Fantastic Four: Disassembled

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By Mark Waid, Karl Kesel, Paco Medina, Mike Wieringo & Juan Vlasco (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1536-6

The Fantastic Four is rightly regarded as the most pivotal series in modern comics history, introducing both a new style of storytelling and a strikingly fresh manner of engaging readers’ imaginations and attention. The heroes are felt by fans to be more family than team and, although the roster has temporarily changed many times over the years, the line-up always inevitably returns to the original core group of maverick genius Reed Richards, wife Sue, trusty friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s younger brother Johnny; all survivors of a privately-funded space-shot which went horribly wrong when Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding.

After crashing back to Earth, the quartet found they had all been mutated into freaks. Richards’ body became astoundingly elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible and project force-fields, Johnny could turn into living flame, and poor, tormented Ben was transformed into a horrifying monster who, unlike his comrades, could not reassume a semblance of normality on command.

This particular game-changing compilation gathers issues #514-519 (August-December 2004), highlighting more of the spectacular run by writer Mark Waid and much-missed illustrator Mike Wieringo; celebrating their “back-to-basics” approach which utterly rejuvenated the venerable property and marked one more ending of an era.

What You Need To Know: after banishing their greatest enemy to Hell, the team attempted to save Doctor Doom’s now-leaderless nation of Latveria. To do this, Reed unilaterally seized control of the postage-stamp kingdom to keep it being from being torn apart and swallowed by its land- and tech-hungry Balkan neighbours.

Although done for the right reasons, Mr. Fantastic’s drastic solution alienated friends and allies – and even his own team-mates – and lost him the respect and support of the entire world.

Contemporaneously in the Marvel Universe: as the FF became unloved pariahs and practically bankrupt, the “World’s Mightiest Heroes” were shut down and rebooted in a highly publicised event known as Avengers Disassembled (of course it was only to replace them with both The New and Young Avengers).

The event spilled over into the regular titles of current team members and affiliated comic-books such as Spectacular Spider-Man, with close allies the Fantastic Four inexorably drawn into their Big Show.

Said Show consisted of the worst day in superhero history as the unsuspectedly insane Scarlet Witch attacked the Avengers from within, resulting in the utter destruction of everything they held dear and the death of several members and associates. The side-bar sagas collected here concentrate on the uncalculated fall-out of that devastating sequence of events…

It begins in the 3-part ‘Dysfunctional’ (by Karl Kesel, Paco Medina & Juan Vlasco) when, with the heroes at their lowest ebb, incorrigible arch-foe The Wizard targets them, using a new roster of his antithetical cohorts in The Frightful Four. This iteration (Hydro-Man, the Trapster and mysterious new pyrokinetic “Fire Maiden” Salamandra) start enacting the Wizard’s devious plan just as Johnny finds his new girlfriend Cole Wittman at the centre of a bizarre series of tectonic disasters.

When she is invited back to FFHQ for tea and tests, shock follows shocks as Cole reluctantly lets the Wizard’s minions in…

The poor girl is the unwitting product of the evil super-genius’ genetic tinkering: a test-tube baby combining his and Salamandra’s DNA and somehow able to affect gravity. It is, unfortunately, an ability the poor dupe has no control over…

As the two FF’s spectacularly clash and the villains come out on top, the Wizard’s true intentions are revealed as he murderously disposes of one of his own to make way for Daddy’s little girl to join his team. Moreover he has broadcast the entire battle to the world, in his arrogant determination to prove his superiority to the fallen Reed Richards…

Battered but unbroken the heroes pick themselves up, determined to find their foes and rescue Cole. The girl is already regretting her actions as her “father” elatedly reveals the circumstances of her creation and exults in the success of his greatest “experiment”…

The staggering counterstrike almost goes horribly wrong when Salamandra’s true nature is exposed, resulting in a catastrophic struggle and a tragic pyrrhic victory for the Fantastic Four…

The main event sees the return of creators Waid & Wieringo (with Kesel inking) for ‘Fourtitude’ as Halloween finds the team on the road to recovery if not public redemption. Reed has already rebuilt their fortune with a brief flurry of invention and profitable patents – such as the self-inflating, self-retrieving basketball – and, as darkness falls, cosmic calamity offers Fantastic Four, Inc. a chance to restore their shredded reputation…

Out of the darkness of space four monumental alien pylons crash into the waters around Manhattan and begin sucking the island up into the void. With the Avengers gone, the Mayor has no choice but to turn to the pariah-team to save his city and perhaps the world…

They are already at work rescuing citizens when the call comes and soon Richards and his comrades have penetrated one of the vast constructs to discover the horrible truth behind Manhattan’s abduction.

Benevolent alien technologist Zius had discovered a way to mask planets from the attention of world-devouring Galactus, potentially saving trillions of lives and possibly resulting in the eventual doom by starvation of the cosmic cannibal. However he has learned that on Earth a counter to his process exists.

Thus he has raced to our world to remove that single threat to universal salvation.

It doesn’t take long to determine that the force in question is Sue, whose powers include making the unseen visible. Zius was willing to throw New York into the Sun to ensure the safety of the cosmos, but with the World-Eater undoubtedly getting closer every moment she surrenders herself in return for the island’s safe return…

Desperate Reed quickly devises a way to obviate the necessity to kill his wife and the aliens prepare to leave, satisfied but utterly unaware of the brilliant stratagem Richards has used to bluff them.

As New York rejoices in the triumph of its now restored and redeemed champions, Sue discovers she is now a Human Torch whilst her brother possesses the critical invisibility power.

…And that’s when the star god arrives and takes possession of the mortal threat to his infinite existence…

To Be Continued…

With an eye-catching cover gallery by Gene Ha, Morry Hollowell, Wieringo, Kesel & Paul Mounts, this compulsively engrossing epic of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction truly carries on the legacy of mind-bending imagination and breathtaking excitement established by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Epic and engaging, this is a treat for comics fan and newcomers alike – even if you need to get the next volume too…
© 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Ratspike

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By John Blanche & Ian Miller (Games Workshop)
ISBN: 978-1-87237-200-6

I haven’t covered an actual art book in an age, so let’s look at a little known gem sorely in need of a new edition featuring the grotesquely beautiful art of painter and illustrator Ian Miller (The City, The Luck in the Head, Green Dog Trumpet) and designer, model-maker and illustrator John Blanche.

Both eclectic individualists found a spiritual home and an outlet for their fantastic fantasy imaginings at role-playing, book and comics publisher Games Workshop/Black Library, and their painterly endeavours happily led to the stunning celebration of the macabre and mind-bending melange of modern myth realisation under review today.

The legendary entertainment firm began by importing American product at the beginning of the Dungeons and Dragons craze in the 1980s before quickly moving on to creating their own material. Soon they were expanding into prose and pictorial fiction too, supported by some frankly astounding illustration material on their game packaging, periodical publications (White Dwarf, Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, Warhammer 40,000, Inferno and others) as well as sequences of original material novels in the fantasy, horror and science fiction genres.

This stunning oversized (29 x 21.8 x 1.5cm) hardback coffee-table tome was released in 1989 and offers a mesmerising selection of paintings and drawing from two uniquely inspired creators, beginning, after a Foreword by fantasy illustration giant Patrick Woodroffe, with John Blanche.

Eventually becoming Games Workshop’s Art Director, Blanche got his first big break after meeting Roger Dean, subsequently going on to develop a dark, punk-inspired painstakingly classical illustration style, usually working smaller than published size and having his work “blown up”, not reduced, for printing.

This compulsive chronicle combines, intersperses and interweaves the art with creator commentary, personal memories, insights and creative secrets as well as evocative literary quotes and snatches of poetry to enhance the images and, after Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, plunges into a welter of nearly 80 paintings and drawings over 62 pages, crammed with amazons, warriors, aliens, barbarians, fairy princes, eldritch post-apocalyptic demons and all the attendant genre icons beloved by generations of imaginers.

The affable maven of menace macabre discusses his unforgettable work such as ‘Ice Unicorn’, ‘War Boss’, ‘Good King Otto’, ‘Amazonia Gothique’ and ‘McDeath’ plus  devoting much time to the infinitesimal discipline of building and painting miniatures – many of which have their own scarily impressive, ironically, mordantly funny section here.

The second half of the book is devoted to Ian Miller’s bleakly complex, convoluted classicist Dürer, Bosch and Druillet inspired futurisms which, before his association with Games Workshop, were best seen illustrating Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft and Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast stories as well as in films such as Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards and Coolworld.

His concluding half of the graphic gallery – 68 pages in all – combines quotes from Treasure Island, children’s nonsense rhymes, an intimate biography and disquieting slogans and snatches of prose with sketches, drawings, pen-and-ink studies and more than 100 paintings and less conventional images, displaying the artist’s signature brain-blasting architecture, eye-shredding monsters, blasted trees, isolated warriors and chaos knights.

Also on show are notional comic-strip sequences and works with such evocative if non-defining titles as ‘Death in the Rocking Horse Factory’, ‘Udder Woman, Killer of Cows’, ‘Angel Butcher’, ‘Hollywood Gothic’ and ‘Those Sent to that Dark Place’, all guaranteed to subtly engender unease and worse…

With the fantasy genre in full revival mode thanks to the likes of movies like The Hobbit and TV shows like Game of Thrones and Da Vinci’s Demons, there’s never been a better time to revisit this book or even further explore the lost marvels of a superb cadre of forgotten artists. So if you need to escape this ghastly world of humdrum terrors for a brief moment – and don’t we all? – seek out this Bestiary of the Bizarre and let yourself go…
© 1989 GW Books. © John Blanche & Ian Miller. All rights reserved.

Showcase Presents Batman volume 5

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By Frank Robbins, Dennis O’Neil, Mike Friedrich, Irv Novick, Bob Brown, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Joe Giella & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-85768-853-8

After three seasons (perhaps two and a half would be closer) the overwhelmingly successful Batman TV show ended in March, 1968. It had clocked up 120 episodes and a movie since the US premiere on January 12, 1966 and triggered a global furore of “Batmania” and indeed hysteria for all things zany and mystery-mannish.

As the series foundered and crashed the global fascination with “camp” superheroes – and yes, the term had everything to do with lifestyle choices but absolutely nothing to do with sexual orientation, no matter what you and Mel Brooks might think about Men in Tights – burst as quickly as it had boomed, and the Caped Crusader was left with a hard core of dedicated fans and followers who now wanted their hero back.

For character editor Julius Schwartz – who had tried to keep the most ludicrous excesses of the show out whilst still cashing in on his global popularity – the reasoning seemed simple: strip out the tired gimmicks and gaudy paraphernalia and get him back to solving baffling mysteries and facing genuine perils as soon and as thrillingly as possible.

This also meant slowly phasing out the boy sidekick…

Many readers were now acknowledged as discerning, independent teens and the kid was no longer relevant to them or the changing times. Although the soon-to-be college-bound freshman Teen Wonder would still pop back for the occasional guest-shot yarn, this fifth astoundingly economical monochrome monument to comics ingenuity and narrative brilliance would see him finally spread his wings and fly the nest for an alternating back-up slot in Detective, shared with relative newcomer Batgirl in stirring hip and mod solo sallies.

Collecting the newly independent Batman’s cases from September 1969 to February 1971 (issues #216-228 of his own title as well as the front halves of Detective Comics #391-407), the 30 stories gathered here – some of the Batman issues were giant reprint editions so only their covers are reproduced within these pages – were written and illustrated by an evolving team of fresh-thinking creators as editor Schwartz lost many of his elite stable to age, attrition and corporate pressure.

However the “new blood” was fresh only to the Gotham Guardian, not the industry, and their sterling efforts deftly moulded the character into a hero capable of actually working within the new “big things” in comics: suspense, horror and the supernatural…

During this pivotal period the long slow road to our scarily Dark Knight gradually revealed a harder-edged, grimly serious caped crusader, even whilst carefully expanding the milieu and scope of Batman’s universe – especially his fearsome foes, who slowly ceased to be harmless buffoons and inexorably metamorphosed into the macabre Grand Guignol murder fiends of the early 1940s…

The transformational process continued here with the Frank Robbins-scripted Detective #391, as ‘The Gal Most Likely to Be – Batman’s Widow!’ (illustrated by Bob Brown & Joe Giella) saw the fleeting return of abortive modern love interest Ginny Jenkins who had become the passing fancy of mobbed-up publisher and extortionist Arnie Arnold.

By crushing the crooked editor’s scam to fleece Gotham’s society eateries, Batman paved the way for Ginny to settle down with the true man of her dreams…

Robbins (illustrious creator of newspaper strip Johnny Hazard) always had a deft grip on both light adventure and darker crime capers as seen in issue #392’s ‘I Died… A Thousand Deaths!’ wherein the Gotham Gangbuster’s plan to take down mobster Scap Scarpel went dangerously awry after trusting a less than honest “confidential informant”. In Batman #216 (November 1968), Robbins gave faithful butler Alfred a surname (after thirty years of service) by introducing the old retainer’s niece Daphne Pennyworth in ‘Angel – or Devil?’ (art from Irv Novick & Dick Giordano).

The aspiring actress had become ensnared in the coils of a band of very crooked travelling players and nearly became their patsy for murder…

In an era where teen angst and the counter-culture played an increasingly strident part in the public consciousness, Robin’s role as spokesperson for a generation was becoming increasingly important, with disputes and splits from his senior partner constantly recurring.

A long overdue separation came in Detective #393’s ‘The Combo Caper!’ (Robbins, Brown & Giella) as Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson took a young delinquent with them on their last vacation together, embroiling Batman and Robin in a sinister string of high end gem heists…

The partnership ended in Batman #217 and ‘One Bullet Too Many!’ (Robbins, Novick & Giordano) as Dick shipped out for Hudson University and Batman undertook a radical rethink of his mission and goals.

Dapper Gentleman’s Gentleman Alfred became a far more hands-on part of the mythology – like Margery Allingham’s Magersfontein Lugg from the Albert Campion mysteries rather than Wodehouse’s smugly unflappable Jeeves – from this point on: shutting up the stately Manor and moving the Batcave into the basement of the Wayne Foundation in the heart of the city where all the crime and injustice actually lurked…

The first case – a brilliant old-fashioned whodunit – of the streamlined setup involved the unsolved murder of a paediatrician, but the real innovation was the creation of a new Wayne Foundation outreach project: the Victims Incorporated Program which saw both superheroism and philanthropy combine to provide justice for those who couldn’t afford to buy it…

The scheme immediately hit a deadly snag in Detective #394’s ‘A Victim’s Victim!’ (Robbins, Brown & Giella) when a crippled racing car driver came looking for vengeance; claiming Wayne had personally sabotaged his career. It took all of the Dark Detective’s skills to uncover the deadly truth…

Batman #218 was an all-reprint Giant Annual represented here only by the glorious Murphy Anderson cover, whereas the next tale marked a landmark step forward in the history of the Caped Crusader.

Neal Adams had been producing a stunning succession of mesmerising covers on both Batman and Detective Comics, as well as illustrating a phenomenal run of team-up tales in World’s Finest Comics and The Brave and the Bold, so his inevitable switch to the premier league was hotly anticipated. However Dennis O’Neil’s script for Detective Comics #395’s ‘The Secret of the Waiting Graves’ (January 1970 and inked by Giordano) also instituted a far more mature and sinister – almost gothic – take on the hero as he confronted the psychotic nigh-immortal lovers named Muerto whose passion for each other was fuelled by deadly drugs and sustained by a century of murder…

Adams’ captivating dynamic hyperrealism was just the final cog in the reconstruction of the epic Batman edifice but it was also an irresistibly attractive one.

Issue #219 led with a cracking political thriller in (Robbins, Novick & Giordano’s) ‘Death Casts the Deciding Vote’ wherein Bruce took his V.I.P. scheme to Washington DC and stumbled into a plot to assassinate an-anti-crime Senator, but the astounding Christmas vignette ‘The Silent Night of the Batman’ (by Mike Friedrich, Adams & Giordano) completely stole the show – and became a revered classic – with its eerily gentle, moving modern interpretation of the Season of Miracles…

Adams couldn’t do it all and he didn’t have to. Detective #396 saw artists Brown & Giella up their game in Robbins’ clever contemporary yarn ‘The Brain-Pickers!’

Teen financial wizard Rory Bell cornered the stock market from the back of his freewheeling motorbike, only to be kidnapped by a greedy gang with an eye to a big killing – corporate and otherwise – until the Caped Crimebuster got on their trail whilst Novick & Giordano similarly adapted their styles for Batman #220.

‘This Murder has been… Pre-Recorded!’, scripted by Robbins, saw Bruce finally meet journalist Marla Manning (whose writing inspired the V.I.P. initiative) when an exposé of corrupt practises made her the target of a murder-for-hire veteran.

O’Neil, Adams & Giordano reunited for Detective #397 and another otherworldly mystery when obsessive millionaire art collector Orson Payne resorted to theft and worse in his quest for an unobtainable love in ‘Paint a Picture of Peril!’, whilst #398 saw Robbins, Brown & Giella pose ‘The Poison Pen Puzzle!’ when muckraking gossip columnist Maxine Melanie’s latest book inspired her murder and an overabundance of perpetrators queuing up to take the credit…

‘A Bat-Death for Batman!’ by Robbins, Novick & Giordano led in issue #221 as the Dark Knight headed for Germany to track down Nazi war criminals and their bio-agent which turned domestic animals and livestock into rabid killers, whilst the Friedrich-scripted ‘A Hot Time in Gotham Town Tonight!’ saw the Masked Manhunter eradicate the threat of a mystic idol capable of turning the city into smouldering ashes.

Detective #399, by O’Neil, Brown & Giella, introduced anti-Batman campaigner and political hack Arthur Reeves and revealed how ‘Death Comes to a Small, Locked Room!’ in a clever mystery centred on the apparent assassination of a martial arts teacher, whilst Batman #222 featured two tales illustrated by Novick & Giordano.

‘Dead… Till Proven Alive!’, written by Robbins, featured a guest shot by Robin as British band The Oliver Twists hit Gotham, mired in speculation that one of that Fabulous Foursome had been killed and secretly replaced (a contemporary conspiracy theory had it that Beatle Paul McCartney had been similarly dealt with), after which Friedrich contributed another superb human interest yarn as an exhausted hero pushed himself beyond his limits to help a deaf mugging victim in ‘The Case of No Consequence!’

The big anniversary Detective Comics #400 introduced a dark counterpoint to the Gotham Gangbuster as driven scientist Kirk Langstrom created a serum to make himself superior to Batman and paid a heavy price in ‘Challenge of the Man-Bat!’ by Robbins, Adams & Giordano.

Batman #223 was another Annual, this time sporting a captivating Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson cover, after which Detective #401 spotlighted Robbins, Brown & Giella’s ‘Target for Tonight!’ as insane playboy hunter Carleton Yager stalked Gotham’s most dangerous game, armed only with his wits, weapons and knowledge of the Dark Knight’s true identity…

Batman #224 opened an era of eerie psychodramas and manic murder as the hero travelled to New Orleans to solve the mystery murder of a Jazz legend and battled the monstrous Moloch in ‘Carnival of the Cursed’ by O’Neil, Novick & Giordano, after which Detective #402 saw the Dark Knight capture the out-of-control thing that was once Kirk Langstrom and ponder if he had the right to kill or cure the beast in ‘Man or Bat?’ by Robbins, Adams & Giordano.

Batman #225 (O’Neil, Novick & Giordano) saw the murder of divisive talk show host Jonah Jory with witnesses swearing the city’s greatest hero was the killer in ‘Wanted for Murder-One, the Batman’, after which Detective #403 featured the gothic thriller ‘You Die by Mourning!’ (Robbins, Brown & Frank Giacoia, with a splash page by Carmine Infantino), in which the V.I.P. project turned up grieving widow Angie Randall who needed justice for her murdered husband.

This cunning conundrum revolves around the fact that dear dead Laird wasn’t dead yet – but would be tomorrow…

Detective Comics #404 then offered the magnificent ‘Ghost of the Killer Skies!’ (O’Neil, Adams & Giordano) which found the Masked Manhunter attempting to solve a series of impossible murders on the set of a film about German WWI fighter ace Hans von Hammer.

All evidence seemed to prove that the killer could only be a vengeful phantom, whereas in Batman #226 skewed science produced a new mad menace in ‘The Man with Ten Eyes!’ by Robbins, Novick & Giordano.

A cruel misunderstanding during a robbery pitted security guard Reardon against Batman just as the real thieves detonated a huge explosion. Blinded, traumatised and shell-shocked, Reardon was then subjected to an experimental procedure which allowed him to see through his fingertips but the Vietnam vet blamed the Caped Crimebuster for his freakish fate and determined to extract his vengeance in kind…

Detective #405 was the inauspicious start to a whole new world of intrigue and adventure as ‘The First of the Assassins!’ (O’Neil, Brown & Giacoia) found the Gotham Guardian seconded to Interpol to solve the murders of fifteen shipping magnates. Whilst struggling to keep the sixteenth healthy against a fusillade of esoteric threats from oriental fiend Tejja, the Dark Night first learned of a vast global League of killers…

Another groundbreaking narrative strand debuted in Batman #227 in ‘The Demon of Gothos Mansion’ (O’Neil, Novick & Giordano) as Daphne Pennyworth returned, begging help to escape her latest employment as a governess in a remote household. When Batman investigated he discovered a cult of madmen, demonic possession and what less-rational men might consider a captive ghost…

The epic, slow-boiling battle against the League of Assassins continued in Detective Comics #406 as in ‘Your Servant of Death – Dr.Darrk!’ (by O’Neil, Brown & Giacoia) another tycoon almost dies and Batman at last clashes with the deadly mastermind behind the global campaign of terror… or does he?

This staggering compendium of comics wonderment concludes with Detective #407; the final chapter in a triptych of tales introducing tragic Kirk Langstrom. In ‘Marriage: Impossible!’ (Robbins, Adams, Giordano), the ambitious scientist’s fall from grace is completed when he infects his fiancée Francine Lee with his mutated curse and forces the Dark Knight into an horrific choice…

One last treat here is the cover to Giant Batman #228: another spectacular visual feast from Swan & Anderson which ends this marvellous meander through memory lane in perfect style.

With the game-changing classics in this volume, Batman finally shed his alien-bashing Boy Scout silliness and returned to his original defining concept as a grim relentless avenger of injustice. The next few years would see the hero rise to unparalleled heights of quality so stay tuned: the very best is just around the corner… that dark, dark corner…
© 1969, 1970, 1971, 2011 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

Golden Age Green Lantern Archives Volume I

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By Bill Finger, Martin Nodell, E.E. Hibbard, Irwin Hasen & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-507-4

Thanks to comics genius and editorial wunderkind Sheldon Mayer, the innovative fledgling company All-American Comics (who co-published in association with and would eventually be absorbed by DC) published the first comicbook super-speedster in Flash Comics and followed up a few months later with another evergreen and immortal all-star.

The Green Lantern debuted in issue #16 of the company’s flagship title just as superheroes began to dominate the market, supplanting newspaper strip reprints and stock genre characters in the still primarily-anthologised comicbooks. He would be swiftly joined in All-American Comics by The Atom, Red Tornado, Sargon the Sorcerer and Doctor Mid-Nite until eventually only gag strips such Mutt and Jeff and exceptional tough-guy military strips Hop Harrigan and Red, White and Blue remained to represent mere mortal heroes.

At least until tastes changed again after the war and costumed crusaders faded away, to be replaced by cowboys, cops and private eyes…

Devised by up-and-coming cartoonist Martin Nodell (and fleshed out by Bill Finger in the same generally unsung way he had contributed to the success of Batman), Green Lantern soon became AA’s second smash sensation.

The arcane avenger gained his own solo-starring title little more than a year after his premiere and appeared in other anthologies such as Comics Cavalcade, All Star Comics and others for just over a decade before, like most first-generation superheroes, he faded away in the early1950s, having first suffered the humiliating fate of being edged out of his own strip and comicbook by his pet Streak the Wonder Dog…

However that’s the stuff of future reviews. This spectacular quirkily beguiling deluxe Archive edition opens with a rousing reminiscence from Nodell in a Foreword which discusses the origins of the character before the parade of raw, graphic enchantment (collecting the Sentinel of Justice’s appearances from All-American Comics #16-30 – covering July 1940 to September 1941 and Green Lantern #1 from Fall 1941) starts with the incredible history of The Green Flame of Life…

Ambitious young engineer Alan Scott only survived the sabotage and destruction of a passenger-packed train due to the intervention of a battered old railway lantern. Bathed in its eerie emerald light he was regaled by a mysterious green voice with the legend of how a meteor fell in ancient China and spoke to the people: predicting Death, Life and Power.

The star-stone’s viridian glow brought doom to the savant who reshaped it into a lamp, sanity to a madman centuries later and now promised incredible might to bring justice to the innocent…

Instructing Scott to fashion a ring from its metal and draw a charge of power from the lantern every 24 hours, the ancient artefact urged the engineer to use his formidable willpower to end all evil: a mission Scott eagerly took up by promptly crushing the corrupt industrialist Dekker who had callously caused wholesale death just to secure a lucrative rail contract.

The ring made Scott immune to all minerals and metals, enabled him to fly and pass through walls but as he battled Dekker’s thugs the grim avenger painfully discovered that living – perhaps organic – materials such as wood or rubber could penetrate his jade defences and cause him mortal harm…

The saboteurs punished, Scott determined to carry on the fight and devised a “bizarre costume” to disguise his identity and strike fear and awe into wrongdoers…

Most of the stories at this time were untitled, and All-American Comics #17 (August 1940) found Scott in Metropolis (long before it became the fictional home of Superman) where his new employer was squeezed out of a building contract by a crooked City Commissioner in bed with racketeers. With lives at risk from shoddy construction the Green Lantern moved to stop the gangsters but nearly lost his life to overconfidence before finally triumphing, after which #18 found Scott visiting the 1940 New York World’s Fair.

This yarn (which I suspect was devised for DC’s legendary comicbook premium 1940 New York World’s Fair Comics, but shelved at the last moment) introduced feisty romantic interest Irene Miller as she attempted to shoot a gangster who had framed her brother. Naturally gallant he-man Scott had to get involved, promptly discovering untouchable gang-boss Murdock even owned his own Judge, by the simple expedient of holding the magistrate’s daughter captive…

However once Alan applied his keen wits and ruthless mystic might to the problem Murdock’s power – and life – were soon forfeit, after which in All-American Comics #19 Scott saved a man from an attempted hit-and-run and found himself ferreting out a deadly ring of insurance scammers collecting big payouts by inflicting “accidents” upon unsuspecting citizens.

Issue #20 began with a quick recap of Green Lantern’s origin before instituting a major change in the young engineer’s life. Following the gunning down of a roving radio announcer and assassination of the reporter’s wife, the hero investigated APEX Broadcasting System in Capitol City and again met Irene Miller.

She worked at the company and with her help Alan uncovered a scheme whereby broadcasts were used to transmit coded instructions to merciless smugglers. Once GL mopped up the cunning gang and their inside man, engineer Alan Scott took a job at the company and began a hapless romantic pursuit of the capable, valiant Irene.

Thanks to scripter Finger, Green Lantern was initially a grim vengeful and spookily mysterious figure of vengeance weeding out criminals and gangsters but, just as with early Batman sagas, there was always a strong undercurrent of social issues, ballsy sentimentality and human drama.

All-American #21 found the hero exposing a cruel con wherein a crooked lawyer pressed young criminal Cub Brenner into posing as the long-lost son of a wealthy couple to steal their fortune. Of course, the kid had a change of heart and everything ended happily, but not before stupendous skulduggery and atrocious violence ensued.

In #22 when prize-fighter Kid McKay refused to throw a bout, mobsters kidnapped his wife and even temporarily overcame the fighting-mad Emerald Guardian. However, when one of the brutal thugs put on the magic ring he swiftly suffered a ghastly doom which allowed GL to emerge victorious…

Slick veteran Everett E. Hibbard provided the art for #23, and his famed light touch framed GL’s development into a less fearsome and more public hero. As Irene continued to rebuff Alan’s advances – in vain hopes of landing his magnificent mystery man alter ego – the engineer accompanied her to interview movie star Delia Day and stumbled into a cruel blackmail racket.

Despite their best efforts the net result was heartbreak, tragedy and many deaths. Issue #24 then saw the Man of Light go undercover to expose philanthropist tycoon R.J. Karns, who maintained his vast fortune by selling unemployed Americans into slavery on a tropical Devil’s Island, whilst #25 found Irene uncovering sabotage at a steel mill. With the unsuspected help of GL she then exposed purported enemy mastermind The Leader as no more than an unscrupulous American insider trader trying to force the price down for a simple Capitalist coup…

Celebrated strip cartoonist Irwin Hasen began his long association with Green Lantern in #26 when the hero came to the rescue of swindled citizens whose lending agreements with a loan shark were being imperceptibly altered by a forger to keep them paying in perpetuity, after which the artist illustrated the debut appearance of overnight sensation Doiby Dickles in All-American #27 (June 1941).

The rotund, middle-aged Brooklyn-born cab driver was simply intended as light foil and occasional sidekick for the grim, poker-faced Emerald Avenger but grew to be one of the most popular and beloved comedy stooges of the era; soon sharing covers and even by-lines with the star.

In this initial dramatic outing he bravely defended fare Irene (sorry: irresistible – bad, but irresistible) from assailants as she carried plans for a new radio receiver device. For his noble efforts Doiby was sought out and thanked by Green Lantern and, after the verdant crusader investigated, he discovered enemy agents at the root of the problem. When Irene was again targeted the Emerald Avenger was seemingly killed…

This time, to save Miss Miller, Doiby disguised himself as “de Lantrin” and confronted the killers alone before the real deal turned up to end things. As a reward the Brooklyn bravo was offered an unofficial partnership…

In #28 the convenient death of millionaire Cyrus Brand and a suspicious bequest to a wastrel nephew led Irene, Doiby and Alan to a sinister gangster dubbed The Spider who manufactured deaths by natural causes, after which #29 found GL and the corpulent cabbie hunting mobster Mitch Hogan, who forced pharmacies to buy his counterfeit drugs and products; utilising strong-arm tactics to ensure even the courts carried out his wishes – at least until the Lantern and his wrench-wielding buddy gave him a dose of his own medicine…

The last All-American yarn here is from issue #30 (cover-dated September 1941) and again featured Irene sticking her nose into other peoples’ business. This time she exposed a brace of crooked bail bondsmen exploiting former criminals trying to go straight, and was again kidnapped.

This raw and vital high-energy compilation ends with the stirring contents of Green Lantern #1 from Fall 1941, scripted by Finger and exclusively illustrated by Nodell, who had by this time dropped his potentially face-saving pseudonym Mart “Dellon”.

The magic began with a 2-page origin recap in ‘Green Lantern – His Personal History’ after which ‘The Masquerading Mare!’ saw GL and Doiby smash the schemes of racketeer Scar Jorgis who went to quite extraordinary lengths to obtain a racehorse inherited by Irene, after which an article by Dr. William Moulton Marston (an eminent psychologist familiar to us today as the creator of Wonder Woman) discussed the topic of ‘Will Power’.

The comic thrills resumed when a city official was accused of mishandling funds allocated to buy pneumonia serum in ‘Disease!!’ Although Green Lantern and Doiby spearheaded a campaign to raise more money to prevent an epidemic, events took a dark turn when the untouchable, unimpeachable Boss Filch experienced personal tragedy and exposed his grafting silent partners high in the city’s governing hierarchy…

Blistering spectacle was the result of ‘Arson in the Slums’, when Alan and Irene became entangled in a crusading publisher’s strident campaign to renovate a ghetto. Of course, the philanthropic Barton and his real estate pal Murker had only altruistic reasons for their drive to re-house the city’s poorest citizens…

Doiby was absent from that high octane thriller but did guest-star with the Emerald Ace in the prose tale ‘Hop Harrigan in “Trailers of Treachery”’ – by an unknown scripter and probably illustrated by Sheldon Mayer – a ripping yarn starring AA’s aviation hero (and star of his own radio show) after which ‘Green Lantern’ and Doiby travelled South of the Border to scenic Landavo to investigate tampering with APEX’s short-wave station and end up in a civil war.

They soon discovered that the entire affair had been fomented by foreign agents intent on destroying democracy on the continent…

With the threat of involvement in the “European War” a constant subject of American headlines, this sort of spy story was gradually superseding general gangster yarns, and as Green Lantern displayed his full bombastic might against tanks, fighter planes and invading armies,nobody realised that within mere months America and the entire comicbook industry were to metamorphose beyond all recognition.

Soon mystery men would become patriotic morale boosters parading and sermonising ad infinitum in every corner of the industry’s output as the real world brutally intruded on the hearts and minds of the nation…

Including a breathtaking selection of stunning and powerfully evocative covers by Sheldon Moldoff, Hasen and Howard Purcell, this magnificent book is a sheer delight for lovers of the early Fights ‘n’ Tights genre: gripping, imaginative and exuberantly exciting – even if certainly not to every modern fan’s taste.

Of course, with such straightforward thrills on show any reader with an open mind might quickly see the light…
© 1940, 1941, 1999 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Ring of Fire

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By Doug Petrie & Ryan Sook (Dark Horse/Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-200-5

A hunger to be frightened is printed on our genes and courses through our surging blood. Psycho-killers, ravening monsters, unsuspected epidemics, funfair rides, overdue bills and a host of other things – daft and not – all trigger our visceral, panicky fright, fight or flight response and thus always feature highly in our mass entertainments.

These days however the slow-building tension and cerebral suspense of the printed genre has been largely overtaken and superseded by the shock-values and sudden kinetic surprise action of both small and big screens with the entire oeuvre also doused in a hot sauce of teen alienation, unrequited love and uncontrollable hormones – all making for a heady (if often uncomplicated and flavourless) brew.

That transition was very much the result of a landmark American TV show and assorted media spin-offs which refocused the zeitgeist. However Dark Horse Comics’ clever, witty graphic interpretation of the cult global mega-hit TV franchise Buffy the Vampire Slayer is what interests me most, so here’s another look at the still-active illustrated narrative iteration to revel in and reel over.

Once the company secured the strip licensing rights, they began producing an engaging regular series, a welter of impressive original Graphic Novels, numerous miniseries, spin-offs and specials. Moreover, long after the beloved TV show finally died, from 2007 onward comics delivered creator Joss Whedon’s un-produced continuity-canonical Season Eight and beyond to the faithful fans and followers.

In case you’re young or just terminally clueless: Buffy Summers was a run of the fashion mill bimbo-ised Californian Valley Girl and hip teen cheerleader until she suddenly metamorphosed overnight into a monster-killer: latest inheritor of a mystic, unpredictable genetic lottery which transformed mortal maids into human killing machines historically known as Slayers.

After moving to the small Californian hamlet of Sunnydale – secretly situated on the edge of a mystic portal The Hellmouth – she and a close band of friends battled devils and demons and every sort of horror inexorably drawn to the area and all of whom, what and which considered humanity a snack and our world an eldritch “fixer-upper” opportunity…

Scripted by prominent screenwriter and producer Doug Petrie (in his time a writer, director and co-executive producer on the Buffy show) and sublimely illustrated by Ryan Sook, Ring of Fire was released in 2000 as a slim, full-colour, all-original graphic novel which firmly established the artist as a major comics talent.

I’m concentrating here on the Titan Books British edition and – if you’re asking – the tale is set during TV Season 2 (which ran from Autumn 1997 to Spring 1998) when Buffy’s mysterious vampire boyfriend Angel had reverted to a soulless slaughterer of innocents.

His latest victim was High School computer teacher Jenny Calendar, who moonlighted as a gypsy witch and practising technopagan. She was also the one true love of Buffy’s mentor Rupert Giles, a Watcher of the venerable cult tasked with training and assisting Slayers in their anti-arcane endeavours.…

The suspense unfolds one dark and stormy night twelve miles off the coast in ‘The Rising’ as a Japanese cargo ship transporting ancient Samurai armour weathers staggering waves and a visit from a ghastly vampiric horror calling himself “Angelus”…

The 500-year-old war suit once belonged to warrior demon Kelgor, who tied his power to it and raised an army of undead killers in 16th century Japan.

Now all Angelus and his less-than-willing allies Spike and Drusilla need to bring on the necromantic End of the World designated “The Ring of Fire” is the corpse of Kelgor himself (hidden by Watchers half a millennium ago) – and they’re expecting the Slayer to find that for them…

Cool vampire villain and über-predator Spike eventually became a love-interest and even a moodily tarnished white knight, but at the time of this collection he was still a blood-hungry, immortal immoral jaded psychopath – every girl’s dream date – even though he was severely wounded and confined to a wheelchair. His eternal paramour was Drusilla: a scarily demented precognitive vampire who originally made him an immortal bloodsucker. She thrived on new decadent thrills and revelled in baroque and outré bloodletting…

With Giles all but paralysed by grief, “Scooby-Gang” stalwarts, Willow, Xander and Oz are left to search the reference files for information. As their painstaking study bears dark fruit Giles is ambushed by Angel and Dru at Jenny’s grave. Buffy is there to rescue him, but that just gives Spike the opportunity to follow the merely human vampire hunters and activate the Samurai’s blazing revival spell…

Rushing to their side Buffy manages to (mostly) destroy the freshly resurrected Kelgor, but as she pursues the Slayer is arrested by Federal spooks who know exactly who and what she is…

Frustrated but not thwarted the vicious vampire trio are at each others throats until Dru realises that there is still a little life in Kelgor’s remains. Moreover, the demon is offering to share his centuries old back-up plan with them.

Hidden with the scattered remains of ‘The Seven Samurai’ graves throughout the state is the secret of true resurrection, and if they gather the contents of those hidden toms, all their wicked wishes can still come true…

Meanwhile, locked in a covert police detention centre Buffy faces exposure to the world and worst yet, her mother…

Giles is gone: fallen far off the deep end and reverted to his old, manic persona of “Ripper”, but that’s not a bad thing since he knows the people who arrested Buffy aren’t government agents… or even people.

However before he can get to her, back-up Slayer Kendra busts her imprisoned predecessor out.

(When Buffy once briefly died the next Slayer was activated, and even though the Blonde Bombshell was subsequently revived, Kendra, once here, wasn’t going away…)

The manic action ramps into high gear as the Japanese hell-lord is finally fully reconstituted and forms an alliance with Dru, leaving Angel and Spike twisting in the wind even as the “Feds” are exposed as opportunistic demons trying to secure the resurrection spell for themselves in ‘Kelgor Unbound’.

They are ultimately frustrated in that diabolical dream as Ripper has taken off with it, crazily hellbent on bringing back his Jenny…

…And across town Buffy, Kendra and the gang are too late to stop the final ritual. Dru and Kelgor exultantly awaken a colossal flame-breathing devil bird to expedite their conquest of humanity and, forced into a tempestuous alliance with Angel and Spike, the vastly overmatched Buffy and Co need more magic than Willow can conjure.

They need Giles back or the world is lost…

Visually engaging, sharply scripted and proceeding at a breakneck rollercoaster pace, this smart and furious action-fest perfectly captures the brittle, intoxicating spirit of the TV series and remains an easily accessible romp even if you’re not familiar with the vast backstory: a creepy chronicle and torrid thriller as easily enjoyed by the most callow neophyte as by any dedicated devotee, and this compulsive chronicle also includes a quirky introduction by author Petrie and a fascinating sketchbook/commentary section by editor Scott Allie, liberally illustrated with production art and preliminary designs from Ryan Sook.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ™ & © 2000 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Usagi Yojimbo Book 3: The Wanderer’s Road

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By Stan Sakai (Fantagraphics)
ISBN: 978-1-56097-009-5

Usagi Yojimbo (literally “rabbit bodyguard”) premiered as a lowly background character in Stan Sakai’s anthropomorphic comedy The Adventures of Nilson Groundthumper and Hermy, (Albedo Anthropomorphics #1, 1984), subsequently appearing there on his own terms as well as in Critters, Amazing Heroes, Furrlough and the Munden’s Bar back-up in Grimjack.

Sakai was born in 1953 in Kyoto, Japan before the family emigrated to Hawaii in 1955. He attended the University of Hawaii, graduating with a BA in Fine Arts, and pursued further studies at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design after landing in California.

His early forays into comics were as a letterer, most famously for the inimitable Groo the Wanderer, before his nimble pens and brushes, coupled with a love of Japanese history and legend and hearty interest in the filmic works of Akira Kurosawa and his peers, all combined to turn a proposed story about a human historical hero into one of the most enticing and impressive fantasy sagas of all time.

And it’s still more educational, informative and authentic than any dozen Samurai sagas you can name…

The deliriously peripatetic and expansive period epic is nominally set in a world of sentient animals (with a few unobtrusive human characters scattered about) and specifically references the Edo Period of Feudal Japan: the early 17th century of our reckoning.

It simultaneously samples classic contemporary cultural icons from sources as varied as Lone Wolf and Cub, Zatoichi and even Godzilla whilst specifically recounting the life of Miyamoto Usagi, a Ronin or masterless wandering Samurai, eking out an honourable living as a Yojimbo or bodyguard-for-hire.

As such, his fate is to be drawn constantly into a plethora of incredible situations.

And yes, he’s a rabbit – a brave, sentimental, gentle, artistic, empathetic long-suffering, conscientious and heroic everyman bunny who just can’t turn down any request for help or ignore the slightest evidence of injustice…

This torrid third monochrome tome features takes which originally appeared in Fantagraphics’ Usagi Yojimbo volume 1, #7-12. Also included is a delightful short story from Mirage Studios’ Turtle Soup anthology from 1989.

The drama begins after an illuminating Introduction from fantasy novelist and occasional comics scribe Robert Asprin and offers a wealth of comedic episodes, supernatural adventure vignettes and other revelatory yarns to delight, astound and especially enchant, as author Sakai seamlessly plants hints and lays out threads that will in the fullness of time blossom and bloom into the elements of a 25-year-long epic…

First up is a salutary fable wherein the kind-hearted Ronin tries to rescue a trapped Tokagé lizard (ubiquitous, omnivorous reptiles that populate this anthropomorphic world, replacing scavenger species like rats, cats and dogs in the fictitious ecosystem) and earns the pitiless enmity of a local innkeeper.

Trapped atop a high, rickety watch platform with little food and snowstorms coming, “Spot” and Usagi’s problems are far from few but when the despicable bully gets bored and tries to chop down ‘The Tower’, fate smiles on the warrior and punishes the merchant…

With faithful Spot now sharing his wanderings, Usagi learns the power of ‘A Mother’s Love’ when he befriends an old woman and becomes embroiled in her quest to free a village of the ruthless depredations of her own beloved son, after which the rabbit again crosses paths – and swords – with affable yet ruthless Ino in ‘Return of the Blind Swordspig’ – a blood-spilling porcine outlaw whose incredible olfactory sense more than compensates for his useless eyes…

When the killer is saved from a bounty-hunter ambush by Spot, he forms an instant attachment to the lizard, but Ino’s obsessive hatred of Usagi can only lead to a blistering clash and heartbreak for one of the puissant sword masters…

The tone becomes supernaturally dark and bleak in ‘Blade of the Gods’ as the lonely Yojimbo meets a veritable devil in the sinister form of Jei, a roving unbeatable slaughterer who believes the Lords of Heaven have singled him out to kill the wicked on their behalf.

Of course only he decides who is or isn’t evil, and when he sets his soulless eyes on the Rabbit Ronin their incredible battle is ultimately decided by an incredible, baffling act of god…

Sakai’s stories were growing in depth and quality with every issue, and with ‘The Tea Cup’ the creator began to fully expand his milieu, making Japanese history and culture a compulsively authentic component of proceedings. Masked as an homage to Groo the Wanderer, this sparkling yarn saw Usagi and occasional foil money-mad bounty-hunter Gennosuké reunite to deliver a priceless and ultra-fragile porcelain cup to a Tea Master, with hired thugs from a rival potter trying to destroy it and them every inch of the way. As usual Gen was playing his own bewildering game of bluff and double bluff, and once again Usagi was left annoyed, exhausted and out of pocket…

The regularly scheduled wonderment concludes with the masterfully complex comedy thriller ‘The Shogun’s Gift’ as the rabbit again meets the beautiful bodyguard Tomoe Ame.

The devoted swordswoman is hunting for a ninja who stole the priceless Muramasa blade from the castle of her young Lord Noriyuki, new and still tenuous leader of the prestigious Geishu Clan. The sword is intended as a gift for the Shogun and its loss will cause an inexcusable and potentially fatal loss of face…

Suspecting the machinations of the insidious schemer Hikiji, Tomoe has begun frantically hunting the thief but fortune has already placed the culprit within the crafty clutches of the wily Usagi who solves the problem with hilarious guile and wit before tidying up the loose ends with his swords…

Also included here is the first of many wonderful cross-company alliances as ‘Turtle Soup and Rabbit Stew’ as Leonardo of Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fell through a wrinkle in space-time and found himself battling a horde of outlaw samurai before mistakenly getting into a duel of honour with a certain Rabbit Ronin…

Don’t fret folks: things ended inconclusively enough for at least two sequels (to be seen in later volumes…)

Usagi Yojimbo has changed publishers a few times but has been in continuous publication since 1987 with dozens of graphic novel collections and books to date. He has guest-starred in many other series (such as the aforementioned Turtles and its TV incarnation) and even almost made it into his own small-screen show – but there’s still time yet, and fashions can revive as quickly as they die out. With high-end collectibles, art prints, computer games and RPGs, a spin-off sci-fi series and lots of toys to promote popularity, Sakai and his creation have deservedly won numerous awards both within the Comics community and amongst the greater reading public.

Fast-paced yet lyrical, funny and scary, always moving, ferociously thrilling and simply bursting with veracity and verve, Usagi Yojimbo is a cartoon masterpiece of irresistible appeal that will delight devotees and make converts of the most hardened hater of “funny animal” stories and comics.

Why aren’t you a fan yet?
Text and illustrations © 1987, 1989 Stan Sakai. Usagi Yojimbo is ™ Stan Sakai. Book editions © 1989, 2005 Fantagraphics books. Leonardo and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are ™ Mirage Studios and used with permission. All rights reserved.

X-Men: Manifest Destiny

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By Jason Aaron, James Asmus, Mike Carey, Frank Tieri, Steven Segovia, Jorge Molina, Ardian Syaf, Michael Ryan, Chris Burnham, Takeshi Miyazawa, Ben Oliver & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3951-5

Most people who read comics have a passing familiarity with Marvel’s fluidly fluctuating X-Men franchise and even newcomers or occasional consumers won’t have too much trouble following this particular jumping-on tome, so let’s just plunge in as our hostile world once more kicks sand in the faces of the planet’s most dangerous and reviled minority…

At this particularly juncture, the evolutionary offshoot portentously dubbed Homo Superior is at its lowest ebb. This follows the catastrophic House of M and Decimation storylines, wherein former Avenger Wanda Maximoff AKA the Scarlet Witch – ravaged by madness and her own chaos-fuelled reality-warping power – reduced the world’s entire mutant population to a couple of hundred individuals.

Most of these genetic outsiders have accepted a generous and earnest offer to establish an enclave on an island dubbed “Utopia” in San Francisco Bay, and this utterly engrossing tome re-presents Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #1-4, X-Men Manifest Destiny: Nightcrawler plus the lead strip and selected short stories from the anthology X-Men Manifest Destiny #1-5 and covers the period October 2008 – April 2009: one of a number of collections cataloguing various mutant heroes’ and villains’ responses to the offer.

This account of some who answered the call to “Go West, Young Mutant” opens with the 4-issue miniseries Wolverine: Manifest Destiny (by scripter Jason Aaron and artists Stephen Segovia, Paco Diaz Luque & Noah Salonga) wherein the long-lived wanderer known as Logan is plagued by some freshly-returned memories as he wanders the streets of Chinatown, painfully aware that, at least in this part of San Francisco, he is not welcome…

The bestial, nigh-indestructible mutant was born at the end of the 19th century, but over the decades his mind and memories have been constantly tampered with by friends and foes alike. Recently. however, a steady procession of revelatory disclosures regarding his extended, over-brainwashed life has gradually seeped out.

He recalls a breach of trust and broken promise made to the citizens of Chinatown fifty years previously and is determined to make amends and restitution, beginning with an unhappy confrontation in ‘Enter the Wolverine’…

The hero is reviled by the old men who remember him, and subsequently attacked by an army of triad gangsters and kung fu warriors determined to eradicate the shame he had heaped upon their forefathers…

Outmatched and beaten near to death by the massed Tong fighters, the barely resisting Wolverine is further-imperilled when his old girlfriend Lin turns up in ‘Black Dragon Death Squad to the Edge of Panic’ – a septuagenarian crime-boss still furious that he abandoned her half a century past and ready to avenge the insult by setting her mystic martial arts warriors on him…

Suffering the worst beating of his impossibly long and fractious life, Logan barely escapes into the sewers as the long-suffering San Francisco cops arrive only to be greeted with stony silence. As usual the close-knit community refuses to have anything to do with such unworthy interfering outsiders…

Chinatown has always been policed by the Black Dragon: a supreme criminal boss who takes tribute from civilian and Tong societies alike, and in return always ensures peace and a healthy business environment. Now, far below the incensed citizenry, the slowly recuperating Logan recalls how ‘Once Upon a Time in Chinatown’ he breezed into the thriving ghetto just as current chief Lo Shang Cho began overstepping traditional boundaries and acting like an old world tyrant.

Naturally he had to intervene, but after killing the bullying despot and routing his ruthless thugs, the cocky mutant shirked his responsibility, refusing to become the new Black Dragon and insulting the entire community by leaving.

His brief paramour Lin was compelled to take his place to maintain order, but over the decades she became as cruelly corrupt and debased as her predecessor …and now the “man” who ruined her life has returned, seemingly not one day older or wiser…

Whilst recovering, the deeply penitent Wolverine has been tutored by Master Po, the kung fu sensei who first tried to teach him to fight like a man and not an animal. It didn’t work then but this time the Black Dragon commands unbeatable magical warriors Rock of the Buddha, Fist of Fire, Storm Sword and Soulstriker and the mutant just cannot win with his usual unthinking berserker methods…

Covertly trying to rally support and drive out the “bad criminals” forever Logan, attempts to recruit some of the area’s martial arts Schools and Dojos to his cause in the blistering finale but as usual, events get away from him and fists and feet too soon start furiously flying in ‘The Way of the Black Dragon’, leading to a triumph of sorts and a whole new role for the transplanted, redeemed Canadian…

This spectacular and bombastic homage to Hong Kong action cinema and comics perfectly blends East and West wonderment in a beautiful, intoxicating manner and also includes a glorious guest-shot from vintage 1970s stalwarts Lin Sun, Abe Brown and Bob Diamond, the legendary Sons of the Tiger (and one of the US industry’s first martial arts series, from issues #1-19 issues of the mature-readers magazine Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, April 1974-December 1975).

The one-shot X-Men Manifest Destiny: Nightcrawler follows as ‘Quitting Time’ (by James Asmus, Jorge Molina, Ardian Syaf, Victor Olazaba & Vicente Cifuentes) focuses on the swashbuckler-turned-priest as he seeks for higher meaning in the eradication of mutants and his own place in the X-Men.

An answer is perhaps forthcoming in a request to visit a museum dedicated to him in the German village where he was almost killed by pitchfork-wielding bigots who believed he was a demon…

At that time Professor Charles Xavier saved him and invited him to join the mutant hero team, setting him on the path of the hero. However, all these years later as he meets his former persecutors, the troubled cleric still feels like an unclean outsider and realises he has been brought to his homeland under false pretences. Another “demon” is plaguing Winzeldorf and, with a child missing, the villagers are expecting one monster to catch the other.

Of course there is far more going on than meets the eye, and inevitable tragedy leads to a confrontation with a genuine devil when the satanic Mephisto appears, hungry for despoiled and tarnished souls…

‘Kill or Cure’ by Mike Carey, Michael Ryan & Victor Olazaba was the lead strip in the miniseries X-Men: Manifest Destiny and followed radical changes in the life of founding X-Man Robert Drake. As Iceman, the hero had been fighting for most of his adult life but when maniacal mutant shapeshifter Mystique poisoned him with a genetically keyed neural inhibitor, his powers began to run amok and he imagined his end was near.

Embarking on a trip to Utopia and the medical ministrations of best friend Hank “The Beast” McCoy, Drake was dogged and sabotaged every step of the way by Mystique who apparently wanted him dead but seemed reluctant or unable to finish him off, despite his weakened condition and wildly fluctuating powers…

Surviving her many assaults, Iceman realised an exponential leap in his abilities but their final confrontation on the Bay Bridge proved that his understanding of her incomprehensible motives and actions was far from complete…

The short story section opens with a comedic clash between matter-detonating mutant ‘Boom-Boom’ and cheesy Homo Superior shoplifter Kuwa in a broadly slapstick tale of slapstick broads by Asmus, Chris Burnham & Nathan Fairbairn, after which Nightcrawler returns in a pretty but downbeat psycho-drama.

As the teleporting hero faces old foes in a Danger Room simulation, he is forced to confront his deep doubts and true feelings for a lost comrade in the bittersweet ‘Work it Out’ (Asmus & Takeshi Miyazawa) before ‘Nick’s’ by Frank Tieri, Ben Oliver & Frank D’Armata ends things on a moodily oppressive note after Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler pay a disturbingly heavy-handed visit to a former Evil Mutant with the intention of keeping the already-reformed character on the straight and narrow…

This stirring and excessively entertaining tome comes with a selection of cover reproductions from Dave Wilkins, Brandon Peterson, Humberto Ramos & Brian Reber and Michael Turner and pages of stunning designs, roughs and colour studies by Segovia featuring assorted kung fu warriors and the Sons of the Tiger.
© 2008, 2009 Marvel Characters In. All rights reserved.

Heroes for Hire: Ahead of the Curve

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By Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, Zeb Wells, Al Rio, Clay Mann, Scott Koblish, Tom Palmer & Terry Pallot (Marvel)
ISBN 978-1-7851-2363-6

After a TV reality show starring actual superheroes went hideously wrong and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of children in Stamford, Connecticut, popular opinion turned massively against masked crusaders. The Federal government quickly mandated a scheme to licence, train and regulate all metahumans but the plan split the superhero community, and an indignant, terrified general populace quivered as a significant faction of their former defenders refused to surrender their autonomy – and in many cases, anonymity – to the bureaucratic vicissitudes of the Super-Human Registration Act.

The Avengers and Fantastic Four, bedrock teams of the Marvel Universe, fragmented with “brother pitted against brother”. As the conflict escalated it became clear to all involved that the increasingly bitter fighting was for souls as much as lives.

Both sides battled for love of Country and Constitution and both sides knew they were right. At the heart of that savage battle of ideologies, bionic-armed detective Misty Knight and her ninja-trained partner Colleen Wing put together a squad of new and accomplished warriors to do some real good during the worst of times…

Knight and Wing – AKA the Daughters of the Dragon – are former associates of Power Man & Iron Fist, and initially revived their old firm Heroes for Hire to apprehend metas who refused to comply with the SHRA. However their new squad – reformed thief Black Cat, Kung Fu Master Shang-Chi, insect avatar Humbug, Atlantean strongman Orka, bloodthirsty martial artist Tarantula and super-mercenary Paladin – soon all found themselves at odds with the tricky path they were following as their promised role (only apprehending villains) began to suffer increasing “mission creep”…

Moreover as they tracked their sanctioned targets, a deadly menace from the past was hunting them…

This collection, gathering issues #6-10 of the second Heroes for Hire comicbook series (from March-July 2007), saw the already tarnished team seek to survive financially hard times following a split with their S.H.I.E.L.D. paymasters – even if it meant not being too picky about their clients…

Most innocuous of these was little genius Billy who offered the entire contents of his piggybank if the Heroes would help him recover his robot friend Vic from super-villains who had stolen him…

Almost simultaneously a more lucrative case materialised when shady Diamond District enforcer Louis Kravits came looking for metahuman help and forced Misty to split the squad in ‘Guns, Gems, Robots and Terrorists!’

Most of the team would concentrate on a gang of power-armoured gem-thieves and their hidden high-tech supplier, whilst a less-than-thrilled Humbug would render whatever assistance deemed necessary to reunite Billy with his ambulatory toy.

It would prove to be a truly disastrous misallocation of resources…

As Misty’s squad hunts for the exultant and overconfident thieves and their loot, Humbug learns just why little kids are such a trial; convinced he’s on a wild goose chase until his billions of arthropod eyes scattered throughout the city lead them to a certain sewer where the ludicrously lethal Headmen are hidden. They have just finished reprogramming Vic, a damaged and discarded killer Doombot…

The Headmen were initially a trio of thematically linked scientists and savants, all “stars” of Marvel’s pre-superhero fantasy anthologies, grouped together by the late, great Steve Gerber in The Defenders. With the inclusion of the weirdly salacious Ruby Thursday, compulsive rogue surgeon Arthur Nagan (whose obsession with brain transplants took a decidedly outré turn when his gorilla test-subjects rebelled and wreaked a darkly ironic revenge upon him), body hopping, quadriplegic mystic Chondu and near-as-dammit boneless scientist Jerry Morgan, they became a macabre cadre of skull-stealing mercenary maniacs who seemed to perpetrate wickedness just because they could…

As the bulk of Heroes for Hire thrash the tooled-up robbers and subsequently track their exo-suits to a ship in Brooklyn, the seriously overmatched Humbug is captured and subjected to Nagan’s latest surgical atrocity…

Aboard ship Misty’s group is ambushed by their prey – revealed as old Avengers foes Grim Reaper and Man-Ape, augmented by a female terrorist named Saboteur – and awaken to find themselves trapped with a downward-counting nuke…

Zeb Wells replaced Justin Grey & Jimmy Palmiotti as scripter with issue #8 as, never daunted, the Heroes save New York and get rid of the bomb, but, whilst following a paper-trail to their enemies, receive a bizarre cry for help from Humbug’s insect minions. Dividing the H4H stalwarts, Misty sends Shang-Chi, Orka and business manager Otis after the missing bug-wrangler whilst she leads the women on a “Girls’ Night Out” to crush the Reaper and his “Death-Cadre”…

Tragically one of the boys just cannot take the Headmen and their shabby robot seriously and pays a fatal price, driving the Master of Kung Fu to a shameful lack of restraint and uncanny depths of violence as he avenges his fallen comrade and the cruel damage done to Humbug…

Worst of all neither gig actually results in a payoff, a fact disgraced former member Paladin exploits when he shows up with well-paying, uncomplicated “clean” case…

Nobody has seen the mercenary since he betrayed them all and tried to sell their friend Captain America to the Government (for refusing to comply with the Super-Human Registration Act in Heroes for Hire: Civil War) but now the glib gladiator has an offer they simply can’t refuse: capturing a proto hominid specimen from the primeval Savage Land and delivering him safely to scientists desperate to examine his uniquely untainted genes.

The boffins are offering each member of the snatch squad a million dollars…

S.H.I.E.L.D.’s science division are frantic to get their hands on the diminutive Homo Habilis but he is best-buddies pals with a fiercely protective crimson Tyrannosaur – which old-time fans will recognise as Jack Kirby’s outrageously cool adventure heroes Devil Dinosaur and sidekick Moonboy…

Outvoted, the still furious Misty can only go along with her team as they head to Antarctica and an antediluvian nightmare (with Al Rio surrendering the pencilling chores to Clay Mann for #9-10)…

The Savage Land is a fantastic repository of creatures from Earth’s most distant epochs, and even as his team-mates are attacked by beasts – and beast-men – Humbug is taken by insects long-vanished from the rest of the world, leaving his friends to believe him dead and eaten…

Completely out of their depth, the Heroes soon accomplish their distasteful mission but find themselves in deadly danger from the flora and fauna of the perilous paradise until Humbug reappears to save them.

He is completely changed: no longer the whiny clown they knew. Powerful, confident and slightly frightening, he informs them that they must all return to New York immediately to fight a threat to the entire planet, However the team have no idea what the ancient insect masters of Earth have transformed their oafish ally into…

This bombastic book also includes a cover gallery by Billy Tucci, Mark Sparacio & Mike Golden to cap a splendidly gritty, witty, funny, fast-paced and spectacularly action-packed, menu of menace and manic adventure to delight all older fans of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction.
© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Green Lantern Corps: Emerald Eclipse (Prelude to Darkest Night)

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By Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Rebecca Buchman, Christian Alamy, Prentis Rollins & Tom Nguyen (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2529-2

The Green Lantern Corps has protected the cosmos from evil and disaster for uncounted millennia, policing vast numbers of sentient beings under the severe but benevolent auspices of immortal super-beings who dubbed themselves Guardians of the Universe.

These undying patrons of Order were one of the first races to evolve and dwelt in sublime, emotionless security and tranquillity on the world of Oa at the very centre of creation.

Green Lanterns are chosen for their capacity to overcome fear and are equipped and armed with a ring that creates constructs out of emerald light. This miracle weapon is fuelled by the strength of their willpower, making it one of the mightiest tools in the universe.

For millennia, a single individual from each of the 3600 sectors of known space was selected to patrol his, her or its own beat, but in recent years the Guardians have frequently changed their own rules and laws. Now two GLs are assigned to work in each stellar division.

The Guardians’ motives have also increasingly come into question by many of their once-devoted operatives and peacekeepers, who have frequently seen the formerly infallible little blue gods exposed as venal, ruthless, doctrinaire and even capricious…

In the aftermath of the Sinestro Corps War, the universe was in turmoil at the revelation that Green was not the only colour and that an entire emotional spectrum of puissant energies underpinned and operated upon reality – and could thus be appropriated and exploited.

Soon each colour was being wielded by a power faction such as Atrocitus’ anger-charged Red Lanterns, Zamaron’s love-manipulating Violet-powered Star Sapphires or the enigmatic Agent Orange. The Guardians themselves were clearly off-balance, constantly changing the adamantine Laws in their precious Book of Oa and obviously terrified that some ancient prophecy was coming to fruition despite all their coldly calculated efforts…

This volume (collecting Green Lantern Corps #33-39 from 2009) is billed as a “Prelude to Blackest Night” and if you’re particularly wedded to strict running order and overarching continuity there are other books you should read such as the aforementioned Sinestro War volumes (all three of them), Rage of the Red Lanterns, Green Lantern: Secret Origin and Green Lantern: Agent Orange at the very least. Heck, read them all – if you’ve come this far you’re clearly already intrigued by the sheer immensity and scope of it all…

The space opera/cop procedural opens here as two of the wearily battered but triumphant interstellar peacekeepers enjoy some downtime by painting a mural in their still-not-open “cop-bar” on Oa.

“Honor Guard” Earth Lanterns Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner are debating the Guardian’s latest emotion-crunching edict banning relationships between serving officers and how many of their fellows it will affect. Soon their paint party is augmented by dozens of others officers keen to contribute and chat; all blithely unaware that one of their venerated masters has been suborned to The Black and actively works to destroy them and all they cherish…

Meanwhile, on the violently xenophobic planet Daxam, the remnants of Sinestro’s Corps, now led by the sadistic superman Mongul II, is committing genocide for entertainment as the despot consolidates his leadership and plans to take his growing army of yellow fear-worshippers on a new crusade of terror and destruction.

On Oa resignations are up as many veterans choose love over duty and quit the Corps. Rayner has a personal stake in the new Law too: enjoying a clandestine – and now forbidden – relationship with fellow lantern Soranik Natu of Korugar. Even as the lovers discuss their insurmountable problem, in the distant depths of space GL Saarek meets a passion-powered Star Sapphire as he uses his unique ability on a fragment of the carcass of the once terrible multiversal menace The Anti-Monitor…

The dead speak to Saarek and his conversation with the Zamaron Miri is painful and portentous for both of them and the entire cosmos…

On Daxam the wanton bloodshed is temporarily halted when the monstrous Arkillo challenges Mongul for leadership of the Yellow Lanterns. This distraction allows a desperate survivor to flee offworld and alert the Sector’s GL team: Arisia of Graxos IV and self-exiled Daxamite Sodam Yat.

The fugitive is his own mother, but Yat is fiercely disinclined to help. As a star-gazing youth he yearned to visit other worlds but his family, like all Daxamites, brutally discouraged his dreams. When the boy actually encountered a shipwrecked alien his parents had the poor creature stuffed and mounted as a warning…

Once Yat finally escaped his fundamentalist, bigoted, supremacist world he swore never to return. It takes all Arisia’s efforts to convince him otherwise.

As Natu leaves Oa for Korugar, deep in the Guardians’ Citadel, the hundreds of horrors isolated in impenetrable Sciencells become agitated when Gardner, Salaak and Kilowog try to slam the door on newest inmate Vice.

The raging Red Lantern is barely locked in when Warden GL Voz is attacked. Deep in the bowels of Oa, the renegade Black Guardian had deactivated the Sciencells and soon a complete riot ensues, exacerbated when the captured yellow rings of Sinestro’s adherents are reactivated and returned to the rampaging prisoners…

With carnage erupting and deaths mounting, all GLs on Oa are dispatched to the penitentiary, whilst on Daxam Yat and Arisia have linked up with a band of surviving Daxamites and begun training them to fight back against the blood-crazed invaders.

A darker confrontation occurs on Korugar as Natu is ambushed by escaped megalomaniac Sinestro who reveals a shattering secret about her comfortable happy childhood…

The riot on Oa finally subsides – after spectacular damage and catastrophic losses – with the Greens victorious even as, on Daxam, Yat loses a ferocious battle against Mongul but ultimately wins the war by making the most impossible of sacrifices…

And on Oa the once unshakable Guardians irretrievably shatter their already tarnished reputations by ordering the elite Alpha-Lanterns to summarily and secretly execute all the recaptured prisoners, prompting even their most devoted servants to lose hope and faith…

Now The Blackest Night begins and the universe itself will pay for the Guardians’ arrogance and duplicity……

Also featuring a beautiful and stirring gallery of covers and variants from Gleason, Buchman, Rodolfo Migliari and Glenn Fabry, this spectacular collection of plot threads and opening gambits combines all the spectacle, cosmic derring-do, tense suspense and blazing action fans adore, but even this “jumping on” epic is not really a beginning and far, far from a neat and tidy end.

Although this bombastic yarn is highly continuity-dependent, determined newcomers should still be able to extract a vast amount of histrionic enjoyment out of the explosive, compulsive, compelling, pell-mell onslaught of action… and you could always find those other volumes and get fully in the picture…
© 2009 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

The Best of Neat Stuff

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By Peter Bagge (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 0-930193-53-9

Having had such a great time reading Other Stuff the other day I’ve decided to finally spotlight an old and cruelly out of print tome from 1987 that I’ve been meaning to rave about for simply ages: one packed with the superb but far too seldom seen formative appearances of such landmarks of pop culture as Buddy Bradley, Junior and Studs Kirby…

Peter Bagge is prominent these days as a fiery, laser-mouthed, superbly acerbic and well-established, award-winning cartoonist, animator and musician, responsible for incredibly addictive, sharply satirical strips examining contemporary American life, but once upon a time he was just another strident, gifted jobbing cartoonist trying to make a living.

Born in Peekskill, Westchester County, New York on 11th December 1957, he was one of four kids in a ferociously Catholic military family. Like esteemed colleague Robert Crumb a generation earlier, Bagge escaped that emotionally toxic, fight-filled environment as soon as possible, moving to New York City in the mid-1970s to study at the celebrated School of Visual Arts.

He soon dropped out, however, and began working in the vibrant alternative publishing field, producing strips and panels for Punk Magazine, Screw, High Times, East Village Eye (where the first Junior strip debuted), World War Three and others.

Meeting like-minded artists he began self and co-publishing comics and when Crumb saw copies of Comical Funnies – produced with new friend John Holstrom – Bagge was offered space in and eventually the Editorship of the seminal magazine Weirdo in 1983.

He augmented his 3-year tenure there with various paying gigs at Screw, Swank, Video X, Video Games Magazine, The Rocket, Bad News and elsewhere.

In 1984 Bagge relocated to Seattle, Washington State and began his association with alternative/Independent publisher Fantagraphics. The following year his spectacularly idiosyncratic cartoon magazine Neat Stuff launched as a thrice-yearly vehicle of outrageous personal expression and societal observation. His stark, manic, topically surreal strips starring old creations like Studs Kirby, Junior, Buddy Bradleys and Girly Girl soon made him a darling of the emerging West Coast Grunge scene.

Neat Stuff – and its eventual successor Hate - quickly made Bagge a household name… at least in more progressive households…

Neat Stuff ran from 1985-1989 and was a perfect pioneering vehicle for the burgeoning graphic novel market. This early compilation came half-way through the run, dazzled for a little while and then disappeared. Even though much of the anthologised material has since been reprinted in solo editions dedicated to specific members of the eclectic cast, I for one would dearly love to see the series revived, revised and released in some sort of definitive edition…

This glorious monochrome, album-sized compendium of seldom-seen strips is stuffed with deliciously fluid drawings and razor-edged, broadly baroque comedically absurdist observations with incisive, deeply intimate questioning quandaries and observations on living. Don’t panic though: it’s much more fun than it sounds, and the constant confrontations with a changing world everybody was – and still is – increasingly out of step with make for terrifically mature reading fun…

Following Robert Crumb’s informative Introduction ‘Peter Bagge – The R. Crumb of the Eighties’, the crazed cartography begins with a selection of Studs Kirby strips starting with ‘A Few Words from Studs Kirby’, after which philosophical diatribe the quintessential Reagan-Era Oaf establishes his credentials in ‘Studs Kirby Gets Drunk by Himself’ before being sucked whole into a changing consumer society when ‘Studs Kirby Gets Cable TV’…

Girly Girl may be the little lass next door, but that’s simply one more reason to move house. The hyper-active, impulse-control challenged tyke debuted in appalling style with pals Chuckie Boy and the Goon on the Moon in ‘Uh Oh, Here Comes Girly Girl’, before springing back undaunted to take on the rise in civilian journalism (or is it just spying on people) in ‘Candid-Camera-Star-Search-Solid-Gold-This-Is-Your-Life-Lip-Sync-Contest-In-Reverse’ and then proved once and for all just why she will never be ‘Little Miss Popularity’…

Bagge’s greatest hit was always the horrifically dysfunctional traditional values family The Bradleys and these painfully hilarious early forays prove why as ‘Ye Gads, It’s The Bradleys!’ introduces drunken ogre Dad, shrewish Mom and their ghastly progeny Buddy, Babs and Butch who quickly show their true worth as ‘Mother’s Little Helpers’…

Buddy and his shiftless pal Tom take centre stage in ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Refuge’ when the worthless firstborn goes looking for old LPs at a second-hand record shop, before little Butch passes on the cruel life-coping skills he leaned from his big brother in ‘The Trickle Down Theory’

There then follows a joyously eccentric interlude as we happily focus on sheer exuberant graphic madness with a page of nine ‘Neat Stuff Trading Cards’.

Sheltered Momma’s boy Junior finally leaves the happy maternal nest – although hardly from choice – to find shelter in a far-from-innocuous boarding house in ‘The Cabbage’, where he swiftly packs in a lot of insalubrious second-hand living whilst under the scurvy wing of landlord Mr. Frank.

However ‘The Road to Manhood’ is perilous and soon Junior is going backwards not forward…

Chet and Bunny Leeway debuted in Bad News and eventually became the family stars of Adobe’s Website (see Other Stuff for details), but in the first two untitled strips here those ordinary suburbanites merely discuss domestic matters in their usual manner (kids; never, never, never try this at home – yours or anybody else’s) and assess each other’s musical gifts before Chet discovers the allure of Malls in ‘Life’s A Bitch And Then You Die’.

There’s also a selection of Miscellaneous strips included here beginning with the darkly obsessive ‘Sometimes I Feel Like I’m Going Crazy’, after which ‘Bang the Head that Does Not Bang’ discloses the truth about dads and the teens they ferry to rock concerts, and ‘Minimum Wage Love’ offers insights into mating rituals and first jobs.

It isn’t pretty and the Bitter to Sweet ratio is heavily disproportionate…

There’s more magnificently liberating graphic license on show in ‘Wheeeeee! Whoaa! Woops!!’ whilst dark meta-real revelations abound in the too-true-to-be-factual story of school pressure in ‘The Reject’ – a strip first seen in Weirdo…

Also on show: a fulsome and fascinating background feature – complete with early illustrations – in Origins – an Explanation of the Characters in Neat Stuff, as well as a peachy keen sketch and Bagge Biography to slavishly enjoy in the concluding About the Author featurette…

Bagge has always been about skewering stupidity, spotlighting pomposity and generally exposing the day-to-day aggravations and institutionalized insanities of modern life, and these strips offer a beguiling peek into his formative process: a treat no cartoon-loving shibboleth-tipping rebel should miss…
© 1987 Peter Bagge. Introduction © 1987 R. Crumb. All rights reserved.