THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: SEASON SIX #1
(originally posted on Tumblr on 20 April 2014).
It occurs to me I’ve done write-ups of the first two issues of Dynamite’s THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN - SEASON SIX comics so I figured I’ll post ‘em here and probably keep going as long as I’m reading the series.
SPOILERS abound, of course, so I’ll toss in a few lines of nonsense to give you time to skip past this without accidentally seeing something you would rather not if you want to check it out with virgin eyes.
See, THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN (SMDM going forward) is my show. I don’t mean that in any sort of competitive fanboy “my collection/trivia knowledge is better than yours” sense, just that for as long as I can remember, I’ve loved the show and watched it whenever I could.
I suppose that technically there was a time in my life that I was unaware of the adventures of Steve Austin - the World’s First Bionic Man (tm) but obviously those days were wholly unremarkable and not worth recalling.
I’m also…not a big fan of Dynamite’s handling of most of the properties they deal with, which is sad because they seem intent on licensing every cool character ever.
So, those are two of the things I was dealing with which factor into my judgement of the book, about which I’ll begin talking shortly.
Spoiler Space is over now.
Dynamite’s new take on Steve Austin is actually going back to the original version as brought to life by Lee Majors on March 7th, 1973 when the first of three tele-movies premiered before the show went to series. The series lasted five seasons, spun off THE BIONIC WOMAN (BW going forward) which went for three, and enjoyed a successful toy line and became a pop culture landmark. Three reunion tele-movies followed, between 1987 and 1994.
Dynamite had previously published two series, Bionic Man and The Bionic Woman, which were based on a Kevin Smith script for a possible movie. The less said about all of that, the better.
The new series bills itself as ‘Season Six,’ picking up after the end of the television series, which means it should be set in the 1978-79 time frame.
Writer Jim Kuhoric has stated in interviews that he is a big fan of the original shows. I hear that all the time and don’t really believe it’s always true (and even if it is - being a fan is no guarantee of quality as a stroll thru fanfiction.net will prove) but in this case, it seems to be the case. Certainly the first issue has enough nods to the original series to bear that out. In short order we’re introduced not only to the expected characters of Steve, his OSI boss Oscar Goldman, and bionic doctor extraordinaire Rudy Wells, but we also get a cameo of Oscar’s favorite secretary Peggy Callahan and are reintroduced to Oliver Spencer - the original head of the Office of Strategic Operations and played by the always awesome Darren McGavin from the original pilot. (Fun trivia - McGavin and Richard Anderson, who played Oscar Goldman starting with the second tele-movie - appeared together in the second Kolchak tele-movie THE NIGHT STRANGLER.)
Spencer was the one who spearheaded the project to turn Steve into a cyborg, tho he wasn’t totally pleased with the results. Steve’s independence and stubbornness got on his nerves. He even wondered if there was some way to turn Steve ‘off’ between missions. Now, he has the obedient operative he wants.
Maskatron was a robotic character originally introduced into Kenner’s SMDM toy line in the 1970s and it finally makes its official appearance in a SMDM story here. Based on the designs of Dr. Dolenz (the ‘Robot Maker’ from three episodes of the series, portrayed by Henry Jones), M.A.S.K.A.T.Ron is the weapon Spencer always wanted, and he’s convinced the powers that be to take away funding for the bionics project in favor of his robotic agent.
While Oscar is dealing with that news, Steve and Rudy are off the coast of Florida looking for a downed satellite. After dealing with the Russian Venus Probe (the ‘Death Probe’ of two, two-part stories from the series) the US government fast-tracked their own Venus probe, sent both to study the planet and to keep an eye out for any other Soviet activity. It turns out that a strange radioactive cloud changed course to intercept the probe when it approached Venus and all contact was lost until suddenly it showed up back on Earth, splashing down in the Atlantic.
That’s the basics of the plot of the first issue. It could be an interesting setup but it’s too early to really be able to judge. Obviously, as a fanboy I liked the callbacks to the series (the wonder-drug Neotraxin from the Bigfoot episodes is also name-checked) tho I’m a little worried that he’s going to front load the series with too many of these. The promo for the second issue already has the Seven Million Dollar Man being brought into the mix.
While I couldn’t “hear” the actor’s voices while reading it, nothing hit me as massively out of character.
The art by Juan Antonio Ramirez is okay. I’m not huge on the style and am pretty sure I wouldn’t recognize Steve if someone had shown me a non-bionic panel with no context. Oscar and Rudy are a little better. Callahan, however, is portrayed in her one panel as a stereotypical leggy blond, which might fit the seventies setting but bears no resemblance to the series portrayal at all. It would also be nice is someone would give the artist some photo reference for Oscar’s office. Again, I’m a fanboy.
For a Dynamite title, it’s definitely better than I’d expected. Again, one issue is too early to offer a fair evaluation but nothing really torqued me off so that’s something.
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