Graphic Novels – Page 105

March 6, 2018February 22, 2018

Captain Marvel: Marvel Masterworks volume 2

By Roy Thomas, Arnold Drake, Gary Friedrich, Archie Goodwin, Gil Kane, Don Heck, Dick Ayers, Frank Springer, Tom Sutton, John Buscema, Gene Colan & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2430-6 (HB)

After more than a decade as an also-ran and occasional up-and-comer, by 1968 Marvel Comics was in the ascendant. Their sales were rapidly catching up with industry leaders National/DC Comics and Gold Key, and the House of Ideas had finally secured a new distribution deal allowing them to expand their list of titles exponentially.

Once the stars of â€œtwin-booksâ€ Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish and Strange Tales all won their own titles, the new concepts just kept coming.

One dead-cert idea was a hero named for the company – and one with some popular cachet and nostalgic pedigree as well. After the DC/Fawcett court case of the 1940s-1950s, the name Captain Marvel had disappeared from the newsstands.

In 1967, during a superhero boom/camp craze generated by the Batman TV show, publisher MLF secured rights to the name and produced a number of giant-sized comics featuring an intelligent robot who (which?) could divide his body into segments and shoot lasers from his eyes.

Quirkily charming and devised by the legendary Carl (Human Torch) Burgos, the feature nevertheless did not attract a large following. On its demise, the name was quickly snapped up by the ever-expanding Marvel Comics Group.

Marvel Super-Heroes was a brand-new title: it had been the giant-sized reprint vehicle Fantasy Masterpieces, combining reprint monster and mystery tales with Golden Age Timely Comics mystery men classics, but with #12 it added an experimental section for characters without homes such as Medusa, Ka-Zar, Black Knight and Doctor Doom.

The title also debuted new concepts like Guardians of the Galaxy, Phantom Eagle and, to start the ball rolling, a troubled alien spy sent to Earth from the Kree Galaxy. He held a Captain’s rank and his name was Mar-Vell.

All that and even more candid, behind-the-scenes historical revelations are contained in series-author Roy Thomas’ effusive Introduction before this cosmically conceived tome – available in hardcover and digital editions – kicks off. On offer are the contents of Captain Marvel #10-21 collectively spanning cover-dates February 1969 to August 1970 plus a little comedy treat from Not Brand Echh # 9 (August 1968)â€¦

Following the destruction of a long-dormant, mechanoid Kree Sentry and the subsequent defeat by the Fantastic Four of Ronan the Accuser – mighty high official of those long-lost extraterrestrials – the millennia-old empire was once again interested in Earth.

They despatched a surveillance mission to learn everything about us but unfortunately for them, the agent they chose was a man of conscience. However, his commanding officer Colonel Yon-Rogg was merciless taskmaster and secretly a ruthless rival for the love of the ship’s medical officer Una.

No sooner did the good captain make a tentative planet-fall than he clashed with the US army from the local missile base (often hinted at as being Cape Kennedy). Soon though he began fighting for the humans and was mistaken by many – including Security officer Carol Danvers – for a crusading costumed superheroâ€¦

To further his mission, Mar-Vell also assumed the identity of deceased military consultant Dr. Walter Lawson: but was quickly discovering that the dearly departed scientist concealed a chequered and probably nefarious past which created a whole raft of new problems for the undercover alien infiltratorâ€¦

The war of nerves with Yon-Rogg had intensified to the point that the colonel was openly planning murder and the romantic bond to Una was fractured when Carol Danvers began making her own overtures to the heroic Marvel.

Thus, when Ronan orders Mar-Vell to make allies of Lawson’s super-scientific criminal syndicate – at the cost of Carol’s life – the hero ignores his orders and pays the penalty as he is arrested by his own crew and faces a firing squad in #10’s ‘Die Traitor!’ (scripted by Arnold Drake and illustrated by Don Heck & Vince Colletta).

He is only saved by an ambush perpetrated by the survivors of an Aakon ship Yon-Rogg had previously targeted in #11’s ‘Rebirth!’ (illustrated by new penciller Dick Ayers). In the aftermath, however, the Kree colonel traps his despised rival on a missile hurtling into infinity and assumes his problems are over.

During the battle author Drake took the opportunity to kill off – as nobly as possible – the insipid Medic Una, giving staunch Mar-Vell justifiable reason to openly rebel against his entire race and be reborn under the tutelage of a cosmic entity known only as Zo! who saved the trapped hero from death in the voidâ€¦

Moribund for months, this new beginning with the honourable, dutiful soldier remade as a vengeful vigilante was a real shot in the arm, but it was still quite clear that Captain Marvel the comic was struggling to find an audience. ‘The Moment ofâ€¦ the Man-Slayer!‘ (Drake, Ayers and the great Syd Shores) sees the newly super-powered hero gifted with a whole new power set by Zo! and return to Earth.

He is hunting Yon-Rogg but soon distracted by a marauding synthetic assassin at The Cape, in a taut spy-thriller with The Black Widow in deadly guest-star mode.

‘Traitors or Heroes?’ concludes the Man-Slayer storyline with Gary Friedrich, Frank Springer & Vince Colletta as creative team, with the Captain finally confronting Yon-Rogg. The villain escapes by threatening Carolâ€¦

In #14’s ‘When a Galaxy Beckonsâ€¦’ the Captain clashes with an entranced Puppet Master-controlled Iron Man as part of an early experiment in multi-part cross-overs (Sub-Mariner #14 and Avengers #64 being the other parts of the triptych) before leaving Earthâ€¦ forever, he believesâ€¦

The going gets all cosmic in #15 (magnificently illustrated by Tom Sutton & Dan Adkins in a boldly experimental manner) as ‘That Zo Might Liveâ€¦ A Galaxy Must Die!’ sees Mar-Vell return to his home world on a mission of total destruction that wraps up the first career of Captain Marvel in spectacular style.

Beguiled and grateful, the hero revisits his homeworld determined to obliterate it for his almighty sponsor only to uncover an incredible conspiracy before the awesome truth is exposed in #16’s ‘Behind the Mask of Zo!’ by Archie Goodwin, Heck & Shores.

This yarn is the first great â€œeverything you know is wrongâ€ story in Marvel history and captivatingly makes sense of all the previous issues, supplying a grand resolution and providing a solid context for the total revamp of the character to come. That’s how good a writer Archie Goodwin was. And if you read Roy Thomas’s aforementioned Introduction, a clandestine creative secret is finally revealedâ€¦

Captain Marvel #16 is a magical issue and I’m being deliberately vague in case you have yet to read it, but I will tell you the ending. After saving the entire Kree Empire Mar-Vell is flying back to Earth in his new red-&-blue costume, when he is suddenly sucked into the anti-matter hell of the Negative Zoneâ€¦

It’s probably best to think of everything previously discussed as prelude, since Captain Marvel as we know him really begins with #17 as Thomas, Gil Kane & Dan Adkins totally retool and upgrade the character.

‘And a Child Shall Lead You!’ sees the imperilled Kree warrior inextricably bonded to voice-of-a-generation and professional side-kick Rick Jones who – just like Billy Batson (the boy who turned into the original Fawcett hero by shouting â€œShazam!â€) – switched places with a mighty adult hero when danger loomed.

As thrilling, and as revolutionary as the idea of a comic written from the viewpoint of teenager was, the real magic comes from the phenomenally kinetic artwork of Kane – whose mesmeric staging of the perfect human form in motion rewrote the book on superhero illustration with this series.

Issue #18 at last categorically ended the Yon-Rogg saga and started Carol Danvers on her own super-hero career as the Mar-Vell swore ‘Vengeance is Mine!’ – with a last minute pinch-hit pencilling from John Buscema for the concluding nine pages – before the next issue moved firmly into the â€œRelevancy Eraâ€ (where realism and themes of social injustice replaced aliens and super-villains as comics fodder) with a crazed sociologist and too-benevolent landlord revealed as ‘The Mad Master of the Murder Maze!’.

And that’s when the series was cancelled.

As happened so often during that tempestuous period, cutting edge, landmark, classic comic-books just didn’t sell. Silver Surfer, Green Lantern/Green Arrow and a host of other series we today consider high points of the form were axed because they couldn’t find enough of the right audience, but Captain Mar-Vell refused to die. Six months later issue #20 was released, and the quality was still improving with every page.

‘The Hunter and the Holocaust’ has Rick attempt to free his trapped body-and-soulmate by consulting old mentor Bruce Banner. But en route, a tornado destroys a town and Mar-Vell first renders assistance and then fights off resource-looters the Rat Pack. With the next issue Cap and Rick’s mentor finally meet, in ‘Here Comes the Hulk!’ but that’s just a garnish on this tale of student unrest and manipulative intolerance. The book was cancelled again after thatâ€¦ only to return some more!

Although those tales are saved for another time, there are still a few goodies to enjoy. First of these is a spoof strip from Marvel’s own parody comic Not Brand Echh # 9. ‘Captain Marvin: Where Stomps the Scent-ry! or Out of the Holocaustâ€¦ Hoo-Boy!!’ is by Thomas, Gene Colan & Frank Giacoia : funny or painful depending on your attitude, but also included are some pencilled pages and sketches that are the answer to every wannabe artist’s dreams.

These include a Marie Severin cover rough for #10, Kane’s layout for #17, page 19 and three pin-ups by Kane & Adkins. Glorious!

This is not Marvel’s best character, and much of the material collected here is rather poor. However, the good stuff is some of the very best the company has produced in its entire history. If you want to see how good superhero comics can be you’ll just have to take the rough with the smoothâ€¦ and who knows? Maybe you’ll learn to lower your standard a bit and enjoy yourself despite it allâ€¦

I often doâ€¦
Â© 1968, 1969, 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

March 5, 2018March 2, 2018

Superman: Escape from Bizarro World

By Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, Eric Powell, Otto Binder, E. Nelson Bridwell, John Byrne, Wayne Boring, Curt Swan & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1794-5 (HB)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â : 978-1-4012-2033-4 (TPB)

One of the most consistent motifs in fiction is the â€œDark Oppositeâ€ or â€œplayer on the other sideâ€: a complete yet closely identical antithesis of the protagonist. Rock yourself to sleep at night if you wish, by listing deadly doppelgangers from Professor Moriarty to Sabretooth to Gladstone Ganderâ€¦

Sometimes though the word is not â€œdarkâ€ but â€œdaftâ€â€¦

Bizarro debuted in comics during ‘The Battle with Bizarro!’ Crafted by Otto Binder & George Papp, he was a tragic, misunderstood freak and unwilling monster in a captivating 3-part novel in Superboy #68, (October 1958).

Now celebrating sixty years of quirky comicbook un-life, the imperfect Superman duplicate has evolved into a potent symbol in the Man of Tomorrow’s mythology and humanity, with his childlike simplicity and complex, often-baffling reverse reasoning (â€œUs Bizarros Do Everything Backwards!â€) perplexing and delighting generations of readersâ€¦

The shambling simpleton’s odd yet enduring appeal even brought lauded film director Richard Donner back to the characters he had transformed into global sensations in Superman: The Movie and Superman II. This volume collects Action Comics #855-857 from October – December 2007, plus earlier appearances from Superman #140, DC Comics Presents #71 and The Man of Steel #5.

Following Brian K. Vaughn’s Introduction ‘This Am Not One of the Best Bizarro Tales Ever Told!’, the lead saga eerily commences: co-written by Donner’s old assistant and super-scripter Geoff Johns, with macabre and stylish illustration from Eric Powell and colourist Dave Stewart.

One night in Smallville, the Kent home is broken into. By the time Superman arrives his mother Martha has recovered her wits and tells how Bizarro blasted in, snatching up Jonathan Kent.

It called him â€œfatherâ€ as it bundled him into a rocket and soared awayâ€¦

Consulting his Fortress of Solitude computers, Kal-El take precautions against his deduced destination’s blue sun before taking ship in hot pursuitâ€¦

On arrival, Superman is astounded to see square world Htrae, but even more so on landing when he is brutally attacked by a mob of zombie-like Bizarro creatures led by imperfect duplicates of Clark Kent and Lois Laneâ€¦

Superman clashes with the Kent clone, accidentally exposing it as his imperfect double. The other creatures immediately switch their murderous attentions to Bizarro, declaring him â€œWorld’s Worst Enemyâ€ and the Kryptonian interloper a â€œBizarro Bizarroâ€. The enraged doppelganger’s response is to obliterate the marauding mob with flame breathâ€¦

The super-struggle rampages across the countryside, ending with the Man of Tomorrow’s defeat. The triumphant terror resumes his original task: quizzing Pa Kent on how to destroy Bizarro Worldâ€¦

‘Escape from Bizarro World Part II’ resumes the grim tale with glimpses of Bizarro’s well-meaning but disastrous time on Earth, why he left and how the incredible square planet was created. The power of the blue sun is also revealed to have given the flawed duplicate the gift of creating companions to populate this strange new worldâ€¦

Those semi-sentient souls are currently debating how best to be rid of Bizarro and his smooth pink-skinned Perfect Duplicate as a leader rises amongst them. Bizarro Luthor conceives a cunning plan and a â€œSekrit Wepinâ€ he readily unleashesâ€¦

The unstoppable Bizarro Doomsday tracks his targets to the Fourtriss uv Bizarro and tears through an army of analogues mirroring Superman’s friends and foes. Taking advantage of the distraction, Kal-El frees his father, only to be faced with the faux Luthor and his zombie-mob. Suddenly, Bizarro is beside him, ready to help defend Pa, as the seemingly unstoppable Doomsday double launches itself at themâ€¦

Lunacy and Deus ex Machina moments abound as the conclusion commences with a satellite full of Bizarro Justice Leaguers landing on the dire killer resulting in an all-out brawl. With insanity mounting, Jonathan, Superman & Bizarro brainstorm a devious ploy to save the day and restore what passes for order to the cubic planetâ€¦

A glorious fun-filled, action-packed tribute to the anodyne insanity of the Silver Age, Escape from Bizarro World is a delightful Halloween commemoration of simpler times which you can then sample first-hand as the rest of this splendid compilation (available in hardback, trade paperback and eBook editions) provides a trio of vintage yarns starring the Imperfect Icon.

Bracketed with fond and informative commentary from Geoff Johns, ‘Bizarro Through the Years’ first re-presents Superman #140 (October 1960). Although later played for laughs in his own series, most of the earlier appearances of the warped double were generally moving or menacing light-tragedies, such as Binder, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye’s ‘The Son of Bizarro!’

Here the fractured facsimile and his wife Bizarro-Lois produced a perfect human baby. The fast-growing, bonny-looking tyke had a full set of super-powers but was naturally shunned by the populace of the world of freaks he was born on.

Thus, his simple-minded, heartbroken father had no choice but to exile his son in space where chance brought the lad crashing to Earth as ‘The Orphan Bizarro!’. Placed in the same institution where Supergirl secretly resided, â€œBaby Busterâ€ soon became a constant headache for the Girl of Steel until an unlikely accident seemingly mutated the nipper just as his distraught father came looking for him at the head of an angry army of enraged Superman duplicates.

A devastating battle was narrowly avoided and a happy ending only materialised with the introduction of ‘The Bizarro Supergirl!’â€¦

DC Comics Presents was a Superman team-up vehicle with #71 (July 1984) featuring a truly outrageous escapade by E. Nelson Bridwell, Curt Swan & Dave Hunt. ‘The Mark of Bizarro!’ saw Bizarro – bored with his lack of awesome adventures alongside the Bizarro Justice League – create a really challenging menace in the malformed shape of Bizarro Amazo.

Whereas the original copied super-powers for his own gain, the new nasty steals them with the intention of donating them to somebody without extra abilities. Finding no one qualifying on Htrae, Bizarro Amazo heads for Earth, forcing Superman to ally with his own befuddled duplicate to curtail complete chaosâ€¦

The final rerun comes from The Man of Steel #5, cover-dated December 1986.

When DC Comics rationalised and reconstructed their continuity with Crisis on Infinite Earths, they used the event to regenerate their key properties. The biggest shake-up was Superman and it’s hard to argue that change was unnecessary. The old soldier was in a bit of a slump, but he’d weathered those before. So how could a root and branch overhaul be anything but a marketing ploy that would alienate real fans for a few fly-by-night chancers who would jump ship as soon as the next fad surfaced?

Superman’s titles were cancelled/suspended for three months, and boy, did that make the media sit-up and take notice – for the first time since Donner’s Christopher Reeve movies.

However, there was method in this corporate madnessâ€¦

The Man of Steel, written and drawn by Byrne and inked by Dick Giordano, stripped away vast amounts of accumulated baggage and returned the hero to the far-from-omnipotent, edgy yet good-hearted reformer Siegel and Shuster had first envisioned.

It was a huge and instant success, becoming the industry’s premiere break-out hit and from that overwhelming start Superman returned to his suspended comicbook homes with the addition of a third monthly title premiering in the same month.

The miniseries presented six complete stories from key points in Superman’s newly retrofitted career and continuity: reconstructed in the wake of the aforementioned Crisis. By the fifth issue Lex Luthor was his greatest foe and this episode deals with the creation of Bizarro – cloned by the brilliant villain from illegally acquired Superman cells.

The creature was intended to give the richest man in Metropolis a super-slave of his own, but the flawed process resulted in a rapidly-degenerating freak whose uncontrolled depredations terrorised the city more than imperilling the true Action Ace.

Moreover – and echoing the very first Bizarro tale – the beast sacrificed itself in a generous act, using its own essence to restore the sight of Lois Lane’s blind sister Lucyâ€¦

With covers by Powell & Stewart, Swan & Stan Kaye, Eduardo Barreto and Byrne, this comic capsule of crazed counterfeit costumed crusader capers offers fun and fearsome frenzy in equal amounts: a deliciously offbeat outing for the World’s Finest Hero, and proves yet again that imitation is the sincerest and most effective form of flattery.
Â© 2007, 1960, 1984, 1986, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

March 3, 2018February 25, 2018

Avengers Epic Collection Volume 4: Beholdâ€¦ The Vision

By Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Barry Windsor-Smith, Sal Buscema, Gene Colan, Frank Giacoia, Howard Purcell & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9165-0

One of the most momentous events in comics history came in the middle of 1963 when a disparate gang of heroic individual banded together to combat an apparently out of control Incredible Hulk.

The Avengers combined most of the company’s fledgling superhero line in one bright, shiny and highly commercial package. Over the intervening decades the roster has unceasingly changed, and now almost every character in the Marvel multiverse has at some time numbered amongst their colourful ranksâ€¦

The Avengers always proved that putting all one’s star eggs in on single basket can pay off big-time. Even when all Marvel Royalty such as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man are absent, it merely allows the team’s lesser lights to shine more brightly.

Of course, the founding stars always regularly feature due to a rotating, open door policy ensuring most issues include somebody’s fave-rave. After instigators Stan Lee & Jack Kirby moved on, the team prospered under the guidance of Roy Thomas who grew into one of the industry’s most impressive writers, guiding the World’s Mightiest Heroes through a range of adventures ranging from sublimely poetic to staggeringly epicâ€¦

This fourth trade paperback compilation – also available in eBook iterations – collects Avengers #57-79, plus a solo saga starring a soon to be recruited addition from Marvel Super-Heroes #17 collectively covering October 1968 to August 1970.

This all-action extravaganza opens with the introduction of a new character with John Buscema and George Klein illustrating the 2-part introduction of possibly the most intriguing of all the team’s roster.

‘Beholdâ€¦ the Vision!’ and the concluding ‘Even an Android Can Cry’ retrofitted an old Joe Simon & Jack Kirby hero from the Golden Age (an extra-dimensional mystery-man) into a high-tech, eerie, amnesiac artificial man with complete control of his mass and density: playing him as the ultimate outsider, lost and utterly alone in a world that could never, never understand him.

After attacking the team but inexplicably stopping short of killing the human heroes, the then-nameless â€œVisionâ€ led the Avengers into astounding adventure as the enigma of his creation unfolded.

It was revealed that he/it had been built by the relentless, remorseless robotic Ultron-5 to destroy the Avengers and especially his own creator Henry Pym. Furthermore, the mechanical mastermind had used the brain pattern of deceased hero and fallen Avenger Wonder Man as a cerebral template. Perhaps that was a mistake since the synthetic man apparently overruled his programming to help defeat his maniac makerâ€¦

Avengers #59 and 60, ‘The Name is Yellowjacket’ and ‘â€¦Till Death do us Part!’ (the latter inked by Mike Esposito moonlighting as Mickey DeMeo) saw Goliath and the Wasp finally wed after the heroic Dr. Pym is seemingly replaced by a new insect-themed hero, with a horde of heroic guest-stars and the murderous Circus of Evil in attendance, followed here in swift succession by another of Marvel’s increasingly popular and commonplace crossovers.

‘Some Say the World Will End in Fireâ€¦ Some Say in Ice!’ concluded a storyline from Doctor Strange #178 wherein a satanic cult unleashed Norse demons Surtur and Ymir to destroy the planet, with occasional ally the Black Knight adding his recently acquired mystic prowess to the defence of the realm.

He hung around for ‘The Monarch and the Man-Ape!’ in Avengers #63; a brief and interlude in hidden nation Wakanda and a brutal exploration of African Avenger Black Panther‘s history and rivals – most notably a usurping super-strong trusted regent declaring himself M’Baku the Man-Apeâ€¦

The next issue began a 3-part tale illustrated by Gene Colan & Klein whose lavish humanism was intriguingly at odds with the team’s usual art style. ‘And in this Cornerâ€¦ Goliath!’, ‘Like a Death Ray from the Sky!’ and ‘Mightier than the Sword?’ (the final chapter inked by Sam Grainger) was part of a broader tale; another early crossover experiment intersecting with both Sub-Mariner and Captain Marvel issues #14, wherein a coterie of cerebral second-string villains combined to conquer the world by stealthâ€¦

Within the Avengers portion of proceedings, Hawkeye revealed his civilian identity to be circus performer Clint Barton and recounted his origins before forsaking his bow and trick-arrows to become a size-changing hero and subsequently adopting the now-vacant name Goliath. Along the way the team scotched a terror satellite scheme cooked up by Egghead and enforced by the sinister Swordsmanâ€¦

Another triple-chapter story-arc followed; giving new kid Barry (Winsor) Smith a chance to show just how good he was going to become.

Inked by the legendary Syd Shores, ‘Betrayal!’ (#66) reveals how the development of new super metal Adamantium triggers a long-dormant back-up program in the Vision who is slavishly compelled to reconstruct his destroyed creatorâ€¦

As ‘We Stand atâ€¦ Armageddon!’ (Smith & Klein opens), adamantium-reinforced Ultron-6 is moments away from world domination and the nuking of New York when a now truly independent Vision violently intercedes before dramatic conclusion ‘â€¦And We Battle for the Earth’ (illustrated by young Sal Buscema & Sam Grainger) sees the team – augmented by Thor and Iron Man – prove that the only answer to an unstoppable force is an unparalleled mindâ€¦

In Avengers #69 ‘Let the Game Begin’ (Thomas, Sal Buscema & Grainger) finds the team – Captain America, Yellowjacket, Wasp, Goliath, Vision and Thor – called to the hospital bedside of ailing Tony Stark just in time to prevent his abduction by the grotesque and gargantuan Growing Man. After battling boldly against the unbeatable homunculus, the team are summarily and collectively snatched into the future by old enemy Kang the Conqueror who co-opts the team to act as pieces in a cosmic chess-game with an omnipotent alien called the Grandmaster.

If the Avengers fail – Earth would be eradicated from the cosmosâ€¦

Issues #70 and 71 began a fertile period for writer Thomas as he introduced two new teams who would, in the fullness of time, star in their own stellar series: Squadron Supreme and The Invaders.

‘When Strikes the Squadron Sinister!’ sees the Avengers returned to their own time to battle a team of deadly villains (mischievously based on DC’s Justice League of America) before ‘Endgame!’ – guest-starring the Black Knight – finds the Vision, Black Panther and Yellowjacket dispatched to 1941 to clash with the WWII incarnations of the Sub-Mariner, Human Torch and Captain Americaâ€¦

After foiling Kang’s ambitions and surviving his betrayal the team victoriously return to the present where Avengers # 72 offered a guest-appearance from Captain Marvel and Rick Jones.

‘Did You Hear the One About Scorpio?’ also debuts malignantly menacing super-mob Zodiac, after which ‘The Sting of the Serpent’ (illustrated by Frank Giacoia & Grainger) pits the Panther against seditious hate-mongers determined to set New York ablaze, leading to a spectacular and shocking clash between Avengers and the Sons of the Serpent in ‘Pursue the Panther!’; the first in a string of glorious issues illustrated by the artistic dream team of John Buscema & Tom Palmer.

Long-missing mutant Avengers Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch resurfaced in #75, desperate to warn of and stave off extra-dimensional invasion and nuclear Armageddon by Conan prototype Arkon the Magnificent in ‘The Warlord and the Witch!’ before the staggering threat is finally extinguished in ‘The Blaze of Battleâ€¦ the Flames of Love!’

As the tone of the times shifted and other titles entered a period of human-scaled storytelling dubbed â€œRelevancyâ€, a far more mundane and insidious menace manifested as billionaire financier Cornelius Van Lunt manoeuvres to bankrupt Avengers sponsor Tony Stark, compelling the team to become the mystery magnate’s ‘Heroes for Hire!’

With the end of the book fast approaching here, Sal Buscema popped in to pencil ‘The Man-Ape Always Strikes Twice!’ as the team are targeted by a coterie of vengeful villains competing to join a new league of evil, spectacularly culminating in a grand clash with the aforementioned anthropoid, Swordsman, Power Man, Living Laser and the Grim Reaper in ‘Lo! The Lethal Legion!’, which concluding chapter also heralded the artistic return of Big Brother Johnâ€¦.

Chronologically adrift but adding plenty of bonus thrills, the comics adventures end for now with ‘The Black Knight Reborn!’ by Thomas, Howard Purcell & Dan Adkins from try-out title Marvel Super-Heroes #17 (November 1968). Here American part-time superhero Dane Whitman inherits an English castle and discovers through ghostly intervention that he is the last descendent of King Arthur’s trusty comrade Percy of Scandia – history’s first Black Knight and Merlin’s last resort against all forces of evil.

Gifted with a mystic ebony blade that can cut through anything, Dane readies himself to fight the good fight in modern times. He soon becomes painfully aware that the malign ghostly spirit of vile Modred is also abroad and empowering dupes such as French derelict Le Sabre with magical weapons to end his crusade before it can even beginâ€¦

Unceasingly enticing and always evergreen, these timeless sagas defined and cemented the Marvel experience and are a joy no fans of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction should deny themselves or their kids.
Â© 1968, 1969, 1970, 2015 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

March 1, 2018February 25, 2018

Fantastic Four Marvel Masterworks volume 8

By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6294-0 (PB)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â : 978-0-7851-1694-3 (HB)

The monolith of Marvel truly began with the adventures of a small super-team who were as much squabbling family as coolly capable costumed champions. Everything the company produces now comes due to the quirky quartet and the groundbreaking, inspired efforts of Stan Lee and Jack Kirbyâ€¦

This full-colour compendium – also available in hardcover, trade paperback and digital editions – collects Fantastic Four #72-81 plus the epic Fantastic Four Annual #6: spanning March – December 1968 with Stan & Jack outdoing themselves with every successive issue to cement their reputation as the greatest team in comicsâ€¦

What You Should Already Know: maverick scientist Reed Richards, his fiancÃ© Sue Storm, their close friend Ben Grimm – with Sue’s teenaged tag-along little brother – miraculously survived an ill-starred private space-shot after Cosmic rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding and mutated them all.

Richards’ body became elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible and project forcefields, Johnny Storm could turn into living flame and tragic Ben devolved into a shambling, rocky freak. The they agreed to use their abilities to benefit mankind and thus was born The Fantastic Four.

Following another effusive Introduction from Lee the drama opens with the team in crisis. With a baby due Reed and Sue had resigned, leaving The Thing, Johnny and his Inhuman girlfriend Crystal to hold the fort just as cosmic calamity came calling.

In ‘Where Soars the Silver Surfer!’ the sky-born wanderer imprisoned on Earth by the world-devouring Galactus went cage-crazy and attacked humanity, forcing Reed’s return, after which FF #73 presented a classic crossover and the conclusion to a long-running Daredevil story wherein the sightless crusader is ousted from his own body by Iron Tyrant Doctor Doom.

Warning the FF of imminent attack, the Man without Fear then subsequently defeats Doom on his own but neglects to tell the heroes of his victoryâ€¦

Outmatched and unable to convince them any other way, DD enlists currently de-powered Mighty Thor and the ever-eager Spider-Man in to solve the problem Marvel style – with a spectacular pointless and utterly riveting punch-up – in ‘The Flames of Battleâ€¦’â€¦

The Surfer was back in #74 ‘When Calls Galactus’ as the planet-eater returns to Terran skies demanding that his one-time herald once more become his food-finding slave. However, despite his increasingly violent and world-shaking probing and the FF’s holding action against the ravenous invader’s robotic Punisher, Galactus cannot locate his target.

That’s because the Surfer has already – and utterly obliviously – departed for ‘World Within Worlds!’, forcing Reed, Ben and Johnny to follow to save humanity from cosmic consumption. When the pioneering micronauts are subsequently attacked by sadistic alien Psycho Man our heroes are ‘Stranded in Sub-Atomica!’

As they struggle to survive, Galactus applies ever-more pressure in ‘Shall Earth Endure?’ until the now-fully-apprised Surfer turns himself in to save Earth by finding the great Devourer an alternative snack.

His reward is to be summarily returned to his captivity here as soon as ungrateful Galactus finishes feeding (just in time to begin his own landmark series – but that’s the subject of another review, another timeâ€¦)

Meanwhile, after trashing Psycho Man and getting home, Reed and the gang risk another attempt to cure Ben Grimm in FF #78. The procedure goes tragically awry in ‘The Thing No More!’, due to inopportune interference from old foe The Wizard before, in #79, the now human Ben chooses to return to his rocky state to save his friends from the bludgeoning Android Man and possibly remain ‘A Monster Forever?’.

A brief change of pace then takes the team to the Tribal Lands of old friend Wyatt Wingfoot to solve an eerie mystery and save the Indian oil fields from deadly subversion ‘Where Treads the Living Totem!‘ before the sixth Annual features – at long last – the birth of Reed and Sue’s baby (known to us now as Franklin Richards).

Unfortunately, the happy event almost never happens since the transformative cosmic rays which gave the team their powers have affected the pregnancyâ€¦

Desperate for a miracle cure, Reed, Ben and Johnny scour the antimatter Negative Zone and are confronted by a monstrous creature named Annihilus whose power is the only thing that can prevent the death of Sue and her unborn child. ‘Let There Beâ€¦ Life!’ is a groundbreaking 48-page epic that is as stunning to read now as it ever was, passionate, thrilling and mind-boggling in its visual intensity.

With Sue a new mother faithful Crystal then elects herself the first new official member of the Fantastic Four and promptly shows her mettle by pulverizing the incorrigible glutton-for-punishment Wizard in #81’s all-action romp ‘Enterâ€¦ the Exquisite Elemental!’ to conclude this superb chronological catalogue of fabulously compelling Fights ‘n’ Tights tales.

Did I say concludes? Not quite as this book still finds room for a selection of astounding original art pencil pages of Kirby to further dazzle the senses.

Perfect comics, perfectly packaged. What are you waiting for?
Â© 1968, 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 27, 2018February 26, 2018

Black Panther: Marvel Masterworks volume 2

By Jack Kirby, Ed Hannigan, Jim Shooter, Chris Claremont, Jerry Bingham, John Byrne & various (Marvel Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0020-5 (HB)

Acclaimed as the first black superhero in American comics – and one of the first to carry his own series – the Black Panther‘s popularity and fortunes have waxed and waned since his debut.

The Black Panthers rule over a fantastic African paradise which isolated itself from the rest of the world millennia ago. Blessed with unimaginable resources – both natural and not so much – the nation of Wakanda developed uninterrupted into the most technologically advanced human nation on Earth, utterly unmolested by rapacious European imperialism.

The country has also never been conquered and the primary reason is an unbroken line of divinely-sponsored warrior kings who safeguard united tribes. The other is a certain miraculous super-mineral found nowhere else on Earthâ€¦

In contemporary times that chieftain is T’Challa: an unbeatable, super-smart, feline-empowered strategic genius who divides his time between ruling at home and serving abroad in superhero teams such as The Avengers, Fantastic Force, The Illuminati and The Ultimates beside costumed champions such as Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Captain Marvel, Thor and Captain Americaâ€¦

This stunning hardback collection – also available in eBook and digital formats – gathers the stories from Black Panther volume 1 #1-15 (January 1977 to May 1979) which initially disappointed a legion of fans who were expecting a conclusion or continuance to the long-lauded Don MacGregor epic ‘The Panther Versus The Klan’.

That convoluted yarn had been abruptly cancelled the previous year, but happily this tome also includes the contents of Marvel Premiere #51-53 (December 1979-April 1980) which eventually provided an ending to the Klan clash and an acceptable in-universe explanation as to why wise and noble T’Challa abruptly dropped his hunt for answers and abandoned his adored beloved Monica Lynneâ€¦

There’s even a little extra bonus yarn originally seen in Marvel Team-Up #100â€¦

Jack Kirby’s return to Marvel in the mid 1970’s was much hyped at the time but swiftly proved to be controversial. His new creations (The Eternals, Devil Dinosaur, 2001, Machine Man) found friends rapidly, but his tenure on established earlier creations Captain America and Black Panther divided the fan base.

Kirby was never slavishly wedded to tight continuity and preferred, in many ways, to treat his stints on titles as another â€œDay Oneâ€. His commitment was to wholesome eye-popping adventure, breakneck action and breathless wonderment. Combined with his absolute mastery of the comic page and unceasing quest for the Next Big Thrill that makes for a captivating read, but will never satisfy those readers fully committed to the minutia of the Marvel Universe.

Beginning with Black Panther #1, what they got was a rollercoaster ride of classic Kirby concept-overload as the Hereditary King of a high-tech Lost Kingdom gallantly pursued fabulous time machines, fought future men and secret samurai clans, thwarted the plots of super-rich artefact stealers and foiled schemes to nuke his hidden homeland, usurp his rule and even consume his faithful subjectsâ€¦

Further discussion of that comicbook culture shock can be found in the Introduction by Christopher Priest – who took everything that had gone before and made the Panther his own after reviving the character in 1999 as part of the company’s mature-oriented Marvel Knights imprintâ€¦

However, this feline funfest is mostly about frantic action and begins at full pelt with a re-introductory romp that spotlights diminutive treasure hunter Abner Little. This devious gentleman entices T’Challa into a search for ‘King Solomon’s Frog!’ after introducing himself as a friend and colleague of the Panther’s grandfather Azzari the Wiseâ€¦

Soon the mismatched pair are in hot pursuit of an artefact that sows death and destruction in its wake. The ancient brass amphibian has the ability to open time-portals, bringing lethal threats from other eras, but its real capacity for catastrophe comes from Little’s rival Collectors, who bring astounding ordnance and unsurpassed riches into play in their own efforts to possess the mystic time-machine.

Most ruthless and relentless is Queen Zanda of Narobia, who expertly ambushes the questers with a highly-skilled mercenary taskforce before accidentally triggering the frog into shanghaiing a hyper-evolved walking WMD from his own far-distant eraâ€¦

Reluctantly uniting to sedate ‘The Six-Million Year Man’, T’Challa, Little and Zanda then race to uncover King Solomon’s tomb where a twin of the Brass Frog rests. This particular item possesses the most welcome function of returning objects and creatures to their point of originâ€¦

Their ‘Race Against Time’ is exacerbated as the groggy future-man revives just as the searchers locate the tomb, unleashing psionic hell and awakening King Solomon’s formidable funereal guardian Ogar. Thankfully, teamwork saves the day and the newly-found other frog restores order, if not sanityâ€¦

Tragically for the tomb-raiders, the time to determine if they are ‘Friends or Foes’ swiftly passes because the calamitous clashes have destabilised the long-lost treasury trove. With mighty explosions wracking the site, it is all T’Challa can do to drag his artefact-lusting companions to safety before Armageddon occursâ€¦

Unfortunately for the Panther, he has proved his worth and – with Wakanda still a nuclear target – ultimate ineffectuality. When the assembled Collectors – Zanda, Count Zorba, Colonel Pigman and withered coffin-dodger Silas Mourner – see the warrior king in battle they determine he must win for them the ultimate prizeâ€¦

The ‘Quest for the Sacred Water-Skin!!’ begins as T’Challa and equally-reluctant Abner Little set off to find a fabled hidden land where a sect of Samurai warriors have dwelt for centuries, sustained by honour, their martial arts and a literal fountain of youth.

Overcoming monsters and warriors, T’Challa establishes a bond of honour with the last proponents of Bushido, but sadly his venal companion upsets the applecart by secretly stealing ‘A Cup of Youth’â€¦

Meanwhile in Wakanda, internal trouble flares when the Panther’s half-brother General Jakarra makes a power-grab, bolstered by a sacrilegious utilisation of raw vibraniumâ€¦

Black Panther #7 sees the hero and his scurrilous sidekick escape the Samurai city even as ‘Drums!’ sound across Wakanda and the incredible secret origin of the Panther Cult and Vibranium Mound are revealed.

When the awesome sky metal first crashed to Earth in primordial times it transformed many men into monsters. Thankfully mighty chief Bashenga – taking the black cat as his totem – created a force to destroy the creatures and police the metal: preventing alien infection from spreading and forever after shielding his people through a line of dedicated defenders.

As the latest king heads for a final confrontation with the Collectors, T’Challa has no way of knowing his regent N’Gassi has been captured or that Jakarra has gained deadly power through exposure to the gene-warping force of raw Vibraniumâ€¦

Having battled his way free, T’Challa heads for home. His people, however, are already suffering the increasingly crazed depredations of a Jakarra no longer even remotely human.

Further delayed by a mercy mission – plucking dying men from the sea – the king bemoans his absence whilst half a world away, N’Gassi takes a desperate gamble and â€œrequestsâ€ that the sedentary royal cousins – Ishanta, Joshua Itobo, Khanata and Zuni – step up and lead the fight against Jakarra. But are they Panthers or Pussycats?’

Surprising everybody with a show of solidarity and unconventional tactics, the ‘Black Musketeers’ manage to contain the monstrous usurper until T’Challa returns, but his arrival coincides with the loss of Jakarra’s last vestige of humanity. Now a shambling beast resolved that ‘This World Shall Die!’ in an Earth-shattering detonation, the horrific abomination is barely defeated inside the Mound by a true Black Panther who does not escape the mineral’s mutagenic propertiesâ€¦

Issue #11 finds T’Challa recovering from his struggle against Jakarra and plagued by eerie recurring dreams of future battles. As citizens begin vanishing all over Wakanda – including Prince Khanata – the medical team reaches the conclusion that the king has developed some form of Extra-Sensory Perception.

This new gift – or perhaps curse? – leads the Panther to the abductors’ HQ where phantasmal madman ‘Kiber the Cruel’ is converting stolen humans to energy and consuming themâ€¦

Following ‘The Kiber Clue’, T’Challa strives mightily to save his kinsman and subjects, but arrives too late for anything but vengeanceâ€¦

As Jim Shooter, Ed Hannigan, Jerry Bingham & Gene Day take over from the abruptly departed Kirby, the saga swiftly wraps up with the true nature of Kiber grotesquely exposed and the Panther’s judgement delivered in #13’s ‘What isâ€¦ and What Should Never Be’â€¦

With Hannigan scripting, the Black Panther resoundingly re-entered the mainstream Marvel universe in ‘The Beasts in the Jungle!’ (#14 March 1979); opening Wakanda’s first Embassy in New York City, applying to the United Nations and rejoining his former allies in the Avengers.

Soon smothered in red tape and diplomatic hurdles, T’Challa welcomes working with his superhero guests but is quickly embroiled in a deadly scheme by old enemy Klaw, the Master of Sound, and blithely unaware that other relationships are about to be renewedâ€¦

After the resurgent villain battles the World’s Mightiest Heroes to a standstill, T’Challa manages to inflict the ‘Revenge of The Black Panther!’ in the final issue (May 1979), yet leaves everything on a cliffhanging note as Monic Lynne breaks into the Wakandan Embassyâ€¦

After years in limbo, Don McGregor’s Klan storyline was revisited and concluded when try-out title Marvel Premiere declared â€œThe Return of the Black Pantherâ€ with issue #51 (December 1979).

Opening minutes after Black Panther #15 ended, ‘The Killing of Windeagle!’ sees T’Challa arriving back at the Embassy only to be attacked by an unknown flying warrior who claims to be an old foe. After subduing the assailant, the King experiences even more turmoil as Monica Lynne and Georgia journalist Kevin Trublood accost him. Although his staff all seem familiar with the woman, T’Challa has no memory of herâ€¦

Granting an audience with the couple, the Panther hears how Monica’s sister Angela was murdered, and how the death seemed to involve both the Ku Klux Klan and rival offshoot the Dragon’s Circle. As he listens, T’Challa hears that for a time he was one of those murder investigators, but his mind is clouded and he recalls none of itâ€¦

Suddenly Windeagle attacks again but as the Panther fights back his opponent is assassinated by a sniperâ€¦

Working with the police, T’Challa uncovers the sordid history of a petty gangster who somehow became a flying fury and establishes links to yet another organisation: The Spiritual Light Society. At every turn events seem to be pushing him towards one inescapable conclusion: Monica’s ridiculous story is true and someone has tampered with his mind and memoryâ€¦

When they are ambushed again by armed thugs – later identified as Klansmen – their spirited resistance is supplemented by more sniper fire and the Panther’s ‘Journey Through the Past!’ impels him to invade a Klan gathering. This conclave is subsequently violently disrupted by a costumed maniac dubbed the Soul Stranglerâ€¦

Despite not remembering, the Panther believes he has deduced the nature of the civil war between the KKK and Dragon’s circle, and more importantly, who killed Angela. With resignation and trepidation, T’Challa, Kevin and Monica head for a showdown in the Deep Southâ€¦

Inked by Alan Gordon, Marvel Premiere #53 (April 1980) delivered ‘The Ending, In Anger!’ as T’Challa visits Monica’s family home and the dam in his memory finally shatters. Acting with clarity at last, the Black Panther tracks down the villains who captured and brainwashed him during his previous visit, exposes a tawdry truth behind all the death and intimidation and brings a kind of closure to all the innocents touched by the tragedyâ€¦

With the major story-arcs at last concluded it was back to relative obscurity and bit-parts for the Panther, with the exception of a short tale that would have huge repercussions on the hero’s life in the future.

‘Cryâ€¦ Vengeance!’ by Chris Claremont, John Byrne & Bob McLeod first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #100 (December 1980) and saw African X-Man Storm targeted by assassins. Easily defeating her attackers, she learned they were hired by Boer hardman Andreas de Ruyterâ€¦

This sent her mind winging back to her trek across Africa as teenager: an arduous trek made easier after she linked up with a young boy on his own rite of passage ritual. His name was T’Challa and she learned that he was a prince only after South African mercenaries led by de Ruyter tried to kidnap the boy for political advantage.

After driving the thugs off, the youngsters spent a brief but idyllic time together before their paths diverged and duty pulled them apart.

After decades apart, with the villain back seeking vengeance, Ororo reunited with the boy the world now knew as the Black Panther to end the maniac’s threat foreverâ€¦

This collection is also augmented by Kirby Editorial pages, house ads, a potted history of the Black Panther from #14, the Rich Buckler & McLeod cover to the never-released BP #16 and unused Bingham pencil pages.

An explosive rocket ride of thrills, spills, chills and too-long delayed gratification, these long-lost classics confirm the Black Panther as one of the most complex and versatile characters in comics and simply scream â€œRead me! Read me!â€ So you should and you mustâ€¦
Â© 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 2001, 2016 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 26, 2018February 25, 2018

Green Lantern Sector 2814 volume 2

By Len Wein, Paul Kupperberg, Steven Englehart, Dave Gibbons, Bill Willingham, Joe Staton, Bruce Patterson, Mark Farmer, Rich Rankin & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4078-3

When mortally wounded alien cop Abin Sur crashed on Earth he commanded his power ring – a device which could materialise thoughts – to seek out a replacement officer, honest and without fear. Scanning the planet, it selected brash young test pilot Hal Jordan in nearby Coast City, California and brought him to the crash-site. The dying alien bequeathed his ring, the lantern-shaped Battery of Power and his professional vocation to the astonished Earthman.

Over many traumatic years, Jordan grew into one of the greatest members of a serried band of law-enforcers. The Green Lantern Corps protected the cosmos from evil and disaster for billions of years, policing vast numbers of sentient beings under the severe but benevolent auspices of immortal super-beings who consider themselves the Guardians of the Universe.

These undying patrons of Order were one of the first races to evolve and dwelt in sublime, emotionless security and tranquillity on the world of Oa at the very centre of creation.

Green Lanterns are chosen for their capacity to overcome fear and are equipped with a ring that creates solid constructs out of emerald light. The miracle weapon is fuelled by the strength of the user’s willpower, making it one of the mightiest tools imaginable.

For eons, a single individual from each of the 3600 sectors of known space was selected to patrol his, her or its own beat, but being cautious and meticulous masters, the Guardians laid contingency plans as appointing designated reserve officers.

Jordan’s substitute was a nice quiet (white) PE teacher named Guy Gardner, but when he was critically injured the Oans’ fallback option was a little worrying to staid, by-the-book Hal.

In Green Lantern/Green Arrow #87 (December 1971/January 1972) ‘Beware My Power!’ introduced a bold new character to the DCU. John Stewart was an unemployed architect and full-time radical activist: an angry black man always spoiling for a fight and prepared to take guff from no-one.

Jordan was convinced the Guardians had grievously erred when selecting rash, impetuous Stewart as Sector 2814’s official Green Lantern stand-in, but after seeing how his proposed pinch-hitter handled a white supremacist US presidential candidate trying to foment a race war, the Emerald Gladiator was delighted to change his tuneâ€¦

As time progressed Stewart popped up occasionally even as the Guardians’ motives and ineffability increasingly came into question by many of their once-devoted operatives and peacekeepers. All too frequently, the grunts began seeing their formerly infallible little blue gods exposed as venal, ruthless, doctrinaire and even capriciousâ€¦

As his repute grew, headstrong Hal enjoyed an extremely tempestuous relationship with his bosses which eventually resulted in them accusing him of neglecting his space sector – 2814 – to concentrate on Earth’s problems and criminals.

When he couldn’t reconcile his love for Carol Ferris and duty to the Corps, Hal Jordan quitâ€¦

This second stellar Fight’s ‘n’ Tights trade paperback compilation – also available in eBook editions – gathers Green Lantern #182-183 and 185-193, covering November 1984 through October 1985: a period of radical change and increasing cosmic calamity as the DCU counted inexorably down to a reality-altering Crisis on Infinite Earthsâ€¦

Len Wein, Dave Gibbons & Mark Farmer continued their groundbreaking reshaping of the legend as ‘It’s a Dirty Job, Butâ€¦!’ saw the now merely mortal Jordan second-guessing his decision as he revisits Abin Sur’s remote resting place. Meanwhile, across the universe, the Guardians moved swiftly, promoting Stewart to the prime position in his sector. At the time the architect was working on rebuilding the shattered Ferris Aircraft complex and had no idea that Hal Jordan was the alter ego of his abruptly â€œretiredâ€ predecessor, nor that GL Jordan’s old enemy Major Disaster was back and looking for a fightâ€¦

Further complicating matters, Dr. Bruce Gordon – currently building a solar engine for Ferris – was being stalked and harassed by his own inner demon made manifest. Before Green Lantern had helped cure him, Gordon was the unwilling host of a demonic hate-filled energy spirit called Eclipso. Now the monster was apparently back and trying to steal the almost-completed solar engineâ€¦

When Major Disaster furiously threatens to destroy a massive hydroelectric dam and flood the entire state, the Emerald Gladiator he stridently demands a rematch with is not the one who turns upâ€¦

Refusing to accept any substitute the madman triggers a ‘Day of Disaster’ and learns to his sorrow that the masked black man is every inch as competent and formidable as his despised archfoe.

Green Lantern #184 reprinted the origin of Guy Gardner from #59 in 1968 and has been omitted from this collection but Wein & Gibbons (inking himself again) return for #185 as ‘In Blackest Dayâ€¦!’ sees the new ringbearer for Sector 2814 fully acclimate to his responsibilities. An overnight celebrity and media sensation, Stewart is courted by TV reporter Tawny Young but earns her enmity after refusing to divulge the circumstances of his origin and promotion.

On a more mundane level, Hal still frets about his decision and loss of power, even as his romance with Carol hits a new snag. Unknown to either of them she has acquired a super-powered stalker determined to protect her from anything he perceives as a threatâ€¦

With Eclipso still secretly badgering Gordon, Hal prepares to test-fly the prototype Ferris solar jet, but is ambushed by his old pal and mentor Rich Davis.

The medically-disqualified pilot wants one last flight of glory and takes Hal’s place, only to become a hostage when Eclipso snatches the jet out of the sky in his fantastic landscape-rending moon satelliteâ€¦

‘In Brightest Nightâ€¦!’ Wein & Gibbons (with plotting input from Paul Kupperberg) sees the new GL rush to the rescue as Hal can only look on helplessly, but when Carol’s mystery suitor The Predator also boars the moon globe the situation flares beyond control and results in victory at a terrible priceâ€¦

Kupperberg, Bill Willingham & Rich Rankin then provide a rapid fill-in for #187 (April 1985) as ‘A Day in His Lifeâ€¦’ finds Carol confronted by the Predator who declares his amorous intentions by beating up her current boyfriend Hal even as John Stewart tackles his first space catastrophe and narrowly escapes destroying the malfunctioning space shuttle he was trying to saveâ€¦

Thankfully, the all-wise Guardians have anticipated teething troubles and despatched veteran GL Katma Tui be his training officerâ€¦

The next issue heralded a changing of the guard as writer Steve Englehart and illustrators Joe Staton & Bruce Patterson signed on with ‘Decent Exposure’ wherein Tawny Young outs John Stewart on national TV, and he – after some early frustration – decides â€œso what?â€

With the Predator proving to be far more than a mere abusive, controlling maniac, Hal swears revenge even as European ultra-nationalist Sonar returns to destroy the new Green Lantern to prove the superiority of his postage -stamp principality Modoraâ€¦

After Stewart proves his worth with a uniquely elegant solution to the villain’s sound weapons, ‘Echoes!’ sees Sonar bounce back: escaping from custody with enhanced allies Blindside and Throttle, despite the assistance of Katma Tui. Hal and Carol’s search for Predator lead them to a much-delayed visit with practically-braindead shut-in Guy Gardner, inadvertently starting those long-dormant cogs clicking againâ€¦

After Stewart at last apprehends his fugitives a new crisis has struck. ‘Time Out of Mind!’ starts with Tawny Young re-entering the picture, touting years-old video-tape interviews she carried out with Green Arrow, Black Canary, the previous GL, Carol Ferris and Stewart himself. Disturbingly, nobody on Earth remembers the meetings and if the journalist hadn’t been raiding the archives never wouldâ€¦

As she shows the tapes to the astounded superheroes, Predator nonchalantly ambles in to steal the tapes and is stunned to realise that the gimmick he’s used to make everyone unable to see him doesn’t work on alien Katmaâ€¦

Back-up tale ‘Mind Out of Time!’ then focuses on Hal’s hunt for Predator and furious confrontation in a theatre in front of a bizarre alien musical organ. That preliminary bout becomes the main event in GL #191 as ‘Macho!’ finds John and Katma off-earth and working with Dalor of Timron – Green Lantern of neighbouring Sector 2813 – whilst Jordan’s final confrontation with Predator reveals an uncanny, impossible connection to Carol which revives her own darkest secretâ€¦

Green Lantern #192 sees the separate storylines converging in ‘First Star I See Tonight!’ as the space-borne Emerald officers tackle the immortal amazon warriors of Zamaron even as on Earth, Carol reverts to sometime-alter ego Star Sapphire: now finally purged of the annoying, pitiful humanity that held her back from operating as the dominating tyrant and chosen queen of those self-same Zamaronsâ€¦

Utterly dominating powerless Hal, she reveals the decades long machinations that have led to this moment of terrible triumph before teleporting home where three furious Green Lanterns are waitingâ€¦

This volume concludes with the return of another Hal villain in ‘Dead Ringer’, but where Jordan defeated the tragic alien Replikon through brute force and guile, Stewart proves his worth through innovation and compassion: building a solution which makes friend out of foe and rights a grave cosmic injusticeâ€¦

At the time, many fans and critics felt that the substitution of Hal Jordan with John Stewart was little more than a PC stunt, but time and the quality of the stories has proved the decision to be brilliant one. It certainly offered a cruelly under-served portion of the readership another solid role model but as time progressed and the different personalities and approaches coalesced, the move led to an expansion and re-evaluation the nature of being a DC hero.

And the best was still to comeâ€¦
Â© 1984, 1985, 2013 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

February 24, 2018February 23, 2018

Black Lightning volume 1

By Tony Isabella, Denny O’Neil, Trevor Von Eeden, Mike Netzer, Frank Springer, Vince Colletta & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6071-2

As a pale, sickly kid growing up in a uniformly and unrelentingly white area of the Home Counties in the 1960s, I got almost all my early experience of black people from television and films (for which I’m most profoundly sorry) – and, of course, comics – for which I’m not.

Almost completely unaware of the struggle for racial equality in my formative years, the incredible consciousness-raising explosion of Black Power after the 1968 Olympic Games somewhat politicised me and gripped my unassailable sense of fairness.

However, in my village and school, even though some comics companies had by this time made tentative efforts to address what were national and socio-political iniquities, issues of race and ethnicity took a long time to filter through to the still-impressionable young minds avidly absorbing knowledge and attitudes via four colour pages that couldn’t even approximate the skin tones of African-Americans.

As the struggle progressed, on television and in comics breakthroughs were small, incremental and too often reduced to a cold-war of daringly liberal â€œfirsts.â€

Excluding a few returning characters in Jungle-themed comicbooks of the 1940s and 1950s, War comics truly opened the door in the early 1960s, with Robert Kanigher & Joe Kubert creating negro boxer Jackie Johnson as a stalwart member of Sgt. Rock‘s easy company in Our Army at War #113 (December 1961).

Marvel followed suit with a black member of Sgt. Fury’s Howling Commandos team (Gabe Jones who debuted in #1, May 1963, but was accidentally re-coloured Caucasian at the printers: hard-working artisans who clearly didn’t realise his ethnicity), but pulled ahead in the diversity stakes after introducing Americas’ first negro superheroes Black Panther (Fantastic Four #52, July 1966) and the Falcon (Captain America #117, September 1969).

The honour of being the country’s first black hero to carry in his own title came via a little-remembered (or regarded) title from Dell Comics.

Created by artist Tony Tallarico & scripter D.J. Arneson, Lobo was a gunslinger and vigilante in the wild west who sought out injustice just like any cowboy hero would. He first appeared in December 1965 with his second and final issue cover-dated October 1966…

Arguably a greater breakthrough was Marvel’s Joe Robertson; City Editor of the Daily Bugle and a smart, brave, competent and magnificently ordinary mortal distinguished by his sterling character, not a costume or skin tone. He debuted in Amazing Spider-Man # 51 (August 1967), proving in every panel that the world wouldn’t end if black folk and white folk worked and ate togetherâ€¦

This big change slowly grew out of raised social awareness during a terrible time in American history – although Britain had nothing to be smug about either. Race riots had started early in the Sixties and left simmering scars that only comedians and openly racist politicians dared to talk about.

Shows such Till Death Us Do Part and Love Thy Neighbour made subtly telling headway but still raise a shudder whenever I see clips todayâ€¦

Slowly, more positive ethnic characters appeared, with DC finally getting a black-skinned hero in John Stewart (Green Lantern #87, December 1971/January 1972), although his designation as a â€œreplacementâ€ Green Lantern might be construed as more conciliatory and insulting than revolutionary.

Jack Kirby had introduced teen New God Vykin the Black in Forever People #1 (March 1971) and created ghetto kid Shilo Norman as the hero’s apprentice (and eventual successor) in Mister Miracle ##15 (August, 1973) but DC’s first superhero to have his own solo title was Black Lightning, who didn’t debut until 1977â€¦

Now with the urban avenger the star of his own television series, those early groundbreaking adventures have been gathered into an astoundingly accessible, no-nonsense trade paperback and eBook collection (comprising Black Lightning #1-11, plus material from Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #1 and World’s Finest Comics #260, cumulatively spanning April 1977 to January 1980) that dashes into action following a forthright and informative Introduction by series and character originator Tony Isabella.

It all begins as ‘Black Lightning’ (illustrated by neophyte penciller Trevor Von Eeden & veteran inker Frank Springer) sees former Olympic decathlete Jefferson Pierce return to the streets of Suicide Slum, Metropolis to teach at inner city Garfield High School.

Pierce is determined to make a difference to the troubled kids he used to be numbered amongst, but when the educator interrupts a drug buy on school grounds and sends the dealer packing, the door is opened to vengeance and tragedy.

When the mob – an organised syndicate dubbed The 100 – come seeking retaliation, one of Pierce’s students pays the ultimate price and the teacher realises he needs the shield of anonymity if he is to win justice and safety for his beleaguered home and chargesâ€¦

Happily, tailor Peter Gambi – who took Jefferson and his mother in after the elder Pierce was murdered – has some useful ideas and inexplicable access to some pretty far-out technologyâ€¦

Soon, equipped with a strength-&-speed enhancing forcefield belt and costume, with mask and wig that completely change his appearance, a fierce new vigilante stalks the streets of Metropolisâ€¦

The local chapter of The 100 is run by a monstrous and cunning freak called Tobias Whale and once Black Lightning’s harrying of his soldiers starts to bite into profits and give the downtrodden populace a glimmer of hope, the sinister strategist starts laying traps, culminating in hiring a lethal super-assassin who previously battled Green Arrow and the Justice League of America.

When the killer pounces, Pierce is forced into an uneasy alliance with mystery woman Talia Al Ghul, but their alliance ends as soon as the bodies start piling up all over the school gym in ‘Merlyn Means Murder’â€¦

As Vince Colletta assumes the inker’s role, Black Lightning’s continued war against The 100 forces â€œthe Whaleâ€ to fight smart, and Metro Police – led by doughty Inspector William Henderson – begin pursuing the mysterious vigilante as vigorously aa any gangster or felon. Taking seedy stoolie Two Bits Tanner into his confidence, Pierce savagely works his way up the criminal chain of command. He eventually confronts Tobias in his inner sanctum only to find ‘Every Hand Against Him’ as someone the police pounce. Has someone he trusts betrayed him?

A more palatable answer seems apparent in #4 as suspicion falls on Tanner’s source, Daily Planet journalist Jimmy Olsen. When the outraged Pierce tries to force a confession from the baffled cub reporter, they are attacked by the 100’s latest super heavy in ‘Beware the Cyclotronic Man’.

Although they combine to fight off the atomic villain Jimmy is hurt and Black Lightning is suddenly confronted by the kid’s enraged and late-arriving best pal, who jumps to the wrong conclusion and quickly proves ‘Nobody Beats a Superman!’

In fact, had Cyclotron not switched attention to the true target the Whale wanted him to kill, everybody might have died, but the heroes’ misunderstandings are all forgotten when Lightning saves the Man of Tomorrow from a nuclear meltdown, beats the bad guys and uncovers a mole in the police forceâ€¦

His patience exhausted and under pressure from his own bosses, the Whale declares open season and offers an astounding bounty on Black Lightning. When deeply conflicted manhunter Syonide (and his hilarious Marvel-baiting in-joke kung fu assistants) stalk the Saviour of Suicide Slum, their first move is to shadow and learn everything about their quarry.

Before long Gambi is abducted and Jefferson’s secret finally exposed in ‘One Man’s Poison’â€¦

Afflicted with a bizarre sense of honour, Syonide hands over a helpless Black Lightning to the Whale in #7: ‘The Conscience of the Killer’ compelling him to shelter the captive tailor from the 100’s vengeance and voluntarily pay the ultimate price when ordered to kill the seemingly-helpless masked hero.

Tragically, even as Black Lightning undergoes a miraculous transformation and takes out the gathered crooks and villains, he loses another innocent to the new violent life he has embracedâ€¦

With the power of the 100 apparently broken and Tobias Whale in custody, the fight seems over until the gigantic gangster breaks free and takes hostages from Police HQ. Determined to end the vendetta Black Lightning tracks him down for one last duel and in the ‘Deadly Aftermath’ finds purpose to carry on his alternate lifestyleâ€¦

Now considering himself more hero than avengers, Pierce experiences ‘Fear and Loathing at Garfield High’ when the school is invaded by a maniac terrorist operating an army of robotic killers after which a circus trip exposes ‘The Other Black Lightning’. Unfortunately, although the well-meaning admirer is a mostly-harmless copycat, a gang of jewel thieves and former Flash foe The Trickster provide plenty of genuine danger and menace before the big top sawdust settlesâ€¦

Comicbooks were experiencing another general sales downturn at this time just as Denny O’Neil took over the scripting, Black Lightning was cancelled with the 11^th (October 1978) issue.

‘All They Will Call You Will Beâ€¦ Deportee!’ offered promise of a new direction as the urban avenger exposed an insidious people trafficking ring luring South American refugees into slave jobs at a fast food chain, but for most readers that was the last sight of the hero for some time.

So abrupt was the cancellation, that for legal reasons and to secure copyrights, DC had to put out a black-&-white ashcan anthology entitled Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, printing completed but unpublished stories of Claw the Unconquered, The Deserter, the Green Team, Madame Xanadu, Firestorm and others, including Black Lightning #12.

The wider world got to see that last adventure – ‘Lure of the Magnetic Menace’ by O’Neil, Mike Nasser (nee Netzer) & Colletta – a year later when the January 1980 cover-dated World’s Finest Comics #260 ran the story as a prelude to a series of new BL back-up adventures.

This edgy yarn details how the electrifying hero is attacked by costumed crazy Doctor Polaris after Jefferson Pierce investigates a possible case of child neglect and abuse involving one of his more troubled studentsâ€¦

Wrapping up this initial outing is a copious selection of working drawings from the ‘Black Lightning Sketchbook’ by Von Eeden and Mike Netzer’s unfinished cover for never-seen issue #13.

Although closely interlinked to then-current DC continuity, these fast-paced Fights ‘n’ Tights thrillers are so skilfully constructed that even the freshest neophyte will be able to settle in for the ride without any confusion and enjoy a self-contained rollicking rollercoaster of terrifically traditional superhero shenanigans.

So, go do that thenâ€¦
Â© 1977, 1978, 1979, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

February 23, 2018February 22, 2018

Luke Cage, Power Man Marvel Masterworks volume 2

By Len Wein, Tony Isabella, Don McGregor, Bill Mantlo, Georges PÃ©rez, Steve Englehart, George Tuska, Ron Wilson, Rich Buckler, Arvell Jones, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0343-5

As is so often the case, it takes a few a bold creative types and radically changing economics to really promote lasting change. In America, with declining comics sales at a time of enhanced social awareness and rising Black Consciousness, cash – if not cashing in – was probably the trigger for â€œthe Next Stepâ€ in the evolution of superheroes.

In the opening years of the 1970s, contemporary â€œBlacksploitationâ€ cinema and novels had fired up commercial interests throughout the USA and in that atmosphere of outlandish dialogue, daft outfits and barely concealed – but completely justified – outrage, an angry black man with a shady past and apparently dubious morals debuted as Luke Cage, Hero for Hire in the summer of 1972.

A year later the Black Panther finally got his own series in Jungle Action #5 and Blade: Vampire Hunter debuted in Tomb of Dracula #10.

Cage’s origin was typically bombastic: Lucas, a hard-case inmate at brutal Seagate Prison always claimed to have been framed and his inflexible, uncompromising attitude made mortal enemies of the racist guards Rackham and Quirt whilst not exactly endearing him to the rest of the prison population – such as out-&-out bad-guys Shades and Comancheâ€¦

The premiere issue was written by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by George Tuska & Billy Graham (with some initial assistance from Roy Thomas and John Romita) detailing how a new warden promised to reform the hell-hole into a proper, legal penal institution.

New prison doctor Noah Burstein then convinced Lucas to participate in a radical experiment in exchange for a parole hearing, having heard the desperate con’s tale of woeâ€¦

Lucas had grown up in Harlem, a tough kid who’d managed to stay honest even when his best friend Willis Stryker had not. They remained friends even though they walked different paths – at least until a woman came between them. To get rid of his romantic rival, Stryker planted drugs and had Lucas shipped off to jail.

While he was there his girl Reva – who had never given up on him- was killed when she got in the way of bullets meant for Strykerâ€¦

With nothing left to lose Lucas underwent Burstein’s process – an experiment in cell-regeneration – but Rackham sabotaged it, hoping to kill the con before he could expose the guard’s illegal treatment of convicts. It all went haywire and something incredible happened. Lucas, now incredibly strong and pain-resistant, punched his way out of the lab and the through the prison walls, only to be killed in hail of gunfire. His body plunged over a cliff and was never recoveredâ€¦

Months later, a vagrant prowling the streets of New York City stumbled into a robbery. Almost casually downing the felon, he accepted a cash reward from the grateful victim, prompting a bright idea…

Super-strong, bullet-proof, street-wise and honest, Lucas would hide in plain sight while planning his revenge on Stryker. Since his only skill was fighting, he became a private paladin – A Hero For Hireâ€¦

This second sturdy hardback (or eBook) volume collects #17-31 of Cage’s adventures – Luke Cage, Power Man – spanning February 1974-May 1976 of the breakthrough series and begins with fond and informative Introduction ‘Always Forward’ from series scripter Tony Isabella.

Whilst making allowances for the colourful, often ludicrous dialogue necessitated by the Comics Code’s sanitising of â€œstreet-talking Jiveâ€ this was probably the edgiest series of Marvel’s early years, but even so, after a few years the tense action and peripheral interactions with the greater Marvel Universe led to a minor rethink and the title was altered, if not the basic premiseâ€¦

The private detective motif proved a brilliant stratagem in generating stories for a character perceived as a reluctant champion at best and outright anti-hero by nature. It allowed Cage to maintain an outsider’s edginess but also meant that adventure literally walked through his shabby door every issue.

Cage had set up an office over a movie house on 42^nd Street and met a young man who would become his greatest friend: D.W. Griffith – nerd, film freak and plucky white sidekick. Noah Burstein resurfaced, running a rehab clinic on the dirty, deadly streets around Times Square, aided by a beautiful woman Dr. Claire Temple. Soon she too was an integral part of Luke’s new lifeâ€¦

Following a calamitous clash with many of his oldest enemies, most old business was settled and a partial re-branding of America’s premier black crusader began in issue #17. The mercenary aspect was downplayed (at least on covers) as Luke Cage, Power Man – by Len Wein, George Tuska & Billy Graham – got another new start during a tumultuous team-up in ‘Rich Man: Iron Manâ€¦ Power Man: Thief!’

Here the still â€œFor Hireâ€ hero is commissioned to test Tony Stark‘s security by stealing his latest invention. Sadly, neither Stark nor his alter ego Iron Man know anything about it and the result is another classic hero-on-hero duelâ€¦

Vince Colletta joined the team as inker for #18’s ‘Havoc on the High Iron!’ as Cage takes on a murderous high-tech Steeplejack before the next two issues offered the still-wanted fugitive hero a tantalising chance to clear his name.

‘Call Himâ€¦ Cottonmouth!’ introduced a crimelord with inside information of the frame-up perpetrated by Willis Stryker in issue #1. Tragically, that hope of a new clean life is snatched away after all Cage’s explosive, two-fisted efforts in the Isabella scripted follow-up ‘How Like a Serpent’s Toothâ€¦’

Isabella, Wein, Ron Wilson & Colletta collaborated on ‘The Killer with My Name!’ which sees Cage attacked by old Avengers villain Power Man who understandably wanted his nom de guerre back, but who changed his mind after waking up from the resultant bombastic battle that ensuedâ€¦

Psychotic archenemy Stiletto returned with his equally high-tech balmy brother Discus in ‘The Broadway Mayhem of 1974’ (Isabella, Wilson & Colletta), subsequently revealing a startling connection to Cage’s originsâ€¦

All this constant carnage and non-stop tension had sent sometime romantic interest Claire Temple scurrying for points distant, and finally in LCPM #23 Cage and D.W. went looking for her, promptly fetching up in a fascistic planned-community run by old foe and deranged military terrorist Gideon Mace.

‘Welcome to Security City’ (inked by Dave Hunt) fed directly into a two-part premier for another African American superhero as Cage and D.W. tracked Claire to the Ringmaster’s Circus of Crime in #24’s ‘Among Us Walksâ€¦ a Black Goliath! (Isabella, Tuska & Hunt)â€¦

Bill Foster was a highly educated black supporting character; a biochemist working with Henry Pym (the scientist-superhero known as Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath and/or Yellowjacket over the decades of his costumed career). Foster first appeared in Avengers #32 (September 1966), before fading from view when Pym eventually regained his size-changing abilities…

Carrying on his own researches in size-shifting, Foster was now trapped as a giant, unable to shrink to normal size, and Cage discovered he was also Claire’s former husband. When the experiments trapped him at fifteen feet tall, she had rushed back to Bill’s colossal side to help find a cure.

After Luke turned up, passions were stoked, resulting in another classic heroes-clash moment until the mesmeric Ringmaster hypnotised all the combatants, intent on using their strength to feather his own three-ring nest. ‘Crime and Circuses’ (by Isabella, Bill Mantlo, Wilson & Fred Kida) saw the heroes helpless until Claire came to the rescue, before making her choice and returning to New York with Luke.

Foster soon thereafter gravitated to his own short-run series, becoming Marvel’s fourth African American costumed hero under the heavy-handed and rather obvious sobriquet Black Goliathâ€¦

The timely spoofing of a popular ’70’s TV show provided the theme for ‘Night Shocker!‘ (by Steve Englehart, Tuska & Colletta) when Cage stalked an apparent vampire attacking 42^nd Street patrons, after which a touching human drama finds Cage forced to subdue a tragically simple-minded but super-powered wrestler in ‘Just a Guy Named â€œXâ€!’ (by Mantlo, George PÃ©rez & Al McWilliams, all paying tribute to the Steve Ditko classic from Amazing Spider-Man #38).

A new level of sophistication, social commentary and bizarre villainy began in issue 28 after Don McGregor came aboard to craft a run of macabre crime sagas, opening when Cage meets ‘The Man Who Killed Jiminy Cricket!‘ (illustrated by George Tuska & Vince Colletta).

Hired by a chemical company to stop industrial espionage, Luke fails to prevent the murder of his prime suspect and is somehow defeated by deadly weirdo Cockroach Hamilton (and his beloved shotgun â€œJoshâ€) Left for dead in one of the most outrÃ© cliffhanger situations ever seen, Cage took two issues to escape as the next issue featured a â€œdeadline-doomâ€ busting fill-in taleâ€¦

Produced by Mantlo, Tuska & Colletta Luke Cage, Power Man #29 claimed ‘No One Laughs at Mr. Fish‘ (although the temptation is rather overwhelming) as Cage fights a fin-faced mutated mobster robbing shipping trucks for organised crime analogue The Maggia after which the story already in progress resumes in issue #30 with ‘Look What They’ve Done to Our Lives, Ma!‘ (by McGregor, Rich Buckler, Arvell Jones & Keith Pollard).

Escaping at last from a deadly deathtrap, Cage hunts down Hamilton, and confronts his erudite, sardonic, steel-fanged boss Piranha Jones just after they succeed in stealing a leaking canister of deadly nerve gasâ€¦

The dread drama then concludes in ‘Over the Years They Murdered the Stars!’ (Sal Buscema & the legion of deadline busting Crusty Bunkers) as Cage saves his city at the risk of his life before serving just deserts to the eerie evildoersâ€¦

Adding extra value to this sterling selection are the cover of reprint one-shot Giant-Size Power Man from 1976; a House ad from 1974 and Dave Cockrum & John Romita’s Cage entry from the 1975 Mighty Marvel Calendar (March, in case you were wondering). Also on view are original cover art by Gil Kane & Mike Esposito (#20 and #24).

Arguably a little dated now (me, Genndy Tartakovsky and others in the know prefer the term â€œretroâ€), these tales were nonetheless instrumental in breaking down one more barrier in the complacent, intolerant, WASP-flavoured American comics landscape and their power if not their initial impact remains undiminished to this day. These are tales well worth your time and money.
Â© 1974, 1975, 1976, 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 20, 2018February 19, 2018

Green Lantern Sector 2814 volume 1

By Len Wein, Dave Gibbons & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3689-2

Since the dawn of American comics’ Silver Age, where and when The Flash kick-started it all to become the fast-beating heart of the revived genre of superheroes, his fellow jet-age re-tread Green Lantern has always provided the conceptual framework for the comprehensive, pervasive magic of the DC Universe’s monolithic shared continuity.

Hal Jordan was a brash young test pilot in Coast City, California when an alien cop crashed on Earth. Mortally wounded, Abin Sur commanded his power ring – a device which could materialise thoughts – to seek out a replacement officer, honest and without fear.

Scanning the planet, it selected Jordan and brought him to the crash-site. The dying alien bequeathed his ring, the lantern-shaped Battery of Power and his professional vocation to the astonished Earthman.

Jordan grew to be one of the greatest members of a serried band of law-enforcers. The Green Lantern Corps has protected the cosmos from evil and disaster for billions of years, policing vast numbers of sentient beings under the severe but benevolent auspices of immortal super-beings who consider themselves the Guardians of the Universe.

These undying patrons of Order were one of the first races to evolve and dwelt in sublime, emotionless security and tranquillity on the world of Oa at the very centre of creation.

For eons, a single individual from each of the 3600 sectors of known space was selected to patrol his, her or its own beat.

As the series progressed The Guardians’ motives and ineffability increasingly came into question by many of their once-devoted operatives and peacekeepers, who too frequently saw the formerly infallible little blue gods exposed as venal, ruthless, doctrinaire and even capriciousâ€¦

Even as his fame and repute grew, headstrong Hal had endured an extremely tempestuous relationship with his bosses which eventually resulted in them accusing him of neglecting his space sector – 2814 – to concentrate on Earth’s problems and criminals.

This led to the Oan overlords banishing Jordan: compelling him to scrupulously patrol his appointed interstellar beat and never again set foot on Earthâ€¦

This fabulous cosmic Fight’s ‘n’ Tights trade paperback compilation – also available in eBook editions – gathers Green Lantern #172-176 and 178-181. It spans January – October 1984 and celebrates the end of that exile as new writer/editor Len Wein united with illustrator/letterer (and vanguard of a â€œBritish Invasionâ€ of talent that would reshape the comicbook industry) Dave Gibbons to bring the wanderer homeâ€¦

After a year way performing heroic service across the starways, Jordan stridently petitioned his master on Oa where a phalanx of his comrades supported his request to be allowed back to his birthworld. His ‘Judgment Day!’ gave him everything he wanted but when Jordan returned to Coast City he quickly discovered that the world had moved on without himâ€¦

Reunited with lover Carol Ferris, Hal tries to readjust in ‘Old Friends, New Foesâ€¦!’ but an unsuspected rival at work is as nothing compared to the covert machinations of an unsuspected observer and power-broker known as the Monitor (yes, that guy! Check out Crisis on Infinite Earths for more detail) who supplies the mystery villain with a selection of super-powered mercenariesâ€¦

The first of these is a German maniac with a penchant for high-tech trick spears who attempts to kill the Emerald Crusader and vaporise Ferris Aircraft in #174’s ‘I Shot a Javelin into the Airâ€¦!’

GL #175 offers a fraught reunion with old pal Barry Allen – AKA the Flash – before a predatory mutant archenemy resurfaces to turn Hal’s city and friends into ‘Shark Bait!’

The Shark‘s mental assault consumes the hero’s mind, leaving the Emerald Gladiator brainwiped, comatose and dying, but in #176 (inked by Dick Giordano and lettered by Ben Oda) the indomitable personality of Hal Jordan battles his way out of the paranormal predator’s cerebral gullet and back into action through a series of ‘Mind Games!’

The enigmatic enemy in the background still wants GL gone and Ferris obliterated, however, and subsequently commissions more high-tech hirelings in #178: specifically, a squad of construction-worker themed wreckers dubbed the Demolition Team.

Throughout the period of these tales, ferocious deadlines plagued the creative team, with Gibbon’s preference to draw, ink and letter the stories perpetually confounded by the fact that he was generally receiving scripts three pages at a time. In an era before the internet when the fax machine was the acme of technological communication, something had to give, and after a fill-in issue (#177 and not included here) failed to solve the problems, two last all-Gibbons issues were followed by a separation of rolesâ€¦

Before that though, just as Ferris is battered and shattered by ‘A Bad Case of the D.T.s!’, Green Lantern is called way from Earth by the implacable Guardians to save an exploding planet. Heartbroken and terrified, Carol sees her company practically destroyed until a new, brutally vicious protagonist steps in to stop the Demolition Team in #179’s ‘Let Us Prey!’ (both by Wein & Gibbons).

By the time Jordan returns to view the ‘Aftermath!’ (GL #180 with Mike DeCarlo inking and Ben Oda on letters) the damage has been done both to the factory and Hal’s now-crippled friend Clay Kendell. Appalled at his own dereliction of duty and personal failures, Jordan consults with a number of Justice League colleagues before heading to Oa in #181 (Mark Farmer inks & John Costanza letters) and telling the Guardians to ‘Take This Jobâ€¦ And Shove It!’

They accept, precipitating one of the biggest events in DC historyâ€¦

February 19, 2018February 18, 2018

Lois Lane: A Celebration of 75 Years

By Jerry Seigel & Joe Shuster, Don Cameron, William Woolfolk, Whitney Ellsworth, Jerry Coleman, Robert Kanigher, Cary Bates, John Byrne, Jeph Loeb, Phil Jimenez, Katheryn Immonen, Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison, Ed Dobrotka, Sam Citron, Al Plastino, Wayne Boring, Curt Swan, Kurt Schaffenberger, Ed McGuiness, Matthew Clark, Renato Guedes, Frank Quitely & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4703-4 (HB)

When the Man of Steel debuted in Action Comics #1 (June 1938) he was instantly the centre of attention, but even then, the need for a solid supporting cast was understood and cleverly catered for. Glamorous daredevil journalist Lois Lane premiered right beside Clark Kent – a constant companion and foil from the outset.

This stunning compilation – part of a dedicated series introducing and exploiting the comics pedigree of venerable DC icons – is available in hardback and digital formats, offering a sequence of snapshots detailing how the original â€œplucky news-henâ€ has evolved right beside Superman in that â€œnever-ending battleâ€â€¦

The groundbreaking appearances selected are preceded here by a brief critical analysis of the significant stages in Lois’ development, beginning with

Part I 1938-1956: Girl Reporter

Most of the early tales were untitled, but for everyone’s convenience have been given descriptive appellations by the editors. Thus, after describing the foundling’s escape from exploding Planet Krypton and explaining his astonishing powers in nine panels, with absolutely no preamble the wonderment begins in ‘Superman, Champion of the Oppressed’ and ‘War in San Monte’ from Action Comics #1 and 2 (June and July 1938 by Jerry Seigel & Joe Shuster) as the costumed crusader – masquerading by day as reporter Clark Kent – began averting numerous tragedies.

As well as saving an innocent woman from the electric chair and roughing up a wife-beater, the tireless crusader worked over racketeer Butch Matson – consequently saving suave and feisty colleague Lois from abduction and worse since she was attempting to vamp the thug at the time!

The mysterious Man of Steel made a big impression on her by then outing a lobbyist for the armaments industry who was bribing Senators on behalf of greedy munitions interests fomenting war in Europeâ€¦

The next breathtaking instalment sees the mercurial mystery-man travelling to the actual war-zone and spectacularly dampen down the hostilities already in progress, after which in #6 canny chiseller Nick Williams attempts to monetise the hero – without asking first. ‘The Man Who Sold Superman’ (Action Comics #6 1938, Seigel & Shuster) had Superman’s phony Manager even attempting to replace the real thing with a cheap, musclebound knock-off before quickly learning a very painful lesson in business ethicsâ€¦

In those turbulent times the interpretation of the dogged journalist was far less derogatory than the post-war sneaky minx of the 1950s and 1960s. Lois might have been ambitious and life-threateningly precipitate, but it was always to advance her own career, help underdogs and put bad guys away, not trap a man into marriage. At his time, she was much more Nellie Bly than Zsa Zsa Gabor.

After proving a worthy rival and foil to Clark Kent and his alter ego, Lois won her own occasional solo feature beginning in Superman #28 (May/June 1944). Examples included here begin with ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Bakery Counterfeiters’ (Superman #29, July/August 1944, by Don Cameron, Ed Dobrotka & George Roussos) which finds the peerless newshound turning her demotion to the women’s cookery pages into another blockbusting scoop by uncovering a crafty money scam at the local patisserie…

In Superman #33 (March 1945) Whitney Ellsworth & Ed Dobrotka detail how a typically cruel prank by male colleagues and cops turns into another front-page scoop as Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Purloined Piggy Bank’ sees her help a little kid and unmask big time jewel thieves after which ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Foiled Frame Up’ (Superman #34 May 1945 by Ellsworth, Sam Citron & Roussos) has her expose political corruption by exposing grafters seeking to discredit Daily Planet Editor Perry Whiteâ€¦

Originally seen in Superman #58 (May-June 1949) ‘Lois Lane Loves Clark Kent’ is by William Woolfolk, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye: a beguiling teaser finding our â€œGirl Fridayâ€ (that’s a movie reference: look it up) consulting a psychiatrist because of her romantic obsession with the Man of Steel.

The quack tells her to switch her affections to her bewildered, harassed workmate!

Part II 1957-1985: Superman’s Girl Friend

When Lois Lane – arguably the oldest supporting character/star in the Superman mythology if not the DC universe – finally received her own shot at a solo title, it was very much on the terms of the times.

When the Adventures of Superman television show launched in the autumn of 1952 it was an overnight sensation and National Periodicals began cautiously expanding their revitalised franchise with new characters and titles.

First to get a promotion to solo-star status was the Daily Planet’s impetuously capable if naÃ¯ve â€œcub reporterâ€. His gloriously charming, light-hearted, semi-solo escapades began in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #1 (September-October 1954): the first spin-off star in the Caped Kryptonian’s ever-expanding entourage.

It took three years for the cautious Editors to tentatively push the boat out again. In 1957, just as the Silver Age of Comics was getting going try-out title Showcase – which had launched The Flash (#4) and Challengers of the Unknown (#6) – followed up with a brace of issues entitled Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane.

Soon after they swiftly awarding the â€œplucky News-henâ€ a series of her own. Technically it was her second, following her brief mid-1940s solo back-ups in Superman.

In previous reviews I’ve banged on at length about the strange, patronising, parochial – and to some of us, potentially offensive – portrayals of kids and most especially women during this period, and although at least fairer and more affirmative instances were beginning to appear, the warnings still bear repeating.

At that time Lois Lane was one of precious few titles with a female lead, and, in the context of today, one that gives many 21^st century fans a few uncontrollable qualms of conscience. Within the confines of her series the valiant, capable working woman careened crazily from man-hungry, unscrupulous bitch, through ditzy simpleton, to indomitable and brilliant heroine – often all in the same issue.

The comic was clearly intended to appeal to the family demographic that made I Love Lucy a national phenomenon and Doris Day a saccharine saint, with many stories played for laughs in that same patriarchal, parochial manner; a â€œgosh, aren’t women funny?â€ tone that appals me today – but not as much as the fact that I still love them to bits.

It honestly helps that they’re mostly sublimely illustrated by the wonderfully whimsical Kurt Schaffenberger.

During the 1950s and early 1960s in America, being different was a bad thing. Conformity was sacrosanct, even in comicbooks, and everybody and thing was meant to keep to its assigned and intended role. For the Superman family and cast the tone of the times dictated a highly-strictured code of conduct and parameters: Daily Planet Editor Perry White was a stern, shouty elder statesman with a heart of gold, Cub Reporter Jimmy Olsen was a bravely impulsive unseasoned fool – with a heart of gold – and Plucky News-Hen (what does that even mean?) Lois Lane was brash, nosy, impetuous, unscrupulous and relentless in her obsession to marry Superman, although she too was – deep down – another owner of an Auric aorta.

Yet somehow even with these mandates in place the talented writers and artists assigned to detail their wholesomely uncanny exploits managed to craft tales both beguiling and breathtakingly memorable: frequently as funny as they were exciting.

I must shamefacedly admit to a deep, nostalgic affection for her bright, breezy, fantastically fun adventures, but as a free-thinking, (notionally) adult liberal of the 21^st century I’m simultaneously shocked nowadays at the jolly, patronising, patriarchally misogynistic attitudes underpinning too many of the stories.

Yes, I’m fully aware that the series was intended for young readers at a time when â€œdizzy damesâ€ and matronly icons played to the popular American gestalt stereotype of Woman as jealous minx, silly goose, diffident wife and brood-hungry nester, but to ask kids to seriously accept that intelligent, courageous, ambitious, ethical and highly capable females would drop everything they’d worked hard for to lie, cheat, inveigle, manipulate and entrap a man just so that they could cook pot-roast and change super-diapers is just plain crazy and tantamount to child abuse.

I’m just sayingâ€¦

Showcase #9 (cover-dated July/August 1957) featured Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane and opened with the seminal yarn ‘The Girl in Superman’s Past’ (by Jerry Coleman & Al Plastino) wherein Lois first met red-headed hussy Lana Lang: childhood sweetheart of Superboy and a pushy conniving go-getter out to win Lois’ intended at any and all costs. Naturally Miss Lane invited Miss Lang to stay at her apartment and the grand rivalry was off and runningâ€¦

Then ‘The New Lois Lane’ (Otto Binder, Ruben Moreira & Plastino) aggravatingly sees Lois turn over a new leaf and stop attempting to uncover his secret identity just when Superman actually needs her to do soâ€¦

Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #1 (March/April #1958) then confirms all stereotypes in Binder & Schaffenberger’s ‘The Fattest Girl in Metropolis’: wherein a plant growth ray accidentally super-sizes our vain but valiant reporter. Imagine her reaction when she finds out that Superman had deliberately expanded her dimensionsâ€¦ for good and solid reasons, of courseâ€¦

In ‘The Kryptonite Girl’ (Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #16, April 1960), Siegel & Schaffenberger were responsible for another cruel lesson as Superman tries to cure Lois’ nosy impulses by tricking his own girlfriend into believing she has a radioactive death-stare. (Of course, as all married couples know, such a power develops naturally not long after the honeymoonâ€¦) I love these stories, but sometime words just fail meâ€¦

As contrived by Leo Dorfman & Schaffenberger, a personality-altering head blow then causes Lois to try tricking her Man of Steel into matrimony in ‘The Romance of Superbaby and Baby Lois’ (#42, July 1963). Sadly, whilst conniving she employs a stolen rejuvenation chemical which cause them to de-age below the age of legal consentâ€¦

Happily, the late 1960s, Feminism and the general raising of female consciousness rescued Lois from demented domesticity, and by the time of Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #106 (November 1970) she was a competent, combative, totally capable go-getting journalist every inch the better of her male rivals. It’s a shame more of those stories aren’t included in this collection.

However, ‘I Am Curious (Black)!’ by Robert Kanigher, Werner Roth & Vince Colletta showed the lengths she would go to get her story. Unable to truly grasp the nature of being African American, she borrows Kryptonian tech to become black for 24 hours and realises how friends, acquaintances and fellow liberals responds to different skins. She even asks Superman if he would marry her in her altered stateâ€¦

Big changes and modifications were set in place for Part III 1986-1999: Lois and Clark.

When DC Comics decided to rationalise and reconstruct their continuity with Crisis on Infinite Earths, they used the event to regenerate their key properties. The biggest shake-up was Superman and it’s hard to argue that the change was unnecessary. The old soldier was in a bit of a slump, but he’d weathered those before. So how could a root and branch overhaul be anything but a marketing ploy that would alienate real fans for a few fly-by-night chancers who would jump ship as soon as the next fad surfaced?

Superman’s titles were cancelled/suspended for three months, and boy, did that make the media sit-up and take notice – for the first time since the debut Christopher Reeve movie. But there was method in this corporate madnessâ€¦

Man of Steel – written and drawn by John Byrne and inked by Dick Giordano – stripped away vast amounts of accumulated baggage and returned the hero to the far from omnipotent, edgy but good-hearted reformer Siegel and Shuster had first envisioned. It was a huge and instant success, becoming the industry’s premiere ‘break-out’ hit and from that overwhelming start Superman re-inhabited his suspended comicbook homes with the addition of a third monthly title premiering the same month.

The miniseries presented six complete stories from key points in Superman’s career, reconstructed in the wake of the aforementioned Crisis. ‘From Out of the Green Dawnâ€¦’ (Man of Steel #1, June 1986) revealed a startling new Krypton in its final moments then followed the Last Son in his escape, through his years in Smallville to his first recorded exploit and initial encounter with Lois Lane.

Byrne was a controversial choice at the time, but he magnificently rekindled the exciting, visually compelling, contemporary and even socially aware slices of sheer exuberant, four-colour fantasy that was the original Superman, making it possible and fashionable to be a fan again, no matter your age or prejudice. Superman had always been great, but Byrne had once again made him thrilling and unmissable.

Included here though, is ‘The Story of the Century’ from The Man of Steel #2 (October 1986) wherein feisty top Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane puts all her efforts into getting the landmark exclusive first interview with Metropolis’ mystery superhero, only to be ultimately scooped by a nerdy, hick new hire named Clark Kentâ€¦

We then skip to anniversary issue Action Comics #600 (May 1988) for an untitled segment courtesy of Byrne, Roger Stern, Schaffenberger, Jerry Ordway of a mammoth ensemble piece. Codified for easy access as â€œLois Laneâ€ the tale depicts the jaded journalist – fresh from beating up and arresting a gang of thugs – rendezvous with rival Kent to discuss Superman’s possible romance with Wonder Womanâ€¦

As the years passed Lois and Clark grew beyond professionalism into a work romance but the hero kept his other identity from her. That all changed after the Man of Tomorrow narrowly defeated mystic predator Silver Banshee and decided there would no more ‘Secrets in the Night’ between him and his beloved (Action Comics #662, February 1991, by Stern & Bob McLeod).

Having finally married her man (in 1996) Lois and Clark settled down into a life of hectic wedded bliss, but trouble was never far from the happy couple.

Created as part of the Girlfrenzy publishing event, ‘Lois Lane’ from one-shot Superman: Lois Lane #1 (June 1998 by Barbara Kesel, Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti sees the relentless reporter heading to Canada to singlehandedly bust a child-snatch ring and illicit genetics-mutation labâ€¦

In Part IV 2000-Present: Twenty-First Century Lois, the era of domesticity was marred by many external problems, such as Lex Luthor finagling himself into America’s presidency. ‘With This Ring’ (Superman #168, May 2001 from Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuiness & Cam Smith) details how Lois and Batman infiltrate the White House to steal the gimmick Bad PotUS has been using to keep the Man of Steel at bay, after which ‘She’s a Wonder’ (Wonder Woman #170 (July 2001, by Phil Jimenez, Joe Kelly & Andy Lanning) offers a pretty but relatively slow day-in-the-life tale.

Here Lois interviews the impossibly perfect Amazon cultural ambassador to Mans’s World – and potential romantic rival – providing readers with valuable insights into both.

Greg Rucka, Mathew Clark, & Renato Guedes & Nelson then craft ‘Battery: Part Five’ (Adventures of Superman #631 (October 2004) as Lois’s devil-may-care luck finally runs out and the Caped Kryptonian arrives seconds too late after she becomes a sniper’s target.

Slipping back into comedy, ‘Patience-Centred Care’ comes from Superman 80-Page Giant 2010, where Katheryn Immonen & Tonci Zonjic show how even the Action Ace can’t cope with a bed-ridden wife who won’t let flu stop her nailing a storyâ€¦

Part V 1957-1985: Imaginary Tales then takes a step sideways to highlight the many memorable out-of-continuity stories the Superman-Lois relationship has generated.

‘The Wife of Superman’ was part of an occasional series running in early issues of Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane. Probably scripted by Seigel and definitely drawn by Schaffenberger) this third outing (from #23, February 1961), revisits a possible future wherein Lois is worn to a frazzle by two unmanageable super-toddlers and yearns for her old job at the Daily Planetâ€¦

From a period where Golden Age stories where assumed to have occurred on parallel world Earth-Two, ‘Superman Takes a Wife’ comes from 40^th Anniversary issue Action Comics #484 (June 1978). Here Cary Bates, Curt Swan & Joe Giella detail how the original Man of Tomorrow became editor of the Metropolis Daily Star in the 1950s and married Lois. Thanks to villainous rogues Colonel Future and the Wizard who had discovered a way to make Superman forget his own existence, only she knew that her husband was once Earth’s greatest heroâ€¦

When I was a nipper, Superman had outlandish adventures and was a decent regular guy. His head could be replaced by a lion’s or an ant’s and he loved playing jokes on his friends. His exploits were routinely mind-boggling and he kept a quiet dignity about him. He only shouted to shatter concrete, and not to bully villains. He was quietly cool.

And in All Star Superman he was again. Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely produced a delightful evocation of those simpler, gentler times with a guided tour of the past redolent with classic mile-markers. Superman was the world’s boy scout, Lois was spending her days trying to prove Clark is the Man of Steel, Jimmy Olsen was a competent young reporter dating Lucy Lane and all of time and space knew they could always rely on the Man of Tomorrow.

As seen in All-Star Superman #2 and 3 (February and May 2006), ‘Superman’s Forbidden Room’ and ‘Sweet Dreams, Superwoman’ sees Lois takes centre stage as a plot to kill Superman forces the hero to acknowledge his feelings for her. The result is an astonishing trip to his Fortress of Solitude and a hyper-empowering birthday gift she will never forgetâ€¦ Wrapping up the recollections is an astounding Cover Gallery to accompany the works already seen in conjunction with the stories cited above with covers by Shuster, Swan & Stan Kaye, Schaffenberger, Murphy Anderson, Byrne, Kerry Gammill & Brett Breeding, Leonard Kirk & Karl Story, Ed McGuiness & Cam Smith, Adam Hughes, Gene Ha, JosÃ© Luis GarcÃa-LÃ³pez, Quitely & Jamie Grant.

These extras comprise Superman #51 (March/April 1948) and Action Comics #137 (October 1949) both by Boring & Kaye; Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #1 (April 1958) by Swan & Kaye; issue #25 (May 1961) by Schaffenberger; #80 (January 1967) by Swan & Neal Adams and #111 (July 1971) by Giordano.

Later classics covers include Superman volume 2 #59 (September 1991) by Dan Jurgens & Brett Breeding; Superman: The Wedding Album and Beyond (1995) by Jurgens & Ordway; Superman volume 2 #157 (June 2000) by McGuiness & Smith; Superman Returns Prequel #4 (August 2006) by Hughes; Superman Confidential #2 (February 2007) by Tim Sale and Superman Unchained #1 (2013 variant cover) by JosÃ© Luis GarcÃa-LÃ³pez.

This monolithic testament to the most enduring love affair in comics is a guaranteed delight for fans of all ages and a perfect introductory time capsule for all readers of fantastic fiction.
Â© 1940, 1942, 1952, 1954, 1957, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1972, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2014, 2015 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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