MASKED MAN: STORY NINE

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of B.C. Boyer’s neglected 1980s superhero the Masked Man. For Part One click HERE

ECLIPSE MONTHLY Vol 1 #7 (April 1984)

Title: Confessions

Synopsis: The Masked Man (Dick Carstairs) shared this issue of Eclipse Monthly with the new superheroine the Nightingale and the early 1800s western hero the Californio.

The relationship between our hero and his reporter friend Barney McAllister got stretched to the breaking point in this tale as the Masked Man found himself tempted by the offers from Dan Drekston. Those offers: to cash in on Masked Man merchandising, Masked Man action figures and books adapted from his adventures. 

Once again, years before the overrated and overpraised Alan Moore’s work The Watchmen we see other comic book writers covering material that Moore was praised for as if he was the originator of such meta concepts. Drekston is planning a merchandising empire similar to that of Moore’s superhero Ozymandias. 

We readers are given more insight to the depth of Barney and Dick’s long friendship and how the latter figuratively took the place of Barney’s younger brother when he died as a child. Feeling that Carstairs is about to sell out and go down the commercial road offered by Drekston, McAllister plans to just quietly go away.

Unfortunately for fans of action, there is NO crimefighting in this issue. This story is all about the drama of the path being contemplated by the Masked Man and Barney’s opposition to it.

Even just a short teaser menace to open the tale would have given Confessions more balance. It may have been a bold creative choice in 1984 to have absolutely no physical conflict in an entire superhero story but overall it may not have been worth it in this particular case. +++ 

I’LL REVIEW THE NEXT MASKED MAN STORY SOON. KEEP CHECKING BACK FOR UPDATES.              

FOR MY LOOK AT HOMBRE, SPAIN’S POST-APOCALYPTIC COMIC BOOK FROM THE 1980s, CLICK HERE .

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