In the opening days of WWII, the free world sat in dread anticipation as the Axis turned its deadly attentions on one country after another. With an ocean to protect her on either side, the United States hoped to be spared participation in the apocalyptic confrontation to come. Knowing their only chance was a sneak attack, the Japanese hight command settles on a dark and terrible plan, one involving damnable sorceries and horrors from beyond to cripple the American colossus.
Join us as three of the Pulp Era's greatest heroes--primary Batman inspiration, The Black Bat; The Domino Lady, greatest of the girl detectives; and H.P. Lovecraft's immortal creation, Inspector Legrasse--band together to battle nightmare and ninjas in one of the wildest, most exciting adventure novels of all time!
C.J. Henderson created new adventures for the likes of Kolchak, The Night Stalker; The Phantom, Mr. Moto, Batman, The Punisher, The Spider, Lin Carter's Anton Zarnak; the Avenger and a score of others. Known around the world for his ability to infuse characters with a startling and electric dynamism, New Mystery Magazine said: "If as some argue, the hardboiled private eye mystery story is a literary form on a par with the Japanese haiku or Irish ballad, then Mr. Henderson deserves the mantle of literary master."
Also: A special introduction by Ron Fortier, "Who the Hell Are These Guys?", and "Only an Hour," a new Black Bat solo adventure by C.J. Henderson!
Assuming that's The Black Bat on the rather abstract cover, that looks to be one rather unusual version.
C.J. Henderson does have some additional history with alternate Black Bats; he penned the Return of the Originals book for Moonstone (which also included Domino Lady). Admitedly, while the story itself is quite good, that is my least favourite version of the character.Mind you, I don't know that Henderson was responsible for the redesign so I don't want to lay it at his feet. I go into To Battle Beyond with an open mind about The Black Bat, eager for a team-up with Domino Lady and curious to be introduced to Inspector Legrasse. In light of my post from last night in which I mention my surprise at how often the character is used in team-ups, the timing for stumbling into this book couldn't be more appropriate.
Unfortunately, as you may have heard or been able to deduce from the wording of the solicitation, Mr. Henderson passed away recently. He died of cancer in early July of this year.
I have the original printing; it’s an okay book, but I don't care much for either the author’s take on the characters, or his idiosyncratic style of punctuating (improperly).
ReplyDeleteWell, that doesn't sound particularly promising...
DeleteI'm not sure that I've read enough Domino Lady that I'd know the difference, and I'd never heard of Legrasse before so I won't notice if he's off. I suppose that works in my favour. I dread the punctuation thing though; that kind of thing drives me nuts.
Did the original version that you have include that solo Black Bat story as well? It wasn't clear to me whether that was a recent add-on or what.
Yes, the additional story was in the original printing, as well as the introduction by Ron Fortier.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm not done the main story yet but I see your point about the punctuation.
DeleteI've noticed quite a few spelling/grammatical errors too, the type that spellcheck would not have pointed out. Often it's simply a matter of having a verb in the wrong tense. "Ellen was please to see him". And in some chapters, it seems that Mr. Henderson got in a habit of starting sentences with "indeed". Indeed, he does it so often that it becomes annoying and distracting.
It's OK, but I admit I was expecting a bit better. I hope I like the solo Bat story more.