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Mars Will Send No More

Tag Archives: Dynamite Entertainment

Indie Box: Gail Simone’s Red Sonja Omnibus

03 Tuesday May 2022

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in indie

≈ 1 Comment

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Dynamite Entertainment, Gail Simone, indie box, Indie Comics, omnibus, Red Sonja, Roy Thomas

The Complete Gail Simone Red Sonja Omnibus collects all nineteen of the author’s issues for Dynamite on the title, and it’s a great read. Simone and the art team created my all-time favorite adventures for the leading lady of metal bikinis, and one of the best things they did was finding her a few more sensible outfits.

The she-devil with a sword looks smashing in her bikini, but it never made much practical sense. One unrelated, non-Simone story from Dynamite shows Sonja leading a pack of male warriors though a snowy wasteland, constantly complaining about the cold while garbed in only her metal bikini and a single animal skin draped around her shoulders. No shit, Sonja. Put on some clothes. Somehow, all the men chose warm clothing, but she didn’t get the memo? Idiotic choices about combat gear make Sonja look stupid rather than tough and fearsome.

Simone gives Sonja her proper due as a warrior who doesn’t make frivolous clothing decisions when she wanders into snowy wastelands, muck-filled swamps, and other inhospitable environments.

Simone also revamped Sonja’s origin story into something far more appealing than the dusty old Roy Thomas version from 1970s Marvel Comics. Both Simone and Thomas have Sonja’s entire village and family murdered by marauders, but there the similarity ends. Thomas inexplicably included Sonja being raped right before the reader’s eyes, as if every female hero needs a good helping of rape to get started. Note to guys writing female leads: THEY DON’T.

Then, Thomas had Sonja gain her fierce warrior “power” as a semi-divine, mystical boon. That always bothered me, because it meant Sonja had no intrinsic skill or ferocity or admirable warrior qualities. They only came to her as a gift, because in her natural state she was a weakling. Compare that to a guy character like Reed Richards, who was a bloody genius before he ever got stretchy powers, or Hal Jordan who had a relentless will before he got his Green Lantern powers. Thanks, Roy Thomas, for reminding us that women are basically useless on their own.

To add insult to injury, Thomas tacked on a condition to Sonja’s warrior powers. To gain them, she needed to vow that she would never have sex with a dude unless he first defeated her in combat. What? Linking Sonja’s warrior skill to some sex thing is stupid, and it just plays into an awful idea that you need to physically beat a woman before bedding her. As a result, Sonja’s Marvel adventures never captured my imagination.

Oddly enough, Simone became a Sonja fan back in the 70s when she discovered the Marvel stories drawn by Frank Thorne. Something about the barbaric she-devil on a constant quest for drink, destruction, and dollars fired the young Simone’s imagination. When Gail had an opportunity to write Sonja for Dynamite, she cranked up the volume on all the things she loved while sweeping away the detritus Thomas left behind.

Simone’s Red Sonja origin still includes the murder of her entire family and village, but this Sonja has the skills to pay the bills. Simone’s young Sonja puts her keen mind and hunting ability to use in a bid to exact bloody revenge on the marauders, and she doesn’t need some mystical gift to accomplish it. She doesn’t need to be sexually assaulted for us to feel the horror she experienced, nor to take pleasure in seeing her adversaries die by the score and regret the day they ever met her.

Beyond correcting the origin, Simone delivers the best characterization I’ve ever read of Red Sonja as a brutal but relatable barbarian. Sonja makes mistakes and must deal with the consequences, often going to great lengths and incurring painful, personal loss to make things right. Sonja is admirable but rough around the edges. Fine cuisine is lost on this hell-beast who prefers plain and honest meat.

Sonja also has a major aversion to bathing and, despite her good looks, usually stinks so bad that she can’t even get laid—a fate that is often played for laughs, because this Red Sonja is a bit like Jenny Sparks from The Authority in that she isn’t ashamed of craving a good shag.

Sonja is so relentlessly barbaric that when she encounters traditional “girl time” of putting on makeup, doing her hair, and wearing pretty clothes, the whole thing is utterly alien to her and awakens emotions she doesn’t know how to process. By contrasting Sonja’s rough-edged rowdiness with softer and more traditionally feminine characters, Simone gives us a well-rounded and complex portrayal of the red-headed warrior.

On top of all that, Simone absolutely nails Sonja’s voice. Where the old Marvel stories narrated using captions full of third-person exposition, Simone lets Sonja narrate many scenes in her own first-person voice, and it’s a joy to read. There were plenty of places in this run where the plotting and the villains’ motivations seemed weak to me, but the strength of Sonja’s voice carried the story, and her force of character kept me engaged.

Simone transformed the savage she-devil from an embarrassing character trapped in Marvel’s vintage boys’ club into a fully realized sword-slinger, and my only real complaint is that she didn’t do it for a few more years.

Collector’s Guide: The physical omnibus currently sells for $100 or more, but you can get it in digital format for Kindle for $30. It’s a lot easier than trying to collect the original issues and trade paperbacks. You can also find Dynamite’s reprints of the original 1970s series in three Adventures of Red Sonja volumes in digital or paperback for about $20 each.

Bikinis, Beasts, and Bloodshed: Frank Cho’s Jungle Girl Omnibus

11 Sunday Jul 2021

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in jungle

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

dinosaur, Dynamite Entertainment, Frank Cho, indie box, Indie Comics, jana, Jungle Girl, octopus, omnibus

I used to have a few of the single issues of Frank Cho’s Jungle Girl from Dymanite, and I admit they were a guilty pleasure. There is so much wrong with the classic jungle girl trope that I hardly know where to begin. On the other hand, how can I not love this idealized, bikini-clad beauty punching a pterodactyl in the frickin’ face—with a crowbar!

So, what the hell. Last month, I got the Omnibus edition that collects all three “seasons” of the series, and I was not disappointed by the lush depictions of savage dinosaurs, giant sea krakens, and other monstrosities in physical combat with Jana the jungle girl. I like heroines who kick major ass, and Jana kicks countless miles of ass in a non-stop adventure that takes her from one peril to the next in fast-paced action.

In fact, she fights so hard that her bra almost comes off, and that tells you just about everything you need to know about the vibe of this series.

Early on, the creative team lampshades their pandering to the male gaze by showing the screen of a video camera held by one of the male supporting characters. The screen is filled with Jana’s boobs in one panel, then her butt in the next. It’s a tongue-in-cheek self-reference for a series that clearly indulges the readers’ desire to look at Jana in all her unattainable glory, and I would be surprised to discover that any of those readers are women.

Despite the gratuitous yet awesomely rendered cheesecake, I can’t see this series as sexist or inherently degrading. As a character, Jana possesses a keen intelligence and a deep knowledge of the flora and fauna in her environment, even if she is ignorant of technologies and terminology of “the outside world”. She holds the moral high ground, proving herself ethically superior to the scumbags she encounters. Jana is strong both physically and in terms of her unassailable will power and confidence. Other than her portrayal on the cover, she is never really a “damsel in distress”, even though she does get into some jams—as every hero should. Jana is kind and loving to those who earn her trust, yet absolutely ready to end any human, animal, or monster who messes with her. Jana is both a protector and a destroyer, and though she parades through these pages in pin-up poses, she gives readers many reasons to respect and admire her character. She is like a female Conan.

The creative team, helmed by Frank Cho who draws the covers and co-plots the series, leans hard into the typical aspects of a jungle girl trope. Jana is a white girl in an animal-print bikini who has hairless legs and armpits despite never shaving, and picture-perfect, dirtless feet despite constantly traveling over rough terrain in her bare feet. Let’s not even discuss how she never has a stray pube despite the total lack of bikini waxing in her jungle. The bikini trope is leaned into so hard that Jana reveals she has various bikinis stashed in secret caches across the landscape, sometimes pausing the plot to change into a new animal print for no good reason.

As the series progresses, it incorporates other classic tropes and concepts dating back to around a century ago when the jungle girl became a mainstay of American fiction. The series has been compared to earlier “Lost World” stories, and the second and third seasons are rife with Lovecraftian beasts. Jungle Girl is like a story from 100 years ago, but produced with modern, high-quality artwork.

I agree with other reviewers who had “WTF” moments with the third season. For the entire third season, Jana ditches her bikini and wears a full-body wet suit after a dive, which makes sense, except that the other characters who needed wet suits lose them almost immediately. The plot veers from the absurd into the completely nonsensical, and it ends on a nearly incomprehensible note. It’s a weird stew that gives the impression that the creators wanted so much to incorporate all the vintage tropes that they forgot to have it make sense. I would say that Jungle Girl “jumps the shark” at a certain point, if not for the fact that the entire series consists of shark jumping.

While the Jungle Girl Omnibus: The Complete Collection will never be considered one of the great literary works of our time, it’s an action-packed ride for readers who want to see an ass-kicking beauty ride a mammoth, spear a T-Rex, fight a giant octopus, and bash the living daylights out of hordes of creepy weirdos. What it lacks in terms of plot coherency is made up for with dinosaur stampedes. What it lacks in sensitivity to female readers, it mostly makes up for by giving Jana such an admirable characterization that she is more than mere eye candy.

Though there’s plenty of that, too.

Collectors Guide: This Omnibus collection is easily found on Amazon in print and digital formats, and often in stock at MyComicShop.

Insanity in Black and White: Borderline by Trillo & Risso

27 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in indie, science fiction

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Tags

Borderline, Carlos Trillo, collection, Dynamite Entertainment, Eduardo Risso, first issue, indie box, Indie Comics

Borderline TPB Collection - (4)

Four paperback volumes collect Borderline by Eduardo Risso and Carlos Trillo, the artist/writer team of Chicanos. Many fans know Risso from 100 Bullets. This science fiction serial overflows with weirdness, mental instability, assassination, and spying, rendered in Risso’s incredible high-contrast black and white style.

Borderline TPB Collection - (6)

Not for the little tykes, Borderline graphically depicts sex and violence in the course of twisted psychological and combat games the characters play. Trillo and Risso grind out a super-gritty, futuristic drama for publishers Dynamite Entertainment.

Borderline TPB Collection - (7)

Reading Borderline in collected form like a novel can be frustrating, as each snippet is more of an individual work of art than a device for advancing the plot. Yes, a kind of over-arching plot unifies the stories, and the set does have a final resolution to its story. But the storytellers seem more concerned with immersing the reader in the madness of the drama than moving it forward. If anything, it reminds us of Spy Vs. Spy cartoons by Antonio Prohías — except deadly, horrifyingly serious.

Borderline TPB Collection - (8)

You can usually pick up the four Borderline Trade Paperbacks for about $10-$15 a piece.

Borderline TPB Collection - (9)
Borderline TPB Collection - (3)

Lone Ranger – Dynamite’s First Issue!

08 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie, western

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Dynamite Entertainment, first issue, Indie Comics, Lone Ranger, origin

Dynamite’s first Lone Ranger series ran for twenty-five issues. It was clearly ‘written for the trade,’ so we waited until the whole series was over before buying it up. We were not disappointed! The story and the artwork really come together when you can read the complete stories without that thirty-day lag between issues.

About half of this issue covers the tragic incident that begets the Lone Ranger. We’ll share that with you today. The other half consists of flashbacks (not included) interspersed within this scene that give you a feel for the Ranger’s relationship with his father and brother.

Collector’s Guide: From Lone Ranger #1; Dynamite Comics, 2006. Reprinted in the Lone Ranger TPB #1, and the Lone Ranger Hard Cover #1.

Featuring the all-star creative team of writer Brett Matthews, art director and cover artist John Cassaday, artist Sergio Cariello, colorist Dean White, and letterer Simon Bowland.






Here, Monster Monster Monster!

04 Saturday Jun 2011

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in dinosaur, indie, jungle

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

dinosaur, dinosaur comics, Dynamite Entertainment, Indie Comics, Jungle Girl, mosasaur

Perhaps the most stunningly rendered Mosasaurus of all time. The woman in the bikini ain’t bad, either! In the eternal quest for dinosaur comics, this is a must have!

Collector’s Guide: From Jungle Girl #0; Dynamite Entertainment.



I Wonder How You Cook One of These!

03 Sunday Apr 2011

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in dinosaur, indie, jungle

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

dimetrodon, dinosaur, dinosaur comics, Dynamite Entertainment, Frank Cho, Indie Comics, Jungle Girl, pterosaur

What a day! First, Frank Cho’s Jungle Girl escapes some blood thirsty Dimetrodons. Then, she punches a Pterosaur in the face with a crowbar! THEN she battles a giant kraken under water. All in that little animal print bikini. Amazing!

Collector’s Guide: From Jungle Girl Season Two #2, Dynamite Entertainment.




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