Thundermace #1

Fantasy February and Magical March!
ThunderMace #1

An ‘80s book that is all “Just beat it!”

"Chapter One”
Creators – Robert A. Kraus and Rick Sellers
Writers – Robert A. Kraus and Steve Simshauser
Pencillers – Robert A. Kraus and Rick Sellers
Inker – Robert A. Kraus
Editor – Robert A. Kraus
March 1986 

We are back from our Wakandan adventure and stepping back into the Sword and Sorcery story genre for a bit with Thundermace #1, a book that has…problems.

I picked this fella up at a half-price and had a good feeling about it. One flip through its pages showed competent, well-illustrated panels in a splashy style that I found impressive. But there was a bunch to get through, so I set it aside for a later read.

When my two-month long fantasy binge started, Thundermace came near the top of the stack of books I took out of the longbox-and-a-half that make up that portion of the Crapbox. That positioning was intentional. I had gotten my hopes up.

That’s never a good thing with Crapbox finds.

Because, like so many first efforts, this book lacks something so important. And it’s not a little thing, but a critical element of storytelling. The artwork is fine and even inventive in places. You can heap all that praise on Robert A. Kraus’s doorstep. Kraus has his own studio, made possible by the character in the backup feature, called Chakan, getting his own Sega video game. If you want to check out more from him, Here is a link to RAK Graphics where you can see some of his otherastonishing work. 

But the story? It has a problem that ends up making the book feel like an exercise to read and not a joy. Let’s break this one down and I’ll show you.

We begin with this young lad, who following cliché is the finest and swiftest warrior of (insert town name here), carrying a mace up a mountain to a dark cave. I like some of this apart from the art. The word choice is fresh and the vocabulary isn’t limited like many first efforts. True, this seems like a bit trite and overused hero myth, not to mention the question you have to ask about the best warrior leaving in the middle of the most critical battle, but the art gives much of it a pass. Maybe it will get better.

I said that a lot during the book. "Maybe it will get better." I said it here, as Arro (sounds like “hero”?) of Windsoar confronts the powerful mystic dragon-man hidden in this cave. I said it as the dragon foretold of the destruction of Arro’s city and of his fate to become Thundermace. I said it as the dragon cried at Arro’s sacrifice for Windsoar.

I said it through all this exposition. This hard to read, non-serif font that made me crinkle up my eyes trying to get the gist of the story and not fall asleep.

The book tends to front load the first few pages with heavy exposition and this is the first of a couple of big problems. We get in a handspan of pages the entire storyline dumped on us. There is a delicate balancing act that the writer misses here. That readers like things to unfold gradually  giving them some feeling of mystery and intrigue.

Arro allows the dragon to transform him and his weapon in a painful burning process that leads to…

…a ham-fisted one page explanation of how they came to this planet to fight the demons but lost their ship in the process and the dragon's history of being hunted by humans. Again this is all kind of just handed to the reader as dry exposition in a very “tell not show” way. 

Around about this point I started having issues with the pacing of the book and made some mental notes of what it needed to make the story better. For one thing Arro doesn’t have a personality. He is pure archetype at this point. It would have been so much better to have a second character to flesh out his own with some kind of banter. Perhaps about the dragons and their history? Some of the backstory presented here could have been voiced by the second character as a rumor as to how they came to be on this planet. We could learn Arro’s quirks, his hopes, his loves, and perhaps come to invest in his quest to save his kingdom. 

And I say all that because what happens next is that Arro is forever transformed into some dragon-human hybrid in order to fight off the demon-hordes. While the book tries to get us to care that he has sacrificed his humanity for the greater good, we just don’t. This is a failing of the writer, a failure to properly introduce the character in a way that makes us see ourselves in him, a failure to make Arro relatable. It’s a rookie mistake. I should give it a pass, but it taints everything that comes after.

Because now we have two beautiful pin-up shots of this Thundermace guy and I could really care less about how powerful and magical he is.

The writers try to resurrect this mess by having Thundermace rush to his city only to find it utterly destroyed. The one person he does find clinging to life…

…gives him two pages of exposition so bald-faced that the artist doesn’t even depict the action in panels but just as an odd kind of storybook boarder. There is great stuff there artwise, but storywise the book isn’t cutting it.

And the real test of how badly this is playing comes when we get to something that should tug the audience’s heartstrings and it falls flat. Arro’s wife was among the slaughtered, but given that I don’t care about Arro then how can I care about his plight. I have no emotional attachment to cardboard cutouts, no matter how well drawn they are. Give me a good backstory and I’ll bite. Until then…well, the pictures ARE pretty.

Then we have Thundermace assaulting the castle of the demon that killed his wife and destroyed his town. With no interlude showing his emotional state, I might add. But hey! Cool castle pic.

Thundermace pulls out his enchanted weapon at this point and things get WORSE. Because in a book where there is an emotional disconnect between the audience and the story the last thing we need is…

…a series of encounters where the enemy appears…

…and he kills them in one blow. Then…

…a horde of enemies appear, and he kills them with one blow each. Next…

…Enemy! Hit! Dead! 

This on-a-rail, overpowered non-sense may play well with teenagers, but most of your audience realizes that if the protagonist isn’t given any challenges then we soon lose interest. Making each battle so lop-sided doesn't make us think Thundermace is the coolest character ever, it makes us bored. So much so that by the time you reach your main bad guy…

…the audience has tuned completely out.

What? oh, he didn’t defeat Kula and it is continued next issue? Well, that will be a short book. One panel of Thundermace hitting the big-bad and it will be over.

This book frustrated me greatly. I love the art. Some of the boxes might be simplistic in design however the panels were easy to understand and conveyed motion and proper sequencing. The art and the mechanics of comic book form were paid proper adherence to. And I am seriously impressed by Kraus’ skill as a penciller. Just look at this pin-up and his web page to get an idea of how well he can draw. There are some brilliant pieces on display there.

But the story needs a complete overhaul. The absence of actual emotion and personality of his central character prior to the transformation means we have nothing to grasp on to after he is granted god-level power at the price of all he loves. And while this simplistic story structure might cut it with some, I can’t invest in a story devoid of humanity and personality. Thundermace needed a different writer or a third person doing the editing that could tell them what worked and what didn’t.

Sorry, Thundermace. With me, you just struck out.

Fantastic Four #546

Black Panther

Fantastic Four #546

I did that “Gravity” joke in yesterday’s sub-title? Really?

I guess I toad-ally* blew it for today’s issue

*yes, I know the difference between toads and frogs

"Reconstruction: Chapter Three – Aw, That’s Just Crude”

Writer – Dwayne McDuffie

Penciller – Paul Pelletier

Inkers – Rick Magyar and Scott Hanna

Letterer – V.C.’s Russ Wooton

Colorist – Paul Mounts

Asst Editor – Molly Lazer

Editor – Tom Brevoot

Editor-in-Chief – Joe Quesada

July 2007

I started this whole mess off two reviews ago stating that sometimes bad ideas lead to good stories. Let’s jump right into the conclusion of this mess and see if I was right…

We begin with T’Challa and former Deathlok, Michael Collins, in foldspace a few minutes from Earth. Collins lets T’Challa know that he doesn’t like running from a fight. Panther tells him “That’s where we differ. I’m not one for LOSING a fight.” Yeah, I’m digging this as the new FF. Panther has too much Shaft style coolness to not get all “fist pumpy” right about here.

And we’re about to find out some of his plans as he calls Wakanda…

(Someone mentioned that Storm and Panther’s kids would be the Thundercats. And they’ve already got the logo under wraps)

“Galactus Contingency Plan!?!” Oh, I’m doubling-down on this now. Make me proud McDuffie/Pelletier!

Michael brings up that he’s left the rest of the group hanging out to dry while they get this plan set in motion. T’Challa says that is taken care of too.

Okay, story! Don’t let me down now. I’m grinning and happy. Do your stuff. What’s up next?

Oh, that’s right! Gravity is back and he’s full to the brim of Cosmic Protector energies. He’s facing off against Stardust and Silver Surfer while the FF look on. Who wouldn’t love the book at this point?

Now we get a bit of interaction before everything goes back to hitting the fan again. Surfer asks if this is the corpse,…er, guy the FF is looking for. Ororo asks if Gravity is actually Greg Willis. Greg freaks out over her knowing, then freaks out again over meeting the Thing. Johnny gets his feelings hurt and we end with our summation of the last two issues, in part. 

One thing McDuffie knows how to do is to create fun dialogue and to prep cues for comedic patter. I can’t like this enough, but don’t we have some smackdowns about to happen?

Yeah, this next bit confirms we do. Gravity and the 3/4ths of the FF versus Surfer, Stardust and the G-Man.

Stardust starts us off by trying to kill Gravity. Storm gives him a shocking response to that action and here we go for round two.

Thing digs out Gravity’s newly dead again body…

…only to find he ain’t. While Storm looks to get a bit of payback applied to her from Stardust. But enough of that, as we switch scenes to Reed and Sue walking on Titan and discussing the end to Civil War. Amazingly enough this is the exact wrong time for this. I could care less about Reed and Sue’s conversation because all it does is delay the great action setup that is going on with the current team. Here’s the resolution of three pages of chit-chat.

Oh, that and a image of a big space potato asteroid thing that looks a bit like Ego Mentor’s computer flashes up before the pair as a possible lead-in to next issue.

Right NOW we need to discuss “Plan G” and all the boxes of things that Panther is picking up. Even without the optimal help from an air force, shape-shifter and the Hulk, I’m intrigued by where we are going…

…wait! The Frogs!!!? If it’s Black Panther and frogs are mentioned, those would have to be King Solomon’s Frogs and now I KNOW we are in crazy town. Those were the starting point of Kirby’s comeback from DC and Panther’s first solo title. Also that was a nutty time for the character, so McDuffie using them…keeping them in continuity…is and odd, odd thing.

But odd as they may be, here is T’Challa’s contingency for getting back instantaneously. 

And yeah, that is kinda…eww!

But putting us back in the thick of battle by any means is a good thing. Just look at this cool boom-boom! 

“Protect the frogs with your life.” Bet Michael misses some of that Deathlok stuff now. Because it’s hard to be put on frog protection duty while other people get to…well, you know.

T’Challa tells Storm to have the others tackle Stardust as he takes Surfer on in something that looks a bit like suicide,…

… but as Ben hollers out his trademark, we see…

…that the Panther has used Doom’s old technology to knock Surfer down to plain-old Norrin Radd in silver facepaint. And while it would be fun to play around with all that energy, T’Challa follows the plan and hands it over to the team’s fire projector Johnny…

…and looks to make Surfer feel the pain like only the Panther can bring. 

Yeah, Norrin should sit the rest of this one out.

And Johnny and Gravity take down Stardust without breaking a sweat.

Which still leaves the G-Man, who is plenty enough for ten times the heroes you see here, so I’m cautious about Epoch’s chances of survival.

However, Gravity surprises me. Cosmically powered, he has enough strength to gain Galactus’s attention. 

But even all juiced to the max, Greg is still a hero in the old school mode. Which means when he pours on the power…

…he does it in a way that feeds the Big G, not kill him off. 

Wow, what a satisfying end to all this. The art, the story all of it. I’m calling it a bit early too, but what else is going to happen but…

…Galactus goes on an Epoch-free diet. And Greg decides to NOT take on the mantle of Protector of the Universe. 

And everyone “hops” back to Earth. As Gravity departs, we get a few chuckles in and we are done with this first adventure of the new team.

I’m sold! These changes are always temporary. Status quo always creeps back in. That’s how we know that there will be a Marvel FF book back again sometime, hopefully soon. While they last, though, there are opportunities for guys like McDuffie to have fun with it and tell good stories.

Looks like I’ll have to comb the bins for the next arc to see where he takes them next. And I’m glad that the Panther will be along to head up this ride.