“Congratulations, fan, you get to write a Charlton comic.” “Yay!” “The final issue of Son Of Vulcan.” “Awwww…”
Son Of Vulcan volume 2 #50 FINAL ISSUE
Charlton Comics Group (January, 1966)
“The Second Trojan War”
WRITER: Roy Thomas, because we all have to start somewhere, and for Roy this was it. He won a fanzine contest or something and this was his first professional writing script. Poor guy.
PENCILER: Bill Fraccio
INKER: Tony Tallarico
no other credits
Johnny Mann is sent to report on a new movie about the Trojan War, but the set is plagued by unexplained disasters, including one that Son Of Vulcan has to save lead actress Lisa Connors from. Not that she’s all that grateful for it, or the other times he has to save her. It turns out Doctor Kong and his new robot, Adam Klink, are trying to chase off the filmmakers before they uncover his lab and the animating ray he’s working on. He sends Klink to capture Lisa to lure in Son Of Vulcan, revealing he knows the hero’s identity and taking advantage of his unpowered form. He uses his ray to bring the Trojan Horse prop for the movie to live, but Johnny manages to call on his powers and save the day.
What they got right: The art was okay.
What they got wrong: Okay, so this is Roy Thomas’s first professional gig. I shouldn’t expect him to be the legendary writer he became, but wow that’s a rough start. I wish I were a better scribe myself sometimes and I have enough of my old comics to wince at. Still, the dialog is really bad on this one. His characters are very verbose, with some word balloons taking up half the panel. That works for a gag strip like the one I usually make, but for an action comic that’s too much. We also get the director exclaiming “shades of Cecil B. DeMille” at one point. Because he’s a director? “Great Caesar’s Ghost” this isn’t. Lisa’s reactions to being saved but getting her hair mussed and stuff, and later yelling at Johnny for suggesting she didn’t “let” Son Of Vulcan save her for publicity (how does that translate to “she likes Son Of Vulcan”, Johnny?) feels like something out of current stories more than decent humor to break tension. Klink being the goofy villain sidekick doesn’t help, either, while did our hero fight anybody except Doctor Kong each story in the anthology?
What I think overall: Son Of Vulcan in the DC Universe was killed off (though with all the reboots who knows?) and I don’t think anything was lost. Son Of Vulcan is not an interesting series. There’s one more pre-DC comic to go from Charlton, though this one will have a few caveats to it. I’ll get into that next Tuesday.
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