Review by Frank Plowright

Not many superheroes can claim a real world origin as unusual as Lion-Man. In 1947 African-American journalist Orrin Cromwell Evans published the only issue of anthology All-Negro Comics. Despite what is now a patronising title at absolute best, the intentions were good, and the contributors Evans sourced were exclusively African-American. Among them was one George Evans Jr. whose Lion Man story had an American United Nations agent protecting the uranium supply of the “African Gold Coast” from poachers. It’s crude, no reason is given for the hero’s sensational name and he has no costume, but here was the first Black superhero. This collection supplies the original strip alongside the 2025 revival.

John Jennings writes the first of several new stories, all drawn by David Brame, and refines the original concept. Lion-Man and now more dignified AI sidekick Bubba guard the portal to the advanced subterranean city of Leonopolis, source of valuable mineral velium, and this opening adventure is told in hindsight via blocks of text accompanying illustrations. Whether intended or otherwise, Lion-Man’s new costume and the background of a precious metal sourced from a comet enabling a technological paradise removes the little originality the 1940s Lion-Man had and instead turns him into a character barely separable from the Black Panther.

However, the overall intention seems to be to use Lion-Man as a legend open to different interpretations as Bill Campbell and Yvette Lisa Ndlovu’s second story features a very different character. This Lion-Man operates in Xare, beset by plague, a dottery old ruler and a rebellion, but it’s difficult to make out what’s going on. Brame’s comics storytelling lacks the power of his illustrations, and some artwork is crudely drawn, yet the plot he’s supplied with doesn’t help. If Lion-Man is able to escape his circumstances so easily, why doesn’t he do so earlier?

Brame’s art is a better fit for the third Lion-Man story in which a scientist enters the Dreamscape to restore the power of Lion-Man. A bold colour sense adds to the strangeness, but the art improves immensely on the previous story for the collection’s highlight.

After a selection of pin-ups updating other out of copyright characters there’s a fourth story featuring one of them, Fantomah, a wrestler taking on vampires in the 1950s. Writer Damian Duffy highlights the hard life of working women while Brame supplies a different type of action.

While the intention behind The Adventures of Lion-Man is admirable, the poor quality of the longest story drags down the promise of the remainder.