Star Bolt #1 - Waterfront Studios

STAR BOLT No. 1, May 2020

Proudly proclaiming the origin story of a character conceived in his youth by “forty-year veteran comic creator” Jim Hachey, writer Peter Breau’s narrative for Issue One of “Star Bolt” will doubtless remind many of its readers in May 2020 of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko’s early days publishing the likes of “The Fantastic Four” and “The Amazing Spider-Man”. For whilst the thirteen-page fight-fest features an enthrallingly complicated plot concerning the gratitude of an adolescent Jesus Christ, the Western Roman Empire, Judas Iscariot’s thirty pieces of silver, General George Patton’s plan to deny the Third Reich of the Ioudas Blade, and a modern-day paramedic’s desperate desire to thwart the machinations of a Nazi meta-human, the story is told in an incredibly straightforward and thoroughly entertaining style, with plenty of explanatory flashbacks intermixed with its pulse-pounding pugilism; “Ok. Thanks for the Hitler – Uh – History Channel documentary. But who are you?”

Indeed, as backgrounds to super-powered heroes go, this “Waterfront Studios” publication packs a mighty wallop by not only establishing a captivating legacy of predecessors to Sergeant Tim Reid’s current incarnation of the holy, armour-wearing crime-fighter, but also introduces an intriguing secondary cast of characters too, most notably the mysterious “tourist” who seems to know an awful lot about ancient mythology and the role Star Bolt has apparently played in past historical events. Equally as enthralling as these numerous ‘hooks’ is the ‘villain-of-the-piece’ Uranium The Mighty, who immediately sets out his utterly evil stall by trying to eradicate both a hapless child and a museum employee simply to demonstrate his death-dealing abilities. Full of wonderful world-domineering rhetoric, and dynamically pencilled by Monique MacNaughton, the “Nazi boy” is portrayed as a bona fide megalomaniac, with Breau’s conclusion to this particular confrontation doing a great job of setting up a mouth-watering rematch in a future edition.

Complimenting these sense-shattering shenanigans are two further stories within this tome, each of which have wildly contrasting ambiences to one another. “The Last Day Warrior” by James Hachey contains an arguably deeply religious prose, which fascinatingly focuses upon God selecting “downtrodden” New Yorker Jason Kincade, as his Chosen One to battle “a horde of evil…” Whilst Steven St. Amand’s “The Legend Of Sargus” is infinitely more tongue-in-cheek, favouring humour over action in its depiction of a sea vessel salvaging the sword and shield of the Spartan warrior Lemor Sargus.

Writer: Peter Breau, Pencils: Monique MacNaughton, and Inker: James Hachey