Brother Power the Geek #1 (1968), cover by Joe Simon. Swamp Thing Annual #5 (1989), cover by John Totleben.
When we last saw “the Geek” before this — as I discovered via dirt cheap back issues of a series no one cared about — he’d been launched into space aboard a satellite on the orders of then-California Governor Ronald Reagan.
Then Neil Gaiman (pre-Sandman fame) came along with the tale of that satellite falling back to Earth, illustrated by Richard Piers Rayner, Mike Hoffman & Kim DeMulder.
While the story features some typical comic book action (eg, military men shouting orders into phones), what it’s really about is the 1960s peace & free love mentality crash-landing (literally) into the 1980s America of President Ronald Reagan.
Brother Power isn’t really even the main character in all of this; what’s fascinating is how his presence ripples out across the lives of the disparate cast of humans… and what they face in themselves as a result.
It’s a beautifully done little story that re-introduces BP without ever mocking or making fun of the concept (people in the story do, but the author himself doesn’t — a key distinction).
A nice illustration of the axiom “There are no bad characters, only bad writers.”
Ah. Suddenly a version of me from 30 years ago felt heard and recognised. At the time the reviews were just “this is weird” and “oh those British writers always bringing back forgotten characters”.
I was going to write Swamp Thing (splitting the year with Jamie Delano, 6 issues each, in a way we never actually worked out, if memory serves) but then Rick Veitch left, when they pulled the Swamp Thing meets Jesus story he wrote and Michael Zulli drew, and so I didn’t, and neither did Jamie.