I mentioned in an earlier post that I recently acquired Airship 27's first volume of
Black Bat Mystery. At the time, I was only a few pages in but was optimistic about it based on the few pages I'd read.
And things held up. I enjoyed the book a great deal.
Before I go on, I do need to confess one thing; my exposure to the original version of the
Black Bat character is limited to the first three stories from 1939 (which I was able to read from the first omnibus offered by Altus). By no means do I consider myself an expert on the character and because I don't have a definitive version in my mind, I am quite open to modernized or "alternative" interpretations.
This is why, while some purists might have found that the Dynamite version of the
Black Bat deviated too far from the source material, for example, I wasn't particularly bothered by that. In this case, there appears to be a conscious effort by the writers/editors to be as faithful as possible to the original version. Fine by me. Whatever feels right.
Speaking of conscious efforts, I took some time before writing about the book to go back and read the first two
Black Bat stories. Having done this, I would guess that each of the four writers contributing to this book, knowing what they were tackling, deliberately attempted to create stories that could be slotted between some of the original ones. In other words, they attempted to write so that a reader would not be able to differentiate between the stories from the 40's and their own. I could be completely wrong about this, but ultimately it was the feeling I was left with. Between Dynamite and Moonstone, I've had plenty of the modern version over the past year or so, so a more traditional take was admittedly kind of nice.
If my memory is sound, I believe "Team Bat" (Silk, Butch and Carol) is present in its entirety in all four stories. But the second story, entitled "A Deal With The Devil" was a particularly pleasant surprise in that it touched into Bat-hunting detective McGrath's background. Perhaps that happened in the 1940's as well, but not to my knowledge, so the "backfill" was an interesting addition. Writer Aaron Smith did a nice job handling the dynamic between the two characters, and their reluctant partnership, as well.
If forced to criticize, I suppose I would say that with the possible exception of the first story, "Death Rides The Valkyrie" (by Andrew Salmon), there is not much mystery to
Black Bat Mystery. The antagonists, their plans, and their methods are quite clear, for the most part.
For that matter, several of those antagonists are quite...spectacular, pushing the stories a little closer to the superhero genre than maybe some would like. My exposure to the original
Black Bat is limited to fighting "normal" criminals, not Nazi giants. Did I mind that
Black Bat Mystery's villains had more of a super-hero comic book feel? Absolutely not, but it may not be to everyone liking, I suppose.
Overall, an enjoyable read and a fine addition to the Bat collection. I'll get the second volume some time this summer and fingers are crossed that work on volume three is underway.
Of Monsters & Men sc
