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COMIC BOOK REVIEW! MR. A. #21 (Published by Snyder and Ditko, 2017)

Dunno how I missed this by-now three-year-old effort, but even the more obvious of these kulturally significant items tend to slip under my radar because --- well, I am about as adept as Karen Quinlan on a day when the feeding tube gets clogged up a bit. And YOU, not-so-dear reader, should be ashamed! After all, it is your doody to keep Your Humble Master informed of such epoch-busting items such as new Mr. A. titles...sheesh, why can't more of my readers be like Top Cat James!!!!

It's a good 'un too, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Steve Ditko's legendary "moral avenger" Mr. A., and as you may have guessed I'm sure glad I have this 'un to toss upon the ever-growing comic book heap once I've done 'n digested with it.  

Guaranteed to shock and offend as well as inspire and influence, these stories are certainly not of the same style and vision that had thousands of shag-haired and bell-bottomed comic book readers of the early-seventies swooning over crucifixion allegories starring Green Lantern and Green Arrow. Hard-nailed and to-the-point, Mr. A. is guaranteed to send home more'n a few uncomfortable truisms about life, justice and mere existence even if Ditko hadda drag those more altruistic than thou comic book fans into the light of reality, even if he hadda grab 'em by their ladylocks to do so.

This special edition reprints the very first Mr. A. appearance from the pages of the infamous WITZEND, a fine effort that breaks more'n a few sainted liberal tropes and deeply-held beliefs --- no, make that SHATTERS them on the ground forcing the reader to love it or loathe it while all of the deeply-held comic book homilies of the day are pretty much shot to all hell. "Angel" is a juvenile delinquent cop killer who is coddled by a not-so-stereotypical bleeding heart social worker who, in typical Ditko fashion, is appropriately named Miss Kinder. Mr. A. has yet to develop fully as a character at this time but he's already a mean muffuga slapping around lowlife crooks and delivering on a philosophy that still seems to send creepy crawls up the spines of those attuned to a more pollyannaish form of human relationships. The climax comes when Mr. A. asks the by-now bleeding to death social worker whether he should save her or a dangling from a flagpole Angel with the ultimate conclusion being yet another shocker to those not accustomed to dealing with Ditko's more-on-target-than-yours ideas of justice.

More fanzine-era reprints pop up..."Captive Spark" deals with the dawn of man and utilizing the early ideas of trade and commerce to make a primitive life easier and how, even during those early times, others were begging for handouts while moaning and groaning in their caves while more industrious cavemen were hunting and bartering. "My Brother" in many ways is a throwback to those old good brother/bad brother crime dramas that cluttered up the late-night moom pitcher tee-vee tubes with, as you would have expected, a philosophically startling end that a few of you would have seen comin' a mile away. But man, when it comes it still hits ya rather strong-like. As for "Liberty or Death" I'm still trying to comprehend exactly what it was Ditko was attempting to relay (the basic premise would have made a great running title what with the Liberty Agents working behind an ever-rotating group of heroes who have the tendency to get offed rather suddenly), though I found the final panel looked suspiciously like the cover of Rush's 2112 and since they too followed the same socio-political path that Ditko did I just wonder if their copping of this panel was quite intentional...

The cream of the ish just hasta be the new Mr. A. saga entitled "Mr. A. and the Helpers", a tale which was originally scheduled to appear in the early-nineties Mr. A. comic title (which never did get off the ground much to the utter regurgitation of people like myself) but has been piecemealed along with the rest of the series. Interestingly enough this story deals with a corrupt police force (previous Ditko works have been staunchly pro-cop especially when they've pitted against those protesters that the guy had been making look foolish as early as his Spider-Man days) and Mr. A. trying to get to the root of the problem despite hindrance from not only the cops but the commissioner. Not surprisingly there have been a few changes made since the earlier Mr. A. comics...it looks as if Mr. A. now has the power to turn invisible in order to spy on his suspects while there's a new man in charge at THE DAILY CRUSADER, that typically snobbish Big City more woke than thou rag where Mr. A's hidden identity Red Grainge works not only as an investigative reporter but a television news commentator. If I'm not mistaken this new boss is actually the original owner of the paper who, although was supposed to be dead (with his politically pious brother running the paper if and only if he does not fire Grainge!), was merely sick all along and is now back...but for how long since it's made clear that his ticker just ain't in the best of shape and well, it looks like brother might be back soon once again rattling off typically right-on editorials about the false values of the capitalist scourge amongst other tasty tidbits I'm sure most of you readers will definitely lap up!

For longtime Ditkoites like myself this is a nice respite from the anarchistic comic books I've been lapping up, and a good one at that. Now that Ditko is gone I'm sure more of these titles not only reprinting his fanzine work but his more recent endeavors will pop up and as usual I can't wait considering that, well, how long do I have left on this planet at my advanced age. It would be fitting if the very last of these Mr. A.'s featured the long-promised origin of the man, a saga that I think would make my striving to stay alive long enough to read it quite a pleasure! That would have been pure Ditko...to leave the story that shoulda been first for the grand finale!