Masks Volume 1

The Shadow (Dynamite) #4.5

by Chris Roberson, Alex Ross (Artist), Dennis Calero (Artist)

Before Superheroes, there were Masks! The Shadow. The Green Hornet and Kato. The Spider. In 1938, these masked vigilantes operated outside the law, working independently to strike fear into the hearts of evildoers. But when the corrupt politicians of the Justice Party transform New York into a fascist state run by mobsters, when an oppressive regime grants jack-booted stormtroopers free rein to imprison, extort, and execute the innocent, when the law itself becomes unjust - justice must be served by outlaws! Outnumbered and outgunned, the legendary vigilantes emerge from the shadows to fight, joined by Zorro, the Green Lama, Miss Fury, Black Terror, and the Black Bat! Nine renowned pulp heroes, brought together for the first time in an epic conflict of Law vs. Justice!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Superheroes, Pulp, Crime, Fiction, Comic Book

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2011

About the author

Chris Roberson is the co-creator with artist Michael Allred of iZombie, the basis of the hit CW television series, and the writer of several New York Times best-selling Cinderella miniseries set in the world of Bill Willingham’s Fables. He is also the co-creator of Edison Rex with artist Dennis Culver, and the co-writer of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D, Witchfinder, Rise of the Black Flame, and other titles set in the world of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. In addition to his numerous comics projects, Roberson has written more than a dozen novels and three dozen short stories. He lives with a teenager, two cats, and far too many books in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite the lovely art and pulpy feel to Masks, I had an incredibly hard time finishing it.
The plot was lazy and weird, the characters were (mostly) unknown to me and felt extremely silly (Green Llama? Miss Fury?), and the villain's evil plan was ridiculous.



Perhaps if I had grown up on these characters I would be a bit more thrilled to see them thrust back into the limelight again. As it stands, I could go a while before I see these guys and still rest easy at night.



I so wanted to love this. Or even like it. But it felt like the author just grabbed a big handful of these heroes and stuffed them willy-nilly into the comic in the hopes that the readers would be distracted by all the colorful costumes and strange names.



I wouldn't say this was for no one, but I will say it wasn't for me.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long-forgotten Golden Age “superheroes” remind you why they were forgotten in the first place in Masks! When the Justice party, a thinly veiled facsimile of the Nazis, somehow takes power in America, it’s up to these heroes to battle them in the streets, miraculously never getting shot despite fighting hand-to-hand most of the time and many of them not possessing any powers to protect them! Also, they’re all based in one city but they’re fighting for the whole of America, or something!

Ok, I understand the corny black and white nature of the plot is a reflection of the simplistic stories these characters appeared in back in the ‘30s and ‘40s. So the fact that the Justice party have leather-clad stormtroopers calling themselves The Black Legion and have concentration camps set up, and so on is deliberate shorthand to say these are the worst of the worst. But they never come off as a convincing threat whose plans stand a chance - they’re basically just targets for our heroes to punch/shoot and not feel bad about because they’re fascist scum.

Who are our heroes? Green Hornet and Kato, The Shadow, The Spider, The Black Terror, Zorro, Black Bat, Miss Fury, and The Green Lama. Most people are probably aware of Green Hornet and Kato thanks to Seth Rogen’s terrible movie a few years ago, and Zorro’s sorta famous too from those Antonio Banderas flicks, but the others? I mean, Green Lama - what the fuck!? He’s just a guy in a green hood by the way, he’s not a real lama - I know, I was disappointed too!

Writer Chris Roberson assumes the reader’s familiar with these guys so there’s no real backstory to any of them, they just show up on the page, announce their name, punch some bad guys, and they’re in this vigilante group. No clue what their powers are either but then most of them don’t have any so I guess that’s alright. They still never come off as rounded characters - they’re as one-dimensional as the baddies they’re punching.

And that’s really the story of Masks: mysterious heroes show up, beat the villains, and then eventually gang up to fight the Big Bad at the end. About as complex and layered as The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The Big Bad is ridiculous too: The Clock. Why’s he called the clock? Does he have time-related powers? Nope. Does the name have anything to do with his former profession? Nope. How about what he does now? Nope. Bonkers. You may as well call him The Desk or The Turquoise Sieve for all the logic of his other name!

I normally don’t go for Alex Ross’ stiff art style but the first issue, which is the only one he draws, looked really great. Maybe non-powered street-level characters in dark clothes is Ross’ niche? Dennis Calero draws the rest of the book with Ross on art direction. It looks fine but it’s nothing like Ross’ painted style.

Maybe if you go for this nostalgic brand of hero comic, you’ll like Masks but for most contemporary superhero comics readers, or any comics fans looking for a good read, this is an easy miss.

[Trike · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good art, bad story.

The first issue -- or in this collection, "chapter" -- is completely painted by Alex Ross. It's also the most strongly-written, as we see The Green Hornet and Kato meet up with The Shadow and Margo Lane. So it's compelling and gorgeous. Sadly, it doesn't remain that way.

The bad guys monologue, the good guys monologue, everyone is freakin' monologuing. Whatever happened to "show, don't tell"? The story feels like the Cliffs Notes version of the tale they're trying to get across, because you never spend enough time with anyone to get their full arc.

I don't really need to know the backstory of Miss Fury, but it would be nice to have a hint. Roberson seems to treat it as a given that if there is the hint of badness happening, these costumed yahoos will come out of the woodwork and start punching people. But it's not until the bad guy reveals his entire plot (see: monologuing) that we get a sense of why anything is really happening, and even then it's just a hint, not a real explanation. This story would've been so much better if this information had been put together through all of these heroes working together.

If you made a drinking game out of every time someone said "Justice!" or "Injustice!", you'd need a liver transplant by chapter 5. These guys all come off as one-note Pugilists for the People, until suddenly they aren't.

There are also plenty of moments that feel lazy, almost as if the idea was "skip it 'cause it's boring". Besides not giving us backstories to Miss Fury or The Spider, both Zorro and the Black Bat just suddenly become heroes with the necessary skills -- and full outfits! -- to battle the Black Legions. The Black Bat is particularly annoying, because the guy goes blind, then can see perfectly when it's dark. Left alone in a warehouse, he cobbles up a complete costume and starts wailing away. And I'm flipping back through the pages thinking, "Is this missing an entire issue?"

This thing is kind of a mess. Sadly, a really good story could have been told with the elements of evil and parallels of Nazism and the corrupting influence of money in politics. Despite the bad guy's monologuing (come on, writers, read the Evil Overlord List!), you never really get a sense of why he's co-opting the system. He just comes across as crazy and muddled in his thinking, the video game Boss who needs to be beaten down after we've mowed through his hundreds of lieutenants... except we don't even get that satisfying finale.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun read that gathers together a lot of now public domain characters from the pulps & Golden Age comics.

Is it a great and original plot? Nah. It wouldn't be pulpish if it were, but there are fun cameos and surprises for fans old and new, making this worth picking up. My biggest complaint was the presence of so many characters on stage that very few got the development or spotlight they deserved beyond the Shadow.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad series. the vast crowd of heroes get a good treatment throughout. Very recommended

[47Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setting is a bit dubious, but the fashion feels like the 50's or thereabouts, even though there are some futuristic technologies in use too. It's somewhat fun to see a simpler time when people would huddle around the radio for the news, listening for the propaganda that isn't fooling the heroes who want to fight the regime. They find each other in pretty laughable scenes not unlike kids at a playground and they immediately trust each other. Of course they fight the regime enforcers, not play in the sand, while speaking in so many one-liners it sometimes doesn't feel like humans talking. They gain small victories against the regime, but they know they must sever its head to stop its rule.

The ending is never really in doubt, but it left me a bit unimpressed. The focus seems to be more on introducing the characters and showing off the artwork, than on developing them or building a solid story. Basically it's bad guys who want to take over the free world against good guys who won't stand for it because 'crime does NOT pay.'

The newly elected Justice Party has instituted a number of oppressive, non-democratic laws in New York. They are enforced with an abusive, well-armored police force named the Bureau of Investigation whose members are former criminals. Common people are starting to feel how unjust the new laws are, but none of them have the power to stand up to this autocracy. Many are on their way to concentration camps to be executed. Their only hope lies in the heroes banding together against this seemingly unbeatable foe that is supported by corrupt politicians, businessmen and a man they call Master ruling over them.

Green Hornet and Kato are joined by the Shadow and the Spider to enact what they believe is true justice. Miss Fury and Green Lama join the group after escaping from a concentration camp. The newly-minted Zorro and Black Bat also fight the Bureau to help the common people.

The Shadow has found the location of the Justice Party's master, the Clock, previously a district attorney named Brian O'Brien (snicker) who stopped believing the law is enough to ensure order in society. Everybody stops fighting to hear the Clock's rantings about taking over the whole country, all the while advocating how his harsh methods are necessary for the greater good. Zorro and the Spider bring an angry mob at the Clock's door. Everybody starts fighting and the Clock is overpowered. The Shadow wants to kill him, but the others accuse him of acting just like the Clock did. The Clock can't resist picking up a gun to try to escape, so the Shadow still gets to kill him. It's self defense, so it's ok now.

The Clock's amy is defeated by the regular people who have taken up arms, so his plan of taking over the US was never really a threat.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Masks takes a variety of the Dynamite heroes, both their original characters (Green Lama, Black Bat) and their licensed characters (The Shadow, Green Hornet), and puts them all into a story exploring the lines between laws and justice. When a dubious group takes over the government through 'legal' means, vigilantes find themselves leading a charge for justice against the corrupted state. Alex Ross' art is beautiful as always, and the story has some heft to it, as it tries to find the line between ends justifying the means and what that means for masked heroes. There are a lot of characters present, which means several get short shrift (Miss Fury and Zorro especially seem underrepresented), but overall a cohesive story is able to be told that pulls in so many disparate individuals in a fairly acceptable manner.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Several pulp heroes band together to prevent a fascist army from taking over New York, and then possibly the world. We have most of the favorites here: The Shadow, Green Hornet, The Spider, Miss Fury, Zorro, The Black Bat and more. The story picked up in the middle in a way, which made it seem a little rushed. It looked way too easy for an evil group to seize control of New York City through somewhat legal means. The threat also seemed to grow too big, too fast. But that was sometimes a hallmark of the pulp heroes in that the threats they faced were usually huge. The first issue was art from Alex Ross, which was awesome. However the other artists were competent as well so bad art wasn't an issue.

Overall pretty good, especially if you're a fan of any of the pulp heroes mentioned.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pulp heroes doing pulp hero things - an excellent afternoon diversion.

[jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A point of disclosure: I have a huge weakness for Pulp and Golden age characters. Thus even mediocre treatments can be too appealing for my not to read. At strong treatments, such as J. Michael Straczynski's "The Twelve," Wagner's "Green Hornet," and now "Masks," I get positively giddy.

The set-up here for this great team up seems, at first glance, pretty boiler plate. Green Hornet and Kato roll into New York hunting down a gangster. When they encounter the Shadow, he tells them that the newly elected Justice Party though claiming to clean up NYC, isn't what it seems. In short order, we learn that the Justice Party's goals are fascistic - an interesting and excellent incorporation of Pulp era issues. More and more masked heroes join the fight, many with their own plot threads/. These varied threads combine well with an interesting philosophical subplot about the time-worn conflict between law and justice. As with any team-up book, "Masks" rises or falls on the writer's ability to individualize characters and give energy to their relationships. Chris Roberson manages to use this philosophical conflict to pour heat into the characters' interactions and root each perspective in the larger story.

Many of the classic pulp heroes were thin on back story and motivation, but Roberson does a fine job with his cast. Yes, some are "B" and even "C" list (how many readers have really yearned to see the Green Lama to reappear?), but it is a great cast nonetheless. The Black Terror. The Spider. Miss Fury. There was even one character I was totally unfamiliar with (The Black Bat, a sort of godfather to Daredevil). Even Doc Savage (who Dynamite must not have been able to secure the rights to use), gets a delightful oblique reference. I thought I knew a good deal about the pulps but I'm pleased to say Chris Roberson puts me to shame.

Of course Alex Ross's cover art, with all its great painted color and willowy lines, adds depth to the whole book. Much of the page art is similarly excellent. When The Green Hornet, Kato, and the Shadow leap off a building into the fray, the former two are upright with fists raised for battle, while the Shadow goes head first, guns drawn, and almost flies out off the page. It is just one of many panels (not to mention the lovely covers), which will make you pause in your read to try and just inhale the depth of action.

On a last note, I'm not usually a huge fan of the "bonus material" featured in trades, coming to books mostly for the story. "Masks" was the exception. The early pencil drafts of the illustrations tell you a lot about the source of this art's wonderful sense of movement. Moreover, I enjoyed the range of "bonus covers" by a huge variety of artists of diverse styles, which ranged from the ridiculous to the risqué.

As I said from the beginning, it is hard to imagine a book more tailored for my taste than "Masks." Still, even if you're just an occasional fan of the pulps, if you just have certain weakness for the Shadow or Hornet or (there must be at least one out there) the Buddhist hero, the Green Lama, story, art, and crackling energy combine here into a book well worth your time.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the time before Golden Age superheroes existed, there were some great pulp heroes that existed. The Green Hornet and Kato, The Shadow and The Spider to name a few. Masks Volume 1 takes these heroes and others from around the same time period and teams them up.

The Justice Party takes control of New York, seemingly for the betterment of people, but when groups of armed thugs start taking people off the street and taking them to camps outside the city, something must be done. Shadowy figures who work outside the law decide to take matters into their own hands, but they have differences about how justice should be meted out. The group grows as the series progresses and it's fun to see who will show up next.

All the series covers and the art for the first issue are by legendary artist Alex Ross and he doesn't disappoint with his amazing painted style. Dennis Calero takes over art for issues 2-8 and does a fine job. The graphic novel also includes a full script for issue #1, and character sketches and alternate covers. It's quite a bit of bonus material. Some of the alternate covers are better than others. It was a lot of fun seeing these pulp heroes team up like the Justice League or the Avengers.

[Murphy C · Rating 2 out of 5]

I very much wanted to like this comic, and wanted it to be good! Alas, it is not. I love all these Golden Age Pulp heroes, but the lazy, inchoate writing and plotting do them all a disservice. The story is interesting enough, but pitifully told, and the art is generally atrocious. Likewise, the majority of pages contain three or fewer panels! How can a comic tell a compelling story about engaging characters when the comic is so inefficiently designed? Unfortunately, I'm not surprised this comic is so bad-- really, it's par for the course for Dynamite!

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love super heroes from the pulp era of the 1930-50s you would love this work! In this comic book we see nine different pulp superheroes such as the Green Hornet with his sidekick Kato, Zorro, the Black Bat and the Shadow joining forces in one story to fight against a political enemy known as the Justice Party. And what a treat it was to read this graphic novel and see these characters coming together and fighting against evil!
Here in the story the Justice Party outwardly looks like a righteous political party that has been popular enough to be voted into office in New York City to bring about reform and change. But soon enough it turns out they have an oppressive fascist side and thus they implement tyranny with their Black Legion troopers. These Black Legion troopers turn New York city into a police state who go around the city to arrest and remove the allegedly undesirables of society. There’s a clear parallel here with the Justice Party being like the Nazi party and the Justice Party’s Black Legion troopers similar to Nazi “black shirts” and it gets even more blatant later in the story when readers discover where these undesirable people are sent to. Thus it is time for the heroes and the people to push back against this police state which desire to spread their forces beyond the city.
I love the pace of the story in introducing the various heroes by introducing them in small groups at a time. This allows readers to appreciate each one as they make their appearance. The story begins first with the Green Hornet and his partner Kato fighting hoodlums and then the Shadow drops by to help these two. Of course the Green Hornet and Kato isn’t sure who the Shadow is and what’s his intent but they soon work together. Later in the second issue we also Miss Fury, the Green Lama and Spider as they joined in the fight against the Black Legion troopers tyrannizing town. Discovering each other they talk and make a plan to try to stop the Justice Party. This involved some of them splitting up in order to get things done but later they end up being together for the ultimate battle and revelation of who’s behind the sinister Justice Party that’s pulling the string!
The book collects eight comic book issues of this story arch. Most of the artwork was illustrated by Dennis Calero and which I enjoyed. It is colorful yet has a dark theme yet not unnecessarily over the top dark. The first issue though was painted by artist Alex Ross and it is probably the most amazing work of the entire book. I wished he could have continued the illustration for the rest of the book or more portions of the book although in saying this I am not criticizing Calero’s artwork. It’s just Alex Ross’ is amazing in terms of its realism, its noir feel and details.
I do recommend this work as a leisure reading.

[Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had trouble connecting with this. There's a lot of bloviating about "justice" and beating up faceless goons. That's about it. If I was more familiar with some of these characters, I might have been more interested. I like a team-up, but I don't care about any of these people, and the book just kept introducing new ones. The art was interesting.

[Mark Schwaber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the Alex Ross intro chapter, and the concept of gathering these truly classic characters. But the writing bogs down into predictable trope, which is maybe the intent? To match the era of the leads? But if not, yikes!

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's taken me a little bit, but I've actually really started to enjoy the variety of graphic novels that I've been reviewing lately.

Masks, by author Chris Roberson and artists Alex Ross and Dennis Calero is part superhero, part mystery, part urban noir.  The book is vintage superhero -- from a time when the only super power was the Shadow's ability to cloud men's minds.  The book brings together an unlikely assortment of vintage, pulp heroes: The Green Hornet and Kato, The Shadow, The Green Lama, Miss Fury, Black Terror, The Spider, Zorro,  and Black Bat.  If you're not familiar with all these characters, you are not alone.  I have a bit of a penchant for old pulp stories, and other than a passing reference, many of these I were not familiar to me.  However, this definitely does not detract from the book.  Rather, it makes me want more.  I would love to see these vintage heroes more often.

Our set-up: it is the late 1930's and a master criminal has worked his way into the political scene and has created The Justice Party ... his own rogue, vigilante police force.  He claims that justice can't truly be served when there are lawyers and courts and other ways for the criminals to go free.  It is not lost on this reader that our master villain is doing precisely what our costumed heroes do... mete out justice by their own means.  It all comes down to the viewpoint of those handing out the 'justice.'

In typical pulp fashion, the take-over of New York City by our shadowy thug is only the beginning.  He's hoping to take over the state, and then the country.  And of course we presume, ultimately the world.  But our odd menagerie of heroes discovers a secret that the mastermind had been trying to hide from them.

It's certainly a classic pulp story, complete with fascism, but in the hands of a strong storyteller such as Chris Roberson, it works quite well.  It helps that, sadly, this sort of political thuggery hasn't gone away.  While reading this book, the national news was full of reports on New Jersey's Governor, Chris Christie's political shenanigans with creating lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, and for his 'shakedown' of local mayors looking for hurricane relief money.  It's a little scary that fiction such as this has such strong non-fiction ties to the modern world.

This is a graphic novel, so of course there is artwork here.  Beautiful artwork.  It's almost impossible to go wrong with the reigning king of comic book art, Alex Ross.  his panels don't appear to be pen, ink, and computer-generated color art, but complete, multi-paneled paintings.  Ross is only responsible for the first issue of the comic series that is compiled for this graphic novel, as well as a few covers.  The rest of the series is drawn by Dennis Calero.  It would be a difficult task to follow Alex Ross on any series, but Calero holds his own quite well and his art is fitting to the period, noir look for the book.

The 'down'-side to this book is that there are so many characters with whom most readers are likely not familiar, that we don't really get to know them.  I'm not deeply aware of the graphic novel/comic book community.  Perhaps each of these characters already have their own titles?  In any event, I just don't know the Green Lama or Black Bat or Miss Fury, and their inclusion here has me wanting a little more from them.

My advance reading copy included a bonus of the original script for the first issue of the comic, along with panel sketches by Ross.  I always enjoy seeing the creative process behind a finished work, so this was a nice treat.

If there will be a Volume 2 and beyond, count me interested!

Looking for a good book?  This period, noir graphic novel with a gathering of pulp heroes is a wonderful throwback to an era when heroes where men and women of conviction rather than just mutant powers.

This review originally published in the blog Looking For a Good Book.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

Ah, now that was a graphic novel that really hit all the sweet spots for me. Harkening back to the heroes of the golden age (1930s through 1940s radio and comics), we have a story that unites pulp heroes:

- The Shadow and Margo Lane
- The Green Hornet and Kato
- The Spider
- Zorro
- The Green Lama
- The Black Terror
- Miss Fury
- Black Bat

The story follows a criminal mastermind who finds a way to buy/bribe his way into New York politics and creates a fascist state. Led by the single minded and driven vigilante, The Shadow, heroes will be born, resurrected, and called upon to save the City.

Right off the bat, the illustrations were gorgeous. Almost painterly (think Normal Rockwell if he did comics) and full of details that were so true to the era, I devoured every page. And well, The Shadow just rocks, 'nuff said. I've loved that character since I was a little girl first getting into comics and he never disappoints. Some of the heroes in the story I recognized and others were knew to me but all retained their character and didn't feel modernized in any way (thankfully!).

I liked that each character was given a few pages to help get us to know them before they began their assault on the bad guys. I also liked that they each chose different paths to get to the end of the story. But my favorite moment came early in the series when they were revealing their secret identities to each other and they ask The Shadow what his real name is - to which he just answers, "I AM The Shadow." You don't mess with The Shadow.

This was one of those titles that just had me squealing with happiness throughout the read. Honestly, when I first saw this, I thought it would be another crossover rip off. But it really was an outstanding miniseries and one I hope they do again soon.

The graphic novel collects the full 8 issues of the original comic and has 70 extra pages of bonus material including character sketches, covers, and various artworks/storyboards.

Received as an ARC from the publisher.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these old-time "superheroes" before powers became part of the deal. I'm familiar with several of these characters from old b/w movies and serials from I guess the 30s/40s. I've read vol. 1 of The Spider and loved it, have heard of The Shadow, Green Hornet and Zorro. The others grouped here are new to me as far as I can remember. I love superhero team-ups so had a lot of fun with this group though I didn't enjoy it as much as I had expected to. Unfortunately, with so many heroes there just wasn't enough space to develop any of the characters. Since The Shadow and Green Hornet/Kato start off in Chapter 1 it is given them the most coverage through the book and I would certainly look into reading Dynamite's "Shadow" series as he totally intrigues. I've never been a fan of the Hornet or Kato but here Kato was given the starring role with GH always in the background. I just loved Kato! Almost everytime he appears he's in the middle of a fight with "karate chop" leg extended about 170 degrees. All the other characters were gradually introduced until Chapter 6 of 8 we finally have them all and are shown a visual chart with all their names. The story was realistic being a typical tale of a psycho wanting to take over the world starting with New York City, then Washington DC. The art was fantastic, especially Alex Ross' first chapter which was almost life-like in portrayal. Calero did a good job of continuing the style. I did enjoy this but it is probably going to be more fun for readers familiar with more of the 8 "Masks" than I was.

[Alex Sarll]

The Shadow is the classic pulp vigilante, a vision of what Batman could be if he ever grew a pair. Here he orchestrates assorted characters of a similar vintage, from the not-quite-as-good-as-the-Shadow (Zorro, Green Hornet) to the frankly C-list (Green Lama, Black Bat), in an effort to save New York from the Justice Party - a criminal conspiracy which, in the ultimate example of regulatory capture, has become the new state government. The basic idea derives from three 1938 novels about Shadow rip-off the Spider, who also appears here, and the relevance to contemporary events in Europe is obvious; I'm also reminded of Jonathan Wild in England a couple of centuries earlier, not to mention the modern day parallels. Sadly, Roberson (and Dynamite) don't manage to evade the perils that so often dog crossovers at the bigger comics companies; all the franchise characters need to get their share of the screentime, whether or not they merit it, and the later twists don't really make much sense. Still, the Shadow!

[César Viteri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oportunidades desperdiciadas y publicidad engañosa. Lamentablemente, este es el resumen de las sensaciones que me deja este álbum. Lo compré atraído por el nombre y la portada de Alex Ross... para descubrir que recopila una serie de 8 números, y que Ross sólo dibujó el primero y las portadas. A partir de ahí cubre el expediente un voluntarioso Dennis Calero, que sencillamente no es Ross en absoluto y tiene problemas caracterizando personajes de forma consistente.

A esto hay que añadir un argumento simplón hasta para los estándares del pulp, mal desarrollado y que obvia los conflictos más interesantes hasta casi el final, como es juntar a 9 héroes clásicos con nociones muy distintas de la justicia.

Una pena, podría haber sido maravilloso y se queda corto en todos los aspectos.

[Scott wachter · Rating 2 out of 5]

All the 'masked avenger' characters that dynamyte has the rights to team up!

And that's it.

I mean, the art is fucking gorgeous, but yeah that's all i can say about it.

Characterization is non-existent, the plot is very thin, but it sure is nice to look at for an evening.

I guess there's the sheer novelty of having The Shadow teamed up with Zorro and Kato (also Green Hornet), but there's at least 8 more characters cluttering things up, most of whom don't have anywhere near the seam pop culture cachet of those four; The Spider, The Clock, Green Lama these guys ring any bells? Show of hands, please.

By pulp nerds for pulp nerds, all others need not apply.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd been looking forward to this team-up of pulp mystery-men, but sadly found it a disappointment.

There were many problems. There were just too many characters, and not enough time to give them all a good spotlight. The premise was over-the-top. The dialogue was over-the-top. The pulp action meant that there was almost constant fighting. Some of this was certainly meant to reflect the pulp genre, but it didn't come off well in a modern comic. I ended up almost skimming the book as a result.

I also felt like the artwork was a bait and switch. After beautiful art by Alex Ross in the first issue, the other seven looked faded and sad in comparison.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 2 out of 5]

On its face, Masks seems like a great idea - gather 9 pulp-era heroes and throw them all into a joint adventure together. But the result goes overboard on all the wrong details, starting with a preposterous story that wouldn’t even have worked in a pulp novel. There are so many characters that we never get to know any of them that well, so we care for none of them. And while the art is terrific, the book gives so much room for its visuals that the story suffers even more, moving along at a breakneck pace and hand-waving key detail along the way. This has so much potential, but the entire thing is a giant misfire. What a shame.

[Anchorpete · Rating 2 out of 5]

I haven't really liked anything that Dynamite has put out yet. I can't really say I have really liked anything Roberson has put out either. In the case of both, their books have been so so. No surprise, I feel that way about this book, too. The Alex Ross art is great, in the first issue, but that only makes the transition more jarring when the subpar art kicks in for the rest of the mini-series. It is exciting to see all the pulp heroes united, but really just a cover image by Ross can do that job, the story doesn't use the potential of this massive pulp crossover.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great bunch of characters to bring together in a single story.

Problem is, none of the characters get any significant screen-time and the tangential story-telling does make it somewhat confusing to follow. Not to worry though, as in any great-ish comic-book cross-overs all the characters are brought together for the big finale. Which kind of brings us back to the too-little screen time part. But what a dissapointing villain.

Great collection of covers though.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

My dad hooked me to old time radio(which he grew up on) when I was a child in the 70's. I have never forgotten them..
This is a wonderful, fun look at many "pulp"(and radio) heroes teaming up in the late 1930's.
Alex Ross does some of the artwork here, and if you have never seen his stuff, please take a look!!!!
My 15 year son ate this like candy. I have to admit I did too. Good stuff!!!

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esta idea, con mejor planeación y adaptando a los heroes de manera diferente, hubiera funcionado mejor. Lamentablemente Dynamite ya no tiene la licencia de La Sombra para encabezarlos. Esto pudo haber sido un gran evento con todos estos grandes héroes de antaño, si se hubiera tomado el tiempo para desarrollarlos a todos y hacer una historia donde la relación de personajes haya brillado un poco más. Para eso es necesario dedicarle varios años a estos personajes que para muchos tienen valor nostálgico, y para otros, hay que ponerlos a prueba con excelentes equipos creativos. Pero basta de decir lo eu Masks pudo ser y hablemos de lo que es.

La trama es simple. Un partido político toma control de la ciudad de Nueva York, este partido funciona más como un sindicato criminal que como una fuerza para la justicia, y un grupo de héroes se le opone. De nuevo, el libro asume que mucha gente conoce a estos personajes, y cuando no, da una breve historia de origen del tamaño de una burbuja de diálogo o de un par de paneles que se pudo haber invertido en otro libro y darle más enfoque a esos personajes. Nombres como The Clock y Black Bat no me resonaban para nada, se mostraron sus historias de origen en este libro, pero para mi fue un desperdicio. Los nombres que sí conozco, no fueron tratado con el protagonismo suficiente. Esto debió haber sido una serie larga de 30 fascículos en vez de ocho si iban a comprimir tanto en una sola idea.

En el aspecto gráfico hay fallos y triunfos. Tanto Alex Ross como Dennis Calero son excelentes artistas, pero creo que hizo falta un poco de dirección. Los paneles, que parecían experimentales al principio, poco a poco se fueron transformando excusas para dibujar lo mínimo posible. Las escenas de acción carecieron de impacto con posiciones rígidas y para nada fluidas. Creo que una cuadrícula de paneles de 3 x 3 como en Watchmen o en The Omega Men hubiera funcionado mejor y de vez en cuando ofrecer escenas experimentales para hacer brillar a los héroes.

Los colores en la parte de Alex Ross fueron buenos, pero al parecer a Dennis Calero lo tenían trabajando al punto del cansancio porque en su parte hubo muchos atajos para seguir dibujando y coloreando lo antes posible. Como ví en Assassin’s Creed Templars, Calero es muy bueno en el control de la iluminación y en hacer ver a los héroes muy bien, incluso con modelos en 3D, el uso de luces y sombras es lo que lo destaca del resto. Opino que para un trabajo de esta magnitud, debieron haber buscado a un colorista para que no todo este encima de Calero.

Y esto es a lo que cae el punto, falta de dirección. Los creativos en este trabajo parecen haber trabajado uno independiente del otro y no se ve una visión unificada. Hubo mucho que me gustó, pero al manejar todos estos personajes emblemáticos, el listón está muy alto.

[Matt Eldridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I first enjoyed the premise of a big crossover of pulpheroes, the idea of them fighting a facist enemy before the US entered WW2 was intriquing and it actually does bring up that this "Justice Party" are using pre-existing laws solely to terrorize the marginalized and PoC, something that the privildged ardently still defend on the underhanded racist/classist notions of being "tough on crime" while fully knowing they'll never been targeted by these policies.

Unfortunately as the story went on, those preconcieved notions of mine were quickly dashed by the end of it, Masks proved itself incapable of being able to maturely discuss the natures of facism,
how easy it can take hold or how these heroes themselves are members of the elite who are essentially complacent in the flawed and awful laws of the land, not even given the most minor of mentions here. Even the villain, at first actually a credible threat, just turns into a cliche at the climax, the exact flaw of absolutely every supervillian that Ozymandius mocks in Watchmen's penultimate issue. The Justice Party might just have well called itself the "The Evil Bad Alliance of Doom and Baby Eating" for how cartoonish they become too soon onwards.

The shortcomings of this story remind me of how comics around the time of the late '80s/early '90s and beyond were trying to copy the success of Watchmen and failing miserably, due to not studying as to why Watchmen was successful for its mature content. But honestly, Masks should have made an attempt to copy Watchmen. Specifically, the role of the golden-age homage characters of The Minutemen, people who were doing their best to fight crime but were also all imbuned with the prejudices of that time era (anti-polish, homophobia, sexism, racism) as a critique of the idea that time period was worthy of such nostalgic worship. Of all the characters in mask; Green Hornet, Kato, Shadow, Spider, Miss Fury, Green Lama, Zorro, Black Bat and Black Terror have no such depths and pretty much remain static all throughout the book. The idea of Masks having too many characters is pretty much a minor quibble in the overall critique.

Its a damn shame that Masks plays itself so straight, unaware and played safe throughout something that could have been a meaningful and philosphical, marred by uninspired hands giving us an above average experience.

[Ángel G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Masks es un crossover épico entre La Sombra, The Spider, Green Hornet, el Zorro… ¡Los héroes pulp!
Tenía muchas expectativas puestas en este cómic y muchas ganas de leerlo. Y me ha decepcionado.
Echo en falta más información porque este tomo no cuenta nada sobre los personajes. Entiendo que es una miniserie para gente que ya los conoce, pero como añadido, una introducción habría venido bien.
El dibujo y la composición de página son brutales, sobre todo en el caso del primer número, el de Alex Ross. Pero Dennis Calero no sé queda atrás. La edición incluye algunos contenidos adicionales como bocetos de los personajes y de las páginas, portadas alternativas y otras ilustraciones. La historia es sencilla: un partido de nuevo cuño gana las elecciones y establece un gobierno fascista en su propio beneficio. Detrás de ellos, una magia que se ha infiltrado en el sistema para enriquecerse. Y los héroes son los únicos que luchan contra ello. Sin ser original, resulta entretenido. Mi pero viene en el cas de los diálogos. Son tan tópicos, tanto que llegan a ser ridículo. La Sombra sentencia con frases como “dispensemos justicia”. Tiene que ver con el tipo de personajes e historias, pero para mi rompe un poco.

[wbforeman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a big crossover book with all of dynamite golden age heroes from the 1930s and 40s. I’ve seen some complaints of why should I care I don’t who these heroes are? I don’t think you really need to know the backstory it’s like a big crossover event, where everyone’s here to defeat the evil bad guy known as the justice party, who is taking over the state of New York. It’s funny because this book reminds me of a classic Doctor Who, six part serial of all of our heroes get introduced they get to know the situation. It’s a lot of back-and-forth dialogue some of the heroes get kidnapped and stuck. it’s fairly simple plot The big problem with the plot is it’s a lot of characters to keep track of and so you can get a little lost and I think because of the amount of characters any amount of dialogue of what do we do now? It can feel a bit meandering, I’m surprised it has eight issues when it probably needed to be six. It’s also cool to see Alex Ross do interior artwork but I knew that wasn’t going to last the other artist is fine, but like a lot of dynamite book artwork it’s mediocre to OK, but it wasn’t atrocious where it took me out of the story. If you can turn your brain off and just enjoy government superheroes fighting a fascist political entity. you’ll have a good time.