FanBoyWonder Spotlight: American Dream—A Fresh Female Face To ‘Old School’ (Marvel) Comics

Greetings everyone from Boston. FanBoyWonder flew into “The Hub” yesterday (Saturday), a day early before our business conference started so we could visit family. And so we did, all too briefly seeing our sis-in-law Suzanne but going out to dinner with our brother Joe and FBW’s nephew Jack, who is now 2 ½ yrs old. A good time was had by all.

But a funny thing happened to us on the hotel treadmill this morning—our mind totally wandered as it does during exercise and we realized how much we are looking forward to the upcoming mini-series American Dream.

Spun out of the pages of The Amazing Spider-Girl, the five-issue American Dream mini-series by writer Tom DeFalco and artist Todd Nauck debuts on Wednesday.

To be honest, we knew very little about the heroine who wore Captain America’s colors and we mistakenly thought was Cap’s daughter (in the same way that Miss Spidey is Spider-Man’s little girl).

It turns out (thanks to a quickie search on “The Internets”) that American Dream isn’t related to Cap by blood but to us she represents a fresh, female face to classic comic book storytelling that is nowadays considered “old school.”

Quickie definition of “old school” vs. “new school”: An old school comic story is something that we would allow Brianna the Girl Wonder (who turns 7 years old next month) to read without worry or hesitation, while new school comics—not so much.

Here’s the Upshot on American Dream from Marvel Comics: “As the star-spangled splendor struggles to find a balance between her personal and superhero lives, a hunt for a missing fiancée unexpectedly leads American Dream into a battle with an unstoppable new super-foe and terrifyingly new kind of terrorist.”

As we noted, we know very little about American Dream but we’re looking forward to getting to know this character and to become better acquainted with the world and the universe—the MC2 universe—where she and Spider-Girl reside.

More than anything, we have faith in writer Tom DeFalco as he again attempts to expand the MC2 universe beyond the pages of Spider-Girl, to prove that Spider-Girl’s success isn’t a fluke and that there is indeed a consumer appetite for a universe of Marvel characters where they are allowed to be heroes.

We’ve long ago been on record in noting that we don’t recognize the current Marvel Universe anymore. But worse, the DC Comics Universe is quickly becoming a place that we are enjoying less and less.

For FanBoyWonder, MC2 represents “old Marvel”—not just the Marvel Comics that we knew and loved growing up but a reader respected, kid-friendly place that both kid readers and not-kids-anymore readers can share space and enjoy together.

FanBoyWonder recommends that you join us in giving American Dream fan support and join us as we “Make Mine MC2” (with apologies to Stan Lee).

American Dream #1, a 5-issue, mini-series, is 32 pages, $2.99 and goes on sale Wednesday (May 7). Issue #2 is on sale May 21.