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January 27, 2013January 25, 2013

The Incredible Hercules: the New Prince of Power

By Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Ariel Olivetti, Paul Tobin, Reilly Brown, Jason Paz, Terry Pallot, Zach Howard, Adam Archer & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4370-3

Comicbook Fights ‘n’ Tights dramas are serious business – but they don’t have to be.

There are too few light-hearted adventure comics around for my liking. Have readers become so sullen, depressed and angst-ridden that it takes nothing but oceans of blood and devastating cosmic trauma to rouse them?

Let’s hope not since we all adore a modicum of mirth with our mayhem, and let’s be honest, there are lashings of sheer comedic potential to play with when men-in-tights Â – or in the Lion of Olympus’ case, a very short skirt and leather bondage-leggings – start hitting each other with clubs and cars and buildings.

The contemporary Marvel iteration of Hercules first appeared in 1965’s Journey into Mystery Annual #1, wherein Thor, God of Thunder fell into the realm of the Greek Gods and ended up swapping bombastic blows with the happy-go-lucky but easily-riled Hellenic Prince of Power in the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby landmark ‘When Titans Clash! Thor Vs. Hercules!’

Since then the bombastic immortal warrior has bounced around the Marvel Universe seeking out other heroes and heated fisticuffs as an Avenger, Defender, Champion, Renegade, Hero for Hire and any other super-squad prepared to take the big lug and his constant, perpetual boozing, wenching, bragging and blathering about the â€œGood Old Daysâ€â€¦

In recent years Herc got a good deal more serious, becoming a far more conventionally po-faced world-saver and even found himself a protÃ©gÃ© – don’t call him â€œsidekickâ€ – in keen teen Amadeus Cho, notionally the Seventh Smartest Person on Earth.

This deliciously wicked and engaging collection, gathering often inappropriate and simultaneously stirring and uproarious contents of Hercules: Fall of an Avenger #1-2 and the follow-up 4-issue miniseries Heroic Age: Prince of Power from 2010, is actually the prequel to a larger epic event but self-contained enough and so entertaining that readers won’t mind or feel short-changed.

The drama unfolds in the aftermath of the mighty man-god’s apparent death with the aforementioned ‘Hercules: Fall of an Avenger’, by writers Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente with art by Ariel Olivetti, as many of the Gods and mortals touched by the life of the departed legend gather at the Parthenon for a wondrous wake to memorialise his passing.

Athena now rules the gods ofOlympus and turns up stylishly late as the gathering share personal tales of the departed legend.

Whilst the he-man heroes such as Thor, Bruce Banner, Skaar, Son of Hulk, the Warriors Three, Wolverine, Angel, and Sub-Mariner dwell on their comrade’s fighting spirit, the women such as Namora, Black Widow, Inuit goddess Snowbird and Alflyse, Queen of the Dark Elves prefer to share fond reminiscences of his other prowess – despite the blushes of the congregation.

However just as Cho prepares to speak his own thoughts, Athena and the remaining Hellenic Pantheon materialise and announce the boy is to be the new commander of the globe-spanning corporation known as the Olympus Group, becoming the next Prince of Power to act as the god’s representative on Earthâ€¦

Before Amadeus can react, Athena’s decree leads to a minor rebellion in her own ranks as Apollo challenges her and the assemblage degenerates into another epic brawl. Cho doesn’t care and uses the distraction to act on a suspicion that Hercules is not actually dead. His search of Hades, however, proves fruitlessâ€¦

One of the smartest humans alive, Amadeus acquiesces and takes control of the Olympus Group to further his own agenda, but makes no secret of his dislike and mistrust of Athenaâ€¦

Further repercussions of Hercules’ demise are seen when Namora and fellow Agent of Atlas Venus (a seductive Greek Siren, only recently promoted to actual love goddess) are dispatched by Athena to set the Man-God’s earthly affairs in order. Over the millennia the big-hearted, happy warrior accrued vast wealth and used it to set up businesses, trusts, foundations and charities, but now the Queen of Olympus wants to absorb the profitable ones and shut down the lame ducks.

As they track down his holdings and inform administrators of the situation, the grieving wonder women uncover an unsuspected ‘Greek Tragedy’ (by Paul Tobin, Reilly Brown & Jason Paz) on a lost Greek island – a cash-sucking black hole of an orphanage caring for children who just happen to be the innocent spawn of the many monsters Hercules slew in his voyages.

How then can Namora and Venus obey the dictates of the hard-hearted Athena and still honour the spirit of their soft-hearted former loverâ€¦?

‘Heroic Age: Prince of Power’ (Pak, Van Lente, Brown, Zach Howard, Adam Archer & Pallot) then occupies the major portion of this chronicle following the progress of Cho as he settles into the uncomfortable role of divine Prince of Power and mortal Chairman of the Board. His first order of business is to divert vast funds into searching the multiverse for Herculesâ€¦

Athena’s driving motivation for recruiting Amadeus is that an Age has passed on Earth: where once brute strength was the defining characteristic of the era, the Modern Age is subject to the force of intellect. The new Prince of Power must reflect the reliance on Reason and Intelligence, especially since a long-prophesied â€œGreat Chaosâ€ is comingâ€¦

A cosmic congress of pantheons convenes to select a mortal to lead the fight against the on-coming threat and, after much debate, Athena gets her way: clever kid Amadeus Cho is expected to save the entirety of creationâ€¦

On Earth the unsuspecting and intolerably obnoxious seventeen-year-old is dealing with lesser problems whilst working towards his own ultimate goal – rescuing Hercules from wherever he’s goneâ€¦

The most pressing of these daily duties is defeating mutated maniac the Griffin and saving an amusement park from becoming lunch, just the latest in a procession of monsters acting as vanguards for the approaching Chaos Kingâ€¦

Another problem is that he’s had to lock up his girlfriend Delphyne – Queen of the Gorgons – for trying to assassinate Athena, so when Vali Halfling (son of Asgardian god of Evil Loki) comes calling offering the secret of ultimate divine power, the distracted Cho is understandably intrigued, although not enough to fall for the trickster’s devious schemeâ€¦

The vile demigod wants to gather mystical elements from assorted pantheons (Greek, Norse, Egyptian and Hindu) to create a potion that will deliver ultimate divine power and enable the upstart kids to eliminate all other deities, but Cho isn’t fooled and rather than fall for a dishonest alliance he sets out to beat Vali to the ingredients – Hellenic Ambrosia, the Apples of Idunn, the Book of Thoth and Moon-cup of Dhanvantari. The race commences in ‘Blasphemy Can be Fun’ and, after pausing for ‘The Origin of Hercules’ by Van Lente, Ryan Stegman, Michael Babinski, continues with Cho’s one-man invasion of Asgard in ‘Valhalla Blues’.

The neophyte Prince of Power has no idea that he’s been played, and whilst clashing with former idol Thor for the Apples his rival already possesses, Halfling and his super-powered human Pantheon invades and seizes control of the Olympus Group headquarters to grab the Nectar of the Godsâ€¦

After a spectacularly pointless battle Thor and Cho unite to stop Vali, heading to the EgyptianLandof the Dead to grab the Book. Again they are too late and their outrageous clash with cat-goddess Sekhmet in ‘Our Lady of Slaughter’ only allows Halfling to come closer to his ultimate goal.

With the old gods on the back foot and Athena close to death, the fate of Cho’s people falls to the furious and lethally ticked off Delphyneâ€¦

It all comes to a shattering close in ‘Omnipotence for Dummies’ as Cho ultimately and brilliantly outwits everybody, wins ultimate power, retrieves Hercules from his uncanny fate and promptly surrenders all his divine might to the returned Man-god. He has to: the Chaos King has arrived to annihilate All Of Reality and the situation demands a real heroâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

With covers and variants by Olivetti, Humberto Ramos, Edgar Delgado, Khoi Pham, Carlo Pagulayan, Paz, Peter Steigerwald, Salva Espin & Beth Sotelo plus pages of character designs by Brown, this bombastic, action-packed thriller also offers scenes of genuine tear-jerking poignancy and hilarious moments of mirth (the tale is especially stuffed with saucy moments of the sort that make grandmothers smirk knowingly, and teenaged boys go as red as Captain America’s boots). An absolute joy for older fans, this epic is also a great example of self-contained Marvel Magic, funny, outrageous, charming and full of good-natured punch-ups.

This is a rare but welcome instance of the company using the continuity without unnecessarily exposing newcomers to the excess baggage which may deter some casual readers from approaching long-running comics material, and if you’re looking for something fresh but traditional, you couldn’t do better than this superb slice of modern mythology.
Â© 2010 Marvel Characters Inc. All rights reserved.

January 26, 2013January 25, 2013

American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar – New Revised Review

By Harvey Pekar, R. Crumb, Gregory Budgett, Gary Dumm, Gerry Shamray,
Kevin Brown, Susan Cavey & Val Mayerik (Ballantine Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-787-0

Before finding relative fame in the 21st century, Harvey Pekar occupied that ghastly niche so good at trapping the truly creative individual: Lots and lots of critical acclaim, and an occasional heart-breakingly close brush with super-stardom, without ever actually getting enough ahead to feel secure or appreciated.

One of those aforementioned brushes came in 1980s with the release of a couple of compilations of selected strips by mainstream publisher Doubleday that even to this day are some of his most powerful, honest and rewarding â€œliterary comicsâ€ ever seen. By mercilessly haranguing, begging and even paying (out of his meagre civil service wages and occasional wheeler-deal) any artists who met his exacting intellectual standards, Pekar all but created the comics genre of autobiographical, existentially questing, slice-of-life graphic narratives whilst eking out a mostly lonely, hand-to-mouth existence in Cleveland, Ohio.

How the irascible, opinionated, objectionable, self-educated music-mad working stiff came to use the admittedly (then) impoverished comicbook medium to make a fiercely vital social commentary on American life of the ordinary Joe is a magical journey in the plebeian far better read than read about, but I’m going to have a crack at convincing any holdouts anyway.

Moreover, by the time you’ve seen this I’m already on to my next crusadeâ€¦

This compendium combines and re-releases those seminal tomes in one big, bold edition and was released to tie-in with the award-winning 2003 indie film biography American Splendor, and opens with the superb contents of the 1985 release American Splendor: the Life and Times of Harvey Pekar, beginning by reproducing the introduction by early collaborator and modern Media Darling Robert Crumb before proceeding with a seductive welter of elegiac, confrontational, compulsive, challenging, painfully frank and distressingly honest observations that collectively changed the way English language comics were perceived, received and even created.

Rendered by Crumb, the excoriating graphic self-analysis begins with ‘The Harvey Pekar Name Story’ as the obsessive yet passive hunt for other people with the same name briefly gripped the self-confessed compulsive personality, whilst ‘The Young Crumb Story’ gave us Pekar’s take on the cartooning career of his collaborator, after which ‘A Fantasy’ again revisited the artist’s relationship with the writer: Pekar uncomfortably bragging over how he had browbeaten and gulled Crumb into drawing his scripts – and still wasâ€¦

Gary Dumm illustrated the bizarre ‘Ozzie Nelson’s Open Letter to Crumb’ (written in 1972) describing the faded TV celebrity’s snotty pep talk to the cartooning degenerate, after which Crumb returned to deliver self-abusive insight as Pekar revealed ‘How I Quit Collecting Records – and Put Out a Comic Book with the Money I Saved’.

Greg Budgett & Dumm handled many of the most searingly honest introspectives such as ‘The Day Before the Be In’, the equally forthright and painful personal history sequels ‘Awakening to the Terror of the New Day’ and ‘Awakening to the Terror of the Same Old Day’ or the nigh-spiritual rationalisations of ‘Short Weekend – a Short Story About the Cosmic and the Ordinary’â€¦

One of the most impressive facets of Pekar’s tales is the uncompromising depiction of the people he encountered in work or socially (if such a term can apply to such a self-admitted â€œjudgemental jerkâ€) and the frankly brutal way he attempts to keep narrative polish out of his graphic reportage.

Incidents such as ‘A Compliment’ or ‘Jivin’ With Jack the Bellboy as he Goes Aboutâ€¦ Hustlin’ Sides’ and ‘Jack the Bellboy and Mr. Boats’ – all illustrated by Crumb – recount episodes with co-workers undistinguished, unremarkable and free of all dramatic embellishment or grace-saving charismaâ€¦ but they are intoxicatingly real and appealing.

‘Read This’ (Budgett & Dumm) tells how even cynics can be surprised by people, whilst the Crumb-illustrated ‘Standing Behind Old Jewish Ladies in Supermarket Lines’ is as gently hilarious as their ‘Ridin’ the Dog’ vignette of cross-country bus travel is contemplatively reassuring.

Innovative Gerry Shamray tackled the wordy self-examination of life’s pointless frustrations in ‘An Argument at Work’ and the cathartic ‘Working Man’s Nightmare’ with aplomb and smart sensitivity, before Crumb resurfaced to draw an incredible familiar and unwelcome situation as the obnoxious ‘Freddy Visits for the Week End’. Regrettably we all have friends like himâ€¦

Pekar’s disastrous history with women was a frequent theme and ‘Ripoff Chick’ (by Budgett & Dumm again) showed why and how. The only difference between the author and most men was that he admitted up front that he wanted sex without complications or commitmentâ€¦

‘One Good Turn Deserves Another’ (Shamray) invites us to share a typically penny-pinching secret, before Dumm tackled a quirky friendship and the perils of well-intentioned matchmaking in ‘Leonard & Marie’, and ordinary folk got tied up discussing theology and politics in Shamray’s wryly related ‘Noah’s Ark’. The artist then effectively encapsulated ‘Class Antagonism’ before Jewish intellectual Pekar again examined his ethnic and cultural roots by revisiting his relationship with Old World Hebrew ‘Emil’ (Dumm & Budgett) and the danger of first-hand accounts in the Crumb-illustrated ‘The Maggies (Oral History)’ and Shamray’s death-camp memoir ‘Kaparra’â€¦

Crumb then turned in his most claustrophobic and impassioned drawing for the vibrant manifesto ‘American Splendor Assaults the Media’ after which the immensely stylish Kevin Brown limned a tale of frustrated selling out as Harvey attempted to schmooze up-and-coming movie star Wallace Shawn ‘Grubstreet, USA’, after which the first volume ended on a high of sorts with Pekar via Crumb temporarily resolving a ‘Hypothetical Quandary’.

The philosophising, reminiscing, ruminating, observing, eulogizing, questioning and fictively projecting promptly continues in From the Streets of Cleveland Comesâ€¦ American Splendor: the Life and Times of Harvey Pekar, resuming the painfully honest – and to us here and now perhaps often unsettling and disquieting – accounts of normal lives with the Crumb-crafted classics ‘Pickled Okra (Okry)’, ‘Lunch with Carmella’, ‘Rollins on Time’ and ‘Visualize, Actualize, Realize’ – all containing commonplace friendly interactions with Pekar’s African-American co-workers that would make many genteel folk wince todayâ€¦

A prospective hot date turned into a gruelling and pointless exercise in furniture moving in the Budgett & Dumm saga ‘Guerrilla Theatre: July ’74 – on the Corner’ with a punch-line not apparent until their ‘On the Cornerâ€¦ a Sequel: June 1976’, after which inker turned illustrator to relate the nostalgic revelations of young lust in the 1950s on the ‘Roller Coaster to Nowhere’, but some measure of cosmic karma was achieved decades later when Pekar finally achieve hisÂ childhood goal of owning ultra-hip and so, so cool ‘Stetson Shoes’â€¦

‘Mrs. Roosevelt and the Young Queen of Greece’ and ‘Busman’s Holiday’ by Dumm & Budgett celebrate the simple joy of guys simply sitting around shooting the breeze, whilst Crumb’s delicious treatment of Pekar’s love for old fashioned Jewish kvetching makes ‘Miracle Rabbis – a Dr. Gesundheit Story’ a minor masterpiece of comics.

‘An Everyday Horror Story’ (Shamray) then recaptures the tension and terror of Pekar’s first brush with serious illness – or so the author thought.

Always a healthy, vigorous but exceptionally excitable shouty man, Pekar got properly sick for the first time in his life and faced the very real prospect of never being able to speak again. This exceedingly gripping account perfectly presents all the fear, frustration, metaphysical pleading and moving emotional and practical support Harvey’s friends and then wife provided – and what happened nextâ€¦

‘Alice Quinn’ drawn by S. (Susan) Cavey then detailed a portentous meeting with the girl who got away before Shamray’s powerfully captivating ‘I’ll be Forty Three on Friday (How I’m Living Now)’ offers a rare moment of optimistic clarity, and Cavey’s ‘Jury Duty’ shows how even the most earnest hopes and honest ambitions can worry the bejeezus out of â€œnormalâ€ folksâ€¦

For most of his life Pekar was that rarest of creatures – an un-typical American who chose not to drive (for good, sound and to my mind admirable reasons). Thus he often spent time cadging lifts and fretting about the etiquette of returning favours to his civilian chauffeurs. In ‘A Ride Home’ (Cavey) the impatience and anxiety grew momentarily too much, whilst in Dumm’s ‘Free Ride’ a long-standing arrangement with a previously admired old Jewish guy escalated into something ferociously passive-aggressive, quite strange and impossibly worrisomeâ€¦

The same traumas afflicted Pekar when he foolishly bought his ex- wife’s automobile only to find it a cursed Jonah, which plagued him for many snowbound months in ‘Old Cars and Winter’ by Cavey. The superb and vastly underrated Val Mayerik joined the select band of artistic collaborators with the gloriously uplifting ‘A Marriage Album’, depicting life with beloved third wife with Joyce Brabner, and explored Pekar’s wild street-fighting juvenile days and later proclivities in ‘Violence’, whilst ‘History Repeats Itself’ offered a moment of resigned contemplation over teen spirits courtesy of SeÃ¡n Carroll.

Mayerik contributed a final brace of gently contemplative pieces beginning with ‘A Matter of Life andâ€¦’ which saw an older, calmer author recap his life with a little more kindness than ever before, whilst an uneventful bus ride found Pekar gleaning a wealth of down-home ‘Common Sense’ from a voluble instructor driver before this masterful meander through a truly unique mind concludes with Crumb and the perfect solution to life’s ills with ‘Mr. Boats’ Miracle Cure’â€¦

With art by individualistic collaborators who were never content to stay in their Comfort Zones but always endeavoured to make their contributions unique unto the story, and selected from a most adventurous and historically creative decade, these tales of working life, self-esteem, achievement, failure, religion, the media, Nazi atrocity, guilt, acceptable bigotry, proudly defended ignorance, friendship, aloofness and the art of understanding women are timeless slices of life’s dreary brilliance.

As a man who constantly assessed and re-examined his own creative worth and self, Harvey Pekar opened up his life to the world and changed it by being ordinary and average.

â€¦Except he never was, as this superb insight into the mind and heart of a truly original comics creator will attest. This splendid, engrossing book offers readers a chance to see the humour, confusion and frustration of being an American thinker in a world that simply doesn’t value brains and spirit anymore â€“ and I fear that’s going to be one of humanity’s eternal veritiesâ€¦

January 25, 2013January 24, 2013

Agents of Atlas: Dark Reign

By Jeff Parker, Carlo Pagulayan, Gabriel Hardman, Benton Jew, Leonard Kirk, Clayton Henry & various (Marvel)

ISBN: 978-0-7851-4126-6

After the unprecedented explosion of mystery men characters during American comics’ Golden Age, the end of the 1940s saw a gradual decimation of colourful costumed marvels and the rise of genre heroes in adventure, war, western, crime, science fiction and horror titles. Fighting a rising tide, Timely Comics struggled on with the mask-and-cape crowd for quite a while; even creating new characters such as Namora (Sub-Mariner’s sexy, super-powered cousin), immortal love-goddess Venus and juvenile outer space crusader Marvel Boy, but nothing really caught the public’s attention.

In the mid-1950s the company, now known as â€œAtlasâ€, tried to revive their ‘Big Three’ – and super-heroes in general – on the back of a proposed Sub-Mariner television series, hoping to cash in on the success of the monumentally successful Adventures of Superman TV show.

This led to some impressively entertaining tales, but no appreciable results as the Atlantean anti-hero, the Human Torch and Captain America briefly returnedâ€¦ and just as rapidly disappeared again when theHollywood deal fell through.

When this last gasp of super-heroic shenanigans failed, the publisher once again concentrated on humour, romance and more-or-less straight adventure anthologies with the accent strongly on weird monsters, invading aliens and robotic rogues. They never stopped exploring that fantasy hero niche however, and hooded, cloaked cowboys like Apache Kid, Black Rider or Outlaw Kid and mysterious masked warriors such as the Black Knight occasionally popped up to keep the flame alive. In 1957 the little company came closest to a full revival of flamboyantly garbed wonders by creating a full-on super-villain for genre G-Men to battle.

The best of the industry’s many knock-offs of Sax Rohmer’s legendary archetype of evil Fu Manchu, The Yellow Claw menaced Freedom and Democracy in the days of Commie technological supremacy and imminent invasion by Sputniks. He was regularly thwarted by the bold endeavours of Chinese American FBI agent Jimmy Woo but he too peaked and faded too soonâ€¦

Once DC’s Showcase unleashed the Flash and the Silver Age kicked off, the 1960s saw a resurgence in costumed characters and Marvel reinvented itself and finally brought back its Golden Trio in one form or anotherâ€¦

Then in June 1978 with a concrete character continuity fully established, avowed Fifties-ophile and Marvel Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas retroactively introduced a team of heroes culled from those misfiring experiments in the alternate realities book What If?

Volume 1, #9 asked ‘What If The Avengers Had Fought Evil During the 1950s?’ (by Don Glut, Paul Kupperberg & Bill Black), and although non-canonical then, the concept slowly filtered into fans’ group consciousness and over the decades a team that never existed were gradually assimilated into mainstream Marvel Historyâ€¦

Now official canon, it was revealed that Woo and a scratch team of contemporary super-characters briefly and clandestinely clashed with the Claw and other unearthly menaces in 1958 before being shut down by the US government. Their heroics unsung and unremarked, the team broke up and was forgottenâ€¦

Retooled and updated for the more cynical modern audience the Agents of Atlas formally debuted in 2006 when Jimmy Woo, now an aging agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., began investigating the mysterious Atlas Foundation and found it was a front for his greatest and most unforgiving enemy. Through circumstances best left to another review, Jimmy was severely injured, but eventually revived and rejuvenated to the prime of life by his old comrades Namora, Venus, vintage wonder-robot M11, immortal anthropoid avenger Gorilla-Man and the deeply disturbing Marvel Boy from Uranus whose incredible science restored Jimmy to full vitality.

Together they defeated the Claw’s ultimate plans before assuming control of his organisation, planning to subvert the evil empire from the top down and use its awesome reputation to dismantle from within other covert threats to world peace and security â€¦

Before they could begin, however, they had to clean up the myriad messes and malevolences perpetrated by the Atlas Foundation and all without letting the public – and the burgeoning superhero community – that there had been any change in the criminal corporation’s goals or methodsâ€¦

This surreptitious sea-change had begun just as the Skrulls’ Secret Invasion culminated in a world-wide crisis, the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the rise to power of Norman Osborn who, as America’s new Chief of Homeland Security, instituted a Dark Reign of draconian oppression using co-opted super-villains and a new personally controlled paramilitary force dubbed H.A.M.M.E.R.â€¦

During his Dark Reign, the former Green Goblin and recovering madman – through means fair and foul – officially worked to curb the unchecked power and threat of meta-humanity, all whilst secretly operating a cabal of major super-villains and dictators intent on divvying up the planet between them. The repercussions of Osborn’s rise and fall were felt throughout and featured in many series and collections covering the entire fictive universe.

Scripted throughout by Jeff Parker this canny collection gathers Agents of Atlas #1-5, a previously electronic adventure of Wolverine: Agent of Atlas from Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited and material from Dark Reign: New Nation, Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust?, and Giant-Size Marvel Adventures Avengers #1; tales spanning 2007 to 2008.

It begins with ‘The Heist’ illustrated by Carlo Pagulayan, Jason Paz & Jana Schirmer from Dark Reign: New Nation wherein the newly appointed Emperor Woo has his team raid Fort Knox to â€œreclaimâ€ billions in bullion with the simple intention of getting the attention of and proving their criminal credentials to Security Czar Osborn.

No one but Woo knew the former Goblin had planned to appropriate the gold himself to buy an illicit weapons system for his private useâ€¦

The full story commences in ‘First Contact’ as the Atlas agents step up the high profile pressure by stealing confiscated weapons from the ATF and forcing Osborn to deal with them personally – and by deal Woo means â€œcollaborateâ€â€¦

Even as the Security Supremo enters into an underworld alliance with Atlas, he’s looking to betray them, but Woo’s team are distracted by the politics of the evil empire they’ve secretly subverted when their long-term plans are threatened by the forced installation of a deputy leader who is still honestly dedicated to world domination.

The true power behind the globe-girdling organisation is an immortal, immensely powerful dragon named Lao, and so, with no other option, Woo’s crew cautiously welcome the Mandarin’s son Temugin to their inner circle, knowing that should he learn of their true goals the entire Atlas Empire will turn on them in a heartbeatâ€¦

Even whilst providing information and materiel to Osborn’s people the veteran heroes are uncovering more secrets about Atlas; such as how the organisation’s unique method of teleportation transport harks back to one of their most perplexing unsolved cases from 1958 in ‘The Sale/Dragon’s Corridor’ (with additional art by Gabriel Hardman, Elizabeth Dismang & Clayton Henry)â€¦

‘Interlude at Sea’ further unravels the ancient avengers’ occluded history as Osborn at last bites and agrees to fill all his armament requirements through the Atlas Foundation’s weapon makers. However as the mutually suspicious partners meet in a ship offshore, the meeting is crashed by a certain Star Spangled Sentinel of Liberty, who has his own memories of working with Gorilla-Man during WWII and ‘Inside America’â€¦

Woo’s subtle scheme to defang Osborn culminates in luring the Avengers (Captain America, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Ronin, Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man) into attacking Atlas’ weapons ship, capturing all the ordnance intended for the duplicitous top cop and hopefully exposing Osborn to public scrutiny whilst bolstering Woo’s own reputation as a major crime-lord. It worked too, but almost went completely awry when M-11, reacting to some long buried program, went berserk and inexplicably attacked the mutant Avengerâ€¦

The answer to the mystery came with the flashback feature ‘Wolverine: Agent of Atlas’ illustrated by Benton Jew & Dismang, which saw FBI operative Woo infiltrate Cuba in 1958 accompanied by the robot and Gorilla-Man only to encounter an alien invasion by parasitic mind-bending bugs. In stopping the infestation they were helped and hindered in equal measure by an implausible Canadian secret agent named Loganâ€¦

Next up here ‘The Resistance’ by Leonard Kirk, Karl Kesel & Michelle Madsen from Invasion: Who Do You Trust? revealed the key role played by the modern-day Agents of Atlas in repelling and overcoming the insidious occupation of the scurrilous shape-shifters who almost conquered our worldâ€¦

Inter-dimensional realm-hopping and terrifying time-warping were the order of the day in the team-up tale from Giant-Size Marvel Adventures Avengers #1 (Leonard Kirk & Val Staples) wherein 40^th century despot Kang attempted to destroy his greatest foes by altering history and having Woo, Venus, Marvel Boy, M-11, Namora and Gorilla-Man dig Captain America out of the ice in 1958, years before the Avengers were destined to rescue him.

In a desperate race against time itself Cap, Storm, Iron Man, Giant-Girl, Wolverine & Spider-Man had to work fast with the Atlas Agents’ contemporary selves before reality caught up with and overwrote them all in a rousing, light-hearted romp that ends this clever and enjoyable Fights ‘n’ Tights thriller on a delirious high note.

Augmenting the cunning Costumed Dramas area wealth of covers and variants by Kirk, Terry Pallot, Chris Sotomayor, Art Adams & Guru eFX, Greg Land & Justin Ponsor, Adi Granov, Stuart Immonen & John Rauch, Billy Tan & Frank D’Armata, Daniel AcuÃ±a, Phil Jimenez, Andy Lanning & Christina Strain as well as a host of pencil sketches and roughs by Ed McGuiness, giving art lovers a delicious bonus every bit as absorbing as the splendid comics story magic that preceded them.

January 24, 2013January 23, 2013

Essential Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos

By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, George Roussos, Frank Giacoia, Steve Ditko & Chic Stone (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6395-4

Grizzled super-spy Nick Fury debuted in Fantastic Four #21 (December 1963): a grizzled and cunning CIA Colonel at the periphery of big adventures, craftily manipulating the First Family of Marvel superheroes just as the 1960s espionage vogue was taking off, inspired by the James Bond films and TV shows like Danger Man.

What was odd about that? Well, the gruffly capable everyman was already the star of the little company’s only war comic, set twenty years earlier in (depending on whether you were American or Europeanâ€¦) the middle or beginning of World War II.

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, an improbable, decidedly over-the-top and raucous combat comics series, similar in tone to later movies such as The Magnificent Seven, Wild Bunch or The Dirty Dozen, had launched in May of that year and although Fury’s later self became a big-name star when espionage stories went global in the wake of TV shows like The Man from U.N.C.L.E., the elder iteration was given a second series beginning in Strange Tales #135 (August 1965).

Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. combined Cold War tensions with sinister schemes of World Conquest by subversive all-encompassing hidden, enemy-organisation Hydra: all with captivating Kirby-designed super-science gadgetry and, later, iconic imagineering from Jim Steranko whose visually groundbreaking graphic narratives took the art form to a whole new level.

For all that time, however, the wartime version soldiered on (sorry: puns are my weapon of choice) combining a uniquely flamboyant house-bravado style and often ludicrous, implausible, historically inaccurate, all-action bombast with moments of genuine heartbreak, unbridled passion and seething emotion.

Sgt. Fury seems to be a pure Jack Kirby creation. As with all his various combat comics, The King made everything look harsh and real and appalling: the people and places all grimy, tired, battered but indomitable.

The artist had served in some of the worst battles of the war and never forgot the horrific and heroic things he saw – and more graphically expressed in his efforts during the 1950s genre boom at a number of different companies – but even at kid-friendly, Comics Code-sanitised Marvel, those experiences perpetually leaked through onto his powerfully gripping pages.

This first massive monochrome compendium features the contents of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1-23 (from May 1963 to 1965) plus the new material from the largely reprint Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos King Size Annual #1 from 1965, opening as you’d expect with the blistering premier issue introducing ‘Sgt. Fury, and his Howling Commandoes’ (that’s how they speled it in the stoary-title – but knot ennyware else) by Lee, Kirby & inker Dick Ayers. Bursting with full page panels the tale was interrupted by ‘Meet the Howling Commandos’ – a double-page starring the seven members of First Attack Squad; Able Company, namely Fury himself, former circus strongman/Corporal â€œDum-Dumâ€ Dugan and Privates Robert â€œRebelâ€ Ralston (a jockey), young student Jonathan â€œJuniorâ€ Juniper, jazz trumpeter Gabriel Jones, mechanic Izzy Cohen and glamorous movie star Dino Manelli.

Controversially – even in the 1960s – this combat Rat Pack was an integrated unit with Jewish and Negro members as well as Catholics, Southern Baptists andNew Yorkwhite guys all merrily serving together. The Howling Commandos pushed envelopes and busted taboos from the very startâ€¦

The first mission was a non-stop action romp putting the squad through their various paces as the ragged band of indomitable warriors put paid to hordes of square-necked Nazis as they saved D-Day by rescuing a French resistance fighter carrying vital plans of the invasion, and they even brought back a high-ranking â€œkrautâ€ prisoner. The epic issue even included a Kirby fact-page comparing six different side-arms of the period in ‘Weapons of War’â€¦

Issue #2 found the‘7 Doomed Men!’ up to their torn shirts in Germans as they firstÂ infiltrated a French coastal town to blow up a U-Boat base and got back to England just in time to be sent on a suicide mission. This time it was to destroy a secret facility at Heinemund in the heart of the Fatherland where Nazi scientists were doing something nefarious with â€œhard waterâ€â€¦

These overblown fustian thrillers always played fast and loose with history and logic, so if you crave veracity above all I’d steer clear, but if you can swallow a heaping helping of creative anachronism there’s always great fun to be had here – especially since nobody drew atomic explosions like The Kingâ€¦

The drama was then topped off with more fact pages as ‘The Enemy That Was!’ explored the capabilities of German Infantryman whilst ‘Weapons of War: â€œChatter Gunsâ€ of World War II’ tells everything you need to know about submachine gunsâ€¦

Rough and ready gallows humour and broad comedy became increasingly important to the series from #3 onwards with home base rivalries and wry comradely sparring leavening the outrageous non-stop action of the missions. ‘Midnight on Massacre Mountain!’ found the squad explosively invading Italy to rescue a US army division caught in a Nazi trap. Along the way they met a brilliant OSS officer training partisan troops, and Fury thought that young Reed Richards would go farâ€¦

This issue was supplemented by a fascinating feature revealing what ordnance and hardware cost in ‘America’s World War II Shopping List!’

‘Lord Ha-Ha’s Last Laugh!’ in #4 began a long stint of embellishment by George Bell (AKA old Kirby studio-mate George â€œInkyâ€ Roussos) and introduced a love interest for the Sarge when he met Red Cross volunteer Lady Pamela Hawley during an air raid in London. How strange and tragic was fate then, that the Howlers’ very next mission took them toBerlin to kidnap a young British nobleman with the same name, acting as a crucial propaganda mouthpiece for the Wehrmacht…

The mission was a double disaster. Not only did Pamela’s ignoble brother perish but the debacle also cost the life of the youngest Howlerâ€¦

‘Weapons of War: Combat Rifles of World War II’ then ended this shocking, surprisingly grim and low-key melodramaâ€¦

Fury’s appearance in FF#21 – not included here – was released between that issue and #5, but no mention was made of it when the dark and cunning yarn introduced one of Marvel’s greatest villains. ‘At the Mercy of Baron Strucker’ saw Fury humiliated and defeated in personal combat against an Aryan nobleman and filmed footage used as a propaganda tool of the Nazis, until Dino pointed out how the nonplussed noncom had fallen for the oldest trick in Hollywood’s playbookâ€¦

The riotous rematch went rather better after which ‘Weapons of War: Light Machine Guns of World War II’ ended things in a graphically educational manner, whilst ‘The Fangs of the Desert Fox!’ in #6 dumped the Squad in the desert to tackle the hordes of General Rommel in a mission foredoomed to failâ€¦

‘The Court-Martial of Sergeant Fury’ provided a glimpse at the hard-bitten hero’s past and offered insights into his tempestuous relationship with his immediate superior Captain Samuel â€œHappy Samâ€ Sawyer. Of course to get that information we had to watch Fury endure a dramatic trial after seemingly sabotaging a mission and striking a commanding officerâ€¦

Although he continued to draw the magnificent eye-catching covers, Kirby left the title with this issue. His astounding abilities were more profitably employed in the superhero titles, even as Lee began consolidating the ever expanding Marvel Universe by utilising more WWII iterations of contemporary characters.

‘The Death Ray of Baron Zemo!’ in #8 pitted the Howlers against a Captain America villain recently debuted in The Avengers as Ayers & Roussos ably depicted the team’s attempts to capture the Nazi scientist and a weapon that could shape the outcome of the entire war. The tale also introduced Junior Juniper’s replacement: a rather fruity caricature of a Brit named Percival Pinkerton, who sported horn-rimmed specs, pencil moustache, Fuschia beret and impossibly utilitarian umbrellaâ€¦

In #9 the impossible ‘Mission: Capture Adolf Hitler!’ went awry when the Howlers’ invasion of Berlin again brought Fury face-to-face with Wolfgang von Strucker; leading to temporary capture and an astounding escape whilst ‘On to Okinawa!’ in #10 saw them achieve greater success when despatched to the Pacific to rescue a captured US colonel from the Japanese.

This tale also saw the debut of a bearded bombastic submarine commander who would become a series regular before eventually winning his own series (Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders) in 1967.

The pace had certainly slowed and melodrama and subplots increased by #11 and ‘The Crackdown of Capt. Flint!’ saw Happy Sam briefly replaced by a spit-and-polish officer who soon learned the limitations of his ways, whilst in #12 a raid on a V1 factory prompted Dino to join the Nazis ‘When a Howler Turns Traitor!’ It was just a trick though, but nobody told the American commander who stuck the star in front of a firing squadâ€¦

This issue also included a Marvel Masterwork Pin-up of Fury by Ayers.

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #13 is arguably the best issue of the entire 167 issue run and the title says why. ‘Fighting Side-by-Side withâ€¦ Captain America and Bucky!’ reunited Lee, Kirby & Ayers in a blistering battle yarn as the Howlers crossed paths with the masked Sentinels of Liberty after both teams stumble across a top secret Nazi operation to build an invasion tunnel under the channel to England. To resort to the terms of the times: â€œWah-Hoo!â€â€¦

Ayers & Bell were back in artistic control in #14 as harassed Adolf Hitler ordered the creation of a Nazi answer to Fury’s elite attack force. All ‘The Blitzkrieg Squad of Baron Strucker!’ had to do was lure the Howlers to a V2 rocket base and spring their trapâ€¦ Yeah, that was allâ€¦

Weapons of War: also returned here with all the gen on the ‘B-26 Martin Marauder’ whilst in #15 Steve Ditko stepped in to ink Ayers in ‘Too Small to Fight, Too Young to Die’ wherein a mission in Holland to destroy the dykes and flood the occupation forces went drastically wrong. The Howlers â€œfledâ€ back to Britain with nothing but a broken-hearted boy named Hans Rooten – who had no idea that his quisling father was in fact the Allies’ top spy in the regionâ€¦

The boy became the men’s mascot but couldn’t come with them when they flew to Africain #16 to eradicate yet more Nazi super-weapons in ‘A Fortress in the Desert Stands!’ (illustrated by Ayers & Frank Giacoia using the pseudonym Frankie Ray), after which it was only a short camel-ride south until they encountered natives and Nazis engaged in a battle of Hearts and Minds ‘While the Jungle Sleeps!’ (by Ayers & Colletta).

All this time the chalk-and-cheese relationship between Nick and Pam Hawley had been developing to the point where he was ready to propose. That all ended in #18 when, whilst the unit was busy sinking a German battleship in a Norwegian port, she was ‘Killed in Action!’ (Ayers & Chic Stone).

Crushed and crazy, Fury went AWOL in the next issue, ruthlessly hunting down the leader of the bomber flight which had targeted the hospital she worked in before extracting ‘An Eye for an Eye!’ in a satisfyingly shocking story sensitively rendered by Ayers & Giacoia.

A far grimmer Fury was still in the mood for cathartic carnage in #20, so when ‘The Blitz Squad Strikes!’ found the German Kommandos invading a Scottish castle filled with imprisoned Nazi airmen, he and Howlers were happy to lead the mission to retake it.

In the next issue a long running rivalry with First Attack Squad; Baker Company again resulted in fisticuffs before being interrupted by another rescue mission ‘To Free a Hostage!’ (inked by Golden Age legend Carl Hubbell, as was the next issue).

However, even after scientist and daughter were reunited, the beef with B Company didn’t diminish and when both units were dispatched to sabotage the oil refinery at Ploesti the defending forces captured everybody. When the gloating Nazis tried to get Fury and his opposite number to kill each they quickly learned ‘Don’t Turn Your Back on Bull McGiveney!’ and even Strucker’s Blitz Squad couldn’t stem the devastating destruction that followedâ€¦

The final WWII exploit herein is the Giacoia-inked saga of ‘The Man Who Failed!’ as a trip to Burma to rescue nuns and orphans resulted in the shameful revelation of True Brit Percy Pinkerton’s past, also offering a close insight into why our upper lips are so stiffâ€¦

This combat compendium concludes with the 15 page lead story from Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos King Size Annual #1 (1965) as the Howlers were called up and mustered to the 38^th Parallel to defend democracy from Communist aggression. This particular escapade found them rescuing Colonel Sam Sawyer and resulted in Fury winning a ‘Commission in Korea!’ and at last becoming a Lieutenant in a stirring story by Lee, Ayers & Giacoia before pictorial features ‘A Re-introduction to the Howlers’, ‘A Birds Eye View of HQ, Able Company – Fury’s Base in Britain’, ‘Combat Arm and Hand Signals’ and a 2-page ad feature for the hero’s super-spy iteration as ‘Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ wraps everything up in Marvel’s military fashion.

Whereas close rival DC increasingly abandoned the Death or Glory bombast at this time in favour of humanistic, almost anti-war explorations of war and soldiering, Marvel’s take always favoured action-entertainment and fantasy over soul-searching for ultimate truths. On that level at least, these early epics are stunningly effective and galvanically powerful exhibitions of the genre. Just don’t use them for history homework.
Â© 1963, 1964, 1965, 2011 Marvel Characters Inc. All rights reserved.

January 23, 2013January 22, 2013

Showcase Presents the Doom Patrol volume 2

By Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani, Bob Brown & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-85768-077-8

In 1963 DC/National Comics converted a venerable anthology-mystery title – My Greatest Adventure – into a fringe superhero team-book with the 80^th issue, introducing a startling squad of champions with their thematic roots still firmly planted in the B-movie monster films of the era which had for so long informed the tone and timbre of the parent title.

That aesthetic subtly shaped the progression of the strip – which took control of the comic within months, prompting a title change to The Doom Patrol with #86 – and throughout a six-year run made the series one of the most eerily innovative and incessantly hip reads of that generation.

No traditional team of masked adventurers, the cast comprised a robot, a mummy and a 50-foot woman in a mini-skirt, who joined forces with and were guided by a brusque, domineering, crippled mad scientist, all equally determined to prove themselves by fighting injustice their wayâ€¦

Spanning March 1966 to their radically bold demise in the September/October 1968 final issue, this concluding quirky monochrome compilation collects the Fabulous Freaks’ last exploits from Doom Patrol #102 to 121.

The dramas were especially enhanced by the superb skills of Italian cartoonist and classicist artist Giordano Bruno Premiani, whose comfortably detailed, subtly representational illustration made even the strangest situation frighteningly authentic and grimly believable.

As such he was the perfect vehicle to squeeze every nuance of comedy and pathos from the captivatingly involved and grimly light-hearted scripts by Arnold Drake who always proffered a tantalising believably world for the outcast heroes to strive in.

Those damaged champions comprised competitive car racer Cliff Steele, but only after he’d had â€œdiedâ€ in a horrific pile up, with his undamaged brain transplanted into a fantastic mechanical body – without his knowledge or permission…

Test pilot Larry Trainor had been trapped in an experimental stratospheric plane and become permanently radioactive, with the dubious benefit of gaining a semi-sentient energy avatar which could escape his body to perform incredible stunts for up to a minute at a time. To pass safely amongst men Trainor had to constantly wrap himself in special radiation-proof bandages.

Former movie star Rita Farr had been exposed to mysterious gases which gave her the unpredictable and, at first, uncontrolled ability to shrink or grow to incredible sizes.

These outcasts were brought together by brilliant but enigmatic Renaissance Man Niles Caulder who, as The Chief, sought to mould the solitary misfits into a force for good. The wheelchair-bound savant directed the trio of solitary strangers in many terrifying missions as they slowly grew into a uniquely bonded familyâ€¦

Firmly established in the heroic pantheon, the Doom Patrol teamed with fellow outsiders The Challengers of the Unknown in #102, battling murderous shape-shifting maniac Multi-Man and his robotic allies as they planned to unleash a horde of zombies from a lost world upon modern humanity in ‘8 Against Eternity’.

Meanwhile, multi-millionaire Steve Dayton – who had created the psycho-kinetic superhero persona Mento solely to woo and wed Rita, met the outrageous, obnoxious Gar Logan. It was disgust at first sight, but neither the ruthless, driven authority figure nor the wildly rebellious Beast Boy realised how their lives would soon entwine.

Whilst in Africaas a toddler Loganhad contracted a rare disease. Although his scientist parent’s experimental cure had beaten the contagion before they died, it left the boy the colour of cabbage and able to change shape at will. A protracted storyline commenced in #100 wherein the secretive, chameleonic kid revealed how he was now an abused orphan being swindled out of his inheritance by his guardian Nicholas Galtry. The greedy, conniving accountant had even leased his emerald-hued charge to rogue scientistsâ€¦

Rita especially had empathised with Gar’s plight and resolved to free him from the unscrupulous Galtry whatever the costâ€¦

DP #103 offered two tales beginning with the tragedy which ensued when Professor Randolph Ormsby asked for the team’s aid in a space shot. When the doddery savant was transformed into a rampaging flaming monster dubbed ‘The Meteor Man’ it took the entire patrol as well as Beast Boy and Mento to secure a happy outcome.

‘No Home for a Robot’, however, continued to reveal the Mechanical Marvel’s early days following Caulder’s implantation of Cliff’s brain into an artificial body. The shock had seemingly driven the patient crazy and Steele subsequently went on a city-wide rampage, continuously hunted and hounded by the police. Here the ferrous fugitive found temporary respite with his brother Randy but quickly realised that trouble would trail him anywhereâ€¦

Issue #104 astounded everybody when Rita abruptly stopped refusing the loathed Steve and became ‘The Bride of the Doom Patrol’. However the guest star-stuffed wedding was almost spoiled when alien arch-foe Garguax and the Brotherhood of Evil attempted to crash the party and murder the groom. So unhappy were Cliff and Larry with Rita’s â€œbetrayalâ€ that they almost let themâ€¦

Even whilst indulging in her new bride status in issue #105, Rita couldn’t abandon the team and joined them in tackling old elemental enemy Mr. 103 during a ‘Honeymoon of Terror’ whilst the back-up yarn ‘The Robot-Maker Must Die’ concluded the origin of Cliff Steele as the renegade attempted to kill the Surgeon who had imprisoned him in a metal hellâ€¦ which finally give Caulder a chance to fix the malfunction in Steele’s systemsâ€¦

‘Blood Brothers’ in #106 introduced domestic disharmony as Rita steadfastly refused to be a good trophy wife and resumed the hunt for Mr. 103 with the rest of the Patrol. Her separate lives continued to intersect however when Galtry hired the elemental assassin to wipe Gar Logan and his freakish allies off the books.

The back-up section then shifted focus onto ‘The Private World of Negative Man’: recapitulating Larry Trainor’s doomed flight and the radioactive close encounter which turned him into a walking mummy. However even after being allowed to walk amongst men again, the gregarious pilot found himself utterly isolated and aloneâ€¦

Doom Patrol #107 began an epic story-arc which concerned ‘The War over Beast Boy’ as Rita and Steve started legal proceedings to get Gar and his money away from Galtry. The embezzler responded by opening a criminal campaign to beggar Dayton and inadvertently aligned himself with the Patrol’s greatest foes. Already distracted by the depredations of marauding automaton Ultimax, the hard-pressed heroes swiftly fell to the murderous mechanoid and Rita was dispatched to a barbaric sub-atomic universeâ€¦

Meanwhile the secret history of Negative Man continued with ‘The Race Against Dr. Death’ when fellow self-imposed outcast Dr. Drew tried to draw the pilot into a scheme to destroy the human species which had cruelly excluded them both, and the ebony energy being demonstrated the incredible power it possessed to save the world from fiery doom.

In #108 ‘Kid Disaster’ saw Mento diminished and despatched to rescue Rita whilst Galtry’s allies revealed their true nature before ambushing and killing the entire teamâ€¦

â€¦ Almost.

With only Caulder and Beast Boy remaining, the exceedingly odd couple nevertheless pulled a off a major medical miracle to revive the heroes in time to endure the incredible attack of alien colossus ‘Mandred the Executioner’ whilst Larry’s ‘Flight into Fear’ at the comic’s rear proved that Drew hadn’t finished with the itinerant Negative Man yetâ€¦

DP #110 wonderfully wrapped up the Beast Boy saga as Galtry, Mandred and the Brotherhood marshalled one last futile attack before the ‘Trial by Terror’ finally found Gar Logan legally adopted by the newlywed Mr. and Mrs. Dayton, but that was mere prelude to a titanic extraterrestrial invasion which began in #111 with the arrival of ‘Zarox-13, Emperor of the Cosmos!’

The cosmic overlord and his vanguard Garguax made short work of the Fabulous Freaks and with all Earth imperilled an unbelievable alliance was formed, but nor before ‘Neg Man’s Last Road!’ ended the origin of Larry Trainor as the alienated aviator again battled Dr. Death before joining a band of fellow outcasts in a bold new team ventureâ€¦

Unbelievably, the uneasy alliance of the DP with The Brain, Monsieur Mallah and Madame Rouge as ‘Brothers in Blood!’ in #112 resulted in no betrayals and the last-minute defeat of the invincible aliens – and although no rivalries were reconciled, a hint of romance did develop between two of the sworn foes. At the back, untold tales of Beast Boy began as ‘Waif of the Wilderness’ introduced millionaire doctors Mark and Marie Logan, whose passion for charity took them to deepest Africa and into the sights of native witch-man Mobu who saw his powerbase crumbling.

When their toddler Gar contracted dreaded disease Sakutia, the parents’ radical treatment saved their child and gave him metamorphic abilities, but when they subsequently lost their lives in a river accident, the baby boy didn’t understand their plight and blithely watched them die.

Orphaned and lonely, the lad inadvertently saved the life of the local chief with his animal antics and was adoptedâ€¦ making of Mobu an implacable, but impatient enemyâ€¦

Doom Patrol #113 pitted the team against a malevolent mechanoid one-man army in ‘Who Dares to Challenge the Arsenal’ but the real drama was manifesting in a subplot which saw Caulder attempt to seduce the schizophrenic Rouge away from the lure of wickedness and malign influence of the Brotherhood of Evil. The issue also included another Beast Boy short as ‘The Diamonds of Destiny’ saw two thieves kidnap the amazing boy, just as concerned executor Nicholas Galtry took ship for the Dark Continent to find the heir to his deceased employers millionsâ€¦

Issue #114 opened with the team attempting to aid Soviet asylum seeker Anton Koravyk and becoming embroiled in a time-twisting fight against an incredible caveman called ‘Kor – the Conqueror’ whilst in the Beast Boy segment ‘The Kid who was King of Crooks’ saw young Gar turned into a thief in Johannesburg until his faginish abductors had a fatal falling out, after which #115’s ‘The Mutant Master’ pitted the Patrol against three hideous but incredibly powerful atomic atrocities determined to eradicate the world which had cruelly treated them. Things might have fared better had not the Chief neglected his comrades in his obsessive – and at last successful – pursuit of Madame Rougeâ€¦

The comic also included ‘General Beast Boy – of the Ape Brigade!’ wherein a Nazi war criminal was accidentally foiled by the lost wandering Gar. The madman’s loss was the Galtry’s gain however, as his persistent search ended with the crook â€œrescuingâ€ the boy and taking him back to safe, secure Americaâ€¦

The mutant maelstrom concluded in #116 as ‘Two to Get Readyâ€¦ and Three to Die!’ featured the ebullient Caulder save the world from mutant-created obliteration and reap his reward in a passionate fling with the cured but still fragile Rouge.

The wheelchair-bound genius took centre stage in #117 as his neglect drove the team away and left him vulnerable to attack from a mystery man with a big grudge in ‘The Black Vulture’, but it took the whole reunited squad to deal with the grotesque madman ‘Videx, Monarch of Light’ even as the Brain challenged Caulder to return his stolen chattel Rouge. Nobody asked her what she wanted, thoughâ€¦

Tastes and fashions were changing in those turbulent late 1960s and the series was in trouble. Superheroes were about to plunge into a huge decline, and the creators addressed the problem head-on in #119 by embracing the psychedelic culture with a clever tale of supernal power, brainwashing and behaviour modification as the DP found themselves cowering ‘In the Shadow of the Great Guru’â€¦

An issue later they faced the furious Luddite ‘Rage of the Wrecker’ when a crazed scientist declared war on all technology – including the assorted bodies which kept Cliff Steele alive – before the then-unthinkable occurred and the series spectacularly, abruptly ended with what we all believed at the time to be ‘The Death of the Doom Patrol!’

Faced with cancellation, Editor Murray Boltinoff and creators Drake & Premiani had wrapped up all the long-running plot threads as the spurned Madame Rouge went off the deep end and declared war on both the Brain and Caulder’s â€œchildrenâ€. Blowing up the Brotherhood, she then attacked the city until the Patrol removed themselves to an island fortress. Even there they were not safe and her forces ambushed them. Captured and facing death, she offered them mercy if they would abandon their principles and allow her to destroy a village of 14 complete strangers insteadâ€¦

At a time when comics came and went with no fanfare and cancelled titles seldom provided any closure, the sacrifice and death of the Doom Patrol was a shocking event for us youngsters. We wouldn’t see anything like it again for decades – and never again with such style and impactâ€¦

With the edge of time and experience on my side, it’s obvious just how incredibly mature Drake & Premiani’s take on superheroes actually was, and these superbly engaging, frenetically fun and breathtakingly beautiful stories should rightfully rank amongst the very best Fights ‘n’ Tights tales ever told.

Even the mercilessly exploitative many returns of the team since can’t diminish that incredible impact, and no fan of the genre or comic dramas in general should consider their superhero education complete until they’ve seen these classics.
Â© 1966, 1967, 1968, 2010 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

January 22, 2013January 22, 2013

Ignition City

By Warren Ellis, Gianluca Pagliarani & Chris Dreier (Avatar Press)
ISBN: 978-1-59291-087-8

We don’t do clear, wide-eyed optimistic science fiction space opera any more. We’re all much more cynical, defensively sardonic and glumly disappointed: betrayed by the bland Future we inherited rather than the gleaming, enticingly simplistic one we were promised. It’s the 21^st century, I still haven’t got my jet-pack and I’m not going to shut up until I get oneâ€¦

Nevertheless the iconic heroes and villains invented for those now near-extinct Cold-War 20^th century tomorrow people still provide the raw material for gripping, evocative post-modern futurist fodder and a few comics creators are truly proficient in blending that cheated Sense of Wonder with modern sensibilities to make whole new science fiction sensations.

One of the better recent modern myth-busting mini masterpieces was a 5-part miniseries from 2010: brainchild of acerbic wunderkind Warren Ellis, whose clear love of all things Wild, Black and Yonder have previously resulted in such superb speculative thrillers as Transmetropolitan, Ministry of Space and Aetheric Mechanics (this last also illustrated by Gianluca Pagliarani, the superbly effective co-creator of the particular space romp under the lens here).

The tale itself is an old and familiar one, but the setting is truly what gives this dark yarn its shockingly addictive appeal. On this Atompunk/Dieselpunk Earth, World War II was cut short when Martians invaded, prompting a couple of explosive decades when square-jawed, burly humans rode rockets to the stars and battled horrendous dictators such as Kharg the Killer, brutal despot of a fantastic alien empire who picked the wrong side when he allied himself with Adolf Hitlerâ€¦

Now it’s 1956 and the lustre has tarnished for most Terrans regarding space.

With Cold War politics, economic woes and the fear of alien contamination â€“ physical, cultural and social – the planet has turned against space and spacers.

There is only one place on Earth where ships even exist any more – the self-contained enclave island of Ignition City – where all those veteran astronauts grimly await the day when all off-world travel is finally banned.

For young Mary, daughter of interplanetary legend Arthur â€œRockâ€ Raven, it’s a cruel fate. Like so many who have been to infinity and beyond, she is addicted to the wonders of the void and the prospect of a life imprisoned on one world is unbearable.

When she gets notification that her dad has died in the interzone settlement ofIgnitionCityshe decides to go there and recover his personal effects – despite strenuous resistance from assorted governments, various Powers-that-be, close friends and her own mother. She has no illusions about her dad or the spacer’s life, but it’s what she wants and she’ll chase any remote chance to hold onto it. Ignoring all that pressure Mary consequently discovers that, as always, nothing is as it seems.

The artificial island is an anarchic hellhole. Draconian military outposts around the coast enclose and isolate a derelict, ramshackle and squalid shanty town of broken beings and beasts from a dozen worlds, eking out an existence amongst the ruins of ships and exotic cosmic technological debris. Everybody seems to be simultaneously waiting for one last chance to get off-world or just die and fade away.

Passing through immigration she first learns how the City is deadly dangerous and that corruption is a way of life as the civil servants confiscate her gunâ€¦

In the star-sucking slums, legends of her youth are growing old disgracefully and gradually dying. Saviour of the Universe Lightning Bowman has become the settlement’s chief gunrunner and his once-beloved Gayle Ransom runs a local bar: both eking out a living catering to the daily needs of an army of disillusioned spacers, and aliens trapped by the tide of the times. Their old comrade Doc Vukovic is a crazy hermit now: spending his days prowling the huge junkyards, cobbling together a ship to take him away from the hell of his home world. Violent death is a daily occurrence and only frowned upon because it generates unwelcome paperwork for corrupt Port Authority officials like the jetpack-riding Marshal Pomeroy.

Checking in to the boarding house where her dad died, Mary goes looking for answers and discovers Rock Raven was murdered in his bed. Inspired by discovering the â€œHowâ€, her efforts to obtain a weapon don’t go as easily, but she’s still determined to stick around and find the â€œWhyâ€ and the â€œWhoâ€â€¦

Even greedy, paranoid, far-fallen from grace Cosmic Champion Bowman won’t sell her a weapon. He only urges her to get the hell out of the doomed cityâ€¦

Sticking around and poking her nose in all the wrong places, Mary makes a few unlikely friends but no progress until she reclaims her father’s impervious old briefcase. Deftly manipulating a lock which a lot of people have clearly tried to breach, Mary finds the murdered spacer’s journal – and his fully-charged, highly illegal, honking great, souped-up ray-gunâ€¦ just the kind of thing specifically prohibited by the authorities.

Now, she thinks, some answers are going to be forthcomingâ€¦

Soon, amidst a storm of blood and lethal radiations, she has uncovered why her father died, a sordid government conspiracy involving Humanity’s greatest foe and, with fallen arch-scientist Dragomir Vukovic (builder of the first rocket-ship in history), united the self-loathing, lost and ragged remnants of the Earth’s greatest – and only – star-panning generation to expose the greatest shame of the world which turned its back on the futureâ€¦

In case you’re dense or just young, this epic space-western classily references, dismantles and reassembles all those glorious heroic archetypes and wonder-men of the pulp science fiction era (complete with cunning conceptual name checks for the iconic characters old farts like me grew up adoring: from the obvious Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon to King of the Rocketmen, the Lensmen, Dan Dare and the rest) in a sharp, bleakly nihilistic tale beautifully rendered and crisply told, that still manages to enflame the frustrated simmering dreams in all of us doddery dreamers cheated out of the stars by shoddy tawdry realityâ€¦

Harsh, uncompromising and turbulently trenchant, this overwhelmingly entertaining tome also includes a host of design sheets, covers, variants and pin-up pages in a glorious Gallery section to cap off a powerful paean of praise to forgotten tomorrows which long-time sci-fi fans, comic readers and newcomers alike will adore.
Â© 2010 Avatar Press, Inc. Ignition City and all properties â„¢ & Â© 2010 Warren Ellis.

January 21, 2013January 20, 2013

Usagi Yojimbo book 1: (The Ronin)

By Stan Sakai (Fantagraphics)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-362-5 Â Â Â 978-0-93019-335-5 (2005 edition)

One of the very best and most adaptable survivors of the 1980s black and white comicbook explosion/implosion is a truly bizarre and wonderful synthesis of historical Japanese samurai fiction and anthropomorphic animal adventure – a perfect example of the versatility and strengths of a creator-owned character.

Usagi Yojimbo (which translates as â€œrabbit bodyguardâ€) first appeared as a background character in multi-talented creator Stan Sakai’s anthropomorphic peripatetic comedy feature The Adventures of Nilson Groundthumper and Hermy, which launched in furry ‘n’ fuzzy folk anthology 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.

Sakaiwas born in 1953 inKyoto,Japanbefore the family emigrated toHawaiiin 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 moving to California.

His first comics work was as a letterer, most famously for the incredible 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, combined to turn a proposed story about a historical human hero into one of the most enticing and impressive – and astonishingly authentic – fantasy sagas of all time.

The deliciously rambling and expansive period fantasy series 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 or the beginning of the 17^th century, simultaneously sampling some classic contemporary cultural icons from sources as varied as Lone Wolf and Cub, Zatoichi and even Godzilla. The epic saga specifically recounts the life of Miyamoto Usagi, a Ronin or masterless, wandering Samurai, making 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, long-suffering, conscientious and heroic bunny who just can’t turn down any request for help or ignore the slightest evidence of injusticeâ€¦

The Lepine Legend appeared in Albedo #2-4, The Doomsday Squad #3 and seven issues of Critters (1, 3, 6-7, 10-11 and 14) before leaping into his own long-running series and this initial collection gathers those key tales and material from the Usagi Yojimbo Summer Special, from 1984-1986.

The Sublime Swordsbun has changed publishers a few times but has been in continuous publication since 1987 – with over 29 graphic novel collections and books to date. He has also guest-starred in numerous other series, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and its TV incarnation – he 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 outâ€¦

There are high-end collectibles, art prints, computer games and RPGs, a spin-off sci-fi comics serial and lots of toys.

Sakai and his creation have won numerous awards both within the Comics community and amongst the greater reading public, and in 2009 current publisher Dark Horse Comics commissioned an all-new, fully painted anniversary tale which allowed the creator to hone his considerable skills with watercolours.

This debut monochrome compilation opens with ‘The Goblin of Adachigahara’ from 1984 as a weary warrior trudges through the snow and accepts hospitality from a lonely old woman. In return for food and a night’s shelter he tells her of his history and how he lost his master at the battle waged near this hovel many years ago.

Warring against usurper Lord Hikiji, the wanderer’s noble clan chief was betrayed by trusted General Toda and all the rabbit could do was preserve the falling leader’s body from further shame and desecration. Since that time he has been a masterless itinerant living out his tragic Karmaâ€¦

Now his journey has brought him back to the region of his greatest shameâ€¦ and although he doesn’t know it, to the shack of foul Toda’s wife and the ghastly debased creature she still lovesâ€¦

That incredible clash of hero against horror led to ‘Lone Rabbit and Child!’ which set up major plot threads for the future as the Ronin was hired by beautiful swordswoman Tomoe Ame to protect her Lord Noriyuki. The callow youth had been travelling to the capital to ratify his role as leader of the prestigious Geishu Clan following the death of his father, but the party had been repeatedly attacked by ninjas working for the infamous Hikiji – now risen high in the Emperor’s hierarchy.

The insidious schemer was determined to foil the investiture and appropriate the Geishu properties for himself, but had not reckoned on fate and the prowess of the lethally adept Usagiâ€¦

In the sequel, as Tomoe recovered from wounds incurred in the defence of her young master and Noriyuki slowly adapted to the subtly perilous life as Lord of a powerful clan, Hikiji’s scapegoat committed suicide and left a damning testament to the villain’s perfidy. But even though a fruitless pursuit of ‘The Confession’ led the Rabbit Ronin to danger and momentary joy it provided no lasting peace or justiceâ€¦

‘Bounty Hunter’ added outrageous comedy to the all-action mix when conniving thief-taker GennosukÃ© bamboozled the big hearted bunny into joining in a potentially profitable hunt for a band of outlaw brothers after which Usagi found himself on the wrong side of the law when his noble efforts to save a caravan from bandits resulted in his being rewarded with a stolen steed and branded a ‘Horse Thief’.

‘Village of Fear’ leapt straight into terror territory when the wandering samurai stumbled into a township trapped by a were-beast who treated the peasants as its rapidly-dwindling larderâ€¦

Moments of peace and contemplation were few in the Yojimbo’s life but, even when a drunken horde interrupted ‘A Quiet Meal’, the rabbit’s patience took a lot of rousing. Some folks however, really don’t know when to stop boozing and leave well enough aloneâ€¦

‘Blind Swordspig’ is a masterful comedic parody that also sets up future conflicts as the landless lepus meets a formidable companion on the road whose incredible olfactory sense more than compensates for his useless eyes. How tragic then that the affable Ino is also a ruthless, blood-spilling outlaw who won’t let comradeship affect his hunger for freedom or carnageâ€¦

A hint of past tragedies informs ‘Homecoming!’ parts 1 and 2, as the penniless roving, Ronin accidentally returns to the village of his birth and finds his first love wedded to his oldest rival. Moreover when invading ninjas starving in the deepest of winters threaten the village, they take as hostage the son who should have been Usagi’sâ€¦

This poignant and heartbreaking glimpse into the past is gloriously offset by the concluding inclusion as ‘Bounty Hunter II’ sees the uproarious return of the bombastic GennosukÃ© who is again determined to enlist the lethally skilled and formidable swordsbun in a dangerously profitable get-rich-quick scheme involving literally hordes of hostile criminalsâ€¦

Fast-paced yet lyrical, funny, thrilling and simply bursting with veracity and verve, Usagi Yojimbo is a magical saga of irresistible appeal that will delight devotees and make converts of the most hardened hater of â€œfunny animalâ€ stories.

January 20, 2013January 20, 2013

Fantastic Four by Waid & Wieringo Ultimate Collection Book 3

By Mark Waid & Mike Wieringo, with Howard Porter, Norm Rapmund, Karl Kesel & Paul Smith (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5657-4

The Fantastic Four is widely 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 hideously mutated into outlandish 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 brute who, unlike his comrades, could not reassume a semblance of normality on command.

This particular compilation gathers issues #503-513, highlighting more of the spectacular run by writer Mark Waid and much-missed illustrator Mike Wieringo, gloriously celebrating their â€œback-to-basicsâ€ approach which utterly rejuvenated the venerable property, beginning in 2003.

Waid’s greatest gift is his ability to embed hilarious moments of comedy into tales of shattering terror and poignant drama, but that’s sensibly suppressed here for the story-arc ‘Authoritative Action’ (illustrated by guest artists Howard Porter & Norm Rapmund) which sees the team return to Latveria following their spectacular defeat of Dr. Doom (for which see Fantastic Four by Waid & Wieringo Ultimate Collection book 2).

Arguably the most dangerous man alive, their arch foe was also supreme ruler of the tiny Balkan nation, his deadly inventions and ruthless reputation holding his subjects in an all-enveloping security cocoon whilst simultaneously keeping at bay every country surrounding the Ruritanian holdover.

Now, with the Iron Dictator gone,Hungaryis only the first of a dozen states seeking to forcibly annexe the territory and seize Doom’s lethal arsenal of technological terrorsâ€¦

Maimed and potentially crazy following that fateful final clash, Reed has brought the FF back to the kingdom to keep the far-from-grateful citizens safe until the Latverians themselves can decide their future. Unfortunately the responsibility-wracked Reed Richards has neglected to inform the United Nations and his own government of this arbitrary action. In the eyes of the world it looks like the heroes have simply staged a coupâ€¦

Most Latverians are equally suspicious. To them their aloof, autocratic, media-controlling former ruler was a paternalistic despot who provided a paradise free from hunger, crime and strife with all the benefits of full employment and cradle-to-grave healthcareâ€¦

As the team break into Doom’s castle they find his robots removing their master’s creations and Reed orders his increasingly uneasy comrades to stop them, destroy the trash and store any devices that might be useful. They are even more disturbed when their leader hangs their logo from a flagpole and tells them that the team is staying to run the countryâ€¦

The deed precipitates an international crisis and the UN calls in super-spy Nick Fury (leader of the organisation’s peacekeeping force S.H.I.E.L.D.) to take charge asHungary,Serbia and Symkaria all mobilise their armies to take back â€œtheirâ€ territory.America too is incensed, fearing the FF’s actions will be construed as Yankee imperialism.

In the beleaguered principality Reed is clearly losing it. All his efforts to show the people what a monster Doom was go awry and he is slowly uniting the culture-shocked citizens against him. Even his devoted friends and family have their doubts – at least until Richards uncovers Doom’s hidden nuclear arsenal and underground intercontinental missile baseâ€¦

Resorting to a media blitz, Reed opens Doom’s Fortress to the Latverians but only succeeds in provoking a suicide attack by ultra-nationalists, even as the UN issues an ultimatum: unless the FF vacate the country within 48 hours a â€œCoalition of the Willing’ comprising 39 nations including Russia and China, will declare war on them and America, liberating Latveria – and Doom’s arsenalâ€¦

In the postage-stamp kingdom, Ben and Johnny, frightened that Reed’s recent traumas have tipped him over the edge, try to negotiate with the Latverian resistance before the situation worsens, but are caught in a police sweep of deadly Doombots controlled by the now clearly insane Mr. Fantasticâ€¦

With Fury compelled to lead the coalition to proveAmerica’s innocence, Reed finally drives away his family just as the massed armies utterly surrounding the kingdom attack. But of course he has always had a plan. It involved plucking Doom from the torments of Hell and exacting a truly horrific and proper punishment upon the dictator and himself, but it’s all ruined when Sue, Ben and Johnny return to save him, allowing the dictator’s soul to escape and possess the Fantastic Four…

Even after that debacle is successfully concluded, Doom dispatched back to Hell and Latveria finally free to chart her own course, the FF are international pariahs awaiting trial for treasonâ€¦

The battle also cost Ben’s life.

The team return to America in ‘Hereafter’ (illustrated by the returning Wieringo & Karl Kesel) which saw the ultimate inventor push his intellect to the limits of imagination and create a device to take Richards – and his unbelieving wife and brother-in-law – to Heaven and bring Ben backâ€¦

Spectacular and truly cosmic in scope, this bold tribute to the unlimited imagination of Jack Kirby acts as an inspirational re-set button for the series and this volume ends with a bunch of far lighter tales celebrating the team’s past and highlighting that comedy touch Waid, Wieringo & Kesel were famed for.

Fantastic Four #512 and 513 led with a 2-part action romp ‘Spider Sense’ as in the wake of the Latveria incident, self-promoting â€œplayaâ€ Johnny Storm went wild after his old frenemy Spider-Man surrendered (after five straight years) the title of â€œNew York’s Least Eligible Batchelorâ€ to the Human Torchâ€¦

Unable to handle the prospect of being unpopular Johnny became even more unconsciously obnoxious, demanded satisfaction of the arachnid avenger and got into a battle at a water park that deprived him of his confidence, his dignity and his pants – and that was before the hilariously Z-list villain Hydro-Man attackedâ€¦

This outrageous exploration of super-heroic Bromanticism was supplemented by a brace of superb and gently affectionate short stories rendered by the masterful Paul Smith. ‘Gone Fishin” peeked into the restored relationship of Reed and Sue as both dwelt upon old potential paramours, whilst the last teamed the Invisible Woman and her husband’s college girlfriend Alyssa Moy in a telling time-travel yarn which disturbingly hinted thatÂ some things were ‘Best Left Forgotten’â€¦

With a full cover gallery by Tony Harris & Tom Feister, Wieringo & Karl Kesel

and Paul Mounts, this power-packed primer also includes

Superbly entertaining, immensely exciting and genuinely challenging, this run of tales was a sublime renaissance for the â€œWorld’s Greatest Comics Magazineâ€ and this collection also includes bonus material comprising deleted scenes, the ‘E-mail Exchange’ resulting from the proposal to go political and also add God to the list of luminaries who have guest-starred in the series, notes of the art tribute to Kirby in #511 and unused pencil art and promotional designs.

Utterly absorbing, top quality Fights ‘n’ Tights mastery from some of the greatest creators in modern comics, this is another book no aficionado should ignore â€¦

January 19, 2013January 18, 2013

Plastic Man Archives volume 2

By Jack Cole (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-621-4

Jack Cole was one of the most uniquely gifted talents of American Comics’ Golden Age, crafting landmark tales in horror, true crime, war, adventure and especially superhero genres. His incredible humour-hero Plastic Man remains an unsurpassed benchmark of screwball costumed hi-jinks: frequently copied but never equalled. In 1954 Cole quit comics for gag and glamour cartooning, becoming a household name when his brilliant watercolour gags and stunningly saucy pictures began running in Playboy with the fifth issue. Cole eventually moved into the lofty realms of newspaper strips and, in May 1958, achieved his life-long ambition by launching a syndicated newspaper strip, the domestic comedy Betsy and Me.

OnAugust 13th 1958, at the moment of his greatest success he took his own life. The reasons remain unknown.

Without doubt – and despite his other comicbook innovations and triumphs such as Silver Streak, Daredevil, The Claw, Death Patrol, Midnight, Quicksilver, The Barker and The Comet as well as through a uniquely twisted take on the crime and horror genres – Cole’s greatest creation was the zany, malleable Plastic Man who quickly grew from a minor back-up character into one of the most memorable and popular heroes of the Golden Age. â€œPlasâ€ was the wondrously perfect fantastic embodiment of the sheer energy, verve and creativity of an era when anything went and comics-makers were prepared to try out every outlandish ideaâ€¦

This second superbly lavish full-colour deluxe hardback reprints Plastic Man #1 and the cover-featured lead tales from Police Comics #21-30, covering August 1943 to May 1944 and sees, after a convivial commentary in the Foreword by author, strip writer and historian Ron Goulart, the Stretchable Sleuth’s meteoric rise, fully converting from hilariously edgy benevolent rogue to malleable super straight man as his comedy relief sidekick increasingly stole the show in a series of explosive exploits which shaped the early industry every inch as much as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman or the â€œShazamâ€ shouting Captain Marvelâ€¦

Eel O’Brian was a career criminal wounded during a factory robbery, soaked by a vat of spilled acid and callously abandoned by his thieving buddies. Crawling away to die, O’Brian was found by a monk who nursed him back to health and proved to the hardened thug that the world was not just filled with brutes and vicious chisellers after a fast buck.

His entire outlook altered and, gifted with incredible malleability (he surmises it was the chemical bath mingling with his bullet wounds), Eel resolved to put his new powers to use in cleaning up the scum he used to run with.

Creating a costumed alter ego he began a stormy association with theNew York Citycops before being recruited as a most special agent of the FBIâ€¦

Shortages and government rationing were gripping the country at this time. For publishers it was lack of paper that particularly plagued and Plastic Man #1 was released (a Summer 1943 cover-date) through a subsidiary company Vital Books, rather than as a straight addition to Quality Comics’ prestigious line of stars.

Irrespective of the name on the masthead, the mammoth 64 page tome offered a quartet of stunning tales of humour, heroic hi-jinks and horror, beginning with cover-featured ‘The Game of Death’ in which Plas and his inimitable, often unwanted assistant set upon the trail of an engrossing mystery and incredible threat posed by a rich man’s gambling club which concealed a sadistic death cult using games of chance to recruit victims â€¦and new disciplesâ€¦

Said assistant Woozy Winks was an indolent slob, paltry pickpocket, utterly venal yet slavishly loyal oaf who accidentally saved a wizard’s life and was gifted in return with a gift of invulnerability: all the forces of nature would henceforth protect him from injury or death – if said forces felt like it.

After failing to halt the thief’s impossible crime spree, Plas appealed to his sentimentality and better nature and, once Woozy tearfully repented, was compelled to keep him around in case he strayed againâ€¦

Winks – equal parts Artful Dodger and Mr. Micawber, with the verbal skills and intellect of Lou Costello’s screen persona or the over-filled potato sack he resembled – was the perfect foil for Plastic Man: a lazy, greedy, ethically challenged reprobate with perennially sticky fingers who got all the best lines, possessed an inexplicable charm and had a habit of finding trouble. It was the perfect marriage of inconvenienceâ€¦

In ‘Now You See it, Now You Don’t’ the rotund rogue got involved with a goofy Professor and became the greedy owner of an invisibility spray. He wanted to sell it to the Army but Japanese spies captured both the formula and Plastic Man, and dispatched them toTokyo for disposal.

Of course this simply allowed the Man of a Thousand Shapes to deliver such a sound and vicariously joyful thrashing to the Dishonourable Sons of Nippon that it must have had every American kid who saw it jumping for joy.

Cole then touched the heartstrings with the tragic tale of ‘Willie McGoon, Dope’ as a hulking yet gentle simpleton disfigured by neighbourhood kids became the embittered pawn of a career criminal. The duo’s terrifying crime-wave paralysed the city until Plas and Woozy stepped in.

The stunning solo package closed with ‘Go West Young Plastic Man, Go West’ after Woozy bought a gold mine from a guy in a bar and greedily galloped to Tecos Gulch to make his fortune. By the time Plas arrived to save him from his folly the corpulent clown had been framed for rustling and murderâ€¦

Police Comics #21 featured conspiracy by a financial cabal attempting to corner the travel and shipping routes of the nation. Only one man could counter the impending monopoly but he was missing, seduced by the prognostications of a circus fortune teller. If Plas couldn’t rescue Sylvester Smirk from ‘The Menace of Serpina’ the entire country would grind to a standstillâ€¦

In #22, ‘The Eyes Have It!’ pitted Plas and Woozy against a child-trafficking human horror dubbed The Sphinx who was exercising all his resources to regain possession of a little mute boy who had seen too much, whilst #23’s purportedly supernatural thriller saw the Stretchable Sleuth prove ‘The Ghost Train’ to be no such thing, but only a scam by a shareholder trying to buy up a rail line the Government needed to acquire for vital war work.

A rash of tire thefts (also severely rationed during war time) in Police #24 had a sinister purpose as gangsters and a mad scientist joined forces to synthesise evil knock-offs of their greatest enemy in ‘The Hundred Plastic Men’ after which Woozy again stole the show – and sundry other items – when his addiction to mystery stories led him and Plastic Man on a deadly chase to discover the culprit and cause of ‘The Rare Edition Murders’ in #25.

Over and above his artistic virtuosity, Jack Cole was an astonishing adept writer. His regular 15-page adventures were always packed with clever, innovative notions, sophisticated character shtick and far more complex plots than any of his competitors. In #26’s ‘Body, Mind and Soul’ he starts with Plas’ FBI boss discovering his shady past, and builds on it as the exposed O’Brian agrees to a take on three impossible cases to prove he really has reformed. From there it’s all rollercoaster action as the Pliable Paladin rounds up brutish Slugger Crott, ferrets out the true identity of the city’s smartest mob boss and ends the depredations of a tragically cursed werewolfâ€¦

The rotund rascal again took centre stage – and even the cover – in #27 as ‘Woozy Winks, Juror’ hilariously endangered the very nature and sacred process of jurisprudence after being excluded from jury duty. After all, he only had a small criminal record and the impish imbecile was determined to serve so when a sharp operator gave him a few tips Woozy was so grateful that heâ€¦

The star-struck schmuck dominated again in #28 as Hollywoodcalled and the Flexible Fed agreed to star in a film. However with Mr. Winks as his manager it was inevitable that ‘Plastic Man â€“ the Movie’ would start with intrigue, sex and murder but as usual end as a furious fun-filled fiasco.

The trail of America’s biggest tax-evader drew Plastic Man to ‘Death in Derlin’s Castle’ as the FBI’s Odd Couple followed the absence of money to an historic pile and a nefarious scheme with moody movie echoes of Citizen Kane and The Cat and the Canary, before this sublime Archive selection ceases with the outrageously odd and supremely surreal ‘Blinky Winks and Gooie Louie’ from Police Comics #30.

Plas and Woozy are drawn into incredible peril when ruthless butter-leggers begin supplying illicit spreads to the city’s dairy-deprived (rationing again) denizens. Even dedicated crime-busters like Woozy found it hard to resist the lure of the lard and when the creamy trail unfortunately led to Woozy’s uncle Blinky justice had to be done. Of course there was always lots of hard-to-find food to be found on a farm but that was just a happy coincidenceâ€¦

Always exciting, breathtakingly original, thrilling, funny, scary and still visually intoxicating seventy years later, Jack Cole’s Plastic Man is a truly unique creation that has only grown in stature and appeal. This is a magical, unique comics experience fans would be crazy to deny themselves.
Â© 1943, 1944, 2000 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

January 18, 2013January 20, 2013

Batman: Battle for the Cowl

By Tony S. Daniel, Sandu Florea, Fabian Nicieza & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-4012-2417-2

I’m innately suspicious of and generally hostile to big, bombastic braided crossover events in comics.

Does any other popular art form use them yet, or are they too often simply an excuse to shear cash from hard-up fans?

(Coming Soon to Your Screen: CSIs Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Croydon must race both NCISs, all the various Law & Orders, The Bill and Inspector Montalbano to battle an international conspiracy and discover who ate all the pies on Man vs. Food, with sidebar stories on Holby City, Grey’s Anatomy and Body of Proof, whilst Cold Case investigates the connection to an unsolved Miss Marple poisoning before Dr. Who wraps it up in a time-spanning Christmas Specialâ€¦)

Undoubtedly in terms of mainstream superhero stories, with some key characters spread out over many titles, epochal continuity events can and should be reflected in all the various comicbooks, but the whipping up of buyer’s frenzy until readers don’t dare miss any mention or moment of an event has always struck me as cruel and unusual punishment directed towards the people who love you most – and that’s just abuse, plain and simpleâ€¦

That’s not to say that some pretty impressive yarns haven’t resulted from the practice and undoubtedly the modern wrinkle of producing discrete â€œNested Storylinesâ€ within the broader framework has eased the previously daunting burden somewhat – although that might be more a necessary function of the increasingly important trade paperback/graphic novel market: after all who could even lift a book containing every episode and instalment of Civil War or Crisis on Infinite Earths?

Even so, I prefer not to get caught up in the hype and furore if at all possible, and even re-reread such blockbusters before passing my own awesome, implacable Final Judgementâ€¦

Thus with all the fervour and kerfuffle surrounding the epic death and inevitable resurrection of Batman finally finished and forgotten, now seems the moment to take another look at one the critical elements of the positively vast Batman R.I.P./Final Crisis/Last Rites/Batman Reborn/Return of Bruce Wayne affair to see how it stands bereft of hysteriaâ€¦

Following a harrowing and sustained campaign of terror by insidious cabal The Black Hand, the mighty Batman was apparently killed by diabolical New God Darkseid during the â€œFinal Crisisâ€. Although the news was kept from the general public, the superhero community secretly mourned and a dedicated army of assistants, protÃ©gÃ©s and allies assembled through the years by the Dark Knight formed a â€œNetworkâ€ of champions to police Gotham City in the tumultuous days and weeks that followedâ€¦

This slim volume collects the contents of core miniseries Batman: Battle for the Cowl #1-3 plus themed anthology specials Gotham Gazette: Batman Dead? #1 and Gotham Gazette: Batman Alive? #1 (March-July 2009) recounting how with the city descended into chaos as the hard-pressed Network strive against a three-way power struggle whilst hoping to keep their patriarch’s legacy aliveâ€¦

Most of the Batman-trained Network refuse to believe their inspirational mentor is dead and thus, believing him only lost, have urged Dick Grayson – first Robin , now Nightwing – to assume his teacher’s identity again (as he did post-KnightFall during the Batman: Prodigal storyline) until Bruce Wayne can find his way back to them. This, the bereaved junior hero has steadfastly refused to doâ€¦

Written and pencilled by Tony S. Daniel with inks from Sandu Florea, the epic opens during ‘A Hostile Takeover’ with third Robin Tim Drake and his British analogue The Squire valiantly battling a gang of killer clowns only to find their job finished for them by an unseen vigilante who deals out justice with extreme violence and leaves little love-notes declaring â€œI AM BATMANâ€â€¦

As an army of heroes – including The Knight, Wildcat, Birds of Prey, Outsiders and even a new Batwoman work with the police to maintain order, but as the Dark Knight hasn’t been seen for weeks Gotham’s criminal classes are beginning to suspect that something has happened to their greatest nemesisâ€¦

Already moving to consolidate power are The Penguin and Two-Face: each attempting to create an insurmountable powerbase and win complete control of the underworld by the time the Batman shows his face again, but unknown to each a third player has begun his own campaign.

Black Mask is a sadistic psychotic – but a methodical and strategically brilliant one. His first move is to free a busload of Batman’s most maniacal menaces being shipped back to Arkham Asylum and let them loose to add to the chaos and carnageâ€¦

Meanwhile Tim continually presses Nightwing to assume the mantle of the Bat, arguing that even a fake Caped Crusader will have a terrifying calming effect onGotham’s rampant rogues and robbers.

Moreover, it must be one of them, rather than allowing the increasingly out-of-control mystery impostor to steal the role and tarnish the legendâ€¦

Grayson again refuses before heading back to damage control leaving Tim to track the fake as he brutally demolishes and even murders malefactors throughout the city. With a chilling inkling as to the fraud’s identity, Drake himself puts on the cowl and costume to hunt the killer to his hidden lair beneath Gotham’s sewers, even as Bruce Wayne’s assassin-trained son Damian – continuing as the headstrong and potentially lethal latest iteration of Robin, the Boy Wonder – is attacked by liberated lunatics Poison Ivy and Killer Croc and a horde of lesser criminals.

Even after Nightwing swings in to assist, the odds seem hopeless â€¦until the Fake Knight bursts in, all guns blazingâ€¦

‘Army of One’ finds Nightwing battling the killer charlatan to a standstill amidst the bodies of his dead and dying attackers and reaching the same conclusion Tim had. The blood-hungry facsimile is Jason Todd â€¦

Another orphan taken in by Batman, Todd served valiantly as the second Boy Wonder but his psychological problems remained hidden and unresolved and the boy was murdered by the Joker. Subsequently resurrected by one of the frequent Cosmic Upheavals (Infinite Crisis if you’re interested, but it all happened off-camera and post hocâ€¦) that plague the DC Universe, the boy took on the identity of the Red Hood and began cleaning up Gotham his way; using his Bat-training and the merciless tactics of the villains he remorselessly stalked. Now with the role of Dark Knight vacant he intends to become theBatmanGothamCity always deservedâ€¦

Unable to defeat each other, the impasse between Nightwing and the killer Caped Crusader is broken when Birds of Prey Huntress and Black Canary arrive. Todd simply shoots Damian in the chest and escapes whilst the heroes rush to tend the boyâ€¦

Black Mask, meanwhile, is deploying more of the freed Arkham inmates; using them to covertly amp up the death-struggle between Two-Face and the Penguin. Deep below Gotham Tim, still dressed as his teacher, searches Todd’s hideout and encounters a far from friendly Catwomanâ€¦

As Grayson and Alfred doctor the wounded Damian in the Batcave, Black Mask’s sinister subordinates blow up Police Headquarters, whilst Catwoman and Tim search Todd’s files for clues. Her hostility had stemmed from the lad wearing her ex-lover’s clothes, but she’s a lot angrier when the impostor returns and attacksâ€¦

Leaving them both for dead, Todd then moves to his lethal endgame intent on being the ‘Last Man Standing’â€¦

As Nightwing gathers his Network to tackle the mounting chaos, Black Mask unobtrusively takes full control of the underworld and Grayson at last realises that only one man can be allowed to carry the burden of being Batman. All he has to do is beat Jason, who has brutally removed and almost murdered every other contender for the Cowlâ€¦

Book-ending the actual event, but safely tucked in at the back of this book, were a brace of anthology specials scripted by Fabian Nicieza and focussing on some of the supporting characters involved in the affair.

Thus Gotham Gazette: Batman Dead? #1 introduces a new player in ‘The Veil’ – illustrated by Dustin Nguyen (who also provided covers for both comics) – an enigmatic figure hidden in shadows and cogently assessing the situation for both her and our benefit, after which disgraced reporter and ex-Wayne girlfriend ‘Vicki Vale’ begins to investigate her former beau in a tantalising teaser limned by Guillem March.

Temporary hero ‘Stephanie Brown’ (The Spoiler and, briefly, Robin Mark IV) returned to the city after being run out of town by Batman and soon stumbles back into her old ways after seeing her ex-boyfriend Tim Drake hunting the deliriously larcenous Nocturna (art from ChrisCross), whilst Bruce Wayne’s closest confidante and replacement mum ‘Leslie Thompkins’ also snuck back in, determined as ever to open a free clinic for the underprivileged.

Illustrated by Jamie McKelvie, the tale showed why Batman closed her down as she quickly began treating escaped lunatics like the Cavalier, regardless of how many innocents they had harmedâ€¦

The first collection closed with a glimpse at bad cop ‘Harvey Bullock’ (Alex Konat & Mark McKenna) given one more â€œlast chanceâ€ by Commissioner Gordon and determined to find a killer who beheaded his victimsâ€¦

Gotham Gazette: Batman Alive? #1 resumed all of these opened affairs with all the same creators finishing what they started.

‘The Veil’ at last reached her conclusions and passed judgement on the new Batman whilst ‘Harvey Bullock’ identified his mystery killer and opened the doors for a new Azrael to haunt the city’s criminals and ‘Leslie Thompkins’ proved that her help could provide redemption for even the most lost and depraved soulsâ€¦

‘Stephanie Brown’ then began her own road back by taking up her original costumed identity as ‘Vicki Vale’ began piecing together many threads to uncover absentee playboy Bruce’s darkest, most incredible secretâ€¦

This collection also offers the assorted covers and variants the comicbooks generated, dotted throughout the saga, and this tumultuous tome concludes with ‘Building the Network’ Â – a copious collection of pencilled cover art, story-pages and sketches by Daniel that will dazzle and delight those interested in the creative process.

So what’s the verdict? Actually, I’d go with a tentative â€œthumbs upâ€…

There’s not much plot to wrestle with, but the action and drama are kept to an angsty maximum and, even though not all the characters and backstory might be familiar to new or casual readers, the pace and delivery will carry fans of the genre along with suitable panache. Moreover it’s all very, very pretty to look at and even the freshest neophyte is well aware that it’s all just a prelude to the return of the real Dark Knightâ€¦

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