Indiana Jones Adventures Vol. 1 Review

***THIS REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON THE NERD BLITZ PATREON***

Picture it, Sicily, 1922…wait, shit, that was Golden Girls…hang on a second…OH!
Picture it, Missouri, 2008, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull has just come out, a 17 year old Doom has been deep into this Indiana Jones thing for about a year now and wants to see the movie bad!
Somewhere, not too far away, a future podcast co-host is starting his journey into fatherhood.

Back to Doom, he had gotten all the novels, and read at least 1.
Then he stumbles across this kiddie looking, though very eye catching, little digest sized comic.
He gets it, adding to the growing back log of Indiana Jones stories he has access to.
He reads it and loves it.
And then years go by and he sorta forgets about it.

He reads it again at some point in his 20s and, again, though it still feels a bit kiddie to him, he loves it again.
More years pass, Doom is now freshly 30 years old, he’s regularly creating content for a small but awesome and loyal audience.
Needing to revv up the content for that audience, he reads the kiddie looking comic a 3rd time.
What follows is a recounting of that event…

This is your super official and legally binding ***SPOILER ALERT***

Cover By Ethen Beavers & Ronda Pattison: Eye catching, dynamic, simple, and evocative!
If a love of the character didn’t get your attention, this rendition of him should.
I specifically love the fluidity of the whip, it reminds me of so many moments from the movies, and the low angle adds a wonderful and subtle touch of heroism to Indy’s pose.
Brilliant.

Art By Ethen Beavers: It’s the same as the cover, but here’s the thing.
In that opening, I deliberately hammer home that it looks a bit kiddie, and it most definitely is.
By design, this was their attempt to get younger readers interested in the Indiana Jones franchise.
But the more I look at it, the more I realize how genius it is.

Flipping through this, staring and drooling at this art, I came to the realization that this style specifically would be absolutely perfect for a throwback Saturday Morning style cartoon.
Which, that alone, harkens back to the roots of the character.
It’s simplistic, it’s streamlined, but you can definitely tell who or what Beavers is trying to get across, which gives it a great elegance.
Quite simply, it’s magnificent.

Story By Philip Gelatt: When Indy & Marcus Brody head to Uppsala, Sweden in the Winter of 1930 looking for Norse Artifacts for their Museum’s collection, a blizzard and lack of funding slow them down.
Stubbornly, Indy heads out into storm before any of their rivals can get the scoop on them.
Along the way he crosses paths with a stunning British Archaeologist named Doctor Theresa Lawrence, as well as old and familiar foes all in search of a scroll that has the secret formula to a solution that gives super strength and creates “Odin’s Men”.

3 times, in 3 separate decades of my life, I’ve read this now.
3 times, in 3 separate decades of my life, I’ve really dug this now.
I don’t yet know what it is about it, gang, but I love it.
Sure, it has all the hallmarks of a classic Indy story, but I think it’s more of the streamlined, uncomplicated, total lack of pretense that really hooks me in.
For the most part, it’s reminiscent of the opening of Raiders in that it doesn’t get bogged down in overexplaining what’s going on.
They just let the incredible visuals tell you the story, only occasionally breaking in to get all talky.

The MacGuffin is a perfect Indy relic, ancient and religious.
And it passes hands in a wonderfully familiar way as well.
Everything about it just feels right, without feeling like a 1 to 1 copy of the movies with a fresh coat of paint like so many other Indy comics or a rip-off like so many other stories of the genre.

I know a lot of you reading this have kids under 15, if you wanna share the franchise with them but the movies (especially Temple of Doom) are a little too intense, make it a priority to find this.
It has some great creepy moments, though toned down a bit to make them more palatable for younger readers, that make for great peeks at what’s to come in the movies.
Coupled with the Young Indy TV series, it’s a damn good entry point into the franchise.
And even if you don’t have kids, it’s just a great and fun Indy story!
It 100% delivers on everything it promises, and you can’t ask for much more than that.

Special thanks to @ACFerrell1976 for her continued editorial assistance.

Let us know what you think of this review in the comments below or share this post on Twitter with the Hashtag #TNBBookReview, or tweet with us @NerdBlitzPod.

Be sure to check out our first book!
The Camping Trip And Other Stories is now avaliable in Ebook and Trade Paperback!

Hungry for more of that great Nerd Blitz content, head over to Patreon.com/NerdBlitzPod and join at the $5 level to get instant access to numerous Podcasts, Reviews, Audio Dramas, and so much more!

And finally, given the state of the world, do what you can to leave it a little bit better than you found it.
As difficult as that may be currently, it can have an impact far greater than you know.
Until next time, stay safe out there, gang.