While not quite a superhero, Doc Savage is as heroic and capable as a man could be. Savage was meant to combine the physical prowess of an athlete with the mind of Holmes and the conscience of Lincoln. He was the antithesis of The Shadow, bright instead of dark, merciful instead of brutal, and world-famous instead of mythical.

If The Shadow's masked alleyway justice was the prototype for Batman, then Savage as the righteous boy scout is the inspiration for Superman. Savage even has an antarctic island retreat, The Fortress of Solitude.

The Pulps have made a recent resurgence, and Doc's influence is being felt yet again. Though many fans might not realize it, many movies, films, and comics hearken back to him. Johnny Quest, Indiana Jones, Duck Tales, Alan Moore's 'Tom Strong' and 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', Warren Ellis' 'Planetary', and The Venture Bros all take their cues from the brilliant adventurer and his band of loyal friends.

This book is a bit of a mess, as the earliest example of the hero, but pulp makes no apologies for its weaknesses, and claims to be nothing more than rip-snorting fun. With so many stories coming out every week (Upton Sinclar was known to write 8,000 words a day, seven days a week for the pulps), authors had to attract and keep readers.

The Doc Savage books are renowned for their widely-ranging creativity, where no idea was unwelcome. The author was told to write what was most exciting, what was most original, and what was most inspiring. Savage shows this tendency in droves of far-flung ideas, though a reader might not realize just how revolutionary they were, since every single one has since been cannibalized and adopted by every author of adventures or comic books.

Beyond the remarkable creativity, the books are crammed with description, metaphor, and detail. Though often laughably ridiculous, this thick literary gumbo is certainly filling. There is an invigorating freedom in these books that one misses entirely even in many modern adventures.

The authors took themselves very lightly, they were making a product and making a living, and they would never have rights or fame from pulps. The stories, even Doc Savage, were written under pseudonyms shared by many different authors in the same publishing house. Though your boss might know who was the most capable writer, the fans couldn't know you if they wanted to.

However, fans did come to recognize and empathize with their favorites, like 'Good Duck Artist' Carl Barks, the fans could pick them out by style, if not by name. Though we now know the men behind the pens, there was no guarantee when they wrote their enduring stories that they would receive any recognition beyond a simple paycheck.

Eventually, adventure serials like this one would go out of favor, replaced by superheroes, science fiction, and cartoons. However, the tropes, plots, and characterization of the pulps carried through into the new stories, and even if most Superman and Batman fans have never heard of Savage, the adventures they read or watch each month are not new. The Man of Bronze was overcoming them before world wars had numbers. ( )

The first novel based upon the Doc Savage pulp fiction series originally published by Street and Smith Publications in the 1930's and 1940's. Definitely not a "deep" novel but a nice distraction in the action/adventure vein with the main character accompanied by a colorful supporting cast known as the "Fabulous Five" (Andrew Blodgett "Monk" Mayfair, Theodore Marley "Ham" Brooks, John "Renny" Renwick, Thomas J. "Long Tom" Roberts, William Harper "Johnny" Littlejohn) on the back cover of the reprints but never within the novels. Each character is described in detail in just about every novel to give the reader a good mental picture. In later novels, the number of the supporting characters dimishes (explained as being working somewhere else unable to take part in the adventure at hand) until only "Monk" and "Ham" remain with Doc Savage. The plots are pretty formulaic and if you read the entire series, you'll notice a lot of the plots become quite similar and even recycled. However each novel in the series remains a fun little romp. This particular novel was adapted into a campy and quite disappointing movie in 1975 starring Ron Ely as Doc Savage. With the success of the Indiana Jones series, there have been periodic attempts to remake "The Man Of Bronze" into a new movie leaving out the campiness of the 1975 film. I managed to get the entire series of books including some hard-to-find related materials and still enjoy the series today. I do hope a new movie version of the novel is made someday. ( )

Pulp Cocaine on cheap paper.

I have all 181 stories in the Bantam editions and sometimes pick one to reread. Timeless classic Pulps and always entertaining. ( )

This is an intro story, so a little of the multiple reiteration of skills, talents, and abilities, of Doc and his gang. Not so bad though, as origins are origins, and generally not the most interesting part of the story. Know any other guys named Clark that have a Fortress of Solitude in a freezing cold wasteland? You get into it right away : dead father, Mayan assassins on the 86th floor, corrupt South American officials, princesses, gold goblet grenades. All fun pulp adventure. If you enjoy that sort of stuff with manly men, no reason you won't like this. This is the second time I have read this, I had a copy a long, long time and many moves ago, which was the first time. I think I enjoyed it more the second time around, looking at it from a different, adult perspective.

http://superprose.blogspot.com/2006/1... ( )