Graphic Novels – Page 142

July 17, 2014July 17, 2014

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

By Frank Miller, Klaus Janson & Lynn Varley (DC Comics)
Item ISBN: 0-930289-15-3,Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â current ISBN: 978-1-56389-342-1

I always feel a bit daft reviewing stuff that everyone already knows about, but I’m constantly being reminded that even though somebody talks about the classics of our art-form it doesn’t mean they actually have read them.

Moreover, the great thing about comics is that they’re meant to be re-experienced, over and over and overâ€¦

So here’s a quick look at Frank Miller’s most celebrated epic: a canny mix of iconoclastic bravura and contemporary dystopian angst blending urban anxiety with bleak wish-fulfilment power-fantasies and making all us whiny liberals love it anywayâ€¦

There had been many â€œLast Batmanâ€ stories over the decades since his creation in 1939 but none had the telling impact of the 4-issue â€œPrestige Formatâ€ miniseries which ran from February to June 1986, during a period when DC were creatively on fire and could do no wrong commerciallyâ€¦

The subsequent collection into a complete edition did much to kick off the still tentative graphic novel market, offering a plethora of different versions at the time: hardcover, paperback, bookstore editions, foreign language editions – and an Absolute Dark Knight edition, in 2008 – all proving how a single story could be successfully monetised to the benefit of all, except the poor bewildered fans who clung tenaciously to the cruelly punishing collectors’ credo â€œgotta have ’em allâ€â€¦

(There are a number of editions available to this day, but I’m concentrating here on my first edition hardback from 1986. Therefore, some of the ancillary features and articles might be omitted, augmented or replaced in later releasesâ€¦)

The epic transformed the character as much as the industry, with writers adapting facets of the chaos and carnage-resisting, end-of-days Caped Crusader to subsequent in-continuity tales whilst the readership spent years looking for clues in the regular comics that the story would eventually become canonicalâ€¦

After Alan Moore’s Introduction ‘The Mark of the Batman’ the challenge to a civilisation in crisis begins with ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ as Gotham swelters under a crippling heat wave and ubiquitous TV pundits jabber on incessantly, disseminating what the government allows to pass for news.

Aging playboy Bruce Wayne (55 and no longer counting) has narrowly escaped blazing death during a car race, street gang The Mutants have perpetrated another ghastly atrocity and long-past-it Police Commissioner James Gordon has challenged them to a showdown before his enforced retirement in four weeks.

It’s also the tenth anniversary of the last sighting of the fabled masked vigilante the Batmanâ€¦

Later that night Wayne and Gordon talk over old times but the billionaire’s journey home is interrupted by a pack of Mutantsâ€¦

On the nightly News homicidal maniac Harvey Dent is paraded by arrogant surgeons and therapists as a shining example of their restorative and curative regimes. Two-Face is now a fully rehabilitated citizen ready to reclaim his place in the worldâ€¦

Back at the Manor, as the TV disgorges a litany of tragedy and travesty, a grumbling urge that has been boiling in Wayne’s gut for a decade finally breaks loose and decrepit manservant Alfred realises with dismay and disgust that Bruce’s other self is coming backâ€¦

Whilst a storm breaks over Gotham the night is filled with the screams and the cracking of bones as a horde of violent thieves and thugs are brutalised. Wayward 13-year old Carrie Kelley is saved from a pack of Mutant chickenhawks by a merciless shadow and the News is filled with reports of gangsters reduced to cripples by a maniac â€œdressed like Draculaâ€â€¦

When the savage shadow foils a bank raid, one of the hoodlums has a coin with the heads-side scarred and defaced.

â€¦And in Arkham Asylum‘s quiet-ward an old, mute cripple with fading green hair watches the News, smiling and laughing for the first time in a decadeâ€¦

That night the public gets its first full view of the unfolding situation as Two-Face holds Gotham’s Twin Towers hostage and Batman spectacularly ends his campaign of explosive extortionâ€¦

‘The Dark Knight Triumphant’ opens to public and media uproar as the Batman’s latest exploits galvanise the Man in the Street, the cops and especially psychotic monsters like the leader of the Mutants – who offers a terrifying challenge to the citizens and their returned hero.

Carrie Kelley rises to that challenge, buying a Robin outfit and jumping over rooftops looking to help clean up the city. Batman doesn’t have time for nonsense and hot air. He’s an old man with a dodgy heart who knows his days are already numbered.

All he wants is to get through another night and punish the Mutants who kidnapped a little boyâ€¦

Government – Federal and local – remains stonily silent on the issue of Batman (the first masked hero to break ranks since the government outlawed them years ago) and tension and unrest only escalates when a subway commuter is blown up by the Mutantsâ€¦

At long last the Mayor acts, appointing Captain Ellen Yindel as his new Commissioner of Police. Her first act is to issue an arrest warrant for The Batman on assault and sundry other charges.

The subject of the manhunt doesn’t care: he’s engaged in a savage battle with the Mutant Army, his bat-tank and gadgets decimating the feral thugs at the City Dump.

His big mistake is to engage their leader in hand-to-hand combat. The steroid and rage fuelled gangbanger is a hate-propelled mass of muscle and speed, half his age and utterly immune to the Dark Knight’s every fighting trick and stratagem.

He is moments from beating the old fool to death when Robin introduces herself to her hero by causing an explosive distraction and stealing the battered body. Guided back to the Batcave, she can only watch as Alfred stitches the broken sack of meat and bone back together for the millionth timeâ€¦

In the White House the American President takes extreme action, sanctioning the colourful assistance of the Nation’s Kryptonian Secret Weapon whilst in Arkham Dr. Bartholomew Wolper – the man who â€œcuredâ€ Two-Face – continues his treatment of the newly reinvigorated inmate once known as The Joker, whilst in the streets a growing number of Batman imitators take the law into their own increasingly bloody hands.

Although not fully recovered, Batman and Robin are forced to strike again when the Mutant Leader murders the Mayor with his teeth. The old campaigner orchestrates a showdown in front of the entire Mutant nation who watch in astonishment as their unbeatable ruler is methodically taken apart and left a crippled wreck by the resurgent, unholy Warrior Batâ€¦

The beginning of the End starts with ‘Hunt the Dark Knight’ as Gotham is beset by more urban violence as the Mutants splinter into smaller fringe gangs. More worrisome is the huge uptick in citizen violence as the ordinary, decent folk of Gotham get out their legally purchased guns and start shooting at anyone who threatens, frightens, annoys or disgusts them.

The strangest result of the leader’s fall is the declaration by a hard core of former Mutants who publicly convert to â€œSons of the Batâ€, dedicated to carrying on the Dark Knight’s work: channelling their need for violence into excessive force applied to all malefactors from murderers to jaywalkersâ€¦

The Government is far more concerned with the deteriorating international crisis and The Batman is otherwise occupied. As well as cleaning up street scum whilst avoiding the police trying to catch him, there is fresh hell unleashed when the Joker hijacks Gordon’s televised retirement party and incoming Commissioner Yindel’s moment of glory with an explosively gory statement of his ownâ€¦

With Armageddon clearly coming, clandestine Federal operative Clark Kent takes time out from a very busy schedule of secretly thwarting Soviet military strikes across the world to give old comrade Bruce Wayne a very clear cease-and-desist-or-else message from the White House. Naturally he is utterly ignoredâ€¦

When the Joker is interviewed on a hugely popular talk show, Yindel’s squads are ready for Batman’s inevitable intervention but not the appalling atrocity the Clown Prince has engineered. In the bloodbath that follows, the openly suicidal Harlequin of Hate pushes himself to even greater excesses after abducting High Society Madam Selina Kyle and instigating another murder spreeâ€¦

With the gung-ho cops dogging Batman’s heels the bloody trail leads to Gotham County Fair and a horrific, breathtaking final confrontationâ€¦

The final chapter then opens with Batman as Public Enemy Number One and a desperate fugitive. The warrants now read â€œmurderâ€â€¦

Elsewhere Superman prevents nuclear devastation by diverting a Soviet mega-warhead but the explosion radically weakens him. Despite this the Good Soldier obeys his Commander-in-Chief’s next orderâ€¦ stop Batmanâ€¦

The world is in total chaos as fallout and electromagnetic disturbances bring about a nuclear winter and fry most electrical systems. The Caped Crusader, however, has always been a planner and has an arsenal of weapons and a small core of converts ready for the world that survives.

He also has a hidden ally. Radical firebrand Oliver Queen used to be the heroic Green Arrowâ€¦until Superman maimed the intransigent rabble-rouser who refused to toe the Government line once too oftenâ€¦

All that’s left is the final apocalyptic duel between two old, broken and dying heroes defending to the death their respective visions of justice. Despite a phenomenal showing, at last ‘The Dark Knight Falls’, but there’s still one last surprise in storeâ€¦

Peppered with barbed and biting cultural commentary courtesy of the perpetual vox-pop of talking heads incessantly interviewed by the caustically lampooned and satirised news media, bombarding the reader with key narrative information in subtly layered levels and periodically enhanced throughout by stunningly iconic and powerful full-page tableaux, The Dark Knight Returns ushered in a new style of storytelling and made comics something adults outside the comics industry simply had to acknowledge.

Mythic, challenging and staggeringly visceral, this is rightly the Batman book everyone has heard of. Why not read it at last and see why?
Â© 1986 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

July 11, 2014July 10, 2014

Wolverine First Class: Class Actions

By Peter David, Ronan Cliquet, Francis Portela, Dennis Calero & Scott Koblish (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3678-1

Charming, light action-comedy is not the first thing that snikts to mind when considering Marvel’s mutant wild manâ€¦ which is probably why the sorely-missed series detailing Logan‘s days as reluctant tutor to then-neophyte junior X-Man Kitty Pryde was such a delightful surprise for every rather rare reader who saw it.

The series launched in 2008, written by Fred Van Lente, but this final selection is scripted by veteran chortle-raiser Peter David who applies his deft, daft touch to the final five tales from Wolverine First Class #17-21 (September 2009 – January 2010).

The delicious pairing of surly, world-weary antihero and naÃ¯ve, bubbly, keen-as-mustard, interminably chatty gamin has been comedy gold since the days of silent movies and is exploited to perfection in this hilarious but action-packed compilation which begins with ‘Two Wongs’ – illustrated by Ronan Cliquet.

This features Wolverine in his roguish persona as â€œPatchâ€ investigating the son of a notorious, ruthless ganglord from outlaw island Madripoor whom the feral fury was sure he had permanently dealt with years before.

Patch is convinced that the apple doesn’t fall far from the shady tree, even though there’s no evidence that young Senatorial candidate Benjamin Wong is anything more than another idealistic hopeful looking to clean up the systemâ€¦

Silly, innocent Kitty thinks otherwise and soon the argumentative pair are undercover and stealthily investigating as only two X-Men can (that is with lots of fights, chases and explosions), but they’re both in for a big surprise before all the votes are inâ€¦

Francis Portela handles the art for ‘Identity Crisis’ wherein student and master are on opposite sides of a knotty debate when Madrox the Multiple Man stops by the X-Mansion.

The young mutant needs Wolverine’s assistance to track down an errant copy of himself who doesn’t want to be reabsorbed. Unfortunately that runaway dupe has found a sympathetic ear in romantic soul Kitty who completely understands his need for independence and autonomyâ€¦

Too soon, however, events conspire to give everybody what they want, which only leaves the lass with a bitter taste of pointless tragedyâ€¦

Next up is an enthralling two part cosmic calamity as Dennis Calero limns ‘Discreet Invasion: Part One’ which finds Kitty waking up in a cunning copy of her bedroom aboard a spaceship.

Elsewhere on the vessel Professor Wolverine is enduring the tortures of the damned as the Super Skrull undertakes another plan of Earthly infiltration and conquest.

Discarding any potential threat from the stupid, puny earth girl, the Skrull is astounded to find her vanished and, soon after, all hell being let loose on his heavily fortified warship.

Things only get worse when Kree Protector of the Universe Captain Marvel bursts inâ€¦

The tension rises to blistering fever pitch in ‘Discreet Invasion: Conclusion’ as, amidst a catastrophic three-way tussle between the male heavies, Kitty displays her own shattering propensity for destruction.

It’s her innate smarts that win the day, however: when the Skrull plays his final card by becoming an exact duplicate of Wolverine, he cannot believe her solution to the age-old conundrum of who to shootâ€¦

The series – and this volume – ends with #21 and ‘The Last Word’ (Scott Koblish art), as Kitty faces a terrifying graduation of sorts when Wolverine, apparently mind-controlled by Magneto, does everything in his power to slaughter her, just as her powers of intangibility stop workingâ€¦

Also offering a lovely covers-&-variants gallery by Cameron Stewart, Skottie Young, Takeshi Miyazawa & David Williams, Class Actions is thrilling, engaging and filled with the much-missed humorous family camaraderie which made the early X-Men stories so irresistibly appealing.

What more could a Costume Dramas addict want?
Â© 2009, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

July 9, 2014July 12, 2014

Superman: Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite

By Roger Stern, Jerry Ordway, Dan Jurgens, Bob McLeod, Dave Hoover, Curt Swan, John Byrne, Kerry Gammill, Brett Breeding, Dennis Janke, Art Thibert & Scott Hanna (DC Comics/Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-85286-752-3

Although largely out of favour these days as many decades of Superman mythology are relentlessly assimilated into one overarching, all-inclusive multi-media DC franchise, the stripped-down, gritty, post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Man of Tomorrow – as re-imagined by John Byrne and marvellously built upon by a stunning succession of gifted comics craftsmen – produced a profusion of genuine comics classics.

Although controversial at the start, Byrne’s reboot of the world’s first superhero was rapidly acknowledged as a solid hit and the collaborative teams who complemented and followed him maintained the high quality, ensuring continued success.

Over the following years a vast, interlocking saga unfolded which has only sporadically – and far too slowly – been collected into trade paperbacks and graphic compilations. One of the best is this scarlet-themed selection which gathered a key cross-title storyline and a couple of choice solo stories: specifically the contents of Action Comics #659-660, Adventures of Superman #472-473, 464-465 and Superman #49-50, plus a crossover component from Starman volume 1 #28, which collectively encompassed November and December 1990.

Almost as soon as the Byrne restart had stripped away most of the accreted mythology and iconography which had grown up around the Strange Visitor from Another World over fifty glorious years, successive teams spent a great deal of time and ingenuity putting much of it back, albeit in terms more accessible to a cynical and well-informed audience far more sophisticated than their grandparents ever were.

Once such was this notional tip of the hat to the many memorably madcap tales revolving around both an irritating 5^th Dimensional Imp and the bizarrely mutagenic mineral from Krypton which peppered the Silver Age Superman’s life.

However the main story-arc also served to advance two major plot threads which had grown out of the never-ending battle: the imminent demise of Lex Luthor thanks to self-inflicted Green K poisoning and the blossoming romance of Clark Kent and his dynamic fellow journalist Lois Lane.

Those background details and more are discussed in Roger Stern’s Introduction before the stunning saga opens with ‘Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite: Part One’ by Jerry Ordway & Dennis Janke from Superman volume 2, #49 wherein Luthor – following the death of his only heir – ponders mortality in a cemetery until a talking red rock bops him on the back of his big, bald head.

The incensed billionaire quickly forgets his outrage as the scarlet stone resolves into the seeming of cruelly devious trickster-sprite Mr. Mxyzptlk.

Although currently preoccupied with another realm, the malign mischief-maker sees a chance to manufacture some mayhem in Metropolis with the Red Kryptonite he has magicked up; promising Lex that it would make Man of Steel and mortal multi-millionaire â€œphysical equalsâ€â€¦

Lex activates the rock expecting to gain the powers of a god – and possibly a new lease on his rapidly expiring life – and is furious to realise he is still just human, but across town Superman, having defeated bionic bandit Barrage, is transporting the villain to the metahuman penitentiary Stryker’s Island when his abilities vanish and he plunges into vilely polluted Hobs Bay.

Crying foul, Luthor is again visited by Mxyzptlk who pettishly teleports the drowning Action Ace to Lex’s penthouse office where the evil industrialist can see what the spell has actually wroughtâ€¦

After a brutal and strictly human-scaled tussle, a badly beaten, powerless Superman is ejected from Luthor’s HQ and staggers back to Kent’s home where he finds Lois waiting.

The normally resolute reporter is badly shaken: her mother is dying from an apparently fatal illnessâ€¦and Luthor is somehow responsibleâ€¦

‘Clark Kentâ€¦ Man of Steel!’ by Dan Jurgens & Art Thibert(Adventures of Superman #472) picks up the story with the simply human hero about to be killed by lethal lummox Mammoth.

Kal-El had been undergoing tests conducted by scientific advisor and close confidante Emil Hamilton into the cause of his malady, but when news of the giant thief’s robbery spree reached him Superman dashed off to assist, equipped only with a hastily configured force field belt. It was not nearly enoughâ€¦

In the end wits, raw nerve and a simple bluff saved the day, but with no solution in sight the Metropolis Marvel is forced to admit he needs superhuman assistance if he is to surviveâ€¦

At least on the domestic front his new fragility was bringing him closer to Loisâ€¦

The scene jumps to Arizona where a recent acquaintance gets a phone call before

‘Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite: Part Two/A: The End of a Legend?’ (Stern, Dave Hoover & Scott Hanna; Starman volume 1 #28) finds Stellar Sentinel Will Payton flying to the City of Tomorrow for a top secret rendezvous.

A sun in human form, Payton had rapidly reenergised the Kryptonian’s cells with solar power once before when Superman’s powers were drained, but this time the sun-bath has no effect and almost fries the desperate Kal-El during the process.

With crime on the rise, Starman volunteers to stick around and keep the peace, using his shapeshifting powers to perfectly mimic the Man of Steel. He even fools Luthor who, confronted by the somehow resurgent â€œSupermanâ€, furiously throws the useless Red K at himâ€¦

With the mineral in Hamilton’s hands, stringent tests soon prove that the mineral is only red rock with no radioactive properties and Superman is forced to think outside the box if he is to protect his cityâ€¦

And on Stryker’s Island another old enemy is laying lethal plans to finally end the Man of Tomorrowâ€¦

The tension ratchets up in ‘Breakout!’ (Action Comics #659 Stern, Bob McLeod & Brett Breeding) as Superman resorts to technological battle armour when murderous maniac Thaddeus Killgrave frees all the inmates and takes control of Stryker’s, luring Starman-as-Superman into a deadly trap the neophyte hero cannot escape from.

And in the highest corridors of financial power, meanwhile, Mxyzptlk personally briefs the baffled Luthor on what is happeningâ€¦

Brave but not stupid, Superman has called in back-up for his raid on the penitentiary. Whilst cloned champion Golden Guardian and street vigilante Crimebuster tackle the rank-and-file felons, the armoured Action Ace heads straight for Killgrave and a blistering confrontation which is mere prelude to the fateful finale of the concluding chapter ‘The Human Factor’â€¦

Superman volume 2, #50 was a super-sized special by Ordway & Janke with celebratory anniversary contributions from Byrne, Curt Swan, Kerry Gammill, Breeding & Jurgens, opening with Clark unceremoniously ejected from the Lexcorp Tower only to stumble upon the billionaire’s personal physician Dr. Gretchen Kelly acting oddlyâ€¦

Heading home the powerless hero is saved from a mutant rat by the Guardian and, after seeing Crimebuster thrashing street thugs, comes to a painful conclusion. Maybe Superman isn’t necessary any more. Maybe now he can have his own life and even ask Lois to marry himâ€¦

First though there’s a little unfinished business and a simple phone call to Luthor gets the ball rolling. Offering to trade the Red K Rock for a story, Clark inadvertently causes Lex to break the terms of his infernal pact with Mxyzptlk, thereby negating the whole power-sapping deal.

Ticked off, petulant and impatient to get back to mischief making in another universe, the imp makes a personal appearance in monstrous form, but loads the blistering battle in the fully restored Man of Tomorrow’s favour just to get out of his self-imposed arcane contract quickly – although not without an astounding amount of collateral damage to Metropolisâ€¦

With the crisis over, however, Superman has made a life changing decisionâ€¦

Following the red-tinged resumption of his super status, the Man of Steel was joined by a brace of green guest stars in ‘Rings of Fire’ (Jurgens & Thibert in Adventures of Superman #473).

Even as Clark and Lois announce their engagement, the Action Ace is fretting. He has somehow been unable to tell his intended about his secret life, but is quickly distracted and drawn away when unconventional Green Lantern Guy Gardner blows into town looking for the missing Hal Jordan.

Earth’s real GL has been captured by a monolithic alien who has siphoned off his emerald energies to power a long-delayed return to the distant stars. Of course that departure will eradicate half of Wyomingâ€¦

After foiling the scheme, freeing a mesmerised Army General and defeating the alien’s thralls Psi-phon and Dreadnaught, Superman and the GLs are able to arrive at a far less destructive solution for all parties involvedâ€¦

This titanic tome concludes with ‘Certain Death’ (by Stern, McLeod & Breeding from Action Comics #660) which seemingly saw the end of an eraâ€¦

For years Luthor had masqueraded as a billionaire philanthropist whilst dominating Metropolis and the world. Few people knew the unsavoury truth and the villain kept Superman literally at arms length by wearing a ring made from Green Kryptonite.

Subsequent stories revealed that the K radiation gradually poisoned Luthor, initially causing the loss of his hand and eventually fatally irradiating his entire body.

Now as his power and vitality wane Luthor, knowing that his pitiful condition must inevitably become public knowledge, puts a final desperate plan into operation.

During a high profile publicity stunt attempting to set a new air-speed record, the manipulative mogul seemingly commits suicide in a spectacular manner which only marked the beginning of a stupendous seven-year long extended plotlineâ€¦

To Be So Continuedâ€¦

Superman is comics’ champion crusader: the hero who started a genre and, in the decades since his spectacular launch in June 1938, one who has survived every kind of menace imaginable. As such it’s always rewarding to gather up whole swathes of his prodigious back-catalogue and re-present them in specifically-themed collections.

Thrilling, funny and exquisitely entertaining: what more could dedicated Fights ‘n’ Tights devotees want?

July 6, 2014

Ultimate Fantastic Four volume 2: Doom

By Warren Ellis, Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1457-4

After Marvel’s financial problems and creative roadblock in the late 1990s, the company came back swinging. A critical new concept was the remodelling and modernising of their core characters for the new youth culture.

The Ultimate imprint abandoned monumental long-grown continuity – which had always been Marvel’s greatest asset – to re-imagine major characters in their own self-sufficient universe, offering varying degrees of radical makeover to appeal to the contemporary 21st century audience and offer them a chance to get in on the ground floor.

Peter Parker was once again a nerdy high-school geek, brilliant but bullied by his physical superiors, and mutants were a dangerous, oppressed ethic minority scaring the pants off the ordinary Americans they hid amongst. There were also fresh and fashionable, modernistic, scientifically feasible rationales for all those insane super-abilities manifesting everywhereâ€¦

The experiment began in 2000 with a post-modern take on Ultimate Spider-Man. Ultimate X-Men followed in 2001 and Mighty Avengers reworking The Ultimates came in 2002.

The stories, design and even tone of the heroes were retooled for the perceived-as-different tastes of a new readership: those tired of or unwilling to stick with precepts originated by inspirational founding fathers Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee, or (hopefully) new consumers unprepared or unwilling to deal with five decades (seven if you include Golden Age Timely tales retroactively co-opted into the mix) of interconnected story baggage.

The new universe quickly prospered and soon filled up with more refashioned, morally ambiguous heroes and villains but eventually even this darkly nihilistic new universe became as continuity-constricted as its ancestor.

In 2008, imprint-wide decluttering exercise â€œUltimatumâ€ culminated in a reign of terror which excised dozens of superhumans and millions of lesser mortals in a devastating tsunami which inundated Manhattan, courtesy of mutant menace Magneto.

Before that, however, Marvel’s original keystone concept was given an Ultimate working over and this stellar volume collects Ultimate Fantastic Four #17-12 (August to December 2004), and digital-colourist Dave Stewart relates how a subtly different Awesome Foursome began to affect the brand new, yet chillingly familiar world.

The most significant change to Stan & Jack’s breakthrough concept was a rather telling one: all four heroes were far, far younger than their mainstream antecedentsâ€¦

Whereas in the original, middle-aged maverick genius Reed Richards, doughty friend Ben Grimm, ineffectual girlfriend Sue Storm and her younger brother Johnny survived a privately-funded space-shot which foundered when cosmic rays penetrated their vessel’s inadequate shielding and were mutated into a quartet into quirky freaks, here events transpired in a far more sinister mannerâ€¦

Infant prodigy Reed was a lonely super-genius increasingly despised by his abusive blue-collar dad, bullied at school and obsessed with other dimensions. His only friend was classmate and school sports star Ben, who had unaccountably appointed himself the wonder-nerd’s protectorâ€¦

Reed’s life changed the day his High School science project – teleportation – caught the eye of a government talent scout from a high powered think tank. Soon the outsider kid was ensconced in a New York facility for budding geniusesâ€¦

Run by brilliant Professor Franklin Storm, the Baxter Building was a wonderland of top-flight resources, intellectual challenges and guarded support, but school was primarily an ideas factory and the 100 strange, bright kids were expected to produce resultsâ€¦

Administrator Storm’s son Johnny was there mostly as a courtesy, but his daughter Sue was a biology prodigy and one of the biggest young brains on Earthâ€¦

Pretty hot, tooâ€¦

Reed’s teleportation researches were just a necessary preliminary to his greater goal: mastery of a strange sub-dimension – a place the Baxter scientists call the Negative Zone. With their aid the passing years were largely spent in trying to fully access it, but regular studies continued too, with quite a few burn-outs and casualties.

Some kids thrived on the aggressive hot-housing; especially creepy, arrogant, insular Victor Van Damme, who after a particularly galling incident with Reed, somehow managed to swallow his seething animosity to collaborate on cracking the dimension calculationsâ€¦

At last 21-year-old Reed and fractious lab partner Victor were shipped out to Nevada for the first full test of the N-Zone teleport system. The Storms went along for the ride, but as the army technicians counted down, Van Damme argued with Richards before secretly changing the still hotly debated and contested calculationsâ€¦

At that moment backpacker Ben Grimm had wandered into camp to see his old sidekick after more than a decade apart, and snotty Johnny distracted Reed by disclosing that his sister Sue had the hots for the long-obsessed but crushingly shy wonderboyâ€¦

The test firing became a literal catastrophe.

The site was devastated in a shattering release of energy and Reed awoke some distance away as an amorphous blob of eerily boneless flesh, mistaken by the soldiers for an extra-dimensional invader.

Ben came to in Mexico as a huge rocky orange monster, and Johnny eventually called in from a hospital bed in France. He kept catching on fire without ever burning himselfâ€¦

Sue has simply vanished without a traceâ€¦

She was eventually recovered from miles below New York City, gifted with invisibility and force field powers but captured by disgraced and long-missing Baxter Building boffin Arthur Molekevic: a literal Mole Man re-populating ancient, previously inhabited caverns with a selection of his own dish-grown monsters and homunculiâ€¦

The unsavoury savant had deduced that the quartet’s uncontrolled projection through N-Space – utterly unprotected from whatever transformative energies and unknown physical laws might apply there – had transformed them on some unfathomable fundamental level. Their incredible new gifts and appearances are the resultâ€¦

When Mole Man attacked the surface world the foursome had chaotically united to defeat him and this second 6-part saga – by Warren Ellis, Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger and digital colour wizard Dave Stewart – picks up the story as Reed, perpetually pondering and fixating upon what transformed them and how, at last deduces that Victor had tampered with the N-Zone Superpostioner codesâ€¦

He is then pressured by Sue into finally submitting to a barrage of biological tests; even convincing barely-reactive, stonily shellshocked Ben into doing likewise. The findings are astounding, unbelievable and – for us readers – rather gross and pretty hilariousâ€¦

Victor has been missing since the test went so explosively awry. Unknown to all, he was also transformed into an uncanny new life-form and now lurks in a ramshackle communal squat in Denmark, obsessing on his abusive father and the daily cruelties that direct descent of Vlad Tepes had inflicted upon his only heir in the name of honouring the august and reviled line of Draculaâ€¦

Victor wants revenge and needs data, so his nimble but malformed hands have cobbled together a lethal swarm of killer spy wasps from discarded cellphones and the electronic detritus scattered in the streetsâ€¦

As the bugs head for America the last scion of the Draculas advances his other plan: building a kingdom of the wretched from the city’s outcasts and dropouts. They all love and revere him. The electronic tattoos admitting them to his Order of the Dragon guarantee thatâ€¦

When the swarm at last reaches the Baxter Building they utterly overwhelm and eradicate the military forces â€œprotectingâ€ the unsettling quartet of freaks, but after a spectacular struggle fall before the incredible power of Ben, Sue and Johnny.

Aware at last that the accident has turned the trio into beings as advanced as he, Victor lays new plans whilst largely discounted and loathed Reed frantically attempts to track the source of the assault.

The furious prodigy realises that if he can get the altered N-Zone Superpostioner codes from Victor, there’s a strong chance he can reverse the process and restore them all to true humanity.

Sadly, Professor Storm won’t let them go and instead dispatches a military squad to covertly rendition Van Dammer from sovereign Danish territory, but Reed is no longer the docile star pupil and sneaks off with â€œhisâ€ team in a flying supercar he built when he was thirteen.

He’s going to get those codes out of his treacherous lab partner and have a normal life no matter the costâ€¦

Unfortunately Victor is waiting for them with an horrific range of new powers, deadly weapons and an army of unwashed hippie slaves, but the manic control freak is totally unprepared for the fact that his deadly rival has powers too: a fact none of his death-bugs managed to convey before they were destroyed.

The conflict then spirals completely out of control when US Special Forces blaze in to snatch Van Damme and run slam-bang into an extremely ticked off Danish army a trifle upset by the illegal American incursionâ€¦

Rocket-paced, razor sharp and blisteringly action-packed, this riotous romp is also liberally dosed with teen-oriented humour for the era of the acceptable nerd and go-getting geek, delivering a sublimely enthralling alternate view of Marvel’s most important title that will impress open-minded old fans of the medium just as much as the newcomers they were ostensibly aiming for.
Â© 2005 and 2005 Marvel Characters Inc. All rights reserved.

July 5, 2014July 6, 2014

Batman Chronicles volume 11

By Bob Kane, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Jack Schiff, Alvin Schwartz, Joe Greene, Mort Weisinger, Dick Sprang, Jack Burnley, Jerry Robinson, George Roussos & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-3739-4

Debuting a year after Superman, â€œThe Bat-Manâ€ (and latterly Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented DC/National Comics as the market 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-scaled adventures starring the Dynamic Duo rapidly became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all other four-colour crimebusters were judged.

This eleventh volume of chronological Batman yarns from the dawn of his career covers Batman #20-21, Detective Comics #82-85 and World’s Finest Comics #12, and again features their exploits from the height of World War II – specifically December 1943 to March 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 Jack Schiff, Alvin Schwartz, Joe Greene and Mort Weisinger pushed the boundaries of the adventure medium whilst graphic genius Dick Sprang slowly superseded Bob Kane and Jack Burnley: making the feature uniquely his own and keeping the Dynamic Duo at the forefront of the vast army of superhero successes.

War always stimulates creativity and advancement and these sublime adventures of Batman and Robin more than prove that axiom as the growing band of creators responsible for producing the bi-monthly adventures of the Dark Knight hit an artistic peak which only stellar stable-mate Superman and Fawcett’s Captain Marvel were able to equal or even approach.

Moreover with the conflict finally turning in the Good Guys’ favour the escapades became upbeat and more wide-ranging. The Home Front seemed a lot brighter as can be seen in Batman #20 which opened with the Joker in ‘The Centuries of Crime!’ (Cameron & the Jack and Ray Burnley) with Mountebank of Mirth claiming to have discovered a nefariously profitable method of time-travelling, whilst ‘The Trial of Titus Keyes!’ (Finger, Kane & Jerry Robinson) offered a masterful courtroom drama of injustice amended, focussing on the inefficacy of witness statementsâ€¦

‘The Lawmen of the Sea!’ by Finger & the Burnley boys found the Dynamic Duo again working with a lesser known Police Division as they joined The Harbor Patrol in their daily duties and uncovered a modern day piracy ring, before the issue concluded on a dramatic high with ‘Bruce Wayne Loses Guardianship of Dick Grayson!’ wherein a couple of fraudsters claiming to be the boy’s last remaining relatives petition to adopt him. A melodramatic triumph by Finger, Kane & Robinson, there’s still plenty of action, especially after the grifters try to sell Dick back to Bruce Wayneâ€¦

In Detective Comics #82 Cameron, Kane & George Roussos explored the dark side of American Football through the rise and explosive downfall of the ‘Quarterback of Crime!’ after which premiere anthology World’s Finest Comics #12 revealed how ‘Alfred Gets His Man!’ (Finger & Sprang), as Batman’s faithful new retainer revived his own boyhood dreams of being a successful detective with hilarious and action-packed resultsâ€¦

Portly butler Alfred’s diet regime thereafter led the Gotham Guardians to a murderous mesmerising medic and criminal insurance scam in ‘Accidentally on Purpose!’, courtesy of Cameron, Kane & Roussos (Detective #83), after which Batman #21 catered an all-Sprang art extravaganza.

The drama opened with slick Schiff-scripted tale ‘The Streamlined Rustlers’ following the Gotham Gangbusters way out west to solve a devilish mystery and crush a gang of beef-stealing black market black hats, after which Cameron described the antics of murderous big city mobster Chopper Gant who conned a military historian into planning his capers and briefly stymied Batman and Robin with his warlike ‘Blitzkrieg Bandits!’

Alvin Schwartz penned the delightfully convoluted romp ‘His Lordship’s Double’ which saw newly dapper, slimline 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’ by Joe Greene, which detailed the wily Penguin‘s schemes to empty the coffers of a trio of Gotham’s wealthiest misfitsâ€¦

Over in Detective Comics #84, Mort Weisinger & Sprang (with layouts by Ed Kressy)

pitted the Partners in Peril against an incredible Underworld University churning out ‘Artists in Villainy’ before Detective #85 – written by Bill Finger – closes this compilation highlighting Sprang’s first brush with the Clown Prince of Crime. In one of the most madcap moments in the entire annals of adventure, Batman and his arch-foe almost united to hunt for the daring desperado who stole the Harlequin of Hate’s shtick and glory as ‘The Joker’s Double’â€¦

This sublime selection of classic comicbook clashes comes in the bold primary palettes of the original release and on authentically textured white newsprint: a true multi-sensorial joy to hold and to read whilst showcasing creators and characters at their absolute peak.

If only other companies with an extensive Golden Age back-catalogue like Marvel and Archie would follow suitâ€¦

June 30, 2014June 29, 2014

Essential Punisher volume 1

By Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, Len Wein, Mike W. Barr, Marv Wolfman, Dennis O’Neil, Roger McKenzie, Frank Miller, Bill Mantlo, Stephen Grant, Jo Duffy, Ross Andru, Tony DeZuniga, Frank Springer, Keith Pollard, Al Milgrom, Greg LaRocque, Mike Zeck, Mike Vosburg& variousÂ (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-8571-2375-0

Although one of the industry’s biggest hits from the late 1980s onwards, the compulsive vengeance-taker known as The Punisher 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 Gerry Conway, John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru; a necessarily toned down, muted response to such increasingly popular prose anti-heroes as Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan: the Executioner and a bloody tide of fictive returning Viet Nam vets who all turned their training and talents to wiping out organised crime in the early 1970s.

The story goes that Marvel’s bosses were reluctant to give The Punisher a starring vehicle in their standard colour comic-book line, feeling the character’s very nature made him a bad guy and not a good one. Other than the two magazine stories and the miniseries which closes the volume, Frank Castle was not supposed to be the star or even particularly admirable to the impressionable readership.

Therefore these early appearances might disappoint die-hard fans even though they are the formative tales of his success. Perhaps it’s best to remember and accept that when not actually the villain in the tales he was at best a worrisome guestâ€¦

Boy, how times do changeâ€¦

He was first seen as a villain and patsy in Amazing Spider-Man #129, repeatedly returning thereafter before getting his shot at the big time – and then not in newsstand publications but in the company’s black and white, mature magazine lineâ€¦

This initial Essential compilation gathers all those tentative stabs and guest-shots from February 1974 through to the breakthrough 1986 miniseries which really got the ball rolling: specifically Amazing Spider-Man #129, 134-135, 162-163, 174-175, 201-202; Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15; Giant-Size Spider-Man #4; Marvel Preview #2; Marvel Super-Action #1; Captain America #241; Daredevil #182-184; Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #81-83 and The Punisher #1-5, and many die-hard fans might be a little disappointed in the relative lack of brutality, carnage and even face time contained herein.

Just keep in mind that for the greater part of these early appearances the Skull-shirted slayer was at best a visiting partner and usually the villain du jourâ€¦

The first case in this mammoth monochrome war journal comes from Amazing Spider-Man #129, introducing not only the renegade gunslinger but also nefarious manic mastermind The Jackal in ‘The Punisher Strikes Twice!’ by Conway, Andru, Frank Giacoia & Dave Hunt wherein the Man with the Guns was duped by manipulative Professor Miles Warren into hunting Spider-Man. The unhappy Wallcrawler was currently a suspect in the death of Norman Osborn and subsequently set up by the Jackal for the murder of the Punisher’s gunmakerâ€¦

The much-misunderstood champions of the oppressed crossed paths again in Amazing Spider-Man #134-135 when a South American bandit intended to be his oppressive regime’s Captain America attempted to pillage a Manhattan tour boat in ‘Danger is a Man Namedâ€¦ Tarantula!’ Once again unwilling allies, the duo dutifully dismantled the villains schemes after a ‘Shoot-Out in Central Park!’

The Punisher played a more pivotal role in Giant-Size Spider-Man #4 (April 1975) when the Webslinger forced himself into one of the Lone Gunman’s cases in ‘To Sow the Seeds of Death’s Day!’ Ruthless arms dealer Moses Magnum had perfected a lethal chemical weapon and begun testing it on randomly kidnapped victims. Tracking down the vile monster in ‘Attack of the War Machine!’, the pair found themselves infiltrating his ‘Death-Camp at the Edge of the World!’ before summary justice was dispensed as much by fate as the heroesâ€¦

John Romita senior’s original concept pencil sketch of The Punisher from 1973 is followed by the vigilante’s first solo role – in black-&-white magazine Marvel Preview #2 (August 1975) – where Conway & Tony DeZuniga pronounced a ‘Death Sentence’ on some of Castle’s old army buddies who had been tricked into becoming assassins by a millionaire madman who wanted to take over America. The gritty yarn also at last revealed the tragic reasons for the Punisher’s unending mission of vengeance.

Highly decorated Marine Castle saw his wife and children gunned down in Central Park after the carefree picnickers stumbled into a mob hit. When the killers turned the guns on the witnesses, only Castle survived. Recovering in hospital the bereft warrior dedicated his life to eradicating criminals everywhereâ€¦

Following a stunning Punisher and Dominic Fortune pin-up by Howard Chaykin, ‘Accounts Settledâ€¦ Accounts Due!’ by Archie Goodwin, DeZuniga & Rico Rival from Marvel Super Action #1 (January 1976) follows the matured-themed plot to a close as Castle at last tracks down the gunsels who carried out the shooting and the Dons who ordered it, only to find that his bloody vengeance hasn’t eased his heart or dulled his thirst for personal justiceâ€¦

Castle was reduced to a bit-player in Amazing Spider-Man #162-163 (October and November 1976, by Len Wein Andru & Esposito, as the newly reconstituted X-Men were sales-boosted by a guest-clash with the Wallcrawler in ‘â€¦And the Nightcrawler Came Prowling, Prowling’, wherein the Arachnid jumps to wrong conclusion after a sniper shoots a reveller at Coney Island.

By the time Nightcrawler has explained himself – in the tried-and-true Marvel manner of fighting the webspinner to a standstill – old skull-shirt has turned up to take them both on before mutual foe Jigsaw is exposed as the real assassin in the concluding episode ‘Let the Punisher Fit the Crime!’

Amazing Spider-Man #174 from November 1977 declared ‘The Hitman’s Back in Town!’ (inks by DeZuniga & Jim Mooney) and saw Castle hunting a costumed assassin hired to remove J. Jonah Jameson but experiencing an unusual reticence since the killer was a old army pal who had saved his life in Vietnam. Nevertheless the tale ended with a fatality in the ‘Big Apple Battleground!’ in #175.

Captain America #241 (January 1980, by Mike W. Barr, Frank Springer & Pablo Marcos) was very much a fill in which benefited from the Frank Miller effect – he drew the cover – as ‘Fear Grows in Brooklyn’ as the Sentinel of Liberty got in the way of a mission and refused to allow the Punisher to go free.

He couldn’t however, stop him from escaping police custody and Amazing Spider-Man #201-202 –‘Man-Hunt!’ and ‘One For Those Long Gone!’ (February and March 1980, by Marv Wolfman, Keith Pollard & Mooney) – reveal how The Punisher almost uncovers Peter Parker‘s big secret whilst relentlessly stalking a mob boss responsible for the death of a kid who had saved Castle’s lifeâ€¦

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15 (1981 by Dennis O’Neil, Frank Miller & Klaus Janson) is putatively the genesis of the antihero in his true form. ‘Spider-Man: Threat or Menace?’ sees maniac fugitive Frank Castle back in the Big Apple and embroiled in a deadly scheme by Doctor Octopus to poison five million New Yorkers.

It’s not long before both Peter Parker and his colourful alter-ego are caught in the middle of a terrifying battle of ruthless wills in a tense and clever suspense thriller, which perfectly recaptures the moody mastery of Steve Ditko’s heydays.

The Miller connection continued in three unforgettable issues of Daredevil (#182-184 from May-July 1982) which perfectly encapsulated everything that made the Punisher run such a momentous, unmissable, â€œmust-readâ€ characterâ€¦

Beginning with only a pertinent untitled excerpt by Miller & Janson from ‘She’s Alive’ wherein a reeling Matt Murdock is trying to cope with the murder of his first love Elektra whilst elsewhere Castle is clandestinely removed from prison by a government spook to stop a shipment of drugs the authorities can’t touch. Once he’s killed the gangsters, however, The Punisher refuses to go back to jailâ€¦

The story proper begins in ‘Child’s Play’ – with Roger McKenzie lending a scripting hand – and deals with school kids using drugs. It was originally begun by McKenzie & Miller but shelved for a year, before being reworked into a stunningly powerful and unsettling tale once Miller & Janson assumed the full creative chores on the title.

When Matt visits a High School he is a helpless witness when a little girl goes berserk, attacking staff and pupils before throwing herself out of a third floor window.

She was high on â€œAngel Dustâ€ and as the appalled hero vows to track down the dealers he first encounters her bereaved and distraught younger brother Billy, determined to exact his own vengeance and later the coldly calculating Castle who has the same idea and far more experienceâ€¦

The hunt leads inexorably to a certain street pusher and DD, Billy and the Punisher all find their target at the same time. After a spectacular battle the thoroughly beaten Daredevil has only a bullet-ridden corpse and Billy with a smoking gunâ€¦

The kid is innocent – and so, this time at least, is Castle – and after Murdock proves it in court, the investigation resumes with the focus falling on the pusher’s boss Hogman. When DD’s super-hearing confirms the gangster’s claims of innocence his alter-ego Murdock then successfully defends the vile dealer, only to have the exonerated slime-ball gloatingly admit to having committed the murder after allâ€¦

Horrified, shocked, betrayed and determined to enforce justice, DD finds a connection to a highly-placed member of the school faculty deeply involved with Hogman in the concluding ‘Good Guys Wear Red’ but it’s far too late: Castle and Billy have both decided the end the matter Hogman’s wayâ€¦

Scripted by Bill , Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #81-83 (August to October 1983) opens with ‘Stalkers in the Shadows’, illustrated by Al Milgrom & Mooney, and sees an increasingly crazy Punisher going after misdemeanour malefactors with the same murderous zeal he previously reserved for killers and worse. Spider-Man meanwhile has his hands full with teen vigilantes Cloak and Dagger who have graduated from tackling street drug pushers to go after Wilson Fisk, Kingpin of crime.

‘Crime & Punishment!’ sees Castle applying lethal force indiscriminately all over town, culminating in his own crazed attack on Fiskâ€¦ who beats him to a pulp.

The saga ends with ‘Delusions’ by Mantlo, Greg LaRoque & Mooney wherein the Punisher goes on trial and is found to have been dosed with psychosis-inducing drugsâ€¦

At last Marvel gave way to the inevitable and commissioned a Punisher miniseries, although writer Steven Grant and penciller Mike Zeck apparently had an uphill struggle convincing editors to let the grim, gun-crazed maniac loose in that shiny world where little kids might fixate on a dangerous role model – and their parents might get all over-protective, litigious and (skull) shirtyâ€¦

In 1985 they finally got the green-light and the 5-issue miniseries – running from January to May – turned the industry on its head. There was indeed plenty of controversy to go around, especially as the tale featured a â€œheroâ€ who had lots of illicit sex and killed his enemies in cold blood. Also causing problems for censorious eyes were the suicide of one of the major characters and the murder of innocent children. Doesn’t it make you proud to realise how far we’ve since comeâ€¦?

The company mitigated the potential fall-out with the most lacklustre PR campaign in history, but not telling anybody about The Punisher didn’t stop the series from becoming a runaway, barnstorming success. The rest is historyâ€¦

Two years later as the graphic novel market was finally getting established and with Frank Castle one of the biggest draws in comics (sorry, I’m such a child sometimes), that contentious series was released as a complete book and it remains one of the very best of all his many exploits.

Here, rendered even more stark and uncompromising in gritty moody monochrome, the action begins in ‘Circle of Blood’ as Castle is locked in Ryker’s Island prison where every inmate is queuing up to kill him. Within hours though he has turned the tables and terrified the General Population, but knows that both old foe Jigsaw and the last of the great mob â€œGodfathersâ€ have special plans for himâ€¦

When a mass breakout frees all the cons, Castle brutally steps in. For this he is allowed to escape by the warden, who casually offers him membership in The Trust, an organisation of â€œRight-minded, law-abiding citizensâ€ who approve of his crusade against crime. Castle also discovers he’s being stalked by Tony Massera, a good man who thought he had escaped the influences of his bad familyâ€¦

Tony wants to kill Castle to avenge his father, one of Punisher’s many gory successes – but only after the streets have been swept clean of scum like his own familyâ€¦

‘Back to the War’ finds the Punisher on the streets again, hunting scum, armed and supplied by the Trust but still not a part of their organisation.

After an abortive attempt to blow up The Kingpin, Castle is saved by the mysterious Angel, and begins a loveless liaison with her. With everybody mistakenly believing the master of New York’s underworld dead, a bloody gang-war erupts with greedy sub-bosses all trying to claim the top spot, but by the events of ‘Slaughterday’ Castle realises that too many innocents are getting caught in the crossfires.

He also discovers in ‘Final Solution’ that the Trust have their own national agenda as hit men and brainwashed criminals dressed in his costume surreptitiously hit the streets, executing mobsters and fanning the flamesâ€¦

All the Trust’s plans for this â€œPunishment Squadâ€ and the country are uncovered in the blockbusting conclusion ‘Final Solution Part 2’ as all the pieces fall into place and the surviving players reveal their true allegiances. In a classy final chapter mysteriously completed by the highly underrated Jo Duffy and Mike Vosburg, from Grant’s original plot, The Punisher takes charge in his inimitable manner, leaving God and the cops to sort out the paperworkâ€¦.

We can only speculate as to why the originators fell away at the last hurdle, but I’m pretty sure those same reluctant editors played some part in it allâ€¦

This economical Essential edition comes with a plethora of pin-ups and concludes with a comprehensive information dossier culled from the ever-informative Marvel Universe Handbook, and these superbly gritty, morally ambiguous if not actually ethically challenging dramas never cease to thrill and amaze, and have been reprinted a number of times.

Whichever version suits your inclinations and wallet, if you love action, cherish costumed comics adventure and crave the occasional dose of gratuitous personal justice this one should be at the top of your â€œMost Wantedâ€ list.

June 25, 2014June 24, 2014

Superior Spider-Man: Goblin Nation

By Dan Slott, Christos N. Gage, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Humberto Ramos, John Dell & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-602-1

Amazing Spider-Man #700 began one of the most impressive reboots of the wondrous Webslinger’s mythology and was certainly the most striking and compelling character shake-up of all the MarvelNOW! relaunches.

In that issue, all that was Peter Parker apparently died when Doctor Otto Octavius took over his body. The hero’s mind had been trapped in the super-villain’s expiring body where, despite his every effort, at the last Peter perished with and within that decrepit frame.

Permanently installed in a strong and vital body, the coldly calculating Octopus began living Peter’s life, albeit with some minor necessary alterations, upgrades and improvements: arguably becoming a wholly Superior Spider-Manâ€¦

At first the situation did not seem completely hopeless. At the moment of the monster’s greatest triumph Peter inflicted his full unvarnished memories on the psychic invader, forcing Octavius to experience every ghastly moment of tragedy and sacrifice which combined to make Spider-Man the compulsive do-gooder that he was.

From that enforced emotional turmoil came a bitter understanding. Otto had a change of heart and swore to live the rest of his stolen life in tribute to his greatest enemy; earnestly endeavouring to carry on Spider-Man’s self-imposed mission and inescapably guided by Peter’s abiding principle: â€œwith great power comes great responsibilityâ€â€¦

However Octavius’ monomania proved hard to suppress and the overwritten webspinner constantly toiled to prove himself a better man: augmenting Parker’s paltry gadgets and methodology with millions of spying â€œSpiderbotsâ€ to patrol the entire city at once, always adding advanced tech and new weaponry to his uniform and, most importantly, acting pre-emptively rather than merely reacting to crises as the original hadâ€¦

Otto went back to college because he refused to live life without a doctorate and even briefly tried to rekindle his new body’s old relationship with Mary Jane Watson.

The new, ultra-efficient Spider-Man became New York’s darling and even Mayor J. Jonah Jameson embraced the hero; all but adopting the Arachnid as his deputy – to the utter incredulity of an imperceptible psychic shard of Peter which still screamed in frustration within the deepest recesses of the hero’s overwritten consciousnessâ€¦

The helpless ghost was an unwilling passenger, unsuspected by Octavius yet increasingly privy to the villain’s own barely-suppressed memories. Moreover, many of Parker’s oldest friends and allies began to suspect something amissâ€¦

Police CSI and ex-girlfriend Carlie Cooper knew Peter’s secret identity and recalled the last time Spidey fought Doc Ock, when the killer broke her arm. He had claimed then that it was an accident: that he was Peter trapped in the villain’s bodyâ€¦

The public seemed happy with the changed Spider-Man. Not only was he more efficient, but far more brutal too: crippling bad guys like Boomerang, Vulture and Scorpion. This hard-line attitude actually increased the wallcrawler’s approval rating and, after a hostage siege, his status peaked when he executed the psychotic perpetrator Massacreâ€¦

Eventually Octavius realised there was a noble passenger in his head and eradicated the last vestiges of his insidious enemy’s presence – at the cost of many of Parker’s later memories. However, now utterly liberated, Otto ambitiously extended his campaign of modernised crime-fighting.

After helping Jameson when the Spider-Slayer and other super-felons broke loose on The Raft penitentiary, Spider-Man blackmailed the Mayor into giving him the now-empty island edifice for a base. The Superior Wallcrawler designed a new costume, built giant war-tanks and even hired henchmen to be his â€œSpiderlingsâ€, helping him clean up the city for decent, law-abiding citizens.

â€œParker’sâ€ personal life was all but over. Finally achieving a doctorate, he opened his own tech start-up company and entered into a romance with brilliant college companion Anna Maria Marconi whilst his arachnid alter ego monitored the metropolis through the electronic eyes of the tiny but universal spiderbots from his transformed citadel on the now-renamed Spider Island IIâ€¦

There’s still plenty that he doesn’t see though: resurgent criminal mastermind Goblin King (former Green Goblin Norman Osborn) had taken over the underworld through his Goblin Army Cult.

To that end he transformed young Phil Urich – latest iteration of The Hobgoblin – into his devilishly Strong Right Arm: a Goblin Knight to lead his armies to inevitable victoryâ€¦

Carlie had shared her suspicions about Otto possessing Spider-Man with her friend Police Captain Yuri Watanabe (who secretly moonlights as costumed vigilante The Wraith). Together they gathered proof of their suspicions regarding the Ock and the Wallcrawler; but the mission went cold when Cooper suddenly vanishedâ€¦

Elsewhere disgraced psychopathic genius Ty Stone joined Osborn’s daughter-in-law Liz Allen-Osborn as director at her new conglomerate Alchemax. He was cautiously building his own powerbase, unaware that his new assistant Michael O’Mara was in truth Miguel O’Hara, (Spider-Man 2099) trapped in our era following a chronal crisisâ€¦

Otto/Peter was trying to repair his relationship with Aunt May and her wealthy husband (J. Jonah’s dad Jay Jameson), helplessly re-experiencing the lad’s abiding affection for the gracious old lady. However after seeing Spider-Man at work torturing a captured foe, May wanted her family to have nothing to do with the Arachnid, even though Peter’s company was officially the creator of all the Superior Spider-Man’s gadgets and crime-fighting improvementsâ€¦

As Yuri searched for Carlie, she came to the understandable but erroneous conclusion that Spider-Man was responsible for her abrupt disappearance, whilst Ock’s Spiderlings continually scanned the city for signs of the Goblin cult, neither side able to glean that deep in a subterranean lair Carlie was suffering at the hands of the Goblin King.

The villain was hungry to learn all she knew about Spider-Man (information the mentally unstable Osborn had himself forgotten), but only got what he was after once he’d dosed her with the madness-inducing mutagenic goblin formula which had originally transformed him from business mogul to costumed maniacâ€¦

The bid to transform her into one of his faithful acolytes worked perfectly, and artificially crazed new acolyte Monster seemed delighted to join his vile viridian familyâ€¦

In the Mayor’s office Jonah Jameson, fed up with Spider-Man’s exploitative extortion, commissioned Stone and Alchemax to build a new generation of Spider-Slayer robots. The unscrupulous technologist was happy to turn the project over to his new protÃ©gÃ©â€¦

In other news: Green Goblin had declared war on his rival (and cheap knock-off) Roderick Kingsley who had been franchising super-villain gigs and poaching capers as the Hobgoblin, preparatory to making his big move on the city.

Parker’s Avenger ally Iron Man finally secured concrete proof that the Superior Spider-Man had been playing fast and loose with the truth from the very startâ€¦

Worst of all, after being briefly possessed by the Venom Symbiote Otto had awaked the aggravating ghost of the real Peter Parker in the recesses of their co-owned headâ€¦

To Be Concludedâ€¦

Scripted by Dan Slott with Christos N. Gage, Goblin Nation brings the saga of the brilliant bodysnatcher to a spectacular close, collecting issues #26-31 of the Superior Spider-Man as well as the second Annual (encompassing November 2013- April 2014), delivering a stunning conclusion to the story of Otto Octavius in advance of the Amazing return of the one true Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Manâ€¦

‘Goblin Nation Prelude: Goblin Wars’ illustrated by Humberto Ramos, Javier Rodriguez, Marcos Martin, Victor Olazaba & Alvaro Lopez, opens as Goblin Nation soldiers and Hobgoblin’s crew clash one last time, whilst across town the Superior Spider-Man’s battle with AIM is interrupted by an indignant pack of Avengers demanding some honest answersâ€¦

Deep in Octavius’ mindscape, everything that remains of Peter Parker reviews again the 31 key memories left after Ock performed psychic surgery to excise his young foe’s thoughts and influence. They aren’t much, but they are the very quintessence of what made the boy a heroâ€¦

In the outer world Goblin King kills Hobgoblin, subsequently recruiting his victim’s men to the cause. Suspicious and fearful, his Goblin Knight Phil Urich wisely conceals from Osborn the fact that the corpse is not Kingsley but only a brainwashed proxy, whilst at Avengers Tower, the interview with the Webslinger goes badly and â€œSpider-Manâ€ quits the World’s Mightiest Heroesâ€¦

‘Goblin Nation’ resumes 31 days later with New York City devastated and all but conquered by Osborn’s ghoulish forces. Spider-Man is reeling at his impossible fall from grace. The invaders have combined ruthless force with subversive computer programming to decimate the city’s defences and defendersâ€¦

As Otto questions how it could all have happened he accesses one of Parker’s remaining memories just as the ghost in his mindscape remembers the same event. Curiosity piqued, Peter finds a memory starring Octavius and enters Otto’s representation only to find himself trapped and reliving the villain’s life – every cruel, brutally sad moment of itâ€¦

In the physical world, crushed Otto-in-Peter labours to create a technical solution to the Goblin invasion, whilst his concerned girlfriend Anna Maria Marconi looks on helplessly. Suitably equipped he then invades Osborn’s underworld for a showdown but is appalled when the madman announces that he knows he’s talking to Doctor Octopus not Peter Parkerâ€¦

Goblin King offers Otto a subordinate role in his new empire and, when the monomaniac Arachnid refuses and escapes, Osborn sends a battalion of his creepy minions to raze Spider Island and everything on itâ€¦

With Giuseppe Camuncoli & John Dell assuming the art chores the story continues with only Otto getting away: sneaking off like a whipped dog thanks to his robot slave â€œThe Living Brainâ€, whilst deep in his head, the real hero struggles to retain his own identity whilst experiencing every frustration and defeat that made Octavius who he is.

On TV Mayor Jameson has denounced Spider-Man and announced his own solution to the crisis: a â€œSlayer Patrolâ€ army of super-robots designed to take back the streets. Watching the broadcast, Mary Jane and boyfriend Pedro Olivera are suddenly attacked by a detachment of Goblins. Fighting them off, MJ realises that all Spider-Man’s friends and family must be targets and moves to warn and save themâ€¦ if she canâ€¦

At Parker Industries, The Wraith attacks â€œPeterâ€ believing he has kidnapped Carlie only to have the battle interrupted by Monster. Recognising the missing girl has been mutated by Goblin-serum, Parker and his colleague Sajani Jaffrey capture the raving acolyte and attempt to reverse the processâ€¦

Mary Jane has narrowly moved May and Jay before the Goblins could find them, but is not able to save Anna Maria from capture and as the next chapter opens the Goblin Underground is in control of New York. With Otto/Peter frantically working on curing Carlie Osborn celebrates his triumph by blowing up all the landmarks and repositories of Octavius’ past successes, prompting the Superior Spider-Man to rashly come after him. The final straw is the Goblin’s boast that he has all his friends. Unable to reach Anna Maria the Wallcrawler tackles Goblin King head-on and one of the Emerald sociopath’s hostages pays the final priceâ€¦

Deep in the Mindscape Peter has been subsumed by Otto’s memories and is gone just as the memory lane reaches the point where Arachnid and Octopus began their lethal rivalry, whilst in the real world Spider-Man’s rage and torment are momentarily forgotten when Jameson’s Spider-Slayer robots attack him.

Luckily Spider-Man 2099 is there to disable them but even he is taken by surprise when Osborn hacks their programming, turning the mechanoids into another terror weapon to destroy the city and its heroesâ€¦

The epic takes a necessary detour as Superior Spider-Man Annual #2 offers a brace of tales scripted by Gage as intersecting sidebars to the unfolding calamity, beginning with ‘Blood Ties’.

Illustrated by Javier Rodriguez & Alvaro Lopez, the downbeat yarn chronicles Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich‘s desperate attempts to save his nephew Phil from the curse of the Green Goblin and his own weak nature whilst ‘Chasing Ghosts’ (art by Philipe Briones) reveals how Sajani and the Wraith begin administering their highly experimental cure on Carlie and discover the secret of how Osborn has been subverting the City and Spider-Man’s electronic security systemsâ€¦

Back in Superior Spider-Man #30, Otto’s battle against Osborn has reached a critical stage, just as in the Mindscape helpless passenger Parker reaches the point where Ock took over his body. Galvanised by shock the hero returns to full mental control of himself but not, crucially, the body Otto still commands.

The usurper is in dire straits: frozen by indecision as Osborn threatens to kill another hostage. The occluded sight of the frail female form has paralysed the Superior Spider-Man, but not Parker who forces the faux hero to actâ€¦

The victim is not Anna Maria and in a final example of excoriating self-examination Otto realises he cannot save her. Thus he willingly surrenders his consciousness allowing Peter Parker to reclaim forever their body.

It might not be an act of kindness. Even though the Amazing Spider-Man is back Osborn has never been stronger or more likely to triumph or take the world to destruction with himâ€¦

This truly titanic terminal tome includes a covers-&-variants gallery by Ryan Stegman, Ramos, Camuncoli, Mark Brooks, Jennifer Parks, David Marquez, J. Scott Campbell, Jorge Molina, Kevin Maguire and Tim Sale and comes fully augmented with AR icon sections – Marvel Augmented Reality App pages which provide access to story bonuses and content on your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

Spectacular, sensational and breathtakingly satisfying, the all-action conclusion offers a stunning climax to the catastrophic carnage with the original Wallcrawler utterly transcendent as he resumes his rightful position in the world, but even with the Superior Saga ended the aftermath has stacked up a huge number of changes, problems and perils for Parker to deal with in the days to come.

To Be Continuedâ€¦
â„¢ & Â© 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

June 24, 2014September 3, 2017

Valerian and Laureline book 6: Ambassador of the Shadows

By MÃ©ziÃ©res & Christin, with colours by E. TranlÃ© and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-178-5Â Â (Dargaud edition) 2-205-06949-7

ValÃ©rian and Laureline is the most influential science fiction comics series ever drawn, an innovation-packed big ideas drama stuffed with wry comment and sardonic sideswipes at contemporary mores and prejudices.

Although to a large extent those venerable strips defined and later re-defined the medium itself, anybody who has seen a Star Wars movie or that franchise’s numerous homages, pastiches and rip-offs has been exposed to many doses of Jean-Claude MÃ©ziÃ©res & Pierre Christin’s brilliant imaginings uniquely innovative, grungy, lived-in authentic futurism and light-hearted swashbuckling rollercoaster romps of MÃ©ziÃ©res & Christin than any other cartoon spacer.

ValÃ©rian: Spatio-Temporal Agent debuted in Pilote #420 (November 9^th 1967) and was an instant hit. It gradually evolved into ValÃ©rian and Laureline as the feisty sidekick developed into the equal partner – if not scene stealing star – in a light-hearted, fantastically imaginative time-travelling, space-warping fantasy stuffed with wry, satirical, humanist action and political commentary.

At first Valerian was an affable, capable but unimaginative by-the-book space cop tasked with protecting the official universal chronology by counteracting paradoxes caused by incautious time-travellers.

When ValÃ©rian travelled to 11^th century France in debut tale ‘Les Mauvais RÃªves (‘Bad Dreams’ and still not translated into English yet), he was rescued from doom by a fiery, capable young woman named Laureline. He brought her back to the 28^th century super-citadel and administrative capital of the Terran Empire, Galaxity. The indomitable female firebrand trained as a Spatiotemporal operative and began accompanying him on all his missions.

Ambassador of the Shadows originally ran in Pilote from July to October 1975 and finds the wide-ranging Spatiotemporal agents assigned to an arrogant and obnoxious Terran diplomat transferring to the cosmically cosmopolitan space edifice known as Point Central.

Over the eons many races and species have converged there for commerce and social intercourse by the simple expedient of bolting their own prefabricated constructed segment to the colossal, continually expanding hodge-podge wholeâ€¦

With no central authority, different species take turns presiding over the amassed multitudes via the immense Hall of Screens. However, no decent species would ever leave its own tailor-made environmentâ€¦

And now it is Earth’s turn to take the lead but, as they vector in for landing, the pompous martinet they are escorting informs Valerian and Laureline of a slight modification in their orders. They are still to the Ambassador’s bodyguards but must stay extra vigilant as Earth is going to uses its term in office to bring â€œorder and disciplineâ€ to the lackadaisical way the universe is run.

The assembled races will be invited to join a federation run – and policed – by Earth. â€¦And just to make sure, there’s a Terran space fleet of 10, 000 warships manoeuvring just out of Point Central’sÂ sensor rangeâ€¦

Laureline is outraged but like Valerian can do nothing except acquiesce. For her pains she is put in charge of the mission’s funds – a Grumpy Transmuter from Bluxte – which can mass-excrete any currency or object of trade or barter swallowed by its always scowling other endâ€¦

All kitted-out, the trio and the living cash-machine spacewalk to Point Central but before the mission can begin an alien ambush occurs. Mystery warriors using Xoxos cocoon guns inundate the attending officers and dignitaries and only Valerian escapes plastic entombment.

As the raiders make off with the Ambassador, the Spatiotemporal Agent gives chase but is easily captured and dragged off tooâ€¦

By the time Laureline breaks loose they are long gone and she is left to pick up the pieces with stiff-necked human bureaucrat Colonel Diol, Under Chief of Protocol.

Determined but with little to go on, she is cautiously optimistic when a trio of aliens come knocking. Ignoring Diol’s protest at the shocking impropriety she invites the scurrilous Shingouz into the Earth Segment. They are mercenary information brokers and claim to have been invited by the Ambassador before his abductionâ€¦

From them – and thanks to the pained efforts of the Grumpy Transmuter – she purchases a few hints and allegations as well as a map of Point Central which might lead to Earth’s secret allies in the cosmopolisâ€¦

With the constantly bleating Diol reluctantly in tow, Laureline begins a quest through the underbelly of the station, seeing for the first time the mute but ubiquitous Zools: a much ignored under-race which has been maintaining Point Central for millennia.

The Earthlings’ perambulations take them to the centaur-like Kamuniks: barbaric feudal mercenaries allied to Galaxity and appreciative of humanity’s martial prowess, and over a lavish feast – liberally augmented by another painfully exotic payment courtesy of the overworked Transmuter – the warriors steer Laureline towards potential suspects the Bagulins: low grade muscle-for-hire who frequent the tawdry red-light sector run by The Suffussâ€¦

Despite Diol’s nigh-apoplexy the adamant and inquisitive Laureline follows the trail to the sin segment where she experiences the particular talents of the hosts: amorphous shapeshifters who can make any carnal dream come literally true.

Well into overtime now, the exhausted Grumpy buys the help of one Suffuss who smuggles the junior Spatiotemporal operative into a Bagulin party and the next link in the chainâ€¦

And so it goes as, with occasional prodding from the Shingouz, Laureline gets ever-closer to the enigmatic beings truly pulling all the strings on Point Central whilst elsewhere Valerian frees the Ambassador from a bizarre and ethereal captivity only to find the doctrinaire war-maker is undergoing a strange change of heart.

Seemingly landing their deserted ship on a paradisiacal â€œworld with no nameâ€ they bask in an idyllic paradise and converse with noble primitives who have an uncanny aura of great power.

These beings built the first section of Point Central and ruled the universe before withdrawing from mundane material affairs, but they still maintain a watch over their creation from the shadows and won’t let any race or species to dominate or conquer their pan-galactic melting pot of spaceâ€¦

In a more physical portion of reality Laureline follows her final clues and reaches the strange central area where Val and the Ambassador lie dazed and confused. By the time they all return to the Earth Segment a few major changes have taken place in the governance of the immense star station but, oddly, the Ambassador doesn’t seem to mindâ€¦

Ambassador of the Shadows was the first Valerian tale to make it into English, appearing as a serial in the American Heavy Metal magazine from January to April 1984 (volume 4, #10 to Volume 5, #1).

Socially aware and ethically crusading, this is one of the smartest, most beguilingly cynical comics tales to catch the 1970s wave of political awareness and still ranks amongst the very best to explore the social aspects and iniquities of colonialism.

And of course there’s the usual glorious blend of astounding action, imaginative imagery and fantastic creatures to leaven the morality play with space-operatic fun-filled, visually breathtaking and stunningly ingenious wide-eyed wondermentâ€¦

Between 1981 and 1985, Dargaud-Canada and Dargaud-USA published a quartet of these albums in English (with a limited UK imprint from Hodder-Dargaud) under the umbrella title Valerian: Spatiotemporal Agent and this tale was the fourth release, translated then by L. Mitchell.

Although this modern Cinebook release boasts far better print and colour values plus a more fluid translation, total completists might also be interested in tracking down the 20^th century edition too as it boasts a foreword by comics god Will Eisner, full creator biographies and a fascinating, insightful illustrated overview by French science fiction author and editor Daniel Richeâ€¦

June 23, 2014

Savage Wolverine: Wrath

By Phil Jimenez, Scott Lope, Richard J. Isanove & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-605-2

Company kick-start initiative Marvel NOW! having reinvigorated the entire continuity, assorted X-stars began life anew and Savage Wolverine was launched to spotlight tales outside the usual helter-skelter, non-stop progression of Marvel Universe continuity.

This grimly dark and moody collection – gathering issues #12-17 (published between February and June 2014) – captures two of the feral fury’s most brutal sagas in a bloody volume reaffirming the character’s charnel-house underpinnings.

Ever since his early glory days in the All-New, All Different X-Men, the mutant berserker known variously as Wolverine, Logan, Patch and latterly James Howlett has been a character who appealed to the suppressed, put-upon, catharsis-craving comic fan by perpetually promising to cut loose and give bad guys the kind of final punishment we all know they truly deserve.

Always skirting the line between and blurring the definitions of indomitable hero and maniac murderer, Wolverine soldiered on: a tragic, brutal, misunderstood champion cloaked in mysteries and contradictions. Then society changed and, as with ethically-challenged colleague the Punisher, final sanction and quick dispatch became acceptable and even preferred options for costumed crusadersâ€¦

Debuting as a throwaway foe for The Incredible Hulk in a tantalising teaser-glimpse at the end of issue #180 (October 1974) before indulging in a full-on scrap with the Green Goliath in the next issue, the semi-feral Canadian mutant with fearsome claws and killer attitude rode – and maybe even caused – the meteoric rise of the rebooted X-Men before gaining his own series, super-star status and silver screen immortality.

He hasn’t looked back since, although over the years many untold tales of the aged agent (since the miniseries Wolverine:Origins revealed the hero had been born at the end of the 19^th century) have explored his missing exploits in ever-increasing intensity and torturous detail.

Thus Wolverine’s secret origin(s) and increasingly revelatory disclosures regarding his extended, conveniently much-brainwashed life have gradually seeped out. Cursed with recurring and periodic bouts of amnesia and mind-wiped ad nauseum by sinister or even well-meaning friends and foes, the Chaotic Canucklehead has packed loads of adventurous living into his centuries of existence – but until relatively recently hasn’t remembered most of it.

This infinitely unploughed field has conveniently resulted in a crop of dramatically mysterious, undisclosed back-histories, and ‘Come Conquer the Beasts Part 1: Claws and Teeth’ by Phil Jimenez (with additional input from Scott Lope) reveals the undying Wild Rover’s ancient connection with Africa and particularly a tribe of elephants with whom Logan has a semi-mystical relationshipâ€¦

Now that beloved tribe is dying out: another callous casualty of the man-made extinction event caused by Asian and Arabian hunger for ornamental ivory and animal parts for the moronic, misconceived Chinese Medicine tradeâ€¦

On one of his visits Wolverine encounters the stomach-churning results of organised poaching and is compelled by rage and disgust to do something about it. Following the bloody trail back to a staging post in rogue state Madripoor he is shocked to find one of his most trusted human friends neck-deep in the gory, indefensible businessâ€¦

‘Come Conquer the Beasts Part 2: Death in Its Eyes’ further explores the crisis caused by human superstition and greed as Wolverine calls in the X-Men to help stop one pitifully small operation whilst being ultimately helpless to affect the ghastly global ongoing atrocityâ€¦

This is a tale filled with tragedy, hopelessness, small moments of vicarious indulgence and even gallows humour, but the message is what’s really important. Uncompromising, stark, breathtakingly brutal and packed with enough facts to appal any rational, clear-thinking individual, this is comics propaganda of the very best kind: horrifying, impassioned and strident, a true call to arms for all decent people to make self-serving governments act now…

Just as dark but remaining faithfully locked into ferocious fiction, the eponymous 4-part ‘Wrath’ by Richard Isanove takes us back to 1933 to reveal Logan’s own trip down the Road to Perdition, beginning when he was a rum-runner smuggling booze from Canada into Minnesota.

His contact is storekeeper Elias, a fellow survivor of the Great War just trying to keep his four kids safe and well fed in the depths of the Great Depression. Sadly, selling illegal hooch is a dangerous game for independent little guys and, when representatives of the Chicago mob arrive demanding a cut, things very quickly get out of handâ€¦

In the bloody melee, Elias dies and both kids and gangsters discover that Logan is nothing like an ordinary little manâ€¦

With Elias dead Logan is honour-bound to take his kids to their aunt in Sterling, Colorado, but psychotic button men Pierre-Anselme AKA â€œFrenchyâ€ and Sergio (don’t call me â€œMarionâ€) are deadly opponents and despite being maimed by the feral Canuck, manage to escape with pretty Matti – a valuable prospect for the mob’s cathousesâ€¦

Recovering from the assorted Tommy-gun and grenade wounds, Logan drags the kids –Sofia, Peter, and poor consumptive Vicky – in pursuit and soon rescues Matti – but only after another incomprehensible bloodbath.

However Logan makes a critical error in leaving Marion and Frenchy alive and the vengeance-crazed thugs relentlessly follow, using all their Chicago connections to turn the venal and corruptible local law-enforcement officers against the fugitivesâ€¦

Doggedly moving on the party makes friends with â€œOkiesâ€ and other Dust-Bowl economic fugitives but the mobsters are equally determined and remorseless in their pursuit, leaving a trail of bodies and ultimately taking an unimaginable, unforgivable toll on the children, their tragedy-soaked family and the man called Wolverineâ€¦

Short, feisty and indomitable, Logan has always threatened and promised an explosion of visceral, vicarious ultra-violence and grim, gritty justice at every moment and in this slim, savage collection the fact has never been more impressively realised.

With covers-&-variants by Jimenez, Isanove, Chris Samnee, J. G. Jones and John Cassaday, Wrath returns the mutant megastar to realms and milieus largely ignored in recent mainstream appearances, living up to its named promise with brooding, bloody blisteringly bombastic, shocking sagas: a stirring reminder of past glories and uncanny adventures still to be revealedâ€¦
â„¢ & Â© 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

June 22, 2014June 21, 2014

Hellboy in Hell: The Descent

By Mike Mignola with Dave Stewart (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-444-6

Hellboy is a creature of vast depth and innate mystery; an apparently demonic baby summoned to Earth by Nazi occultists at the end of Word War II but subsequently reared by parapsychologist Professor Trevor â€œBroomâ€ Bruttenholm to destroy unnatural threats and supernatural monsters as the lead agent for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

After decades of unfailing, faithful service he became mortally tired and resigned. Itinerantly roaming the world, he still managed to encounter weird happenstances but could never escape trouble or his sense of duty.

After discovering he was the last in a line descended from Arthur Pendragon and Morgana le Fay – and therefore the Rightful King of England – he moved to the old country and died fighting a dragonâ€¦

After launching in 1993 Hellboy was swiftly attributed the status of ‘legend’ in the comics world, starting as the particular vision of a single creator and, by judicious selection of assistants and deputies, cementing a solid hold on the character in the hearts of the public.

And that’s just how it worked for Superman, Batman and Spider-Manâ€¦

Since the initial run of tales many creators have contributed to the arcane canon but at the end of 2012 Mignola assumed complete creative control once more for an ongoing – if irregularly – released series entitled Hellboy in Hell.

This initial compilation of those superb comics yarns gathers the first four-issue story arc and the beguiling notional one-shot The Three Gold Whips, which followed it.

The final fall from grace begins with ‘The Baba Yaga’ as the regal hero plunges into The Pit, willingly followed by an enigmatic robed figure. As the shade tells the ever-watching witch queen Baba Yaga, he believes he still has a chance to rescue and redeem the hell-bound heroâ€¦

Falling through a region of unspeakable horror and colossal monsters, Hellboy is saved from imminent consumption by the cloaked shade who reveals that he has stores of great mystic power and an intimate knowledge of the Nether Realms. He is even effective against furious Eligos, an old enemy of the B.R.P.D. agent who has been waiting a long time to take revenge for his earthly defeat at Hellboy’s mismatched handsâ€¦

The underworld is filled with appalling perils, dark wonders and unfolding vignettes or playlets where sinners endlessly relive the turning points of their lives, but it also holds the answers to the many mysteries of the dead hero’s life. Here a ghost warns him that he will be â€œhaunted by three spiritsâ€â€¦

The journey continues in ‘Pandemonium’ as Hellboy and the shade explore the now abandoned City of Demons, utterly deserted except for the dolorous figure of Satan – Hellboy’s father. They are joined by a devilish guide who provides many answers to the questions that have plagued the hero all his lifeâ€¦ when he was aliveâ€¦

The tempter – his infernal uncle – also offers Hellboy another chance at grasping ultimate power before showing him the tortures being inflicted upon his human witch mother and revealing his own connection and identity in ‘Family Ties’â€¦

The truth about Hellboy’s birth, the mighty magic stone right hand he wears and the fate that befell Hell after he was born is told and the lost boy meets his older brothers Gamon and Lusk, who act as brothers always do when told they aren’t the favourite oneâ€¦

The family squabble escalates and is only ended by an even more terrifying horrorâ€¦

In the aftermath Hellboy converses with a minor imp who tells him Hell is almost empty. All the grand Dukes and Generals and Princes are dead or gone, leaving a mere blue collar kind of devil in situ. It also reveals that someone has murdered Satan in Pandemonium, sparking a wave of unwelcome memories in Hellboyâ€¦

The first travail concludes with ‘Death Riding an Elephant’ as, in the cold and silent abyss, the redemptive revenant returns and at last introduces himself as former Victorian ghostbreaker and psychic detective Sir Edward Grey (the star of another series of Mignola macabre adventures), disclosing a few salient, if unpalatable, facts about Satan’s murder and the truth of his own current unholy situationâ€¦

Mignola is a sublime and canny raconteur and seamlessly combines tales where his star is the full focus of the action and alternately little more than a guide or witness to unfolding events. The latter is very much the case with ‘The Three Gold Whips’ which sees Hellboy wandering the deserted byways of the underworld and encountering an unquiet spirit who relates his own tale of a deal with a devil.

Once upon a time Captain Dulot and two soldierly comrades deserted Napoleon’s army and made a pact with a fiend: Seven years of living life like kings plus a whip each that, when cracked, would create a never-ending supply of gold coins. He even gave them an â€œoutâ€: a means by which they could escape their fate once the seven years were up.

However, when a devil is generous, that’s the time to truly bewareâ€¦

And so now, ever-helpful Hellboy offers to assist the damned foolâ€¦

This superbly absorbing, chilling chronicle also comes with a treasure trove of extras beginning with a graphic faux biography of ‘Walter Edmond Heap’ (a significant figure in the origins of Death Riding an Elphant), an extensive – 19 page – Hellboy Sketchbook section with annotations and commentary by Mignola and a glorious covers-&-variants gallery section.

Hellboy is classic of modern comics creation who has never provided anything but first rate entertainment value for fans. If you’re not one of them yet, this book will certainly change your stubborn mindâ€¦
â„¢ & Â© 2012, 2013, 2014 Mike Mignola.

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