If you’ve got a favorite adventure character you haven’t seen lately, chances are you can find she, he or it at Dynamic Forces.
While most publishers tend to avoid licensing characters – paying for the license cuts into profits – Dynamic Forces, publishing under its “Dynamite” banner, seems to have constructed a business model around it. DF does have quite a few original characters, but its library is mostly familiar names cadged from elsewhere – some of them from the early 20th century!
For example, April 9 will see the arrival of Flash Gordon #1, starring the famous interplanetary adventurer who debuted in comic strips 80 years ago. Gordon has already appeared at Dynamite with two other characters from his King Features newspaper syndicate days, The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician. But this will be his first solo gig at Dynamite, and the publisher is pulling out all the stops.
That includes no less than nine variant covers, plus an enviable creative team. Flash Gordon will be written by Jeff Parker, a fan favorite from books like Batman ‘66 and Agents of Atlas, and drawn by Evan Shaner (Deadpool).
“We’re bringing Flash back for a new audience,” Parker said on Dynamite.com. “It’s over-the-planet high action and adventure where Flash’s spirit and optimism are as powerful as anything the forces of Ming the Merciless can dish out. … Make no mistake, this book is going to absolutely kill!”
And you better believe that if Flash Gordon works, we’ll see more of The Phantom and Mandrake!
Dynamite is also in the middle of creating what it calls the “Gold Key Universe,” reviving four characters who appeared at the long-defunct publisher Gold Key in the 1960s and 1970s.
Last month saw the arrival of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter #1 – a characters whose greatest fame was probably achieved in video games in the late ‘90s and 'aughts. But he premiered at Dell Comics in the ‘50s, and starred in his own title at Dell and Gold Key from 1956 to 1982. From there he starred in titles at both Valiant Comics (1993-2002) and Dark Horse (2010-11).
To update Turok, Dynamite turned to Greg Pak, who lit up sales charts at Marvel with “World War Hulk” and at DC with Batman/Superman.
“The original Turok, Son of Stone series featured a Native American warrior fighting for survival in a lost valley populated by dinosaurs,” Pak said. “I’m just going to go on the record and say that every single element of description is solid gold. I want to write stories with a Native American hero. I want to write stories about fighting for survival. And you bet your boots I want to writes stories about a world populated by dinosaurs.”
Next up is Magnus: Robot Fighter, another character with a history at Gold Key, Valiant and Dark Horse, whose first issue ships March 12. Originally Magnus was a lad raised and specially trained by a sentient robot in 4000 A.D. to fight any of his mechanical brethren who threatened humans. Writer Fred Van Lente (Marvel Zombies) has decided to tweak that origin, by having Magnus a 21st century man who Rip Van Winkles his way to the far future, adding a fish-out-of-water element to the familiar saga.
“The very nature of robotics questions what it means to be human – that’s ultimately what Magnus: Robot Fighter will be about,” Van Lente said. “That, and punching robots until they explode.”
April brings Solar: Man of the Atom #1, another graduate of the Gold Key/Valiant/Dark Horse school of publisher-hopping. Solar’s 1962 origin posited a nuclear physicist turned into living energy by a nuclear accident – and if that sounds familiar, it’s because Alan Moore cribbed the idea for Dr. Manhattan in the much-more-famous Watchmen.
Solar has always been a problematic character, in that he is so powerful it’s difficult for a writer to challenge him. That’s probably what attracted Moore to do a version of the character, showing how the advent of a true super-human like Solar or Superman would, essentially, change the world.
Writer Frank Barbiere (Five Ghosts) is dealing with this dilemma by giving Solar a family. Maybe the Man of the Atom is hard to hurt or kill, but that won’t hold true for those he loves.
“We’ve got a character that suddenly becomes a being of extreme power,” Barbiere said. “Making this a personal story about how that affects his life and family has really brought it to some exciting new places. Solar’s all-new cast of characters will feel the reverberations of his every action – and not everyone is going to survive the fallout!”
Completing the revival is Doctor Spektor, whose only previous title was at Gold Key from 1973 to 1982. But while this character is the least famous of the four, his new writer is the most famous: veteran Mark Waid.
Waid has a long and illustrious history in comics, but has raised his game a notch in recent years with runs on Daredevil and Indestructible Hulk that wae both commercial and critical successes. His take on Spektor – originally a stodgy occult scholar and investigator of the supernatural – is this tagline:
“TV legend. Wall Street wolf. Internet mogul. Tabloid bad boy. Master metaphysicist. Spiritualist. Monster hunter. Doctor Adam Spektor is all of these things … and less.”
Meanwhile, the cavalcade of famous faces rolls on at Dynamite. The 100th issue of Warlord of Mars – featuring Edgar Rice Burroughs characters John Carter and Dejah Thoris – is approaching. Robert E. Howard’s Red Sonja has gotten a new lease on life thanks to famed writer Gail Simone. The Six Million Dollar Man Season Six #1 launches March 12. Battlestar Galactica continues in April with a miniseries starring the Cylon “Six.”
Meanwhile, Dynamite’s existing ouevre lifts from other TV shows (Bionic Woman, Dark Shadows, The Twilight Zone, Voltron, Xena), other comic strips (Buck Rogers, Miss Fury) and other old comics (Black Terror, Pantha, Vampirella). Dynamite also lifts from 20th century pulp fiction (Black Bat, Doc Savage, Lone Ranger, The Shadow, The Spider Tarzan, Zorro), radio (Green Hornet), public domain (Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein, Dracula), movies (Army of Darkness, Darkman, Highlander, Man with No Name, Terminator), George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones, Wild Cards) and even toys (Captain Action).
There’s a danger in featuring all these long-running characters; Dynamite risks looking like the Home for Old Folks Nobody Visits Any More. Given how fast Dynamite is expanding, though, it’s clear that a lot of readers are ready to get re-acquinted with some old friends.
Contact Captain Comics at capncomics@aol.com.
Replies
I'm a sucker for these old-school heroes and tend to pick up a lot of Dynamite's output (Funny thing is I never once made the connection between Dynamic Forces and Dynamite).
Flash Gordon: I like the design for Flash, so I expect to pick that up.
Turok: With 2 issues out, I am really enjoying this book. I don't know much of Turok's back story, but I like how Pak decided to bring dinosaurs to Turok's people.
Magnus: I wasn't as enamored with Magnus. I felt the story didn't provide enough exposition for me to really get wondering about what will happen.
Dejah Thoris: I haven't picked up Dejah Thoris for more than a year, but my goodness, that art is something else. It's hard not to be enamored with the princess when she's drawn that nice! In fact, I actually bought a sweet piece of original art from the series a while back. Now I'm too ashamed to put it in a frame and hang it on the wall! My daughters would be horrified!
Lone Ranger: The early runs of Lone Ranger are just fantastic. The art be Sergio Cariello is absolutely stunning. If Disney wanted a good Lone Ranger film, they should have adapted the first storyline from a few years back.
The Black Bat: I wasn't completely sold on this precursor to Batman in modern times. If I wanted to read a Batman comic, I'd buy a Batman comic. It needs to stand out from Batman, not copy him.
Buck Rogers: This version had characters that looked like they were wearing Tron uniforms. It was quite lifeless. Check out the Hermes Press Buck Rogers series that came out last year. It was really well done and has massive political overtones.
Still to read ... The Spider, Zorro and Battlestar Galactica.
Wow, LJ, love the synopses/reviews! You're talking me into a few titles ... !
...Do you mean a DF BUCK ROGERS that pre-dated , or post-dated , the Howard Chaykin BR , which I assume is what you mean , which I had issue #3 of 4 of ?????????
Lumbering Jack (M'odd-R8-Tr) said: