Review of Archie Comics' New Crusaders

I'm late to the game. I first heard about Archie Comics plans to revive its super hero line sometime last year, but somehow lost track of it. Then I read somewhere that the comics were going to be digital first, then printed later. Well, I don't read digital comics simply because it means I need to wear my glasses and I hate wearing my glasses any more than I already have to. Also, I prefer to read my comics while reclined on the sofa or bed, and I don't want the burden of holding my laptop computer or staring at teeny-tiny images on my telephone. Anyway, Archie put out six issues of "New Crusaders," which they recently collected in a paperback. 

I had some trepidation about purchasing the paperback collection of "New Crusaders." I'm a longtime fan of the Archie super heroes. I have a lot of the '40s comics on some presumably bootleg discs. I've got a couple dozen of the '50s and '60s comics featuring the Fly, the Jaguar, Black Hood, The Comet, and the rest of the gang. Some deride the mid-'60s Mighty Crusaders as campy and claim it was an attempt to cash in on the 1966 Batman television series. Well, I just found the comics to be a fun exaggeration of what Stan Lee was doing over at Marvel. Are you telling me Spider-Man, Thor, and Captain America aren't campy? Read those comics again and face front, true believer. Marvel's mid-'60s comics were extremely campy. The Mighty Crusaders just made it over the top for the sake of humor. These comics were written on two levels: the kids could dig the colorful super heroes having their exciting adventures, while the adults could laugh at the goofy situations. As for the Batman connection, that's utter nonsense as the television show came out after the Mighty Crusaders.

I have maybe a third of the '80s revival issues, most of which were pretty good, as well as an issue or two of the '90s version printed under the name Impact Comics. Those that I've read were good enough that I'd like to read more of them. I don't have any of D.C.'s recent grim-and-gritty licensed versions. They just looked awful and seemed the antithesis of everything the name Archie brings to mind. But you can't judge a book by its cover: I flipped through some of them in the bargain bins and saw that they were, if anything, even worse than they looked. 

So I feared that perhaps Archie Comics was jumping on the disgusting hyper-violent, ultra-sexualized bandwagon in an attempt to move in on Marvel and D.C.'s market share. I thought maybe Archie Comics, a class act as far as wholesomeness goes, would transform my beloved heroes into "grim and gritty" vigilantes in the vein of the modern take on Batman as a perpetual a-hole, Daredevil as the man without anything worth living for (although I hear good things about Mark Waid's new series discarding 30 years of "Miller lite," and the artwork looks very nice from what I have seen), Wonder Woman as a murderess, Wolverine as the model on which all characters' heroism should be based, and so on. I was afraid because I love those Archie heroes. As much as I would love to see the return of my beloved Jaguar, Fly, Fly-Girl, Web, Black Hood, Comet, and the others, I'd rather have them in mothballs than see another bastardized version. After all, I can always read my old comics and keep on the lookout for affordable back issues (side note: Archie Comics, please please PLEASE put out some kind of Archives- or Masterworks-style volumes of your super hero comics!).

Anyway, I bit the bullet and I bought, via Amazon (love those discounts), the first collection covering issues 1 through 6, and just finished reading it yesterday. On the whole, it's pretty good and I've already pre-ordered (again, via Amazon) the next collection. There may be some spoilers ahead, so if you think you may be reading these stories, you might want to skip the rest of this, but even with what I reveal I don't think it will detract from your enjoyment if your tastes are anything like mine.

What I liked: the heroes are heroic and just generally good people. Marvel and D.C., take note. Super heroes don't have to scowl and grimace and act like a-holes to each other 24/7 to show how "cool" and "edgy" they are. I liked that Archie's colorist is using some bright colors. Most other comics I have seen of late seem to think the world is shades of brown and grey and just generally look dingy and greasy. Again, Marvel and D.C., please look out your apparently filthy windows and you'll see the world is not as dark and dreary as you like to depict it. Step outside. The sky is blue. Grass is green. Some people even dress in primary colors!

I liked that so far the fate of the Mighty Crusaders is a question mark and I hope Archie Comics will refrain from graphically destroying beloved characters. Better to leave them presumed dead than to show them with holes in their heads. That way you can bring them back anytime you like without a convoluted or insulting explanation.

I liked that the New Crusaders' reactions to events around them were a lot more rational and believable than you usually see in comic books. They actually seemed like teenagers. I'm enjoying the way the series is going light on the angst so far. I also like the artwork for the most part. I appreciate that not everyone has the same body type, the males aren't all musclebound, and the females aren't all "enhanced" and dressed like strippers. 

The new costumes are pretty good, much better than most of the ones used by Impact in the '90s. The exception is the Jaguar and her hideous helmet and exposed abdomen.It's not clear why she isn't using the original Jaguar's belt since it was shown to be readily available. The art veers a little into the animated D.C. style, and sometimes into the Japanese cartoon style, but not too much or it would've killed it for me. I can't stand the D.C. animation style where all the men have steroid-induced upper bodies and little chicken legs, and all the women are built like teenage girls. Japanese cartoons leave me cold with the stick-up hair of strange colors and the big eyes and tiny mouths. (Yes, I know that's not true of all Japanese cartoons. Some are quite good.) The artist uses nice, crisp, clean lines and draws faces well enough that I can tell who is who, which is more than I can say for a lot of comic book artists employed by Marvel and D.C.

Finally, I enjoyed the tips of the hat to MLJ, Zip, Impact, and other names from Archie Comics' long history. My understanding is that the Fly, my favorite Archie super hero, can't be used as the estate of the great Joe Simon somehow has the rights. I may be wrong on that, but that would explain why the Fly is only mentioned in vague terms and never by name.

Things I didn't like: I didn't care for all the unnecessary blood and graphically present killing by Brain Emperor and his minions in issues 5 and 6. Some of the violence was implied rather than shown, but enough was depicted that I can't share your comics with my young son who is just starting to develop interest in comic books. I was really hoping for a series I could let him look at (he can't read yet). All I have right now (as far as new comics go) is some collections of Incredibles comic books that he can peruse without me having to worry. I didn't like Brain Emperor's new look. It just seems so '90s "grim and gritty" that it looks cheesy to me, like something I would draw if I were mocking those times. Since that's clearly not the intention, Brain Emperor's new look doesn't work for me.

Additionally, I found the Fireball/Fly-Girl relationship far too obvious. It was telegraphed from the very start and it was just too cliched for my taste. Speaking of cliched, the flame-powered hero being an impulsive hothead has been done, what, a hundred times already? Makes me want to write a story with a flame-powered hero who thinks before he acts and is calm and collected under most circumstances.

I wasn't crazy about the cliched super-team start-up idea of the older hero training the greenhorns or their cliched super-base of operations. Seen both too many times before, but it's at least those are relatively inoffensive cliches. The writing is good enough that a character who dies at the end comes as a surprise and I actually cared despite having only known the new Fireball for 6 issues and there really wasn't much revealed about the character. The kids' reactions to his death seemed very real and not over the top. It was effective and affecting.

The story so far has me wondering where it's all going, what happened to Mr. Justice, how Brain Emperor came back, and more. In many ways, this new series feels a lot like how comics felt back in the "good old days." I've enjoyed what I've seen so far and hope it lasts for a long time to come.

R.I.P. Ray Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 to May 7, 2013)

I don't play a whole lot of Dungeons & Dragons for three reasons. First, I seldom can find a game that works with my schedule. Second, there are other fantasy role-playing games I think are much better. But the primary reason is that most D&D games seem to be set in knockoff Tolkien worlds full of enigmatic elves, subterranean dwarves, and furry-footed hobbit ripoffs. I'm not a huge fan of that setting. Not because I dislike Tolkien; I enjoyed The Lord of the Rings (although I find The Hobbit unreadable). It's because I was much earlier in my life drawn into a more exciting, more fantastic setting: the world of Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad movies, as well as (to a lesser extent) Jason and the Argonauts and other films he worked on. In particular, I'm a big fan of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. That's the setting I want to adventure in! A fantasy version of Arabia and the Mediterranean, full of evil wizards and enchantresses, rocs and cyclopes and golems, sword-wielding skeletons, sea voyages, and comely maidens portrayed by the likes of Caroline Munro and Jane Seymour! What's not to love?

 

How could anyone look upon these images from various Harryhausen films and not be inspired to play a fantasy role-playing game set in the world depicted therein? Now, who wants to roll up some characters and venture forth to rescue the wizened caliph's beautiful daughter who was abducted by a roc on orders from a wicked sorcerer?

Super Hero Role-Playing Games

I enjoy all sorts of role-playing games, but by far my favorite type is super hero role-playing. I have more super hero role-playing games than I can shake a stick at, including newer ones such as Marvel Heroic Roleplay and DC Adventures, but the ones I keep coming back to are the earlier models that managed to include a complete gaming system in a slim box and not too many pages. I just can't get into the sesquipedalian games produced nowadays. They take forever to get to the point, and try to jam in rules to cover every eventuality no matter how unlikely. The 6th Edition of Hero System is probably the extreme example of this trend. Call me old-fashioned, but I want to read a game's rules in one sitting and be able to understand the basics and then get right into playing.

I call my favorite old-school super hero role-playing games the Big Five: Villains and Vigilantes, Champions, Superworld, Marvel Super Heroes, and DC Heroes (in order of publication). There are older super hero role-playing games, but none appear to have been especially playable or well-distributed. Anyway, here are the Big Five and what I perceive to be their particular merits and drawbacks.

Villains and Vigilantes, 2nd Edition (1982)

Villains and Vigilantes allows one to roll up a character in mere minutes. The rules are explained in an incredibly straightforward way and are, for the most part, simple. There is a little math involved in figuring out how much your hero can lift and a few secondary characteristics, but these are calculations you make before the game ever starts and you don't have to worry about them afterwards. The main problems I have with the game are: (1) the complete and utter lack of any rules for obtaining or using skills, and (2) the bizarrely low odds of connecting in hand-to-hand combat. It's really impossible to create a hero along the lines of Batman with the rules as presented. However, Villains and Vigilantes is easy to add to if one so desires. 

Some take issue with two core concepts of character creation in Villains and Vigilantes. First, many balk at the idea that you play yourself as a super hero. Second, powers are generated randomly and many dislike that and prefer to design their ideal hero. I've always found these objections fairly silly as all one needs to do is ignore the "play yourself" aspect and then either roll up or model a character with the game master's consent. Open-ended powers such as "Body Power" and "Mutant Power" allow you to create any super power you want to (with your game master's consent) without much effort. 

A final note on Villains and Vigilantes: the art by Jeff Dee is quite fun, quirky but high quality.

 Champions, 2nd Edition (1982)

Champions is, in many ways, the opposite of Villains and Vigilantes. Players get a fixed number of "character points" with which they buy their hero's attributes and powers. Costs of powers can be modified upwards or downwards by taking advantages and limitations of the player's choice. Unfortunately, an unintended consequence of this is that players are encouraged to become rules lawyers in order to pay fewer points for greater power. Fans of the game will tell you that you can create any power you want, but they don't mention that a lot of times it requires very convoluted combinations of advantages and limitations and annoying math. Additionally, the game uses only six-sided dice, and you wind up having to roll large numbers of dice to resolve combat. Champions tends to get bogged down once fighting starts.

There are later editions of Champions, but in my opinion the problems with the system have only been exacerbated with each new edition after the 4th, which struck a nice balance.

The art in Champions is only so-so. It's a step above rank amateur, but well below the standard of a mediocre comic book from its era.

Superworld (1983)

I have never had the opportunity to play Superworld. The rules presentation is wonderfully clear, and the game uses an example of character creation to guide you through essential concepts. It all comes across quite well and is easy to understand except nowhere could I find any sort of "strength chart," i.e., something that explains how much my character can lift based on his Strength attribute. Hopefully someone reading this can explain that part to me. I was trying to model a character but gave up as a result of this apparent omission. Aside from that failing, this looks like a game I could love.

The art in Superworld is what I would call amateurish. Nothing is awful, but nothing is very good either.

 Marvel Super Heroes (1984)

Marvel Super Heroes lets Spider-Man and some of his amazing friends  explain the rules to the reader in a very clear and entertaining manner. Combat and resolution of other tasks is extremely simple, relying on one chart that can be found on the back of each booklet in the game. There are two methods presented for character creation: (1) the player describes his hero to the game master, who then assigns powers and skills, or (2) random rolls in the vein of Villains and Vigilantes, albeit with a much more rudimentary list of powers and skills.

Based on the lack of a comprehensive list of powers and skills, it does appear that the designers intend for you to play a character from Marvel Comics. However, it's really quite simple to add any power or skill you want to the game. You just describe what it does and give it a name. If I were going to try to start a new game with players who don't know any of these systems, this would be the simplest one to use.

The talent of the Marvel Bullpen ensured that the art found in this game is of the highest caliber.

DC Heroes, 1st Edition (1985)

Last but not least, DC Heroes has by far the most elegant system of all these games. To resolve an action, you roll once and compare your results to two charts. That's it. The math is incredibly simple and the only time you might want to break out your calculator is during character creation. You use character points to design your ideal hero in a fashion similar to, but far more streamlined than, Champions. It's also the only game that seems to have taken into consideration the idea that a player might want to create a hero who has no super powers but relies only on his skills or gadgets or some combination thereof. The only real glitches in the game are (1) the relative costs of the various powers and skills, a problem they fixed with the 2nd Edition a few years later, and (2) the lack of any special advantages or drawbacks to customize two characters who otherwise have similar power or skill sets, which was also fixed in the 2nd Edition. If I were going to play DC Heroes, I would definitely use the 2nd Edition.

The art throughout DC Heroes is lifted straight from comics books or else drawn by DC's top tier of talent. It's downright beautiful, though lacking some of the folksy charm of the Marvel Super Heroes game.

Each of these games has its own quirks and flavor, and I could easily be persuaded to play any or all of them. I like Villains and Vigilantes because of its quirkiness as well as the fact that I get a complete and playable game in under 48 pages with no need for any supplements. I like Champions because I can design any character I want, though I would just disregard the "character point" nonsense and build my ideal hero without worrying about the math. I like Superworld because of its presentation style and simplicity, although I still haven't figured out what a particular number really means when it comes to my hero's Strength attribute. I like Marvel Super Heroes because it's incredibly easy to jump right in and get playing, and also to customize powers without worrying about "character points." Finally, I like the elegance of DC Heroes' underlying system, but again I think I would disregard "character points" and just design a hero based on my tastes instead.

If I had to rank them based on how easy they are to learn and play:

(1) Marvel Super Heroes

(2) DC Heroes

(3) Villains and Vigilantes

(4) Superworld

(5) Champions

If I had to rank them based on how good the art is:

(1) DC Heroes

(2) Marvel Super Heroes

(3) Villains and Vigilantes

(4) Champions

(5) Superworld

If I had to rank them based on how elegant the actual game system is, regardless of how easy it is to learn:

(1) DC Heroes

(2) Marvel Super Heroes

(3) Superworld

(4) Villains and Vigilantes

(5) Champions

Finally, if I had to rank them based on which I'd like to play:

(1) Villains and Vigilantes
(2) Superworld
(3) DC Heroes
(4) Marvel Super Heroes
(5) Champions
 

In case anyone is interested in these games, be forewarned that Superworld, Marvel Super Heroes, and DC Heroes are out of print and hard to find at a decent price. Champions exists as part of the Hero System, but is around a thousand pages long nowadays and written by a lawyer whose goal appears to be to cover every possible situation, no matter how unlikely, making the rules largely unreadable. Villains and Vigilantes is still available from its original publisher, Fantasy Games Unlimited, through their web site.

By the way, if you're curious, yes, those are photos of my actual game boxes, not just images I found online!