Publisher: Dynamite
Writer: David Avallone
Artist: Dave Acosta
Colourist: Morgan Hickman
Release Date: 29 March 2017
Price: $3.99
Before the Man of Steel came the Man of Bronze, Clark Savage Jr. aka Doc Savage: possessed of a genius level intellect, peak physical and mental conditioning, a master of disguise and a skilled scientist, surgeon, inventor, detective, athlete and martial artist with a photographic memory, he emerged in the shadow of, well, The Shadow, and has been righting wrongs and giving wrong-doers their comeuppance since 1933.
And if you thought Doc Savage: Ring Of Fire #1 was going to be just a list of dodgy curry houses, how wrong can you be! It’s June 1938 and the inside cover blurb tells us that the world is dancing on the edge of Apocalypse. What it need is a hero and Doc Savage is not slow to answer the call. Doc Savage: Ring Of Fire #1begins with an exploding volcano that spews forth a lava monster and hots up from there. Doc’s cousin, Patricia, wants him to find her friend Amelia who she believes was there when the volcano exploded. Doc’s not sure but when the President himself asks the bronzed one to investigate a similar occurrence, his super-keen mind deduces that this could be the work of a mad scientist with a seismic super weapon. Well, duh! Before you can say ‘Holy Magma flow’ Doc assembles his team and seaplane’s off into action.
It’s not long, in Doc Savage: Ring Of Fire #1, before bullets are flying and mysterious masked men are attempting a mid-air hijack. And if you thought Patricia was going to stay at home twiddling her thumbs whilst the boys have all the fun, think again. Doc and his team are quickly in the thick of the action in the best Saturday morning serial tradition in David Avallone’s pulp fiction hymn to a bygone era that has never really left us.
Doc Savage: Ring Of Fire #1gives us the latest incarnation of what was arguably the forerunner to the modern superhero. No less a personage than Stan Lee said that and who am I to argue with Stan the Man.
If you’ve never read Doc Savage before, Doc Savage: Ring Of Fire #1 is the right time and the right place to see where it all began. Two fisted action from the squarest of square-jawed heroes and his bickering but loyal to the point of sycophancy chums.
Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker