DC Superhero – Page 59 – Now Read This!

January 2, 2013January 5, 2013

R.E.B.E.L.S. volume 1: the Coming of Starro

By Tony Bedard, Andy Clarke, Claude St. Aubin, Scott Hanna & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 987-1-4012-2589-6

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

Latterly, 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.

Of course now the multiverse concept is back and not confusing at all (no! seriously?) but whatever the original reasons, that dramatic 1980s refit did provide for some utterly astounding and cleverly cohesive storiesâ€¦

In the aftermath of that event, the hero-packed planet Earth was targeted by a coalition of alien races and endured a full-on Invasion which was repulsed by the indomitable resistance of the World’s assembled heroes and villains and a few selected extraterrestrial allies. When the cosmic dust settled a few of these stayed together and formed cops-for-profit outfit dubbed L.E.G.I.O.N., led by a lying, scheming, manipulative obsessive super-genius bastard named Vril Dox: notional son of the villainous super-villain Brainiac of Colu and one of the most superciliously smug creatures in creation.

Overcoming all odds and the general distaste of his own chief lieutenants, Dox moulded his organisation into a force for justice and peace in the universe, with over 80 client worlds happily prospering, until his own son Lyrl – whilst still a baby – usurped control of the organisation: hunting Vril and his core agent team across the universe as desperate R.E.B.E.L.S. ruthlessly pursued by their own intergalactic commercial police force.

By the end of that run of comicbooks in 1996, order and the status quo were fully restored and the Licensed Extra-Governmental Interstellar Operatives Network went back to scrupulously and competently doling out all the peace and security solvent worlds could affordâ€¦

All that background is largely superfluous to the enjoyment of this latest iteration of the splendidly wry and cynical sci fi adventure series as history repeated itself in 2008, and another cosmic event forced DC’s assorted space sentinels into action again. Adam Strange, the Omega Men, Captain Comet and Dox’s L.E.G.I.O.N. again came to the fore and their intergalactic exploits again began to impinge on the fate of this island Earthâ€¦

Collecting the first six issues of the revived R.E.B.E.L.S. comicbook series concocted by scripter Tony Bedard, the superbly intoxicating action begins in ‘The Future is Now’ (illustrated by Andy Clarke) as a fugitive Vril Dox crashes on Earth fleeing from a team of bounty hunters.

To ensure no further insurrections by greedy – or worse yet, moralistic – employees, the 10^th Level Intellect had largely replaced all his annoyingly autonomous agents with robotic units, but that had simply enabled some bright spark to co-opt his entire intergalactic army – again! – and Dox was now a target for assassination by L.E.G.I.O.N.’s new owner, as well as many of the criminals and warlords the Coluan had previously antagonisedâ€¦

Within mere moments of reaching our embattled world Dox, hotly pursued by monstrous alien powerhouse Tribulus, its cyborg controller Getorix, super-psychic Skwaul and former elite L.E.G.I.O.N.-ary Amon Hakk, is confronted by Supergirl, keen on stopping the sheer carnage caused by the invaders’ battles.

Freshly returned from an extended stay in the 31^st century, the teenaged Kryptonian had been turned into the unwitting receptacle of a message from Dox’s distant descendent Brainiac 5, conveying data and specifications for Vril to construct a precursor brigade of the Legion of Super-Heroes to combat an imminent threat to the universeâ€¦

Dox, contrary as ever, was more impressed with the files on the LSH’s terrifying enemiesâ€¦

Elsewhere the outlaw warriors dubbed the Omega Men had learned of Dox’s predicament and become aware what a powerful, if untrustworthy, ally he would makeâ€¦

The action resumed at the South Pole as the ousted Coluan cop and the Girl of Tomorrow defeated the alien hunters and turned the nigh-mindless Tribulus into ‘The First Recruit’. Dox then fled Earth in search of fresh cannon-fodder for his future-foretold team and exploited rather than allied himself with the Omega Men before heading to a lost colony of Amerindian ex-slaves for his next target.

Nearly a millennium before, an entire tribe of Native Americans had been stolen and dumped on the distant world Starhaven where they had evolved into the Anasazi, winged trackers of immense power and sensitivity. Now Dox arrived and offered to give a weak and feeble outcast the gifts fate and feeble genetics had denied her. However, even though he kept his word, the thing that Wildstar became had good reason to regret her devil’s bargainâ€¦

‘A World of Hurt’ saw the new R.E.B.E.L.S. take the battle to the usurped L.E.G.I.O.N. hierarchy; along the way picking up old comrade and dedicated Dox-hater Strata – a woman of living stone and high moral standards – plus energetic new recruit Bounder.

Just as the robotic forces now commanded by artificial life-form and ambulatory computer server Silica begin mercilessly eradicating anybody connected with the Coluan’s old organisation, the utterly dispensible Omega Men attack L.E.G.I.O.N.’s HQ on Maltus and destroy the traitorous living computer which had taken over the organisation.

Covertly despatched by the manipulative Dox, the Omegans have inadvertently handed back control of the rent-a-cops to Dox, but in the digital woman’s corpse the victors find the first clues as to the real threat: an eerie starfish creature capable of controlling anything it possesses. Tragically, before they can react another Starro beast arrives – wearing the body of a brutal alien war goddess named Astrid Storm-Daughterâ€¦

With Claude St. Aubin & Scott Hanna taking over the art chores, ‘From Beyond’ kicks the already fast-paced thriller into maximum overdrive as Amon Hakk, Getorix and Skwaul are rescued from earthly imprisonment by Durlan shapeshifter Ciji, unaware that Dox is no longer the problemâ€¦

On Maltus, the surviving Omega Men narrowly escape the new threat but discover the entire planet – the most populous in the galaxy – has been taken: each citizen wearing a Starro seed and contributing their enslaved psychic resources to a hidden masterâ€¦

Meanwhile in another part of space the aggressive space faring hive-culture known as the Dominators are also under attack by the Starro slaves. However this is unlike any previous incursion by the frequently occurring stellar starfish: there’s an implacable devouring consciousness behind the assaults. Even the inimical, scientifically sadistic Psions are scared – as evidenced by their rescuing of their greatest enemies the Omega Men â€“ and propose an alliance to defeat a threat that is pouring into our galaxy from a cosmic hole into another existenceâ€¦

As ‘The Stars We Are’ opens, in the strategically crucial Xylon Expanse a vast subspace rift is disgorging a host of ships and super-powered slaves into one of the most populous areas of the galaxy – and a centre of L.E.G.I.O.N. influence. Even as the Dominator’s mighty empire falls in hours, Astrid Storm-Daughter attacks Dox’s ship just as Ciji’s forces arrive. With all sentient life threatened, this initial collection concludes with the superb ‘Dominator’ as Dox again pulls an intellectual rabbit out of his hat and traps the entire invasion force – and their space rift – behind an impenetrable, quadrant-wide force field. Locked within an inescapable, parsecs-wide box of force, the terrifying humanoid master of the Starros is safely contained in a relatively small buffer zone and prevented from all further expansion.

Of course stuck on the wrong side of the fence with him are Dox, his unwilling newfound enemies-turned-allies and billions of potential slave-sentients on hundreds of sitting-duck worldsâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

With a spectacular cover gallery by Andy Clark, Ed Benes, Rob Hunter, Kalman Andrasofszky, this slim tome offers a deliciously intoxicating blend of space opera and cosmic Fights ‘n’ Tights action that will push every button for fans of staggering science fiction thrills, cut with sharp, mature dialogue and sublimely beautiful artwork. Plain and simple rip-roaring, rollercoaster rocket riding fun that no devotee of the genres should missâ€¦

December 30, 2012December 27, 2012

Golden Age Spectre Archives volume 1

By Jerry Siegel & Bernard Baily with various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-955-3

The Spectre is one of the oldest characters in DC’s vast stable of characters, created by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily in 1940 and debuting with a 2-part origin epic in More Fun Comics #52 and 53 where he was the first superhero to star in the previously all-genres adventure anthology. For a few years the Ghostly Guardian reigned supreme in the title with flamboyant and eerily eccentric supernatural thrillers, but gradually slipped from popularity as firstly Dr. Fate and successively Johnny Quick, Aquaman, Green Arrow and finally Superboy turned up to steal the show. By the time of his last appearance the Spectre had been reduced to a foil for his own comedic sidekick Percival Popp, the Super-Copâ€¦

Just like Siegel’s other iconic creation, the Dark Man suffered from a basic design flaw: he was just too darn powerful. Unlike the vigorously vital and earthy early Superman however, the ethereal champion of justice was already dead, so he couldn’t be logically or dramatically imperilled. Of course in those far-off early days that wasn’t nearly as important as sheer spectacle: grabbing the reader’s utter attention and keeping it stoked to a fantastic fever pitch. This the Grim Ghost could do with ease and always-increasing intensity.

Re-presenting the first 19 eerie episodes and following a fulsome Foreword from pre-eminent Comics historian Dr. Jerry Bails, detailing the state of play within the budding marketplace during those last months of the 1930s, the arcane action commences in this stunning full-colour deluxe hardback with ‘The Spectre: Introduction’ from More Fun Comics #52 (February 1940).

This wasn’t the actual title: like so many strips of those early days, most stories didn’t have individual titles and many have been only retroactively designated for collections such as this.

The Ghostly Guardian was only barely glimpsed in this initial instalment. Instead the action rested upon Jim Corrigan, a hard-bitten police detective, who was about to marry rich heiress Clarice Winston when they were abducted by mobster Gat Benson. Stuffed into a barrel of cement and pitched off a pier, Corrigan died and went to his eternal reward. Almostâ€¦

Rather than finding Paradise and peace, Corrigan’s spirit was accosted by a glowing light and disembodied voice which, over his strident protests, ordered him return to Earth to fight crime and evil until all vestiges of them were goneâ€¦

Standing on the seabed and looking at his own corpse, Corrigan began his mission by going after his own killersâ€¦

In #53 ‘The Spectre Strikes’ found the furious revenant swiftly, mercilessly and horrifically ending his murderers and saving Clarice, before calling off the engagement and moving out of the digs he shared with fellow cop and best friend Wayne Grant. After all, a cold, dead man has no need for the livingâ€¦

The origin ends with Corrigan implausibly sewing himself a green and white costume and swearing to eradicate all crimeâ€¦

Splendidly daft, this two-part yarn is one of the darkest and most memorable origins in comicbook history and the feature only got better with each issue as the bitter, increasingly isolated lawman swiftly grew into most overwhelmingly powerful hero of the Golden Age.

In MFC #54 the Supernatural Sentinel tackled ‘The Spiritualist’, a murderous medium and unscrupulous charlatan who almost killed Clarice and forever ended the Spectre’s hopes for eternal rest, after which #55 introduced ‘Zor’: a ghost of far greater vintage and power, dedicated to promulgating evil on Earth. He too menaced Clarice and only the intervention of the Heavenly Voice and a quick upgrade in phantasmal power enabled The Spectre to overcome the malign menace.

More Fun Comics #56 was the first to feature Howard Sherman’s Dr. Fate on the cover but the Spectre was still the big attraction even ifÂ the merely mundane bandits and blackmailers instigating ‘Terror at Lytell’s’ were no match for the ever-inventive wrathful wraith. Far more serious was ‘The Return of Zor’ in #57, as the horrific haunt returned from beyond to frame Corrigan for murder and again endanger the girl Jim dared not loveâ€¦

An embezzler turned to murder as ‘The Arsonist’ in #58, but was no match for the cop – let alone his eldritch alter ego – whilst ‘The Fur Hi-Jackers’ actually succeeded in killing the cop yet were still brought to the Spectre’s unique brand of justice.

In #60 ‘The Menace of Xnon’ found a super-scientist using incredible inventions to frame the ghost and even menace his ethereal existence, prompting The Voice to again increase its servant’s power – this time by giving The Spectre the all-powerful Ring of Life – but not before the Ghostly Guardian had been branded Public Enemy No. 1.

With Corrigan now ordered to arrest his spectral other self on sight, #61 (another Dr. Fate cover) featured ‘The Golden Curse Deaths’ wherein prominent citizens were dying from a scientific terror with a deadly Midas Touch, after which ‘The Mad Creation of Professor Fenton’ pitted the Phantom Protector against a roving, ravaging disembodied mutant super-brainâ€¦

In #63 a kill-crazy racketeer got his just deserts in the electric chair only to return and personally execute ‘Trigger Daniels’ Death Curse’ on all who had opposed him in life. Happily The Spectre proved to be more than his match but ‘The Ghost of Elmer Watson’ was a far harder foe to face. Murdered by mobsters who had also nearly killed Corrigan’s only friend Wayne Grant, the remnant of the vengeful dead man refused to listen to The Spectre’s brand of reason and its dreadful depredations had to be dealt with in fearsome fashionâ€¦

‘Dr. Mephisto’ was a spiritualist who utilised an uncanny blue flame for crime in #65, after which the Ghostly Guardian battled horrendous monsters called forth from ‘The World Within the Paintings’ probably written by the series’ first guest writer – Gardner Fox – before Siegel returned with ‘The Incredible Robberies’ which found the phantom policeman battling deadly mystic Deeja Kathoon to the death and beyondâ€¦

With MFC #68 The Spectre finally lost his protracted cover battle to Dr. Fate even though, inside, the ‘Menace of the Dark Planet’ featured a fabulously telling tale of Earthbound Spirit against alien invasion by life-leeching Little Green Men, before in #69 ‘The Strangler’ murders led Corrigan into an improbable case with an impossible killerâ€¦

This first fearful tome terminates with issue #70 and ‘The Crimson Circle Mystery Society’ in which a sinister cult employed a merciless phantasmal psychic agent named Bandar to carry out its deadly schemesâ€¦

Still a mighty force of fun and fearful entertainment, The Spectre’s Glory Days – and Nights â€“ were waning and more credible champions were coming to the fore. He would be one of the first casualties of the post-War decline in mystery men and not be seen again until the Silver Age 1960’sâ€¦

Moreover, when he did return to comics, the previously omnipotent ghost was given strict limits and as he continued to evolve through various returns, refits and reboots The Spectre was finally transmogrified into a tormented mortal soul bonded inescapably to the actual embodiment of the biblical Wrath of God. Revamped and revived in perpetuity, revealed to be the Spirit of Vengeance wedded to a human conscience, Jim Corrigan was finally laid to rest in the 1990s and Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan replaced him. Returning to basics in recent years, the latest host is murdered Gotham City cop Crispus Allen.

They’re all worth tracking down and exhuming: spooky comic champions who have never failed to deliver an enthralling, haunted hero rollercoaster â€“ or is that Ghost Train? â€“ of thrills and chills.
Â© 1940, 1941, 2003 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

December 25, 2012December 27, 2012

Merry Christmas, Boys and Girls

Since the Mayans miscalculated and we’re all (most?) still here, I’ve gotten all extra-nostalgic and doubled my pleasure by indulging in not just one but two days of British Annual excellence…

Today’s Cool Yule Drool comprises a trio of my most often enjoyed festive frolics and tomorrow we’re doing it again with even more passion but just a little less imaginatively.

Have a Very Merry Day and always keep reading new thingsâ€¦

Robin Annual Number 1

By various, edited by Marcus Morris (Hulton Press)
No ISBN:

There’s not a lot around these days in our field which both caters specifically for little kids and simultaneously introduces them to the ineluctably tactile wonders and sensorium of a high quality comics anthology experience, but once upon a time there was a whole subdivision of the business dedicated to enthralling and enchanting our youngest and, hopefully, brightestâ€¦

Robin was created in the hugely successful wake of Marcus Morris and Frank Hampson’s iconic Eagle, catering to the pre-school market the way Swift targeted 6-10 year olds and Girl concentrated on potential young ladies (that looks far creepier in print than I’d intendedâ€¦). The periodical ran from March 28^th 1953 to 25^th January 1969, a startling 836 joy-stuffed issues.

Offering a range of beautiful genteel, diffidently Christiano-centric stories, strips and puzzles for parents to read with and to their toddlers, Robin sported the same supremely high production values as all the Hulton Press titles. It was edited by Morris until 1962 when Clifford Makins took over, shepherding the title until its absorption into Odhams/Fleetway comic Playhour, just as the collapse of theUK comics industry was beginningâ€¦

There were at least nine Christmas Annuals – such as this first one from 1953 – which combined stunning, lavishly illustrated colour strips and features with solid, memorably stylish and glossy monochrome pages for an 80 page compendium of enticing wonderment between sturdily thick and reassuring red cardboard covers.

Again like its older brothers and sister, Robin included a selection of licensed characters well known to the new but ever-growing television audienceâ€¦

This particular British Festive icon opens with double-page front and end-pieces by Reg Forster, depicting railway station scenes to colour in and a beautiful painted dedication to the young Princess Anne and Prince Charles, after which the prose tale of ‘Johnny and Mr Spink’ related the tale of a boy given a pony for his birthday.

The first comic strip is in colour. ‘The Amazing Adventure of Percy and the Cricket Ball’ featured anthropomorphic animals and a young man who turned sporting disaster to his advantage, followed by an illustrated poem ‘Things to Do’ and ‘The Story of Woppit’, a monochrome strip featuring an infamous teddy-bear in the snow with bunnies.

More shrew than bear, Mr. Woppit was merchandised as a toy and one was adopted as a lucky mascot by notoriously superstitious sportsman and speed enthusiast Donald Campbell. It was with him when Campbell died piloting the hydroplane Bluebird K7 on Coniston Water in 1967, and found amidst the floating wreckage.Campbell’s remains weren’t recovered until 2001.

A Play Page of puzzles is followed by the first TV star as ‘Andy Pandy’ played garden pranks on Teddy after which ‘The Old Woman and the Mouse’ offered a delightfully salutary prose fable illustrated by the incredibly talented David Walsh and then ‘The Twins Simon and Sally’ got into a mess feeding the chickens in their first strip saga.

‘Princess Tai-Lu’ was a magical Siamese cat and in her initial strip here celebrates Christmas with a few furry feline friends in her own unique manner, whilst the illustrated poem ‘Little Grey Stone’ by Margaret Milnes is a visual feast of tone-&-wash mastery and colour comic ‘Tom the Tractor’ related the heroic rescue of a climbing lamb and piglet by a handy animated farm vehicle,

‘Scruffy the Scarecrow’ was almost junked by the farmer until some friendly Magpies saved his job in a rather moving text tale, but ‘The Proud Mouse’ was the architect of her own downfall in a delightfully executed strip by an uncredited hand.

‘Richard Lion’ (and his animal chums Henry the kangaroo, Pug the bulldog, Peggy the black panther, Nemo the jester and others) seems like a rather excellent knock-off of Bestall’s Rupert Bear by the brilliant Maria Jocz, but it still offers wonder and joy aplenty in a two-chapter, vividly coloured strip which finds the cubs being harassed by and then saving some irascible Snow Gnomes. Next comes the second of the BBC’s Watch With Mother properties as Bill and Ben ‘The Flower-Pot Men’ saved a tortoise from his own exuberant folly in a captivating black and white strip.

A black Scottie dog narrates ‘The Sad Story of McTavish’ (by Norman Satchell) whilst ‘Charlie and the Cake’ takes only three panels to explain the folly of stealing confectionery from the larderâ€¦

The snow-bound adventures of Rufus, Rodney Rita and little brother â€œFumsâ€ resulted in a new family pet thanks to the intervention of ‘The Magic Wellingtons’ in a beguiling colour strip, whilst, following a Bo Peep maze-page, ‘The Twins Simon and Sally’ return no wiser than before as their attempts to bath both a dog and cat at the same time goes spectacularly awryâ€¦

‘Midge the Motor Car’ was a living autonomous little auto and his trip to the local Fair resulted in initially chaos but eventually a dramatic and heroic rescue in a lovely monochrome strip from Catherine Hammond and an uncredited scripter, after which ‘The Shepherd Boy’ retold the story of David and Goliath in a stylish full colour comics version, and short story ‘The Runaway Bus’ – illustrated by Forster – detailed how a London Passenger Service Vehicle took itself off to the seaside for the dayâ€¦

The poem ‘Eider Downy House’ (Gay Wood) is followed by the sublime black and white nature strip ‘The Dormouse at Christmas’ and a full colour rebus double spread of the alphabet before the prose tale of ‘Ku Mu and the Crocodile’ (written and illustrated by Dorothy Craigie) told a gentle tale of West Africa and the strip ‘Bingo, Bango and Bongo’ by Jenetta Vise demonstrated to three monkeys that performing in a circus was far more fun than merely spectatingâ€¦

A ‘Mrs Bunny Maze Puzzle’ precedes the all-colour adventures of talking calf ‘Johnny Bull’ on land, sea and in the air, after which the superbly limned prose story ‘The Excited Red Balloon’ shows the sheer class of illustrator Eileen Bradpiece, before Technicolor tiny titan ‘Andy Pandy’ performed a prankish encore at a tea-party for Teddy and ‘Tina, Tim and the Magic Helicopter’ undertook an astounding prose voyage to the Wild Westâ€¦

Patricia Hubbard drew an amazing strip adventure of the dolls in ‘Toyville’ and, following the conclusion of Richard Lion‘s excursion to the cave of the Snow Gnomes and another rebus page entitled ‘Can You Read this Letter?’, ‘The Flower-Pot Men’ accidentally built themselves a splendid flying sailboat.

The rather trenchant warnings in the tale of ‘Canty Kitten’ are balanced by a practical feature on ‘How to Draw a Toy Engine’, after which David Walsh displays his dexterity with both monochrome and full colour scenes for the ode to ‘Skating on a Pond’ and the enigmatic Kearon (perhaps Robot Archie artist Ted Kearon?) exhibits great virtuosity in relating the strip saga of ‘Philip’s Circus’â€¦

The indefatigable Walsh then lent his deft pen and brush to the alarmist but happily ended text tale of ‘The Squirrel Who Forgot’ and sublime ‘Princess Tai-Lu’ returned to save her human companion’s hat in another lovely monochrome strip.

‘Billyphant’s Birthday’ provided a menagerie of pets for the lonely little pachyderm and that motivated Motor Car returned in ‘Midge at the Zoo’, handling runaway rhinos and adoring peacocks alike, before another Play Page segued into a black and white bible strip detailing what happened when ‘Jesus gets lost’ and all the seasonal magic ended with the prose saga of runaway pigs ‘Quibble and Quarrel’.

Unlike most periodicals of the time, this annual actually lists all the creative contributors involved – although not which pieces they worked on – so those I’ve been unable to identify I’ve name-checked here: writers Leila Berg, Maria Bird, John Byrne, Nancy Catford, Dennis Duckworth, Jessica Dunning, Rosemary Garland, James Hemming, Maureen Hillyer, Winifred Holmes, Ursula John, Rosemary Sisson, John Taylor, Billy Thatcher, & Shelagh Fraser whilst artists unattributed include Anthony Beaurepaire, Nancy Catford, Harry Hants, Irene Hawkins, Elizabeth Hobson, Stewart Irwin, Faith Jacques, Janet & Anne Graham Johnstone, Mary McGowan, Constance Marshall, Michael K. Noble, Walter Pannett, Prudence Seward, A.E. Speer, Astrid Walford & Andrew Wilson.

Relatively cheap and still quite available, books like this were and should remain an integral part of our communal history, always astoundingly high in quality and absolutely absorbing. Whimsical, comforting and supremely entertaining, this is a package with a host of child-friendly tales that have tragically missed becoming nursery classics simply because they appeared in a disposable comic rather than permanent kid’s novel, and it’s long past time publishers re-examined this wealth of forgotten material with a view to creating new masterpieces for library shelves and wholesome all-ages TV animation projectsâ€¦

No copyright notice so I’m guessing most of the originally created intellectually properties material now resides as part of IPC or Egmont. If you know better I’ll be happy to have this entry amended.

Superadventure Annual 1967

By various (Atlas Publishing & Distribution)
No ISBN

Whereas the 1962 edition – the first Christmas Annual I can remember getting – was a stunning shock to my British-born, Polish/German reared, pre-school senses, by the advent of the 1967 Superadventure Annual (December 25th 1966 at about 11 minutes past 4 in the morning), I was a far more sophisticated but no less excitable consumer.

I had since learned in those short intervening years quite a bit about Superman, Jimmy Olsen, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Flash, Tommy Tomorrow and all the rest through the sleek American import comics that my Dad faithfully brought home every Friday after work, teaching me – and himself – English (admittedly American-seasoned) by poring through them together over weekends filled with sugary snacks and in-between huge, rustic, home-grown and Mum-cooked meals.

That early indoctrination and fascination remains strong – for the comics at least. I’m far too old and debilitated for sugar, starch, caffeine and artificial additives nowâ€¦

This was one of the last licensed UK DC collections before the Batman TV show turned the entire planet Camp-Crazed and Batmanic, and therefore offered a delightfully eclectic mix of material far more in keeping with traditionally perceived British boy’s interests than the masked suited and booted madness that was soon to follow in the Caped Crusader’s scalloped wake. Of course this collection was still produced in the cheap and quirky mix of black and white, dual-hued and full colour pages which made those Christmas books such a bizarrely beloved treat.

The action opens with a classically lovely yarn starring the Fastest Man Alive, printed in black and red.

The first story is reprinted from The Flash #119 (March 1961), crafted by John Broome, Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson, and related how the lethal Looking Glass Bandit used his incredible technology to turn our hero into a living genie before attempting to murder him with ‘The Mirror Master’s Magic Bullet’ after which space cop Tommy Tomorrow tackled – in plain old monochrome – ‘The Planeteer’s Alien Allies’.

The strip was a hugely long-running back-up strip which moved from Real Fact Comics, to Action Comics and Worlds Finest Comics before fading from sight and memory. This particular tale of sneaky conniving ETs only pretending to be Earth’s friends comes from WF #122, December 1961, courtesy of scripter Jack Miller and versatile illustrator Murphy Anderson. Ubiquitous gag cartoonist Henry Boltinoff produced hundreds of funny pages and characters over the years, and a great selection are sprinkled through this book, beginning with a crafty ‘Casey the Cop’ howlerâ€¦

World’s Finest Comics #125 from May 1962 provided the Green Arrow thriller ‘The Man Who Defied Death’ (by Ed â€œFranceâ€ Herron and Lee Elias); a bold and grittily terse mini-epic and taut human drama about a desperate daredevil willing to do absolutely anything to earn the cash for his son’s medical bills, followed by a Boltinoff ‘Moolah the Mystic’ rib-tickler and the start of the full (but exceedingly odd) colour section.

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #60 (April 1962) provided the astonishing story of ‘Super-Mite’ as author Leo Dorfman & artist Al Plastino had the exuberant cub reporter explore the mystery of a little action figure given by the Man of Steel to an ailing boy which inexplicably became as smart and powerful as any full-sized Kryptonian! This is followed by a Boltinoff gag starring ‘Peter Puptent, Explorer’ and a chiller featuring Aquaman and Aqualad battling ‘The Curse of the Sea Hermit’.

First seen in Detective Comics #295, September 1961 by George Kashdan & Nick Cardy, this spooky sea tale seemingly pitted the heroes against ancient evil but there was ultra-modern piratical plundering behind this schemeâ€¦

Back in black and white, ‘The Trickster Strikes Back’ (Flash #121, June 1961) saw the rapacious return of an air-walking bandit with murderous intent, outmanoeuvred by the Vizier of Velocity in a stunning yarn from Broome, Infantino and Joe Giella whilst, after another Peter Puptent page, Tommy Tomorrow undertook a desperate ‘Journey to 1966’ (originally entitled ‘Journey to 1960’, by Miller & Jim Mooney, when it first appeared in WF #113, November 1960) to capture a would-be world-conqueror with the inadvertent aid of the Planeteer’s own grandfather, after which the grand Costumed Dramas end in fine style with ‘The League of Fantastic Supermen’ (by Jerry Siegel, Curt Swan & George Klein from Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #63, September 1962) in which a quartet of Kryptonian outlaws and the double-dealing Legion of Super-Villains are all outwitted by the plucky junior journalist.

Maybe I’m blinded by nostalgia-coloured goggles, but it seems admirably astounding to me that the all-ages stories featured here are so perfectly constructed that whether an innocent(ish) tubby toddler or the sullen, embittered old coot I became, these tales continue to beguile, bemuse and satisfy in a way that no food, drink or drug could. This is another book that will always say â€œMerry Christmasâ€ to me.

â€¦And hopefully to you, tooâ€¦

Â© 1966 National Periodical Publications, Inc.,New York. Published and distributed jointly by Atlas Publishing and Thorpe & Porter, Ltd., by arrangement with The K.G. Murray Publishing Company Pty. Ltd., Sydney.

Beano Book 1972

By various (DC Thomson & Co., Ltd.)
Retroactively awarded ISBN: 978-0-85116-038-2

For many British – and indeed Commonwealth â€“ fans, Christmas can only mean The Beano Book (although Scots worldwide and of every nationality have a pretty fair claim that the season belongs exclusively to them via the traditional, annually-alternating collections of The Broons and Oor Wullie which make every December 25th mirthfully magical), so I’ve yet again highlighted another of the venerable and beloved tomes as particularly representative of the Season of Joy.

In those days these annuals were produced in the wonderful â€œhalf-colourâ€ British publishers used to keep costs down. This was done by printing sections or â€œSignaturesâ€ of the books with only two plates, such as Cyan (Blue) and Magenta (Red): The sheer versatility and colour range this provided was astounding. Even now this technique inescapably screams â€œHolidayextrasâ€ for me and my contemporaries.

As is always the tragic case, my knowledge of the creators involved is criminally sub-par but I’ll hazard the usual wild guesses in the hope that someone with better knowledge will correct me when I err and embarrassingly get it wrong againâ€¦

This boisterously compelling chronicle opens with a double-page splash of The Bash Street Kids (by David Sutherland) breaking the fourth wall and playing mischievous hob with the book’s two-colour formatting, after which The Three Bears by Bob McGrath and the exceedingly domestic Biffo the Bear (Sutherland again) officially welcome us to the festivities.

Leading off this year’s anarchic antics is a splendid school Panto skit starring Minnie the Minx courtesy of Jim Petrie, after which the iconoclastic Dennis the Menace and Gnasher make their first appearance adding their own unique tinge of terror to a school play thanks to prolific diversity of style chameleon David Sutherland.

â€œFastest boy on Earthâ€ Billy Whizz (by Malcolm Judge) then experiences painful feedback from a rashly hurled boomerang and his Antipodean counterpart, before the re-assembled Bash Street Kids helpfully assist Teacher get over his over-sleeping problem with the expected catastrophic results in a dedicated and extended niche chapter interwoven with the eccentric and imaginative ‘Bash Street Motor Cartie Show’.

Biffo and human pal Buster go shopping for new furniture next – in an eye-popping blue and yellow segment – after which Roger the Dodger is again outwitted by his dad and Lord Snooty learns the error of his selfish, posh-boy ways in a brace of gloriously funny strips from Robert Nixon, whilst Ronald Spencer’s painfully un-PC but exceedingly hilarious Little Plum follows with the rambunctious redskin falling foul of a bolshie buffalo before Billy Whizz rockets back with a tricky ‘Whizz Quiz’ to test our wits and reactions.

In a previous annual the Bash Street Kids found themselves the reluctant owners of an accident-prone elephant, and she riotously returns here in an extended episode of Pups Parade starring the Bash Street Dogs (and Ethel Hump) by the marvellous Gordon Bell. Stuck with the excitable, ponderous pachyderm by the awesome and omnipotent Beano Editor, the mangy mutts soon handed her off to their arch-foes The Bash Street Cats but it took the canny connivings of ‘The Nibblers’ (drawn by either John Sherwood or Ron Spencer?) to finally quell Ethel’s destructively effusive spiritsâ€¦

At this time The Beano still had the odd adventure strip and perhaps the greatest of these was local boy superhero Billy the Cat. Here in an expansive section of his own, the plucky acrobat chases burglars over rooftops, crushes bullies, catches car thieves and almost mucks up a fire drill in a rollicking rollercoaster of blistering action by Sandy Calder â€“ and there’s also a splendid ‘Quick on the Draw’ feature inviting readers to become artists themselvesâ€¦

Biffo the Bear then endures an agony of indecision whilst his hirsute and voracious American cousins The Three Bears got a slap-up Christmas feed even after failing again to breach the impregnable local general store of grocer Hank Huckleberryâ€¦

The defences of Bunkerton Castle proved too much when Lord Snooty and His Pals tried to bring in a truly tremendous Xmas tree, but Minnie the Minx had far more success in her spring-heeled hi-jinx â€“ until Dad caught her, at least â€“ whilst the ‘Billy Whizz Diary’ proved its worth in mirth before Little Plum and that buffalo had their hands and hooves full trying to wigwam-train Chiefy‘s latest pet â€“ a Smart Alec chimpanzeeâ€¦

The Nibblers next resumed their war of attrition with malicious moggy Whiskers whilst Roger’s latest Dodges proved ultimately unsuccessful but did prompt him to dream big and explain what would happen ‘If I Were a Rich Boyâ€¦’

Another extended journey to Bash Street found the Kids literally sucking up to Teacher after â€œborrowingâ€ a Corporation Dust Cart and industrial vacuum cleaner, whilst following some enthralling, appalling ‘Party Puzzles’ the ‘Pup Parade’ ended the segment with a dirty scheme to clean up the dog’s communal dustbin homeâ€¦

Biffo then worked out with the local Fire Brigade and ‘The Three Bears’ had snow fun at all when Hank trapped them with a frigid, foodless maze, after which Minnie found things to amuse herself – but not so many other folks – building snowmenâ€¦

The Festive fun then concludes with a thinly veiled but entertaining ad for that year’s Dennis the Menace Annual and a return to the Bash Street Kids’ colour cavortingsâ€¦

This is another astoundingly compelling edition, and even in the absence of legendary creators such as Dudley Watkins, Leo Baxendale and Ken Reid there’s no discernable decline in the outrageous and infectious insanity. With so much merriment on offer I can’t believe this forty year old book is still sprightlier and more entertaining than most of my surviving friends and relatives. If ever anything needed to be issued as commemorative collections it’s these fabulous DC Thomson annualsâ€¦

Divorcing the sheer quality of this brilliant book from nostalgia may be a healthy exercise â€“ perhaps impossible, but I’m perfectly happy to simply wallow in the magical emotions this annual still stirs. It’s a fabulous laugh-and-thrill-packed read from a magical time, and turning those stiffened two-colour pages is always an unmatchable Christmas experience â€“ and still relatively easy to find these days.

November 27, 2012November 26, 2012

Robin Archives volume 1

By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Win Mortimer, Jim Mooney & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0415-0

Robin the Boy Wonder debuted in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940), created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson and introduced a juvenile circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mob boss. The story of how Batman took the orphaned Dick Grayson under his scalloped wing and trained him to fight crime has been told, retold and revised many times over the decades and still regularly undergoes tweaking to this day.

In the comics continuity Grayson fought beside Batman until 1970 when, as an indicator of those turbulent times, he flew the nest, becoming a Teen Wonder college student and eventually leader of a team of fellow sidekicks and young justice seeker – the Teen Titans.

He graduated to his own featured solo spot in the back of Detective Comics from the end of the 1960s, which he alternated and shared with Batgirl, and held a similar spot throughout the 1970s in Batman and won a starring feature in the anthology comic Batman Family and the run of Giant Detective Comics Dollar Comics. During the 1980s he led the New Teen Titans, first in his original costumed identity but eventually in the reinvented guise of Nightwing, re-establishing a turbulent working relationship with his mentor Batman.

His creation as a junior hero for younger readers to identify with has inspired an incomprehensible number of costumed kid crusaders, and Grayson continues in similar innovative vein for the older, more worldly-wise readership ofAmerica’s increasingly rebellious contemporary youth cultureâ€¦ but his star potential was first realised much earlier in his halcyon careerâ€¦

From 1947 to 1952, (issues #65-130) Robin the Boy Wonder had his own solo series and regular cover spot in Star Spangled Comics at a time when the first superhero boom was fading to be replaced by more traditional genres such as crime, westerns and boys’ adventure stories. The stories blended in-continuity action capers with more youth-oriented fare with adults Batman and Alfred reduced to minor roles or entirely absent, allowing the kid crusader to display not just his physical skills but also his brains, ingenuity and guts.

This stellar deluxe hardback Archive compilation gathers together the first 21 tales from Star Spangled #65-85 covering February 1947 to October 1948, recapturing the bold, verve and universal appeal of one of fantasy literature’s greatest youth icons, opening with a fascinating Foreword by Roy Thomas, who discusses the origins and merits of boy heroes and the history of the venerable anthology title before offering some insightful guesses as to the identity of the generally un-named writers of the Robin strip.

Although almost universally unrecorded, most historians consider Batman co-creator Bill Finger to be the author of most if not all of the stories in this volume and I’m going to happily concur here with that assessment until informed otherwiseâ€¦

Star Spangled Comics #65 started the ball rolling with ‘The Teen-Age Terrors’ illustrated by regular artist Win Mortimer (with the inking misattributed to Charles Paris) in which the Caped Crusaders’ faithful butler happens across an unknown trophy and is regaled with Dick’s tale of the time he infiltrated a Reform School to discover who inside was releasing the incarcerated kids to commit crimes on the outsideâ€¦

That tale segues seamlessly into ‘The No-Face Crimes’ wherein the Boy Wonder acted as stand-in to a timid young movie star targeted by a ruthless killer, whilst #67 revealed ‘The Case of the Boy Wonders’ which saw our hero as part of a trio of boy geniuses kidnapped for the craziest of reasonsâ€¦

An outrageously flamboyant killing in #68 resulted in the pre-teen titan shipping out on a schooner as a cabin and spending ‘Four Days Before the Mast’ to catch the murderer, after which modern terror took hold when Robin was the only one capable of tracking down ‘The Stolen Atom Bomb’ in a bombastically explosive contemporary spy thriller.

Star Spangled Comics #70 introduced an arch-villain all his own as ‘Clocks of Doom’ saw the debut of an anonymous criminal time-and-motion expert forced into the limelight once his face was caught on film. The Clock‘s desperate attempts to sabotage the movie Robin was consulting on inevitably led to hard time in this delightful romp (this one might possibly be scripted by Don Cameron)â€¦

Chronal explorer Professor Carter Nichols succumbed to persistent pressure and sent Dick Grayson back to the dawn of history in #71’s ‘Perils of the Stone Age’ – a deliciously anachronistic cavemen and dinosaurs epic which saw Robin kick-start freedom and democracy, after which the Boy Wonder crashed the Batplane on a desert island and encountered a boatload of escaped Nazi submariners in ‘Robin Crusoe’ in a full-on thriller illustrated by Curt Swan & John Fischetti.

In #73 the so-very tractable Professor Nichols dispatched Dick to revolutionary France where Robin battled Count Cagliostro, ‘The Black Magician’, in a stirring saga drawn by Jack Burnley & Jim Mooney, after which the Timepiece Terror busted out of jail determined to have his revenge in ‘The Clock Strikes’, illustrated in full by Mooney who would soon become the series’ sole artist.

However Bob Kane & Charles Paris stepped in for the tense courtroom drama in #75 as ‘Dick Grayson for the Defense’ found the millionaire’s ward fighting for the rights of a schoolboy unjustly accused of theft, after which cunning career criminal The Fence came a cropper when he tried to steal 25 free bikes given as prizes to Gotham’s city’s best students in ‘A Bicycle Built for Loot’ (Finger & Mooney).

Prodigy and richest kid on Earth, Bert Beem was sheer hell to buy gifts for, but since the lad dreamed of being a detective, the offer of a large charitable donation secured the Boy Wonder’s cooperation in a little harmless role play. However when real bandits replaced the actors and Santa, ‘The Boy Who Wanted Robin for Christmas’ enjoyed the impromptu adventure of a lifetimeâ€¦

Another rich kid was equally inspired in #78 and became the Boy Wonder of India, but soon needed the aid of the original when a Thuggee murder-cult tried to destroy ‘Rajah Robin’, whilst in ‘Zero Hour’ (illustrated by Mooney & John Giunta) The Clock struck one more with a spate of regularly-scheduled time crimes before Star Spangled #80 saw Dick Grayson become ‘The Boy Disc Jockey’, only to discover that the station was broadcasting clever instructions to commit robberies in its cryptically cunning commercialsâ€¦

Robin was temporarily blinded in #81 whilst investigating the bizarre theft of guide dogs, but quickly adapted to his own canine companion and solved the mystery of ‘The Seeing-Eye Dog Crimes’, but had a far tougher time as a camp counsellor for ghetto kids after meeting ‘The Boy Who Hated Robin’. It took grit, determination and a couple of escaped convicts before the kids learned to adapt and acceptâ€¦

A radio contest led to danger and death before one smart lad earned the prize for discovering who ‘Who is Mr. Mystery?’ in #83, after which Robin tried to discover the causes of juvenile delinquency by going undercover as a notorious new recruit to ‘The Third Street Gang’, and this initial outing ends on a spectacular high as the Boy Wonder sacrifices himself to save Batman and ends up marooned in the Arctic. Even whilst the distraught Caped Crusader is searching for his partner’s body, Robin has responded to the Call of the Wild, joined an Inuit tribe and captured a fugitive from American justice in #85’s ‘Peril at the Pole’â€¦

Beautifully illustrated, wittily scripted and captivatingly addictive, these stirring all-ages traditional superhero hi-jinks are a perfect antidote to teen-angst and the strident, overblown, self-absorbed whining of contemporary comicbook kids. Fast, furious and ferociously fun, these are superb tales no Fights ‘n’ Tights fan will want to missâ€¦
Â© 1947, 1948, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

November 22, 2012November 21, 2012

Batman Archives volume 6

By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Edmond Hamilton, Don Cameron, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Win Mortimer, Jack & Ray Burnley, Jim Mooney, Charles Paris & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-4012-0409-0

Debuting a year after Superman, â€œThe Bat-Manâ€ (joined eventually by Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented National Comics as the market and genre leader of the burgeoning comicbook industry, and the dashing derring-do and strictly human-scaled adventures of the Dynamic Duo rapidly became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all other four-colour crimebusters were judged.

By the time of this the tales in this superb sixth deluxe hardback compilation (collecting the Batman adventures from Detective Comics #120-135, spanning cover-dates February 1947-May 1948) the Dynamic Duo were inescapably a co-operative effort with a large and ever-changing creative team crafting increasingly varied and captivating escapades for the heroes. One further note: many of the tales in this tome carry no writer’s credit but are most likely the work of pulp writer Edmond Hamilton, so apologies for the less than usually clear attributions throughoutâ€¦

As discussed in the Foreword by celebrated critic and historian Bill Schelly, the post-war years saw a careful repositioning and reformatting of the heroes, as the publishers cautiously proceeded to tone down outlandish violence and nightmarishly macabre villains in favour of a wide variety of more mundane mobsters, gangsters and petty criminals, plus a few of the most irrepressibly popular favourites such as Penguin and The Joker.

Even so the former felon even gets cover billing in the opening costumed drama, reproduced in full from Detective #120; another riotous romp co-starring the rakish, rotund rogue indulging in ‘Fowl Play!’

Illustrated by Win Mortimer, this yarn describes how the pompous Penguin responds after an ornithologist is cited as America’s Greatest Bird Expert, leading to a campaign of fresh feather-themed crimes before the Dynamic Duo once again caged the crafty crook.

In #121 Hamilton & Howard Sherman take a rare look at corruption when Gotham’s top cop is forced from office by blackmailers exerting pressure on the Mayor. However, even whilst ‘Commissioner Gordon Walks a Beat’ Batman and Robin are tracking down the true cause of all the city’s woesâ€¦

Bob Kane & Charles Paris limned the uncredited (but probably Hamilton) case of ‘The Black Cat Crimes’ in the next issue as the sinisterly sultry Catwoman busted out of jail and ruthlessly, spectacularly exploited superstitions to plunder the city, whilst with Ray Burnley on inking in #123 ‘The Dawn Patrol Crimes’ saw a trio of aged pioneer pilots fall prey to the insidious schemes of a criminal mastermind in their fevered desperation to fly again. Happily the sinister Shiner had not reckoned on the Batman’s keen detective ability or the indomitable true grit of the patsy pilotsâ€¦

The Joker returned in #124 as ‘The Crime Parade’ (Hamilton, Kane, Lew Sayre Schwartz & George Roussos) found the Mountebank of Mirth turn a radio chart show into his own private wishing well of inspired brazen banditry, after which ‘The Citadel of Crime’ (scripted by Bill Finger in #125) saw the Caped Crimebuster infiltrate a fortress where reformed crooks were imprisoned by a deranged maniac dubbed the Thinker and forced to build deadly weapons for a criminal army. Although credited here to Dick Sprang, this is actually one of the last art strips by the superb Jack Burnley, ably inked by his brother Ray and Charles Paris.

Detective Comics #126’s ‘Case of the Silent Songbirds’, by Hamilton(?) & Jim Mooney, again found The Penguin purveying his particular brand of peril and perfidy by stealing the voices of nightclub singers as part of the world’s most incredible protection racket until Batman stepped in, whilst #127’s ‘Pigmies in Giantland’ – featuring a rare pencil and ink outing for Charles Paris – saw the outrageous Dr. Agar shrink his wealthy victims to the size of dolls until the Dynamic Duo unravelled the impossible truthâ€¦

Only The Joker could conceive of ‘Crime in Reverse’ (Hamilton, Kane & Ray Burnley) as he proceeded to once again attempt to bamboozle Batman and Boy Wonder, whilst in

Detective #129 Finger, Jack Burnley & Paris took our heroes to ‘The Isle of Yesterday’ where a rich eccentric had turned back time to the carefree 1890s for all the bemused but unstressed inhabitants. Such a pity then that a mob of modern crooks were using the idyllic spot as a hideoutâ€¦ but not for longâ€¦

In #130 Finger, Kane & Paris described the horrific fate of a string of greedy crooks who tried to open ‘The Box’ but it took Batman’s razor-keen intellect to finally solve the decades-long mystery behind the trail of bodies left in its wake, after which Don Cameron, Kane, Sayre Swartz & Paris examined the tragic lives of two brothers doomed by dire destiny: one a callous racketeer and the other a good man forced by family ties to become ‘The Underworld Surgeon’â€¦

In #132 esteemed escapologist Paul Bodin retired to raise his daughter, but within months ‘The Human Key’ began robbing vaults using all the master’s tricks. Only Batman could see through the open-and-shut case to discern the truth in a powerful human interest tale illustrated by Mooney & Paris, whilst ‘The Man Who Could See the Future’ (Hamilton, Kane, Sayre Schwartz & Paris) offered a moody counterpoint as the Gotham Gangbusters exposed an unscrupulous charlatan clairvoyant whose uncanny predictions always led to shocking disasters and missing valuables.

The Penguin opened ‘The Umbrellas of Crime’ in Detective #134 (Finger, Mooney & Paris) but his innovative inventions couldn’t stop Batman closing down his latest crime spree, and this blockbusting barrage of vintage Bat-tales comes to a blistering climax with #135’s ‘The True Story of Frankenstein’ (Hamilton, Sayre Swartz & Paris) as the Caped Crusaders were drawn back in time by Professor Carter Nichols to save a rural village from an incredible monster and the brute he manipulated into acts of evilâ€¦

With stunning covers by Jack Burnley, Paris, Mortimer, Kane & Sayre Schwartz, Mooney and Dick Sprang, and full creator biographies included, this supremely thrilling, bombastic action-packed compilation provides another perfect snapshot of the Batman’s amazing range from bleak moody avenger to suave swashbuckler, from remorseless Agent of Justice and best pal to sophisticated Devil-May-Care Detective, in timeless tales which have never lost their edge or their power to enthral and enrapture. Moreover, these sublimely sturdy Archive Editions are without doubt the most luxuriously satisfying way to enjoy them over and over again.
Â© 1947-1948, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

November 18, 2012November 17, 2012

Superman Archives volume 6

By Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Don Cameron, Jack Burnley, Fred Ray, Ed Dobrotka, John Sikela, Leo Nowak, George Roussos, Pete Riss, Sam Citron & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-602-8

I sometimes think – like many others I know – that superhero comics were never more apt or effective than when they were whole-heartedly combating fascism with explosive, improbable excitement and mysterious masked marvel men. All the most evocative visceral moments of the genre seem to come when gaudy gladiators soundly thrashed – and please forgive the offensive contemporary colloquialism – â€œNips and Nazisâ€.Â However, even in those long-ago dark days, comics creators were wise enough to augment their tales of espionage and imminent invasion with a barrage of gentler and more whimsical four-colour fareâ€¦

This sixth classic hardcover Superman compendium – collecting #21-24 (March/April to September/October 1943) of the World’s Premier Superhero own solo title – revisits the height of those war years with the indomitable Man of Tomorrow a thrilling, vibrant, vital role model whose sensational exploits spawned a host of imitators, a genre and an industry. His startling abilities and take-charge, can-do attitude had won the hearts of the public at home and he was embraced as a patriotic tonic for the troops across the war-torn world.

Behind stunning, morale-boosting covers by Fred Ray and Jack Burnley depicting Superman thrashing scurrilous Axis War-mongers, reminding readers what we were all fighting for and even having a gentle, stress-relieving laugh with us, scripter Jerry Siegel was producing some of the best stories of his career, showing the Man of Steel in all his ebullient glory, thrashing thugs, spies and masters of bad science whilst America kicked the fascists in the pantsâ€¦

However at this time of this collection the call of armed duty caught up with the writer and Don Cameron was hired to fill the authorial void. Co-creator Joe Shuster however, exempt from military service due to his rapidly failing eyesight, was still fully involved in the creative process, despite being plagued by crushing deadlines on the syndicated newspaper strip iteration. In the comicbooks he could only manage the occasional story and was forced to merely oversee the illustration production line: drawing character faces whenever possible, but leaving the lion’s share to the burgeoning talent pool of the â€œSuperman Studioâ€â€¦

Following the fulsome Foreword ‘A Short Flight and a Long Journey’ by distribution and retail guru Stephen A. Geppi, the all-star, full-colour action begins with the splendid, all-Siegel contents of Superman #21 starting with ‘X-Alloy’, drawn by Ed Dobrotka & John Sikela, wherein a virtual secret army of Nazi infiltrators and fifth columnists stole American industrial secrets and would have conquered the nation from within if not for the ever vigilant Man of Steel.

It was Clark Kent rather than his flamboyant alter ego who really cracked the Leo Nowak-limned case of ‘The Four Gangleaders’ who had declared war on each other, whilst in ‘The Robber Knight’ (illustrated by Shuster & George Roussos) Lois Lane was accused of shoplifting after an armour-suited Robin Hood began giving pretty women â€œpresentsâ€ from the department store he plundered. Once again it took a real steel hero to sort things out before ‘The Ghost of Superman!’ (with Pete Riss art) saw the Action Ace play dead to trick a confession out of a cheap killer defying justiceâ€¦

Light-hearted yet barbed whimsy led in the Siegel-scripted issue #22 as ‘Meet the Squiffles!’ (Riss) found Adolf Hitler approached by the king of a nefarious band of pixies who offered to sabotage all of America’s mighty weapons. Neither nefarious rogue had factored Superman – or patriotic US gremlins – into their schemes thoughâ€¦

A philanthropic, well-beloved gambler was framed by unscrupulous stockbrokers, but with the Man of Tomorrow’s assistance eventually regained ‘The Luck of O’Grady!’ (Sikela), after which ‘The Great ABC Panic!’ (Dobrotka) featured the return of the perfidious Prankster who almost succeeded in patenting the English language until his greatest enemy intervened, and Riss’ ‘A Modern Robin Hood’ saw the inevitable tragic end to a well-intentioned, altruistic thief who could handle Superman but not actual mobsters and gunselsâ€¦

Superman #23 opened with a Don Cameron script illustrated by Sam Citron. ‘America’s Secret Weapon!’ was a rousing paean to American military might as Clark and Lois reported on cadet manoeuvres and the Man of Steel became an inspiration to the demoralised troops in training. Siegel then wrote the rest of the issue beginning with ‘Habitual Homicide’ (Roussos art): a crime-caper worthy of Batman which began when a co-ed rebuffed her tutor’s amorous advances, prompting the unstable scholar to frame her boyfriend for murder. Unfortunately for Superman and the staff of Spurdyke University, once Professor Raymond Lock started killing he found that he really liked itâ€¦

Then ‘Fashions in Crime!’ (Riss) found Lois and Clark plunged into the world of Haute Couture and designer knock-offs, accidentally uncovering a lethally lucrative business run by a masked swell dubbed The Dude, whilst the Sikela-illustrated ‘Danger on the Diamond!’ once more combined sports action with gambling skulduggery as Superman saved the career of an on-the-skids Baseball player and cleaned up the gameâ€¦ again.

Cameron wrote all but one tale in issue #24, starting with a surreal Dobrotka fantasy which eschewed rational continuity to relocate the entire Superman cast back to the 1890s, where our hero saved his chaste intended from ‘Perils of Poor Lois!’

Siegel & Riss then revealed ‘The King of Crackpot Lane’ – a Marx Brothers-inspired romp which introduced whacky mute inventor Louie Dolan of the Army’s Department of Constructive Theories whose impossible gadgets made a lot of trouble for both the Man of Tomorrow and America’s enemiesâ€¦

Cameron, Dobrotka & Roussos close this collection with a couple of stirring adventure yarns; first with ‘Surprise for Superman!’ which saw the Metropolis Marvel plagued by an inventive impostor who even fooled Lois, after which ‘Suicide Voyage!’Â ends everything on an exuberant high as Clark – and stowaway Lois – visit the Arctic as part of a mission to rescue downed American aviators. Of course nobody was expecting a secret invasion by combined Nazi and Japanese forces, but Superman and a patriotic polar bear were grateful for the resultant bracing exerciseâ€¦

Ageless and evergreen, endlessly re-readable, these epic hardback Archive Editions fabulously frame some of the greatest and most influential comics tales ever created, and taken in unison form a perfect permanent record of breathtaking wonder and groundbreaking excitement. How can any dedicated fan resist them?
Â© 1943, 2003 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

November 17, 2012

Showcase Presents the Flash volume 4

By John Broome, Gardner Fox, Frank Robbins, Carmine Infantino, Ross Andru & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2297-0

Barry Allen was the second speedster to carry the name of Flash, and his debut was the Big Bang which finally triggered the Silver Age of comics after a series of abortive original attempts such as Captain Flash, The Avenger, Strongman (in 1954-1955) and remnant revivals (Stuntman in 1954 and Marvel’s â€œBig Threeâ€, Human Torch, Sub-Mariner & Captain America from 1953 to 1955).

Although none of those – or other less high-profile efforts – had restored the failed fortunes of masked mystery-men, they had presumably piqued readers’ consciousness, even at conservative National/DC. Thus the revived human rocket wasn’t quite the innovation he seemed: alien crusader Martian Manhunter had already cracked open the company floodgates with his low-key launch in Detective Comics #225, November 1955.

However in terms of creative quality, originality and sheer story style The Flash was an irresistible spark and after his landmark first appearance in Showcase #4 (October 1956) the series – eventually – became a benchmark by which every successive launch or reboot across the industry was measured.

Police Scientist – we’d call him a CSI today – Barry Allen was transformed by an accidental lightning strike and chemical bath into a human thunderbolt of unparalleled velocity and ingenuity. Yet with characteristic indolence the new Fastest Man Alive took three more try-out issues and almost as many years to win his own title. However when he finally stood on his own wing-tipped feet in The Flash #105 (February-March 1959), he never looked backâ€¦

The comics business back then was a faddy, slavishly trend-beset affair, however, and following a manic boom for superhero tales prompted by the Batman TV show the fickle global consciousness moved on to a fixation with of supernatural themes and merely mortal tales, triggering a huge revival of spooky films, shows, books and periodicals. With horror on the rise again, many superhero titles faced cancellation and even the most revered and popular were threatened. It was time to adapt or dieâ€¦

At the time this fourth collection of his own hard-won title begins, the Vizier of Velocity was still an undisputed icon of the apparently unstoppable Superhero meme and mighty pillar of the costumed establishment, but dark days and changing fashions were about to threaten his long run at the topâ€¦

Reprinting the transitional issues #162-184 (from June 1966 to December 1968), this compilation shows how Flash had set into a comfortable pattern of two short tales per issue leavened with semi-regular book-length thrillers; always written by regular scripters John Broome or Gardner F. Fox and illustrated by Carmine Infantino (and Joe Giella) but that safe format was about to radically change.

Flash #162 featured the Fox-penned sci-fi chiller ‘Who Haunts the Corridor of Chills?’ in which an apparently haunted fairground attraction opened the doors into an invasion-mystery millions of years old and stretched the Scarlet Speedster’s powers and imagination to the limit, whilst the next issue offered two tales by globe-trotting author Broome.

‘The Flash Stakes his Life – On – You!’ took an old philosophical adage to its illogical but highly entertaining extreme when criminal scientist Ben Haddon used his gadgets to make the residents of Central City forget their champion ever existed. That then had the incredible effect of making the Flash fade away and, were it not for the utter devotion of one hero-worshipping little girlâ€¦

By contrast ‘The Day Magic Exposed Flash’s Secret Identity!’ is a sharp duel with a dastardly villain as approbation-hungry evil illusionist Abra Kadabra escaped prison and traded bodies with the 64^th century cop sent to bring back to face future justice, leaving the Speedster with an impossible choice to make.

Issue #164 held another pair of fast fables. ‘Flash – Vandal of Central City!’ by Broome, found the hero losing control of his speed and destroying property every time he ran. Little did he know old enemy Pied Piper was back in townâ€¦ Kid Flash then solo-starred in the Fox tale ‘The Boy Who Lost Touch with the World!’ as Wally West’s nerdy new friend suddenly became periodically, uncontrollably intangibleâ€¦

With Flash #165 and ‘One Bridegroom too Many!’ Broome, Infantino & Giella took a huge step in the character’s development as Barry finally married his long-time fiancÃ©e Iris West. This shocking saga saw the hero’s sinister antithesis Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash attempt to replace him at the altar in a fast-paced, utterly beguiling yarn which also posed a Gordian puzzle for Barry.

Should the nervous newlywed reveal his secret identity to Iris – who had no idea she was marrying a superhero – or say nothing, maintaining the biggest lie between them and pray she never, ever found out? Every married man already knows the answer* but for us secretive little kids reading this the first time around, that question was an impossible, imponderable quandary…

Building soap opera tension by fudging the issue, #166 carried on as usual with Broome’s delicious comedy ‘The Last Stand of the Three-Time Losers!’ which saw a cheesy bunch of no-hoper thieves accidentally discover an improbable, exploitable weakness in Flash’s powers and psyche, after which the Monarch of Motion became a ‘Tempting Target of the Temperature Twins!’ when Flash sprained his ankle just as Heat Wave and Captain Cold chose to renew their almost-friendly rivalry in Central Cityâ€¦

With #167 Sid Greene became the series’ inker and kicked off his run with a light-hearted but accidentally controversial Fox/Infantino tale that utterly incensed the devoted readership. ‘The Real Origin of The Flash!’ introduced Heavenly Helpmate – and Woody Allen look-alike – Mopee who had long ago been ordered to create the accident which transformed a deserving human into the Fastest Man Alive.

Tragically, Mopee had cocked-up and was now back on Earth to rectify his mistake and it took all of Flash’s skill, ingenuity – and patience – to regain his powers. The story is a delightfully offbeat hoot but continuity-conscious fans have dubbed it apocryphal and heretical ever sinceâ€¦

Less contentious was Fox’s back-up yarn ‘The Hypnotic Super-Speedster!’ which allowed Kid Flash an opportunity to bust up a gang of thieves, prank a theatrical mesmerist and give a chubby school chum the athletic thrill of a lifetime.

Broome then produced for #168 a puzzling full-length thriller in which the Guardians of the Universe sought out the Flash and declared ‘One of our Green Lanterns is Missing!’Â Even as the Scarlet Speedster hunted for his missing best buddy, he was being constantly distracted by a gang of third-rate petty thugs who had somehow acquired incredible futuristic super weaponsâ€¦

Flash #169 was an all-reprint 80-Page Giant represented here by its stunning cover and an illuminating ‘How I Draw the Flash’ feature by Carmine Infantino, followed by a full-length Fox thriller in #170. ‘The See-Nothing Spells of Abra Kadabra!’ found the Vizier of Velocity hexed by the cunning conjuror and unable to detect the villain’s actions or presence. Sadly for the sinister spellbinder, Flash had help from his visiting Earth-2 predecessor Jay Garrick and JSA pals Doctors Fate and Mid-Niteâ€¦

‘Here Lies The Flash – Dead and Unburied’ (Fox, Infantino & Greene) pitted the restored speedster against Justice League foe Doctor Light, who was attempting to pick off his assembled enemies one at a time whilst #172 offered a brace of Broome blockbusters beginning with ‘Grodd Puts the Squeeze on Flash!’ which saw the super-simian blackmail his nippy nemesis into (briefly) busting him out of a Gorilla City cell, whilst ‘The Machine-Made Robbery!’ featured the return of that most absent-minded Professor Ira West. Luckily son-in-law Barry was around to foil a perfidious plot by cunning criminals. The genius’ new super-computer was public knowledge, and by clever crooks wanted to hire the device, secretly intent on designing a perfect crime.

Issue #173 featured a titanic team-up as Barry, Wally West and Jay Garrick were separately shanghaied to another galaxy as putative prey of alien hunter Golden Man in ‘Doomward Flight of the Flashes!’ However Broome’s stunning script slowly revealed layers of intrigue and the Andromedan super-safari concealed a far more arcane purpose for the three speedy pawns, before the wayward wanderers finally fought free and found their way home again.

In 1967 Infantino was made Art Director and Publisher of National DC and, although he still designed the covers, Flash #174 was his final full-pencilling job. He departed in stunning style with Broome’s ‘Stupendous Triumph of the Six Super-Villains!’ in which Mirror Master Sam Scudder discovered a fantastic looking-glass world where the Scarlet Speedster was a hardened criminal constantly defeated by a disgusting do-gooder reflecting champion.

Stealing the heroic Mirror Master’s secret super-weapon Scudder called in fellow Rogues Pied Piper, Heat Wave, Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang and The Top to enjoy their foe’s final downfall but they were not ready for the last-minute interference of the other, evil, Barry Allenâ€¦

When Infantino left, most fans were convinced the Flash was ruined. His replacements were highly controversial and suffered most unfairly in unjust comparisons – and I count myself among their biggest detractors at the time – but in the intervening years I’ve leaned to appreciate the superb quality of their work.

However, back in a comics era with no invasive, pervasive support media, Flash #175 (December 1967) was huge shock for the fans. With absolutely no warning, ‘The Race to the End of the Universe!’ proclaimed E. Nelson Bridwell as author and introduced Wonder Woman art-team Ross Andru & Mike Esposito as illustrators.

Moreover the story was another big departure. DC Editors in the 1960s had generally avoided such questions as which hero is the strongest/fastest/best for fear of upsetting some portion of their tenuous and perhaps temporary fan-base, but as the superhero boom slowed and the upstart Marvel Comics began to make genuine inroads into their market, the notion of a definitive race between the almighty Man of Steel and the â€œFastest Man Aliveâ€ had become an inevitable, increasingly enticing and sales-worthy proposition.

After a deliberately inconclusive first race around the world – for charity – (‘Superman’s Race with the Flash’, Superman #199, August 1967, reprinted in the themed volume Superman Vs Flash) the stakes were catastrophically raised in the inevitable rematch from Flash #175.

The tale itself found the old friendly rivals compelled to speed across the cosmos when ruthless alien gamblers Rokk and Sorban threatened to eradicate Central City and Metropolis unless the pair categorically settled who was fastest. Bridwell added an ingenious sting in the tale and logically highlighted two classic Flash Rogues, whilst Andru & Esposito delivered a sterling illustration job in this yarn – but once more the actual winning was deliberately fudged.

Broome produced a few more stories before moving on and #176 offered two of his best. ‘Death Stalks the Flash!’ tapped into the upsurge in spooky shenanigans when Iris contracted a deadly fever and her hyper-fast hubby ran right into her dreams to destroy the nightmarish Grim Reaper after which ‘Professor West – Lost Strayed or Stolen?’ delightfully inverts all the old absent-minded gags. Barry’s Father-in-Law successfully underwent a memory-enhancing process but still managed to get inadvertently involved with murderous felonsâ€¦

Fox then produced one of the daftest yet most memorable of Flash thrillers in #177 as The Trickster invented a brain-enlarging ray and turned his arch-foe into ‘The Swell-Headed Super-Hero!’ after which #178’s cover follows – being merely another all-reprint 80-Page Giantâ€¦

Written by newcomer Cary Bates and Gardner Fox, Flash #179 (May 1968) was another landmark. The prologue ‘Test your Flash I.Q.’ and main event ‘The Flash – Fact of Fiction?’ took the multiple Earths concept to its logical conclusion by trapping the Monarch of Motion in â€œourâ€ Reality, where the Sultan of Speed was just a comic-book character! Offering a simultaneous alien monster mystery this rollercoaster riot was a superb introduction for Bates who eventually became the regular writer of the series and the longest serving creator of the legend of Barry Allen.

First though, jobbing cartoonist Frank Robbins added Flash to his credits by scripting an almost painfully tongue-in-cheek oriental spoof accessing everything from Kurosawa to You Only Live Twice to his own Johnny Hazard strip (see Johnny Hazard: Mammoth Marches On).

In #180 Barry and Iris visited friends in Japan and became embroiled in a deadly scheme by fugitive war criminal Baron Katana to turn the clock back and restore feudal control over Nippon using ‘The Flying Samurai’ – a sinister plot unravelled after only the most strenuous efforts of the newlyweds in an all-action conclusion ‘The Attack of the Samuroids!’

Broome’s last hurrahs came in #182 with the clever return of Abra Kadabra whose futuristic legerdemain and envy of real stage magicians compelled him to turn the speedster into ‘The Thief Who Stole all the Money in Central City!’ whilst ‘The Flash’s Super-Speed Phobia!’ saw an unlikely accident inflict a devastating if temporary psychological disability on the fleet thief-taker.

The tone of the stories was changing. Aliens and super science took a back-seat to less fantastic human-scaled dramas, and Robbins scripted the last two tales in this tome beginning with a devilishly deceptive case of bluff and double-bluff as Barry Allen became ‘The Flash’s Dead Ringer!’ in a convoluted attempt to convince crime-boss the Frog that the police scientist wasn’t also the Fastest Man Alive, before proving that he too was adept at high concept fabulism in #184 when a freak time-travel accident trapped Flash millennia in the future after accidentally becoming the apparent ‘Executioner of Central City!’

These tales first appeared at a time when superhero comics almost disappeared for the second time in a generation, and perfectly show the Scarlet Speedster’s ability to adapt to changing fashions in ways many of his four-colour contemporaries simply could not. Crucial as they are to the development of modern comics, however, it is the fact that they are brilliant, awe-inspiring, beautifully realised thrillers which can still amuse, amaze and enthral both new readers and old lags. This lovely compendium is another must-read item for anybody in love with the world of graphic narrative.
Â© 1966, 1967, 1968, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.
* In case you’re not married, or not a man, the answer is: Fake your own death and move to Bolivia. And if you find a woman there, always tell her everything before she asks or finds out.

October 28, 2012October 28, 2012

Tiny Titans: The First Rule of Pet Clubâ€¦

By Art Baltazar & Franco with Geoff Johns (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2892-7

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: just buy it â€“ it’s so funny you’ll burst â€¦ 10/10

The links between animated features and comicbooks are long established and I suspect, for young consumers, indistinguishable. After all, it’s just entertainment in the endâ€¦

DC’s Cartoon Network imprint was arguably the last bastion of children’s comics in Americaand consolidated that link between TV and 2D fun and thrills with stunning interpretations of such television landmarks as Ben 10, Scooby Doo, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory and others.

The kids’ comics line also produced some truly exceptional material based on TV iterations of their proprietary characters such as Legion of Super Heroes, Batman: Brave and the Bold and Krypto the Super Dog as well as material like Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! which was merely similar in tone and content.

Perhaps the imprint’s finest release was a series ostensibly aimed at beginning readers but which quickly became a firm favourite of older fans and a multi-award winner too.

Superbly mirroring the magical wonderland inside a child’s head where everything is happily mixed up together, Tiny Titans became a sublime antidote to continuity cops and slavish fan-boy quibbling (erm, uhâ€¦ I think you’ll find that inâ€¦) by reducing the vast cast of the Teen Titans Go! animated series, the greater boutique of the mainstream comicbooks and eventually the entire DC Universe to little kids and their parents/guardians in the wholesome kindergarten environment ofSidekickCityElementary School.

It’s a scenario spring-loaded with in-jokes, sight-gags and beloved yet gently mocked paraphernalia of generations of strip readers and screen-watchersâ€¦.

Collecting issues #19-25 (spanning October 2009 – April 2010) of the magically madcap and infinitely addictive all-ages mini-masterpiece, this fourth volume begins on a romantic note with Deep in Like.

Art Baltazar and co-creator Franco (Aureliani) have mastered a witty, bemusingly gentle manner of storytelling that just happily rolls along, with the assorted characters getting by and trying to make sense of the great big world having â€œAdventures in Awesomenessâ€. The method generally involves stringing together smaller incidents and moments into an overall themed portmanteau tale and it works astoundingly well.

After a handy and as-standard identifying roll-call page ‘Imagine Me and Youâ€¦’ finds scary blob Plasmus and tiny winged Bumblebee brighten up each other’s drab day before a similar cupid moment affects the Brain and M’sieu Mallah whilst the diligent Robin finds his attempts to finish his homework disturbed by a succession of pesky lasses including Starfire, Batgirl and Duella all caught up in a ‘Like Triangle’.

‘Dates’ sees Bumblebee and Plasmus inadvertently cause chaos during an afternoon movie monster mash and even the ‘Intermission’ after which a sly sight gag for the oldies derides the company’s many Wonder Girls in ‘Jump Rope’.

The hallowed anthropoid obsession of DC is highlighted in ‘New Recruits’ when Beast Boy chairs a meeting of the Titans Ape Club after which The Kroc Files finds ultimate butler Alfred, roguish reptile Kroc and Plasmus each demonstrating ‘How to Enjoy a Lollipop’.

The issue ends with a word puzzle and the next promises to disclose The Hole Truth about Raven, beginning with a daybreak disaster at ‘Home with the Trigons’. Raven’s dad is an antlered crimson devil – and a teacher at the School – so when he oversleeps his sorceress scion gets him to work on time by opening a few wormholes. Of course leaving those dimensional doors around is just asking for troubleâ€¦

Meanwhile it’s washday at Wayne Manor but Alfred won’t let Robin, Beast Boy or Aqualad go down ‘To the Batcave’. However even the dapper domestic can’t withstand united pester-power and eventually he gives in and learns to regret itâ€¦

Following a perplexing maze game, the All Pet Club Issue! launches when Starfire and mean sister Blackfire write home for their beloved critters Silky and Poopu so that they can go to the secret social event, whilst can-do kid cyborg actually builds himself a brace of chrome companions in ‘Pet-Tronics’â€¦

With ‘Club Hoppin” the entire school gathers with their uniquely compatible pets and even interview some new guys – specifically the tongue-tied and thunderstruck Captain Marvel Junior and his fuzzy pal Hoppy, the Marvel Bunny. With so many members the club then has to find roomier quarters leading to a painful tryst of Beast Boy and Terra in ‘Meanwhile, on the Moonâ€¦’

There’s a brilliant vacuum-packed bonus pin-up of the Tiny Titans in space from Franco before Hot Dogs, Titans, & Stretchy Guys! finds the kids back on solid ground and wrapped up with the DCU’s many flexible fellows as ‘Offspring into Action’ introduces Plastic Man’s excitably bonny boy.

In ‘Just Playing and Bouncing’ when Bumblebee spends some time with the diminutive Atoms Family she loses control of their Teeny-Weeny, Super Duper Bouncy Ball and accidentally gets Plastic Man, Offspring, Elongated Man and Elastic Lad all wound up before helplessly watching it bowl over Principal Slade and Coach Lobo in ‘Coffee Dog Latte’.

Thankfully Robin has the right gimmick in his utility belt to set things straight but can’t stay since he’s en route to his Bird Scouts meeting where potential new members Hot Spot and Flamebird are trying out for Hawk, Dove, Raven and Talon. Sadly when shiny Golden Eagle turns up the girls want to make him the new leaderâ€¦

A semi-regular ‘Epilogue’ page often supplies one more punch-line to cap each themed issue and this one leads directly into a convoluted and confounding Elastic Four pin-up which in turn precedes a spookily uproarious tale of Bats, Bunnies, and Penguins in the Batcave! Oh My!...

It all begins in ‘Ice to Meet Ya!’ when Wayne Manor’s large penguin population get into a turf war with the house rabbits and the Batcave’s regular inhabitants are displaced in ‘Driving Me Batty’. The conflict escalates in ‘All in the Batman Family’ and Robin gets a rather stern admonition from his senior partner to put things right or elseâ€¦

Happily the ever-so-cute and capable Batgirl is willing to lend a hand – but unfortunately so too are the kids she’s baby-sitting (Tim and Jason – and you’ll either get that or you won’t) and the impishly infuriating Batmiteâ€¦

With even Batcow helping, things son start calming down but ‘Meanwhile, at the Titans’ Treehouseâ€¦’ not all of the fugitive Bat bats have heard the good newsâ€¦

Once your ribs have stopped hurting you can then enjoy a Tiny Titans Aw Yeah Pin-up by Franco before The All Small Issue! starts with assorted big kids accidentally drinking ‘Milk! Milk!’ from the Atoms’ fridge and shrinking away to nearly nothing. Good thing the Atomic nippers think to call their dad, who’s with fellow dwindlers Ant, Molecule and substitute Atoms Adam and Ryan (another in-continuity howler, fans) for a Team Nucleus meetingâ€¦

That compressive cow-juice causes more trouble in the ‘Epilogue’ before a Blue Beetle puzzle clears the mind prior to an outrageous ending in Superboy Returns! in a fairly cosmic crossover – with additional scripting from Geoff Johns.

When Conner Kent shows up all the girls are really impressed and distracted, whilst across town Speedy is trading a lot of junk he shouldn’t be touching to Mr. Johns’ Sidekick City Pawn Shop and Bubblegum Emporium in ‘Brightest Day in the Afternoon!’ When Starfire and Stargirl then buy the seven different coloured â€œmood ringsâ€ from the shop they and BFFs Duella, Batgirl, Wonder Girl, Terra and Shelly, are turned into Green, Red, Yellow, Orange, Blue, Violet and Indigo Lanterns!

Soon the Tiny Titans are up in the air again and ticking off the Guardians of the Universe and their Green Lantern Corps.

It all ends well though, first in an Emerald ‘Epilogue’ and then a lavish pin-up of a passel of the Pistachio peace-keepersâ€¦

Despite being ostensibly aimed at super-juniors and TV kids, these wonderful, wacky yarns – which marvellously marry the heart and spirit of such classic strips as Peanuts and The Perishers with something uniquely mired and marinated in pure comic-bookery â€“ are unforgettable tales no self-respecting fun-fan should miss: accessible, entertaining, and wickedly intoxicating. What more do you need to know?

October 22, 2012October 20, 2012

Batman: the Brave and the Bold volume 1

By Matt Wayne, J. Torres, Andy Suriano, Phil Moy, Carlo Barberi, Dan Davis & Terry Beatty (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2878-1

The Brave and the Bold began in 1955 as an anthology adventure comic featuring short complete tales about a variety of period heroes: a format which mirrored that era’s filmic fascination with historical dramas. Devised and written by Bob Kanigher, issue #1 led with Roman epic Golden Gladiator, medieval mystery-man The Silent Knight and Joe Kubert’s now legendary Viking Prince. Soon the Gladiator was increasingly alternated with Robin Hood, but the adventure theme carried the title until the end of the decade when the burgeoning costumed character revival saw B&B transform into a try-out vehicle like Showcase.

Used to premiere concepts and characters such as Task Force X: the Suicide Squad, Cave Carson, Hawkman and Strange Sports Stories and the epochal Justice League of America, the comic soldiered on until issue #50 when it provided another innovative new direction which once again truly caught the public’s imagination.

That issue paired two superheroes – Green Arrow & Martian Manhunter – in a one-off team-up, as did succeeding ones: Aquaman and Hawkman in #51, WWII Battle Stars Sgt Rock, Captain Cloud, Mme. Marie & the Haunted Tank in #52 and Atom & Flash in #53. The next team-up, Robin, Aqualad & Kid Flash, evolved into the Teen Titans and after Metal Men/the Atom and Flash/Martian Manhunter appeared a new hero; Metamorpho, the Element Man debuted in #57-58.

From then it was back to the extremely popular superhero pairings with #59, and although no one realised it at the time, this particular conjunction, Batman with Green Lantern, would be particularly significantâ€¦.

After a return engagement for the Teen Titans, two issues spotlighting Earth-2 champions Starman & Black Canary and Wonder Woman with Supergirl, an indication of things to come came when Batman duelled hero/villain Eclipso in #64: an acknowledgement of the brewing TV-induced mania mere months away.

Within two issues, following Flash/Doom Patrol and Metamorpho/Metal Men, Brave and the Bold #67 saw the Caped Crusader take de facto control of the title and the lion’s share of the team-ups. With the exception of #72-73 (Spectre/the Flash and Aquaman/Atom) the comic was henceforth a place where Batman invited the rest of company’s heroic pantheon to come and playâ€¦

Decades later the Batman Animated TV series masterminded by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini in the 1990s revolutionised the Dark Knight and subsequently led to some of the absolute best comicbook adventures in his seventy-year publishing history with the creation of the spin-off print title.

With constant funnybook iterations and tie-ins to a succession of TV cartoon series, Batman has remained popular and a sublime introducer of kids to the magical world of the printed page.

The most recent incarnation was Batman: the Brave and the Bold, which gloriously teamed up the all-ages small-screen Dark Knight with a torrent and profusion of DC’s other heroic creations, and once again the show was supplemented by a cool kid’s comicbook full of fun, verve and swashbuckling dash, cunningly crafted to appeal as much to the parents and grandparents as those fresh-faced neophyte kids…

This stellar premier collection re-presents the first 6 issues in a hip and trendy, immensely entertaining package suitable for newcomers, fans and aficionados of all ages and, although not necessary to the reader’s enjoyment, a passing familiarity with the TV episodes will enhance the overall experience (and they’re pretty good too)â€¦

Following the format of the TV show, each tale opens with a brief vignette adventure before telling a longer tale. Issue #1 has the Caped Crimebuster and Aquaman putting paid to robotic rogue Carapax. This fed into main feature ‘The Panic of the Composite Creature’ (by Matt Wayne, Andy Suriano & Dan Davis) wherein Batman and the pulchritudinous Power Girl saved London from Lex Luthor‘s latest monster-making mechanism.

Phil Moy then illustrates Superman and the Gotham Guardian mopping up the terrible Toyman before ‘The Attack of the Virtual Villains’ finds the Bat and Blue Beetle in El Paso battling evil Artificial Intellect The Thinker in a compelling computer-game worldâ€¦

After an introductory battle between Wonder Woman, Dark Knight and telepathic tyrant Dr. Psycho‘s zombie villains, ‘President Batman!’ (Wayne, Suriano & Davis) sees the Great Detective substitute for the Commander-in-Chief with Green Arrow as bodyguard when body-swapping mastermind Ultra-Humanite attempts to seize control of the nation. Then, in the full-length ‘Menace of the Time Thief!’ Aquaman and his bat-eared chum prevent well-intentioned Dr. Cyber from catastrophically rewriting history, following a magical and too brief prologue wherein sorcerer Felix Faust is foiled by a baby Batman and the glorious pushy terrible toddlers Sugar and Spikeâ€¦

J. Torres, Carlo Barberi & Terry Beatty stepped in for both the chilling vignette wherein the nefarious Key was caught by Batman and a Haunted Tank whilst ‘The Case of the Fractured Fairy Tale’ began when the awesome Queen of Fables started stealing children for her Enchanted Forest and the Caped Crusader needed the help of both Billy Batson and his adult alter ego Captain Marvelâ€¦

This first compilation concludes with a preliminary clash between Hourman and Batman against the crafty Calculator, after which ‘Charge of the Army Eternal!’ (Torres, Suriano & Davis) finds the villainous General Immortus at the mercy of his own army of time-lost warriors and bandits and desperately seeking the help of the Gotham Gangbuster and ghostly Guardian Kid Eternity.

Although greatly outnumbered, the Kid’s ability to summon past heroes such as The Vigilante, Shining Knight, Viking Prince and G.I. Robot proves invaluable, especially once the General inevitably betrays his rescuersâ€¦

This fabulously fun rollercoaster ride also includes informative ‘Secret Bat Files’ on Luthor, Power Girl, Thinker, Blue Beetle, Ultra-Humanite, Green Arrow, Dr. Cyber, Aquaman, Queen of Fables, Captain Marvel, General Immortus and Kid Eternity, and the package is topped off with a spiffy cover gallery courtesy of James Tucker, Scott Jeralds & Hi-Fi.

DC’s Cartoon Network imprint is arguably the last bastion of all-ages children’s comics in Americaand has produced some truly magical homespun material (such as Tiny Titans or Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam!) as well as stunning interpretations of such television landmarks as Scooby Doo, Powerpuff Girls, Ben 10, Dexter’s Laboratory and others.

The links between kids’ animated features and comicbooks are long established and, I suspect, for young consumers, indistinguishable. After all, it’s just adventure entertainment in the endâ€¦

Despite being ostensibly aimed at TV viewing kids, these mini-sagas are also wonderful, traditional comics thrillers no self-respecting fun-fan should miss: accessible, entertaining, well-rendered yarns for the broadest range of excitement-seeking readers, making this terrific tome a perfect, old fashioned delight. What more do you need to know?
Â© 2009 DC Comics. Compilation Â© 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

October 19, 2012October 17, 2012

Superman Secret Origin

By Geoff Johns, Gary Frank & Jon Sibal (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3299-3

One of the perennial dangers of comicbook longevity is the incessant â€“ and, as you get older, apparently hyper-accelerated – revisionism afflicting origin stories. Characters with any measure of success are continually reinvented to appeal to new readers and generally appal or gradually disaffect veteran aficionados. Moreover, nowadays it seems to happen sooner and sooner into a rebooted hero’s run.

Batman and Superman in particular are cursed by this situation, as much because of their broad mass-media appeal as their perfectly simple bedrock concepts. In recent years DC has been sedulously and assiduously editing, in-filling and cross-fertilising its icons until whether through movies, animated cartoons, TV shows, video games or the comics themselves, followers of the World’s Finest heroes can be assured that the ephemera and backstory always remain consistent and reliably reconcilable.

The upside of this is that as long as we fanboys can stifle our chagrin and curb our umbrage, every so often we can enjoy a fresh but not condescending, vivacious but not fatuous re-imagining of our best-beloved childhood touchstonesâ€¦

In 2009-2010 Geoff Johns and Gary Frank remastered the Man of Tomorrow with their 6-issue miniseries Superman: Secret Origin which, whilst reinstating many formerly-erased elements of the classic Silver Age mythology, also incorporated much of John Byrne’s groundbreaking 1986 reboot (as collected in the Man of Steel tpb volumes) with Mark Waid, Lenil Francis Yu & Gerry Alanguilan’s 2003 (Smallville TV-show inspired) Superman: Birthright.

Moreover the tale also legitimised and fully absorbed the Christopher Reeve Superman movies into the canon, with Frank’s supremely authentic renditions making the actor’s appearance and demeanour as both Action Ace and klutzy Clark Kent the definitive comicbook look of the Caped Kryptonian.

This particularly well-known folk-tale-retold opens with an introduction by screenwriter, producer and occasional comics scribe David S. Goyer after which ‘The Boy of Steel’ hones in on Clark Kent’s formative years as the Kansas farmboy begins to realise just how truly different he is from his friends and classmates.

Traumatised when he accidentally breaks best pal Pete Ross‘ arm playing football, Clark’s only confidante is Lana Lang – who has long known about his incredible strength and durability – but even she can offer no solace. The strange boy’s abilities are growing every day and his father is increasingly advising him to distance himself from ordinary kids.

When Lana kisses Clark, his eyes blast forth heat rays and nearly set the school on fire, prompting Jonathan and Martha Kent to reveal the truth to their troubled son. Buried under the barn is a small spaceship, and when Clark touches it a recorded hologram message from his birth-parents Jor-El and Lara shockingly discloses the orphan’s incredible origins as Kal-El, the Last Son of the dead planet Kryptonâ€¦

As the stunned and traumatised youth flees into the night, in another part of Smallville an equally unique youngster discovers a glowing green meteor fragmentâ€¦

In the days that follow Clark, weighed down by a new sense of responsibility and isolation, begins the life-long masquerade that will forever deflect attention from the being he really is. Meanwhile Martha, using materials from the fallen star-ship, makes her son a suit based on the garments she saw in the alien’s message and bearing the proud family crest of the House of Elâ€¦

On the day of the County Fair Clark meets Lex Luthor and feels sick for the first time in his life when the arrogantly abrasive boy-genius shows him the green rock he had found in the fields. At that moment a tornado strikes the little town and Lana is swept to her doom in the skies until impossiblyClark chases after her and flies her to safetyâ€¦

Issue #2 features ‘Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes’ and reveals how Smallville is seemingly protected by an invisible guardian angel who mysteriously saves people and property. Clark is lonelier than ever and, with only Lana and his folks to talk to, tries to strike up a friendship with Lex, but the aggressively disdainful and disparaging prodigy can only dream of escaping the revoltingly provincial backwater and moving to the big city of Metropolisâ€¦

Everything changes when the boy from Krypton meets a trio of super-powered strangers from the future. Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy have travelled back to meet the youth who inspired a thousand years of heroism and show it by taking the Boy of Steel on a breathtaking vacation into the fabulous future.

â€¦And when he eventually returns home there’s one more glorious surprise when Superboy intercepts an extraterrestrial projectile and is reunited with his long-lost Kryptonian petâ€¦

Things are looking up for Luthor too: his despised but fully-insured father having just died, the brilliant boy and his little sister are now on their way to bigger and better thingsâ€¦

‘Mild-Mannered Reporter’ begins as, after years of travelling, bumbling Clark Kent begins work at the Metropolis Daily Planet; a once-great newspaper on the verge of bankruptcy in a once-great city. The venerable rag was slowly dying; suffering and expiring by degrees for the crucial mistake of trying to expose the billionaire plutocrat who owned most of the vast conurbation – the swaggering self-styled philanthropist Lex Luthor.

Even so, Editor Perry White, intern and aspiring photo-journalist Jimmy Olsen and particularly lead reporter Lois Lane were determined to go down fightingâ€¦

Every day Luthor appears on the balcony of his corporate HQ and deigns to grant the tawdry request of one of the fawning desperate rabble, but his gloating is spoiled when Lane and her new stooge Kent break through security and disrupt the demonstration of a new high-tech fighting-suit. In the melee Lois and a helicopter are knocked off the skyscraper roof and impossibly saved by a flying blue and red Adonisâ€¦

Fully revealed to the world, the mysterious Superman captures humanity’s imagination and soon exclusive reports and Olsen’s photos in the Planet turn the paper’s fortunes around. Luthor instinctively knows he has a rival for Metropolis’ attention and approbation and savagely dedicates all his vast resources to destroying his foeâ€¦

An early opportunity comes when destitute and grasping janitor Rudy Jones accepts Luthor’ daily benison and is accidentally mutated by exposure to Green Rock waste into a life-absorbing energy-leeching monster. ‘Parasites’ sees the Man of Tomorrow’s spectacular victory thrown in his face by Luthor who publicly brands the hero an alien spy and vanguard of invasionâ€¦

Tension escalates in ‘Strange Visitor’ as Lois’s estranged father General Sam Lane collaborates with Luthor to capture Superman, using the military man’s pet psycho Sgt. John Corben (a creepy stalker the elder Lane selected and groomed to marry Lois and â€œset her straightâ€) in an armoured war-suit powered by the mysterious Green Rock.

When the naÃ¯ve Kryptonian hero agrees to be interviewed by the army he is ambushed by crack attack units and Corben. Valiantly fighting his way free, the Caped Crimebuster critically injures the war-suit pilot in the process and, sensing a unique opportunity, Luthor then rebuilds the broken soldier, inserting Green Rock into his heart and creating a relentless, anti-Superman cyborg weapon: Metalloâ€¦

The drama concludes in ‘Man of Steel’ as the desperate hero, hunted by Lane’s troops through the city, faces the berserk Cyborg in the streets and wins over the fickle public with his overweening nobility, instilling in the venal masses who were once Luthor’s cowering creatures a new spirit of hope, optimism and individualityâ€¦

The Adventure Beginsâ€¦ Againâ€¦

Inspiring and suitably mythic, this epic retelling (containing also a baker’s dozen of covers, variants and an unused extra) combines modern insights with unchanging Lore: paying lip service to the Smallville TV show and venerating the movies, whilst still managing to hew closely to many of the fan-favourite idiosyncrasies that keep old duffers like me coming back for more.

This is another sterling reinvigoration and visually intoxicating reworking that shouldn’t offend the faithful whilst providing an efficient jump-on guide for any newcomers and potential converts.
Â© 2009, 2010, 2011 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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