I first started reading the Doc Savage novels forty (cringe) years ago, when Bantam was releasing them in some weird, arbitrary fashion for somewhere between 75 and 95 cents each. Remember when you could by a paperback for less than a buck?

Anyway, I gobbled these things up, but at the time, I got through just about 25 of them, nowhere near the 181 adventures. Then I moved on to other things, or got old enough that they didn't hold my attention as much, or saw the basic repeating pattern of the plot...or very likely started buying comic books in greater quantities, that greatly ate into my disposable income (allowance).

Coming back to the stories forty years later has been an interesting experience. I cringe at the writing now, for a couple of different reasons. Here's two excerpts:

"Cum!" gulped the skipper.

Curiosity was literally oozing from his pores...

Okay, yes, the first one is prurient frat-boy stupidity. Still, I found it hilarious that the author used the word "cum" as a foreign language word, the paired it with "gulped". I'm still childish. Sue me.

But the second one? Hot damn, I'd love to see curiosity actually ooze from someone's pores. An unfortunate use of "literally" there, huh?

Anyway, enough about that. What about the story?

While the stories definitely have their charms, there's still so much that makes me wince. Doc Savage, a guy who essentially can do nothing badly (except, perhaps, deal with beautiful women who all fall all over him...man, what a problem). He's brilliant at engineering, electronics, chemistry, law, music, surgery and medicine. He's the world's greatest philanthropist. He's an inventor with no equal. And he's also the perfect human speciman...stronger, smarter, taller, better built, better looking, and possessing better eyesight, hearing and sense of touch than anyone else. And he can speak virtually any language.

Seriously?

Then you've got his team. Ham, Monk, Long Tom, Renny, and Johnny. All of them unreasonably intelligent, each considered a leader in their chosen field. And yet, each one defers to Savage like a child. When he petulantly refuses to explain himself to his own trusted team, they simply take it. They fawn over him.

Seriously, the Doc Savage series is ripe for a comedic makeover.

Regardless, there's still an attraction to reading these "Man's Adventures"...these pulpy, breezy tales of action and derring-do, where no one ever gets hurt except the villain (usually due to their own infernal device or avarice) and the beautiful woman always leaves with her heart broken and aflutter with the wish that Doc would just once look in their direction with his swirling gold flake eyes.

So, yes, though it may not sound like it, hell yes, I still enjoy the hell out of them (in small doses) and will continue to read them.
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