JSTOR ( November 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message). Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. And I feel no need to read any more of Greatheart Silver, even if this one is a lot less exuberantly over-the-top than the first outing.This article does not cite any sources. So it wants both the Pulp lineage pedigree and the experimental New Age vibe and is not wholly succeeding at either one. And on the other you have "SPV166 The Underground Express", which is a sort of Charlie's Angels retread but also sort of a screenplay or "gonzo journalism" thing and the wordless, visually-striking "Na and the Dredspore of Gruaga". On one hand you have the "Doc Phoenix" modern take of Doc Savage and especially of Doc Savage's half-mentioned end game of mandated mental health treatments (Does the idea of Savage performing brain surgery on his defeated opponents give anyone else the screaming heebie-jeebies?) While pulp writings could get pretty weird in their conceptions, much of what "Weird Heroes" elevates is bound by the mass appeal and production schedule and formulaic delivery. The experimental angle of some of the writings battle the 'pulp' labeling. 
I liked this volume more than the first book, but it didn't quite live up to the hype. My favorite piece was Harlan Ellison's humorous meta-fictional salute to The Shadow and himself, The New York Review of Bird. All of the art was very good and added a lot to the book I always liked Esteban Maroto, Neal Adams, Steranko, and Stephen Fabian particularly. The story by Charlie Swift tried too hard to be a socially aware Western. Ted White's Doc Phoenix is one I tried to like a lot, but wished it had been better Doc with supernatural ability was too much of a stretch. I enjoyed Elliot S! Maggin's SPV166, The Underground Express and Steven Englehart's Viva. Philip Jose Farmer's Greatheart Silver is the only repeater from the first book, and it was more enjoyable than the debut but still didn't really grab me. It was a nifty concept that was executed with a lot of verve and enthusiasm (note the neon-dayglo-aggressive-lemon-yellow cover), but the results weren't as good as one might have wished.
This is the second anthology in a series that's stated intent was to bring back the spirit of the superhero pulps for the modern (the book appeared in 1975) age.
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