Category: Graphic Novels

Posted on

The Phantom vs. the Sky Maidens


By Lee Falk & Ray Moore (Ken Pierce)
No ISBN

In the 17th century a British sailor survived an attack by pirates, and washing ashore in Africa, swore on the skull of his murdered father to dedicate his life and that of all his descendents to destroying pirates and criminals. The Phantom fights crime and injustice from a base deep in the Jungles of Bengali, and throughout Africa he is known as the “Ghost Who Walks”, considered an immortal avenger by the credulous and the wicked. Down the decades one hero after another has fought and died in an unbroken line, and the latest wearer of the mask, indistinguishable from the first, continues the never-ending battle…

For such a successful, long-lived and influential series, in terms of graphic novel collections The Phantom has been very poorly served by the English language market. Various small companies have tries to collect the strips – one of the longest continually running adventure serials in publishing history – but in no systematic or chronological order and never with any sustained success.

This particular edition is a black and white paperback album from the early 1980s and comes courtesy of that pioneer of strip preservation and proliferation Ken Pierce, collecting in almost its entirety the second ever dailies saga (originally published from 9th November 1936 to April 10th 1937) from the annals of “The Ghost Who Walks.”

Lee Falk created Jungle Avenger at the request of his publishers who were already making history and public headway with his first strip sensation Mandrake the Magician. Although technically not the first ever costumed hero in comics, The Phantom was the prototype paladin to wear a skin-tight body-stocking, and the first to have a mask with opaque eye-slits.

He debuted on February 17th 1936 in an extended sequence that pitted him against a global confederation of pirates called the Singh Brotherhood. Falk wrote and drew the daily strip for the first two weeks before artist Ray Moore took over the illustration side. The Sundays feature began in May 1939.

This second rip-snorting adventure-mystery follows directly on from the initial outing (and with the Singh Brotherhood tale forms the basis for the exceptionally watchable 1996 movie staring Billy Zane) and finds the anonymous, indomitable hero blamed for the depredations of a gang of airborne bandits currently raiding passenger planes and airships throughout the orient.

Entitled ‘The Sky Band’ it was a great shock to avid readers of the 1930s to discover that those enigmatic, ruthless aerial brigands were all weak and feeble women – whereas re-titling the book “The Sky Maidens” might have tipped off any later fans…

Escaping from police custody with the aid of his faithful Pygmy warriors the Bandar, The Phantom is soon hot on the trail of the real mastermind…

Stuffed with chases, assorted fights, stunts and many a misapprehension – police and authorities clearly having a hard time believing a pistol-packing masked man with a pet wolf might not be a bad egg – this a gripping blood and thunder tale that still packs a punch and quite a few subtle laughs. Captured by the manic Baroness who runs the all-girl gang, The Phantom eventually turns the tide not by force but by exerting his masculine wiles upon the hot-blooded – if psychopathic – harridan, unaware until too late that his own beloved, true-blue Diana Palmer is watching…

It is truly inexplicable to me that in a marketplace which has rediscovered so many lost and forgotten comics treasures that such an iconic strip as the Phantom (and Mandrake the Magician for that matter) can remain uncollected and ignored, especially as the material is still fresh, entertaining and addictively compelling.

But, even if it were only of historical value (or just printed for Australians – who have long been manic devotees of the implacable champion) surely the Ghost Who Walks is worthy of a definitive chronological compendium series?
© 1982 King Features Syndicate. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Essential Defenders volume 1


By Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Len Wein, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1547-2

Last of the big star conglomerate super-groups, the Defenders would eventually count amongst its membership almost every hero – and a few villains – in the Marvel Universe. No surprise there then as initially they were composed of the company’s bad-boys: misunderstood, outcast and often actually dangerous to know.

For Marvel, the outsider super-group must have seemed a conceptual inevitability – once they’d finally published it. Apart from Spider-Man and Daredevil all their heroes regularly teamed up in various mob-handed assemblages, and in the wake of the Defenders’ success even more super-teams comprised of pre-existing characters were mustered – such as the Champions, Invaders, New Warriors and so on but never with so many Very Big Guns…

The genesis of the team in fact derived from their status as publicly distrusted “villains”, but before all that later inventive approbation this cheap and cheerful black and white volume (collecting Dr. Strange #183, Sub-Mariner #22, 33-35, Incredible Hulk #126, Marvel Feature #1-3, Avengers #115-118 and Defenders #1-14) re-presents three linked tales that would impact on later issues of the title. Confused yet? You will be…

For kids – of any and all ages – there is a simply primal fascination with brute strength and feeling dangerous, which surely goes some way towards explaining the perennial interest in angry tough guys who break stuff as best exemplified by Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner and the Incredible Hulk. When you add the mystery and magic of Doctor Strange the recipe for thrills, spills and chills becomes simply irresistible…

The first tale in this volume comes from Dr. Strange #183 (November 1969). In ‘They Walk by Night!’ Roy Thomas, Gene Colan & Tom Palmer introduced a deadly threat in the Undying Ones, an elder race of demons hungry to reconquer the Earth, but as the series unexpectedly ended with that issue the story went nowhere until the February 1970 Sub-Mariner (#22) ‘The Monarch and the Mystic!’ brought the Prince of Atlantis into the mix, as Thomas, Marie Severin & Johnny Craig told a sterling tale of sacrifice in which the Master of the Mystic Arts seemingly died holding the gates of Hell shut with the Undying Ones pent behind them.

The extended saga concluded on an upbeat note with The Incredible Hulk #126 (April 1970) with ‘…Where Stalks the Night-Crawler!’ by Thomas and Herb Trimpe wherein a New England cult dispatched helpless Bruce Banner to the nether realms in an attempt to undo Strange’s sacrifice. Luckily cultist Barbara Norris had last minute second thoughts and her own dire fate freed the mystic, seemingly ending the threat of the Undying Ones forever.

At the end of that issue Strange retired, forsaking magic, although he was back before too long as the fates – and changing reading tastes – called him back to duty. Meanwhile Sub-Mariner had become an early advocate of the ecology movement, and in issues #34-35 of his own title (February and March 1971) he took the next step in the evolution of the Defenders when he recruited Hulk and Silver Surfer to help him destroy an American Nuclear Weather-Control station.

In ‘Titans Three’ and the concluding ‘Confrontation’ (by Thomas, Sal Buscema & Jim Mooney) the always misunderstood trio battled a despotic dictator’s forces, the US Army and the Mighty Avengers to prevent the malfunctioning station from accidentally vaporising half the planet…

With that debacle smoothed over life resumed its usual frenetic pace for the Hulk and Namor until giant sized try-out comic Marvel Feature #1 (December 1971) presented ‘The Day of the Defenders!’ as a mysteriously returned Dr. Strange recruited the Avenging Son and the Jade Giant to help him stop the deathbed doom of crazed super-mind Yandroth.

Determined to not go gently into the dark the Scientist Supreme had built an Omegatron weapon programmed to obliterate the Earth as soon as Yandroth’s heart stopped beating and only the brute strength of the misunderstood misanthropes could possibly stop it…

Naturally the fiend hadn’t told the whole truth but the day was saved – or at least postponed – in a canny classic from Thomas, Ross Andru and Bill Everett. That comic also revealed how Strange regained his mojo in ‘The Return’ by Thomas, Don Heck and Frank Giacoia: a heady ten-page thriller which proved that not all good things come in large packages.

Clearly destined for great things the Defenders returned in Marvel Feature #2 (March 1972) with Sal Buscema replacing Everett as inker for a Halloween treat ‘Nightmare on Bald Mountain!’ Capturing his arch-foe Dr. Strange, extra-dimensional dark lord Dormammu invaded our realm through a portal in Vermont only to be beaten back by the mage’s surly sometimes comrades, whilst in #3 (June 1972) Thomas, Andru and Everett reunited to revive an old Lee/Kirby “furry underpants” monster in ‘A Titan Walks Among Us!’

Xemnu the Titan was an alien super-telepath who wanted to repopulate his desolate homeworld by stealing America’s children until thrashed by the Defenders, but older fans recognised him as the cover-hogging star of Journey into Mystery #62 (November 1960) where he acted as a road-test for a later Marvel star in a short tale entitled ‘I Was a Slave of the Living Hulk!‘

An assured hit now The Defenders leapt swiftly into their own title (cover-dated August 1972), to begin a bold and offbeat run of reluctant adventures scripted by super-team wunderkind Steve Englehart. As a group of eclectic associates occasionally called together to save the world (albeit on a miraculously monotonous monthly basis) they were billed as a “non-team” – whatever that is – but that didn’t affect the quality of their super-heroic shenanigans.

With Sal Buscema as regular penciller an epic adventure ensued with ‘I Slay by the Stars!’ (inked by Giacoia) as sorcerer Necrodamus attempted to sacrifice Namor and free The Undying Ones, a mission that led to conflict with an old ally in ‘The Secret of the Silver Surfer!’ (inked by John Verpoorten) and the concluding, Jim Mooney inked ‘Four Against the Gods!’ as the Defenders took the war to the dimensional dungeon of the Undying Ones and rescued the long imprisoned and now totally insane Barbara Norris.

Clearly a fan of large casts and extended epics Englehart added a fighting female to the non-team with ‘The New Defender!’ (inks by new regular Frank McLaughlin) as the Asgardians Enchantress and Executioner embroiled the anti-heroes in their long-running love-spat, bringing the Black Knight briefly into the mix, and turning Barbara into the latest incarnation of Feminist Fury (these were far less enlightened days) The Valkyrie.

Issue #5 began a long running plot thread that would have major repercussions for the Marvel Universe. The denouement of the previous tale had left the Black Knight an ensorcelled, immobile stone statue, and as Strange and Co. searched for a cure the long defused Omegatron resumed its countdown to global annihilation in ‘World Without End?’

The Surfer “rejoined” in #6’s ‘The Dreams of Death!’ as new lightweight magic menace Cyrus Black attacked, and, after a spiffy pin-up, issue #7 saw  Len Wein co-script ‘War Below the Waves!’ (inked by Frank Bolle) as tempestuous ex-Avenger Hawkeye climbed aboard to help defeat the undersea threat of Attuma and the soviet renegade Red Ghost; a bombastic battle-tale concluded in ‘…If Atlantis Should Fall!’

Since issue #4 Englehart had been putting players in place for a hugely ambitious cross-over experiment: one that would turn the comics industry on its head, and in a little prologue taken from the end of Avengers #115 he finally set the ball rolling here. Drawn by Bob Brown and Mike Esposito, ‘Alliance Most Foul!’ saw Dormammu and the Asgardian god of Evil Loki unite to search for an ultimate weapon that would give them final victory against their foes. They would trick the Defenders into securing the six component parts by “revealing” that the reconstructed Evil Eye could restore the petrified Black Knight, a plan that began at the end of Defenders #8…

The first chapter in ‘The Avengers/Defenders Clash’ was ‘Deception!’ as a message from the spirit of the Black Knight was intercepted by the twin gods of evil, leading directly to ‘Betrayal!’ wherein the Avengers, hunting for their missing comrade, “discover” that their oldest enemies Hulk and Sub-Mariner may have turned the Black Knight to stone. This and the third chapter ‘Silver Surfer Vs. the Vision and the Scarlet Witch’ comprise the contents of Avengers #116, illustrated by Brown & Esposito, wherein the rival teams split up: one to gather the scattered sections of the Eye and the other to stop them at all costs…

Defenders #9 (Buscema & McLaughlin) began with the tense recap ‘Divide …and Conquer’ before ‘The Invincible Iron Man Vs. Hawkeye the Archer’ and ‘Dr. Strange Vs. the Black Panther and Mantis’ shed more suspicion and doubt on the mystical villain’s subtle master-plan. Avengers #117 ‘Holocaust’, ‘Swordsman Vs. the Valkyrie’ and the turning point ‘Captain America Vs. Sub-Mariner’ by Brown and Esposito, led to the penultimate clash in Defenders #10 (Buscema & Bolle) ‘Breakthrough! The Incredible Hulk Vs. Thor’ and the inevitable joining together of the warring camps in ‘United We Stand!’, but sadly too late as Dormammu seized the reconstructed Evil Eye using its power to merge his monstrous realm with ours.

Avengers #118 provided the cathartic climactic conclusion in ‘To the Death’ (Brown, Esposito & Giacoia) as all the heroes of the Marvel Universe battled the demonic invasion whilst the Avengers and Defenders plunged deep into the Dark Dimension itself to end the threat of the evil gods forever (or at least for the moment…).

With the overwhelming cosmic threat over the victorious Defenders attempted to use the Eye to cure their stony comrade only to find that his spirit had found a new home in the 12th century. In #11’s ‘A Dark and Stormy Knight’ (inked by Frank Bolle), the group battled black magic during the Crusades, failed to retrieve the Knight and went their separate ways – as did departing scripter Englehart.

With issue #12 Len Wein assumed the writer’s role and Sal Buscema & Jack Abel illustrated the return of the mind-bending Xemnu in ‘The Titan Strikes Back!’ as the pared down cast of Strange, Valkyrie and the Hulk began a run of slightly more traditional fights ‘n’ tights capers.

The first of these and the last storyline in this volume was a Saves-the-World struggle against the villainous Squadron Sinister that began with ‘For Sale: One Planet… Slightly Used!’ (with an early inking job from Klaus Janson) and concluded in the Dan Green embellished ‘And Who Shall Inherit the Earth?’ as the Batman-analogue Nighthawk joined the Defenders to defeat his murderous ex-team-mates and the aquatic alien marauder Nebulon, the Celestial Man.

With the next volume the Defenders would become one of the best and weirdest superhero comics in the business, but to get there you really need to observe this unruly, uncomfortable selection of misfit heroes in their salad days here. So the fact that their widespread and far-reaching origins are still so eminently entertaining is both a relief and delight.

Go on, Enjoy, Pilgrim…
© 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

The Punisher


By Steven Grant, Mike Zeck & John Beatty, Jo Duffy & Mike Vosburg (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-394-6

The story goes that Marvel Comics were reluctant to give Frank Castle a starring vehicle in their standard colour comic-book line, feeling that the character’s very nature made him a bad guy and not a good one. Debuting as a villain in Amazing Spider-Man #129 (February 1974), the Punisher was created by Gerry Conway, John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru, a response to such increasingly popular prose anti-heroes as Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan: the Executioner and other returning Viet Nam vets who all turned their training and talents to wiping out organised crime.

Castle saw his family gunned down in Central Park after witnessing a mob hit, and thence dedicated his life to eradicating criminals everywhere. His methods are violent and permanent. It’s intriguing to note that unlike most heroes who debuted as villains (Wolverine comes to mind) the Punisher actually became more immoral, anti-social and murderous, not less: the buying public shifted its communal perspective – Castle never toned down or cleaned up his act…

As well as his many “hero-or-villain” appearances in other character’s series the crazed crime-crusher had previously starred in Marvel Preview #2 (1975) and Marvel Super Action #1 (1976), but as these were both black and white magazines aimed at a far more mature audience, writer Steven Grant and penciller Mike Zeck apparently had an uphill struggle convincing editors to let the grim, gun-crazed maniac loose in that shiny world where little kids might fixate on a dangerous role model – and their parents might get all over-protective, litigious and shirty…

In 1985 they finally got the green-light and the five issue miniseries turned the industry on its head, although there was indeed plenty of controversy to go around – especially as the series had a “hero” who had lots of illicit sex and killed his enemies in cold blood. Also causing problems for censorious eyes were the suicide of one of the major characters and the murder of innocent children. Doesn’t it make you proud to realise how far we’ve since come…

The company mitigated the potential fall-out with the most lacklustre PR campaign in history, but not telling anybody about The Punisher didn’t stop the series from becoming a runaway, barnstorming success. The rest is history…

Two years later as the graphic novel market was finally getting established and with Frank Castle one of the biggest draws in comics (sorry, I’m such a child sometimes) that contentious series was released as a complete book and it remains one of the very best of all his many exploits.

The action begins in ‘Circle of Blood’ as Frank Castle is locked in Ryker’s Island prison where every inmate is queuing up to kill him. Within hours though he has turned the tables and terrified the General Population, but knows that both old foe Jigsaw and the last of the great mob “Godfathers” have special plans for him…

When a mass breakout frees all the cons Castle brutally steps in. For this he is allowed to escape by the warden, who casually offers him membership in The Trust, an organisation of “Right-minded, law-abiding citizens” who approve of his crusade against crime. Castle also discovers he’s being stalked by Tony Massera, a good man from a bad family.

‘Back to the War’ finds the Punisher back on the streets hunting scum, supplied by the Trust but still not a part of their organisation. After an abortive attempt to blow up The Kingpin, he is saved by the mysterious Angel, and begins a liaison with her. Tony wants to kill him to avenge his father, one of Punisher’s many gory successes – but only after the streets have been swept clean of scum like the rest of his own family…

With everybody believing the master of New York’s underworld dead, a bloody gang-war erupts with greedy sub-bosses all trying to claim the top spot, but by the events of ‘Slaughterday’ Castle realises that too many innocents are getting caught in the crossfires. He also discovers in ‘Final Solution’ that the Trust have their own national agenda as hit men and brainwashed criminals dressed in his costume are out there, executing mobsters and fanning the flames…

All the Trust’s plans for this “Punishment Squad” and the country are uncovered in the blockbusting conclusion ‘Final Solution Part 2’ as all the pieces fall into place and the surviving players reveal their true allegiances. In a classy final chapter mysteriously completed by the highly underrated Jo Duffy and Mike Vosburg, from Grant’s original plot, The Punisher takes charge in his inimitable manner, leaving God to sort out the paperwork….

We can only speculate as to why the originators fell away at the last hurdle, but I’m pretty sure those same reluctant editors played some part in it all…

This superbly gritty, morally ambiguous if not actually ethically challenging drama never ceases to thrill and amaze, and has been reprinted a number of times: in the black and white compilation Essential Punisher volume 1, as Punisher: Circle of Blood, in hardback editions (2006 and 2008) and of course, as the satisfyingly heavy calibre softcover graphic novel (with a new original painted Zeck cover) under review here.

Whichever version suits your inclinations and wallet, if you love action, cherish costumed comics adventure and crave the occasional dose of gratuitous personal justice this one should be at the top of your “Most Wanted” list.
© 1988 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Lightrunner


By Lamar Waldron & Rod Whigham with Susan Barrows (Donning/Starblaze)
ISBN: 0-89865-315-0

During the 1980s a burgeoning science fiction and fantasy book market, bolstered by cinematic and even television blockbusters, fed into the new creative boom in the comicbook market, giving “graphic novels” their first tentative push into the real, bigger world outside established fandom as part of a greater zeitgeist. There was also a very real entrepreneurial creative buzz which led to many European and Japanese works finally breaking into the US market, and most importantly, a lot of attention was paid to new, homegrown material…

Among the important early players was The Donning Company Publishers, a Virginia-based outfit established in the 1970s who briefly blazed a pioneering trail with their Starblaze Graphics imprint.

Probably inspired by the innovative breakthrough work of Byron Preiss (Starfawn, Empire, The Swords of Heaven, The Flowers of Hell) Donning invested in lavish, visually impressive volumes targeting a broad crossover market. The began with a volume collecting the first chapters of Wendy and Richard Pini’s independent comics sensation Elfquest, and produced strip adaptations of popular prose properties such as Robert Asprin’s MythAdventures and the co-operative shared-universe fantasy series Thieves’ World. Along the way they also brought Colleen Doran’s first of A Distant Soil and Phil Foglio’s Buck Godot to a relatively small but crucially mainstream public.

The company’s output was small but highly effective and although the venture ended badly – in court, as many creators sued to regain control of their works – the beautiful, high quality works such as the graphic novel under review here showed that big, bold, expensive high-quality material was the future in an industry and art form that had always cut every corner, paid poorly and worked on miniscule margins…

Lightrunner is very much a product of its time, a riotous intergalactic rollercoaster rocket-ride which began life as a serial in the semi-pro fanzine Visions, and still packs a punch for any fan of brash, flashy space opera.

In the future, capitalism runs the universe in the form of planetary Corprostates held together by a web of trade undertaken by tachyon-driven solar sailing ships plying the perilous routes of the “Star Stream”. The Empyrean Alliance is a tenuous association of Free States, restive, politically insecure and greatly dependent on the trustworthy valour of the apolitical Empyrforce – a Navy-style peacekeeping/police militia.

The tale begins with young Burne Garrett, son of a legendary Empyrforce hero, who failed to make the grade and scrubbed out of his military training. Garrett is a pathetic disappointment to himself and everybody else. Now a lowly PR hack he is filming the initial tests of a radical new type of faster than light starship – The Stream Breaker – when calamity comes calling.

The new super-vessel suddenly comes to eerie life and takes off with him aboard, vanishing into the unknown, and the unwitting fool is suddenly Public Enemy #1! Framed, lost and desperate Garrett is soon plunged deep into the seedy underbelly of civilisation, a pawn of pirates and raiders until he is adopted by the spoiled, rich wild-child Lanie of Abul Sara (think Paris Hilton in lace-up high heel thigh-boots with a ray-gun… and now stop thinking of that because that’s not how she looks but what she’s like…).

The fugitive Garrett joins the tense and tentative crew of her beloved star-craft “Lightrunner.” Along the way he also picks up a pet monkey that might be the mightiest telepath in the galaxy…

As Garrett tries to clear his name, hunted by his own deeply disillusioned galactic-hero father and the true culprits who still want the Stream Breaker prototype he has so providentially hidden, the lad uncovers a clandestine plot of cosmic proportions that might just mean the end of the entire Alliance…

Although there have since been better variations of this plot and set-up, especially in films, this breezy, spectacular romp still reads incredibly well and looks great. Fans of this particular form of chase-based science fiction will be well rewarded for seeking out Lightrunner, and as the book is readily available and quite inexpensive all that fun can even be considered a bargain.
© 1983 Lamar Waldron and Rod Whigham.  All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

JSA volume 7: Princes of Darkness

New Extended Review

By Geoff Johns, David Goyer & various (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-035-2

As a kid in the 1960s I used to love any appearance of the Justice Society of America, DC’s pioneering and popular crime-busting characters from the 1940s. They seemed full of a resonance that was equal parts Mystery and History. They belonged to the mythical land of “Before I Was Born” and their rare guest-shots always filled me with wonder and joy.

A few years ago they were permanently revived and I found very little to complain of. As superhero sagas go the stories and art were entertaining enough, often even outstanding, but with this compilation (collecting issues #46–55), I finally found myself agreeing with those wise editorial heads of my well-spent youth who felt that less was more and that over-exposure was a real and ever-present danger.

That’s not to say that these tales are in any way less than they need to be nor that the full-on, goodies-vs.-baddies extravaganzas are boring or tired. The problem is much more insidious and, I regret, more to do with me than the material. It finally became clear with this extended, spectacular struggle of valiant heroes against Darkness-wielding villains who black out the entire Earth and let evil reign free that the JSA were back for good.

But they were no longer quite so “special”.

Following on from the cliffhanger revelations of JSA: Savage Times the shadowy saga, written as ever, by David Goyer and Geoff Johns, with art from Sal Velluto, Leonard Kirk, Don Kramer, Bob Almond, Keith Champagne, & Wade von Grawbadger, opens with ‘Into the Valley’ and a blistering attack by the Chaos Lord Mordru, acting in concert with the conflicted ex-JSA-er Obsidian and the demonic spirit of rage, Eclipso.

Apparently dead, the sprit of Hector Hall, the latest Doctor Fate, travels to a distant realm for some sage advice in ‘Eclipse’ whilst on Earth, utter soul-drinking blackness has blanketed the globe unleashing the worst aspects of human nature. ‘Enlightenment’ and ‘Army of Darkness’ see Fate delve deeper into a potential solution whilst on the physical plane all of the World’s heroes – and some villains – are slowly being destroyed by the irresistible wave of Night.

A turning point comes in ‘The Last Light’ as a valiant sacrifice turns one of the dark masters from foe to friend, resulting in stupendous battles and an earth-shattering climax as the heroes save the day in ‘Princes of Darkness Coda: Justice Eternity’ – with which scripter Goyer moves on to fresh pastures.

After all that angsty spectacle and shiny triumph, the team catches a collective breath in ‘Brand New Day’ with a few new members and general recuperation, unaware the Atom Smasher and Black Adam have covertly crossed a moral line which will come back to haunt them all whilst the new heroic Eclipso feels himself drawn to do likewise. The main action of the piece comes in the form of a return for haunted huntress Crimson Avenger; a woman driven by possessed handguns to execute murderers who have escaped justice. To everyone’s astonishment her latest target is veteran hero Wildcat and nothing in the universe can stop or sway her…

The tale concludes in ‘Blinded’ as the relentless Avenger and Wildcat find a unique way to satisfy the curse of her relentless pistols, whilst Black Adam continues to recruit disenchanted heroes for a new kind of super-team, and the book ends on a satisfyingly welcome lighter note with a brace of seasonal tales, beginning with a lovely, lighthearted Thanksgiving bash starring both Justice League and Society.

‘Virtue, Vice & Pumpkin Pie’ is a splendid and jolly change of pace after all the high-octane testosterone which readily displays Geoff John’s comedic flair whilst ‘Be Good for Goodness’ Sake’ finds the surviving WWII heroes (Green Lantern, Wildcat, Hawkman and the Flash) bringing a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye (comic fans being the most soft and sentimental creatures in the universe) with a Christmas present for a long-lost member, not seen since the early days of the Golden Age…

These are characters that everyone in the industry seems to venerate, and I would be churlish to deny new readers and fans a chance to discover them too, but anticipation, delayed gratification and keen imagination once made every appearance of the JSA a source of raging joy to me and a million other kids. It’s such a shame today’s readers can’t experience that unbeatable buzz too. At least the stories are high quality. It would be utterly unbearable if the team were over-exposed and sucked too…

© 2003, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

The Punisher: Intruder


By Mike Baron, Bill Reinhold & Linda Lessman (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-544-2

Frank Castle saw his family gunned down in Central Park after witnessing a mob hit, and thereafter dedicated his life to destroying criminals. His methods are violent and permanent.

Debuting as a villain in Amazing Spider-Man #129 (February 1974), the Punisher was created by Gerry Conway, John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru, in response to increasingly popular prose anti-heroes like as Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan: the Executioner and other returning Viet Nam vets who all turned their training and talents to wiping out organised crime. It’s worth noting that unlike most heroes who debuted as villains (such as Wolverine) the Punisher actually became more anti-social and murderous, not less as the buying public shifted its communal perspective: Castle never toned down or cleaned up his act…

After stalking the Marvel universe for years a 1986 miniseries by Steven Grant and Mike Zeck swiftly led to overnight stardom and a plethora of “shoot-’em-all and let God sort it out” antics that quickly boiled over into tedious overkill, but along the way a few pure gems were cranked out, such as this joyously gratuitous graphic novel.

Intruder also takes another sneaky peak into Castle’s life prior to that fateful walk in the Park, and begins when his stake-out of a Medellin cartel boss goes horribly wrong. Whilst watching the drug-lord’s home he sees a team of armed raiders burst into the house next door. Realising the assassins have attacked the wrong home, he moves in but is far too late. The only survivor is seven year old Maggie Pulowski…

Knowing that whoever the raiders were, they’ll return once they realise there is a witness left, Castle takes her under his wing, eventually leaving her in the seminary where he once trained to be a priest.

Meanwhile partner and Intel man Micro has found the mystery raiders. An ex-Navy  colonel with dubious links to both the American and Korean CIA, and backed by ultra-right wing, anti-communist religious leaders, Ross Whittaker now runs his own private army and air force from a rocky desert citadel in Utah. Tasked with assassinating drug-runners, left-wingers and anybody his money-men don’t like, nobody realises that Whittaker has plans of his own and is covertly carving out a private narcotics empire.

With Whittaker’s ruthless forces now closing in on Maggie, the rogue Colonel instantly advances to the top of the Punisher’s “to do list”…

This intriguing hardback in the so-satisfying oversized European format (284m x 215m) is not as readily available as many other Punisher tales but is still a spectacular, all-action, blockbuster romp stuffed with the usual cathartic gun-play, loads of martial arts mayhem in the best Mike Baron tradition with the added zest of seeing our one-man-army take on an actual military force. Whilst the climactic duel in flashing jet-fighters is utterly breathtaking, and a credit to the vastly underrated Bill Reinhold, some of the most interesting moments are the trenchant flashbacks to Frank Castle; cleric-in-training – particularly funny and painfully insightful…

Hard, fast and enticingly brutal, this non-stop, top-gun rocket-ride has everything that made the series so popular, stripped down and converted to a form of cinema blockbuster that is absolutely irresistible. This is another unrepentant guilty pleasure and you know you want it…
© 1989 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

The Question volume 5: Riddles


By Dennis O’Neil, Denys Cowan, Bill Wray & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-513-5

This is a saga about dysfunction and a search for answers: Social, societal, political, emotional, familial and even methodological. The normal masked avenger tactics don’t work in a “real”-er world, and some solutions require better Questions…

Challenging Western dystopia with Eastern thought and martial arts action is not a new concept but O’Neil’s focus on cultural and social problems rather than histrionic super-heroics make this series a truly philosophical work, and Cowan’s raw, edgy art imbues this darkly adult, powerfully sophisticated thriller with a maturity that is simply breathtaking.

This fifth collection (reprinting issues #25-30) picks up from the shock ending of The Question: Welcome to Oz with ‘Skells’ illustrated by Cowan & Malcolm Jones III. New Mayor Myra Fermin-Connelly has been gunned down by her drunken, brain-addled husband and lies in a coma. Due to a quirk of Hub City law, with both current candidates unable to take office, the incumbent – despite being wanted for attempted murder – is technically next-in-line, and therefore de facto Mayor…

The tornado that struck the city on Election Day has finished the job begun by years of corruption and the gang warfare of the campaign. Hub City is a billion-dollar disaster zone. All essential services have ceased, the surviving populace are either rioting, looting or hiding. Food and water are running out.

State authorities are unwilling to step in and the urban hell-hole is poised to become a purely Darwinian jungle (this storyline probably inspired Batman’s ‘No Man’s Land’ publishing event) but all the Question wants to do is hunt down Myra’s addled husband/killer…

‘Riddles’ is a strange and melancholy Christmas divertissement, from fill-in penciller Bill Wray and Jones III which sees the Riddler, fresh out of jail and in a slump, catch a bus to Hub City and a new start. Sadly he picks the wrong girl to chat up and the result is the bloodiest and most senseless night of his life. It’s a genuine Christmas miracle that Vic Sage and Professor Rodor are on the same road that night…

With the city in turmoil, Myra in a coma, and no foe he can hit, The Question is helpless, but when the Prof reveals that his long-lost brother was a comic book artist in the 1940s it leads them all on a quasi-mystic quest which just might provide the mauled metropolis with its first glimmer of hope and recovery. ‘Captain Stars & Sergeant Stripes’ is illustrated by Cowan and Jones III, with Golden Age pastiche pages from Rick Stasi & Terry Beatty.

The last three tales here, also limned by Cowan and Jones, form an extended epic as the lethal Lady Shiva (see The Question: Zen and Violence) returns. Myra has emerged from her coma and taken charge, but with no resources and open warfare on the streets she is forced to take some extraordinary measures to restore order. In ‘A Place for the Arts’ Shiva, drawn to the chaos and ever-hungry to test her martial arts skills, offers her murderous services to one of the gangs trying to take over what’s left of Hub City, only to have her potential employers snatched from her as the new Lady Mayor convinces the warring thugs to become her new police force…

Incredibly disaster seems to have been averted until in ‘The Slaying’ one of the rival gang-lords is stabbed at a peace-conference and the Faceless Inquisitor has a murder to solve before the last remnants of hope are swallowed by renewed bloodshed. ‘Whodunit’ reveals all, but as is always the case in this superb series the answers are far from neat, tidy or satisfactory, and as always a moral and philosophical pall clouds the issues. And like a ghost Shiva stalks the city, ambivalent, ambiguous, unfathomable in her private purposes…

Like life, The Question never produces easy answers…

Bleak, brutal, confrontational and mordantly action-packed these tales come from one of DC’s very best series, and they form a perfect snapshot in comics history of a hugely creative and historically significant time. These graphic novels demonstrate just how evocative sequential narrative can be and no fan of serious fun literature or mature, sensitive escapism can afford to miss them.

© 1989, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

The Question volume 4: Welcome to Oz


By Dennis O’Neil, Denys Cowan, Rick Magyar & various III (DC Comics)

ISBN: 978-1-84856-328-5

The Question, created by Steve Ditko, was Vic Sage, a driven, obsessed reporter who sought out crime and corruption irrespective of the consequences. This Charlton ‘Action-Hero’ was purchased by DC when Charlton folded in 1983 and was the template for the compulsive Rorschach when Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons first drafted the miniseries that would become the groundbreaking Watchmen.

An ordinary man pushed to the edge by his obsessions, Sage used his fists and a mask that made him look utterly faceless to get answers (and justice) whenever normal journalistic methods failed. After a few minor successes around the DC universe Sage got a job in the town where he grew up.

Hub City (purportedly based on East St Louis) was a hell-hole, the most corrupt and morally bankrupt municipality in America. Mayor Wesley Fermin was a degenerate drunken sot and the real power was insane cleric Reverend Jeremiah Hatch. When Sage started cleaning house as The Question he was “killed”, rescued and resurrected by the inscrutable Shiva – the World’s deadliest assassin.

Crippled, he journeyed into the wilderness to be healed and trained by O’Neil’s other legendary martial arts creation, Richard Dragon.

It’s a new type of hero who returned to Hub City, philosophical rather than angry, but still cursed with a drive to understand how things universally go bad. The city has degenerated even further. Sage’s girlfriend is now Mayor Fermin’s wife, and crime and chaos are everywhere…

This fourth collection (reprinting issues #19-24 of the seminal 1980s series) brings to a head many of the dark plot threads that have been with the series since its inception. With Fermin permanently drunk and oblivious Sage has renewed his affair with Myra, even whilst she is running for her husband’s job.

Closet racist Royal Dinsmore has better ways of winning the race than smearing his opponent, but thanks to an extremely disturbed good citizen those plans are exposed in ‘The Plastic Dilemma’ (illustrated by Denys Cowan & Rick Magyar) and Myra refuses the financial support of a particularly unwholesome millionaire backer, whilst the emotional impact of her affair with Sage is revealed in ‘Send in the Clowns’ (an all-Magyar art job) a brutal tale of freaks, greed and prejudice.

Dick Giordano inks Cowan in ‘Rejects’ as psychopathic Junior Musto, returns (see The Question: Zen and Violence) to take a hospital hostage, demanding a heart transplant for the father who abused and tried to destroy him. That Greek tragedy leads into the main event…

‘Election Day (by Cowan & Malcolm Jones III): The Fix’ begins an agonising comedy of political errors as Dinsmore’s plan to steal the election is thwarted and he resorts to hiring a gang of Bikers to prevent the populace from voting – a t least those who can be bothered to turn out.

All the while Myra is having heartrending second thoughts. She doesn’t want to win but can’t afford to let a monster like Dinsmore gain control of her city. In the background her sot husband lurks; drunk deranged, bitter: clutching a bottle and a gun…

Some disquieting historical facts about Hub City are revealed in ‘Election Day: Welcome to Oz’ as the situation worsens. Open warfare in the streets is compounded by the arrival of a tornado that smashes most of the city to rubble, and the terrible conclusion ‘Election Day: The Dark’ sees Dinsmore defeated by a last-minute Machiavellian masterstroke from Vic Sage.

Mrya becomes the new Mayor of the biggest, most corrupt pile of rubble in America. A shot rings out…

Even ending on such a painful cliffhanger is grudgingly acceptable when the work is of such sterling quality and these eccentric epics are as readable now as they ever were. Complex characters, a very mature depiction of the struggle between Good and Evil using Eastern philosophy and very human prowess to challenge crime, corruption, abuse, neglect and complacency would seem to be a recipe for heady but dull reading yet these stories by one of the American industry’s greatest wordsmiths, and especially the mythic martial arts action delineated by Denys Cowan are gripping beyond belief and constantly challenge any and all preconceptions. So grab this book; absorb, enjoy and then move briskly on to the next volume.

I’m going to…

© 1988, 1989, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Captain Atom: Armageddon


By Will Pfeifer, Giuseppe Camuncoli & Sandra Hope (WildStorm)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1106-6

When DC acquired the right to the 1960s Charlton Comics “Action Heroes” line Captain Atom was the character and concept which had the most radical makeover. No longer a two-fisted, patriotic astronaut survivor of an atomic accident, the new Nathaniel Adam was a discredited and cashiered US soldier in the 1960s, forced to undergo a merge with alien metal by his own superiors, and accidentally catapulted 25 years into the future.

After a brief period as a pawn of the self-same General who caused all his woes, Adam struck out on his own and gradually achieved some measure of credibility in the superhero community, both as a solo act and leader of Justice League Europe and Extreme Justice. Whenever his popularity waned and whatever series he was in was cancelled, he would inevitably reappear as a government pawn/nominal establishment bad-guy working for Uncle Sam.

Gifted with phenomenal quantum-energy powers he was in a class that could hurt Superman, and when Lex Luthor became President of America Atom was ordered to defeat both the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight (see Superman/Batman: Public Enemies). Coming to his moral senses just in time, Captain Atom sacrificed himself to destroy a colossal Kryptonite meteor which would have obliterated the Earth.

Which is right where this slight-but-fun slab of superhero eye-candy picks up…

Neither disintegrated nor time-bumped, Atom reappears in a parallel universe inexplicably sporting a new look. Thinking this is just another one of those things sent to plague costumed crusaders he begins to make himself known to the authorities and that world’s metahumans, but something is not quite right…

The energy of his explosive sacrifice has pushed him beyond the interdimensional barrier known as “The Bleed” into a dark and savage para-reality where superbeings are far from welcome or revered. In fact the human populace lives in dread of its “Post-Human” entities, especially as some like The Authority have often taken over the planet for their own purposes(see The Authority: Revolution books 1 & 2).

After clashes and conferences with alien powerhouse Majestic and the aforementioned Authority, the good Captain realises that his journey has melded him with some alien force in this Wild and Stormy universe, and prevents his leaving it. Moreover, that force is causing him to “melt down”: if he stays he’s going to explode and take all the other universes with him.

Unable to cure or remove Captain Atom, the only sensible option seems to be to kill him – a solution all these bloodthirsty heroes seem more than willing to attempt…

Pure comics fan-fare, this is a fast-paced, witty romp for adult superhero fanatics that won’t make a lot of sense to outsiders but is a tasty treat for anybody who likes their fights ‘n’ tights edgy and post-modern. Devotees will get off on seeing the likes of Grifter, Void, Maul, Zealot and the other WildC.A.T.s going head to head with our golden boy and there’s a definite doom-laden, ticking-clock conundrum to solve for those of us who like a little plot with our ultra-pretty designer violence.

A definite guilty pleasure, stylish, thrilling and inexplicably satisfying.

© 2007 WildStorm Productions. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Spider-Man: Blue


By Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1071-2

In Spider-Man: Blue Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale set their nostalgia-filled sights on the beginning of Peter Parker’s tragically brief romance with Gwen Stacy, encompassing the transitional period when Steve Ditko’s creepy, plucky outsider grew into the wholesome, straight-shooting, hard-luck hero designed by John Romita Senior.

Reprinting the 6-issue miniseries from 2002, this slight if readable epic reconstitutes pertinent snippets from Amazing Spider-Man # 39-49, plus a smidgeon of #63, as, on a gloomy Valentine’s Day, happily married Peter records a message to a dead once-girlfriend he hasn’t really gotten over. In the form of a reminiscence of those days when he first emerged from his solitary shell, Parker recalls how he found – and lost – a few friends and inadvertently met his future wife Mary Jane, all whilst pursuing a pure, innocent and unlikely love with a seemingly unattainable dream…

Along the way he also fought a formidable array of super-foes, including The Green Goblin, the Rhino, the Lizard, two different Vultures and Kraven the Hunter, uncomfortably re-imagined here as the kind of sinister, brooding mastermind that he simply could not ever have been.

Sadly, there’s no real tension in the saga because even the newest readers already know the inevitable romantic outcomes whilst the attempt to weave a number of isolated super-baddie clashes into a vast master-plan over and above what Lee and Romita envisioned is clumsy and ill-considered. Don’t take my word for it: the original tales are readily available for your perusal and delectation in such sterling volumes as Essential Spider-Man volumes 2 and 3, as well as assorted Marvel Masterworks and collections, should you feel the need to contrast and compare…

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale have a prodigious track record with simultaneously retrofitting, rationalising and re-examining the pivotal moments of many comic-book icons: especially distilling the key moments of iconic characters and careers into material palatable to modern readers, but here it’s simply a waste of their time. The originals are simply still better than the slow, shallow rehashing here.  This is not one of their better efforts, and often comes perilously close to being simply maudlin far too often for comfort.

Although Sale’s art is always a joy to behold, and Loeb’s gift for dialogue is undiminished Spider-Man: Blue falls short of their best. A solid, casual affair but not a patch on the real thing …

© 2002, 2003, 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.