Comic Book Resources

And then he was slaughtered.

Or so I assume. The following issue, from what I can see here, was entitled Dan’s Dead.

It’d be funny if people actually viewed comics that way!

“There’s NO way out of this one! I might as well not read the next issue, I don’t want to see the main character be killed!”

I say! Never knew Dan Dare was so bally violent! I shall have to get my grubby Colonial hands on a copy of this, toot-bloody-sweet!

Isn’t this just a sci-fi repeat of Zulu (great movie with Michael Caine)

I don’t think Zulu has any real ownership over the concept, but yeah, Ennis is definitely doing a Sci-Fi twist to classic British fights (like The Four Feathers).

OMG!!!
It’s George Lucas……
Look at him go!

LOL @ Poida… So True.

I say! Never knew Dan Dare was so bally violent! I shall have to get my grubby Colonial hands on a copy of this, toot-bloody-sweet!

According to Ennis introduction, this is a step back in terms of violence from the days Gibbon was on the title in the 80′s.

(Hell of a lot more violent from what I’ve read of the original though).

Oric’s right; as soon as I started reading it, I realized this is an SF version of the battle of Rourke’s Drift.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rourke%27s_drift

Still good, no matter what. Wonder how it turns out.

To be fair to Ennis, he mentions in the collections intro (as well as that Gibbons did it much more violent in the eighties) that the book was all about British pride, so it’s not surprising that it takes British battle victories and re-purposes them.

I’m glad I missed that one. 2007 Dan Dare: violent, soon forgotten. 1982 Dan Dare: violent, soon forgotten. 1977 Dan Dare: violent, soon forgotten. 1950s Dan Dare – less violent, written by people who were actually in WWII. Still fondly remembered and gaining new fans. Do we see a pattern here?

I don’t see any pattern. Maybe you can say that british heroes don’t sell very well these days. I remember that was one the reasons given by Marvel for the poor sales of Captain Britain and MI13, even though it was one the best books they had,

And by the way, what’s so violent about this scene? There’s shooting and aliens dying. Nothing particularly graphic. This is PG-13 by Ennis standards.

In fact the only other version of Dan Dare I know is the 2000AD one which was really good and there was nothing there that I would classify as violent.

I have to agree with the Dude. My dad enjoyed the original Dan Dare, I read the second Eagle volume (late 70s-early 80s) – not the 2000AD version though. What violence?

And Chris, you obvioulsy missed “Spaceship Away!” which continued in the Frank Hampson vein, 2005-ish…

The pattern you’re seeing is actually that American audiences tend not to buy Dare (or Dredd for that matter)…

Nothing to do with violence levels…

Maybe violence was the wrong word to use. I’m not against violence in literature, I’m for drama that you can believe in, drama you can feel. As Aaron and Brian noted, these stories are obviously unreal, so the illusion is shattered. The 1950s Dan was believable in its time (Spaceship Away is less so, as it’s clearly nostalgia.) When I read a drama I want to believe in the danger – I want to feel it!

Fighting aliens is a lot easier with automatic weapons.

The Colonial Marines in Aliens had automatic weapons and look what happened to them…:-)

Dan Dare needs a lesson on tactics though, he has the shooters actually aiming at targets, this is a classic cross fire scenario, he should have the guys on the right aiming to the left, and vice versa. Creating a crossfire that would more than likely reduce the number of rounds that miss a target.

still looks like a good book though.

2007 Dan Dare: violent, soon forgotten.

It’s violent compared to the 50′s version, but not particularly violent by today’s standards – people shoot at each other, and people die, but it’s not The Punisher in space.

Ive never read much less owned a Dan Dare, living in a rural town not close to, well, anything. But after just this sampling I will be looking for more.