mrmazz's Masks #1 - Volume 1 review

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    Masks, written by Chris Roberson with art by Alex Ross and Dennis Calero is a novel adventure involving of some of the most well known pulp figures and Golden Age heroes, finding themselves brought together in a very Golden Age plot. The concept of Masks makes perfect sense for a publisher like Dynamite Entertainment, known for their use of public domain and licensed characters.

    Writer Chris Roberson is guilty of going too big, ending the series with a roster of heroes such as: The Shadow, The Spider, Green Hornet & Kato, Miss Fury, Green Lama, Black Bat, Zorro, and the Black Terror. Nine heroes with Pulp and Golden Age roots is a lot to fit in 8 issues and while it gives multiple vectors to explore the nefarious plot of the Justice Party, characters are lost in the shuffle, there to fill a frame and perhaps say a catch phrase but that is it. The scope of this miniseries brings the finale to a close with less of the gee-wiz-bang earnest moral certainty found from Golden Age books and more of a finish that feels that it all may come off the rails at a moment’s notice as it rushes to the end.

    What story is big enough to warrant bringing together 9 heroes? A threat to America herself, the Justice Party after assuming power in both New York City and the Governor’s mansion has begun to turn the Empire State into a fascist state. With only the likes of The Shadow, Green Hornet and other masks to fight for “justice” as the Shadow likes to constantly remind everyone (including the bad guys). Though the Justice Party is never really explored in depth they are essentially American Nazis. The parties’ subversion of the American system (political, judicial and so on) is both reminiscent of the Red and other foreign scare plots the heroes would have come up against in the nineteen forties and fifties and serve as a modern exploration on the thin line separating an outside force acting in the name of a heroic or villainous ideal.

    Early on there is great novelty and entertainment to be found in seeing the Shadow, Green Hornet and Kato, the Spider all bouncing off one another. Alex Ross’ full page cliffhanger at the end of issue one features our heroes surrounded by the Justice Parties jackbooted thugs known as the Black Legion, is a fantastic site, as most Alex Ross art tends to be.

    Seeing all these characters together, particularly Shadow, Green Hornet, and Spider together is kind of surreal due to the uniqueness of the moment, and the obvious similarity between these characters. With Green Hornet and Spider the being clear takes on the Shadow, the King of pulp vigilantism, Masks could almost be seen as some kind of Shadow multiverse meet up. With a clear linage between them all, the similarities are obvious right away and over shadow the limited, likely due to space, attempts to make each character different on something deeper than surface level (what guns they use and masks). While the Green Hornet and Spider (Britt Eljah Reid and Richard Wentworth respectively) are both derived from the Shadow but sharing the typical iconography of masked heroes at the time: white, rich socialites, with minority man servants, and gadgets, they at least have a personality to them. The Shadow has none in Masks, constantly yammering on about serving “Justice” (at the end of LAR Grizzly .45-caliber Win Mag pistols) sounding more like a parody of The Shadow than the Shadow proper. As one note as the Shadow is, he is allowed to operate as a bit of a crazy man, disappearing and treated as a mysterious figure more than character, it is a enjoyably different tone compared against the large cast. As he once again leaves the groups in the second or third issue, his remaining comrades stare at this mad creature they find themselves allied with.

    This quartet is a typical group making up the ‘A’ thread of the series. New York is a big place and with many characters at his disposal Robinson makes the right call using other groups of heroes Miss Fury & Green Lama along with Zorro & Black Bat as the ‘B’ and ‘C’ threads respectively showing different perspectives of the Black Legion affect on the populace. These threads would never be as developed as the ‘A’ but they were at times more interesting. These characters are not straight Shadow variants giving them more personality and interest compared to the sameness found in the headlining group. Miss Fury is one of the first female superheroes and finds herself teaming up with Green Lama, a major example of the white character receiving mystical East Asian powers, to battle and stimey the Black Legion where possible. This is an interesting mismatched duo, in their first meeting Lama brushes off any sort of typical sexual power Fury would have over a male character. This dynamic isn’t allowed to be fleshed out due to page limitations instead pidgin holing the duo into getting into fights and Fury quipping about Lama’s mysticisim. The same goes for the duo of Zorro and Black Bat. Zorro being a Mexican folk hero and major non-White character lacks all the typical iconography of his white counterparts. The Zorro thread provides an interesting (and slightly meta) perspective for the fascist rise but as the ‘C’ thread of the series, Zorro and Black Bat find themselves running off into the Black Legion before eventually getting to the finale point through coincidence.

    In considering the ‘B’ and ‘C’ plots I am left wanting a Masks with better structure and perhaps less heroes, Black Terror and Black Bat kind of just shows up for reasons.

    Quibbles I have with the writing the Alex Ross and Dennis Calero art makes up for it. Ross’ typical Rockwell style gives everything a realistic painterly aesthetic that is reminiscent of the detailed pulp covers that originally brought some of these characters to life. Excellent Art can always make average writing more palatable.

    Masks is an idea that made a lot of sense for a publisher like Dynamite and as a throwback to Golden Age and pulp storytelling feels like that while still being modern. Simply it’s pretty cool to see the Shadow, Spider, Green Hornet and Kato shoulder to shoulder fighting the scum and villainy of New York City. I always want more but with Masks it is because more could have been given, perhaps in a sequel series.

    I am Michael Mazzacane and you can find on Twitter @MaZZM and at weekntv.com and comicweek.com

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