Graphic Novels – Page 126

January 21, 2016January 20, 2016

The Spectre volume 1: Crimes and Judgements

By John Ostrander & Tom Mandrake (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4718-8

The Spectre is one of the oldest characters in DC’s vast stable, created by Jerry Siegel & Bernard Baily in 1940 for More Fun Comics #52 and 53, but just like Siegel’s other iconic co-creation, he soon began to suffer from a basic design flaw: he was just too darn powerful. In fact, unlike Superman, he’s already dead, so he can’t really be dramatically imperilled by anything.

Starting out as a virtually omnipotent ghost and single-minded fighter of evil, the Sinister Spirit ultimately resolved – over various returns and refits spanning more than five decades – into a succession of tormented souls bound to the merciless personification of the biblical Wrath of God. That last revelation came about thanks to a piece of inspired rethinking in a revival from the early 1990s.

The character had been rebooted and resurrected many times, but none better than this superbly incisive iteration, wherein scripter John Ostrander shifted the narrative spotlight onto the relative Tabula Rasa that was Jim Corrigan, a depression era cop whose brutal murder unleashed The Spectre into the burgeoning world of costumed heroes.

His story was a genuinely gruesome one: on the eve of his wedding police detective Corrigan was captured by the Gat Benson mob, shoved in a barrel of cement and pitched off a pier. Called back to the land of the living, he was commanded by a glowing light and disembodied voice to â€œconfront Evilâ€.

Over the following decade in his subsequent dark crusade fighting crime and crushing demonic monsters, the Avenging Astral Angel was indisputably the most formidable hero of the Golden Age.

For most of the Spectre’s time on Earth, Corrigan had been its human face: a way for readers to glimpse the softer side of a relentless punisher of misdeeds. Ostrander’s take on the character delved deeper. For nearly five years he and artistic collaborator Tom Mandrake lent a tragic, barbaric humanity to a champion who was simply too big and too strong for periodical comics.

After far too long a wait DC recently began releasing compilations of Mandrake’s stellar run. Initial offering Crime and Judgements gathers issues #1-12 of The Spectre (volume 3 from December 1992 to November 1993) in a deliriously dark trade paperback of macabre mood and shocking suspense in which Corrigan and the Spectre finally learned the truth about their relationshipâ€¦

It begins as Corrigan visits the bedside of dying thug Louis Snipe in ‘Crimes of Violence’. Fifty years previously this gunsel was one of the gang who murdered Corrigan, but before their potentially final exchange can progress they are interrupted by social worker Amy Beitermann, who gets a strange vibe off the ex-policemanâ€¦

Moments later she inadvertently witnesses his uncanny secret in action as the Spectre emerges to deliver gory justice to gangbangers perpetrating a drive-by shooting on the steps of the hospitalâ€¦

She keeps the unbelievable details of the resultant bloodbath from Police Inspector Nate Kane. She knows the older man has a crush on her, and isn’t above using his doting interest to ply him with questions about a former cop named Corriganâ€¦

Later, as the Spectre is concluding his business with Snipe, somewhere in the city, a blood-spilling serial killer takes his latest victim and Corrigan once more questions the point of his existence.

Half a century of punishing the guilty and nothing has changedâ€¦

‘Crimes of Passion’ opens with the Ghostly Guardian drawn to a house where a repeating phantom constantly relives her own murder. When she refuses to disclose any details of the crime or perpetrator Spectre reacts with typical furious overkillâ€¦

Elsewhere Amy is entering the storefront of fortune teller Madame Xanadu. Her enquiries have traced private eye Corrigan to an office in the building, but an abrupt meeting with the sultry seer proves more than she can handle after the sorceress summarily demands she find Corrigan for herâ€¦

The driven spirit they’re pursuing has been just as inquisitive. Unfortunately his questioning of the unquiet ghost’s husband, lover and sister leads to nothing but death and damnation for all the wrong peopleâ€¦

And at the docks Nate Kane inspects the site of the latest atrocity attributed to â€œthe Reaverâ€ but finds himself unexpectedly encumbered with two bodies: one of them encased in cement and in a fifty year old barrelâ€¦

‘Crimes and Punishments’ finds Amy visiting Kane at the Precinct house. Poking around, she is aghast to find a concrete corpse and beyond words when she sees it has Jim Corrigan’s agonised faceâ€¦

Across town commercial artist Danny Geller is thinking about passion and the kind of woman he likes, but the Spectre is busy, or at least Corrigan is.

Having caused the suicide of an innocent, the human half of the Astral Amalgamation is in need of confession and seeks out Amy. He can’t understand why, but Jim is inexplicably drawn to herâ€¦

It’s exactly the wrong moment for a street gang to jump them and the Spectre’s revolting response-in-kind utterly disgusts the stunned social worker. When she questions why such violence is necessary, Spectre mystically shows her Corrigan’s savage childhood with an abusive, travelling-preacher father and later how the cop he became met his eventual end.

Although that panorama is too awful to bear, Amy takes some solace in seeing how happy Jim once was with his fiancÃ©e Clarice Winstonâ€¦

The revelatory visions conclude with ‘Crime and Judgment’ as Corrigan re-experiences his meeting with God’s Will in Limbo. Amy intangibly observes his mission laid out again and realises the newly dead man missed something the first time: the Voice actually saying â€œConfront Evil. Confront and Comprehendâ€â€¦

Flashing back in time to the moment the Spectre began, Amy watches as Clarice is killed and how Corrigan dragged her back from Heaven. His beloved lived againâ€¦ but she shouldn’t haveâ€¦

Challenging the Spectre only causes him to turn his excoriating gaze upon Amy. He probes and exposes her greatest guilt. Once she was married to an unfaithful man. When she caught her spouse in his lustful betrayals she spitefully reacted just like him and unknowingly passed on the killer contagion he had afflicted her with to many of her one-night partners.

In her own eyes she is every inch a killer tooâ€¦

However when the aroused Spectre seeks to administer judgement, Corrigan rises to resist his other half and, after a tremendous struggle, a deal is struckâ€¦

A new story arc begins with a road accident that leaves a kidnapper dead before the missing child can be found. With no hope remaining, Amy asks Jim for specialised help and the detective follows the abductor’s soul to its reward in The Pit. Ignoring his own justly-suffering father, Corrigan probes deeper into the Abode of the Damned and meets again Shathan the Eternal. Their epic battle triggers ‘A Rage in Hell’ before the Ghostly Guardian gets what he needs and the child is savedâ€¦

The Devil landed a last telling blow, however, citing the legend of how a demonic Prince of the Damned escaped Hell. This Spirit of Wrath volubly and piously repented and was bound to a human. Together they roam Earth, doing Heaven’s work. The story deeply unsettles the Spectreâ€¦

With uncomfortable suspicions of infernal taint destabilising his usually implacable composure, the Ghostly Guardian seeks out Amy. Although her condition has forced her to avoid intimacy with guys like poor Nate, she feels comfortable in the arms of a dead man, and takes the opportunity to talk Jim into trying to ameliorate his alter ego’s excesses. The inconclusive initial results are seen as Spectre goes on a rampage against a succession of callous casual murderers and greedy gangbangers in ‘The Bleeding Gun’.

Greater forces are in play, however. Xanadu, urgently seeking her ghost lodger, unleashes magic forces against uncooperative Amy even as Danny Geller makes another killing. Every day he’s getting closer to the one woman he really wantsâ€¦

With Jim and Amy trapped in a fantastic realm, ‘Vision and Power’ reveals that whilst Xanadu was sheltering Corrigan after his latest resurrection, she began tapping tiny slivers of the Spectre’s mystic energies and has become addicted. Taunting her victims by claiming this magic could even cure Amy – something the Spectre would never allow – the seer then steals all that arcane might but is promptly overwhelmed by the force of the mission underpinning the powerâ€¦

With Xanadu on a brutally bloody rampage of distorted judgment and punishment, Corrigan – free and free-thinking for the first time in decades – has no choice but to convince her to surrender the infinite force before picking up his burden once againâ€¦

The second act of Shathan’s vengeance begins when his diabolical lieutenant Azmodus – carried back to Earth in the wrathful Spectre’s wake – begins possessing mortals and sowing destruction. Nate, meanwhile, discovers all the Reaver’s victims were HIV-positive like Amy and gets an uncanny inkling of what’s really going on when he finally realises the ex-cop she was asking about and the concrete corpse both have the same face as the creepy new guy she’s been seeingâ€¦

When he confronts them his ‘Righteous Anger’ leads to a shattering series of further revelationsâ€¦

Kane learns ‘No Good Deed Goes Unpunished’ as news of the HIV angle goes public and he’s made the police’s scapegoat for their failure to catch the Reaver. As the Spectre is dragged from Amy’s side when body-hopping Azmodus begins a campaign of spectacular slaughter, the Astral Avenger is trapped by his own zealousness within the demon whilst it continues its appalling kill-spreeâ€¦

Geller too has been busy and although his body-count is far less impressive it has a single purpose. All this time he’s been hunting the harlot who infected him with a vile death-sentence and now he’s found her. The ‘Unforgivable Acts’ by all the players then continue with the restored Xanadu pondering Amy’s destiny, well aware that not even the Spectre is mighty enough to foil Fate.

The Supernal Spirit has other ideas however and follows the killer’s latest victim to the Gates of Heaven, determined to glean the Reaver’s identity. Unfortunately Archangel Michael won’t permit that and the Spectre finally finds a foe he cannot defeatâ€¦

‘The Deepest Cut’ begins the end as cashiered Nate Kane – who has pluckily stationed himself outside Amy’s home – also falls to the Reaver, but the inevitable attack is delayed once Azmodus arrives.

The devil has been gathering power with each possession and bloodbath but now he has found the perfect host in Danny Geller. Drawing the Spectre into the Greater Realms for a catastrophic final confrontation, Azmodus leaves Danny enough autonomy to fulfil his dark dream and deal Amy her ‘Final Fate’â€¦

The physical and ethereal demons have both made the same mistake, however: underestimating the victim’s will to live, Madame Xanadu’s desire to atone and Nate’s dying wish to save the woman he lovesâ€¦

And as always the Spectre will be there at the end to scourge the truly guiltyâ€¦

With a stunning cover gallery by Mandrake, Glen Fabry, Sandy Plunkett, Charles Vess, Garry Leach, Dan Brereton, Matt Wagner, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Greg Hildebrandt & Bryn Barnard, this tome offers a powerful and deviously convoluted tale that goes beyond the genre’s usual cause-&-effect, calamity-&-rescue mode to examine the nature of Love and Hate and Good and Evil.

Powerful, scary and often shocking, the intricate developing relationships and interactions all compel The Spectre’s mortal aspect to confront the traumas of his long-suppressed childhood as he relives his own death and the ghastly repercussions of his return.

With intense, brooding art from Mandrake, this incarnation of the character was by far the most accessible and successful and if it had launched a year or so later might well have been a star of the budding Vertigo imprint, but even as a spooky of the mainstream DC Universe it stood alone in its maturity and complexity.

This is a book no lover of grown-up super-sagas can afford to miss.
Â© 1992, 1993, 2014 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

January 18, 2016January 17, 2016

Essential Amazing Spider-Man volume 7

By Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, Len Wein, Ross Andru, Sal Buscema, Gil Kane & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1879-4

After a shaky start in 1962 The Amazing Spider-Man quickly rebounded, soon proving a sensation with kids of all ages and rivalling the creative powerhouse that was Lee & Kirby’s Fantastic Four. Soon the quirky, charming, action-packed comicbook soap-opera would become the model for an entire generation of younger heroes elbowing aside the staid, (relatively) old costumed-crimebusters of previous publications.

You all know the story: Peter Parker was a smart but alienated kid bitten by a radioactive spider during a school science trip. Discovering he had developed astonishing arachnid abilities – which he augmented with his own natural chemistry, physics and engineering genius – the kid did what any lonely, geeky nerd would do with such newfound prowess: he tried to cash in for girls, fame and money.

Making a costume to hide his identity in case he made a fool of himself, Parker became a minor media celebrity – and a criminally self-important one. To his eternal regret, when a thief fled past him one night he didn’t lift a finger to stop him, only to find when he returned home that his guardian uncle Ben Parker had been murdered.

Crazed with a need for vengeance, Peter hunted the assailant who had made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known, finding, to his horror, that it was the selfsame felon he had neglected to stop. His irresponsibility had resulted in the death of the man who raised him, and the traumatised boy swore to forevermore use his powers to help othersâ€¦

Since that night the Wondrous Wallcrawler has tirelessly battled miscreants, monsters and madmen, with a fickle, ungrateful public usually baying for his blood even as he perpetually saves them.

The Amazing Spider-Man was always a comicbook that matured with – or perhaps just slightly ahead of – its fan-base and this seventh exceedingly enthralling monochrome compilation of chronological web-spinning adventures sees the World’s Most Misunderstood Hero through one of the most traumatic periods of his career.

By the time of these tales Lee’s hand-picked successor Gerry Conway was giving way to fresher authorial hands. Nevertheless, scripts continued to blend contemporary issues (which of course often feel quite outdated from here in the 21st century, Man!) with soap opera subplots to keep older readers as glued to the series as the outrageous adventure and bombastic battle sequences beguiled the youngsters.

Thematically, there’s further decline in the use of traditional crimes and gangsters, overwhelmed by outlandish villains, monsters and capers, but the most sensational advance was a super-science plot which would reshape the nature of the web-spinner’s adventures for decades to comeâ€¦

Nevertheless the Wallcrawler was still indisputably mainstream comics’ voice of youth; defining being a teenager for young readers of the 1970s, tackling incredible hardships, fantastic foes and the most pedestrian and debilitating of frustrations.

High School nerd Peter Parker had grown up and gone to college. Because of his guilt-fuelled double-life he struggled there too, developed a stress ulcer but found true love with policeman’s daughter Gwen Stacyâ€¦

This volume, spanning November 1974 to September 1976, collects Amazing Spider-Man #138-160, Annual #10 and incorporates team-up tales from Giant-Size Spider-Man #4-5. Eagle-eyed completists might notice the third Giant-Size issue has been omitted: that’s because there the Wallcrawler met Doc Savage and Marvel no longer hold the license to publish the magnificent Man of Bronzeâ€¦

With no particular fanfare the action opens with Conway still very much in charge as ‘Madness Meansâ€¦ the Mindworm!’ – illustrated by Ross Andru, Frank Giacoia & Dave Hunt – finds Parker relocating downmarket to Queens in time to encounter a macabre psychic parasite feeding of the denizens of the district. Then issue #139 introduces a bludgeoning brute with a grudge against J. Jonah Jameson on the ‘Day of the Grizzly!’ When Spidey intervenes he is beaten and handed over to the costumed crazy’s silent partner the Jackal who melodramatically reveals he knows the hero’s true identity. Even though Peter escapes his diabolical trap in ‘â€¦And One will Fall!’ the maniac flees and remains at largeâ€¦

A long-running comedy thread ends as the ridiculous Spider-Mobile ends up in the river, but the Wallcrawler barely has time to care as an apparently dead enemy returns in #141’s ‘The Man’s Name Appears to beâ€¦ Mysterio!’

Despite the psychological assaults escalating and Pete continually questioning his own sanity, the mystery is solved in ‘Dead Man’s Bluff!’ before Giant-Size Spider-Man #4 (April 1975 and inked by Mike Esposito) which sees an eagerly-anticipated reappearance of Marvel’s most controversial antihero in an expanded role.

‘To Sow the Seed of Death’s Day’ finds the Webslinger forced into one of the Punisher‘s cases when ruthless arms dealer Moses Magnum perfects a lethal chemical-weapon and begins testing it on randomly kidnapped victims.

Tracking down the monster in ‘Attack of the War Machine!’, the unlikely comrades infiltrate his ‘Death-Camp at the Edge of the World!’ before summary justice is dispensedâ€¦ as much by fate as the heroes’ actionsâ€¦

The Lone Gunman was created by Conway, John Romita Sr. and Andru; an understandably muted response to popular prose anti-heroes like Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan: the Executioner: the cutting edge of a bloody tide of fictive Viet Nam vets who all turned their training and talents to wiping out organised crime in the early 1970s.

Although one of the industry’s biggest hits from the late 1980s onwards, the compulsive vengeance-taker was an unlikely and uncomfortable star for comicbooks. His methods were always excessively violent and usually permanent. It’s intriguing to note that unlike most heroes who debuted as villains (Black Widow or Wolverine come readily to mind) Punisher actually became more immoral, anti-social and murderous, not less: the buying public simply shifted its communal perspective; he never toned down or cleaned up his actâ€¦

That same month in Amazing Spider-Man 143 ‘â€¦And the Wind Cries: Cyclone!’ saw Peter in Paris to deliver a ransom for the kidnapped Jameson and battling a hyper-fast French super-villain. The story was average but the real kicker was the overly-fond farewell casual chum Mary Jane Watson expressed: a kiss that finally shifted traumatised, depressed Peter’s thoughts from his beloved and recently murdered Gwenâ€¦

Conway, Andru, Giacoia & Hunt capitalised on the situation when Pete returned as #144 launched ‘The Delusion Conspiracy’ and #145 exposed a baffled girl’s confusion and terror at everyone’s reactions when she comes home and the entire world screams ‘Gwen Stacy is Alive â€¦and, Wellâ€¦?!’

With Gwen somehow resurrected and Peter on the edge of a breakdown, Aunt May was hospitalised just in time for another old foe to strike again in ‘Scorpionâ€¦ Where is Thy Sting?’, but the real kick in the tale was irrefutable scientific reports which proved the increasingly bewildered Miss Stacy was not an impostorâ€¦

Giant-Size Spider-Man #5 (July 1975, inked by Esposito again) offers a strange yet welcome break from the mental tension as ‘Beware the Path of the Monster!’ sees Parker despatched to Florida to photograph the macabre Man-Thing only to discover the lethal Lizard is also loose and hunting ‘The Lurker in the Swamp!’ It takes all the web-spinner’s power and the efforts of a broken man in sore need of redemption to set things right in the climactic conclusion ‘Bring Back my Man-Thing to Me!’â€¦

Back in the Big Apple for #147, Peter finds some answers as further tests prove Gwen is a clone – remember, this was new and cutting-edge stuff in 1975 – but all too soon he’s distracted by another foe bad-guy with a grudge and hungry to prove ‘The Tarantula is a Very Deadly Beast’ (Andru, Esposito & Hunt).

It’s all part of a convoluted revenge scheme and the hero is ambushed by a mesmerised Gwen at the behest of an archfiend as ‘Jackal, Jackal, Who’s Got the Jackal?’ at last shares some shocking truths about one of Peter’s most trusted friends before the Delusion Conspiracy explosively concludes with #149’s ‘Even if I Live, I Die!’ (Andru & Esposito).

Learning he and Gwen had been cloned by their biology teacher Miles Warren, the Amazing Arachnid has to defeat his alchemical double in a grim, no-holds-barred identity-duel, with neither sure who’s the real McCoy. The battles eventually results in the copy’s deathâ€¦ maybeâ€¦

That moment of doubt over who actually fell informs anniversary issue Amazing Spider-Man #150, as Archie Goodwin, Gil Kane, Esposito & Giacoia take the hero down memory lane and up against a brigade of old antagonists to decide whether ‘Spider-Manâ€¦ or Spider-Clone?’ survived that final fight, before new regular scripter Len Wein joins Andru & John Romita Sr. to launch a new era of adventureâ€¦

After disposing of his duplicate’s corpse in an incineration plant, Spider-Man finds time to let Peter Parker reconnect with his long-neglected friends. However a jolly party is soon disrupted as blackouts triggered by a super-menace lead the Wallcrawler into the sewers for a ‘Skirmish Beneath the Streets!’, resulting in our hero almost drowning and nearly being ‘Shattered by the Shocker!’ (Andru, Esposito & Giacoia) in the conclusive return engagementâ€¦

A moving change-of-pace tale sees a blackmailed former football star give his all to save a child in ‘The Longest Hundred Yards!’ (Andru & Esposito) but it is left to Spider-Man to make the computer-crook culprits pay, after which #154 reveals ‘The Sandman Always Strikes Twice!’ (art by Sal Buscema & Esposito) – but with little lasting effect – until murder-mystery ‘Whodunnit!’ cunningly links three seemingly unconnected cases in a masterful â€œBig Revealâ€â€¦

A long-running romance-thread resulted in the oft-delayed wedding of Pete’s old flame Betty Brant to reporter Ned Leeds, but the nuptials are interrupted by a new costumed crook in ‘On a Clear Day, You Can Seeâ€¦ the Mirage’ (Andru & Esposito), even as a sinister hobo who had been haunting the last few yarns came fully into the spotlightâ€¦

Much of the previous Essential Spider-Man volume was taken up with a protracted struggle for control of New York with Spidey and elderly May Parker caught in the middle. The devilish duel concluded with a nuclear explosion and the seeming end of two major antagonists but #157 exposed ‘The Ghost Who Haunted Octopus!’ when the debased long-limbed loon turned to Aunt May for his salvation.

With Peter in attendance, the many-handed menace seeks to escape a brutal ghost but their combined actions actually liberate a pitiless killer from inter-dimensional limbo in ‘Hammerhead is Out!’, leading to a savage three-way showdown with Spidey ‘Arm-in-Arm-in-Arm-in-Arm-in-Arm-in-Arm with Doctor Octopus’ to save the horrified Widow Parkerâ€¦

A new insectoid arch-foe debuted in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #10, courtesy of plotter Wein, scripter Bill Mantlo and artists Kane, Esposito & Giacoia as ‘Step into my Parlorâ€¦’ depicts obsessed Spider-hater Jameson hiring unscrupulous biologist Harlan Stilwell to create a tailor-made nemesis to eradicate the Wallcrawler.

Elsewhere that detested hero is breaking up a vicious hostage situation manufactured by psychotic Rick Deacon, but when the killer escapes and breaks into a certain lab he is rapidly transformed into a winged wonder-man hungry for payback on the web-spinner in ‘â€¦Said the Spider to the Fly!’

This copious compendium then concludes with the opening shot in an extended epic as a criminal inventor who is one of the web-spinner’s oldest enemies recovers Spidey’s ditched vehicle and tricks it out to hunt down its original owner if #160’s ‘My Killer the Car!’ (Wein, Andru & Esposito)â€¦

Despite some qualifications this is still a superb selection starring an increasingly relevant teen icon and symbol. Spider-Man at this time became a crucial part of many youngsters’ existence and did so by living a life as close to theirs as social mores and the Comics Code would allow.

Blending cultural veracity with glorious art whilst making a dramatic virtue of the awkwardness, confusion and sense of powerlessness most of the readership experienced daily resulted in an irresistibly intoxicating read, delivered in addictive prime time melodrama moments, but none of that would be relevant if the stories weren’t so compellingly entertaining.

The tales in this again proved Spider-Man was bigger than any creator and was well on the way to becoming as real as Romeo and Juliet, Sherlock Holmes or Tarzan.
Â© 1974, 1975, 1976, 2011 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

December 31, 2015December 30, 2015

Hellboy volume 1: Seed of Destruction

By Mike Mignola & John Byrne with Mark Chiarello & Matt Hollingsworth (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-094-6

After the establishment of the comicbook direct market system, there was a huge outburst of independent publishers in America and, as with all booms, a lot of them went bust. Some few however were more than flash-in-the-pans and grew to become major players in the new world order.

Arguably, the most successful was Dark Horse Comics who fully embraced the shocking new concept of creator ownership (amongst other radical ideas). This concept – and their professional outlook and attitude – drew a number of big name creators to the new company and in 1994 Frank Miller and John Byrne formally instituted the sub-imprint Legend for those projects major creators wanted to produce their own way and at their own pace.

Over the next four years the brand counted Mike Mignola, Art Adams, Mike Allred, Paul Chadwick, Dave Gibbons and Geof Darrow amongst its ranks and generated a wealth of superbly entertaining and groundbreaking series and concepts. Unquestionably the most impressive, popular and long-lived was Mignola’s supernatural thriller Hellboy.

The monstrous monster-hunter debuted in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 (August 1993) before formally launching in 4-issue miniseries Seed of Destruction with Byrne scripting over Mignola’s plot and art. Colourist Mark Chiarello added layers of mood with his understated hues.

Those stories and an ancillary tale from Comics Buyer’s Guide make up this impressive Third Edition of the modern classic and it’s all kicked off with an effusive Introduction from Master of Terror Robert Blochâ€¦

The story begins with a review of secret files. On December 23^rd 1944 American Patriotic superhero The Torch of Liberty and a squad of US Rangers interrupted a satanic ritual predicted by Allied parapsychologist Professors Trevor Bruttenholm and Malcolm Frost in conjunction with influential Medium Lady Cynthia Eden-Jones. They were waiting at a ruined church in East Bromwich, England when a demon baby with a huge stone right hand appeared in a fireball. The startled soldiers took the infernal yet seemingly innocent waif into custody.

Far further north, off the Scottish Coast on Tarmagant Island, a cabal of Nazi Sorcerers roundly berated ancient wizard Grigori Rasputin whose Project Ragna Rok ritual seemed to have failed. The Russian was unfazed. Events were unfolding as he wishedâ€¦

Five decades later, the baby has grown into a mighty warrior in a never-ending secret war: the world’s most successful paranormal investigator. Bruttenholm has spent the years raising the weird foundling whilst forming an organisation to destroy unnatural threats and supernatural monsters – the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. â€œHellboyâ€ is now its lead agentâ€¦

The recently-returned, painfully aged professor summons his surrogate son and warns him of impending peril wrapped in obscured reminiscences of his own last case. The Cavendish Expedition discovered an ancient temple submerged in arctic ice, but what happened next has been stricken from Bruttenholm’s memory. Before he can say more the mentor is killed by a plague of frogs and enraged Hellboy is battling for his life against a demonic amphibianâ€¦

Following fact-files about Project Ragna Rok and ‘An African Myth about a Frog’ Chapter Two opens at eerie Cavendish Hall, set on a foetid lake in America’s Heartland. Matriarch Emma Cavendish welcomes Hellboy and fellow BPRD investigators Elizabeth Sherman and Dr. Abraham Sapien but is not particularly forthcoming about her family’s obsession.

Nine generations of Cavendish have sought for and sponsored the search for the Temple at the Top of the World. Three of her own sons were lost on the latest foray, from which only Bruttenholm returned, but her story of how founding patriarch Elihu Cavendish‘s obsession infected every male heir for hundreds of years imparts no fresh insights. She also says she knows nothing about frogs, but she’s lying and the agents know itâ€¦

As they retire for the night, Hellboy’s companions prepare for a fight. Liz is a psychic firestarter but is still taken unawares when the frogs attack and the Daring Demon fares little better against another titanic toad-monster. Of Abe there is no sign: the BPRD’s own amphibian has taken to the dank waters of the lake in search of long-buried answersâ€¦

And then a bald Russian guy claiming to know the truth of Hellboy’s origins appears and monstrous tentacles drag the infernal avenger through the floorâ€¦

Chapter Three opens in a vast hidden cellar where Rasputin explains he is the agent for antediluvian infinite evil: seven-sided serpent Ogdru-Jahad who sleeps and waits to be reawakened. Hellboy was summoned from the pit to be the control interface between the great beast and the wizard as he oversaw the fall of mankind, but when the BPRD agent refuses – in his own obtuse, obnoxious manner – Rasputin goes crazyâ€¦

Overwhelmed by the Russian’s frog servants, Hellboy is forced to listen to the story of Rasputin’s alliance with Himmler and Hitler and how they sponsored a mystic Nazi think-tank to conquer the Earth; of how the mage manipulated the fanatics, found the Temple at the Top of the World and communed with The Serpent; of how the last Cavendish Expedition awoke him and how he used them to trace the tool he had summoned from Hell half a century agoâ€¦

And then he reveals how his infernal sponsor Sadu-Hem, intermediary of The Serpent, has grown strong on human victims but will become unstoppable after feasting on Liz’s pyrokinetic energiesâ€¦

With all hell literally breaking loose the final chapter finds Rasputin exultantly calling upon each of the seven aspects as Hellboy attempts a desperate, doomed diversion and the long-missing Abe Sapien finally makes his move, aided by a hidden faction Rasputin had not anticipatedâ€¦

The breathtaking conclusion sees the supernal forces spectacularly laid to rest, but the defeat of Sadu-Hem and his Russian puppet only opens the door for other arcane adversaries to emergeâ€¦

Bombastic, moody, laconically paced, suspenseful and explosively action-packed, Seed of Destruction manages the masterful magic trick of introducing a whole new world and making it seem like we’ve always lived there. This edition also sweetens the pot with bonus features like the sketch-packed ‘Where the Hell Did He Come From? – Personal reminiscences by Mike Mignola’ and ‘More First Things’: the initial proto-stories from San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 (where he clobbered a gas station dog demon) and Comics Buyer’s Guide with the World’s Greatest Paranormal Investigator scuttling the plans of a Nazi brain-in-a-bottle and his talking gorillasâ€¦

Wrapping up the show is a Hellboy Gallery with pinups from Simon Bisley, Mike Allred. Art Adams, Frank Miller, Fred Blanchard & Gary Gianni, making this a supernatural thriller no comics fan should be without.
Â© 1993, 1994, 1997, 1999 and 2003 Mike Mignola. Introduction Â© 1994 Robert Bloch. Hellboy is â„¢ Mike Mignola. Torch of Liberty â„¢ John Byrne, Inc. Madman â„¢ Mike Allred. Blitz the Maniac Mandrill â„¢ Simon Bisley. All rights reserved.

December 19, 2015December 18, 2015

Batman: the Dark Knight Archives volume 7

By Bob Kane, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Joe Samachson, Alvin Schwartz, Dick Sprang, Jerry Robinson, Ray Burnley & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3744-8

Win’s Christmas Recommendation: Classically Traditional, Timelessly Wonderfulâ€¦ 9/10

Launching a year after Superman, â€œThe Bat-Manâ€ (and latterly Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented DC/National Comics as the market frontrunner and conceptual leader of the burgeoning comicbook industry.

Having established the fantastic parameters of the metahuman with their Man of Tomorrow, the strictly mortal physical perfection and dashing derring-do of DC’s Dynamic Duo rapidly became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all other four-colour crimebusters were judged.

This eighth luxuriously lavish hardback Archive Edition volume covers another bevy of Batman adventures (#32-37 of his solo title, spanning December 1945/January 1946 through October/November 1946), with the Gotham Gangbusters resolutely returned to battling post-war perils and peacetime perfidies of danger, doom and criminalityâ€¦.

These Golden Age greats comprise many of the greatest tales in Batman’s decades-long canon, as lead writers Bill Finger and Don Cameron, supplemented by Joe Samachson, Alvin Schwartz and other – sadly unrecorded – scripters, pushed the boundaries of the medium.

On the visual side, graphic genius Dick Sprang superseded and surpassed freshly-returned originator Bob Kane (who had been drawing the Batman daily newspaper strip until its cancellation), making the feature utterly his own in all but name whilst keeping the Dauntless Double-act at the forefront of the legion of superhero stars, even as veteran contributor Jerry Robinson was reaching the peak of his illustrative powers and preparing to move on to other artistic endeavoursâ€¦

The sheer creativity exhibited in these adventures proved the creators responsible for producing the bi-monthly adventures of the Dark Knight were hitting an artistic peak that few other superhero titles could match. Within scant years they would be one of the only games in town for Fights ‘n’ Tights fans…

Following a fascinatingly fact-filled and incisive Foreword from the inestimable Roy Thomas, the all-out action begins with Batman #32 and another malevolently marvellous exploit of The Joker whose ‘Racket-Rax Racket!’ (crafted by Cameron & Sprang) finds its felonious inspiration in college-student hazing and initiation stunts, after which Finger scripted ‘Dick Grayson, Boy Wonder!’ for that man Sprang, which reprises the jaunty junior partner’s origins and reveals how the lad earned the right to risk his life every night beside the mighty Batman in a blisteringly tense first caseâ€¦

Light-hearted supplemental feature ‘The Adventures of Alfred’ provides thrills and laughs in equal measure as the dutiful butler reluctantly baby-sits a posh pooch and ends up ‘In the Soup’ after stumbling upon a gang of high society food smugglers (courtesy of Samachson & Robinson), before Cameron & Sprang spectacularly combine a smidgen of science fiction flair and a dash of historical conceit to the regular adventure mix when Professor Carter Nichols uses his hypnosis-powered time-travel trick to send Bruce and Dick to the court of Louis XIII to work with D’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers in ‘All for One, One for All!’

Issue #33 was the Christmas issue for 1945 – complete with seasonal cover by Sprang – but was otherwise an all-Win Mortimer art-fest; beginning with Finger’s ‘Crime on the Wing’ wherein the Penguin popped up and began a renewed campaign of crime with his trick umbrellas, just to prove to modern mobsters that he was still a force to be reckoned with after which anonymously-scripted thriller ‘The Looters!’ found the Dynamic Duo hunting a heartless pack of human hyenas led by the Jackal, raiding cities struck by disasters natural and notâ€¦

As if that wasn’t vile enough, the shameless exploiter was also trying to steal or sabotage the invention of a dedicated seismologist who thought he’d found a way to predict earthquakes until Batman and Robin rocked the Jackal’s worldâ€¦

The issue ended with a similarly uncredited Holiday treat as ‘The Search for Santa Claus’ saw three broken old men redeemed by the season of goodwill.

After selflessly standing in for Saint Nick, an innocent man who’d spent 25 years in jail, an over-the-hill actor and a millionaire framed and certified insane by his unscrupulous heirs all found peace, contentment and justice after encountering those industriously bombastic elves Batman and Robinâ€¦

Three quarters of issue #34 was crafted by Finger & Sprang, beginning with ‘The Marathon of Menace!’ as an old man who’d dedicated his life to speed records organised a cross-country race across America with enough prize cash to interest crooks – and the ever-vigilant Gotham Gangbusters – after which an insufferable chatterbox deafeningly returned in ‘Ally Babble and the Four Tea Leaves!’; in which the chaos-causing manic maunderer consults a fortune teller and accidentally confounds a string of dastardly desperadoesâ€¦

Robinson then limned an anonymous but timely tale as ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Tired Tracks’ found the veteran valet stumbling upon a gang of opportunistic thieves before the issue ends with Finger & Sprang detailing ‘The Master Vs. the Pupil!’

Here the Batman tests his partner’s progress by becoming the quarry in a devious manhunt, but Robin’s early confidence and success take a nasty nosedive after an embarrassing gaffe which proves the danger of too much successâ€¦

Finger, Bob Kane & Ray Burnley crafted the lion’s share of Batman #35, beginning with the landmark ‘Nine Lives has the Catwoman!’ wherein the slinky thief finally emerged as the Dark Knight’s premier female foil.

Escaping prison and going on a wild crime spree, the feline felon convinces the world – and possibly the Caped Crusaders – that she cannot die, after which the equally auspicious and influential ‘Dinosaur Island!’ finds our heroes performing a sociology experiment in a robotic theme park, only to find the cavemen and giant beasts co-opted by a murderous enemy looking to become king of the criminal underworld by orchestrating their deathsâ€¦

An author unknown then scripted the whimsical exploits of ‘Dick Grayson, Author!’ (art by Kane & Burnley) as the young daredevil deems comicbook stories too unrealistic and is offered the opportunity to write some funnybook dramas which would benefit from actual crime-fighting experience. Of course, all that typing and plotting are harder than they lookâ€¦

Kane & Burnley also illustrated all the Batman tales in #36, beginning with Alvin Schwartz’s ‘The Penguin’s Nest!’ wherein the podgy Bird of Ill-Omen started imperilling his new, successful – and legitimate – restaurant venture by committing minor misdemeanours just to get arrested. Unsure of what he’s up to, the Masked Manhunters spend an inordinate amount of time and energy keeping him out of jug until they finally glean his devious, million-dollar schemeâ€¦

When Hollywood’s top stuntman suffers a head injury on set and begins acting out his assorted past roles in the real world, the panicked studios call in Batman to be a ‘Stand-In for Danger!’ (Cameron, Kane & Burnley), whilst ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Elusive London Eddie!’ (with Robinson art) sees the mild-mannered manservant ferreting out a British scallywag gone to ground in Gotham after which the issue ends on a spectacular high with another terrific time-travel trip.

‘Sir Batman at King Arthur’s Court!’ – courtesy of Finger, Kane & Burnley – sees our compulsive chrononauts crisscrossing fabled Camelot and battling rogue wizards to verify the existence of the enigmatic Round Table legend dubbed Sir Hardi Le Noirâ€¦

This stunning and sturdy compilation closes with the all-Robinson, all anonymously scripted #37, beginning with ‘Calling Dr. Batman!’ wherein the wounded crimebuster is admitted to hospital and uncovers dark doings and radium robbery.

As if that wasn’t enough a very sharp nurse seems to have suspicions regarding the similarity of the masked celebrity’s wounds to those of a certain millionaire playboyâ€¦

Batman and Robin are back in Tinseltown to solve a dire dilemma as ‘Hollywood Hoax!’ has them hunting thieves and blackmailers who have swiped the master print of the latest certified celluloid smash, after which the dauntless derring-do ends with a magnificent clash of eternal adversaries when ‘The Joker Follows Suit!’

Fed up with failing in all his felonious forays, the Clown Prince of Crime decides that imitation is the sincerest form of theft and begins swiping the Dark Knights gimmicks, methods and gadgets; using them to profitably come to the aid of bandits in distressâ€¦

Accompanied as always by a full creator ‘Biographies’ section, this superb collection of comicbook classics is another magnificent rollercoaster ride back to an era of high drama and breathtaking excitement: a timeless, evergreen delight no addict of graphic action can ignore.
Â© 1945, 1946, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

December 7, 2015December 3, 2015

Mighty Avengers volume 3: Secret Invasion Book 2

By Brian Michael Bendis, Koi Pham, Stefano Caselli, Carlo Pagulayan, Lee Weeks, Jim Cheung, Danny Miki, Allen Martinez, Andy Lanning, Jeffrey Huet & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3650-7

The Skrulls are shape-shifting aliens who’ve bedevilled Earth ever since Fantastic Four #2 to become a pernicious cornerstone of the Marvel Universe. After years of humiliation and constant defeat, the metamorphic malcontents finally hit on a winning plan and to this end gradually and methodically replaced a number of key Earth denizens – most notably metahumans and their friends.

When the plot of the Secret Invasion (a colossal braided crossover which ran throughout all Marvel’s titles from Spring to Christmas in 2008) was first uncovered it led to a confrontation between Earth’s champions and a Skrull starship full of what appeared to be old comrades; many of whom had been accounted dead for years.

Were they truly escaped humans or yet another army of newly undetectable Super-Skrulls?

With no defender of the Earth knowing who to trust the planet almost fell to a determined massed onslaughtâ€¦

Most worrisome is the fact that the cosmic charlatans have recently unravelled the secrets of Terran magic and genetic superpowers, creating amped-up equivalents of Earth’s mightiest. They are now primed and capable of defeating the world’s champions in face-to-face confrontations.

This fear-fomenting fourth volume – scripted as ever by Brian Michael Bendis – reprints Mighty Avengers #16-20 (September 2008-February 2009), offering more insights into the slow progress of the invidious infiltration.

The slow-burning saga really began when New Avenger Spider-Woman seemingly switched sides to bring Stark the corpse of a Skrull impersonating ninja assassin Elektra.

The Arachnid Amazon’s own team – outlawed by Stark’s diktat and fighting crime as illegal resisters of the government’s Super-Human Registration Act – believed they could handle the prospect and (rightly) feared Stark and his squad might also be compromised with alien shapeshifters. Jessica Drew – a triple agent simultaneously working for SHIELD, Hydra and Nick Fury as well as the rebel Avengers – felt however, that only by going to America’s Security Director could the situation be successfully handledâ€¦

Stark kept the creepy cadaver undercover and invited Drew to join his team in hopes that her presence might cause any Skrulls in his squad to betray themselves. However, no sooner had Stark officially welcomed Jessica into the squad over their very strident protests than it all kicked off â€¦

Now Khoi Pham & Danny Miki illustrate the revelatory, cataclysmic clash which led to the human Elektra’s apparent demise and how her killer took over the criminal ninja cult The Hand. They follow up an issue later as a battalion of SHIELD agent-shaped Skrulls hunt one of their own. In the wilds of rural America the quarry fights manically to escape since his psychological deep-conditioning – used to protect the infiltrators from telepathic discovery – overwhelms the totally entrenched invader, making him believe he is the Avenger he mimicsâ€¦

Next up Stefano Caselli limns another sidebar as Nick Fury assembles his Secret Warriors Hellfire, Phobos, Stonewall, Yo Yo, the Druid and Quake, putting them through torturous final training before despatching them to kidnap/save SHIELD’s head honcho Maria Hill just as the Secret Invasion goes terrifyingly publicâ€¦

‘Back from the Dead?’ (Pham, Miki & Allen Martinez) then trains our attention on Thunderbolts HQ (a prison where super-criminals can join a covert government penal battalion to mitigate or reduce their jail sentences) as Kree captive Noh-Varr reacts with shock at the news that fallen legend and universal saviour Captain Mar-Vell has returned from the dead, just in time to be ambushed by a flight of murderous Super-Skrullsâ€¦

The displace neophyte and ancestral enemy of the scurrilous shapeshifters is naturally suspicious and doesn’t know how to reactâ€¦

‘Epilogue’ by Carlo Pagulayan, Lee Weeks, Jim Cheung & Jeffrey Huet brings the in-filling episodes to an end in the aftermath of Earth’s bitter, hard-won victory as one emotionally-shattered, memory-taunted Founding Avenger prepares to bury the boon companion who saved the world and paid the ultimate price.

It would be hard enough even if he wasn’t trying to absorb the cacophony of terrible events which occurred in the relatively brief time he was a Skrull prisonerâ€¦

Rather than give too much away, let me just say that if you like this sort of thing you’ll love these yarns and a detailed familiarity is not crucial to your understanding. However, for a complete experience, you will want to see the other 22 â€œSecret Invasionâ€ volumes that accompany this one, although at a pinch you could get by with only the key collection Secret Invasion. It contains the 8-issue core miniseries, one-shot spin-off â€œWho Do You Trust?â€ and illustrated textbook â€œSkrullsâ€, which claims to provide a listing and biography for every shape-shifter yet encountered in the Marvel Universe (but if they left any out, who could tell?).

With another tranche of superb pastiche covers by Aleksi Briclot & Marko Djurdjevic, this rollercoaster ride not only wraps up one crossover event but leads directly into the next one; a Dark Reign which is a tale for another time and placeâ€¦

This is another splendid Costumes Drama which will delight insatiable Fights ‘n’ Tights thrill-chasers everywhere.
Â© 2008, 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

December 4, 2015November 29, 2015

Crisis on Multiple Earths volume 4

By Cary Bates, Elliot S! Maggin, E. Nelson Bridwell, Marty Pasko, Paul Levitz, Dick Dillin, Frank McLaughlin & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0957-2

In regard to comic material from this period I cannot declare myself an impartial critic. That counts doubly so for the Julie Schwartz edited Justice League of America and its annual summer tradition of teaming up with its progenitor organisation, the Justice Society of America. If that sounds a tad confusing there are many places to look for clarifying details. If you’re interested in superheroes and their histories you’ll even enjoy the search. But this is not the place for that.

Ultra-Editor Schwartz ushered in the Silver Age of American Comics with his landmark Showcase successes Flash, Adam Strange and Green Lantern, directly leading to the JLA which in turn inspired Fantastic Four and the whole Marvel Empire; changing forever the way comics were made and readâ€¦

Whereas the 1940s were about magic and macho, the Silver Age polished everything with a thick veneer of SCIENCE and a wave of implausible rationalistic concepts quickly filtered into the dawning mass-consciousness of a generation of baby-boomer kids.

The most intriguing and rewarding was, of course, the notion of parallel worldsâ€¦

Once DC’s Silver Age heroes began meeting their Golden Age predecessors from â€œEarth-2â€, that aforementioned annual tradition commenced: every summer the JLA would team-up with the JSA to combat a trans-dimensional Crisisâ€¦

This volume reprints get-togethers from 1975 through 1977, encompassing Justice League of America #123 & 124 (October and November 1975), #135-137 (October to December 1976) and #147-148 (October and November 1977), offering also a wash of memory-intensive reminiscences in an Introduction from veteran colourist Carl Gafford.

All these tightly-plotted tales are competently and comfortably rendered by the criminally underappreciated Dick Dillin with his long-term inker Frank McLaughlin and, in terms of narrative, the writing consists of nothing more – or if you’re still a kid like me, nothing less – than two bunches of beguiling mystery men getting together to deal with extra-extraordinary problems.

From the early 1970s it also became about reintroducing other lost characters from other companies and pantheons DC had bought out over the years, so in hindsight, it was all also about sales and the attempted revival of more super characters during a period of intense sales rivalry between DC Comics and Marvel.

But for those who love costumed heroes, who crave these carefully constructed modern mythologies and care, it is simply a grand parade of straightforward action, great causes and momentous victories.

I love ’em, not because they’re the best of their kind, but because I did then and they haven’t changed even if I have. Surely everyone fancies finding their Inner Kid again?

This batch of blockbusters begins with a yarn from Cary Bates and Elliot Maggin, stepping far off the reservation with ‘Where on Earth Am I?’ and its conclusion ‘Avenging Ghosts of the Justice Society!’ from #123- 124.

In Flash #179 (‘The Flash – Fact of Fiction?, May 1968) Bates and Gardner Fox first took the multiple Earths concept to its illogical conclusion by trapping the Monarch of Motion in â€œourâ€ Reality of Earth-Prime, where he was known only to a dwindling readership as a mere comic-book character. It took the financial assistance of his editor Julie Schwartz in building a â€œcosmic treadmillâ€ to return the Scarlet Speedster to his proper dimensionâ€¦

In this quirky follow-up, Bates and co-scripter Maggin revisit the notion as a story conference in Schwartz’s office leads to the oafish goons playing with the Flash’s abandoned construct until one of them is sent hurtling between Realitiesâ€¦

Transformed and cosmically empowered by the journey, Bates became the most dangerous villain alive, leading Earth-2 criminals The Wizard, Shade, Sportsmaster, Huntress, Icicle and The Gambler in a lethal assault on JSA heroes Robin, Hourman, Wildcat, Wonder Woman, Johnny Thunder and Dr. Mid-Nite.

Frantic and terrified, Maggin follows his friend but ends up on Earth-1 where he recruits Batman, Black Canary, Aquaman, Hawkman, Green Arrow and Flash to save three imperilled universes. In the end however it requires the Divine Might of the supernal Spectre to truly set every thing back on track and in its assigned place and timeâ€¦

A year later the get-together took on epic proportions with the inclusion of stars from the Shazam! Universe (imaginatively dubbed Earth-S) which began with a ‘Crisis in Eternity!’ plotted by E. Nelson Bridwell and scripted by Marty Pasko.

One of the most venerated and loved characters in American comics, the original Captain Marvel was created by Bill Parker & C. C. Beck: the best of a wave of costumed titans devised in the wake of Superman’s blockbuster 1938 debut.

Although there were many similarities in the early years, the Fawcett character moved early into the realm of fanciful light entertainment and even comedy, whilst as the 1940s progressed the Man of Steel increasingly left whimsy behind in favour of action and drama.

Homeless orphan Billy Batson was chosen to battle injustice by an ancient wizard who bestowed the powers of six gods and heroes. Billy transforms from scrawny boy to brawny (adult) hero by speaking aloud the wizard’s name – an acronym for the legendary six patrons Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury.

At the height of his popularity Captain Marvel was published twice a month and outsold Superman, but as tastes and the decade changed sales slowed and a court case begun by National Comics citing copyright infringement was settled. The Big Red Cheese disappeared – as did many superheroes – becoming a fond memory for older fans.

In Britain, where an English reprint line had run for many years, creator/publisher Mick Anglo had an avid audience and no product, and swiftly transformed Captain Marvel into the atomic age hero Marvelman, continuing to thrill readers into the 1960s.

As America lived through another superhero boom-&-bust, the 1970s dawned with a shrinking industry and wide variety of comics genres servicing a base that was increasingly founded on collector/aficionados, not casual or impulse buys.

DC needed sales and were prepared to look for them in unusual places.

After the settlement with Fawcett in 1953 they had secured the rights to Captain Marvel and Family and, even though the name itself had been taken up by Marvel Comics (via a circuitous and quirky robotic character published by Carl Burgos and M.F. Publications in 1967), they decided to tap into that discriminating fanbase.

In 1973, riding a wave of nostalgia, DC brought back the entire beloved Fawcett cast and crew in their own kinder, weirder universe. To circumvent the intellectual property clash, they entitled the new comic book Shazam! (‘With One Magic Wordâ€¦’) the trigger phrase used by most of the many Marvels to transform to and from mortal form and a word that had already entered the American language due to the success of the franchise the first time aroundâ€¦

Now in Justice League #135 the stand-alone Shazam heroes met other costumed champions when antediluvian dictator King Kull (a bestial king from a pre-human civilisation who held mankind responsible for the extinction of his race) invaded the Wizard’s home on the Rock of Eternity.

From this central point in the Multiverse Kull intended to wipe out humanity on three different Earths and began by capturing the gods and goddesses who empowered Billy and his magical allies Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel.

Thankfully fleet Mercury was able to escape and warn Earths 1 and 2 even as lesser heroes Bulletman & Bulletgirl, Ibis the Invincible, Spysmasher and Mister Scarlet & Pinky took up the fight without the missing Marvelsâ€¦

Recruiting an army of indigenous super-villains from three worlds, Kull unleashes a plague of unnatural disasters in ‘Crisis on Earth-S!’ unaware that Mercury, Shazam and imbecilic magic-wielder Johnny Thunder are undertaking a devious counterattack which brings the vanished Marvel Family back into action just in time to avert a cataclysmic ‘Crisis in Tomorrow!’

This monumental melange of metahuman mayhem concludes with a brace of double-length sagas guest-starring Silver Age DC’s second-most popular superteam.

Once upon a time, a thousand years from now, a band of super-powered kids from many worlds took inspiration from the greatest heroic legend of all time and formed a club of champions. One day those Children of Tomorrow came back in time and invited their inspiration to join themâ€¦

Thus began the vast, epic saga of the Legion of Super-Heroes, as first envisioned by writer Otto Binder & artist Al Plastino when the many-handed mob of juvenile universe-savers debuted in Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958), just as the revived superhero genre was gathering an inexorable head of steam in America.

The coalition grew and prospered, becoming a phenomenon generally attributed with birthing organised comics fandom. After years of slavishly remaining a closely-guarded offshoot of Superman’s corner of continuity the Legion finally crossed over into the broader DC Universe with this saga as writers Paul Levitz & Pasko combined to detail a ‘Crisis in the 30^th Century!’

It begins when ultimate sorcerer Mordru drags a handful of JLA and JSA-ers (Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Black Canary from Earth-1 plus the other Green Lantern, Doctor Fate, Power Girl, Flash and Hawkman from E-2) into the future to replace a band of ensorcelled Legionnaires he has lost contact withâ€¦

Mordru’s previous captives had been tasked with retrieving three arcane artefacts that were in the JLA’s keeping a millennium past, but with them gone the wizard now expects his new pets to finish the task. Of course the ancient heroes have other ideasâ€¦

Even after linking up with the lost Legionnaires, the 20^th Centurians are unable to prevent the return of demonic triumvirate Abnegazar, Rath and Ghast, but happily their eons in stasis has affected the eldritch horrors’ psychological make-up and their disunity gives the puny humans one shot at saving the universe from a ‘Crisis in Triplicate!’â€¦

This staggering panoply of multi-hued calamities and alternate Armageddons is rounded off with an instructive contextual lecture in John Wells’ Afterword ‘Those Were the Days‘, rounding out a glorious gathering of captivating Costumed Dramas no lover of Fights ‘n’ Tights fun and frolics could possibly resist.
Â© 1975, 1976, 1977, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

December 3, 2015December 2, 2015

Mighty Avengers volume 3: Secret Invasion Book 1

By Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, Koi Pham, John Romita Sr., Danny Miki, Klaus Janson, Tom Palmer & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3010-9

Following the divisive and brutal superhero Civil War, Tony Stark (a staunch advocate of the draconian, nigh-totalitarian Super-Human Registration Act) formed a squad of Government-sanctioned heroes. His SHIELD-backed Mighty Avengers were designed to take care of business whilst he worked on his â€œFifty States Initiativeâ€, the objective of which was to eventually field teams of federally trained and licensed superheroes in every State of the Union.

Firstly, though, he had to restore public confidence, especially as the unregistered, rogue New Avengers continued to defy his orders to surrender to government authority: saving lives and crushing evil without his permission. Things never seemed to go Stark’s way however, and a series of catastrophic crises led inexorably to Earth succumbing to alien infiltration and conquest.

This seditious third volume is written throughout by Brian Michael Bendis and gathers Mighty Avengers #12-15 (June-August 2008), re-presenting some of the opening sallies in the major event dubbed Secret Invasion wherein the torturously unfolding plan by the shapeshifting Skrulls finally turns into a red-hot shooting war.

Since Fantastic Four #2 (January 1961), the Skrulls have been a pernicious cornerstone of the Marvel Universe. After decades of frustrating failure, the insidious intergalactic infiltrators were finally made the stars of a colossal braided crossover which ran from Spring to Christmas 2008 throughout all the company’s titles.

The premise? The aliens’ former all-encompassing empire had been crippled and scourged by a devastating catastrophe which destroyed much of their star-spanning power. Consequently the survivors underwent a mass fundamentalist-religious conversion: utterly resolved and dedicated to make Earth their new homeworld – just as their ancient scriptures foretoldâ€¦

To this end they imperceptibly replaced a number of Earth denizens – mostly superheroes, villains and/or their close associates. When the plot was finally exposed no defender of the Earth truly knew who was on their sideâ€¦

Moreover, the Skrulls had also unravelled the secrets of Earth magic and humanity’s unique genetics, creating legions of amped-up equivalents to the world’s mightiest heroes and villains. During this period they hid amongst us, primed and waiting to destroy mankind’s champions in head-to-head confrontations.

Not all Skrulls were fanatics however. Earth also harboured a few carefully hidden dissidents opposed to the new regime and non-fanatics simply unwilling to get properly involvedâ€¦

The mysteries start to unravel in the ‘The Awakening’ from #12-13 (illustrated by Alex Maleev) where a fugitive and closeted Nick Fury – on the run for manipulating an Avengers squad into attacking the sovereign state of Latveria – discovers his current squeeze is actually a shapeshifting alien. Taking the appropriate steps, he sneaks back into SHIELD to warn his replacement Maria Hill that she can trust no-oneâ€¦

Always playing a deeply convoluted game, he then contacts Spider-Woman – his mole in the Avengers, SHIELD and Hydra – to warn her of Skrull infiltration before activating his own plan B, gathering his long-cached cadre of super-powered non-entities and agents never on anybody’s radar. Then he sets all the pieces tumbling into turbulent motionâ€¦

The untitled issue #15 – illustrated by Khoi Pham & Danny Miki – returns focus to Stark’s Mighty Avengers team (field leader Ms. Marvel, Black Widow, Wonder Man, the Wasp, Sentry and Grecian war god Ares), all blithely going about their heroic business unaware that trusted major-domo Edwin Jarvis has been replaced by a high-ranking Skrull.

When the revelation day at last arrives the treacherous insider instigates a chilling plan to take incomprehensibly powerful superman Sentry out of action by attacking his mind and those he loves mostâ€¦

The campaign of terror concludes with a chilling flashback illustrated by John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson & Tom Palmer, revealing how a dedicated proponent of the Super-Human Registration Act, a key component of Iron Man’s Fifty States Initiative and Founding Avenger was long ago replaced by a Skrull. What that augurs for humanity, only the coming weeks and months can tellâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

With covers by Marko Djurdjevic and Bendis’ full script for issue #12 this slim tome offers another slick and stylish slice of breathtaking all-action entertainment which adds depth and weight to the impressive and appealing Secret Invasion main event but also reads perfectly well on its own merits.

December 2, 2015December 1, 2015

The Joker: The Clown Prince of Crime

By Dennis O’Neil, Elliot S! Maggin, Martin Pasko, Irv Novick, Dick Giordano, JosÃ© Luis GarcÃa-LÃ³pez, Ernie Chan, Vince Colletta, Tex Blaisdell, Frank McLaughlin & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4258-9

An old adage says that you can judge a person by the calibre of their enemies, and that’s never been more ably demonstrated than in the case of the Batman. Moreover, for most of his decades-long existence, but most especially since the 1970s, the position of paramount antagonist has been indisputably filled by the Clown Prince of Crime known only as The Joker.

During the late 1960s superheroes experienced a rapid decline in popularity – possibly in reaction to the mass-media’s crass and crushing over-exposure – and the Batman titles sought to escape their zany, â€œcampâ€ image by methodically re-branding the character and returning to the original 1930s concept of a grim, driven Dark Avenger.

Such a hero demanded far deadlier villains and with one breakthrough tale Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams & Dick Giordano reinstated the psychotic, diabolically unpredictable Killer Clown who scared the short pants off readers of the Golden Age Dark Knight.

‘The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge’ from Batman #251 (September 1973) was a genuine classic which totally redefined The Joker for my generation (and every one since) as the Mirthful Madcap became an unpredictable utterly ruthless psychotic exponent of visceral Grand Guignol. Terrifying and beautiful, for many fans this was the definitive Joker storyâ€¦

Within a year and a half of that breakthrough revision the Harlequin of Hate was awarded his own series. Titles starring villains were exceedingly rare and provided quite a few problems for writers and editors still labouring under the edicts of the Comics Code Authority.

The outrÃ© experiment ended after 9 issues (spanning May 1975 to October 1976) having utilised some of the most talented creators in DC’s employ and remained a peculiar historical oddity for decades. Now, in these less doctrinaire times those strange tales of the Smirking Slaughterman have a fairer shot at finding an appreciative audience through this full-colour trade paperback collection.

The murderous merriment commences with ‘The Joker’s Double Jeopardy!’; wherein fellow Arkham inmate Two-Face arrogantly escapes, pinking the Felonious Funnyman’s pride and compelling the giggling ghoul to similarly break out and prove he’s the greater criminal maniac. Their extended, excessive duel of wits and body-counts only lands them both back insideâ€¦

The â€œrevolving doorâ€ security at Arkham eventually leads to the firing of much-harassed guards Marvin Fargo and Benny Khiss in ‘The Sad Saga of Willie the Weeper!’ However, as the again-at-liberty Lethal Loon attempts to bolster the confidence of a lachrymose minor-league larcenist (for his own felonious purposes, naturally), the defrocked jailers determine to restore their honour and fortunes and – astoundingly – succeedâ€¦

‘The Last Ha Ha’ came from The Joker # 3 (written by O’Neil with art from Ernie Chan/Chua & JosÃ© Luis GarcÃa-LÃ³pez) wherein a burglary and kidnapping of superstar cartoonist Sandy Saturn by a green-haired, cackling crazy leads the cops to the ludicrous conclusion that The Creeper is the culprit. Cue lots of eerie chortling, mistaken identity shenanigans and explosive actionâ€¦

The ethical dilemma of having a star who is arguably the world’s worst villain is further explored in ‘A Gold Star for the Joker!’ (Elliot S! Maggin, GarcÃa-LÃ³pez & Vince Colletta) wherein the Perfidious Pagliacci inexplicably develops a crush on Black Canary‘s alter-ego Dinah Lance and resolves to possess her or kill her.

Typically, even though she’s perfectly capable of saving herself, Dinah’s current beau Green Arrow is also the possessive – and aggressive – sortâ€¦

‘The Joker Goes Wilde!’ (Martin Pasko, Irv Novick & Tex Blaisdell) finds the Clown Prince in a bombastic contest with similarly playing-card themed super-thugs the Royal Flush Gang to secure a lost masterpiece, but even as he’s winning that weird war the Harlequin of Hate is already after a hidden prizeâ€¦

More force of nature than mortal miscreant, the Pallid Punchinello meets his match after assaulting actor Clive Sigerson in #6. Famed for stage portrayals of a certain literary detective, Sigerson sustains a nasty blow to the head which befuddles his wits and soon ‘Sherlock Stalks the Joker!’ (O’Neil, Novick & Blaisdell); foiling a flood of crazy schemes and apprehending the maniac before his concussion is curedâ€¦

We learn a few surprising facts about the Clown Prince of Carnage after he steals the calm, logical intellect of Earth’s most brilliant evil scientist. Naturally the psychic transference in ‘Luthorâ€¦ You’re Driving Me Sane!’ (Maggin, Novick & Frank McLaughlin) is two-way and, whilst the newly cognizant Clown becomes ineffably intelligent, Lex Luthor is now a risk-taking maniac determined to have fun no matter who diesâ€¦

The Joker # 8 featured a clash with Gotham’s Master of Terror as ‘The Scarecrow’s Fearsome Face-Off!’ (Maggin, Novick & Blaisdell) found the two scariest men in town stealing each other’s thunder whilst vying for the top-spot, before the villainous vignettes in this captivating chronicle conclude with a claws-out clash as ‘The Cat and the Clown!’ (Maggin, Novick & Blaisdell) sees an aged comedian and his million-dollar kitty targeted by rival rogues Catwoman and the Joker.

Unhappily for the crooks they had both underestimated the grizzled guile of their octogenarian victimâ€¦

With covers by Dick Giordano, Chan and GarcÃa-LÃ³pez this quirky oddment offers slick plotting, madcap larks and a lesser degree of murderous mayhem than modern fans might be used to, but also strong storytelling and stunning art to delight fans of traditional Fights ‘n’ Tights sagas.
Â© 1975, 1976, 2013 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

November 26, 2015November 25, 2015

Essential Marvel Team-Up volume 3

By Gerry Conway, Bill Mantlo, Chris Claremont, Bill Kunkel, Gary Friedrich, Sal Buscema, John Byrne, Dave Wenzel, Kerry Gammill & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3068-0

The concept of team-up books – an established A-lister joining or battling (frequently both) less well-selling company co-stars – was not new when Marvel decided to award their most popular hero the lion’s share of a new title, but they wisely left their options open by allocating an occasional substitute lead in the Human Torch. In those halcyon simpler times editors were acutely conscious of potential over-exposure and since super-heroes were actually in a decline at that time, they may well have been right.

Nevertheless when it launched in March 1972, Marvel Team-Up was the second official Spider-Man title (an abortive companion title Spectacular Spider-Man was created for the more respectable – and expensive – magazine market in 1968 but folded after two issues) and it immediately began bucking the downward trend for costumed crusaders.

Encompassing December 1976 to November 1978, this third mammoth monochrome Essential edition gathers the most consistently excellent period of the cathartic collaborations from Marvel Team-Up #52-73, 75 and includes the first Annual.

The thrills, spills and chills commence with ‘Danger: Demon on a Rampage!’: a rather rushed pairing of Spidey and Captain America from Gerry Conway, Sal Buscema & Mike Esposito which saw the heroes unite to take down Gallic mercenary Batroc and an enraged monster that had slipped out of an adjacent dimension.

This is followed by an epic length adventure from Marvel Team-Up Annual #1 by Bill Mantlo, Buscema & Esposito (from a plot by Mantlo, Chris Claremont & Bonnie Wilford). ‘The Lords of Light and Darkness!’ featured Spider-Man and the then-newly minted and revived X-Men, Banshee, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus, Phoenix and Cyclops helping Charles Xavier combat a pantheon of scientists mutated in an atomic accident and elevated to the ranks of gods.

Like most deities, the puissant ones believed they knew what was best for humanityâ€¦

Mantlo then teamed with John Byrne & Frank Giacoia to bring closure to a tale begun – and left hanging – in Marvel Premiere #31.

MTU #53 revealed a ‘Nightmare in New Mexico!’ as The Hulk met troubled and AWOL gene-splicing experiment Woodgod whilst the tragic construct fled from corrupt Army Colonel Del Tremens. By the time the Wallcrawler dropped in, the monstrous fugitives had joined forces leaving him a ‘Spider in the Middle!’ (with Esposito inks).

As Tremens tried to suppress the calamitous crisis and his own indiscretions by killing everybody, the final scene saw the Web-spinner trapped in a rocket and blasted into spaceâ€¦

Marvel Team-Up #55 found our ‘Spider, Spider on the Moon!’ (Mantlo, Byrne & Dave Hunt) as cosmic Avenger Adam Warlock intercepted the ship and joined the Web-spinner and mysterious alien The Gardner in battling the Stranger for possession of the Golden Gladiator’s life-sustaining Soul Gemâ€¦

Back on Earth but still a trouble-magnet, in #56 Spider-Man – assisted by Daredevil -faced ‘Double Danger at the Daily Bugle!’ (Mantlo, Sal B & Hunt) after Electro and Blizzard took the entire Newsroom hostage, after which Claremont came aboard as full scripter, starting a complex extended thriller embroiling the Wallcrawler in a deadly espionage plot which began ‘When Slays the Silver Samurai!’ (art by Sal Buscema & Hunt).

After being saved from a lethal ambush by the Black Widow, Spidey takes possession of a strange statuette but is diverted aiding Ghost Rider against The Trapster in ‘Panic on Pier One!’ (Pablo Marcos inks) before he can investigate further. Another distraction comes when MTU #59 declares ‘Some Say Spidey Will Die by Fireâ€¦ Some Say by Ice!’ (Claremont, Byrne & Hunt) as veteran Avenger Yellowjacket is apparently murdered by rampaging maniac Equinox, the Thermo-Dynamic Man and the Amazing Arachnid is hard-pressed to stop the traumatised Wasp exacting bloody vengeance in ‘A Matter of Loveâ€¦ and Death!’

The secret of the statuette is revealed in #61 as the Human Torch joins his arachnid frenemy in battle against Super-Skrull and learns ‘Not All Thy Powers Can Save Thee!’, before the furious clash escalates to include Ms Marvel in ‘All This and the QE2’â€¦

Despite the very best efforts of Claremont & Byrne their Kung Fu fantasy Iron Fist never achieved the kind of traction of their collaboration on the X-Men, and the living weapon lost his circulation battle with issue #15 of his own title. The series ended in spectacular fashion, but the cancellation was clearly unplanned, as two major subplots went unresolved: private detective Misty Knight had disappeared on an undercover assignment to investigate European gang-boss John Bushmaster and Danny was suffering repeated attacks on his chi by the mysterious Steel Serpentâ€¦

Frustrated fans didn’t have to wait long for a resolution though: Marvel Team-Up was becoming the creative team’s personal clearing house for unresolved plot-lines. Issues MTU #63 and 64 (November & December 1977) exposed the secret of the sinister K’un Lun exile on the ‘Night of the Dragon’ before Rand and Spidey – with the assistance of Daughters of the Dragon Misty Knight and Colleen Wing – ended the threat in blistering martial arts manner in ‘If Death Be My Destiny!’

After a short and sweet flurry of original adventures in his own UK title, Captain Britain eventually succumbed to the English version of funnybook limbo – his title subsumed by a more successful one with CB reduced to reprints. Soon after, he pyrrhically debuted across the water in ‘Introducing Captain Britain’ by originating scripter Claremont in Marvel Team-Up #65, illustrated by Byrne & Hunt.

The story portrayed Brian Braddock on student transfer to Manhattan as the unsuspecting house-guest of Peter Parker. Before long the heroes had met, fought and then teamed-up to defeat the flamboyant hit-man games-obsessed Arcade with the transatlantic tale concluding in #66 as the abducted antagonists systematically dismantled the maniac’s ‘Murderworld’.

The mystery of a long-vanished feline were-woman warrior was resolved in ‘Tigra, Tigra, Burning Bright!’ as the Webslinger was targeted by Kraven the Hunter, using the Feral Fury as his enslaved attack beast until Spider-Man broke her conditioning, after which Claremont, Byrne & Bob Wiacek explored ‘The Measure of a Man!’ in #68 as the Arachnid philanthropically returned the captive Man-Thing to his swamp habitat and encountered horrific demon D’Spayre torturing benevolent enchanters Dakimh and Jennifer Kale. It took every ounce of courage from both man and monster to defeat the dark lordâ€¦

A clash with Egyptian-themed thieves drew Spidey into the years-long duel between cosmic powered X-Man Havoc and his nemesis the Living Monolith in ‘Night of the Living God!’ (inked by Ricardo Villamonte), but when the battle turns against them it needs the might of Thor to stop the ravening astral menace in ‘Whom Gods Destroy!’ by Claremont, Byrne & Tony DeZuÃ±igaâ€¦

This epic clash signalled an end to the good times as MTU downshifted to short filler tales which began with #71 and ‘Deathgarden’ by Bill Kunkel, Dave Wenzel & Dan Green as Spider-Man and the Falcon rushed to secure an antidote from the perfidious Plantman for a poison killing Captain America whilst ‘Crack of the Whip!’ (Mantlo & Jim Mooney) found the Web-spinner and Iron Man battling Maggia stooges Whiplash and The Wraith, and in #73 Daredevil helped still ‘A Fluttering of Wings Most Foul!’ (Gary Friedrich, Kerry Gammill & Don Perlin) when the Owl set a trap for his most despised foesâ€¦

Due to contractual difficulties, Marvel Team-Up #74 – which featured a bizarre and hilarious pairing with TV’s Not-Ready-For-Primer-Time Players and Saturday Night Liveâ„¢ – has been omitted, but this collection of top-rate comics entertainment still end on a stellar high as Claremont, Ralph Macchio, Byrne & Al Gordon unite in tribute to the New York Fire Department with #75’s ‘The Smoke of That Great Burning!’ wherein Spider-Man and Luke Cage are caught up in a robbery and hostage crisis which soon turns into a major conflagrationâ€¦

This epic tome is padded out with an art-lover’s dream: a run of Marvel Tales covers (#193-199, 201-207, 235-236, 255, 262, 263) by the likes of Dave Cockrum, Todd McFarlane, Sam Kieth and others, plus the cover of Giant-Size Spider-Man #1, and it also includes info pages from the Marvel Universe Handbook on Black Widow, Captain Britain, Havok, Living Monolith, Silver Samurai and The Stranger.

These stories here are of variable quality – ranging from the barely acceptable to utterly superb – but all have an honest drive to entertain and most fans of the genre would find little to complain about.

Although not really a book for the casual or more maturely-oriented enthusiast, there’s tons of great Fights ‘n’ Tights action here and younger readers will have a blast, so why not consider this tome for your â€œMust-Haveâ€ libraryâ€¦
Â© 1976, 1977, 1978, 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

November 25, 2015December 18, 2015

Batman: the Dark Knight Archives volume 7

By Bob Kane, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Joe Samachson, Jack Schiff, Alvin Schwartz, Joe Greene, Dick Sprang, Jerry Robinson, Jack Burnley & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2894-1

Win’s Christmas Recommendation: Classically Traditional, Timelessly Wonderfulâ€¦ 9/10

Launching in 1939, a year after Superman, â€œThe Bat-Manâ€ (and latterly Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented DC/National Comics as the market frontrunner and conceptual leader of the burgeoning comicbook industry.

This seventh lavish hardback Archive Edition volume covers another bombastic bevy of Batman adventures (from #26-31 of his solo title, spanning December 1944/January 1945 to October/November 1945), abandoning wartime themes and exploits as the American Homefront anticipated a return to peacetime dangers, dooms and criminalityâ€¦.

These Golden Age tales are amongst the very finest in Batman’s decades-long canon as lead writers Bill Finger and Don Cameron, supplemented by Joe Samachson, Jack Schiff, Alvin Schwartz, Joseph Greene and other sadly unrecorded scripters, pushed the boundaries of the medium whilst graphic genius Dick Sprang veteran gradually superseded and surpassed originator Bob Kane (busy drawing the Batman daily newspaper strip); making the feature utterly his own whilst keeping the Dauntless Double-Act at the forefront of the legion of superhero stars.

The sheer creativity exhibited in these adventures saw an ever-expanding band of creators responsible for producing the stories of the Dark Knight were hitting an artistic peak which only stellar stable-mate Superman and Fawcett’s Captain Marvel could match.

Following a fascinatingly fact-filled and incisive Foreword from comics historian – and leading light of the magnificent Grand Comics Database – Gene Reed, the mesmerising flash and dazzle commences with Batman #26 and ‘The Twenty Ton Robbery!’

Delivered by Cameron & Sprang it described the return of Dashing Desperado The Cavalier, whose criminal cries for attention drove him to compete against the Caped Crusaders with ever-more spectacular and pointless plunderings after which Schiff & Robinson proffered another delightfully silly comedy-caper in ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Recipe for Revenge!’

This solo exploit of the wannabe detective found the fumbling footman shopping for fancy cuisine and inadvertently saving the life of a gourmet chefâ€¦

Crafted at the end of 1944, Greene & Sprang’s ‘The Year 3000!’ was a timely allegory of recent terrors and warning to tomorrow as the usual scenario boldly switched to an idyllic future despoiled when the Saturnian hordes of Fura invade Earth and nearly crush humanity. Happily, one brave man and his young friend find records of ancient heroes named Batman and Robin and, patterning themselves on the long-gone champions, lead a rebellion which overturns and eradicates those future fascistsâ€¦

Although a touch heavy-handed in places, this first conception of the undying legacy of Batman is a stunning example of what comics do best: inspire whilst entertainingâ€¦

Cameron & Sprang close up the issue, back on solid ground and with an eye to contemporary trends as ‘Crime Comes to Lost Mesa!’ finds the Gotham Gangbusters way out west in pursuit of escaped convicts and stumbling into a lost land where pueblo Indians still live in blissful ignorance of the modern world.

Keeping it that way takes the aid of plucky native tyke Nachee, helping Batman and Robin by surreptitiously rounding up the fugitivesâ€¦

Issue #27 sported a stunning Christmas cover by Jack Burnley (equally captivating other covers in this collection are provided by Robinson or Sprang) before the Masked Manhunters were introduced to ‘The Penguin’s Apprentice’ (Cameron, Burnley & Robinson). The lad was far from keen to continue the family’s illegal traditions or indulge in nefarious business and his dreams of being an author soon ensured Batman put the Bird Bandit back in a cageâ€¦

Jerry Robinson always had a deft touch with light comedy and excelled in illustrating the sadly uncredited butler yarns remaining in this tome. ‘The Adventures of Alfred: The Pearl of Peril!’ saw the hapless manservant suckered into an ancient con-game but still coming up trumps thanks to sheer dumb luck, after which Samachson, Burnley & Robinson took Batman and Robin on a ‘Voyage into Villainy’ when a murder at The Explorers Club leads to a deadly treasure hunt through scaled-down replicas of Earth’s most inhospitable environments with a hidden killer waiting to pounce at any momentâ€¦

Another of the annual â€œChristmas Batmanâ€ tales wraps up the issue (why on Earth DC has never released a paperback collection of this phenomenally rich seam of Festive gold I’ll never understand) as ‘A Christmas Peril!’ by Cameron & Robinson follows the downward progress and overnight redemption of appallingly callous boy-millionaire Scranton Loring, who learns – almost too late – the joy of giving and inadvisability of trusting bankers and financial advisers, thanks to the timely intervention of a couple of self-appointed (masked) Santa’s Helpersâ€¦

Batman #28 leads with ‘Shadow City!’ (Cameron & Robinson) wherein The Joker concocts a wild scheme involving a floating urban street where gamblers and other wealthy risk-takers can indulge their dark passions safe from legal oversight – until the Dynamite Detectives deduce the truth of his vanishing villageâ€¦

Another anonymous Robinson-rendered romp follows as ‘The Adventures of Alfred: The Great Handcuff King!’ reveals how the bumbling butler’s attempts to familiarise himself with manacles accidentally ensnares an unwary thuggish miscreant, after which the mild-mannered manservant almost ends the career of ‘Shirley Holmes: Policewoman!’ by inadvertently exposing the undercover cop to criminals in a tense Batman thriller by Finger & Robinson.

This issue ends on a redemptive high note as ‘Batman Goes to Washington!’ (Alvin Schwartz & Robinson) finds the Dark Knight supporting a group of former criminals heading to the nation’s capital to argue the case for jobs for ex-offenders. Typically, some gang bosses react to the threat to their potential labour pool with murderous overkillâ€¦

Finger & Sprang opened #29 with the chilling ‘Enemy No. 1’ as a man obsessed by being first at everything turned his monomaniacal frustration to the commission of crime, after which the Unknown Writer joined Robinson returned in ‘The Adventures of Alfred: The Butler’s Apprentice!’ wherein our dapper Man Friday answers an ad to train a retainer and stumbles into another half-baked burglary plotâ€¦

Although credited here to Robinson, Don Cameron’s outrageous romp ‘Heroes by Proxy!’ is actually an all-Sprang affair, delightfully describing how down-on-their-luck private detectives Hawke and Wrenn try to save their failing business by masquerading as Batman and Robin.

Luckily their first case involves strangely embarrassed Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson who are mortified – then amused – to be burgled by bandits unknown and then coached and cosseted by these helpful but blatantly shoddy impostors of their alter egosâ€¦

The delicious hilarity successfully concluded, grim normality returns courtesy of Finger, Sprang & Charles Paris as the diabolical Scuttler devises an infallible means of purloining secret plans and foiling the law’s attempts to catch him in ‘The Mails Go Through!’â€¦

The pompous Penguin pops up again in Batman #30, undertaking a bird and umbrella themed banditry-blitz to ensure his status as emperor of crime until the determined duo send him ‘Back to the Big House!’ (Cameron & Sprang).

‘While the City Sleeps!’ (Finger & Sprang) is a revered classic of informative, socially-aware entertainment which finds the senior crime-smasher taking his ward on a nocturnal tour of the city, celebrating the people who keep a modern metropolis going. Along the way they encounter a repentant thief trying to return stolen cash and have to deal with the guilty man’s murderous compatriots who want to keep the lootâ€¦

‘The Adventures of Alfred: Alias the Baron!’ (? & Robinson) then brightens the tone as the butler is mistaken by gangsters for a British crook marked for assassination, after which Finger & Sprang introduce the most annoying character in Gotham in ‘Ally Babble and the Fourteen Peeves!’

The well-meaning, impulse-challenged blabbermouth never shuts up and when he agrees to sort out a list of petty grievances for a well-to-do, bedridden old gent, the resulting chaos allows crooks to make a killing. As events alarmingly escalate however, the Caped Crimebusters are hard pushed to decide who’s the greater menaceâ€¦

The final issue in this titanic tome is an all Robinson art-affair, beginning with the debut of quarrelsome couple ‘Punch and Judy!’ (scripted by Finger and inked by George Roussos). The wily elderly performers’ violent relationship makes them prime suspects when Bruce and Dick investigate a crooked carnival but can they possibly be involved in murder too?

‘The Adventures of Alfred: Alfred, Armchair Detective!’ was possibly written by Cameron or Samachson and hilariously depicts how an idle night spent eavesdropping on crooks results in a big arrest of burglars, whilst ‘The Vanishing Village!’ (Samachson) finds Batman and Robin in Florida, infiltrating a seemingly mobile resort hideaway for crooks on the run before Joe Greene authors the final act.

Here Robinson & Roussos depict the heroes investigating ‘Trade Marks of Crime!’ when a succession of crimes seem to indicate that some new culprit is utilising the tricks and M.O.’s of other bandits. The truth is a far more cunning and dangerous solutionâ€¦

Accompanied by a full creator ‘Biographies’ section, this sublime selection of classic comicbook action is a magnificent rollercoaster ride to a era of high drama, low cunning and breathtaking excitement and this timeless and evergreen treat is one no lover of graphic entertainments should ignore.
Â© 1944, 1945, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: