For the last couple of months Marvel has celebrated it’ early beginnings by bringing us back to who their major character were in the 1940’s. Some of them still exist today (Captain America, Namor) while others are being seemingly re-introduced to the public. First was Miss America, then The Destroyer (USA Comics), and now we’re being told a revamped Blonde Phantom. But is this worthy of a re-introduction?

Short Answer: No.

Long Answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

In all seriousness, this is probably the worst of the 70th Anniversary issues so far. I like Marc Guggenheim for the most part as a comic writer, but this is so by the numbers I was bored half way threw this. This definitely brings a call back to the pulpy days of Marvel, but the problem is that this apparently takes place in the year 2006. Now I’m not saying you cant have a noirish setting in today’s age, but putting Blonde Phantom in the modern era doesn’t transition well. Frankly why Guggenheim choose to do a modern re-telling instead of a retrospective look is beyond me. What hurts the issue is how it’s presented in a more prose storytelling. We could debate ‘prose in comic books’ for ages, but it just doesn’t fit well with me. (This is coming from a guy who loves the Joker prose)

What totally ruins any hope of this being a recommendation is the bad art by Javier Pulido. He has the style of an early Tim Sale, but without the clean lines and the word ‘good’ in his resume. This is so sketchy and characters look so off putting, that I was literally thinking if Pulido gave even a second thought of his final draft.

So there’s bad art and medicore story, is the back up material any worth mentioning? Well here’s a nitpick that has turned into outright criticism: Why is Marvel not re-printing the self titled characters in their retrospective books? This would be the 4th time that a comic doesnt have a back up feature with the focused character. Instead we get a modern short story about Marvex and a couple of old stories with Marvex as well. The modern story is pretty funny, but I could care less about the older stories of him.

What does this boil down to? Avoid this issue at all costs and try and find the other 70th Anniversary issues. Seriously, the worst of the bunch I have read this year.