Avengers – Page 22 – Now Read This!

November 4, 2013

Avengers: the Last White Event

By Jonathan Hickman, Dustin Weaver, Mike Deodato Jr. & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-569-7

In the aftermath of the blockbuster Avengers versus X-Men publishing event, the company-wide reboot MarvelNOW! reset the entire overarching continuity: a drastic reshuffle and rethink of characters, concepts and brands with an eye to winning new readers and feeding the company’s burgeoning movie blockbuster machineâ€¦

Collecting Avengers volume 5 #7-11 (cover-dated May to July 2013), this ongoing big picture series is again written by the scarily impressive Jonathan Hickman; someone with a distinct gift for mixing â€œmind-bogglingâ€ with â€œthrillingâ€ and making it all seem easy.

This corner of the grand superhero sub-set (with others including Uncanny Avengers, Avengers Arena, New Avengers, Secret Avengers, Young Avengers, Avengers Assemble and Avengers Underwear Secrets – sorry, that last one’s still imaginary) could be seen as the spine which conceptually links the many series and stars together.

In the previous volume an incredibly ancient trio of â€œGardenersâ€ – robotic Aleph, seductive Abyss and passionate Ex Nihilo – landed on Mars to begin work on their latest project: remaking Earth into something special.

To attain their ends they bombarded the third rock from the sun with bio-mutational â€œOrigin bombsâ€, seeding locations with new, exotic and deadly life-forms. When the Avengers went after the perpetrators, the infinitely old invaders claimed to have been tasked by the first species in creation and The Mother (of the entire universe) to test and, whenever necessary, eradicate, recreate and replace life on other worlds.

For Earth their major exhibit was a new form of man: a prototype Adam to supersede humanityâ€¦

Captain America responded by gathering an expanded contingent of Avengers: the old trusted team and a new expansion squad of champions gathered from across the globe. This auxiliaries comprised Wolverine, Spider-Man, Falcon, Spider-Woman, master of Kung Fu Shang-Chi, Captain Marvel, former X-mutants Cannonball and Sunspot, teleporter and reality shaper Eden Fesi (now calling himself Manifold), pan-dimensional superman Hyperion, cosmic crusader Captain Universe and alien mystery-woman Smasher to augment the old regulars Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow.

Although the Gardeners were thwarted, Ex Nihilo remained on Mars after the Avengers took custody of his handmade modern Prometheus. The menace bided his time, waiting whilst Tony Stark sought to decode and understand the Adam left in the Avengers’ care. When at last Earth’s greatest inventor cracked the mystery, the strange creature – now calling himself a Nightmask – promptly predicted an imminent end to everything and the advent of another extinction-level threatâ€¦

Elsewhere as the ancient aliens’ six bio-attacks radically transformed and evolved flora, fauna and geography at the strike-sites – which needed constant attention from the heroes and S.H.I.E.L.D. – arcane elements of the Infinite were aligning and both Nightmask and Captain Universe became instantly aware of a shattering â€œWhite Eventâ€â€¦

Reality is composed of discrete universes held apart by an infinite crimson underspace dubbed the Superflow. Now with that immemorial barrier somehow fragmenting, the timeless engineers who maintain it can only stoically observe as ‘The Last White Event’ (illustrated by Dustin Weaver, with hues from Justin Ponsor) brings destruction and a global doom device to the Avengers’ world.

As Nightmask explains – in the most obscure terminology – a White Event heralds the ascension of a universe. Usually the cosmos provides a Nightmask as herald, and creates a Justice, a Cipher, occasionally a Spitfire and â€“ inevitably – a being of infinite power: a Starbrand. This has just happened again, but this particular universe – and the entire machinery of the multiverse – is brokenâ€¦

After the artificial man pinpoints the ground-zero location of the trigger event, Iron Man leads the team to a smoking, five-mile wide crater which was once a small suburban college town. The edgy heroes discover a traumatised young man at the centre of devastationâ€¦

‘Starbranded’ (Adam Kubert & Ponsor) describes how the celestial source-code which ensures the right person receives ultimate power had failed and, rather than being suitable or even capable, bullied, needy kid Kevin Connor was the very last person who should become a living planetary defence systemâ€¦

As the confrontation devolves into catastrophic combat, with Connor easily thrashing the likes of Thor and the Hulk, cosmically aware Captain Universe realises that even for such a rare occurrence as a White Event, something is fundamentally wrong with the Big Picture.

Adam/Nightmask then abruptly intervenes, arbitrarily transporting Connor to Mars where Abyss and Ex Nihilo are waitingâ€¦

‘Star Bound’ (Weaver, Mike Deodato Jr. & Ponsor) picks up the tale as, after another impatient fight, Starbrand learns how, after millennia of home world â€œimprovementsâ€, bored Ex Nihilo tweaked his eternal brief and did something a little different with the Origin Bombs he dropped on Earthâ€¦

The alien had no idea what results his meddling might achieve, but at least after billions of years it would be differentâ€¦

Teleporting back to Earth with only the best of intentions, Connor and Adam land in Croatia in time to encounter the fruit of Ex Nihilo’s meddling but their good intentions produce only disaster and when the Avengers arrive the situation only escalatesâ€¦

After a handy cryptography-key page for the alien ‘Builder Machine Code’ used throughout the stories, a clever change of pace sees a group of Avengers sent to Saskatchewan at the request of the Canadian government. The province was also the site of an Origin Bomb strike and the appalling changes to the area were at first investigated by the team of Canadian heroes from Omega Flight. They didn’t come back.

Now in ‘Validator’ (drawn by Deodato Jr. and colour-rendered by Frank Martin), with all contact lost Wolverine leads a team into the dark heart of the mutated environment to discover a terrifying secret â€¦

When the mutagenic hard rain first fell nobody realised that there were in fact seven bio-bombs. In desolate Norway, the ruthless techno-terrorists of Advanced Idea Mechanics were unhampered as they harvested the horrific result of that particular Origin-strike.

Thus this second globe-girdling collection closes with ‘Wake the Dragon’ (Deodato Jr. & Martin) as a team of espionage-adept Avengers – Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Spider-Woman, Sunspot, Cannonball and Shang-Chi – travel to Hong Kong to gather intel and stop the sale of whatever doomsday bioweapons AIM has crafted from their researchesâ€¦

As seduction, cajolery, bribery and inevitably outrageous violence all prove insufficient to the task, only the Master of Kung Fu’s â€œold waysâ€ and spiritual purity are able to divine the incredible, deadly truth behind all the layers of secrets and liesâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Utter Fights ‘n’ Tights magic that will delight fans of doom-drenched Costumed Dramas, this tome also offers a stunning covers-and-variants gallery by Dustin Weaver, Justin Ponsor, Joe Quinones & Daniel AcuÃ±a and the now mandatory extra content – trailers, character bios, creator video commentaries, behind the scenes features and more – for tech-savvy consumers courtesy of AR icon sectionsÂ all accessible through a free digital code and the Marvel Comics app for iPhoneÂ®, iPadÂ®, iPad TouchÂ® & Android devices at Marvel’s Digital Comics Shop.
â„¢ and Â© 2013 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

October 24, 2013

Black Widow: the Name of the Rose

By Marjorie Lui & Daniel AcuÃ±a, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Jamie McKelvie & Matthew Wilson & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4700-8

The Black Widow started life as a svelte and sultry honey-trap Russian agent during Marvel’s early â€œCommie-bustingâ€ days. Natasha Romanoff was subsequently redesigned as a super villain, fell for an assortment of Yankee superheroes – including Hawkeye and Daredevil – and finally defected; becoming an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., freelance do-gooder and occasional leader of the Avengers.

Throughout her career she has been considered efficient, competent, deadly dangerous and somehow cursed to bring doom and disaster to her paramours. As her backstory evolved, it was revealed that she had undergone experimental Soviet procedures which had enhanced her physical capabilities and lengthened her lifespan, as well as assorted psychological processes which had messed up her mind and memoriesâ€¦

Always a minor fan favourite, the Widow only really hit the big time after being in the Iron Man and Captain America movies, but for us unregenerate comics-addicts her print escapades have always offered a cool, sinister frisson of delight.

This particular caper compilation originally surfaced as the first story arc of her short-lived 2010 comicbook series, (reprinting Black Widow volume 4 #1-5, June to October), but first opens with a short tale from the Enter the Heroic Age one-shot from July of that year.

‘CoppÃ©lia’, by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Jamie McKelvie & Matthew Wilson, saw Natasha back in the former U.S.S.R. to retrieve a package sought by assorted intelligence agencies, international arms dealers and even more nasty, untrustworthy types. Sadly, that also perfectly describes her own bossesâ€¦

Eponymous epic ‘The Name of the Rose’ (by Marjorie Lui & Daniel AcuÃ±a) commences as gargantuan old country ally Black Rose rendezvous with his erstwhile comrade to warn her that someone has made her a targetâ€¦

Despite the timely warning the sultry spy still falls to an ambush attack and regains consciousness on an operating table. There’s a hole in her stomach from where her assailant had unlocked her most shameful secret and surgeons are desperately working to save herâ€¦

In attendance are former lovers Logan AKA Wolverine, Tony (Iron Man) Stark and current boyfriend Bucky (Captain America) Barnes, as Natasha is keenly aware since she is awake and can hear them. Paralysed, she can only think back to how this all started a day earlier when she received a black rose in an envelope marked â€œremember Natashaâ€â€¦

As she is wheeled into Recovery, Wolverine goes hunting for her assailant, but finds himself unable to take vengeance for his friendâ€¦

In hospital, the Widow rouses from a dream of her youth on the Russian Front in WWII and finds Logan guarding her. He now knows what was taken from her and is prepared to back off as the still surgically traumatised ex-agent attempts to escape from the ward which is also her prison.

In a darkened room an anonymous spook informs Hawkeye, Stark and Captain America that for as long as she’s been their â€œfriendâ€ Natasha has been gathering data on them – and on everybody she has ever metâ€¦

Whilst they defend her, elsewhere Pepper Potts is shot by assassin-for-hire Lady Bullseye, and as Stark rushes to her side the spymaster casually reveals that the Widow’s files describe the best way to get to the inventor is through his cherished assistantâ€¦

On the run Natasha retreats to one of her scrupulously maintained safe-houses to recuperate and re-arm. Once fully tooled up, the Black Widow goes hunting by making herself a target and is confronted by lethal renegade Elektra who’s rather annoyed at finding she’s in those exposed files too. But then, so are all the people who ever trusted the Widowâ€¦

Barely surviving the clash, Natasha is later found and nursed by Black Rose. Having deduced a piece of the puzzle she then heads to London in pursuit of the hidden mastermind who has exposed her and stolen her clandestine insurance policy.

Because that’s all it wasâ€¦after all, she would never have used any of that accumulated information unless she had to, would she?

These damning ruminations are interrupted by a trio of assassins from her KGB days and the resulting battle leads to even more deaths but further revelations and recriminationsâ€¦

Pursued by friend and foe alike the quest takes Natasha to Russia and a final chilling confrontation with Lady Bullseye before her beloved Bucky finally finds herâ€¦

From here on the build up to the splendidly convoluted, sharply smart conclusion is so gripping and twisty that I’d be a real meany to even consider spoiling it for you. Suffice to say all answers are forthcoming and the bad guys get what’s coming to them in a most spectacular and resoundingly gratuitous mannerâ€¦

This captivating and astoundingly beautiful tome is rounded out by ‘Black Widow Saga’ – a comprehensive prose and picture recap of ‘The Early Years’, programming and conditioning secrets of ‘The Red Room’, as well as Natasha’s ‘Spy & Saboteur’ exploits, ‘The Super Hero Life’, origins of ‘The New Black Widow’ and ‘The Deadliest Days’ of her latter life.

Also included are a gallery of covers by AcuÃ±a, Travel Foreman, Jelena Kevic Djurdjevic, Stephanie Hans & Joe Quinones, accompanied by a photographic Movie Variant and a one page Black Widow introductory strip by Fred Van Lente & McKelvie to make this such a superb example of genre-blending Costumed Drama that you’d be thoroughly suspect and probably mentioned in dispatches for neglecting it.
Â© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

October 11, 2013October 10, 2013

By Jason Aaron & Simone Bianchi (Marvel Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-543-7

In the wake of the epochal Avengers versus X-Men publishing event, the company’s entire continuity was reconfigured as a jumping on point for new and returning readers. From that point on the banner MarvelNOW! indicated a radical repositioning and recasting of all the characters in an undertaking designed to keep the superhero universe an inviting, interesting place to visit.

This involved a varying degree of drastic rethink for beloved icons, concepts and brands, always, of course, with one wary eye on how the material would look on a movie screenâ€¦

Thus in advance of the forthcoming comics event Infinity and his own movie debut, the renegade Mad Titan Thanos got his own tell-all 5-issue miniseries (running from April to August 2013) collected here as a brooding, moody and extremely gory chronicle of rejection, depravity, insanity and death.

Lots and lots of deathâ€¦

Thanos first appeared in Iron Man #55, as did his nemesis Drax the Destroyer, in the prelude to an epic campaign of conquest from 1972-1974 which appeared in Captain Marvel #25-33 with side skirmishes in Marvel Feature #12 andÂ Avengers #125 plus a few issues of Daredevil. The alien â€œMasterlordâ€ seemed obsessed with conquest and destruction; using an army of space pirates, a coterie of super-villains and the wish-fulfilling Cosmic Cube to attain his ends.

In the end Thanos transformed himself into God and was revealed to be in love with the personification of Death herself. Only a cosmic entity who had awaited his emergence for eight billion years eventually turned the tide of terror.

This tale was a key event in Marvel history, innovative and still deeply thrilling on a raw, visceral instinctual level. Thanos, the death-obsessed master-villain, was a critical and commercial success in all his appearances: battles with Captain Marvel, the Avengers, the Thing and Spider-Man, whilst his destruction at the hands of the agent of Universal Life Adam Warlock was an absolute highpoint in superhero storytelling.

Thanos died but was of course brought back from The Great Beyond to resume redressing the imbalance between the Living and the Dead to please his mistress. He also worked hard fulfilling equally dark and deranged agendas of his own – such as waging an all-out war for hands-on control Reality and becoming the Supreme Beingâ€¦

Scripted by Jason Aaron and beautifully illustrated by Simone Bianchi, this fearsome glance into the formative years of the Scourge of Life begins amidst the shattered ruins of Titan where Thanos regularly returns to cogitate amongst the fragments of his earliest atrocities.

The moon of Saturn had been home to an offshoot race of Eternals for millennia when the boy was born to saviour, supreme scientist and leader A’Lars and his wife Sui-San. The babe was born disfigured, a mutant amongst a population of perfect people. However it was the chilling look in the child’s eyes and not his deformities which prompted the exhausted mother to try and kill him the moment she first held himâ€¦

With Sui-San under permanent medical restraint, the freak grew up lonely but not outcast – although something in him made all the other kids uncomfortable. Eager to please and fit in, young Thanos exhibited great scientific aptitude but only ever really had one friend, a girl who constantly challenged him to greater and more incisive enquires – especially biologyâ€¦

To tell more would ruin some delightfully dark passages and spoil an extremely engaging reconstruction of the Cosmic Destroyer as he transitions from comicbook mad dictator into that most popular of modern monsters, the serial psycho-killer.

Suffice to say that the saga of how Thanos leaves home, destroys home, becomes a pirate and sires an army of children before at last discovering his true vocation and destiny is a most intriguing and plausible journey: one that will impress contemporary readers and most die-hard fans alike.

Also included are pages of extra content for tech-minded consumers via the AR icon option (a printed portal providing code for free digital copy on Marvel Comics app for iPhoneÂ®, iPadÂ®, iPad TouchÂ® & Android devices and Marvel Digital Comics Shop: a special augmented reality content available exclusive through the Marvel AR app which includes trailers, character bios, video commentaries and more) as well as a good-old-fashioned cover-and-variants gallery by Bianchi, Marko Djurdjevic, Carlo Barberi, Mark Brooks, Skottie Young, Ed McGuiness & Mike Deodato Jr.

September 9, 2013

Marvel Adventures Avengers volume 9: The Times They Are A’Changin’

By Paul Tobin, Matteo Lolli, Ig Guara, Casey Jones, Christian Vecchia & Sandro Ribeiro (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3832-7

Since its earliest days Marvel has always courted young comicbook audiences. Whether through animation tie-ins such as Terrytoons Comics, Mighty Mouse, Super Rabbit Comics, Duckula, assorted Hanna-Barbera and Disney licenses and a myriad of others, or original creations such as Tessie the Typist, Millie the Model, Homer the Happy Ghost, Li’l Kids or Calvin, the House of Ideas always understood the necessity of cultivating the next generation of readers.

These days, however, accessible child-friendly titles are in decline and with Marvel’s proprietary characters all over screens large and small, the company generally prefers to create adulterated versions of its own pantheon, making that eventual hoped-for transition to more mature comics as painless as possible.

In 2003 the company created a Marvel Age line which updated and retold classic original tales by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and subsequently merged it with remnants of its failed manga-based Tsunami imprint, which was also intended for a junior demographic.

The experiment was tweaked in 2005, becoming Marvel Adventures with the core titles transformed into Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man and the reconstituted classics replaced by all-original yarns. Additional titles included Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes, Power Pack, Hulk and The Avengers, which ran until 2010 when they were cancelled and replaced by new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

This particularly light-hearted digest-sized collection re-presents issues #32-35 of Marvel Adventures Avengers (from 2009) and offers a succession of stand-alone yarns that will delight fans with a sense of humour and iota of witâ€¦

What You Need To Know: this incarnation of the World’s Mightiest Superheroes operates an â€œopen-doorâ€ policy where almost every metahuman marvel might turn up for duty. However – presumably because of their TV cartoon popularity – the Wondrous Wallcrawler and Jade Juggernaut are on scene in almost every episodeâ€¦

Written throughout by Paul Tobin, the fast-paced fun begins with ‘The Big Payoff’ illustrated by Matteo Lolli & Christian Vecchia, wherein the team gets a most unpleasant visit from Special Agent Clark Harvey of the Internal Revenue Service.

This weaselling civil servant is ostensibly there to collect the individual Avengers’ taxes, but it’s all a ploy to blackmail the team into forcing a bunch of defaulting villains into paying upâ€¦

Smart and deviously hilarious, the clashes between Giant-Girl, Spider-Man and Luke Cage against Whirlwind, the Web-spinner and erudite philosophical monster/political activist Oog or Man-Bull versus Iron Man are entertainment enough, but Iron Man and Giant-Girl overmatched against the Absorbing Man and the childlike Hulk convincing assassin Bullsesye to do his patriotic duty are literally pricelessâ€¦

When jungle king Ka-Zar visits from the Antarctic lost world all he can think about is learning how to use a car. Sadly Wolverine, Storm, Giant-Girl, Hulk and Spidey all feel safer battling an invasion of super-Saurians unleashed by Stegron the Dinosaur Man than sitting in the same vehicle as the Lord of the Savage Land in ‘You’re Driving Me Crazy’ (art by Ig Guara & Sandro Ribeiro)â€¦

When ancient Egyptian magicians turn time into an out of control merry-go-round, ‘Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos!’ (Lolli & Vecchia) are caught up in the assorted eras of chaos, with Ant-Man, Giant-Girl, Tigra, Storm, the Wallcrawler and Hulk frantically fighting just to keep upâ€¦

This titanic tiny tome then concludes on a romantic note in ‘Lovers Leaper’, rendered by Casey Jones, when all the female Avengers head off for a vacation break. They foolishly thought Captain America, Cage, Spider-Man, Hawkeye and Wolverine could handle things for awhile, but boys will be slobs and soon the HQ is a ghastly mess of â€œman-caveâ€ madnessâ€¦

Moreover, since Hawkeye now needs a date for the Annual Archer Awards, he tries an on-line dating service and manages to upload not just his but all his buddies’ information onto the siteâ€¦

With seemingly every eligible lady – super-powered and not – in New York City subscribing to the Lovers Leap site, the unsuspecting heroes are soon being bombarded by an army of annoyed women who think they’ve been stood up by the utterly oblivious Avengers.

â€¦And when they try to get the owner to remove their details, the heroes discover former French bad-guy Batroc the Leaper is in charge and unwilling to do them any favoursâ€¦

Smart and fun on a number of levels, bright and breezy with lots of light-hearted action and many solid laughs, this book really offers a fabulous alternative to the regular Marvel Universe angst and agony.

Even with the violence toned down and â€œcartooned-upâ€ the stories are superbly thrilling and beautifully depicted: a perfect introduction for kids and adults alike to the vast realm of adventure we all loveâ€¦

In 2012 the Marvel Adventures line was superseded by specific comicbook titles tied to Disney XD TV shows designated as â€œMarvel Universe cartoonsâ€, but these collected stories are still an intriguing and perhaps more culturally accessible means of introducing character and concepts to kids born often two generations or more away from those far-distant 1960s originating events.
Â© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

August 17, 2013August 18, 2013

Age of Ultron

By Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Waid, Bryan Hitch, Brandon Peterson, Carlos Pacheco & others (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-542-0

Blockbuster crossovers are an intrinsic part of the comics business these days and before us doddery older fans can even catch our collective breath here’s the next big change (actually the second phase of the MarvelNOW! root and branch reboot), with attention focused on the Avengers as the launch of the next movie looms before us.

From March to June 2013 a massive, time-bending Armageddon extravaganza revealed the ultimate triumph of Ultron – the insidious and genocidal artificial intelligence originally invented by troubled tinkerer Henry Pym (AKA Ant-Man, Giant Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket, Dr. Pym, The Wasp, et al), and the stupefying saga was augmented by more than a dozen sidebar stories occurring in Fantastic Four, Superior Spider-Man, Ultron #1AU, Wolverine and the X-Men, Avengers Assemble Uncanny Avengers and Fearless Defendersâ€¦

This impressively bombastic, streamlined and rocket-paced epic collects the core 10-part miniseries Age of Ultron and also includes as thematic epilogue Age of Ultron #10AI, with the drama beginning on a recently devastated Earth with human scum bartering lives and dignity amidst the ruins.

Hawkeye is on a solo mission to rescue a fellow superhero captured by barbaric, debased survivors of some apocalyptic attack which overnight blasted civilisation back to the Stone Age.

After freeing the barely-living Spider-Man from the dregs, the archer learns that the wall-crawler had been intended for trade with the new rulers of the world – legions of soulless, silently hovering, ever-vigilant Ultron Sentinelsâ€¦

Scripted by Brian Michael Bendis, chapters #1-5 are illustrated by Bryan Hitch and Pauls Neary and Mounts and detail how the last Avengers and other metahumans – Captain America, Iron Man, Emma Frost, She-Hulk, Luke Cage, Storm, Invisible Woman & Wolverine amongst others – link up with similar pockets of superhuman resistance, such as Moon Knight and the Black Widow in San Francisco and Black Panther, Taskmaster and Red Hulk in Chicago, to discover just how Ultron achieved his shocking ultimate victoryâ€¦

By sacrificing two comrades the assemblage determine that the attack came from the future via a contemporary proxy and, thanks to the intercession of a long-forgotten ally, the bulk of the team head off into tomorrow via Dr. Doom‘s time machine to crush the malign machine-monster forever.

Wolverine however has another idea, and despite being overruled by the majority and followed by Invisible Woman, travels into the recent past to assassinate Pym before he built the Artificial Oedipal Atrocityâ€¦

Issues #6-9 (with art from Brandon Peterson, Carlos Pacheco & Roger Martinez) reveals the horrific implications of Wolverine’s time-busting red-handed revisionism when he and Sue Richards return to find a world in even more horrifying condition.

With Pym gone the Skrull-Kree war engulfed Earth and in the savage aftermath 6^th century sorceress Morgana Le Fey and Dr. Doom united to decimate the survivorsâ€¦

After seeing what the time-shift had done to old friends such as Tony Stark, Charles Xavier, Cyclops, The Thing, Doctor Strange, Star-Lord, The Hulk and even himself, Wolverine knows he has to back and undo Pym’s fateâ€¦

And in a furious future the Avengers Task force is losing the battle against Ultron’s perfect, mechanised human-free societyâ€¦

It all comes together in the shock and surprise-stuffed tenth chapter (illustrated by Alex Maleev, Hitch, Butch Guice, Peterson, Pacheco, Roger Bonet, Tom Palmer, David Marquez & Joe Quesada) as the much-travelled mutant meets a most unexpected obstacle and Pym himself devises the solution to save humanity and the much-abused time-line.

It’s almost enough: however the chronal catastrophes have had a disastrous â€œButterfly Effectâ€ on the fabric of reality and beings from beyond the multiverse (and indeed originally from another publishing company) are drawn into events yet to unfold in the months to comeâ€¦

The collection concludes with a charming and clever epilogue issue reviewing and revising the origin of Hank Pym – Man of Many Names and Sizes – in ‘It Was Not a Wonderful Life’ (written by Mark Waid, illustrated by Andre Lima AraÃºjo & Frank D’Armata), adroitly setting the scene for forthcoming series Avengers A.I.

With covers by Hitch, Neary & Mounts, Peterson, Sara Pichelli & Marte Gracia plus 30 variants by J. Scott Campbell, Mike Deodato Jr., Rock-He Kim, Marko Djurdjevic, Ed McGuiness, Skottie Young, Jung-Geun Yoan, In-Hyuk Lee, Adi Granov, Pacheco, Francis Leinil Francis Yu, Peterson, Jorge Molina, Joe Quesada, Mark Brooks, Salvador Larroca & Paola Rivera, this a spectacularly visual treat for fans of the time-buster genre which also reinforces Marvel’s game plan to make the stories more accessible to casual readers and non-comicbook fans.

Naturally the book also includes the now-standard added extras provided by many AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which are your gateway to story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

August 7, 2013August 6, 2013

Young Avengers: Style > Substance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Billy and Teddy are still oblivious to the threat in ‘DYS’ as â€œMrs. Altmanâ€ settles into her new existence. She is in fact a cosmic parasite: appropriating and controlling living parents and even capable of resurrecting utterly compliant dead mums and dadsâ€¦

The awful truth emerges when â€œsheâ€ lays down new ground rules for the boys and Wiccan is unable to send the protoplasmic horror backâ€¦

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

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

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

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

Kate however is unavailable and merely sends him odd text messagesâ€¦

Loki has a potential solution but nobody likes it. All he needs to do is â€œborrowâ€ Wiccan’s ability to Control And Reshape All Reality for ten minutesâ€¦

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 25, 2013May 24, 2013

Avengers: Avengers World

By Jonathan Hickman, Jerome OpeÃ±a, Adam Kubert & various (Marvel/Panini UK)

ISBN: 978-1-84653-536-9

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

For the House of Ideas this meant a drastic reshuffle and rethink of key characters, concepts and brands and, since movie media darlings the Avengers are the most public of the company’s current super-successes, the â€œWorld’s Mightiest Heroesâ€ understandably got the most impressive – and accessible – refit.

Collecting Avengers volume 5 #1-6 (cover-dated February-April 2013), this big picture series is written by Jonathan Hickman (The Nightly News, Pax Romana, Secret Warriors, Fantastic Four and more); someone with a flair for making the truly mind-boggling thrilling and readily digestible. This sector of the superhero sub-set (the others being Uncanny Avengers, Avengers Arena, New Avengers, Secret Avengers, Young Avengers and Avengers Assemble) could be seen as the spine which conceptually links the many series and stars together.

The bombastic adventure begins with a cataclysmic 3-part yarn that firmly sets a formidable new standard as the team evolves from plain old world- to periodic universe-saversâ€¦

‘Avengers World’ (drawn by Jerome OpeÃ±a and colour-rendered by Dean White) finds Iron Man and Captain America pondering past errors and potential future crises before laying plans to make Earth’s defenders a truly unstoppable army. The opportunity to test the plan soon arises as a trio of god-like creatures arrive on Mars and begin bombarding our world with bio-mutational â€œOrigin bombsâ€.

When core group Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Hulk, Iron Man and Cap arrive on the Red Planet to stop the assaults, they find the once desolate landscape teeming with exotic, deadly life-forms and are soundly thrashed by the robotic Aleph, seductive Abyss and passionate Ex Nihilo. To show their diffident disdain, the terraforming terrors return the battered Star Spangled Avenger to Earth to let the obsolescent masses know their time is doneâ€¦

‘We Were Avengers’ (with colours from White, Justin Ponsor & Morry Hollowell) sees the infinitely old creatures claim to have been tasked by the first species in creation and their â€œMotherâ€ (of the entire universe) to test and, when necessary, eradicate, recreate, and replace life on other worlds.

As Ex Nihilo slowly tinkers with the prototype Adam that will supersede humanity on Earth, Captain America has gathered the first of the proposed expanded contingent: old comrades and new champions gathered from across the globe.

Wolverine, Spider-Man, Falcon, Spider Woman, master of Kung Fu Shang-Chi and Captain Marvel are joined by former X-mutants Cannonball and Sunspot, teleporter and reality shaper Eden Fesi (now calling himself Manifold), extra-dimensional superman Hyperion, cosmic entity Captain Universe and alien mystery woman Smasher, even as six more DNA-warping blockbuster bombs fall on some of Earth’s most populated and remote regions.

With monsters devastating and remaking our world, Cap leads his utterly unprepared squad back to Mars and ‘The Garden’ (coloured by White, Frank Martin & Richard Isanove) for the shattering final battle where a most unexpected secret is revealedâ€¦

With the cosmic trio defeated, the back stories of the expanded Avengers are then explored, beginning with Hyperion in ‘The Death and Resurrection of Major Titans’ (illustrated by Kubert & Laura Martin).

Although Ex Nihilo’s bio-attacks have ended, the things already transformed and evolved at the previous strike-sites still need to be tackled, but when an Avengers task force is dispatched to sanitise the dinosaur preserve of the Savage Land they find the techno-terrorists of Advanced Idea Mechanics already in situ and exploiting the unnatural disasterâ€¦

Particularly troubled is Hyperion, since the treatment of some of the less menacing newly evolved creatures causes the other causes the other-dimensional Atomic Ace to revisit some very unpleasant aspects of his own past, and interactions with AIMâ€¦

None of the triumphant heroes realise that there were in fact seven bio-bombs and, in desolate Norway, an AIM team has found the terrifying result of that Origin-strikeâ€¦

As Tony Stark seeks to understand the â€œAdamâ€ left in Avengers’ care after Ex Nihilo departed, ‘Superguardian’ (Kubert & Frank Martin) reveals the origins of ordinary Iowa-farmgirl Izzy Dare, who found a fragment of lost Shi’ar technology and was transformed into alien super-soldier Smasher.

Moreover Izzy’s new status then draws her, Cap, Wolverine, Hulk, Falcon and Manifold into a shooting war on the other side of the universe as that alien empire’s Imperial Guard are attacked by overwhelming invading forces.

Only after defeating the mystery raiders does the combined Terran/Shi’ar force realise that their foes were not hungry for conquest but frantically fleeing an even greater menaceâ€¦

This stunning tome concludes with ‘Zen and the Art of Cosmology’ as philosophical warrior Shang-Chi attempts to divine the tragic secrets of the traumatised human flotsam hosting the eerily puissant energy force known as Captain Universe. However even as the empathetic fist-fighter unlocks the horrific tale of broken mother Tamara Devoux, arcane elements of the Infinite are aligning and both Adam and the cosmic crusader are suddenly aware of a shattering â€œWhite Eventâ€ beginning even as they speakâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Pure superhero magic that will delight every fan of Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy, this book comes with a stupendous, sublime and expansive covers-and-variants gallery: two dozen superb images by Dustin Weaver & Justin Ponsor, Steve McNiven, Esad Ribic, Hastings, Jeff Scott Campbell, Scott Young, John Romita Jr., Adi Granov, Mark Brooks, Daniel AcuÃ±a, Dale Keown & Frank D’Armata, Paulo Manuel Rivera and Carlos Pacheco, and a cryptography-key page for the alien ‘Builder Machine Code’ used throughout the stories. As standard now, there are also selections of extra content for tech-savvy consumers in the form of AR icon sections best described as:

Code for a free digital copy on the Marvel Comics app (for iPhoneÂ®, iPadÂ®, iPad TouchÂ® & Android devices) and Marvel Digital Comics Shop. This collection also features special augmented reality content available exclusive through the Marvel AR app – including cover recaps, behind the scenes features and more.

Can’t say fairer than that, eh?

May 23, 2013May 22, 2013

Fantastic Four: Disassembled

By Mark Waid, Karl Kesel, Paco Medina, Mike Wieringo & Juan Vlasco (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1536-6

The Fantastic Four is rightly regarded as the most pivotal series in modern comics history, introducing both a new style of storytelling and a strikingly fresh manner of engaging readers’ imaginations and attention. The heroes are felt by fans to be more family than team and, although the roster has temporarily changed many times over the years, the line-up always inevitably returns to the original core group of maverick genius Reed Richards, wife Sue, trusty friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s younger brother Johnny; all survivors of a privately-funded space-shot which went horribly wrong when Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding.

After crashing back to Earth, the quartet found they had all been mutated into freaks. Richards’ body became astoundingly elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible and project force-fields, Johnny could turn into living flame, and poor, tormented Ben was transformed into a horrifying monster who, unlike his comrades, could not reassume a semblance of normality on command.

This particular game-changing compilation gathers issues #514-519 (August-December 2004), highlighting more of the spectacular run by writer Mark Waid and much-missed illustrator Mike Wieringo; celebrating their â€œback-to-basicsâ€ approach which utterly rejuvenated the venerable property and marked one more ending of an era.

What You Need To Know: after banishing their greatest enemy to Hell, the team attempted to save Doctor Doom‘s now-leaderless nation of Latveria. To do this, Reed unilaterally seized control of the postage-stamp kingdom to keep it being from being torn apart and swallowed by its land- and tech-hungry Balkan neighbours.

Although done for the right reasons, Mr. Fantastic’s drastic solution alienated friends and allies – and even his own team-mates – and lost him the respect and support of the entire world.

Contemporaneously in the Marvel Universe: as the FF became unloved pariahs and practically bankrupt, the â€œWorld’s Mightiest Heroesâ€ were shut down and rebooted in a highly publicised event known as Avengers Disassembled (of course it was only to replace them with both The New and Young Avengers).

The event spilled over into the regular titles of current team members and affiliated comic-books such as Spectacular Spider-Man, with close allies the Fantastic Four inexorably drawn into their Big Show.

Said Show consisted of the worst day in superhero history as the unsuspectedly insane Scarlet Witch attacked the Avengers from within, resulting in the utter destruction of everything they held dear and the death of several members and associates. The side-bar sagas collected here concentrate on the uncalculated fall-out of that devastating sequence of eventsâ€¦

It begins in the 3-part ‘Dysfunctional’ (by Karl Kesel, Paco Medina & Juan Vlasco) when, with the heroes at their lowest ebb, incorrigible arch-foe The Wizard targets them, using a new roster of his antithetical cohorts in The Frightful Four. This iteration (Hydro-Man, the Trapster and mysterious new pyrokinetic â€œFire Maidenâ€ Salamandra) start enacting the Wizard’s devious plan just as Johnny finds his new girlfriend Cole Wittman at the centre of a bizarre series of tectonic disasters.

When she is invited back to FFHQ for tea and tests, shock follows shocks as Cole reluctantly lets the Wizard’s minions inâ€¦

The poor girl is the unwitting product of the evil super-genius’ genetic tinkering: a test-tube baby combining his and Salamandra’s DNA and somehow able to affect gravity. It is, unfortunately, an ability the poor dupe has no control overâ€¦

As the two FF’s spectacularly clash and the villains come out on top, the Wizard’s true intentions are revealed as he murderously disposes of one of his own to make way for Daddy’s little girl to join his team. Moreover he has broadcast the entire battle to the world, in his arrogant determination to prove his superiority to the fallen Reed Richardsâ€¦

Battered but unbroken the heroes pick themselves up, determined to find their foes and rescue Cole. The girl is already regretting her actions as her â€œfatherâ€ elatedly reveals the circumstances of her creation and exults in the success of his greatest â€œexperimentâ€â€¦

The staggering counterstrike almost goes horribly wrong when Salamandra’s true nature is exposed, resulting in a catastrophic struggle and a tragic pyrrhic victory for the Fantastic Fourâ€¦

The main event sees the return of creators Waid & Wieringo (with Kesel inking) for ‘Fourtitude’ as Halloween finds the team on the road to recovery if not public redemption. Reed has already rebuilt their fortune with a brief flurry of invention and profitable patents – such as the self-inflating, self-retrieving basketball â€“ and, as darkness falls, cosmic calamity offers Fantastic Four, Inc. a chance to restore their shredded reputationâ€¦

Out of the darkness of space four monumental alien pylons crash into the waters around Manhattan and begin sucking the island up into the void. With the Avengers gone, the Mayor has no choice but to turn to the pariah-team to save his city and perhaps the worldâ€¦

They are already at work rescuing citizens when the call comes and soon Richards and his comrades have penetrated one of the vast constructs to discover the horrible truth behind Manhattan’s abduction.

Benevolent alien technologist Zius had discovered a way to mask planets from the attention of world-devouring Galactus, potentially saving trillions of lives and possibly resulting in the eventual doom by starvation of the cosmic cannibal. However he has learned that on Earth a counter to his process exists.

Thus he has raced to our world to remove that single threat to universal salvation.

It doesn’t take long to determine that the force in question is Sue, whose powers include making the unseen visible. Zius was willing to throw New York into the Sun to ensure the safety of the cosmos, but with the World-Eater undoubtedly getting closer every moment she surrenders herself in return for the island’s safe returnâ€¦

Desperate Reed quickly devises a way to obviate the necessity to kill his wife and the aliens prepare to leave, satisfied but utterly unaware of the brilliant stratagem Richards has used to bluff them.

As New York rejoices in the triumph of its now restored and redeemed champions, Sue discovers she is now a Human Torch whilst her brother possesses the critical invisibility power.

â€¦And that’s when the star god arrives and takes possession of the mortal threat to his infinite existenceâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

With an eye-catching cover gallery by Gene Ha, Morry Hollowell, Wieringo, Kesel & Paul Mounts, this compulsively engrossing epic of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction truly carries on the legacy of mind-bending imagination and breathtaking excitement established by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

May 9, 2013May 11, 2013

Uncanny Avengers: The Red Shadow

By Rick Remender, John Cassaday, Olivier Coipel & Mark Morales (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-528-4

In the aftermath of the blockbuster Avengers versus X-Men publishing event, the company-wide reboot MarvelNOW! began repositioning and recasting the entire continuity in the ongoing never-ending battle to keep old readers interested and pick up new ones.

Sadly this isn’t a merely Marvel problem but a malaise affecting the entire global comics industry, but that struggle for survival does occasionally produce some truly stellar reading results as in this impressive fusion of two grand old franchises, allowing writer Rick Remender and artists John Cassaday, Olivier Coipel & Mark Morales to take the latest brigade of the â€œWorld’s Mightiest Superheroesâ€ in a fascinating old new direction.

Collecting Uncanny Avengers #1-5 (cover-dated December 2012-May 2013), this astounding reaffirmation of the magic of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction opens with the eponymous 4-part thriller depicting the creation of a new, politically correct and provocatively inclusive team combining human and mutant heroes, tasked with proving that mutant visionary Charles Xavier‘s dream of lasting cooperation and mutual amity between Home Sapiens and Superior was not impossibleâ€¦

What You Need to Know: Once upon a time the mutant Avenger Wanda Maximoff – daughter of arch-villain Magneto and known to the world as the Scarlet Witch – married the android hero Vision and they had (through the agency of magic and her unsuspected chaos-energy fuelled ability to reshape reality) twin boys. Over the course of time it was revealed that her sons were not real and they subsequently vanished (for further details see Marvel Platinum: the Definitive Avengers).

As the years passed their loss slowly, imperceptibly drove Wanda mad and when she at long last slipped completely over the edge and destroyed a number of her Avenger team-mates, the effects of her power and actions affected and reshaped the entire Marvel Universe, resulting in a dramatic reboot event known as Avengers Disassembled.

No sooner had the team recovered from that catastrophe than reality was overwritten again when she had another breakdown and altered Earth history such that Magneto’s mutants ruled over a society where normal humans (â€œsapiensâ€) were an acknowledged evolutionary dead-end living out their lives and destined for extinction within two generations.

It took every hero on Earth and a great deal of luck to put that genie back in a bottle (in another colossal company crossover dubbed House of M), and in the aftermath less than 200 mutants were left on Earthâ€¦

The Witch was partially rehabilitated and began her redemption during Avengers versus X-Men wherein the World’s Mightiest Heroes strove against the remaining mutant outcasts for control of young Hope Summers: a girl predestined to become mortal host to the implacable force of cosmic destruction and creation known as The Phoenix.

However the primal phenomenon instead possessed a quintet of X-Men, corrupting them whilst empowering their dream of turning the planet into a paradise for besieged, beleaguered Homo Superior.

In the ensuing conflict humanity was briefly enslaved before inevitably the rapacious, selfish destructive hunger of the Phoenix Force caused those possessed to turn upon each other. Soon its transcendent energy transformed the unifying, rallying figure of head freedom-fighter Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops, into another seemingly unstoppable and insatiable â€œDark Phoenixâ€.

At that crossroads moment his beloved mentor Xavier, founder of the X-Men and formulator of the policy of peaceful mutant/human co-existence returned, only to be killed by his most trusted, devoted discipleâ€¦

Professor X’s death forced X-Men and Avengers to unite against the true threat but, in the days that followed the expulsion of the Phoenix Force, progress and reconciliation stalled. The mostly human world festered with resentment even as new mutants began to appear, and liberated humanity again fell into its old habits of species intolerance and violent, bigoted vigilante outrageâ€¦

After disturbing scenes of brain surgery, our story now begins in ‘New Union’ as Wolverine leads the bereaved Homo Superior students of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning in services for their fallen inspirational Moses (or perhaps more accurately Martin Luther King). Meanwhile in a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. detention centre an unrepentant Cyclops is paid a visit by his brother.

Also known as the government-sanctioned mutant agent Havok, Alex Summers is appalled at the unflinching hard-line attitude of his apparently irredeemably radicalised sibling who seems oblivious to the damage his crusade has done to Xavier’s Dream. On exiting the facility, Alex is met by Captain America and Thor who have an enticing yet frightening proposal for the shaken former head of America’s X-Factor mutant task-forceâ€¦

The Sentinel of Liberty is painfully aware that America’s mutant minority has been poorly served – if not actively institutionally discriminated against – and is hungry to make amends by making real Xavier’s vision. To that end he wants to create a new high-profile, affirmatively-active Avengers Unity Division, comprising humans and mutant heroes working together.

He also wants Havok to lead the teamâ€¦

Even as Alex and the Avenger elder statesmen discuss the deeply contentious and heavy-handed proposal, an old, vile threat has resurfaced. Mutant terrorist Avalanche launches a devastating assault, slaughtering hundreds of New Yorkers, before killing himself when Thor, Captain America and Havok intervene. The atrocity has no apparent motive but the killer seems to have undergone recent cranial surgeryâ€¦

Elsewhere the desperately repentant Scarlet Witch tries to pay her condolences at Xavier’s shrine but is attacked by furiously indignant X-Man Rogue before they are both ambushed and captured by a squad of metahumans faithful to a monster claiming to be the true Red Skull.

The Nazi hate-monger has plans to eradicate the sub-human mutant race forever, and now that he has stolen the deceased Professor X’s brain – and telepathic powers – nothing can stop himâ€¦

The horror grows in ‘Skulduggery’ as Wolverine joins the heroes at the scene of Avalanche’s holocaust/suicide, confirming that the mass-mover had fully reformed and this disaster must have a hidden architect. Although dubious of Cap’s â€œpositive PRâ€ solution, the feral mutant is also convinced that someone is trying to foment genocide and agrees with Thor that they need to be stoppedâ€¦ permanently…

Answers come when the Red Skull pre-empts television broadcasts, urging humanity to rise up and destroy the mutants who are the cause of all America’s woes. It’s the same vile message as espoused in Depression-era Germany seven decades ago, but this time enforced on believers and resisters alike by Xavier’s irresistible psychic powers.

Soon, brainwashed mortals are slaughtering anybody deemed different. The message is backed up and subtly reinforced by the Fascist’s deadly deputy Honest John, the Living Propaganda, even as the Skull’s other S-Men – Goat-Faced Girl, Dancing Water, The Insect, Mzee and Living Wind – tend to their master’s mutant captivesâ€¦

Soon however Rogue and Wanda have escaped, but their flight through the monster’s hidden fortress is abruptly halted when they discover the appalling remains of Xavier, allowing the Nazi madman to make them his mindless slaves.

The Worst Fiend in History has big plans: if he can bend Wanda to his will, perhaps she can be made to rewrite reality again to the deranged Nazi’s debaseded designâ€¦

‘Skull & Bones’ sees the madman and his puppets begin their eradication campaign in Manhattan as the Crimson Hatemonger seizes direct control of ordinary humans and orders them to slaughter all mutants in an orgy of destruction with only Cap, Havok, Thor and Wolverine to battle the rampage of rampant unchecked hatred and fear in ‘Thunder’.

With so many mystical mindbenders on his team, it’s not long before Teutonic deity Thor is also seduced and beguiled by the Skull and set upon his erstwhile mutant comrades; but sadly for the briefly triumphant S-Men their leader’s iron hold on the Scarlet Witch has subsequently slippedâ€¦

Against all odds, the mismatched Politically Correct Paladins score an unlikely victory and drive off the Skull, forcing the still-unconvinced Havok to admit that his proposed new team might actually help remould the nation’s fears and opinionsâ€¦

This initial collection concludes with a tantalising glimpse of things to come in an untitled fill-in from Remender, Coipel & Morales which publicly launches the Avengers Unity Division amidst a flurry of time-bending hints and portents.

Interspersed with pithy glimpses of old adversaries Immortus, Kang the Conqueror and Onslaught as well as the advent of ancient, portentous devil-babies the Apocalypse Twins (all murderously jockeying for position), the first Press Conference of the official team – Havok, Captain America, Thor, Wolverine, Scarlet Witch, Rogue, Wonder Man, the Wasp and Sunfire – goes horribly wrong when implacable undead enemy the Grim Reaper attacks, resulting in a shocking death which looks set to undermine all that hard-won pro-mutant progress in one bloody instantâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Engaging, exciting and extremely entertaining; blending spectacular adventure with wry suspense, this new look at an old concept is magnificent fun and promises even greater thrills and chills to come.

This book also includes a vast, sublime and expansive cover-and-variants gallery by Cassaday, Mark Brooks, Sara Pichelli, Neal (not, as attributed, Arthur) Adams, Coipel, Skotti Young, Ryan Stegman, Adi Granov, Mark Texeira, J. Scott Campbell, Simone Bianchi and Milo Manara and a selection of now obligatory 21st century extra content for tech-savvy consumers in the form of AR icon sections.

These Marvel Augmented Reality App pages give access to story bonuses once you download the little dickens – free from marvel.com – onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

April 23, 2013April 22, 2013

Heroes for Hire: Civil War

By Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Billy Tucci, Francis Portela, Tom Palmer & Terry Pallot (Marvel)
ISBN 978-1-7851-2362-8

The Patriot Act changed America as much as the destruction of the World Trade Towers, and it’s fair to say that that popular arts grow from the social climate as much as the target audience. In post 9-11 America the creators and the consumers now think different thoughts in different ways. Thus the company that first challenged the middle-class suburban status quo of the comic industry in the late 1960s made Homeland Security and the exigencies of safety and liberty the themes of a major publishing event in 2006.

After a TV reality show starring superheroes went hideously wrong and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of children in Stamford, Connecticut, popular opinion turned massively against masked crusaders.

The Federal government quickly instituted and mandated a scheme to licence, train and regulate all metahumans but the plan split the superhero community and a terrified and indignant merely mortal populace quivered as a significant faction of their former defenders, led by the ultimate icon of Liberty, Captain America, refused to surrender their autonomy and in many cases, anonymity to the bureaucratic vicissitudes of the Superhuman Registration Act.

The Avengers and Fantastic Four, bedrock teams of the Marvel Universe, fragmented in scenes reminiscent of America’s War Between the States, with â€œbrother pitted against brotherâ€. As the conflict escalated it became clear to all involved that the increasingly bitter fighting was for souls as much as lives.

Both sides battled for love of Country and Constitution and both sides knew they were rightâ€¦

This collection, re-presenting issues #1-5 of the second Heroes for Hire comicbook series (from October 2006 to February 2007), gathers a particularly cogent and impressive sidebar sequence to the overarching epic Marvel Crossover Event which opens in the aftermath of the Stamford incident, as a panicked government attempts to enforce the hastily enacted legislation requiring every super-being in the USA to submit to the law.

Those who resist are guilty of treason, and of course the authorities need creatures as powerful and specialised as the resistors to tackle the problem of costumed malcontents and scofflawsâ€¦

Bionic detective Misty Knight and her ninja partner Colleen Wing are former associates of Power Man & Iron Fist and have revived their old firm Heroes for Hire to apprehend metas who refuse to comply.

The exact terms of their contract are revealed in ‘Taking it to the Streets’ parts 1 and 2, scripted by Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, illustrated by Billy Tucci, Francis Portela & Tom Palmer. Specifically recruited by Iron Man, Spider-Man and Fantastic Four leader Reed Richards, the former Daughters of the Dragon and their team – acrobatic ex-thief Black Cat, Kung Fu Master Shang-Chi, insect avatar Humbug, Atlantean powerhouse Orka, sadistic martial artist Tarantula and veteran mercenary Paladin – will never be asked to arrest any of their errant superhero colleagues, but only take down super-villains who won’t registerâ€¦

Their first public appearance finds the new team getting to know each other even as they hunt down technologically-augmented samurai dubbed â€œMandarin’s Avatarsâ€ and a crime-ring led by old arch-foe Vienna offering new identities to a host of minor meta-felons.

Humbug’s ability to communicate with all insects leads the squad unerringly to the mastermind’s hideout but it’s a trap and a massive battle ensues. However, in this harsh new world, there’s no honour amongst thieves â€“ or anyone else â€“ and soon everybody is embroiled in a string of double and even triple crossesâ€¦

The saga takes a dark turn after the first rebel fatality incites a bitter argument in the team and Misty agrees to find – but not arrest – the fugitive Captain America and invite him to truce talks. The hunt leads to an illicit lab where villains are being surgically altered with organs culled from shape-shifting alien Skrulls; enabling criminals to alter their physical appearances and even conceal their powersâ€¦

In the meantime the search for the leading dissident and rebel bears fruit as the Sentinel of Liberty agrees to talks, only for Paladin to betray his own comrades and capture the ultimate Avenger for the huge bounty on his star-spangled headâ€¦

The story concludes in ‘Civil Disobedience’ (with Portela taking on the major portion of the illustration) as Paladin discovers he’s been tricked by Misty’s most honourable team-mate. With Cap and his dissidents allowed to safely escape, Misty and Co. perforce return to the problem of the sinister surgeons – who have been very busy indeed – if only to prove Heroes for Hire is still of use to the governmentâ€¦

After a squad of augmented villains break crime-boss Ricadonna out of prison, she quickly begins taking her long-anticipated vengeance on Knight and Wing. The first step is blowing up the Federal stooges HQâ€¦

This first volume concludes with two untitled tales (inked by Palmer and Terry Pallot) as the maniacal Ricadonna tasks her army of super-powered, Skrull-flavoured minions with ambushing Misty’s team in unguarded moments. The resultant death and destruction provokes a thoroughly understandable and excessively violent response from the Heroes for Hire who raid the finally-found surgical facility and begin cleaning up all those warrants on the Government’s most wanted list.

Unfortunately, Ricadonna has been under the surgeons’ knives and recreated herself as a veritable legion of monstersâ€¦

Gritty, witty, fast-paced and spectacularly action-packed, this sharp, edgy collection is a largely forgotten gem from a frequently heavy-handed and often pompous mega-event which offers spills, chills and thrills to delight older fans of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction.

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