The First Kingdom - The Space Explorers Club is a relatively new work by Jack Katz and presumably is an extension of some kind to his epic saga. I'm a bit at a loss to see the connection, save thematically. None of the characters from the original saga are in this story (as far as I can tell unless this race is the one which could teleport across space in the original saga). Instead, we get a new protagonist named Lewis who tells a man named Mark who at first appears to be our narrator but who quickly gives way. This is a wacky story set in the future on a distant world trapped behind plasma barriers. It is the mission of the Space Explorers club to pierce that barrier and find other life beyond. Lewis tells Mark how he led such a mission, but we quickly lose that thread as Lewis is transported into the distant past and given the opportunity to stop the events which caused the barrier to begin with. He gets the new name "Arcand" and a companion named "Iana" who eventually becomes his romantic interest. After many transformations and spins which follow peoples as they are reduced to barbarism and rise up to become space traveling societies these two are given a chance to transcend their world. They are torn between the mission to save the "Infinitverse" from its dark future or follow their own destiny.
The story is dense and repetitive. But that repetition seems intentional so as to drive home Katz's theme that mankind is a complicated race filled with wonderful ambition and terrible passions. We see both sides as the story spins around and we follow culture after culture rise to greatness and fall into violence. I lost all track of time reading the story and in fact sometimes lost track of which world I was supposed to be on. Katz produced this work in the early part of this century and it's not surprise that his art has changed. Gone are the lush full-page images of the original saga. Here we get some fairly standard comic pages, sometimes hard to decode, which plow ahead with little change in pace or rhythm. Apparently, Katz inked this in pen as well, giving the whole a scratchy look. I'm not against it necessarily, but it's not like what came before.
Most disappointing to me was the lack of transgression, at least visually. The First Kingdom was an all-out, tits-out extravaganza which dared the reader to object. It screamed "adult" only and meant it. In this story not one breast is uncovered to my recollection. One might argue that is a sign of Katz's maturity, but I found it most disappointing. The all-skin aspect was a defining detail of the original series. It should be noted that this volume also contains a lengthy introduction by Burne Hogarth done for the original series in 1980. Also there is a contemporary overview of the original series by John Fultz.
I'm not sure this volume is necessary. But maybe I'll change my mind when I read the sixth and final volume. That's up next time.
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