The Last of the Mohicans
Written
by James
Fennimore Cooper
Adapted
by Roy
Thomas
Penciler
– Steve
Kurth
Inker
– Cam
Smith
Letterer
– Joe
Caramagna
Colorist
– June
Chung
The Deerslayer
Written
by James
Fennimore Cooper
Adapted
by Roy
Thomas
Artist
– Denis Medri
Letterer
– Joe
Caramagna
Last of the Mohicans
#1 published by Marvel Comics, 28 pages for $2.99
There
aren’t nearly enough comics
on the market today by writer Roy
Thomas. I
don’t know if that’s
because Thomas chooses not to work all that much anymore or if some
genius at
the Big Two thinks he’s no longer fashionable, but either
way, I miss his
work. I came late
to his work. I
discovered it only recently via Dark
Horse’s reprints on the old Conan
series from Marvel, but
I’ve become a big fan, and I bought this book solely
because I saw Thomas’s name on the cover.
And yet in a larger sense I’ve gotta say that
it’s way past time that
Marvel did a treatment of this story.
The
company owes so much of what it is today to
James Fennimore Cooper’s idea of the lonely ranger
who exists outside of
society even as he protects that same society from the evils of others
on who
also exist on the outside. In
many ways,
I think Last of the Mohicans is the
original superhero story, and as such it only makes sense that the
industry
leader should be the one to tackle the subject matter.
Our
story opens during the French and Indian War. The blue blood daughters
of an English
Officer have come out to the frontier for a visit just as French troops
arrive
along with a tribe of Huron reinforcements.
But the girls will not be dissuaded from visiting their
father at Fort William Henry
despite the dangers
of the road, and so they set out alone along with their protector, Major Heyward, and an untrustworthy
indian guide named Magua. Luckily for them, the
white ranger Natty Bumpo and his
trustworthy Mohican
Indian friends arrive just in the nick of time to save them from a
Huron
ambush. And then
things get interesting.
Fennimore
Cooper’s story isn’t the most historically accurate
piece of fiction in the history of American literature, but I like it
because
although it gets some basic facts wrong about the Indians in question,
it
sticks close to reality when concerned with the life and skills a
frontiersman
might have needed to stay alive in what was quite literally Indian
country. In the
book, Bumpo and company
spend a lot of time moving quietly and leaving tracks that no human
tracker
could follow. This
adaptation succeeds
because Thomas has found a way to keep that part of Cooper’s
vision intact even
as he ups the visual spectacle of the comic over and above what was
represented
in the original prose story. I
also
liked the fact that Thomas kept as much of the original dialogue as
possible. It must
have been some feat of
research to decide what to leave in, what to cut, and what to attempt
to
abridge. I’ve
read the original several
times and couldn’t spot any places where the abridgement was
overt and
noticeable.
The
only thing I didn’t like a lot about this particular issue
was the main story’s linework.
If I had
to guess, I’d say that the original pencils were likely
spectacular but that
the book itself was only greenlit recently with the result that the
inks were
rushed. But
I’m no expert on these
things, so I might have it backwards.
In
any event, I liked everything about the art except the faces, which
looked
awkward to me in several spots. With
that said, I thought the backup story’s art was superior in
every way. The
Deerslayer short was nothing less than beautiful. Anyway, I mention it in
this level of detail
because posting this review on this part of the website requires me to
give the
work a grade, and I took off points for the faces and for the fact that
the
people looked shiny in spots.
But
that isn’t to say that I didn’t like this book. I definitely did like it. A lot.
And I recommend it without reservation to fans of
superhero books who
are looking for something a little different in their comics diet or
who want
to see where some of the genre’s archetypes were developed. Last
of the Mohicans is a strong work, and at 28 pages of
sequential art, it’s a
hell of a value in today’s market.
***
Dan
Head is a utilities analyst and freelance writer. To get your
comic reviewed here, email
him.
