Graphic Novels – Page 131

May 4, 2015May 2, 2015

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Ultimate Collection

By Joe Casey, Scott Kolins, Will Rosado, Tom Palmer & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5937-7

One of the most momentous events in Marvel Comics history occurred in 1963 when a disparate array of individual heroes banded together to stop the Incredible Hulk. The Avengers combined most of the company’s fledgling superhero line in one bright, shiny and highly commercial package. Over the decades the roster has continually changed until now almost every character in their universe has at some time numbered amongst the team’s colourful ranksâ€¦

During Marvel’s rebirth in the early 1960’s Stan Lee & Jack Kirby took their lead from a small but growing band of costumed characters debuting or being revived and reimagined at the Distinguished Competition. Julie Schwartz’ retooling of DC Comics’ Golden Age mystery-men had paid big dividends for the industry leader as the decade turned, and Managing Editor Lee’s boss (uncle and publisher Martin Goodman) insisted that his company should get in on the act too.

Although National/DC had achieved incredible success with revised and updated versions of the company’s old stable, the natural gambit of trying the same revivification process on characters that had dominated Timely/Atlas in those halcyon days didn’t go quite so well.

The Justice League of America-inspired Fantastic Four featured a new Human Torch but his subsequent solo series began to founder almost as soon as Kirby stopped drawing it. Sub-Mariner was back too, but as a villain, as yet incapable of carrying his own titleâ€¦

So a procession of new costumed heroes began, with Lee, Kirby and Steve Ditko churning out numerous inventive and inspired â€œsuper-charactersâ€.

Not all caught on: The Hulk folded after six issues and even Spider-Man would have failed if writer/editor Lee hadn’t really, really pushed his uncle Martinâ€¦

Even so, after nearly 18 months during which the fledgling House of Ideas had churned out a small stable of leading men (but only a sidekick woman), Lee & Kirby finally had enough players to stock an â€œall-starâ€ ensemble – the format which had made the JLA a commercial winner – and thus assembled a handful of them into a force for justice and even higher salesâ€¦

Cover-dated September 1963, The Avengers #1 launched as part of an expansion programme which also included Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and The X-Men and, despite a few rocky patches, the series grew into one of the company’s perennial top sellers.

Those early Avengers yarns became a cornerstone of the company’s crucially interlinked continuity and as decades passed they were frequently revisited and re-examined. In 2005 however Joe Casey and artist Scott Kolins (with colourists Morry Hollowell & Will Quintana) took the occasional exercises in creativity a little further, offering an 8-issue modernising miniseries which added devious back-writing to the original stories – with a spot of post-modern in-filling – which exposed secrets and revealed how the team actually came to hold its prominent and predominant position in the Marvel Universeâ€¦

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #1-8 ran fortnightly from January to April 2005 and was successful enough to warrant a second season – Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes II #1-8 which repeated the trick from January to May 2007, and both epics are re-presented here in a splendid, no-nonsense softcover compilation.

The drama begins (chronologically set between Avengers #1 and 2 ) as industrialist Tony Stark reviews media coverage of the coalition of mystery men currently residing in his family’s townhouse and ponders how best to keep such diverse and headstrong personalities as Ant Man, The Wasp, Thor and the Hulk together.

Across town in a seedy dive, a young troublemaker and pool-shark named Clint Barton can’t understand why folks are so nervous about the masked freaksâ€¦

Two weeks later the team has fallen apart and the Avengers are actually hunting their gamma-fuelled former colleague. In the course of events they unexpectedly recover a legendary form from a coffin of iceâ€¦

The gradually assimilation of partially amnesiac WWII legend Captain America into a terrifying new time is not without problems and the iconic and grimly experienced warrior is keenly aware of the seething tensions that beset the team he has joined.

Iron Man is still fervently pursuing an exalted Federal status for the Avengers but the army are baulking: clearly set on putting the wilfully independent powerhouses under military jurisdiction.

After a ferocious clash with Lava Men from the earth’s deep interior the word finally comes. The powers that be have created an all-encompassing â€œAvengers Priority Security Statusâ€ – but only for as long as the fickle public’s new darling and National Treasure Captain America stays with the teamâ€¦

Self-made scientific genius Hank Pym created the roles of Ant Man and the Wasp – AKA girlfriend Janet Van Dyne – but his inherent mental instability has caused him to push further and harder ever since he joined the ranks of a squad that includes a patriotic legend, an infallible metal juggernaut and a god.

Now as Giant Man he is letting his feelings of inadequacy drive a wedge between him and his lover even as the Army ups the pressure to take over the team, and reborn Steve Rogers increasingly sinks into survivor’s guilt over the comrades he failed to save in the war.

His torment kicks into overdrive when Nazi war criminal and arch foe Baron Zemo comes out of hiding to attack the Avenger with his Masters of Evilâ€¦

When an invader out of time strikes, the Avengers finally and very publicly prove their worth to the government, and with Kang the Conqueror sent packing the team at last secure their favoured-but-fully-independent security clearance. Meanwhile in the streets a wanted vigilante dubbed Hawkeye saves Avengers butler Edwin Jarvis and they strike up a most irregular friendshipâ€¦

The cases come thick and fast but the internal tensions never seem to dissipate. In far distant Balkan Transia fugitive mutants Wanda and Pietro desperately search for a place where they can feel safe whilst in America Cap is becoming increasingly obsessed with tracking down Zemo.

After a battle with Count Nefaria leaves the Wasp near death from a gunshot wound, Giant Man also edges closer to a complete breakdown. As a surgeon battles to save her life, Pym swears that he’s going to quit and take her away from all the madness but before that can happen Zemo returns to abduct the Sentinel of Liberty’s teenaged friend Rick Jonesâ€¦

The team acrimoniously divides with Cap trailing the monomaniac to Bolivia whilst the rest of the Avengers remain for a final battle against the Masters of Evil. Below stairs Jarvis and Clint are concocting a scheme of their ownâ€¦

As the death-duel in Bolivia concludes, in Germany two restless young mutants orchestrate their return to America and – with a little collusion from Jarvis – Hawkeye â€œauditionsâ€ for Earth’s Mightiest Heroesâ€¦

As Cap and Rick wearily make their way back to civilisation, Iron Man deals with the Government fallout when they hear the news that their Red, White and Blue poster boy is missing. Soon news leaks out that the rest of the original team have decided to quit and Stark has lined up a wanted vigilante and two outlaw mutants to replace themâ€¦

The initial secret history lesson concludes with the astounded Captain America’s re-emergence and reluctant succession to leadership of a team of obnoxious and arrogant young felons he is expected to mould into true heroesâ€¦

The rest is historyâ€¦

The second bite of the cherry (by Casey, Will Rosado, Tom Palmer & Quintana) focuses on a time when the Avengers were in resurgent form. The Founders had all returned at a time when Pym (now calling himself Goliath), Wasp and Hawkeye had been joined by enigmatic African monarch Black Panther and the action commences immediately following the expanded team’s attack by an android called The Vision – whom they promptly signed up (Avengers #58 if you’re keeping count)â€¦

The density-shifting â€œsynthezoidâ€ was created by robotic nemesis Ultron (a murderous AI created by Pym whilst suffering one of his many psychotic breaks) before switching allegiances, and the first issue opens as the highly-suspect new Avenger is impounded by SHIELD for investigation and clearance. The ostensible reason is that another autonomous murder mechanism – the Super-Adaptoid – has escaped from custody and humanity can’t be too carefulâ€¦

In the Philippines, the real cause of all the anti technology tension and overweening suspicion are busy. Science terrorists Advanced Idea Mechanics have secretly stolen the Adaptoid and begun seeing how they can improve an already ultimate killing machineâ€¦

At a hidden SHIELD base interrogator Jasper Sitwell has met his match in The Vision but still perseveres in trying to dig out dirt on the android and its â€œmasterâ€ Ultron.

The Panther meanwhile has foregone his status as a VIP dignitary to teach at an inner city school under the alias of Luke Charles. What he finds there is a true educationâ€¦

Hawkeye too is under pressure as his lover Black Widow reveals she’s going back into the spy-game. With Pym close to apoplexy at the government’s quasi-legal rendition of the Vision, nobody is in a particularly good mood when SHIELD supremo Nick Fury demands the team head to the Philippines to investigate AIM’s latest enterprise.

With Fury’s carrot-&-stick pep talk ringing in their ears the heroes – rejoined by the just released Vision – jet off, unaware that in Manhattan an assassination plot against King T’Challa/Mr. Charles has brought one of Panther’s greatest enemies to Americaâ€¦

The heroes are challenged over the Pacific skies by a massed-produced army of Super-Adaptoids and are soon engaged in the fight of their livesâ€¦

Overwhelmed, the party is in danger of being swamped and Goliath valiantly turns himself into as colossal human rampart to stem the tide and save the endangered island population whilst his comrades are despatched to take out the AIM superbaseâ€¦

Left all alone Pym fights in a maddened frenzy and becomes increasingly obsessed with how human the things he is incessantly slaughtering seem to be. By the time the triumphant team get Goliath home he is a deeply traumatised shell of a manâ€¦

Luke Charles returns to school in time to get deeply embroiled in a bullying case that will inevitably end in gunplay and tragedy. And then the apparently recuperating Hank Pym goes missingâ€¦

Soon after a new and excessively brutal hero named Yellowjacket is making news even as Agent Sitwell again targets the Vision for further debriefing after Pym’s â€œmassacreâ€ of mechanical lifeforms on AIM Island. This time he has brought in SHIELD’s top psychologist Agent Carver to try and get under the newcomer’s artificial skinâ€¦

The spies are in heated argument with Hawkeye when Yellowjacket breaks in, claiming to have murdered the Man of Many Sizes and demanding to take Goliath’s place on the teamâ€¦

Nobody is fooled. Everyone has recognised the abrasive stranger as Pym gone far off the deep end, but Carver prevents them from saying anything. She advises that he is clearly inches from being utterly incurable and devises a treatment to cure him which basically comprises â€œplay along and don’t do anything to upset the crazy manâ€â€¦

That even includes allowing Yellowjacket to kidnap the Wasp and agreeing to let him marry his hostageâ€¦

The wedding is held at Avengers Mansion and includes a Who’s Who of heroes along for the ride, but the scheme spirals out of control when the Circus of Crime (not privy to the details of the service) use the gathering as the perfect opportunity to kill all America’s costumed champions in one goâ€¦

That deadly dilemma is apparently enough to shock Pym back to his right senses but in the aftermath a number of SHIELD agents are brutally slaughtered as Wakandan assassin Death Tiger gets ever closer to fulfilling his own mission of murderâ€¦

And to cap off all the chaos the still at large Super-Adaptoid also attacks, determined to expunge the race-traitor Vision who has perpetrated the ultimate betrayal by siding with inferior humanity and denying the innate superiority and inevitable ascension of mechanical and artificial lifeformsâ€¦

Politically savvy, wryly cynical and compellingly action-packed, this extremely impressive Fights ‘n’ Tights chronicle is a superb addition to the annals of the Avengers and would serve as perfect comics vehicle for those movie blockbuster fans in search of a print-fix for their costumed crusader cravingsâ€¦
Â© 2005, 2007, 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

April 30, 2015April 29, 2015

Essential Spider-Man volume 6

By Gerry Conway, Stan Lee, John Romita Sr., Ross Andru, Gil Kane & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1365-2

The Amazing Spider-Man was always a comicbook that matured with – or perhaps just slightly ahead of – its fan-base and this sixth exceptionally economical monochrome volume 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 Stan Lee had replaced himself with young science fiction author Gerry Conway and the scripts acquired a more contemporary tone (which of course often feels quite outdated from here in the 21^st century, Man!) which were purportedly more in tune with the times whilst the emphatic use of soap opera subplots kept older readers glued to the series even when the bombastic battle sequences didn’t.

Moreover, as a sign of the times a hint of cynical surrealism also began creeping inâ€¦

Thematically, there’s a decline in the use of old-fashioned gangsterism and a growing dependence on outlandish villains. The balance of costumed super-antagonists with thugs, hoods and mob-bosses, was gradually ending and soon the global resurgence of interest in supernatural stories would result in more monsters and uncanny happeningsâ€¦

Nevertheless the Wallcrawler was still indisputably mainstream comics’ voice of youth and he defined 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, collectively spanning October 1972-October 1974, reprints Amazing Spider-Man #114-137 and includes team-up tales from Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 and Giant-Size Spider-Man #1 and 2, opening here with the next chapter in a long-running duel for control of New York’s underworld in ‘Gang War, Schmang War! What I Want to know is … Who the Heck is Hammerhead?’ by Conway, John Romita Sr., Tony Mortellaro & Jim Starlin, from #114.

Our angst-ridden arachnid is trapped between the battling mobs of 1930s movie gangster pastiche Hammerhead and archenemy Dr. Octopus; each seeking to dominate the Big Apple’s underworld.

In the melee Spidey is captured by the brutally ruthless newcomer and learns from the boastful braggart how an ordinary amnesiac gunsel was rebuilt into an unstoppable cyborg by a rogue scientist named Jonas Harrow.

Seconds from death, Spider-Man is driven to risk everything on a wild escape bid after he overhears that Ock is meeting up with an old lady and fears that his beloved, befuddled Aunt May is once more sheltering the many-armed menaceâ€¦

Dashing across town, he breaks in to Ock’s HQ only to be brained with a vase by the terrified May. Moments behind him are Hammerhead’s goons and all too soon ‘The Last Battle!’ (art by Romita Sr. & Mortellaro) is underway. As the mobsters decimate each other, Spider-Man barely escapes being shot by his own aunt and is more than happy to disappear when the police show up to arrest (almost) everybody.

In the aftermath, however, May astounds everybody by revealing that she will be staying in Octopus’ Westchester mansion until he is releasedâ€¦

Amazing Spider-Man #116 began an extended political thriller as charismatic reformer Richard Raleigh opens a savvy campaign to become Mayor, only to be opposed and hunted by a brutish monster in Suddenlyâ€¦ the Smasher!’

Older fans will recognise much of the story and art since Conway had recycled and augmented Stan Lee, Romita & Jim Mooney’s black & white story from 1968’s Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine (with additional art by Romita & Mortellaro): reconfigured to encompass new subplots regarding May’s absence and publisher J. Jonah Jameson‘s involvement and obsession with Raleighâ€¦

The drama deepens with ‘The Deadly Designs of the Disruptor!’ as the monster’s masked master intensifies his efforts to destroy the would-be Mayor – with only Spider-Man seemingly able to deter the maniac – before the affair finally culminates in a ‘Countdown to Chaos!’ wherein the true architect of the campaign of terror is exposed and destroyedâ€¦

Peter’s problems exponentially increased in #119 as a mysterious telegram to May calls him away to Canada to meet a man named Rimbaud. Before he leaves, however, his best friend’s father has a disturbing episode.

Norman Osborn had been the maniacal Green Goblin until cured by hallucinogen-induced amnesia. Now as Parker readies himself for a trip to Montreal, Osborn seems to be recovering his memoriesâ€¦

With no other option the harried hero heads north, arriving in time to be caught in a city-wide panic as another verdant former sparring partner hits town. ‘The Gentleman’s Name isâ€¦ Hulk’ (an all-Conway & Romita collaboration) saw the wall-crawler utterly overmatched but still striving to stop the rampaging green juggernaut, spectacularly culminating in ‘The Fight and the Fury!’ (drawn by Gil Kane with Paul Reinman and inked by Romita & Mortellaro).

With the immediate threat averted, Peter at last rendezvous with Rimbaud only to see the man murdered before he can share whatever secret he knew about May Parkerâ€¦

In these days of an infinitude of fan-sites, publicity cycles and gleeful spoiler-mongers, it takes a lot to keep a shock ending from the readers, but back in 1973 comics consumers had only word of mouth and the story itself. Thus Amazing Spider-Man #121 staggered everybody when it was releasedâ€¦

The Norman Osborn storyline kicked into high gear on ‘The Night Gwen Stacy Died’ (Conway, Kane, Romita & Mortellaro), the initial instalment of a two-part tale which stunned the readership as Peter’s greatest efforts are not enough to save his intended from the insane rage of the resurgent Green Goblin. The tragic episode then leads inexorably to ‘The Goblin’s Last Stand!’ and a grim and gritty new directionâ€¦

With Spider-Man accused of murdering Osborn and implicated in Gwen’s death, Jameson takes advantage of a new kind of metahuman champion in #123; engaging a Hero for Hire to bring the webspinner to justice in ‘â€¦Just a Man Called Cage!’

However the clash only proves that the antagonists’ lives are more tragically similar than different and Luke Cage resigns from the case in a most distinctive mannerâ€¦

As previously stated, at this time horror was on the rise and the trend permeated all aspects of Marvel continuity. In #124, Jameson’s astronaut son John was revealed to have picked up a strange gem during a moonwalk which transformed him into a lupine beast bearing ‘The Mark of the Man-Wolf’ (art by Kane, Romita & Mortellaro).

Deranged and deadly, the hairy horror stalked his own fiancÃ©e Kristine Saunders as well as his father, with a fighting-mad Spider-Man reacting in a far more brutal manner than ever beforeâ€¦

The conclusion marked the introduction of the next star penciller to the venerable strip as Ross Andru joined Conway and Romita to delineate the end of the ‘Wolfhunt!’ offering a particularly grisly cure for the altered astronautâ€¦

In #126 a new subplot bloomed as a marketing firm hired the astounded and unbelieving arachnid to build a â€œSpider-Mobileâ€ whilst an old and inept enemy returned in ‘The Kangaroo Bounces Back!’ (illustrated by Andru & Mooney).

Short of cash and desperate, Spidey ropes in best frenemy Johnny (Human Torch) Storm to help assemble the anticipated automobile, but is totally unprepared for his Australian attacker since the Kangaroo has had a power upgrade from a mad doctor named Harrowâ€¦

And in the apartment Peter shares with Harry Osborn, the son of the Green Goblin finally succumbs to the mental illness that has been sucking him down since the death of dear old dadâ€¦

Peter’s great friend and good time girl Mary Jane Watson comes under the spotlight in #127 as ‘The Dark Wings of Death!’ (Conway, Andru, Frank Giacoia & Dave Hunt) finds her targeted by a strangely familiar monster who believes she witnessed his last kill. The mystery concludes in ‘The Vulture Hangs High!’ wherein an incredible truth about the avian atrocity is revealed.

Moreover, portents of future trouble manifest as Parker’s biology tutor Professor Miles Warren warns that the student’s grades are slipping and his position is far from secureâ€¦

Conway, Andru, Giacoia & Hunt then crafted a true landmark in comics history in Amazing Spider-Man #129 with ‘The Punisher Strikes Twice!’ which introduced not only the renegade gunslinger but also nefarious manic mastermind The Jackal.

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

He was created by Conway, Romita Sr. and Andru; an understandably toned down and 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.

In the short, sharp shocker the man with the skull logo was duped by his manipulative partner into hunting Spider-Man. Still a suspect in the death of Norman Osborn, the hero was easy to set up for the murder of the Punisher’s personal gunmakerâ€¦

The long-running mystery over May’s connection to Doc Ock was at last addressed in #130 as ‘Betrayed!’ finds Hammerhead prodded and provoked by the Jackal just as Octavius breaks out of jail.

Distracted by the now completed Spider-Mobile, the Wallcrawler is slow to react until he finally discovers why his aunt is so important to the villain, but by then she’s in the process of becoming Mrs. Otto Octaviusâ€¦

Spiderman is just about to bust up the wedding in ‘My Uncleâ€¦ My Enemy?’ when Hammerhead beats him to it. As the three-way battle escalates the truth comes out. May has inherited a desolate Canadian island which just happens to be teeming with uranium deposits which both Ock and Hammerhead want to secure as the means to becoming an independent nuclear powerâ€¦

Ock has already built an experimental atomic plant on the rocky crag and when his rival invades it all Peter can do is get May out before the entire place becomes an atomic infernoâ€¦

Romita, Reinman & Mortellaro return to limn #132 as the weary Spider-Man arrives back in New York only to stumble into ‘The Master Plan of the Molten Man!’ When old school flame Liz Allen resurfaces, Peter has no idea she is secretly trying to help her criminal stepbrother.

As a super-strong metal-skinned bandit Mark Raxton was only a minor inconvenience to Spider-Man but now his chemically induced condition has worsened and he is swiftly turning into an incandescent human fireball. By the time ‘The Molten Man Breaks Out!’ in #133, however, there is nothing the hero can do except fight until one of them is deadâ€¦

With the monster boom in full swing Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 (June 1974) then teamed two of the Arachnid’s eeriest enemies in a double-length epic as ‘Man-Wolf at Midnight!’ (Conway, Kane & Esposito) finds John Jameson again gripped by murderous moon madness and enthralled by Living Vampire Morbius ‘When Strikes the Vampire!’

That dynamic dust-up led directly into Giant-Size Spider-Man #1 (July 1974) wherein the web-spinner went in search of an experimental flu vaccine improbably carried on a ocean liner in ‘Ship of Fiends!’ and clashed with Dracula and a scheming Maggia Don at ‘The Masque of the Black Death!’ (Conway, Andru & Don Heck)â€¦

The much-misunderstood hero again crossed paths with The Punisher in Amazing Spider-Man #134-135 when a South American bandit – trained to be his oppressive regime’s Captain America before going freelance – attempted to pillage a Manhattan tour boat in ‘Danger is a Man Namedâ€¦ Tarantula!’ (Conway, Andru, Giacoia & Hunt).

Once again unwilling allies, the ethically-estranged duo dutifully dismantled the villain’s schemes after a ‘Shoot-Out in Central Park!’ but the real danger was building elsewhere as poor Harry accepted at last the infamous inheritance of his devilish, recently departed dadâ€¦

Before then, however, Giant-Size Spider-Man #2 saw the Webslinger drawn into battle with Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu as sinister immortal Fu Manchu framed Spider-Man in ‘Masterstroke!’ Eventually the duped heroes cleared the air in ‘Crossâ€¦ and Double-Cross!’ before uniting to foil the cunning Celestial’s scheme to mindwipe America from the ‘Pinnacle of Doom!’

This compelling compendium concludes in a two-part thriller as Conway, Andru, Giacoia & Hunt’s long-brewing clash of former friends kicks off with completely crazy Harry attempting to blow up Peter and Mary Jane. Privy to his best friend’s secret, the maniac then targets all Parker’s loved ones in ‘The Green Goblin Lives Again!’

The desperate, deadly duel ends when ‘The Green Goblin Strikes!’ resulting in doom, destruction, shocking revelations and another tragedy for Peter to feel forever responsible forâ€¦

Despite major qualification this is still a fantastic book about an increasingly relevant teen icon and symbol. Spider-Man at this time became a crucial part of many youngsters’ lives 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, and 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 soap-opera instalments, but none of that would be relevant if the stories weren’t so compellingly entertaining.

The tales in this transitional tome at last 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© 1972, 1973, 1974, 2011 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

April 28, 2015April 27, 2015

New Avengers: Secret Invasion Book 2

By Brian Michael Bendis, Billy Tan, Jim Cheung, Michael Gaydos & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2949-3

The Skrulls are shape-shifting aliens who’ve bedevilled Earth since Fantastic Four #2, and they have long been a pernicious cornerstone of the Marvel Universe. After decades of use, abuse and misuse the insidious invaders were made the sinister stars of a colossal braided mega-crossover event beginning in April 2008 and running through all titles until Christmas.

The premise of Secret Invasion is simple: the would-be alien conquerors have only just survived a devastating catastrophe which destroyed much of their empire; subsequently leading to a mass religious conversion. They are now utterly resolved and dedicated to make Earth their new holy homeworld.

To this end they have gradually replaced a number of key Earth denizens – most notably superheroes and other metahumans. When their plot is discovered no defender of the Earth truly knows who is on their sideâ€¦

Moreover the cosmic charlatans have also unravelled the secrets of Earth magic and genetic superpowers, creating amped-up counterparts to Earth’s mightiest. They are now primed and able to destroy the world’s heroic champions in face to face confrontations.

Rather than give too much away, let me just say that if you like this sort of thing you’ll love it, 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 – which 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?).

The New Avengers segment of the saga concludes in the book, collecting issues #43-47 (September 2008 to January 2009) and offering more supplementary and sidebar insights to the main event as the Invasion progresses, focussing again on individual character pieces to propel the narrative rather than vast battles.

Scripted throughout by Brian Michael Bendis, the first tale (illustrated by Billy Tan & Danny Miki) returns to the moment which turned a cold war of suspicion and attrition into a hot shooting match after a spaceship full of what appeared to be Earth heroes crashed into the dinosaur preserve known as the Savage Land.

These returnees all claimed to be the originals, taken at various times and upon landing accused those who had been on Earth prior to their crash of being alien impostors. The most shocking example was Captain America, whom everybody saw assassinated weeks previously on prime time TVâ€¦

Whilst the Star Spangled Avenger is exposed as a Skrull a flashback reveals how potent the new Skrull strategy is, not only copying the body and powers but programming the infiltrator with false memories so that it actually believes itself to be the human hero it mimicsâ€¦

These unwitting Trojan Horses have been mixed in with genuine shanghaied Terrans and eventually allowed to escape back to Earthâ€¦

With art by Tan & Matt Banning, the next sneak peek harks back to the time when Earth’s â€œIlluminatiâ€ – Reed Richards, Tony (Iron Man) Stark, Black Bolt, Stephen Strange, Charles Xavier and Namor, the Sub-Mariner – confronted and were consequently captured by the Skrulls.

Although the heroes eventually escaped they left behind far too many genetic secrets, and this shocking history lesson proceeds to reveal how neophyte scientist Dro’ge Fenu Edu used the mind and personality of Richards to forge the final link in the aliens’ infallible invasion planâ€¦

Jim Cheung, Matt Dell & Jay Leisten illustrated the next chapter which intersected with publishing event House of M as deep-cover agent and invasion commander Queen Veranke found herself caught up in the reality-warping spell of the Scarlet Witch.

As that deeply troubled woman remade the world in a crazed attempt to create a mutant paradise, Veranke was forced to see things that would sharpen her resolve to eradicate humanity once the previous reality was (mostly) restoredâ€¦

Tan & Banning were back for #46 as mystic gangster The Hood and his syndicate of super-criminals rescue murderous menace Madame Masque from SHIELD agents, only to discover that the high-tech lawmen are shapeshifting aliensâ€¦

As the villains struggle to decide what their role will be in the coming struggle, The Hood at last learns where his own incredible abilities come fromâ€¦

The catalogue of changeling tales concludes with a Tan, Michael Gaydos & Banning art collaboration as new parents Luke Cage and Jessica Jones review how they first met when the former â€œHero for Hireâ€ commissioned actual private detective Jones to track down his estranged father.

Some heartbreaks lead to new loves but as the woman known as â€œAliasâ€ gradually moved into Cage’s life, neither knew that one day it would all lead to a Skrull impersonating the Avengers’ butler, stealing their babyâ€¦

Quirky, moving, and winningly low-key, the stories gathered here are supplemented with a cover gallery from by Aleksi Briclot and a selection of landmark original covers his homages are based on, including Avengers Annual #2 by John Buscema, New Avengers: Illuminati #1 by Cheung, House of M #1 by Esad Ribic, Bring on the Bad Guys by John Romita Sr. and West Coast Avengers #1 by Bob Hall.

Although impressive and entertaining, this great Fights ‘n’ Tights tome doesn’t really stand alone, but you will also certainly benefit from checking out the collections Secret Invasion: the Infiltration, Avengers Disassembled, and Annihilation volumes 1-3, as well as the rather pivotal New Avengers: Illuminati graphic novel.

Despite the copious homework list I’ve provided, this book is still a solid action-adventure read, with plenty of human drama to balance the paranoia and power-plays: a pure guilty pleasure.
Â© 2008, 2009, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

April 26, 2015April 24, 2015

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man by Brian Bendis volume 4

By Brian Michael Bendis, Sara Pichelli, David Marquez, Justin Ponsor & various (Marvel) ISBN: 978-0-7851-6503-3

When the Ultimate Spider-Man died, writer Brian Michael Bendis and Marvel promised that a new hero would arise from the ashesâ€¦

Marvel’s Ultimates imprint began in 2000 with a post-modern take on major characters and concepts to bring them into line with the tastes of 21^st century readers – apparently a wholly different demographic from us baby-boomers and our descendents content to stick with the precepts sprung from founding talents Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Stan Leeâ€¦ or perhaps just those unable or unwilling to deal with five decades (seven if you include Golden Age Timely tales retroactively co-opted into the mix) of continuity baggage which saturated the originals.

Of course the darkly nihilistic new universe soon became as continuity-constricted as its ancestor and in 2008 cleansing exercise â€œUltimatumâ€ culminated in a reign of terror which killed dozens of super-humans and millions of mere mortals in a devastating tsunami that inundated Manhattan courtesy of mutant menace Magneto.

In the months that followed, plucky Peter Parker and his fellow meta-human survivors struggled to restore order to a dangerous new world, but just as Spider-Man finally gained a measure of acceptance and was hailed a hero by the masses, he took a bullet for Captain America and very publicly met his end during a catastrophic super-villain showdown â€¦

In the aftermath, child prodigy Miles Morales gained suspiciously similar powers (super-strong and fast and able to walk up walls, plus invisibility and a crippling â€œvenom-chargeâ€) and started out on the same deadly learning curve: coping with astounding new physical abilities, painfully discovering the daily costs of living a life of lies and realising how a crippling sense of responsibility is the most seductive method of self-harm and worst of all of possible gifts.

He was helped and hindered in equal amounts by his uncle Aaron: a career super-criminal dubbed The Prowler. Things started to go spiral out of control the night Aaron Davis died in battle with the new arachnid hero in town, but now – months later – the repercussions of the televised event have finally caught up with the boy who would be Spider-Manâ€¦

Written throughout by Bendis, this luxurious hardcover collection (re-presenting Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #16.1 and #19-25, from December 2012 to June 2013) finds the juvenile wall-crawler recovering in the aftermath of a second War Between the States.

That internecine conflict almost destroyed the Republic but has left the traumatised public in no mood to tolerate mysteries or put up with unexplained and potentially dangerous characters and vigilantes.

The action opens with jump-on tale ‘Point One’ (illustrated by David Marquez

from Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #16.1) wherein unscrupulous reporter Betty Brant uses her considerable investigative skills to establish a link between The Prowler, the second Spider-Man, the genetic experiments of Norman Osborn and a guy named Morales.

As she digs deeper and follows the brief career of the new hero, Betty not only uncovers the remains of the genegineered spider which transformed Miles, but also learns far more than she should have from disgraced Oscorp biochemist Dr. Conrad Marcus, as well as engendering the unwelcome interest of scientific monolith Roxxon Industries and a brutal, relentless monstrosityâ€¦

The main event is 4-part epic ‘Venom War’ (art by Sara Pichelli) which opens in the days following the civil war. Child prodigy Miles and best-bud/superhero trainer Ganke are back at Brooklyn Visions Academy Boarding School. Miles spends only weekends at home, and now he and his confidante are eagerly attempting to master Peter Parker‘s web-fluid formula and wrist-shooters which the inexperienced hero has recently inherited.

As a mysterious monster raids and wrecks Roxxon’s HQ, in Manhattan homicide cop and ex-SHIELD agent Mariah Hill is investigating the bloody murder of a journalist. Her interviews at the Daily Bugle all lead her to the Davis/Morales home in Brooklyn.

Marcus’ dad Jefferson Davis has become an involuntary and extremely camera-shy celebrity because of his stand against the secessionist organisation Hydra. When a film crew bursts into the family home he understandably goes ballistic and kicks them to the kerb, but his fury is futile in the face of the towering, metamorphic horror known as Venom, which chooses that moment to attack the person it accuses of being Spider-Manâ€¦

The next chapter opens seconds later as the beast lunges, and in the family home Miles suits up and springs into battleâ€¦

The clash is savage and terrifying. As the TV parasites carry on filming, Jefferson joins the severely overmatched Spider-Man only to be smashed and broken like a bugâ€¦

The Arachnid kid goes crazy but his best efforts – and the fusillade of shots from the just- arrived cops – are useless. Only after the shattered lad employs his devastating venom blasts does he succeed in driving off the amorphous atrocityâ€¦

The shocking struggle has been broadcast all over the world. Elsewhere in Brooklyn two girls cherished by the original web-spinner immediately drop what they’re doing and rush to the scene of the battleâ€¦

Many months previously, as part of the crowd of grateful strangers attending Peter Parker’s memorial, Miles and Ganke had talked to another mourner, a girl who was intimate with the murdered hero. Gwen Stacy offered quiet insights to the boy child who had just acquired his powers and then altered the course of his life forever by sharing a simple mantra: â€œwith great power comes great responsibilityâ€â€¦

Now she and Mary Jane Watson arrive at the crime scene ready to share their experience in keeping secrets just as attending detective Mariah Hill reaches the conclusion that the shell-shocked boy crying on the stairs is Spider-Manâ€¦

His mother Rio Morales is in the ambulance taking Jefferson to hospital and Miles is in no state to fend off questions from an experienced SHIELD interrogator or even speak to his equally traumatised buddy Ganke, but Gwen and Mary Jane certainly are and quickly shut down the situation and terminate the interview.

As they explain all the ghastly secrets of the Venom monster and its connection to the Parker family, speculation leads the youngsters to the idea that maybe the genetic quirk which made Peter Spider-Man might be repeated in the Morales familyâ€¦

Deep below their feet the shapeshifting symbiote is reconstituting. Soon it breaks out of the sewers to again consume human hosts. The consciousness in charge of the marauding terror hasn’t given up its search for Spider-Man and is all too quickly bursting into the hospital where Rio is waiting for word on her husbandâ€¦

The shocking conclusion begins with news of the assault reaching Miles. Hill, convinced she is right, gives Miles crucial advice for the battle she knows his coming. By the time Spider-Man reaches the medical centre Venom is carving a bloody swathe through the patients and doctors and the consequent clash is terrifying to behold.

With bodies falling everywhere Miles eventually finds a grotesque and dreadful way to stop the beast and expose the villain within, but in the aftermath realises that the awful cost has been another person he lovesâ€¦

As the ruthless boss of Roxxon now makes Spider-Man his only priority, in Brooklyn Miles wakes from a deep sleep and realises his life has changed forever. At last he understands the horror and tragedy which underpins the legend of Spider-Man. This time though, the response to a death in the family is not guilty defiance and an urge to make things right, but a crushing, total surrenderâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

With covers by Sara Pichelli, this is a tense, breathtaking action-packed, thriller full of the humour and drama which blessed the original Lee/Ditko tales: a controversial but worthy way to continue and advance the legend that Fights ‘n’ Tights addicts will admire and adoreâ€¦ Â© 2012, 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

April 25, 2015April 24, 2015

Avengers volume 1

By Brian Michael Bendis, John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson, Tom Palmer& various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4501-1

Once upon a time Norman Osborn was America’s Security Czar, an untouchable â€œtop-copâ€ in sole charge of a beleaguered nation’s defence and freedom, especially in regard to the USA’s costumed and metahuman community.

When the deranged former Green Goblin overplayed his hand, a coalition of outlawed champions united to defeat him and his fall from grace was staggering and total, leading to a new Age of Heroes.

As part of that resurgence, original Captain America Steve Rogers was appointed Supreme Commander of US metahuman resources and promptly set about redefining the what, who and how of the World’s Mightiest Heroes. This meant a flotilla of new teams (and titles) with Avengers volume 4 being the official spine of the comicbook franchise.

This slim yet spectacular collection gathers issues #1-6 (written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by John Romita Jr, and inkers Klaus Janson & Tom Palmer; spanning July to December 2010) and opens with the triumphant, reunited army of heroes trying to decide just who goes where and does what.

Those deliberations are rudely interrupted in ‘Next Avengers Part One’ when time-tyrant Kang the Conqueror beams in with a frantic warning. He barely opens his mouth before he’s blasted across the city by the wary, twice-shy heroes, but as they gather to press their attack the conqueror stops all hostilities by brandishing an ultimate weapon.

Iron Man Tony Stark prevents his comrades from finishing off Kang because he recognises the Dark Matter Accelerator. It’s something he thought up and swore never to build. The only way the future man can have it is if Stark made it and then gave it to himâ€¦

In the cautious ceasefire that follows Kang explains that he’s come to beg the aid of the Avengers. In the future he is one of a team that includes the children of the Avengers, united to stop life-loathing Artificial Intelligence Ultron from exterminating humanity.

They at last succeeded in destroying the mechanoid marauder but the children have now become an even greater menace. Moreover, Kang’s attempts to stop them have resulted in time itself shredding and all of reality is now collapsingâ€¦

The arrogant time-terrorist expects the Avengers to stop their errant offspring, but as Steve Rogers heads off all debate and allocates teams, back in the future Kang and his hidden allies make preparations to carry out their real schemeâ€¦

Not every past Avenger was keen to answer the call to reassemble. Simon Williams had come to believe the team had done more harm than good and threatened to stop them if they started up again. ‘Wonder Man Attacks?!!’ sees him make good on his warning as a committee of heroes track down Kree outcast Noh-Varr The Protector to make use of his expertise in time travel.

As the alien and Stark’s efforts finally bear fruit Wonder Man brutally engages the entire team and in the blockbusting battle that follows, something goes terribly wrong and an alternate Apocalypse and his horrendous Horsemen materialise, intent on ending mankind.

As the heroes swiftly mobilise to tackle the new crisis, a ‘Menace From Beyond Time’ manifests as various time-streams and realities begin to coalesce and overlap in New York City.

With All of Everything endangered, a small squad of heroes heads into the unhappy future leaving their harried comrades to hold back a tidal wave of time-tossed menaces – and the occasional misplaced hero such as Killraven and Devil Dinosaurâ€¦

Far away from now, Iron Man, Wolverine, replacement Captain America James â€œBuckyâ€ Barnes and Noh-Varr witness first hand the cataclysmic war against Ultron before being ambushed by the next generation in ‘Only the Good Die Young’.

Back in their home era a multitude of past menaces – from cavemen to cowboys to cosmic devourer Galactus – are keeping the majority of Avengers busy, whilst in the foredoomed tomorrow the questing quartet are painfully discovering that they’ve been played by Kang yet againâ€¦

Full explanations are promised by an incredibly aged Tony Stark and the architect of the chronal rescue plan: Bruce Banner in his gamma-charged arch-villain persona of the Maestroâ€¦

With two Starks, an incredibly experienced Banner and new element Noh-Varr all intent on fixing the problem, the sorry story soon comes out. All of creation’s future is stuck in a temporal loop: a cosmic â€œGroundhog Dayâ€ with Kang interminably spent battling Ultron but now, with the odds altered by the historical Avengers, there’s a chance to make things right in one final ‘Battle for the Future’â€¦

Of course as Thor’s clash with Galactus escalates and the assembled Avengers resolutely resist Apocalypse and his minions in the now, there may not be a past to return toâ€¦

Layers of murderous duplicity are peeled back in ‘Next Avengers Part 6: Conclusion’ as a cunning solution to the Ultron-Kang impasse is conceived but, even as reality reasserts itself and four weary heroes return home, old man Stark takes the risky chance of giving his younger self a deadly device and a portentous warning from the futureâ€¦

Epic, vast in scale and overflowing with action, this a magnificently rendered tale that might bewilder new readers looking for a post-movie fix, but will delight dyed-in-the-wool Fights ‘n’ Tights fanatics. It comes with 16 covers-&-variants by Romita Jr., Janson & Dean White, John Romita Sr. & Frank D’Armata, Greg Land & Morry Hollowell, Jim Cheung & Justin Ponsor, Alan Aldridge, Phil Jimenez & D’Armata, plus a massive combined variant cover by Marko Djurdjevic.

April 16, 2015April 15, 2015

Black Panther: The Deadliest of the Species

By Reginald Hudlin, Ken Lashley, Paul Neary & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3342-1

Regarded as the first black hero 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 July 1966 when he attacked the Fantastic Four as part of an extended plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father.

T’Challa, son of T’Chaka, was an African monarch whose hidden kingdom was the only source of a miraculous alien metal upon which the country’s immense wealth was founded. Those mineral riches – derived from a fallen meteor which struck the continent in lost antiquity – had enabled him to turn his country into a technological wonderland.

The tribal resources and the people had long been safeguarded by a cat-like human champion who derived physical advantages from secret ceremonies and a mysterious heart-shaped herb which ensured the generational dominance of the nation’s Panther Cult.

In recent years the mythology was retooled to reveal that the â€œVibraniumâ€ mound had actually made the country a secret Superpower for centuries but now increasingly made Wakanda a target for subversion and incursion.

This slim, unassuming but extremely engaging Costumed Drama outing collects the first six issues of Black Panther volume 5 – April to September 2009 and was originally part of Marvel’s company-wide â€œDark Reignâ€ publishing event.

‘The Deadliest of the Species’ begins as new bride (and queen) Ororo nervously embarks on a goodwill tour. As a mutant – and far worse, an American – who has married the king, she is keenly aware of her tenuous position.

All thoughts of winning over the people are soon forgotten when T’Challa’s jet – which left only hours ago on a diplomatic mission – screams in and catastrophically crashes in the heart of the city despite all the weather goddess’ efforts to slow it downâ€¦

Unknown to all, five hours previously the Black Panther had secretly met with regal rival Namor the Sub-Mariner to hear an invitational offer from the Cabal of world-conquerors led by Norman Osborn but now the adored sovereign is near death. His formidable Dora Milaje bodyguards are gone, and once dragged from the wreckage burned and broken, T’Challa agonisingly reveals it was an ambush before lapsing into a comaâ€¦

As Queen Mother Ramonda and sister Shuri dash to the hospital, the ruling council are frantic; terrified that the assassination attempt is prelude to an invasion. Wakanda has always been ready for such assaults, but that was with a healthy Black Panther. Right now they are spiritually all but defencelessâ€¦

Even though the king is not quite dead, the Ministers advocate activating the protocols which will create a new Panther warriorâ€¦ but the question is who will succeed?

Hours ago after Namor departed, a far less friendly potentate accosted T’Challa as he left the conference. Dr. Doom was also a member of the Cabal and took the Panther’s refusal to join the club very, very badlyâ€¦

Back in the now, desperate meetings and Ororo’s refusal to undertake the mystic rituals result in Princess Shuri being reluctantly assigned – over the strenuous protests of her own mother – the role of Black Panther Apparent. As T’Challa’s older sister it’s a role she was destined for, but one her brother seized decades ago.

At that time she was away being schooled in the West when an invasion by American adventurer Ulysses Klaw resulted in the death of their father. With cruel circumstance demanding nothing less, the boy took the initiative, the role and the responsibility of defending his nationâ€¦

Now after years as an irrelevant spare, the flighty jet-setter is being asked to take up a destiny she neither wants nor feels capable of fulfilling. She is especially afraid of the part of the ceremony where she faces the Panther God and is judgedâ€¦

T’Challa cannot reveal how the battle with Doom ended in brutal defeat and certain death had not his valiant Dora Milaje given their lives to get his maimed body back in the jet and home via auto-pilot. He is even unable to stay alive and as the world’s most up-to-date doctors slowly abandon hope, Ramonda convinces Queen Ororo to try something ancient insteadâ€¦

Despite a pervasive cloak of secrecy bad new travels fast and across the continent adherents of the Panther Cult’s theological antithesis revel in Wakanda’s misfortune. The smug worshippers prepare arcane rituals to finally destroy their enemies and in a place far removed from the world, T’Challa awakes to meet his dead bodyguards once moreâ€¦

In an isolated hut Queen and Queen Mother are bickering with sinister shaman Zawavari. He claims to be able to bring T’Challa back but gleefully warns that the price will be highâ€¦

Thanks to her years of training, Shuri is having no problem with the physical rigours of the Panther Protocols and foolishly grows in confidence. Far away, Wakanda’s enemies succeed in summoning Morlun, Devourer of Totems, but are unprepared for the voracious horror to consume them before turning his attention to more distant theological fodderâ€¦

And in Limbo, a succession of dead friends and family subtly and seductively attempt to convince T’Challa that his time is past and that he should lay down his regal burdensâ€¦

As Morlun makes his way to Wakanda, stopping only to destroy other petty pantheons such as the master of the Man-Ape sect, Death continues her campaign to convince T’Challa to surrender to the inevitable whilst Shuri faces her final test.

It does not end well. The puissant Panther God looks right through her ands declares her pitifully unworthy to wear his mantle or defend his worshippers. Despondent Shuri is despatched back to the physical world just as her sister-in-law arrives in Limbo, sent by Zawavari to retrieve her husband from Death’s clutches.

Ororo doesn’t want to tell her husband that this is their last meeting. The price of his passage back is her becoming his replacementâ€¦

In the real world Morlun has reached Wakanda’s borders, drawn inexorably to T’Challa’s (currently vacant) physical form, utterly invulnerable to everything in the nation’s super-scientific arsenal and leaving a mountain of corpses behind him.

With Armageddon manifesting all about them, the Royal Family and Ruling Council are out of options until sly Zawavari points out an odd inconsistency: the price for failing to become Wakanda’s living totem has always been instant death, but Shuri, although rejected, returned aliveâ€¦

Realising both she and her country have one last chance, the newest Black Panther goes out to battle the totem-eater whilst in the land of the dead T’Challa and Ororo resolve to ignore the devil’s bargain and fight their way back to life.

And as the two hopeless battles proceed, Ramonda and Zawavari engage in a last-ditch ploy which will win both wars by bring all the combatants togetherâ€¦

Fast-paced, compelling and gloriously readable, this splendid blend of horror story, action epic, political thriller and coming-of-age tale comes with an impressive cover-&-variants gallery by J. Scott Campbell, Edgar Delgado, Michael Djurdjevic, Ken Lashley and Mitch Breitweiser.

If you don’t despise reboots and re-treads on unswerving principle and are prepared to give something new(ish) a go, there’s a lot of fun to be had in this fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights farrago, so why not set your sights and hunt this down?
Â© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

April 14, 2015April 13, 2015

Batman: the Dark Knight Archives volume 6

By Bob Kane, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Jack Schiff, Alvin Schwartz, Joe Greene, Mort Weisinger, Dick Sprang, Jack Burnley, Jerry Robinson & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2547-6

Debuting 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 parameters of the metahuman in their Man of Tomorrow, the physical mortal perfection and dashing derring-do of the strictly human Dynamic Duo rapidly became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all other four-colour crimebusters were judged.

This sixth lavish hardback Archive Edition volume covers Batman #21-25 and again features exploits from the height of World War II – specifically February/March 1944 to October/November 1944.

These Golden Age greats are some of the finest tales in Batman’s decades-long canon, as lead writers Bill Finger and Don Cameron, supplemented by Joe Samachson, Jack Schiff, Alvin Schwartz, Joe Greene and Mort Weisinger, pushed the boundaries of the adventure medium whilst graphic genius Dick Sprang slowly superseded and surpassed Bob Kane and Jack Burnley, making the feature uniquely his own and keeping the Peerless Pair at the forefront of a vast army of superhero successes.

The sheer creativity exhibited in these adventures proved that the ever-expanding band of creators responsible for producing the bi-monthly adventures of the Dark Knight were hitting an artistic peak which only stellar stable-mate Superman and Fawcett’s Captain Marvel were able to equal or even approach.

Moreover with WWII finally turning in the Good Guys’ favour, the escapades became upbeat and more wide-rangingâ€¦

Following a Foreword from former bat-scribe Alvin Schwartz, the Home Front began to offer a brighter – but still crime-ridden – perspective with Batman #21, an all-Sprang art extravaganza which opened with the slick Schiff-scripted tale ‘The Streamlined Rustlers’ which saw the Caped Crusaders way out West solving a devilish mystery and crushing a gang of beef-stealing black-market black hats.

Cameron then described the antics of murderous big city mobster Chopper Gant who conned a military historian into planning his capers, briefly bamboozling Batman and Robin with his warlike ‘Blitzkrieg Bandits!’ whilst Schwartz penned the delightfully convoluted romp ‘His Lordship’s Double’ which sees newly dapper, slim-line manservant Alfred asked to impersonate a purportedly crowd-shy aristocratic inventorâ€¦ only to become the victim in a nasty scheme to secure the true toff’s latest inventionâ€¦

It all culminates with ‘The Three Eccentrics’ (written by Joe Greene), which details the wily Penguin‘s schemes to empty the coffers of a trio of Gotham’s wealthiest misfits. The fiendish foray founders because he fails to take into account the time-sensitivity of his information and the dogged grit and ingenuity of the Gotham Gangbustersâ€¦

Batman #22 leads with ‘The Duped Domestics!’ by Schwartz, Bob Kane & Jerry Robinson wherein a select number of Gotham’s butlers are targeted by a sultry seductress looking for easy inroads to swanky houses. Despite being an old enemy of Batman’s, â€œBelindaâ€ more than meets her match when Alfred becomes her next patsyâ€¦

When the little rich boy secretly takes a menial job, his generous guardian is rightly baffled but after ‘Dick Grayson, Telegraph Boy!’ (Finger, Burney & Robinson) exposes a criminal enterprise centred around Gotham Observatory, the method of his madness soon becomes clear.

Next a new solo series debuted as Mort Weisinger & Robinson launched ‘The Adventures of Alfred’ with ‘Conversational Clue!’ wherein Batman’s batman misapprehends an overheard word at the library and stumbles into a safecracking gang.

The issue concludes with ‘The Cavalier Rides Again!’ (Finger, Burnley & Charles Paris) as the Dashing Desperado mystifyingly begins bagging cheap imitations rather than authentic booty in his ongoing campaign to best the Batmanâ€¦

The Joker led in issue #23 with Finger, Sprang & Gene McDonald’s eccentric thriller ‘The Upside Down Crimes!’ wherein the Harlequin of Hate turns the town topsy-turvy in his latest series of looting larcenies after which smitten Dick’s bold endeavours save classmate and ‘Damsel in Distress!’ (Cameron & Sprang) Marjory Davenport and her dad from gangster kidnappers.

Unfortunately for him, she soon has her head turned by flamboyant Robin and the Boy Wonder becomes his own rivalâ€¦

Anonymously scripted but again rendered by Jerry Robinson, ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Borrowed Butler!’ found the domestic detective loaned out by Bruce Wayne to a snooty neighbour and accidentally uncovering an insider’s scheme to burgle the place.

Wrapping up this outing is another fact-packed â€œPolice Division Storyâ€ with Batman and Robin joining the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to stop a vicious ring of fur bandits who have decided to forego robbing big city stores. Instead, the ‘Pelt Plunderers!’ (Joe Samachson & Sprang) head due north to steal directly from the trappersâ€¦

Batman #24 added a smidgen of science fiction flair and a dash of sheer whimsy to the regular mix as ‘It Happened in Rome’ (Samachson & Sprang) introduces Professor Carter Nichols who devises a method of time-travel which depends on deep hypnosis.

His first subjects are old friend Bruce Wayne and his ward who both wing back centuries for a sightseeing trip and end up saving a charioteer from race-fixers as Batmanus and Robinâ€¦

Bruce also plays a pivotal role in ‘Convict Cargo!’ (Cameron & Sprang), pretending to be an embezzler in order to expose a ring of thugs offering perfect getaways to Gotham’s white-collar criminals. Happily when the villain vacations turn out to be one-way trips, Batman and Robin are on hand to mop up the pirates responsible.

Cameron & Robinson then describe how ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Police Line-Up!’ leads the bewildered butler into trailing the wrong crook but still nabbing a mob of bad eggs before portly purveyors of peril Tweedledum and Tweedledee connive their way into the position of ‘The Mayors of Yonville!’

Their flagrant abuse of civic power dumps the Dynamic Duo into jail but still isn’t enough to keep their goldmine scam from coming to light once the heroes bust outâ€¦

This superb hardback compendium concludes with Batman #25 as opening shot ‘Knights of Knavery’ (Cameron, Burnley& Robinson) sees arch rivals Penguin and Joker join forces to steal the world’s biggest emerald and outwit all opposition, before falling foul of their own mistrust and arrogance once the Dark Knight puts his own thinking cap on.

‘The Sheik of Gotham City!’ (Schwartz, Burnley & Robinson) then sees an Arabian refugee working as a cab driver in Gotham restored to rule his usurped desert kingdom after our heroes foil an assassination attempt, whilst ‘The Adventures of Alfred: The Mesmerised Manhunter!’ (Cameron & Robinson) sees the off-duty domestic the plaything of a stage magician whilst simultaneously foiling a box office heist.

The action and suspense wrap up in spectacular style as Finger, Burnley& Robinson detail a saga of sabotage and redemption when the Dynamic Duo join the rough-and-ready electrical engineers known as ‘The Kilowatt Cowboys!’

As if the job of bringing the nation’s newest hydroelectric dam on line is not dangerous enough and a plague of thefts by murderous copper thieves isn’t cutting into productivity, most of Batman’s time is spent stopping rival wire men Jack and Alec from killing each otherâ€¦

Accompanied by a stunning and iconic Sprang cover gallery and full creator ‘Biographies’, this sublime selection of classic comicbook action is a magnificent ride on the Wayback Machine to a time of high drama, low cunning and breathtaking excitement
Â© 1944, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

April 7, 2015

Superman Archives volume 8

By Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Alvin Schwartz, Whitney Ellsworth, Ed Dobrotka, Sam Citron, Ira Yarbrough, George Roussos, Jack Burnley, Wayne Boring & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2885-9

Today’s American comicbook industry – if it still existed at all – would have been utterly unrecognisable to us without Superman. His unprecedented invention and adoption by a desperate and joy-starved generation quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form.

Spawning an impossible army of imitators and variations, within three years of his 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment which hallmarked the early Man of Steel had grown to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, socially reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East embroiled America, patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and explosive derring-do.

In comicbook terms at least Superman was master of the world, having already utterly changed the shape of the fledgling industry. There was the phenomenally popular newspaper strip, a thrice-weekly radio serial, games, toys, as much global syndication as the war would allow and the perennially re-run Fleischer studio’s astounding animated cartoons.

Despite all the years that have passed since then, I – and so many others – still believe that superhero comics were never more apt or effective than when they were whole-heartedly combating the agents of Fascism (and yes by heck, even the dirty, doggone, Reds-Under-the-Beds Commies, who took their place in the 1960s too!) with mysterious masked marvel men in compulsive, improbable short, sharp exploits,

The most evocative and breathtaking moments of the genre always seem to occur as those gaudy gladiators soundly thrashed – and please forgive the offensive contemporary colloquialism – â€œNips, Nazis and Redsâ€. However, even in those dark days long-ago, the young and enthusiastic creators were wise enough to augment their tales of espionage and invasion with a range of gentler, more whimsical four-colour fare. By the time of the sagas in this superb seventh Superman full-colour hardcover Archive edition – re-presenting #30-35 (September/October 1944 to July/August 1944) of the Man of Tomorrow’s solo title – the apprehension of the early war years had been replaced with eager anticipation as tyranny’s infernal forces were being rolled back on every Front.

Superman was the premier, vibrant, vital role model whose startling abilities and take-charge, can-do attitude had won the hearts of the public at home and the troops across the war-torn world.

Now, although the shooting was all but over, stirring, morale-boosting covers and stories were being phased out in favour of gentler and even purely comedic themes.

Following a funny and informative Foreword: â€œLook! Up in the Sky! It’s a Birdâ€¦ it’s a Planeâ€¦it’s – An Imp?’ by cartoonist Evan Dorkin discussing the advent of super-foes, social change and a certain fifth dimensional jester, the action-laced whimsy begins with ‘Superman Alias Superman!’ by Don Cameron, Ira Yarbrough & Stan Kaye wherein lovelorn Clark Kent takes romantic advice from office-boy Jimmy Olsen and impersonates his own alter ego to impress Lois.

The doomed imposture is further complicated because his scathing, scoop-obsessed colleague is fully fixated on catching high society bandit Silver Foxx and has no time for Clark’s insecurities and idiociesâ€¦

The go-getting journalist was always too busy for romance back then, as can be seen in ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Arch-Swindler’ by Cameron, Ed Dobrotka & George Roussos. In those turbulent times the interpretation of the â€œplucky news-henâ€ was far less demeaning than the post-war sneaky minx who was so popular in the late 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.

Her Superman-free exploits began in #28: a succession of 4-page vignettes offering breathless, fast-paced, screwball comedy-thrillers. In this example, spurred on by Clark’s teasing, she tracks down, is captured by and spectacularly turns the tables on murderous conman Jack Doverâ€¦

Back with the star feature, Bill Finger, Yarbrough & Roussos revealed how an ancient prophecy turns the Action Ace into ‘The King’s Substitute’ as centuries ago the ruler of tiny nation Poltavia learns that a Superman will one day deliver his country from bondage, restore a true heir and offer the people a wonderful thing called democracyâ€¦

Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster & Yarbrough then herald the start of a new kind of adventure as ‘The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk’ debuts. An utterly intoxicating daffy romp introduced the 5th dimensional imp who would henceforward periodically test the Man of Steel’s ingenuity and patience in a still-hilarious perfect example of the lighter side of super-heroics.

Mxyztplk (later anglicised to Mxyzptlk, presumably to make it easier to spell?) became a cornerstone of the Superman mythos: an insufferable pixie against whom all Superman’s strength and power were useless. From then on brains were going to be as important as brawn as frustration became the Man of Steel’s first real weaknessâ€¦

Superman #31 opens with crime-thriller ‘Tune Up Time for Crime’ (Finger, Sam Citron Roussos) as crooks with a deadly new sonic weapon turn out to have the scientific backing of the Metropolis’ Marvel’s oldest enemy, after which arch-whimsy reappears in ‘A Dog’s Tale’ (Finger, Citron & Roussos) when scruffy mutt Flip proudly tells his canine pals how he helped Superman crack a dognapping racketâ€¦

Cameron & Dobrotka then reveal how a gang of jewel thieves prove no match for dumb luck and journalistic moxie in ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Aces Doonan Gang’ before Finger, Citron & Roussos close out the issue with a trip to the museum as ‘The Treasure House of History!’ finds Superman saving a noble institution from mismanagement, skulduggery and even closure whilst discovering a lost Mayan cityâ€¦

In #32 ‘Superman’s Search for Clark Kent!’ (Alvin Schwartz, Dobrotka & Roussos) finds the Action Ace an invincible amnesiac after volunteering for a scientific trial and forced to track down his own other identity whilst ‘Crime on Skis!!’ (Finger, Dobrotka & Roussos) sees the restored hero debunk a malign mythical bird as no more than a cover for more pedestrian killers plaguing a ski resort.

‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: Monkey Business’ (Whitney Ellsworth, Dobrotka & Roussos) is another splendidly frothy concoction describing how a ventriloquist at the zoo puts the jaunty journo on the trail of a pack of pickpockets, after which the terrible Toyman resurfaces to plague Metropolis, plundering wealthy antique collectors in search of a treasure hidden since the French Revolution in ‘Toys of Treachery!’ (Cameron, Dobrotka & Roussos).

Superman #33 opened with the hero following foolish Lois into ‘Dimensions of Danger!’ (Cameron, Yarbrough & Roussos) after she road-tested a Mxyztplk spell and ended up stuck in his home realm of Zrfff. Once there the Caped Kryptonian had the opportunity to do a little mischief-making of his ownâ€¦

With art by Yarbrough & Roussos ‘The Country Doctor!’ is the kind of socially aware redemptive tale Bill Finger was a master of and saw Clark Kent stuck in homey little Middletown watching aging Dr. David Brown make a difference – but little money – ministering to the poor souls around him.

The physician’s only regret was a son who preferred big city glamour cases and big city fees, but then something quite tragic happenedâ€¦

Ellsworth & Dobrotka’s ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Purloined Piggy Bank’ found her being pranked by (male) cops before turning the tables on them and crushing a crime conspiracy. The issue ends with classic mystery yarn ‘The Compass Points to Murder!’ (Finger, Yarbrough & Roussos) finding the Action Ace darting to the four corners of the globe in search of a killer who believed he’d successfully silenced a shipping fleet magnate but had left one telling clue behindâ€¦

In #25 Mort Weisinger & Fred Ray’s ‘I Sustain the Wings!’ played a crucial part in America’s attempt to address a shortfall in vital services recruitment – a genuine problem at this time in our real world – and created an instant comics classic.

Artistically Superman #34 is an all Citron/Roussos affair, whose opening shot attempted to repeat the magic formula with Cameron scripted ‘The United States Navy!’ with Clark despatched to follow three college football heroes whilst they progress – in different maritime specialisations – through the war in the Pacific. Â

Then ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Foiled Frame-Up’ (Ellsworth) sees her upset political scoundrels and expose a smear campaign after which Cameron instigates a prototype â€œImaginary Taleâ€ with ‘The Canyon that Went Berserk!’ wherein a fortune teller prompts Clark into daydreaming the prospecting adventure of a lifetimeâ€¦

‘When the World got Tired!’ (Finger) then ramped up the tension when a sinister epidemic of global indolence and sloth turns out to be the work of Lex Luthor and his new alien alliesâ€¦

The gaggle of Golden Age goodies conclude with the contents of Superman #35 (mostly illustrated by Yarbrough & Roussos), starting with the Cameron scripted ‘Fame for Sale!’, wherein shady cove and scurvy scoundrel J. Wilbur Wolfingham rears his conniving head once more. The magnificent pastiche of W. C. Fields as a ruthless Mr. Micawber returned like a bad penny over and again to bedevil honest folk and greedy saps and here he acted as an early kind of spin doctor/publicist for a millionaire miser, social climbing parvenu and even the Mayor of Metropolis, promising their names would be on everybody’s lips.

Of course he neglected to mention how he would accomplish the feats and drew the unwelcome attention of an always alert Action Aceâ€¦

A gang wanting to profiteer from a new medicine came to a painful end in ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Drug Swindle’ (Cameron & Dobrotka) whilst Yarbrough & Roussos resumed their illustrative endeavours for Finger’s ‘Like Father, Like Son!’ wherein Superman cleared the name and reputation of a local politician whose enemies sought to tar him with the same scandalous brush as his supposedly criminal child, and the

‘The Genie of the Lamp!’ (scripted by Schwartz) then sees the Action Ace teach a wealthy young antique collector the difference between precious objects and people in need by masquerading as a wish-fulfilling spriteâ€¦

With stunning covers by Jack Burnley, Wayne Boring, Roussos & Kaye, plus a full ‘Biographies’ section this is another stunning selection of the stories which kept the groundbreaking Man of Steel at the forefront of comics for nearly 80 years.

As fresh and thrilling now as they ever were, these endlessly re-readable epics are perfectly situated in these gloriously luxurious Archive Editions; a worthy, long-lasting vehicle for the greatest and most influential comics stories the art form has ever produced.

April 3, 2015April 2, 2015

Spirou and Fantasio volume 7: The Rhinoceros’ Horn

Spirou (whose name translates as both â€œsquirrelâ€ and â€œmischievousâ€ in the Walloon language) was created by French cartoonist FranÃ§ois Robert Velter under the pen-name Rob-Vel for Belgian publisher Ã‰ditions Dupuis in response to the phenomenal success of HergÃ©’s Tintin for rival outfit Casterman.

The legendary title was launched on April 21^st 1938 with a rival red-headed lad as the lead of an anthology weekly comic which bears his name to this day.

The character began life as a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed by the Moustique Hotel (a reference to publisher’s premier periodical Le Moustique) whose improbable adventures with his pet squirrel Spip eventually evolved into high-flying surreal comedy dramas.

Spirou and his associates have spearheaded the magazine for most of its life, with a phalanx of truly impressive creators carrying on Velter’s work, beginning with his wife Blanche â€œDavineâ€ Dumoulin who took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939.

In 1946 JijÃ©‘s assistant AndrÃ© Franquin assumed the reins, gradually sidelining the short, gag-like vignettes in favour of longer epic adventure serials, introducing a wide and engaging cast of regulars and eventually creating a phenomenally popular magic animal dubbed Marsupilami to the mix (first seen in Spirou et les hÃ©ritiers in 1952 and now a spin-off star of screen, plush toy store, console games and albums all his own).

He crafted increasingly fantastic tales and absorbing Spirou sagas until he resigned in 1969.

He was succeeded by Jean-Claude Fournier who updated the feature over the course of nine stirring adventures which tapped into the rebellious, relevant zeitgeist of the times with tales of environmental concern, nuclear energy, drug cartels and repressive regimes.

By the 1980s the series seemed outdated and without direction: three different creative teams alternated on the feature, until it was at last revitalised by Philippe Vandevelde – writing as Tome – and artist Jean-Richard Geurts AKA Janry, who adapted, referenced and in many ways returned to the beloved Franquin era. Their sterling efforts consequently revived the floundering feature’s fortunes and resulted in fourteen wonderful albums between 1984 and 1998.

As the strip diversified into parallel strands (Spirou’s Childhood/Little Spirou and guest-creator specials A Spirou Story Byâ€¦) the team on the main vehicle were succeeded by Jean-David Morvan & JosÃ©-Luis Munuera, and in 2010 Yoann & Vehlmann took over the never-ending procession of amazing adventuresâ€¦

Cinebook have been publishing Spirou & Fantasio’s exploits since October 2009, mainly translating Tome & Janry’s superb pastiche/homages of Franquin, but for the fifth episode (The Marsupilami Thieves), they reached all the way back to 1952 and the second appearance of the adorable wonder-beast by the great man himself.

With that brave experiment clearly having paid dividends they repeated the experiment here, but with times and taste having changed so radically felt the need to issue a heartfelt warning and carefully considered apologia regarding some content of The Rhinoceros’ Hornâ€¦

I’ll prÃ©cis it here: it was sixty years ago and our attitudes to hunting, minorities and especially the modern obscenity of killing for ivory and horn have thankfully changed. Please read this book with that in mind. The publishers, of course, phrased it much betterâ€¦

AndrÃ© Franquin was born in Etterbeek, Belgium on January 3^rd 1924. Drawing from an early age, the lad only began formal art training at Ã‰cole Saint-Luc in 1943. When the war forced the school to close a year later, he found animation work at Compagnie Belge d’Animation in Brussels where he met Maurice de Bevere (Lucky Luke creator â€œMorrisâ€), Pierre Culliford (Peyo, creator of The Smurfs) and Eddy Paape (Valhardi, Luc Orient).

In 1945 all but Peyo signed on with Dupuis, and Franquin began his career as a jobbing cartoonist and illustrator, producing covers for Le Moustique and scouting magazine Plein Jeu.

All during those early days Franquin and Morris were being tutored by JijÃ© who was the main illustrator at Spirou. He turned the youngsters and fellow neophyte Willy Maltaite AKA Will (Tif et Tondu, Isabelle, Le jardin des dÃ©sirs) into a perfect creative bullpen known as the La bande des quatre or â€œGang of Fourâ€ who revolutionised Belgian comics with their prolific and engaging â€œMarcinelle schoolâ€ style of graphic storytelling.

JijÃ© handed Franquin all responsibilities for the flagship strip part-way through Spirou et la maison prÃ©fabriquÃ©e, (Spirou #427, June 20^th 1946) and the lad ran with it for two decades, enlarging the scope and horizons until it became purely his own.

Almost every week fans would meet startling new characters such as comrade and rival Fantasio and crackpot inventor the Count of Champignac. Along the way Spirou and Fantasio became globe-trotting journalists, continuing their exploits in unbroken four-colour glory.

The heroes travelled to exotic places, uncovering crimes, revealing the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of exotic arch-enemies such as Zorglub and Zantafio. This particular tale saw the debut of one of the first strong, capable female characters in European comics; rival journalist Seccotine (renamed Cellophine for this translation).

In a splendid example of good practise, Franquin mentored his own band of apprentice cartoonists during the 1950s. These included Jean Roba (La Ribambelle, Boule et Bill), JidÃ©hem (Sophie, Starter, Gaston Lagaffe) and Greg (Bruno Brazil, Bernard Prince, Achille Talon, Zig et Puce), who all worked with him on Spirou et Fantasio.

In 1955 – around the time this story was collected into an album – contractual conflicts with Dupuis forced Franquin to sign up with rival outfit Casterman on Tintin. Here he collaborated with RenÃ© Goscinny and old pal Peyo whilst creating the raucous gag strip Modeste et Pompon.

He soon patched things up with Dupuis and returned to Spirou, subsequently co-creating Gaston Lagaffe in 1957, but was obliged to carry on his Tintin work tooâ€¦

From 1959 on, writer Greg and background artist JidÃ©hem assisted Franquin but by 1969 the artist had reached his Spirou limit and resigned, taking his mystic Marsupilami with himâ€¦

His later creations include fantasy series Isabelle, illustration sequence Monsters and bleak adult conceptual series IdÃ©es Noires, but his greatest creation – and one he retained all rights to on his departure – is Marsupilami.

Franquin, plagued in later life by bouts of depression, passed away on January 5^th 1997 but his legacy remains, a vast body of work that reshaped the landscape of European comics.

The Rhinoceros’ Horn was originally serialised in two sequences in Spirou: #764-787 (Spirou et la Turbotraction) and #788-797(La corne de rhinocÃ©ros), spanning late 1952 and early 1953 before being united in hardback album La corne de rhinocÃ©ros in 1955.

The story begins with Spirou exulting over the success of Fantasio’s latest enterprise – personal helicopters worn as backpacks – but his pal is rather down in the dumps. He’s just been dressed down by his editor on The Mosquito and warned that the paper has hired a new reporter: a real go-getting hotshotâ€¦

Dejected and desperate Fantasio determines to revive his career by staging a publicity stunt: robbing the Good Bazaar Department Storeâ€¦

As the rattled reporter draws up his plans and sends a warning to the store of his intentions, a colossal explosion shakes the town. Persons unknown have blown up the nearby Turbot car plant. With even more to prove now, Fantasio proceedsâ€¦

Dragged along for the ride to photograph the stunt, Spirou and Spip reluctantly join their pal in the hare-brained venture. Landing on the roof of the emporium courtesy of the petrol-powered â€œFantacoptersâ€, they deftly break in through the fire-door, Spirou recording everything with his gigantic flash camera.

Typically the lead-footed burglars make an appalling clatter and tremendous mess but no night-watchmen confront them. They’ve all been incapacitated and tied up by real robbersâ€¦

Hearing the villains approach, the lads take refuge in a wardrobe in the bedrooms department and discover an old acquaintance already there. Behring works for Turbot and was wounded in the explosion earlier. Moreover, he’s carrying blueprints for the company’s latest advancement and the burglars in the darkened store are actually bandits trying to finish him off to get themâ€¦

Handing the boys an envelope and begging them to get it to his employer Mr. Martin, the troubleshooter loses consciousness just as the nervous heroes are challenged by a shadowy figure demanding the precious prize. It’s not the bad guys however, but Fantasio’s new journalistic nemesisâ€¦

Cellophine is already streets ahead of them: she knows of the plot to steal Turbot’s revolutionary supercar. All she needs is the address Behring muttered to secure an interview with the in-hiding Martin and her next terrific scoopâ€¦

And that’s when the gun-toting bandits make their move, demanding blueprints and rendezvous address. Thankfully Spirou is still holding the camera and super-bright flashgunâ€¦

Hilariously and calamitously fleeing for their lives through the darkened store, the boys eventually make their escape via fantacopters from the top storey, allowing Cellophine to lock the bandits up on the roof before dragging Behring to safety.

The next morning the boys are in Whistleton but Martin has already fled. His note reveals nothing, but later a sinister stranger in a cafÃ© advises them to surrender the blueprints and warns them not to join Martin in Bab-el-bled in North Africa.

Ignoring him and returning home, they encounter the distressingly persistent Cellophine and Spirou clues her in. Sadly the thugs have tracked them down and overhear the plans. When the boys catch a jet liner to Africa, the heavily disguised heavies are in the seats behind themâ€¦

They villains are on their tails all though the streets of Bab-el-bled, but a wig malfunction in the Souk warns Spirou they’re being followed and another hectic chase ensues.

Thinking they’ve at last shaken their pursuers our heroes go to Martin’s house only to learn he was ambushed by the banditsâ€¦

Happily the troubled Turbot exec escaped and fled further into North Africa. He’s rushing off to the M’saragba Animal Reservation but as the boys try to follow Cellophine appears and pips them to the last spot on the plane – stowed away in the baggage holdâ€¦

Forced to follow by train, it is eight days later when Fantasio and Spirou finally reach the Reserve and yet again – as the infinitely annoying Cellophine explains – they’ve just missed Martin. He was chased into the bush by the implacable banditsâ€¦

The youngsters go after him and, later that afternoon, find him just after the thugs do. Having shot Martin, the villains are smugly gloating when the sinister stranger from the cafÃ© in Whistleton appears. He’s a cop and finally has enough evidence to arrest them for blowing up the factoryâ€¦

They are all too late. The harassed entrepreneur has already got rid of his portion of the plans, giving them to a native friend to hide.

As Martin is carried to hospital, Spirou and Fantasio volunteer to retrieve the accursed documents but they have not reckoned on the quirky ingenuity of the chief of the Wakukus, the vastness of the reserve and the sheer bloody-mindedness of the local flora and fauna.

After days of unpleasant and painful adventures they finally locate the tribe and, following even more nerve-wracking moments convince the chief that they too are friends of Martin. That’s when the king delivers his bombshell.

Tasked with keeping safe the plans – now contained on a spool of microfilm – the wily Wakuku had his men capture a live rhino before drilling a hole in its horn and sealing the container within. He then released it back into the wild. He has no idea where it is now or even which of the 200 in the park it might beâ€¦

Determined to complete their mission, the lads spend months tracking and capturing the assorted beasts. The task becomes only slightly easier after they find a dipsomaniac white trader who sells them hunting gear and latterly, yellow paint so that they can tell the rhinos they’ve already checked from the ones so cunningly evading themâ€¦

It’s a backbreaking, heartbreaking and increasingly pointless task but only when their resolve crumbles and they brokenly give up and head for home do they find the prize in the very last place they lookedâ€¦

Even the trip back is a tribulation, and eventually they collapse only to awake in a nice clean hospital with Martin and Cellophine offering to fill in the blanks on this baffling caseâ€¦

Six weeks later the lads are recuperating at home when Behring shows up. He’s got a little reward for them from the grateful Turbot Company but, as usual, Cellophine is on hand to spoil it for Fantasioâ€¦

Stuffed with superb slapstick situations, riotous keystone kops chases and gallons of gags, this exuberant yarn is a true celebration of angst-free action, thrills and spills. Easily accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with all the beguiling style and seductively wholesome Ã©lan which makes Asterix, Lucky Luke, The Bluecoats and Iznogoud so compelling, this is another enduring comics treat from a long line of superb exploits, certain to be as much a household name as those series – and even that other kid with the white dogâ€¦
Original edition Â© Dupuis, 1955 by Franquin. All rights reserved. English translation 2014 Â© Cinebook Ltd.

March 30, 2015

Justice League: Midsummer’s Nightmare

By Mark Waid, Fabian Nicieza, Jeff Johnson, Darick Robertson, John Holdredge, Hanibal Rodriguez & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-338-4

There are many facets that contribute to the â€œperfect mixâ€ in the creation of any continuing character in comics. How much more so then, when the idea is to build a superhero team that will stand out from the seething masses that already exist?

In the mid-1990s, the iconic squad which truly ushered in the return of superheroes to comics suffered one of its periodic plunges in quality and popularity and ignominiously folded.

Of course the Justice League of America is too hallowed, venerated and valuable to fester in oblivion for any length of time and was quickly reconvened in a fresh new interpretation which quickly became the breakout book of 1997, courtesy of Grant Morrison & Howard Porter (see JLA: New World Order).

However, the scene was set for them by a strikingly exuberant miniseries which acted as a reassessment and reintroduction of the World’s Greatest Superheroes. Since the Silver Age’s greatest team-book died a slow, painful, embarrassing death, not once but twice, DC were taking no chances with their next revival and tapped Big Ideas wÃ¼nderkind Morrison to reconstruct the group and the franchise.

However he was to a large extent riffing on groundwork laid by writers Mark Waid and Fabian Nicieza – as well as the impressive illustration of Jeff Johnson, Darick Robertson, John Holdredge & Hanibal Rodriguez – in a captivating no-nonsense miniseries which went a long way towards regenerating interestâ€¦

This slim sleek compilation (collecting Justice League: Midsummer’s Nightmare #1-3 from September-November 1996) opens with an effusive ‘Intro’ from Morrison before a world of confusion is revealed in ‘True Lies’ where comicbook artist Kyle Rayner struggles to meet the deadline for his assignment. He can’t understand why anybody would want to read about fictitious masked mystery men characters like Green Lantern when the entire planet is in the midst of a cosmic revolution.

All over earth humans are spontaneously developing super-powers as an inexplicable genetic â€œsparkâ€ triggers the next stage in evolution. Millions of superhumans are manifesting with no rhyme or reason whilst others seem doomed to remain merely mundane. It’s like a comicbook plot come to lifeâ€¦

Amongst the ordinary mortals left behind are reporter Clark Kent, philanthropist Bruce Wayne, schoolteacher Diana Prince, college lecturer Wally West and corporate compliance officer Arthur Curry. Elsewhere, separated by immeasurable gulfs, scientist J’onn J’onzz leads an idyllic life under the skies of Mars with his wife and daughterâ€¦

The dreams of all these mortals are troubled. They have vague, impossible recollections of beings colourful heroes in a world filled with their like, not this savage situation where selfish â€œSparkersâ€, intoxicated with newfound power, squabble and bicker like bullies and thugs in a primarily plebeian universeâ€¦

In a hidden place, an immortal mastermind manipulates a super-villain the entire world has forgotten, using his power to reshape dreams to achieve an eons-long plan. However there’s far more to heroism than powers and each mentally diminished champion individually struggles to find the disturbing deeper truth they know has been somehow taken from themâ€¦

The spell of targeted amnesia starts to unravel when journalist Kent somehow survives being caught in a savage exchange between rival sparker gangs. Shocked back to Kryptonian normality he starts tracking down his vanished costumed contemporariesâ€¦

Elsewhere relative neophyte legacy heroes Wally and Kyle have their own epiphany moments as the second chapter ‘To Know a Veil’ finds a restored Superman and Batman systematically unravelling the sinister plot.

In a hidden sanctum Machiavellian Know Man further exploits the reality-warping gifts of his slave Doctor Destiny to create a team of sparkers specifically designed to eradicate the re-emergent heroes. Meanwhile Aquaman and Wonder Woman have united with the World’s Finest team in time to be ambushed by an army of sparkers. The battle is in no way certain until the restored Flash and Green Lantern pile inâ€¦

After the inconclusive clash the heroes realise they need their old telepathic team-mate back and hunt for J’onzz, eventually dragging the Martian Manhunter from his perfect dream of paradise regained in a bunker at Roswell. Having lost his world and family a second time, he is not in any mind to be merciful with his anonymous abductorsâ€¦

The saga kicks into terminal high gear with ‘Daze & Knights’ as Know Man’s tailor-made sparker squad attacks only to fall as one before the brutal psychic assault of the furious and heartbroken Manhunter.

His mental capabilities then glean the whereabouts of their true foes from data buried by rebellious Dr. Destiny in Kyle’s subconscious and the fighting mad team race off to a final confrontation with their hidden enemyâ€¦

Fast-paced, action-packed and breathtakingly bold, this galvanic tale, pitting the greatest champion’s in DC’s pantheon against an immortal enemy whose roots stem back to the earliest days of the universe is a gloriously baggage-free romp and a splendid jumping on point for readers new and old alike, and this fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights foray also includes a handy information section recapitulating and assessing the characters of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter.
Â© 1996 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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