Writer Tom DeFalco is best known for his work on the Spider-Man series during the ’80s.
After reading “Kid Colt,†you’ll know exactly why.
Dated and somewhat campy, this one-shot from Marvel Comics has its moments, but for the most part feels like a tribute to the comics of yesteryear that is incapable of connecting with today’s audience.
Bringing back the character that originally debuted in 1948 wasn’t a horrible idea, but mirroring the exact writing and art style the series had in a brand new comic ends up as pure torture to read.
While DeFalco is a writer from a different generation than the breed that is doing most of the writing today, this series doesn’t work to his strengths at all.
Over the past 20 years, writers the likes of Mark Waid, Robert Kirkman, Brian Michael Bendis and Geoff Johns have helped make comic books a medium for true stories to be told. No longer relying on the techniques of old such as flashbacks and cliché to tell a story, these guys changed the medium forever.
Despite the fact that DeFalco’s story is easy to read, it lacks any real punch and reads like a flat-filler issue of a 25-year-old comic.
It remains to be seen if this was done by design or because the character himself can’t hold down a series by himself anymore. All in all, it’s a shame that a talent like DeFalco has been wasted on something like this.
The art mirrors the writing here as well, as retro art by Rick Burchett is just as bland and unsatisfying. As a matter of fact, one of the main fighting sequences will remind many of Steve Ditko’s work on Amazing Spider-Man. While it may serve as a nice nostalgic side step for readers looking for something different, the art, like the writing, is nothing special and serves only to try and bring the series out of a dust-filled closet, rather than put a new coat of paint on it.
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Feeling like a ’40s spaghetti Western, this comic has plenty of action. Colt is a witty kid with charisma to spare, but DeFalco never takes it to the next level, making him a stereotype of every Western hero ever created. While reading, you want to like the kid; you just never get enough of a reason to. Sure, his parents are dead, but by the time the story starts, he’s already gotten his revenge. So why tell a bland story, with horrible villains (the bounty hunter looks like Abe Lincoln had sex with the bassist from ZZtop) at all?
Had Colt been put in a different scenario, perhaps this one shot could have succeeded. However, this is regretfully not the case. As a result, this comic gets stuck in the desert with a gun and no bullets.
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