It's nice when I find a fun series that I slept on, but I always feel bad for not supporting it earlier. Still, it's probably pretty findable if you're interested: from 2018, Future Quest Presents #6, "Son of Birdman" Written by Phil Hester, art by Steve Rude.
I know I've seen Mentok the Mind-Taker on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law multiple times, but can't recall if I'd ever seen him as the baddie on the classic Hanna-Barbera Birdman cartoon. Today's book is based on the latter and played straight, with Mentok given a bit of tragic back-story: thanks to his telepathy, the world will just not shut up, which explains his motivation to bring to earth the "fleshless god" to destroy everything.
This version of Birdman is classically heroic, although he may not have always been: he had been a somewhat selfish archaeologist before getting "the essence of Ra," and didn't remember every detail of his past. Like having a son! Who has been in a coma, and his mom working with Mentok, who had been using her despair to power the fleshless god's summoning. Using his powers, Birdman is able to rouse his son temporarily from his coma; even Mentok is a little disappointed it didn't stick. The issue ends with Birdman at gunpoint, about to be killed by the mom at Mentok's orders, but there were twists yet to come.
I don't think Birdman's sidekick/partner Avenger appears this issue: they shared a telepathic link, and Avenger was pretty amusing. I got eleven of the twelve issues for Future Quest Presents, and they were all pretty solid. Plus, I won't usually encourage variant covers, but with Steve Rude, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Jill Thompson variants; that's not bad.
Looks pretty good actually, and for once, the villain of the story has a relatable reason for being a bad guy; he just wants to shut out the voices in his head that are going on 24/7. I'm sure those poor souls living with schizophrenia and MPD can relate.
ReplyDeletePlus you can never ever go wrong with Steve Rude art.
Didn't know Birdman had a kid or even stole Hawkman's gimmick so much that he even took his archaeologist gig from him as well as this theme. Damn Birdman.