Category: Graphic Novels

Posted on

Sandman Mystery Theatre: The Tarantula


By Matt Wagner & Guy Davis (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-195-6

Created by Gardner Fox and first illustrated by Bert Christman, the Sandman premiered in either Adventure Comics #40 July 1939 (two months after Batman debuted in Detective Comics #27) or two weeks earlier in New York World’s Fair Comics 1939, depending on whether some rather spotty distribution records can be believed.

Face and head utterly obscured by a gasmask and slouch hat; caped, business-suited millionaire adventurer Wesley Dodds was cut from the pulp masked mystery-man mould that had made The Lone Ranger, Green Hornet, The Shadow, Phantom Detective, Black Bat, The Spider and so many more such household names and astonishing commercial successes in the early days of mass periodical publication.

Wielding a sleeping-gas gun and haunting the night to battle a string of killers, crooks and spies, he was accompanied in the earliest comicbooks by his plucky paramour Dian Belmont, before gradually losing the readers’ interest and slipping from cover-spot to last feature in Adventure Comics, just as the cloaked pulp-hero avengers he emulated slipped from popularity in favour of more flamboyant fictional fare.

Possessing a certain indefinable style and charm but definitely no more pizzazz, the feature was on the verge of being dropped when the Sandman abruptly switched to a skin-tight yellow-and-purple costume – complete with billowing cape – and gained a boy-sidekick, Sandy the Golden Boy (in Adventure Comics #69, December 1941, courtesy of Mort Weisinger & Paul Norris), presumably to emulate the overwhelmingly successful Batman and Captain America models currently reaping such big dividends.

It didn’t help much but when Joe Simon & Jack Kirby came aboard with #72 that all spectacularly changed. A semi-supernatural element and fascination with the world of dreams (revisited by S&K a decade later in their short-lived experimental suspense series The Strange World of Your Dreams) added a moody conceptual punch to equal the kinetic fury of their art, as Sandman and Sandy became literally the stuff of nightmares to the bizarre bandits and murderous mugs they stalked…

For what happened next you can check out the superb Sandman hardback collection…

Time passed and in the late 1980s Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith & Mike Dringenberg took the property in a revolutionary new direction, eventually linking all the previous decades’ elements into an overarching connective continuity under DC’s new sophisticated suspense imprint Vertigo.

Within a few years the astounding success of the new Sandman prompted the editorial powers-that-be to revisit the stylishly retro original character and look at him through more mature eyes. Iconoclastic creator Matt Wagner (Mage, Grendel, Batman) teamed with artistic maverick Guy Davis (Baker Street, B.P.R.D.) and colourist David Hornung to create a grittier, grimier, far more viscerally authentic 1930s where the mystery man pursued his lonely crusade with chilling verisimilitude.

The tone was darkly modernistic, with the crime-busting playing out in the dissolute dog-days of the Jazz Age and controversial themes such as abuse, sexual depravity, corruption and racism were confronted as well as the rising tide of fascism that swept the world then. This is a warning: Sandman Mystery Theatre is not a kid’s comic…

This first collection reprints the redefining first story-arc from issues #1-4 (April-July 1993) and commences after an absorbing introduction from veteran journalist and music critic Dave Marsh, accompanied by a gallery of the series’ original, groundbreaking photo-covers.

The Tarantula takes us to New York in 1938 where District Attorney Larry Belmont is having the Devil’s own time keeping his wild-child daughter out of trouble and out of the newspapers. She’s out all night, every night with her spoiled friends; drinking, partying and associating with all the wrong sorts of people, but the prominent public official has far bigger problems too. One is the mysterious gas-masked figure he finds rifling his safe soon after Dian departs…

The intruder easily overpowers the DA with some kind of sleeping gas – that also makes you want to blurt out the truth – and disappears, leavingBelmontto awake with a headache and wonder if it was all a dream…

Dian, after her rowdy night of carousing with scandalous BFF Catherine Van Der Meer and her gangster lover, awakes with a similar hangover but still agrees to attend one of her father’s dreary public functions that evening. He is particularly keen that she meet a studious young man named Wesley Dodds, recently returned from years in the Orient to take over his deceased dad’s many business interests.

Dodds is genteel and effete but Dian finds that there’s something oddly compelling about him. Moreover he too seems to feel a connection…

The Gala breaks up early when the DA is informed of a sensational crime. Catherine Van Der Meer has been kidnapped by someone identifying himself as The Tarantula…

Across town, mob boss Albert Goldman is having a meeting with fellow gangsters from the West Coast and as usual his useless son Roger and drunken wife Miriam embarrass him. Daughter Celia is the only one he can depend on these days but even her unwavering devotion seems increasingly divided. After another stormy scene the conference ends early, and the visiting crime-lords are appalled to find all their usually diligent bodyguards asleep in their limousines…

Even with Catherine kidnapped Dian is determined to go out that night, but when Wesley arrives unexpectedly she changes her mind, much to her father’s relief. That feeling doesn’t last long however after the police inform him that the Tarantula has taken another woman…

When a woman’s hideously mutilated body is found Dian inveigles herself into accompanying her father to Headquarters but is soon excluded from the grisly “Man’s Business”. Left on her own she begins snooping in the offices and encounters a bizarre gas-masked figure poring through files. Before she can react he dashes past her and escapes, leaving her to explain to the assorted useless lawmen cluttering up the place.

Furious and humiliated, Dian then insists that she officially identifies Catherine and nobody can dissuade her.

Shockingly the savagely ruined body is not her best friend but yet another victim…

Somewhere dark and hidden Van Der Meer is being tortured but the perpetrator has far more than macabre gratification in mind…

In the Goldman house Celia is daily extending her control over dear old daddy. They still share a very special secret, but these days she’s the one dictating where and when they indulge themselves…

With all the trauma in her life Dian increasingly finds Wesley a comforting rock, but perhaps that view would change if she knew how he spends his nights. Dodds is plagued by bad dreams. Not his own nightmares, but rather the somnolent screams of victims and their cruel oppressors haunt his troubled sleep. What else could a decent man do then, but act to end such suffering?

In a seedy dive, uncompromising Police Lieutenant Burke comes off worst when he discovers the gas-masked lunatic grilling a suspect in “his” kidnapping case and again when this “Sandman” is found at a factory where the vehicle used to transport victims is hidden. Even so, the net is inexorably tightening on both Tarantula and the insane vigilante interfering in the investigation and Burke doesn’t know who he most wants in a nice, dark interrogation room…

As the labyrinthine web of mystery and monstrosity slowly unravels, tension mounts and the death toll climbs but can The Sandman stop the torrent of terror before the determined Dian finds herself swept up in all the blood and death?

Moody, dark and superbly engrossing, these revisionist “anti-superhero” tales offer an impressively human and realistic spin on the genre; one that should delight all those grown-ups who think masks and tights are silly.
© 1993, 1995, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes volume 1


By Christopher Yost, Scott Wegener Patrick Scherberger & Sandu Florea (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5619-2

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: proper old-fashioned action-adventure for every age of Fights ‘n’ Tights fan… 9/10

Since its earliest days Marvel has always courted the youngest comicbook audiences. Whether through animated movie or TV tie-ins such as Terrytoons Comics, Mighty Mouse, Super Rabbit Comics, Duckula, assorted Hanna-Barbera and Disney licenses and a myriad of others, or original creations such as Tessie the Typist, Millie the Model, Homer the Happy Ghost, Li’l Kids or even Calvin, the House of Ideas has always understood the necessity of cultivating the next generation of readers.

These days, however, accessible child-friendly titles are on the wane and with Marvel the publisher’s proprietary characters all over screens large and small, the company usually prefers to create adulterated versions of its own pantheon, making that eventual longed-for transition to more mature comics as painless as possible.

In 2003 the powers that be created a Marvel Age line which updated and retold classic original tales by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and combined it with the remnants of its failed manga-based Tsunami imprint, which was also intended for a junior demographic. The experiment was tweaked in 2005, becoming Marvel Adventures with core titles transformed into Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man with all-original yarns replacing the reconstituted classics. More titles followed, including Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes, Hulk and The Avengers and these all ran until 2010 when they were cancelled and supplanted by new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man which carried on the newly-established continuities.

Never the success the company hoped, Marvel Adventures was superseded in 2012 by specific comics tied to Disney XD television shows, thereafter designated “Marvel Universe cartoons”, using the television shows to reinterpret key moments of the heroes’ stellar history whilst creating a new generation of readers to be hopefully funnelled into the increasingly archaic-seeming world of paper entertainments.

All the same, these tales are an intriguing and perhaps more culturally accessible means of introducing character and concepts to kids born sometimes two, three even four generations removed from those far-distant 1960s-originating events, and this initial volume of the barnstorming adventure ensemble Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes collects the contents of the first four issues from 2010, scripted by the parent cartoon’s chief writer Christopher Yost.

In short, terse, self-contained and immensely enjoyable romps aimed at kids of 10 and up (parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the level of violence contained in here might not be what everybody considers “All-Ages” action), the greatest champions of the Marvel Universe regularly assemble to save the world from every imaginable menace – and sometimes each other…

The wonderment begins with ‘Adaptation’, illustrated by Scott Wegener which sees freshly thawed WWII hero Captain America coming to terms with life in the 21st century by thrashing international mercenaries Batroc’s Brigade before he and Thor are summoned to aid the team against a bizarre android capable of mimicking their powers, abilities and skills. This is followed by a lower key yarn as Hawkeye and the Black Panther swallow their differences and learn to ‘Trust’ one another in battle against deadly demoness Whiplash in a short, sharp shocker limned by Patrick Scherberger.

The second issue opened with ‘Obsession’ (Wegener art) as Tony Stark‘s ongoing duel with Russian rival Ivan Vanko led to another cataclysmic clash between Iron Man and the deadly Crimson Dynamo. When the collateral damage drew in the rest of the Avengers the battle seemed all but over – until Russian super-team the Winter Guard stepped in claiming prior jurisdiction.

However, even as the dispute with Titanium Man, Ursa Major, Darkstar and Vanguard escalated into all-out war with the Westerners, Baron Zemo and the Masters of Evil were waiting in the wings to recruit Vanko to their vile ranks…

The back-up tale ‘Mutual Respect’ (Scherberger with Sandu Florea inks) featured an unlikely team-up between Ant-Man and the Hulk as the malevolent Mad Thinker apparently attempted to co-opt the Jade Juggernaut’s power, but as usual had actually schemes within schemes going on…

Bored Elders of the Universe the Grandmaster and the Collector visited Earth in ‘Savage’ (Wegener) planning to orchestrate a prize fight between Thor and the Hulk, and that titanic tussle of equals was offset by the brutal back-up ‘Courage’ (Scherberger) where flighty socialite the Wasp was forced to fight alone in arctic conditions to save a severely mauled Captain America from the lethal carnivorous Wendigo…

In ‘Team’ (Wegener with full page splash shots by Scherberger) the entire roster was on hand for a deadly full-length duel with the Masters of Evil and marauding giant robot Ultimo but even their incredible final victory was less trouble than satisfying the Wasp’s persistent demands for a suitable team photo…

This tasty treat also includes a wealth of covers, pin-ups, fact-packed character profiles of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Wasp, Ant-Man/Giant Man, Hawkeye, Black Panther, close associates and super-spies Nick Fury and the Black Widow and vile villains Baron Zemo, time Conqueror Kang, Baron Strucker, Asgardian god of evil Loki, Ultron, and Masters of Evil Enchantress, Crimson Dynamo and Abomination.

Even then there’s more such as technical gen on ‘Hawkeye’s Bag of Tricks’, the Thunder God’s mystic mallet ‘the Mighty Mjolnir’, Iron Man’s internal systems in ‘Breaking Down the Hud!’ and a quiz daring readers to deduce which villains’ terrible tools belong ‘In Evil Hands!’

Fast-paced and impressive, bright and breezy with lots of light-hearted action and loads of sly laughs, this book truly captures the zest and drive of both traditional comicbook and modern TV superhero shenanigans and will surely delight every unashamed fan of Costumed Dramas whatever their age or inclinations…
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Whiteout volume 2: Melt – Definitive Edition


By Greg Rucka & Steve Lieber (Oni Press)
ISBN: 978-1-932664-71-3

In Whiteout Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber created a powerful and determined truth-seeker wedded to a ferociously evocative and utterly distinct milieu in which to prove her worth. The tale was one of the very best crime comics thrillers ever conceived.

Riding a wave of critical acclaim the writer and artist thankfully reunited for a searing sequel and Melt was released by Oni Press as a 4-issue miniseries from September 1999 to February 2000 before being gathered into a graphic novel compilation: still readily available as a lovely, enticing monochrome Definitive Edition.

This dark, bleak tale begins with a quick body-bestrewn history lesson about Antarctica, from the deadly duel between Scott and Amundsen and the following frantic scurry – and brief brush wars – by a myriad of nations hungry to possess the territory until, in 1961, Cold War caution and the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction resulted in the Antarctic Treaty.

This landmark pact resulted in the region being designated a neutral area reserved for purely scientific research: one where all military activity was strictly prohibited.

Antarctica is a bizarre “Neutral Zone” co-managed by the USA,Russia, Argentina, Chile, Britain, Australia and sundry other nations. Mineral and commercial exploitation is completely forbidden, military weapons and equipment are utterly proscribed and there are 400 guys to every girl. Antarctica is a place where all Man’s basest instincts are curtailed by official accord – or at least that’s the international party line…

Since the treaty there has never been an act of war in Antarctica.

Officially…

US Marshal Carrie Stetko is recuperating from her injuries in New Zealand when the American embassy drags her in and a CIA spook named James tells her she’s going back to the ice – whether she wants to or not.

The Agency monitors chatter and has discovered that a Russian science station has been destroyed in an explosion, with the loss of all 14 personnel. They believe it was no accident. Overruling Stetko’s arguments about jurisdiction, the Feds tell her she’s going to investigate, or “offer help, in the spirit of the Treaty” because despite her naive beliefs, every nation represented on Antarctica has weapons stockpiled there – even America – and Tayshetskaya base was just such an armoury/staging ground for potential conflicts…

Weathering a tirade of threats and discounting a wealth of promised bribes, Carrie soon finds herself on a plane heading due south.

She is welcomed by her Russian opposite number Pyotr Danilovich and his emergency team at the burned out site of the base. The harassed investigator studiously knows nothing and is severely disquieted when Stetko points out that one of the burned bodies from the “accident” has a bullet hole in it.

Of course according to the Antarctica Treaty all weapons are banned on the jointly-administered continent, but this isn’t like anything she’s seen before…

Leaving Pyotr desperately trying to convince himself that it’s all just a mistake and accident, Carrie begins wandering through the burned-out wreckage and plunges through the flooring into a hidden room stuffed with crates of small arms. In a corner are three empty crates marked with the tri-foil – international symbol of radiation. The Russians also stored nukes here – but they’re missing now…

Far away, six killers are racing away on snow-mobiles with their prizes but have no true appreciation of the ice. After crashing into a hidden crevasse there are only five…

Back at Tayshetskaya a mysterious Russian has arrived on scene. Captain Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuchin claims to be her official back-up and official liaison, tasked by his government with giving her all the assistance she needs, and disarmingly adds that he is also there to quash any embarrassing scandal…

He also states that the killer thieves are ex-Speznaz: mercenaries who have stolen the nukes for a client and will be smuggling them out over the ice rather than through more normal channels. After checking in with her own bosses Carrie is told to get them – and proof of the Russian government’s treaty-breaking – if she ever wants to leave Antarctica…

Using satellite tech, Stetko and Kuchin narrow down the killers’ current location and set after them on skis, but the mutually suspicious manhunters are almost killed by a booby trap and buried alive in a crevasse…

Forced to trust each other for the duration, the pair brilliantly extricate themselves and resume the chase. They have an unsuspected ally: the brutal remorseless Antarctic is gradually eroding the confidence and capability of the fleeing mercenaries who are now reduced to four cold, gradually dying men. Unfortunately the ice plays no favourites and tries its damnedest to kill Carrie and her stoic companion too…

After surviving a deadly storm Carrie wakes up alone and, suspicions sadly confirmed, sets off after the duplicitous Kuchin. The cagy Russian, however, has been captured by his quarry and faces a most unpleasant end, but neither the killers nor their intended victim realise that the US Marshal has found their lost and flash-frozen comrade and now possesses the very best in mercenary weaponry and camouflage…

Escalating into an inevitable and spectacularly bloody climax, this grim, gritty and stunningly gripping thriller perfectly augments Carrie Stetko’s proven guts and smarts with a devastating display of her capacity for swift, effective, problem-solving violence and propensity to do the right thing no matter what the cost…

Sharp, hard-boiled and savagely ultra-cool, this magnificent cold-hearted intercontinental caper is a sublime second outing for one of the best female crimebusters in comics and the frustrating wait for the much-delayed third outing chafes worse than frostbite.

A wonderful experience for mature readers to while away those cold lonely nights alone…
™ & © 1999, 2000, 2007 Greg Rucka. Artwork © 1999, 2000, 2007 Greg Rucka. All rights reserved.

Posted on

AVX Versus


By Adam Kubert, Stuart Immonen, Steve McNiven, Ed McGuinness, Salvador Larroca, Terry & Rachel Dodson, Brandon Peterson, Kaare Andrews, Leinil Francis Yu, Tom Raney, Jim Cheung & various writers & artists (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-519-2

Mass metahuman mega-mosh-ups – call ’em braided crossover events if you want – are an intrinsic part of comicbook publishing these days, and Marvel’s big thing of the moment acknowledges a few utterly basic home truths. Most saliently, fans seem to want to see extravagant hero-on-hero action and – almost as crucial – that the stories must look very pretty showing it.

Avengers Vs. X-Men employed the company’s most successful movie franchise stars in spectacular fashion as the World’s Mightiest Heroes – and Spider-Man – strove against the misunderstood mutant outcasts for control of young Hope Summers; a girl destined to become the mortal host of an implacable force of cosmic destruction and creation known as The Phoenix. The tale involved incessant turmoil, sacrifice and death, and the conquest, reshaping and – almost – the destruction of humanity before a relatively stable status quo was tenuously restored.

It also featured a blistering array of dynamic duels between a host of fan-favourite characters, and Marvel cannily produced a bombastic and winningly tongue-in-cheek subsidiary 6-issue miniseries which isolated and spotlighted those cataclysmic combats, all safely removed from the tedious task of progressing the overarching storyline…

This admittedly delicious dose of sheer, visually visceral escapism superbly caters to the big kid in all of us comics fans, giving us just what we truly want: men in tights and buxom women in very little attempting to bash each others’ brains in for the most specious of motives…

Divided into a series of Matches taken as snapshots from the ongoing epic and even boldly declaring a winner to – most of – the bouts (I’m not crass enough to spoil the fun by revealing who won any of these tussles – just buy the book… it’s great fun), the furious fireworks begin with ‘Magneto, Master of Magnetism vs. The Invincible Iron Man’ by scripter Jason Aaron and illustrator Adam Kubert…

Match 2 features ‘The Thing vs. Namor the Sub-Mariner’ by Kathryn & Stuart Immonen with Wade von Grawbadger, whilst Steve McNiven & John Dell raucously reveal the outcome of ‘Captain America vs. Gambit’ before the 4th duel depicts a seemingly mismatched travesty with ‘The Amazing Spider-Man vs. Colossus’ by Kieron Gillen & Salvador Larroca.

Ben Grimm returns as ‘The Thing vs. Colossus’ (by Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness & Dexter Vines) tears up the Blue Area of the Moon and Match 6 features another bout of moon madness as rival Russians rumble in ‘Black Widow vs. Magik’ by Christopher Yost and art-team supreme Terry & Rachel Dodson.

Martial arts mayhem ensues in Match 7 as ‘Daredevil vs. Psylocke’ by Rick Remender & Brandon Peterson adds a darkly human scale to the proceedings before it’s back to peril of godlike proportions when ‘The Mighty Thor vs. Emma Frost’ (by Kaare Andrews) literally shakes the Earth. Match 9 from Matt Fraction, Leinil Francis Yu & Gerardo Alanguilan features a nasty, dirty grudge fight in ‘Hawkeye vs. Angel’ and emotions spiral completely out of control in ‘Storm vs. Black Panther’ (Aaron & Tom Raney) as the married couple work out their domestic problems in eye-popping combat.

The key clash of the parent series and this sidebar excursion occurs when the planet’s twin saviours spectacularly butt heads in ‘Scarlet Witch vs. Hope’ by Gillen, Jim Cheung, Mark Morales & Mark Roslan, after which the remainder of the book is taken up with lighter moments and outright comedy capers beginning with the insanely cool ‘Verbal Abuse’ by Brian Michael Bendis & Jim Mahfood.

The hilarity continues with ‘Science Battle!’ by the Immonens, ‘Captain America vs. Havok’ by Mike Deodato Jr. & Adam Kubert, the insanely manic ‘Red Hulk vs. Domino’ by McGuinness, a duel of devoted domestics in ‘Toad vs. Jarvis’ by Christopher Hastings & Jacob Chabot, the wickedly lascivious daydream ‘Spider-Woman vs. X-Women (kinda)’ by Loeb & Art Adams, the eccentric ‘Iron Fist vs. Iceman’ by Aaron & Ramón Pérez, and it all ends with a resumption of the appropriate perspective in the gloriously silly ‘How We Roll’ from Dan Slott & Katie Cook…

The covers and variants gallery collects the stunning artistic efforts of Kubert, Immonen, Javier Pulido, McNiven, Terry Dodson, Andrews, Raney and others and, although this fast, funny and furious collection doesn’t boast any of the App-augmentations of the core series (if you are experiencing web-based withdrawal you can always resort to the digital sidebar episodes available on Marvel’s Avengers vs. X-Men: Infinite website), the sheer rollercoaster riot of exuberant energetic comicbook action will indubitably delight and enthral any fan of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction.

Magnificently simplistic, this adventure extravaganza also packs the prerequisite punch to stun and beguile comics-continuity veterans and film-fed fanboys alike.
™ & © 2012 Marvel and subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A,Italy. All Rights Reserved. A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd.

Posted on

Avengers versus X-Men


By Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman, John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel, Adam Kubert, Frank Cho & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-518-5

The mainstream comics industry is now irretrievably wedded to blockbuster continuity-sharing mega-crossover events and rashly doling them out like epi-pens to Snickers addicts with peanut allergies.

At least these days, however, if we have to endure a constant cosmic Sturm and extra-dimensional Drang, the publishers take great pains to ensure that the resulting comics chaos is suitably engrossing and always superbly illustrated…

Marvel’s big thing of the moment is the extended clash between mega-franchises Avengers and X-Men, which began in Avengers: X Sanction when time-lost mutant Cable attempted to pre-emptively murder a select roster of the World’s Greatest Heroes to prevent a cosmic tragedy.

Hope Spalding-Summers was the first mutant born on Earth after the temporarily insane Avenger Scarlet Witch used her reality-warping powers to eradicate almost all the mutants in existence. Considered a mutant messiah, Hope was raised in the future before inevitably finding her way back to the present where she was adopted by X-Men supremo Scott Summers AKA Cyclops.

Innumerable signs and portents have always indicated that she was a reincarnated receptacle for the devastating cosmic entity dubbed The Phoenix…

This mammoth collection gathers the core 12-issue fortnightly miniseries from April to October 2012 which saw humanity and Homo Superior go to war to possess the celestial chosen one, and also includes the prequel Avengers vs. X-Men #0 which laid the plot groundwork for the whole blockbusting Brouhaha.

Moreover this up-to-the minute epic also incorporates 21st century extras for all those tech-savvy consumers with added value in mind. Many pages contained herein are marked by an AR icon (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which gives access to all sorts of extras once you download the little dickens – for free – from marvel.com onto your iPhone or Android-enabled device.

The entire tale is also supported by digital sidebar episodes available on Marvel’s Avengers vs. X-Men: Infinite website.

…Or like me you could simply concentrate on and revel in the staggeringly spectacular, plot-light but stunningly rendered old-fashioned, earth-shattering punch-up barely contained in this titanic tome…

Necessarily preceded by a double-page scorecard of the 78(!) major players, the story begins with a pair of Prologues (by Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron & Frank Cho) as a now-sane and desperately repentant Scarlet Witch Wanda Maximoff tries to make amends and restore links with the Avengers she betrayed and attacked. However, even after defeating an attack by manic mutate MODOK and an personal invitation from Ms. Marvel to come back, the penitent mutant is sent packing by her ex-husband The Vision and the other male heroes she manipulated.

Meanwhile in Utopia, the West Coast island fortress that houses the last 200 mutants on Earth, an increasingly driven Cyclops is administering brutally tough love to adopted daughter Hope. The young woman is determined to defy her inescapable destiny as eventual host for the omnipotent Phoenix force on some far future day and is regularly moonlighting as a superhero. Sadly she’s well out of her depth when she tackles the sinister Serpent Society and Daddy humiliatingly comes to her rescue.

…And in the depths of space the ghastly firebird of life and death comes ever closer to Earth…

In the first chapter (by Bendis, John Romita Jr. & Scott Hanna) the catastrophically powerful force of destruction and rebirth nears our world and the perfect mortal host it hungers for and needs to guide it, frantically preceded by desperate hero-harbinger of doom Nova, who almost dies to deliver a warning of its proximity and intent. Soon the Avengers and government are laying plans, whilst in Utopia Scott Summers is pushing Hope harder than ever. If thePhoenix cannot be escaped from or avoided, perhaps he can make his daughter strong enough not to be overwhelmed by its promise of infinite power…

At the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning ex X-Man and current Avenger Wolverine is approached by Captain America and regretfully leaves his position as teacher to once again battle a force that cannot be imagined…

With even his fellow mutants questioning his tactics and brutal pushing of Hope, Cyclops meets CaptainAmericafor a parley. On behalf of the world, the Sentinel of Liberty wants to take Hope into protective custody but the mutant leader, distrustful of human bigotry and past duplicity, reacts violently to the far-from-diplomatic overtures…

Jason Aaron scripts the second instalment as frayed tempers lead to an all-out battle on the shores of Utopia, and personal grudges fuel the brutal conflict. As the metahuman war rages, Wolverine and Spider-Man surreptitiously go after the hidden Hope, but even far off in space the Phoenix force has infected her and she blasts them…

Meanwhile in the extra-solar void Thor, Vision, War Machine and a select team of secret Avengers confront the mindlessly onrushing energy construct…

Chapter 3 is scripted by Ed Brubaker and begins with the recovering Wolverine and Wallcrawler considering how to catch the missing hyper-powerful Hope with both the Avengers and recently departed X-Men chasing her. When the feral mutant clashes over tactics with Captain America, the resulting fight further divides the Avengers’ forces whilst in episode 4 – authored by Jonathan Hickman – as the easily defeated space defenders limp back to Earth, Hope and Wolverine meet at the bottom of the world and devise their own plans fore her future…

All over the planet heroes are hunting the unhappy chosen one, and the clashes between mutants and superhumans are steadily intensifying in ferocity, but the fugitive pair soon evade all pursuit by stealing a rocket and heading to the ancient Blue Area of the Moon where revered mutant Jean Grey first died to save the universe from the Phoenix.

When the former Marvel Girl was first possessed by the fiery force she became a hero of infinite puissance and a cataclysmic champion of Life, but eventually the power corrupted her and she devolved into Dark Phoenix: a wanton god of planet-killing appetites…

As an act of valiant contrition, Jean permitted the X-Men to kill her before her rapacious need completely consumed her in the oxygen-rich ancient city on the lunar surface (of course that’s just the tip of an outrageously long and overly-complicated iceberg not germane or necessary to us here: just search-engine the tale afterwards, ok?), but when Hope finally reaches the spot of her predecessor’s sacrifice she finds that she’s been betrayed and that the Avengers are waiting… and so are mutants Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik and Namor the Sub-Mariner. With battle set to begin again, the battered body of Thor crashes into the lunar dust and the sky is lit by the blazing arrival of the Phoenix avatar…

Matt Fraction scripts the 5th chapter as the appalling firebird attempts to possess Hope, who then realises she has completely overestimated her ability to handle the force, even as Avengers and X-Men again come to blistering blows.

Some distance away super-scientists Tony Stark and Henry Pym deploy their last-ditch anti-Phoenix invention but it doesn’t work as planned… When the furious light finally dies down, the infernal energy has possessed not Hope but the five elder mutants who turn their blazing eyes towards Earth and begin to plan how best to remake it…

Olivier Coipel & Mark Morales begin their stint as illustrators with the 6th, Hickman-scripted instalment, as ten days later old comrades Magneto and Charles Xavier meet to discuss the paradise Earth has become – especially for mutants. Violence, disease, hunger and want are gone but Cyclops, Emma, Sub-Mariner, Magic and Colossus are distant, aloof saviours at best and the power they share incessantly demands to be used more and more and more…

Myriad dimensions away in the mystical city of K’un L’un, kung fu overlord Lei Kung is warned that an ancient disaster is repeating itself on Earth and dispatches the city’s greatest hero Iron Fist to avert overwhelming disaster, even as fearful humanity is advised that their old bad ways will no longer be allowed to despoil the world. Naturally the decree of a draconian “Pax Utopia” does not sit well with humanity, and soon the Avengers are again at war with the last few hundreds of mutantkind. This time however the advantage is overwhelmingly with the underdogs and their five godlike leaders…

A last ditch raid to snatch Hope from Utopia goes catastrophically wrong until the long-reviled Scarlet Witch intervenes and rescues the Avengers and Hope.

Astounded to realise that Wanda’s probability-altering gifts can harm them, the Phoenix Five declare all-out, total war on the human heroes…

In the 7th, Fraction-scripted, chapter the Avengers are hunted down all over the planet and the individual personalities of the possessed X-Men begin to clash with each other. As Iron Fist, Lei Kung and Stark seek a marriage of spiritual and technological disciplines, the Sub-Mariner defies the Phoenix consensus to attack the African nation of Wakanda…

Adam Kubert & John Dell took over the art from issue #8 with Bendis’ script revealing how an army of Avengers and the power of Wanda and Xavier turned the tide of battle, but not before a nation died…

Moreover, with Namor beaten, his portion of Phoenix-power passed on to the remaining four, inspiring hungry notions of sole control amongst the possessed…

In #9 (by Aaron, Kubert & Dell) as the hunt for heroes continues on Earth, in K’un L’un Hope is being trained in martial arts discipline by the city’s immortal master, and in sheer guts and humanity by Spider-Man, and when Thor is captured the Avengers stage an all-out assault and by some miracle defeat both Magik and Colossus. Tragically that only makes Cyclops stronger still and he comes looking for his wayward daughter…

Brubaker writes the 10th chapter as Cyclops invades K’un L’un with horrific consequences whilst on Earth Emma Frost succumbs to the worst aspects of her nature and begins to enslave friend and foe with her half of the infinitePhoenix force. At the same time CaptainAmerica and Xavier are laying plans for one last “Hail Mary” assault…

And in the mystic city Hope finally comes into her power and incredibly blasts Cyclops out the other reality and back to the moon where the tragedy began…

Bendis, Coipel & Morales created the penultimate instalment as the rapacious destructive hunger of the Phoenix causes Cyclops to battle Emma, even as the unifying figure of Xavier draws X-Men and Avengers to unite against the true threat, as with issue #12 (Aaron, Kubert & Dell) Cyclops finally descends into the same hell as his beloved, long-lost Jean by becoming the seemingly unstoppable and insatiable Dark Phoenix with only the assembled heroes and the resigned Hope prepared to stop him from consuming the Earth…

The series generated a host of variant covers (I lost count at 87) by Cho, Jason Keith, Jim Cheung, Laura Martin, Stephanie Hans, Romita Jr., Ryan Stegman, Carlo Barberi, Olivier Coipel, Morales, Skott Young, Arthur Adams, Nick Bradshaw, Carlo Pagulayan, Sara Pichelli, J. Scott Campbell, Jerome Opeña, Mark Bagley, Dale Keown, Esad Ribic, Adam Kubert, Alan Davis, Humberto Ramos, Leinil Francis Yu, Adi Granov and Billy Tan which will undoubtedly delight and astound the artistically adroit amongst you…

Fast, furious and utterly absorbing – if short on plot – this summer blockbuster is an extreme Fights ‘n’ Tights extravaganza that certainly delivers a mighty punch without any real necessity to study beforehand that comics-continuity veterans and film-fed fanboys alike will relish.
™ & © 2012 Marvel and subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A,Italy. All Rights Reserved. A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd.

Posted on

Spider-Men


By Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli (Marvel/PaniniUK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-520-8

After Marvel’s financial and creative problems in the later 1990s, the company came back swinging. A key new concept involved remodelling and modernising much of their core pantheon for the new youth culture and the Ultimate imprint abandoned the monumental and slavish continuity which had always been Marvel’s greatest asset, giving its new players a separate universe to play in, with varying degrees of radical makeover to appeal to a contemporary 21st century audience.

Peter Parker was once again reduced to a callow, nerdy high-school geek, brilliant but perpetually bullied by his physical superiors and there was a fresh, fashionable, more scientifically feasible rationale for the fore-destined spider bite which imparted those patented, impossible arachnoid abilities.

His Uncle Ben still died because of the lad’s lack of responsibility. The Daily Bugle was still there, as was the bombastically outrageous J. Jonah Jameson, but now in a more cynical, litigious world, well-used to cover-ups and conspiracy theories, arch-foe Norman Osborn – a corrupt, ruthless billionaire businessman – was behind everything.

Any gesture towards the faux-realism of traditional superhero fare was surrendered to the tried-and-tested soap-opera melodrama which inevitably links all characters together in invisible threads of karmic coincidence and familial consanguinity but, to be honest, it seldom hurt the narrative. After all, as long as internal logic isn’t contravened, subplots don’t have to make sense to be entertaining.

After a short and spectacularly impressive career, the originally outcast Peter finally gained a measure of acceptance and was hailed a hero when the Ultimate Comics Spider-Man valiantly and very publicly met his end at Osborn’s hands during a catastrophic super-villain showdown…

Soon after he died a new champion cast in his image arose to carry on the fight…

In the aftermath child prodigy Miles Morales accidentally gained similar powers and as a freshly empowered 13-year old soon learned to cope with his astounding new physical abilities, painfully discovering the daily costs of living a life of lies and how an inescapable sense of responsibility is the worst of all possible threats…

Meanwhile in the mainstream Marvel Universe “our” Peter Parker underwent his own turmoil and travails, surviving to become a more-or-less grown man and first rank superhero…

This collection (collecting the miniseries Spider-Men #1-5 from June to September 2012) was designed as part of the celebrations for the web-spinner’s 50th anniversary and offers a slight but magically enthralling guest-star-packed riff on one of the superhero genre’s most popular themes.

The action begins in the original universe where Peter is on patrol, stopping a couple of fleeing thieves – and almost getting arrested for his help – when he spots an eerie light. Investigating he discovers the latest hideout of old foe Mysterio and after a brief struggle overpowers the sinister Special Effects genius.

Something is off though: the villain’s babblings make no sense. The creep is clearly delusional, screaming that Spider-Man is already dead before breaking loose and triggering the bizarrely glowing device he’d been defending.

In a blaze of light Spider-Man transits from a dark warehouse at night to a sunny rooftop in a New York radically different, and things get even stranger when he stops a mugging and the victim thanks him but says his costume is in “terrible taste” and asks if he knew Peter Parker…

And that’s when the kid in a way cool Spider suit shows up…

In another universe the Ultimate Mysterio wakes up and activates a telemetric avatar of himself to follow Spider-Man across the dimensions, where Parker is – in true Marvel style – fighting his namesake in a fever of confused misapprehension. Utterly underestimating his diminutive opponent, the elder Arachnoid is defeated by the kid’s secret powers (invisibility and a debilitating venom sting) and wakes up in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cell where an African-American Nick Fury confirms that he’s fallen into an alternate Earth…

Finally released into Miles’ custody, Peter is introduced to a New York where Peter Parker is a revered – albeit dead – hero, but before he can adapt the Mysterio avatar attacks with a lethal arsenal of ballistic weapons and mind-warping chemical weapons…

By the time Ultimate heroes Thor, Hawkeye and Iron Man appear the battle is won and the mechanoid trashed, but as the ferociously curious Tony Stark examines the dimensional transfer tech in our world, their Mysterio is preparing another deadly assault…

As the assembled heroes try to find a way home for the wall-crawling wanderer, Parker is torturing himself by visiting “his” old haunts and hangouts, leading to gut-wrenching meetings with Aunt May, Mary Jane Watson and a Gwen Stacy who hadn’t been murdered by Green Goblin Norman Osborn…

…And in the other universe Mysterio just can’t let go and once again prepares to launch his devilish devices across the dimensional rift to kill Spider-Man: all of them and whoever stands with them…

Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli, aided by painter/colourist Justin Ponsor, have crafted a massively impressive fresh take on the alternate Earth team-up: one drenched in genuine warmth and tragedy, brimming with breathtaking action and stuffed with light-hearted, razor sharp humour which elevates it from the rank of formularized Costumed Drama fare and makes it easily one of the best superhero tales of the decade.

As usual the volume also contains a gallery of covers and variants – by Jimmy Cheung, Humberto Ramos, Marcos Martin, Terry & Rachel Dodson, Travis Charest, Tommy Lee Edwards, Mike Deodato, Ponsor, Rainier Beredo and Pichelli, to delight and thrill in a rollercoaster ride of that tense, evocative suspense and easy-going adventure which blessed the original Lee/Ditko tales.
A British Edition ™ & © 2012 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. and published by Panini UK, Ltd. All rights reserved

Posted on

Robin Archives volume 1


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Win Mortimer, Jim Mooney & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0415-0

Robin the Boy Wonder debuted in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940), created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson and introduced a juvenile circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mob boss. The story of how Batman took the orphaned Dick Grayson under his scalloped wing and trained him to fight crime has been told, retold and revised many times over the decades and still regularly undergoes tweaking to this day.

In the comics continuity Grayson fought beside Batman until 1970 when, as an indicator of those turbulent times, he flew the nest, becoming a Teen Wonder college student and eventually leader of a team of fellow sidekicks and young justice seeker – the Teen Titans.

He graduated to his own featured solo spot in the back of Detective Comics from the end of the 1960s, which he alternated and shared with Batgirl, and held a similar spot throughout the 1970s in Batman and won a starring feature in the anthology comic Batman Family and the run of Giant Detective Comics Dollar Comics. During the 1980s he led the New Teen Titans, first in his original costumed identity but eventually in the reinvented guise of Nightwing, re-establishing a turbulent working relationship with his mentor Batman.

His creation as a junior hero for younger readers to identify with has inspired an incomprehensible number of costumed kid crusaders, and Grayson continues in similar innovative vein for the older, more worldly-wise readership ofAmerica’s increasingly rebellious contemporary youth culture… but his star potential was first realised much earlier in his halcyon career…

From 1947 to 1952, (issues #65-130) Robin the Boy Wonder had his own solo series and regular cover spot in Star Spangled Comics at a time when the first superhero boom was fading to be replaced by more traditional genres such as crime, westerns and boys’ adventure stories. The stories blended in-continuity action capers with more youth-oriented fare with adults Batman and Alfred reduced to minor roles or entirely absent, allowing the kid crusader to display not just his physical skills but also his brains, ingenuity and guts.

This stellar deluxe hardback Archive compilation gathers together the first 21 tales from Star Spangled #65-85 covering February 1947 to October 1948, recapturing the bold, verve and universal appeal of one of fantasy literature’s greatest youth icons, opening with a fascinating Foreword by Roy Thomas, who discusses the origins and merits of boy heroes and the history of the venerable anthology title before offering some insightful guesses as to the identity of the generally un-named writers of the Robin strip.

Although almost universally unrecorded, most historians consider Batman co-creator Bill Finger to be the author of most if not all of the stories in this volume and I’m going to happily concur here with that assessment until informed otherwise…

Star Spangled Comics #65 started the ball rolling with ‘The Teen-Age Terrors’ illustrated by regular artist Win Mortimer (with the inking misattributed to Charles Paris) in which the Caped Crusaders’ faithful butler happens across an unknown trophy and is regaled with Dick’s tale of the time he infiltrated a Reform School to discover who inside was releasing the incarcerated kids to commit crimes on the outside…

That tale segues seamlessly into ‘The No-Face Crimes’ wherein the Boy Wonder acted as stand-in to a timid young movie star targeted by a ruthless killer, whilst #67 revealed ‘The Case of the Boy Wonders’ which saw our hero as part of a trio of boy geniuses kidnapped for the craziest of reasons…

An outrageously flamboyant killing in #68 resulted in the pre-teen titan shipping out on a schooner as a cabin and spending ‘Four Days Before the Mast’ to catch the murderer, after which modern terror took hold when Robin was the only one capable of tracking down ‘The Stolen Atom Bomb’ in a bombastically explosive contemporary spy thriller.

Star Spangled Comics #70 introduced an arch-villain all his own as ‘Clocks of Doom’ saw the debut of an anonymous criminal time-and-motion expert forced into the limelight once his face was caught on film. The Clock‘s desperate attempts to sabotage the movie Robin was consulting on inevitably led to hard time in this delightful romp (this one might possibly be scripted by Don Cameron)…

Chronal explorer Professor Carter Nichols succumbed to persistent pressure and sent Dick Grayson back to the dawn of history in #71’s ‘Perils of the Stone Age’ – a deliciously anachronistic cavemen and dinosaurs epic which saw Robin kick-start freedom and democracy, after which the Boy Wonder crashed the Batplane on a desert island and encountered a boatload of escaped Nazi submariners in ‘Robin Crusoe’ in a full-on thriller illustrated by Curt Swan & John Fischetti.

In #73 the so-very tractable Professor Nichols dispatched Dick to revolutionary France where Robin battled Count Cagliostro, ‘The Black Magician’, in a stirring saga drawn by Jack Burnley & Jim Mooney, after which the Timepiece Terror busted out of jail determined to have his revenge in ‘The Clock Strikes’, illustrated in full by Mooney who would soon become the series’ sole artist.

However Bob Kane & Charles Paris stepped in for the tense courtroom drama in #75 as ‘Dick Grayson for the Defense’ found the millionaire’s ward fighting for the rights of a schoolboy unjustly accused of theft, after which cunning career criminal The Fence came a cropper when he tried to steal 25 free bikes given as prizes to Gotham’s city’s best students in ‘A Bicycle Built for Loot’ (Finger & Mooney).

Prodigy and richest kid on Earth, Bert Beem was sheer hell to buy gifts for, but since the lad dreamed of being a detective, the offer of a large charitable donation secured the Boy Wonder’s cooperation in a little harmless role play. However when real bandits replaced the actors and Santa, ‘The Boy Who Wanted Robin for Christmas’ enjoyed the impromptu adventure of a lifetime…

Another rich kid was equally inspired in #78 and became the Boy Wonder of India, but soon needed the aid of the original when a Thuggee murder-cult tried to destroy ‘Rajah Robin’, whilst in ‘Zero Hour’ (illustrated by Mooney & John Giunta) The Clock struck one more with a spate of regularly-scheduled time crimes before Star Spangled #80 saw Dick Grayson become ‘The Boy Disc Jockey’, only to discover that the station was broadcasting clever instructions to commit robberies in its cryptically cunning commercials…

Robin was temporarily blinded in #81 whilst investigating the bizarre theft of guide dogs, but quickly adapted to his own canine companion and solved the mystery of ‘The Seeing-Eye Dog Crimes’, but had a far tougher time as a camp counsellor for ghetto kids after meeting ‘The Boy Who Hated Robin’. It took grit, determination and a couple of escaped convicts before the kids learned to adapt and accept…

A radio contest led to danger and death before one smart lad earned the prize for discovering who ‘Who is Mr. Mystery?’ in #83, after which Robin tried to discover the causes of juvenile delinquency by going undercover as a notorious new recruit to ‘The Third Street Gang’, and this initial outing ends on a spectacular high as the Boy Wonder sacrifices himself to save Batman and ends up marooned in the Arctic. Even whilst the distraught Caped Crusader is searching for his partner’s body, Robin has responded to the Call of the Wild, joined an Inuit tribe and captured a fugitive from American justice in #85’s ‘Peril at the Pole’…

Beautifully illustrated, wittily scripted and captivatingly addictive, these stirring all-ages traditional superhero hi-jinks are a perfect antidote to teen-angst and the strident, overblown, self-absorbed whining of contemporary comicbook kids. Fast, furious and ferociously fun, these are superb tales no Fights ‘n’ Tights fan will want to miss…
© 1947, 1948, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Power Surge Sunday

We’re trying something a little bit different today and concentrating on three exclusively paper-free entertainment experiences in recognition of the fact that we all live in the future now and – no matter how much I whinge about it – comics that you can’t trace with carbon paper are here to stay.

Maybe if it meets with general approval, doesn’t cause hair regrowth, a resumption of sexual of potency, or a falling of the skies we’ll do another digital Power Surge Sunday…

Let’s kick off with the latest batch of digitally archived British e-strips from Egmont UK’s Classic Comics line, comprising decades of superb material from Fleetway Comics, whose decades of existence under a variety of names produced a wealth of action-adventure, sports, romance, schools, science fiction, war, western, horror, spy and super hero stories, as well as some of the greatest and most innovative humour and gag-strips of all time.

In June the comic strip warehouse opened with four volumes from the legendary Roy of the Rovers football serial (originally published in the anthology Tiger from 1954 before gaining his own title in 1976). This has now been supplemented those with a fifth, all available from the iTunes store.

In addition this offering also added four new titles to the cartoon catalogue.

Seminal girl’s weekly Misty blended supernatural chills with relationship dramas and the title feature is now available to nostalgic adults and a whole new generation of fans.

Sinister suspense saga The Thirteenth Floor was a standout strip in short-lived 1980s horror title Scream and critically acclaimed cult combat classics Charley’s War and Major Eazy both contributed to the astounding success of weekly war comic Battle.

It’s a small and non-chronological start but, with the original periodicals in astonishingly short supply and print costs for graphic novels so high, this is a supremely cost-effective way to preserve and promote these fantastic fragments of our history.

With many more titles – such as the astounding Johnny Red – slated for inclusion, we can only hope that one day all of Fleetway’s prodigious storehouse of magnificent all-ages comics wonderment will be available for public perusal… and on more platforms.

Egmont’s Classic Comics are available from the iBooks Store on iPad for £1.99 each by following the links listed below.

MISTY:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/misty-comic-tales-from-mist/id573167123?mt=11

MAJOR EAZY:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/major-eazy-comic/id575022887?mt=11
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/major-eazy-comic-part-2/id575022909?mt=11

CHARLEY’S WAR:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/charleys-war/id575535490?mt=11
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/charleys-war-comic-part-two/id575567566?mt=11

ROY OF THE ROVERS:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/roy-rovers-comic-volume-5/id568395894?mt=11

THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/thirteenth-floor-comic-part/id573170121?mt=11
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/thirteenth-floor-comic-part/id573174728?mt=11


Aces Weekly
By David Lloyd and many and various

This isn’t a review at all; merely the strongest possible recommendation.

David Lloyd is one of the most dedicated and creative comics makers in the business. Whilst wowing the world with a superb body of work ranging from a host of licensed strips including Dr. Who, Hulk Comic, Night Raven, Wasteland, Espers, Hellblazer, Aliens, James Bond, as well as his groundbreaking collaborations with Garth Ennis on War Story and the landmark tour de force with Alan Moore on V for Vendetta, Lloyd spent huge amounts of time and energy training a generation of new creators at the London Cartoon Centre, Cartoon County and elsewhere.

Now he’s finally turned publisher, gathering together comic artists from Britain, the USA, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, China, New Zealand and the Philippines for a boldly new and enticing venture.

Aces Weekly is a new subscribers-only, exclusively digital comics experience starring some of the planet’s greatest sequential storytellers doing the kind of stories they’ve always wanted to.

The first anthologised issue contains:

Valley of Shadows by David Lloyd & Dave Jackson, Return of the Human by JC Vaughn & Mark Wheatley, Progenitor by Phil Hester & John McCrea, Paradise Mechanism by David Hitchcock, Shoot for the Moon by Alexandre Tefenkgi & Alain Mauricet, as well as shorter pieces from Lew Stringer, Carl Critchlow, Mychailo Kazybrid, David Leach, Phil Elliott, Esteban Hernandez & Rory Walker.

True Brit fanboys will be delighted to see the return of farcical-fave Combat Colin…

Stuffed with loads of added extras such as character sketches, working designs, line drawings and unlettered artwork, each volume of Aces Weekly comprises over 126 pages of top quality international strip material, and after the first 7-issue volume has been published on-line there will be a two week hiatus before the next volume begins.

Available to anybody with a computer/laptop/tablet device, internet access and a working credit/debit card, volume 1 of Aces Weekly only costs £6.99/$9.99/€7.99, accessible once you subscribe on the site cited below and get your personal password.

ACES WEEKLY is not available for download from any other on-line site, and is available exclusively digitally.

www.acesweekly.co.uk www.facebook.com/acesweekly http://youtu.be/n1G9iwsTqsc
@acesweekly
What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?

 The Last Days – Truth, Justice and the Way (Kindle Edition)

By Andy Dickenson, illustrated by Sarah Evans (eBookPartnership.com)
No ISBN/ASIN B00A1AIBC8

Once again I’m compelled to admit a potential conflict of interest. I first met the author when he began attending my evening classes on comics scripting. I didn’t need to teach him much – just that the spell-checker is no substitute for proof-reading in our line of endeavour – and he showed me the proposal for a story he’d been working on. He found an artist and was planning to get that sucker done and published. That was in the last century and he’s since become a television journalist…

Some few years down the line here it is, transformed into an impressive debut novel and available as an e-book on Kindle…

In these enlightened days, the signature genre of comics – the super-hero – has finally gained a degree of literary legitimacy. Even if you ignore the pulp exploits of Doc Savage and the Shadow, the novelisations and prose experiments of the bigger comic publishers with their key brands and the success of such series as the ‘Wild Cards’, hyper-powered paladins and crazed masterminds have finally broken into mainstream publishing, but seldom with a much verve and all-out gusto as with this eerie, multi-disciplinary amalgam of supernatural chiller, conspiracy thriller, murder-mystery doomsday drama.

So, just to be clear: THIS IS A NOVEL. IT HAS VERY FEW PICTURES.

Thirty years ago civilisation came to an end. Now in the frozen foothills of Ben Nevis, perhaps the last stable community on Earth ekes out a precarious existence thanks to sullen cooperation and the incredible talents of a few impossibly gifted individuals.

Staggering out of the icy wastes one day towards the patchwork enclave of Albion comes German Klaus Gravenstein: a born survivor with a ghastly secret and a hidden master. The most telling factor in a concatenation of circumstances which resulted in mankind’s fall was a deadly hemorrhagic plague, and when the wanderer fails an impromptu medical at the city gates his quest seemingly comes to an abrupt and merciless end…

Albion was originally constructed as a vast reality TV set and after Armageddon set in the place became a haven for many different kinds of refugee, drawn in by the hope of safety and the wiles and comfortable charisma of a once-ubiquitous TV celebrity.

Here fallible mortal folk rub unwashed shoulders with faded stars, paramilitary warriors, a wizard, mad professors and a band of terrifying telepathic children. Ruled by an aged, self-appointed King and his dubious dynasty of schemers and paranormal prodigies, the far-from-contented populace soldiers on in the face of Armageddon’s dreary aftermath but is soon gripped in fresh terror and turmoil…

The community has its own team of heroes: noble Knights shepherded by an incredible mutant Messiah with astounding powers. Lord Truth had the ability to make wishes real and consequently supplied Albion with much of what it needed, from clothes to booze to guns and weapons – all conjured out of thin air. Yet he too was content to serve King and council, preferring to go on adventures and scavenging missions with his devoted, merely mortal squad of young warriors.

Now the world has been turned upside down. On the last away mission to the remains of London in search of the origins of the deadly Blood Plague and the true cause of the fall of mankind, Lord Truth was murdered…

Teenaged warriors and sole mission survivors Knight Six and Apprentice Tucker are far from forthcoming about what really happened, prompting pre-eminent Psionic court advisor Jon Way and Town Sheriff Sir Walter Justice to conduct their own uniquely distinctive private enquiries.

Neither is aware of the monstrous true threat to the entire town that begins when 12-year old super-telepath Neon Way – one of a core group of child psychics crucial to Albion’s infrastructure and survival – is targeted by a malign seductive force and slowly drawn from our reality into another universe from where she helplessly observes the ancient horror’s vile plot unfold.

In the imperilled enclave the innocent Six and Tucker independently conduct their own investigations into the death of their commander and comrades, gradually uncovering a Machiavellian web of deceit and double dealing, but the love-struck squire is only dimly aware that his beguiling comrade is harbouring a dreadful secret and appalling suspicions regarding the true perpetrator of the plot against Lord Truth…

Events surge into cataclysmic top gear when a ravening, unstoppable supernal monster invades the village hostelry and proceeds to inexorably decimate the screaming patrons before kidnapping Six and dragging her off into the dank service tunnels under the city, leaving only Tucker and Sir Justice to unravel the myriad interlinked mysteries poisoning the city before they can even begin the impossible task of saving the last dregs of feeble Humanity…

Captivatingly visual, cunningly intoxicating and perfectly picking through and living off the pop cultural scraps of our dying society, The Last Days seamlessly blends the exotic fantasy of the X-Men or Avengers with TV’s Alphas and Heroes, taps into the moody best of British Doomsday scenarists like John Wyndam, Christopher Priest and J.G. Ballard whilst referencing the urban horror of Stephen King and James Herbert.

This spellbinding yarn exuberantly mixes mysticism and science fiction elements with the catch-all bestiary of a comicbook universe: Mutants, demons, savvy sidekicks, gods, superheroes, warriors, monsters, mad scientists, obscure assassins and devious detectives all happily consort and interact in a cunning murder mystery that will entice and enthral comic readers booklovers.

Andy’s already hard at work on the sequel and I still think this one would make a stunning and outrageously eye-catching graphic novel…
© 2012 Andy Dickenson. All rights reserved.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Last-Days-Justice-ebook/dp/B00A1AIBC8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1352133575&sr=1-1
http://www.facebook.com/TLDbyAD?ref=hl
http://www.undergroundbookreviews.com/3/post/2012/11/the-self-published-author-awards-voting-is-open.html

Posted on

Batman Archives volume 6


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Edmond Hamilton, Don Cameron, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Win Mortimer, Jack & Ray Burnley, Jim Mooney, Charles Paris & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-4012-0409-0

Debuting a year after Superman, “The Bat-Man” (joined eventually by Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented National Comics as the market and genre leader of the burgeoning comicbook industry, and the dashing derring-do and strictly human-scaled adventures of the Dynamic Duo rapidly became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all other four-colour crimebusters were judged.

By the time of this the tales in this superb sixth deluxe hardback compilation (collecting the Batman adventures from Detective Comics #120-135, spanning cover-dates February 1947-May 1948) the Dynamic Duo were inescapably a co-operative effort with a large and ever-changing creative team crafting increasingly varied and captivating escapades for the heroes. One further note: many of the tales in this tome carry no writer’s credit but are most likely the work of pulp writer Edmond Hamilton, so apologies for the less than usually clear attributions throughout…

As discussed in the Foreword by celebrated critic and historian Bill Schelly, the post-war years saw a careful repositioning and reformatting of the heroes, as the publishers cautiously proceeded to tone down outlandish violence and nightmarishly macabre villains in favour of a wide variety of more mundane mobsters, gangsters and petty criminals, plus a few of the most irrepressibly popular favourites such as Penguin and The Joker.

Even so the former felon even gets cover billing in the opening costumed drama, reproduced in full from Detective #120; another riotous romp co-starring the rakish, rotund rogue indulging in ‘Fowl Play!’

Illustrated by Win Mortimer, this yarn describes how the pompous Penguin responds after an ornithologist is cited as America’s Greatest Bird Expert, leading to a campaign of fresh feather-themed crimes before the Dynamic Duo once again caged the crafty crook.

In #121 Hamilton & Howard Sherman take a rare look at corruption when Gotham’s top cop is forced from office by blackmailers exerting pressure on the Mayor. However, even whilst ‘Commissioner Gordon Walks a Beat’ Batman and Robin are tracking down the true cause of all the city’s woes…

Bob Kane & Charles Paris limned the uncredited (but probably Hamilton) case of ‘The Black Cat Crimes’ in the next issue as the sinisterly sultry Catwoman busted out of jail and ruthlessly, spectacularly exploited superstitions to plunder the city, whilst with Ray Burnley on inking in #123 ‘The Dawn Patrol Crimes’ saw a trio of aged pioneer pilots fall prey to the insidious schemes of a criminal mastermind in their fevered desperation to fly again. Happily the sinister Shiner had not reckoned on the Batman’s keen detective ability or the indomitable true grit of the patsy pilots…

The Joker returned in #124 as ‘The Crime Parade’ (Hamilton, Kane, Lew Sayre Schwartz & George Roussos) found the Mountebank of Mirth turn a radio chart show into his own private wishing well of inspired brazen banditry, after which ‘The Citadel of Crime’ (scripted by Bill Finger in #125) saw the Caped Crimebuster infiltrate a fortress where reformed crooks were imprisoned by a deranged maniac dubbed the Thinker and forced to build deadly weapons for a criminal army. Although credited here to Dick Sprang, this is actually one of the last art strips by the superb Jack Burnley, ably inked by his brother Ray and Charles Paris.

Detective Comics #126’s ‘Case of the Silent Songbirds’, by Hamilton(?) & Jim Mooney, again found The Penguin purveying his particular brand of peril and perfidy by stealing the voices of nightclub singers as part of the world’s most incredible protection racket until Batman stepped in, whilst #127’s ‘Pigmies in Giantland’ – featuring a rare pencil and ink outing for Charles Paris – saw the outrageous Dr. Agar shrink his wealthy victims to the size of dolls until the Dynamic Duo unravelled the impossible truth…

Only The Joker could conceive of ‘Crime in Reverse’ (Hamilton, Kane & Ray Burnley) as he proceeded to once again attempt to bamboozle Batman and Boy Wonder, whilst in

Detective #129 Finger, Jack Burnley & Paris took our heroes to ‘The Isle of Yesterday’ where a rich eccentric had turned back time to the carefree 1890s for all the bemused but unstressed inhabitants. Such a pity then that a mob of modern crooks were using the idyllic spot as a hideout… but not for long…

In #130 Finger, Kane & Paris described the horrific fate of a string of greedy crooks who tried to open ‘The Box’ but it took Batman’s razor-keen intellect to finally solve the decades-long mystery behind the trail of bodies left in its wake, after which Don Cameron, Kane, Sayre Swartz & Paris examined the tragic lives of two brothers doomed by dire destiny: one a callous racketeer and the other a good man forced by family ties to become ‘The Underworld Surgeon’…

In #132 esteemed escapologist Paul Bodin retired to raise his daughter, but within months ‘The Human Key’ began robbing vaults using all the master’s tricks. Only Batman could see through the open-and-shut case to discern the truth in a powerful human interest tale illustrated by Mooney & Paris, whilst ‘The Man Who Could See the Future’ (Hamilton, Kane, Sayre Schwartz & Paris) offered a moody counterpoint as the Gotham Gangbusters exposed an unscrupulous charlatan clairvoyant whose uncanny predictions always led to shocking disasters and missing valuables.

The Penguin opened ‘The Umbrellas of Crime’ in Detective #134 (Finger, Mooney & Paris) but his innovative inventions couldn’t stop Batman closing down his latest crime spree, and this blockbusting barrage of vintage Bat-tales comes to a blistering climax with #135’s ‘The True Story of Frankenstein’ (Hamilton, Sayre Swartz & Paris) as the Caped Crusaders were drawn back in time by Professor Carter Nichols to save a rural village from an incredible monster and the brute he manipulated into acts of evil…

With stunning covers by Jack Burnley, Paris, Mortimer, Kane & Sayre Schwartz, Mooney and Dick Sprang, and full creator biographies included, this supremely thrilling, bombastic action-packed compilation provides another perfect snapshot of the Batman’s amazing range from bleak moody avenger to suave swashbuckler, from remorseless Agent of Justice and best pal to sophisticated Devil-May-Care Detective, in timeless tales which have never lost their edge or their power to enthral and enrapture. Moreover, these sublimely sturdy Archive Editions are without doubt the most luxuriously satisfying way to enjoy them over and over again.
© 1947-1948, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Amazing Spider-Man: Big Time


By Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, Neil Edwards, Stefano Caselli & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4624-7

For a popular character/concept lumbered with a fifty-year pedigree which only really works when the hero is played as a teenaged outsider, radical reboots are a painful if annoying periodic necessity. When the Spider-Man continuity was drastically dialled-back and controversially revised for the ‘Brand New Day’ publishing event, a refreshed, rejuvenated single (and never-been-married to Mary Jane) Peter Parker was parachuted into a similar yet different whole new life, so if this is your first Web-spinning yarn in a while – or you’ve drawn your cues from the movies – be prepared for a little confusion…

What is still valid: outcast, geeky school kid Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and, after seeking to cash-in on the astonishing abilities he developed, suffered an irreconcilable personal tragedy. His beloved guardian Uncle Ben was murdered and the traumatised boy determined henceforward to always use his powers to help those in dire need.

For years the brilliant boy hero suffered private privation and travail in his domestic situation, whilst his heroic alter ego endured public condemnation and mistrust as he valiantly battled all manner of threat and foe…

Now, all that changes in an instant as Big Time finds the Original Hard Luck Hero finally reaping some of benefits of his unique gifts and lonely crusade…

Collecting Amazing Spider-Man #648-651 (January – March 2011) this enchanting thriller opens with the Webslinger revelling in new-found glory and the benefits of back-up as the newest addition to the Mighty Avengers leads the team into battle against the incorrigible Dr. Octopus in the eponymous first chapter ‘Big Time’. This acceptance among the superhero set hasn’t affected New York City Mayor J. Jonah Jameson who is still on his fanatical anti-Spider-Man crusade, but the former publisher is blithely unaware that he too is the obsessive target of a deadly menace stalking him and his family…

Spidey has more pressing problems: his new girlfriend is Police CSI Officer Carlie Cooper, but old flame and barely-reformed super-thief Felicia Hardy – AKA the svelte and sexy Black Cat – continues to flirtatiously hang around raising suspicions and temperatures…

As the city burns Doc Ock’s new Sinister Six – Electro, Sandman, Chameleon, Mysterio and The Rhino – continue carrying out their tentacled tyrant’s latest doomsday plan until the Wall-crawler outperforms both his own team-mates and the fabled Fantastic Four to foil the explosive plot in the last seconds…

At the new Daily Bugle, reporter Ben Urich has got his nephew Phil a job as an office boy, unaware that the disbarred young photo-journalist once fought crime with a suit of Green Goblin armour and bag of tricks he’d found in an old warehouse owned by Norman Osborn. The poor kid isn’t happy and is beginning to resent his fall from grace after being caught doctoring some pictures he’d sold…

Peter Parker’s life is still a mess. Spending all his time saving the world has resulted in his being eviction after forgetting to pay the rent and this time he’s run out of friends to crash with…

However things are about to change radically after Pete’s Aunt May – newly married to Jameson’s wealthy father – show Jonah’s wife Marla the boy’s old High School science awards and scrap book. Marla is a very influential researcher and knows someone who might give Peter a job…

Soon young Parker is being interviewed by super-cool Max Modell – “the Johnny Depp of Einsteins” and owner of private think tank Horizon Labs – unaware that as part of Jameson’s extended family he too is being hunted by the Mayor’s latest nemesis…

The interview is a lucky disaster. When one of Modell’s scientific wonder-kids loses control of an experiment involving deadly new element “Reverbium”, Peter’s quick thinking saves the day and he’s offered a spot in the company’s exclusive team of geniuses. Soon the stunned lad has his own lab, an open brief to invent cool new stuff and a monthly salary that bigger than all his previous paychecks combined…

…And across town Wilson Fisk and his executive office Montana interview the murderous Hobgoblin for the position of enforcer. The Kingpin of Crime has been informed of Reverbium’s existence and he will stop at nothing to possess the potentially unstoppable new weaponised element…

In ‘Kill to Be You’, the recent bloody history of Hobgoblin Roderick Kingsley is revealed before the super-assassin discovers Phil Urich skulking in his hidden warehouse lair. Callously moving in for the kill, the mercenary is completely unprepared for the kid’s long-hidden super-power and is mercilessly slaughtered by the traumatised youth who, succumbing to the Osborn/Goblin “curse”, then appropriates his gadgets and guise to become the new and utterly psychopathic Hobgoblin…

As Spidey and Black Cat continue their strictly crime-busting affair, at high security Federal prison The Raft former foe the Scorpion is finally separated from the alien Symbiote which had turned him into the latest incarnation of Venom, but the process has caused a massive collapse. If warder Mach 5 and Doctors Coleman and Nichols can’t find a solution soon, inmate Mac Gargan is surely doomed…

Back at Horizon Labs, Peter hasn’t even been introduced to his six super-smart colleagues before the newest Hobgoblin busts in determined to fulfil his predecessor’s mission. However when Spider-Man overconfidently tackles the intruder, Urich’s irresistible sonic super-power quickly has the wall-crawler on the ropes and inches from death…

The third chapter (inked by Scott Hanna, Joseph Damon & Victor Olazaba) finds the hero ignominiously saved by fellow geeky brain-box Bella Fishbach who manages to drive the exultant Hobgoblin off, but not before the manic marauder snatches up the deadly Reverbium sample and delivers it to the Kingpin. Determined to retrieve the stolen sample Peter calls on the Black Cat, but also takes the time – and Horizon’s resources – to whip up a new high-tech stealth-mode Spidey-suit…

The blistering all-action finale (with inks from Cuevas & Damon) commences with a raid on the Kingpin’s skyscraper HQ, but even after beating an army of thugs and ninjas, Montana and Hobgoblin, Spider-Man and the Cat are unprepared for the ferocious physical might of the crime-lord and only the devastating escape of the catastrophically unstable Reverbium saves them from certain death – although it also allows Urich and Fisk to escape…

This magnificent slice of Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy also includes two short back-ups from issues #650 and 651 which act as pulse-pounding prologues for the next collected edition as ‘The Final Lesson’ (written by Slott with art from Neil Edwards & Hanna) finds genetics expert Professor Eli Folsom attempting to cure the ailing Mac Gargan. However it’s all a cunning plot by mad scientist Alistair Smythe to kidnap the former Scorpion, one that super guard Mach 5 is helpless to stop. The triumphant Spider-Slayer is then revealed as the menace stalking the Jameson clan as he further warps, augments and mutates Gargan in ‘The Sting that Never Goes Away’ (Slott, Stefan Caselli & Edgar Delgado) in preparation to unleashing an Army of Insect Warriors as part of his final ‘Revenge of the Spider-Slayer’.

To Be Continued…

With a cover gallery including variants by Ramos & Delgado, Mark Brooks, Caselli, and Marcos Martin, plus promotional art and pages of Ramos design sketches, this is a joyously light yet bombastic rollercoaster ride for fans but also works well as a jumping-on point for readers new or returning.
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.