TITLE: The League of Regrettable Sidekicks: Heroic Helpers from Comic Book History!
BY: Jon Morris
COMPANY: QUIRK BOOKS
RELEASE: October 2018
When it comes to comic books, the sidekick has often been featured with a major hero. Some achieving success such as Batman and Robin, while Captain American had a sidekick named Bucky, which didn’t last long but became integral to Captain America storylines over the years.
But while Robin and Bucky, may have been one of the memorable sidekicks, there have been forgetful sidekicks. Some who played major roles when they were conceived back in the golden and silver age of comic books. But have been forgotten since then.
Writer Jon Morris explores these sidekicks with his new book “The League of Regrettable Sidekicks: Heroic Helpers from Comic Book History!” from Quirk Books. Jon also has a cool blog worth checking out titled, “Gone & Forgotten”.
For the book “The League of Regrettable Sidekicks: Heroic Helpers from Comic Book History!”, Morris tackles sidekicks from the Golden Age, The Silver Age and The Modern Age.
Not so much the popular titles but more of the forgotten sidekicks, so you are not going to see Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, Aquaman or Aqualad, Flash and Kid Flash or even Batman and Robin.
This book focuses on those sidekicks that some may never knew existed in comic books.
From early sidekicks such as The Agatha Detective Agency who appeared in Startling Comics and was partners with the hero Captain Future. The aquatic heroes, Barry & Algie featured in Yankee Comics in 1941. Also, Fatman who partnered with Tex Thompson and Mr. America/The Americommando for DC Comics back in 1938. Or Plastic Man’s partner, Woozy Winks in Police Comics (Quality Comics).
And of course, exploring so many other heroes and sidekicks, including Captain Marvel’s many sidekicks.
One thing I was wondering if there would be any Gold Key comics sidekicks featured and sure enough, Morris featured 1A, the sidekick of Magnus, Robot Fighter.
While it would be cool to have featured Krypto, Streaky and Beppo (the animal sidekicks for Superman), they do feature Supergirl’s flying horse Comet.
What I enjoyed about the book is learning of characters I had no idea about. I never knew about the Joker’s sidekick, Gaggy the Dwarf in the pages of “Batman”. Nor did I know of the water sprite, Quisp, featured in “Aquaman”. Nor have I heard of Superman, Jr. in the pages of “Superman”.
I was aware of Rick Jones, who was featured on “The Incredible Hulk” and then “The Avengers” and often played the disgruntled friend of the Avengers who never got to go anywhere, because he didn’t have superhuman abilities. But never saw him as a sidekick but more of the pause filler character to introduce some emotional (or comedy, depending on how you looked at it) element.
But Morris does a magnificent job in showcasing as many heroes as possible in “The League of Regrettable Sidekicks: Heroic Helpers from Comic Book History!”.
Entertaining, well-written and researched! If you are a fan of comic books, especially the historic side of learning about heroes from a bygone era, especially their sidekicks, then definitely give Jon Morris’ “The League of Regrettable Sidekicks: Heroic Helpers from Comic Book History!” a try!
Highly recommended!