David Liss - Super Powered Fiction

Super Powered Comics: Mystery Men

By Nick Ahlhelm | January 5, 2012 - 7:59 am | Comics

This article originally appeared at New Pulp.

It is nearly the end of 2011, so this reviewer thinks it is time he looks back at the best pulp work he read in the year. I have certainly read more pulp this year than any other in my life, but there is one clear work that stands out to me as the story that I enjoyed the most.

And that title is Marvel’s Mystery Men. (This is not to be confused with Airship 27’s Mystery Men (& Women), the second volume of which I just reviewed last week.)

Over the course of five issues, writer David Liss not only introduces five new pulp heroes to populate early 1930s Marvel, he also scripts a compelling adventure featuring all of them. The story starts with the mysterious Operative, easily the most normal of the bunch. He’s just a man in a trench coat, fedora and mask, but over the course of the series the reader gets a good idea of what motivates him. The Aviatrix may be the most derivative character, basically a female Rocketeer. The Revenant is a vigilante in the Shadow mold that uses tricks and gadgets to appear as an unearthly phantom. Achilles is a young man rejected by his love and left for dead who takes up mystic artifacts to become the most powerful of the loose band of heroes. Finally, the Surgeon is a character in the Spider mold; a man with a brutal history, a terrible disfigurement and an urge to kill as many villains as possible.

The five heroes all enter the series from different angles over the course of the first three chapters, but they all face the same opponent: a madman named the General and his unearthly love interest, who just happens to be an obscure Marvel villain.

David Liss is no stranger to the period, having written several prose novels set in the era. He handles character development surprisingly well for a series jam-packed with characters. The artist, Patrick Zircher, is no stranger to pulp comic fans. Zircher broke in to comics with work on Now’s Green Hornet (alongside Airship 27’s Ron Fortier) and more recently with covers on Marvel’s Noir line of titles. He seems to have a good feel for blending pulp traditions with the superhero art styling of modern comics.

Together the two men have created a really great limited series, a rare breed in today’s comic field. The five issues are now sold out, but fortunately a hardcover edition is now available at comic shops (with bookstore distribution in the next few weeks). Do yourself a favor and don’t pass this one up a second time.

Mystery Men comes Highly Recommended. Pick up your copy from Amazon!

Super Powered / Pulp Comic: David Liss’s Black Panther

By Nick Ahlhelm | October 6, 2011 - 7:17 am | Comics

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A lot has been written about historical fiction author David Liss and his recent turn to pulp in Mystery Men from Marvel Comics. While that book was great (and will certainly get a review in a future edition of this column), the focus today falls on his other great new pulp book.

I’m talking, of course, about Black Panther: The Man Without Fear.

For the past several years, Marvel’s premiere African hero has been presented as a noble African king and a great technologist. He beat up Captain America and showed that he could take on anyone in the Marvel Universe.

Now things have changed. Banished from his own kingdom, without his panther powers or his high tech weapons, T’Challa agrees to take Daredevil’s place as defender of Hell’s Kitchen, New York. With only a slightly tweaked costume, he sets out to do his duty and prove his worth to himself.

While he establishes a new secret identity as the head of a small diner, he comes in to conflict with the criminal now ruling over the area. Vlad “the Impaler” Dinu not only ruled over the area with an iron fist, but he could also generate energy and throw it as deadly javelins.

The first arc is all about Panther rediscovering his powers and learning how to work as a vigilante hero in New York. The six chapters of the story move at a frenetic pace as T’Challa goes from a typical street vigilante to a master strategist working to fight crime in his city.

The conflict ultimately draws in the Panther’s friends and allies and all of Dinu’s extended family, which all boils down to a brutal confrontation between the hero and his new foe.

The story is perfectly paced pulp, even with the few random Marvel hero cameos thrown in. Artist Francesco Francavilla may be the quintessential pulp comic artist. He regular shows his pulp influences both inside Black Panther’s pages and on his art blog, aptly named Pulp Sunday.

Black Panther: The Man Without Fear is the perfect title for anyone that likes their pulp characters melded with the superhuman. The first trade collection, “Urban Jungle” collects the Panther’s full battle with Vlad. It’s well worth a purchase. Recommended.

Super Powered Comics: Iron Man Noir

By Nick Ahlhelm | August 26, 2011 - 11:35 am | Comics

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This originally ran as part of my Pulp Fiction reviews over at New Pulp.

Marvel scored a lot of notoriety in the pulp community over the last few months thanks to the arrival of Mystery Men by David Liss and Patrick Zircher. But while this is the company’s first major attempt to create in-continuity pulp heroes, it is not the first pulp superhero story they’ve created. In fact, Marvel produced several in the last few years often hidden by view in their line of Noir titles.

Marvel: Noir was made to bring a 30s-40s sensibility to popular Marvel characters, but several creators involved with the titles took the chance to move past the conventions of noir in to straight pulp. No title took this to heart quick like Iron Man: Noir.

Now famous for his work on Batman and his American Vampire comic collaboration with Stephen King, Scott Snyder was still a relative unknown when he wrote the title with art by Manuel Garcia.

The story sets up Tony Stark as a big time investigator with Jim Rhodes as his aide. His secretary betrays him for Baron Zemo and Baron Strucker. She steals their latest find, a jade mask, Stark’s biographer (in pulp form of course) is murdered. After Stark and Rhodes make their mistake, we quickly learn that Stark is kept alive by a synthetic valve on his heart. His personal mechanic Jarvis helps keep it charged and Tony alive.

After recruiting a new writer, Pepper Potts, Tony and Rhodey set out to trail his former assistant’s last case: the finding of Atlantis. Along with a pirate captain named Namor, they discover the ancient civilization and even more trouble.

Of course, this all leads towards Tony taking up a full-powered suit of steampunk-style armor to battle against Zemo and Strucker. By story’s end, one can’t help but feel they’ve just experienced the first adventure of a great new pulp hero.

Alas, Iron Man: Noir never had a sequel so any subsequent adventures are left solely in the mind of fans. Nonetheless, Iron Man: Noir is pulp heroes brought to comics in all the right ways and well worth a read by any new pulp fan.

Buy This Right Now #2: Lady Mechanika #1 and Black Panther: Man Without Fear #513

By Nick Ahlhelm | December 19, 2010 - 7:39 am | Comics

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So I have posted my latest columns on the joys of recent comicdom over on the Examiner, but forgot to link one of them to this blog last week! So everyone gets two for the price of one this week as I bring you two links to two great comics!

Yes, she is a steampunk bad girl!

First is Joe Benitez’s excellent first issue to Lady Mechanika! Gorgeous art and a great story make this a great debut from the folks at Aspen. Check out the full review (with art) here.

Black Panther never looks happy.

Next-up is Black Panther: Man Without Fear by David Liss and Francesco Francavilla. I am a long time fan of Francavilla’s art (though not of his name that’s almost as hard to spell as mine!), and Liss comes off well on his second comic scripting assignment. While I am not a huge fan of the regular Simone Bianchi cover (the one above is Francavilla’s variant), the insides of this issue are everything a superhero fan can want from a comic. Check out the full review (with a four page preview) here.