My Rating
“Not Fade Away”
Backstage at the Wormwood Amphitheater, Arnold Burnsteel watches as Nina Skorzeny, Jake Ketchum, and Philbert Hoskins prepare to take the stage. Tonight isn’t just another Scare Tactics concert. This show is a farewell to their fallen friend and bandmate, Jimmy Tilton.
Slither was one of them. Unfortunately, Jimmy’s mutations eventually became uncontrollable, and his friends were unable to save him. Now Scare Tactics must do the only thing they know how to do—take the stage, crank up the volume, and give Jimmy Tilton the send-off he deserves. Slither may be gone, but his memory will not fade away.
After the show, the surviving members look back on everything they have endured together. They’ve fought monsters, government agents, psychopaths, and even members of their own families. Along the way, they became something more than a collection of supernatural freaks playing in a rock band. They became friends. Now they have to keep going. If not for themselves, then for Jimmy.
After The Show
As Scare Tactics prepares to pack up and hit the road, Arnie reveals the band’s new touring bus. Apparently, an anonymous donor slipped the keys under their door during the night. Who could possibly have given a bunch of monsters their own tour bus? One look at the title provides a pretty big clue: Wayne Enterprises. I wonder who could be responsible for that?
Is this really the end of Scare Tactics? What is happening to Gross-Out? Why are the stars calling? Will our favorite collection of supernatural misfits ever take the stage again? Collect the series to find out!
Reviewer Notes
Well, this is it—the final issue of Scare Tactics. Apparently, even vampires, werewolves, swamp monsters, and other creatures of the night are susceptible to the most terrifying monster in the comic-book industry: low sales numbers. After twelve issues and several crossover appearances, DC pulled the plug on the band. That’s unfortunate because somewhere along the way I became genuinely invested in these characters.
“Not Fade Away” works surprisingly well as a farewell. Jimmy Tilton’s death gives the final issue an emotional center, while the concert allows the surviving members to celebrate their fallen friend in the most Scare Tactics way possible. I also like the small Wayne Enterprises reveal at the end. After Batman’s involvement in the previous storyline, finding out that someone connected to Wayne Enterprises supplied the band with a new touring bus is a nice little wink to the reader. Bruce Wayne may never admit he has a soft spot for a bunch of supernatural punk rockers, but somebody certainly seems to be looking out for them.
Open Doors
Unfortunately, the series doesn’t get enough time to wrap up everything. The situation with Gross-Out leaves another door open, and that business about the stars calling certainly sounds like DC had more plans for these characters. That’s one of the frustrating things about reading a canceled comic nearly thirty years later. You already know there isn’t another issue waiting on the rack next month. The lights came on, the amplifiers went silent, and whatever might have happened next remained mostly unrealized.
Looking back over the entire run, I’m glad I gave Scare Tactics a chance. The concept sounds ridiculous on paper—a supernatural rock band featuring monsters traveling around and getting mixed up in one bizarre adventure after another—but that’s exactly what makes the series so much fun. It has horror, comedy, superhero crossovers, government conspiracies, vampires, werewolves, ghouls, strange family histories, and plenty of 1990s DC weirdness. Some issues worked better than others, but the series never lacked personality.
If you’re a fan of horror comics, especially the stranger corners of 1990s DC Comics, I definitely recommend hunting down Scare Tactics. It’s weird, funny, occasionally confusing, and unlike almost anything else DC was publishing at the time. Jimmy Tilton may be gone and the band’s original series may have reached its final encore, but Scare Tactics did exactly what the title of this issue promised.
They did not fade away.
Five out of five stars.