Way before Taylor Swift, Theodore Roosevelt had some serious squad goals.
The future president rode tall with his signature cavalry at the turn of the 20th century, though it’s a different all-star group circa 1898 that Roosevelt heads up in Aftershock Comics’ alternate-reality adventure Rough Riders, which debuted Wednesday digitally and at comic shops.
“If you look at popular media right now, Hamilton’s on Broadway and it’s the biggest hit. People forget how cool history can be, and I hope this book adds to that pantheon,” says writer Adam Glass, who’s sticking to real-life figures and events “up to the point of obviously an alien invasion that happened in the Spanish-American War.”
The first story arc of Rough Riders, illustrated by Pat Olliffe, rounds up Teddy’s elite team: master magician Harry Houdini; world-class up-and-coming boxer Jack Johnson; crackshot cowgirl Annie Oakley; inventor Thomas Edison; and New York gangster Monk Eastman.
The powerful cabal of The Four Horsemen — J.P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller — inform Roosevelt that the USS Maine’s been sunk in Havana. The papers say Spain’s to blame but, as Morgan states, “the truth is more fantastic.”
There’s a race to Cuba between the Riders and another big historical player — a known American enemy — to find the remains of an alien attack, Glass says. “Whoever finds these plans and gets their technology will be the future leaders of the world.”
Admittedly “a giant history freak,” Glass chose his Rough Riders from folks whose egos and personalities crossed paths historically — for example, Roosevelt knew Houdini, and Oakley and Edison made nickelodeon films together.
The series finds them at interesting times before they found fame. Johnson was years from being heavyweight champ but an African-American known for drinking, gambling and carousing with white women “at a time where it’s not safe to be that,” Glass says. Meanwhile Houdini is reinventing Vaudeville and pushing his own human limitations as “people come to watch him die,” and Oakley is drinking herself into oblivion in a world that “doesn’t seem to have a place for a cowgirl who can shoot a gun really well.”
As for their fearless leader, Glass sees a Bruce Wayne/Batman dynamic with Roosevelt. In the first issue of Rough Riders, he comes leaping to the rescue out of a flying dirigible, yet also revisits his own origin: As a sickly kid, his father told Teddy that, while he had a sharp mind, his body needed to be stronger or he’d die.
“Have your dad tell you that at 8 years old. But that shadow hangs over him for the rest of his life and it changes everything: his personality, his lot in life, you name it,” says Glass, whose day job is executive-producing the new CBS show Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.
He’d envisions multiple story lines with this Rough Riders crew, maybe bringing in other innovators such as Nikola Tesla, Henry Ford or the Wright brothers, but also catching up years later with Roosevelt after he’s president or Houdni when he’s the biggest star in the world.
“What happens when it’s all done and over and your legacy is more your name and you’re on the back nine? How does that affect who you are?” Glass says. “Three different cases for them through history would be my dream come true for the project. But for now, we’re catching these guys before they become legends.”
