Garth Ennis Dan Dare Omnibus Volume 1 HC US ED (v. 1) [Hardcover]

Garth Ennis (Author), Gary Erskine (Author), Dave Gibbons (Author)

Book Description

Series: Dan Dare | Publication Date: March 10, 2009

Dan Dare was once a hero. He brokered peace with alien races, pushed the frontiers of space, and saved the planet from total annihilation... repeatedly. But now, his Space Fleet has disbanded, the United Nations has crumbled, his friends scattered to the solar winds. Britain is once again the world power, but Dare, disillusioned and disappointed by his once-precious home country, has quietly retired. But there's trouble mustering in Deep Space. The H.M.S. Achilles is picking up strange signals when, suddenly, an enormous fleet of hostile ships ambush the destroyer. Now, as the crew struggles to stay alive, they realize with horror that the hostiles have brought a weapon of unimaginable power. Dan Dare, the pilot of the future, has been called out of retirement. Whether you're joining the adventure for the first time, or you're already a Dan Dare fan, this hardcover collection of the entire seven-issue series is a perfect addition to any library.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment (March 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1606900277
• ISBN-13: 978-1606900277
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,734,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The first space opera, February 1, 2010

By 

danny boy "dbswongv" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garth Ennis Dan Dare Omnibus Volume 1 SC US ED (Paperback)

Dan Dare was probably among the first few space operas along with Flash Gordon. It had great artwork and colours pioneered by Frank Hampson. The plots were also very carefully worked out and the weekly cliffhanger style of stories meant a frantic workload for all the creative team involved, according to a biographical sketch of Frank Hampson. The art never suffered, as Hampson took great pains to ensure that every detail was worked out. Dan Dare was the quintessential British pilot hero, a stiff upper-lip Capt Biggins type who could have had it all but continued on adventuring until well past his swashbuckling date.

Any revival must unfortunately stand comparison with the original product. Ennis is most well-known for his gritty comics with hard-boiled anti-heros. Here he is dealing with unfamiliar material and territory, writing about a nice guy in space??? Anyway, as this is Ennis, he tries to infuse Dan Dare with cynicism who is induced to return from self-imposed retirement to fight against the dreaded Mekon, his archvillian who flits about on a personal anti-gravity seat. Digby, his sidekick is back as well as Dr Peabody, now the Home Secretary. Dare is tasked to take over his old space fleet and almost leads them into a trap laid on by the Mekon thru the double-dealing Prime Minister. From here on, events get a little confusing as there are firefights, space fleet fights and lots of shooting. Dare is everywhere but not really doing much. Meanwhile on earth, Dr Peabody kicks up her heels and reminisces about her lost years which she could have spent with Dan Dare, all this over a bottle of Cockburns with a young aide.

The artwork isn't that great. It looks a lot like Steve Dillon's stuff in the Punisher - rather expressionless clean drawings that have suspect perspective now and then.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Darker Dare, September 10, 2010

By 

Alex Tolley (Los Gatos, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Garth Ennis Dan Dare Omnibus Volume 1 SC US ED (Paperback)

For vintage Dare fans, this is a very different incarnation. Gone are the simple gung ho attitudes and fair fights. We're in post Watchmen era, with governments that sell out their people and heroes who have retired from the world that has changed around them.

On the whole, this works. A Dare who has retired and then returns to service to save Earth from his arch enemy, the Mekon, works as a darker hero, yet also a metaphor for a fading Britain in the C21st.

What I did not care for was the illustration by Erskine. The spacecraft were clunky, monstrosities that were made to look like space going battleships. Somehow, post Spacefleet, the Royal Navy built their ships to be space battleships? The Treen ships have also changed from classic green vessels to organic looking gray cloud-like structures. And earth now looks contemporary. Gone are the sleek futuristic visions of the future that Hampson rendered. The weapons too are conventional, gone are the blasters, and what is the origin of Dare's sword?
It seems to me that this was an attempt to mimic "Ministry of Space" stylistically, but it is inappropriate for a Dan Dare story. It doesn't even look good.

Overall, I liked the story concept, but not the graphics.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Under An English Heaven..., July 24, 2009

By 

darklordzden "darklordzden" (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garth Ennis Dan Dare Omnibus Volume 1 HC US ED (v. 1) (Hardcover)

Originally conceived by veteran British comic creator, Frank Hampson, and popularised in the UK's legendary 1950's comic 'The Eagle', "Dan Dare" is probably the most quintessentially British character ever to find his way into comics. A fearless space explorer and envoy for the United Nations Space Force, Daniel MacGregor Dare embodied all of the courage, stoicism and tenacity of post WW2 era Britain. Essentially one of 'the few' (the collective term used to describe the supremely heroic British/Commonwealth RAF pilots who fought against overwhelming odds to repulse the Luftwaffe's air assault on the UK during the notorious Battle of Britain) transposed into a futuristic setting, Dare, ably supported by the stalwart Albert "Digby" Fitzwilliam, Jocelyn Peabody, Sir Hubert, Sondar The Treen, Hank The Yank, and Pierre thrilled the children of austerity era Britain. If you're over a certain age, Dan Dare is in your DNA. My father grew up with him in the fifties and I grew up with him when his adventures were republished in lavish hardcover editions which my father collected during the nineteen eighties.

Since the fifties, there have been several revisions of the character. The most notable being the brutal incarnation that graced Britain's "2000AD" comic in the nineteen seventies and Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes cynically post-"Watchmen" vision, "Dare", which was originally published in the early nineteen nineties (and was recently republished in YESTERDAY'S TOMORROWS: RIAN HUGHES COLLECTED COMICS). Whilst perfectly enjoyable incarnations within their own right, they were not your father's Dan Dare.

Garth Ennis' latest attempt is something of a return to form. He takes the Dare's classic traits and contemporises the setting and politics surrounding him whilst keeping the heart of Hampson's heroic character intact. Living in self-imposed exile following the disintegration of the UN and a Sino-American nuclear war, Dare has renounced all contact with a Britain which he no longer understands or approves of (and which, quite subversively, bears more than a passing resemblance to post Thatcherite/ Blairite Britain). However, rumours of the reappearance of an age-old enemy force Dare to rescind his isolation and take up the standard for God, England and Saint George once more.

Ennis' take on Dare really is love song to British post-war culture and is rife with oblique references to other classic works of British cinema, militaria, mythology and fiction: Dare and Digby's heroic battle to defend offworld colonists against hordes of marauding alien beasts is a direct reference to one of the more notorious engagements which occurred during the defence of the Rourke's Drift mission station (famously documented in Cy Enfield's rip-roaring British battle picture, Zulu); the heroic sacrifice of the crew of a merchant space vessel press-ganged into service to act as a diversion to insure the safe passage of a battle-scarred space convoy is an homage to films such as In Which We Serve and Nicholas Monserrat's haunting novel, The Cruel Sea (Classics of War); the final apocalyptic space battle in which the united forces of Earth and the attack ships of the serpentine alien forces engage each other alongside amidships is an homage to classic naval fiction like C.S. Forester's "Hornblower" series, and Dare's armour-clad, sword-wielding single combat with the leader of the alien forces is rife with symbolic references to the legend of Saint George and the Dragon.

If you're familiar with Dan Dare and the works referenced here, I suspect that you, like I, will rate this a five star book. As Ennis explains in the introduction, it is a requiem of thanks for the brave soldiers, pilots and matileaus who fought for our freedom and inspired the adventures of Dare and an age of idealism. If you're a Brit of a certain age, I suspect it will have your bosom swelling with nationalistic pride.