E-Man (1990) #1-3 by Nicola Cuti and Joe Staton
This is Comico’s second E-Man #1 in half a year — they published a special to test the waters, and now there’s a three-issue mini. So I guess the special sold well enough.
We don’t get much on an introduction to the characters, but I guess it’s assumed that everybody read the special, which is fair enough.
But unusually enough, the first issue barely features E-Man at all. He’s shipped off to find his mother, who is a star. (I mean, he’s an energy creature, so it makes sense.)
E-Man is one of those serious-but-not super-hero series — an actual plot, but with funny stuff going on. However, the humour feels pretty lazy, like this joke where that guy misunderstands the answer “that’s the bull”. But… he’s reacting as if he’d said “that’s bull” (for bullshit), so it just doesn’t… quite… work. Needs work, as they say.
There’s also a tension between cartoon violence and a more serious super-hero plotline. You can get away with killing lots of bystanders if you do it cartoonishly and funny, but this doesn’t seem to strike the right balance, does it?
In the second issue, we actually get to see E-Man.
Har de har.
It’s overwritten in a way you’d expect a book with funny repartee to be, but… the jokes aren’t really zinging, which means that you’re left with a book that’s overwritten in an early-70s way.
The Comico blimp is slowly sinking… down to two books a month. They are teasing Grendel #41, though, which would never happen.
Readers write in to say that they quite liked the special. I’m not sure whether Cuti is joking when he says that he doesn’t think of E-Man as a funny book.
See what I mean about the cartoon/realism balance? The monster squishes some bystander, and then we get a joke about horny guys. It just feels off.
And then the mini-series ends with… a return of a character from the 70s series, replete with a four page recap of what his deal is. The end!
As you may have surmised from the above, I found this book to be a chore to read. None of the jokes were funny, and the stories weren’t very interesting. The only thing going for it is Joe Staton’s artwork, which is totally OK.
Faves: A couple of quick recom-
mendations, some of them for
super-hero comics (just to astonish
a couple of my more vituperative
pen pals out there). Comico’s new
E-Man series is really a delight; I’d
forgotten how much I enjoyed Joe
Staton’s graceful and fun-filled art-
work, and as for Nick Cuti, it’s nice
to read a writer who seems to have
been influenced neither by Alan
Moore, Frank Miller, or Chris
Claremont.
– Kim Thompson
Amazing Heroes Preview Special #10, page #43:
Since the reception to his one-shot special
in 1989 was so positive, Comico has given
the cosmic stretcher from space his own
mini-series. In these three issues, we finally
get a chance to meet E-Man’s mother. Bet
you long-time E-Man readers always won-
dered what the mother of a being like him
would be like, eh?
The first issue of the mini-series, “Desper-
ately Seeking Vamfire,” shows readers
E-Man, being a good son, flying off to visit
his mom on the star Arcturus. While he’s
away, E-Man’s girlfriend Nova and sister
Vamfire, who hate each other, go to an
amusement park and get into a big fight.
Vamfire accidentally gets caught in the Hall
of Mirrors, and her personality splits, and
splits, and splits-until there’s millions of
Vamfires running around. Michael Mauser
and his pal Teddy Q are on the case. Look
for this issue about the time this li’l preview
special you hold in your hands is out.
Issue #2, “The Price of Paradise,” shows
what happens when E-Man arrives on a
planet of constant warfare. He befriends the
chivalrous Sir Mel, who E-Man takes to a
nearby planet to show how the other half live.
On the peaceful planet, Mel meets and falls
in love with the beautiful princess Shann.
The only problem is, in order to maintain their
peaceful lives, a person must be sacrificed
to a big ugly goopy monster. And guess
whose turn it is? After he resolves this
situation, E-Man continues on his journey,
but dark clouds are hovering around
Arcturus. Smell trouble ahead? Also, Nova
leaves on a mysterious trip at the end of this
issue.
If you smelled trouble ahead at Arcturus,
you smelled right (well, I helped you, and I
knew there would be trouble, but you get
credit anyway). E-Man meets his mom, but
things don’t go as well as he had hoped-
she won’t talk to him! So the cosmic
stretcheroo heads back to Earth, where Nova
has gotten involved somehow with Algernon
Wallistone, a horror writer with a mysterious
secret. This issue is called “Lair of the Dark”
Things” and promises to be sorta scary.
Editor Shelly Roeberg loves this book,
saying “the whole series is a lot of fun. We
take E-Man back to his early days of quirky,
whimsical humor. And Joe Staton’s work
here is his best yet!”
Michael Mauser fans are advised to look
forward to a special project this summer.
Roeberg is tight-lipped about it, but expect
the unexpected.
The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide #2, page #221:
The Comico one-shot reintroduces all the characters in
a surreal story, and restores Nova’s powers, lost in the First
issues, but the highlight is the Mauser back-up strip
concerning a missing child. The following three issues can
be read independently, but contain a continuing plot about
E-Man’s search for his mother. They’re a return to the
light-hearted tales of the Charlton series, but Vamfire is
unnecessary, and extra pages make the story drag. The
Alpha Productions issue is more of the same.~FP
Amazing Heroes #176, page #82:
Old comic books never die. They just
come back under other imprints. E-
Man, one of Charlton’s few bright
lights, has been among the missing for
too long, and it’s a charge (sorry) to
see him back again, especially under
the auspices of his creators, Joe Staton
and Nicola Cuti. Comico deserves a
pat on the back for resurrecting E-
Man and company: Nova, Teddy and
Michael Mauser, Private Dick.
Whether the book makes it is an-
other cup of tea. Probably one of the
most original and unique titles to
come out of the ’70s, it is also, by
turns, deeply quirky, derivative and
something of an acquired taste. If it
harkens back to Jack Cole’s legendary
Plastic Man (commerreial interrup-
tion: is a hardcover collection of Plas
too much to ask for? Is anybody at DC
listening?), it’s not alone and, unlike
the Elongated Man and Mister Fan-
tastic, it does so with the same ab-
surdist sense of whimsy that char-
acterized Cole’s Plastic Man.
If there is no Woozy Winks, there
is Teddy, the talking koala bear (a
distant cousin of Tawny, the talking
tiger) and if there is no Phoenix, there
is Nova, the bimbo bombshell. Since
Mike Hammer’s busy, there is
Michael Mauser, the seedy, sawed-off
little runt who also tried to make a go
of it on his own in a backup story in
a forgotten Charlton title and fell flat
on his own perpetually unshaven mug.
Again, it’s good to have them all
back again. If Vamfire is not exactly
a welcome addition, you can’t win ’em
all. E-Man’s sister, she is his very own
Black Adam but one with the old
tortured psyche, shades of Morbius,
double shades of the X-girls.
Unfortunately, E-Man hardly shows
up in his second “first” issue in three
months, which rightly should have
been called Vamfire. Suffice it to say
that she has a way to go before she
draws blood.
GRADE: !!!!!
– John Cochran
