Graphic Novels – Page 172

September 24, 2012September 19, 2012

Spider-Girl: Who Killed Gwen Reilly?

By Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4319-2

During a truly scary sales downturn in comicbook sales that afflicted the mid-1990s, American publishers tried all manner of stunts and ideas to retain their rapidly-diminishing readerships. Marvel especially attempted ever-wilder schemes to bolster sales and the one with the most lasting effect, if not success, was to create a pocket universe of interlocking titles featuring the offspring of mainstream characters such as The Avengers and Spider-Man.

Kicking off with a throwaway tale in What Ifâ€¦? volume 2, #105 (February 1998 and clumsily asking ‘What If Mary Jane had never lost the baby, and Spider-Man had a Spider-Girl?’) the notion launched a batch of younger, ostensibly contemporary characters battling modern menaces in the old-fashioned way.

That introductory yarn was eventually re-released as Spider-Girl #0 and is reprinted at the end of this collection of recent episodes which primarily gathers the Alternate Arachnoid Avenger’s short stories from Amazing Spider-Man Family #1-8 and back-up strips from Web of Spider-Man (2009) #1-4.

May â€œMaydayâ€ Parker is the daughter of Peter Parker and wife Mary Jane, and she developed arachnoid superpowers whilst in High School, giving writer/creator Tom DeFalco a chance to rehash the teen-angst shtick of the primal, all-hallowed – and supremely successful – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko days of the company’s infancy.

What with disapproving parental units to dodge, vengeful enemies to tackle, lots of guest stars and the hell that has always been school days to wade through, it frequently felt like a pretty cynical attempt to recapture the glory days, but it was extremely entertaining, worked well and struck a chord with the Faithful.

Spider-Girl became Marvel’s longest running female-starring solo-title, outliving by years every other book in the â€œMC2â€ Universe.

Although she is much less a nerd than her father ever was – I suspect modern kids aren’t so ready to own their alienation issues, and besides, reading comic books is enough geekiness for anyone to admit to – Mayday still endured the traditional torments of teen life, but after many months her concerned guardians grudgingly accepted her need to help humanity as a bona fide super-hero and so, whilst perpetually dealing with classroom politics, hesitant romantic overtures, crushes and strained relations with the rest of the second-generation Marvel Offspring (such as Darkdevil, Stinger, The Buzz, New Avengers and the Fantastic Five), Spider-Girl gradually became a fixture of the alternate future Marvel Universe.

Eventually Mayday’s popularity waned and her first volume ended with issue #100 in 2005, only to return a year later for a 30-issue run as The Amazing Spider-Girl before transferring to support strip status in the anthological Amazing Spider-Man Family (#5-8) and simultaneously as a part of Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited webcomic experiment in 2009 as Spectacular Spider-Girl.

Thereafter Mayday sprang into the back of the latest incarnation of Web of Spider-Man, out into a 4-issue miniseries (Spectacular Spider-Girl again) and the finale one-shot Spider-Girl: The End.

I think I got all that right, butâ€¦

This quirky collection opens with the pertinent parts of Amazing Spider-Man Family #5-8, by DeFalco, Frenz & Sal Buscema, and asks ‘Who is Gwen Reilly?’ A very brief recap of those 130 intervening issues reminds us of May’s origins and how she is currently acting as big sister to her own clone who had been grown in secret by the maniacal secret society The Order of the Goblin. Subsequently she gained the metamorphic powers – and weaknesses – of the sinister alien Symbiote which had created Venom and Carnageâ€¦

The clone – who of course claims to be the original May – is wildly unstable and prone to viciously excessive violence, as seen when the girls encounter a robbery in the street, part of an escalating gang war between New Yorkcrime kingpin Black Tarantula and potential cyborg usurper Silverbackâ€¦

Peter and Mary Jane Parker, barely coping with their new son’s physical problems, are more concerned that there are two teenaged May’s in the house but whilst the clone solves that problem with her shape-shifting abilities, she is far more reluctant to surrender her claim to the actual identity of the â€œrealâ€ daughter of Spider-Manâ€¦

That all changes at school next morning when she rolls up as sexy, flamboyant wild-child â€œcousinâ€ April Parker and begins to steal all May’s friends. The senior Parker goes ballistic that night at home but is cut short when another impossible girl turns up.

Gwen Reilly claims to be the long-lost daughter of Peter’s brother Ben but is clearly unaware that the identity was just a fictitious persona used by a Spider-Man clone in the years before the Wall-crawler was maimed in battle against the Green Goblin and retired from costumed crusadingâ€¦

When the stranger leaves, May and April follow her but are separated by another gang crime. When May finally catches up she finds her doppelganger standing over the brutalised corpse of the mystery girlâ€¦

‘Who Killed Gwen Reilly? ratchets up the tension as May calls her dad – now a forensic scientist working in the NYPD crime lab – to deal with the mystery. Most troubling is April’s callous disregard for the stranger’s death: is it possible her emotionally stunted double could actually have committed the murder, despite all her protestations of innocence?

Certainly the female facsimile is no stranger to mischief, using her shape-shifting power to covertly cosy-up to the boy May shyly adores, but with a slaying to solve, Spider-Girl pushes it all onto a back-burner and seeks assistance from demonic do-gooder Darkdevil, before being ambushed by one of her father’s oldest and most savage foesâ€¦

As a result of her hopeless battle against Tombstone, May is left for dead and dumped in the New Jersey Pine Barrens whilst April is busy saving victims of a tenement blaze in ‘Into the Fire!’ but once the crisis is over, the clone ruthlessly ends the Granite Gangster’s threat for ever and simply assumes May’s identity, even fooling Peter and Mary Jane as she luxuriates in finally becoming the only child and declaring ‘There’s a New Spider-Girl in Town!’â€¦

The convoluted commotion continued without missing a beat in Web of Spider-Man (2009) #1-4, as two lazy thugs cut corners and dump May’s battered, broken body short of their regular disposal spot, thus allowing the supposed corpse a last, desperate chance to escape in ‘Angels and Devils’. Scared and furious, the gunsels track the wounded warrior but are attacked by a monstrous winged beast which can only be the mythical Jersey Devilâ€¦

Struggling back to relative civilisation May sneaks into her home, utterly unaware that â€œSpider-Girlâ€ has been ambushed by the deadly Goblin Queen in ‘Like a Fury Scorned!’ The last heir of the twisted Osborn legacy was responsible for creating the Mayday clone and the Gwen Reilly conspiracy but is in a desperate war with her sire’s Order of the Goblin Â personality cult. Claiming April as her spiritual sister, Fury has captured the spider-clone with the heartfelt intention of making her an ally.

May, meanwhile, has recovered and deduced how April has attempted to replace her. Heading to school and eager to reclaim her life, the bruised battler stumbles straight into another catastrophe as Goblin Queen attacks, attempting to kill RenÃ© DeSantos, an influential member of the Order whose unfortunate and unaware daughter Simone is a classmate of the real Ms Parkerâ€¦

Barely surviving the shattering attack, May and Darkdevil unite to track down Fury in ‘Whom Gods Destroy’, backed up by erstwhile Spider-clone super-menace Kaine – now a very senior and Special Federal Agent – and raid her lair only to find the morally ambiguous and definitely untrustworthy April in full Carnage Symbiote mode as the Goblin Queen’s allyâ€¦

The saga culminates in a blockbuster brouhaha as ‘They First Make Mad!’ brings the house down and sets events in motion for the final chapter in Mayday Parker’s fantastic lifeâ€¦

But that’s not included here, even though there’s still plenty of web-spinning wonderment on show.

First up is a terrifically enjoyable run of vignettes from Amazing Spider-Man Family #1-4, set in the same futureverse, but in the early years when May was still a baby. Mr. and Mrs. Spider-Man by DeFalco, Frenz & Sal Buscema opened with the still-active and cash-strapped Wall-Crawler battling the lethal Lizard whilst Mary Jane discussed the pressure of ‘Family Ties!’ with the mutated biochemist – and potential employer’s – distraught and desperate wife and childâ€¦

After a horrific drive-by shooting ‘Those Who Never Return!’ explored the understandable worries of the wife of a practising superhero confronted by a situation where only her hubby could make things right, the absolutely brilliant ‘Common Ground’ (illustrated by Todd Nauck) found Pete and MJ in a bustling, frustrating hospital Emergency Room, frantically waiting to see a doctor after baby May catches her first cold.

It’s not the place you want to see short-tempered super-villain the Rhino trying to cut the line because his beloved ancient auntie is really sickâ€¦

The domestic delights finish up with ‘Career Paths’ as a very convincing and sympathetic thief takes the young Marrieds hostage for the very best of reasons and for a very galling ride, after which this tome concludes with that aforementioned What If?/Spider-Girl #0 yarn.

‘Legacyâ€¦ in Black and White’, illustrated by Frenz & Bill Sienkiewicz, relates how ordinary lass May Parker suddenly found herself possessed of incredible abilities just as the last Green Goblin inexplicably attacked her fuddy-duddy crime lab daddy. When her mother revealed the long-kept secret of his former life, the horrified girl only had one real choice to makeâ€¦

Even though the stories are capable and well produced and accompanied by a superb cover gallery by Frenz, Paulo Siqueira, Joe Suitor, Nuno Plati, Pasqual Ferry & Jelen Djurdjevic to enchant the eyes, this is a truly odd book to read: starting in the middle, proceeding without conclusion to the penultimate, skipping back to a prologue and ending at the beginning.

Even after all the Spider-Girl issues I’ve read from the feature’s inception I found myself regularly stopping to check elsewhere before being able to continue with this collection, so I’ve never been more serious when I say don’t read this unless you’re well versed in the arcane arachnid arcane and lore or need a headache to get out of some even more onerous taskâ€¦

Even so: if some editor would kindly re-order and re-release this tome I’d happily give the Weirdly Winsome Webbed Wonder another goâ€¦
Â© 1998, 2009 & 2010 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

September 23, 2012September 19, 2012

The Runaways

By Joss Whedon, Michael Ryan & Rick Ketchum, Jay Leisten, Andrew Hennessy, Victor Olazaba & Roland Paris (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-408-9

The Runaways are a bunch of super-powered kids whose parents kept from them the rather surprising news that were secretly a cabal of would-be world conquerors called â€œThe Prideâ€. These extremely circumspect and clandestine villains played it smart for years and completely controlledLos Angeleswithout the populace knowing they even existed – which was why all the baddies and monsters in the Marvel Universe generally hung out aroundNew Yorkand the East Coast.

After many trials and tribulations – including the death of some of the rebellious kids – the young absconders overthrew and eradicated their progenitors, with the unwelcome result that LA became a soft target and open city for ambitious costumed ne’er-do-wells.

The orphans were all placed with well-meaning but clueless social services, forcing them to again run away, taking to the streets again.

Preferring life together and driven to protect the city they unwittingly endangered, the kids even found a few new recruits but not all of them were trustworthy eitherâ€¦

The underlying premise of this series is that adults can’t be trusted – only your friends and comrades – and this volume (collecting volume 2, issues #25-30 of the monthly comic-book) takes that to deliciously ludicrous extremes whilst simultaneously exploring a long-neglected era of America’s metahuman history, and even dabbling in a little doomed romancing as only the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Dollhouse could conceive itâ€¦

Visiting the Big Apple, the fugitive kids encountered such obstructive and overbearing adult luminaries as Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Luke Cage and Wolverine as well as the skeevyNew York underclass who were the Runaways’ East Coast counterpartsâ€¦

Even after returning to their nominal home turf things weren’t easy and they even inconclusively clashed with the Federal Governmentâ€¦

The current roster comprises Nico Minoru, last in a long line of hereditary sorcerers, whilst Karolina Dean was once the compliant daughter of two domineering aliens intent on global conquest. But now they’re gone she’s unexpectedly entered into a loving relationship with the rebellious shape-shifting, gender-fluid apprentice Super-Skrull Prince Xavin that they had previously arranged for her to wed as a condition of truce between their warring civilisationsâ€¦

Little Molly Hayes is much younger that the others, a super-strong, invulnerable child of evil mutant parents, whilst oafish teen Chase Stein was the son of genuine mad scientists. He might not have inherited their intellects but he has got lots of toys from their arsenal. He also sort of inherited the genetically-augmented 87^th century empathic dinosaur Old Lace when her beloved owner Gertrude Yorkes was killed by the Pride.

Gertrude’s folks were time-travelling bandits and would-be world conquerorsâ€¦

The latest edition to the group is Victor Mancha, who can control electricity and manipulate metals; gifts his â€œfatherâ€ (robotic despot Ultron) considered quite useful in the secret weapon he was building and growingâ€¦

As this story opens the outcasts are back in the City that Never Sleeps (but Steals your Stuff if You Do), painfully aware of their legal status and parents’ reputation. In unfamiliar territory and perilously isolated, they enter into a deal with nefarious Wilson Fisk, the ganglord who truly rules New York. The kids want license to move about freely, unmolested by cops, heroes and Social Services. In return the Kingpin wants them to â€œacquireâ€ a certain object for himâ€¦

â€¦And across the sleeping city, a very old woman and her monstrous guardian angel wait for events to tragically replay themselves outâ€¦

With Gert dead, Nico has become leader – a role she neither wants nor believes herself qualified to perform – and reluctantly acquiesces to the ponderous crime-lord’s wishes, committing the kids to breaking into a skyscraper citadel and purloining a mysterious egg-like chronometer, but the mission goes horrendously wrong when urban vigilante Frank Castle explosively intervenesâ€¦

However The Punisher is himself ambushed by a ghastly winged apparition who apparently wants to kill the kids himself. Caught flat footed, the youngsters run away and regroup at the Leapfrog (their futuristic vehicle and another useful tool inherited from the deceased Yorkes) but are again surprised by Castle.

The ever-prepared and action-savvy Punisher learns a painful lesson however when he lets little Molly get too close and catches a super-punch somewhere between his chest armour and knee-guardsâ€¦

Chase meanwhile has examined the object and realised it’s something his parents built using the Yorkes’ future techâ€¦

When they meet up with the Kingpin, the mountainous malcontent attempts to double-cross them, but his ninjas are no match for the furious betrayed kids and in the melee the monster angel reappears and gives Victor a messageâ€¦

On the run again the fugitives bundle into the Leapfrog and Chase plugs the stolen artefact into the dashboard. There is a strange flash of light and the ship crashes into an alleyâ€¦ in 1907â€¦

Talking over their options the kids deduce that the time-jump was pre-programmed and therefore the deceased Yorkes must have cached helpful technology in this era. Setting out to search the primitive city they stumble upon a tenement fire and unhesitatingly use their flamboyant abilities to save the women and children trapped in what turns out to be a completely legal sweatshop.

The rubbernecking spectators don’t seem too shocked and the reason soon becomes apparent when shady character Eddie Gunnam introduces himselfâ€¦

Carrying a lucky magic walking stick and calling himself The Swell, Eddie is part of a growing band of metahumans he calls â€œWonders of the Modern Ageâ€. Soon he’s introducing the time-lost tribe to own his band of ragamuffin companions; aerial dancer Lillie â€œThe Spielerâ€ McGurty, diminutive Creeper, brutish tomboy Hoyden, The Yellow Kid, Dead George Pelham and a hulking winged bravo named Tristanâ€¦

In this harsh exploitative world the street urchins try their best to survive but hard times are made worse by a brewing war between two gangs of Wonders with diametrically opposed philosophies: the nominally virtuous but ruthless Upward Path and The Sinners, a savage band of criminals led by a mysterious husband and wife team with fantastic inventive skillsâ€¦

Karolina is distracted. During the fire she had tried to rescue a little Swiss immigrant girl – barely Molly’s age – only to see the waif use incredible plant hyper-acceleration abilities to save herself. The alien princess tracked the child to her home where her brutal, indolent father was beating the household’s only breadwinner for her laziness. With Molly in tow Karolina returns the next day and offers Klara Plast refuge, but the frightened lass is too scared to leave her husbandâ€¦

Before she can be convinced, a riot between unionists and vicious strike-breakers erupts and Victor, seeing Spieler in all her combative flying glory, feels the first buzz and whirr of love in his artificial heart, utterly unaware that jealous Tristan is already besotted with herâ€¦

Across town Nico has raided a bank in search of the Yorkes’ stash of devices but has been captured by the Upward Path. Whilst torturing the future girl, their resident sorceress reveals that Nico is her direct descendent, but tragically for the time-tossed captive, loyalty to family has never been a Minoru traitâ€¦

The Swell, meanwhile has introduced Xavin and Chase to the Sinners and discovered that the enigmatic bosses are the Yorkes from an earlier period of their personal timelinesâ€¦

The future felons instantly realise what has happened but are stunned to discover their daughter will die fighting them, allowing the Runaway lads to bust loose, as miles away Victor and Lillie cavort in the sky, lost in the sheer giddy exuberance of first loveâ€¦

As a final showdown between the Sinners and The Upward Path inexorably approaches, the foredoomed but forewarned Yorkes make radical plans to escape their fate and change the history of the futureâ€¦

The brutal bloody finale and all-out war of the Wonders leaves a trail of bodies in the streets ofNew Yorkand pits friend against friend until they discover a doomsday bomb set by the destiny-challenging Futurians…

Chase, however, has been busy and devised a way to save the day that allows the kids to return to the present day with the newest member of their youthful outcast familyâ€¦

Sadly however in the aftermath, the original instigator of all the chronal chaos and calamity is revealed and has again failed to change the past or reverse the foolish decision she made on a dirty street in 1907â€¦

Sexually frank but never explicit, this is a superbly well-reasoned and executed, thought-provoking and imaginatively mature Fights ‘n’ Tights tale from Whedon, stuffed to bursting with wit, action, horror, humour, charm and poignant passion and magically illustrated by Michael Ryan (ably assisted by inkers Rick Ketchum, Jay Leisten, Andrew Hennessy, Victor Olazaba & Roland Paris) which proves that superhero comics can surmount their escapist, gratuitous power-fantasy roots and deliver stories of true depth and worth.
Â© 2007, 2008 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

September 22, 2012September 19, 2012

JLA/Avengers

By Kurt Busiek & George PÃ©rez, coloured by Tom Smith & lettered by Richard Starkings (DC/Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1957-4

Fair Warning: this review deals with the very bedrock of superhero comics. If you’re not utterly au fait with the continuity minutiae of Marvel and DC Comics, this review won’t make much sense, and might well cause migraines or dizziness and could well prevent you from operating gigantic universe-bending machineries.

If you’d rather read something else I’ll quite understand and will hopefully see you tomorrowâ€¦

From the moment a kid first sees his second superhero the only thing he/she wants is to see how the new costumed crusader stacks up against the first. From the earliest days of the industry we’ve wanted our idols to meet, associate, battle together – and if you follow the Timely/Marvel model, that means against each other – far more than we want to see them trounce their arch-enemy one more time.

For many years that immature â€œwho’s strongest/fastest/toughest?â€ preoccupation could only be addressed within individual company boundaries, but once publishers at DC and Marvel realised the sales potential of inter-continuity crossover clashes in the 1970s a veritable torrent of â€œimpossibleâ€ superhero mash-ups (of generally excellent artistic quality but mired in inescapably mediocre plots) followed, all generally suffering from the protective partisanship of their legal owners.

After all, who wanted their pantheon to come off second-best in any confrontation?

When a much-touted and eagerly anticipated meeting of the Avengers and Justice League of America famously foundered due to irreconcilable creative differences between the sponsoring publishers, the crossover practise was shelved for years until cooler heads, a general sales decline and the far less hide-bound attitudes of smaller new companies (such as Valiant and Image) who simply found a negotiated way to make these temporary mergers work amicably and effectively, revitalised the whole concept and practiseâ€¦

Which is a shame as Busiek is one of the most skilled writers in the business, easily ably to inject telling personal emotion and poignant character revelation into the driest plot – but here there’s simply not enough roomâ€¦

Gathering together the deluxe 4-issue miniseries from 2003-2004, this powers-packed tome opens with a joint Introduction from the co-instigators of the Silver Age of Comics, Julie Schwartz and Stan Lee, after which the non-stop creative chaos begins with ‘A Journey into Mystery’ as the obsessive monster Krona smashes his way into the Cosmos we’ll call Marvel.

The cosmic intruder is a renegade Guardian of his own Universe, driven insane by an insatiable hunger to learn the origin of Reality. His previous rabid inquiries had already introduced evil into his own once-innocent continuum, shortened its sidereal lifespan and reduced an incomparable multiverse to a few straggling survivor dimensions, but now his impassioned search has brought him to a previously unreachable and unsuspected parallel realm only to encounter a being almost his equalâ€¦

En Dwi Gast, a puissant conniving being dedicated to games of chance, contests of power and duels of skill, is an Elder of the Universe and one of the most powerful creatures in this existence, but even The Grandmaster is helpless before Krona’s fanatical assault and manic inquisition. Nevertheless the wily immortal manages to inveigle Krona into a diverting little side-betâ€¦

A month later, the world’s greatest champions in two vastly differing dimensions find themselves battling incomprehensible threats from beyond their reality. Investigations indicate that invaders from an alternate Earth are inexplicably appearing and causing devastating damage.

It also seems that the too-incompatible realms are collidingâ€¦

Offering a solution, the Grandmaster appears to the Justice League of Americaand sets them off in search of twelve objects of sublime power (six from each Earth) that will end the crisis. On Marvel Earth the morally ambiguous New God Metron tasks the Avengers with the same goal and soon the duped heroes are all engaged in furious and escalating clashes across two worlds, culminating in a shattering confrontation on Earth-DCâ€¦

In a place beyond physics and geography, the size-shifting Atom has hitched a ride with the unsuspecting Grandmaster and becomes privy to a private conversation with the New Genesisian God of Knowledge.

However, even after discovering the real nature of the crisis and the true threat involved, the hapless hero is unable to reach either fooled friends or foes to warn themâ€¦

‘A Contest of Champions’ open with the JLA and Avengers at war above Metropolis whilst the cooler heads of Batman and Captain America have both deduced that something is not kosher. The two surreptitiously declare a truce and leave their unnaturally enraged comrades to their futile battles and continued competition for the dozen arcane objects of power, and instead track down the Atom in the Grandmaster’s non-dimensional lair.

The deeper plan is revealed: the Grandmaster’s game is rigged and the prize Krona is vying for is possession of Galactus: a being from the reality that preceded the Big Bangâ€¦

Meanwhile the massed armies of heroes have finished their savagely fought duels. The Grandmaster’s side has been victoriousâ€¦

â€¦Which means nothing to Krona who simply blasts the Elder, cruelly claiming and dismantling the prized Galactus as nothing more than a new research tool. However the renegade Guardian has been duped: En Dwi Gast was after the twelve objects all along and uses them to reorder the realities and the once-incompatible Earthsâ€¦

In a world of constant turmoil and ‘Strange Adventures’, the JLA and Avengers are now old allies, frequently pairing to battle overwhelming menaces in union, but Captain America can’t shake the feeling that something is not right. On anther Earth Batman has the same notion, as blips in reality and temporal hiccups shift heroes and even replace them with dead or departed predecessors. It’s soon clear that Existence is in big trouble and when Superman and Iron Man travel into space they observe huge metaphysical hands catastrophically mashing the two Earths togetherâ€¦

With chaos rising and all life threatened, the constantly changing teams are led by the inscrutably unfathomable Phantom Stranger to a place beyond where the dying Grandmaster – who has once again underestimated the merciless, self-destructive and utterly determined Krona – warns them of the imminent end of all since the Guardian is quite prepared to take the universe apart to find out how it beganâ€¦

As both worlds shudder and shatter, all the heroes of the earths mobilise to save lives, allowing ‘The Braveâ€¦ and the Bold’ JLA and Avengers to pursue Krona into the void for one last battle to preserve and restore the universes, but even here a double game is being played: Metron and the Grandmaster have one last surprise in store for when the status quo is inevitably restoredâ€¦

With guest-shots from just about everybody created by the two comicbook companies over seven decades, there’s a awful lot of crowded, blistering action but not a lot of room for character or plot, but even so most action fans will find something to rave over. Moreover, for art lovers this book is a sublime treat, with some of PÃ©rez’s most spectacular illustration, ably augmented by a stunning cover gallery at the back featuring all four of his stellar wraparound covers.

It’s fair to say that I’m not a great fun of such profit-led pairings, but there’s still enough of the fan-boy in me to viscerally thrill at armies of costumed stalwarts bashing the bezonkers out of each other and, even if the story is forced and patently menu-led (one from company A, one from Company B, over and over againâ€¦), there are still some nice fanatic-friendly touches and witty in-jokes whilst inarguably the artwork – every millimetre stuffed with manic detail and wry, deferential tributes and touches – is amongst the very best George PÃ©rez has ever produced.

If you like this sort of thing this is certainly one of the best of its ilkâ€¦

September 21, 2012September 19, 2012

Ultimate Comics X-Men: His Will be Done

By Nick Spencer, Carlo Barberi, Paco Medina, Walden Wong & Juan Vlasco (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-516-1

Marvel’s Ultimates imprint launched in 2000 with major characters and concepts re-imagined to bring them into line with the presumed-different tastes of modern readers.

Eventually the alternate, darkly nihilistic universe became as continuity-constricted as its predecessor, and in 2008 the cleansing event â€œUltimatumâ€ culminated in a reign of terror which apparently (this is still comics, after all) killed dozens of super-humans and millions of lesser mortals.

The era-ending event was a colossal tsunami triggered by mutant terrorist messiah Magneto which inundated the superhero-heavyisland ofManhattan and utterly devastated the world’s mutant population. The X-Men – as well as many other superhuman heroes and villains â€“ died, and in the aftermath anybody classed as â€œHomo Superiorâ€ had to surrender to the authorities or be shot on sight. Understandably most survivors as well any newly emergent X-people kept themselves well hiddenâ€¦

Mutants had always been feared and despised: as the indisputable inheritors of Earth, the often lethally-empowered and wildly uncontrollable creatures were generally believed to be an intrinsically hostile species; a new race destined to take the world from humanity the way we took it from the Neanderthalsâ€¦

This second compilation continues to document the return of mutants to the post-deluge world, collecting Ultimate Comics: X-Men issues #7-12 (April-September 2012) as the alternate Earth begins to crumble from the horrific tide of ongoing disasters following the cataclysmic flood. (For fuller comprehension the reader is also advised that a thorough reading of companion series Ultimate Comics: the Ultimates volumes 1 & 2 will greatly enhance understanding of the parlous state of this alternate universe in its darkest hoursâ€¦)

In a grandiose and compelling story-arc by writer Nick Spencer, artists Carlo Barberi, Paco Medina, Walden Wong & Juan Vlasco and colourist Marte Gracia, the slow descent into catastrophe and chaos continues after a shattering announcement from Presidential Special Advisor on Superhuman and Mutant Affairs Valerie Cooper. When she publicly disclosed that X-people, proliferating around the globe, were the result of a 50-year old American program of covert genetic manipulation which got out of control, rather than a result of inexorable evolution and natural selection, humanity went crazy.

In a world where Homo Superior are registered like assault weapons and imprisoned in internment camps, and where good, normal God-fearing folk would rather execute their children than have them grow up afflicted with the sin of â€œmutant-nessâ€, the news instantly caused uproar and riot across the nation all over the worldâ€¦

Former X-Man Karen Grant (nee Jean Grey) has been continuing Charles Xavier‘s dream of fostering Human/Mutant co-existence when the news not only ripped the rug out from under her; but drove her young charges into a state of rebellion.

Especially upset was Jimmy Hudson, who heard on National TV that his dead father Wolverine was the US Military’s ‘Mutant Zero’ and all the pain, prejudice, horror and super-powered proliferation stemmed from that subject’s initial escape from American captivity five decades earlierâ€¦

In the aftermath of the announcement and with the entire world in crisis from a genetic arms-race in Asia (see Ultimate Comics: Hawkeye and The Ultimates: The Republic is Burning), the President unexpectedly sidelined S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury in favour of co-operation with Magneto’s son Pietro Lensherr who had inherited control of the terrorist group known as the Brotherhood of Mutants.

The super-swift manipulator had a Faustian Bargain for the severely embattled Leader of the Free World, but their plans were subverted by fundamentalist preacher Reverend William Stryker who seized control of the government’s Sentinel technology and used it to attack mutants all overAmerica as part of his genocidal crusade to purify humanityâ€¦

Quicksilver‘s plan had been to co-opt the new Nimrod Sentinels to his own purposes but Stryker had outwitted him: taking control of the entire Sentinel program, the hate-filled preacher had unleashed every killer robot inAmerica’s arsenal to hunt down all the remaining mutants wherever they might be hidingâ€¦

With Nimrods executing victims everywhere, His Will be Done opens as Pietro, reeling at the repercussions of his failed scheme, is unable to outrace the deaths he has caused amongst his rapidly depleting people. His guilt-charged flight leads to a savage confrontation with his missing sister Wanda and the revelation that the World’s deadliest mutant has returnedâ€¦

Meanwhile in Asiatwo floating cities house the Earth’s latest metahuman races: both Celestials and Eternals are the result of state-sponsored scientific tampering which turned thousands of unwilling victims into another deadly super-powered population threatening embattled humanity just by existing. Moreover their ill-advised creators had already released a tailored-plague which neutralised those genes which caused mutants to develop, hoping to corner the market in living weapons by eradicating naturally occurring super-humans.

Of course now everybody knew that there was nothing natural about mutant genesisâ€¦

In Washington, Fury thinks Jean Grey is working for him and leading his Ultimate X Homo Superior task force against targets he has selected – but he couldn’t be more wrongâ€¦

Meanwhile in the remote Mutant Internment enclave Camp Angel, the human guards are casually torturing former X-Man Colossus whilst his former comrade Storm determinedly advocates a policy of appeasement and good behaviour in the face of Warden Colonel Lake‘s obvious company-line cant about keeping mutants safe and contained for their own good.

Some of the younger mutants are increasingly swayed by the rabble-rousing demagogue Stacy X, but trouble really occurs after the prisoners see Valerie Cooper’s televised announcement, whichLake’s guards were too slow to interceptâ€¦

With tensions rising Storm abandons her pacifist stance and destroys all the Sentinel defences, leaving the human guards helpless before the enraged and liberated mutants. After freeing Colossus the internees discover what other atrocities the normals have been secretly perpetrating against the captives and, after a close but heated discussion, enact their own form of justice on the Warden. However before the situation can escalate further the sky is filled with unstoppable Nimrod sentinels who begin their program of eradication by targeting human and mutant alikeâ€¦

â€¦And after the Camps, the Nimrods turn their attention on the cities of humanity which foolishly allowed mutants to live amongst them, before beginning to construct their own robotic god and masterâ€¦

This volume concludes by focusing on another lost strand of mutant lore, as in a quiet corner of New York State, a sinister stranger slaughters all the patients and staff at an exclusive mental healthcare facility to liberate the cosmic-powered Alex Summers and bring him to the offices of one of the world’s most devious and corrupt corporations.

Summers is bemused and bewildered: constantly conversing with his dead brother Scott, but if he suspected just what undying monstrosity has returned, even in his deranged state the hero once called Havoc would recoil in very rational dreadâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

This welcome return to the darkly trenchant and cynical Ultimate fare, with the trademark post-modernity and bleakly brutal action, still delivers the grim ‘n’ gritty punch fans crave, but with so much backstory to absorb this is definitely not a book for anybody thinking on jumping on to the decidedly different world of Wonder. Nevertheless the striking drama and returning cast-favourites will certainly please those older readers who love this savage iteration of superhero sagas and any casual readers who are more familiar with the company’s movies than the comic-books.
A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd. Licensed from Marvel Characters B.V. â„¢ & Â© 2012 Marvel & Subs. All Rights Reserved.

September 20, 2012September 19, 2012

Ultimate Comics the Utimates: Two Cities. Two Worlds.

By Jonathan Hickman & Sam Humphries, Esad Ribic & Luke Ross with Ron Garney, Butch Guice, Leonard Kirk & Patrich Zicher (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-517-8

Marvel’s Ultimates imprint began in 2000 with a new post-modern take on major characters and concepts to bring them into line with the presumed different tastes of 21st century readers and free of the sixty years of accumulated continuity baggage which had saturated the originals.

Eventually even this darkly nihilistic new universe became as continuity-constricted as its ancestor, and in 2008 the cleansing event â€œUltimatumâ€ culminated in a reign of terror and Tsunami which excised dozens of super-humans and millions of lesser mortals, courtesy of mutant menace Magneto.

In the aftermath the meta-human survivors struggled to restore order to a dangerous new worldâ€¦

This compilation collects Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates issue #7-12 (published in comicbook form from April to September 2012) which continued and expanded the core-story for the latest relaunch of the constantly-changing grim and gritty alternate universe.

Before the Deluge, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury ran an American Black Ops team of super-humans called the Avengers, but he was removed from his position for blatant rule-bending – and being caught.

In the wake of the global inundation, civil war amongst the covert ops community, and deadly brushfire wars which have broken out all over the planet, Fury returned to seize control of the entire spook-show, along with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s army of secret agents and both clandestine super-squad The Avengers and the officially sanctioned Ultimates: a superhero team as much for vote-winning public consumption as traditional world-savingâ€¦

Civilisation is falling apart at a phenomenal rate. Metahumans are classed as Weapons of Mass Destruction and personal superpowers are now the focus of a terrifying global arms race. In Asia the new nation SEAR (SouthEastAsianRepublic) dissolved into bloody conflict after developing a serum which randomly sparked fantastic abilities in humans. The plan was to corner the living weapon market and they tried to stack the deck by simultaneously releasing a global virus which neutralised the genes which triggered natural mutationâ€¦

When the Asian state collapsed from internal dissent and open warfare, a dual metahuman nation was established and these Celestials and Eternals began offering super-powers to anybody wanting the Serumâ€¦

Meanwhile premiere hero Spider-Man was murdered, resurrected WWII super soldier Captain America had gone AWOL and the gods of Asgard, who had been dragged from their heavenly halls and marooned on Earth, were slaughtered by a new fantastic race called the Children of Tomorrow.

Thor was the sole survivor of the Aesir, although deprived forever of his magic hammer and elemental thunder. Moreover, the last god was perpetually haunted by the ghosts of all the fallen Asgardians who constantly called out to himâ€¦

The Children were the results of a fantastic experiment by the Maker – in actuality disgraced and insane genius Reed Richards – who created a high-tech dome inNorthern Germany where enhanced time and ruthless scientific augmentation enabled the inhabitants to hyper-evolve thousands of years in the space of a few days.

The Dome inexorably expanded and absorbed much of Western Europe, despite every effort of the region’s superhumans, until Thor raided the City within, aided by boffin Sam Wilson (AKA the Falcon) and freed captive hero Captain Britain.

Unable to stop the Children, defeated humanity could only wait for the endâ€¦

The saga continues as Fury and his surviving operatives Falcon, Hawkeye and Black Widow attempt to forge an alliance with the elevated inhabitants of Tian, but the Celestials of Xorn and Eternals of Zorn are initially reluctant to join. That all changes once Richards, in his arrogance, flamboyantly murders the celestial envoy Shu-Tan, Oracle of Peace, provoking an unprecedented and unsuspected retaliation from Zorn, whose exposure to the enhancement serum dubbed The Source transformed him into a sentient singularityâ€¦

S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Flumm is attempting to oust Nick Fury and begins his campaign by blackmailing Bruce Banner into attacking the Dome. Initially successful the Hulk‘s assault goes catastrophically wrong when Richards convinces Banner to switch allegiances, even as inAmerica, the President launches the nation’s entire nuclear arsenal at the ever-evolving city. To ensure no interference the Commander-in-Chief has invoked â€œthe Winter Protocolsâ€ and set S.H.I.E.L.D. forces to capture and/or kill both the Ultimates and Avengersâ€¦

In New York the permanently drunk Thor and Iron Man Tony Stark – secretly dying of a malignant brain tumour – easily repulse their Federal attackers even as the missiles close in and the Children of Tomorrow engage the enraged forces of the Eternals and Celestials in the skies above Europe.

Even the nuclear fusillade and Zorn’s attack could not obliterate the Dome but the collective, component intelligence of the living City beneath is badly damaged. In retaliation the Maker unleashes the Hulk and a very special Child of Tomorrow he had cultured without the knowledge of the hive-mind to exact bloody vengeance. The deadly child then eradicatesWashingtonDCâ€¦

As the shock of losing the capital and the entire ruling structure sinks in, self-promoted S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Flumm is further frustrated when Fury escapes arrest and disappears just as his former employees come for him. This also allows Falcon, Hawkeye and the Widow to escape captureâ€¦

Tony Stark is suffering badly and experiencing complex hallucinations – constantly arguing with a younger version of himself – but still has a brilliant plan to strike back at Richards and the Children. Sadly it involves turning himself in to the ambitious Flumm and new Leader of the Free World President Howard, who only a day previously was the earnest but under-qualified Secretary of Energy.

This new POTUS can’t even cope with the relatively minor and pedestrian crisis of a state seceding from theUnionand declaring itself an independent nation. Still, backed up by the advanced technology of the four biggest S.H.I.E.L.D. bases inAmerica, now happily defending the New Republic of Texas, this is a problem that also needs dealing with immediatelyâ€¦

Recruiting Richards’ estranged wife Sue – a brilliant scientist and super-powered survivor of the defunct Fantastic Four – Stark allows himself to be traded to the increasingly unstable Maker in his damaged Dome, whilst unknown to all in the devastated ruins of fallen Asgard something strange and magical is awakeningâ€¦

With Hawkeye and his comrades on the run and seeking allies from the top secret West Coast Operational Security (another of the eternally paranoid Fury’s off-the-books super-team projects), S.H.I.E.L.D.’s usurper Director is rapidly losing control and cannot cope with any more bad newsâ€¦

Ebullient and utterly jazzed with his ultimate triumph, Reed Richards is delighted with his peace offering from President Howard and happily begins torturing his greatest intellectual rival, but Stark has an incredible implausible plan and by the most impossible of stratagems turns the City and its collective populace against its Maker, allowing Thor and the Invisible Woman to invade the Dome. However the Hulk, now enlarged to the size of a building, is waiting for themâ€¦

â€¦And in the Arctic, news of the World’s imminent demise finally reaches a Star-Spangled hermit who had thought himself finally beyond the reach of humanity and his own irrepressible sense of dutyâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Once again this hot-off-the-presses epic pauses on a potent cliffhanger as what might well be the Last Battle of the Ultimate Marvel Universe moves towards a catastrophic end-game with scripters Jonathan Hickman and Sam Humphries providing gripping suspense and spectacular tension. Illustrators Esad Ribic, Luke Ross, Ron Garney, Butch Guice, Leonard Kirk & Patrich Zicher readily transform the tale into stunning action-packed visuals that will enthral and astound all fans of grim and gritty cosmic costumed drama, and this slick and compulsive read for older Fights ‘n’ Tights fans also includes an impressive cover gallery by Kaare Andrews & Oliver Coipel which adds even more impact to the book’s artistic appeal.

Much more in tune with the feel and sensibilities of the assorted Movie franchises than the traditional comicbook market, the post-modernity and cynical, bleak adventure delivers the visceral shocks and staggering revelations fans of this sub-imprint seem addicted to.

Whilst perhaps not the best book for anybody thinking of jumping on to the decidedly different Ultimate World, Two Cities. Two Worlds. will certainly strike a chord with older readers who love the darkest side of superheroes and those who know the company’s films better than their publications.
A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd. Licensed from Marvel Characters B.V. â„¢ & Â© 2012 Marvel & Subs. All Rights Reserved.

September 15, 2012September 12, 2012

Outsiders: Five of a Kind

By many and various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1672-6

Set after and resulting from the earth-shaking events of 52, this tension-drenched, fast-paced series always combined gritty metahuman angst with ferocious action and a huge helping of wry, bleak cynicism as it followed a band of outcast and undercover champions into places and situations safe, regular superheroes wouldn’t and couldn’t go, but times and changing fashions – and probably shrinking sales – eventually predicated the return of Batman to the masthead and the mix of epic unrealpolitik and edgy, cynically grim-and-gritty nastinessâ€¦

Finally exposed to a world which had believed them all dead, and also blamed for setting off an atomic blast which devastated a large part of Russia, the underground metahuman coalition known as The Outsiders – â€œrogueâ€ superheroes who proactively sought out threats and ignored political boundaries or repercussions – found themselves on the edge of oblivion as their series hurtled towards a blistering climax and a major reboot.

Following the spectacular crossover Outsiders/ Checkmate: Check Out this concluding collection gathers five one-shots (released under the umbrella title Five of a Kind) in which Batman auditioned established members and intriguing alternates to form the core of a new covert unit which worked on the peripheries of the system, beyond the niceties of the law, but always at the Dark Knight’s express commandâ€¦

Collecting Nightwing and Captain Boomerang Jr., Katana and Shazam!, Thunder and Martian Manhunter, Metamorpho and Aquaman, and Grace and Wonder Woman as well as that climactic last issue finale in Outsiders #50, the drama begins after a mercifully concise text recap with ‘Grudge Match’ by Nunzio Defillipis, Christina Weir & Freddie Williams III, wherein the super-fast son of Digger Harkness and Batman’s oldest protÃ©gÃ© were dispatched to investigate a space station that had gone ominously dark, only to find a deadly chemical menace and brutal betrayalâ€¦

‘The Queen of Swords & the King of Rock’ by Mike W. Barr, Kevin Sharpe & Robin Riggs, saw Katana and magical maven Captain Marvel invade the ghostly realm where her sword imprisoned the souls of all the people it had killed to forestall a rebellion of the doubly-damnedâ€¦

‘Bug-Eyed Monsters’ (Tony Bedard, Koi Turnbull & Art Thibert) found J’onn J’onzz and the tempestuous daughter of Black Lightning investigating an alien incursion miles beneath the Earth’s crust, only to stumble into Grayven, Prince of Apokolips, a murdering maniac fleeing the unstoppable eradicator of his species (for which check out the imaginatively titled The Death of the New Gods), whilst ‘Rogue Elements’ by G. Willow Wilson & Josh Middleton saw the Chemical Crusader and a very raw replacement Sea King try to save an aquifer under the Sahara Desert from contamination and corporate exploitation with the unexpected assistance of Arabic Avenger Hadya.

Finally ‘Member of the Tribe’ (Marc Andreyko, Cliff Richards & Thibert) plunged irascible orphan Grace into a storm of anti-Amazon prejudice and a potential nuclear nightmare that not even distant cousin Wonder Woman could help her with before all the weary applicants reluctantly reunited for a fraught epilogue by Bedardâ€¦

The convolutedÂ casting-call concluded with ‘You Killed the Outsiders!’ by Bedard, Matthew Clark, Ron Randall & Art Thibert, as the Dark Knight sent his newly-minted but utterly unhappy undercover ultra-squad to infiltrate a nightclub where only the weirdest and wildest of Gotham’s criminal underworld hung out.

What they didn’t know was that the sting wasn’t to trap bad guys but rather off-the-books government spooks illegally rounding them up and deporting them without due process to an alien worldâ€¦

For the end of that tale you’ll need to see the companion graphic novel JLA: Salvation Runâ€¦

As much a clearing of the decks as cleansing of the palate, this last hurrah still delivers a supremely stylish knockout Fights ‘n’ Tights punch that older fans will truly appreciate and if you love outrageous adventure, sexy heroes and truly vile bad-guys (many of them working for â€œour sideâ€), this deliciously dark, utterly OTT compilation has great pace, superb dialogue, loads of gratuitous violence and beautifully cool art.

Brutal, uncompromising and savagely action-packed, the maverick tendencies of the Outsiders ended long ago, yet these painfully plausible superhero sagas are still gripping, shocking and extremely readable: compelling comics tales which will enthral all serious fans of the genre.
Â© 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

September 14, 2012September 12, 2012

Spider-Man: The Osborn Identity

By Brian Reed & Philippe Briones with Patrick Olliffe, Chad Hardin, Wayne Faucher, Stephen Segovia, Hector Olazaba, Joe Caramagna & Todd Nauck (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-7851-4687-2

When the Spider-Man continuity was drastically dialled-back and controversially revised for the ‘Brand New Day’ publishing event, a refreshed, now single-and-never-been-married Peter Parker was parachuted into a 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.

That being said, in any continuity the Wall-Crawler’s greatest and most implacable foe will always be Norman Osborn, whether in his guise as the grotesque Green Goblin or as an insidious billionaire inventor/industrialist turned politician.

The psychotic Osborn has dogged Spider-Man/Peter Parker for years even though his abused son Harry was the maligned hero’s greatest friend and the stress and strain has, over time, turned the Osborn heir into a drug addict, a costumed carbon copy of his old man and latterly, a certifiable basket case.

Callously oblivious, Norman, through various machinations became America’s Security Czar: the â€œtop-copâ€ in sole charge of the beleaguered nation’s defence and freedom, especially in regard to the USA’s costumed community.

Under his draconian tenure the Superhuman Registration Act led to the Civil War, Captain America was arrested, murdered and resurrected and numerous horrific assaults on mankind occurred: including the Secret Invasion and the oppressive Dark Reign as Osborn drove the World’s Mightiest Heroes underground and formed his own team of deadly Dark Avengers.

Not content with commanding all the covert and military resources of the USA, Osborn personally led the team, wearing his own formidable suit of Iron Man armour and calling himself the Iron Patriot, even while conspiring with a coalition of major super-villains to divvy up the world between them.

He finally overreached himself and led an unsanctioned assault on Asgard (see Siege: the Cabal) and when the fugitive Avengers reunited to stop him, Osborn’s fall from grace and subsequent incarceration led to a new Heroic Age.

During that period of ascendancy however, Osborn had again attempted to dominate, subjugate and manipulate his disgustingly disappointing heir Harry by dosing him with a mind-and-body bending blend of Goblin potions and Super-Soldier serum and forcing him to don a genetically triggered cybernetic super-suit, so that his unwilling boy could join the Dark Avengers as the crushingly conflicted American Sonâ€¦

Thanks to Spider-Man however, Harry finally overcame his deadly daddy’s diabolical influence and violently turned on his sire. In the aftermath the shocked and traumatised junior Osborn retired to a life of anonymity and therapyâ€¦

This slight but engaging sequel – containing the 4-part mini-series Amazing Spider-Man Presents: American Son and supplemental material from Age of Heroes #2 – opens with a prologue tale from that latter anthology as ‘Heroic Rage’ by Brian Reed, Chad Hardin & Hector Olazaba, finds scoop-starved reporter Norah Winters on the scene when the American Son spectacularly slaughters a rampaging monster. She jumps to the same conclusion as the late-arriving Spider-Man that the certifiably unstable Harry Osborn is back inside the high-tech armourâ€¦

The saga proper – by Reed and artists Philippe Briones, Hardin, Patrick Olliffe, Wayne Faucher & Stephen Segovia – commences with ‘A Patriot Act’ as the recovering Harry, now running a coffee shop on the campus of Empire State University, is increasingly harassed by news-teams and paparazzi as American Son continues to appear in steadily escalating and high profile emergencies and in clashes with street thugs.

As the troubled vendor’s flatmate Mary Jane Watson asks Peter Parker to have a word with his former friend, both Norah and the FBI separately confront Harry, unwilling to believe that somebody else can be using the full-body weapons-system specifically geared to Osborn genesâ€¦

Harry is already at breaking point when Spider-Man also challenges him, but explodes in violent rage when the web-spinner also refuses to believe in his innocenceâ€¦

Returning to the Coffee Bean, Harry serves one last customer who awkwardly introduces himself as Gabriel Stacy before abruptly claiming to Norman Osborn’s other child, pulling a gun and shooting the astounded baristaâ€¦

In ‘The Other Son’ the enigmatic armoured object of media-frenzy then smashes through the wall and frantically rushes Harry to medical aid, categorically proving that the suit is being used by somebody else and leading to a swift change of priorities for the FBI, if not Norah.

Despite a credible threat, the merely wounded and incensed Harry checks himself out of hospital and teams up with the penitent yet determinedly suspicious Winters to track down the impossible truth.

First stop is a terrifying prison visit with Osborn Senior which culminates in the enraged madman claiming Gabriel is his true sonâ€¦

With all she needs and Harry for corroboration, Norah goes straight to her editor with the story of a lifetime, but Stacy’s secret is far more crazy and convoluted than any of them could possibly suspectâ€¦

‘Side Effects’ further ramps up the psychological tension as good old police work determines how, if not why, American Son saved Harry from Gabriel’s murderous assault, but not before the other Osborn child kidnaps Norah and takes her to one of the Green Goblin’s old hideouts, leading to a spectacular and cataclysmic three (or is it four?) way showdown between Harry, Spider-Man and the terrifyingly twisted possessor of the sinister super-suit in ‘American Slayed’â€¦

With the shocking suspense ended and order temporarily restored, there’s even room for a charming human interest yarn from Joe Caramagna & Todd Nauck as cash-strapped Harry battles a corporate incursion that threatens to undercut and close the Coffee Bean.

Luckily old friends, the outrÃ© tastes of ESU students, a handy drop-in by Spider-Man and a video-blogging super-villain eventually prove more than a match for the big-business blandishments of ‘Bargain Donuts!’ and Harry happily lives to brew another dayâ€¦

Despite feeling a little rushed in places, this is a solid, engaging old-fashioned Fights ‘n’ Tights drama refreshingly focusing on the rich supporting cast and perfectly capturing the familial feel that made Spider-Man sagas such a compelling experience.
Â© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

September 12, 2012September 10, 2012

Iron Man: War of the Iron Men

By Fred Van Lente, Matteo Casali, Steve Kurth & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4730-5

First conceived in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis at a time when the economy was booming and â€œCommie-bashingâ€ was an American national obsession, the emergence of a new and sexy young Thomas Edison using Yankee ingenuity, wealth and determination to safeguard the Land of the Free and better the World seemed an obvious development. Combining the then-sacrosanct faith that technology and business in unison could solve any problem with the universal imagery of noble knights battling evil, the Invincible Iron Man seemed an infallibly successful proposition.

Of course whilst Tony Stark was the acceptable face of 1960s Capitalism – a glamorous millionaire industrialist and a benevolent all-conquering hero when clad in the super-scientific armour of his alter-ego Iron Man – the turbulent tone of the 1970s soon relegated his suave, â€œcan-doâ€ image to the dustbin of history, and with ecological disaster and social catastrophe from the myriad abuses of big business the new zeitgeists of the young, the Golden Avenger and Stark International were soon confronting a few tricky questions from the increasingly politically savvy readership.

With glamour, money and fancy gadgetry not quite so cool anymore, the questing voices of a new generation of writers began posing uncomfortable questions in the pages of a series that was once the bastion of militarised America â€¦

Arch-technocrat and supreme survivor Stark has had many roles in the Marvel Universe since his debut in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963) when, as a visitor to an East Asian war-zone, he was critically wounded and captured by sinister, cruel Communists. Put to work building weapons with the dubious promise of medical assistance on completion, Stark instead created the first Iron Man armour to keep himself alive and deliver him from his oppressors.

Since then the inventor and armaments manufacturer became a liberal capitalist, eco-pioneer, space pioneer, Federal politician, Statesman and even Director of the world’s most scientifically advanced spy agency, the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate.

â€¦And, of course, one of the world’s most prominent superheroes with the Mighty Avengers…

At this time in the mainstream Marvel universe, the perpetually shell-shocked citizenry of the planet are still recovering from an interminable series of major and almost annual catastrophes such as the Civil War and a Secret Invasion by shape-shifting Skrulls, and technical wizard and billionaire weapon-smith Stark has been publicly revealed to the world as the armour-clad superhero Iron Man – or at least one of them…

In this brief but decidedly back-to-basics compilation (collecting from 2010 the first 5-part story-arc of the on-going series Iron Man Legacy, plus a tale from the one-shot Iron Man: Titanium), Stark has cut himself loose from all his Governmental affiliations and returned to the life of a maverick entrepreneur, happily endangering the profits of global energy interests with his new, clean and cheap Arc Reactor technology.

Even as Iron Man is quelling rioting â€œenvironmental activistsâ€ – actually saboteurs in the pay of â€œBig Oilâ€ – ancient ethnic strife in the Balkan country of Transia is turning into a very one-sided genocidal bloodbath as the Muslim Romani are targeted by Slavic death-squads calling themselves Zmaj and wearing old versions of Stark’s Iron Man armour.

It is the inventor’s worst nightmare come to life again. As the son of America’s greatest munitions maker, Tony is tormented by the generations of innocent blood spilled by the Stark dynasty’s genius, but whereas his father Howard always looked for more effective methods of carrying out combat, his heir has always believed his own inventions saved more lives than they cost. However, night after night the news shows helpless men, women and children slaughtered by barbaric travesties of his greatest creationâ€¦

With Russiaand China- both protecting illegitimate energy interests in the region – stalling the debate, the UN is locked in interminable useless argument over the situation and Tony is ordered by the American authorities not to interfere. But ignoring the advice – and commands – of the powers-that-be and his closest friends and allies, the tormented inventor goes undercover, invading the blood-soaked combat zone masquerading as one of his own bodyguards, leaving an android Tony Stark in charge of his company, programmed to placate the press and deter Federal gadfly Henry Peter Gyrich of the Metahuman Affairs Commission.

Utilising all his latest upgrades and innovations and with the aid of old Romani woman Nina, Stark begins hunting down and destroying the Iron Man knock-offs but soon discovers some are equipped with tech and kit that hasn’t even made it off his drawing board yet. Somehow, the rabid killers have a pipeline into the most secure crannies of Stark Enterprisesâ€¦

Moreover, Transia’s neighbour Latveria is eagerly offering the assistance the UN is unable to expedite, but Doctor Doom never does anything for anyone but himselfâ€¦

Still believing himself to have the upper hand, Iron Man is unexpectedly overwhelmed in blistering battle against his purloined creations and becomes a prisoner of the Zmaj leader Darko and his armourer Svarog, a being claiming to be the Slavic god of blacksmithsâ€¦

Once more put to work building weapons for bloody monsters, Stark meets fellow prisoner Dragana, a mutilated Romani genius forced into building and repairing the unstoppable Iron Warriors, knowing full well they are being used to exterminate her own people.

Those oppressed folk have a champion of their own now: Stark’s old foe Dreadknight has come to save the Romani at the express command of Doctor Doom, but what the Master of Latveria really wants is the pod of Stark Tech the infuriated but too-trusting inventor left in Nina’s barnâ€¦

History repeats itself as Stark again builds himself a weapon suit to escape his captors. But as he blasts free promising to return for the wheelchair-bound psychologically broken Dragana, the American is intercepted by Dreadknightâ€¦

Despite overwhelming odds Stark is victorious, but in Americahis deception has been discovered and his trusted assistant Pepper Potts arrested by Gyrich. Moreover Russiaand Chinahave dispatched super-powered assets to the region to clean things up quickly and quietly, but such ruthless agents as Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man and the Radioactive Man are chronically incapable of doing anything subtly, especially when their oldest enemy is there to muddy the waters and stubbornly resist their unmatchable nationalistic mightâ€¦

The Iron Dictator, meanwhile, has incorporated the stolen Stark Tech into his latest generation of Doombots and moved to his long-planned endgame: annexing Transia and all its unimaginably secret untapped resources at the request of its endangered minorities, making it an autonomous Protectorate of Latveriaâ€¦

As Iron Doombots invade the conflicted country, only Stark’s erstwhile enemies and a newly minted-national champion forged in this moment of final crisis are able to protect Transia until the original and genuine Iron Man finally triumphs over Doomâ€¦

Even then there’s that traitor to find at Stark and a hidden American instigator behind all the bloodshed to expose and punishâ€¦

Short, sweet, shocking and surprisingly engaging, this compelling Fights ‘n’ Tights thriller by Fred Van Lente & Steve Kurth offers breakneck pace, astounding action and superbly suspenseful global realpolitik underpinnings that will satisfy any fan who likes their fantasy tinged with a touch of contemporary hyper-authenticity.

This book also includes a stunning cover-gallery displaying the artistic talents of Francis Tsai, Brandon Peterson, Salvador Larroca, Pascal Alixe, Bill Pressing, Ryan Meinerding and a photographic movie variant cover-spread, as well as finding time and space for a blockbusting brief encounter between the Golden Avenger and a giant alien robot in ‘Heavy Rain’ by Matteo Casali & Kurth, originally seen as part of the Iron Man: Titanium one-shot.

Gritty, clever and hard-hitting, this is another explosively entertaining yarn that will delight regular fans, with the rare added bonus of being self-contained and readily accessible to new, returning or casual readers.
Â© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

September 11, 2012September 10, 2012

Superman: the Action Comics Archives volume 5

By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Don Cameron, Ed Dobrotka, Sam Citron, Ira Yarbrough, John Sikela & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1188-2

It’s almost incontrovertible: the American comicbook industry – if it existed at all – would be an utterly unrecognisable thing without the invention of Superman. His unprecedented adoption by a desperate and joy-starved generation quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form.

Within three years of his 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment which hallmarked the early Man of Steel had grown to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, socially reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East embroiled America, patriotic relevance.

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

The Golden Age greats herein reprinted from issues #69-85 of the groundbreaking anthology Action Comics begin their mind-warping wonderment after a fond Foreword reminiscence from Silver Age scribe and comicbook International Treasure Roy Thomas

Co-creator Jerry Siegel was finally called up in 1943 and his prodigious script output was curtailed, necessitating greater contributions from the ingenious and multi-faceted Don Cameron and others, whilst Joe Shuster – increasingly debilitated by failing eyesight and tied up producing the far more prestigious newspaper strip – had to leave the bulk of the artwork in the hands of the trusty, ever-changing stalwarts of the Superman Studio who were drawing most of the comicbook output at this time.

By this time though the quality of the source material began to suffer slightly as Siegel & Shuster’s rotating band of artistic stand-ins were themselves continually called away to serve in the armed forces, but the three magazines supplying the Metropolis Marvel’s core readership (Action Comics, Superman and World’s Finest Comics) always adapted and always came through with more and greater spectacular thrills, spills and chills to cope with the relentless demands of the growing legion of fans.

Superman was definitely every kid’s hero, as confirmed yet again in this classic compendium which saw the Man of Tomorrow and the avid audiences through the last weary days of World War II.

Due to the exigencies of periodical publishing, although the terrific tales collected in this fabulous fifth hardback tome putatively take the Man of Steel from February 1944 to June 1945, since cover-dates described return-by, not on-sale dates they were all prepared well in advance, and real-world events and reactions took a little time to filter through to the furious four-colour pages, so some of the stories have a tinge of uncertainty and foreboding that was swiftly fading from the minds of the public as the far more immediate movie-newsreels showed an inexorable turning of the tide in the Allies’ favour.

As the months rolled by however, mention of the conflict declined as the characters got on with the business of battling for Truth, Justice and the American Way, unencumbered by the dwindling threat of real-world monsters and tyrantsâ€¦

There’s no greater evidence of that fact than the simple realisation that only one of the stunning covers included in this compilation (#76, by Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye) has a war theme – and that’s directly pertinent to the tale within – whilst the rest by Boring, Kaye, Jack Burnley, Joe Shuster & John Sikela, all feature more general themes of calamity, comedy and criminality, augmented by the then-new notion of using the first image seen by readers to actually highlight the Superman story insideâ€¦

Action Comics #69 offered ‘The Lost-and-Found Mystery!’ (credited here to Sam Citron but more likely Ed Dobrotka illustrating a Siegel script) wherein pernicious plunderer The Prankster returned with a wily wrangle that involved using bogus small ads to extort money from prominent people with something to hide.

Issue #70 saw ‘Superman Takes a Holiday!’ (Cameron & Citron) when a criminal spree by the brilliantly insidious Thinker proved the villain had the Action Ace’s number. However the Gangster Genius couldn’t outwit merely mortal crimebuster Clark Kent, whilst a calamitous comedy of errors in #71’s ‘Valentine Villainy!’ (Cameron & Ira Yarbrough) saw Kent, Superman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and a bold jewel thief all collide and inadvertently trade their lovers’ lagniappes with heartbreaking, hilarious, catastrophic and near catastrophic results.

Although Action #72 saw the Man of Steel uncover Nazi spies in ‘Superman and the Super-Movers!’ by Siegel, Shuster & George Roussos, they were merely a throwaway sidebar to the gripping tale of a construction company performing big jobs for a clandestine criminal purpose, after which ‘The Hobby Robbers!’ (#73 by Siegel, Citron & Roussos) predicted today’s modern-day collector mania in an astute tale about the lengths enthusiasts will go to if their treasured possessions are pilfered. Oddly comicbooks were not one of the collections under threatâ€¦

Even today the authors of many early tales are still unknown to us, as with the delightfully daft romance illustrated by Yarbrough in #74. ‘The Courtship of Adelbert Dribble!’ saw a Jack Benny look-alike wimp lure the Man of Tomorrow into an ingenious trap simply so the sap could play Superman for a day and woo his far-from fair maid. Of course it all went awry but the Metropolis Marvel was eventually there to save the day and see true love victorious.

Also anonymous are the Yarbrough-limned ‘Aesop’s Modern Fables’ which pitted the Man of Steel against a cunning gangster who planned his capers along classical Greek lines, and the unconventional Dobrotka chiller ‘A Voyage to Destiny!’ wherein Superman’s early days were revisited as a spoiled trust-fund brat became a reluctant sailor in 1939, shipping out solely to secure his inheritance. However, after battling thugs and confronting Japanese soldiers – with the covert assistance of a Kryptonian Guardian Angel – wastrel Roger Carson had become a man Superman could be proud of, and a credit to the US Navyâ€¦

Action #77 – credited to Cameron & Dobrotka but possibly scripted by Siegel – saw the Prankster on his uppers until the rotund reprobate began scamming greedy but technically honest citizens with ‘The Headline Hoax!’ Happily Superman showed everybody the error of their ways before aiding ‘The Chef of Bohemia!’ (by Alvin Schwartz & Yarbrough in #78) whose simple diner supported many starving artists but stood in the way of murderous property speculatorsâ€¦

Micawber-like conman Wilbur J. Wolfingham reared his unscrupulous head in #79’s ‘The Golden Fleece!’ by Cameron & Yarbrough, attempting to con sheep-farmers into re-purchasing their own gold-salted properties until Lois and Superman again proved honesty was his best policy, after which zany pixy and madcap mystical gadfly ‘Mr. Mxyztplk Returns!’ found the aggravating elf driving Superman batty in a brilliantly bonkers yarn from Cameron & Yarbrough.

Action #81’s seasonal thriller ‘Fairyland Isle!’ (the first of two anonymous tales drawn by Yarbrough) saw Superman and a millionaire Santa Claus join forces to give deprived kids a free holiday, despite the worst efforts of two of the rich man’s greedy nephews, whilst a small town with big plans was plagued by a seemingly supernatural killer called ‘The Water Sprite!’ determined to scotch plans for an artificial lake until Lois and Clark did a little digging of their own in issue #82.

Siegel & Shuster reunited in #83 to introduce a team they clearly had high hopes for. ‘Hocus and Pocusâ€¦ Magicians by Accident!’ saw affable chumps Doc and Flannelhead, mistakenly believing themselves to have gained magical powers, threatened into committing miraculous crimes: luckily an ever-vigilant Man of Tomorrow was invisibly at their sides to set things rightâ€¦ Hocus and Pocus – and their indomitable bunny pal Moiton – set themselves up as consulting detectives at the end and would return to complicate Superman’s life again and againâ€¦

Joe Greene & John Sikela concocted the crafty crime tale ‘Tommy Gets a Zero!’ wherein a lovelorn little boy writes a report on gangsters for school and accidentally becomes Superman’s sidekick. Of course his teacher didn’t believe him but Tommy had a higher authority to appeal toâ€¦

This stellar collection concludes with the reappearance of another lethal old lag as the mercilessly murderous Toyman resurfaced, attacking apparently poor targets whilst secretly attempting to solve ‘The Puzzle in Jade!’ (by Cameron & Dobrotka). Happily Superman was there to keep casualties to a minimum and put the Ghastly Gamesman back in his prison boxâ€¦

These vintage vignettes offer irresistible and priceless enjoyment at an affordable price and this superbly robust and colourful format has inestimably advanced the prestige and social standing of the medium itself as well as preserving a vital part of American popular culture.

Still some of the very best action adventures any fan could ever find, these tales belong on your bookshelf in a place of easily accessible honour you can reach for over and over againâ€¦
Â© 1944, 1945, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

September 10, 2012September 7, 2012

Klaws of the Panther

By Jonathan Mayberry, Shawn Moll, Gianluca Gugliotta, Walden Wong & Pepe Larraz (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5118-0

Long lauded as the first black super hero character in American comics and one of the first to carry his own series, the Black Panther’s popularity and fortunes have waxed and waned since the 1960s when he attacked the Fantastic Four as part of an extended plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father. He was also the first Negro superhero in American comics, debuting in Fantastic Four #52 (cover-dated July 1966).

Time passed and T’Challa, son of T’Chaka was revealed as an African monarch whose hidden kingdom was the only source of a vibration-absorbing alien metal upon which the country’s immense wealth was founded. Those mineral riches – derived from a fallen meteor which struck the continent in lost antiquity – had enabled him to turn his country into a technological wonderland. The tribal wealth had long been guarded by a cat-like champion who derived physical advantages from secret ceremonies and a mysterious heart-shaped herb that ensured the generational dominance of the nation’s warrior Panther Cult.

In recent years the Vibranium mound had made the country a target for increasing subversion and incursion and after an all-out attack by the forces of Doctor Doom, culminating in the Iron Dictator seizing control of Wakanda, T’Challa was forced to render all Vibranium on Earth inert, defeating the invader but leaving his own homeland broken and economically shattered.

During this cataclysmic clash T’Challa’s flighty, spoiled brat half-sister Shuri took on the mantle of the Black Panther and became the clan and country’s new champion whilst her predecessor struggled with the disaster he had deliberately causedâ€¦

This slim, unassuming but extremely engaging Costumes Drama outing collects pertinent portions of the portmanteau Age of Heroes #4 and the guest-star packed Klaws of the Panther 4-part fortnightly miniseries from 2010-2011, and follows Shuri’s progress through the Marvel Universe as she strives to outlive her wastrel reputation, serve her country and the world and – most importantly – defeat the growing homicidal rage that increasingly burns within herâ€¦

The story starts with ‘Honor’ by Jonathan Mayberry, Shawn Moll & Walden Wong as the latest Panther Champion brutally repels an invasion by soldiers of AIM, merely the latest opportunist agency attempting to take over the decimated country of Wakanda. With her brother and Queen Storm absent, Shuri is also de facto ruler of the nation but faces dissent from her own people, as embarrassing reports and photos of her days as a millionaire good-time girl are continually being unearthed to stir popular antipathy to her and the Panther clan. So when opportunist G’Tuga of the outlawed White Gorilla sect challenges her for the role of national champion, Shuri almost sees the ritual combat as a welcome relief from insurmountable, intangible problems; but has badly misjudged her opponent and the sentiment of the peopleâ€¦

The main event by Mayberry, Gianluca Gugliotta & Pepe LarrazÂ opens with ‘Savage Tales’ as Shuri is lured to the fantastic dinosaur kingdom dubbed the Savage Land, where she hopes to purchase a supply of the metal-eating Vibranium isotope, but instead uncovers a deadly plot by Advanced Idea Mechanics and sentient sound-wave Klaw.

The incredible fauna of the lost world has been enslaved by the Master of Sound – who years ago murdered Shuri and T’Challa’s father in an earlier attempt to win ultimate power – and the villain has captured the region’s protector Ka-Zar whilst he strives to secure all the Savage Land Vibranium for his nefarious schemes.

Klaw however only thought he had fully compensated for the interference of Shuri and Ka-Zar’s wife Shanna the She-Devilâ€¦

Driven by a lust for vengeance, Shuri almost allows Klaw to destroy the entire Savage Land and only the timely intervention of mutant sister-in-law Storm prevents nuclear Armageddon in ‘Sound and Fury’, after which the impulsive Panther seeks out Wolverine on the outlaw island of Madripoor, looking for help with her out-of-control anger management issues. Once again however AIM attacks, attempting to steal the bandit nation’s priceless stockpile of Savage Land Vibranium but instead walking into a buzz saw of angry retributionâ€¦

Shuri is about to extract information from a surviving AIM agent in time-honoured Wakandan manner when Klaw appears, hinting at a world-shattering plan called â€œThe Screamâ€ which will use the mysterious device dubbed M.U.S.I.C. to totally remake the Earthâ€¦

After a deadly battle, the new Panther gains the upper hand by using SLV dust but squanders her hard-won advantage to save Wolverine from certain deathâ€¦

With knowledge that the entire planet is at stake Shuri acknowledges the need for major-league assistance in ‘Music of the Spheres’ but unfortunately the only one home at Avengers Tower is the relatively low-calibre Spider-Man, Reluctantly she takes the wisecracking half-wit on another raid on AIM and finally catches a break when one of Klaw’s AIM minions reveals the tragic secret of the horrific M.U.S.I.C deviceâ€¦

All this time the Black Panther has had a hidden ally in the form of tech specialist Flea who has been providing intel from an orbiting spaceship. Now the truth is revealed and the heroes find that Klaw’s plans are also centred on an attack from space. The maniac is intending to destroy humanity from an invulnerable station thousands of miles above the planet and nothing can broach the base’s incredible defences. However Spider-Man and ex-Captain America Steve Rogers know the world’s greatest infiltration expert and soon ‘Enter the Black Widow’ finds Earth’s last hopes depending on an all-or-nothing assault by the icily calm Panther and the planet’s deadliest spy.

Cue tragic sacrifice, deadly combat, spectacular denouement, reaffirmed dedication and a new start for the ferociously inspired and determined Black Pantherâ€¦

Slight but gloriously readable, this compelling thriller also comes with an impressive cover gallery by Jae Lee, Michael Del Mundo and Stephanie Hans, and also includes an information-packed text feature on Shuri’s life-history, career and abilities to bring the completist reader up to full speed.

If you don’t despise reboots and re-treads on unswerving principle and are prepared to give something new(ish) a go, there’s a lot of fun to be had in this infectious, fast-paced Fights ‘n’ Tights farrago, so why not set your sights and hunt this down?
Â© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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