Category: Graphic Novels

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100 Bullets: Strychnine Lives


By Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-252-5

Beginning as one of the best crime-comics ever produced, 100 Bullets developed into a staggeringly plausible and painfully visceral conspiracy thriller of vast scope and dazzling, intricate detail. Starting from the superb premise “what if you were given an untraceable gun, one hundred bullets and a damned good reason?”, Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso carefully planted seeds which grew into a tangle of disparate shoots simultaneously entwining and growing off at tangents before coming together into a perfect mosaic of mood, mayhem and murder.

What we know so far…

Soon after Columbus stumbled upon America, thirteen European crime-families migrated to his New World and carved up the continent between them. Establishing themselves in all aspects of the chaotic influx, they swiftly disappeared into the burgeoning masses flocking to the New World. When the new nation was born The Trust was embedded into the roots of everything and secretly controlled all the decision-makers…

To forestall their own greed and ambition screwing up the sweetest deal in history, The Families created an extraordinary taskforce to mediate and police any Trust members or splinter factions acting against the best interests of the whole. “The Minutemen” were always led by the only kind of peacekeeper capable of enforcing the rule of law on men of infinite power and unsurpassed ambition – a man uniquely honest, dedicated, smart and remorseless.

Some years ago Trust leaders decided they no longer needed overseers and acted with characteristic ruthlessness to remove them at a stroke. Betrayed Minutemen commander Agent Graves didn’t take his dismissal lying down and has been manipulating events and people to rectify that injustice ever since.

For years he has been appearing to various betrayed and defeated people as a “Court of Last Resort” offering answers, proofs, an untraceable handgun and 100 Bullets…

More recently The Trust has come under sustained attack from within and without. House leaders have been assassinated and as surviving members and newly promoted house-heads constantly politic to rewrite their 400 year old accord, scattered members of Graves’ old team gather in the wings.

But even the returned Minutemen all seem to have their own agendas now… or is Graves simply a far more subtle Machiavelli than anybody ever suspected?

With this ninth volume (collecting issues #59- 67of the 100 Bullets comicbook) comes a stunning ramping-up of suspense as even more players are removed from the game and the wary survivors consolidate their positions for the fast approaching apocalyptic finale. Pay attention: Azzarello & Risso have never been accused of underestimating their audience’s intelligence – or appetite for blood, sex, intrigue and ultra-violent action – and these stories need to be carefully studied: both the delightfully sparse words and the shockingly slick pictures…

The cataclysmic carnage and torturous tension begins with ‘The Calm’ as maniac former-Minuteman Lono and his jail-bird apprentice Loop Hughes (see 100 Bullets: Hang Up on the Hang Low and 100 Bullets: Samurai) meet up with Victor Ray, first member of the old crew to be reactivated by Graves and off the grid for a suspiciously long time. In that time Victor has been lying low with Christine, but now her abandoned, lovesick husband has tracked them down…

Meanwhile in ‘Staring At the Son’ recently ascended House-leader Megan Dietrich pays a visit to de facto Trust leader Augustus Medici – himself only recently reconciled with his out-of-control heir Benito – to discuss new alliances, but she is, as usual, playing her own game. Why else would she compel terrified rogue reporter Mr. Branch to return to America for a clandestine conference decades after he first uncovered the secret of The Trust and went on the run?

At the same glitzy hotel where Megan is confronted by cool killer Cole Burns, bellboy Tino makes the wrong connection and becomes embroiled in a drug-fuelled domestic tragedy provoked by an insane misunderstanding between major bad-ass gang-bosses Spain and Bosco.

As Graves and Augustus thrash out a few differences, Cole and Branch discover they have somebody else in common; sexy, enigmatic Echo Memoria – who seems to be playing all sides in the ongoing struggle – and has stolen a painting crucial to the very survival of the Trust. Everybody wants that damn picture and now Cole expects the ineffectual Branch to track down both her and it…

‘The Dive’ sees Graves further provoke recovering addict Jack Daw – now devolved into a troubled street-fighting brute immune to pain but wracked by indecision – who tries to make the manipulative Minuteman take back his untraceable briefcase of ordnance and tainted promise – with typical lack of success. As Victor Ray points Loop towards some unwholesome facts of his new life, Lono auditions for the role of Trust facilitator by making a stomach-churning example of one of Augustus Medici’s last rivals and the psychotic force of nature reveals the calibre of tactical brain hiding beneath his brutish sadistic exterior in ‘New Tricks’…

With another major player falling to a Minuteman-engineered hit – but perpetrated by which faction of the relentlessly shifting rogue team? – this captivating chronicle concludes with an apparent sidebar tale when ‘Love Let Her’ finds Benito Medici, Mr. Branch and conflicted Minuteman Wylie Times stumbling all over each other in the Mexican desert whilst searching for freshly de-programmed – or is she? – Dizzy Cordova, Graves’ prime agent and secret weapon. Trading booze, bon mots and bullets the situation looks bad for all concerned…

But we won’t know until the next volume…

Everybody lies and everyone has their own goals in this complex and impossibly clever yarn, so the magical skill shown in presenting these characters in their immediate actions and long-term machinations is dazzling to behold. This madly mature epic is a masterpiece of craft, with layers of incidental stories counter-pointing the major narrative thrust… but in which even the least depicted cameo of the most minor bit-player might be of crucial importance to the final denouement…

If there are still any thrill-starved readers – grown-up, paid-up, immured to harsh language and unshaken by rude, nude and very violent behaviour – who aren’t addicted to this astounding epic thriller yet, for Pete’s sake go out and grab every one of these graphic novels at all costs! You need them all and the very best is still to come…
© 2005, 2006 Brian Azzarello, Eduardo Risso & DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Marvel Masterworks volume 4: The Avengers 1-10


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Don Heck & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 0- 87135-479-9   second edition: 978-0-7851-0590-9

After a period of meteoric expansion, in 1963 the burgeoning Marvel Universe was finally ready to emulate the successful DC concept that had truly kick-started the Silver Age of comics.

The concept of putting a bunch of star eggs in one basket which had made the Justice League of America such a winner had inspired the moribund Atlas outfit of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko into inventing “super-characters” of their own and the result was the Fantastic Four. Nearly 18 months later the fledgling House of Ideas had a viable stable of leading men (but only sidekick women) so Lee & Kirby assembled a handful of them and moulded them into a force for justice and high sales…

Seldom has it ever been done with such style and sheer exuberance. Cover dated September, The Avengers #1 launched as part of an expansion package which also included Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos and The X-Men…

‘The Coming of the Avengers’ is one of the cannier origin tales in comics. Instead of starting at a zero point and acting as if the reader knew nothing, Stan & Jack (plus inker Dick Ayers) assumed readers had at least a passing familiarity with Marvel’s other titles and wasted very little time or energy on introductions.

In Asgard Loki, god of evil, is imprisoned on a dank isle, hungry for vengeance on his half-brother Thor. Observing Earth he espies the monstrous, misunderstood Hulk and engineers a situation wherein the man-brute seemingly goes on a rampage, just to trick the Thunder God into battling the monster. When the Hulk’s sidekick Rick Jones radios the Fantastic Four for assistance Loki diverts the transmission and smugly awaits the blossoming of his mischief. However Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp also pick up the SOS….

As the heroes converge in the American Southwest to search for the Jade Giant they realize that something is oddly amiss…

This terse, epic, compelling and wide-ranging yarn (New York, New Mexico, Detroit and Asgard in 22 pages) is Lee & Kirby at their bombastic best and one of the greatest stories of the Silver Age (it’s certainly high in my own top ten Marvel Tales) and is followed by ‘The Space Phantom’ (Lee, Kirby & Paul Reinman), in which an alien shape-stealer almost destroys the team from within. With latent animosities exposed by the malignant masquerader, the tale ends with the volatile Hulk quitting the team only to return in #3 as an outright villain in partnership with ‘Sub-Mariner!’ This globe-trotting romp delivered high energy thrills and one of the best battle scenes in comics history as the assorted titans clashed in abandoned tunnels beneath the Rock of Gibraltar.

Avengers #4 – inked by George Roussos – was an epic landmark as Marvel’s biggest sensation of the Golden Age was revived. ‘Captain America joins the Avengers!’ had everything that made the company’s early tales so fresh and vital. The majesty of a legendary warrior returned in our time of greatest need: stark tragedy in the loss of his boon companion Bucky, aliens, gangsters, Sub-Mariner and even wry social commentary and vast amounts of staggering Kirby Action.

Reinman returned to ink ‘The Invasion of the Lava Men’: another brilliant tale of adventure and suspense as the team battled superhuman subterraneans and a world-threatening mutating mountain with the unwilling assistance of the Hulk, but it paled before the supreme shift in quality that was #6.

Chic Stone – arguably Kirby’s best Marvel inker – joined the creative team just as a classic arch-foe debuted. ‘The Masters of Evil!’ forced Nazi super-scientist Baron Zemo out of the South American jungles he’d been skulking in to strike at his hated and now returned nemesis Captain America. To this end the ruthless war-criminal recruited a gang of super-villains to attack New York and destroy the Avengers. The unforgettable clash between our heroes and Radioactive Man, Black Knight and the Melter is an unsurpassed example of Marvel magic to this day.

Issue #7 followed up with two more malevolent recruits for the Masters of Evil as Asgardian outcasts Enchantress and the Executioner joined Zemo just as Iron Man was suspended from the team due to misconduct occurring in his own series (this was the dawn of the close continuity era where events in one series were referenced and even built upon in others).

That may have been ‘Their Darkest Hour!’ but Avengers #8 held the greatest triumph and tragedy as Jack Kirby relinquished his drawing role with the superb and entrancing invasion-from-time thriller which introduced ‘Kang the Conqueror’ (inked with fitting circularity by Dick Ayers).

The Avengers was an entirely different package when the subtle humanity of Don Heck’s work replaced the larger-than-life bombastic bravura of Kirby. The series had rapidly advanced to monthly circulation and even The King could not draw the huge number of pages his expanding workload demanded. Heck was a gifted and trusted artist with a formidable record for meeting deadlines and, under his pencil, sub-plots and character interplay finally got as much space as action and spectacle.

His first outing was the memorable tragedy ‘The Coming of the Wonder Man!’ (inked by Ayers) wherein the Masters of Evil planted superhuman Trojan Horse Simon Williams within the ranks of the Avengers only to have the conflicted infiltrator find deathbed redemption amongst the heroes, whilst this glorious deluxe hardback collection concludes with the introduction of malignant master of time Immortus who combined with the Masters of Evil to engineer a fatal division in the ranks when ‘The Avengers Break Up!’

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 serious, incurable fan there’s nothing to beat the substantial full-colour feel of these Marvellous Masterwork editions.

After all, if you’re going to enjoy the exploits of Earth’s Mightiest Super-Heroes surely you’ll be wanting to do it in style?
© 1963, 1964, 1988, 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Marvel Masterworks volume 1: The Amazing Spider-Man 1-10


By Stan Lee & Steve Ditko (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-305-9, 2nd edition 978-0-7851-1181-8

Marvel is often termed “the House that Jack Built” and King Kirby’s contributions are undeniable and inescapable in the creation of a new kind of comicbook story-telling, but there was another unique visionary toiling at Atlas-Comics-as-was: one whose creativity and even philosophy seemed diametrically opposed to the bludgeoning power, vast imaginative scope and clean, broad lines of Kirby’s ever-expanding search for the external and infinite.

Steve Ditko was quiet and unassuming, voluntarily diffident to the point of invisibility though his work was both subtle and striking: innovative, meticulously polished, always questing for detail, he ever explored the man within. He found heroism – and humour and ultimate evil – all contained within the frail but noble confines of human scope and consciousness. His drawing could be oddly disquieting… and, when he wanted, almost creepy.

Drawing extremely well-received monster and mystery tales for Stan Lee, Ditko had been given his own title. Amazing Adventures/Amazing Adult Fantasy featured a subtler brand of yarn than Rampaging Aliens and Furry Underpants Monsters and the ilk which, though individually entertaining, had been slowly losing traction in the world of comics ever since National/DC had successfully reintroduced costumed heroes. Lee & Kirby had responded with Fantastic Four and the ahead-of-its-time Incredible Hulk but there was no indication of the renaissance to come when the already cancelled Amazing Fantasy #15 cover featured a brand new and rather creepy adventure character.

In 11 captivating pages ‘Spider-Man!’ told the parable of Peter Parker, a smart but alienated kid bitten by a radioactive spider on a High School science trip. Discovering he had developed arachnid abilities which he augmented with his own natural engineering genius, he did what any lonely, geeky nerd would do when given such a gift – he tried to cash in for girls, fame and money.

Making a costume to hide his identity in case he made a fool of himself, Parker became a minor celebrity – and a self-important one. To his eternal regret, when a thief fled past he didn’t lift a finger to stop him, only to find when he returned home that his uncle Ben had been murdered.

Crazy for vengeance, Parker hunted the assailant who had made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known, only to find that it was the felon he couldn’t be bothered with. His social irresponsibility had led to the death of the man who raised him and the boy swore to always use his powers to help others…

It wasn’t a new story, but the setting was one familiar to every kid reading it and the artwork was downright spooky. This wasn’t the gleaming high-tech world of moon-rockets, giant monsters and flying cars – this stuff could happen to anybody…

Amazing Fantasy #15 came out the same month as Tales to Astonish #35 (cover-dated September 1962) – the first to feature the Astonishing Ant-Man in costumed capers, but it was the last issue of Ditko’s Amazing playground.

However the tragic last-ditch tale had struck a chord with the reading public and by Christmas a new comicbook superstar was ready to launch in his own title, with Ditko eager to show what he could do with his first returning character since the demise of the Charlton hero Captain Atom (see Action Heroes Archive volume 1).

Holding on to the “Amazing” prefix to jog reader’s memories, the bi-monthly Amazing Spider-Man #1 had a March 1963 cover-date and two complete stories. It prominently featured the Fantastic Four and took the readers by storm. The opening tale, again simply entitled ‘Spider-Man!’, recapitulated the origin whilst adding a brilliant twist to the conventional mix.

The wall-crawling hero was feared and reviled by the general public thanks in no small part to J. Jonah Jameson, a newspaper magnate who pilloried the adventurer from spite and for profit. With time-honoured comicbook irony, Spider-Man then had to save Jameson’s astronaut son John from a faulty space capsule…

The second yarn ‘Vs the Chameleon!’ found the cash-strapped kid trying to force his way onto the roster – and payroll – of the Fantastic Four whilst elsewhere a spy perfectly impersonated the web-spinner to steal military secrets, in a stunning example of the high-strung, antagonistic crossovers and cameos that so startled the jaded kids of the early 1960s.

Heroes just didn’t act like that…

With the second issue our new champion began a meteoric rise in quality and innovative storytelling. ‘Duel to the Death with the Vulture!’ found Parker chasing a flying thief as much for profit as justice. Desperate to help his aunt make ends meet, Spider-Man began to take photos of his cases to sell to Jameson’s Daily Bugle, making his personal gadfly his sole means of support.

Along with comedy and soap-operatic melodrama Ditko’s action sequences were imaginative and magnificently visceral, with odd angle shots and quirky, mis-balanced poses adding a vertiginous sense of unease to fight scenes. But crime wasn’t the only threat to the world and Spider-Man was just as (un)comfortable battling “aliens” in ‘The Uncanny Threat of the Terrible Tinkerer!’

Amazing Spider-Man #3 introduced possibly the apprentice hero’s greatest enemy in ‘Versus Doctor Octopus’, a full-length epic wherein a dedicated scientist survived an atomic accident only to find his self-designed mechanical tentacles permanently grafted to his body. Power-mad, Otto Octavius initially thrashed Spider-Man, sending the lad into a depression until an impromptu pep-talk from the Human Torch galvanized Spider-Man to one of his greatest victories.

‘Nothing Can Stop… the Sandman!’ was another instant classic wherein a common thug who had gained the power to transform to sand (another pesky nuclear snafu) invaded Parker’s school, and had to stopped at all costs whilst issue #5 found the web-spinner ‘Marked for Destruction by Dr. Doom!’ – not so much winning as surviving his battle against the deadliest man on Earth. Presumably he didn’t mind too much as this marked the transition from bi-monthly to monthly status for the series. In this tale Parker’s social nemesis, jock bully Flash Thompson, first displayed depths beyond the usual in contemporary comicbooks, beginning one of the best love/hate buddy relationships in popular literature…

Sometime mentor Dr. Curtis Connors debuted in #6 when Spidey came ‘Face-to-face with… The Lizard!’ as the wallcrawler fought his battle far from the concrete canyons and comfort zone of New York – specifically in the murky Florida Everglades. Parker was back in the Big Apple in #7 to breathtakingly tackle ‘The Return of the Vulture’.

Fun and youthful hi-jinks were a signature feature of the series, as was Parker’s budding romance with “older woman” Betty Brant, Jameson’s PA at the Daily Bugle. Youthful exuberance was the underlying drive in #8′s lead tale ‘The Living Brain!’ an ambulatory robot calculator that threatened to expose Spider-Man’s secret identity before running amok at beleaguered Midtown High, just as Parker was finally beating the stuffings out of school bully Flash Thompson.

This 17 page joy was accompanied by ‘Spiderman Tackles the Torch!’ (a 6 page vignette drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by Ditko) wherein a boisterous wall-crawler gate-crashed a beach part thrown by the flaming hero’s girlfriend… with explosive consequences.

Amazing Spider-Man #9 was a qualitative step-up in dramatic terms as Aunt May was revealed to be chronically ill – adding to Parker’s financial woes – and the action was supplied by ‘The Man Called Electro!’ a super-criminal with grand aspirations. Spider-Man was always a loner, never far from the streets and small-scale-crime, and with this tale wherein he also quells a prison riot single handed, Ditko’s preference for tales of gangersterism began to show through; a predilection confirmed in #10′s ‘The Enforcers!’ a classy mystery where a masked mastermind known as the Big Man used a position of trust at the Bugle to organize all the New York mobs into one unbeatable army against decency. Longer plot-strands were also introduced as Betty Brant mysteriously vanished (her fate to be revealed in the next issue and here the second Mighty Marvel Masterworks volume), but most fans remember this one for the spectacularly climactic seven-page fight scene in an underworld chop-shop that has still never been topped for action-choreography.

These immortal epics are available in numerous formats (including softcover editions of the luxurious and enticing hardback under review here), but for a selection that will survive the continual re-readings of the serious, incurable fan there’s nothing to beat the substantial full-colour feel of these Marvellous Masterwork editions.
© 1962, 1963, 1964, 1987, 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Crisis on Multiple Earths volume 1


By Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky, Bernard Sachs & Sid Greene (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-895-2

As I’ve frequently mentioned before, I was one of the “Baby Boomer” crowd which grew up with Julie Schwartz, Gardner Fox and John Broome’s tantalisingly slow reintroduction of Golden Age superheroes during the halcyon, eternally summery days of the early 1960s. To me those fascinating counterpart crusaders from Earth-Two weren’t vague and distant memories rubber-stamped by parents or older brothers – they were cool, fascinating and enigmatically new.

…And for some reason the “proper” heroes of Earth-One held them in high regard and treated them with obvious deference…

It all began, naturally enough, in The Flash; pioneering trendsetter of the Silver Age Revolution. After successfully ushering in the triumphant return of the superhero concept, the Scarlet Speedster with Fox & Broome at the writing reins set an unbelievably high standard for costumed adventure in sharp, witty tales of science and imagination, always illustrated with captivating style and clean simplicity by Carmine Infantino.

The epochal epic that literally changed the scope of American comics forever was Fox’s ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ (Flash #123 September 1961, as seen in Showcase Presents the Flash volume 2) which introduced the theory of alternate Earths to the continuity and by extension resulted in the multiversal structure of the DCU – and all the succeeding cosmos-shaking yearly “Crisis” sagas that grew from it.

And of course, where DC led, others followed…

Received with tumultuous acclaim, the concept was revisited months later in #129′s ‘Double Danger on Earth!’ which also teasingly reintroduced evergreen stalwarts Wonder Woman, Atom, Hawkman, Green Lantern, Doctor Mid-Nite and Black Canary. Clearly Editor Schwartz had something in mind…

‘Vengeance of the Immortal Villain!’ from Flash #137 (June 1963, inked by Giella) was the third incredible Earth-2 crossover, and saw two Flashes unite to defeat 50,000 year old Vandal Savage and save the Justice Society of America: a tale which directly led into the veteran team’s first meeting with the Justice League of America and the start of an annual tradition.

When ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ introduced the concept of Infinite Earths and multiple versions of costumed crusaders, public pressure had begun almost instantly to agitate for the return of the Greats of the “Golden Age” but Editorial powers-that-be were hesitant, fearing too many heroes would be silly and unmanageable, or worse yet, put readers off. If they could see us now…

These innovative yarns generated an avalanche of popular and critical approval (big sales figures, too) so inevitably these trans-dimensional tests led to the ultimate team-up in the summer of 1963.

This gloriously enthralling volume re-presents the first four JLA/JSA convocations: stunning superhero wonderments which never fails to astound and delight beginning with the landmark ‘Crisis on Earth-One’ and ‘Crisis on Earth-Two’ (Justice League of America #21-22, August and September) combining to form one of the most important stories in DC history and arguably one of the most crucial tales in American comics.

Written by Fox and compellingly illustrated by Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs the yarn finds a coalition of assorted villains from each Earth plundering at will, meeting and defeating the mighty Justice League before imprisoning them in their own secret mountain HQ.

Temporarily helpless “our” heroes contrive a desperate plan to combine forces with the champions of another Earth to save the world – both of them – and the result is pure comicbook majesty. It’s impossible for me to be totally objective about this saga. I was a drooling kid in short trousers when I first read it and the thrills haven’t diminished with this umpty-first re-reading.

This is what superhero comics are all about!

‘Crisis on Earth-Three’ and ‘The Most Dangerous Earth of All!’ (Justice League of America #29-30, August and September 1964) reprised the team-up of the Justice League and Justice Society, when the super-beings of a third alternate Earth discovered the secret of trans-universal travel.

Unfortunately Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick and Power Ring were villains on a world without heroes and saw the costumed crime-busters of the JLA/JSA as living practise dummies to sharpen their evil skills upon. With this cracking thriller the annual summer get-together became solidly entrenched in heroic lore, giving fans endless entertainment for years to come and making the approaching end of school holidays less gloomy than they could have been.

(A little note: although the comic cover-date in America was the month by which unsold copies had to be returned – the “off-sale” deadline – export copies to Britain travelled as ballast in freighters. Thus they usually went on to those cool, spinning comic-racks the actual month printed on the front. You can unglaze your eyes and return to the review proper now, and thank you for your patient indulgence.)

The third annual event was a touch different; a largely forgotten and rather experimental tale wherein the dim but extremely larcenous Johnny Thunder of Earth-1 wrested control of the genie-like Thunderbolt from his other-world counterpart and used its magic powers to change the events which led to the creation of all Earth-1’s superheroes. With Earth-1 catastrophically altered in #37’s ‘Earth – Without a Justice League’ it was up to the JSA to come to the rescue in a gripping battle of wits and power before Reality was re-established in the concluding ‘Crisis on Earth-A!’ in #38.

Veteran inker Bernard Sachs retired before the fourth team-up, leaving the amazing Sid Greene to embellish the gloriously whacky saga that sprang out of the global “Batmania” craze engendered by the Batman television series…

A wise-cracking campy tone was fully in play, acknowledging the changing audience profile and this time the stakes were raised to encompass the destruction of both planets in ‘Crisis Between Earth-One and Earth-Two’ and ‘The Bridge Between Earths’ (Justice League of America #46-47, August & September 1966), wherein a bold – if rash – continuum warping experiment dragged the two sidereal worlds towards an inexorable hyper-space collision. Meanwhile, making matters worse, an awesome anti-matter being used the opportunity to break into and explore our positive matter universe whilst the heroes of both worlds were distracted by the destructive rampages of monster-men Blockbuster and Solomon Grundy.

Peppered with wisecracks and “hip” dialogue, it’s sometimes difficult to discern what a cracking yarn this actually is, but if you’re able to forgive or swallow the dated patter, this is one of the very best plotted and illustrated stories in the entire JLA/JSA canon. Furthermore, the vastly talented Greene’s expressive subtlety, beguiling texture and whimsical humour added unheard of depth to Sekowsky’s pencils and the light and frothy comedic scripts of Gardner Fox.

This volume also includes an enthralling introduction by Mark Waid, a comprehensive cover gallery and creator biographies.

These tales won’t suit everybody and I’m as aware as any that in terms of the “super-powered” genre the work here can be boiled down to two bunches of heroes formulaically getting together to deal with extra-extraordinary problems. In mature hindsight, it’s obviously also about sales and the attempted revival of more sellable super characters during a period of intense sales rivalry between DC Comics and Marvel.

But I don’t have to be mature in my off-hours and for those who love costume heroes, who crave these cunningly constructed modern mythologies and actually care, this is simply a grand parade of straightforward action, great causes and momentous victories.

…And since I wouldn’t have it any other way, why should you?
© 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 2002 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Kingdom


By Mark Waid & various (DC)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-567-6   Titan Books edition 978-1-84023-122-9

After the staggering success of the 1996 miniseries Kingdom Come a sequel was utterly inevitable, but things didn’t exactly go according to plan and it was three years before a 2-issue return to that intriguing “Elseworld” was released; book-ending 6 individual one-shots, all set in the aftermath of the epochal epic which saw Superman return from a self-imposed exile to once more save the world.

Before all that though a prologue was released in Gog (Villains) #1, which segued into The Kingdom #1 and continued in an interwoven mosaic progression through spin-offs The Kingdom: Son of the Bat, The Kingdom: Nightstar, The Kingdom: Offspring, The Kingdom: Kid Flash and The Kingdom: Planet Krypton before concluding in The Kingdom #2.

This second “what if?” saga boldly managed to connect the once-separate continuity to the mainstream DC universe and introduced another bridging concept that opened the way for all the storylines and history eradicated in Crisis on Infinite Earths to once more be “real and true”.

Illustrated by Jerry Ordway & Dennis Janke, ‘The Road to Hell’ opens in the devastated fallout zone of Kansas where the returned Superman rescues a little boy – sole survivor of a holocaust caused by warring superheroes. Decades later that boy has grown into Minister William: a beneficent Samaritan and religious zealot who literally worships the Man of Steel as a redeeming God – until the hero painfully and finally disabuses him of the notion.

With his world torn apart for a second time William is given the true history of the universe by the Phantom Stranger and the broken preacher is reborn as Gog, a being of vast power able to manipulate events and change history.

The Stranger is part of a Cosmic alliance called the Quintessence and believes he is creating a force for good, tasked with undoing great tragedy; but the deranged Gog has another idea and promptly murders Superman – the destroyer of his faith and thus the maniac’s personal anti-Christ…. Moreover, the psychotic William begins to travel back in time intending to jump-start the Kansas Incident. On the way he will stop every 24 hours and kill Superman again: every day of his evil alien life and one day at a time… Most terrifying of all is the fact that the Quintessence are quite happy with Gog’s horrifying scheme…

Kingdom Come #1 (art by Ariel Olivetti) recapitulates the ‘Never Ending Slaughter’ as spectral adventurer Deadman gathers all of Superman’s ghosts slain since August 11th 2040 in an unending variety of gruesomely imaginative ways, victims of Gog’s reality-rupturing mania.

The resultant time-disruption energises Chronal guardians The Linear Men, but before they can act to protect the Space-Time Continuum one of their number betrays them and sets out to tackle the crisis his own way.

A year after the events of Kingdome Come Wonder Woman is giving birth to the son she and Superman conceived when Gog arrives to once more kill the Man of Tomorrow. Driven off by that era’s massed superhero population Gog escapes into the timestream taken the newborn child with him to 1998 where he will raise it as his disciple Magog.

With all of existence liable to vanish at any second the renegade Linear Man invites Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman to accompany him on a last-ditch mission to stop the maniac and save Kansas.

But now, whatever happens, the entire timeline and everybody in it will alter and might even never have existed…

As the World’s Greatest heroes vanish into the past they leave behind a shell-shocked band of new warriors desperately making their peace with imminent, inescapable and irreversible doom…

The Kingdom: Son of the Bat introduces Ibn al Xu’ffasch, heir of both Batman and Ra’s al Ghul, who uses his incredible intellect and astounding resources to resurrect the world’s greatest villains in hope of forestalling the apocalypse in ‘Convergence’, illustrated by Brian Apthorp & Mark Farmer, whilst The Kingdom: Nightstar finds the daughter of Nightwing and Starfire going ‘Not So Gently’ (art by Matt Haley & Tom Simmons) as one of her closest metahuman friends cracks under the pressure of impending non-existence and attempts to end it all quickly and cleanly by destroying the satellite which provides most of Earth’s food. Both these tales conclude with a time-bending stranger offering a way to fight back against the impossible situation…

‘Flexibility’ from The Kingdom: Offspring – superbly rendered by Frank Quitely – takes a softer approach by examining a unique father and son relationship as the clownish heir of Plastic Man tries to mend a few fences and have one last fling before the end, whilst The Kingdom: Kid Flash presents a ‘Quick Fix’ (Mark Pajarillo & Walden Wong) as the over-achieving daughter of the Fastest Man Alive attempts to live up to an impossible standard before the individual interludes end with The Kingdom: Planet Krypton wherein ordinary waitress Rose D’Angelo spends her last day working at the same hero-themed fast food restaurant she always has. Of course the place is ‘Haunted’ by ghosts only she can see – ephemeral, impossible alternate versions of costumed champions that never existed… or did they?

The Barry Kitson limned mystery leads directly into the concluding issue of The Kingdom, illustrated by Mike Zeck & John Beatty. ‘Mighty Rivers’ sees Magog reach the present in the mainstream DC universe and open his campaign to nuke Kansas. The current Superman is unable to defeat him until the time-travelling trinity of older heroes arrive, precipitating a calamitous battle and a technological Deus ex Machina wherein the imperilled champions of the doomed tomorrow save themselves and their still-potential reality thanks to the convenient miracle of Hypertime – where all things are possible…

Despite being all-but impenetrable to casual readers this climactic costumed caper is visually impressive and tremendously clever – if you’re au fait with the details of the DC canon – and much of the meat of this saga has since permeated such series as Justice Society of America and other titles, with wary readers continuing to wonder which of these “imaginary” characters will eventually manifest in the “real” world of DC Comics…

A definite fun-fest for DC devotees but perhaps a trifle over-focused for the casual consumer…
© 1999 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Modesty Blaise: Million Dollar Game


By Peter O’Donnell & Enric Badia Romero (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-675-0

Titan Books’ marvellous serial re-presentation of the classic British newspaper heroine continues as Enric Badia Romero returned to the strip after his years away drawing the controversial and racy science fiction serial Axa for The Sun, replacing permanently the subtly effective Neville Colvin…

Modesty and devoted platonic partner Willie Garvin are ex-criminals who retired young, rich and healthy from a career where they made far too many enemies. They were slowly dying of boredom in England when British Spymaster Sir Gerald Tarrant offered them a chance to have fun, get back into harness and do a bit of good in the world. Accepting, they have never looked back…

This volume begins with a classy modern western and mystery pastiche as Modesty and Willie vacation in cowboy country, intending to visit an old ghost town only to find Cordite City has been renovated into a top tourist trap. Getting ready to mosey on the pair spot that the tea-time re-enactment gunfight is actually lethally authentic…

Saving the life of one of the actors draws them into a crafty criminal scheme wherein a pretty young thing is menaced by the ghosts of infamous dead outlaws, an ancient Shoshone warrior holds the secret to a vast fortune and sneaky owlhoots are ruthlessly  attempting to pull off a very contemporary land grab in ‘Butch Cassidy Rides Again…’

The eponymous ‘Million Dollar Game’ (which originally ran in the London Evening Standard from 13th February-8th July 1987) delves into a long-hidden secret vice of World’s Greatest Adventure Heroine before coming bang up-to-date when an old friend asks for Modesty’s assistance in documenting the extent of ivory poaching in East Africa for the World Wildlife Fund.

However the vast profits generated by the vile trade tempts even the most trustworthy men and when Modesty and companion are shot down in the Bush Willies must rush to find them before the heavily-armed poachers do…

The volume concludes with another devilishly tongue-in-cheek taste of the not-so-supernatural in ‘The Vampire of Malvescu’ (July 9th – December 3rd 1987) as one of Willie and Modesty’s periodic extreme challenges leads the dynamic duo into a sinister plot and terrifying danger in the darkest heart of Transylvania, Women may be turning up naked and drained of blood but can it be Nosferatu?

Moreover, what possible part can Modesty’s old technical armourer and his pregnant young bride play in the unfolding nightmare?

Originally the heroine of a newspaper strip created by Peter O’Donnell and drawn by the brilliant Jim Holdaway, Modesty Blaise – and her ubiquitous, charismatic partner in crime and crime-busting Willie Garvin – has also starred in 13 prose novels and short-story collections, several films, a TV pilot, a radio play and nearly one hundred comic strip adventures between 1963 and the strip’s conclusion in 2002. She has been syndicated world-wide, and Holdaway’s version has been cited as an artistic influence by many major comic artists.

As always this volume contains detailed story introductions (here from Blaise historian Lawrence Blackmore) and a complete checklist of adventures and creator credits.

These are unforgettable stories from a brilliant writer at the peak of his powers revelling in the majesty of his greatest creation; timeless action romps and tales of sexy dry wit, more enthralling now than ever, which never fail to deliver maximum impact and total enjoyment. It’s never too late to find your Modesty…

© 2011 Associated Newspapers/Solo Syndication.

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Batman: Heart of Hush


By Paul Dini, Dustin Nguyen & Derek Fridolfs (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2123-2, softcover 978-1-84856-214-1

Paul Dini once more proved himself the very best of contemporary Batman writers with this chilling, suspenseful epic of love and obsession featuring Bruce Wayne’s ultimate adversary Tommy Elliot, a boyhood friend as twisted by his own mother’s malign influence as the boy Bruce was transformed by the murder of his parents Thomas and Martha Wayne.

Eminent surgeon Elliot became the sadistic and obsessive Hush to obtain vengeance on Bruce Wayne; his boyhood friend and companion but one who had been perpetually held up to him as a perfect example of a son by Elliot’s disabled and deranged mother. Now in this intriguing and affecting collection, reprinting Detective Comics #846-850 we gain a deeper insight into Batman’s dark doppelganger and the succession of tragedies that made him.

The stunning saga opens with ‘First Families of Gotham’ with occasional allies Catwoman and Batman tackling theme villain Doctor Aesop, unaware that the malignant, murderously patient Elliot is watching their every move. As telling slices of his ghastly childhood are presented the crazed doctor concludes the final preparations for his greatest scheme of vengeance…

In ‘The Last Good Day’ more memories of Elliot’s school days with young Bruce Wayne counterpoint the targeting of Robin, Zatanna and Nightwing as the entire Batman Family come under Hush’s meticulous and malicious gaze and the villain prepares a perfect trap for Batman with the terrifying assistance of Dr. Jonathan Crane – the Scarecrow…

Batman is forced to confront the greatest chink in his heroic armour in  ‘Heartstrings’ and Catwoman is struck down and made the ultimate hostage via a grotesque surgical strike, pushing the Dark Knight to the edge of reason and brink of death in ‘Scars’…

When the finally part of the plan culminates in Tommy Elliot becoming Bruce Wayne the scene is set for a spectacular confrontation with neither combatant quite sure who is the hero and who ‘The Demon in the Mirror’…

With a vast assembly of guest-stars and visiting villains, Heart of Hush finally elevated the previously over-hyped and uninspiring Tommy Elliot to the first rank of Batman’s Rogues Gallery. Fast, furious, genuinely scary and powerfully this is a masterful tale of suspense that no fan should miss… and since it’s available in both handsome hardback and scintillating softcover editions, you don’t have to..
© 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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X-Men: Age of X


By Mike Carey, Simon Spurrier, Clay Mann, Steve Kurth, Paul Davidson & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-490-4

Most people who read comics have a passing familiarity with Marvel’s ever-changing X-Men franchise and most of us have seen alternate world stories so this intriguing and highly entertaining package seems pretty easy to pigeonhole… but appearances can be deceiving.

With a property as valuable as these massed mutants, change is a necessarily good thing, even if you sometimes need a scorecard to keep up. This utterly engrossing tome (collecting Age of X Alpha, X-Men Legacy #245-247, New Mutants volume 3 #22-24 and Age of X Universe #1 and 2) keeps the backstory baggage to the barest minimum for newbies and non-addicts; concentrating instead on building an “end-of-days” tension in a brutally harsh last stand scenario – although the pacing is a little hard to grasp in places.

This Marvel publishing event, which ran from January to April 2011, is a tribute to the Age of Apocalypse mega-crossover of 1995, with an introductory Alpha issue, dedicated stories in X-men core titles and a pair of “Universe” compilations focusing on the non-mutant heroes of the altered continuity.

Written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Mirco Pierfederici, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Carlo Barberi, Walden Wong, Paco Diaz and Paul Davidson, the initial instalment describes a very different world where all-out species war is being waged between humans and homo superior. Anti-mutant statutes by the Human Coalition have all but eradicated mutantkind and any ordinary mortal who might carry the hated genes to make them.

Three years of inspired atrocity later, the stories of those last remnants of the variant species are examined in telling vignettes: Scott Summers was forced to execute his fellow inmates at a mutant Alcatraz before spectacularly escaping, Sam Guthrie survived the extermination of his entire family, super-powered or not, and Wolverine lost all his abilities destroying a pathogen designed to wipe out all genetic aberrations.

During the darkest moment of this man-made Extinction Event Magneto rescued the last remnants of meta-humanity and created a monumental Fortress X from the ruins of a devastated city. Here the remaining mutants hold out in a desperate all-or-nothing holding action…

After 1000 days of dire and valiant resistance a kind of last ditch détente persists. The humans keep attacking and the mutants perpetually narrowly beat them off. In this world where there are no telepaths and there has never been a Professor X, every day is one more precious moment of defiant unity in the face of imminent doom.

The stalemate continues in X-Men Legacy #245 (Carey, Clay Mann & Jay Leisten) as the resistors continue to defy the human world’s technology and soldiery. Especially vital are the contributions of the Force Warriors: energy-casting mutants whose powers maintain an impenetrable energy-shield around Fortress X. They are led by the charismatic Legion – son of Dr. Moira MacTaggert and an unknown father…

The most tragic hero is Legacy, whose touch can steal memories and abilities. She is not allowed to fight but is tasked with preserving forever the dying memories of mutants who fall in battle.

A few resisters are troubled by more than just the state of the world: something is imperceptibly wrong with reality itself. Metal-morph Madison Jeffries discovers there is something amiss with the stars in the sky; Summers, dubbed the Basilisk, realises that he’s killed some humans more than once and some defenders question why so many mutants are mysteriously imprisoned in the citadel’s dungeons.

Moreover, the enigmatic “X” who runs the fortress seems more concerned with containing them than defeating the human attackers. Even Magneto feels something is being kept from him – and he’s in charge…

When immaterial internee Kitty Pryde escapes the Brig and penetrates the forcefield she discovers something fantastic and X orders her silenced at all costs, precipitating traitorous action from Legacy, Cajun thief Gambit and even Magneto himself…

The New Mutants chapters are illustrated by Steve Kurth & Alex Martinez and follow Basilisk, Legacy and the liberated Pryde as they begin unpicking the darkly credible but ferociously flawed universe they inhabit. A turning point comes when the fugitive fighters free an imposing bald man named Xavier who claims to be a telepath…

Cunningly tapping into the brooding pressure and extreme vivacity of life during wartime and wonderfully reminiscent of William Hope Hodgson’s macabre 1912 classic The Night Land (an absolute “must-read” for all fantasy fans) this is an effective thriller and just a little different from your standard “unite and save the universe” crossover-events with a superb and spectacular surprise climax that will delight regulars and visiting readers alike.

And that’s the only real problem here: because after that satisfactory ending the Age of X Universe stories (written by Simon Spurrier, Jim McCann & Chuck Kim, illustrated by Khoi Pham, Tom Palmer, Paul Davidson & Gabriel Hernandez Walta) follow, totally killing the mood and the flow despite all being extremely well-produced revelatory side-bars and effective character-pieces.

Viewed on their own merits the stories of Spider-Man’s ultimate sacrifice, the brutal and tragic career of Humanity’s Avengers (Captain America, Invisible Woman, Iron Man, Ghost Rider, the arachnoid Redback plus the most disturbing Hulk ever) and hidden secrets of the Mutant-hunting Dr. Strange are extremely impressive. If they’d been disclosed before the big reveal, surprise ending they would have been valuable elements in the greater narrative but chucked in after the fact they just detract from a really impressive story-ending.

This action-packed, compulsive and otherwise excellent volume also includes variant covers by Olivier Coipel and Clayton Mann.

If you want fast, furious and fulfilling Fights ‘n’ Tights magic this is a nearly perfect one-shop stop for your edification and delectation – just make sure you read the last bit after the first bit and before the middle bit…

™ and © 2010 & 2011 Marvel Entertainment LCC and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. A British edition released by Panini UK Ltd.

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Green Lantern/Green Arrow volume 1


By Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, Frank Giacoia, Dick Giordano, Dan Adkins & Berni Wrightson (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0224-8

After nearly a decade of earthly crime-busting, interstellar intrigue and spectacular science fiction shenanigans the Silver Age Green Lantern was swiftly becoming one of the earliest big-name casualties of the downturn in superhero sales in 1969 and Editor Julie Schwartz knew something extraordinary was needed to save the series.

The result was a bold experiment that created a fad for socially relevant, ecologically aware, more mature stories which spread throughout DC costumed hero comics that totally revolutionised the industry and nigh-radicalised the readers.

Tapping superstars-in-waiting Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams to produce the revolutionary fare, Schwartz watched in fascinated disbelief as the resultant thirteen groundbreaking, landmark tales – the first seven of which are reprinted in this superb colour collection – captured the tone of the times, garnered critical praise and awards within the industry and desperately valuable publicity from the real world outside, whilst simultaneously registering such poor sales that the series was finally cancelled anyway, with the heroes unceremoniously packed off to the back of marginally less endangered comicbook The Flash.

Once safely established and doubling up the die-hard fan-base, the stories resumed their traditional themes – crime, adventure and space opera – and Green Lantern gradually grew popular enough for his own solo title once more….

By the end of the 1960s America was a bubbling cauldron of social turmoil and experimentation. Everything was challenged on principle and with issue #76 of Green Lantern (April 1970 and the first issue of the new decade) O’Neil and comics iconoclast Neal Adams utterly redefined superheroism with their “Issues”-driven stories; transforming complacent establishment masked boy-scouts into uncertain, questioning champions and strident explorers of the enigma of America.

When these stories first appeared DC was a company in transition – just like America itself – with new ideas (which, in comic-book terms meant “young writers”) being given much leeway: a veritable wave of fresh, raw talent akin to the very start of the industry, when excitable young creators ran wild with imagination. Their cause wasn’t hurt by the industry’s swingeing commercial decline: costs were up and the kids just weren’t buying funnybooks in the quantities they used to…

O’ Neil, in tight collaboration with hyper-realistic artist Adams, assaulted all the traditional monoliths of contemporary costumed dramas with tightly targeted, protest- driven stories. The comicbook had been re-designated Green Lantern/Green Arrow with Emerald Archer Oliver Queen constantly mouthing off as a hot-headed, liberal sounding-board and platform for a generation-in-crisis whilst staid, quasi-reactionary GL Hal Jordan played the part of the oblivious but well-meaning old guard. At least the Ring-Slinger was able to perceive his faults and more or less willing to listen to new ideas…

‘No Evil Shall Escape My Sight!’ (inked by Frank Giacoia) is a true landmark of the medium, utterly reinventing the concept of the costumed crusader as newly-minted, freshly bankrupted millionaire Oliver (Green Arrow) Queen challenged his Justice League comrade’s cosy worldview when the lofty space-cop painfully discovered real villains wore business suits, had expense accounts, hurt people just because of skin colour and would happily poison their own nests for short-term gain…

The specific villain du jour was a wealthy landlord whose treatment of his poverty-stricken tenants wasn’t necessarily illegal but certainly was wickedly immoral… Of course, the fact that this yarn is also a brilliantly devious crime-thriller with science-fiction overtones doesn’t exactly hurt either…

‘Journey to Desolation’ in #77 was every bit as groundbreaking.

At the conclusion of the #76 an immortal Guardian of the Universe – known as “the Old Timer” was assigned to accompany the Emerald Duo on a voyage to “discover America”: a soul-searching social exploration into the dichotomies which divided the nation – and a tremendously popular pastime for the nation’s disaffected citizens back then.

The first stop brought the trio to a poverty-stricken mining town run as a private kingdom by a ruthless entrepreneur happy to use agent-provocateurs and Nazi war criminals to keep his wage slaves in line. When a young protest singer looked likely to become the next Bob Dylan and draw unwelcome publicity, he had to be eliminated – as did the three strangers who drove into town at just the wrong moment…

Although the heroes provided temporary solutions and put away viciously human criminals, these tales were always carefully heavy-handed in exposing bigger ills and issues which couldn’t be fixed with a wave of a Green Ring; invoking an aura of helplessness that was metaphorically emphasised during this story when Hal was summarily stripped of much of his power for no longer being the willing, unquestioning stooge of his officious, high-and-mighty alien masters…

The confused and merely-mortal Green Lantern discovered another unpalatable aspect of human nature in ‘A Kind of Loving, a Way of Death!’ when Black Canary joined the peripatetic cast. Seeking to renew her stalled relationship with Green Arrow, she was waylaid by bikers, grievously injured and taken in by a charismatic hippy guru. Sadly Joshua was more Manson than Messiah and his brand of Peace and Love only extended to white people: everybody else was simply target practise…

The continuing plight of Native Americans was stunningly highlighted in ‘Ulysses Star is Still Alive!’ as corporate logging interests attempted to deprive a mountain tribe of their very last scraps of heritage, once more causing the Green Knights to take extraordinarily differing courses of action to help, whilst #80 added a science fiction gloss to a tale of judicial malfeasance in ‘Even an Immortal Can Die!’ (inked by Dick Giordano).

When the Old Timer used his powers to save Green Lantern rather than prevent a pollution catastrophe in the Pacific Northwest, he was chastised by his fellow Guardians and dispatched to the planet Gallo for judgement by the supreme arbiters of Law in the universe. His earthly friends accompanied him and found a disturbing new administration with a decidedly off-kilter view of justice…

Adams’ staggering facility for capturing likenesses added extra-piquancy to this yarn that we’re just not equipped to grasp four decades later, with the usurping, overbearing villain derived from the Judge of the infamous trial of anti-war protesters “The Chicago Eight”.

Insight into the Guardians’ history underpinned ‘Death Be My Destiny!’ when Lantern, Arrow and Canary travelled with the now-sentenced Old Timer to the ancient world of Maltus and found a world literally choking on its own out-of-control population. The uncanny cause cast unlovely light on the perceived role and worth of women in modern society…

Ending this first of a two-set volume on a more traditional note, Green Lantern/Green Arrow #82 enquired ‘How do you Fight a Nightmare?’ (with additional inks from Berni Wrightson) as Green Lantern’s greatest foe unleashed Harpies, Amazons and all manner of female furies on the hapless hero before Black Canary and Green Arrow could turn the tide, whilst asking a few more pertinent questions about women’s rights…

As well as these magnificent still-challenging epics superbly re-coloured by Cory Adams and Jack Adler this chronicle also reprints O’Neil’s effusive introduction from the hardbound. slip-cased turn-of-this-century ‘Hard-Travelling Heroes‘ edition, creator biographies and a illustrated feature ‘Legacy in Print’ which pictorially examines the multifarious collected formats in which these timeless tales have been collected.

© 1970, 1971, 1992, 1977, 2000, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.