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March 3, 2009March 3, 2009

Teen Titans: Titans Around The World

By Geoff Johns, Tony Daniel & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-442-5

After the non-stop calamity of the DC Infinite Crisis the company re-set the time line of all their publications to begin One Year Later.Â This enabled them to retool their characters as they saw fit, provide a jumping on point for new converts and also give themselves some narrative wiggle-room.

One of the titles that made the most of that creative opportunity was the Teen Titans. In the missing year not only did the characters undergo vast personal changes but the team and the core-concept itself was stretched leaving a broad canvas to tell tales and spring “Big Reveals” on the reader (who after all had only been away for thirty days!).

Collecting issues # 34-41 of the comicbook series, the story opens with team lynchpin Cyborg coming out of a year-long coma caused by injuries received during the aforementioned Infinite Crisis. He awakens to a team he doesn’t recognise, including Rose, daughter of their arch-foe the Terminator, who was actively trying to kill him when he last saw her.

In rapid fashion Cyborg goes into action trashing not only her but also a teen-aged demon, and a couple of preppy teen whiz-kids before Robin intervenes. The Boy Wonder explains that in the past year since Superboy died saving the universe, Wonder Girl has gone solo, Beast Boy/Changeling has returned to the fatalistically surreal Doom Patrol and more than two dozen young heroes have joined – and mostly left – the ranks of the teen super-group.

Determined to pull the Titans back together, they set off to re-recruit some old friends only to fall afoul of both the Brotherhood of Evil and the Doom Patrol themselves, in a taut, devious thriller that perfectly kick-starts the new era. But what is the obsessive secret Robin is hiding from his comrades?

The four-part ‘New Teen Titans’ is by scripter Geoff Johns, penciller, Tony Daniel, with inks from Kevin Conrad, Andy Lanning and Norm Rapmund.

It’s followed by the eponymous ‘Titans around the World’ another four parter that reveals some of the incredible events of that lost year. While Cyborg was recovering, a huge number of troubles super-kids passed through the doors of Titans HQ, but as the new team mentor reviews recordings of that time he is unsettled…

The mystic Raven has disappeared and by checking with some of those past recruits he discovers that the team may have been harbouring a traitor in its midst…

Produced by Johns, Tony Daniel and fellow pencillers Carlos Ferreira, Paco Diaz and Ryan Benjamin, with inks by Conrad, Art Thibert, Drew Geraci, Silvio Spotti, Jonathan Glapion, Michael Lopez, Edwin Rosell, Saleem Crawford and Vincente Cifuentes, this is a thoroughly enjoyable romp in the classic Teen Titans manner that should delight fans of the superhero genre and might even make a few new converts along the way.

This is another fights ‘n’ tights triumph for Geoff Johns who seems determined to revitalize the entire DC pantheon. Surely such a noble undertaking deserves a few brief moments of your time?

March 2, 2009March 1, 2009

Frost and Fire – DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel #3

Adapted by Klaus Janson (DC Comics)
ISBN: 0-930289-07-2

On a distant world life is harsh and brutal, and debased humans live short, pointless lives. The life-expectancy is eight days.

The planet has a lethal orbit that moves from lethal heat to absolute cold in moments. When the ship crashed uncounted generations ago, the humans found a miraculous twilit valley that could sustain human life, and there adapted and devolved to simplistic survival-machines. They linger between catastrophic day that vaporises flesh and cataclysmic night that freezes the blood, with only one hour a day when the light overhead is tolerable.

In that brief span rains fall, crops grow and humans can luxuriate in light that nurtures, but doesn’t burn.

Man has evolved to an existence both futile and savage, filled with nothing but breeding and dying. Even under these conditions war is still common. Yet young Sim dares to love, and dares to hope. He dreams of a better life, and believes the mythical “scientists” have a way to escape…

Originally published in the pulp magazine Planet Stories this powerful tale of aspiration and determination was collected in Bradbury’s landmark science fiction anthology R is for Rocket, and a short film adaptation entitled “Quest”, was made in 1983.

Klaus Janson’s raw, epic adaptation, which he scripted, illustrated and even coloured enhances the original tale with unexpected sensitivity, and great feeling. This is a fine tale well-told and compellingly illustrated. It’s a great shame it and the other DC Science Fiction Graphic Novels are currently out of print. Collected together they’d make a killer “DC Absolute” compilation…
Â© 1946 Love Romances Publishing Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1974 Ray Bradbury. Adapted with permission of the author. Text and illustrations Â© 1985 DC Comics Inc. All Rights Reserved.

March 1, 2009February 28, 2009

The Trials Of Shazam! Volume 2

By Judd Winick, Howard Porter & Mauro Cascioli (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-4012-1829-4

Completing the saga begun in volume 1 (ISBN: 978-4012-1331-2) this book reprints issues #7-12 of the DC miniseries and finds Freddy Freeman, once and future super-hero, now successfully blessed with the wisdom of Solomon and the invincibility of Achilles, but only half the strength of Hercules.

Tasked by the 21^st century Gods of Magic to prove himself to each of them before winning their powers and patronage, his rite of passage and super-powers have been hijacked by the deadly teenaged psychopath Sabina De La Croix, who intends to steal the magic of the departed wizard Shazam for her coven of evil sorcerers.

Not only has she intercepted some of the might intended for the boy-hero, but she’s even killed one of the gods that should empower him. Freddy must now find a replacement patron simply to complete the trials…

And if that’s not trouble enough some of those remaining gods don’t want their new lives disrupted. They might kill him before Sabina does…

Great thrills and spills beautifully illustrated by Howard Porter (with Mauro Cascioli providing the art for the last three chapters) make this a terrific read for fans of the genre, but I’m still unhappy at the unnecessary division into two short volumes when one complete book would have been easier, cheaper and a more satisfying package.

February 28, 2009February 28, 2009

The Trials Of Shazam! Volume 1

By Judd Winick & Howard Porter (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-4012-1331-2

Inexplicably this is the first of two very slim volumes that collect the pivotal miniseries which redefined magic in the DC Universe after the events of Infinite Crisis. The collection itself (gathering issues #1-6 of the 12 part miniseries, plus the relevant prologue section of the one shot Brave New World) isn’t a conundrum. The story rattles along at a fine clip, full of tension, action and spectacle, and there’s even a little humour.

It’s very well illustrated in an epic, lush manner by Howard Porter. All in all, the tale is a solid Costumes Drama. But what I can’t fathom is why the thing is chopped into two halves when it could so easily – and economically – fit into one volume.

In the aftermath of the aforementioned Infinite Crisis (ISBN: 978-1-4012-0959-9), wild, raw magic escaped into all aspects Earth when the millennial wizard Shazam died and the meta-dimensional Rock of Eternity was destroyed (for further details you should also check out Day of Vengeance, ISBN13: 978-1-84576-230 8). The aged mage was the guardian of magic in our universe and his position was hastily, albeit temporarily, filled by Captain Marvel.

When the senior super-hero unexpectedly ascended to the position Captain Marvel Junior and Mary Marvel – who shared the power – were instantly cut off whilst battling supernatural horrors rampaging across Earth.

Months later with the immediate danger forestalled Freddy Freeman (the human form of Captain Marvel Junior) is offered the opportunity to regain his god-like powers and be a hero once more. But in this new era he must earn them one at a time by completing tasks set by the modern incarnations of the patron gods who supplied Shazam with the power…

Unfortunately its not that simple as a coven of demons and magicians have unleashed their own candidate for the Gods’ abilities and she’s a relentless, ruthless psychopath ready to cheat, steal and especially kill to win the ultimate weapon in the new world older of the supernatural…

February 27, 2009February 25, 2009

Batman: Joker’s Asylum

By various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84856-047-5

This slim collection focuses on the A-list villains in Batman’s Rogues Gallery, reprinting five sinister one-shots beginning inevitably with The Joker, who stays on as EC-style host narrator for all the tales from his comfy padded cell at Arkham Asylum.

‘The Joker’s Wild’, by Arvid Nelson with art from Alex Sanchez and colours by Jose Villarrubia, offers a genuinely different slant on the old plot of the homicidal maniac who hijacks a live TV show. This is followed by the Penguin who waddles onto centre stage for a chilling, poignant and very dark love story entitled ‘He Who Laughs Last…!’ by Jason Aaron and Jason Pearson (coloured by Dave McCaig).

Possibly the weakest of these collected tales is ‘Deflowered’ wherein the unearthly floral siren Poison Ivy wreaks her unique brand of vengeance on manipulative fat-cat property speculators in a gory thriller from JT Krul and Guillem March. Luckily it’s followed by the most seductive and compelling yarn in this book of horrors as ‘The Dark Knight of the Scarecrow’ is visited upon a gaggle of High School Bitch-Princesses whose bullying leads to enlightenment of a most instructive and permanent kind, courtesy of the deadly Dr. Jonathan Crane and creative team Joe Harris & Juan Doe.

The savagely tragic Two-Face rounds off the volume in a powerful and challenging tale of tough choices and powerful compulsions. ‘Two-Face, Too’ is by David Hine, Andy Clarke and colourist Nathan Eyring, and while we’re handing out credit Rob Leigh lettered it, as he did all the tales in this superbly creepy walk with monsters in the dire environs of Gotham City.

There’s a lot of Batman material out there and this collection shows that he doesn’t have to be present to cast a long shadow. This is one of the best Bat-books of recent vintage and a worthy addition to any bookshelf.

February 26, 2009February 25, 2009

Millennium

By Steve Englehart, Joe Staton & Ian Gibson, (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-094-9

DC Comics third braided mega-series was a bold effort intended to touch all corners of their universe, introduce new characters, tie-in many titles and moreover to do so on a weekly, not monthly schedule.

Hot on the heels of Crisis on Infinite Earths (ISBN: 978-1-56389-750-4) and Legends (ISBN: 978-1-56389-095-6) came Millennium, which saw writer Steve Englehart expand on an iconic tale from Justice League of America #140-141as well as his run on the Green Lantern Corps.

Billions of years ago the robotic peacekeepers called Manhunters had rebelled against their creators. The Guardians of the Universe were immortal and desired a rational, emotionless cosmos – a view not shared by their own women. The Zamarons had abandoned the Guardians at the inception of their grand scheme but after uncounted centuries the two factions had reconciled and left our reality together.

Now they had returned with a plan to midwife a new race of immortals on Earth, but the Manhunters who had infiltrated all aspects of society throughout the universe were determined to thwart the plan, whether by seduction, connivance or just plain brute force. The heroes of Earth gathered to protect the project and confront the Manhunters in their own private lives… and their own comics.

Unfortunately this volume, which only collects the eight-issue miniseries without even a synopsis of those individual tie-ins, is an incomprehensible morass of confusion. In its original form each weekly instalment of Millennium acted as a catalyst for events which played out in the rest of the DC Universe’s comics. Here, without those concluding chapters, the plot and characters bounce about from crisis to revelation to denouement and nothing makes any sense at all.

In addition to the miniseries itself, Millennium spread across 21 titles for two months – another 37 issues for a grand total of 44 comic-books. I know that there might be some small confusion about existing plot-threads in individual titles but nothing like the sheer bewilderment caused by just collecting the core miniseries as a stand-alone book. The target audience is clearly primed – both financially and in terms of story scope – for extended trade paperback series now in the wake of Seven Soldiers, 52 and Countdown to Final Crisis, so why foist this sad, truncated, bowdlerized abridgement on us?

Steve Englehart, Joe Staton and England’s own Ian Gibson may not be stellar names at the moment but this tale was ambitious, bold and highly entertaining, whilst many of the follow-up chapters were incredibly impressive, with individual contributions from such luminaries as George Perez, John Byrne, Kevin Maguire, Kieth Giffen, Jerry Ordway and a host of others. Even if it’s only in the cheap and cheerful Showcase Presents format, don’t the creators and especially the readers deserve the whole story?

February 25, 2009February 25, 2009

Secret Invasion

By Brian Michael Bendis, Leinil Francis Yu & Mark Morales (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-405-8

The Skrulls are shape-shifting aliens who have threatened Earth since the second issue of Fantastic Four, and have long been a cornerstone of the Marvel Universe. After decades of use and misuse the insidious invaders were made the stars of a colossal braided mega-crossover event beginning in April 2008 and running through all the company’s titles until Christmas.

The premise is simple: the would-be conquerors have undergone a mass religious conversion and are now utterly dedicated to taking Earth as their new homeworld. To this end they have replaced a number of key Earth denizens – including a number of superheroes. When the lid is lifted no defender of the Earth truly knows who is on their side…

This volume is just one of many collecting the vast number of episodes in this saga, and contains all eight issues of the core miniseries, the one-shot spin-off Who Do You Trust? and the illustrated text book Skrulls which claims to provide a listing and biography for every shape-shifter yet encountered in the Marvel Universe (but if they left any out could you tell?).

Fast-paced, well-drawn and suitably spectacular, this is a twisty-turny tale and quite enjoyable – if overly-complex in some places. When the heroes discover the plot they shift into high-gear, but everything gets really sticky when a Skrull ship crashes releasing a band of missing heroes who ought to be the originals that were replaced: but are they…?

Rather than give anything away let me just say that if you like this sort of thing you’ll love it, and a detailed familiarity is not vital to your understanding. However, for a fuller understanding, as well as the relevant 22 Secret Invasion volume that accompany this, you might want to seek out Secret Invasion: the Infiltration, Secret War (2004), Avengers Disassembled, and Annihilation volumes 1-3, as well as various Avengers: Illuminati issues.

Despite all that this is still a solid light adventure read, the kind of stuff-and-nonsense we all need occasionally and one that can honestly stand on its own two feet – or are those tentacles…?

February 24, 2009February 24, 2009

Adventures Of Buck Danny: Mission ‘Apocalypse’ Part 1

In advance of the imminent release of a fully translated series from Cinebooks I’m highlighting this brave oddity from the late 1980s; one of many attempts to bring the fabulous wealth and variety of European comics to the infamously resistant New World.

The strip was actually created by Georges Troisfontaines and drawn by drawn by Victor Hubinon (who worked on it until his death in 1978) before being handed to Jean-Michel Charlier, then working as a junior artist. Troisfontaines was director of the Belgian publisher World Press Agency. Charlier’s fascination with human-scale drama and rugged realism had been seen in such strips as L’Agonie du Bismark (‘The Agony of the Bismark’), a “true-war” tale published in Spirou in 1946.

As well as going on together to create Tarawa Atoll Sanglant (‘Tarawa, Bloody Atoll’ 1948-1949), Charlier devised such landmark features as ‘Tanguy and Laverdure’ (with Uderzo and later JijÃ©), ‘Barbe-Rouge’ (with Hubinon) and ‘Jacques le Gall’ (with MiTacq).

With fellow master-storytellers Albert Uderzo and RenÃ© Goscinny, he formed the Ã‰difrance Agency, which promoted and specialised in communication arts and comics strips. Charlier and Goscinny were edited Pistolin magazine (1955 to 1958) and created Pilote magazine in 1959.

His greatest triumph is the iconic Western series Blueberry (created in 1963 with Jean Giraud/Moebius). Four years before his death in 1989 Charlier expanded the feature by developing with artist Colin Wilson ‘La Jeunesse de Blueberry’ which explored the boyhood of Europe’s most memorable cowboy. He wrote Buck Danny until his death whereupon his artistic collaborator Francis BergÃ©se (who had replaced Hubinon in 1978) took sole charge of the adventures of the American Air Ace.

Buck Danny premiered in the legendary magazine Spirou in January 1947 and continues to this day. The strip describes the improbably long and historically pivotal career of the eponymous US Navy pilot and his two comrades Sonny Tuckson and Jerry Tumbler. It is one of the world’s last aviation strips and a series which has always closely wedded itself to current affairs such as The Korean War, Bosnia and even Afghanistan.

Operation ‘Apocalypse’ (the first of two parts – although I’m unsure if the second was ever published in English) is a fast-paced yarn of terrorism and intrigue with a fiendish plan initiated to use hijacked atom bombs and a flight of stolen Grumman F-14 Tomcats to destroy Western Civilisation. Like all the Danny tales it is awesomely authentic: a breezy and compelling action thriller and although this particular edition suffers from a rushed and ill-favoured translation and poor hand lettering the vivacity and power of the artwork is quite stunning.

Hopefully the new edition from Cinebooks will correct all these minor glitches, bur since Operation ‘Apocalypse’ is the 40^th of the 51 albums published to date it may be awhile before we see it in restored glory even if the company starts from the present and works its way back to WWII…
Â© 1988 Novedi, Brussels. All Rights Reserved.

February 23, 2009February 22, 2009

EX MACHINA: EX CATHEDRA

By Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, Jim Clark & JD Mettler (WildStorm)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-872-0

The seventh collection of high-powered politics (collecting issues #30-34 of the award-winning comics series) finds New York City Mayor Mitchell Hundred having to cope with something far outside his outside his already outrÃ© experience. In the final days of his Papacy, Pope John Paul II summons the super-hero-turned-civic-leader to a private audience in the Vatican. With forty percent of the city practicing Catholics, that’s simply an “offer” an independent candidate for re-election cannot refuse…

Since the Mayor is most definitely not a believer and his liberal views on Gay Rights, abortion and a thousand other doctrinal no-no’s have already led to a number of ecclesiastical frowns from all the major religions, our hero is already more than a little unnerved. But when the Vatican’s Chief Astronomer explains how the Church views the alien technology that bonded to the Mayor (giving him his powers to communicate with and command machinery) Mitchell Hundred’s world changes forever…

To further complicate matters a leftover team of Cold-War subversives have hit on a way to turn all that E.T. hardware in the Mayor’s brain into a remote control unit. Without his even knowing it Hundred could become a puppet, a spy or even an assassin at the flick of switch…

Sharp, witty, endlessly inventive and startlingly perspicacious, Ex Machina is still one of the absolute best comic reads on the market today, with characters and insights that always beguile and enthrall. And as the creators are never content to rest on their laurels it only gets better and better. If you’re not a fan yet, start today. If you are tell everyone you know. They’ll thank you for it…

February 22, 2009February 22, 2009

AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED: THOR

By Michael Avon Oeming, Daniel Berman & Andrea DiVito with Laura Villari (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1599-1

A few years ago the “World’s Mightiest Heroes” were shut down and rebooted in a highly publicised event known as Avengers Disassembled. Of course it was only to replace them with both The New and The Young Avengers. The event also spilled over into the regular titles of current team members and affiliated comic-books such as the Fantastic Four and Spectacular Spider-Man ran parallel but not necessarily interconnected story-arcs to accompany the Big Show.

Said Big Show consisted of the worst day in the team’s history as a trusted comrade betrayed the World’s Mightiest Superteam resulting in the destruction of everything they held dear and the death of several members. The side-bar saga collected here ups the ante somewhat…

An Avenger since the team’s very inception, the Asgardian godling Thor has more often than not gone his own way in recent years, but this saga (collecting Thor #80-85) reunited the mythic hero with his mortal team-mates one last time as a prologue to the really-and-truly final Ragnarok story.

Any long-term fan knows that’s almost an oxymoron but in this revelatory yarn the Thunder God loses everything he holds dear and experiences the death of his entire race as a way of breaking a cycle of death and rebirth which had reduced his immortal race into nothing more than cattle for a predatory force that cannot be defeated…

The grim inevitability of this high-powered fantasy with its heroic dooms and unwavering nobility makes it one of the better post-Lee/Kirby Thor epics and effectively wipes the slate clean in a fair and decent manner for the next incarnation, especially as writers Oeming and Berman have a proven feel for the barbaric scale of mythmaking, whilst DiVito’s pictorial narrative skills blend well with Laura Villari’s colour palette to capture that end-of-everything momentum in a captivating and painterly manner.

A trifle overblown and not to everyone’s taste, this is nonetheless a great treat for saga-lovers who yearn to feel their pulses race and their hearts soar.

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