Doctor Solar Archives Volume 2 by Paul S. NewmanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Doctor Solar Archives Volume 2 collects issues 8-14 of Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom, published by Gold Key Comics in the 1960s.
I was a big far of Solar, Man of the Atom, when Valiant published it in the 1990s but I'd never read the original Doctor Solar books until I found this omnibus on the cheap.
It took me a couple issues to get into. I got the feeling Paul S. Newman and artist Frank Bolle were still getting their footing. The plots are pretty standard Silver Age plots, complete with a dose of cheese and bad science. They're still fun, though. Hard to go wrong with dinosaurs and robots.
There are some differences between the Gold Key incarnation and the Valiant character. This version has green skin and takes pills to maintain his powers, except when that's forgotten in some of the stories. It took me a couple issues to wrap my head around the fact that his real name is Dr. Solar and his super hero name is Man of the Atom. This Dr. Solar works for the US government in Atom Valley, changing into the green skinned Man of the Atom whenever duty calls.
Paul S. Newman produces some serviceable plots. None of them really stood out for me other than The Meteor from 100 Million BC, which featured dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. While I don't think Frank Bolle particularly enjoyed drawing the super hero bits, he drew the shit out of everything else, from civilians standing around talking to cityscapes to dinosaurs. He wasn't flashy but he was a great draftsman.
I wasn't sold on Doctor Solar at first but now I need to get the other three volumes if I can get them cheap. Three out of five stars.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment