Gold Key Alliance #1 Review

Gold Key Alliance #1 from Dynamite -

        A Secret Service in a special unit takes with monitoring the rise of AI on the planet - he's tough as hell, with deadly hands that can be harder than steel; a young female doctor is in Africa to make a difference against brutal warlords - she possesses the power of the sun itself; a mighty hunter and tribal park ranger with matchless skills and deadly aim - he guards the last of the dinosaurs; a homeless man, and seemingly insane - with the strength of 1,000 men. Who are they? And what deadly power plots to destroy everything they hold dear? They will be drawn together to keep their universe from being torn apart.

      Gold Key Alliance brings some of the most beloved Gold Key characters together for the very first time in the same world and time! This alone is VERY exciting for someone like me who loves Gold Key comics, and who just happens to own three of the four first appearances of the stars of this book. The dazzling cover stimulates the imagination as to what could be inside of this much-anticipated book...Unfortunately, while not horrible by any means, this book is a bit lackluster for a first outing. We are introduced to each character one after another; each character commands a few pages in order to give the reader a small taste of who they are. Turok's story is, by far, the most entertaining of the stories. And while we get a glimpse into the lives of the characters, we get no back stories, no clear motivations, nor origin stories for the characters at all. It's like, "Ta-dah! Here they are!" And afterwards, nothing. Brent Peeples' artwork is more than competent - very clean, straight-forward and uncomplicated, like Hester's story. Both just left me very unsatisfied, presenting characters with sparse personalities which was a huge let-down because I really wanted to love this book, and I hungered for the return on the charismatic Gold Key legends of days gone by. Crap.

RATING: 6 out of 10. 

PS - For more information on the greatness that was Gold Key, see my article here: Valiant Goes To The Movies. 

Thanks for reading.