E-Man (1989) #1 by Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton
E-Man is another book in the grand Comico tradition of picking up series that have been running elsewhere. This one has a longer backstory, though — it ran first at Charlton, and then had a decent run at First Comics. And now it’s at Comico… but there’s only one issue? “All-New First Issue” certainly sounds like it’s the, well, first issue of a series, but it was apparently planned as a one-shot to gauge whether this book had any legs, I guess.
I’ve never read E-Man before myself (except one First issue, I think), but we get a one-page introduction to the characters. I always thought E-Man was more of a Plastic Man knock-off (or even Elongated Man), but he’s apparently an energy being? And there are two others with similar powers? His girlfriend and his (evil?) sister?
OK, so we start with a Little Nemo pastiche, which is fun, but kinda confusing — is that bed E-Man? Is he like Plastic Man after all? But, er, no? Did this happen or was it a dream?
Next scene — here we have his sister being captured in an energy bubble… but… not captured after all… And the helicopter is E-Man? So this is like Plastic Man after all!? But I guess Plastic Man could go all technical like that — transform into a rocket and stuff…
Oh, it was a dream? *scratches head* I’m just saying that even for an alleged funnybook, the storytelling is kinda confusing.
And very old fashioned: Not only do they do the “as you know, Bob” thing, but they have the characters helpfully think some thought bubbles at the reader. It’s fine, though.
But it is like they don’t decide on what level of humour comic they’re going for — Plastic Man (to take a totally random example) is a humorous super-hero book with pretty sensible plots. Here they seem to go more for absurdity: The impetus for the story is that the inventor’s sister’s jock boyfriend (*phew*) wanted to use his reality-altering machine to improve his grades.
Which would work better if the general mood of the book was more… absurd?
But I guess a super-villain that squirts chicken soup is pretty nonsensical, so perhaps it’s just me.
They do seem to have some overall series plot that they’re advancing, though — it doesn’t really feel like a one-shot.
There’s a backup feature drawn in a quite different style, but with the same kind of jokes-that-don’t-quite-land.
Finally, we get a history of the book from Cuti and Staton, which is nice.
Dwight R. Decker writes in Amazing Heroes #173, page #75:
Welcome Back, Alec Tronn: I’d like
to take a moment to welcome back an
old friend. That light-hearted super-
hero, E-Man, has returned for his
third comic book incarnation, this
time from Comico. What’s more, E-
Man’s creators, artist Joe Staton and
scripter Nick Cuti, are back on the
job, too. Glad to see you back, guys-
it’s been way too long.
E-Man began life in late 1973, pub-
lished by comic books’ answer to Hol-
lywood’s Poverty Row, Charlton. The
character wasn’t even human; rather,
he was an energy being from space
that took on human form, eventually
assuming the civilian identity of Alec
Tronn. As E-Man, he could turn him-
self into just about any shape and
stretch himself to nearly any length,
a combination of Tom Terrific and
Plastic Man. He even acquired a hu-
man girlfriend in exotic dancer Nova
Kane, in effect doing the Mork & Min-
dy number years before Robin Willi-
ams was teamed with Pam Dawber on
TV. Despite mediocre printing, the
10-issue run of this engagingly goofy
series was just about Charlton’s only
bright spot during the period. Unfor-
tunately sales were dismal, with Nick
Cuti saying that the title did worse
than even Charlton’s westerns.
Comico’s E-Man Volume III, #1 is
a try-out issue, and a regular series
will result if the one-shot’s sales war-
rant. All very well, except the one-
shot was priced at $2.75. It’s just a
regular-sized, 32-page comic book.
While it’s in full color and there aren’t
any ads, the price is a little on the
monumental side. Why not just put a
sticker on the book saying, “Do Not
Buy This Comic Book! We Want It To
Fail!” Unless there’s a hidden pocket
of E-Man fans out there willing to pay
any price to see their favorite hero
back in action, the bottom line would
be about the same.
It’s too bad, because E-Man is a de-
lightful comic book. Funny, a little
silly, much in the same vein as the old
Jack Cole Plastic Man. As artist Joe
Staton explains on the editorial page
in the back of the book, E-Man went
a little off the track for a while during
its second incarnation, because the
book “was saddled with an editor at
First who was convinced that E-Man
was a parody book and that ‘there’s
no reason to do a parody unless you
hurt somebody.’ So, for eight issues,
E-Man struggled along under the
weight of heavy-handed put-downs
and unintelligible in-jokes.”
That seems to be past now, and the
“original, easy-going E-Man,” as
Staton calls him, has returned in full
form. The first Comico story does
nothing less than dissolve the entire
world into primordial goo and then re-
construct it, about as drastic a way to
revive a series and reset the clock to
zero as anyone has thought of, and all
in somewhat less than five pages. As
a direct result of the world’s restora-
tion, Nova gets her powers back,
which she lost during the First run
“due to an encounter with the Pasko”
Syndrome,” as the caption drily puts
it. Since Martin Pasko wrote the first
few First issues, it seems likely that
Staton and Cuti are out to nullify the
effects of the Pasko Syndrome in more
ways than one.
But let’s run that First editor’s quote
back again. “There’s no reason to do
a parody unless you hurt somebody.”
What a hateful creative philosophy,
and what nasty and malicious stories
it could lead to! From what I’ve seen
of both Staton’s and Cuti’s work over
the years, they can be teasing and
playful, but never deliberately mean.
I doubt if either of them has it in him,
and certainly that’s a complete mis-
reading of E-Man’s cheerfully silly
nature. There have been too many
comics that would fill that unnamed
First editor’s requirements just fine,
and not enough like E-Man.
So, good luck, Joe, Nick-and E-
Man. This business needs you and
your good spirits. Let’s see some more
issues soon!
E-Man returned in a three issue mini-series a few months later, so I think I’ll cover more of the critical response to E-Man when we get to that in this blog series.