by J. Morgan Neal & Todd Fox
Aym Geronimo and her PostModern Pioneers are the brainchildren of J. Morgan Neal. They have been given their definitive forms by artist Todd Fox. The combination of these two talented gentlemen has brought us this unique team of adventurers.
Neal is quite open about the influence of Doc Savage stories on the creation of Aym. The older pulp adventures may be influences, but Aym and her team are entirely themselves, fresh and engaging. He has pulled together a set of characters that are vivid and unique … and unforgetable.
Aym and her brother, who ges by the name of Wind, are Apaches. Aym herself is a scientific genius, an inventor and innovator, while Wind answers the call of the spiritual beliefs of their ancestors. The “Wise Old Man” mentor of the team, Otis D. Delacriox (or “Odd) is indeed wise and old, though no one knows just how old. The rest of the team is a very diverse group of men and women.
The adventures the PostModern Pioneers face range across the world: hunting for exotic plants, testing possible rain-making machines, or even trying to recover a stolen device that allows teleportation – not just between locations but also points of time.
Aym is a strong female character, delightfully written. She’s a scientist who discounts the spiritual side of things, a competent adventurer who has an unfortunate emotional weakness for Bad Boys, a leader who has no problem in letting her teammates shine in their areas of expertise. But she has a fear of heights – which makes life interesting when she parachutes from planes or uses her jet-pack.
Fox’s art for the series has a strong bold style in this black & white comic book. The character designs are distinctive: you will never mistake any of these characters for some others. Neal & Fox’s endeavors have put Aym and her stories out as an independant comic book. There is no marketing machine behind them. But this book (and any other Aym stories that are generated) deserves a huge audience. Not only are these stories in this volume fun to read, they are fun to re-read.
