Smorgasbook

It didn't take much to be a pulp science fiction hero in the 1940s. Give a fellow a catchy name, a spaceship, a ray gun and some robots, and he was set. "Captain Future" was one such hero, with adventures chronicled by Edmund Hamilton between 1940 and 1951. Toei Animation produced a 53-episode anime series of the Hamilton stories that ran from 1978-1979. Modern sci-fi writer Allen Steele was a fan of the stories and in 2017, rebooted the characters with a modern understanding of the solar system and what it would take for human beings to inhabit and travel through it.

The result was Avengers of the Moon, an origin romp showing how the orphaned Curtis Newton came to have the companionship of a seven-foot robot named Grag, an android named Otho and the disembodied brain of scientist Simon Wright, a friend of Curt's murdered parents. When he becomes an adult, Curt learns the identity of the man who ordered the killings and decides to pursue him to avenge their deaths. In order to keep the man from suspecting his connection to the crime, Curt adopts the name Captain Future when he deals with government agents. One of whom, Interplanetary Police officer Joan Randall, happens to be quite attractive and is assigned to be the watchdog on Curt and his friends, much to the sheltered young man's consternation.

Steele does a good job of adapting the 1940s vision of the solar system, space travel and scientific achievements to a more real-world 21st century understanding while retaining as much similarity as possible to Hamilton's descriptions and ideas. He writes Avengers with a distinctly juvenile or young adult feel, although the book isn't advertised as one. He also tries to give a more realistic perspective of what characters in the described situations might feel and how they might react, and he definitely updates Joan Randall into a more modern character who kicks some villainous booty on her own without Curt's help.

For whatever reason, Captain Future didn't make the pop culture transition out of the 1940s like Buck Rogers or E.E. Smith's Lensmen. Steele's resurrection of the characters and universe is probably quite welcome for fans and a nice discovery for those who were unaware of Hamilton's stories. As of this writing there's nothing on Steele's website to suggest whether or not he will write more Captain Future novels, but both of those groups would probably enjoy it if he did.

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Scottish historical novelist David Donachie has published, under his own name and two pen names, more than 30 books, most of which concern life aboard ship in the age of sail. His longest and most successful series is that concerning John Pearce, an illegally pressed or "recruited" seaman we meet in 2004's By the Mast Divided.

By law, Pearce could demonstrate that he is an educated man rather than a common laborer or criminal and be released from his service. But his association with the rebellious politics of his father makes him reluctant to identify himself publicly. Ralph Barclay, the captain who ordered the impressment of Pearce and his fellow "volunteers," did so illegally and so he is not inclined to let Pearce near any kind of authority that might have to take an interest in the captain's crimes. So Pearce is stuck, along with a group of men he had just met when the press-gang raided the tavern where they were. Barclay is also stuck, commanding a clumsy frigate with a clumsy crew on mere convoy escort duty. Whether or not such a slapdash collection can survive battle with the French, let alone triumph, is an open question.

Donachie offers a slightly different take on the Napoleonic sea novel than some of the other major series of the period. His lead character is an illegally pressed landsman who has to learn the ways of the sea, but he offers viewpoint passages from several other characters as well, including Captain Barclay. Rather than living up to his ship's name, HMS Brilliant, Barclay proves to be a barely competent captain, dreaming of far more glory than his modest strategic and tactical gifts will place within his reach.

Divided is an OK beginning for a series but still rather shaky. Donachie doesn't seem to trust his readers to figure many things out. For example, the book title refers to the division between officers and crew in the Royal Navy of the day, with the latter allowed aft of the mainmast only on specific duties. But rather than trust the reader to see that division explored in the narrative, he puts a rumination about it in Pearce's mind and connects it to his egalitarian political beliefs.

Also a problem is that few of the characters are all that likeable, and many of those are relatively minor. Pearce himself, though he proclaims convictions of the equality of all people, pretty clearly seems to hold himself superior to almost anyone he meets. It makes it harder to root for him, although since this is currently a 14-book series, it may be that Donachie intends to make him aware of the flaw and desirous of correcting it. Divided is by no means terrible and its flaws shouldn't prompt casting subsequent volumes aside, but it does set before them an awful lot of work to make the journey one a reader might want to take.

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Mark Waid and Alex Ross's 1996 limited-run series Kingdom Come told the story of a world with beings with great power but without great responsibility. In their near-future impending dystopia, super-heroes were hard to tell from super-villains, as concern for the innocents they were supposed to protect too often loses out to the desire to win battles. "Justice" no longer means apprehension of a wrongdoer, but all too often comes as an execution, and the great names of the past like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman have stepped off the stage.

The four-issue series was successful enough for DC to contract with longtime Superman writer Elliot Maggin to put it into a novel format. Maggin had written two earlier Superman novels, The Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday, so he was thought to be a good choice for the Superman-heavy story of Kingdom Come. But unlike his earlier books, in Kingdom Come Maggin was novelizing an already-written story. He could flesh things out and add the layers that a novel had room for, but Waid and Ross had already established the Start, Finish and Stuff That Happens In Between.

As in the comic book, a minister named Norman McCay finds himself tapped by the supernatural avenger known as the Spectre to observe and guide the spirit in an upcoming major battle between meta-humans. The battle will be catastrophic, something on the order of the Battle of Armageddon alluded to in the Book of Revelation, and the Spectre wants a human being to guide him into assessing who is at fault. The reappearance of Superman following a devastating disaster in Kansas, rather than defusing the conflict, only seems to amp it up. Batman has been attempting to maneuver behind the scenes to control matters but his plans didn't include a reunited Justice League that escalates the use of force and coercion to a dangerous level.

Maggin performs his role quite well, creating scenes and tension with words where the comic book used Alex Ross's painted art. There are places where it seems he would have liked to have steered some of the story on a slightly different heading but he doesn't, largely contenting himself with expanding Waid's narrative and dialogue.

Kingdom Come is slightly less successful as a novel than it was as a comic book, primarily because of the newness of painted comic book images at its time of publication and Ross's skill in that area. But the story both comic and novel share is strong enough to stand even without images. As Norman McCay watches from behind the scenes at the side of the Spectre, he sees people who have to figure out how they should act towards the giants in their midst and what they should expect from them. The questions, "What do I do with the gifts I've been given and how am I supposed to act?" have a long history and Maggin, in bringing it home without the benefit of artwork, makes a welcome if slightly redundant contribution to the legacy of the Kingdom Come project.

(The long-post blog has an entry on the comic series here.)