This is another one of those books where Tom King takes noble, innocent or happy superheroes from my youth and shits all over them. At least this time, he had the grace to choose a group of B-, C-, and D-list characters that are mostly so obscure that even I, familiar with all of them for decades, can't find it in myself to care how roughed up they get. Still, I don't really much care for the story either, not because it's mean-spirited toward the characters but because it's just sort of boring and familiar: the end of the world is looming in the background as heroes in the foreground try to figure out who killed one member of the cast.

Even so, I'm giving the book a thumbs up because I admire the trick that King is trying to pull off here as he retells a 1970s DC Comics anthology series -- 1st Issue Special -- as a coherent epic. It's sort of like what Alan Moore did with the Charlton characters in Watchmen, but King isn't changing the character names and even tries to match the order of the covers and chapter titles to the order of the original series. Any skilled performer can cover a hit song and make it sound decent, but what chutzpah to remix a song that tanked on the charts in the original release.

So back in 1975 1st Issue Special debuted as a showcase to ostensibly introduce new characters or relaunch old characters. It ran for thirteen issues but most of the concepts were dead on arrival with only The Warlord and Return of the New Gods going to full series afterward (well, maybe not "full" as the The New Gods relaunch only lasted eight issues compared to The Warlord's 133). The issues:

#1: Atlas by Jack Kirby
#2: The Green Team by Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti
#3: Metamorpho The Element Man by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon
#4: Lady Cop by Robert Kanigher and John Rosenberger
#5: Manhunter by Jack Kirby
#6: The Dingbats of Danger Street by Jack Kirby
#7: The Creeper by Michael Fleisher and Steve Ditko
#8: The Warlord by Mike Grell
#9: Dr. Fate by Martin Pasko and Walt Simonson
#10: The Outsiders by Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti
#11: Code Name: Assassin by Gerry Conway and Nestor Redondo
#12: Starman by Gerry Conway and Mike Vosburg
#13: Return of the New Gods by Gerry Conway and Mike Vosburg

Here's hoping King can actually make me care about the characters and story in the concluding volume, but I'm pretty doubtful at this point.

FOR REFERENCE:

Originally published in single magazine form in Danger Street #1-6.

Contents: Book One. Once Upon a Time, in a Far-Off Kingdom -- Book Two. The Green Team -- Book Three. Metamorpho -- Book Four. Lady Cop -- Book Five. Manhunter -- Book Six. The Dingbats of Danger Street -- Variant Cover Gallery ( )