I’ve really enjoyed rediscovering comics over the past few months, and I’ve decided to start posting reviews at my favorite comic site, Comic Vine. Here’s my first review, for the 1930’s noir series Mystery Men, issue #2.
The plot thickens…
The Good
The comic starts out great with a brief flashback that sets up one of the big reveals of the comic nicely. As the book progresses, we learn more about why The Revenant is so invested in solving the murder of Alice Starr, and we start to see a team gradually forming around the search for justice. There’s plenty of mystery all around, but we’re starting to see how everyone is connected to each other. This feeling is enhanced by one the big twist at the end of the comic, and it definitely left me excited for more.
The art is fantastic! Lots of hard, dark lines enhancing the grittiness of this hard boiled story. The Operative doesn’t have much in the way of a costume (just gloves and a mask), but it works perfectly for his character and gives off a great anti-hero vibe. The colors are somewhat muted and darkened to enhance the atmosphere, and this makes the severe splashes of bright color significantly more jarring and exclamatory, as they should be.
The Bad
A new character joining the ranks, shown on the bottom-left of the cover, is too much of a Rocketeer look-alike for my taste. The helmet and puffed-out pants are darn near identical. Also, some of the Revenant’s dialog comes across as silly. It’s supposed to be dramatic and theatrical, but it seems over the top. Then again, this may be intentional given the background that is revealed about the character.
The Verdict
So far, I’m really loving this trip into 1930’s era noir, and the way the plot is growing and connecting the various characters is very compelling. The art is superb, and the action is great. This is definitely a must-read in my opinion. I really hope they do something more with these characters once the limited series is over!