Blue Falcon and Dynomutt #1 // Review
“Who wants to die first?” THAT’S not a line that one would expect to hear coming out of the mouth of a hero on a Saturday motning cartoon in the late 1970s. It’s been nearly a half a century since a certain superhero debuted on cathode ray tubes across the country. He’s entitled to a little darkness in Blue Falcon and Dynomutt #1. Writer Jimmy Palmiotti and artist Paquale Qualano open a whole new adaptation of the hero with colors by Jorge Sutil. Paliotti (who grew-up with the old cartoon character) brings him to the page with some respectable complexity.
It was a nightmare. Blue Falcon was surrounded and outnumbered by winged wariors with swords and morning stars. He wakes-up next to his trusty dog. Naturally he’s going to want to talk about it with him. It’s not exactly the best way to start a relationship with a beautiful zoologist, but she isn’t exactly in bed when he wakes-up. She’s got to get going. She’s got a date with a black-coated leopard. And he’s got work to do. There’s a danger lurking beyond it. It’s a danger that’s going to ultimately. threaten the life of his dog.
Palmiotti says that it’s not a superhero origin story. And it’s not...but it’s not NOT an origin story. Palmiotti has added a great deal of depth to the title characters and given them a more sophisticated grounding that should serve them well as contemporary indie comic book characters. It’s not often that a pet sidekick is given title billing. Yes: Dynomut was the original title character in 1979, but the character was never played for drama...always comedy. Palmiotti’s decision to focus a superhero drama on a man and his dog is actually really clever. It may have been done before in the past, but it’s never been done like this.
Qualano has done a really good job of balancing the cheesiness of the original cel animated superhero with a darker look and feel. It’s pretty impressive that he’s been able to be as true to the original as he has without compromising the gritty darkness that he’s going for. The action is very static, which feels a bit stiff in places, but there’s such a raw grittiness to it that it feels remarkably well-articulated throughout the entire issue. There are some very powerful moments in the course of the first issue that are thoughtfully brought to the page.
The decision to focus on the relationship between man and dog in a superhero setting is a sharp one that’s well-executed, but it lacks the kind of center htat it would need to be able to deliver a truly novel experience. As it is...there isn’t enough of a unique perspective in the script to justify another series beyond the overall sense of nostalgia. It’s interesting to see it develop. The original look of Dynomut had always been more of a comic one. Cybernetic enhancements on the dog are going to require a bit more finesse in order to straddle the line between gritty darkness and cheesy Saturday morning comedy from the 1970s.
