Graphic Novels – Page 148

June 19, 2014July 6, 2014

Amazing X-Men: The Quest for Nightcrawler

By Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Cameron Stuart & Dexter Vines (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-591-8

Amidst all the constant existential angst and apocalyptic StÃ¼rm und Drang of the average X-Men saga over the years, there was still the occasional moment of lighter-hearted, boldly dashing, fun-filled exuberant derring-do – and it generally gravitated towards or sprang from the general vicinity of German swashbuckler Kurt Wagner: Nightcrawler.

However even he eventually succumbed to the bleak tone of the times and, after increasingly dark dire deeds, he died in the X-Event Second Coming.

Now after the team’s dalliances with doppelgangers and alternate Earth iterations, the original and genuine article has returned for the first story-arc of new ongoing title Amazing X-Men. Collecting the first six issues (cover-dated January-May 2014), this metaphysical merry-go-round of magic and mutant mayhem by Jason Aaron & Ed McGuiness (aided and abetted by Cameron Stewart and Dexter Vines) opens in Heaven, where the devout, deceased Christian mutant is strangely listless and ill-at-ease.

He perks up, however, when a quartet of demon pirates invade the Promised Land looking for souls to shanghai, and gives the invaders the sound thrashing they so richly deserve. The situation suddenly becomes seriously serious when his father appears.

Demon mutant Azazel had maintained his connection to Earth for millennia by mating with human women, but Kurt had always been the most disappointing of his progeny. Now the moribund mutant realises he would do anything to thwart his sinister sire’s schemes – including foregoing forever his hard-earned eternal restâ€¦

On Earth The Jean Grey School for Higher Learning is â€œwelcomingâ€ its newest teacher. Angelica Jones (AKA Firestar) is already nervous about her job and terrified to be in the â€œBig Leaguesâ€ amongst the X-Men, but her first day too soon takes a giant step into pure weirdness when the Beast blazes by her, chasing teleporting imps – known as â€œBamfsâ€ – who have been stealing his technology. Now, by purloining his coffeemaker, they have finally gone too farâ€¦

Caught up in the chase, she is astonished to discover the little blue packrats have constructed a bizarre glowing portal in the basement. When Iceman, Angel, Northstar, Rachel Grey, Wolverine and Storm join her, the Beast and the Bamfs, they are all attacked by malicious red Bamfs and sucked through the gateway into the afterlife where Azazel is attempting to conquer the eternal realms in flying pirate galleonsâ€¦

The journey has divided the team. Transported to the golden fields of Elysium, Wolverine and Northstar are soon boldly battling Azazel’s demonic buccaneers but Storm, Iceman and Firestar are having the devil’s own time surviving the very Pit of Hell they have materialised inâ€¦

The war in heaven is starting to go badly until the sprit of Charles Xavier turns up to offer some sage advice, sending Wolverine plunging from Paradise to find and save Nightcrawler, who is set on stopping his devilish daddy at any costâ€¦

The Beast has meanwhile landed on Azazel’s flagship, far beyond the Realm of the Flesh, and found himself severely overmatched against the hellish hordes aboard. He looks to be doomed, as is Storm who has â€œescapedâ€ onto another of the perfidious black freighters, but when the situation is at its most dire, in a crack of brimstone sound and fury, Nightcrawler arrives, sword swingingâ€¦

With Wolverine and Northstar now trapped in a frozen perdition whilst Firestar and Iceman languish in the Inferno, Kurt leads the missions to rescue them all and, whilst revealing the incredible truth about the perpetually proliferating Bamfs, finally takes the fight to his fiendish father.

The struggle takes everybody back to Earth but, by defeating the demon-lord and manifesting once more on the physical plane, has Nightcrawler forever lost his place in Heaven and locked the lethal, lascivious Lord of Lies in the land of the living?

Peppered with telling and trenchant flashbacks showing why Wagner was so beloved by his fellow X-Men, the dauntless drama concludes with ‘All in the Family’ (illustrated by Cameron Stewart) which sees the majority of the surviving X-Men – now split into warring ideological camps – turn up at Kurt’s Welcome Home party to pay their respects.

The only one missing is Nightcrawler himself, occupied as he is with confronting his malign mother (evil mutant Mystique) and subsequently spectacularly failing to prevent her breaking recently incarcerated Daddy Dearest out of super-villain jailâ€¦

This bright and breezy tale of light-hearted triumph and tragedy comes with a legion of covers-&-variants (15 actually) by McGuinness & Vines, Milo Manara, Moore, Kevin Nowlan, Dale Keown, Skottie Young and Salvador Larroca, and is one of the most enjoyable X-epics of recent years: a boundless buccaneering romp trading angst for boundless action and nihilistic gloom for thrills and frolics.

June 16, 2014June 18, 2014

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars: 30th Anniversary Edition

By Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck, Bob Layton, John Beatty & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-589-5

Has it been thirty years? Cripes!: stir the Horlicks and break out the Zimmer framesâ€¦

The â€œmaxi-seriesâ€ which started the seemingly insatiable modern passion for vast, braided mega-crossover publishing events originally came about because of an impending action figures licensing deal with toy manufacturing monolith Mattel.

Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, a great advocate of tales accessible to new, younger readers as well as the dedicated fan-base, apparently concocted the rather simplistic but amazingly engaging saga starring the House of Ideas’ top characters as a result of urgings from a potential major licensor. He then built his tale around a torrent of unsolicited, inspirational mail from readers, all begging for one huge dust-up between all the heroes and villainsâ€¦

The 12-issue Limited Series launched with a May 1984 cover-date and closed (April 1985) with a double-sized blockbusting battle that left many characters changed forever – or as least as â€œForeverâ€ as comics getâ€¦

The premise of the secret saga was that an all-powerful force calling itself The Beyonder abducted an army of Earth heroes and villains – and the most dreaded destroyer in the universe – in its quest to understand the emotion of desireâ€¦

The enigmatic, almighty entity dumped them all on a colossal purpose-built Battleworld created from and populated with fragments of other planets as a vast arena in which to prove which was better â€“ self-gratification or sacrificeâ€¦

In his introductory reminiscence ‘The War to End All Wars’, Shooter recounts the concatenation of circumstances which led to the creation of the series, after which an tantalising page clipped from the Daily Bugle outlines the mounting mystery of a seemingly unconnected legion of missing heroes before the furious Fights ‘n’ Tights epic opensâ€¦

As crafted by Shooter, Mike Zeck & John Beatty, ‘The War Begins’ found the Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four, Magneto, the Hulk and utterly out-of-his-depth Spider-Man all teleported into the deep unknown to see a galaxy destroyed and a world constructed before their astounded eyes. This was achieved purely so that a cosmic force could determine which of two philosophies was correct.

Arrayed against them were Doctor Doom, Molecule Man, Ultron, Dr. Octopus, the Lizard, the Enchantress, Absorbing Man, Kang the Conqueror, the Wrecking Crew and Galactus, all of whom had no problem with a disembodied voice telling them â€œslay your enemies and all you desire shall be yoursâ€â€¦

Whilst the villains instantly turn on each other, the Devourer of Worlds doesn’t care for the offer and attacks the disembodied force, only to be smashed casually and unceremoniously onto the brand new world below. The heroes too touch ground but dissent starts to split them into suspicious factions. The mere presence of mutant supremacist Magneto on their â€œteamâ€ divides the champions along human and mutant linesâ€¦

Elsewhere Doctor Doom tries to explain the underlying threat to his fellow villains in the huge super-scientific citadel they have commandeered, but the rogues refuse to listen.

Exasperated, the Monarch of Latveria decides to swallow his pride and consult with despised rival Mr. Fantastic but is blasted out of the skies by his greedy, treacherous companions before he finds the heroes’ camp. The bushwhackers then rashly go on to attack the gathered Good Guysâ€¦ and The War beginsâ€¦

‘Prisoners of War!’ sees the first of many pitched battles, but as the cataclysmic conflict proceeds, elsewhere Doom, having survived the sneak attack, is on site to see Galactus revive and ominously repair to a mountain top to begin his own unique responseâ€¦

Leaving the cosmic glutton to his own devices, the Iron Tyrant returns to the fortress of evil; dubbing it Doombase as he reprograms the dormant AI Ultron to be his slave.

He is waiting when the thoroughly trounced malefactors limp home, having lost the Lizard, Enchantress, Kang and Thunderball, Bulldozer and Piledriver of the Wrecking Crew to the heroes.

The triumphant yet troubled victors have occupied their own city-sized futuristic castle-complex where, after imprisoning their captives, they soon return to bickering with each other. The suspicions of some human heroes quickly drives Magneto away – taking the Wasp as a hostage – but even as the remaining mutants begin to feel the weight of prejudice, bigger problems manifest.

As the rocky Thing unexpectedly reverts to merely mortal Ben Grimm, on his distant mountain top Galactus is preparing to consume Battleworldâ€¦

The suspense builds in ‘Tempest Without, Crisis Within!’

As the master of magnetism discusses a truce with the Wasp, in the hero citadel Spider-Man misconstrues an overheard conversation and accidentally sparks a schism between human and mutants.

Whilst the webslinger and Hulk remain with Reed Richards, The Thing, Human Torch, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man (unknown to all Jim Rhodes not Tony Stark), Hawkeye, Captain Marvel and She-Hulk, the much-aggrieved X-Men Storm, Cyclops, Rogue, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Wolverine and diminutive space-dragon Lockheed follow increasingly doctrinaire Charles Xavier’s demands to separate from the assemblage and join Magnetoâ€¦

Doom meanwhile has used his fortress’ alien technology to turn two mysteriously-arrived earth girls into super-powered allies. When his remaining forces attack the heroes at dawn, the power of Volcana and Titania tips the balance against the defenders, deprived as they are of the might of the now-missing mutantsâ€¦

Thor too is gone. Having journeyed with the captive Enchantress to a pocket dimension – hoping to persuade her to switch sides – he returns too late to stop the felons freeing their comrades and crippling the Torch and Captain Marvelâ€¦

Bob Layton stepped in to pencil the next two chapters, beginning with ‘Situation: Hopeless!’ wherein the resurgent rogues move to end the war by having Molecule Man drop an entire mountain range on the already-reeling heroes. Trapped under 50 billion tons of rock – only barely held up by the Atlas-like Hulk – the heroes are rallied to hold on by Captain America whilst Reed and Iron Man devise a technological solution to their dilemma.

Outside, Thor’s unexpected return almost overwhelms the exultant evildoers, but he too is eventually destroyedâ€¦

As the dust settles, Doom kills the newly liberated Kang (for shooting him down as he flew to confer with Richards), blithely unaware that Thor has survived and escaped to rescue his buried comradesâ€¦

In another quadrant, as the X-Men arrive at Magneto’s bastion – giving the Wasp a chance to escape – the recently disinterred heroes find an alien village in the shadow of Galactus’ peak where a comely healer named Zsaji uses her empathic abilities to heal the battered, wounded warriors from Earthâ€¦

However even as Ben unpredictably becomes the Thing again, Galactus makes his next moveâ€¦

Above the skies of Battleworld, the Devourer’s solar system sized starship materialises, signalling ‘The Battle of Four Armies!’ At Doombase meek, socially inept Molecule Man Owen Reece is starting to blossom under the romantic attentions of Marsha Rosenberg AKA Volcana and, after being teased and bullied by the Wrecking Crew, smashes them all and flies off to be alone with her.

Whilst Magneto and Xavier attempt to communicate with the disdainfully oblivious Galactus, the X-Men speed to assist the human heroes against an outlaw assault on Zsaji’s village. In the melee Colossus is gravely injured and only saved by the healer’s intervention.

For him it is true love at first sightâ€¦

Oblivious to the conflict Doom, meanwhile, has again accomplished the impossible and invaded Galactus’ shipâ€¦

Zeck returned for ‘A Little Deathâ€¦’ in which the Wasp, frantically making her way back to her friends, encounters and befriends the savage, confused Lizard.

Thousand of miles above her, Doom’s explorations have led him to find and restore sonic scourge Klaw. The malign, sentient sound wave had been trapped in the system-ship for months but although reconstituted in a solid-vibrational body construct, the Master of Sound is completely crazyâ€¦.

Xavier’s confrontational leadership style is causing contention amongst his students and Colossus is having his heart broken every time he sees Zsaji fawn and simper over the shallow, lustful – human – Torchâ€¦

As Captain America and the big brains strategise ways to stop Galactus, Cyclops, Wolverine and Rogue unexpectedly rout a pack of bad guys on a mission for Doom which leaves the nigh-omnipotent Molecule bleeding out. Elsewhere, however, the fates are less kind when the Wasp, still cosying up to the Lizard, is ambushed and murdered by the Wrecking Crew.

The primordial predator is unable to save her, but his vengeance is terrible to beholdâ€¦

And back at the Healer’s village a new player is about to enter the frayâ€¦

‘Berserker!’ introduces a new Spider-Woman and reveals where Titania and Volcana came from. Whilst assembling his war world The Beyonder appropriated segments of many other planets, including an entire suburb of Denver, Colorado from Earthâ€¦

Before the enigmatic arachnid can explain further the Wreckers blaze in to dump the Wasp’s corpse and gloat, but the Star Spangled Avenger refuses to let his enraged comrades pursue the killers. He needs everyone to stay ready for the moment when Galactus starts to eat the planet and the billions of kidnapped innocents unhappily inhabiting itâ€¦

As the villains retreat with the wounded Molecule Man they are ambushed by the rest of the X-Men and Magneto, resulting in another savage yet inconclusive battle, whilst high above them all Doom continues to plunder Galactus’ home. When the World Eater finally notices him, the Master of Latveria is casually expelled and sent crashing like a bug to the planet below â€¦

Back at Doombase She-Hulk, filled with righteous rage and ignoring Cap’s orders, attacks the amassed murderers alone. After a ferocious fight she eventually succumbs to their greater force and ruthless brutalityâ€¦

So when Xavier informs the heroes that his mutants will stand guard over Galactus, the Sentinel of Liberty at last lets his enraged comrades loose to take on the killers and live up to the name â€œAvengersâ€â€¦

She-Hulk is near death when ‘Invasion!’ (inked by Beatty & Jack Abel) opens, as the champions of justice thrash their enemies with great enthusiasm, especially the enigmatic new Spider-Woman. In the course of the spectacular melee, Spider-Man single-handedly beats the impossibly strong Titania and his costume is destroyed.

As they imprison the crushed criminals, Captain America finds Doom, slumped in defeat and despair. Whilst the triumphant heroes use matter-shaping machines to repair their clothing and uniforms, the Wall-crawler accidentally uses a different device and receives a new all-black costume similar to Spider-Woman’sâ€¦

His, however, can change shape, colour and design, is thought-activated and somehow produces an inexhaustible supply of webbing. In the days to come on Earth he will learn to deeply regret his errorâ€¦

Back in the village Zsaji has pulled out all the stops and resurrected the seemingly dead Wasp, but any joy the victors might feel is instantly erased as Professor X broadcasts a desperate telepathic alarm: Galactus is at last beginning to consume the planetâ€¦

As the X-Men begin their ‘Assault on Galactus!’ the human heroes rush back to assist them, but Reed Richards – the greatest intellect on Earth – suddenly has a flash of insight and vanishes as the Devourer teleports him to a private conference.

At that moment Doom rouses himself from his despondent funk, having conceived a grand plan of his own to conquer both Galactus and The Beyonder, erasing forever the humiliation of his ignominious defeatâ€¦

Due in part to his discussion with Reed, the Cosmic Carnivore abandons Battleworld and instead absorbs his own system-shipâ€¦

In the confusion Doom makes his move, using a hastily constructed device to absorb all the omnipotent instigator’s power and deal out ‘Death to the Beyonder!’

Despite being all but incinerated in the struggle, the Iron Tyrant uses the stolen energies to rebuild himself and declare the Secret War over with Doom the sole victorâ€¦

In ‘â€¦And Dust to Dust!’, having successfully stolen the Beyonder’s power, he exults in the joys of becoming omnipotent. However the troubled new god finds it hard to hang on to lust for conquest, or even personal ambition after achieving all-consuming divinity, and his benign acts and vapid indolence betray a certain lack of drive and ambitionâ€¦

With heroes and villains nervously awaiting the new supreme one’s next move, events take a subtly disturbing turn as a strange energy wisp begins to possess a succession of heroes as it makes its way ever closer to the Doom Deityâ€¦

The other do-gooders remain deep in conference, debating their response to the self-proclaimed saviour of the universe. At the moment they finally decide to oppose him they are all vaporised by a bolt of energyâ€¦

Of course it doesn’t end there as the resurgent Beyonder battles through heroic and villainous proxies to reclaim his purloined power and put everything to rights – sort of – in the blockbusting finale ‘â€¦Nothing to Fear!’

Although perhaps a little dated and rather straightforward – although peppered with plenty of convoluted and clever plot twists – this bombastic box of delights still reads exceedingly well (especially for younger readers) and this commemorative edition also includes a couple of added extras.

‘The Toys’ features many of the action figures, packaging and ads for all us kids to salivate over and the whole show concludes with scholarly overview ‘The Birth and Legacy of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars’ which rounds off the cosmic nostalgia-fest by discussing the secret origins of mega-crossovers from crucial prototype Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions to a few of the more memorable descendants such as Civil War, Age of Ultron and Infinityâ€¦

Fast-paced, pretty-looking and impressively action-packed, Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars was – and still is – sheer comicbook magic that no true aficionado of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction can do without.

â„¢ & Â© 1984, 1985, and 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 14, 2014June 18, 2014

The Chimpanzee Complex volume 3: Civilisation

By Richard Marazano & Jean-Michel Ponzio, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-043-6

French comics creators excel at challenging, mind-blowing, compelling science fiction. Whether boisterous, mind-boggling space opera like Valerian and Laureline, surreal meta-spiritual exploration such as Moebius’ Airtight Garage or the tense, tech-heavy veritas of Orbital, our Gallic cousins always got it: the genre is not about tech or monsters; it’s about people encountering new and uncanny ideasâ€¦

Prolific, multi-award winning Richard Marazano was born in Fontenay-aux-Roses in 1971. He initially pursued a career in science before switching to Fine Arts courses in AngoulÃªme and debuted in bande dessinÃ©e in the mid 1990s. Although an extremely impressive artist and colourist when illustrating his own stories (Le Bataillon des LÃ¢ches, Le Syndrome d’Abel), he is best known for his collaborations with other artists such as Michel Durand (Cuervos), Marcelo Frusin (L’ExpÃ©dition) and Xavier Delaporte (Chaabi) to name but a few.

His partnerships with artist Jean-Michel Ponzio are especially fruitful and rewarding. As well as Le Complexe du ChimpanzÃ© – the trilogy under discussion here – the daring duo have also produced the taut, intricate social futurism of Genetiksâ„¢ and high-flying paranoiac cautionary tale Le Protocole PÃ©lican.

Jean-Michel Ponzio was born in Marignane and, after a period of scholastic pick-&-mix during the 1980s, began working as a filmmaker and animator for the advertising industry. He moved into movies, designing backgrounds and settings; listing Fight Club and Batman and Robin among his many subtle successes.

In 2000 he started moonlighting as an illustrator of book covers and edged into comics four years later, creating the art for Laurent Genfort’s T’ien Keou, before writing and illustrating Kybrilon for publisher Soliel in 2005.

This led to a tidal wave of bande dessinÃ©e assignments before he began his association with Marazano in 2007. He’s still very, very busy and his stunning combination of photorealist painting, 3D design and rotoscoping techniques grace and enhance a multitude of comics from authors as varied as Richard Malka to Janhel.

Perhaps still the very best of these talented individuals’ joint efforts is The Chimpanzee Complex trilogy which concludes its English translation here with Civilisationâ€¦

When, six and a half decades after it first returned, the Apollo 11 Command Module splashed down in the Indian Ocean in February 2035, redundant NASA astronaut Helen Freeman was pressed into the top-secret investigation of the incredible passengers, deserting once again her troubled and too-often neglected daughter Sofia.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men to walk on the moon, and nobody – including them – had any idea where they’d been for sixty-five years. For the baffled spacers it was only days since their mission beganâ€¦

On learning how history had already recorded their triumphant return and unremarkable deaths years later, the legends went ballistic: exhibiting what Freeman knew as the traumatic shock response peculiar to space voyagers categorised by NASA as â€œthe Chimpanzee Complexâ€â€¦

They had no knowledge of â€œtheirâ€ missing third astronaut Michael Collins (if he ever existed). Nobody could explain what they might be and no test science could devise was able to disprove or corroborate their incredible storyâ€¦

Compelled to work under Military Spook Konrad Stealberg, Freeman’s subsequent interviews uncovered even more questions but no answers. Then one day the enigma-nauts began exhibiting memory gaps.

Whilst her best friend – NASA bureaucrat Robert Conway – left to look after her increasingly intransigent daughter, Helen and Konrad’s team were presented with another insoluble mystery when the astronauts suddenly expired: becoming decades-old corpses overnightâ€¦

Soon Helen was reluctantly piloting a mission to the moon in the mothballed but hastily reconditioned shuttle originally designed for Mars – until budget cuts scotched the project. Her trusted comrades and fellow unemployed astronauts Kurt, Alex and Aleksa were just as delighted to be back in space, but as apprehensive as Helen over the military presence and top-secret paraphernalia piled aboard.

They were even less sanguine when Stealberg and his creepy elite commandos replaced the regular crew.

En route they discovered the secret history of the 1960s Space Race: America’s black ops space program and the USSR’s clandestine and apparently failed mission to Mars.

Even bigger shocks materialised on the moon when they found the pressure-suited corpses of Aldrin and Armstrong deep in a concealed fissure. In orbit above them a vintage Command Module was intercepted by their own shuttle.

The relic contained Collins’ corpse and a decades-old Russian distress call the pilot had recorded. The message had been sent by Commies from Marsâ€¦

NASA never had an American monopoly on spaceflight: the military had run a covert, parallel program from the very start, funded by pirating portions of NASA’s budget at the personal instigation of ex-Nazi rocket pioneer Werner von Braunâ€¦

Moreover, the 66-year old Russian distress message in the capsule’s primitive computers proved the Soviets had also been far more committed to space exploration than history recorded – and just as secretive as the USAâ€¦

Mid-flight Stealberg took over, unveiling interplanetary hibernation chambers and turning the now-militarised mission towards the Red Planet. Amidst fears of what awaited them, Helen fell into cold sleep, agonising that she had again abandoned and betrayed Sophia â€¦

When they arrived they only found greater mysteries. The Soviet attempt had been a success and a thriving base at the pole welcomed the Americans. Nothing made sense though. The Russians believed they had been there for twelve years – not six and a half decades – and mission commander Yuri Gagarin (whose death in had been faked in 1968 to facilitate his smooth transition to commander of their Mars-shot) was obsessed with a bizarre scientific hoodoo he called â€œprobability of presenceâ€.

His ruminations on Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and whether such a subatomic phenomenon could apply to larger constructs (like human beings) in a constant and simultaneous state of being and non-being was a truly disturbing idea, but Helen had no time to debate it or their shared regrets about their abandoned Earthbound children as the other Cosmonauts had insanely decide to destroy their own baseâ€¦

As she returned to the greenhouse module, Konrad presented an even more pressing problem. He had discovered Gagarin’s sixty-years-dead corpseâ€¦

As colonists Vladimir and Borislav set fire to the base modules, the Americans retreated to their vehicle, dragging the hysterical Helen, who had promised her very much alive Yuri a ride homeâ€¦

The tension peaked when they got back to the orbiting Shuttle: Paul had vanished without a trace. Thoroughly rattled, Konrad ordered an immediate return to Earth, with increased watches for every day of the trip.

By May 2036, on Earth Cooper and Sophia both eagerly await Helen’s return at Cape Canaveral. However as the Shuttle approached it suddenly vanished from the tracking systems. Aboard ship Helen and Kurt saw their home planet disappear. Helpless, unable to brake and with no world in view, they rejoined the others in cold-sleep, not knowing when they would reawaken or if they’d still be in the solar system when they did.

Helen’s last conscious thoughts were of the daughter she might never see againâ€¦

The epic conclusion picks up in the Great Unknown as hibernation ends after seventy years. Only Helen and Aleksa are still alive; all the other cryo-capsules having failed at some indeterminate time.

With only finite resources and dwindling power, Helen consoles herself by catching up on messages beamed in hope and anticipation by Robbie Cooper, but is roused from her fatalistic depression by Aleksa who has made a shocking discovery.

Seeing one of the EVA suits missing, he at first believed their comrade Alex had committed suicide by walking out of the airlock. Then he saw the impossibly huge unidentified space vessel and called Helenâ€¦

Suiting up and arming themselves, they cross to the ship, Helen further encumbered by a laptop with all the messages – read and unread – from Robert stored on it. They have no idea when Alex left, or if she even tried to reach the UFO.

However as it is their only hope of survival, they make a leap into the void and after great struggle find themselves in a vast and terrifying mechanical chamber of disturbing proportions.

Alex’s abandoned gear is on the floor. She had clearly camped there for some time before vanishing into the dark, dusty cavernous interiorâ€¦

Whilst they rest and consider their next move, Helen watches the last message Robbie sent from Earth. It is sixty-seven years oldâ€¦

Later, Helen freaks out when they find Alex’s empty suit until Aleksa does the unthinkable and opens his own EVA garb. The enigma ship has warmth and a breathable atmosphereâ€¦

And then something pushes part of the vessel over on themâ€¦

The pair narrowly escape harm and cautiously explore the vessel, but after splitting up Aleksa is attacked again. When terrified Helen finds him he is hugging the crazed, decrepit, wizened but still alive Alex.

Mute but still vital she leads them through vaulting passageways to what they can only assume is a skeleton. A really, really big oneâ€¦

Outside a viewing portal, Mars spins by above them. It’s as if they’ve come home â€¦

However fast or far or forward humanity travels, their fears and foibles go with them and before long distrust and dread spark a final confrontation in the uncanny construct. Thus only one person makes an implausible, inexplicable escape back to Earthâ€¦

It’s 2097 and as a long-missing craft splashes down in the ocean to begin the circle anew, it becomes clear that some mysteries, like some philosophies and some family bonds, remain ineffably beyond the sphere of rational thinkingâ€¦

Bold, challenging and enticingly human, this astonishing science mystery dances and darts adroitly between beguiling metaphysics and hard-wired mortal passions, easily encompassing our species’ inbuilt inescapable isolation, wide-eyed wonderment, hunger to know more and the terror of finding out, with Marazano’s pared-to-the-bone script brought to hyper-life with stunning clarity by Ponzio to produce a timeless fusion of passion, paranoia and familial fulfilment.

Do you read me? Do read The Chimpanzee Complex.

June 13, 2014June 12, 2014

Batman Chronicles volume 10

By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Don Cameron, Joseph Greene, Joe Samachson, Dick Sprang, Jack Burnley, Jerry Robinson, Norman Fallon, George Roussos, Fred Ray & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2895-8

Debuting twelve months after Superman, â€œThe Bat-Manâ€ (joined within a year by Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented DC/National Comics as the market and conceptual leader of the burgeoning comicbook industry. Having established the scope and parameters of the metahuman in their Man of Tomorrow, the magnificently mortal physical perfection and dashing derring-do of strictly human-scaled adventures starring the Dynamic Duo rapidly became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all four-colour crimebusters were judged.

This tenth volume of chronologically re-presented Batman yarns from the dawn of his incredible career covers Batman #18-19, Detective Comics #78-81 and World’s Finest Comics #11 (spanning August to November 1943), once again featuring adventures produced during the scary days of World War II.

It’s certainly no coincidence that many of these Golden Age treasures are also some of the best and most reprinted tales in the Batman canon, as lead writer Bill Finger was increasingly supplemented by the talents of Don Cameron, Joe Samachson, Joe Green and others, whilst graphic genius Dick Sprang was slowly growing into his role as major creative force for the feature: transforming the Dynamic Duo into another hugely successful franchise.

The war seemed to stimulate a peak of creativity and production, with everybody on the Home Front keen to do their bit – even if that was simply making kids of all ages forget their troubles for a brief while – and these tales were created just as the dark tide was turning and an odour of hopeful optimism was creeping into the escapist, crime-busting yarns and especially the stunning covers: seen here in the work of Jack Burnley, Sprang & Stan Kaye, Jerry Robinson and Kaneâ€¦

The compelling dramas open with ‘The Bond Wagon’ (by Greene, Burnley & George Roussos from Detective Comics #78) which pushed the patriotic agenda when Robin’s efforts to raise war funds through a parade of historical look-alikes is targeted by Nazi spies and sympathisers, after which Batman #18 opens with a spectacular and visually stunning crime-caper wherein the Gotham Gangbusters clash again with rascally rotund rogues Tweedledum and Tweedledee whilst solving ‘The Secret of Hunter’s Inn!’ by Samachson & Robinson.

Then ‘Robin Studies his Lessons!’ (Samachson, Kane & Robinson) sees the Boy Wonder grounded from all crime-busting duties until his school work improved – even if it means Batman dying for want of his astounding assistance!

Bill Finger and Burnley brothers Jack and Ray crafted ‘The Good Samaritan Cops’: another brilliant and absorbing human interest drama focused on the tense but unglamorous work of the Police Emergency Squad before the action temporarily ends with a shocking and powerful final engagement for manic physician and felonious mastermind Matthew Thorne: ‘The Crime Surgeon!’ (Finger, Kane & Robinson), who tries his deft and devilish hand at masterminding other crooks’ capersâ€¦

Over in Detective Comics #79 ‘Destiny’s Auction’, by Cameron & Robinson, offers another sterling human interest melodrama as a fortune teller’s prognostications lead to fame, fortune and deadly danger for a failed actress, has-been actor and superstitious gangsterâ€¦

The creation of Superman propelled National Comics to the forefront of their fledgling industry and in 1939 the company was licensed to produce a commemorative comicbook celebrating the start of the New York World’s Fair, with the Man of Tomorrow prominently featured among the four-colour stars of the appropriately titled New York World’s Fair Comics.

A year later, following the birth of Batman and Robin, National combined Dark Knight, Boy Wonder and Action Ace on the cover of the follow-up New York World’s Fair 1940.The spectacular 96-page anthology was a tremendous success and the oversized bonanza format was established, becoming Spring 1941’s World’s Best Comics #1, before finally settling on the now-legendary title World’s Finest Comics from the second issue, beginning a stellar 45-year run which only ended as part of the massive clear-out and de-cluttering exercise that was Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Until 1954 and the swingeing axe-blows of rising print costs, the only place Superman and Batman ever met was on the stunning covers by the likes of Burnley, Fred Ray and others. Between those sturdy card covers, the heroes maintained a strict non-collaboration policy and #11’s (Fall 1943) Batman episode revealed ‘A Thief in Time!’ (Finger & Robinson inked by Fred Ray) which pitted the Gotham Gangbusters against future-felon Rob Callender, who fell through a time-warp and thought he’d found the perfect way to get rich.

Detective #80 saw the turbulent tragedy of deranged, double-edged threat Harvey Kent finally resolved after a typically terrific tussle with ‘The End of Two-Face!’ by Finger, Kane, Robinson & Roussos, after which Batman #19 unleashes another quartet of compelling crime-busting cases.

There’s no mistaking the magnificent artwork of rising star Dick Sprang who pencilled every tale in this astounding issue, beginning with Cameron’s ‘Batman Makes a Deadline!’ wherein the Dark Knight investigated skulduggery and attempted murder at the City’s biggest newspaper. He also scripted the breathtaking fantasy masterpiece ‘Atlantis Goes to War!’ with the Dynamic Duo rescuing that fabled submerged city from overwhelming Nazi assault.

The Joker reared his garish head again in the anonymously penned thriller ‘The Case of the Timid Lion!’ (perhaps William Woolfolk or Jack Schiff?) with the Clown Prince of Crime enraged and lethal whilst tracking down an impostor committing crazy capers in his name before Samachson, Sprang and inker Norman Fallon unmasked the ‘Collector of Millionaires’ with Dick Grayson covertly investigating his wealthy mentor’s bewildering abduction and subsequent replacement by a cunning doppelgangerâ€¦

This fabulous foray into timeless wonder concludes with ‘The Cavalier of Crime!’ (Detective #81, by Cameron, Kane & Roussos) which introduced another bizarre and baroque costumed crazy who pitted his rapacious wits and sharp edged weapons against the Dynamic Duo – naturally and ultimately to no availâ€¦

This stuff set the standard for comic superheroes. Whatever you like now, you owe it to these tales. Superman gave us the idea, and writers like Finger and Cameron refined and defined the meta-structure of the costumed crime-fighter. Where the Man of Steel was as much social force and wish fulfilment as hero, Batman and Robin did what we ordinary mortals wanted to do.

They taught bad people the lesson they deserved.

The history of the American comicbook industry in almost every major aspect stems from the raw, vital and still powerfully compelling tales of DC’s twin icons: Superman and Batman.

It’s only fair and fitting that both those characters are still going strong and that their earliest adventures can be relived in chronological order in a variety of formats from relatively economical newsprint paperbacks to deluxe hardcover commemorative Archive editions.

However, to my mind, such tales of elemental power and joyful exuberance, brimming with deep mood and addictive action are best enjoyed in these pulp-textured, four-colour facsimiles – as close to the originals in feel and tone as we can get these days.

Comic book heroics simply don’t come any better.
Â© 1943, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

June 12, 2014June 18, 2014

All-New X-Men/Guardians of the Galaxy: The Trial of Jean Grey

By Brian Michael Bendis, Sara Pichelli, Stuart Immonen, David Marquez, Wade Von Grawbadger & various (Marvel/Panini UK)

When bestial mutant Henry McCoy learned he was dying, he used time-travel tech in a last-ditch attempt to give his life meaning. Seeking to prevent a species war, he brought the young, naive X-Men of his youth into the future to reason with his radicalised former comrade Scott Summers, praying the still idealistic and hopeful teens could reason with Mutant Enemy Terrorist No. 1 and divert him from his path of doctrinaire madnessâ€¦

The gamble paid off in all the wrong ways. Rather than shocking Cyclops back to his senses, the confrontation hardened the renegade’s heart and strengthened his resolve. Moreover, even after the younger McCoy miraculously cured his older self, boy-Henry and the rest of the X-Kids were trapped in their own future and began gradually defecting to the radicalised teamâ€¦

And Elsewhere in Infinity: a few years ago a plethora of cosmic crises forced the champions and remnants of many heroic races to band together and save the cosmos. Although said crises were largely averted, some of those Sentinels of the Spaceways eventually got the band back together, more determined than ever to make the universe a safe place (for specifics you should consult Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Avengers and Angela).

Scripted by Brian Michael Bendis, this stellar crossover saga combined the two disparate gangs of outcasts: The Trial of Jean Grey collects All-New X-Men #22.NOW, 23-24 and Guardians of the Galaxy #11.NOW, 12-13 (from January to March 2014), taking the time-displaced teens to the ends of the universe and even further into uncharted temporal territoryâ€¦

The crossover cataclysm commences in All-New X-Men #22.NOW (illustrated by Stuart Immonen & Wade Von Grawbadger) and opens in the wilds of Canada at the New Charles Xavier School– formerly the Weapon X facility where Wolverine and so many other mutants were ruthlessly experimented upon and â€œimprovedâ€.

Here the future-shocked Angel, Iceman, Beast, young Cyclops and Jean Grey are feeling the building tension of their new normal: facing the prospect of never returning to their own time; risking destroying all reality with every moment they aren’t back there and, worst of all, watching Jean go slowly crazy trying not to become the impossibly perfect superwoman everybody keeps talking about in such hushed tonesâ€¦

As part of that resolution Jean had been tentatively exploring her romantic options, consequently sowing confusion amongst her hormonal teenaged confreres. This now results in a painfully fraught spat with ostensibly predestined husband (young) Scott Summers.

As tempers flare the facility is suddenly stormed by a squad of extraterrestrial commandos who, despite spirited resistance from the assorted X-Men and other mutants, capture Jean and blast off for parts unknownâ€¦

Mere seconds later another band of weirdoes turn up: The Guardians of the Galaxy are aghast and furious at arriving too lateâ€¦

Guardians of the Galaxy #11.NOW (with art by Sara Pichelli) then flashbacks to fill in the details as Star-Lord Peter Jason Quill is ambushed in an alien bar by a Skrull bounty hunter.

The half-breed Terran is the unloved son of J’Son of Spartax – undisputed ruler of an interstellar empire – but no friend of Earth. The wayward scion and his allies in pacifying an unruly and unforgiving universe Drax, Rocket Racoon, Groot, Gamora (â€œDeadliest Woman in the Galaxyâ€) and newest extra-dimensional recruit Angela are all on the run from the militaristic Spartoi and their alliesâ€¦

The self-appointed Guardians’ ongoing troubles stem from a compact of major cosmic powers and principalities. This coterie of rulers had formed a Council of Galactic Empires and unilaterally declared Earth â€œoff limitsâ€: quarantined from all extraterrestrial contact, but that high-minded declaration hadn’t stopped some of the signatories from breaking their own embargo or being mighty ticked off whenever Quill’s crew kicked them off Terra and back into space.

Cold and distant J-Son of course, had his own good – if undisclosed – reasons for wanting his son curbed and controlledâ€¦

However whilst the Skrull was stalking Star-Lord, the Council was meeting and Emperor Kallark of the Shi’ar (AKA alien superman Gladiator) was informing his colleagues that Jean Grey – former host to the overweening Phoenix Force – was back and he was going to try her for her crimesâ€¦ even though the chronally displaced child hadn’t technically committed them yetâ€¦

When wily techie Rocket Racoon intercepts a message about an intended Shia’ar raid on Earth, the Guardians race to stop them, butâ€¦

All-New X-Men #23 (Immonen & Von Grawbadger) picks up the tale in space as the Guardians and X-Men hurtle after the commandos, shattering Shi’ar ships that get in their way, even as far ahead of them Imperial Guard (an in-joke version of DC’s Legion of Super Heroes) telepath Oracle begins to debrief Jean and chillingly share her future history with her.

The exotic psionic seems oddly sympathetic and considerate of the Terran teenager’s unhappy predicamentâ€¦

Her pursuers meanwhile are encountering increasingly harsh resistance – until help arrives in the form of the bombastic, swashbuckling Starjammersâ€¦

GotG #12 (illustrated by Pichelli, Immonen & Von Grawbadger) sees young Cyclops receive the shock of his life as he finds that the freebooting rebels’ leader is his own long-dead dad Christopher Summers. He hates the Shi’ar with a passion and good reason and now goes by the name Corsairâ€¦

As father and son ecstatically embrace, on Planet Spartax Quill’s sire is taking steps to offset the disaster he knows will come if Kallark carries out his insane plan to kill the time-lost Jean Grey. He had originally intended to do nothing, but now that his own son has become involvedâ€¦

As the combined rescue-force infiltrates the Empire’s most secure planet, Jean’s show-trial is beginning. Kallark – despite the continued objections of Oracle – confronts the frail-seeming Earthling with the planetary genocides perpetrated by her older self whilst possessed by the Phoenix and callously demands her plea for crimes she has not yet, if ever, committedâ€¦

All-New X-Men #23 (Immonen & Von Grawbadger) ramps up the tension as J-Son bursts in, declaring the defendant’s innocence and asking if the Shi’ar have not already done enough.

In the aftermath of the Phoenix’s rampage Gladiator had exterminated every one of Jean’s relatives – in case the cosmic entity had some affinity with the family’s genetics – but this latest action seems like nothing more than vindictive, cowardly paranoiaâ€¦

The revelation is a huge mistakeâ€¦

In the world outside, Starjammers, Guardians and X-Men are getting closer and closer, using guile and force of arms to cut their way through the massed military forces, but their efforts are wasted.

Jean, horrified by the fate of her family, has tapped unknown reserves and become something never experienced in her previous future history. As such, the Imperial Guard are utterly unable to contain herâ€¦

As Gladiator’s forces pursue they are countered by the late arriving Guardian- Starjammer-X force in the spectacular and climactic Guardians of the Galaxy #13 (illustrated by Pichelli & David Marquez). Jean’s evolution and Cyclops’ determination are key to ending the ill-advised intergalactic travesty of justice, but in the weary aftermath, as Quill’s people return the mutants to their homeworld, a tricky new romance has been kindled and one of the time-tossed teen nomads is noticeably missingâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Fast, furious, funny and fantastically thrilling, The Trial of Jean Grey combines cosmic intrigue and dashing derring-do with hilarious characterisation and passionate soap opera angst and comes with a stunning 17 covers-&-variants gallery by Immonen, Von Grawbadger, Pichelli, Dale Keown & Chris Samnee as well as AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) for access to story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

What more could any entertainment-starved child of the wondering stars demand?

June 11, 2014June 18, 2014

Uncanny X-Men: the Good, the Bad, the Inhuman

By Brian Michael Bendis, Chris Bachalo, Kris Anka, Marco Rudy, Tim Townsend & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-609-0

When the teenaged â€œFirst Classâ€ of Charles Xavier’s X-Men were brought into their own future and our Now (see All-New X-Men: Here Comes Yesterday) they initially stayed with the teachers and students of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.

However after the tragic events of X-Men: Battle of the Atom, Hank â€œthe Beastâ€ McCoy, Bobby â€œIcemanâ€ Drake, Warren â€œthe Angelâ€ Worthington, Scott Summers, young Jean Grey, teenaged female Wolverine clone Laura â€œX-23â€ Kinney and the School’s Head Professor Kitty Pryde defected to the mutant terrorist band known as the Extermination Team.

During the cataclysmic events of Avengers versus X-Men the staunch and steadfast elder Cyclops – transformed and possessed by the overwhelming Phoenix Force – had killed his beloved father-figure Xavier.

In the aftermath Old Summers united with old comrade Magik and former foes Magneto and Emma Frost in a hard-line alliance devoted to preserving mutant lives at all costs: even, if necessary, by sacrificing human ones. This new attitude appalled many of their former associates and created a schism in the ranks of Xavier’s many protÃ©gÃ©s.

Discarding Scott, his surviving team-mates Beast and Iceman sided with second generation X-Men such as Wolverine, Psylocke and Storm: staying true to Xavier’s dream and opting to protect and train the coming X-generation of mutant kids through his traditional methods at the Jean Grey School.

The two opposing sides of the mutant question clashed constantly, as the modern world experienced constant challenge and attack from all quarters. Amid the rising chaos new mutants began appearing in increasing numbers, all with more impressive talents than ever before.

Through careful orchestration, brilliant media massaging and by avoiding visibly unprovoked acts of violence, Cyclops’ Extinction faction began winning the trust and respect of many oppressed sectors of humanity: the poor, the disenfranchised, the rebellious, the youngâ€¦

Following a very public humiliation of the Government-sponsored human/mutant team Uncanny Avengers, the internecine mutant conflict heated up when Summers – utterly convinced of his species’ inevitable eradication at human hands – offered a place to any Grey’s School student wishing to join his own academy – the New Charles Xavier School: a covert college dedicated to training mutants to fight and survive rather than placidly wait for mankind to turn on themâ€¦

The bold ploy succeeded in luring away Angel and the psychically conjoined Stepford Sisters – Celeste, Mindee and Phoebe, before the situation was further muddied when both X-Men and Brotherhood of Mutants radicals from the future travelled back to address the issue of the time-displaced First Class.

As a result of that â€œBattle of the Atomâ€ Cyclops found himself offering sanctuary to his youngest old friends, his callow earlier self and the girl who had given her life for himâ€¦ twiceâ€¦

With Uncanny X-Men volume 3, #14, 15.INH, 16-18 (January-May 2014) scripter Brian Michael Bendis and primary illustrators Chris Bachalo & Tim Townsend take a deft turn into a lighter tone, beginning with ‘Initiation’ (offering additional inking by Jamie Mendoza, Al Vey, Mark Irwin & Victor Olazaba) as the new kids bond with the extraordinary other students through the shared pain of Elder Cyclops’ draconian physical training regimenâ€¦

In a quieter moment Emma takes the unprepossessing Benjamin Deeds under her wing; fascinated by his seemingly feeble ability to make himself physically and psychically likable and trustworthyâ€¦

For a field test, she unleashes the nervous lad at a gambling palace in Atlantic City before setting a more risky task: waltzing into a high security S.H.I.E.L.D. facility to hand-deliver the mutant band’s ultimatum to America’s paramount paramilitary peacekeeping forceâ€¦

Kris Anka then limns issue #15.INH – an offbeat tie-in to the then-ongoing Inhumanity Publishing Event. During the previous blockbuster Infinity, Thanos invaded Earth and battled the Inhumans’ ruler Black Bolt to a standstill.

As a last resort the embattled king released the Hidden People’s mutagenic Terrigen Mist into the outer world’s population where it would create millions more super-mortals, proving that human and Inhuman were not necessarily different racesâ€¦

When Frost and Pryde accompany the academy’s girl contingent on a sybaritic shopping-fest in London, they encounter Latverian tourist Geldhoff just as his Terrigen-triggered transformation completes. However, whilst trying to convince him to return with them to the New Xavier School, they succumb to the panicky trans-human’s explosive new power, allowing obsessive A.I.M. geneticist Dr. Monica Rappaccini to swoop in and add Geldhoff to her rapidly expanding collection of potentially profitable specimensâ€¦

All along Magneto has been playing a double (or even treble?) game; regularly betraying the mutant outlaws to S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill, whilst also telling Cyclops at least some of what he’s doing for her.

Now (with art by Bachalo & Co), after meeting with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Dazzler, he is lured to the island of Madripoor to discover that Machiavellian shapeshifter Mystique has created her own mutant utopia in the former rogue state. He never returns to the New Xavier Schoolâ€¦

Undaunted by the loss of a faculty member, the tough-love/education continues as the kids are dumped in the middle of a hostile nowhere and told to survive the monsters residing there. However one of the kids makes a huge mistake and even Nick Fury Jr. and the Avengers cannot save him from Cyclops’ harsh and very final judgementâ€¦

The drama concludes in psychedelic style (courtesy of Marco Rudy & colourist Val Staples) as Cyclops and his appalled team return to base and discover that Jean has been abducted by the alien Shi’ar. Also missing is Kitty Pryde and the rest of the time-tossed First Classâ€¦

This triggers a brutal flashback to the recent moment when Scott and Kitty lethally â€œnegotiatedâ€ the terms under which she and her charges would join his group and his subsequent painful conversations with his teenaged-again One True Love and baffled and betrayed youngerÂ self.

And now he has to face the fact that they are gone and he cannot save themâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

With cover-&-variants by Bachalo & Townsend, Anka and Alexander Lozano, plus another photo-cover featuring TV sensations from Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as the usual digital extras accessible via the AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which give access to story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet, The Good, the Bad, the Inhuman is a smart, sassy and amazingly engaging read: a fun-filled, fury-fuelled saga which craftily combines incredible adventure with clever characterisation and a mere modicum of furious Fights ‘n’ Tights action that no comics fan could possibly resist.

June 9, 2014June 18, 2014

Marvel Knights X-Men: Haunted

By Brahm Revel & Cristiane Peter (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-586-4

The Marvel Knights imprint began as a way to produce slightly darker and more mature miniseries starring favourite characters in stories intended for older readers. More parallel to rather than actually outside regular continuity, the adventures of familiar stalwarts could be counted as canon or discarded as the readership pleased. Eventually these Knights tales were all absorbed into the mainstream and the imprint generally retired.

In 2013 the subset was revived with a few new limited seriesâ€¦

Marvel Knights X-Men: Haunted #1-5 originally ran from January-May 2014 and featured a particularly messy murder mystery and prime example of why baseline humanity should fear the mutants in their midstâ€¦ and vice versa.

In case you forgotâ€¦

In 1975 Len Wein & Dave Cockrum revived a revered but painfully uncommercial fan favourite with Giant Size X-Men #1, replacing most of the 1960s team – Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl, Beast, Lorna Dane and Havok – with a second generation of edgier international mutants young and old.

With both field-leader Cyclops and wheelchair-bound telepath Professor Charles Xavier remaining to carry on the dream of brokering peace and achieving integration between the sprawling masses of humanity and an emergent off-shoot race with terrifying extra abilities, the stage was set for â€œAll New, All Differentâ€ adventures, and the fledgling squad rapidly became the company’s biggest hit and asset, as well as largest pool of captivating characters.

Comic fans have a seemingly insatiable appetite for untold tales and details, so this grim and gritty, chronologically non-specific yarn featuring Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Rachel Grey,the Beast and Rogue will certainly appeal to older readers with a taste for nasty businessâ€¦

Written and illustrated by Brahm Revel with colour art by Cristiane Peter, the tale begins when telepathic Rachel picks up the psychically broadcast murder of a young unknown mutant. The most potent sense she got was that the boy was being huntedâ€¦

A little technological research by Hank McCoy pinpoints a cluster of three new mutants in rural West Virginia so the team heads off to the Appalachian boondocks. Further poking around had also revealed an unholy number of missing kids in that desolate areaâ€¦

With Wolverine already on edge over the prospect of somebody hunting mutant children, he and fellow covert specialists Kitty and Rogue arrive in a bleak, forbidding and primitive town and start poking around.

Rogue in particular feels the oppressive tone of a time and milieu she thought she had long left behind. Almost as soon as the suspicious strangers arrive, Wolverine arouses the ire of the local biker gang in their favourite watering hole, but while he does what he does best Kitty has found one of the mutants in the backâ€¦

Teenaged Krystal is a drug dealer for her uncle Jasper – the town sheriff – and can control minds, so she easily escapes the X-Men. She is also quite partial to the illicit and unique narcotic produced by cultish isolationists â€œThe Cooksâ€ in their secluded compound and soon after taking another dose is cornered by the patiently searching heroes.

Explaining the situation, the strangers take the oddly subdued Krystal – who lies about her true power – with them as they track down another mutant energy signature.

The trail leads to a cabin in the deep woods, a place the girl is clearly terrified of, and soon all four are experiencing impossible visions.

Wolverine has no time to ponder as he is ambushed by arch-nemesis Sabretooth and a brutal fight ensues. Rogue is then jumped by her former Brotherhood of Evil Mutants compatriots Mystique, Blob and Pyro and soon the shabby hut is filled with an army of old X-enemies and all-out war is underwayâ€¦

Realising something strange is going on, Wolverine battles his way to a young girl at the centre of the savage melee and discovers that deeply troubled Darla is cursed with the ability to materialise other people’s memoriesâ€¦

As he tries to reach her, the vision of the mutant boy’s murder plays out again for all to seeâ€¦

Back at the bar, Jasper delivers the latest batch of the new drug from The Cooks and suggests that the bikers get rid of the prying mutie strangers in townâ€¦

As the X-Men try to calm the deeply troubled dream-weaver, Krystal suddenly blurts out that Darla was the one who killed the missing boy, resulting in the cruel death materialising yet again and sending Wolverine into a murderous rage.

It’s all his team-mates can do to stop him gutting Darla on the spotâ€¦

In an effort to calm the situation the mutants all drive back to town, but when no adult is looking, Krystal slips Darla a bunch of pills from her stash and the memory-girl’s power goes into overdriveâ€¦

As Sentinels, evil mutants and demons from the X-Men’s past ravage the town, whilst the heroes turn on each other with homicidal intent, in the woods The Cooks, believing their particular apocalypse has arrived, head towards town to kill all the humans they can findâ€¦

Darla is off her head and out of control. However, as the town burns, with Rogue and Wolverine engrossed in trying to kill each other and a manifested army of old foes trying to kill everybody else, the truth slowly begins to emerge.

The Cooks’ special ingredient is bled out from captive mutants, boosting their product’s effect on humans and causing even nastier reactions in any Homo Superior who take it. Moreover, the doom-cultists believe that by taking the stuff they can become mutants themselves, leaving behind mortality and freeing them to slaughter the doomed genetic dead-ends of humanityâ€¦

As doped-up, despairing Darla discovers how to control her psychic constructs the chaos spirals to a bloody crescendo and Kitty, largely unaffected by the madness of malignant memories, realises that they have all been played for suckers.

Unfortunately even after the true cause of all the bloodshed comes clean, the carnage has reached a point beyond anybody’s controlâ€¦ and then comes inspirationâ€¦

Not all memories are bad and Kitty’s past is filled with valiant friends and heroes who would give their lives over and again to save the innocent and punish the guiltyâ€¦

With covers and variants by Revel & Peter and Paolo Rivera, Haunted is simultaneously a smart, convoluted mystery and breathtaking primal action comics spectacle that will delight fans of high octane Fights ‘n’ Tights action.

June 7, 2014June 6, 2014

Captain America: the Definitive Platinum Edition Reloaded

By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Steve Englehart, John David Warner, Mark Gruenwald, Mark Waid, Kurt Busiek, Ed Brubaker, Steve Harris, Al Avison, Al Gabriele, Dick Ayers, John Romita Sr., Frank Robbins, Kieron M. Dwyer, Ron Garney, Ivan Reis, Butch Guice, Luke Ross, Mitch Breitweiser & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-580-2

The Sentinel of Liberty was created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby at the end of 1940 and confidently launched in his own title Captain America Comics #1, cover-dated March 1941. He was an overwhelming overnight success. He was the absolute and undisputed star of Timely – now Marvel – Comics’ â€œBig Threeâ€ (the other two being Human Torch and Sub-Mariner) and amongst the very first to fade as the Golden Age ended.

When the Korean War and Communist aggression gripped the American psyche in the 1950s Steve Rogers was briefly revived in 1953 – with the Torch and Sub-Mariner – before sinking once more into obscurity until a resurgent Marvel Comics called him up again in Avengers #4.

It was March 1964 and the Vietnam conflict was just beginning to pervade the minds of the American publicâ€¦

This time he stuck around. Whilst perpetually agonising over the tragically heroic death of his young sidekick (James Buchanan Barnes AKA Bucky) during the final days of the war, the resurrected Mr. Rogers stole the show in the Avengers, then promptly graduated to his own series and title as well.

He waxed and waned through the most turbulent period of social change in his nation’s history, constantly struggling to find an ideological niche and stable footing in the modern world.

After decades of vacillating and being subject to increasing frantic attempts to keep the character relevant, in the last years of the 20th century a succession of stellar writers finally established his naturally niche: America’s physical, military and ethical guardianâ€¦

Now as part of the always entertaining Marvel Platinum Definitive Editions series,this tantalising treasury of less-told tales offers some intriguing landmarks from Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #7, Captain America Comics #3-4, Tales of Suspense #75-76, Captain America volume 1, #186, 363-364, 444 and #615.1, Avengers volume 3 #52-54 and the one-shot Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?: spanning nearly 75 years of the Star Spangled Avenger’s tumultuous tour of duty.

Following Editor Brady Webb’s effulgent Foreword, the action opens with a fascinating and insightful exploration of Steve Roger’s war-time relationship with his idol President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in ‘An Ending’ by Brian K. Vaughn, Steve Harris & Rodney Ramos from Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #7 (March 1999) before the bombastic Simon & Kirby – aided and abetted by Al Avison and Al Gabriele – show everybody how it’s done with a brace of tales from the Golden Age of comicbooks.

Captain America Comics #3, May 1941 featured ‘The Return of the Red Skull’‘; an explosive 17-page epic wherein non-stop action and eerie mood accompanied the Nazi nemesis as he attacked New York with a colossal boring machine but couldn’t tell Cap and Bucky from a brace of fraudulent criminal impostorsâ€¦

A month later the same team exposed ‘Captain America and the Unholy Legion’ wherein the Patriotic Paladins convincingly crushed a cunning conspiracy and routed a Nazi-controlled army of beggars terrorising the city.

FromMarch and April 1966 Tales of Suspense #75-76 details Cap’s first meeting with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter who had ’30 Minutes to Live!’ (Dick Ayers pencils over Kirby layouts with John Tartaglione inking) after couriering a deadly explosive packageâ€¦

The enigmatic Agent 13 would eventually become Cap’s long-term girl-friend and this bombastic bout also saw the debut of Gallic mercenary Batroc the Leaper in a taut 2-part countdown to disaster ending with #76’s‘The Gladiator, The Girl and the Glory’, illustrated by John Romita Senior.

Captain America volume 1 #186 (June 1975) featured a turning point in a protracted campaign against American corruption and the returned Red Skull which had seen the Sentinel of Liberty abandon his identity to become Nomad – the â€œMan without a Countryâ€ – before resuming his Red, White and Blue destiny.

Reprinted here is climactic conclusion ‘Mind Cage!’ (by writers Steve Englehart & John David Warner, limned by Frank Robbins & Mike Esposito) which revealed – as the villain attempted to overrun S.H.I.E.L.D. – that our titular hero’s greatest friend and ally The Falcon was in truth a Cosmic Cube creation and helpless puppet of the Fascist felon…

Mark Gruenwaldwas one of the longest-serving scripters of theStar Spangled Avenger and is represented here by Captain America volume 1 #363-364 (November-December 1989, wherein the All American hero battled his physical and ethical antithesis Crossbones in ‘Moon over Madripoor’. The Skull’s chief enforcer had kidnapped reformed villainess Diamondback and dragged her to the pirate island but was unable to defeat the Sentinel of Liberty in his impromptu ‘Man Trap’ (both issues illustrated by Kieron M. Dwyer & Dan Bulanadi)â€¦

In 1995, after a truly heroic and generally under-appreciated run, Gruenwald surrendered his post, going out on a high note by actually killing Captain America, as the super-serum that made him the world’s most perfect physical specimen degraded in his bloodstream, causing a total bodily collapse.

This cleared the decks for a spectacular relaunch from Mark Waid & Ron Garney in issues #445-448. Before that saga began, however, the duo – with the inking assistance of Mike Sellers – offered this unique perspective on the hero’s legacy in ‘Hope and Glory’ (Captain America volume 1 #444 October 1995) as a hostage crisis in Washington DC forced the bereft Avengers to overcome a seemingly insurmountable problem by asking â€œwhat would Cap do?â€â€¦

This is followed by the concluding 3 chapters of the 14-part Kang Dynasty storyline, which saw the Tyrant from Tomorrow finally conquer our planet and time (first seen in Avengers volume 1 #52-54, May-July 2002 as detailed by Kurt Busiek, Ivan Reis & Randy Emberlin, Dwyer & Rick Remender).

The epic counterattack was well underway on three fronts when Captain America led a daring sortie by a veritable army of Avengers against the Reiver of History’s orbiting Damocles Base. This resulted in a cataclysmic and ultimately cathartic hand-to-hand clash with Kang which would decide the fate of humanity and forever prove that Steve Rogers was its staunchest defender.

Although perhaps the Sentinel of Liberty’s finest moment, the extract here would surely be better understood and certainly better enjoyed in a collection of the entire sagaâ€¦

During the superhero Civil War Captain America led an anti-government faction of heroes who refused to surrender their liberties and identities to the Super-Human Registration Act. After spirited resistance and the death of too many friends at the hands of former comrades, the star spangled rebel surrendered himself to the government and was assassinated on the steps of a Federal Courthouse.

Naturally, nobody believed he was really deadâ€¦

His place and role was taken up by his long-dead first sidekick. Years previously Bucky had been captured by the Soviets and used as their own super-assassin – The Winter Soldier. There’s no truer maxim than â€œnobody stays dead in comicsâ€, however, and after being rescued from his unwanted spy-role the artificially youthful (now and part-cyborg) Barnes reluctantly stepped into his mentor’s crimson bootsâ€¦

The politically-charged thriller Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield? (Ed Brubaker, Butch Guice & Luke Ross) is set squarely in the immediate aftermath of the original’s return from the dead (details of which can be found in Captain America Reborn)â€¦

Here, however, the former Winter Soldier ponders his future in the wake of the â€œrealâ€ Captain America’s resurrection and considers returning the role and unique Star-emblazoned disc to its rightful owner.

Meanwhile Steve, fresh from a timeless suspension where he perpetually relived his life over and again, combats the agonisingly haunting memories by taking to the snow-bound streets where he encounters his replacement and super-spy Black Widow battling the ferociously brutal Mr. Hyde.

Content to merely observe his old partner at first, he is soon invited to join the fray and, after the dust settles, the comrades-in-arms come to an understanding. Barnes will stay as the one and only Sentinel of Liberty. After all the new President of the USA has a far more strategic role in mind for his mentor Steven Rogersâ€¦

This rousing recollection concludes with the State-of-the-Union style recap issue Captain America volume 1 #615.1 from May 2011 by Brubaker & Mitch Breitweiser who recount the history of the many men who filled the role as an old, old friend manipulates the retired Rogers into once more taking up the role he was re-born forâ€¦

With covers by Ron Frenz, Kirby, Simon, Gene Colan, Gil Kane, Dwyer, Garney, Gerald Parel & Daniel AcuÃ±a, a healthy host of in-depth info pages about ‘Winter Soldier’, ‘Falcon’, ‘Sharon Carter’, ‘Batroc the Leaper’, ‘Crossbones’ and ‘Red Skull’, plus an erudite discussion on the evolution of sidekicks in Mike Conroy’s ‘The True Origin of Bucky Barnes’, this power-packed primer is an ideal introduction for readers familiar with the recent movie iteration and looking to increase their familiarity with the grandfather of all patriotic champions.

Filled with drama, tension and blockbuster action, this an ideal tool to turn curious film-goers into funnybook fans and another solid sampling to entice and charm even the most jaded lapsed reader to return.
Â© 2014 Marvel. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. British edition published by Panini UK.

June 6, 2014June 18, 2014

Cinebook Recounts Battle of Britain

By Bernard Asso, illustrated by Francis BergÃ©se colours by FrÃ©dÃ©ric BergÃ©se & translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-84918-025-2

There’s the distant drone of a commemorative flight of Dakotas in my ears as the scenic South Coast of England celebrates the 70^th Anniversary of D-Day. So in a somewhat misplaced and time-insensitive tip of the hat I thought I’d take a peek at a classic slice of â€œOur Finest Hoursâ€ as seen through an oddly pan-European titbit that has much to recommend itâ€¦

Originally titled Le Bataille d’Angleterre and seen here as Biggles and The Battle Of Britain, the material in this album sprang out ofthe continent’s decades-long love affair with the plucky British aviator.

Biggles is huge all over Europe, particularly in Holland, Germany, Belgium and France, which makes it doubly galling that apart from a big run of translations in India, only a short-lived Swedish interpretation of his comicbook exploits (see W.E. Johns’ Biggles and the Golden Bird) and a paltry few from the Franco-Belgian iteration licensed by British outfit Red Fox in the mid 1990s – which included this very volume – have ever made the move back to Blightyâ€¦

Hopefully some enterprising publisher will be willing to brave the Intellectual Property rights minefield involved and bring us all more of his superb graphic adventures one dayâ€¦

Happily, as this tome is more of a documentary than a drama and the Air Ace doesn’t feature, publisher Cinebook have twice released this fine and visually erudite mini epic by historian Bernard Asso and the utterly compelling Francis BergÃ©se.

Like so many artists involved in aviation stories, BergÃ©se (born in 1941) started young with both drawing and flying. He qualified as a pilot whilst still a teenager, enlisted in the French Army and was a reconnaissance flyer by his twenties. At age 23 he began selling strips to L’Ã‰toile and JT Jeunes (1963-1966) after which he produced his first air strip Jacques RenneforZorro. This was soon followed by Amigo, Ajax, Cap 7, Les 3 Cascadeurs, Les 3 A, Michel dans la Course and many others.

BergÃ©se worked as a jobbing artist on comedies, pastiches and WWII strips until 1983 when he was offered the plum job of illustrating the venerable and globally syndicated Buck Danny. In the 1990s the seemingly indefatigable BergÃ©se split his time, producing Danny dramas and Biggles books. He retired in 2008.

In this double-barrelled dossier delight from 1983, his splendidly understated, matter-of-fact strip illustration is used to cleverly synthesise the events following the defeat at Dunkirk to the Battle of Britain (1940) and the eventual turnaround in May 1941. Combining and counterpointing the works of famous figures like Churchill, Hitler, Douglas Bader and Goering with key tactical players such as Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, Galland and MÃ¶lders and relating actual tales of individual valour in the skies, the fact-packed narrative tracks the actions and experiences of specious winged warriors Leutnant Otto Werner and True Brit Flight Lieutenant James Colby as they struggle to survive in the skies over England.

The saga deals with the early days of terrifying air duels, later Blitz bombings, Albion’s logistical trials and eventual triumphs with factual expertise, but also affords a human face on each side of the conflictâ€¦

The latter half of the book then switches time and focus as Asso & BergÃ©se detail The Bombing of Germany (1943-1945) paying especial attention to Air Chief Marshal Harris‘ controversial tactic of â€œTerror Bombingâ€ and its effects on allies and enemies – and innocents.

Here Colby has transferred to Britain’s Bomber Command, trading Hurricanes and Spitfire for Lancasters, Halifaxes and B-17 Flying Fortresses. Major Werner is there too, as the Allies’ campaign slowly destroys the Nazi War Machine and the embattled Ace graduates from prop-powered Fockers and Messerschmitts to the first jet-planes – but too lateâ€¦

Cunningly converting dry dusty history into stellar entertainment, Asso & BergÃ©se brilliantly transform statistical accounts and solid detail into powerful evocative terms on a human scale that most children will easily understand, whilst never forgetting the war had two sides, but no â€œusâ€ or â€œthemâ€â€¦

Whilst perhaps not as diligent or accurate as a school text, Cinebook Recounts: Battle of Britain (part of a graphic history strand that also includes The Falklands War and The Wright Brothers making distant events come alive) offers a captivating and memorable introduction to the events that no parent or teacher can afford to miss, and no kid can fail to enjoy.

June 2, 2014

Superman Chronicles volume 8

By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Leo Nowak, Paul Cassidy, Ed Dobrotka, John Sikela & Fred Ray (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2647-3

The American comicbook industry – if it existed at all today – would be an utterly unrecognisable thing without Superman. His unprecedented invention and adoption by a desperate and joy-starved generation gave birth to an entire genre if not an actual art form.

The ebullient, effervescent, spectacular Man of Tomorrow spawned an inconceivable army of imitators and, within three years of his 1938 debut, his intoxicating blend of action and social wish-fulfilment 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 finally involved America, patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant excess and explosively dashing derring-do.

Re-presented in this eighth pulp-revering Superman Chronicles edition, collecting the breathtaking yarns from Action Comics #44-47 and Superman #14-15 (January-April 1942) in chronological publishing order – and in as near-as-dammit recapturing the texture, smell and colour of the original newsprint – are the crude, rough, cathartically exuberant exploits of a righteous and superior man dealing out summary justice equally to social malcontents, exploitative capitalists, thugs and ne’er-do-wells that initially won the imagination of a generation.

Superman‘s rise was meteoric and inexorable. He was the indisputable star of Action, World’s Finest Comics and his own dedicated title whilst a daily newspaper strip had begun on 16^th January 1939, with a separate Sunday strip following from November 5^th that year, which garnered millions of new fans.

A thrice-weekly radio serial launched on February 12^th 1940 and, with a movie cartoon series, games, toys, apparel and a growing international media presence, Superman was swiftly becoming everybody’s heroâ€¦

Although the gaudy burlesque of monsters and super-villains still lay years ahead of our hero, these captivating tales of villainy, criminality, corruption and disaster are just as engrossing and speak powerfully of the tenor of the times. The perilous parade of rip-roaring action, hoods, masterminds, plagues, disasters, lost kids and distressed damsels are all dealt with in a direct and captivating manner by our relentlessly entertaining champion in summarily swift and decisive fashion.

No â€œto be continuedsâ€ here!

This epochal run of raw, unpolished but viscerally vibrant stories by Jerry Siegel and the burgeoning Superman Studio (Joe Shuster spending most of his time and declining eyesight on the newspaper strip) continued to set the funnybook world on fire, and are accompanied throughout by the eye-popping covers of Fred Ray, whose creative genius was responsible for some of the most unforgettable iconic images and patriotic graphics on the genreâ€¦

As most of these early tales were untitled, for everyone’s convenience – especially your reviewer’s – the tales here have been given descriptive appellations by the editors and we begin here with ‘The Caveman Criminal’ from Action #44, illustrated by Leo Nowak & Ed Dobrotka, wherein crooks capitalised on a frozen â€œDawn Manâ€ who thawed out and went wild in the crime-ridden Metropolis, after which Superman #14 (January/February 1942 and again primarily a Nowak art affair) opened with ‘Concerts of Doom!’

Here a master pianist discovered just how mesmerising his recitals were and joined forces with unpatriotic thieves and dastardlyÂ saboteurs, after which the tireless Man of Tomorrow was hard-pressed to cope with the reign of diabolical destruction caused by ‘The Invention Thief’.

John Sikela inked Nowak’s pencils in a frantic high fantasy romp resulting from the Man of Steel’s discovery of a friendly mermaid and malevolent fishmen living in ‘The Undersea City’ before more high-tension and catastrophic graphic destruction signalled Superman’s epic clash with sinister electrical savant ‘The Lightning Master’.

Action Comics #45 by Nowak & Ed Dobrotka saw ‘Superman’s Ark’ girdle the globe to repopulate a decrepit and nigh-derelict city zoo, whilst Action #46 featured ‘The Devil’s Playground’ (credited here to Paul Cassidy) wherein masked murderer The Domino stalked an amusement park wreaking havoc and instilling terror.

In the bimonthly Superman #15 ‘The Cop Who was Ruined’ (Nowak) found the Metropolis Marvel clearing the name of framed detective Bob Branigan – a man who even believed himself guilty – whilst scurvy Orientals menaced the nation’s Pacific fleet in ‘Saboteurs from Napkan’ with Sikela again lending his pens and brushes to Nowak’s pencil art.

Thinly veiled fascist oppression and expansion was spectacularly nipped in the bud in ‘Superman in Oxnalia’ – an all-Sikela art job, but Nowak was back on pencils for a concluding science fiction thriller ‘The Evolution King’ wherein a malignant mastermind artificially aged his wealthy, prominent victims until the invulnerable Man of Steel stormed inâ€¦

This splendid compilation concludes with a blockbusting, no-holds-barred battle which was only the opening skirmish in a bigger campaign. Action #47 (Sikela) revealed how Lex Luthor gained incredible abilities after acquiring the incredible ‘Powerstone’, making the mad scientist temporarily Superman’s physical equal – if not mental – matchâ€¦

As fresh and thrilling now as they ever were, the endlessly re-readable epics are perfectly housed in these glorious paperback collections where the savage intensity and sly wit still shine through in Siegel’s stories – which literally defined what being a Super Hero means – whilst Shuster’s shadows continued to create the basic iconography of superhero comics for all others to follow.

Such Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment at an absurdly affordable price and in a durable, comfortingly approachable format. What dedicated comics fan could possibly resist them?

As well as cheap price and no-nonsense design and presentation, and notwithstanding the historical significance of the material presented within, the most important bonus for any one who hasn’t read some or all of these tales before is that they are all astonishingly well-told and engrossing mini-epics that cannot fail to grip the reader.

Once read you’ll understand why today’s creators keep returning to this material every time they need to revamp the big guy. They are simply timeless, enthralling, and great.
Â© 1942, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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