Gold Key: Alliance

Gold Key - Dynamite

by Phil Hester, Brent Peeples (Artist), Felipe Massafera (Artist)

Turok, Dinosaur Hunter. Magnus, Robot Fighter. Solar, Man of the Atom. The Mighty Samson. The legendary heroes whose adventures have thrilled comic book readers for over half a century are back, only this time they all share the same time and the same world - ours! Each warrior wrestles with the perils of the twenty-first century, but a greater evil is approaching, one that will unify the legendary champions in a struggle destined to change each forever.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Comic Book

120 pages, Paperback

First published December 14, 2016

About the author

This Eisner Award-nominated artist was born in eastern Iowa, where he went on to study at the University of Iowa. His pencilling credits include Swamp Thing, Brave New World, Flinch, Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Clerks: The Lost Scene, The Crow: Waking Nightmares, The Wretch (nominated for the 1997 Eisner Award for Best New Series), Aliens: Purge, and Green Arrow.

Since graduating from the University of Iowa, he has been in the comics industry for over 15 years.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the first 3 or 4 issues where Hester was just telling some solid solo adventures with the Gold Key characters, especially liked the Turok story. But everything felt very forced and unnecessary once the cosmic aspects were bought in. It almost felt like a bait and switch, like sitting through one of those timeshare presentations to get the "free" tickets to Disney World.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slight prompt to moving this up is Dynamite Publishing's announcement that they are bringing these characters back in a couple of months, but as different iterations (again). So why read this?

1. If you a fan of these characters.
2. A crossover which explains how some of these characters work
3. Satisfy your curiosity. I mean the license for these properties has bounced around more than just about any other comic property from the 60s (nominee for most bounced T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents).

I really want to give Phil Hester credit for trying to make how these characters physical attributes function make sense. I mean from a science standpoint Magnus doesn't make any sense and Hester added some science to it and hey my logic gap closed (a little). The same applies to Samson, and Turok hearkens back to my favorite run of the character (at Acclaim Comics).

The minus though is SPOILER.....











Hester uses what amounts to the cosmic reset button to solve the story points. I mean this has been done just way to often for my taste (I'm talking to you Russel Davis and Dr. who) to solve a story point/conflict. Up until that juncture I was probably enjoying this way too much while reading in bed with a 60 pound dog trying to sleep on my feet (hey trying to give you a laugh).

Dynamite and Dark Horse did recent runs with these characters and I'm going to try and catch up on those before the new series hits (and maybe even the Acclaim run-that company did some good comics in the 90s.)

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this was was basically "Crisis on Infinite Earths" for the Gold Key Universe. Solar has divided the universe up into many alternate universes (which I think he's done before, or similar things.) So Doctor Spektor tries to combine all the universes together before the mulitverse splinters..or something.

So for those of you who have read the "new" versions of the Gold Key Characters, I think this series may have been the end for those versions. I was left with the impression the characters have been reset back into their original Gold Key reincarnations, but they may mix things up again, who knows.

Overall it seemed more of a story told for continuity's sake rather than for the sake of the story itself, and from that viewpoint this story worked. Probably something die hard Gold Key fans should read, but I don't think others would find interesting.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

These poor old Gold Key characters have been bouncing around between publishers for decades, from Western to Voyager to Acclaim and now to Dynamite. I've picked up an issue or two from their various incarnations but never found them to have much appeal. Well, maybe Turok a little way back in the day.

This is the first time I've sampled Dynamite's take, and apparently I started in a bad place because this seems to be their version of Crisis on Infinite Earths, and like that DC relic, if you don't know the heroes going in, you'll be pretty lost in all the sound and fury. The point of the series seems to be to eliminate all the various incarnations and get the characters back to something closer to their original roots. Or maybe not. I don't know. It's a confusing mess, and I doubt I'll ever try any of the other Dynamite books.

I'll just wait for the next publisher's stab at making these guys viable.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantastic cover art, but so-so interior art.
Pretty enjoyable story up to the "think good thoughts and everything will be wonderful" ending. I liked the modern version of Magnus and Turok, did not like the modern Solar, and did not really care one way or other about Sampson. Ending kind of left me wondering what the point of the story was.
This seems to sum up Dynamite Comics as a whole. They put out books with great potential that never actually do anything worthwhile.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This storyline has an interesting setup, with classic superheroes from Gold Key (or Valiant for you 1990s kids) appearing in a modern-day setting while dealing with visions of themselves from other realities. There's intriguing build-up for the first few issues... and then it's all resolved rapidly in the finale with some merely functional explanations. Gold Key: Alliance either needed to move at a faster pace throughout, or (preferably) should have spent even more time in their worldbuilding and plot twists, running for more than five issues if necessary. The story we got is a bit frustrating: not bad, but it clearly could have been much better. (Also note: Even with the revised starting setting, I'm not sure how accessible this will be for folks without at least a little knowledge of the core cast.) (B)

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Magnus, Solar, Turok, and Samson each face a murderous threat that could be part of a larger conspiracy, but something feels “off” for each hero and Samson seems to be hallucinating about another world. But when the mastermind is revealed, is he really the true threat?

I was introduced to many of these characters in the original Valiant line several years ago and remain interested in them, even though they’ve now gone back to the original Intellectual Property and are separated from the current Valiant books. I was intrigued by this graphic novel and gave it a try.

It starts out with a sort of reboot of the characters where they’re all in a present day setting - Magnus is a government agent with a specialty in AI; Turok is a park warden and potential reality TV host (think Crocodile Hunter) in a native American reserve fostering the only remaining dinosaurs; Solar is a woman on a good-will mission to Africa; and Samson is essentially a genetically altered human that is appears homeless. Most of the story follows these characters and their individual arcs.

Only in the last parts of the story does it become sort of a Crisis on Infinite Earths where multiple versions of each character have been brought together by the one remaining Doctor Spektor. While we get to see even more variants of the heroes as they fight to save their respective realities, but we also get a glimpse at the originals.

I was actually kind of disappointed overall. Yes, there have been a few different reboots of these characters over the years, and I think this was an attempt to “clear the slate” and bring everything back to ground level. But it also served as a big tease since the characters we read about for most of the story end up wiped out. I felt like I’d invested time for nothing.

An interesting spin on the characters, but ultimately disappointing.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Phil Hester is one of the most underrated writers/artists within comics--so I try and follow him wherever he goes.

I'm a bit keen on comic book cosmology--particularly the quantum multi/omni/polyverses. I'm familiar with the Golden Key character back from the original Valiant run--and while I'm not extremely familiar with them, this was a bit of a Crisis of Infinite Earths/Unity Event for the characters--albiet starting at a very gritty/street level position at first.

This is a part of that nostalgia trend that's been going on in all media (but perhaps not music) with all old IP being "modernzized" i.e. THUNDER AGENTS, Vampirella, Barbarella, Project Superpowers, Dan Dare, The Prisoner, The Shadow and the Spirit.

That being said-sometimes you find that some comics are just too dated and not going to get the draw needed. I.e. Darwyn Cooke did a hell of a run on the Spirit (as did Wagner) and if they can't move the needle--no one else will.

Crisis of Infinite Earths worked however because those character has at least 30 years of prior exposure in the public eye and had been published the entire time. When they wiped/blinked out all those golden age characters (and summed them up into Superman) there was a vibrancy there that was lacking here--and larely through no fault of Hester's (although the art here is not great). It's more that the characters have no been in constant publication since then, so this 'event' seemed a bit forced and unnecessary.