Break-Up

Hardy Boys: The New Case Files #2

by Gerry Conway, Paulo Henrique (Artist)

The world-famous Hardy Boys have been solving mysteries together for years, but the unthinkable has happened ― Joe and Frank have decided to no longer work together. Like Lennon and McCartney, Martin and Lewis, and Sonny and Cher, all things must pass. Will they continue as agetns of A.T.A.C.(American Tenns Against Crime) separately? And will Joe and Frank still be effective as solo crime fighters?

Genres: Graphic Novels, Mystery, Comics, Detective

64 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2011

About the author

Gerard Francis Conway (Gerard F. Conway) is an American writer of comic books and television shows. He is known for co-creating the Marvel Comics' vigilante the Punisher and scripting the death of the character Gwen Stacy during his long run on The Amazing Spider-Man. At DC Comics, he is known for co-creating the superhero Firestorm and others, and for writing the Justice League of America for eight years. Conway wrote the first major, modern-day intercompany crossover, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man.

Reviews

[寿理 宮本 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I... have to stop short of docking to a 2-star review since I don't HATE the story, but it really feels like this wanted to be a shounen manga rip-off, including starting the story with Frank and Joe having "anime hair" (from their being hung upside-down), and it doesn't really pull it off that well. I mean, they look more like Street Fighter knock-offs than the "famous" Hardy Boys, and Joe looks ridiculous with his hair sticking up all over the place even after the opening scene (which is a spoiler for later in the story).

Taking the opportunity to at least try to remember which one is Frank and which one is Joe, though, since that's likely to come up again, and I will FORGET again (Frank's the older dark-haired one, Joe's the younger blond).

The story... isn't great. For one thing, the narrative jumps around and feels badly paced—Belinda goes from "OH NO, Frank and Joe (and Chet) were almost killed!" to "Hey, aren't these outfits cute??" almost immediately. There's really only one serious suspect, and THAT resolves by said suspect being murdered. So... huh. Also, the obvious tie-in from the hint dropped at the beginning of the story about the fake address in River Heights.

I don't know. It's sort of like The Death of Nancy Drew in that it feels too out of place for the characters. I know some people like stuff like the American McGee treatment of wholesome characters, but the style change and basic plot (Frank and Joe at each other's throats) just feel a bridge too far for me. Not quite to where I want to burn the bridge, though.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gerry Conway came up with a timely story about crime at a reality show shoot, and is beginning to intrigue me with the mysterious criminal mastermind. I think that in a full-length novel the pacing and some of the details would have been different, but for a graphic novel for this audience and of this length, it worked very well.
I'm still not sure that the artist should have made the Hardy Boys look like characters from Dragonball Z, though...

[Naatm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, although I don't think it showed Frank and Joe as they really are. Sure, brothers fight, but not quite so dramatically. Either way, it's good to see the boys have someone new to give them different twists.

[EGEDEGBE EMMANUEL]

It is going to be good