Customer Reviews

The Complete Annotated Oz Squad

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Oz Squad was a comic book series from the 90s written by Steve Ahlquist, and slightly inspired by superhero comics like Doom Patrol and spy series like Mission Impossible. Happening in modern day 1990s, Earth and Oz have been connected via magical portals since before WWII. An adult Dorothy is the ambassador from Oz to Earth, and head of a special task force called the Gale Force made of herself, Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Lion who has the ability to change into a fully human form. Dorothy is a crackshot, plus she has the magic belt which gives her nearly omnipotent powers accept on Earth where they're limited. The Gale Force has to deal with a runaway Tik-Tok whose "morality spring" has run down causing him to turn evil. He's later brought back, but then goes on another rampage as a crime boss apparently after becoming accustomed to being evil. Meanwhile, the Wicked Witch of the East who somehow survived having a house dropped on her tries selling the plans to Tik-Tok's mechanics to foreign countries, but Dorothy & Co. stop her. The next story arc becomes one involving time travel where Dorothy, Ozma(who is now Dorothy's wife!), Scarecrow, and Tin Man are all sent back in time to just before the great Witches Rebellion where the witches of all four nations try to stand up to the mad King Pastoria(Ozma's father). Scarecrow is sent further back in time to the Renaissance Period to help Leonardo Da Vinci create the Philosopher's Stone, before eventually making his way back to be reunited with Dorothy and Ozma in late 1800s Oz. Tin Man ends up in a different part of Oz at about the same time, only to see himself as Nick Chopper transformed into a metal man. This series went on for 10 regular issues, the first 4 by Brave New World, and then the last 6 were self-published by Patchwork Press. There were also 2 one-shot specials, one of which was Little Oz Squad also by Patchwork Press which had the generic cast as kids in a Little Archie motif. The other was the Oz Squad Special that was printed by Millenium Publications, and was the original concept of what the entire time travel story arc from issues #5-#10 was supposed to be about, but doesn't take place in the regular continuity after that point. The comic featured artwork by Andrew Murphy, Terry Loh, and Mike Sagara. Steve Alhlquist has plans to continue this with artist Sean Casey.

Steve Ahlquist and his crew brought this rollicking, eerie version of OZ to life nearly fifteen years ago. Both whimsical and brutal, this version is grounded in L. Frank Baum's novel series. So anyone expecting the MGM musical version will be sorely disappointed.

The first four issues of the original comic series pick up with an adult Dorothy in modern day U.S. She heads Gale Force, an elite team specializing in Earth/OZ problems consisting of herself, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion. Ahlquist does a terrific job of rounding out the adult personalities of our foursome, giving them an edge that only OZian survivors of the Third Reich could have.

The subsequent run of the series was a little uneven, something that can be attributed to the switch in publishers and related mayhem after the fourth issue. Still, the series presented some intriguing concepts such as the relationships between Dorothy and Ozma as well as Nick Chopper and Rebecca Eastwitch that I was disappointed not to see explored further.

Ahlquist and his crew gave us a darker version of OZ years before Gregory Macquire. I'm thrilled to hear he's trying to bring this unique take of OZ back.