A weekend fun comicbook reading review…because sometimes a Pastors need a break from heavy reading!
David Avallone. Doc Savage: The Ring of Fire. Runnemede, NJ: Dynamite Entertainment, November 14, 2017. 96 pp.
4 out of 5
Purchase: Amazon
Have you heard of the pulp comic book hero name Doc Savage? This is the first time I read a story about Doc Savage, a character that is popular in pulp magazine stories in the 1930s and 1940s. In this modern retelling of Doc Savage in comic book form by Dynamite Entertainment the story takes place in 1938 and involves Pacific Island, secret conspiracy plots and also the Japanese Navy and fascinating of all Amelia Earhart. If you know your history you would remember Amelia Earhart was a woman famous pilot who unfortunately disappeared in her plan in the Pacific.
This trade paperback has four chapters or issues. The series cover for each issues were well done and so was the rest of the work. I really enjoyed setting this story in the 1930s; that’s currently one of my favorite era for comic book stories to take place. The story is about sudden volcanic eruption in Palmyra Island that made US President Franklin Roosevelt has some questions especially since an important Naval Admiral and his ship disappeared. So Doc Savage and his team are dispatched to investigate. Doc Savage splits his team up to approach the area in question and later discover sinister forces are at play using weapons that Doc Savage created but were stolen from him. I don’t want to give away too much of the book but action and adventures are pursued by Doc Savage and his friends!
I love how there’s real historical figures in this book: FDR, Amelia Earhart and Navy Admiral Bill Leahy. This comic book was also an alternative history fiction as it gives the reason for Amelia Earhart’s death as trying to stop a dangerous person with a dangerous secret weapon on a plane. But the alternative history fiction wasn’t overdone. I also thought the creative team for this comic book did a good job handling the Japanese naval officers involved in this story in the sense that it didn’t caricature them as dumb as older 40s comics would have done; there was a redemptive element of the Japanese admiral also as well and they did that without being woke. After reading this I am open to reading more Doc Savage comicbooks; which means I enjoyed this.
The Domain for Truth 
[…] Doc Savage: The Ring of Fire […]
I haven’t read any Doc Savage, but I do enjoy well told stories. I see a lot of these comics can be borrowed on internet Archive. There are multiple authors: Lester Dent and Kenneth Robeson.
Thanks for letting me know about the internet archives with comics; you use the internet archives quite a lot from past comments!
From Doc Savage to The Shadow, it is good to say that pastors do have a break from Batman! Blessings Jim, to you and your family!
Yes been enjoying these different characters! Blessings to you Kent! So good to hear from you!
This looks like an enjoyable story. Yup, I enjoy historical fiction with familiar names from the past mixed into the tale. Thanks for the good review!
Nice! Look forward to your next comic post already! How was Friday?
Thanks. I actually have a “young Legion” review scheduled for Monday!
RE: Friday
Another thanks! It’s the start of a new quarter, so the business is generally slow for most, but I have an average workload. How did your Friday go?
I think I read a book with Dr. Savage in it.
Gotcha! I hope you have a blessed Saturday today!
I did. Blessings.
Whoa!! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when I read your title! Doc Savage!! Woohoo! I got hooked many years ago when Ron Ely of television Tarzan fame played Doc Savage in a movie. I started reading the comics then, but also moreso, some paperback stories (pulp I guess you could call it!). Haven’t read a comic in a while though I know I have some digital ones archived away in one of my hard drives somewhere! I used to love to read the comic books, but time creeps up on you and seems to get shorter and shorter. I won’t lie though, every once in a great while even now, I will get one out just to read through one. Maybe it’s about time again. I’ll be 70 in August and I tell everyone, I may be getting older but I refuse to grow up!! Peter Pan syndrome I think some have called it!! I’m not the only one!! Love it!! 🙂
Lol I too have a love for comics even at my age of being a parent at all! Don’t read them often since there’s so much to read but they do take e to another place for rest! Wait there was a doc savage movie????? Did I read that right? How was it???
It was back in the 70s so you can imagine, but I fell in love with the character. I liked the Shadow and The Phantom also. Those older characters had a certain style!!
Seems like fun! Pastors need a break too
I find it interesting that real-life characters are found in the storyline. This adds credibility and realism to the fictionalized story.
Doc Savage!! I’m a Doc Savage purist – the pulp novels is Doc Savage, as far as I’m concerned – not a fan of the new comic book stuff but will read them.