Today’s Comic> Heroes Unleashed #1

Someone is bringing back the Golden Age heroes in public domain, and the first two issues of this comic were released free. So I decided to check it out. So we have new comics here for at least the next two weeks.

In this issue: Golden Age heroes team with Rainbow Brite to reclaim their colors!

Heroes Unleashed #1

PD Comics (2024)

ARTIST: Jay Piscopo

EDITOR: Christopher Watts

Captain Midnight: “The War To End All Wars”

WRITER: Bryan Augustyn

Commander X:” Wake Of The War Beast” and Blue Scarab: “Sword Of The Blue Scarab” part one

WRITER: Jay Piscopo

In our first story, Captain Midnight goes to investigate an attack on the British warfleet and finds the Nazis with a flying airship and lighting weapons, which Commander X recognizes as belonging to the Atlantean scientist Doctor Hydro. The story ends on a cliffhanger after Midnight defeats a Nazi soldier in an armored version of his gliding suit and is rescued from the sea by Commander X while airship arrives in the skies of Britian.

There’s also a scene in the war room that features Spy Smasher and trademark friendly versions of the Marvel Family, though given that DC and Retcon Geoff Johns gave them new costumes they could probably get away with the classic ones. I’m not sure how that works. It was a nice nod. The Nazi threat is properly dangerous and I’ll be interested in seeing how that works out.

The second tale, despite featuring Commander X, is not a continuation of the first story. Instead it takes place after the war, as Commander X and a sea sorceress named Circe try to subdue a sea beast used by Lemuria in their wars with Atlantis. I’m not really familiar with these characters, but the story itself is fine. They also seem (and I could be reading this wrong) to be attempting to homage Japanese depictions in the 1940s even after the war without the racial stereotyping and propaganda. I only say that because the two Japanese fishermen in this clear homage to Godzilla look funny.

What’s with the Dan Garret descendants and ancestors in these public domain homage comics? We have Dani Garret, aka Beetle Girl, over at Lucky Comics and here we get Dan’s ancestor, Daniel. Hidden away as a baby to due being an illegitimate son and a threat to the royals because royalty doesn’t need to keep it in their pants so long as nobody finds out about it, Daniel Garret was raised as Henri De Chevalle in France. He and his fellow templars are attacked by mercenaries (guess the assassins’ guild was busy that day), but Daniel is brought back as the Blue Scarab.

Technically, and my knowledge of trademark law didn’t improve since the second paragraph, the original Dan Garret (one T) should qualify as public domain since even his chainmail armor and Vitamin 2X strength did not transfer to the Dan Garrett (two Ts) that DC bought from Charlton, but we can’t seem to get him. This story also seems closer to double-T rather than single-T, with an Egyptian spirit giving Daniel his identity and powers, plus a sword. The presentation is all in captions, which I hope won’t be the case with part two, and it’s an interesting idea. I just want to see the old Dan, Mike, and Joan team-up again.

Overall this is a decent first issue. There’s one more out as of this writing, which if I don’t forget should be reviewed next week. Check them both out at DriveThru Comics.