Publisher: Titan Comics
Release Date: March 23, 2018
Price: $16.99
Creator(s): Peter Milligan (writer); Alberto Foche (artist)
Format: 112 pgs., Full-Color, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-7858-6147-5
Age Rating: N/A
ICv2 Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5
The original Dan Dare was a 1950s comics character, sort of the British equivalent of Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers, with a comic-relief sidekick. His main evil adversary was the Mekon of the Treen, an alien super-genius leader of Venusian origin who somehow never managed to permanently defeat Dan Dare. Of course, Dare’s side kept losing track of the Mekon, too, so it came out even.
This volume, a relaunch of sorts, starts with the Mekon in custody of the good guys, for a long time, and mysteriously resigned to ending his evil ways and taking up vegetable gardening. For anyone who has read any of the earlier stories, this is strange at best. For anyone who has not been a Dan Dare reader, it will also be puzzling, because his garden uses British vegetable names. That part of the story never does manage to make sense, although the rest is an interesting adventure, leading to a typical Dan Dare-ish ending, but also a frustrating one. It becomes almost an argument against optimism.
The down side is that this tale is in an older style of storytelling that may not appeal to some modern readers. It’s not quite retro, but close enough that it seems like that was the intention. Peter Milligan is a very good writer, and Alberto Foche did some nice design work for this volume. Titan Comics is reprinting the older Dan Dare comics, so this may be an attempt to lure new readers into those.
The primary audience for this will be adults interested in adventure SF.
--Nick Smith: Library Technician, Community Services, for the Pasadena Public Library in California.