Graphic Novels – Page 183

October 24, 2011October 23, 2011

Love and Rockets: New Stories volume 4

By The Hernandez Brothers (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-490-0

A year goes by like twelve long months when you’re waiting for a really special treat, but if that deferred object of desire is the next annual instalment of Love and Rockets: New Stories then the wait is always worth it.

One of the transcendent, formative forces of the 1980s comics revolution, Love and Rockets was an anthology magazine featuring the slick, intriguing, sci-fi tinged hi-jinx of punky young things Maggie and Hopey – las Locas – and heart-warming, gut-wrenching soap-opera epics set in a rural Central American paradise called Palomar.

The Hernandez Boys (three guys from Oxnard, California: Jaime, Gilberto and Mario), gifted synthesists all, enthralled and enchanted with incredible stories sampling and referencing a thousand influences – everything from Comics, TV cartoons, masked wrestlers and the exotica of American Hispanic pop culture to German Expressionism.

There was also a perpetual backdrop displaying the holy trinity of youth: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll – for which last please also include alternative music, hip hop and punk.

The result was dynamite. Mario only officially contributed on rare occasions, but Jaime’s slick, enticing visual forays explored friendship and modern love by destroying stereotypes of feminine attraction through his fetching coterie of Gals Gone Wild, whilst Gilberto created a hyper-real landscape and playground of wit and passion created for his extended generational saga Heartbreak Soup: a quicksilver chimera of breadline Latin-American village life with a vibrant, funny and fantastically quotidian cast.

The denizens of Palomar still inform and shape his latest tales both directly and as imaginative spurs for ostensibly unaffiliated stories.

Everything from life, death, adultery, magic, serial killing and especially gossip could happen in Palomar’s meta-fictional environs, as the artist mined his own post-punk influences via a devastatingly effective primitivist style which blended the highly personal mythologies of comics, music, drugs, powerful women, gangs, sex and family using a narrative format which is the graphic equivalent of Magical Realism.

Winning critical acclaim but scant financial reward the brothers eventually went their own ways but a few years ago creatively reunited to produce these annual collections of new material in their particularly peculiar shared or, rather, intermittently adjacent pen-and-ink universes.

This fourth volume commences with the third chapter of Jaime’s compelling â€œthose were the daysâ€ graphic revival of las Locas, aptly designated ‘The Love Bunglers’; further following the tribulations of middle-aged Maggie Chascarrillo, still looking for her life’s path and true love; still an uncomprehending, unsuspecting object of desire to the men – and some of the women – who flock around her.

Here the repercussions of the shocking return of her disturbed and long missing brother has shaken her world and looks likely to escalate into inescapable tragedyâ€¦

Gilbert again plunders the movie career of captivating, complex aging B-movie queen Fritz (See High Soft Lisp, The Troublemakers and Love from the Shadows) and her teen-tyro niece Dora â€œKillerâ€ Rivera – granddaughter of Palomar’s formidable Matriarch Luba and another pneumatic, no-nonsense, take-charge character determined to do everything her way and own all her own mistakes – for the trendy, torrid and trashy ‘King Vampire’: a beguiling contemporary fang-banger romance wherein a troubled teen and her geeky boy-pal are spurned by the local Goth gang but not the two true bloodsuckers who have just flapped into townâ€¦

‘The Love Bunglers part 4’ cleanses the pictorial palate nicely as Maggie continues to stumble from misapprehension to miscue, after which Jaime offers another glimpse into her formative years with ‘Return To Me’, a stunning prequel to the previous volume’s astonishing, revelatory ‘Browntown’â€¦

Gilbert then steps away from filmic conceit to examine the actress Fritz in the seductively mesmeric and innocuously shocking ‘And Then Reality Kicks In’ as the dowager starlet frankly discusses her drinking problem and stalled career with a friend before Jaime memorably closes out this year’s model with the poignant, trenchant and amazingly upbeat conclusion to ‘The Love Bunglers’

Warm-hearted, deceptively heart-wrenching, challenging, charming and irresistibly addictive, Love and Rockets: New Stories is a grown up comics fan’s dream come true and remains as valid and groundbreaking as its earlier incarnations – the diamond point of the cutting edge of American graphic narrative.

October 23, 2011October 23, 2011

Hulk volume 4: Hulk Vs. X-Force

By Jeph Loeb, Ian Churchill, Whilce Portacio & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4053-5

Bruce Banner was a military scientist who was accidentally caught in a gamma bomb blast of his own devising. As a result stress and other factors caused him to transform into a giant green monster of unstoppable strength and fury. As both occasional hero and mindless monster he rampaged across the Marvel Universe for decades, finally finding his size 700 feet and a format that worked, swiftly becoming one of young Marvel’s most popular features.

An incredibly popular character both in comics and more global media beyond, he has often undergone radical changes in scope and format to keep his stories fresh and his exploits explosively compellingâ€¦

In recent years the number of Gamma-mutated monsters rampaging across the Marvel landscape has proliferated to inconceivable proportions. The days of Bruce Banner getting angry and going Green are long gone, so anybody taking their cues from the TV or movie incarnations will be wise to assume a level of unavoidable confusion. There are now numerous assorted Hulks, She-Hulks, Abominations and all kinds of ancillary atomic berserkers roaming the planet, so be prepared to experience a little confusion if you’re coming to this particular character told. Nevertheless these always epic stories are generally worth the effort so persist if you can.

Even if you are familiar with Hulk history ancient and modern, you might be forgiven for foundering on the odd point of narrative, so this book, collecting a more-or-less self-contained episode of gamma-generated chaos and calamity (originally published in the latter part of 2009 as ‘Code Red’ in Hulk #14-18) provides a cathartic dose of destructive diversion with a minimum of head-hurting continuity conundrums.

What you need to know: a new, intelligent, ruthless and awesomely efficient Red Hulk has been operating in America, clearly not Banner but nevertheless quite to able to hold his own against such powerhouses as The Abomination and even Thor. His origins and intentions are unknown and he guards his human identity with terrifying ferocityâ€¦

This is all part of an overlong, ongoing plot by the world’s wickedest brain trust to conquer everything (as would be later seen in the epic Fall of the Hulks) but here the action is immediate and starts in ‘Eyewitness’ (by Loeb, Ian Churchill & Mark Farmer) when mutant bounty hunter Domino accidentally sees the Red Hulk transform and flees for her life, knowing the Crimson Colossus will stop at nothing to protect his secretâ€¦

The Bloody Behemoth, who has unspecified shady links to Gamma-endowed metahuman psychiatrist Doctor Leonard Samson and professional Hulk-hunter General â€œThunderboltâ€ Ross, gives chase, but soon loses the luck-warping mutant and so recruits a team of ruthless trackers comprising Deadpool, the Punisher, Crimson Dynamo, Thundra and Elektra with orders to silence her at all costsâ€¦

However Domino has friends of her own and in ‘Collision’ seeks help from Wolverine’s ultra-covert mutant wet-works squad which includes X-23, Archangel and Warpath: a lethal X-Force prepared to do whatever’s necessary to protect one of their ownâ€¦

After a blockbusting battle the mutants seem to be gaining the upper hand until a new wild card emergesâ€¦ a brutal Red She-Hulk who changes the game and demands the death of erstwhile ally Elektra in returnâ€¦

‘She’ reveals plots within ploys inside schemes as the Scarlet Juggernaut betrays both sides for her hidden masters, culminating with all-out carnage in the concluding episode ‘Man in the Mirror’ as a few apparent coincidences are revealed as part of a engrossing master-planâ€¦

With his complicity exposed Doc Samson takes centre-stage for the epilogue ‘Delilah’ (illustrated by Whilce Portacio & Danny Miki): a fascinating psycho-drama revealing the origins, motivations and hidden edges to the shrink all the heroes once trusted with their darkest, deepest secretsâ€¦

This bracing, bombastic battlebook also includes a 17 page cover gallery by Churchill, Farmer, Peter Steigerwald, Ed McGuiness, Dexter Vines, Chris Sotomayor, Dave Stewart and Jason Keith plus sketchbook/interview features with Churchill and Portacio with lots of pencil art and comedy strip bonus features ‘Hulk Gym’, ‘Hulk Movie’, ‘Hulk Date’, ‘Hulk Tonsils’ and ‘Hulk Dentist’ by Audrey Loeb, Carlos Silva & Dario Brizuela.

Whenever staggering, monumental Fights ‘n’ Tights turmoil is your fancy, the Hulk is always going to be at the top of every thrill-seekers hit listâ€¦

October 21, 2011October 19, 2011

Ultimate X: Origins

By Jeph Loeb, Arthur Adams & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-464-5

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 Magneto which inundated the superhero-heavy island of Manhattan and devastated the world’s mutant population. The X-Men as well as many other superhuman heroes and villains died and in the aftermath anybody classed as a ‘â€Homo 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€¦

This collection, re-presenting the long-delayed and much awaited Ultimate Comics: Ultimate X: Origins five part miniseries opens with the story of sixteen year-old wild-boy Jimmy Hudson, who terrifyingly discovers his true origins when he inexplicably survives a street-racing car-crash and is visited by a mysterious girl named Kitty Pride. She comes bearing a hologram message from the dead mutant-hero Wolverine which explains the boy’s incredible healing ability and the bony claws that keep inconveniently popping out of Jimmy’s knucklesâ€¦

â€œKaren Grantâ€ finds all her carefully completed precautions to stay anonymously under the radar are for nought when her wannabe-boyfriend posts her picture on the internet, drawing the attention Tsunami-survivor Jean Grey was desperately trying to avoidâ€¦

When evil mutants Mystique and Sabretooth confront her in the mall where she works the result is spectacular destruction. Karen flees again, only to be found by Jimmy Hudsonâ€¦

In Chicago winged vigilante Derek Morgan can’t escape his troubled past or hard-ass cop brother who wants to turn him in to the Mutant regulators. Fortunately that’s when jimmy and super-psionic Karen Grant show upâ€¦

In California Liz Allen thinks she’s sacrificed enough. Leaving New York, discovering she’s a mutant and having to put up with a half-brother dubbed â€œTubby Teddyâ€ who’s the spitting image of their deadbeat dad Fred Dukes – better known as the monstrous Blob – should be enough grief for any girl, but when Teddy’s only friend brings a gun to school and starts using it the siblings’ secret powers are exposed all over the TV News. Moreover his invulnerability is nothing compared to the fiery conflagration her own abilities spark offâ€¦

Before long the Allens are separated forever when she joins Karen’s runaways and Teddy trudges off to join the revenge-obsessed Quicksilver’s Brotherhood of Mutantsâ€¦

The volume concludes as Karen’s â€œXâ€ gang is forced to recruit some heavy-hitting power after Sabretooth almost kills Jimmy. Her solution is overwhelming overkill and she gets Bruce Banner to deliver a Hulk-sized lesson in punitive retribution, spurns Quicksilver’s offer to join forces against humanity and instead allies with one of the most powerful and Machiavellian men in the worldâ€¦

Originally designed to form part of the post-Ultimatum stable of titles, X suffered perennial delays (five issues between February 2010 and July 2011) and the story instead became a prelude to a new Ultimate X-Men series, none of which is germane to the enjoyment of this classy â€œgathering of heroesâ€ tale by the always impressive Jeph Loeb and the phenomenally impressive Arthur Adams (augmented by the digital inks of Aspen MLT’s Mark Roslan and colourist Peter Steigerwalt).

Even though far more upbeat and exuberant that the usual Ultimate fare, the trademark post-modernity and cynical, dark action is still here to deliver the grim ‘n’ gritty punch fans insist on, so this is a pretty good book for anybody thinking on jumping on to decidedly different world of Wonder: one which will resonate with older readers who love the darkest side of superheroes and casual readers who know the company’s movies better than the comic-books.
â„¢ & Â© 2011 Marvel Entertainment LLC and its subsidiaries. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. All Rights Reserved. A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd.

October 20, 2011October 18, 2011

Superman: Eradication! (The Origin of the Eradicator)

By Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, George PÃ©rez & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-193-9

Once the 1987 John Byrne re-imagining of the Man of Steel had stripped away much of mythology and iconography which had grown up around the Strange Visitor from Another World over fifty glorious years, succeeding creative teams spent a great deal of time and ingenuity putting much of it back, albeit in terms more accessible to a cynical and well-informed young audience far more sophisticated than their grandparents ever were.

This slim but exceedingly effective tome, collecting material from Action Comics #651-652, Adventures of Superman #460, 464-465 and Superman #41-42, provides fascinating insights and fresh revelations into the long-gone world of Krypton as well as introducing new character-concepts which would inform and affect the entire mythology of the World’s Ultimate Superhero.

After a lengthy period of self-impose banishment in deep space (for which see Superman: Exile) the Man of Tomorrow returned to Earth carrying an incredibly powerful artefact which had survived the destruction of Krypton. The Eradicator could reshape matter and was programmed to preserve, or indeed, resurrect and restore the heritage and influence of the lost civilisation at all costs.

After a number of close calls Superman realised the device was too dangerous to leave loose so he buried it in an Antarctic crevasse and assumed that ended the affair…

‘Be it ever So Deadly’ by Dan Jurgens & Andy Kubert, found the Metropolis Marvel hurtling to the South Pole to rescue a survey team transformed into slaves of an automated fortress built by the Eradicator to emulate Krypton on Earth. Investigating the alien citadel, Superman discovered the Eradicator had been built by his own ancestor and was attuned his own genetic structure. A spectacular battle ensuedâ€¦

‘The Nature of the Beast’ by Jerry Ordway & Dennis Janke saw a far calmer hero adopt the Fortress as his secret base, whilst light years away the infallible bounty hunter Lobo got really drunk and was conned into travelling to Earth to destroy Superman. The Czarnian had no idea it was a betting scam by gamblers who didn’t want to see War World Gladiator Draaga bankrupt them by killing the Man of Steelâ€¦

Clark Kent had been made editor of glossy magazine News-time, but the pressure was clearly affecting the once affable and easygoing guy. Lately he’d become a cold, calculating, nitpicking martinetâ€¦

Even Superman seemed distant and aloof, especially with loved ones such as Ma and Pa Kentâ€¦

Still pickled, Lobo reached Earth before Draaga and promptly started throwing blockbusting punchesâ€¦

‘Blood Brawl’ (Jurgens & Art Thibert) pulled all the clues together as Lobo and his entourage invaded the Antarctic citadel. When the Action Ace responded his uniform momentarily converted to Kryptonian apparelâ€¦ As Superman and Lobo cataclysmically clashed, the Eradicator openly continued reprogramming the Man of Steel’s mind converting him into a ruthless, passionless Kryptonian science-warrior, who deemed it more expedient to avoid combat rather than strive against one of the most dangerous killers in the universeâ€¦

The tension increased in ‘Not of this Earth’ by Roger Stern, George PÃ©rez, Kerry Gammill & Brett Breeding, as alien warrior queen Maxima returned, determined to make Superman her mate. When he again rejected her, their blistering battle allowed the Eradicator to take full control of the embattled Kryptonian.

Ordway & Janke then described how Kal-El the ‘Krypton Man’ began reshaping the chaotic, emotion-afflicted Earth into a world of cold logic just as Draaga arrived, hungry for a decisive return matchâ€¦

A catastrophic combat almost decimated Metropolis before scientist Emil Hamilton forcibly moved the fight to the Moon, resulting in a turning point for ‘The Last Son of Krypton’ (Jurgens & Thibert) as Clark Kent’s foster parents, realising the horror their boy has become, risked everything to help him shake off the influence of the alien artefact, culminating in a magnificent victory of love over logic in Stern, PÃ©rez, Gammill & Breeding’s stirring finale ‘Wayward Son’.

When they were first published these tales of the post-Crisis Superman continually confounded old fans (like me) and industry pundits (me again, I suppose) simply by being, against all expectations, the very best in good, old fashioned four-colour fun, crafted by creators who went above and beyond to deliver cracking good reads week after week. These little gems are an absolute must for any lover of Fights ‘n’ Tights wonderment.
Â© 1989, 1990, 1996 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

October 19, 2011October 23, 2011

Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates

By Mark Millar, Lenil Yu & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-497-3

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.

The era-ending event was a colossal tsunami which scoured the superhero-heavy island of Manhattan and in the aftermath a new world order increasingly dictated by super spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. Before the Deluge Nick Fury ran an American super-human Black Ops team codenamed the Avengers, but he was eventually toppled from his position for sundry rule-bending antics – and for being caught doing them.

Now he’s firmly re-established, running a new dirty jobs team doing stuff the officially sanctioned Ultimates wouldn’t dream ofâ€¦

His secret army consists ofÂ Hawkeye – the man who never misses, James Rhodes: fanatical soldier in devastating War Machine battle armour; demi-vampire Blade, and Gregory Stark: Iron Man’s smarter, utterly amoral older brotherâ€¦

By contrast the shiny, glory-grabbing public team consists of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Giant Man and ruthless super-spy Black Widow – all taking their cues from Fury’s replacement Carol Danvers.

This final post-tsunami collection, re-presenting Ultimate Comics: Avengers vs. The New Ultimates #1-6, brings to a head simmering tensions and a rather obvious master-plan percolating since the first days of the new team, as, across town and in another book (see Ultimate Spider-Man: Death of Spider-Man) a superhero prodigy fights his final battle with repercussions that shape the conclusion of this earth-shattering epicâ€¦

At the end of Ultimate Avengers volume 3: Blade versus the Avengers the massive S.H.I.E.L.D. security citadel dubbed the Triskelion was unfortunately teleported to the Iranian desert outside Tehran, and as agent-in-charge Giant Man attempts to bring order from chaos, in New York Iron Man is on the brink of deathâ€¦

Meanwhile reports come in that show top-secret super-soldier discoveries and genetic enhancement weaponry are being stolen and sold to rogue statesâ€¦

Fury and his team, augmented by psycho-killer The Punisher, are already hot on the trail of the leak and logic increasingly dictates that there must be a highly-placed traitor within S.H.I.E.L.D. When his squad spectacularly confronts old ally Tyrone Cash – the first Hulk – the traitor is revealed as Carol Danversâ€¦ Meanwhile, behind enemy lines and tracking stolen superhuman tech, the other team have also discovered the turncoat and determine to capture the perfidious Nick Furyâ€¦

With the heroes all set up to destroy each other, New York becomes a catastrophic Ground Zero once more, intersecting with the aforementioned Spider-Man saga (so for best results read that too) whilst in Iran and North Korea super-soldier warfare directly resulting from the thefts look certain to catapult the planet into global conflagration and the true villain into a position of unassailable powerâ€¦

Wrapping up another Ultimate era preparatory to a further Brave New Re-launch, this blackly trenchant, rollercoaster ride by Mark Millar & Lenil Yu (ably assisted by inkers and finishers Stephen Segovia, Gerry Alanguilan, Jason Paz, Jeff Huet & colourist Sonny Gho) is violent and powerfully effective: a grim-and-gritty swan-song both compelling and avidly readable.

This tome also includes a superb and abundant gallery of variant covers by Yu, Gho, Frank Martin, Marte Gracia, Frank Cho, Brandon Peterson, Jason Keith, Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary & Paul Mounts.

This spooky, cynical, sinister shocker is another breathtakingly effective yarn only possible outside the Marvel Universe; one which will resonate with older readers who love the darkest side of superheroes and casual readers who know the company’s movies better than the comic-books.

October 17, 2011October 15, 2011

Marvel Masterworks volume 9: The Avengers 11-20

By Stan Lee, Don Heck, Dick Ayers & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-595-7Â Â second edition: 978-0-7851-1178-8

Whenever Jack Kirby left a title he’d co-created it took a little while to settle into a new rhythm, and none more so than the collectivised champions called the Avengers. Although writer Stan Lee and the marvellously utilitarian Don Heck were perfectly capable of producing cracking comics entertainments, they never had The King’s unceasing sense of panoramic scope and vast scale which constantly searched for bigger, bolder blasts of excitement. After Kirby, the tales concentrated on human beings in costume, not wild new gods bestriding the Earthâ€¦

The wonderment herein contained (covering issues #11-20, December 1964 – September 1965) begins with ‘The Mighty Avengers Meet Spider-Man!’, a clever cross-over tale inked by Chic Stone and featuring the return of time-bending tyrant Kang the Conqueror who attempted to destroy the team by insinuating a robotic duplicate within their serried ranks, which precedes a cracking end-of-the-world thriller with guest Fantastic Four villains Mole Man and the Red Ghost.

‘This Hostage Earth!‘ (inked by Dick Ayers) was a welcome return to grand adventure with lesser lights Giant-Man and the Wasp taking rare lead roles, followed by a rousing gangster thriller of a sort seldom seen outside the pages of Spider-Man or Daredevil, which introduced Marvel universe Mafia analogue The Maggia and another major bad-guy in #13’s ‘The Castle of Count Nefaria!’

That caper ended on a tragic cliffhanger as the Wasp was left gunshot and dying, leading to a high-point in melodramatic tension in #14 (scripted by Paul Laiken & Larry Lieber over Stan’s plot) as the shattered team of heroes scoured the globe for the only surgeon who could save her.

‘Even Avengers Can Die!’ – although of course she didn’t – resolved into a classy alien invader tale with overtones of This Island Earth as Kirby returned to lay out the epic for Heck & Stone to illustrate, which only whetted the appetite for a classic climactic confrontation as the costumed champions finally dealt with the Masters of Evil and Captain America finally avenged the death of his dead partner Bucky.

‘Now, by My Hand, Shall Die a Villain!’ in #15 (laid-out by Kirby, pencilled by Heck with inks by Mike Esposito) featured Captain America and Baron Zemo in one final, fatal confrontation in the heart of the Amazon jungle, whilst the other Avengers and Zemo’s army of masked menaces clashed once more on the streets of New Yorkâ€¦

The battle ended in the concluding episode ‘The Old Order Changeth!’ (again visually broken down by Kirby before being finished by Ayers) which presaged a dramatic change in concept for the series; presumably because as Lee increasingly wrote to the company’s unique strengths – tight continuity and strongly individualistic characterisation – he discovered that juggling individual stars in their own titles as well as a combined team episode every month was just incompatible if not impossible.

As Cap and teen sidekick Rick Jones fought their way back to civilisation, the Avengers set-up changed completely with big name stars replaced by three erstwhile villains: Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.

Eventually, led by perennial old soldier Captain America, this relatively powerless group with no outside titles to divide the attention (the Sentinel of Liberty did have a regular feature in Tales of Suspense but it was at that time recounting adventures set during the hero’s WWII career), evolved into another squabbling family of neuroses, extended sub-plots and constant action as valiant underdogs; a formula readers of the time could not get enough of.

Acting on advice from the departing Iron Man the neophytes sought to recruit the Hulk to add raw power to the team, only to be sidetracked by the malevolent Mole Man in #17’s ‘Four Against the Minotaur!’ (Lee, Heck & Ayers), after which they then fell foul of a dastardly â€œcommieâ€ plot ‘When the Commissar Commands!’

This brace of rather run-of-the-mill tales was followed by an ever-improving run of mini-masterpieces which began with a two part gem that provides an origin for Hawkeye and introduces a favourite hero/villain to close this sturdy, full-colour hardback compendium.

‘The Coming of the Swordsman!’ featured a dissolute and disreputable swashbuckler – with just a hint of deeply-buried nobility – who attempted to force his way into the highly respectable team, before becoming an unwilling pawn of a far greater menace – the Mandarin – and was closely followed by the superb ‘Vengeance is Ours!’ inked by the one-and-only Wally Wood wherein the constantly-bickering Avengers finally pulled together as a supernaturally efficient, all-conquering super-team.

These immortal epics are available in numerous formats (including softcover editions of the luxurious and enticing item under review here), but for a selection that will survive the continual re-readings of the delirious, incurable fan nothing beats these substantially lavish and colourful Marvellous Masterwork hardbacks.

After all, if you’re going to enjoy the exploits of Earth’s Mightiest Super-Heroes surely you want to do it in appropriate style?
Â© 1964, 1965, 1989, 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

October 11, 2011October 14, 2011

Ultimate Spider-Man: Death of Spider-Man

By Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley, Andy Lanning, Andrew Hennessey & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-498-0

There’s no way around this and Spoiler-Warnings are pointless so you’ll just have to bear up. It even made the papersâ€¦

The Ultimate Comics Spider-Man dies. It says so on the cover. However Writer Brian Michael Bendis and returning artist Mark Bagley end the adventures and young adventurer they began in 2000 in a spectacular, thoroughly action-packed and deeply moving manner and Marvel promises that a new hero will arise from the ashes of this taleâ€¦

Marvel’s Ultimates imprint began in 2000 with major characters and concepts re-imagined to bring them into line with the tastes of modern readers – a different market from the baby-boomers and their descendents content to stick with the delights sprung from founding talents Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee – or possibly – one unable or unwilling to deal with the five decades (seven if you include the Golden Age Timely tales retroactively co-opted into the mix) of continuity baggage conglomerated around the originals.

Eventually this darkly nihilistic alternate 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 which inundated Manhattan after which a number of new compendia continued the superhero soap-opera of young Peter Parker and his fellow survivors daily readjusting to a braver, cleaner new world.

Parker is the perennial hard-luck loser kid: a secretive yet brilliant geek just trying to get by in a world where daily education is infinitely more trouble than beating monsters and villains. Between High School and slinging fast food he still finds time to fight crime although his very public heroics during the crisis made him a beloved hero of police and citizenry alike – which is the creepiest thing he has ever endured.

He lives in a big house with his Aunt May and despite his low self-esteem has stellar lovelies like Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson and others seemingly hungry for his scrawny tuchus. He even briefly dated mutant babe Kitty Pride…

Many kids were homeless after the deluge, with schools and accommodation stretched to breaking point. May Parker opened her doors to a select band of orphaned super-kids like the Human Torch, Iceman and even Gwen, all living anonymously in the relatively unaffected borough of Queens.

Oversight agency S.H.I.E.L.D and their representatives Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, were assigned to teach Parker how to be a proper hero, whilst once-nemesis Jonah Jameson became an unexpected ally. With so many fortuitous events in place it could only be a prelude to disaster for the original hard luck heroâ€¦

This volume collects the five-part conclusion to the Ultimate Spider-Man saga from 2011 with issues #156-160 of the monthly comicbook and then defuses the tragedy somewhat by ending with a reprinting of the 2002 Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special.

The main story is basic, primal and unforgettable: Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, escapes from S.H.I.E.L.D. custody whilst the Ultimates and Avengers are otherwise occupied and, freeing fellow prisoners Electro, Doctor Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, Sandman and the Vulture – all of whom know Spider-Man’s civilian identity and address – rampage their way across New York determined to slaughter Parker and everyone who knows him.

After a cataclysmic conflict with echoes of Gotterdammerung and the fall of Beowulf the young warrior sacrifices everything and goes out the way a hero shouldâ€¦

Tense, breathtaking, evocative and even funny in the right places, this is the way a true champion should fight his final battleâ€¦

With a gallery of alternate covers by Kaare Andrews, Ed McGuiness & Morry Hollowell, Steve McNiven, Frank Cho, Michael Kaluta and Joe Quesada this epic volume concludes with a giant collaborative and life-affirming venture both in terms of Ultimate Comics co-stars and impressive guest artists from happier, more hopeful times.

Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special was basically a travelogue of the alternate Marvel Universe held together by Spider-Man examining his motives for being a hero. If you’re not that bothered by who drew things, feel free to skip the next paragraph and jump to the summing up.

Working on a pretty ultimate jam-session, a number of creators all drew a slice of the story. In order of presentation they were Alex Maleev, Dan Brereton, John Romita Sr. & Al Milgrom, Frank Cho, Jim Mahfood, Scott Morse, Craig Thompsom, Michael Avon Oeming, Jason Pearson, Sean Phillips, Mark Bagley & Rodney Ramos, Bill Sienkiewicz, P. Craig Russell, Jacen Burrows & Walden Wong, Leonard Kirk & Terry Pallot, Dave Gibbons, Michael Gaydos, James Kochalka, David Mack, Brett Weldele, Ashly Wood and Art Thibert illustrating cameos from the other Blade the Vampire Hunter, Elektra, Daredevil, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Human Torch, the Ultimates/Avengers, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Black Widow, S.H.I.E.L.D., X-Men, Wolverine and Punisher.

Although not the edgiest of tales or most effective in respect of story-telling, the bold creative choices make it an art connoisseur’s delight and, of course, most dyed-in-the-woollen-long-johns comics fans will love all the hitting and kicking.

Comics as a medium and superheroes as a genre are infamous for raising the dead, so if you are inconsolable about the demise of a minor legend there’s comfort to be had there, if you wish. However if you like a little closure with your drama and spectacle this is a modern epic to wallow in and thoroughly adoreâ€¦

October 9, 2011October 6, 2011

Doctor Strange: Into Shamballa – Marvel Graphic Novel #23

By J.M. DeMatteis & Dan Green (Marvel)
ISBN: 0- 87135-559-0 or ISBN13: 978-0-87135-166-1

Once upon a time Marvel published far more all-original graphic novels than reprint collections or assorted compendia of past glories, utilising new formats and print innovations to tell â€œbig storiesâ€ on larger than normal pages (285 x 220mm rather than the now customary 258 x 168mm) featuring not only licensed assets like Conan, high profile movie adaptations and creator-owned properties, but also proprietary characters the company owned lock, stock and barrel.

One such spectacular home-grown special event is this quirky, lyrically lovely visual and philosophical diversion starring the company’s own New Age Astral Avengerâ€¦

Steven Strange was once America’s greatest surgeon, a brilliant man, yet vain and arrogant, caring nothing for the sick, except as a means to wealth and glory. When a self-inflicted drunken car-crash ended his career, Strange hit the skids.

Then, fallen as low as man ever could, the debased doctor overheard a barroom tale which led him on a delirious odyssey – or perhaps pilgrimage – to Tibet, where an impossibly aged mage and eventual enlightenment through daily redemption transformed the derelict into a solitary, ever-vigilant watchdog for frail humanity against all the hidden dangers of the dark. Now he battles otherworldly evil as the Sorcerer Supreme, a Master of the Mystic arts.

After years of unceasing battle, a momentary lull in the eldritch crusade allows Strange time for contemplation and reminiscence. His thoughts return to the beginning of his second life amidst the misty crags of the Himalayas. He is often troubled by his long-departed mentor’s more impenetrable teachings and questions, even doubts begin to cloud the wizardly warrior’s sense of mission and purposeâ€¦

Visiting the Ancient One’s abandoned abode, Strange meets again his past master’s devoted body servant Hamir the Hermit and takes possession of his mentor’s final gift: a puzzle-box which defies his every effort to discern its true meaning.

Just as Strange’s frustration peaks he is summoned by the puissant and (seemingly) benevolent Lords of Shamballa and press-ganged into undertaking a global odyssey to jump-start the spiritual evolution of humanity and thereby mid-wife the Golden Age of Mankind.

But for that joyous miracle to occur the Doctor must perform three drastic and draconian feats of mystic surgery; in South America, India and England, harried each time by an unknown and deeply malevolent adversary.

However, no matter how far he travels or bravely he strives Stephen Strange cannot solve his most urgent internal dilemma: what kind of transcendent world can be built only on the corpses of three-quarters of humanityâ€¦?

Challenging, allegorical and elegiacally moving, Into Shamballa offers a far more mature and spiritual experience than most comics tales whilst still maintaining the thrill and wonder so necessary to lovers of graphic narrative.

Enticingly scripted by Searcher into the Mysteries J.M. DeMatteis and stunningly painted by Dan Green, this off-beat gem typifies all that was great about the bold and innovative middle-period of â€œthe House of Ideasâ€.
Â© 1989 Marvel Entertainment Group/Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

October 7, 2011October 8, 2011

Venom

By Rick Remender, Tony Moore, Crimelab! Studios, Sandu Florea, Karl Kesel & Tom Fowler ((Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-493-5

In the anything goes, desperate hurly-burly of the late 1980s and 1990s, fad-fever and spin-off madness gripped the superhero genre in America as publishers hungrily exploited every trick to bolster flagging sales.

In the melee Spider-Man spawned an implacable enemy called Venom: a deranged and disgraced reporter named Eddie Brock who bonded with Peter Parker’s alternate costume (a semi-sentient alien parasite called the Symbiote which the wall-crawler first wore in Secret Wars #8, December 1984).

Brock became a savage, shape-changing, dark-side version of the Amazing Arachnid but after numerous spectacular clashes, the spidery adversaries eventually reached a brooding dÃ©tente and Venom became a â€œLethal Protectorâ€, dispensing a highly individualistic brand of justice everywhere but New York City.

At one stage the Symbiote went into breeding mode; creating a junior version of itself that merged with a deranged psycho-killer named Cletus Kasady to form the even more terrifying metamorphic Carnage.

Since then many other hosts have bonded with the ebony parasite, including Brock’s wife Ann Weying, Mac Gargan, AKA the Scorpion, mobster Angelo Fortunato, Mayoral assistant Edward Saks and even Franklin Richards and other members of the Fantastic Four.

In the beginning of 2011 a new iteration of the lethal Protector debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #654 and was swiftly followed by this classy and viscerally action-packed rollercoaster ride from scripter Rick Remender and penciller Tony Moore, ably augmented by inkers Crimelab! Studios, Sandu Florea, Karl Kesel, Tom Fowler & colourist John Rauch.

This time the host is Flash Thompson, Spider-Man’s greatest fan and a war hero who came back from Afghanistan without his legs. A recovering alcoholic, Eugene, as he now prefers, is part of a top-secret military black-ops operation which uses the Symbiote to carry out under-the-radar missions vital to US security.

In return, Thompson gets to be a hero (of sorts), feel useful again, serve his country and get out of his wheelchair prison for 48 hours at a time.

Of course there are drawbacks: the parasite is a deadly menace, constantly seeking to permanently bond with its wearer and is classed as one of the most dangerous entities on the planet. If the new Venom should go berserk or if the human host stays bonded for more than two days the war room controllers of the mysterious General Dodge will simply detonate the explosives attached to Thompson’s body and start the project over with another volunteer. It’s what they had to do with the previous wearer, after allâ€¦

This superb blend of visceral action and powerful drama opens with Venom trying to extract to the US a genocidal scientist attempting to ethnically cleanse his Balkan homeland with the unstoppable Vibranium weaponry he was contracted to build for American gang boss Crime Master.

Even inside an alien skin driving him crazy whilst granting him incredible, intoxicating power, Flash can’t help going off-mission to save dying civilians, so he’s doubly distracted when Crime Master’s kill-crazy enforcer Jack O’Lantern attempts to steal the mad scientist out from under him, resulting in a devastating battleâ€¦

Only partially successful, Thompson limps home to girlfriend Betty Brant and pal Peter Parker, trusted confidantes he cannot tell about his new private life and who are therefore terrified that his constant disappearances mean he’s drinking againâ€¦

Venom’s second mission is to stop the supply of Vibranium from the Antarctic Lost World known as the Savage Land but that goes even more Fubar (it’s military slang and rude – look it up if you must) when Kraven the Hunter unexpectedly attacks and delays him long past his time limit.

With the parasite making inroads into his psyche and Crime Master’s goons delaying him even longer over his deadline, his identity is exposed to the Machiavellian mastermind and Flash mistakes a military technical hitch for Dodge’s trust in his ability to resist the Symbiote’s influence when, after days as Venom, his brain still hasn’t detonatedâ€¦

In America, however, Jack O’Lantern has kidnapped Betty and uses her to force the extremely famous and recognisable paraplegic war-hero to bring him all the remaining Vibranium. Desperate, and with his mind slowly being eaten away by contact with the alien parasite, Venom runs amok in New York battling Spider-Man as a bomb counts down under baffled hostage Betty Brant, all leading to a staggering and supremely satisfying bombastic battle climax.

But wait: there’s moreâ€¦

Rick Remender is a stellar writer and somehow convinced his editors to end this blistering adventure miniseries on a small, quiet and highly poignant note. After a brief but gruesome clash with cannibal serial killer the Human Fly, Venom is safely squared away as the last issue follows the wheelchair-bound Flash through his abusive past and traumatic present by focusing on his brutal, alcoholic cop-father who so nearly made his son into a doomed and self-destructive carbon copy of himself.

Moving and thought-provoking, this affords a powerfully intimate glimpse into the real world behind all those high-flying fantasy heroes, villains and monsters.

Fast-paced, scary, clever and full of heart, this is a thriller to delight action fan and superhero deep-thinkers alike.

October 5, 2011September 3, 2017

Valerian and Laureline book 2: The Empire of a Thousand Planets

By J.-C. MÃ©ziÃ©res & P. Christin, with colours by E. TranlÃ© and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-087-0

ValÃ©rian is arguably the most influential comics science fiction series ever drawn – and yes, I am including both Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon in that expansive and undoubtedly contentious statement.

Although to a large extent those venerable strips defined the medium itself, anybody who has seen a Star Wars movie has seen some of Jean-Claude MÃ©ziÃ©res & Pierre Christin’s brilliant imaginings which the filmic phenomenon has shamelessly plundered for decades: everything from the look of the Millennium Falcon to Leia‘s Slave Girl outfit -as this second volume powerfully proves in a stunning comparisons feature following after the magnificent adventure contained hereinâ€¦

Simply put, more carbon-based lifeforms have experienced and marvelled at the uniquely innovative, grungy, lived-in tech realism and light-hearted swashbuckling rollercoaster romps of MÃ©ziÃ©res & Christin than any other cartoon spacer ever imagined possible.

The groundbreaking series followed a Franco-Belgian mini-boom in fantasy fiction triggered by Jean-Claude Forest’s 1962 creation Barbarella. ValÃ©rian: Spatio-Temporal Agent launched in the November 9th, 1967 edition of Pilote (#420) and was an instant hit. In combination with Greg & Eddy Paape’s Luc Orient and Philippe Druillet’s Lone Sloane, ValÃ©rian‘s hot public reception led to the creation of dedicated adult graphic sci fi magazine MÃ©tal Hurlant in 1977.

ValÃ©rian and Laureline (as the series eventually became) is light-hearted, wildly imaginative time-travelling, space-warping fantasy (a bit like Dr. Who, but not really at allâ€¦), drenched in wry, satirical, humanist action and political commentary, starring, in the beginning, an affable, capable, unimaginative and by-the-book cop tasked with protecting the official universal chronology and counteracting paradoxes caused by casual time-travellers.

When ValÃ©rian travelled to 11th century France in the initial tale ‘Les Mauvais RÃªves (‘Bad Dreams’) he was rescued from doom by a fiery, capable young woman named Laureline whom he brought back to the 28th century super-citadel and administrative wonderland of Galaxity, capital of the Terran Empire. The indomitable lass trained as a Spatio-Temporal operative and began accompanying him on his missions.

Every subsequent ValÃ©rian adventure until the 13th was first serialised weekly in Pilote until the conclusion of ‘The Rage of Hypsis’ after which the mind-boggling sagas were only published as all-new complete graphic novels, until the whole spectacular saga resolved and ended in 2010.

The Empire of a Thousand Planets originally ran in Pilote #520-541from October 23^rd 1969 to March 19^th 1970 and saw the veteran and rookie despatched to the fabled planet Syrte the Magnificent, capital of vast system-wide civilisation and a world in inexplicable and rapid technological and social decline.

The mission is one of threat-assessment: staying in their base time-period (October 2720) the pair are tasked with examining the first galactic civilisation ever discovered that has never experienced any human contact or contamination, but as usual, events don’t go according to planâ€¦

Despite easily blending into a culture with a thousand sentient species, Valerian and Laureline soon find themselves plunged into intrigue and dire danger when the acquisitive girl buys an old watch in the market.

Nobody on Syrte knows what it is since all the creatures of this civilisation have an innate, infallible time-sense, but the gaudy bauble soon attracts the attention of one of the Enlightened – a sinister cult of masked mystics who have the ear of the Emperor and a stranglehold on all technologiesâ€¦.

The Enlightened are responsible for the stagnation within this once-vital interplanetary colossus and they quickly move to eradicate the Spatio-temporal agents. Narrowly escaping doom, the pair reluctantly experience the staggering natural wonders and perils of the wilds beyond the capital city before dutifully returning to retrieve their docked spaceship.

Soon however our dauntless duo are distracted and embroiled in a deadly rebellion fomented by the Commercial Traders Guild. Infiltrating the awesome palace of the puppet-Emperor and exploring the mysterious outer planets Valerian and Laureline discover a long-fomenting plot to destroy Earth – a world supposedly unknown to anyone in this Millennial Empireâ€¦

All-out war looms and the Enlightened’s incredible connection to post-Atomic disaster Earth is astonishingly revealed just as inter-stellar conflict erupts between rebels and Imperial forces, with our heroes forced to fully abandon their neutrality and take up arms to save two civilisations a universe apart yet inextricably linkedâ€¦

Comfortingly, yet unjustly familiar, this spectacular space-opera is fun-filled, action-packed, visually breathtaking and mind-bogglingly ingenious.Â Drenched in wide-eyed fantasy wonderment, science fiction adventures have never been better than this.

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