Pick of the Week
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Size: pages
Price: 3.50
As a kid I grew up enthralled in the tales of heroes like Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man. But there were others that I found equally as exciting. Other heroes that took up just as much space in my imagination as those who were more colorfully costumed. Characters like The Lone Ranger, Sherlock Holmes, and Zorro. Sometimes it seemed that I spent as much time in Old Los Angeles as I did in Gotham City.
Dynamite Entertainment apparently monitored my childhood very closely because after publishing the most excellent series The Lone Ranger in 2006, they now bring us Zorro #1, written by Matt Wagner with art by Francesco Francavilla. How did they know I had Lone Ranger and Zorro action figures that so often teamed up??
What Matt Wagner does here is craft a classic parallel story. In the “present” we have a group of Spanish soldiers whose revelry at a saloon is broken up when a fellow soldier staggers in, bloodied and beaten. He tells the others that his unit (which was sent to terrorize some uppity sheep farmers) was attacked by… a demon, a devil, a ghost — anything but a man. Everyone in the soldier’s unit was dispatched by the demon’s sword and only by begging for his life was the soldier allowed to escape to tell the tale. Interspersed with this plot we have the story of young Diego De La Vega, he the son of his wealthy and powerful ex-Spanish soldier father and American Indian mother. It’s a familiar hero’s beginnings — a smart and fearless young boy who witnesses evil deeds committed by the Spanish army and vows to never forget. A new element, presumably introduced by Matt Wagner, is the Indian influence. Diego’s mother is a proud member of the Tongva tribe (although her outward appearance is that of a wife assimilated into Spanish culture) and that cultural influence informs Diego’s character as well. It’s an interesting new twist on Zorro, I think. It may not play for everyone — this Zorro not being fully Spanish — but for me it works.
That leads me to another point about Zorro. It’s really great to have a book that features a cast that is, in this issue anyway, completely devoid of white characters. Diversity is good. Diversity in an industry whose characters and creators are dominated by one race is good. It’s also really great to have a Spanish main character because it’s a heavily unrepresented group in comic books when diversifying a book usually means adding black characters.
I suppose it’s not a shocker that I would so love Zorro, considering his being so heavily influential on the character of Batman. They are both the sons of well off families who don dark costumes at night to fight injustice and protect the people of their cities. But what is most interesting about this issue is that the tables have been turned and there is a whole lot of Batman in the character of Zorro. We hardly see him at all, and when we do he is but a silhouette against the night – nothing really visible but black leather glove and white eyes and teeth. And of course the sword.
The art from Francesco Francavilla is perfect for this book. It has a style much closer to European than American comics and is invaluable in providing the proper atmosphere for this story. No other book that I buy looks and feels like this book does. The characters all look unique and have expressive faces. He does a great job of capturing what I imagine 19th Century California would look like. His Zorro is scary.
This is a great place to start if you love the character or Zorro, this is a great place to start if you know nothing about the character of Zorro. This is a great place to start if you like good comics and are looking for something different to read, something that doesn’t involve New Gods or Skrulls. And if you’re a Batman fan or a fan of Matt Wagner this is a book definitely worth checking out.
Conor Kilpatrick
I was in Boston for a week and I never heard a decent Mariachi playing.
conor@ifanboy.com
Did you read Zorro #1? Add a comment and tell everyone what you thought!
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Oh damn, I thought long and hard about this one tonight. I really like The Long Ranger they’ve been putting out, but I passed on this one because this was really odd week: I had a lot of books. Maybe next week.
Conor, does this seem as decompressed as The Lone Ranger has gotten?
No, it’s not decompressed at all.
@Conor. Cool, I won’t wait for trade then.
Great review. I was the same way about Sherlock Holmes. And the Zorro/Batman thing has it’s ironies too. Looking forward to picking this up over the weekend.
Nice review. Zorro was indeed, great. Could be my POW but I haven’t gotten through the stack just yet.
Hey, why does it say "Publisher: Comics" instead of Dynamite? That’s a bit odd.
my shop was sold out of this the second they opened their doors this morning, i hope i get a copy later this week 🙁
@Labor – We’re working on the comics data for Independent comics…it’ll have the correct data eventually 🙂
I can’t believe you guys are gonna make me buy another damn book.
Great pick. The only other book so far in my stack that comes near this one is Locke and Key! Both are great books.
Love the review. I’m glad I got it. 🙂
@ Conor: I was worried there for you for a minute: no Captain America to be POW.
I’ve flipped through Zorro but haven’t read it yet – looks great and Wagner is a solid writer. Glad to see you liked it – I’m anticipating it now.
Plus I got the sweet Cassaday cover – I’m not one to usually gush, but this thing is quite pretty.
"Dynamite Entertainment apparently monitored my childhood very closely". It feels so like that with some books. Friday is new comic book day over here (not Wednesday), so guess I’m adding this to my stack tomorrow. Damn it.
I’ll probably pick this up tomorrow. I’ll admit that the extent of my knowledge of zorro is from the first Antonio Banderas movie that came out in Junior high but I think you pretty much sold me on it with this review
Didn’t read this– I might have to pick it up now.
My POW would’ve been Checkmate or Superman/Batman, both of which were very good. That might’ve been my favorite issue of Checkmate so far, and I’m REALLY enjoying this arc/team on Superman/Batman.
Oh man, I held this in my hand at the store yesterday and thought this exact thought: "I think conor has the pick this week and if he happens to pick this, then I will come back and buy it. If they don’t even mention it in the podcast, I’ll know I didn’t miss anything."
I guess I’ll have to see if there are any copies left this weekend.
I too held this in my hand, but did not buy it, mainly because I had an expensive ass week (two trades will do that to you…). I’ve always liked the character of Zorro, so it’s good to hear that his series will be good as well. I’m not saying I’ll pick this up in issues because I buy too much as it is, but who knows, I may change my mind next time I go to the store. 🙂
My pick this week, begrudgingly, was Amazing Spider-Man! I say begrudgingly because I’ve been complaining about the book for the longest time, and now I must finally admit that I’m sold. I had a blast reading this, and even though LaRocca’s art was still horrible, Guggenheim’s story was just so good. I’m really looking forward to seeing how many of these threads play out.
I’ve written a few reviews and mentioned other books I thought were good all over the forums and the website so check those out for those opinions.
…If you care at all. 🙂
I picked up an extra copy to give to a co-worker who used to read Zorro comics in his youth. I’m glad it came out this well. I didn’t think Wagner would let us down.
Hate to be "that guy" but the Zorro as half-indian thing is not a new aspect of the character. I don’t know how far back it goes but in Isabelle Allende’s Zorro novel from a few years ago his mother is a very proud Indian and Diego learns many cool tricks from them as well as getting the name of "Zorro" from his spirit animal (Zorro is Spanish for fox).
I still have to read "Batman and the Outsiders", "The Spirit" and "Invincible" from this week’s stack, but "Zorro" was pretty dang good.
@Dan The Cassaday cover is sweet! I picked up that version.
@Neb "Amazing Spider Man" was nearly laugh-out-loud funny. Guggenheim’s got the dialogue down.
@Jim I always want to pick up "Superman/Batman", but I got burned so badly by Busiek’s "Superman" that I haven’t done it. Maybe I’ll check it out now.
That was an unexpected pick… thanks for thinking outside the box.
I think I had my hopes up way too high for this book (Matt Wagner, preview art looked much better than what’s in the book) and kinda brushed it off… without really giving it a shot. The colors in this book really distracted me.
So I finished my stack and Zorro is indeed the best of of the bunch this week. It was fantastic in every way Conor so beautifully pointed out in the review.
For those that enjoyed the tone and style of the art in Zorro, Francesco Francavilla also worked on the excellent Black Coat series. Great pulp comics in the tradition of Zorro and The Lone Ranger.
Highly recommended read if you enjoy any of the former.
My POW this week would have been Checkmate. I dropped off of this book for probably the last three issues because it felt so confusing but it called to me so I decided to grab it this week and I loved it. My big surprise of the stack
Great POW,great book.I’m looking forward to the podcast to hear what the guys think about this issue and where the book may be headed.
Great write-up; I never would have thought of Zorro as a comics character, in spite of the Batman connection, but it makes all kinds of sense.
For my own POW, I have to shout-out the final issue of Cable & Deadpool which, oddly enough, is the book that made me fall in love with the Marvel universe. I’m sorry to see it go, but it got a great sendoff.
Well I guess I can skip eating lunch and just buy another comic. I’ve always loved the connection between Zorro and Batman, and thats what most interests me to go out and get this. Thanks Conner.
Excellent pick – great book…
I left this as one of my last books along with Superpowers which I had left from a week or so ago. I found it to be one of the best books I’ve read in a while. It was fun and I found it fantastic that Zorro has not been fully shown yet. The art and coloring were gorgeous for this book. I can’t wait till issue 2.