Author: NowReadThis

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Batman & the Monster Men / Batman & the Mad Monk

Batman & the Monster Men
By Matt Wagner, with Dave Stewart (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1091-5

Grendel and Mage creator Matt Wagner has had an eclectic but never disappointing relationship with the Dark Knight, and in 2006 undertook an ambitious year-long project to update two of the earliest adventures (from Detective Comics #31-32 and Batman #1 no less), implanting them within the fresh new milieu devised by Frank Miller in Batman: Year 1.

Originally released as a 12-issue limited series, Batman: Dark Moon Rising was divided into matching trade paperback collections with the first, Batman & the Monster Men, expanding on the Golden Age original by Bill Finger, Bob Kane & Jerry Robinson, introducing a welter of psychological and political tensions to boost the already deranged, doom-drenched atmosphere…

Law student Julie is daughter to one of the city’s most forthright and prestigious businessmen, but even Norman Madison is unable to maintain his pristine reputation and stay out of the greedy clutches of criminals like Sal Maroni and over-boss “The Roman” who truly owns Gotham.

The mob’s tendrils run deep into City Hall and the Police Department, and even maverick scientists like Professor Hugo Strange go to Sal when they need cash in a hurry with no questions asked: legitimate inquiries like “where are you getting your illegal medical supplies and chemicals?” and “why are you paying hush-money to attendants at Arkham Asylum?”…

But now a crazy vigilante dressed like a bat is hitting the gangsters hard and fast and often, stirring the entire dark metropolis into a cauldron of deadly nervous tension…

Julie doesn’t care: she’s far more interested in uncovering the intimate secrets of her new and so enigmatic boyfriend Bruce Wayne…

The brilliant Strange has abandoned his chosen field of psychology to improve mankind through genetic manipulation, but his experiments are so costly. Luckily for him, he has never been burdened by ethics or scruples, and Gotham’s streets and asylums are filled with derelicts nobody will ever miss…

He also regularly avails himself of Maroni’s high-end loan-sharking operation, but that is always a process fraught with peril and humiliation…

When a snooty debutante at a High Society shindig mocks the bald, short and myopic Strange – fruitlessly peddling his theories of genetic perfection to the idle rich in hopes of finding more enlightened sponsors than The Mob – she and her escort vanish later that night…

Police Captain Jim Gordon – rumoured to have a secret working relationship with the Bat vigilante – is assigned the case when her arm washes out of a sewer. It’s gnawed and clawed and covered in brutish animal hairs which prove to be human… sort of…

Strange’s frustrations mount when Maroni’s men pay a little social call to remind him his next repayment is due. He uses his latest setbacks, a trio of hulking hyper-thyroidal genetic failures with a taste for human flesh and hides immune to bullets, to avenge his honour and as a means of procuring the funds he’s lacking.

Following the thugs to a high stakes poker game, he and devoted lab assistant Sanjay simply let their manufactured brutes run amok and scoop up all the blood-soaked cash afterwards.

Maroni’s business is booming. Although deeply suspicious of the money Strange paid him back with, the loan-shark has no such problems with high and mighty Norman Madison, whose sudden business reversals have put him in the mobster’s pocket to the tune of 3 million untraceable, dirty dollars…

Elsewhere, Julie is becoming increasingly frustrated by Bruce Wayne’s inability to keep an appointment or even turn up for a date, and Jim Gordon wonders what to do with a car filled with bizarre, exotic bat-motif weaponry left behind after the Bat-Man’s latest explosive clash with criminals in the streets of Gotham…

The Dark Knight doesn’t care: he’s obsessed with this cannibal case which somehow links rich women with slaughtered underworld gamblers and the near-completion of a stupendous, purpose-built automobile that will be the acme of his arsenal against crime…

After Batman pays Maroni a midnight visit the loan-shark bolts for the countryside and The Roman’s private hideaway. Left in charge, his brutish lieutenant puts the screws to Norman Madison and triggers the start of a nervous breakdown in the ashamed, guilt-ridden business leader, even as Batman traces the monster-men to a hidden lab and is ambushed by Strange.

Drugged and thrown to the gargantuan monstrosities, the neophyte avenger faces his first battle with foes more and far less than human…

Battling with Herculean passion and demonic cunning, the Gotham Gangbuster barely escapes with his life and awakens in his own bed with Julie tending him. She clearly does not believe his hastily concocted explanations…

Hard on the heels of his ignominious defeat by the masked madman, Strange is visited by Maroni’s flunkies who wreck the lab but inspire an intriguing thought. The Batman was clearly a perfect genetic specimen, far better than the human detritus he has been working with. Moreover, in his escape the vigilante left plenty of blood and other genetic material for the experimenter to play with…

Gordon is under pressure too. New Police Commissioner Edward Grogan knows of his connection to the vigilante and is leaning on the only incorruptible cop on the force, but the Captain is not prepared to hand over the Batman – yet…

Things come to a head when Sal’s boys put the squeeze on Madison by threatening his daughter Julie whilst Strange, having modified a fourth macabre monster man with Batman’s DNA, sends them after Maroni, still sequestered at the Roman’s fortress-like estate…

By the time the vigilante arrives in his breathtaking new “Bat-mobile” the slaughter is in full swing with Maroni’s army of thugs smashed, scattered or eaten, and the terrified Norman moments from grisly death. However the bat-garbed creature of the night is even more formidable, trouncing the human thugs and bestial colossi with an astounding array of gadgets and devastating martial arts attacks.

With Maroni beaten and the hulking horrors put down, the Batman tells the shell-shocked businessman to go home, where all Madison can recall is that the grim, terrifying agent of justice knew his name…
© 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Batman & the Mad Monk
By Matt Wagner with Dave Stewart (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1281-0

The concluding volume of Matt Wagner’s reinterpretation of two of Batman’s earliest and most iconic triumphs features a classic duel with the Dark Knight’s most obvious antithesis.

A flamboyant, supernatural vampire to combat the grim, steely rationalism of this hero was an obvious conceit when Gardner Fox conceived it in 1939 (Detective Comics #31 and #32 – frequently reprinted as in Batman Chronicles Volume 1) and here Wagner proves that it still has great merit and impressive cachet.

Following on from Batman and the Monster Men with the sub-plot of Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend Julie Madison and her tragically flawed and rapidly destabilising father, this subtle blending of archetypal gothic fantasy and modern Goth sensibility saw a mysterious cult leader moving into the upper and lower echelons of Gotham society, recruiting thugs, seducing the glitterati and killing at a whim.

After losing a tussle with a slinky cat-garbed jewel thief, Batman, still bleeding, thrashes a quartet of cops intent on crippling honest Police Captain Jim Gordon. Elsewhere, former business leader Norman Madison is becoming a paranoid recluse, obsessed with bats and expunging his sins…

The bat vigilante has stumbled upon another bizarre case to distract him from his meticulous campaign to dismantle the criminal empire of Carmine Falcone – “The Roman” who has ruled Gotham for decades.

A serial killer is at work, draining men and women of all their blood…

Unknown to the broken financier, in the aftermath of the monster men attack Batman ordered Sal Maroni to stay away from the Madisons: a fact he neglected to share with the victims. Now when the shattered, repentant businessman tries to pay off the loan-shark, he is forcibly ejected. Dirty money and unexpiated guilt shredding his soul, Madison is driven to even greater acts of desperation…

Batman meanwhile is covertly working with Gotham DA Harvey Dent to bring down Falcone, but soon distracted by another bloodless corpse. His subsequent savage investigations uncover a new phenomenon: a cult called The Brotherhood of the Eternal Night which numbers Gotham’s richest citizens, worst criminals and even street level gang-bangers amongst its scarlet-robed ranks…

Soon Julie too has fallen under its sway. Seeking help for her clearly crazed father, she had consulted the organisation’s founder Niccolai Tepes, who swore he could grant her father peace. By the time she sees boyfriend Bruce again Julie is oddly distant and has two neat puncture marks in her neck…

Maroni is also in deep trouble. When he refused to take Madison’s money, Norman tried to give it directly to Falcone. Three million dollars is nothing to The Roman, but he hates anything that makes ripples or causes undue attention in his town…

Still in the first year of a mission to end evil in his beleaguered city, the keen-but-inexperienced Batman is at last forced to ignore his instincts and prejudices and simply accept the impossible facts. Gotham is threatened by a horror out of fairytales and the Batman must adapt his methodology to purge the insidious fiends sucking Gotham dry in both figurative and a most literal manner…

This is a spectacular, moody yarn; a magnificently illustrated clash between darkness and even greater supernal blackness, blending Batman’s signature iconography with the venerated gothic mythology of vampires, paying proper respect to the triumphs of the past whilst reverently refreshing them for the modern reader: a classic Batman that everybody can enjoy and should.

Solid, stylish story-telling make this and its companion chronicle an irresistible treat for old-timers and new fans alike.
© 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Heroes For Hire: Control


By Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Brad Walker, Robert Atkins, Andrew Hennessy, Rebecca Buchman, Sandu Florea & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5581-2

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 US government 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 to the bureaucratic vicissitudes of The Super-Human Registration Act.

The Avengers and Fantastic Four fragmented and, 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 the savage clash of ideologies, bionic detective Mercedes “Misty” Knight and her ninja partner Colleen Wing expanded their private detective agency, assembling a squad of costumed warriors to do some real good during the worst of times…

Knight and Wing – the Daughters of the Dragon – were former associates of Power Man & Iron Fist, and borrowed their old friends’ concept of Heroes for Hire to make a living apprehending metas who refused to comply with the SHRA.

However the new squad – ex-thief Black Cat, Kung Fu Master Shang-Chi, insect avatar Humbug, sadistic martial arts polymath Tarantula and super-mercenary Paladin – soon found themselves at odds with each other and 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, they lost a comrade – Atlantean powerhouse Orka -, credibility and the trust of all sides in the Civil War…

Dissent, betrayal and death dogged the ill-fated team and during the alien invasion dubbed World War Hulk, the horrific fates of Tarantula and Humbug acrimoniously split life-long friends Misty and Colleen, seemingly forever…

This collection, scripted by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning, gathers issues #1-5 of a new Heroes for Hire iteration from 2011 and also includes background material from X-Men: Curse of the Mutants Spotlight, taking the concept into intriguing new territory…

It all begins with ‘Are You For Hire?’ illustrated by Brad Walker & Andrew Hennessy, as, in the aftermath of the devastating crime-war Shadowland, Misty launches a mutual assistance bureau where individual champions can bank and trade favours, earn intelligence and yes, even sometimes get paid, by teaming up to deal with specific problems of a less than universe shaking nature…

Notionally available is every hero Misty knows and, by staying back and “maximising the potential of her address book”, she can do the most good as “Control”, directing whoever is best suited and ready for action on a case-by-case basis from her ultra-secret hidden location…

The first mission is to stop a truck full of Atlantean super-narcotics from reaching the city and track down the sadistically heartless entrepreneur behind the drug: a job demanding finesse and blockbusting firepower to equal degree.

Luckily Misty can call on The Falcon, Black Widow, Moon Knight and Elektra to see justice is done…

With the situation resolved, the temporary agents return to their lives utterly unaware – as is Misty herself – that Control is a helpless mind-slave of the insidious Puppet Master… The next objective is far less straightforward: Silver Sable, Paladin, Satana and the infernal Ghost Rider are deployed to take a shipment of unstoppable demonic guns and ammo off the streets, but never expected to clash with malignant mystic Baron Brimstone or be enthralled themselves by the infernal ‘Damnunition’…

However, amidst all the supernatural Shock and Awe, the ultra efficient, heartless mercenary Paladin begins to suspect something is not quite right with Misty…

Those doubts are compounded in ‘Trace Elements’ as Moon Knight is dispatched to liberate a shipment of trafficked girls with no history and stumbles onto a vice-lord abducting humans – and even dinosaurs – from the UN Antarctic preserve the Savage Land…

Paladin’s off-the-books investigations have meanwhile brought him into painful contact with Misty’s old boyfriend Iron Fist, and after the traditional Marvel male-bonding mayhem they call a truce and set out to find Control and learn what’s really going on…

Robert Adkins, Rebecca Buchman & Sandu Florea assume the artistic reins for ‘No Strings’ as a quick glimpse at Misty’s early life leads to the revelation that even the mesmerising Puppet Master has a secret boss. Control’s controllers, meanwhile, are increasingly battling her indomitable will to be free and resort to breaking her growing resistance by inflicting on Misty a terrifying hallucination of combat against all her masked friends and comrades.

The tactic backfires however and arouses the somnolent detective from her compliant, semi-comatose state. Instantly aware, she attacks the diminutive manipulator only to discover that Puppet Master’s other mind-slave is the terrifying Frank Castle…

The rocket-paced action-fest concludes with ‘Slay Misty for Me’ as the villain’s master-plan is revealed and a scheme to commandeer the consciousnesses of the entire metahuman community is exposed. With the enslaved Punisher murderously stalking Misty, Paladin and Iron Fist race to her rescue, but unfortunately standing in their way is every brain-locked hero she has ever employed since becoming Control…

With covers by Doug Braithwaite, Sonia Oback & Rob Schwager plus 7 variants by Walker, Harvey Talibao, Morry Hollowell & Greg Horn, this slim, seductive and extremely engaging suspense thriller also includes such extras as historical background in ‘Heroes For Hire Saga’ and ‘Reading Chronology’ and ends with a fact-file section reviewing 17 potential and prospective operatives in ‘Who Are the new Heroes For Hire?’

Superbly gritty, witty, funny, and impossibly appetising, Control is a comicbook confection will surely delight all older fans of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction.

© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Uninvited Guests


By Andi Watson, Dan Brereton, Hector Gomez & Sandu Florea (Dark Horse/Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-140-3

Having conquered television, Buffy the Vampire Slayer began a similar campaign with her monthly comicbook, launched in 1998 and offering smart, sassy tales which perfectly complimented the funny, action-packed and Tres Hip onscreen entertainment.

Following an original graphic novel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the Dust Waltz) the character quickly became a major draw for publisher Dark Horse – whose line of licensed comicbook successes included Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Aliens and Predator – and her solo exploits were substantially supplemented by many short stories in the company’s showcase anthology Dark Horse Presents and other venues.

This particular UK Titan Books edition – with depiction and delineation from Hector Gomez & Sandu Florea – features more stories set during TV Season 2 and collects issues #4-7 of the Dark Horse comicbook, scripted by Andi Watson who also provides an endearing illustrated Introduction before opening with a minor seasonal sensation…

‘White Christmas’ finds the Slayer strapped for cash and forced to work at the local Mall to make money for gifts and a new party dress.

However, as Sunnydale is situated on The Hellmouth and Buffy is a certified weirdness magnet, her shifts at The Popsicle Parlor inevitably lead to demon-denting overtime when she discovers her boss Mr. Richter spending all his idle moments in the Big Freezer summoning infuriating ice imps and giant killer Frost Elementals…

Having survived that cataclysmic Yule duel relatively unscathed, the Scooby Gang – Willow, Cordelia, Oz, Xander and Buffy – look forward to a ‘Happy New Year’ party, until dusty, crusty Lore Librarian (and Buffy’s supernature tutor) Giles discovers a gigantic hell-hound raiding his book stacks and the crazy kids are set hot on its heels.

The trail leads to doomed, damned lovers, a guiltily romantic triangle and an ancient curse from witch-haunted Salem before the savage crescendo almost ends Willow’s life…

Xander found himself obsessed with pretty transfer student Cynthia in ‘New Kid on the Block Part 1’ (co-written with Dan Brereton), with his pathetic, fawning, drooling attentions cruelly mocked by his best friends – and rightly so….

His infantile ardour is hardly halted when the girls decide to have a slumber party even though he’s not invited. Determined not to miss out (and certainly not creepy at all), the hapless idiot decides to sneak into the night of nail varnish, romcoms and pink pyjamas but is horrified to discover that he’s not the only intruder…

Buffy, exhausted from staking a new band of bloodsuckers plaguing the town, is almost too late to save the day in ‘New Kid on the Block Part 2’, but after driving off the monster party-crashers, confers with noble vampire boyfriend Angel and realises that even though able to move around in daylight, Cyn might not be all she seems…

With covers by Gomez, Randy Green, Rick Ketchum, Arthur Adams and Joyce Chin, this is a stunning, enchanting mix of post-ironic Archie Comics hijinks and madcap magical martial arts mysteries, this batch of early Buffy yarns are pure, light-hearted rollercoaster thrills, spills and chills no comics fan could resist

Uninvited Guests is an easily accessible romp even if you’re not familiar with the vast backstory: a creepy chronicle of short stirring sagas as easily enjoyed by the most callow neophyte as by any dedicated devotee.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ™ & © 1999 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Young Avengers: Style > Substance


By Keiron Gillen, Jaime McKelvie & Matthew Wilson with Mike Norton (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-560-4

In the aftermath of the blockbuster Avengers versus X-Men publishing event, the company-wide reboot MarvelNOW! began repositioning and recasting the universe in the ongoing, never-ending battle to keep old readers interested and pick up new ones – a problem increasingly affecting all publishers of print periodicals, not just comicbooks…

For the House of Ideas this meant a drastic reshuffle and rethink of key characters, concepts and brands and, since movie media darlings the Avengers are the most public of the company’s current super-successes, the “World’s Mightiest Heroes” understandably got the most impressive – and accessible – refit. Happily it also meant a fresh lease of life for some favourites who had been lost in the titanic turbulence of periodical publishing…

Collecting material from the anthological MarvelNOW! Point One and the first five issues of Young Avengers volume 2 (from January to May 2013), this enticingly quirky reconfiguration combines original team members Wiccan, Hulkling and Kate Bishop – AKA Hawkeye – with notional newcomers Noh-Varr (don’t call him Marvel Boy!), Miss America and a reincarnated child who used to be Loki, Asgardian god of Evil.

Following scripter Kieron Gillen’s explanatory and motivational Foreword, a prologue on another Earth introduces suave, smarmy and charming Kid Loki who tries to induce former associate America Chavez to travel to Earth-616 and kill retired Young Avenger Billy (Wiccan) Kaplan.

After Miss America gives the devious little toe-rag the sound super-thrashing he deserves and delivers a stern warning that she will be watching him, the boy-god simply moves to Plan B and advertises ‘Wanted: Young Avengers’…

Illustrated throughout by Jaime McKelvie – assisted by Mike Norton and colourist Matthew Wilson – the series proper opens on “Earth-Earth” (that’s 616, right?) with ‘Style > Substance’ as new young lovers Kate Bishop and trans-dimensional Kree warrior Noh-Varr bask in a rosy glow in his luxurious spaceship, whilst in New York Billy Kaplan realise his boyfriend has been cheating on him.

Not sex though: teenaged shape-shifting Skrull Teddy Altman has been secretly sneaking around fighting crime, even after the lovers both swore to never be superheroes again…

After all they have a good life now: Billy’s so-cool parents even let them share a bed in the family home.

After a painful heart-to-heart talk, Wiccan decides to use his incredible reality-warping powers to do something nice for his lonely, orphaned alien boyfriend and probes the infinite multiverse to find Teddy’s beloved, deceased foster-mother – or at least the closest thing to her… and inadvertently triggers the end of creation.

Close by, Miss America is still watching Loki, but soon realises that maybe this time the Trickster might have been on the up and up…

Billy and Teddy are still oblivious to the threat in ‘DYS’ as “Mrs. Altman” settles into her new existence. She is in fact a cosmic parasite: appropriating and controlling living parents and even capable of resurrecting utterly compliant dead mums and dads…

The awful truth emerges when “she” lays down new ground rules for the boys and Wiccan is unable to send the protoplasmic horror back…

Frantically fleeing they head for Avengers Mansion only to find “Mother” already there, proving to the awesome assemblage that she truly does know best before sending the boys to their room in an antiseptic dungeon dimension.

With the maternal atrocity loose, Kid Loki has moved on with Plan B. After rescuing Hulkling and Wiccan he attempts to recruit them, but the distrustful pair instead subdue him and drag the Trickster to Asgardia (currently located in Broxton, Oklahoma) where adult Norse Gods can hopefully take control of the situation.

Sadly Mother is everywhere now and the teens are ignored by the Asgardians but not the resurrected giant Laufey – Loki’s cannibalistic and extremely angry biological father…

Mercifully ever vigilant, Miss America hurtles to the rescue in ‘Parent Teacher Disorganization’ only to have her own dead and cosmically scattered matrons both appear to admonish and belittle her. In a blink Loki teleports the kids back to New York for a brief period of catching-up and temporary truces, whilst Wiccan tries to contact the only really competent teenager he knows.

Kate however is unavailable and merely sends him odd text messages…

Loki has a potential solution but nobody likes it. All he needs to do is “borrow” Wiccan’s ability to Control And Reshape All Reality for ten minutes…

Before he can convince them, the assorted enslaved and reconstituted super-parents appear with Mother and overwhelm the rebellious kids just as Hawkeye and Noh-Varr show up in ‘Deus Ex Machine Gunner’, spectacularly busting everybody loose as an army of enraptured adults and reborn zombie parents converge on the kids. Retrenching, the troubled teens prepare to make their last stand in Central Park…

With the end in sight Wiccan agrees to Loki’s terms and transfers his power in ‘The Art of Saving the World’. To the astonishment of all concerned it works and Loki honours his end of the deal.

Not as anybody expected, however, and in the aftermath the weary teens find themselves bound together in an inescapable manner and forced to leave behind everything they knew and begin a life of nomadic wandering…

As yet this corner of the World’s Mightiest superhero sub-set (the others being plain old Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, Avengers Arena, New Avengers, Secret Avengers and Avengers Assemble) are all alone on the fringes but I’m sure there will be crossover madness ahead …

Fun, frantic and ferociously thrilling superhero magic that will delight every fan of Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy, this book includes a stupendous, sublime and expansive covers-and-variants gallery: eleven superbly playful images by McKelvie & Wilson, Bryan Lee O’Malley & Nathan Fairbairn, Skottie Young, David LaFeunte, Jim Cheung, Stephanie Hans & Tradd Moore,

There are also selections of extra content for tech-savvy consumers in the form of the now-standard added extras provided by AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which give access to story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.
™ & © 2013 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Superman/Batman: Public Enemies

New Revised Review

By Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness & Dexter Vines (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0323-8 (hardback)           978-1-4012-0220-0 (paperback)

For many years Superman and Batman worked together as the “World’s Finest” team. They were best friends and the pairing made perfect financial sense as National/DC’s most popular heroes could cross-sell their combined readerships.

When the characters were redefined for the post-Crisis 1980s, they were remade as suspiciously respectful co-workers who did the same job but deplored each other’s methods and preferred to avoid contact whenever possible – except when they were in the Justice League (but for the sake of your sanity don’t fret that right now!).

After a few years of this new status quo the irresistible lure of Cape & Cowl Capers inexorably brought them together again with modern emotional intensity derived from their incontestably differing methods and characters.

In this rocket-paced, post-modern take on the relationship, they have reformed as firm friends for the style-over-content 21st century, and this is the story of their first outing together. Outlawed and hunted by their fellow heroes, Superman finds himself accused of directing a continent-sized chunk of Kryptonite to crash into Earth, with Batman accused of aiding and abetting…

To save Superman, the world and their own reputations they are forced to attempt the overthrow of the United States President himself. Of course said President is the unspeakably evil Lex Luthor…

I deeply disliked this tale when I first read it: Plot is reduced to an absolute minimum in favour of showy set-pieces, previously established characterisation often hostage to whatever seems the easiest way to short-cut to action (mortal foes Captain Atom and Major Force work together to capture our heroes because President Luthor tells them to?) but after nearly a decade it’s worth another look and I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve changed my opinion somewhat…

Collecting the first six issues of hip reboot Superman/Batman #1-6 and a vignette from Superman/Batman Secret Files 2003, October 3003-March 2004, it all begins with ‘When Clark met Bruce’ (“A tale from the days of Smallville”) from the latter.

In the bucolic 2-page snippet, Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale effectively tease us with the question of what might have been, had the go happy-go-lucky Kent boy actually got to have a play-date with that morose, recently orphaned rich kid from Gotham City…

The main attraction – illustrated by Ed McGuiness & Dexter Vines – opens years later with ‘World’s Finest’ as the Dark and Light Knights follow telling leads in separate cases back to shape-shifting cyborg John (Metallo) Corben, discovering the ruthless killer might have been the at-large-for-decades shooter in the still unsolved double murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne…

Even that bombshell seems inconsequential after the mechanoid monster shoots Superman in the chest with a kryptonite bullet before burying the stunned duo under tons of Earth in a Gotham graveyard…

Meanwhile at the Pentagon, President Lex is informed that a toxically radioactive lump of Krypton the size of Australia is on a collision course with Earth. Implausibly adopting the line that Superman has summoned it, the Federal Government issues an arrest warrant for the Man of Steel and convenes a metahuman taskforce to bring him in…

Escaping certain doom thanks to Batman’s skill and unflappable nerve, the blithely unaware heroes reach medical help in the Batcave in ‘Early Warning’ only to be attacked by an older version of Superman, determined to prevent them making a mistake that will end life on Earth…

After a massive nuclear strike (somehow augmented by embargoed Boom Tube technology from hell-world Apokolips), Luthor overrules Captain Atom’s qualms about his mission and orders his anti-superman squad to apprehend their target wherever he might be hiding. The President then goes on television to blame the alien for the impending meteor strike and announces a billion dollar Federal bounty on the Action Ace…

Man of Tomorrow and Man of Darknight Detective respond by direct assault in ‘Running Wild’, hurtling towards Washington DC only to be ambushed en route by a greed-crazed army of super-villains and mind-controlled heroes before Atom’s group – Green Lantern John Stewart, Black Lightning, Katana, Starfire, Power Girl and certified quantum psychopath Major Force – join the attack…

As the combatants ‘Battle On’, in the Oval Office even fanatical civil servant Amanda Waller – commander of covert Penal Battalion the Suicide Squad – begins to realise something is wrong with the President. For a start, his behaviour is increasingly erratic, but the real clue is that he is juicing himself with a kryptonite-modified version of super-steroid venom…

The blistering battle between the outlawed heroes and Atom’s unit extends as far as Japan, (where the Cape & Cowl Crusaders are secretly organising a last-ditch solution to the imminent Kryptonite continent crash) before Major Force begins to smell a rat and realises some of his team are actually working with Superman and Batman.

Military-martinet Captain Atom is not one of them, but eventually even he is made to see reason – only moments before the deranged Major goes ballistic and nearly turns Tokyo to ashes…

Using his energy-absorbing powers Atom prevents the holocaust, but the monumental radiation release triggers his “temporal safety-valve” and the silver-skinned soldier materialises in a future where Earth is a barren cinder where only an aged, tragic, broken Superman resides…

Meanwhile in the present, the Presidential Pandemonium has prompted the venerable Justice Society of America to step in; despatching Captain Marvel and Hawkman to apprehend the fugitive Superman and Batman.

Apparently successful, the operation triggers a back-up team (Supergirl, Nightwing, Superboy, Steel, Natasha Irons, Robin, Huntress, Batgirl and even Krypto) who invade the White House only to be defeated by Luthor himself, high on K-venom and utilising Apokolyptian technology in ‘State of Siege’…

With extinction only moments away and a deranged President Luthor on the loose, Superman and Batman prepare to employ their eleventh-hour suicidal salvation machine but are caught off-guard when a most unexpected substitute ambushes them to pilot the crucial mission in ‘Final Countdown’…

This chronicle also includes a dozen covers and variants plus 5 pages of roughs and design sketches by McGuiness & Vines.

In so many ways this compilation is everything I hate about modern comics. The story length is artificially extended to accommodate lots of guest stars and superfluous fighting, whilst large amounts of narrative occur off-camera or between issues, presumably to facilitate a faster, smoother read.

On the plus side however is the fact that I’m an old fart. There is clearly a market for such snazzy-looking, souped-up, stripped down, practically deconstructed comic fare. And if I’m being completely honest, there is a certain fizz and frisson to non-stop, superficial all-out action – especially when it’s so dynamically illustrated.

Public Enemies looks very good indeed and, if much of the scenario is obvious and predictable, it is big and immediate and glossy like a summer blockbuster movie is supposed to be.

Perhaps there’s room enough for those alongside the Hergés, Eisners, Crumbs, Gaimans, assorted Moores and Hernandezes…

© 2003, 2004 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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Doctor Strange: Season One


By Greg Pak & Emma Rios, with Alvaro Lopez, plus Matt Fraction, Terry Dodson & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6387-9

Much as I’d love to believe otherwise, I know that the Cold War, transistor radio, pre-cellphone masterpieces of my youth are often impenetrable to younger fans – even when drawn by Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Bill Everett or Don Heck.

Radical perpetual change – or at least the appearance of such – is the irresistible force driving modern comics. There must be a constant changing of the guard, a shifting of scene and milieu and, in latter times, a regular diet of death, resurrection and rebirth – all grounded in relatively contemporary terms and situations.

Even for relatively minor or secondary stars the process is inescapable, with increasing supra-comicbook media adjuncts (film, TV, games, etc.) dictating that subjects be perpetually updated because the goldfish-minded readers of today apparently can’t understand or remember anything that’s more than a week old.

Alternatively, one could argue that for popular characters or concepts with a fifty-year pedigree, all that history can be a readership-daunting deterrence, so radical reboots are a painful but vital periodic necessity…

Publishing ain’t no democracy, however, so it’s comforting to realise that many of these retrofits are exceptionally good comics tales in their own right and anyway, the editors can call always claim that it was an “alternate Earth” story the next time the debut saga is modernised…

Released in 2012, Doctor Strange: Season One was the fifth all-new graphic novel in a hardback series designed to renovate, modify and update classic origin epics (following Fantastic Four, X-Men, Daredevil and Spider-Man) and, despite clearly being intended as story-bibles for newer, movie-oriented fans and readers, mostly managed to add a little something to the immortal but hopelessly time-locked tales.

Once upon a time Steven Strange was America’s greatest surgeon, a brilliant man, yet vain and arrogant, caring nothing for the sick, except as a means to wealth and glory. When a self-inflicted drunken car-crash mangled his hands and ended his career, the arrogant Strange hit the skids, big time.

Then, fallen as low as man ever could, the debased doctor overheard a barroom tale which led him on a delirious odyssey – or perhaps pilgrimage – to Tibet, where an impossibly aged mage and eventual enlightenment through daily redemption transformed the derelict into a solitary, ever-vigilant watchdog for frail humanity against all the hidden dangers of the dark. Now he battles otherworldly evil as a Sorcerer Supreme, a veritable Master of the Mystic arts…

Putatively set in the period following his automotive Armageddon, this fast-paced mystic buddy-movie traces Strange’s first days and months under the tutelage of the puissant Ancient One and, after exposing the perfidy of senior disciple Mordo, his quest to prove himself worthy of the exalted station and inner peace he sought.

Still plagued with the tantalising dream of healing his shattered hands, regaining his status as a superstar surgeon and resuming his life of glamorous, sybaritic luxury, Strange struggles to master the most basic disciplines of magic, constantly competing with fellow postulant Wong – a flashy, smart-mouthed martial artist and life-long devotee of the cult of Kamar-Taj – the Ancient One’s mysterious homeland.

Because the students despise each other so vehemently their aged guru forces them to train together…

Their tempestuous cloistered life is soon shattered: first by a demonic assault and subsequently by the arrival of museum curator Sofia di Cosimo, who has discovered that three antique rings scattered around the world have the power to compel and command the astounding might of the hallowed trinity of gods known by sorcerers as the Vishanti. Whoever holds the rings has ultimate power in their hands, and someone very bad is obviously trying to find them…

When the Ancient One refuses to aid Sofia, Wong and Stephen sneak away with her, determined to save their complacent master and unsuspecting mankind from appalling horror…

And thus begins a smart, sharp and extremely engaging quest that takes the fledgling heroes to a corrupt politician in Salem, Massachusetts, a modern-day saint in the slums of Cairo, and a mad old biddy in the British Museum, all the while dodging demonic assaults, escaping angry, disdainful deities, foiling arch-foes and slowly becoming the people Earth needs them to be…

Also included in this attractive and compelling hardback is the tantalising first chapter of the then-new Defenders comicbook title wherein Strange, Sub-Mariner, Red She-Hulk, Silver Surfer and Iron Fist reluctantly reunite to help the Hulk destroy his eldritch antithesis in ‘Breaker of Worlds part 1: I Hate Myself and Want to Die’, by Matt Fraction, Terry & Rachel Dodson.

Be Warned: the tale is extremely addictive but concludes elsewhere…

Also included are nine pages of design sketches and many examples of the art production process from pencils through inks and beyond by Rios, making this a superbly enticing and entertaining package for both newcomers and returning readers alike.
© 2011 and 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Showcase Presents World’s Finest Comics volume 4


By Cary Bates, Bob Haney, Robert Kanigher, Denny O’Neil, Mike Friedrich, Curt Swan, Ross Andru, Dick Dillin, Mike Esposito & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3736-3

For decades Superman and Batman were quintessential superhero partners: the “World’s Finest team”. The affable champions were best buddies as well as mutually respectful colleagues, and their pairing made sound financial sense since DC’s top heroes could happily cross-pollinate and cross-sell their combined readerships.

This fourth mighty monochrome compendium re-presents the cataclysmic collaborations from the dog days of the 1960’s into the turbulent decade beyond (World’s Finest Comics #174-202, spanning March 1968 to May 1971), as radical shifts in America’s tastes and cultural landscape created such a hunger for more mature and socially relevant stories that even the Cape and Cowl Crusaders were affected – so much so in fact, that the partnership was temporarily suspended: sidelined so that Superman could guest-star with other icons of the DC universe.

However, after a couple of years, the relationship was revitalised and renewed with the World’s Finest Heroes fully restored to their bizarrely apt pre-eminence for another lengthy run until the title was cancelled in the build-up to Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986.

The increasingly grim escapades begin with ‘Secret of the Double Death-Wish!’ by Cary Bates, Pete Costanza & Jack Abel from #174 (cover-dated March 1968, so actually the last issue of 1967) wherein mysterious voyeurs seemingly kidnap the indomitable heroes and psychologically crush their spirits such that they beg for death.

Smart and devious, this conundrum was definitely old-school but the New Year saw subtle changes as, post-Batman TV show, the industry experienced superheroes waning in favour of war, western and especially supernatural themes and genres.

Thus 1968 saw radical editorial shifts to National/DC and edgier stories of the costumed Boy Scouts began to appear. Iconoclastic penciller Neal Adams first started turning heads and making waves with his stunning covers and a couple of spectacularly gripping Cape & Cowl capers in WFC beginning with ‘The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads!’, scripted by Leo Dorfman and inked by Dick from World’s Finest Comics #175.

The story detailed how the annual contest of wits between the crimebusters was infiltrated by alien and Terran criminal alliances intent on killing their foes whilst they were off guard.

Issue #176 then featured a beguiling thriller in ‘The Superman-Batman Split!’ by Bates, Adams & Giordano. Ostensibly just another alien mystery yarn, this twisty little gem has a surprise ending for all and guest stars Robin, Jimmy Olsen, Supergirl and Batgirl, with the artists’ hyper-dynamic realism lending an aura of solid credibility to even the most fanciful situations, and ushering in an era of gritty veracity to replace the previously anodyne and frequently frivolous Costumed Dramas.

Jim Shooter, Curt Swan & Mike Esposito also edged (but just slightly) towards constructive realism with #177’s ‘Duel of the Crime Kings!’ as Lex Luthor again joined forces with the Joker. This go-round the dastardly duo used time-busting technology to recruit Benedict Arnold, Baron Hieronymus Carl Friedrich von Munchausen and Leonardo Da Vinci to plan crimes for them, only to then fall foul of the temporally displaced persons’ own unique agendas…

WFC #178 began a 2-part Imaginary Tale with ‘The Has-Been Superman!’ (Bates, Swan & Abel) which saw the Man of Steel lose his Kryptonian powers and subsequently struggle to continue his career as a Batman-style masked crimebuster dubbed Nova. More determined than competent, he soon fell under the influence of criminal mastermind Mr. Socrates and wound up brainwashed and programmed to assassinate the Gotham Guardian…

The moody suspense saga was interrupted by #179 – a regularly scheduled, all-reprint 80-Page Giant featuring early tales of the team’s formative years and represented in this collection by its striking Adams cover – before the alternate epic concluded in #180 with the gripping ‘Superman’s Perfect Crime!’ by Bates and new regular art team Ross Andru & Esposito…

During the late 1950s when the company’s editors cautiously expanded the characters’ continuities, they learned that each new tale was an event which added to a nigh-sacred canon, and that what was printed was deeply important to the readers – but no “ideas man” would let all that aggregated “history” stifle a good plot situation or sales generating cover.

Thus “Imaginary Stories” were conceived as a way of exploring non-continuity plots and scenarios, devised at a time when editors knew that entertainment trumped consistency and fervently believed that every comic read was somebody’s first and – unless they were very careful – potentially their last…

Bates,  Andru & Esposito also crafted #181’s ‘The Hunter and the Hunted’ wherein an impossibly powerful being from far away in space and time relentlessly pursued and then whisked away the heroes to a world where they were revered as the fathers of the race, whilst in the next issue ‘The Mad Manhunter!’ depicted a suspenseful shocker which found Batman routinely rampaging like a madman due to a curse. Naturally, what seemed was far from what actually was…

Another massive con-trick underscored #183’s Dorfman-scripted drama as apes from the future accused the Man of Steel of committing ‘Superman’s Crime of the Ages!’ and Batman and Robin had to arrest their greatest ally…

In WFC #184 Bates, Swan & Abel concocted another bombastic Imaginary Tale which revealed ‘Robin’s Revenge!’, tracing the troubled sidekick’s progress after Batman was murdered and with Superman powerless to assuage the Boy Wonder’s growing obsession with revenge…

Robert Kanigher joined his old collaborators Andru & Esposito from #185 onwards, detailing the bizarre story of the ‘The Galactic Gamblers!’ who press-ganged Superman, Batman, Robin and Jimmy to their distant world to act as living stakes and game-pieces in their gladiatorial games of chance, before taking the heroes on a time-tossed 2-part supernatural thriller.

In #186 stories regarding Batman’s Colonial ancestor “Mad Anthony Wayne” prompted the heroes to travel back to the War of Independence where the Dark Knight was accused of deviltry as ‘The Bat Witch!’ and sentenced to death. Of course, it’s actually the Action Ace who was possessed and became ‘The Demon Superman!’ before all logic and sanity were restored by exorcism and judicious force of arms…

After the cover to World’s Finest #188 – another reprint Giant – Bates returned in #189 with a still shocking 2-parter beginning in ‘The Man with Superman’s Heart!’ as the Caped Kryptonian crashed to Earth from space and was pronounced Dead On Arrival.

As per his wishes many of his organs were harvested (this was 1969 and still speculative fiction then) and bequeathed to worthy recipients.

When Batman refused to accept any, Superman’s Eyes, Ears, Lungs, Heart and Hands (yes, I know – just go with it) were simply stored – until Luthor stole them and auctioned them to gangland’s highest bidders…

In the concluding episode, ‘The Final Revenge of Luthor!’ saw a combine of crooks running wild with the transplants bestowing mighty powers Batman and Robin could not combat, but the whole mess had a logical – if astonishingly callous – explanation, and the real Man of Steel soon appeared to save the day…

Bates, Andru & Esposito then explored ‘Execution on Krypton!’ in WFC #191, as impossible events on Earth led Superman (and Batman) back to Krypton before he was born to discover how his sainted parents Jor-El and Lara became radicalised college lecturers, and why they were teaching their students all the subversive tricks revolutionaries needed to know…

Bob Haney then joined Andru & Esposito from #192 for a dark, Cold War suspense thriller as Superman was captured by the Communist rulers of Lubania and held in ‘The Prison of No Escape!’ When Batman tried to bust him out, he too was arrested and charged with spying by sadistic Colonel Koslov, who utilised all his brainwashing techniques to achieve ‘The Breaking of Superman and Batman!’ in the next issue. However, the vile totalitarian’s torturous treatment disguised an insidious master-plan which the World’s Finest almost failed to foil…

The popular public response to Mario Puzo’s phenomenal novel The Godfather most likely influenced Haney, Andru & Esposito’s next convoluted 2-parter. Issue #194 took Superman and Batman undercover ‘Inside the Mafia Gang!’ to dismantle the organisation of “Big Uncle” Alonzo Scarns from within.

Sadly a head wound muddled the Gotham Gangbuster’s memory and Batman began believing he was actually the Capo di Capo Tutti, condemning Robin and Jimmy to ‘Dig Now, Die Later!’ Helplessly watching, Superman was almost relieved when the real Scarns showed up…

An era ended with #196 as ‘The Kryptonite Express!’ (Haney, Swan & George Roussos) detailed how a massive meteor shower bombarded America with tons of the deadly green mineral. After most decent citizens gathered up the Green K, a special train was laid on to collect it all and ship it to a place where it could be safely disposed of, and Superman was ordered to stay well away whilst Batman took charge of the FBI operation.

They had no idea that master racketeer and railway fanatic K.C. Jones had plans for the shipment and a guy on the inside…

After #197 – another all-reprint Superman/Batman Giant – a new era began as the Fastest Man Alive teamed up with the Man of Tomorrow.

DC Editors in the 1960s generally avoided questions like who’s best/strongest/fastest for fear of upsetting some portion of their tenuous and perhaps temporary fan-base, but as the superhero tide turned and the upstart Marvel Comics began making serious inroads into their market, the notion of a definitive race between the almighty Man of Steel and the Scarlet Speedster became an increasingly enticing and sales-worthy proposition.

They had raced twice before (Superman #199 and Flash #175 – August and December 1967) with the result deliberately fudged each time, but when they met for a third round a definitive conclusion was promised – but please remember it’s not about the winning, but only the taking part…

When World’s Finest became a team-up vehicle for Superman, the Flash again found himself in speedy if contrived competition. ‘Race to Save the Universe!’ and its conclusion ‘Race to Save Time!’ (#198-199, November and December 1970, by Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella) upped the stakes as the high-speed heroes were conscripted by the Guardians of the Universe to circumnavigate the cosmos at their greatest velocities to undo the rampage of the mysterious Anachronids, faster-than-light creatures whose pell-mell course throughout creation was actually unwinding time itself.

Little did anybody suspect that Superman’s oldest enemies were behind the entire appalling scheme…

In the anniversary issue #200, Mike Friedrich, Dillin & Giella focussed on brawling brothers on opposite sides of the teen college scene who were abducted with unruly youth icon Robin and “Mr. Establishment” Superman to a distant planet where undying vampiric aliens waged eternal war on each other in ‘Prisoners of the Immortal World!’ Green Lantern then popped in for #201 contesting ‘A Prize of Peril!’ (O’Neil, Dillin & Giella) which would give either Emerald Gladiator or Man of Steel sole jurisdiction of Earth’s skies, and Batman returned for a limited engagement in #202.

The final tale in this compilation, ‘Vengeance of the Tomb-Thing!’ by O’Neil, Dillin & Giella, saw archaeologists unearth something horrific in Egypt as Superman seemingly went mad and attacked his greatest friends and allies. A superb ecological scare-story, this tale changed the Man of Tomorrow’s life forever…

These are gloriously smart, increasingly mature comicbook adventures whose dazzling, timeless style has informed the evolution of two media megastars, and they still have the power and punch to enthral even today’s jaded seen it-all audiences.

The contents of this titanic team-up tome are a veritable feast of witty, gritty, pretty thrillers packing as much punch and wonder now as they always have. Utterly entrancing adventure for fans of all ages!
© 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Complete Crumb Comics volume 5: Happy Hippy Comix – New Edition


By R. Crumb & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-0-930193-92-8

This book contains really clever and outrageously dirty pictures, rude words, non-condemnatory drug references and allusions, apparent racism, definite sexism, godless questioning of authority and brilliantly illustrated, highly moving personal accounts and opinions.

If you – or those legally responsible for you – have a problem with that, please skip this review and don’t buy the book.

Really. I’m not kidding…

Robert Crumb is a unique creative force in comics and cartooning, with as many detractors as devotees. His uncompromising, excoriating, neurotic introspections, his pictorial rants and invectives, unceasingly picked away at societal scabs and peeked behind forbidden curtains for his own benefit, but he has always happily shared his unwholesome discoveries with anybody who takes the time to look…

In 1987 Fantagraphics Books began the nigh-impossible task of collating, collecting and publishing the chronological totality of the artist’s vast output and those critically important volumes are now being reissued.

The son of a career soldier, Robert Dennis Crumb was born in Philadelphia in 1943 into a functionally broken family. He was one of five kids who all found different ways to escape their parents’ highly volatile problems, and comic strips were paramount among them.

As had his older brother Charles, Robert immersed himself in the comics and cartoons of the day; not just reading but creating his own. Harvey Kurtzman, Carl Barks and John Stanley were particularly influential, but also comic strip masters such as E.C. Segar, Gene Ahern, Rube Goldberg, Bud (Mutt and Jeff) Fisher, Billy (Barney Google), De Beck, George (Sad Sack) Baker and Sidney (The Gumps) Smith, as well as illustrators like C.E. Brock and the wildly imaginative and surreal 1930’s Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts.

Defensive, introspective and always compulsively driven, young Robert pursued art and self-control through religion with equal desperation. His early spiritual repression and flagrant, hubristic celibacy warred with his body’s growing needs…

From this point onwards, the varied and exponentially impressive breadth of Crumb’s output becomes increasingly riddled with his often hard-to-embrace themes and declamatory, potentially offensive visual vocabulary as his strips grope towards the creator’s long-sought personal artistic apotheosis, and this third volume covers material created and published between 1960-1966 as the self-tormented artist began to find a popular following in a strangely changing world.

Escaping his stormy early life, he married young and began working in-house at the American Greeting Cards Company. He discovered like minds in the growing counterculture movement and discovered LSD. By 1967 Crumb had moved to California and became an early star of Underground Commix. As such he found plenty of willing hippie chicks to assuage his fevered mind and hormonal body whilst reinventing the very nature of cartooning with such creations as Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat, Devil Girl and a host of others. It is from this period that the engrossing, amazing and still shocking strips in this book stem…

He worked on in what was essentially a creative utopia throughout the early 1970’s but the alternative lifestyle of the Underground was already dying. Soon it would disappear: dissipated, disillusioned, dropped back “in” or demised. A few truly dedicated publishers and artists stayed the course, publishing on a far more businesslike footing as Crumb carried on creating, splitting his time between personal material and commercial art projects whilst incessantly probing deeper into his turbulent inner world.

This particular collection covers the period when the insular, isolated Crumb first began to make a name for himself with a flood of gags, posters, commercial art jobs, short strips and longer material popping up seemingly everywhere. All are faithfully reproduced in this compilation – which makes for a rather dry listing here, I’m afraid – but (trust me) the pictorial output is both engrossing and legendary.

Actually, don’t trust me: buy the book and see for yourselves…

After a photo and cartoon-stuffed (from 1968 sketchbooks) Introduction from the old scallywag himself, praising the effects of mind-altering chemicals and recalling the first heady days of Counter-Culture celebrity, the wave of visual excess and literary freewheeling begins with ‘The Old Pooperoo Pauses to Ponder’: a baroque procession of his fun-loving characters rounded off with a micro strip at the bottom, revealing Eggs Ackley’s opinion that ‘This Kid’s a Scream!’, after which Mr. Natural, Angelfood McSpade and all the rest are reassured that ‘You’re Gonna Get There Anyway’ (all from East Village Other December 1-16, 1967).

Next ‘Mr. Natural, the Man from Affiganistan’ shares more timeless wisdom with resident curious “Straight” Flakey Foont (EVO December 15-30 1968), after which a rush of shorts from EVO January 12-17 begins.

‘Sky-Hi Comics’, ‘Then on the Other Hand…’ are followed by ‘Nuttin’ but Nuttin’, ‘Here She Comes! It’s Hippy!’ and ‘Junior High & his Sidekick Judy Holiday’ from the January 19-25 edition whilst ‘Those Cute Little Bearzy Wearzies/George Gwaltny’ (EVO January 26-February 1 1968) precedes Natural’s inevitable return to act as guru to ‘Schuman the Human’ from EVO February 9-15th.

The Wise one continues in revelatory style when ‘Mr. Natural Meets God’ (supplemented by) ‘Gail Snail and The Walkie Talkies’ from EVO February 16-22, whilst the next weekly issue described how ‘Mr. Natural Gets the Bum’s Rush’, and Schuman declared ‘Let’s Be Honest’ before Crumb confronted the period’s racism head on with customary shocking frankness in ‘Mr. Natural Repents’, ‘Hey, Mom!’ and attendant strip ‘Let’s Have Nigger Hearts For Lunch’ (EVO March 1-7 1968).

Zap #2 June 1968, then provided wry ‘Hamburger Hi-Jinx’ with Cheezis K. Reist and shockingly introduced iconic Bête Noir ‘Angelfood McSpade’ before closing with a warning to avoid cheap imitations from ‘Mr. Natural’.

Bijou #1, from Summer 1968, then supplies a wealth of intriguing, astonishing fare leading with ‘Neato Keano Time!’ before ‘The Big Little Boy’ and ‘Bo Bo Bolinski, He’s a Clown!’ went through their paces. Following that ‘Mr. Spiff’ makes a call and ‘Here They Are! Puppets of your favourite cartoon characters!’ provides paper-dolls of Angelfood and Mr. Natural. The harsh, ironic hilarity all ends with a laidback Bijou Funnies Ad…

The inescapably controversial Ms. McSpade and friends then cropped up in ‘All Asshole Comics’ (Chicago Seed, July 1968), after which covers for ‘Nope #6’ and ‘Nope #7’ (both 1968) are followed here by ‘The Zap Show’ – a captivating art jam with Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso & S. Clay Wilson.

A ‘Fritz the Cat title page’ then acts as prologue to an outrageous tale of student terrorism and teen licentiousness in ‘Fritz the No-Good’ (taken from Cavalier, September/October 1968), after which you’ll need to rotate the book to be shocked by the interiors of digest-sized Snatch #1 (October 1968): rude and raunchy spoofs such as ‘The Adventures of Andy Hard-on’, ‘Krude Cut-Ups’ and ‘The Fight’ plus assorted gags like ‘Jailbait of the Month’, ‘Hi, Swingers’ and much more…

A rather lovely ‘Janis Joplin: original cover for Cheap Thrills‘ (1968) is followed by

‘The Phonus Balonus Blues’ and ‘Where the Action Isn’t’ (EVO September 27 1968) as well as the cover of that issue – ‘Can the Mind Know it?’

From the October 11 issue of East Village Other comes a barrage of strips: ‘Sleezy Snot Comics’, ‘Mr. Natural’, ‘Booger Buddies’ and more plus an ‘Ad for Head Comix’ whilst the October 18th edition provided both ‘Angelfood McSpade’ and ‘Cum Comix’, and October 25th a ‘Mr. Natural, disguised as a vacuum cleaner salesman, talks to the Housewives of America’ cover.

‘Edgar and Maryjane Crump’ and ‘Crime in the Streets’ both originated in EVO November 1) after which an ‘alternate cover for Zap #3′ segues into the infamous ‘Dirty Dog’ strip from Zap #3 (December 1968).

That underground classic also premiered ‘Mr. Goodbar “Off his Rocker”’, an astounding

‘Atomic Comics Jam’ with S. Clay Wilson, Gilbert Shelton, Victor Moscoso & Rick Griffin, grotesque shorts ‘Let’s Eat’ and ‘Mr. Natural’, ‘Hairy’ and ‘Street Corner Daze.’

Another digest-sized landscape section next reproduces the XXX-rated contents of ‘Snatch #2′ (January 1969) including ‘Look Out Girls!! The Grabbies are Coming’, ‘Down on the Farm’, ‘The Family that Lays Together Stays Together’ and far more before an ‘ad for San Francisco Comic Book Company’ from Bogeyman #2, 1969, leads seamlessly into ‘Don’t Gag On It… Goof On It!’ (Gothic Blimp Works, Ltd. #1, March 1969).

The April 1969 ‘cover for Creem #2′ precedes a stunning spoof of Romance comics with ‘The Bleeding Heart Syndrome’ (Tales from the Ozone #1, 1969) before ‘Shoo Shoo Baby’ and ‘The Pricksters’ (GBW #2, 1969) suspends the black and white barrage to briefly usher in a spectacular ‘Color Section’…

The polychromatic madness begins with ‘Head Comix covers’ (front and back and 1968), keeping up the pressure with the ‘Zap Comix #2 covers’ from December, as well as a ‘Fritz the Cat cover’, the ‘Cheap Thrills’ record cover for Big Brother and the Holding Company and the December 1968 ‘Snatch #1 covers’.

The ribald rainbows end with ‘Snatch #2 covers’ (January 1969) before ‘Flower Children on Broadway’ from Bijou #2 (1969) return us to monochrome merriment, ‘Nutsboy’ (Bogeyman #2, 1969) presages today’s teen obsession with “Slasher-flicks” and ‘Mr. Know-It-All and his pal Diz in What the Fuck’ (with S. Clay Wilson from GBW #3, 1969) continues the dark and bloody mood.

This landmark compilation concludes with Crumb’s contributions to Motor City #1 (April 1969) starting with ultra-independent femme fatal ‘Lenore Goldberg and her Girl Commandos’, after which cool dude ‘The Inimitable Boingy Baxter’ turns Detroit on its head, and mini-mystic Savannah Foomo explores reality with ordinary folk and ‘The Desperate Character’ in ‘Deep Meaning Comics’ and ‘More Deep Meaning Gommigs’, leaving good old Eggs Ackley to wrap thing up in macabre style with ‘Eyeball Kicks’…

If Crumb had been able to suppress his creative questing, he could easily have settled for a lucrative career in any one of a number of graphic disciplines from illustrator to animator to jobbing comic book hack, but as this pivotal collection readily proves, the artist was haunted by the dream of something else – he just didn’t yet know what that was…

Crumb’s subtle mastery of his art-form and obsessive need to reveal his most hidden depths and every perceived defect – in himself and the world around him – has always resulted in an unquenchable fire of challenging comedy and riotous rumination, and this chronicle begins to show his growing awareness of where to look.

This superb series charting the perplexing pen-and-ink pilgrim’s progress is the perfect vehicle to introduce any (over 18) newcomers to the world of grown up comics. And if you need a way in yourself, seek out this book and the other sixteen as soon as conceivably possible…
© 1967, 1968, 1969, 1989, 2004, 2013 Robert Crumb. All contributory art material and content © the respective creators/copyright holders. All rights reserved.

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Ghost Riders: Heaven’s on Fire


By Jason Aaron & Roland Boschi (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4235-5

In the early 1970’s, following a downturn in superhero comics sales, Marvel shifted focus from straight costumed crusaders to supernatural and horror characters with one of the most adaptable and enduring proving to be a certain flaming-skulled vigilante dubbed the Ghost Rider.

Carnival stunt-cyclist Johnny Blaze had sold his soul to the devil in an attempt to save his foster-father from cancer. As is always the way of such things Satan, or arch-liar Mephisto as he actually was, followed the letter, but not spirit, of the contract and Crash Simpson died anyway.

When the Demon Lord came for Blaze only the love of an innocent saved the bad-boy biker from eternal pain and damnation. Temporarily thwarted, the devil afflicted Johnny was with a condition which made his body burn with the fires of Hell every time the sun went down and become the unwilling, unknowing host for outcast and exiled demon Zarathos – the Spirit of Vengeance.

After years of travail and turmoil Blaze was (temporarily) freed of the demon’s curse and seemingly retired from the hero’s life. As Blaze briefly escaped his pre-destined doom, a tragic boy named Danny Ketch assumed the role of Zarathos’ host and prison by a route most circuitous and tragic…

Over the years a grim truth emerged: Johnny and Danny were actually half-brothers and both the Higher Realms and Infernal Regions had big plans for them. Moreover the power of the Ghost Rider had always been a weapon of Heaven not a curse from Hell…

This riotous, rollercoaster grindhouse supernatural thriller collects the 6-issue miniseries Ghost Riders: Heaven’s on Fire (from August 2009 to February 2010) by Jason Aaron & Roland Boschi, featuring a horde of fan-favourite villains, a variety of previous fire-headed hosts, a gaggle of grim guest-stars and assorted Spirits of Vengeance in a bombastic, Hell-for-Leathers romp which concluded a long-running saga.

It all began when usurper Archangel Zadkiel – thanks to his unwitting dupe Danny Ketch – finally achieved his appalling ambition: ousting God to become the new Supreme Power of the universe. The sinister Seraph hadn’t reckoned on a motley crew of sinners and worse, led by Blaze, who were utterly resolved to stop Him…

With covers and variants by Jae Lee, Phil Jimenez, Das Pastoras, Dustin Weaver, Greg Land and Christian Nauck, the dark drama begins when Zadkiel’s angels raid a satanic fertility lab and slaughter all the infants and children. The victims were all prospective Antichrists, but one escaped…

When Hellstorm – a fully grown, naturally conceived Son of Satan – arrives, he finds himself in a peculiar position. Having spent his entire rebellious life battling his sire, Daimon Hellstrom and has no desire to aid the Evil One’s schemes, but by his murderous acts Zadkiel is actually trying to unmake Biblical Prophecy.

God always intended for an Apocalypse to finish His Divine Plan, and the usurper’s coup is actually beyond all concept of right and wrong. Thus the die is cast and Hellstorm must, albeit reluctantly, find the last Earthborn heir of Hell and ‘Save the Antichrist, Save the World’…

Simultaneously, Blaze, accompanied by mystic Caretaker/combat nun Sister Sara, is tracking Zadkiel’s angelic agents, determined to find a door to Heaven and confront the renegade face to face. They also want to kill Johnny’s brother Danny, whose pig-headed hubris has led to Zadkiel replacing God and occupying the Vault of Heaven…

When the bikers wipe out a brace of boastful rearguard cherubim and learn of The Plan, they immediately change tack, joining the hunt for missing Anton Satan (AKA Kid Blackheart) to save him from the wrath of the Pretender God…

Oblivious to the threat Anton is exactly where you’d expect an Antichrist to be: making millions as the youngest executive at a Wall Street Hedge Fund. His cruel, calm arrogance is soon shaken, however, when a Seraphic Assassin bursts in only to be promptly eradicated by occult terrorist Jaine Cutter and her “Breathing Gun”: another player determined to restore the Biblically-scheduled Armageddon.

She, however, has severely underestimated Zadkiel’s determination and sense of proportion and drags the protesting Hell-brat straight into an angelic ambush. And far across the country someone is gathering a small army of Ghost Rider villains. They already have Orb, Blackout and The Deacon on board…

With tormenting demons replacing his lost arms, Master Pandemonium is a living doorway to Hell, but even he had no idea what true suffering was until Danny Ketch kicked his door in, looking for a quick introduction and shortest route to the Big Bad Boss of Gehenna…

Now, three days later in New York, Hellstorm explosively saves Cutter and Anton from the ruthless Flight of Angels, but when the self-serving kid bolts he runs right into the newly returned Ketch.

Blaze and Sister Sara arrive moments later and all parties very reluctantly agree to suspend hostilities for a team-up in ‘Are You There, Devil? It’s Me, Danny.’

The anti-Ghost Rider Squad is growing too. Freshly signed up are Zadkiel’s own flame-headed fanatic Kowalski AKA Vengeance, plus Scarecrow, Madcap, motorised maniac Big Wheel and a savagely sentient steam-shovel called Trull…

Thanks to Pandemonium, Ketch has met the Devil and made a deal. In return for preserving the last extant Antichrist from Zadkiel’s forces, Satan will provide the brothers with access to Heaven and give them their shot at restoring the previously incumbent Deity…

After brutally working out their operational differences in time-honoured fashion, Johnny and Danny at last unite just as ‘The Brothers Ghost Rider’ are bushwhacked by Big Wheel and Trull (an alien mind-force which could possess any mechanical contrivance: tractor, bulldozer, chainsaw…)

The catastrophic clash brings the boys to a temple which is a gateway to the Eternal Realm, but thanks to Blackout they miss their chance to use it…

Meanwhile in a hidden location the secret sacred order of Gun Nuns prepare for their last battle…

‘Here Comes Hell’ starts in the Jasper County Sheriff’s holding cell where Scarecrow and Madcap have just slaughtered all the other occupants. Outside, Hellstorm, Sara, Jaine and obnoxious Anton have entered the quiet town, seeking safety and a useable satanic sanctuary to stash the kid in.

Zadkiel’s converts are waiting for them and a deadly duel ensues. In the melee Anton shows his true colours by attacking Sara and allying with Master Pandemonium even as Vengeance and the Orb lead an army of killer angels, demons and zombie bikers against the primed-for-martyrdom Gun Nuns protecting a fully operational highway to Heaven…

‘Sole Reigning Holds the Tyranny of Heaven’ finds the triumphant, power-drunk Zadkiel remodelling Paradise to his own gory tastes and fitfully rewriting snippets of Creation when the Ghost Riders storm in through the nun’s gate…

Meanwhile on Earth equally blockbusting battles break out as Hellstorm and Cutter at last suspend their truce and renew their personal vendetta. Elsewhere Kid Blackheart brutally uncovers Sister Sara’s impossible hidden destiny as a living portal to Heaven, and utilises her to transport battalions of demons to conquer Kingdom Come…

The occult overdrive thus rockets to a cataclysmic conclusion as Zadkiel personally smashes the invading Spirits of Vengeance in ‘If You Can’t Lower Heaven, Raise Hell’. With the streets of Heaven knee-deep in blood, even a pep talk from his own dead wife and kids cannot keep Blaze battling against the new Omniscience, but when the Legions of Hell attack and Danny incites all the previously expired Ghost Riders to rise, Johnny sees one last chance to make things right…

Fast, frantic, irreverent, satirically funny, violently gratuitous and clearly not afraid to be daft when necessary, this is a fabulously barmy, two-fisted eldritch escapade in the manner of TV’s Supernatural or Angel that will reward any fans of raucous road thrillers, magical monstrosity tours and the minutiae of Marvel’s horror continuity.
© 2009, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Crash Test Demons


By Andi Watson, Cliff Richards & Joe Pimentel (Dark Horse/Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-199-8

Soon after securing her status as a certified media sensation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer won her own monthly comicbook in 1998, with smart, suspenseful, action-packed yarns (in her own monthly series and fully supplemented by spin-off miniseries and short stories in showcase anthology Dark Horse Presents) which perfectly complemented the sensational, groundbreaking and so crucial TV show.

This slim and sinister compilation (I’m once more featuring the British Titan Books edition which features stories set during the third TV Season) continues an extended storyline which pitted the eclectic “Scooby Gang” against ambitious narcissistic psycho-killer vampire Selke and her new breed of modified demonic thralls.

The ongoing ‘Bad Blood’ saga is written as ever by Andi Watson and illustrated by newcomers Cliff Richards & Joe Pimentel, with this volume collecting issues #13-15 (of the monthly Buffy the Vampire Slayer from September-November 1999).

As well as the usual wealth of covers, pinups and photos by Richards, Dave Stewart, Bennett, Jeff Matsuda & John Sibal, this chronicle also includes as bonus an interview with the Brazilian penciller, stuffed with his character designs and many un-inked pages of glorious art.

In case you’re a stranger to this dimension: Buffy Summers was an addle-pated cheerleader Valley Girl and total waste of teen protein until she inexplicably turned into a hyper-strong, impossibly durable monster-killer.

She learned – after being accosted by an old codger from a secret society of Watchers – that she was the most recent recipient of a meandering mystic lottery which transformed mortal maids into living death-machines for all things supernatural: a Slayer.

Moving with her recently divorced mom to the small California hamlet of Sunnydale, located on the edge of a arcane portal dubbed The Hellmouth, Buffy made a few close friends and, with her newest cult-appointed mentor Rupert Giles, proceeded with her never-ending war on devils, demons and every predatory species of terror inexorably drawn to the area…

Following a handy “previously page”, the wise-cracking action kicks off with ”Delia’s Gone’ as formerly disfigured and depleted vampire Selke pays a visit to local undead gang-boss Rouleau.

The last time he saw – and spurned – her, she was a pathetic, mutilated bag of scars and bile, but now she is both beautiful and overwhelmingly powerful – and bears a grudge…

Nobody knows that she has found a plastic surgeon with a passion for alchemy and no morals at all. Dr. Flitter has taken up Selke’s cause, restoring and improving her with the promise of immortality as his oft-postponed reward.

However, since his normal scientific procedures didn’t work, he resorted to books of magic for a solution where his researches turned up a way to turn vampire blood into a super-steroid for Selke and her “offspring”. Now she and her newly-minted children of the night hunt not only humans for food, but vampires for fuel…

Moreover she is still obsessed with making the Slayer suffer…

Meanwhile, in a vain semblance of normal teen activities, the Scooby Gang – Cordelia, Oz, Xander and Buffy – coach brainy, nervous Willow for an upcoming televised inter-school quiz show. Things start to come unglued when Selke incidentally consumes Sunnydale High’s resident nerd Lyle and Cordy, desperate to change her bimbo image, steals a magic charm from Giles to become a voracious consumer of facts. Sadly there’s no off-switch and ‘Delia’s brain quickly begins to overload…

Selke’s über-vamps are also making mischief: Buffy and recently restored undead lover Angel are finding them almost impossible to destroy…

‘Love Sick Blues’ sees a nocturnal civil war break out between Selke’s squad and the town’s regular fangers. Buffy’s night patrols are crazily broken up by vampires constantly attempting to capture and drain each other, but things take a bleak dark turn when deadly demon lovers Spike and Drusilla return, keen on turning the chaos to their own decadently amused advantage…

Soon their unique talents for obtaining information have led them to the secret of “bad blood”, but Selke and Flitter are oblivious to the new threat to their schemes. The cosmetic alchemist has discovered a way of mystically cloning their own “Dark Slayer” to take care of Buffy, and Selke wants one right now!

Sadly Flitter’s first attempts are woefully inadequate and promptly discarded… even the one that was still sort-of alive…

Even Buffy’s daylight problems are insane. Sleazy, lusty Todd once spread very nasty rumours about her before he temporarily turned into a girl, but now he’s male again he’s fallen desperately in love with the girl he wronged. His misplaced passion and rekindled conscience cost him his life…

Events reach crisis point in ‘Lost Highway’ as the war between leeches escalates, whilst on a rare night off from slaying, Buffy hits one of Selke’s pack with her mom’s (stolen) car and is subsequently ambushed by the whole mob. Even as she impossibly stakes them all, in a hidden lab, Flitter decants his masterpiece – a Summers simulacrum physically identical to and apparently far superior to The Slayer…

To Be Continued…

Engaging, witty, darkly light and fluffy, this fast and furious fists-flying action extravaganza rockets along at a breakneck pace, capturing the smart, intoxicating spirit of the TV show. Although this is only the middle section of the Bad Blood epic, the yarns here are all easily accessible even if you’re unfamiliar with the vast backstory, making this one more terrific thriller as easily enjoyed by the most callow neophyte as by any dedicated devotee.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ™ & © 2000 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.