From Friendly Ghosts To Gamma Rays, No.165
Hello all and welcome back to our all-ages column, From Friendly Ghosts To Gamma Rays! Hope the winter season is treating you well. Next week we do our yearly Top 15 All-Ages Titles to wrap up 2013, so tune in to see what makes the grade in this genre for us for this year’s end! This week we take a look at the second issue of The Fox from Archie Comics’ Red Circle imprint; let’s get down to it!
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The Fox #2
Publisher: Archie (Red Circle line)
Written By: Mark Waid
Plotted and Drawn By: Dean Haspiel
What does the Fox say? Muah-ha-ha-ha-ha! OK. Worst opening to a review ever. Honestly I don’t know if other reviewers have made that terrible pop culture reference yet, because I’ve been avoiding articles on this title to not spoil it for myself, but I feel like I cannot be the first to make this reference. That said, let’s move on from music and talk about the title itself: The Fox.
How is The Fox?
It is a well written, wonderfully drawn throw back to Silver Age fun. Bam! Pick this title up! No questions asked. I don’t even want to write anything else about it so I don’t spoil the fun.
I could go on about the cool characters they are digging out of the Red Circle vaults and including in this title, which when mixed with the crazy story and perfect pacing becomes one of those dream-come-true titles. I could even go on and say how it’s superior to the New Crusaders relaunch from last year, which is saying a lot because that was a pretty cool title itself (side note: Archie hurry up on that damn second New Crusaders mini-series already!). I could even go on and on about the power house of fun that is Waid and Haspiel as they burn rubber across each and every page of the main story. But I won’t blah-blah-blah you to death here. I’m just once again going to tell you that, like the New Crusaders, it’s fresh superhero fun and you should pick up this title. You don’t have to know anything prior about this universe, it’s all told very clearly so anyone can jump on (which is wonderful being it’s a world not too many readers are familiar with anymore).
There’s also a back up story featuring the awesome character The Shield in a World War II tale that sends him to the arctic to take on some foes. This backup is pretty short and will be stretched over the next few issues, but the initial installment is solid, with writing by J.M. DeMatteis and art by Mike Cavallaro.
Just buy it. ‘Nuff said.
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That’s it for this week! See you next when we do our Top 15 All-Ages Comics of 2013!
Drew McCabe
drew@comicattack.net
