Exciting Comics #1 - Antarctic Press Comics

EXCITING COMICS No. 1, February 2019

Proudly publicised as a “premiere title” returning to stores “for the first time in over seventy years”, Issue One of “Exciting Comics” undoubtedly delivers upon Ben Dunn’s editorial promise of teleporting its readers back to “a time when heroes knew what to do and fought for what was right” with its wonderful concoction of street-level super-heroic shenanigans, Ancient Egyptian altercations and zany acrobatics. In fact, this “Antarctic Press” anthology’s only disappointment comes with each “Superverse” tale’s cliff-hanger conclusion, which always seems to arrive far too soon and invariably means that the book’s audience must frustratingly wait a while before they can get their hands on the next exhilarating edition…

Starting off this “new shared universe” is “The Revenge Syndicate”, a collaboratively-penned piece by John Crowther and Bradley Golden, which follows the feisty vigilante Black Jaq as she tackles Fats McQueen’s hard-hitting protection racket in New York City. Stunningly sketched by Carlos Tron, this twelve-page knock-out is as attractive to the eye as the female crime-fighter’s punches are bone-breaking, and contains an ending which shows just how close to the line a person may go when their fists are fuelled by their heart.

Similarly as successful, “The Scorpion’s Sting” must have momentarily taken its fans back to a far simpler storytelling time before radioactive substances haphazardly affected parts of the populace and creators relied upon the mystic arts and supernatural potions of our world’s ancient civilisations for their character’s super-powered origins. Brought bang up to date however, with a disturbing script focusing upon modern-day terrorist atrocities and the devastation of archaeological heritage sites, David Furr’s narrative rather neatly combines the two, and undeniably sets up plenty of anticipation for this story’s subsequent instalment by leaving its leading cast surrounded by bloodthirsty murderers just as Professor Samuel Kocian begins to feel the full effects of his chance encounter with a predatory arachnid.

Finally comes David Doub’s “Madam Mask”, an incredibly fast-paced nine-pager which zips along with such gusto that it debatably requires a second read before all of its plot points, such as the titular character’s motivation for industrial theft being that her grandmother requires $30,000 dollars-worth of medical care, properly come to light. Drawn by Larry Spike Jerrell with all the dynamic athleticism which the legendary Steve Ditko imbued his Amazing Spider-Man with, this uber-energetic escapade easily captures all the high-octane antics of a Twenty First Century thief and then without warning scintillatingly lands any perusing bibliophile smack bang in the middle of an Early Forties “Whiz Comics” adventure.

Writers: Bradley Golden & John Crowther, David Furr and David Doub