Category: Graphic Novels

Posted on

Amazing Spider-Man: the Saga of the Alien Costume


By Tom DeFalco, Roger Stern, Ron Frenz, Rick Leonardi & various (Marvel Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-87135-396-2

In the mid 1980s as part of a huge attention-getting exercise Spider-Man exchanged his heavily copyrighted and thoroughly trademarked costume whilst on another planet during the first Marvel Secret Wars. It was replaced with a magnificently stylish black and white number for the duration of the 12 issue maxi-series in his own titles (except the all-reprint Marvel Tales, of course) which over the course of the year revealed the true horrifying nature of the extraterrestrial  ensemble…

Collecting Amazing Spider-Man #252-259 (May-December 1984), continuity-wise this captivating extended epic opens at the conclusion of the Secret Wars Saga with Spider-Man and Curt Connors – occasionally the lethally maniacal monster called the Lizard – explosively returning to Earth after a week when most of the world’s heroes and villains had simply vanished.

To clear up any potential confusion: Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars debuted in May 1984 and ran for twelve monthly issues until April 1985. In it a selection of metahumans good and bad were shanghaied by a godlike being dubbed The Beyonder and compelled to interminably battle each other. All other Marvel comics of that month chronologically happened in the apparent aftermath of that struggle with most of the heroes and villains returned, coyly refusing to divulge what had happened on Battleworld …a cheap but extremely effective ploy which kept fans glued to the Limited Series in the months that followed.

This compendium from 1988 opens with an introduction and design sketches before catapulting us into action in ‘Homecoming!’ by Roger Stern, Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz & Brett Breeding as spectators in Central Park see a mysterious black garbed stranger explode out of an alien artefact … only the first of many costumed characters to escape the Beyonder’s world.

Spider-Man takes the shell-shocked Connors back to his family and then begins to explore his new uniform: a thought controlled, self-activating, metamorphic ball with chameleon capabilities and able to construct webbing out of its own mass. The smart-cloth is astonishing, but weary Peter Parker has family to see and a city to reacquaint himself with. The hero promises himself he’ll further research the incredible material at a later date…

The wonderful Rick Leonardi & Bill Anderson illustrated DeFalco’s powerful crime thriller ‘By Myself Betrayed!’ wherein a prominent football player, sucked into gambling and match-fixing, dragged the Web-spinner into conflict with new gang-lord The Rose. As his new uniform increasingly, obsessively amazes Peter with its rather disturbing autonomy (it comes to him unbidden and regularly envelops him while he sleeps), the hero uncomprehendingly alienates his beloved Aunt May when he drops out of college…

‘With Great Power…’ (inked by Joe Rubinstein) found the wall-crawler battling terrorist mercenary Jack O’Lantern for possession of the hi-tech battle-van designed and built by the terrifying Hobgoblin when he should have been reconciling with May, whilst ‘Even a Ghost Can Fear the Night!’ (DeFalco, Frenz & Rubinstein) introduced charismatic septuagenarian cat-burglar Black Fox (whose outfit coincidentally resembled Spidey’s new kit) who became a hapless pawn of the merciless but cash-strapped Red Ghost and his Super-Apes.

Compelled to rob until he was caught by Spider-Man, the Fox orchestrated a spectacular battle between the Wall-crawler and the Ghost before getting away with all the loot…

‘Introducing… Puma!’ found an increasingly weary and listless Spider-Man attacked by a Native American super-mercenary hired by the Rose. The Arachnid’s gang-busting crusade in partnership with reformed thief/new girlfriend Black Cat was making life too hot and unprofitable for the ambitious mobster. That calamitous clash carried over into ‘Beware the Claws of Puma!’ furiously escalating until criminal overlord The Kingpin stepped in to stop it, forcing the Rose to ally himself with the murderous Hobgoblin. The issue ended with an exhausted Parker confronted with a stunning revelation from his old lover Mary Jane Watson…

The shock prompted Peter into seeking out ‘The Sinister Secret of Spider-Man’s New Costume!’ Plagued by nightmares, perpetually tired and debilitated the Web-spinner visited the Fantastic Four and was disgusted and horrified to learn that his suit was alive: a parasite slowly attaching itself to him body and soul…

Meanwhile Hobgoblin and the Rose’s uneasily alliance had resulted in bloody, undeclared war on the Kingpin…

With Reed Richards’ help the creature was removed from Spider-Man and imprisoned and this collection concludes with the poignant ‘All My Pasts Remembered!’ as Mary Jane finally tells Peter her tragic life story after which the free, reinvigorated and re-dedicated hero determined to put a stop to Hobgoblin for good…

But that’s a tale for another tome…

This run of tales marvellously rejuvenated the Amazing Arachnid and kicked off a period of superbly gripping and imaginative stories, culminating with the creation of arch hero/villain Venom (which is why these tales can also be found in the sturdy compendium Spider-Man: Birth of Venom with addition material from Secret Wars #8, Amazing Spider #298-300, 315-317, Fantastic Four #274 and Web of Spider-Man #1).

Whichever book you buy, if you’re a fan of superhero comics these are tales you just don’t want to miss.
© 1988 Marvel Entertainment Group/Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Superman: the World’s Finest Comics Archives volume 1


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Leo Nowak, John Sikela (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0151-7

The debut of Superman propelled National Comics to the forefront of their fledgling industry and in 1939 the company was licensed to produce a commemorative comicbook celebrating the opening of the New York World’s Fair, with the Man of Tomorrow prominently featured on the appropriately titled New York World’s Fair Comics among such four-colour stars as Zatara, Butch the Pup, Gingersnap and The Sandman.

This glorious deluxe hardback edition collects that epochal early mass-market premium appearance plus his return in Worlds Fair 1940, as well as the Superman stories from World’s Best #1 and World’s Finest Comics #2-15 in gleaming, seductive full-colour and also includes a beguiling Foreword by fan, historian, author and film producer Michael Uslan as well as the now-traditional creator biographies.

The spectacular card-cover 96 page anthologies were a huge hit and convinced the editors that an over-sized anthology of their pantheon of characters, with Superman and Batman prominently featured, would be a worthwhile proposition. The format was retained for a wholly company-owned, quarterly high-end package, retailing for the then hefty price of 15¢. Launching as World’s Best Comics #1 (Spring 1941), the book transformed into World’s Finest Comics from #2, beginning a stellar 45 year run which only ended as part of the massive clear-out and decluttering exercise that was Crisis on Infinite Earths.

With stunning, eye-catching covers from Sheldon Mayer, Jack Burnley, Fred Ray and others, this fabulously exuberant compendium opens with ‘Superman at the World’s Fair’ by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, wherein Clark Kent and Lois Lane were dispatched to cover the gala event giving the mystery man an opportunity to contribute his own exhibit and bag a bunch of rotten robbers to boot…

A year later he was ‘At the 1940’s World’s Fair’ (lavishly illustrated by Burnley) foiling an attempt by another gang of ne’er-do-wells to steal a huge emerald.

With success assured World’s Best Comics launched early in 1941 and from that landmark edition comes gripping disaster-thriller ‘Superman vs. the Rainmaker’ illustrated by Paul Cassidy, after which World’s Finest Comics #2 provided thrills and spills in Siegel, Leo Nowak, Cassidy & Shuster’s ‘The Unknown X’, a fast-paced mystery of sinister murder-masterminds and maritime menace, whilst ‘The Case of the Death Express’ was a tense thriller about train-wreckers (by Nowak) from the Fall issue.

World’s Finest Comics #4 featured ‘The Case of the Crime Crusade’ by Siegel, Nowak & John Sikela, another socially relevant racketeering yarn highlighting the bravery of fiery editor Perry White and combining a crusading campaign to modernise the city’s transport system with a battle against bomb-wielding gangsters, whilst ‘The Case of the Flying Castle’ had Superman breach the Tower of Terror to confront an Indian curse and an unscrupulous businessman and WF #6 (Summer 1942, Siegel, Nowak & Sikela) saw ‘The Man of Steel vs. the Man of Metal’ pitting our hero and newsboy Jimmy Olsen against Metalo, a mad scientist whose discoveries made him every inch Superman’s physical match…

‘The Eight Doomed Men’ in issue #7 were a coterie of ruthless millionaires targeted for murder because of the wicked past deeds of their privileged college fraternity; a crime mystery spiced up with flamboyant high-tech weaponry that pushed the Action Ace to his limits whilst ‘Talent Unlimited’ (Siegel, Sam Criton & Sikela) saw Superman track down a missing heiress who had abandoned wealth for a stage career and poor but honest theatrical friends. Unfortunately, even though she didn’t want her money, other people did…

From World’s Finest Comics #9 on, no record of the scripter(s) identities are available but there’s no appreciable drop in quality to be seen as ‘One Second to Live’ (drawn by Sikela) found the Man of Tomorrow clearing an innocent man of murder and saving him from the electric chair, whilst ‘The Insect Terror’ (Nowak & Sikela) saw an incredible battle with a super-villain whose giant bugs almost consumed Metropolis before ‘The City of Hate’ (Sikela) found Lois and Clark’s search for the “Four Most Worthy Citizens” leading them to demagogues, hate-mongers and the worst of humanity before finally succeeding…

Another case of social injustice was exposed and rectified in WF #12’s ‘The Man who Stole a Reputation’ (illustrated by Ira Yarbrough) wherein a downtrodden clerk chucked in his job and sought out the glamorous rewards of crime until Superman demonstrated the error of his thinking and ‘The Freedom of the Press’ found Clark and Lois looking for the Daily Planet’s centennial scoop; oblivious to the gangsters determined to wreck the paper forever, whilst Sikela’s ‘Desert Town’ took the Man of Steel to the wild west and a hidden citadel of crooks determined to sabotage the building of a new city over their secret hideout…

The last tale in this volume is ‘The Rubber Band’ illustrated by Sikela & Nowak from World’s Finest Comics #15 (Fall 1944) which details the exploits of a gang of black market tyre thieves who were given a patriotic “heads-up” after Superman dumped their boss on the Pacific front line where US soldiers were fighting and dying…

These blockbusting yarns, released at three month intervals, provide a perfect snapshot of the Caped Kryptonian’s amazing development from unstoppable, outlaw social activist to trusted paragon of American virtues in timeless tales which have never lost their edge or their power to enthral and beguile and, as always, this formidable Archive Edition is the most luxurious and satisfying of ways to enjoy them over and over again.

So why aren’t you…?
© 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Spider-Man and the Uncanny X-Men


By Roy Thomas, Bill Mantlo, Louise Simonson, J.M. de Matteis, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0785102007

Intrinsic to superhero comics is the “team-up” wherein costumed heroes join forces to tackle a greater than usual threat; a sales generating tactic taken to its logical extreme at Marvel wherein most early encounters between masked mystery men were generally prompted by jurisdictional disputes resulting in usually spectacular punch-ups before the heroes finally got on with allying to confront the real menace…

This torrid tome from 1996 collected a number of historical encounters between the company’s two best-selling properties, re-presenting a portion of Uncanny X-Men #27 and the entirety of #35, Amazing Spider-Man #92, Marvel Team-Up Annual #1, Marvel Team-Up #150 and Spectacular Spider-Man #197-199.

The frantic Fights ‘n’ Tights fun begins with page 12 of X-Men #27 (December 1966, by Roy Thomas, Werner Roth & Dick Ayers) wherein Iceman and the Beast, on a recruitment drive and about to battle the Mimic, offered the Amazing Arachnid membership in their mutant team (and you can catch the full story in Essential Classic X-Men volume 2 among other places), whilst issue #36 (August 1967, inked by Dan Adkins) found the full team in search of the abducted Professor Xavier in ‘Along Came A Spider…’ with everybody’s favourite wall-crawler mistaken for a flunky of insidious secret organisation Factor Three by the increasingly desperate X-Men. The Webbed Wonder had to battle hard for his very life until the truth finally came out…

Incredible to believe now but the X-Men were one of Marvel’s poorest selling titles in the 1960s and their comicbook was cancelled and reduced to a cheap reprint outlet for years.

Although gone however, the mutants were far from forgotten.

The standard policy at that time for reviving characters that had fallen was to pile on the guest-shots and reprints. X-Men #67 (December 1970) saw them return in early classics and with Amazing Spider-Man #92 (January 1971) individually and collectively the Merry Mutants began their comeback tour.

‘When Iceman Attacks’ (Stan Lee, Gil Kane & John Romita Sr.) concluded the Wondrous Wall-crawler’s battle against corrupt political boss Sam Bullit, wherein the ambitious demagogue convinced the youngest X-Man that Spider-Man had kidnapped Gwen Stacy. Despite being a concluding chapter, this all-out action extravaganza efficiently recaps itself and is perfectly comprehensible to readers, with the added bonus of featuring some of the best action art of the decade by two of the industry’s greatest names.

This is followed by an epic length adventure from Marvel Team-Up Annual #1 (1976, by Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema & Mike Esposito from a plot by Mantlo, Chris Claremont & Bonnie Wilford).

‘The Lords of Light and Darkness!’ featured Spider-Man and the newly minted and revived X-team Banshee, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus, Phoenix and Cyclops battling a pantheon of scientists who had been accidentally mutated and elevated to the ranks of gods. Like most deities, the puissant ones believed they knew what was best for humanity…

‘Tis Better to Give!’ by Louise Simonson, Greg LaRoque & Esposito was a double-length epic which ended the first volume of Marvel Team-Up (#150 February 1985) and pitted Spidey and the current mutant mob (Colossus, Rogue, Nightcrawler and the second Phoenix) against the Juggernaut and his only friend Black Tom, who had been transformed against his will into a rampaging engine of brutal destruction and was taking out his frustrations on New York City…

This intriguing collection concludes with a three-part tale from Spectacular Spider-Man #197-199 (February-April 1993) crafted by J.M. de Matteis & Sal Buscema, which saw original X-Men Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast and Marvel Girl reunited as X-Factor to join the Web-spinner in tackling an obsessive super-psionic dubbed Professor Power who had returned from the grave to destroy the heroes and reshape the world in his own twisted image…

With a cracking cover gallery and commentaries from the creators involved, this splendidly straightforward and satisfying action-romp (also available as a British edition published by Boxtree) is a perfect primer for new fans and a delightful way to pass the time until the next Marvel movie moment…
© 1996 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Batman: World’s Finest Archives volume 1


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson, George Roussos & (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-819-5

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

A year later, following the birth of Batman and Robin, National combined Dark Knight, Boy Wonder and Man of Steel on the cover of the follow-up New York World’s Fair 1940.

The spectacular 96 page anthology was a huge hit and the format was retained as the Spring 1941 World’s Best Comics #1, before finally settling on the now legendary title World’s Finest Comics from #2, beginning a stellar 45-year run which only ended as part of the massive clear-out and de-cluttering exercise that was Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Until 1954 and the swingeing axe-blows of rising print costs, the only place Superman and Batman ever met was on the stunning covers by the likes of Jack Burnley, Fred Ray and others. Between those sturdy card covers, the heroes maintained a strict non-collaboration policy…

This glorious deluxe hardback edition gathers the pivotal early appearances from Worlds Fair 1940, World’s Best #1 and World’s Finest Comics #2-16 in gleaming, glossy full-colour and also includes a beguiling Foreword by cartoonist and industry historian R.C. Harvey plus brief biographies of all the creators involved in these early masterpieces.

The vintage wonderment begins with ‘Batman and Robin Visit the 1940 New York World’s Fair’ by Bill Finger, Bob Kane & George Roussos, wherein the Dynamic Duo tracked down a maniac mastermind with a metal-dissolving ray, after which the same creative team deliver the classic and still enthrallingly eerie murder-mystery ‘The Witch and the Manuscript of Doom!’ from World’s Best #1 (Spring 1941).

Jerry Robinson joined the artists for World’s Finest Comics #2 and ‘The Man Who Couldn’t Remember!’ – a powerful character play and baffling mystery that still packs a punch – whilst #3 featured the first appearance of one of Batman’s greatest foes in ‘The Riddle of the Human Scarecrow’ a moody masterwork which saw the debut of Professor Jonathan Crane, a psychologist obsessed with both fear and money…

This is followed by a rip-roaring contemporary cowboy yarn ‘The Ghost Gang Goes West’ as a holiday for Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson turned into a riot of action, mystery and adventure after which ‘Crime Takes a Holiday’, (WFC #5, Spring, 1942 by Finger, Robinson & Roussos) offered a canny mystery yarn as the criminal element of Gotham “downed tools”. Naturally it was all part of a devious master-plan and just as naturally our heroes soon got to the bottom of it…

Behind a particularly effective War cover the brilliant Bat-yarn from World’s Finest #6 was ‘The Secret of Bruce Wayne!’ wherein Joe Greene, Robinson & Roussos provided a secret identity exposé tale that would become a standard plot of later years. From #7 (Fall 1942) came an imaginative thriller-chiller of theft and survival ‘The North Pole Crimes!’ (Finger, Kane & Robinson) whilst in ‘Brothers in Law’ from #8, by Jack Schiff and Jack & Ray Burnley, pitted Batman and Robin simultaneously against a Napoleon of Crime and feuding siblings who had radically differing definitions of justice, before the Cowled Crusader portion of #9 (Spring 1943) had Finger, Robinson & Roussos recount the salutary saga of a criminal mastermind who invented the wickedly ingenious ‘Crime of the Month!’ scheme.

World’s Finest Comics #10 offered ‘The Man With the Camera Eyes’ by Finger, Robinson & Roussos, a gripping battle of wits between our heroes and a crafty crook with an eidetic memory, whilst ‘A Thief in Time!’ (Finger & Robinson inked by Fred Ray) pitted the Gotham Gangbusters against future-felon Rob Callender who fell through a time-warp and thought he’d found the perfect way to get rich.

‘Alfred Gets His Man!’ by Finger & Dick Sprang found Batman’s faithful new retainer reviving his own boyhood dreams of being a successful detective with hilarious and action-packed results…

Issue #13 featured ‘The Curse of Isis!’ (Finger & Jack Burnley, inked by brother Ray and George Roussos) was a maritime mystery of superstition, smugglers and sabotage and similar themes were explored in Finger, Robinson & Roussos’ ‘Salvage Scavengers!’ three months later.

The last two tales are sadly anonymously scripted but both feature artist Jerry Robinson at the peak of his powers, beginning with ‘The Men Who Died Twice!’ from #15 wherein a trio of murderers seemingly escape their legal sentences but not their fates, and World’s Finest #16 (Winter 1944) temporarily brings things to a halt with the superb thriller ‘The Mountaineers of Crime!’ as Batman and Robin cleaned up the Rockies and put a bunch of bold bandits and brigands in the brig.

These spectacular yarns, produced every three months for the quarterly anthology, provide a perfect snapshot of the Batman’s amazing development from raw, vigilante agent of revenge to dedicated, sophisticated Darknight Detective in timeless tales which have never lost their edge or their power to enthral and beguile. Moreover this sturdy Archive Edition is the most luxurious and satisfying of ways to enjoy them.

So why don’t you…
© 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 2002 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Superman in Action Comics Archives volume 2


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Jack Burnley, Wayne Boring, Fred Ray, Paul Cassidy & the Superman Studio (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-426-2

In the second stellar hardback collection the Man of Tomorrow’s earliest groundbreaking adventures, reprinted from issues #21-36 of the epochal anthology Action Comics, the never-ending battle for Truth, Justice and the American Way reaches the middle of 1941, with war ripping apart the outer world but still no more than a looming literary menace for most Americans.

As described in modern-day super-scribe Paul Kupperberg’s introduction, although creators Siegel & Shuster had very much settled into the character by now, the buzz of success still fired them and innovation still sparkled amidst the exuberance.

These stories were largely untitled, but for convenience I’ve added the designations contrived by editors in other recent compilations such as the Superman Chronicles, so the full-on, four-colour magic opens here with ‘The Atomic Disintegrator’ – originally published in Action #21, February 1940 – wherein our restlessly exuberant hero tackled an early secret identity crisis and foiled a deadly plot by old enemy Ultra-Humanite (now creepily residing within the curvaceous body of movie starlet Delores Winters) which was followed by ‘Europe at War’, not only a tense and thinly disguised call to arms for the still neutral USA, but a continued story: an almost unheard-of luxury in those early days of funny-book publishing, which resulted in a spectacular and chilling one-man peace-keeping mission to halt hostilities between the nations of Galonia and Toran – and all explosively revealed to be the Machiavellian fault of a criminal scientist named Alexander Luthor…

Action #24 featured ‘Carnahan’s Heir’, a wealthy wastrel whom Superman promised to turn into a useful citizen, whilst the next told the tale of the ‘The Amnesiac Robbers’; good-guys compelled to commit crimes by an evil hypnotist in a crime wave with political repercussions, sporting a cover by new artistic sensation Wayne Boring, who went on to illustrate the next four too.

In comic book terms at least Superman was master of the world, and had already utterly changed the shape of the fledgling industry by the time of these tales. There was a popular newspaper strip, foreign and overseas syndication, and the Fleischer studio was producing some of the most expensive – and best – animated cartoons ever conceived. Thankfully the quality of the source material was increasing with every four-colour release, and the energy and enthusiasm of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had infected the burgeoning studio that grew around them to cope with the relentless demand.

From Action Comics #26 (July 1940) came ‘Professor Cobalt’s Clinic’ wherein Clark Kent and Lois Lane exposed a murderous sham Heath Facility with a little Kryptonian help, and the next month dealt a similar blow to the corrupt orphanage ‘Brentwood Home for Wayward Youth’. The September issue found him at the circus, solving the mystery of ‘The Strongarm Assaults’, a fast-paced thriller beautifully illustrated by the astonishingly talented Jack Burnley, brought in to help as the Superman newspaper strip took up more and more of Shuster’s time.

Action Comics #29 (October 1940) again featured Burnley art in a gripping tale of murder for profit. Human drama in ‘The Life insurance Con’ was replaced by deadly super-science as the mastermind Zolar created ‘A Midsummer Snowstorm’, in #30 allowing Burnley a rare opportunity to display his fantastic imagination as well as his representational excellence and featured the first of Fred Ray’s scintillating run of covers.

Action Comics #31 featured another high-tech crime-caper as gangsters put an entire city to sleep and only Clark Kent wasn’t ‘In the Grip of Morpheus’ in #31 whilst #32’s ‘The Gambling Racket of Metropolis’ (January 1941) saw the Metropolis Marvel crush an illicit High Society gambling operation that had wormed its nefarious way into the loftiest echelons of Government, a typical Jerry Siegel social drama magnificently illustrated by the increasingly impressive Burnley.

Action Comics #33 and 34 were also Burnley blockbusters wherein Superman first went north to discover ‘Something Amiss at the Lumber Camp’, before heading to coal country to save ‘The Beautiful Young Heiress’; both superbly enticing character-plays with plenty of scope for eye-popping super-stunts to thrill the gasping fans.

Behind a Wayne Boring cover Action Comics #35 saw the artistic return of Joe Shuster – aided by an increasing number of assistants dubbed “the Superman Studio” – for a human interest tale with startling repercussions in ‘The Guybart Gold Mine’, and this volume concludes with Superman mightily stretched to cope with the awesome threat of ‘The Enemy Invasion’; a canny taste of things to come if America entered World War II.

Stories of corruption, disaster and social injustice were typical of the times, but with war in the news and clearly on the horizon, the content of Superman’s adventures was changing and so, necessarily, did the scale and scope of the action.

The raw intensity and sly wit still shone through in Siegel’s scripts which literally defined what being a superhero meant, but as the world became more dangerous the Man of Tomorrow simply became stronger and more flamboyant to deal with it all, and Shuster and his team stretched and expanded the iconography that all others would follow.

Still some of the very best Fights ‘n’ Tights any fan could ever find, these tales deserve pride of place on any bookshelf.
© 1940, 1941, 1998 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told


By many & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 0-932289-57-9

When the very concept of high priced graphic novels was just being tested in the 1990s DC Comics produced a line of glorious hardback compilations spotlighting star characters and celebrating standout stories from the company’s illustrious and varied history decade by decade. They even branched out into themed collections which shaped the output of the industry to this day, such as this fabulous congregation of yarns – and even ads – that epitomised the verve and sheer exuberance of the most important period in American comics history.

Edited by Mike Gold, with associates Brian Augustyn, Robert Greenberger and Mark Waid, this splendid tome opens with a ‘One Man’s Gold is Another Man’s Pyrite’ – a foreword by Golden Age champion Roy Thomas – and also includes the essay ‘Roots of Magic’ by Gold, but fascinating and informative as those features are, the real literary largesse is to be found in the 22 stories and five stunningly enticing house ads and single page editorial features which no true fan can see without experiencing ineffable yearning…

The vintage thrills and spills commence with a spectacular Joe Simon & Jack Kirby Boy Commandos romp from Detective Comics #69 (November 1942). ‘The Siege of Krovka’ found the underage warriors battling Nazis beside desperate Russian villagers determined to make the invaders pay for every frozen inch of Soviet soil in a blockbusting 12 page masterpiece of patriotic fervour as only the Golden Age’s greatest creative team could craft.

A classic and much-beloved Caped Crusaders caper follows: ‘While the City Sleeps’ from Batman #30 (September 1945) by Bill Finger & Dick Sprang, wherein the Dynamic Duo prowl Gotham long after dark, seeking to keep a first-time burglar from a life of ruinous crime – a genuine masterpiece of the socially aware, even-handed redemptive era where theft was split into greed and – all too often – necessity…

From Flash Comics #4 (April 1940) comes the splendidly barbarous Hawkman thriller ‘The Thought Terror’ by Gardner Fox & Sheldon Moldoff wherein the Winged Warrior and reincarnated Egyptian Prince clashed with a sinister mesmerist enslaving the city’s wealthy citizens whilst Plastic Man #21 (January 1950) provided the absurdist and hilarious horror-adventure ‘Where is Amorpho?’ as the stretchable Sleuth faced an alien shape-shifter with a voracious and potentially lethal appetite…

Superboy: Give Your Town a Present (1949) is a public service announcement page of the sort continually running through comicbooks of the period, courtesy of Jack Schiff & Win Mortimer and is followed by the debut appearance of one the era’s most impressive “lost treasures”. ‘The Story of Wildcat’ comes from Sensation Comics #1 (January 1942) which is best remembered for the series debut of Wonder Woman. In this classy tale of a framed boxer who clears his name by donning a feline mask and costume, Finger & Irwin Hasen captured everything which made for perfect rollercoaster action adventure.

Black Canary started as a sexy criminal foil in the Johnny Thunder strip before taking over his spot in Flash Comics. ‘The Riddle of the Topaz Brooch’ by Robert Kanigher & Carmine Infantino from #96 (June 1948) is a perfect example of the heady blend of private eye mystery and all-action hi-jinks which increasingly typified post-war comics.

After a beguiling House Ad for ‘The Big Seven!’ (Action, Flash, More Fun, Star Spangled, Detective, All-American and Adventure Comics for October 1941), an uncredited Kid Eternity yarn illustrated by Mac Raboy introduces deadly art thief ‘The Count’ (Kid Eternity #3, Fall 1946) before Sheldon Mayer provides a superbly whacky selection of comedy strips featuring the tribulations of Scribbly: Midget Cartoonist (in actuality a little kid with a big future and lots of pencils) from All-American Comics #6 September 1939.

The original Green Lantern battled his most nefarious foe in ‘The Icicle Goes South’ (All-American Comics #92, December 1947) a spectacular duel choreographed by Kanigher and Alex Toth after which The Sandman tackled ‘The Pawn Broker’ in a fascinating detective mystery by Fox & Crieg Flessel from Adventure Comics #51 (June 1940) and Jay Garret, the first super-speeding Flash, helped professional gambler Deuces Wild survive ‘The Rise and Fall of Norman Empire’ a captivating history of crime and punishment by Fox & E.E. Hibbard, first seen in All Flash Comics #14 Spring 1944.

Jack Burnley’s Starman was always a magnificently illustrated strip and with Alfred Bester scripting ‘The Menace of the Invisible Raiders’ (Adventure Comics #67, October 1941) this example is easily one of the most thrilling tales of the run – if not the entire decade – introducing eerily impressive villain The Mist to an awe-struck world.

Schiff & George Papp produced institutional ad ‘Green Arrow and the Red Feather Kid’ in 1949 to promote Community Chest contributions, followed here by a fabulously fearsome Spectre adventure ‘Boys From Nowhere’ (More Fun Comics #57, July 1940) wherein Jerry Siegel & Bernard Baily recount the vengeful return of murderous supernatural terrorist Zor. A note of admitted bafflement here: I’m pretty sure the title is a misprint as there are no kids in the tale but there is a voice which emanates from empty air…

Cowboy crimebuster Vigilante and his sidekick the Chinatown Kid visited a ranch in Australia to bust rustlers and catch ‘The Lonesome Kangaroo’ in a rocket-paced romp beautifully illustrated by Jerry Robinson & Mort Meskin from Action #128 (September 1948), whilst the burly gumshoe Slam Bradley – arguably DC’s longest running character and prototype for Superman – cleaned up ‘The Streets of Chinatown’ in Detective Comics #1, March 1937 courtesy of talented kids Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, after which another gloriously evocative House Ad (for June 1942 and with the addition of Sensation Comics now ‘The Big Eight!’) all precede a stunning blockbuster exploit of The Black Condor in ‘The President’s Been Kidnapped’ from Crack Comics #19, December 1941, illustrated by the incredible Lou Fine.

Another fascinating House Ad from July 1944 combines a listing of the worthies of the company’s Editorial Advisory Board with a cracking come-on for the proverbial ‘Big Eight’ after which Dan Barry provides sublime art for the uncredited Johnny Quick drama ‘The Day That Was Five Years Long’ (Adventure Comics #144, September 1949) wherein the Man in Motion gives back a half-decade of lost time to a convict wrongly convicted of a crime he did not commit and ‘Superman Returns to Krypton’ (Superman #61 December 1949) by Finger & Al Plastino thematically, if not chronologically, closed the Golden Age by expanding, rewriting and retconning the Siegel & Shuster debut tale.

Unsung genius Jimmy Thompson wrote and drew the maniacally merry thriller ‘Robotman vs. Rubberman’ (Star-Spangled Comics #77 February 1948) wherein a good hearted brain in a mechanical form battled a larcenous circus freak without a bone or a scruple in his body, after which aviation ace Blackhawk braved antediluvian horrors on ‘The Plateau of Oblivion’ (Modern Comics #67 November 1947), illustrated by the incredible Reed Crandall.

Wonder Woman #13 (Summer 1945) provided the chilling fantasy saga of ‘The Icebound Maidens’, by William Moulton Marston & H.G. Peter, whilst the House Ad ‘Action! Thrills! Adventure!’ tempts us all with the covers of Superman, Batman, World’s Finest Comics and Mutt and Jeff for October 1941, before the Justice Society of America wrap things up with the stellar tale of ‘The Injustice Society of the World’ and their campaign to conquer America, narrowly averted by the era’s boldest heroes in 37 rip-roaring pages crafted by Gardner Fox, Irwin Hasen, Joe Kubert, Carmine Infantino & Alex Toth, which first captivated readers in All-Star Comics #37 (November 1947).

In a treasure-trove like this the biographies section ‘Creating the Greatest’ is a compulsive and enticing delight courtesy of Mark Waid and the whole show is capped off with Robert Greenberger’s explanatory ‘End Notes’ which describes the impossible task of compiling such a wonderful collection as this

The Greatest Stories collections were revived this century as smaller paperback editions but although the titles often duplicate the original volumes the contents usually don’t.

These sturdy early collections stand as an impressive and joyous introduction to the fantastic worlds and exploits of the World’s Greatest Superheroes and for sheer physical satisfaction the older, larger books are by far the better product. Some of them made it to softcover trade paperback editions, but if you can afford it, the big hard ones are the jobs to go for – and cherish forever…
© 1939-1950, 1990 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

X-Men: Days of Future Past


By Chris Claremont, John Byrne, & Terry Austin (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-582-5

Here’s one more slight yet elegant lost treasure from the early days of graphic novel compilations that might amuse and will certainly delight all-out aficionado and neophyte X-fans alike – and perhaps intrigue the odd collector-completist also.

Released in 1989, as Marvel was tentatively coming to grips with the burgeoning phenomena of “trade paperback” collections, this full-colour 48 page compendium collects two supremely impressive issues of Uncanny X-Men (#141-142 from January and February 1980) which perfectly encapsulated everything that made the outrageous outcasts such an unalloyed triumph and touchstone of youthful alienation.

In 1963 The X-Men #1 introduced Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl and the Beast: very special students of Professor Charles Xavier, a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the emergent off-shoot race of mutants dubbed Homo Superior. After years of eccentric and spectacular adventures the mutant misfits disappeared at the beginning of 1970 during a sustained downturn in costumed hero comics as supernatural mystery once more gripped the world’s entertainment fields.

Although their title was revived at the end of the year as a cheap reprint vehicle, the missing mutants were reduced to guest-stars and bit-players throughout the Marvel universe and the Beast was made over into a monster until Len Wein, Chris Claremont & Dave Cockrum revived and reordered the Mutant mystique with a brand new team in Giant Size X-Men #1 in 1975.

To old foes-turned-friends Banshee and Sunfire was added a one-shot Hulk villain dubbed Wolverine, and all-original creations Kurt Wagner, a demonic German teleporter codenamed Nightcrawler, African weather “goddess” Ororo Monroe AKA Storm, Russian farmboy Peter Rasputin, who transformed at will into a living steel Colossus and bitter, disillusioned Apache superman John Proudstar who was cajoled into joining the makeshift squad as Thunderbird.

The revision was an unstoppable hit and soon grew to become the company’s most popular – and high quality – title. In time Cockrum was succeeded by John Byrne and as the team roster shifted and changed the series rose to even greater heights, culminating in the landmark “Dark Phoenix” storyline which saw the death of arguably the book’s most beloved and imaginative character.

In the aftermath team leader Cyclops left and a naive teenaged girl named Kitty Pryde signed up…

In the eponymous ‘Days of Future Past’ Claremont, Byrne & Terry Austin depicted an imminently approaching dystopian apocalypse wherein mutants, paranormals and superheroes have been eradicated by Federally-controlled Sentinel robots, who now rule a shattered world on the edge of utter annihilation. New York is a charnel pit with most surviving mutants kept in concentration camps and only a precious few free to fight a losing war of resistance.

The middle-aged Kitty is the lynchpin of a desperate plan to unmake history. With the aid of telepath named Rachel (eventually to escape that time-line and become the new Phoenix) Pryde swaps consciousness with her younger self in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the pivotal event which created the bleak, black tomorrow where all her remaining friends and comrades are being pitilessly exterminated one by valiant one…

‘Mind Out of Time’ sees the mature Pryde in our era, inhabiting her juvenile body and leading her disbelieving X-Men team-mates on a frantic mission to foil the assassination of US senator David Kelly on prime-time TV by the sinister Brotherhood of Evil Mutants – super-powered terrorists determined to make a very public example of the human politician attacking the cause of Mutant Rights…

Fast-paced, action-packed, spectacularly multi-layered, bitterly tragic and tensely inconclusive – as all such time-travel tales should be – this cunning, compact yarn is indubitably one of the best individual stories of the Claremont/Byrne era and set the mood, tone and agenda for the next decade of mutant mayhem…

An extended edition containing Uncanny X-Men #138-143 and X-Men Annual #4 was released in 2006, but for sheer, swift stripped-down impact this slim 48-page tome is still one of the best slices of X-treme X-citement any fan could possibly crave…
© 1980, 1989 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted on

World’s Finest Comics Archives volume 1


Edmond Hamilton, Bill Finger, Curt Swan, Dick Sprang & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-488-6

During the 1950s most superheroes of the American Golden Age faded away leaving only headliners Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman – and whoever they could carry in the back of their assorted titles – to carry on their genteel crusade against thugs, monsters and aliens.

With economics and rising costs also dictating a reduction in average page counts, the once-sumptuous World’s Finest Comics (originally 96 pages per issue), which had featured solo adventures of the flagship heroes plus a wealth of other features, simply combined the twin stars in a lead story of each issue, beginning with #71 in July-August 1954.

And so they proceeded for decades more until Crisis on Infinite Earths rewrote the DC universe in 1985 and everything was shaken up by retooling The Man of Steel and  re-examining all the Caped Kryptonian’s close relationships in a darker, more cynical light.

However, for many years Superman and Batman worked together perfectly as the “World’s Finest” team. They were friends as well as colleagues and the pairing made sound financial sense since DC’s top heroes (in effect the company’s only costumed stars) could cross-pollinate and, more importantly, cross-sell their combined readerships.

This most inevitable of Paladin Pairings first occurred on the Superman radio show in the early 1940s, whilst in comics the pair had only briefly met whilst on a Justice Society of America adventure in All-Star Comics #36 (August-September 1947) – and perhaps even there they missed each other in the gaudy hubbub…

Of course they had shared the covers on World’s Finest Comics from the outset, but never crossed paths inside; sticking firmly to their specified solo adventures within. So, after a fascinating introduction from Mark Waid, this magnificent all-ages hardback compendium begins reliving those days of wonder in fabulous full colour with their classic, official first comicbook case together which appeared in Superman #76 (issue #76, May/June 1952).

Science fiction author Edmond Hamilton was tasked with revealing how Man of Steel and Caped Crusader first met – and accidentally discovered each other’s identities – whilst sharing a cabin on an over-booked cruise liner. Although an ordinary crime-stopper yarn, it was the start of a phenomenon. The art for ‘The Mightiest Team in the World’ was by the superb Curt Swan and inkers John Fischetti & Stan Kaye. Thereafter remaining inclusions in this first volume comprise the lead stories from World’s Finest Comics #71-85.

World’s Finest Comics #71 (July-August 1954) presented the Man of Tomorrow and the Gotham Gangbuster in the first of their official shared-cases as the Caped Crusader became ‘Batman – Double For Superman!’ (by scripter Alvin Schwartz with Swan & Kaye providing pictures) as the merely mortal hero traded identities to preserve his comrade’s alter ego and latterly, his life…

‘Fort Crime!’ (Schwartz, Swan & Kaye) saw them unite to crush a highly organised mob with a seemingly impregnable hideout, after which Hamilton returned to script ‘Superman and Batman, Swamis Inc’, a clever sting-operation that almost went tragically awry before an alien invader prompted an insane rivalry which resulted in ‘The Contest of Heroes’ by Bill Finger, Swan & Kaye, from #74.

The same creative team produced ‘Superman and Robin!’ wherein a disabled Batman could only fret and fume as his erstwhile assistant seemingly dumped him for a better man, whereas ‘When Gotham City Challenged Metropolis’ (Hamilton, Swan & Charles Paris) saw the champions at odds as their hometowns over-aggressively vied for a multi-million dollar electronics convention before a landmark tale by Hamilton, Swan & Kaye invented a new sub-genre when a mad scientist’s accident temporarily removed the Caped Kryptonian’s powers and created ‘The Super-Batman!’ in WF #77.

Arguably Batman’s greatest artist joined the creative crew ‘When Superman’s Identity is Exposed!’ (by Hamilton, Dick Sprang & Kaye) as a mysterious source kept revealing the Man of Steel’s greatest secret, only to be revealed as a well-intentioned disinformation stunt, whereas the accent was on high adventure when the trio became ‘The Three Musicians of Bagdad’ – a stunning time-travel romp from Hamilton, Sprang & Kaye.

When the Gotham Gazette faced closure days before a spectacular crime-expose, Clark Kent and Lois Lane joined dilettante Bruce Wayne as pinch-hitting reporters on ‘The Super-Newspaper of Gotham City’ (Hamilton, Sprang & Charles Paris) after which ‘The True History of Superman and Batman’ (Hamilton, Sprang & Kaye, #81) saw a future historian blackmail the heroes into restaging their greatest exploits so his erroneous treatise on them would be accurate…

Hamilton also produced a magnificent and classy costumed drama when ‘The Three Super-Musketeers!’ visited 17th century France to solve the mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask whilst Bill Finger wrote a brilliant and delightful caper-without-a-crime in ‘The Case of the Mother Goose Mystery! before Hamilton provided insight on a much earlier meeting of the World’s Finest Team with ‘The Super-Mystery of Metropolis!’ in #84, all for Sprang & Kaye to enticingly illustrate.

This initial collection of tales ends on a romantic note as Hamilton, Swan, Sprang & Kaye demonstrate how a comely Ruritanian Princess inadvertently turned the level-headed heroes into ‘The Super-Rivals’ (World’s Finest Comics #85 November-December 1956) attempting to woo, wow and outdo each other – but of course they had a far nobler plan in motion all along…

As mentioned above Superman Batman and Robin appeared together on the covers of World’s Finest from the outset and this captivating chronicle includes a glorious additional section reproducing 17 of those magnificently eye-catching, irresistible lures for the young at heart, as well as a comprehensive raft of creator biographies for the dedicated fan.

These are charming, clever yet uncomplicated tales whose dazzling style has recently returned to inform if not dictate the form for much of DC’s modern television animation – especially the fabulous Batman: the Brave and the Bold series – and the contents of this tome are a veritable feast of witty, charming thrillers packing as much punch and pizzazz now as they always have.

This book is the perfect gift for the kid in your no matter what age he/she/you are…
© 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1999 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Batman: the Dark Knight Archives volume 1


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson, George Roussos & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-050-X

By the time Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder won their own title (cover-dated Spring 1940) the company that would become DC had learned many lessons from their previous publishing phenomenon.

For one thing they no longer presumed that costumed characters were an incomprehensible glitch or soon to fade flash-in-the pan; nor were they going to be caught short by a lack of new material…

As the characters’ popularity grew, new talent joined the stable of creators. Jerry Robinson had already signed up with writer Bill Finger and penciller Bob Kane and during this period more scripters and artists were actively sought for the team.

This magnificent full-colour hardback compilation re-presents the first four quarterly issues in a gloriously resplendent sturdy collectors’ format, following the constantly rising fortunes of the Dynamic Duo as they fully developed and stormed ahead of all competition in progressively improving stories originally published between 1940 and 1941.

After a heartfelt paean of praise from US Senator Patrick Leahy, Batman #1 opens proceedings with a recycled origin culled from portions of Detective Comics #33 and 34. ‘The Legend of the Batman – Who He Is and How He Came to Be!’ by Gardner Fox, Bob Kane & Sheldon Moldoff offered in two perfect pages what is still the best ever origin of the character, after which ‘The Joker’ (Bill Finger, Kane & Jerry Robinson – who produced all the remaining tales in this astonishing premiere tome) introduced the greatest villain in the Dark Knight’s rogues’ gallery via a stunning tale of extortion and wilful wanton murder.

‘Professor Hugo Strange and the Monsters’ follows as the old enemy (see Batman Archives volume 1) returned with laboratory-grown hyperthyroid horrors to rampage through the terrified city after which ‘The Cat’ – who later added the suffix ‘Woman’ to her name to avoid any possible doubt or confusion – plied her felonious trade of jewel theft aboard the wrong cruise liner and fell foul for the first time of the dashing Dynamic Duo.

The initial issued ended with the ‘The Joker Returns’ as the sinister clown broke jail and resumed his terrifying campaign of murder for fun and profit before “dying” in mortal combat with the Gotham Guardian…

He returned in the opening tale of Batman #2 as ‘Joker Meets Cat-Woman‘ (by Finger, Kane, Robinson & the extremely impressive George Roussos) wherein svelte thief, homicidal jester and a crime syndicate all tussle for the same treasure with the Dynamic Duo caught in the middle.

‘Wolf, the Crime Master’ was a fascinating take on the classic Jekyll and Hyde tragedy after which an insidious – and classic – murder-mystery ensued in ‘The Case of the Clubfoot Murders’ before Batman and Robin faced uncanny savages and ruthless showbiz promoters in a poignant monster story ‘The Case of the Missing Link’.

Issue #3 (Fall 1940) saw Finger, Kane, Robinson & Roussos rise to even greater heights, beginning with ‘The Strange Case of the Diabolical Puppet Master’ an eerie episode of mesmerism and espionage, followed by a grisly scheme wherein innocent citizens are mysteriously transformed into specimens of horror and artworks destroyed by the spiteful commands of ‘The Ugliest Man in the World’ before ‘The Crime School For Boys!!’ saw Robin infiltrate a gang who had a cruel and cunning recruitment plan for dead-end kids…

‘The Batman vs. The Cat-Woman’ found the larcenous burglar in over her head when she stole for and from the wrong people and the issue ends with a magical Special Feature as ‘The Batman Says’ presented an illustrated prose Law & Order pep-talk crafted by Whitney Ellsworth and Robinson.

Batman #4 (Winter 1941) featured ‘The Case of the Joker’s Crime Circus’, as the mountebank of Mirth plunged into madness and recruited a gang from the worst that the entertainment industry could offer, whilst modern-day piratical plunderings were the order of the day in ‘Blackbeard’s Crew and the Yacht Society.

‘Public Enemy No.1’ told a salutary gangland fable in the manner of contemporary, socially aware Jimmy Cagney crime movies and ‘Victory For the Dynamic Duo’ submerged the Partners in Peril in the turbulent and very violent world of sports gambling to end the issue and this first fantastic collection on a rousing high note.

Notwithstanding the historical significance of the material presented here, there is a magnificent bonus for anyone who hasn’t read some or all of these tales before. They are astonishingly well-told and engrossing mini-epics that will still grip the reader with the white heat of sheer exuberant class and quality.

Read these yarns and you’ll understand why today’s creators keep returning to this material every time they need to revamp the mythology.

Timeless, enthralling and truly, truly great.
© 1940, 1940, 1992 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Superman in Action Comics Archives volume 1


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-335-3

The creation of the Man of Steel quite literally spawned a genre if not an actual art form and, nearly eight years after the first DC Archive Edition gathered the first four issues of the comicbook Superman into a spectacular lavish hardbound collection, the company finally got around to re-presenting the epochal run of raw, vibrant, unpolished stories which preceded them – and which first set the funnybook world on fire.

Here is the crude, rough, uncontrollable wish-fulfilling, cathartic exuberance of a righteous and superior man dealing out summary justice equally to social malcontents, exploitative capitalists, thugs and ne’er-do-wells that initially captured the imagination of a generation.

In this volume you’ll meet the first ever returning foe (us old lags call ’em “arch-enemies”) the Ultra Humanite plus a rip-roaring mix of hoods, masterminds, plagues, disasters, lost kids and distressed damsels – all dealt with in a direct and captivating manner by our relentlessly entertaining champion in swift and decisive fashion. Here they are presented in totality and chronological order from Action Comics #1 (June 1938) through #20 (January 1940).

Well, not exactly…

Because the first and third issues of the Man of Tomorrow’s own title featured an expanded version of the inaugural exploit and reprinted the Superman tales from Action Comics #2-5 – already seen in Superman Archives volume 1 – this tome is, perforce, not exactly a complete chronicle. However the cut-down, savagely truncated premier tale which appeared in June of 1938 to launch the long-lived anthology is here, in all its impressively terse, groundbreaking glory, as are all the Kryptonian contents of issues #7-20.

Most of these early tales were untitled, but for everyone’s convenience, have been given descriptive appellations by the editors; so after a fascinating introduction from Mark Waid, the wonderment begins with ‘Superman: Champion of the Oppressed!’ as, after describing the alien foundling’s escape from exploding Planet Krypton and astonishing powers in nine panels; the costumed crusader masquerading by day as reporter Clark Kent averted numerous tragedies by saving an innocent woman from the Electric Chair, roughing up a wife beater, busting racketeer Butch Matson – consequently saving feisty colleague Lois Lane from abduction and worse – and exposed a lobbyist for the armaments industry who was bribing Senators and fomenting war in Europe.

Although the stories themselves don’t appear, Action Comics #2-6 are represented here by a brief prose précis of each Superman yarn and the covers of the comics – all by Leo E. O’Mealia – and not one featuring the Caped Crimebuster…

The editors were initially dubious about the alien strongman’s popular appeal and preferred more traditional genre covers. By #16 sales figures confirmed that whenever the big guy did appear up-front sales jumped and, inevitably, Superman assumed pole position for decades to come with #19.

Action #7 was one of those high-selling issues, with a stunning Shuster cover of the still-leaping-not-flying hero which presaged ‘Superman Joins the Circus’ as the crusading mystery-man stopped racketeers taking over the Big Top, whilst the next episode saw ‘Superman in the Slums’ working to save young delinquents from a future life of crime and depravity and #9 featured the cops’ disastrous decision to stop the caped vigilante’s interference in ‘Wanted: Superman’. That manhunt ended in an uncomfortable stalemate…

‘Superman Goes to Prison’ in #10 again featured a Shuster cover (the non-super front images were by Fred Guardineer and are all included as an appetising bonus in this book) with the Man of Tomorrow infiltrating and exposing the brutal horrors of the State Chain Gangs, whilst #11 featured ruthless conmen driving investors to penury and suicide in ‘Superman and the “Black Gold Swindle”’.

Guardineer’s cover of Zatara on Action #12 incorporated another landmark as the Man of Steel was given a cameo badge declaring he was inside every issue, and his own adventure ‘Superman Declares War on Reckless Drivers’ was a hard-hitting tale of casual joy-riders, cost-cutting automobile manufacturers, corrupt lawmakers and dodgy car salesmen who all felt the wrath of the hero after a friend of Clark Kent was killed in a hit-&-run incident. The road-rage theme continued into the next instalment when ‘Superman vs. the Cab Protective League’ pitted the tireless force of nature against a murderous gang trying to take over the city’s taxi companies and quietly introduced the hero’s first great nemesis.

This issue also sported a classic Shuster Super-cover as the Man of Steel was awarded all the odd-numbered issues for his attention-grabbing playground.

Action #14 (which coincided with the launch of Superman #1) saw the return of the villain in ‘Superman Meets the Ultra-Humanite’ which had the mercenary scientist switch from incessant graft, corruption and murder to an obsessive campaign to destroy the Metropolis Marvel after which the cover-featured ‘Superman on the High Seas’ in #15 tackled sub-sea pirates and dry land gangsters. ‘Superman and the Numbers Racket’ saw the hero save an embezzler from suicide and disrupt another wicked gambling cabal, after which #17 featured ‘The Return of the Ultra-Humanite’ in another viciously homicidal caper.

Guardineer’s last human adventure cover – an aerial dog fight – on #18 led into ‘Superman’s Super-Campaign’ as both Kent and Superman determined to crush a merciless blackmailer, whilst ‘Superman and the Purple Plague’ found the city in the grip of a deadly epidemic created by the Ultra-Humanite.

This incredible run of tales ends with ‘Superman and the Screen Siren’ from Action Comics #20 (January 1940) as beautiful actress Delores Winters was revealed not as a sinister super-scientific monster but the latest tragic victim of the Ultra-Humanite’s greatest horror… brain transplant surgery!

Superman’s rise was meteoric and inexorable by now. He was the indisputable star of Action, plus his own dedicated title; a Superman daily newspaper strip began on 16th January 1939, with its separate Sunday strip following from November 5th of that year, which was garnering millions of new fans, and a radio show was in the offing and would launch on February 12th 1940.

Although the gaudy burlesque of monsters and super-villains still lay years ahead of our hero, these primitive captivating tales of corruption, disaster and social injustice are just as engrossing and speak powerfully of the tenor of the times. The raw intensity and sly wit still shine through in Siegel’s stories which literally defined what being a Super Hero means whilst Shuster created the basic iconography for all others to follow. These Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment at an absurdly affordable price and in a durable, comfortingly lavish format. What dedicated comics fan could possibly resist them?
© 1938, 1939, 1940, 1997 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.