The Justice Inc. Reports #1

Today I begin review of DC's pulp series Justice Inc.

Justice Inc. #1 is titled "This Night an Avenger is Born!" and purports to adapt the novel of The Avenger's origin from the Kenneth Robeson novel. Having just read the original, this is pretty concise adaptation of the original, though of course they had to drop several details. The script is by Shadow veteran Denny O'Neil and the artwork this time is by Al McWilliams, an artist while somewhat lacking in dynamics was pretty good at street level realism. The cover is by Joe Kubert.

The story begins as Richard Benson and his wife and daughter board a plane. Mysteriously during the flight Benson's wife and daughter disappear and he is knocked out during a fight with thugs on the plane. He wakes up three weeks later in hospital with his skin having gone ghostly pale and his facial muscles paralyzed. Quickly he uses his skills as a world adventurer arming himself with "Mike" his slender gun he keeps hidden and "Ike" his throwing knife. He returns to the airport, but soon is in struggle with a giant who turns out to be the Physicist Algernon Heathcote Smith or "Smitty". Smitty is a fugitive, wrongly convicted and he agrees to help Benson. They board the plane, gunplay ensues, and they find a map to a distant island. Getting into disguise as an old man the Avenger boards the ill-fated plane again and off they go until he's threatened to be thrown out of the plane sans parachute. It seems the scheme is to kidnap and drop certain controlling shareholders in Acme Motor Company to coerce them to sign over control of the company. Benson learns his wife and daughter were thrown from the plane and killed. He himself is thrown from the plane but he has a hidden parachute. He confronts the thugs who killed his family and the mastermind a man he thought was at first a victim. He is saved from killing the man in revenger by Smitty who then bonds with The Avenger to form Justice Incorporated. There is a text piece by Allen Asherman about the history of The Avenger.

I've only ever read one Avenger novel, though I've read that one twice, and as I mentioned once again in paperback and just a few weeks ago when it was reprinted in grand style by Anthony Tollin at Sanctum Books. I'm hoping to enjoy all the reprints of this most intriguing hero as they become available. Meanwhile, tommorrow more on the DC comics series when Jack "King" Kirby takes the helm.

Rip Off