September 15, 2006
It -s good guys Mark Twain, Nikola Tesla, and Baroness Bertha von Suttner against bad guys John Pierpont Morgan, Thomas Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, and Andrew Carnegie -two unlikely alliances duking it out in an outlandish steampunk romp of science versus the Dark Arts. Our heroes want to end war forever by selling giant remote-controlled automatons to every nation, which would level the playing field and make war a mere contest of machines. When world leaders profess disinterest, Twain pulls out Plan B: scare the bejeezus out of everybody by setting up the automaton to destroy a cleverly faked monster. But the villain team has "real" evil up their sleeves -can science win the day? Suggesting a techno-heavy yet simpler counterpart to "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", "Fists" verges into different territory with teams of reenvisioned real characters and a different palette of events, mood, and ambiance. The subdued color art lends an appropriate period feel, and introductory notes give historical details about the real-life characters. By turns gleefully funny and creepy, it -s a perfect, fun read for science and history wonks from high school up." -M.C."
Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.