Indiana Jones Adventures Vol 1 featured Reviews 

“Indiana Jones Adventures” Vol. 1

By | March 3rd, 2020
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

In 2008, during the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Dark Horse Comics decided to take a leaf from their “Clone Wars Adventures” titles and publish a kid-friendly series for Lucasfilm’s veteran archaeologist/grave digger. The series sadly only lasted two installments before the franchise became dormant again, but with Harrison Ford set once more to return as the man with the hat, now seemed as good a time as any to pull “Indiana Jones Adventures” Vol. 1 off the shelf and give it a good dusting.

Art by Ethen Beavers
Written by Phillip Gelatt
Art by Ethen Beavers
Colored by Ronda Pattison
Lettered by Michael Heisler

In the deep winter of Northern Europe, Dr. Henry Jones Jr. is about to undergo one of the most harrowing archeological digs of his career! Amidst a deadly blizzard, he must find an ancient monument and unlock its secrets before someone with much darker intentions gets there first! Yet there are trials awaiting any who would lay claim to the artifacts of mysterious warriors from long ago.

Kid-friendly and brimming with the very best parts of Indiana Jones, this is a story for anyone looking for stunning visuals, thrill-a-minute storytelling, and one unmistakable archaeologist!

Set in 1930, five years before Temple of Doom (and six before Raiders of the Lost Ark), “Indiana Jones Adventures” takes Indy to Stockholm, London, and Marrakesh on a journey to recover a mystical scroll. It perfectly evokes the darker film noir atmosphere of those first two films, with often moody artwork: the creative team, led by Gelatt, probably realized that since Raiders was a PG, there was no reason to tone down the violence and language for a young fan than absolutely necessary.

As a result, Indy’s driven pursuit makes him feel as (slightly) menacing as he does in the earlier films (especially when his grinning farewells to Marcus are contrasted by shadow), and while sound effects do tone down the panels of violent blows, they’re still there, and don’t shy away from the sight of blood or bruises. When the time comes for one of the franchise’s scary supernatural scenes, the dark coloring helps bring down the intensity for young readers a lot – still, the image of a Nazi’s bloodshot eyes must’ve been shocking for any kid who received this.

The only time the comic begins to feel like it’s talking down to its audience is when Indy has to explain to his new acquaintance Dr. Lawrence what a Nazi is – however, this educational segment is justified by the setting (a full two years before their rise to power), and Brody’s adult description of them as “a nasty, brutish bunch of thugs with an imperialistic ideology torn from the pages of Fascist Italy.” It also gives us this priceless moment:

Indy: “National socialists? The second largest party in the Weimar? Don’t you ever read the papers?”

Lawrence: “I’m an archaeologist. I read academic papers.”

For adult fans, “Indiana Jones Adventures” does an excellent job of feeling like it could be a lost Indiana Jones film. Despite its short length, it crams in as many locations as any of Spielberg and Lucas’s work, capturing that feeling you’re watching the serials that inspired the movies back-to-back – you can also just hear the legendary Ben Burtt’s sound effects with Heisler’s lettering, or John Williams’s music whenever the comic recreates the films’ traveling montages.

Also, Dark Horse weren’t kidding when they said the comic looked stunning: if you’ve ever wondered what an Indiana Jones comic by Chris Samnee, Elsa Charretier, or Mike Mignola might look like, this book is pretty much your answer. Beavers’s sumptuous black inkwork perfectly complements his simple-but-expressive lines, and Ronda Pattison’s use of light and shadow – Pattison also does an incredible job of rendering the stone, marble and concrete textures on the backgrounds, which helps make the world feel grittier and lived in. My only criticism of the art is that Dr. Jones’s chin is too big: Beavers’s rendition arguably resembles the Joker more than Harrison Ford, and his appearance is closer to the actor when he’s rendered from a distance with smaller eyes.

This comic is ultimately a great gift for young and old Indiana Jones fans alike, which begs the question: did it just not sell well in the wake of Crystal Skull, or was Dark Horse hoping for something closer to the comedic tone of Last Crusade? It’s such a shame, because between the reintroduction of a certain French nemesis, and hints of a shadowy organization interested in Dr. Jones’s work, this could’ve become a great canonical prequel on par with Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Rebels. Whatever the case, this remains a great benchmark for IDW and Disney if they (hopefully) decide to bring Indy back under the “Adventures” fold, whenever Indiana Jones 5 hits theaters.


//TAGS | evergreen

Christopher Chiu-Tabet

Chris is the news manager of Multiversity Comics. A writer from London on the autistic spectrum, he enjoys tweeting and blogging on Medium about his favourite films, TV shows, books, music, and games, plus history and religion. He is Lebanese/Chinese, although he can't speak Cantonese or Arabic.

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