Roberson and Dynamite Crossover Pulp Heroes in "Masks"

[CBR News]

Writer Chris Roberson speaks to CBR about "Masks," a Dynamite crossover featuring The Shadow, Green Hornet, and other pulp heroes -- plus Alex Ross interiors.


Full article here.

[pmpknface]

Cool. All of those images and not ONE of MISS FURY!?!?!? That's what us fanboys are looking for!

[batlash]

I'm game. It'll be good to see The Spider back in his proper time. Now if Dynamite would just give him his proper look. I don't much care for the serial-inspired character design they're using. It just looks goofy to me. I'm also a bit uncertain about Alex Ross providing art for the first issue. If he doesn't do the entire series, the shift in style between the first issue and the rest of the run will likely be jarring as I just don't see Dynamite bringing in another painterly artist to keep things going. The only way I see it working is if the first issue is some sort of prologue to the main story.

[Kyle Anderson]

http://forums.comicbookresources.com...rse&highlight=

I was kinda of right.

[MichaelPaytonMZ]

This was my favorite Spider novel, so I'm delighted to see it adapted by Dynamite in such a major story.

The original novel is here.

[MikeM]

I'm game. It'll be good to see The Spider back in his proper time. Now if Dynamite would just give him his proper look. I don't much care for the serial-inspired character design they're using. It just looks goofy to me.

I agree 100%

Well, it's set in 1938, so it's kind of set in the original milieu that most of these characters first appeared in. With a lot of the characters that have been, through Dynamite or elsewhere, more modernized and made contemporary we've just kind of returned to the more classic versions. This will be the characters as best recognized from their original appearances.

If this is 'the best recognized from their original appearances, why is The Spider still dressed like was in the serials, not the pulps?

[Michael24]

Wow! This sounds awesome. Doesn't Dynamite also have a Phantom series? I wonder if he'll be included as well.

[MichaelPaytonMZ]

Little disheartened that after two interviews Roberson only bothers to mention the Spider when he's asked specifically about him and apparently he won't even be in the first issue that Alex Ross will be doing. It's a bit like adapting Dark Knight Returns and not putting Batman in the story's first act. I know the Shadow has more name recognition...but this IS a trilogy of Spider novels being adapted here. In fact, it's his biggest story ever. The Shadow writers never had the unbridled imagination to put him in this sort of story, so he's rather out of place here anyway.

[Ed Love]

Little disheartened that after two interviews Roberson only bothers to mention the Spider when he's asked specifically about him and apparently he won't even be in the first issue that Alex Ross will be doing. It's a bit like adapting Dark Knight Returns and not putting Batman in the story's first act. I know the Shadow has more name recognition...but this IS a trilogy of Spider novels being adapted here. In fact, it's his biggest story ever. The Shadow writers never had the unbridled imagination to put him in this sort of story, so he's rather out of place here anyway.

Well, it's not really an adaptation but using it as a milieu to the story. It's the backdrop, not a retelling. It will be interesting how much of Liss' changes to the Spider will be kept, if any. It could make for a disconcerting reading for the fans who only know the current Dynamite series.

Really curious as to seeing how they do the Black Bat. And, a shame that since they have the Shadow, they cannot get the rights to work the Whisperer in there who'd be right at home with the Shadow and Spider.

[BugsySig]

Hmmm...Prophesy didn't interest me much, though it might if Ash shows up eventually. This, however, is intriguing, though they won't confirm Ross working on the book after issue 1 which is weird.

I bet Manga4Life's head exploded when he read this article.

[rasx]

This looks and sounds really good.

[fredmanson]

I was thinking to drop The Spider and The Shadow... Damned DE... I am now FORCED to continue these books (and the other new DE titles too). What a shame!!!!!

Oh I hate you Dynamite!!!!

[Manga4life]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...albumcover.jpg

Look at the cover here painted by Alex Ross, and then look at the link above and you will "LOL"....

No, but in all seriousness this does look pretty damn awesome and should be a really good read. Hopefully the book centers around everyone equally and we can get a good feel for the relationships and feuds between all of these characters when they interact during the book, man......this has me excited!

[MichaelPaytonMZ]

I would have liked to have seen Operator #5 as part of this. His 13-part Purple Invasion story rather mirrors both the general tone and the manic violence of the original Spider Black Empire story.

Jim Steranko, in his History of the Comics, gives a thumbnail version of the Purple Invasion:

Operator #5’s betrayal by army officers, the President’s suicide, Diane’s rescue as she is about to be hung from the Liberty Bell on the 4th of July, a gold train attack, a fantastic naval battle, the destruction of the Panama Canal, American forces pushed beyond the Rocky Mountains, the use of plague bacteria, the Purple Fleet’s onslaught of San Francisco . . . the suicide charge of the Canadian Lancers, the destruction of Pittsburgh’s steel mills, the Purple National Anthem, the American revolutionary army rallying at Death Valley, their push toward Los Angeles and the destruction of the Purple Navy, the fall of the Purple Empire and the rebuilding of America.

Not to mention the wall of living crucified children, Diane tied to the treads of a tank, the torture and martyrdom on the gallows of the Supreme Court Justices, the mothers who surrender their virtue to the wanton appetites of the invaders in vain efforts to save their infants who end up on bayonets anyway, and the rage and grief of the men who find the evidence of these deeds.

Source

Operator #5 was one of the few pulps that actually matched Norvell Page's Spider novels for sheer insanity and thrills, but with a bit less psychotic hero.

[Roland Gunner]

I would have liked to have seen Operator #5 as part of this. His 13-part Purple Invasion story rather mirrors both the general tone and the manic violence of the original Spider Black Empire story.

Operator #5 was one of the few pulps that actually matched Norvell Page's Spider novels for sheer insanity and thrills, but with a bit less psychotic hero.

Good call. From the little I know about pulps, Operator 5 was known for the longest, most detailed invasion stories. As a bonus, he with a full network of 99 former Secret Service agents, instead of a handful of people. You'd really need that kind of group to fight a group that took over an entire country.