The Greatest American Hero #2 (of 3) (Arcana / Catastrophic – Katt / Folino / McCaw / Jumper / Hilinski / Maiden / Mancha / Cannell)
After 25 years The Greatest American Hero returns with all new original stories and adventures. Stephen J. Cannell’s beloved cult classic makes it debut to the comic book world courtesy of The Greatest American Hero star himself William Katt along with acclaimed writers Christopher Folino (Sparks), Sean O’Reilly (Kade), and Derek McCaw (Tony Loco). A pair of strangers, liberal high-school teacher Ralph Hinkley and right-wing FBI agent Bill Maxwell, have a close encounter in the Southern California desert one night with “little green men”, who give our heroes a red superhero suit. The suit works only for Ralph, and the two, accompanied by Ralph’s cute lawyer girlfriend Pam, reluctantly team up to battle criminals. Problems ensue when Ralph loses the suit’s instruction book, so he had to master the suit’s powers on his own.
One of my favorite TV shows growing up, no doubt, I was very slanted on issue #1. I found it charming, well thought-out and executed wonderfully. Issue #2 – not so much!
This series went from being an ongoing series to being a 3-issue limited series, neither the Arcana nor the Catastrophic website has anything up about this issue (thus, the sad pic of the cover) and this has more creators listed than an issue of the Marvel Comics Presents… all bad signs!
The issue went quick with choppy dialog, introduced awkward / unnecessary plot devices and was filled with horrible art that forced me to think I was reading the direct comic adaptation of cheesy 80’s show and not a modern re-telling of an “everyman” hero story. The GAH has incredible potential as a story, I hope these guys figure out what went dramatically wrong here and fix it! I would hate for an issue like this to be Ralph Hinkley’s legacy.
Issue grade: D
