SMASH! Special May 2020

TordelBack · 02 June, 2020, 03:50:00 PM

I appreciate that Colin is all-systems-go for that sweet ape action, but I found Mytek to be a great read, gorgeous and atmospheric - with the caveats that there was indeed more dialogue than any one panel should be forced to bear, and I really want to see where it goes from here. Obviously the big flaw of most these stories is that they read like scene-setting episodes rather than full tales, but taken at that level they're pretty great. Will there be more SMASH!, d'ye reckon? Has Tharg hinted at anything? Or is this just a modernised tease for the Treasury collections?

Also very much pushing my buttons were The Spider and House of Dolmann. It's not often Tharg's sister publications kick the Prog's arse in the art deprtment, but these really did! Again, more!

OTOH I thought Higson & Adlard's Steel Claw was a bit of a waste - while the art was great, the same gag went on too long, until it felt like a lost episode of Zombo that Ewing had wisely yeeted into the round file.

Still reckon it's top-two of all of Rebellions run of Specials, here's one instant sale of the next one.

Funt Solo · 02 June, 2020, 04:24:42 PM

I think it's a serious flaw the everything's told in a sort of "once they were famous" mould. If this is supposed to launch people's interest, it should be like a launch comic. Look at prog 1:

In Invasion, Birmingham gets nuked and Thatcher is shot dead, Bill's family get blown to rubble and he comes out shooting. All in six pages. Mytek is ten pages of mostly dull, talking heads exposition in which the protagonist appears to be Professor Okaka. The title of the strip should be Okaka the Orator.

I would love the expanded suite of comics that Rebellion are publishing to be a great success. But a spade is a spade.

---

Zombo vs. The Steel Claw. Well, Zombo is funny. The Steel Claw isn't, and so it just felt like the writer didn't have any respect for the material. The acronym joke has always been that SMERSH and all of those things were cheesy. Not funny. This was as disappointing as B.L.A.I.R. 1, and much worse than the dated story in the 1980 Sci-Fi Special.

Colin YNWA · 02 June, 2020, 04:34:54 PM

Quote from: TordelBack on 02 June, 2020, 03:50:00 PM
I appreciate that Colin is all-systems-go for that sweet ape action, but I found Mytek to be a great read, gorgeous and atmospheric - with the caveats that there was indeed more dialogue than any one panel should be forced to bear, and I really want to see where it goes from here.

Damned straight I want that sweet ape action. My personal peccadillo's aside should an 8 (?) page story about a giant mechanical vehicle/ religious icon ape monster be atmospheric and tantilising OR should it be about cool manic giant ape destruction and adventure.

Oh course different folks might have different answers to this question, there might be seen to be nuance and variance and I respect that... but... just a little but.... BUT if your answer isn't "cool manic giant ape destruction and adventure" you are WRONG.

TordelBack · 02 June, 2020, 04:44:03 PM

Quote from: Funt Solo on 02 June, 2020, 04:24:42 PM
I think it's a serious flaw the everything's told in a sort of "once they were famous" mould. If this is supposed to launch people's interest, it should be like a launch comic.

If it is a launch comic, it's one that depends on the fact that all these are legacy characters that few enough of us remember more than vaguely, so it needed to acknowledge that. Maybe Prog 1 (Dan Dare aside) is a bit of an unfair comparison.

While there's no question that the characters did little enough of what they were there to do (exception being Dolmann, which covered a lot of doll-action ground), I closed the comic wanting to see them again, so the approach (and the care lavished on the art) worked on me.

Specifically on Mytek, I thought all the talking did a good job of making me appreciate Mytek as a really big deal, and a unique entry to the fairly crowded giant ape/robot pantheon, and almost left me dreading his resurrection - and given I think that my only previous exposure to the character was Si Spencer and Shay Kane's awful re-boot in the '92 Action Special, that was a necessary step.

Funt Solo · 02 June, 2020, 08:10:46 PM

Yes, but objectively...

TordelBack · 02 June, 2020, 08:26:02 PM

Quote from: Funt Solo on 02 June, 2020, 08:10:46 PM
Yes, but objectively...

Bad Funt. Bad

SmallBlueThing(Reborn) · 02 June, 2020, 09:46:10 PM

I'd agree with everything Tordles said about Mytek there. Despite my abiding love of The Spider, it was Mytek that bagged my first reread when I picked the Smash! special up a second time. It's just... on a different level. It felt, to me, important. Like it was saying something. And in a strip that is ostensibly about a giant robot gorilla, that was astonishing.

If Mytek doesnt get continued, but entertaining fluff like Johnny Future or Thunderbolt (or arguably Skip Tracer to a lesser extent in the "entertaining" stakes, or god help us The Alienist) then Tharg has lost his galactic marbles.

SBT

broodblik · 03 June, 2020, 04:34:00 AM

Quote from: Funt Solo on 02 June, 2020, 04:24:42 PM
Zombo vs. The Steel Claw. Well, Zombo is funny. The Steel Claw isn't, and so it just felt like the writer didn't have any respect for the material. The acronym joke has always been that SMERSH and all of those things were cheesy. Not funny. This was as disappointing as B.L.A.I.R. 1, and much worse than the dated story in the 1980 Sci-Fi Special.

Interesting comparison both are over the top silly and absurd. I am the reverse here and I find Zombo to be very unfunny and I struggled to read it. I found the over top-nest of Steel Claw much more entertaining.

Proudhuff · 09 June, 2020, 04:55:24 PM

The Claw, Dollman and the Spider grabbed me, the rest left me a bit meh, agreed the Claw jokes were over egged and could have been stripped back a bit, but it was a fun ride.
Would love to see a darker 'Constantine' version of all three of these.

AlexF · 10 June, 2020, 02:29:21 PM

Just wanted to check - this special was aimed at children, right? As in, 8-13 year-olds or so? And as such it was pretty fun. Not quite sure it's fair to judge it by 2000AD standards, but reckon a Phoenix fan would enjoy.

For what it's worth I'm in the 'Mytek the Mighty was the best thing by miles' camp, so take my opinion with all the grains of salt you need if you had different expectations. Weston's cover art is AMAZING.

Citi-Def_Joe · 10 June, 2020, 03:40:02 PM

Great cover but the physical format was unexpected
A bit of a mixed bag and maybe less would have been more in terms of number of different characters/strips.
I really enjoyed the Spider, Cursitor Doom/Jason Hyde and Mytek was great
Those 3 really left me wanting to see what happens "next"

Steel Claw was disappointing, it was one of the few characters I was familiar with and the idea of Charlie Higson writing had upped my expectations but it for me it was dated and too many repetitive acronym jokes, that said i liked Charlie Adlard art.