Author: NowReadThis

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Daredevil in Love and War – a Marvel Graphic Novel


By Frank Miller & Bill Sienkiewicz (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-87135-172-2

It’s been a while since Marvel published an all-original graphic novel as opposed to a collection, but not too long ago they were the market leader in the field with an entire range of “big stories” told on larger than normal pages (277x208mm rather than the now customary 258 x 168mm) featuring not only proprietary characters but also licensed assets like Conan, media adaptations like Willow and even original creator-owned properties such as Alien Legion.

This spectacular and controversial tale of triumph and tragedy from 1986 is a defining moment in the ongoing battle between the driven Man Without Fear and his ultimate antithesis Wilson Fisk – the sinister and grotesque master manipulator dubbed the Kingpin – wherein scripter Frank Miller and illustrator Bill Sienkiewicz (and subtly effective letterer Jim Novak) took a long, hard look at the costs of the struggle in a stark examination of obsession…

The Kingpin is the criminal overlord with New York City in his pocket, wielding the power of life and death over all its denizens. For such a man helplessness is a toxic emotion but all his power and influence cannot cure his beloved wife Vanessa, left broken and catatonic after one of Fisk’s regular confrontation’s with the city’s superheroic guardians…

Dr. Paul Mondat is the world’s greatest expert on such conditions so Fisk orders psychopathic killer Victor to abduct the French physician’s blind wife Cheryl, thus compelling the doctor to cure Vanessa or else. To ensure his total compliance and utmost passionate dedication Fisk leaves Cheryl in the deranged kidnapper’s tender care…

Spending all his time babysitting the unsullied and angelically helpless waif, Victor begins to fixate on his captive…

Daredevil, meanwhile, is punching all the usual suspects in his attempts to get to the Kingpin and save Cheryl, but Victor is far, far off the grid as well as his meds…

Coercing low-level thug Turk into being his snitch and pawn the Sightless Swashbuckler at last rescues Cheryl and then determines to use her as another game piece in his campaign but soon he too is falling under the spell of the impossibly beguiling young woman…

Victor, deprived of his angel of light, goes completely off the rails just as a new factor skews the picture when Mondat succeeds in bringing Vanessa out of her trance…

As the doctor grows ever closer to the recovering Vanessa, ruthless mob overlord Fisk is increasingly distracted and beginning to succumb to jealousy. Events rise to a fearsome crescendo when Daredevil finally tears himself away from Cheryl to invade the Kingpin’s skyscraper citadel. The hero is completely unaware that the utterly unhinged Victor has tracked him down and is only waiting for the masked man to leave so that he can be alone again with his divine Cheryl…

Meanwhile the Kingpin has realised his own great mistake: Mondat has bound Vanessa to him and disappeared, taking with him the only thing Wilson… an eye for an eye, a wife for a wife…

Brutal, scary and enticingly different, this is a truly breathtaking psychological drama beautifully draped in Sienkiewicz’s evocative expressionist painting style: a uniquely effective piece of comics storytelling which is a magnificent, challenging and deeply satisfying.

Although best read in the original oversized Marvel Graphic Novel edition keen and thrifty fans can also see the tale included in the 2003 standard-proportioned compendium Daredevil/Elektra: Love and War.

And they really should…
© 1986 Marvel Comics Group. All rights reserved.

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Spirou & Fantasio volume 3: Running Scared


By Tome & Janry, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-116-7

Spirou (whose name translates as both “squirrel” and “mischievous” in the Walloon language) was created by French cartoonist François Robert Velter AKA Rob-Vel for Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis in response to the phenomenal success of Hergé’s Tintin for rival outfit Casterman.

An eponymous magazine was launched on April 21st 1938 with the other red-headed lad as the lead in an anthology weekly comic which bears his name to this day.

He began as a plucky Bellboy/lift operator employed by the Moustique Hotel (a reference to publisher’s premier periodical Le Moustique) whose improbable adventures with his pet squirrel Spip eventually evolved into high-flying surreal comedy dramas.

Spirou and his pals have spearheaded the magazine for most of its life, where a phalanx of truly impressive creators have carried on Velter’s work, beginning with his wife Blanche “Davine” Dumoulin who took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939.

She was aided by Belgian artist Luc Lafnet until 1943 when Dupuis purchased all rights to the feature, after which comic-strip prodigy Joseph Gillain (“Jijé”) took over, adding current co-star Fantasio to the mix. Along the way Spirou and Fantasio became globe-trotting journalists, continuing their weekly exploits in unbroken four-colour glory.

In 1946 Jijé‘s  assistant André Franquin assumed the reins, adding a spectacular popular magic animal dubbed Marsupilami to the cast (first seen in Spirou et les héritiers in 1952 and now a spin-off star of screen, plush toy store, console games and albums all his own), crafting increasingly fantastic tales until he resigned in 1969.

He was succeeded by Jean-Claude Fournier who updated the feature over the course of nine stirring adventures that tapped into the rebellious, relevant zeitgeist of the times with tales of environmental concern, nuclear energy, drug cartels and repressive regimes.

By the 1980s the series seemed outdated and without direction: three different creative teams alternated on the serial, until it was at last revitalised by the authors of the adventure under review here: Philippe Vandevelde writing as Tome and artist Jean-Richard Geurts best known as Janry.

These last adapted and referenced the beloved Franquin era, consequently reviving the feature’s fortunes and resulting in fourteen wonderful albums between 1984 and 1998. This one from 1988, originally entitled ‘La frousse aux trousses’ or ‘Fear on the Trail’, was their eighth and the 40th collection of the evergreen adventurers.

Harking back to the Fournier years, it comprises the first of an excellent extended two-part thriller which will conclude in Cinebook’s forthcoming ‘Valley of the Exiles’ (originally released as ‘La vallée des bannis’ or ‘Valley of the Banished’ in 1989).

Since Tome & Janry’s departure both Lewis Trondheim and the team of Jean-Davide Morvan & Jose-Luis Munuera have brought the official album count to fifty (there also are a bunch of specials, spin-offs and one-shots, official and otherwise)…

Running Scared opens with a frantic chase scene as Spirou races across the city in splendid breakneck tribute to the silent movies chases of Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. He’s late for a conference where he will recount his many harrowing career-related escapes and show films of his numerous close shaves…

Barely making it, he’s disappointed by the reaction of the audience: those that don’t faint dead away from fear flee the theatre in horror…

It’s a huge disappointment: the daring reporter was hoping to use the profits from his lecture tour to fund his upcoming expedition to discover the fate of two explorers who vanished in 1938 whilst attempting to climb a mountain and discover the legendary “Valley of Exiles” in the mysterious Himalayan nation of Yurmaheesun-shan…

Since 1950 the tiny country has been the subject of numerous invasions by rival super-powers and is a hotbed of rebellion, insurgency and civil war, but ever-undaunted Spirou and Fantasio were utterly determined to solve the ancient mystery.

Their plans are only temporarily derailed however. One of the fainters at the conference was the timid but esteemed Dr. Placebo: renowned authority on the medical condition Spasmodia Maligna and a man convinced that the only cure for the condition – prolonged, sustained and life-threatening synchronous diaphragmatic flutters (or hiccups to you and me) – is to be scared out of one’s wits.

Having seen Spirou in action Placebo wants the reporters to take his most chronic patients with them on this assignment and offers to fund the entire expedition to the war-torn jell-hole…

Over Fantasio’s cynical but sensible objection’s a deal is struck and soon the lads, Spip and five disparate, desperate hiccupping victims are sneaking across the Nepalese border where the diligent Captain Yi is tasked with keeping all foreigners – and especially western journalists – out of the country as it undergoes its pacification and re-education…

However, thanks to native translator Gorpah (a wily veteran guide who once proved invaluable to another red-headed reporter, his little white dog and a foul mouthed-sea captain) the daring band are soon deep in-country, but the invaders are quickly hot on the trail in tanks, armoured cars and attack helicopters, providing plenty of opportunities for the annoyingly obnoxious singultus flutterers to be terrified – but with little evidence of a cure…

And then just as they find their first real clue as to the location of the lost Valley of Exiles the explorers are captured by native partisans and rebels…

Even this doesn’t scare off any hiccups, nor does the daring later escape attempt masterminded by Spirou and Fantasio. As the liberated captives all pile into a lorry a huge storm breaks and the rebels give chase.

When one of their pursuer’s vehicles plunges over a cliff, the valiant fugitives frantically form a human chain to rescue the driver and in the horrendous conditions Spirou is washed away and lost in the raging torrent.

…And that’s when all the hiccupping finally stopped…

To Be Continued…

Starting in superb slapstick comedy mode and with gallons of gags throughout, Running Scared nevertheless quickly evolves into a dark-edged and cunningly shaded satirical critique of then current geo-political scandals like the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and systematic eradication of Tibetan culture by the Chinese – which both of course still resonate in today’s world – as it unfolds an epic and utterly compelling rollercoaster of fun and thrills.

This kind of lightly-barbed, real-world adventure comedy-thriller is a sheer joy in an arena far too full of adults-only carnage, testosterone-fuelled breast-beating, teen-romance monsters or sickly sweet fantasy. Easily accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with all the beguiling style and seductive but wholesome élan which makes Asterix, Lucky Luke, The Bluecoats and Iznogoud so compelling, this is another cracking read from a long line of superb exploits, certain to be as much a household name as those series – and even that other kid with the white dog…

Original edition © Dupuis, 1988 by Tome & Janry. All rights reserved. English translation 2012 © Cinebook Ltd.

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The Amazing Spider-Man Collectors Album (US and UK editions)


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko & various (Lancer/Four Square)
“ISBNs” 72-122 (Lancer) and 1792 (Four Square)

This is another one purely for driven nostalgics, consumed collectors and historical nit-pickers, highlighting the Swinging Sixties’ transatlantic paperback debut of the hero who would become Marvel’s greatest creative triumph…

One thing you could never accuse entrepreneurial maestro Stan Lee of was reticence, especially in promoting his burgeoning line of superstars. In the 1960s most adults, including the people who worked in the field, considered comic-books a ghetto. Some disguised their identities whilst others were “just there until they caught a break.” Stan, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko had another idea… change the perception.

Whilst the artists pursued their personal creative visions, the editorial mastermind pursued every opportunity to break down the ghetto walls: college lecture tours, animated TV shows (of frankly dubious quality at the start, but constantly improving), foreign franchising and of course getting their product onto “real” bookshelves in real book shops.

There had been a revolution in popular fiction during the 1950s with a huge expansion of cheap paperback books: companies developed extensive genre niche-markets, such as war, western, romance, science-fiction and fantasy. With fans hungry for product from their cheap ubiquitous lines, many old novels and short story collections were republished, introducing a new generation to such authors as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Otis Adelbert Kline, H.P. Lovecraft, August Derleth and others.

In 1955, spurred on by the huge parallel success of cartoon and gag book collections, Bill Gaines began releasing paperback compendiums culling the best strips and features from his landmark humour magazine Mad and comics’ Silver Age was mirrored in popular publishing by an insatiable hunger for escapist fantasy fiction. In 1964 Bantam Books began reprinting the earliest pulp adventures of Doc Savage, triggering a revival of pulp prose superheroes, and seemed the ideal partner when Marvel – on the back of the “Batmania” craze – began a short-lived attempt to “novelise” their comic book stable with The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker and Captain America in the Great Gold Steal.

Far more successful were repackaged books by various publishers: reformatting their comics stories in cheap and cheerful softcovers:

Archie Comics released their Marvel knock-off restyled superheroes in the gloriously silly High Camp Superheroes, Tower collected the adventures of their big two Dynamo and No-Man, DC (then National Periodical Publications) released a number of Batman books and an impressive compendium of Superman stories and Marvel, punching far above their weight, unleashed a sextet of paperbacks featuring five of their stars: Fantastic Four (two volumes), the Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, Thor and of course the Amazing Spider-Man.

Now during the heady, turbulent Sixties pulp heroics seemingly returned: imaginative “Thud and Blunder” fantasy tales that were the epitome of “cool”, and Marvel’s canny pursuit of foreign markets instantly paid big dividends.

Their characters, creators and stories were already familiar to British readers, appearing both in Odhams‘ weekly comics Wham!, Pow!, Smash!, Fantastic and Terrific and also in the black and white monthly anthologies published by Alan Class since 1959…

So when Lancer began releasing Marvel’s Mightiest in potent and portable little collections it was simple to negotiate British iterations of those editions although they were not as cheap and had shorter page counts.

A word about artwork here: modern comics are almost universally full-coloured in Britain and America, but for over a century black and white was the only real choice for most mass market publishers – additional (colour) plates being just too expensive for shoe-string operations to indulge in. Even the colour of 1960s comics was cheap and primitive and solid black line, expertly applied by master artists, was the very life-force of sequential narrative.

These days computer enhanced art can hide a multitude of weaknesses – if not actual pictorial sins – but back then companies lived or died on the draughting skills of their artists: so even in basic black and white – and the printing of paperbacks was as basic as the accountants and bean-counters could get it – the Kirbys and Ditkos and Wally Woods of the industry exploded out of those little pages and electrified the readership. I can’t see that happening with many modern artists deprived of their slick paper and 16 million colour palettes…

As I’ve already mentioned US and UK editions vary significantly. Although both re-present – in truncated, resized monochrome – startling early Marvel tales the British Four Square editions are a measly 128 pages, as opposed to the 176 page Lancer editions: necessitating missing stories and odd filler pages. Moreover the UK books are fronted by deliberately garish and poorly drawn “cartoony covers” instead of art by Ditko or Kirby, as if the publishers were embarrassed by the content…

The Amazing Spider-Man Lancer edition by Lee & Steve Ditko was published in 1966 and opens with ‘Duel With Daredevil’ (from #16, September 1964) which depicted the Wall-crawler’s first bombastic meeting with the sightless Man Without Fear as they teamed up to battle the sinister Ringmaster and his Circus of Evil.

This was followed by ‘The Origin of Spider-Man’ from the first issue (March 1963): recapping the story of how nerdy high-schooler Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, became a TV star and failed to prevent the murder of his Uncle Ben. After a pin-up of The Burglar the tale continues, introducing gadfly J. Jonah Jameson and relating how the Amazing Arachnid saved a malfunctioning space capsule before revealing ‘The Secrets of Spider-Man!’ which combined portions of the info-features seen in Amazing Spider-Man Annual’s #1 & 2 from 1964 and 1965.

Thus far the US book and the Four Square paperback released in 1967 are all but identical – covers excluded of course – and apart from Kirby pin-up pages of the Hulk, Thor and Fantastic Four, that’s where Britain’s thrills stop dead, whereas the Lancer volume has another complete story and more in store.

From Amazing Spider-Man #13 ‘The Menace of Mysterio!’ introduced an eldritch, seemingly unbeatable bounty-hunter hired by Daily Bugle publisher Jameson to capture the misunderstood hero. Of course the stalker was a complete sham eventually revealed to be pursuing his own dark agenda, but the battle to stop him was – and still is – one of Spidey’s most spectacular exploits…

This edition ends with another brace of Ditko pin-ups – a roster of guest-stars in one, and the magnificent web-spinner at his moody best in the other…

Nowadays all these adventures are readily available in assorted colour collections or dynamic monochrome Essential Editions but for we surviving baby-boomers the sheer thrill of experiencing these books again is a buzz you can’t beat. Moreover there’s still something vaguely subversive about seeing comics in proper book form, as opposed to the widely available, larger and more socially acceptable graphic novels. Strip art might finally be winning the war for mainstream public recognition, but we’ve all lost some indefinable unifying camaraderie of outsider-hood along the way…

These paperbacks and all the others are still there to be found by those who want to own the artefact as well as the material: I suspect that whether you revere the message or the medium that carries it pretty much defines who you are and how you view comics and the world.

Wanna try and guess where I stand, True Believer…?
© 1966 and 1967 the Marvel Comics Group. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: Shaman


By Dennis O’Neil, Edward Hannigan & John Beatty (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-083-6

In 1989 when DC found that the World had gone completely Bat-crazy for the second time in twenty-five years, they were, apparently, already preparing a brand-new title to add to the Gotham Guardian’s stable of comicbooks.

Two years earlier in 1985-1986, the venerable publisher had grabbed headlines by boldly retconning their entire ponderous continuity via the groundbreaking maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths; ejecting the entire concept of a multiverse and re-knitting time so that there had only ever been one Earth. For readers, the planet was now a perfect place to jump on at the start: a world literally festooned with iconic heroes and villains draped in a clear and cogent backstory nobody knew yet.

Many of their greatest characters got a unique restart, with the conceit being that the characters had been around for years and the readership were simply tuning in on just another working day.

Because of the Tim Burton movie Batman’s popularity was at an intoxicating peak and since DC was still in the throes of re-jigging the entire narrative continuity, the new Bat-title was designed to present multi-part epics that were “earlier” cases; refining and infilling the history of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths hero and his venerable cast. The added fillip was a fluid cast of premiere and up-and-coming creators.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (with a November 1989 cover-date) hit the Comics specialty stores three months after the movie debut: a fascinating experiment and huge hit even if over the years the overall quality proved rather haphazard. Most of the early story arcs were collected as trade paperbacks, helping to jump-start the graphic novel sector of the comics industry, and the re-imagining of the hero’s early career gave fans a wholly modern insight into the ancient if highly malleable concept.

The very first was Batman: Shaman which added detail to the long-established origin and incisive refinements and further psychological underpinning to the steep learning curve that turned over-eager masked avenger Bruce Wayne into an indomitable and terrifying force of nature.

The five-part epic by Dennis O’Neil was illustrated by Edward Hannigan & John Beatty and ran from November 1989 – February 1990, ideally setting the scene for the next decade as it depicted the driven millionaire’s descent into an obsession where Batman became real and Bruce Wayne the manufactured disguise…

After an introduction from Kevin Dooley (which incorporates the five stunning and evocative covers produced by George Pratt) the drama begins with bounty hunter Willy Doggett tracking a murderous felon named Tom Woodley across the frozen wastes of Alaska. Doggett is accompanied by a wealthy young man who has paid a fortune to learn the hunter’s tracking tricks. When Woodley ambushes them the lawman is killed and the boy only narrowly escapes a similar fate when the bushwhacker falls off a cliff.

The boy is critically injured and almost dies: saved only by an Inuit shaman and his granddaughter in the remote outpost of Otters Ridge, who share the secret medicine story of Bat and Raven with him. Nursed back to health after months Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham City to begin his mission against criminals. His saviours refuse all rewards but ask only that he never shares the healing tale with anyone…

In blithe arrogance Bruce tells anthropologist Madison Spurlock the secret sacred story before sending him to Alaska for research and to improve the natives’ lives with Wayne Foundation funds.

After his own life-changing encounter with a bat the young man creates the Batman persona and begins clearing up the streets. His first foray in costume is clearing out thieves terrorising a free clinic run by Dr. Leslie Thomkins in Crime Alley where his parents were gunned down a decade previously.

In his spooky element the triumphant avenger is staggered when a frantic eyewitness commits suicide in front of him, gasping out the name “Chubala”…

As six months pass the Batman becomes an urban legend on the city streets and a sinister cult begins to absorb Gotham’s underclass; a melange of drugs, petty crime and human sacrifice led by a seemingly crazed madman that goes spectacularly public when two bodies are found hideously mutilated and a cop is discovered babbling and near death. Moreover there’s a whiff of something more financial than fantastical about this reign of terror…

Meanwhile the anthropologist has returned and set up an exhibition of his findings. A prize piece is the carved bat-mask the Inuit shaman wore whilst saving Wayne’s life, but the avenger is far more concerned over Chubala than how Spurlock got the holy relic.

Spending his days building the Batcave and nights tracking Chubala’s thugs and a drug pipeline from tropical hell-hole Santa Prisca, the novice Dark Knight doesn’t attach as much significance to the murder of Spurlock’s assistant as he should, until an assassin wearing the Inuit mask attempts to kill him and succeeds in slaying Spurlock with arrows…

Convinced of a connection between Chubala and Otters Ridge, Bruce Wayne travels again to the Far North and sees with horror and self-loathing what his money and Spurlock’s probing ambitions have done to the once proud and noble natives…

And that’s when the next murder attempt occurs…

As the neophyte Batman struggles to piece together the disparate strands he comes to a chilling conclusion: he’s not been working on one incredibly complex case but two…

Combing a clever reworking of the origin legend with a skilful murder-mystery, a serial killer thriller and a corporate crime-caper, Batman: Shaman redefined the Caped Crusader’s previously shiny milieu as a truly scary world of urban decay, corrupt authority and all-pervasive criminal violence, all tinged with nightmarish supernatural overtones.

This is one of the very best of modern Batman yarns: dark, intense, cunning and superbly understated. If you haven’t seen this supremely engaging tale – criminally out of print but well worth hunting down – then you don’t really know the Dark Knight yet…
© 1989, 1990, 1993 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates: The Republic is Burning


By Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic, Brandon Peterson & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-504-8

Marvel’s Ultimates imprint began in 2000 with a new post-modern take on major characters and concepts to bring them into line with the tastes of 21st century readers – apparently a wholly different market from those baby-boomers and their descendents content to stick with the precepts sprung from founding talents Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee… or simply those unable or unwilling to deal with the five decades (seven if you include the Golden Age Timely tales retroactively co-opted into the mix) of continuity baggage which saturated the originals.

Eventually even this darkly nihilistic new universe became as continuity-constricted as its ancestor and in 2008 the cleansing event “Ultimatum” culminated in a reign of terror which excised dozens of super-humans and millions of lesser mortals in a devastating tsunami which inundated Manhattan courtesy of mutant menace Magneto.

In the aftermath the meta-human survivors struggled to restore order to a dangerous new world…

This compilation collects Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates issue #1-6 and Ultimate Comics: Fallout #4 (published in comicbook form from October 2011 to March 2012) which comprised the core-story for the latest relaunch of the constantly-changing grim and gritty alternate universe.

Before the Deluge, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury ran an American Black Ops team of super-humans called the Avengers, but he was toppled from his position for blatant rule-bending – and being caught.

Now in the wake of the global inundation, internecine strife amongst the covert ops community and brushfire wars which have broken out all over the planet, Fury is back: once more running the entire spook show and firmly re-established in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s army of secret agents, an official superhero team for public consumption and another clandestine super-squad doing stuff the officially sanctioned Ultimates wouldn’t dream of…

It isn’t a job many would want: the world is falling apart at a phenomenal rate. Individual metahumans are classed as Weapons of Mass Destruction and personal superpowers are now the focus of a terrifying new global arms race. In Asia the new nation SEAR (South East Asian Republic) is dissolving into bloody civil war after developing a serum that will randomly spark fantastic abilities in humans dosed with it. They also stacked the deck by simultaneously releasing a global virus which has killed the genes responsible for causing natural mutation.

A new metahuman nation has grown up within the embattled country offering super-powers to anybody daring to take the Serum, as seen in sidebar series Ultimate Comics Hawkeye…

The gods of Asgard have been dragged from their heavenly halls and marooned on Earth where their wild warlike ways and fantastic powers are disrupting all of Europe. Premiere hero Spider-Man has been murdered, resurrected WWII super soldier Captain America has gone AWOL and in the wings an old friend turned foe has returned to remake the planet according to an impossible and remorseless agenda…

The constant calamity begins when enigmatic mastermind Maker and his dedicated band of volunteers entomb themselves in a high-tech dome in Northern Germany where enhanced time and ruthless scientific augmentation enables the inhabitants to hyper-evolve a thousand years in the space of a few days.

Whilst Iron Man Tony Stark is being conned by his fellow members of billionaires fraternity The Kratos Club and tricked into detonating a nuke over Montevideo in order to manipulate global stock markets, these Children of Tomorrow – now more alien ant farm than human science cult – break out as the Dome begins to expand and absorb Western Europe. The region’s superhumans, including current Captain Britain Jamie Braddock are busy losing a fight with the errant Asgardians and card-carrying Ultimate Thor when The Children attack…

As Hawkeye attempts to forestall the civil war in SEAR and Stark is dragged back from death by his bodyguard Jarvis, the Children perform the impossible feat of killing almost every god in Asgard.

Only Thor and Braddock survive but the Thunderer’s hammer and magic are gone forever…

Resorting to technology provided by Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. the Last Asgardian returns to the fray, intending to die gloriously in battle as a warrior should, but the expanding dome and ravening children are unstoppable. After an all-out final assault by S.H.I.E.L.D. and the World’s armies, humanity is utterly defeated and humiliatingly allowed to slink off to await the end…

When the Dome stops growing and stands revealed as an incredible future City the doom-hungry Thor invades it, freeing Braddock, who has been imprisoned and subjected to torturous scientific investigation. They are then captured by the Maker who reveals his impossible true identity, after which he discards the ineffectual and demoralised warriors.

Thor doesn’t care: he has just realised that he is being haunted by the ghosts of all the fallen Asgardians…

Fury is almost out of ideas. When technologist Sam Wilson AKA the Falcon finds a way to infiltrate the City he suddenly vanishes without trace, and even Captain America has refused to rejoin the Ultimates and lead mankind’s last hurrah against their implacable unshakable successors…

To Be Continued…

Hot off the presses this saga ends on a chilling cliffhanger as what might well be the Last Battle of the alternate Marvel Universe begins. However the always entertaining Jonathan Hickman, artists Esad Ribic & Brandon Peterson (as well as colourists Dean White, Jose Villsrrubia, Jim Charalampidis, John Raunch & Edgar Delgado) make this a slick and compulsive read for older Fights ‘n’ Tights fans and the impressive cover gallery by Kaare Andrews, Ribic & Chris Evans adds immeasurably to the book’s visual appeal.

Much more in tune with the visual feel and sensibilities of the assorted Movie franchises than the traditional comicbook market, the trademark post-modernity and cynical, dark action is amped to the max here; delivering the visceral shocks and staggering revelations fans of this sub-imprint seem addicted to.

Whilst perhaps not the best book for anybody thinking on jumping on to the decidedly different Ultimate World, The Republic is Burning will certainly strike a chord with older readers who love the darkest side of superheroes and readers who know the company’s films better than their publications.

A British edition licensed and published by Panini UK, Ltd. ™ & © 2012 Marvel Entertainment LLC and its subsidiaries. Licensed from Marvel Characters B.V. All Rights Reserved.

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Secret Origins


By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 0-930289-50-1

The best and worst thing about comicbooks is the perpetual revamping of classic characters whenever changing tastes and the unceasing passage of years demand the reworking of origin tales for increasingly more sophisticated audiences.

Once upon a time, DC’s vast pantheon of characters was scattered and wholly distinct: separated and situated on a variety of alternate Earths which comprised Golden Age hold-overs, current Silver Age and later-created heroes. Further Earths were subsequently introduced for every superhero stable the company scooped up in a voracious campaign of acquisition over the decades.

Charlton, Fawcett, Quality Comics and others characters resided upon their own globes, occasionally meeting in trans-dimensional alliances and apparently deterring new readers from getting on with DC.

Thus, when DC retconned their entire ponderous continuity following Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985-1986, ejecting the entire concept of a multiverse and re-knitting time so that there had only been one world literally festooned with heroes and villains, many of their greatest characters got a unique restart, with the conceit being that the characters had been around for years and the readership were simply tuning in on just another working day.

Fans old and new therefore had no idea what pre-Crisis stories were still “true” or valid and to counter confusion the publishers launched the double-sized Secret Origins comicbook series to peek behind the curtain and provide all-new stories which related the current official histories of their vast and now exceedingly crowded pantheon…

Of course now the multiverse concept is back and not confusing at all (who’d have thunk it?) but whatever the original reasons the dramatic 1980s refit did provide for some utterly astounding and cleverly cohesive storytelling…

This sterling softcover collection from 1989 gathered some of the most impressive headline-grabbing reworkings and even offered an all-new reinterpretation of the Batman’s beginnings to fit the new world’s reconstructed history and opened the action after ‘Legends’, a fascinating Introduction by series editor Mark Waid.

‘The Man Who Falls’ by Dennis O’Neil & Dick Giordano incorporated the revisions of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One and Batman: Shaman into a compelling examination of vengeance, obsession and duty describing how the only survivor of the Wayne Homicides dedicated his life to becoming a living weapon in the war on crime…

When DC Comics decided to rationalise and reconstruct their continuity the biggest shake-up was Superman and it’s hard to argue that change was unnecessary. All the Action Ace’s titles were suspended for three months – and boy, did that make the media sit-up and take notice – for the first time since the Christopher Reeve movie. But there was method in the madness…

In 1986 Man of Steel, a six-issue miniseries written and drawn by John Byrne with inks by Dick Giordano, stripped away vast amounts of accumulated baggage and returned the Strange Visitor from Another World to the far from omnipotent, edgy but good-hearted reformer Siegel and Shuster had first envisioned. It was a huge and instant success, becoming the decade’s premiere ‘break-out’ hit and from that overwhelming start Superman returned to his suspended comic-book homes with the addition of a third monthly title premiering in the same month.

The miniseries presented six complete stories highlighting key points in Superman’s career, reconstructed in the wake of the aforementioned Crisis and ‘The Haunting’ comes from the last issue; relating how the hero returned to his Kansas home and at last discovered his alien roots and heritage when a hologram of his father Jor-El attempted to possess and reprogram Clark Kent with the accumulated wisdom and ways of dead Krypton…

‘The Secret Origin of Green Lantern’ by James Owsley, M.D. Bright & José Marzan Jr. hails from Secret Origins #36 (January 1989) and told how Hal Jordan was selected to become an intergalactic peacekeeper by a dying alien, all viewed from the fresh perspective of a young aerospace engineer whose brief encounter with the Emerald Gladiator a decade earlier had changed his life forever. The expansive yarn re-visits all the classic highlights and even finds room to take the plucky guy on an adventure against resource raider on Oa, home of the Guardians of the Universe…

Mark Verheiden & Ken Steacy then drastically upgrade the legend of J’onn J’onzz in ‘Martian Manhunter’ (Secret Origins #35, Holiday edition 1988) in a moody innovative piece of 1950’s B-Movie paranoia, nicely balanced by an enthralling, tragic and triumphant reinterpretation and genuinely new take on the story of Silver Age icon Barry Allen . The freshly-deceased Flash  reveals the astonishing truth behind the ‘Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt’ in a lost classic by Robert Loren Fleming, Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson, first published in Secret Origins Annual #2 1988.

The creation of the Justice League of America was the event which truly signalled the return of superheroes to comicbooks in 1960, inspiring the launch of the Fantastic Four, the birth of Marvel Comics and a frantic decade of costumed craziness.

Their rallying adventure wasn’t published until #9 of their own title and was in fact the twelfth tale in their canon, because, quite frankly, origins, crucible moments and inner motivation were just not considered that important back then.

When Keith Giffen, Peter David & Eric Shanower crafted ‘All Together Now’ for Secret Origins #32 (November 1989) such things had come to be regarded as pivotal moments in mystery-man mythology but it didn’t stop the creative team having lots of snide and engaging fun as they retooled the classic tale of rugged individuals separately battling an alien invasion only to unite in the final moments and form the World’s Greatest Heroic team. The refit wasn’t made any easier by the new continuity’s demands that Batman be excised from the legendary grouping of Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Flash and Superman whilst the under-reconstruction Wonder Woman had to be replaced by a teenaged Black Canary…

Nevertheless the substitution worked magnificently and the daring adventure is the perfect place to end this fabulous compendium of a DC’s second Lost Age as yet another continuity-upgrade revitalises some of the most recognisable names in popular fiction.

And No, I’m not playing “how long until the next one”…
© 1986, 1988, 1989 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Elementals: The Natural Order


By Bill Willingham (Comico)
ISBN: 978-0-93896-508-4

Long before he achieved universal acclaim with his sublime adult fantasy series Fables, writer/artist Bill Willingham first turned comic fans’ heads with a post-modern re-evaluation of the superhero in a series entitled Elementals which took many Fights ‘n’ Tights traditions and turned them on their heads with telling and most pervasive effect.

The team debuted as a back-up tale in the one-shot Justice Machine Annual published by Texas Comics in 1983 and was picked up a year later by new publisher Comico, one of the front-runners in an explosion of new companies which grew out of the 1980s rise of the Direct Sales market and dedicated comics retail outlets.

This enchanting and enthusiastic volume collects that initial introduction and the subsequent first five innovative issues of their own title and opens with ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ by Willingham & Bill Anderson, as master villain Lord Saker demands a situation report from his trusted aide Shapeshifter. She describes how four recently deceased individuals have all inexplicably resurrected, each with the powers and attributes of one of the ancient alchemical elements.

Police officer Jeanette Crane revived with the ability to wield flame and heat and goes by the codename Morningstar, helicopter pilot and Vietnam vet Jeff Murphy has flight, speed and wind-based powers and answers to Vortex, whilst wealthy trust-fund brat Rebecca Golden has become a web-footed green sea-sprite dubbed Fathom.

The last resurrectee is 14 year old Tommy Czuchra: a disturbingly brilliant, adult and coldly rational boy-genius who can transform at will into a colossal Monolith of soil and rock.

Each of the quartet died in accidents directly related to their new conditions as avatars of Fire, Air, Water and Earth.

Saker is apprehensive: his centuries-old mystic master-plan is nearing fruition and now these supernatural agents have inconveniently manifested. When he dispatched his personal metahuman hit-squad, the Elementals easily routed them. Only Shapeshifter survived to report the bad news…

The series proper began with ‘The Spontaneous Generation’ (Willingham & Michelle Wolff Anderson) as the unlikely and reluctant heroes consult with Rebecca’s dad – a major league New York lawyer – about their situation. In this highly realistic and rational world, superpowers have only ever been the stuff of comicbooks, but now here they are alive again with incredible abilities, having just fought human chameleons, dragons and monsters…

Moreover, they each oppressively remember the pain and horror of dying but have no idea how or why they have returned…

And that’s when FBI spook Porter Scott turns up…

Meanwhile Saker’s remaining superhuman resources (Shapeshifter, Behemoth, Ratman, Electrocutioner, Annihiliator and Chrysalis) attack; ambushing the team during a lunch in the Seattle Space Needle, oblivious to the hundreds of civilian lives endangered in the assault. Once again outmatched the bad guys retreat, taking Fathom’s dad hostage…

After a ‘Destroyers’ pin-up by Willingham and Neil Vokes the drama resumes in ‘Angel of Light’ as some time later the Federal authorities – in the forms of Major General Benjamin Franklin Richter and NSA Special Agent William Lyons – discuss the National Crisis that has developed since the Elementals surrendered themselves to save David Golden.

Simultaneously, over the villain’s hidden citadel Nacht Island, the Elementals have broken free and are again devastating Saker’s Destroyers as well as his large army of fundamentalist soldiers: all willing zealots to his arcane cause.

Although the battle goes well in ‘Birds of Prey’ (inked by Rankin) the heroes are unprepared for the wizard to draw more power from his apparently infernal patrons and blithely unaware that Vortex has been killed and partially consumed by Ratman…

Even so the Elementals are clearly winning and look likely to end the affair quickly until Saker himself intervenes…

A year passes.

In ‘The Mean Seasons’ (Willingham, Herman & Rankin with added assistance from Dave Johnson, Mike Leeke & Bill Cucinotta) the Alchemical Allies have been prisoners all that time and Saker is close to his endgame, activating his agents in the Federal Government and readying himself to unleash the horrifying Shadowspear. As the sorcerer readies himself to destroy the world Jeff has almost fully recovered and his revenant comrades are also preparing for one last sally…

Saker has discerned that the Elementals do not age and cannot be killed by any means he can devise, but has unwisely formed an intellectual relationship with Tommy: foolishly disclosing his tragic and painfully unjust biblical origins and the reason he wants to see God’s creation unmade.

The Mage’s biggest mistake was believing that the seemingly broken foursome had given up and the cataclysmic Saves-the-Day climax of ‘Riders of the Storm’ (Willingham, Herman & Rankin) is both stunningly epic and superbly chilling…

Although the characters are not themselves particularly innovative the hard-headed, cynical and ruthlessly pragmatic manner in which Willingham and later author Jack Herman used them was a landmark breakthrough. As much as Alan Moore’s take on Marvelman, the Elementals always seemed to work in the most plausible and perhaps only possible manner our world could operate if men became modern gods and monsters.

The Natural Order is one of the very best superhero yarns of the era and still holds up incredibly well: slick, savvy, distressingly mature and savagely cynical.

If you want Adult Fights ‘n’ Tights thrills hunt down this magical masterpiece and enjoy the End of the World as we know it.
© 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988 William T. Willingham. All right reserved.

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The Names of Magic


By Dylan Horrocks & Richard Case (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-888-4

Way back when Neil Gaiman was just making a name for himself at DC he was asked to consolidate and rationalise the role of magic in that expansive shared universe. Over the course of four Prestige Format editions a quartet of mystical champions (thereinafter known as “the Trenchcoat Brigade”) took a London schoolboy on a Cook’s Tour of Time, Space and Infinite Dimensions in preparation for his becoming the most powerful wizard of the 21st Century, and an overwhelming force for Light or Darkness.

Shy, bespectacled Timothy Hunter (co-created by John Bolton) was an ordinary lad unaware of his incredible potential: a natural but untutored magical prodigy (and yes, I know who he looks like but the series came out eight years before anybody had ever heard of Hogwarts, so get over it).

In an attempt to keep him righteous the self-appointed mystic guides provided him with a full tutorial in the history and state of play regarding The Unseen Art and its major practitioners and adepts. However, although the four guardians were not united in their plans and hopes for the boy, the “other side” certainly had no doubts. If Hunter could not be turned to the Dark he had to die

The Books of Magic spawned a 75 issue run of issues under the Vertigo imprint plus attendant annuals, mini-series and spin-offs as the neophyte sorcerer struggled to find his way and learn the craft, aided and/or hindered by sort-of girlfriend Molly and a hidden personal history akin to a colossal, convoluted cosmic onion skin. His enigmatic lineage and true origins remained a crushing, crippling but crucially important mystery – especially since all the mystic powers of this world and many others either wanted him dead or enslaved…

By 2001 and the advent of this excellent tome (collecting the five-part Names of Magic miniseries) Hunter is a lonely, isolated fourteen year old runaway with no past, roaming the streets of London. His loving family have been exposed as fakes and surrogates, he’s lost or been abandoned by all his human associates and the final reeling shock was finding out that his real mother was Titania, Queen of Faerie and his sire her mortal falconer and plaything Tamlin…

However when he is simultaneously attacked by a raiding party of the Theena Sidhe from the Higher Realms and a politically influential mortal magician’s cult in ‘Invocation’, Tim is rescued by a sword-wielding stranger and old mentor Dr. Occult and his life is once again collapsing around his ears…

The stranger is Ash; a Walker and one of a hidden human brotherhood who police the ancient magical places of Earth, charged with taking the unwilling boy on a pilgrimage down those venerable lost paths to save his life and find his calling.

The Rosicrucian sages of The Cold Flame of the Golden Lotus, who want to co-opt Hunter’s power or negate his threat potential, have been embedded in the fabric of British Society for centuries and soon have their media tools and pet coppers on the trail whilst the rival Faerie stalkers – supposedly under a truce to leave Tim alone – rely on their own arcane methods to relentlessly pursue the fugitives…

When man and boy rendezvous with the “Trenchcoat Brigade” in Cornwall it is decided to closet the lad at the puissant magical college known as the White School where he can be safely trained in the use of his incredible powers.

Of course, there’s a snag: to enter a student must simply utter their True Name but when Tim tries he discovers that even his own identity is a lie…

Reeling in shock at the School gate, Tim and Ash narrowly escape a police ambush in ‘Trust’ and the boy almost succumbs to a beguiling spell from Lotus master Mr. Lily before stumbling into another Faerie trap. It appears that one clan of Fair Folk has made a pact with the eternal enemy of The Unseelie Court to destroy Tim, but the fugitives turn the tables on their hunters and Tim saves one of them from death, binding her into an unbreakable debt that she must repay twice-over…

‘Secrets’ sees Tim and Ash recruit modern Pagan “Bearclaw” Clarke to their Spirit Quest. However the Cold Flame close in and a police raid disrupts the astral journey before any secrets can be uncovered. Ruthlessly shooting their way out, the trio take ‘Flight’, daringly hiding deep inside the Faerie Kingdoms.

On Earth Mr. Lily turns his attention to Tim’s lost love Molly in his attempts to trap the young mage whilst, after a climactic struggle in Elfland, the seekers are captured and dragged before High King Auberon who denies all knowledge of Tim’s troubles. The Faerie Lord swears to ferret out the renegades working with the Seelie Court, and Tim finally learns his True Name, just before Iolanthe, eager to expend her onerous debt, warns him that he’s walked into another trap…

Battling free, the fugitive four head back to Earthly Cornwall where they wait helplessly for their following foes – both Faerie and Cold Flame – to converge for a final assault. With their backs to the sea and sure death approaching on all sides Tim and crew take refuge in tourist trap Merlin’s Cave, where as the various factions slaughter each other to get to him, the boy finds a hidden door and discovers the whole and unexpurgated ‘Truth’…

Although a series with a lot of highs and lows and one which never really lived up to its promise, Books of Magic was a popular early foray into mature comic publishing for Vertigo and subsequent returns to the characters have proved quite impressive.

Here Dylan Horrocks and illustrator Richard Case – augmented by cover artist Bolton – have recapitulated and reconfigured the past whilst crafting a compelling and enjoyable fantasy yarn that reads well, looks great and stands solid enough on it own to easily serve as an introduction to the saga of Tim Hunter.
© 2001 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Shazam! Archives volume 1


By Bill Parker, C. C. Beck & Pete Costanza (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-053-4

One of the most venerated and beloved characters of America’s Golden Age of comics was created by Bill Parker and Charles Clarence Beck as part of the wave of opportunistic creativity which followed the stunning success of Superman in 1938. Although there were many similarities in the early years, the Fawcett character quickly moved squarely into the area of light entertainment and even straight comedy, whilst as the 1940s progressed the Man of Steel increasingly left whimsy behind in favour of action, drama and suspense.

Homeless orphan and good kid Billy Batson was selected by an ancient wizard to be given the powers of six gods and heroes to battle injustice. He transforms from scrawny precocious kid to brawny (adult) hero Captain Marvel by speaking aloud the wizard’s name – an acronym for the six legendary patrons Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury.

This magnificent full-colour, deluxe hardback compendium re-presents the first 15 adventures from Whiz Comics #2 to 15 (February 1940 to March 1941 – there was no #1, two issue #5’s and two editions in March but I’ll try to explain all that as we go along) to cash in on the sales phenomenon of Superman and his many imitators and descendents.

Publisher Fawcett had first gained prominence through an immensely well-received light entertainment magazine for WWI veterans named Captain Billy’s Whiz-Bang, before branching out into books and general interest magazines. Their most successful publication – at least until the Good Captain hit his stride – was the ubiquitous boy’s building bible Mechanix Illustrated and, as the decade unfolded, the scientific and engineering discipline and can-do demeanour underpinning MI suffused and informed both the art and plots of the Marvel Family titles.

The series was the brainchild of writer/editor Bill Parker and brilliant young illustrator Charles Clarence Beck who, with his assistant Pete Costanza, handled all the art in this book, and in this quirky first volume the adult hero is a serious, bluff and rather characterless powerhouse his whilst his junior alter ego Billy is the true star: a Horatio Alger archetype of impoverished, bold, self-reliant and resourceful youth overcoming impossible odds by pluck, grit and sheer determination…

Author, journalist and fan Richard A. Lupoff covers in great detail the torturous beginnings of the feature in his Foreword before the magic proper starts with a rare and priceless glimpse at the hero’s nigh-cursed design stage and the book also contains biographical details on all the creators.

To establish copyright, publishers used to legally register truncated black and white facsimile editions called “Ash-can Editions” in advance of their launch issues. For Fawcett, the production of their first comicbook proved an aggravating process since this registration twice uncovered costly snags which forced the editors to redesign both character and publication.

Contained herein are cover reproductions of Flash Comics #1 starring Captain Thunder (obliviously scheduled for release mere days after DC’s own Flash title hit the stands), Thrill Comics #1 which repeated the accident just as Standard’s Thrilling Comics launched, and the uncoloured art for the first half of the story of Captain Thunder which would eventually be re-lettered and released as the lead in anthology title Whiz Comics #2 cover-dated February 1940.

Like many Golden Age series the stories collected here never had individual titles and DC’s compilers have cleverly elected to use the original comics’ strap-lines or cover blurbs to differentiate the tales…

‘Gangway for Captain Marvel!’, drawn in style reminiscent of early Hergé, saw homeless orphan newsboy Billy Batson lured into an abandoned subway tunnel to a meeting with the many millennia-old wizard Shazam. At the end of a long life fighting evil, the white-bearded figure grants the lad the powers and signature gifts of six gods and heroes; bidding him to continue the good fight.

In thirteen delightfully clean and simple pages Billy gets his powers, has his secret origin revealed (he’s heir to a fortune embezzled by his crooked uncle Ebenezer), wins a job as a roaming radio reporter for Amalgamated Broadcasting and defeats the demonic schemes of Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana who is holding the airwaves of America hostage, with the mighty, taciturn and not yet invulnerable Marvel only sparingly used to do the heavy lifting.

It is sheer comicbook poetry…

The March issue had no cover number but was listed as #3 in the indicia and featured ‘The Return of Sivana’ as the insane inventor unleashed a mercenary army equipped with his super-weapons upon the nation, attempting to become Emperor of America. His plan was thwarted by Billy acting as a war correspondent and the mighty muscles of Marvel…

The third (April) Whiz Comics had “Number 3” on the cover but #4 inside and proudly proclaimed ‘Make Way for Captain Marvel!’ before bolding leaping into full science fiction mode as Billy was shanghaied to Venus in Sivana’s mighty rocket-ship. The boy was forced to reveal his amazing secret to the demented inventor whilst battling incredible monsters and the giant frog-men dubbed “Glompers” but the magnificently guileless and gallant Marvel was seemingly helpless against the savant’s new ally Queen Beautia as the deadly duo prepared to invade Earth.

Only seemingly though…

‘Captain Marvel Crashes Through’ (4 on the cover, #5 inside) detailed how the bewitching Beautia, aided by Sivana’s technology, ran for President. However the sinister siren had a soft heart and when Billy was captured (and faced the first of a multitude of clever gadgets designed to stop him saying his magic word) she freed him, thus falling foul of the gangsters who were backing her. Luckily Captain Marvel was there to save the day…

An inexplicable crime-wave shook the country in ‘Captain Marvel Scores Again!’ (5 on the cover and #5 inside: the wild numbers game finally ending here) as a different sinister scientist used a ray to turn children into thieves and even young Billy was not immune, whilst in ‘Captain Marvel and the Circus of Death’ (July 1940) Sivana returned with fantastic Venusian dino-monsters which the Good Captain was hard-pressed to handle. Incidentally, this was the first issue where the Big Red Cheese was seen definitely flying as opposed to leaping – something Superman is not acknowledged as doing until late 1941…

In ‘Captain Marvel and the Squadron of Doom’ young Billy travelled to the North Pole for a radio story and discovered a secret organisation thawing out frozen cavemen to act as an army of conquest, after which he and his mature magical avatar foiled a murderous spiritualist causing mass-drownings to bolster his reputation and fortune in ‘Saved by Captain Marvel!’

Whiz #9’s ‘Captain Marvel on the Job!’ saw the man and boy foil a revolution, recover foreign crown jewels and defeat a madman with a shrinking ray after which Sivana and Beautia returned in ‘Captain Marvel Battles the Winged Death’ a blistering yarn involving espionage and America’s latest secret weapon. In this tale the Empress of Venus finally reformed and became a solid citizen…

‘Hurrah for Captain Marvel!’ found Batson investigating college hazing and corrupt sporting events whilst in #12 (January 1941) the World War loomed large as “Gnatzi” maritime outrages brought Billy to London where he uncovered the spy responsible for sinking refugee ships in ‘Captain Marvel Rides the Engine of Doom!’

‘Captain Marvel – World’s Most Powerful Man!’ featured Sivana’s latest atrocity as the madman disrupted hockey matches, blitzed banks and incapacitated the US army with a formula that turned men into babies. Even Billy wasn’t immune but at least Beautia was there to help him…

War looked increasingly inescapable and many heroes jumped the gun and started fighting before America officially entered the fray. ‘Captain Marvel Boomerangs the Torpedo!’ was a superb patriotic cover for Whiz #14 (March 1941) but the actual story involved Sivana’s capture and subsequent discovery of a thought process which allowed him to walk through walls and bars. Happily the World’s Mightiest Mortal possessed the Wisdom of Solomon and deduced a solution to the unstoppable menace…

This superb collection concludes after another stirring cover ‘With the British Plane Streaking to a Fiery Doom, Captain Marvel Dives to the Rescue!’ (issue #15 and also cover-dated March) and an unrelated adventure which revealed the incredible origin of Dr. Sivana, his astounding connection to Beautia, and also introduced her brother Magnificus – almost as mighty a fighter as Marvel – when Billy was kidnapped and trapped once again on Venus…

DC/National Periodical Publications had filed suit against Fawcett for copyright infringement as soon as Whiz Comics #2 was released and the companies slugged it out in court until 1953, when, with the sales of superhero comics decimated by changing tastes, Captain Marvel’s publishers decided to capitulate. The name lay unclaimed until 1967 when M.F. Enterprises released six issues of an unrelated android hero before folding after which Marvel Comics secured rights to the name in 1968.

DC eventually acquired the Fawcett properties and characters and in 1973 revived the Captain for a new generation to see if his unique charm would work another sales miracle during one of comics’ periodic downturns. Retitled Shazam! due to the incontestable power of lawyers and copyright convention, the revived heroic ideal enjoyed mixed success before being subsumed into the company’s vast stable of characters…

Nevertheless Captain Marvel is a true icon of American comic history and a brilliantly conceived superhero for all ages. This collection only scratches the surface of the canon of delights produced over the years and is an ideal introduction to the world of adventure comics: one that will appeal to readers of any age and temperament.
© 1940, 1941, 1992 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Desert Peach book 5: Belief Systems


By Donna Barr (Aeon)
ISBN: 1-883847-07-9

The Desert Peach is the supremely self-assured and eminently capable gay brother of the legendary German soldier hailed as “the Desert Fox” and one of the most perfectly realised characters in comics.

Set in World War II Africa and effortlessly combining hilarity, absurdity, profound sensitivity and glittering spontaneity, the stories describe the daily grind of Oberst Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel; a dutiful if unwilling cog in the German War Machine and his efforts to remain a civilised gentleman under the most adverse and unkind conditions.

However, although as formidable as his beloved elder sibling Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the gracious and genteel Peach is a man who loathes causing harm or giving offence and thus spends his dry and dusty days with the ever-so-motley crew of the 469th Halftrack, Gravedigging & Support Unit of the Afrika Korps, trying to remain stylish, elegant, civil and gracious to the men under his command and the enemy forces around him.

It’s a lot of work: the 469th houses the worst dregs of the Wehrmacht, from malingerers and malcontents to useless wounded, sharpers, screw-ups and outright maniacs.

Pfirsich unilaterally applies the same decorous courtesies to the sundry natives inhabiting the area and the rather tiresome British – not all of whom are party to a clandestine non-aggression pact Pfirsich has agreed with his opposite numbers in the amassed Allied Forces. The only people the Peach really has no time for are boors, bigots, bullies and card-carrying Blackshirts…

The romantic fool is also passionately in love with and engaged to Rosen Kavalier: handsome Aryan warrior and wildly manly Luftwaffe Ace…

Arguably the real star of these fabulous frothy epics is the Peach’s long-suffering, unkempt, crafty, ill-mannered, bilious and lazily scrofulous orderly Udo Schmidt, a man of many secrets whose one redeeming virtue is his uncompromising loyalty and devotion to the only decent man and tolerable officer in the entire German army.

This tragically rare fifth softcover collection reprints issues #13-15 and starts with an enchanting comic introduction from the captivatingly clever Roberta Gregory after which the sagacious star yields focus to the tragically bewildered Doberman in ‘Nobody’ wherein the pitifully shell-shocked Corporal finally blows himself up with his pet landmine and is evacuated home.

Dobi unexpectedly returns some time later with tales of his nightmarish detour to the hidden Jewish concentration camps where all the undesirables are being dealt with: systematically and efficiently eradicating Jews and other “sub-humans”…

Pfirsich is appalled and refuses to believe the stories: surely no sane human beings could perpetrate such atrocities? Udo however, has also heard stories of how Hitler and his hierarchy are dealing with Jews and shares them with his commander. In a rage the Peach rushes off to tell his brother, knowing the Field Marshal can do something about it.

The noble Desert Fox also explodes in fury and determines to return to Berlin to stop the program. His plan is simple – since Hitler is a good man and cannot possibly know of these atrocities, all Erwin has to do is inform Adolf and the Fuhrer will put a stop to the horrors…

Pfirsich, knowing Hitler’s hierarchy far better than that, is faced with an impossible choice: allow his brother to sign his own death warrant or withdraw the allegations and become complicit in genocide…

This bleakly chilling and tortured black comedy is followed by ‘Surprise, Surprise’ with Udo griping and trying to weasel his way out of his impending, unwanted but necessarily pragmatic wedding to Bedouin princess Falila. The swarthy little scoundrel wants sex not commitment, but as Pfirsich urges his subordinate to honour his word and live up to his responsibilities another secret slips out.

Udo Schmidt used to have another name: the only card-carry Nazi Party member in the entire 469th was born Isador Gülphstein…

“Udo” is the scion of a venerable line of soldiers who have served the Fatherland and the long-suffering son of a proud German Jewish veteran of the Great War who changed the family name so that his sons could join the army too… whether they wanted to or not.

Now, with The Peach fully aware of the fate Jews are facing, how can he risk Schmidt’s secret getting out? Moreover how can he risk antagonising the desert tribes or disappointing the clearly addled girl who wants to marry Udo? After all, fanatic camp political officer Kjars Winzig already suspects something isn’t – or rather is – Kosher about Udo…

The troubles only really begin when eavesdropping boyfriend Rosen Kavalier takes charge and offers a drastic and outrageous solution…

This darker-than-usual volume concludes with ‘The Triangle Trade’ (from a suggestion by cartoonist Steve Gallacci) as The Peach encounters by-the-book soldier Oberst Quark, herding a supply column directly towards an Allied tank unit.

Keen to avoid any bloodshed Pfirsich intercepts the column and lends the commander his spotter plane, determined to keep the Germans out of trouble whilst their war-mongering commander is safely up in the air.

Deprived of glorious battle Quark conceives a subtle vengeance and transfers the two biggest troublemakers in his command to the 469th.

Sadly the younger Rommel has never encountered the average fighting man and sorely overestimates his ability to control the greedy, vicious and cunningly duplicitous thugs Leutnants Hecht and Horowitz…

With the camp quickly dissolving into a hotbed of criminality and black marketeering harsh measures are called and this time even Rosen has met his match. Seizing the nettle Pfirsich is forced to fall back upon his own unique strengths to solve this thorny dilemma effectively and with unmistakable style…

Fabulously following the same anti-war path as Sgt. Bilko, Hogan’s Heroes, Oh, What a Lovely War! and Catch 22, as well as such tangential films as Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and The Birdcage, these Desert Peach adventures are always bawdy, raucous, clever, authentically madcap and immensely engaging.

These gloriously baroque yarns were some of the very best comics of the 1990s and still pack the comedic kick of a silken howitzer or chartreuse flamethrower, liberally leavened with situational jocularity, accent humour and lots of footnoted Deutsche cuss-words for the kids to learn. Moreover, with this volume the dark bitter edges and cold iron underlying these fabulous characters and their horrific, doomed situation become ever more poignant and powerful.

The Desert Peach ran for 32 intermittent issues via a number of publishers and was subsequently collected as eight graphic novel collections (1988-2005). A prose novel, Bread and Swans, a musical and an invitational collection by other artists entitled Ersatz Peach were also created during the strip’s heyday. A larger compendium, Seven Peaches, collected issues #1-7 and Pfirsich’s further exploits continue as part of the Modern Tales webcomics collective…

Illustrated in Barr’s fluidly seductive wood-cut and loose-line style, this book is a must-have for any lover of wit, slapstick, high drama and belly-laughs and grown-up comics in general. All the collections are pretty hard to find these days but if you have a Kindle, Robot Comics have started releasing individual comicbook issues for anybody with internet access and mature tastes…
© 1991-1994 Donna Barr. Introduction © 1994 Roberta Gregory. All rights reserved. The Desert Peach is ™ Donna Barr.