Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Guest Review: The Saint #0

Man, the real world has been kicking your pal Chuck around the past couple of weeks - thank goodness Glen Davis was able to step up and provide some excellent Guest Reviews. (Classic reviews will return next week, honest!)

Here's Glenn's look at a classic, long-running character who's starring in a new comic for the first time in 60 years:


The Saint, Simon Templar, is a character that was actually created before the depression of the 1930s.

A Robin Hood-type character, he was a criminal who robbed and murdered gangsters the law couldn't touch. The character changed with the times, spending the 1930s in high adventure intrigue, during the World War II years he fought Nazis, in the 1960s he engaged in James Bond sorts of stories, and in the 1970s, he crusaded against the mafia like Mack Bolan.

This issue takes place in America during World War II. The Saint is driving through Texas when he happens upon a man burnt to death with gasoline.

This is a very short issue, serving to introduce the character and the series. I was disappointed the creators chose to adapt a story set during the war years, as I think the Saint is at his best when he is running circles around Scotland Yard, but I'll take what I can get.

The art is pretty good, with the Saint looking like a comfortable mixture of George Sanders and Roger Moore.

Moonstone is a company plagued by production problems, and are probably now better known for their prose collections than their comic books, but they do a good job here. I can't grade it any higher because it is just a short preview comic.

Grade: B

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I picked this up because I like the character of The Saint, but more for the art of the late Ed Barretto. As this is some of the last work he completed before his passing, what will future issues of The Saint look like? There are no editorial answers given in this issue.

Sam Kujava