I really enjoyed the Smash! Anthology from a couple of years ago. I’d go as far to say it was one of my favourite anthology titles. How does the new Smash! compare. It does not disappoint.
A superb Andy Clarke cover pulls you in to a Janus Stark interlude. It’s a perfect five pager and Paul Grist captures this ‘modern’ Janus perfectly and Tom Foster does a stunning job capturing Stark, here set in 1969.
There is a connection between that and the following story, featuring the Spider, the Steel Claw and Jane Bond (no relation). Anna Morozova looks like she had a field day and a lot of fun bringing this strip to life and it is panel after panel a great job by everyone involved. It captures the swinging 60’s retro atmosphere and really leaves you breathless for the next instalment.
The back up story is a reprint from a previous Action comic. I must have bought it, and recognise it but without the Treasury reprints to back it up wouldn’t know the context of the Steel Claw at the time. And it is a strip of it’s time. Peter Hogan and Sean Phillips do a sterling job but it feels mature, dark and foreboding comparative to the enjoyment of the other two strips. The current creative team have said we are just going to have a ball with these characters. The back up strip is interesting to read all the same and does not take away from what is a sterling package.
Purchase it in Newsagent here and don’t miss the Anna Morozova interview on Smash in the new ComicScene Magazine. Order it here
ComicScene magazine 
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