DAN DARE #1

CWR FRIDAY BLOG EXTRA!

Chances are, if you like the work of a U.K. born comics writer or artist, they were at some point in their life a big fan of DAN DARE. Some have even taken that appreciation for the character a little further than most; what is Warren Ellis’ MINISTRY OF SPACE but a cynical tribute to the great space pilot? If you are a fan of BBC’s brilliant DOCTOR WHO spin-off TORCHWOOD, you can also see some of Dare in its main character, Captain Jack Harkness. Long a staple of the great comics magazines like EAGLE and 2000AD, Dare now makes his return thanks to longtime fan Sir Richard Branson and his involvement in Virgin Comics.

As written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Gary Erskine, Dare has retired and moved on from Earth’s International Space Fleet, enjoying the quiet splendor of a quaint English village where the pub is lively and the cricket matches amongst the local youth are carried out in the best of sport. But in space, trouble begins to brew- there are ominous signs of Dare’s old nemesis Mekon stirring in the distance. Thus must the Prime Minister, a somewhat corrupted version of Tony Blair, prevail upon Dare’s sympathies for his old home, in the hopes he will once again put on the uniform and fly under his planet’s flag.

DAN DARE reads much like a comic I would have devoured as a young boy. Ennis and Erskine eschew their Vertigo roots and do a very straight-forward and PG take on the character (as they should) and reintroduce him well to a new generation of readers. There’s nothing ponderous or deeply intellectual about any of it; there are space battles, character moments, cool technology, and a scary threat. The very things that capture a reader’s (young or old) heart. Ennis’s script is somewhat cynical, but not overboard, and you never stop seeing the hero beneath Dare’s beaten exterior. And Erskine simplifies his approach to the art; much of his work can be very complex on the page, but his pages here acknowledge how misguided that would be. Of all things, the work must appeal to a younger and newer reader.

Solid debut, and a book that looks to be a solid read for the time to come.

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/Mason