Patrick Zircher

For whatever reason, of all of Robert E. Howard's characters, it's always been Solomon Kane who captured my attention the most. Maybe because he was just a touch more of a restless soul than the others.

Whatever the reason, I like him the most, but have usually found his stories never quite captured that restlessness, that unease.

And then along comes this story, and and it seems to have every single element I ever looked for in a Kane story. The overall plot, the cast of characters, Kane show more trying to overcome guilt and do what he can to cleanse himself of the sins that are thrust upon him...

Just a fantastic story and, even better, equally fantastic art to carry that story along. show less

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

After his run on Black Panther came to an end, Christopher Priest began a short-lived ongoing called The Crew, a team book that included one-time Black Panther Kasper Cole (now the White Tiger) among its members. I wasn't super into Kasper part of Priest's Black Panther run, but The Crew was included in the Christopher Priest Black Panther: The Complete Collection volumes, which you can read for free on Hoopla, so I figured show more why not read it? (I'd already read the issues from the main title collected here, #50-56 & 59-62, so I did not reread them.)

It was kind of worth reading, kind of not. Certainly it wasn't worth it for Kasper, who continues to spin his wheels as a character, arguing with his girlfriend and expectant mother of his child, chasing promotion so he can afford to support his mother and girlfriend. The ongoing thing about his dad wasn't picked up at all, and by the end of these seven issues, Cole isn't really anywhere we haven't already seen him.

The other three members of the "Crew" (never called that in the story) are James "Rhodey" Rhodes, the one-time Iron Man and War Machine; Junta, a superpowered information broker whose mom is a robot who I think appeared in one issue of Black Panther vol. 3; and Josiah X, the son of a black man who was experimented on during World War II in an attempt to create super-soldier serum. The first few issues look at each man in turn; the "team" really only kind of comes together with issue #7, when of course the title was cancelled. Junta probably could have become fun with time, but the real standouts here are Rhodes and Josiah.Rhodes I don't think I have ever actually read a comic about before, but I liked what Priest did with him here; a man who use to be on top but has found himself at the bottom trying to climb his way back up using his sense of justice as a guide. I don't know how the character is in actual Iron Man comics, but I would read more stories about him if they were like this.

Josiah X (called "Justice" in behind-the-scenes information but not in the actual book) is a really interesting character, a black Muslim community organizer who dons Captain America iconography. Can such a man reconcile the contradictions that led to his own existence? How can he wear the emblem of the country that treated him and his father so disposably? Priest and artist Joe Bennett do their best work with Josiah, and unfortunately only scratch the surface of the character. I gather he hasn't really appeared since, but I am curious to pick up the Captain America: The Truth miniseries where his father originally appeared.

As I've alluded to, it's a bit of a slow burn, which was probably a mistake for a book that bundled together a bunch of has-been and also-ran characters; I cannot imagine it sold well at all. I enjoyed it well enough, but by the end of seven issues, I wasn't convinced we needed seven issues to see the Crew take down some pretty ordinary gangsters. A decent read, but not really for Black Panther–related reasons. I gather the Crew returns during Ta-Nehisi Coates's run, but not with this line-up. show less

"The Man Who Laughs" is an excellent Batman-hunts-a-serial-killer story about the first appearance of The Joker, and if it can feel somewhat by the numbers compared to more complex tales of the sort, that kind of works in its favour since the conceit is that this is one of his first encounters with the themed supervillain variety. "Made of Wood" -- another serial killer hunt -- is rather more forgettable, at least to someone like me without a lot of nostalgia for the Alan Scott character, show more and does pull my rating of the collection down a notch, but it manages some solid stuff with James Gordon, and the final beat between Green Lantern and Batman was quite surprisingly sweet and emotional. show less

Read before release thanks to publisher and Edelweiss

Dark but lushly detailed story of Solomon Kane that is as good or better than REH’s original stories because of the amazing art and story told together by Patch Zircher here!