Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze and The Land of Terror

Doc Savage: Double Features #1, 2

by Kenneth Robeson

The incredible origin of the first superhero... Doc SavageThe Man of Bronze's origin story is revealed in the classic Lester Dent novels that launched the superhero genre, in an extra-length volume commemorating the 75th anniversary of Doc Savage's pulp debut.First, the mysterious death of Doc's father leads the Man of Bronze to the Central American republic of Hidalgo where they discover a lost Mayan empire in the mythical Valley of the Vanished. Can Doc defeat the Feathered Serpent and the Red Death and free King Chaac and the beautiful Princess Monja?Then, Doc Savage trails the murderous master villain Kar (who controls the deadly Smoke of Eternity) to prehistoric Thunder Island where Doc and his men fight for their very survival against terrifying dinosaurs.This collector's item pulp reprint features a never-before-published foreword and autobiographical essay by Lester Dent, Walter Baumhofer's classic pulp covers, interior illustrations by Paul Orban and commentary by popular culture historian Will Murray.Also available with the original Walter Baumhofer pulp cover art version.

Genres: Pulp, Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Dinosaurs, Classics

Paperback

First published January 1, 1933

About the author

Kenneth Robeson was the house name used by Street and Smith Publications as the author of their popular character Doc Savage and later The Avenger. Though most Doc Savage stories were written by the author Lester Dent, there were many others who contributed to the series, including:

William G. Bogart
Evelyn Coulson
Harold A. Davis
Lawrence Donovan
Alan Hathway
W. Ryerson Johnson

Lester Dent is usually considered to be the creator of Doc Savage. In the 1990s Philip José Farmer wrote a new Doc Savage adventure, but it was published under his own name and not by Robeson. Will Murray has since taken up the pseudonym and continued writing Doc Savage books as Robeson.

All 24 of the original stories featuring The Avenger were written by Paul Ernst, using the Robeson house name. In order to encourage sales Kenneth Robeson was credited on the cover of The Avenger magazine as "the creator of Doc Savage" even though Lester Dent had nothing to do with The Avenger series. In the 1970s, when the series was extended with 12 additional novels, Ron Goulart was hired to become Robeson.

Reviews

[Kara Jorges · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t get enough adventure fiction and I’ve found precious little of my favorite variety; high adrenaline action that doesn’t get too technical or political. After having devoured all of Cussler and his ilk, my mind dredged up a memory of a movie and a couple paperbacks left lying around the house when I was a kid, so I put Doc Savage in the search engine.

This is only the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Doc Savage is Dr. Clark Savage Junior. He’s gorgeous, brainy, strong, and is too busy working out solutions to vexing problems and using his amazing strength to save humanity to give women a thought. Begun publishing in 1933, political correctness is nonexistent, yet Doc Savage and his crew possess a surprising sensitivity to the environment and native culture. Brainiac Doc has invented or improved upon a number of gadgets that in 1933 must have tested the limits of one’s imagination. Today, they’re the norm.

“The Man of Bronze” is the first Doc Savage adventure. He has just returned to his 86th floor home in New York after several weeks spent exercising his body and mind in his Arctic Fortress of Solitude, which he does from time to time to hone his already amazing skills, to find that his father is dead, killed by a strange malady. Doc gathers his five sidekicks and dodges several attempts on his life to travel to Central America to claim his inheritance, a tract of remote jungle. Doc’s inheritance is tied up in a fiendish plot to overthrow the government of fictitious Hidalgo and steal riches from a tribe of ancient Mayans, and Doc has to defeat the bad guys and save the day.

In “The Land of Terror,” a friend of Doc’s disappears almost before his eyes, and the only trace left of him is a forearm and a vile cloud of smoke. Doc chases his friend’s murderer, and finds that a fiendish mastermind is behind the murder-by-Smoke-of-Eternity, a compound that dissolves everything it touches. Doc and company follow the villain, Kar, to a strange island in the far South Pacific, where dinosaurs roam wild. Their plane crashes courtesy of a pterodactyl, and upon parachuting to the ground, the must dodge T-rexes and other dangerous dinosaur predators, all the while hunting their quarry, Kar. In the end, Doc’s amazing brains, brawn, and skill save the day and defeat the villain, who meets a gruesome end.

Seekers of realism should look elsewhere. This is pure adventure fiction, as Doc uses his amazing abilities to pull off impossible stunts and outthink his enemies at every turn. Every page underscores what an unusual specimen Doc Savage is, but he is a man devoid of arrogance, so I was smilingly rooting him on before long. His sidekicks are an eclectic, bantering lot it might take a couple books to become familiar with, there being five and all, but they, too, are a likeable bunch. Overall, the books are a very satisfying experience, and I can’t wait to read more!

[Blake Adamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a comic book geek. it's a fact. And anyone with Superman nerd knowledge will tell you Doc Savage is the forerunner to the Man of Steel. That said, I felt it prudent to try to see what Joe Shuster & Jerry Siegel saw in him. Now, as a book written in the 1930's, I thought it would just be a fun slam-and-bang read, nothing special. So, I opened this pulpy page-turner with the expectation of "Gee-Whizzes" abounding to the point of pointlessness. But, to my shock and awe, Clark Savage Jr. and his Fab Five were indeed fabulous, with surprisingly imaginative and literary stories. The most surprising factor in this book for me is the portrayal of exotic tribes, such as (*spoiler warning*) the lost tribe of Mayans found by Doc and pals are actually very morally upright, attractive people, who welcome Doc with open arms, not the painted guttural clucking cannibals that so many people of the 1930's and 40's seemed to accept as examples of real life (*end spoiler*). I know Freudian interpreters will rip this argument to shreds, but that aside, the plots are creative, the characters nostalgic, and for the most part, the tales are kept tasteful. Lester Dent's prose might com off as a bit brief at some points, but I think that's the least of anyone's worries. From the pulps of the past, we get an adventure story that earns a tip of the Indiana Jones hat and warrants a read or two from any who enjoy good old fashioned adventure.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was in the middle of a furious pulp kick and decided to give one of the legends of pulp adventure a try. Man of Bronze was a little stilted and stiff but Dent was working from someone else's outline. I cut him some slack.

Land of Terror was much better and was fairly violent. It is the quintessential pulp adventure story, with a lost colony of dinosaurs inside an inactive volcanic crater, action, plot twists, and a mysterious gas that breaks down the structure of atoms.

One thing I'm noticing is the over the top nature of some of Doc's cohorts. Renny punches through door panels to relax himself. Ham gets his nickname from an incident during WWI when someone (everyone in the world knows it was Monk Mayfair) framed him for stealing hams. Pretty sure I'm not the only one who rolls my eyes whenever they mention it, and I'm assured they mention it in every story.

All in all, I caught myself enjoying it a few times.

[Matthew Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, it was really hard to look past the whole "for any normal man there would have appeared nothing there, but to Doc's amazing superhuman eyesight, every small detail was recorded with the utmost precision." (not an actual quote) but once you get over that (and as the novel goes on it calms down on that a little), it is pretty amazing. You also have to remember that this is the stuff that inspired most comic book heroes that we know today. It is written very simplistically but not in a bad way. It is just some good old fashioned laid back fun. I loved it, and would recommend the novel to anyone who likes superheroes or stuff like that. It is also fun because it holds such a cool cultural heritage to it (I mean, this is the stuff that made entertainment what it is today). Proof that the United States has a rich and unique culture all to itself.

[Clint Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doc Savage is proto-Superman, but the big difference is he trains his mind and body through discipline and hard work instead of just being from another planet.

I found an arm-load of these books at a thrift store and decided to try them out. The reason I was aware of this character was because of a book series I adored as a kid called the Richard Blade series. On the back, it says the Blade series was done in the tradition of Conan, Tarzan, and Doc Savage.

Now, what needs to be understood is that this is pulp at its finest. You will be getting a double-decker cheese sandwich with extra cheese sauce. Once you realize and accept what it is, it's actually pretty fun and the characters have a rapport that feels like you are reading the novelization of The Expendables. (Not that I have. Maybe I should...?)

[Frank Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without Doc Savage, there would have been no Superman, no James Bond, no Indiana Jones. Truly the adventure hero's adventure hero. This double volume includes #s 1 & 2 of the original, 1933 series. They are fun, but Dent (the Kenneth Robeson listed as author) had not fully developed the character yet, so Doc is pretty bloodthirsty (he calms down as the series goes on), and a little more physically superior than later adventures. Truly a fun character, marred by an awful movie in the 1970s. The character is ripe for a movie today - in fact, Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson would be perfect. I own over 100 of the books - they were very important to me as a teenager. And the Bama cover art on the old Bantam editions is incredible. Enjoy.

[Keith B]

First read this book when I was 12yrs old. Was immediately hooked and am again. At one point had almost every Doc Savage story written but lost them all over the years except the first and last. WAY ahead of it's time. Need to find all of these again!!

Originally published as serial stories in magazines, starting in the 30's. Doc Savage is the original Superman but without super powers. Check him out on Wikipedia for more info.

[Melvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doc Savage was an archeologist/adventurer, who specialized in helping the oppressed right wrongs. His 5 aides were ex-military,scientists, lawyers, chemists etc., all with widely diverse talents and masters in their respective fields. Indiana Jones, eat your heart out!!

[Samuel Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doc Savage is one of the modern superheroes for the time that he came out. He is the the very essence of an action hero and this story, the story of his creation and the group that he has with him is something that would make someone want to keep reading more and more of him.

[Wayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've now read two of the Doc Savage books. Good grief! They are so incredibly bad! In fact, that is what interests me to read them. I am aware they are pulp fiction. But, I've read pulp works before and they were nowhere near the awfulness of these books. Yet, there is an element of entertainment about them for me. I continue reading to see just how ridiculous the plot gets. And, believe me, no one would ever imagine how bad things get!

[Kelsi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this for a science fiction class. It was ok, just not my cup of tea. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't particularly like it. If someone likes crime fighting type comic books they might enjoy this. It has a comic book type storyline.

[Tym · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pulp perfection

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Artist Pablo Picasso famously said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” While reading this book containing the first two stories about the Man of Bronze it was clear that the same phrase can be applied to comic book creators. Doc Savage first appeared in early 1933, during the depths of the Depression and started what has been a genre ever since.
Doc Savage (Clark Savage Jr.) was the first superhero and you can easily see how many subsequent superhero creations blatantly stole ideas from the original. Superman first appeared in 1938 and his alter ego was Clark Kent. Doc Savage had a Fortress of Solitude in the frozen Artic and so did Superman.
Doc Savage had no real unnatural powers, he was the product of constant practice and training. This background was used by Bob Kane in the creation of Batman. Bruce Wayne and Doc Savage both inherited vast wealth and their careers as heroes were driven by the deaths of their parents. The genius scientist/engineer with a talented team was used in the development of the Reed Richards character of the Fantastic Four.
One aspect of these stories that will surprise people that have read the later ones in the series is that Doc and his pals do not hesitate to kill the villains. Sometimes they openly brag about that being their intent. In later stories, they use “mercy bullets” that only render their opponents unconscious.
The first story established the background of Doc Savage, how he grew into the role as well as the source of Mayan gold used to finance his operations. In many ways it is yet another “lost civilization” tale. The second story uses another well worn plot device, the extremely isolated region where the dinosaurs never died. Nothing like a battle between humans and a T. Rex to test the skills of a superhero.
The comic lines and their film counterparts are fond of telling and re-telling the origins of their heroes. In this book you are taken back to the ultimate of origins, to the initial appearance of the original superhero, the Man of Bronze. His story “gave” us so much in the development of other heroes.

[Mike Horne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, this was bad. I was an avid Doc Savage reader in elementary school and junior high. Loved them (as well as Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Shadow, the Avenger). This was doubly sad then. If I hear Ham and Monk argue (or described) one more time . . .

What is weird about these two books is the amount of killing that Doc does! Robeson must have caught some grief on this because I hardly remember Doc killing anyone (in fact I thought he just "cured" them). Then I came across this chilling quote (especially if you have read That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis)--

"The police never received a single one of Kar's villains for trial and sentence to the penitentiary. Instead, Doc sent his prisoners to a certain institution for the mentally imperfect, in a mountain section of upstate New York.

All Criminals have a defective mental balance, otherwise they would not be lawbreakers. A famous psychologist would treat Kar's men. It might take years. But when released, they would be completely cured of their criminal tendencies."

How does Doc Savage get away with it?! I think in later books he does brain surgery on them.

[g026r · Rating 1 out of 5]

It seems somehow wrong to judge these by any ordinary standards, because frankly they weren't written as such: short deadlines where telling a rip-roaring adventure yarn in the required word-count and completed in time for the next issue's print-date was more important than any sort of artistic craftsmanship. And at that, they succeed.

However, taken outside of their original location in the pulp magazines they're formulaic, the characters don't even rise to two-dimensions, the dialogue is wooden, the plotting and turns of phrase repetitive, and the prose goes beyond the ordinary purple of the medium and straight into the lurid.

Cheap (at the time, these volumes are priced at normal trade paperback prices, making them less so) disposable fun if you're in the mood for it, but don't expect anything even vaguely approaching art.

[Michael Sigler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh my, where to begin...
I will say, these first two Doc Savage stories are well written and are fun, engaging stories. But holy hell is Clark Savage, Jr. an unlikable, pompous, know-it-all who I find to be extremely unrelatable. The fact that this (maybe) early-30s white privilege ass is written as the end-all be-all of masculinity and smarts is, I feel, a slap in the face to the reader, let alone the five grown men he hangs out with who are world leaders in their respective law or STEM fields that Doc apparently can run circles around...
I was so excited, getting into pulps, to read the vaunted adventures of the pulp era's greatest character. Now, I can hardly say I will be reading any more of this truly obnoxious and ungracious character.
2.5/5

[Randy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun pulpy nonsense. A true example of fervent pulp prose. It's unfortunate that these stories fail as real adventure because of the uber-competency of the heroes. Doc Savage simply has no weaknesses, makes no errors, has nothing but utter mastery of every skill in the world. The author actually goes out of his way to say that Doc is more capable than all of his sidekicks at their various specialties.

The real entertainment comes from the nature of the prose. Manly descriptions! Superhuman feats! Lots of exclamation points! Just don't expect any suspense.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reprint of the first two Doc Savage stories. Very much of their time, warts and all, but still very entertaining adventure tales. I can see why they did so well in the 1930s! The first is a solid introduction, with the cast being well established. The second has Doc being shockingly violent at times for a character described as having "the morals of Jesus Christ", although perhaps you can chalk that up to the circumstances. (Supplementary material in the book says the violence was consciously ratcheted back after that installment.) (B)

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was some of my first experience with reading classic adventure pulp. It proved to be an enjoyable if not occasionally laborious effort. Unfortunately, the nature of being paid for length tends to lead to a slightly overly laden story. Despite this, however, it proved to be an enjoyable adventure story.

[C.S. Daley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This rating is based entirely on my memory of loving the Doc Savage books as a kid.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holds up quite well after at least the third or fourth read. The Land of Terror reminded me how much Doc Savage changed, altering how he treats criminals.