Smoke & Mirror 1: Time & Time Again (Of Bitter Souls) Review

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(More customer reviews)Smoke & Mirror the Trade paperback collects issues 1 - 6 and is an ode to both Golden and Silver Age comics and of a time when comics were simpler, and more fun. Smoke and Mirror looks at two generations of superheroes bearing those names and how times have changed with the more violent world we live in today. Luke Gabriel is a Chicago lawyer who was once only concerned with himself until he met the elderly Silas Binder, and learned about Binder's colorful past.
Binder was a 1940's superhero named Mr. Smoke who teamed up Miss Mirror to fight crime and supervillains. Binder has now found a replacement in Gabriel, which has changed the lawyer's life. Binder now has dedicated his law practice to helping those who normally cannot afford legal aid. And at night, he helps the citizens in his guise as the hero renamed as simply Smoke.
Luke and Silas soon learn that Smoke isn't the only second-generation hero. There is a new Mirror in town, a reckless, but spunky redhead, and the great-niece of the original Miss Mirror who was killed in a battle with the team of villains known as The Grand Society of Injustice and Doom...what a moniker! Zoe, the new Mirror, quickly runs into conflict with her grandfather who remembers his sister's death all too well and doesn't want the same thing to happen to his granddaughter. Smoke also isn't crazy about Mirror and her impulsiveness.
One quite creative thing about this book is that when Silas tells Luke stories about his own crime fighting past, the art in the book switches to look like comics printed on old newsprint style paper with all those little does that made up the color, i.e., the kind of comics I grew up on! As an added bonus, the cover gallery features covers made up to look like old Golden Age covers, complete with creases, tears, and age fading.
Smoke and Mirror is pretty simplistic. The villains and threats the pair face in the book are really secondary to the relationships between all of the central characters. The book is written by Chuck Satterlee, a steady and dependable comic's scribe, who clearly has an affinity for comics of a bygone era. The art is handled by several different artists although the first four chapters by Claude St. Aubin is easily the best. The only real drawback to the art is the colors on chapter five by Daniel Bradford that make everyone look yellow.
Solid and enjoyable Superhero fare!
Reviewed by Tim Janson


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