By Clyde Hall — A hands-on tutorial regarding the financial process of making a comic book! The resurrection of a unique Golden Age hero from public domain! A project two years in the making allied with a financial podcast! A study of all the marketing ploys, merchandising, and branding that makes superhero characters attractive for film adaptation! It’s not often a premiere issue of a comic book brings together all these elements (in fact, it probably hasn’t ever happened before), and yet…The Mysterious Micro-Face #1 is that book. 

This project began in 2019 when Planet Money — a National Public Radio podcast on the economy, culture, and business — marveled at the industry comic book-based movies had become following the release of Avengers: Endgame. Discussions took place regarding the business of comics, and a project was undertaken in multiple parts. The program tried to publish a comic and guide the audience along as they tackled concept, copyrights, completion, and merchandizing. Ultimate goal: making something attractive enough for film rights options. They’d also try and replicate many trends making comics big sellers, from variant covers to a very exclusive, one-of-a-kind issue with rare pencil sketches signed by the artist, an audio message from Micro-Face himself, and a carrying case. Basically, Project Money wanted to make the most collectible comic of all time.

At least some of this feels as if it was played large and a bit less than seriously, especially the examination of those speculator-style gimmicks. However, as of this writing, the eBay auction listing for this one-of-a-kind Origins Edition and parcel is up to $8,300. The eventual selling price, plus revenue from all orders of the regular comic available at their online site, go to help support NPR. 

While I haven’t listened to the podcasts, it sounds like an enjoyable experience for the team. An educational process, too, beginning with how their initial plan — licensing an extremely minor, obscure character from Marvel Comics — was far too costly for them. One of their comics industry guests brought in to explore the creative process suggested they instead find a public domain superhero, one obscure but established and who would cost them nothing. 

Micro-Face was just such a character. Part of the Hillman Periodicals, Inc. lineup, the character premiered in Clue Comics #1, back in 1943. He was inventor Tom Woods, who had made various wonder-gadgets based on audio electronics including speakers, amplifiers, and, as the name indicates, microphones as part of his mask and headgear. With his Micro-Mask, Tom could fight crime by making his voice a withering sonic blast, spy on underworld operatives with sensitive long-range microphone pickups, see through walls with photoelectric lenses likely using a form of sonar, plus mimic the voices of others and throw voices like a super ventriloquist to create confusion. 

To Planet Money, he was perfect for a podcast-affiliated superhero. It became a popular feature, and there are easter eggs in the comic for listeners of the show. However, as someone who loves seeing obscure Golden Age heroes getting a new and updated iteration, this review is focused on how well the comic narrative performed for readers who aren’t necessarily podcast listeners. In other words, how well the issue holds up entirely on its own merits. 

In the opening story, NPR financial reporter Sam Salazar uncovers a series of corporate raids on 1940’s-era manufacturing companies, including one founded by the grandfather who raised him, Tom Wood. In typical takeover fashion employees are fired and offices cleared. In atypical fashion, however, rather than sell the companies, go public with them, or dismantle their acquisitions and proceed with asset stripping, Golden Age Private Equity seems to be sitting on what is usually a cash grab for fast reimbursement of the purchase price. 

Salazar and fellow reporter Amina discover that each of the raided companies were founded by inventors with breakthrough tech. Amina has been working on a feature about the mostly forgotten masked adventurers of the 1940s (superheroes in this world seem a fad that happened around World War II and then died out). She helps Sam determine that these companies were founded by men who likely used offshoots of their tech for crimefighting. The inference is they wouldn’t merchandise the tech they used on the street but maybe make a product using elements of it. For example, an exoskeleton device to assist in loading and unloading heavy cargo rather than an actual battle suit. 

Then Sam gets a delivery, a package prepped by his late grandfather in case things such as the Golden Age Equity raiding took place. Suddenly, he’s in possession of the uniform and gear his grandfather used as the mystery man, Micro-Face. As Sam digs deeper into the mystery, it’ll take more than investigative journalism to deal with the evil afoot. A new Micro-Face is needed, one who’ll fight the good fight once again. 

Writer Alex Segura’s narrative manages a modern business-based mystery that includes financial insights and instruction balanced against a solid concept of Golden Age superheroes and their villains. There are good action sequences displaying the powers of the Micro-Mask, some quirky but most impressive. 

In Sam we have an excellent representation of a modern protagonist doing the right thing(s) precisely because they are right, and because it’s how he was raised. Segura’s primary villain, Corporal Raider, is a scenery-chewing malefactor equal parts humorous and ruthless. There’s care shown in handling the original Micro-Face as a character, too. Respect is paid to original artist and creator Allen Ulmer, his image being used for one of the characters in the story. The Planet Money folks even reached out to the late Ulmer’s daughter and advised her about the project, one in which a favorite creation of her father’s would live once again. 

Story-wise, there’s a bit of confusion regarding exactly how the Golden Age Private Equity group intends profiting from the old tech they’re chasing. In the aforementioned business and financial instruction parts of the story, the matter was murky. I’m not an economist so perhaps that’s on me. 

But as a reader, I wanted a more clear-cut explanation of the profit source. Building on the past tech with modern upgrades, like using the Micro-Mask components to produce sonic blasters, seems plausible. Yet we don’t get a clear picture of a revenue source save one and it’s problematic, relying on old villains likely in their 90s now, still kicking around. 

I’ve been wowed by Jamal Igle’s art since his work on The Wrong Earth at AHOY Comics. There he crafted perfection in making both the innocent 1966-centric and violent 1990s eras of superhero-dom collide. There are echoes on that theme in this premiere as he brings a classic superhero into the modern setting. Igle delivers the goods with an aesthetic blend of Kevin Maguire and Alan Davis, in a style all his own. His clean, crisp lines and excellent facial expressions are always a treat, and his strengths are an optimal fit for this project. 

Ellie Wright keeps the colors bright and bouncy which complements Igle’s work and the narrative itself. Bad guys don’t only haunt dark warehouses, some hold court in corporate boardrooms. Given the audio machinations of Micro-Face, leave it to master letterer Taylor Esposito in finding new and entertaining ways to font the sound effects. This issue shines with his lettering gems, including part of a jaw-dropping sonic splash panel. 

The Mysterious Micro-Face #1 won’t be every comic book fan’s pick unless they’re interested in business and creative insights to the industry, or like me, enjoy seeing vintage superheroes reimagined. New talents wanting to make their own independent comics could likely learn a thing or three from the podcast and in seeing the planning turned into the reality of Issue #1. Ditto regarding the merchandising items being produced. Even with an extended size of 48 pages, however, the $6.99 cover price may deter casual readers.

Podcast and exercises in comic book creation and marketing aside, this premiere issue is enjoyable. Micro-Face is a good choice not only thematically, but because the possibilities of building on the hero’s retro-tech using modern audio outlets are endless. The mask let this superhero place phone calls on the run half a century before Bluetooth. How might it be applied to the profusion of modern radio waves?

Classic comic fans will smile when other public domain superheroes are name-dropped alongside their amazing wonder weaponry and devices. There’s even a sad side note regarding how others of that masked brother and sisterhood — the ones without gadgetry but who still fought street-level crime with only a strong right hook and a rejoinder — fare in their twilight years.

Overall, before DTS and Dolby, before Matterhorn and 60-inch subs, justice was delivered with devilishly clever audio design in triple-digit decibels! And that clarion call of crimefighting resonates again, across nearly 80 years, in The Mysterious Micro-Face #1.

The Mysterious Micro-Face #1

The Mysterious Micro-Face #1
Writer: Alex Segura
Artist: Jamal Igle
Colors: Ellie Wright
Letterer: Taylor Esposito  
Publisher: The NPR Planet Money Comics Group
Price: $6.99
NPR reporter Sam Salazar has worked hard to build a career in the cutthroat world of New York journalism following the lessons he learned from his beloved grandfather, Tom Wood. But his professional life crashes into his past as he discovers a series of mysterious business dealings affecting aging manufacturing brands, including one founded by his own grandfather! But as Sam and his colleague/bestie Amina dig deeper – they feel themselves being pulled into something much bigger – something tied into the legacy of a long-forgotten Golden Age crimefighter known as “Micro-Face”. To get to the root of the story, Sam must become the hero he never knew he was supposed to be!

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Clyde Hall (He/Him) lives in Southern Illinois. He’s an Elder Statesman of Geekery, an indie author, a comics fan/reviewer, and a contributing writer at Stormgate Press. He’s on twitter at: (@CJHall1984)