Megaton Man #2-10 (of ten)*
Published by: Kitchen Sink Press – 1984
Written and Illustrated by: Don Simpson
*NOTE: This review pertains solely to the issues I have access to. The first issue is thus omitted from the following review.
Megaton Man by Don Simpson is akin to what would happen if Rick Veitch and Ben Edlund teamed up on The Tick. In other words, it’s silly but surprisingly good as a narrative rather than just a string of jokes.
The ten-issue Megaton Man series, published by Kitchen Sink Press beginning in 1984, is an intelligent parody of the many different superhero tropes that have evolved out of American comic-book culture—the ridiculous physiques, the pointless and endless physical battles, the ludicrous secret identities and origin stories, the obligatory unrequited love, the superhero teams and team-ups, and MacGuffins of immeasurable power.
Megaton Man, the series’ namesake, is a large-chinned, improbably proportioned, dimwitted, indestructible superhero with a civilian identity named “Trent Phloog” whom works at a newspaper and pines after a controversial columnist coworker, Pamela Jointly, whom has built her reputation around criticizing Megaton Man. He is surrounded by a supporting cast of other equally parodic superheroes and enemies—the “Megatropolis Quartet,” the “ICHHL,” and “Krupp,” for example, which parallel The Fantastic Four, S.h.i.e.l.d., and Hydra, respectively.
The writing in the series focuses primarily on humor, and, though the series is rarely poetic, it is not simply an arena for telling jokes; each joke has an underpinning of truth—a reference to life or popular culture. Simpson often parodies and references other artists like Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, and Jim Steranko.
The art in Megaton Man began is a major selling point with its surprising level of detail, comically exaggerated physiques, caricature-ish faces, and slapstick action. Early in the series, the degree of detail—especially in depicting each sinew and minute striation of each bulging muscle—lent a gritty realism to what might otherwise call to mind The Mighty Magnor or any other cartoonish superhero spoof. But, as soon as Simpson’s backup feature Border Worlds began appearing in issue six, the art in the Megaton Man feature became increasingly simplistic, losing much of what had previously given it an air of sophistication to counterbalance the silliness. Both the art and writing in Border Worlds is significantly more realistic than in Megaton Man, and it is that added workload, one might speculate, that caused Simpson to devote less time, attention, and detail to Megaton Man. The hypothesis that his attentions had shifted is further bolstered by the fact Simpson cancelled Megaton Man after only ten issues because he instead wanted to focus on a standalone Border Worlds series. On the inside back cover of issue one of Border Worlds Simpson writes, “Carol Kalish asked me, ‘Why are you doing Megaton Man?’ I could not answer her. There’s an Origin Story for you.”
It should be noted, however, that the standalone Border Worlds series is exclusively for adult audiences due to graphic (and I mean graphic) depictions of sex.
Following that apparent shift in priorities, many characters and plotlines introduced in the first few issues are either abandoned or only cursorily revisited in the next few. Characters like Yarn Man and Kozmic Kat disappear almost completely after being sent into the future (though, it should be mentioned, they eventually get their own one-shot), and Pamela Jointly and her life with Stella Starlight, a.k.a. The See-Thru Girl, at college were, at first, treated as if they were nearly as important as the primary narrative concerning Megaton Man himself, but later fade into the background. In juggling all these entertaining plot threads, Simpson creates an almost stream-of-consciousness narrative where events and characters are introduced without regard to the past nor carried into the future. It seems, at times, that Simpson is making it up as he goes along, while, at other times, it seems he has a story in mind that is so vast and complex he will never be able to finish it—especially not in the ten issues the series lasted.
Megaton Man is mostly suitable for a general audience. The violence is goofy rather than graphic, there is only occasional casual profanity, and despite there being jokes about, and references to, sex, the series lacks nudity or any overt sexual content.
Recommendations:
An obvious recommendation for fans of Megaton Man is The Tick, by Ben Edlund—specifically the first graphic novel The Naked City. The Tick, however, has since been farmed out to other writers and artists for subsequent series, but, in general, the issues by anyone but Edlund tend to fail to live up to the insightful irreverence and satire of the original.
Megaton Man’s direct sequel, Return of Megaton Man, is highly recommended for anyone whose Megaton Man cravings aren’t satisfied by the first ten-issue series.
Another series any fan of Megaton Man should be made aware of is Don Simpson’s Bizarre Heroes, which continues the saga of Megaton Man and his cohorts but focuses more on his cohorts whose narratives, though silly, are not nearly as absurd as the original Megaton Man comics.
The art in Bizarre Heroes is impeccable, removing Simpson from classification as merely a satirist and placing him among the most legitimate of “serious” comic artists. Simpson trades the grittier style of the early Megaton Man issues for an elegant clean-line style whose graceful inks and virtuoso knowledge of anatomy should be the object of envy for many of his contemporaries. Whereas Megaton Man was reminiscent of Rick Veitch, Bizarre Heroes calls to mind Mike Allred.
Also, it should be mentioned, Simpson’s two-issue Splitting Image series published by Image Comics can probably be passed over as being too ridiculous and unsophisticated for many readers—forcing itself to try for too many laughs from just plain silliness—but the completist will find it worth the dollar it costs from the fifty-cent bin and the fifteen minutes it takes to read.
Brian Bigelow
September 5, 2018
