Indiana Jones: The Further Adventures Omnibus vol. 1

While not great comics, the issues of Mavel’s “Indiana Jones” series collected here are a lot closer to my platonic ideal of how these things should be.  My main issue with reading the ones published by Dark Horse was that they were trying too hard to recreate the exact feel of the movies (or even make them into proper sequels) than to tell stories in the vein of the movie serials that inspired Spielberg and Lucas to make the series in the first place.  Still, these are Marvel comics from the early eighties so you can expect lots of overwritten dialogue and needless exposition and some might find the art too old for their tastes.  Not mine, though, as most of the artists do a good job of getting Harrison Ford’s likeness down without going too far off model. 

As for the stories, the original adaptation of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” is reprinted here and it’s mainly of interest to note the differences between it and the actual movie.  The issues of the ongoing series proceed to send Indy off to the far corners of the world in search of golden idols, crystal relics of lost civilizations, lost tribes of Atlantis, and even the mythical fourth nail from Christ’s crucifixion.  In short, the kind of adventures that you’d expect the man to be having.  David Micheline (who wrote most of the issues here) also does a good job of extrapolating things from the first movie for use in the series.  Expect to see lots more of Marion Ravenwood, an appearance by Sallah, and the idol that Belloq stole from him, in this volume.  So long as you can get past the “old-school-Marvel-style” then you’re likely to be entertained by the stories here.