(originally posted to Tumblr on 20 April 2014)
Issue two is out. Figured I’d keep this going with some random observations.
The bionics program has been shut down by Oliver Spencer, who is using Maskatron now. They do allow that there will be a small maintenance budget and Jaime’s name is brought up, so that’s nice.
And the Seven Million Dollar Man is back.
To refresh your memory, the Seven Million Dollar Man (played by Monte Markham) was a former racecar driver who had a near-fatal accident not long after Steve. In his case, both his arms and legs were replaced with bionics. Unfortunately, he couldn’t quite adjust to the bionics. He was never able to drive up to his old level again and he had trouble staying in control. In his first appearance, his name was Barney Miller. By his second episode, there was already another quite popular Barney Miller on TV (a captain in New York City’s 12th police precinct, where Richard Castle would later haunt the squadroom while getting inspiration for his Nikki Heat novels) so ‘Miller’ was changed to ‘Hiller.’ I was amused with how the comic addressed this.
Anyway, due to his issues, Barney’s bionics were tuned down to merely peak human efficiency and he was pretty much allowed to live his life. Because of that, Spencer sends Maskatron out after the Seven Million Dollar Man, considering him a security risk.
Meanwhile, more strange things are afoot with the returned Venus probe and the radiation, and now there’s some unusual material found on the satellite.
So Steve goes off to Russia on his next mission (I guess it was already far enough along in the planning phase to not pull the plug just because the bionics program is being phased out?) and the issue ends with him being caught, apparently due to a tip. Possibly Spencer’s way to get rid of another potential security risk? Although delivering him to the enemy seems a strange way to go about it.
Still not totally sold on the art style tho I do seem to see hints of Monte Markham in Barney’s face in a panel or two. I think that’s part of my issue with the art. Random panels of the characters show some likeness to the actors, but it’s not consistent.
They kinda lost me when Steve had to have his memory refreshed on who Oliver Spencer was. I realize the need to explain it to the reader, but I think it could’ve been done a little better.
Jaime’s mentioned twice in the issue, and actually shows up on the cover for issue 4 displayed on Dynamite’s site, so hopefully we’ll see her fairly regularly. Steve and Jaime weren’t allowed to interact during the last season of their respective shows because they were on different networks.
So yeah, overall it’s still working for me more than it’s not.
Still a bit worried about them bringing in all the ‘classic’ characters too soon - covers for upcoming issues also show the Sasquatch (who should be pretty much entirely biological by now based on his last series appearance) popping up in the storyline along with Jaime. Short of bringing back one of Farrah’s characters (I’d vote for con-woman Trish Hollander myself, but if it happens we’ll probably get fellow astronaut Major Kelly Wood) I’m not sure of any more ‘classic’ characters or storylines they could revisit. Not that there’s not plenty I’d like as a fan to see return, of course.
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