Eye on Comics
  • About/Submissions

Agents of Shield

  • Reviews - Archie

New Crusaders, Book 1: Rise of the Heroes trade paperback
Writer: Ian Flynn
Pencils: Ben Bates & Alitha Martinez
Inks: Gary Martin
Colors: Matt Herms & Steve Downer
Letters: John Workman
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Publisher: Archie Comics/Red Circle Comics
Price: $14.99 US/$17.99 CAN

I don’t have any particular affection for the Red Circle super-hero characters. I have few examples of past iterations of these characters and comics in my collection, though there’s no denying the long life and staying power of the properties. Writer Ian Flynn (and an editorial committee, judging from the credit given to a “Red Circle braintrust” here) has opted to take a legacy approach to the Crusaders, distinguishing more familiar incarnations of the heroes as a Golden/Silver Age generation and introducing a new group of young heroes who find themselves forced to carry on their parents’/mentors’ mission. Flynn is hardly breaking new ground here, but fans of such heroic legacy stories (once the domain of DC’s Justice Society stories, before its New 52 relaunch) might enjoy what they find here. The overly conventional and familiar tone of the plot and characters, though, combined with a conflict between the visual tone of the storytelling and slightly harsh elements in the plot, left me with kind of a middling feeling, not only once I was finished reading the book but as I made my way from page to page, chapter to chapter.

The members of the Mighty Crusaders gather for a long-overdue reunion, bringing their kids and protégés (who are unaware of their elders’ heroic identities and powers) along for a day of good food and company. Not surprisingly, an old enemy, long thought to be dead, chooses this moment to attack, wiping out the colorful champions. Saved by the quick thinking of the Shield, the kids learn their folks were the original Mighty Crusaders, and the Shield and his allies take steps to ensure the youths can pick up the heroic mantles to become the New Crusaders.

Despite the participation of two pencillers in this collection of the first six issues of the series, there’s a fairly uniform style throughout the volume, and that might be thanks to the efforts of the single inker, longtime comics pro Gary Martin. The overall style here clearly exhibits a strong manga influence, though at times I was reminded a great deal of the former house style for animation adaptations of DC properties, as established by Bruce Timm. There’s a bright, light tone that dominates the book, and for a title that features new, energetic incarnations of old super-hero concepts, it’s a solid approach for the art.

The problem is that the plot doesn’t follow that example (or the art doesn’t follow the plot’s, I suppose). Flynn seems to adapt a slightly grim-n-gritty approach to the storytelling, killing off an entire generation of super-heroes to make way for the new one. He even resorts to the “shocking death” gimmick later in the book, taking out one of the teen heroes. Save for that “surprise,” the lighter tone of the designs and visuals almost blind the reader to the fact that murder and massacre are peppered through this story. It’s almost routine, and it just doesn’t seem like a good fit for these characters and the look that’s established.

Speaking of those looks, I did enjoy the designs for the various new heroes. I’m not who’s responsible for them — the art extras in the back of this book are limited to a gallery of covers and variants for the original issues — but some are striking. Fly-Girl’s is particularly eye-catching (without sexualizing her), and the decision to complete discard the original look for the Comet when developing the new one was a wise choice as well.

I feel compelled to point out a particular pet peeve about this book that’s unrelated to the quality of the storytelling: the price — or to be more specific, the Canadian price. Despite the fact this was published and printed at a time when the Canadian dollar is actually stronger than its American counterpart, the Canadian price for this volume is listed as being $3 more than the American price. While I don’t imagine Canucks make up a particularly large portion of the publisher’s target demographic, the disconnect between the pricing and reality seems like a rather lazy, old-school approach to the book marketplace.

In terms of the writing, what Flynn does best here is establish a sense of history and continuity here. One needn’t be familiar with these characters to appreciate the plot and action, but he also conveys a larger context that will appeal to super-hero genre fans who are used to a shared-universe backdrop.

I have to admit one of my favorite parts of this book are those that brush up against the fourth wall and wink at long-time comics readers and industry history buffs. Flynn has incorporated a number of references to the diverse (or, from another perspective, scattered) publishing history of the Crusaders characters. He’s included references to several of the different imprints and publishers that have handled these properties over their decades-long history; Red Circle, MLJ, Blue Ribbon, Impact — all of these obscure and not-so-subtle references made me smile. Still, while they tickled the part of my brain that loves comics in general, they really had little to do with the story and characters. Ultimately, the reader is left with a rather ordinary super-hero yarn that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. 6/10

Follow Eye on Comics on Twitter.

April 6, 2013 Don MacPherson

Post navigation

Odder Couple → ← Digital Discounts

Recent posts

  • The End of the World As He Knows It
  • Burnt-out Ends of Smoky Days
  • They Do Need Those Stinkin’ Badges
  • Future Tense
  • Teed Off
  • Scar Issue
  • Of Gods and Monsters
  • Genre Splicing
  • A Mouthful of Dollars
  • Striking the Wrong Chord

Categories

Archives

Categories

  • Announcements
  • Editorials
  • Features
  • Original Comic Art
  • Reviews – Action Lab
  • Reviews – AfterShock
  • Reviews – AiT/PlanetLar
  • Reviews – Archie
  • Reviews – Black Mask
  • Reviews – Boom! Studios
  • Reviews – Dark Horse
  • Reviews – DC
  • Reviews – DC/Vertigo
  • Reviews – DC/Wildstorm
  • Reviews – Devil's Due
  • Reviews – Drawn & Quarterly
  • Reviews – Dynamite
  • Reviews – Fantagraphics
  • Reviews – IDW
  • Reviews – Image
  • Reviews – Indy/Small Press
  • Reviews – Legendary
  • Reviews – Lion Forge
  • Reviews – Marvel
  • Reviews – Miscellaneous
  • Reviews – NBM
  • Reviews – Oni Press
  • Reviews – Other Media
  • Reviews – Quick Critiques
  • Reviews – Radical
  • Reviews – Slave Labor
  • Reviews – Titan
  • Reviews – Tokyopop
  • Reviews – Valiant
  • Reviews – Zenescope
  • Reviews- Humanoids
  • The New 52 Review Project

Search

Recent Posts

  • The End of the World As He Knows It
  • Burnt-out Ends of Smoky Days
  • They Do Need Those Stinkin’ Badges
  • Future Tense
  • Teed Off

Recent Comments

  • Marcelo Soares on Coming Clean
  • Perry on Scoop
  • R Phillips on “Fixed… With Tape”
  • Leslie on Avengers… Disassemble Those Guys
  • Perry Beider on 2018 Glass Eye Awards – Creators
April 2021
S M T W T F S
« Mar    
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  

Archives

  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • April 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
Powered by WordPress | theme cats456