Customer Reviews

Doc Savage: The Silver Pyramid

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Well, now that DC is about to kick off a new series using Doc and some other pulp heroes, they've seen fit to reprint the mini-series they did many years back when they first tried to make use of Doc.

O'Neill wrote it, and I have to agree with another review that it seems that O'Neill didn't understand the character. It seemed the main purpose of the mini was to bring Doc into the modern age without him ageing (ala what Marvel did with Captain America). I guess going with the fandom idea of Doc perfecting a immortality formula wouldn't work.

So we get Doc getting sent off into space, and deal with his wimp of a son (mother is obviously Monja, whom I think many fan figured would happen with Doc), who is killed before having another son: Chip, who is more like Doc, except being an annoying pacifist.

Doc's aides are kind of useless, and poorly portrayed. Monk looks more like Ed Brimley then as most of us imagine (Dave Stevens did the best image of Monk).

I do have to say that the Doc series that followed WAS better then this mini-series. But this mini isn't amoung the better of the Doc comics.

In the mid-'80s, about the same time that Howard Chaykin brought The Shadow into the modern era of comics with the brilliant miniseries The Shadow: Blood & Judgment, Denny O'Neil and the Kubert brothers teamed up to do the same for Doc Savage. I never read this particular storyline due to the advertising used for it, depicting a pale-skinned, dark haired man, back turned to the viewer, kicked back at a desk and holding a smoking pistol. The accompanying text declared "Doc Savage: He's not who you think he is!" Well, if that were indeed the case, then it was reason enough for me to avoid it. Over the years, I'd wondered if my decision had been too rash. Now that I've read the recently-collected edition, DOC SAVAGE: THE SILVER PYRAMID, I can say that I should have left well enough alone, and DC should have, as well.

There's a little bit of good and a whole lot of bad about this book:

THE GOOD - Andy and Adam's art is a sight to behold. This story is from earlier in their careers, when their work was as close to daddy Joe's as you could get. These pages look exceptional.

THE BAD - It turns out that the ad I mentioned in the first paragraph in no way reflects what actually occurs in this story, but that doesn't help things. If I didn't know better, I'd think that O'Neil had little to no knowledge of Doc before receiving this assignment. Doc disappears at the end of the first issue and doesn't return until much later, stranding us with uninspiring stories of his pathetic wimp of a son (there is NO way he could possibly be a Savage - more likely Doc's wife was fooling around on the side) and his snotty pacifist grandson (and how Doc's son ever accomplished fathering a child is beyond me). It's as if focusing on a well-established character with a significant history would have involved too much research, so O'Neil dumps Doc in order to make his own rules. In addition, while Chaykin had the right idea in depicting The Shadow as a "product of his times", Doc is much more than that: he's a heroic archetype, the height of human perfection, and someone that others aspire to be - not an outmoded relic. O'Neil should understand this. Meanwhile, the Fabulous Five are still running around well into their eighties but not doing much more than commenting on how good things were before Doc disappeared. By doing so, they served as a mouthpiece for this highly annoyed reader. The revelation at the end of the story is completely nonsensical and further showcases just how little O'Neil seems to understand these characters.

The release of this trade follows the highly disappointing Batman/Doc Savage team-up used to kick off this summer's big "First Wave" event. So far, DC isn't selling it well, and I suspect it'll be just another case of them gaining a license but doing little with it. They've certainly shown their proclivity for doing so in the past, and I don't see anything changing.

I not only wish I could get my money back, I wish I could get the *time* back spent reading this dog. The previous reviewer was, in my opinion, far too kind in his discussion of the comic. Stay away.
The Fabulous Five in this story have no individual personalities, Monk (a frequent fan favorite) looks far too much like John Lennon in the wire-rimmed glasses phase, Doc has a wife--and these are far from the worst aspects of the comic. It reads and looks as though the writer and artists had no knowledge of, and no respect for, the Savage saga.