Are We Ready for A New Buck Rogers?

By Lisa Fary

I’ve been very open about my recent disappointment in the titles at the comic shop and that there are very few I’m interested in anymore. I don’t want to read about zombies or superheroes. I’m not invested enough in mainstream characters to really care about “events” or “deaths” (I didn’t even know Bruce Wayne had “died” until I read Teresa’s review of “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?” I’m sure he’ll be back, just like Stefano on Days of Our Lives. Unless he isn’t, in which case, bravo, DC, for making something stick).

And I don’t want to read god damn Pride & Prejudice in comic form (I’m looking at you, Marvel – seriously, if you’re gonna go down that road, be bold about it. Tackle Tristram Shandy or something. You’re just as likely to get chicks to read that as you are your P&P adaptation. I’ll take Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, thanks. Or, you know, the actual novel).

Fun, pulpy sci-fi that isn’t Star Trek is what I want right now (not that I don’t love ST, because I do. There’s real love there). I like what I’ve read of Fear Agent and am OK with the new Flash Gordon, but there’s just something missing.

Maybe it’s because the world sucks so much right now that I want a sci-fi hero full of bravado in a shiny, future Earth that isn’t a post-apocalyptic wasteland. I just bought a five pound bag of rice and a bunch of canned goods in the event that swine flu becomes a Stephen King style epidemic – hopeful is good right now.

Enter Dynamite Entertainment’s revival of Buck Rogers. Admittedly, my only experience of Buck Rogers is this:

You never knew what you were going to get with that show. Maybe Jamie Lee Curtis as a sexy convict. Or Gary Cole as a cosmic wiz kid! Maybe a roller disco (seriously – that was the best 25th century Earth entertainment had to offer). And space pirates! And Jack Palance with glowy red hands! And, of course, Twiki, who is the Buck Rogers equivalent of an Ewok. It was also good for suggestively tight pants on both men and women, which were probably just as uncomfortable to wear as they were to look at.

However, Buck Rogers has been around since 1928 and is ripe for a revival. Dynamite Entertainment is putting out the series intro, issue #0, for a whole quarter.

It opens with Buck Rogers in dire straights at the hands (or “hands”) of the Ganymedians – a race of giant, slimy, paramecium looking aliens whose sole purpose is to absorb everything in their path. Including Earth. Buck has been in the future for quite some time, possibly long enough to have an adult daughter. The intro issue is short, but it gets across the kind of guy Buck Rogers is and what kind of world he’s living in. It’s definitely peaked my interest.

Naturally, because I’m me, I have some problems.

First, I’m not a fan of the revamped costume – it looks like Tron and Nexus got together to design a clothing line, and for some reason decided that riding breeches were the next big thing in future fashion. Puffy thighed riding breeches are incredibly impractical for the future – won’t they just get caught in slidey doors?

Second, the Ganymedians. They strike me as a hybrid of Fear Agent’s Feeders and Star Trek’s Borg. They even go so far as to start the “Resistance is futile” line. I hope the entire series isn’t going to focus on the Ganymedian threat – there are far too many fun directions to go in with Buck.

Thankfully, I can be fairly certain that roller disco won’t be one of them. And, please Dynamite, no uncomfortable dancing scenes like this one:

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Lisa Fary’s early exposure to classic Battlestar Galactica in 1979 is largely responsible for her lifelong interest in science fiction and her childhood ambition of being an intergalactic space cowgirl. She thinks diagramming sentences is a fun alternative to Sudoku.

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