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The Fox #1
The Fox: Freak Magnet
It's the fantastic debut of the high-flying Fox! Emmy Award winning writer/artist Dean Haspiel ( Billy Dogma, HBO's Bored To Death ) and Eisner Award-winning writer Mark Waid ( Daredevil, Thrillbent ) bring the legendary, pulp-style hero The Fox to life in Freak Magnet ! When photojournalist Paul Patton, Jr. donned a superhero costume, he thought it would be a quick way to make some news—now the strange and unusual just can't help but be drawn to the freak-magnetism of the fabulous fighting Fox! Then, acclaimed writer J.M. DeMatteis ( Abadazad, Justice League 3000 ) and Eisner Award-nominated artist Mike Cavallaro ( Parade, Savior 66 ) take us back in time for an all-new story featuring the world's first patriotic superhero and leader of the New Crusaders, The Shield! What connection does the Shield's top-secret mission in the Arctic have to do with the Fox's diamond-studded adventure? And what ultra-powerful villains have arrived to wreak havoc?? Read on, dear reader—The Fox and the Shield have their work cut out for them!
142 pages, Paperback
First published May 6, 2014
44 people want to read
About the author
Mark Waid
3,228 books1,297 followersMark Waid (born March 21, 1962 in Hueytown, Alabama) is an American comic book writer. He is best known for his eight-year run as writer of the DC Comics' title The Flash, as well as his scripting of the limited series Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright, and his work on Marvel Comics' Captain America.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 10, 2014
Ooooh lookee! It’s a tribute to old time comic book storytelling.
Are we talking Silver Age Marvel or DC?
Um, no. It’s more like Charltan or Gold Key comics.
Who?
If you aren’t some super nerd like me, that would certainly be a logical response. Even as a kid, I had a hard time laboring through this stuff. Still, there on the cover, it has Mark Waid’s name, so it would seem to be worth a read. Right?
What’s to like?
- Some of the dialogue has punch and is amusing (this was co-written, so I’m assuming Waid had a hand in this)
- The plotline won’t melt your brain out of sheer complexity
- The Fox is an easy character to like
- A talking monkey from outer space
- A villainess who has tentacles coming out of her mouth. Cthulu anyone?
What’s not to like?
- There’s way too much written exposition. Show not say, after all this is a comic, a, um, visual medium.
- You’ll roll your eyes and not smile knowingly, at the sometimes grade C plotline
- The supporting characters are uninteresting – Shield (WW II super soldier just like Captain America), the Marvel (he has guns, he kills mobsters), Inferno (he breathes fire) and some guy who can transport himself. Whoopee!
- The topical references - Justin Bieber? For the comic book reader of the future, this will be like going back and reading 70’s comics for jokes involving Pia Zadora or Charles Nelson Reilly.
- The cartoony artwork. Not a fan.
- The annoying ersatz Yoda like speak from the Diamond Queen
“Not it’s clever. Painful no reading?” Her husband speaks normally. Go figure.
This is Archie Comics trying to gain a foothold into the capes and cowl stuff. Good luck!
Read this review and more at:
Are we talking Silver Age Marvel or DC?
Um, no. It’s more like Charltan or Gold Key comics.
Who?
If you aren’t some super nerd like me, that would certainly be a logical response. Even as a kid, I had a hard time laboring through this stuff. Still, there on the cover, it has Mark Waid’s name, so it would seem to be worth a read. Right?
What’s to like?
- Some of the dialogue has punch and is amusing (this was co-written, so I’m assuming Waid had a hand in this)
- The plotline won’t melt your brain out of sheer complexity
- The Fox is an easy character to like
- A talking monkey from outer space
- A villainess who has tentacles coming out of her mouth. Cthulu anyone?
What’s not to like?
- There’s way too much written exposition. Show not say, after all this is a comic, a, um, visual medium.
- You’ll roll your eyes and not smile knowingly, at the sometimes grade C plotline
- The supporting characters are uninteresting – Shield (WW II super soldier just like Captain America), the Marvel (he has guns, he kills mobsters), Inferno (he breathes fire) and some guy who can transport himself. Whoopee!
- The topical references - Justin Bieber? For the comic book reader of the future, this will be like going back and reading 70’s comics for jokes involving Pia Zadora or Charles Nelson Reilly.
- The cartoony artwork. Not a fan.
- The annoying ersatz Yoda like speak from the Diamond Queen
“Not it’s clever. Painful no reading?” Her husband speaks normally. Go figure.
This is Archie Comics trying to gain a foothold into the capes and cowl stuff. Good luck!
Read this review and more at:
March 6, 2020
When Paul Patton Jr dons the costume of The Fox, he becomes a magnet for all sorts of strangeness. When the Queen of Diamonds shows up, what kind of trouble will the Fox wind up in?
Prior to this volume, I recognized The Fox as one of the Archie Red Circle characters but that's about it. When Archie Comics was doing their sale, I nabbed this for a cool $3.99.
The Fox looks like a Black Panther ripoff at first glance but that is not the case. Despite his resemblance to the monarch from Wakanda, he's more roof-running, wisecracking hero like Spider-Man or Daredevil before he became the angstiest super hero of them all. According to the dialog, he originally started wearing the costume to make the news come to him.
Anyway, The Fox ends up way out of his depth in an adventure that crosses time and space. Each installment stands well on its own. Each also starts en medias res, in the midst of the action, before backtracking to where the previous issue left off. It's a fun technique and I'm surprised it isn't used more often.
Mark Waid is hit or miss for me but his writing was pretty great this time. The story felt like an homage to some kooky Silver Age comics but with modern sensibilities. Dean Haspiel's artwork was fantastic, retro in an Alex Toth sort of way. The way he uses the Fox's eyes and ears to make his face expressive even though his face is fully covered is masterful. How have I never heard of him before?
If The Fox: Freak Magnet has a weakness, it's that I felt like The Fox's life previous to this adventure should have been touched on more. Not everyone has issues of Blue Ribbon Comics from 1984 lying around.
All comics should be as much fun as The Fox: Freak Magnet. Four out of five time traveling druids.
Prior to this volume, I recognized The Fox as one of the Archie Red Circle characters but that's about it. When Archie Comics was doing their sale, I nabbed this for a cool $3.99.
The Fox looks like a Black Panther ripoff at first glance but that is not the case. Despite his resemblance to the monarch from Wakanda, he's more roof-running, wisecracking hero like Spider-Man or Daredevil before he became the angstiest super hero of them all. According to the dialog, he originally started wearing the costume to make the news come to him.
Anyway, The Fox ends up way out of his depth in an adventure that crosses time and space. Each installment stands well on its own. Each also starts en medias res, in the midst of the action, before backtracking to where the previous issue left off. It's a fun technique and I'm surprised it isn't used more often.
Mark Waid is hit or miss for me but his writing was pretty great this time. The story felt like an homage to some kooky Silver Age comics but with modern sensibilities. Dean Haspiel's artwork was fantastic, retro in an Alex Toth sort of way. The way he uses the Fox's eyes and ears to make his face expressive even though his face is fully covered is masterful. How have I never heard of him before?
If The Fox: Freak Magnet has a weakness, it's that I felt like The Fox's life previous to this adventure should have been touched on more. Not everyone has issues of Blue Ribbon Comics from 1984 lying around.
All comics should be as much fun as The Fox: Freak Magnet. Four out of five time traveling druids.
July 10, 2020
This is billed as an ode to old timey comic book storytelling. I just found it tired and boring. Red Circle is an old superhero line from Archie Comics that they resurrected for a minute a few years ago.
The Fox is a Spider-Man type hero who hops all over the place and cracks terrible jokes. This was just bad.
The Fox is a Spider-Man type hero who hops all over the place and cracks terrible jokes. This was just bad.
December 17, 2015
I though The Fox was a new original character but turns out he dates back to 1940. If this is supposed to introduced new readers to the characters, it could have done a bit better. Instead of showing us how Paul's life is (that the guy's name without the costume) usually is, it throw him directly into a mess. The Queen of Diamonds wants him to find his lost husband so he sends him to another world (or something like that) without really asking. But The Fox is used to it because he's a freak magnet (hence the title). While he's at work, he runs into some other superheroes who are supposed to be a big deal but of course, I don't know them, so I don't really care much about them. But they make a good team and bring something to Fox's mission. Having the guy be alone for the whole book wouldn't have been more boring. And even though the Fox keeps telling himself (he talks to himself a lot, I liked that, it added to the action panels) and everyone he wants to get back to his wife, we barely get a page about her or Paul's life outside of the Fox. Which I preferred, the adventure story was real enjoyable.
What first grabbed my attention to this book was its art. It pops out the page and I really dug the like of bright colors. Unfortunately, I had hyped myself because of the art and expected a absolutely compelling story but it didn't do it for me so much. We get a bit of information on how is how in Fox's life and that helps to get to know how he is. I mean, it's difficult to care about someone you don't much about. There's some problem with the appearance of some guy named The Shield who is clearly a Captain America who is telling a story to his friends in a bar. And I'm left wondering, what the fuck does this have to do with the Fox? The switch between both stories felt a bit anticlimactic. However, in the end it pans out and the book kicked it up a notch.
So, to sum up, even though the story started being underwhelming, it won me over throughout and the art is really awesome.
End of the year revision: yeah, the art is awesome but the story, even though it got better, was underwhelming. Two stars= it was ok.
What first grabbed my attention to this book was its art. It pops out the page and I really dug the like of bright colors. Unfortunately, I had hyped myself because of the art and expected a absolutely compelling story but it didn't do it for me so much. We get a bit of information on how is how in Fox's life and that helps to get to know how he is. I mean, it's difficult to care about someone you don't much about. There's some problem with the appearance of some guy named The Shield who is clearly a Captain America who is telling a story to his friends in a bar. And I'm left wondering, what the fuck does this have to do with the Fox? The switch between both stories felt a bit anticlimactic. However, in the end it pans out and the book kicked it up a notch.
So, to sum up, even though the story started being underwhelming, it won me over throughout and the art is really awesome.
End of the year revision: yeah, the art is awesome but the story, even though it got better, was underwhelming. Two stars= it was ok.
September 27, 2015
This is a light-hearted super hero yarn that actually shows a little bit of heart. The Fox is a non-powered super hero who just has things happen to him. The stories are silly, but all work together in a cohesive whole to surprising effect, and the action and dialogue all work well. There's also a back-up story starring the Shield that takes a strange turn, again to good effect. The overall quality of this book and the pure sense of joy that comes through it is something you don't often see in modern comics, and it's something that is definitely missed. A big thank you should go out to Archie comics for trying to bring it back. They hit the mark head on here.
May 21, 2015
Mark Waid mashes together an old comic book character, reimagined as a poor man's Spider-Man, with Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos (spoilers, sorry), and makes something completely uninteresting.
The humor falls flat, the story is unevenly paced and none of the characters are interesting in any way.
I'm not up on my Archie Comics history, so I don't know if The Fox is one of the original characters from that era of crazy superhero creation between Superman's debut and the entrance of the US into WWII, but The Shield definitely is.
But I've been trying to force myself to read this for months, which is ridiculous, so I just went ahead and finished it today. It should be fun, but it's just dumb.
I've mentioned in other reviews of Waid's stuff that his work is binary: he's either on or off, hit or miss. And this, I'm sorry to say, is a gigantic miss.
The humor falls flat, the story is unevenly paced and none of the characters are interesting in any way.
I'm not up on my Archie Comics history, so I don't know if The Fox is one of the original characters from that era of crazy superhero creation between Superman's debut and the entrance of the US into WWII, but The Shield definitely is.
But I've been trying to force myself to read this for months, which is ridiculous, so I just went ahead and finished it today. It should be fun, but it's just dumb.
I've mentioned in other reviews of Waid's stuff that his work is binary: he's either on or off, hit or miss. And this, I'm sorry to say, is a gigantic miss.
September 14, 2019
2.5. The original Fox was a Golden Age Archie Comics superhero whose son Paul stepped into the identity in Archie Comics' 1980s revival (though these stories were from two or three revivals later). Paul took the gig so that he could attract supervillains and photograph the fights a la Peter Parker but now he's newly married and ready to quit ... too bad.
I think the stories are meant to be weird and outrageous, but they're not notably so more than most comics adventures. It might have worked better if the Fox was more grounded in everyday life instead of spending most of this TPB off on another planet.
And the last story is just dumb in its treatment of WW II, assuming it was fueled purely by hate (no) and that everyone was in love with war (no) in contrast to our more enlightened modern era (hardly).
I think the stories are meant to be weird and outrageous, but they're not notably so more than most comics adventures. It might have worked better if the Fox was more grounded in everyday life instead of spending most of this TPB off on another planet.
And the last story is just dumb in its treatment of WW II, assuming it was fueled purely by hate (no) and that everyone was in love with war (no) in contrast to our more enlightened modern era (hardly).
June 24, 2015
This book was alright, but it really just made me want to hunt down reprints of the stories Alex Toth did of this character back in the 50s.
April 10, 2015
Clumsy plot, dialogue, characters...it reads like a fanfic.
November 9, 2025
The plot was very reminiscient of wacky comics from the 40s and 50s, which was fun. Paul was a wife guy, and not in a way that gave his wife any interesting stuff to do. She could have been replaced with a house cat and the story wouldn't have changed much.
It's interesting to me that the moral of the WWII part of the story seemed to be "put aside your differences and work together with the German Nazi and the Japanese Imperialist to defeat the evil sorcerer", and that the Nazi character was specifically stated as defecting from the Axis later (off panel) but the Japanese character isn't given that distancing from the Axis powers. At least the knock-off Captain America character acknowledges that they were all brainwashed into wholehearted nationalism by their respective countries
It's interesting to me that the moral of the WWII part of the story seemed to be "put aside your differences and work together with the German Nazi and the Japanese Imperialist to defeat the evil sorcerer", and that the Nazi character was specifically stated as defecting from the Axis later (off panel) but the Japanese character isn't given that distancing from the Axis powers. At least the knock-off Captain America character acknowledges that they were all brainwashed into wholehearted nationalism by their respective countries
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 17, 2026
"The Fox: Freak Magnet" is a delightfully goofy tribute to Golden Age and Silver Age comics featuring a reluctant superhero who just cannot get a break from all the weirdness his profession attracts. First introduced in 1940, The Fox has a long but infrequent history of appearances in American comics. This particular revival does good service to all previous interpretations while offering a new and fresh look at an underutilized character. This book is recommended for anyone looking for a zippy and zany read that does not take itself too seriously.
February 18, 2021
This book is every bit as joyous and visually stunning as a superhero comic should be. Though there is character conflict and moralizing, humor and action take center stage. The team of writers and artists collaborate so well here, and it seems obvious that everyone involved is having fun.
March 8, 2025
It got really boring, it’s like I’m watching Deadpool and Spider-Man but tries too hard to be the two 🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈
October 9, 2015
Miniserie que busca reintroducir un viejo enmascarado de la casa Archie trazando un puente entre sus orígenes Pulp y un presente derechamente fantástico, en historias que combinan la impronta psicodélica y surreal con la aparición de otros justicieros clásicos. Para leer con interés en espera de su evolución.
April 19, 2016
This is a great little comic that is not the norm at all. The character is fun and the stories are madcap adventure in the best way. For fans of super hero stories where the hero doesn't have super powers.
May 20, 2015
Cute & wacky, especially if you like sad sacks (I love sad sacks).
October 22, 2016
Activate Baby-Mode. Crawl away. Soil Self.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews