For years I had a trade paperback edition of this acclaimed
comic book mini-series that came out in 1993, but I never got around to reading
it. Recently I came across another copy of the same edition and decided it was
time. I love DC's second-string heroes from the Golden Age, and they're what
this series is all about.
James Robinson's script establishes an alternate version of the DC Universe from that era, as most of the heroes hang up their capes and masks and retire from crime-fighting after World War II. Some get married, some are successful in business, others battle mental problems, alcoholism, and other demons of their own. Yes, this is deconstruction, as Howard Chaykin mentions in his introduction to the collection, and by and large that's a technique I'm not fond of.
Robinson ventures even further into areas that bother me with the tired plot of using HUAC and a McCarthy-esque politician as villains. Yes, even by '93, we got it, and it would have been all right to stop beating us over the head with it. However, he throws a twist into the plot in the second half that pretty much redeems the storyline (although it involves a gimmick that was an even hoarier chestnut, even then), and overall this tale winds up having a nice elegiac feel to it.
Mostly I was just glad to see characters like Starman, Hourman, Johnny Quick, and the original Manhunter back in action again. In the mid-Sixties, Gardner Fox revived many of DC's Golden Age heroes in the anthology title SHOWCASE, scripting stories that featured Dr. Fate, Black Canary, Starman, Hourman, Wildcat, and The Spectre, among others that I'm probably forgetting. This was the first time I'd encountered those characters, and those remain some of my favorite DC stories from that era.
But getting back to THE GOLDEN AGE, while I had some problems with Robinson's script, the art by Paul Smith is spectacular. The final full-page panel, which represents a passing of the torch to DC's Silver Age heroes, almost had me a little misty-eyed.
So in the view of this comics curmudgeon, while THE GOLDEN AGE isn't the classic that many fans believe it to be, it's still a good story with some great art and a considerable amount of nostalgia value. I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. (I wonder if those SHOWCASE issues from the mid-Sixties have been reprinted. I need to go check on that...)
James Robinson's script establishes an alternate version of the DC Universe from that era, as most of the heroes hang up their capes and masks and retire from crime-fighting after World War II. Some get married, some are successful in business, others battle mental problems, alcoholism, and other demons of their own. Yes, this is deconstruction, as Howard Chaykin mentions in his introduction to the collection, and by and large that's a technique I'm not fond of.
Robinson ventures even further into areas that bother me with the tired plot of using HUAC and a McCarthy-esque politician as villains. Yes, even by '93, we got it, and it would have been all right to stop beating us over the head with it. However, he throws a twist into the plot in the second half that pretty much redeems the storyline (although it involves a gimmick that was an even hoarier chestnut, even then), and overall this tale winds up having a nice elegiac feel to it.
Mostly I was just glad to see characters like Starman, Hourman, Johnny Quick, and the original Manhunter back in action again. In the mid-Sixties, Gardner Fox revived many of DC's Golden Age heroes in the anthology title SHOWCASE, scripting stories that featured Dr. Fate, Black Canary, Starman, Hourman, Wildcat, and The Spectre, among others that I'm probably forgetting. This was the first time I'd encountered those characters, and those remain some of my favorite DC stories from that era.
But getting back to THE GOLDEN AGE, while I had some problems with Robinson's script, the art by Paul Smith is spectacular. The final full-page panel, which represents a passing of the torch to DC's Silver Age heroes, almost had me a little misty-eyed.
So in the view of this comics curmudgeon, while THE GOLDEN AGE isn't the classic that many fans believe it to be, it's still a good story with some great art and a considerable amount of nostalgia value. I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. (I wonder if those SHOWCASE issues from the mid-Sixties have been reprinted. I need to go check on that...)
