"The older I get, the dumber I feel." The Fox #1-5 review

Last year Archie Comics published a new five-issue mini-series by Dean Haspiel & Mark Waid featuring their long-time super hero the Fox. I reviewed Haspiel & Waid's first mini-series some time ago and enjoyed it quite a bit, but the situation at Archie changed a bit between the two series. This new Fox series ("Fox Hunt") was branded as being part of "Dark Circle Comics" (rather than the Red Circle brand their super heroes traditionally have appeared under). Dark Circle is an attempt to create mature readers comics because when you think Archie, obviously you think mature readers. The previous series was good all-ages fun; how do Haspeil & Waid adapt to this new reality?

Previously, Waid had said he would have wanted to explore a father-son dynamic in the series if he had been plotting; evidently that put a bug in Haspiel's ear as he made much of this series a family story about Paul Patton Jr (the Fox), his son (Ghost Fox) and his wife (She-Fox). Like the previous story, Haspiel has a bit of fun playing around with previous Archie super hero comics, digging up old enemies from their obscure past appearances. This time the "freak magnet" Fox finds himself targeted by the financier Mister Smile, who hires a score of super-criminals to kill the Fox.

Perhaps the most surprising appearances amongst the criminals were two from Archie's Shadow comics! If you recall my series "Bitter Fruit" you may well remember Radiation Rogue and Elasto; both villains are back in this series as Archie evidently owns them, not Street & Smith (why would Street & Smith want ownership of those comics?).

It's unfortunate that Archie's decision to render all of their super heroes as mature readers titles affected this book as I feel Haspiel would have been much happier keeping the previous all ages tone; his art is clean and bright and the tone is mostly very jocular, but there is profanity and gore thrown in to justify the mandate - as if anyone ever said "you'll like this comic, it has swearing and a guy who bursts through someone's chest."

More significantly, the story leads up a confrontation with the main villain who is relentless in his determination to bring down the Fox and his family; to keep Ghost Fox from killing Mr. Smile, She-Fox kills the villain herself. It's a tough moment which is at odds with much of the book's tone - I mean, one page after the horribly scarred She-Fox snaps the villain's neck then collapses we have the Fox and Ghost Fox fighting a living tree. How much better to seek out something bright and fun - because frankly, the "super heroes and killing" dilemma hasn't progressed at all since the days of Claremont's Wolverine. It's a minor speedbump in an otherwise clever and fun comic book series.

"Your vanilla-breath made me hallucinate!" The Fox#2-5

This month Dean Haspiel's 5-issue series the Fox drew to a close at Archie Comics - although Haspiel has indicated he intends to do more with the character. It's been a fun, creative and diverting super hero comic published in a time when super hero comics are sorely lacking in fun and creativity. Not only did Haspiel plot & draw this mini, he seems to have virtually edited it by himself! He recruited Mark Waid to script issues #1-4 and J.M. DeMatteis to contribute a Shield back-up story in #2-4, then script #5; artists Mike Cavallaro & Terry Austin drew the Shield back-ups and letterer supreme John Workman completed the ensemble.

In my review of issue#1, I covered Haspiel's premise - photojournalist Paul Patton is the semi-retired super hero the Fox, seeking only to lead a normal life yet forever cursed as a "freak magnet" to find outlandish adventure everywhere he turns. It's not necessary to know anything about the Fox's history at Archie - in fact, Haspiel's collaborators have admitted they knew virtually nothing when he recruited them! Many of Archie's super hero characters turned up during the series, some of them absent from comics for decades: the Queen of Diamonds, Bob Phantom, Inferno, the Marvel and the Shield were only the tip of the iceberg, but the story presented each character in a straightforward way so you might assume some of them were appearing for the first time (I myself had no clue the Queen of Diamonds was an existing character until Haspiel mentioned it).

From issues#1-4, the Fox's story sees him being recruited by the Queen of Diamonds to rescue her husband from an evil druid (known as... the Druid). Along the way, the Fox meets and/or fights Bob Phantom, Inferno and the Marvel, surviving perilous situations with nothing more than his athletic prowess and a stubborn refusal to take danger seriously.

Meanwhile, the back-up strip has the present-day Shield narrating a tale to unseen friends about a World War II adventure which pit him against Nazi & Japanese super-soldiers, only for all three men to learn their common enemy was a Lovecraftian monster.

At the end of #4, the two plots merged as the Lovecraftian monster turned into the Druid (maybe not the original intent, but okay) and the Fox was flung back in time to help the Shield and other super-soldiers against him. The plot leads to a finale which Haspiel himself noted is familiar territory for DeMatteis, a "beautiful message for world peace, the very thing I was hoping he could make work without being too preachy." From the top of my head, DeMatteis' conclusion to the tale brings to mind stories he's written for Star Wars and Thor; there have probably been others.

The most compelling idea in DeMatteis' contribution, I found, was a line by the Shield in issue#2 (almost a throw-way until it resurfaces in #5) about how the flag-draped Shield relates to the similarly-garbed Nazi character Master Race and Imperial Japanese champion Hachiman:

"I've read the files on both of you-- Master Race and Hachiman -- Super-powered experiments created by your governments to rain unholy death and destruction in their names!"

"Forgive me for interrupting, Joe-- but... couldn't the two of them have said the same thing about you?"

"They could, Dusty-- and they did. We'd all been expertly programmed to despise the enemy-- reducing him to a subhuman stereotype. After all, when you see your opponent as less than human, it makes it that much easier-- to kill him."

When Captain America is compared against other nationalistic champions, it's only to see how they fall short of Cap (and, by extension, how their nations fall short of the USA); this kind of parity - in World War II, of all times! - is an interesting idea.

It's then I'm reminded DeMatteis wrote some very fine Captain America back in the day (he was the first Cap scribe I ever read - probably made a huge impression on how I view the character) and the Shield is, notably, the (only?) patriotic hero who predates even Cap; judging by the Shield's gray hair in present times, he seems to have lived out the decades since World War II, unlike Cap; DeMatteis seems interested in doing more with the Shield and hopefully he'll get the chance.

In an interview with Waid in the back of issue #4, Waid admits to Haspiel if he had been the plotter, the Fox would have likely been much more grounded and examine ideas about father-son relationships. Which, considering Waid's already telling that story in Green Hornet, I'm glad he left the plotting to Haspiel - they make a great team.

Each issue of the Fox featured 22 pages of story by experienced professionals telling tales with dynamic art, snappy dialogue and neat ideas. All the advertisements were kept to the back pages, special features including scripts, interviews and character biographies expanded on the reading experience, it was bound in a high-quality cover and all cost $3. In an industry where so many books have become joyless, inconsistent, repetitive tales at $4 for 20 pages interrupted by ads and printed on cheap magazine stock... well, if you've had the Fox why would you even bother with the rest? Fortunately, there's more to come from Haspiel and his collaborators!

Three days of reviews part 1: "...At first, the suit was just to draw out the weirdos."

Approximately eight months ago, I decided I would scale back on trips to my local comic book shop. Not, I told myself, because my interest in the medium was waning, but because with my newly-received ipad I could switch to the electronic format and save a fair bit of money (considering how expensive my hobby is).

You know what saves even more money than switching to digital comics? Not buying digital comics.

Without the impetus to visit the shop on the days my favourite titles released, I suddenly discovered I had no compulsion to buy the digital comics. Yes, I could buy and read them any time of the day no matter where I was. Thus, I moved on to other pursuits and forgot about the comics.

This past week I visited the local shop again and bought three recently-released books. By way of making up for my lackadaisical interest in comics, I'll be reviewing all three books across the next three days.

We begin with The Fox#1 by Dean Haspiel (plotter/artist) & Mark Waid (scripter). The most difficult part of buying this comic was choosing which variant cover I wanted; each one had something I liked, but the Will Eisner-esque copy above ultimately won my $2.99. I also dig the way one of the Fox's ears bends; why don't Batman's ears bend? Do we really take him that seriously?

Mark Waid's name drew me to the project, which is a little odd when I consider how I (shameful to admit now) loathed his work in the 1990s, especially his scripting. Even now, I would say if I had to choose between Mark Waid the plotter and Mark Waid the scripter, I would pick the former. Regardless, considering the work he's done in recent years to revive calcified characters like Daredevil and the Green Hornet, I was willing to see him tackle another long-ignored super hero property. Haspiel's art was the tipping point - as soon as I saw Fox's bent ear in the promotional images I suspected this was a super hero book for me - something light and adventurous which didn't take itself too seriously (ala Lee & Ditko's Spider-Man).

As it transpires, my instincts were correct. "Public Face," the lead story in the Fox#1, doesn't bother with any made-for-TV origin retellings - we join our hero fully-formed and in action. The most devoted to the hero's origin is this handy recap (appearing on the inside cover, first page and back cover): "Paul Patton was a photo-journalist who couldn't seem to find the story. So Paul donned the costume of the Fox to make the story come to him. Now the story won't stop." A back-up feature explains the publishing history of the Fox character and is the only place where it's mentioned our hero is the son of the 1940s Fox. It's just not relevant to the story contained within.

We learn only so much about Paul through the course of the story - he's a photo-journalist who prefers film-loaded cameras; he's married, but has a (seeemingly grown) daughter from a previous marriage; although he's devoted to his wife, he can be tempted by a pretty face; oh, and he dresses up in tights when it's time for a fight.

Happily, the Fox#1 breaks from the staid tradition of many contemporary super hero comics where stories simply tease action. Haspiel & Waid are not ashamed of setting up problems for the Fox to solve with his fists and further, aren't too proud to make these fights seem clever and fun. Through the main feature of this book, the Fox faces the diabolical Madame Satan, leading to an altercation with two henchmen of another villain, Mr. Smile, then sets up a cliffhanger involving a character called Queen of Diamonds. Along the way there's also a terrific burn at the expense of the film Man of Steel.

This isn't even the whole comic - your $2.99 wins you an 18-page main adventure plus a 6-page back-up "A Picture Lasts Longer" where the Fox faces a living house. Also included is a 2-page editorial by Haspiel and the aforementioned 1-page history of the Fox. Further, the only advertisements in the comic are house ads, found in the back of the book.

Although the first story is rousing good fun, the second story is awfully cramped. The Fox faces a living house and tricks it into destroying itself. So much is compressed into so few pages that even one more page might have helped to better establish what the threat is (the explanation of the house being alive is derived from a single narrative caption by the Fox, who's just guessing at what he's facing).

Haspiel & Waid's Fox is projected to run only five issues. Between the unrestrained energy of Haspiel's storytelling and the smooth dialogue contributed by Waid, I was quite happy with this first issue. It should be good fun experiencing the rest!