McDonnell uses it to parody great works of art only with his characters.

The book has a couple of allusions that sneak up on you. Such as the one panel that is a take on Norman Rockwell's "Freedom From Fear" painting. Another page of birds singing in the trees and a lake as a set of three vertical panels and I'm reminded of classic Asian art with their vertical pieces capturing birds and branches with just a minimal of brush strokes.

McDonnell's work can be found a variety of places. I have a book of his, Me...Jane a children's book about the childhood life of Jane Goodall, the beginnings of her love for nature and her love-hate relationship with the mate of Tarzan. He also currently has a children's book called The Monsters' Maker about three little monsters who set out to create the biggest, baddest monster of all. Only like the other famous monster maker, the end result is not exactly what they expected to find. I even have a classical music cd with his artwork on the cover.

Tarpe Mills and Miss Fury is a gorgeous hardbound collection of many of the Miss Fury strips. Sadly, it's not from the very beginning, but it does include one day's strip that manages to nicely encapsulate everything you need to know about the character and her status quo.  Even if it didn't, it has a nice foreword that manages to cover many of the recurring characters and themes from the strip. It also provides a nice background to the life of Tarpe Mills. I won't go into it here, go out and buy the book. But, it should be noted that Tarpe Mills was one of the first female comic book creators. Not just an artist but creating, writing and drawing strips for Centaur Comics. She is the artist behind the notable Purple Zombie. It's common knowledge that many of the artists and creators worked in comics with their eyes sighted on working on newspaper strips. She was one of the few that actually achieved that in Miss Fury. Despite running for quite a few years, and predating Wonder Woman to the presses to boot, she'd probably be more forgotten today than she is if not for Timely Comics actually printing some of her newspaper adventures in comic book form way back in the day. After all, comic books, even ones from a half century ago, are a bit more collectible and easier to come across than newspaper strips that died out before man walked on the moon. Busy with other projects, haven't gotten beyond reading the intro to this one yet. The character seems to possibly be having a bit of a revamp. She appeared in the background of one of Marvel's The Twelve issues (think it was the tie-in issue). She is also slated to appear in Dynamite's Masks mini-series alongside various pulp and comicbook heroes, though there has been no art depicting her yet. Would not be surprised if we don't see an announcement in a week or two of Dynamite publishing a mini-series or ongoing with Ms Fury, as they are calling her,
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About the only Marvel NOW title that sounds remotely interesting is a new title featuring Morbius the "living" vampire. I like Morbius, he was the villain in the first Spider-man comic I ever got. A superhero fighting a vampire AND a werewolf!? C'mon, what kid is going to resist that?

Cannot say I'm a fan of the unfinished artwork that they've released. Looks a little cold and the hand of the computer looks to be evident. And, the artwork of him has him looking like Michael Jackson. Creepy for whole 'nother reasons.

The gold standard will always be Gil Kane. Can't get him, but at least get someone that draws action well and knows how to set mood and atmosphere.