10.6 C
London
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Mystery Society Special 2013 – 8GPP

Nick and the rest of the Mystery Society set out to do a deal with a mysterious collector of Monsters.

Mystery Society created by Steve Niles, Ashley Wood and Finoa Staples is one of the best examples of a great comic that just disappeared because hardly anyone was reading it. A pulp inspired adventure comic based around the team of the Mystery Society. Which consists of Nick and Anastasia Mystery, who after winning the lottery devotes their millions to solving mysteries and investigating the occult amongst other things.

 The other members of the team include Secret Skull an undead crime fighter (who originally appeared in another series by Niles), Jules Verne or rather his brain housed in a robot body he built for himself and the Atomic Twins, a pair of twin girls with strange powers.

 Originally appearing in 2010, what was supposed to be an on-going series got dropped after 5 issues due to sales and in a twist of fate it was this that lead to Fiona Staples working on Brian K Vaughn’s Saga, after Niles was asked for a recommendation.

 This one-off story features all the things that made the Mystery Society so good and unlike the previous five issues which were quickly tied up despite the team only just getting together, the gang is all here from the start.

Secret Skull and Verne begin their descent.66497117a0f5961302a224daab4e48d1

 The story starts with Nick and Anastasia aboard a ship in an undisclosed location, with Nick busy emptying the contents of his stomache over the railing into the ocean whilst the Aromic Twins laugh at his sea sickness. By the second page it’s clear what Nile’s influences are as Verne and Secret Skull are taking a retro styled mini submarine to find the underwater lair of the mysterious individual they are making a trade with. This trade is never really explained although it does involve the skull of Poe.

 There’s some great banter between Secret Skull and Verne as they arrive at the strange base, with Verne saying ‘As of the internet, most of my novels have been realised’ which gets the response ‘Better you than Nostradamus’ from Secret Skull. The pair are not exactly surprised when their strange host double crosses them and are unfazed when he threatens to kill them with poison gas, with the pair non-chalantly saying ‘Already dead’ and ‘Robot’.

 As the story progresses Frankenstein’s Monster makes an appearance and it’s final two panels sum up why Mystery Society really, really deserves a second chance, despite this the being the group’s final outing according to Niles since IDW ‘can’t sell creator owned right now’.

Meanwhile……..

Art for this adventure is by Andrew Ritchie since Fiona Staples is busy amazing everyone with eyes on Saga. Although Ritchie definitely does a good job pulling off the pulp science fiction aesthetic. The characters look good and undersea segment definitely let Ritchie run riot compared to the interior setting of the rest of the story, with Sharks, turtles, seahorses and coral reefs all making an appearance.

 There’s something inherently charming in Mystery Society a sort of more fun take on Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Verne’s refined English and Secret Skull’s snarky sarchasm make for a great combination and it’s got heart too, with a confused Frankenstein’s Monster wondering why he’s been freed from imprisonment, to be told by Secret Skull ‘Even if you are dead, or reanimated, or whatever, you still don’t deserve to be locked up in a cage.’

 They really should make a print out of those two last panels. Seriously.

 

Andy Haigh
Andy Haigh
Andy Haigh started writing to counteract the brain atrophying effects of Retail Hell, now it's an addiction. Andy is an unrepentant sequential art absorbist and comics are one of his passions. Other interests include Film, Music, Science Fiction and Horror novels and quality TV like Game of Thrones. He can talk about these at great length if only someone would listen. He lives a somewhat hermit like life in The Shire, spends too much time on social media and is still waiting to go on an adventure.

Related Articles

28,144FansLike
2,755FollowersFollow
3,270SubscribersSubscribe

Latest Articles