Previewing ‘Smash!’ #1: The Spider, Janus Stark, Jane Bond – The Greatest Brit Heroes Unite For A Thrilling Crime Caper

Writer Paul Grist brings together a thrilling assortment of Britain’s best heroes for one massive crime caper with Smash! #1.

 

I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while now, ever since they announced that Grist was writing it. He’s one of my absolute favourite comic makers – Kane being the greatest crime noir comic and Jack Staff being right up there with the finest of superhero titles. Please, if you’ve never seen or read either of them, go and treat yourself right now.

Sure, it’s a shame that Grist isn’t drawing this, although it’s true that he did his own version of this return to classic Brit supers in his own Jack Staff (and I’ll show you a few of them after the Smash! preview here).

 

But having him writing it does mean that we’re getting some great writing across the three issues of Smash! that brings together The Spider, Jane Bond, Janus Stark, The Steel Claw, Robot Archie, Cursitor Doom, Adam Eterno, and more from the weird and wonderful days of Brit super-types.

Smash! #1 (of 3) is out on 25 October with a fabulous and fun heist romp of a tale across multiple times featuring art by Anna Morozova and Tom Foster here in issue one, with Jimmy Broxton and V.V. Glass in store for issues two and three.

 

First up, issue 1 takes in Janus Stark trapping and containing a particularly nasty demonic presence in a stone idol in Victorian London. Sixty years later, master criminal and King of Crime, The Spider, sets his sights on the idol, setting off a classic crime caper that will take us across the decades and involve the very finest of Brit heroes, in all their wonderful strangeness.

The heist here sees The Spider clashing with Jane Bond and The Steel Claw, before a mysterious stranger thwarts them all and sends everyone’s plans into chaos.

 

Paul Grist has this to say about the series…

“The Spider is, without doubt, my favourite British comic character. There are others that are more famous, more heroic, or just longer running, but it’s the Spider that’s been living rent free in my head since I first came across him in the pages of a ‘Summer Special’ whilst on a caravan holiday with my family many summers ago.

‘So to be asked to write a bunch of stories of his battles with his more ‘heroic’ contemparies wasn’t something I was going to turn down! At least I could finally get him to earn his keep!

‘The three-issue that make up this series of Smash! give the Spider a chance to cavort across 60 years of British comics history, crossing paths with the Steel Claw, Robot Archie and Adam Eterno, as well as a few surprise ‘guest stars’ along the way. I even get to write a Janus Stark story to kick things off!

‘But don’t worry, it doesn’t require the reader to have read years of British comics in order to appreciate it. But I hope that it will give the you, the reader, a flavour of the range, variety and, quite frankly, the sheer bonkersness of British comics over the years!”

And he’s right. Although it’s laden with references from Brit comics past, there’s still a great crime caper storyline and plenty of time to get to know the cast, even if you’ve never heard of them before.

Smash! #1 is out on 25 October from Rebellion and The Treasury of British Comics.

Now, a little preview… the whole Janus Stark intro, with art from Tom Foster, and the beginnings of the tale involving The Spider, art by Anna Morozova.

 

And now, as promised, from Paul Grist’s Jack Staff Volume 1: Everything Used To Be Black And White, published in single issue form from 2000 and collected by Image Comics in 2011. Certain characters turning up who might seem rather familiar when you’ve read Smash!