The Silver Age of comics, while not the beginning of comics, will always be the foundation of we all now take for granted. Without the likes of Lee, Kirby, Ditko and beyond, comics would surely not have reached the heights it has. This week, the silver age returns to modern comics in the guise Andy W. Clift’s love letter to that period; the Adventures of Captain Cosmic. But can this new comic of a galactic superhero and his sidekick capture the magic of that historic time?

Publisher: Frontier Comics
Writer: Andy W. Clift
Artist: Andy W. Clift
Price:£1.50 via frontiercomics.bigcartel.com and via the Comichaus App

The Adventures of Captain Cosmic #1 follows its eponymous lead as he and his sidekick, Kid Cosmic, are called upon by the Government of the Commonwealth to investigate a terrifying dilemma. Entire planets are disappearing and with no one able to find out why, it falls to the Galactic Defenders to figure out who is committing such nefarious acts and how to reverse them before it is too late.

Andy Clift has produced a comic which is pure silver age in every single way. From its look to its tone and even from the notion of it being a one-and-done story, everything about this issue points to it as a near perfect homage to, what is referenced in the introduction, as the creators favourite age. The Adventures of Captain Cosmic is an immensely enjoyable comic, practically emitting fun with it’s bright, optimistic and happy go-lucky vibe. What makes this both most appealing though is how the everything about it, characters, plot and set pieces, imbue a lot of the Adam West Batman and the 1966 series, something best exemplified with Captain Cosmic’s use of ‘You Fiend’ (leading this reviewer to actually hear West say it when reading).

The art, meanwhile, looks just as perfect as the writing and the story, with Clift’s fantastic pulp style seen in the Bertie Bear series evident through. However, the evolution is more than apparent here with his style looking very similar to Michael Allred’s work on Silver Surfer, (which itself is an homage to the silver age), and works here just as well. However, what makes the art special is the colours as Clift’s colouring enhances the quintessentially silver age and newspaper strip look, while the yellow ‘newspaper’ hue of the guttering really makes you think this comic is from the 60’s.

The Adventures of Captain Cosmic is unlike any other comic you will find on shelves or in cons today (Unless you dig deep into thosee back issue bins – Ed). Andy W. Clift has produced a comic which is unashamedly silver age in everything it is and honours the period terrifically. This issue looks amazing and is such a joyful read that you will want more of these good natured comic to balance the grittier entries which often permeate the shelves. Hopefully we’ll see more of this series in the future, same cosmic time, same cosmic channel!!