Americomics Special #1

Published by Americomics (AC Comics) in August 1983.

Hello! It is Jeremy, the guy who did the guest review of Red Circle's 'The Fly' #1. I am currently working on my second full-length review of 'The Mighty Crusaders' #1 (The 1980s Red Circle version). But in the meantime, I will be doing a series of 'quickie' reviews, shorter reviews that will tide the fans over 'til I do finish that review! The first one will focus on the Charlton heroes that became part of the DC Universe during 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' in 1985-86. For a while before their integration to the DCU, Charlton themselves tried to push these guys: First in the early 1980s revival of 'Charlton Bullseye'. This book is from the second try, in 1983, when they gave them to AC Comics, where these heroes had the chance to shine in books with GLOSSY PAPER for the cover price of $2.00 (which was very pricy back in the day!)

This story stars the four Charlton 'Action Heroes' created by Steve Ditko (The Ted Kord Blue Beetle, the Silver Age Captain Atom, The Question, and Nightshade). For the most part, these heroes look exactly like how they did in 1967, with one notable exception: Nightshade was given a snazzy-looking catsuit with knee-high boots that was a vast improvement over her hilariously lame Silver Age costume. The art done by Greg Guler (of 'A Goofy Movie' and 'Phineas and Ferb' infamy) has a very 'Saturday-Morning Cartoon' feel to it. The plot involves some criminal mastermind commanding some old-timey Charlton villains (Some of them are quite obscure: DC never even used Iron-Arms or Fiery-Icer) to steal a solar battery. There are some errors: Nightshade's civilian alter-ego had blonde hair in the 1960s stories, but has black hair here. Likewise, Ted Kord's assistant Tracy is a blonde here. This is a fun one-shot in any case. For a more detailed look at this issue, go to: www.majorspoilers.com/retro-review-americomics-special-1-august-1983

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