Synopsis: When the 1950s heroes find themselves trapped in the modern world, how will they handle what society has become, and what dangers will they face? With new villains to contend with and enemies from their past pursuing them, what daring adventures could Fighting American and Speedboy find themselves in now?
Review: Fighting American and Seedboy return to comics after a very long break.
For those not familiar with the character. He was the creation of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and was their response to Captain America. The original comic ran from 1954 to 1955.
Now penned by Gordon Rennie for Titan Comics with some brilliant artwork from Duke Mighten. This first issue of the new run sees Fighting American and Speedboy transported to the present day.
Out of time and without a clue. The duo is tracking a group of time traveling communist from Russia being led by Poison Ivan. But it seems that Ivan is not the brains behind this operation.
The duo has to navigate modern-day America and is seeing everything from a 1950’s point of view, which adds a fair bit of comedy to proceedings given that neither of them has heard of comic con. There is a fun moment where Speedboy calls Fighting American F.A. He promptly gets chastised for the error. Also enjoyable is the series of panels toward the end of the book where the duo are photographed by a barrage of smartphones.
The issue winds down with the revelation that our heroes might well be trapped in 2017.
The dialogue is brilliant fun and in parts put me in mind of the 60s Batman series. Especially given how Fighting American is warning Speedboy about morals and so forth.
The artwork by Duke Mighten is fantastic and a great homage to the original strips, which I was lucky enough to read when they were released in a collection of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s none Marvel comics work.
Fighting America will be released next week and is well worth a look if you love pulp style stories.
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- Covers9.8
- Writing10
- Artwork9.8
- Lettering9.5
- Colours10
