By John Whalen & Mike Hawthorne (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-748-8
The Un-Men were originally grotesque graphic cannon-fodder created by Len Wein and Bernie (then Berni) Wrightson for the second issue of the legendary Swamp Thing comic in 1972. They also appeared in Wrightson’s last issue (#10 – see Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis, ISBN: 978-1-56389-044-4) along with their malevolent creator Anton Arcane.
As part of that series’ ongoing theme of pastiching classic horror icons – Werewolves, Witches, Vampires and so forth – they were a grotesque and memorable visual backdrop for the tale of a wizard who dabbled with artificial life forms in an attempt to build a body he could live forever in. And thus far that’s all the overt connection to Swamp Thing in this phenomenally delayed spin-off, although some of the characters and the main premise stems from that landmark series.
In this first volume, collecting issues #1-5 of the Vertigo comicbook, we are introduced to the city of Aberrance, Texas; a tawdry tourist-trap with a unique line in themed entertainment. Government-sponsored, this town is occupied solely by freaks and weirdoes, and derives its income from the two million “normal†Americans who flock there every year to gawk at them.
Unsavoury as that might sound, it’s also a place with a big secret. The ruling hierarchy are not natural freaks in the grand old carnival manner, but rather the supernatural creations of Anton Arcane, who run the place with institutionalized elitism, disdaining all the other geeks, misfits and outcasts – or “Gaffs†– who have congregated there. In Aberrance the Freaks run the show, Gaffs do what they’re told and “Normals†spend their vacations and their cash feeling disgusted and thankful. There’s even a blockbuster Reality TV show “American Freakâ€, storming up the Nielsens…
The town only exists because a whistle-blower alerted the world to the fact that the US Military were running a weapons development facility trying to create better monsters for future wars. When exposed the Authorities sheepishly turned the place – an old Atomic bomb test site – into a Reservation for the Abnormal, with full independence and autonomy, but they’re still poking around there in more or less clandestine manner.
And thus we meet Phineas Kilcrop, albino Federal Agent for the US Department of Energy whose sorry remit is to ensure all those monstrosities stay where they’re put. When he returns a murdered escapee to Aberrance, he becomes embroiled in a war for independence, a bizarre conspiracy and the sheer insanity of a plan to rewrite nature. Moreover, the heads of the Un-Men elite all seem to know more about his clouded past than he does…
Fast paced and sharp tongued, this is an above average conspiracy thriller that could develop into something really special, although this first book doesn’t always hit satisfactory notes. Tinged with black comedy and with a lot to say about image, isolation and society, it hasn’t yet said anything here. You might want to pick this up for its potential to deliver, but I suspect most fans will wait to see how succeeding episodes play out…
By Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson (Vertigo/DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-044-4
The first fan-sensation of the modern age of comics (or perhaps the last of the true Silver Age?), Swamp Thing has powerful popular fiction antecedents and in 1972 was seemingly a concept whose time had come again. Prime evidence was the fact that Marvel were also working on a man-into-mucky, muddy mess character at the very same time.
For whatever reason, by the end of the 1960s superhero comics had started another steep sales decline, once again making way for a horror/mystery boom: a sea-change augmented by a swift rewriting of the specific terms of the Comics Code Authority. At DC, House of Mystery and its sister title House of Secrets returned to short story anthology formats and gothic mystery scenarios, taking a lead from such TV successes as Twilight Zone and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery with EC veteran Joe Orlando as editor.
Referencing the sardonic narrator/storyteller format of the EC horror titles, Orlando created Cain and Abel to shepherd readers through brief, sting-in-the-tail yarns produced by the best creators, new and old, that the company could hire. Artists Neal Adams, Mike Kaluta, and especially Berni Wrightson undoubtedly produced their best work for these two titles and the vast range of successors the horror boom generated at DC.
The twelfth anthology issue of House of Secrets cemented the genre into place as the industry leader. In it writer Len Wein and Wrightson produced a throwaway gothic thriller set at the turn of the 19th century, wherein gentleman scientist Alex Olsen is murdered by his best friend and his body dumped in a swamp. Years later his beloved bride, now the unsuspecting wife of the murderer, is stalked by a shambling, disgusting beast that seems to be composed of mud and muck…
‘Swamp Thing’ cover featured in HoS #92 (June-July 1971), and it struck an immediate chord with the buying public. The issue was the best selling DC comic of that month, and reader response was fervent and persistent. By all accounts the only reason there wasn’t an immediate sequel or spin-off was that the creative team didn’t want to produce one.
Eventually however, bowing to interminable pressure, and with the sensible idea of transplanting the concept contemporary America, the first issue of Swamp Thing appeared on newsstands in the Spring of 1972. It was an instant hit and an instant classic.
Wein and Wrightson produced ten issues together, crafting an extended, multi-chaptered tale of justice/vengeance and a quest for answers that was at once philosophically typical of the time and a prototype for the story-arc and mini-series formats that dominate modern comicbook production. They also used each issue/chapter to pay tribute to a specific sub-genre of timeless horror story whilst advancing the major plot.
The origin ‘Dark Genesis’ finds Alec and Linda Holland deep in the Bayou Country, working on a “bio-restorative formula†that will revolutionise World Farming. They are working in isolation, protected by Matt Cable, a Secret Service agent, when representatives of an organisation called The Conclave, demand that they sell their research to them – or else. Obviously the patriotic pair refuse, and the die is cast when their lab is bombed. Linda dies instantly but Alec, showered with his own formula and blazing like a torch hurtles to a watery grave in the swamp.
But he does not die.
Transformed by the formula (and remember, please, that this is prior to Alan Moore’s landmark re-imagining of the character) he is transformed into a gigantic man-shaped monster, immensely strong, unable to speak, and seemingly made from living plant matter. Holland’s brain still functions however, and he vacillates between finding his wife’s killers and curing his own monstrous condition. Cable, misinterpreting the evidence, also wants revenge, but he thinks that the monster is the cause of death of his two charges…
Over the next nine issues, Swamp Thing travelled the world, encountering the black sorcerer Anton Arcane and his artificial homunculi, The Un-Men (recently the subject of their own Vertigo series), Abigail Arcane and her tragic Frankensteinian father The Patchwork Man, and a werewolf on the moors of Scotland, before returning to America and finding ‘The Last of the Ravenwind Witches’. In the wilds of Vermont he encounters Paradise on Earth, care of an old clockmaker but is attacked by the voracious Conclave, leading to one of the most evocative and revered team-ups of the 1970s.
Swamp Thing #7’s ‘Night of the Bat!’ featured the final showdown with remorseless robber-barons of The Conclave in Gotham City, and a landmark collaboration with the resurgent Batman, himself finally recovering from the hyper-exploitation of the “Campy†TV show era. Wrightson’s rendering of the superhero through the lens of a horror artist inspired a whole generation of aspiring comics professionals and firmly set the caped crusader to rest, replacing him with a Dark Knight.
Somewhat at a loss after the end of his quest (Swamp Thing came out bi-monthly, so the tale had taken well over a year to tell – unprecedented at a time when most comics still had two or more complete stories per issue) the Moss Monster shambled through America’s hinterlands encountering a Lovecraftian horror in the New England town of Perdition, a ghastly but misunderstood alien and finally the unquiet ghosts of slaves and plantation-owners. This grim and powerful closing tale also featured the return of Arcane and the grotesque Un-Men.
The initial series staggered on under some very capable and talented hands (up until #24), but the fever of inspiration was never re-kindled, meaning that the very best of that iconic saga can be easily contained in one volume. This is a superb slice of old-fashioned comics wonderment, from a less cynical and sophisticated age, but with a passion and intensity that cannot be matched. And, ooh, that artwork…
By Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-342-8
The third volume of these cheap ‘n’ cheerful black and white compendiums of past Justice League classics covers a period in DC’s history that still makes many a fan shudder with dread but I’m going to ask them to reconsider their aversion to the “Camp Craze†that saw America go superhero silly in the wake of the Batman TV show (and, to a lesser extent, the Green Hornet series that introduced Bruce Lee to the world). I should also mention that comics didn’t create the craze. Many popular media outlets felt the zeitgeist of a zanier, tongue-in-cheek, mock-heroic fashion: Just check out DVDS of Lost in Space or The Man from U.N.C.L.E if you doubt me…
The third annual JLA/JSA team-up starts the fun, a largely forgotten and rather experimental tale wherein the Johnny Thunder of Earth-1 wrested control of the genie-like Thunderbolt from his Justice Society counterpart and used its magic powers to change events that led to the creation of all Earth-1’s superheroes. It’s JSA to the rescue in a gripping battle of wits in #37’s ‘Earth – Without a Justice League’ and the concluding ‘Crisis on Earth-A!’
Issue #39 was an Eighty-Page Giant reprinting Brave and the Bold #28 and #30 and Justice League of America #5, so this volume makes do with just a cover reproduction before continuing with issue #40 and the ‘Indestructible Creatures of Nightmare Island’ a challenging conundrum wherein an astral scientist’s machine to suppress Man’s basest instincts almost causes the end of humanity, but also an action packed psycho-thriller stuffed with super-villainous guest-stars.
Issue #41 introduced a modern version of an old Justice Society villain. The Earth-1 mastermind called The Key is a diabolical scientist who used mild-altering psycho-chemicals to control the behaviour of our heroes in ‘The Key – Master of the World!’ He was followed by a guest-appearance from DC’s newest superhero sensation. Acquitting himself splendidly against the Cosmic Force named The Unimaginable, he was naturally offered membership in the team but astonishingly, he declined in the in the controversial ‘Metamorpho says – No!’
Justice League of America #43 was cover dated March 1966 and introduced a villainous team led by an old foe. ‘The Card Crimes of the Royal Flush Gang’ is a fine “Goodies and Baddies†romp and the first issue to feature the legendary DC “Go-Go checkerboard†banner at the top of the cover. This iconic cover-feature still generates a frisson of child-like anticipation in many older fans and is often used in pastiches and homage today to instantly create an evocative mood. It also marked the end of a brilliant career, as veteran inker Bernard Sachs put down his brushes for the final time and retired from the League and the comics field.
The next issue was inked by Frank Giacoia, a tense bio-thriller entitled ‘The Plague that Struck the Justice League!’, and he was joined by Joe Giella for the witty monster-menace double-feature ‘The Super-Struggle against Shaggy Man!’ in issue #45.
A wise-cracking campy tone was fully in play with the next issue, in acknowledgement of the changing audience profile. It was the opening part of the fourth annual crossover with the Justice Society of America. This time the stakes were raised to encompass the destruction of both planets in ‘Crisis Between Earth-One and Earth-Two’ and issue #47’s ‘The Bridge Between Earths’, wherein a bold – if rash – experiment pulls the two sidereal worlds into an inexorable hyper-space collision, whilst to make matters worse an anti-matter being uses the opportunity to explore our positive matter universe.
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 best plotted and illustrated stories in the entire JLA/JSA canon. Furthermore, the vastly talented Sid Greene signed on as regular inker with this classic adventure, adding expressive subtlety, beguiling texture and whimsical humour to the pencils of Mike Sekowsky and the increasingly light, comedic scripts of Gardner Fox.
The next issue was another Eighty-Page Giant (reprinting Brave and the Bold #29 and #30 and Justice League of America #2 and 3, represented here by its stirring Sekowsky/Murphy Anderson cover, followed by the ‘Threat of the True-or-false Sorcerer’ in which a small team of the biggest guns (Batman, Superman, Flash and Green Lantern) must ferret out a doppelganger Felix Faust before he inadvertently dissolves all creation. There’s no excessive hoopla to celebrate the fiftieth issue but ‘The Lord of Time Attacks the 20th Century’ is another brilliantly told tale of heroism, action and sacrifice that, uncharacteristically for the company and the time, references and includes the ongoing Vietnam conflict. With “Batmania†in full swing editor Julie Schwartz also deemed it wise to include Robin, The Boy Wonder with regulars Aquaman, Flash, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Snapper Carr and Batman.
Issue #51 concluded a long-running experiment in continuity with ‘Z – As in Zatanna – and Zero Hour!’ in which a comely young sorceress concluded the search for her long-missing father with the assistance of a small group of Leaguers and guest-star Ralph “Elongated Man†Dibny.
Zatarra was a magician-hero in the Mandrake mould who had fought evil in the pages of Action Comics for over a decade beginning with the very first issue. During the Silver Age Gardner Fox had Zatarra’s young and equally gifted daughter, Zatanna, go searching for him by guest-teaming with a selection of superheroes Fox was currently scripting (if you’re counting, these tales appeared in Hawkman #4, Atom #19, Green Lantern #42, and the Elongated Man back-up strip in Detective Comics #355 as well as a very slick piece of back writing to include the high-profile Caped Crusader via Detective #336 – ‘Batman’s Bewitched Nightmare’).
Experimentation was also the basis of #52’s ‘Missing in Action – 5 Justice Leaguers!’, a portmanteau tale that showed what happened to those members who didn’t show up for issue #50. Hawkman – plus wife and partner Hawkgirl – Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Superman reported their solo yet ultimately linked adventures, whilst the Atom referred them to his time-travelling escapade with Benjamin Franklin from the pages of his own comic (The Atom #27 ‘Stowaway on a Hot Air Balloon!’). Batman still managed to make an appearance through the magic of a lengthy flash-back, showing again just how ubiquitous the TV series had made him. No editor in his right mind would ignore a legitimate (or even not-so) chance to feature such a perfect guarantee of increased sales.
‘Secret Behind the Stolen Super-Weapons’ found Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow and Hawkman – again with Hawkgirl guest-starring – deprived of their esoteric armaments and in desperate need of the Atom, Flash, Aquaman and Superman. Card-carrying criminals returned in ‘The History-Making Costumes of the Royal Flush Gang’, a taut mystery-thriller with plenty of action to balance the suspense. This fed perfectly into another summer-spectacular team-up with the JSA.
Boasting a radical change, the Earth-2 team now starred an adult Robin instead of Batman, but Hourman, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Wildcat, Johnny Thunder and Mr. Terrific still needed the help of Earth-1’s Superman, Flash, Green Lantern and Green Arrow to cope with ‘The Super-Crisis that Struck Earth-Two’ and ‘The Negative-Crisis on Earths One-Two!’
This cosmic threat from a dying universe was in stark contrast to the overly-worthy but well intentioned ‘Man – Thy Name is Brother!’ in issue #57, where Flash, Green Arrow and Hawkman joined Snapper Carr in defending human rights and equality via three cases involving ethnic teenagers; a black, a native American/Apache (and if that modern phrase doesn’t indicate the necessity and efficacy of such stories in the 1960’s then what does?) and an aid-worker in India. Beautifully drawn and obviously heartfelt, I still ponder on the fact that all the characters are male… but eventually comics would confront even that last bastion of institutionalised prejudice.
There’s one last Eighty-Page Giant cover in this gloriously cost-effective monochrome compendium (issue # 58 reprinted Justice League of America #1, 6 and 8), and it was produced by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson. That’s followed by the extremely odd conceptual puzzler ‘The Justice Leaguer’s Impossible Adventure’ before the volume closes with the return of an old adversary and another “hot†guest-star. Issue #60 featured ‘Winged Warriors of the Immortal Queen!’ and pitted the enslaved and transformed team against DC’s newest sensation – Batgirl.
These phonebook-like collections – each in excess of 500 pages – are an absolute gift for modern fans with a desperate need to catch up without going bankrupt. They’re also the perfect gift for youngsters needing an introduction to a fabulous world of adventure and magic. Of all the various reprint editions and formats available for classic material, these monochrome tomes are my absolute favourites.
By Pat Mills & Kevin O’Neill (Titan Books)
ISBN: 9781-84576-943-7
Though not strictly a graphic novel this copiously illustrated book finally collects the prose stories starring the deeply troubled superhero hunter that appeared on Nick Percival’s Cool Beans website between 2000 and 2002. A continuation of the character first published by Epic Comics and Dark Horse as well as the British Apocalypse Comics, these stories are intended for adult readers – whatever that means, these days.
In the dystopian metropolis of San Futuro, the returned dregs of America’s latest war litter the streets. Once again soldiers have been abandoned by their country as soon as the conflict ended, but his time drugs trauma and stress aren’t the only long-term problems. Genetic engineering made US troops into superheroes, but it couldn’t unmake them so now they’re just a dangerous problem the Authorities would love to ignore.
Joe Gilmore is one such returnee who took a different route. He’s a cop who uses his cursed abilities to remove the worst of the super-scum from the streets. He is Marshal Law and far too infrequently since 1987 he’s been a tool of brutal criticism and satire on the overweening cult of superheroes in American comicbooks.
In the comics incarnation the series is characterised by nudity, creative profanity, barbed parody, sexual situations (I don’t think I’ve ever typed that phrase before!) extreme violence and fabulous hilarity. O’Neill’s art is always stuffed with extras and both creators blatant dislike for costumed heroes shines out like a batsignal.
This book then is a mixed blessing. It’s great to see two more canonical tales ‘The Day of the Dead’ (a showdown with a band of superhero serial killers) and ‘Cloak of Evil’ (the suspicious suicide of San Futuro’s top Sex Worker leads to way more than anybody expected) but Mill’s choppy prose won’t be to everybody’s taste. Moreover even with O’Neill’s wonderful illustrations (19 black and white double page spreads) a vital story element is absent. On a Marshal Law page as much goes on in the backgrounds and margins and the scenery walls as in front of the camera, but that simply isn’t possible here.
This compilation is interesting and powerful, but not as effective as a new comic would be. We’re waiting…
Young Paris – don’t call him Michael, he hates it – may finally have had a turn of good luck. Not only has he inherited some property from his reclusive grandfather, but the residents of picturesque little hamlet Raven Hollow are desperate to buy it from him, sight unseen. Nonetheless he makes his way their and finds that it’s not all so cut and dried.
The property is a cemetery named The Boneyard and not everything within its walls is content to play dead. There’s Abby, a beautiful vampire chick, a foul-mouthed skeleton, a demon with delusions of grandeur, a werewolf who thinks he’s a cross between James Dean and the Fonz, a witch, a hulking Frankensteinian monster and even talking gargoyles over the gate. Most worrying of all: There’s even a voluptuous (married) amphibian who adds worlds of meaning to the phrase “predatory man-eater.â€
The place is a veritable refuge for the restless dead and every sort of Halloween horror, but somehow they all seem more human and friendly than the increasingly off-kilter townsfolk whose desperate measures to make Paris sell show that not all monsters haunt graveyards.
Reprinting issues #1-4 of the independent comic book in full process colour, this is a charming, sly and irresistibly addictive book, a warm-hearted comedy of terrors that is one the best humour series to come out of the States since Charles Addams first started reporting from that spooky old house in the 1940s.
This is a must-have for Horrorists, Humorists and especially Romantics with an open mind, which can even be read by younger teenagers.
This themed collection re-presents some of the best clashes between the Gotham Guardian and the tragic lawyer-turned-criminal Harvey Dent – the visual embodiment of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde known as Two-Face.
To get you up to speed, the book starts with the most recent interpretation of the character’s origin, an impressive two-page recap by the Marks Waid and Chiarello, first seen in Countdown #27 (December 2007), before the book proper begins with the classic original trilogy of tales from Detective Comics #66, 68 and 80 (August and October 1941, and October 1943).
Written by the inimitable Bill Finger, and illustrated by Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson and George Roussos they told the tragic tale of Harvey Kent (yes that’s right, his name was only altered to Dent in the 1950s) a brilliant and fearless District Attorney driven insane when a mobster destroyed the left side of his gorgeous face with vitriol (that’s Sulfuric Acid, if you weren’t staying awake in Chemistry).
His life destroyed in the very courtroom of his greatest triumphs, Kent embarked on a crime-spree throughout Gotham City, taking the number “2†as his inspiration and using the toss of a double-headed coin to make all his key moral decisions for him. It took all of the dynamic Duo’s efforts to stop him, but he kept turning up like a bad penny until the fledgling science of plastic surgery cured his uniquely visual form of split personality.
He more or less returned in Detective #187 (September 1952). ‘The Double Crimes of Two-Face’ (by Don Cameron, Dick Sprang and Charles Paris) is a classic “fair-play†mystery featuring the character’s return so I’ll say nothing about it and let you solve it yourselves, but he returned for keeps in ‘Two-Face Strikes Again!’ (Batman #81, February-March 1954), by David Vern and the immaculate art team of Sprang and Paris.
As comics become increasingly more anodyne in the 1950s Two-Face faded from view, but with the return of a grimmer, moodier hero in the early 1970s the scene was set for a revival of Batman’s more warped villains. ‘Half an Evil’ (Batman #234, August 1971) is a spectacular action packed mystery, one the absolute best collaborations of Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams and Dick Giordano.
By 1989 a revitalized post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC were busily revising their internal history and from Secret Origins Special #1 Mark Verheiden, Pat Broderick and Giordano produced a new take on the tragedy of Harvey Dent, which served as a basis for the following 1996 two-part tale from Batman #527 and 528. ‘The Face Schism’ and ‘Schismed Faces’, by Doug Moench, Kelly Jones and John Beatty is a slick and ghoulish carnival tale of twists, turns and double crosses, but in all that cleverness it rather forgets to be clear and entertaining.
The penultimate yarn is also rather disappointing, but not for any storytelling deficiencies. ‘Face the Ecaf’ is from Batman #653, and is by James Robinson, Don Kramer and Wayne Faucher. It’s set in the “One Year Later†period following the Infinite Crisis event when all the Bat heroes abandoned Gotham and Two-Face was given the job of protecting the city by the Dark Knight.
It’s part Six of Eight.
Surely such a major storyline should be left to its own collection and not simply truncated and shoved in any old how? It’s not as if there isn’t plenty of other fine material around to fill those twenty odd pages. Or was the temptation of one more major name on the package too much for Marketing to resist?
Rant over: the book does end with possibly the best modern Two-Face tale yet produced. ‘Two of a Kind’ is a short piece of Noir perfection by Bruce Timm that first appeared in Batman: Black and White #1 in 1996. Rendered in the style of the Batman Animated TV show it is suave, sultry, steamy and shocking. You’ll love it!
All the tales have been lavishly recoloured (except that last one, of course) and quibbles notwithstanding, this is a great book stuffed with quality reading entertainment. As an introduction to one of Batman’s best baddies, or simply as a wonderful way to spend some downtime, this is highly recommended.
By Archie Goodwin & Howard Chaykin (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-577-9
I can’t recall the last time Marvel published an all-original graphic novel as opposed to a collection, but not so very long ago they were a market leader in the field with an entire range of “big stories†told on larger than normal pages (285 x 220 mm rather than the now customary 258 x 168 mm) featuring not only proprietary characters but also licensed assets like Conan and even creator-owned properties like Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar.
The Scorpio Connection should have been one of their very best productions, scripted by the supremely talented Archie Goodwin and painted by the versatile Howard Chaykin, it featured arguably their most popular character, Wolverine, and the immortal super-spy Nick Fury in a twisty espionage/revenge thriller, full of action set-pieces and even a plot maguffin straight out of Greek Tragedy, but this is sadly one of those times when the whole is less than the sum of its parts.
It is still an immensely readable adventure as aging warrior Fury hunts down the assassin Scorpio who may or may not be his brother Jake, long presumed dead, encountering and joining the revenge-driven Wolverine who wants the Zodiac killer who butchered his oldest friend. There is glamour, intrigue, exotic locales and enough action to satisfy the most devoted Bond-fan, but somehow it all seems forced and never seems to gel.
Pretty, engaging but tragically insubstantial, this won’t appeal to much more than the already converted.
By Jeph Loeb, Carlos Pacheco & Jesus Merino (DC Comics)
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-84576-741-9
This cosmic saga is taken from the high profile but often disappointing comic series highlighting DC’s twin top guns, specifically issues #37-42, with the usually excellent Alan Burnett scripting and the very classy Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs providing the pictures.
A seemingly mundane robbery leads the World’s Finest Team to the ends of the universe as Superman is targeted by the worst monsters on Apokolips to provide the ultimate tyrant Darkseid with yet another ultimate weapon. Quite where all these shenanigans lead is pretty much a foregone conclusion even for the casual reader, and as all the character ramifications are negated by the events of Final Crisis, Death of the New Gods and the sundry other mega-crossovers DC seems permanently embroiled in, it’s very hard to summon enough energy to connect to the events here.
Full of contemporary Sturm und Drang, this is fast, flashy and furious, but not particularly challenging or memorable fare, good for a wet afternoon, but sadly, not a classic nor a keeper.
By Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1203-2
I love these cheap ‘n’ cheerful black and white compendiums of past classics! This second volume collecting the entire run of adventures of “The World’s Greatest Superheroes†comprises issues #17-36, t(he February, 1963 to June 1965 instalments) which bring the readers chronologically to the point where superhero comics would explode across the public consciousness.
‘Triumph of the Tornado Tyrant’ saw a sentient cyclone that had once battled the indomitable Adam Strange (in Mystery in Space #61- or Adam Strange Archives volume 1, ISBN: 1-4012-0148-2) set up housekeeping on an desolate world and ponder the very nature of Good and Evil, before realising that it needed the help of the Justice League to reach a survivable conclusion. Teaser Alert: As well being a cracking yarn, this story is pivotal in the development of the android hero Red Tornado…
Issue #18 saw the team summoned to a subatomic world by three planetary champions whose continued existence threatened to destroy the very world they were designed to protect. ‘Journey to the Micro-World’ found our heroes compelled to defeat opponents that were literally unbeatable. Another perplexing riddle was posed in ‘The Super-Exiles of Earth’ when unstoppable duplicates of the team go on a crime-spree and force the world’s governments to banish the heroes into space.
‘The Mystery of Spaceman X’ was an interplanetary adventure and a cunning brainteaser, with lots of action that serves to whet the appetite for the genuine pivotal classic that followed.
‘Crisis on Earth-One’ (Justice League of America #21) and ‘Crisis on Earth-Two’ (#22) combine to become one of the most important stories in DC history and arguably one of the most important tales in American comics. When ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ introduced the concept of Infinite Earths and multiple heroes to the public, pressure began almost instantly to bring back the lost heroes of the “Golden Ageâ€. The editorial powers-that-be were hesitant, though, fearing that too many heroes would be silly and unmanageable, or worse yet put readers off. If only they knew what we know now!
The plot sees a team-up of assorted villains from each Earth plundering at will and trapping our heroes in their own HQ. Temporarily helpless the JLA contrive a desperate plan to combine forces with the champions of a bygone era! It’s impossible for me to be totally objective about this saga. I was a drooling kid in short trousers when I first read this story and the thrills haven’t diminished with this umpty-first re-reading. This is what superhero comics are all about!
Faced with the impossible task of topping that, creative team Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs rose to the challenge with the eccentric outer-space thriller ‘Drones of the Queen Bee’. As the team escaped enslavement to the alien seductress, the continuity bug was growing, and the mention of the individual cases of members would become a mainstay of most future issues.
Alien despot Kanjar Ro returned in ‘Decoy Missions of the Justice League’ a sinister world conquest plot that featured another guest-shot for off-world adventurer Adam Strange and a perplexing mystery with planet-shaking consequences temporarily baffled the team in the rousing romp ‘Outcasts of Infinity!’ Issue #26, ‘Four Worlds to Conquer’ dealt with an insidious revenge plot of the three-eyed alien Despero whilst a much more metaphysical menace assaulted the team in ‘The “I†Who Defeated the Justice League’. Although the deadly android Amazo was also on hand to add some solid threat to the proceedings.
The charmingly naff Head-Mastermind and a bunch of second-string super-villains tried to outfox the League in #28’s ‘Case of the Forbidden Super-Powers’, but not so easily defeated or forgotten are the next two tales. ‘Crisis on Earth-Three’ and ‘The Most Dangerous Earth of All!’ reprised the team-up of the Justice League and Justice Society, when the super-beings of yet another alternate Earth discovered the secret of multiversal travel. Unfortunately Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick and Power Ring are villains on a world without heroes, and see the costumed crusaders of the JLA and JSA as living practise dummies to sharpen their evil skills upon. With this cracking two-part thriller the annual summer team-up became solidly entrenched in heroic lore, giving fans endless joys 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 date – 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.)
JLA #31 saw the induction into the team of Hawkman, who would be the last successful inductee until Black Canary joined the team in #75. ‘Riddle of the Runaway Room’ found an alien wish-granting machine in the hands of second-rate thug Joe Parry, who nonetheless made life pretty tough for the team before their eventual victory. The visually impressive Hawkman must have been popular with the creators, if not the fans, as he was prominently featured in all but one of the next half-dozen adventures. ‘Attack of the Star-Bolt Warrior!’ introduced the uncanny villain Brain Storm who attacked the League to avenge his brother who had been murdered by one of their number!
The universe was again at stake in the time-travelling thriller ‘Enemy from the Timeless World’ and a persistent old foe had another go in #34’s ‘The Deadly Dreams of Doctor Destiny!’, a thriller packed with an army of guest-villains. The team were attacked by their own clothes in the supernatural adventure ‘Battle Against the Bodiless Uniforms’, a fall-back plan by the demons Abnegazar, Rath and Ghast, which had been slowly percolating since the end of JLA #11.
This volume closes with a heart-warming and poignant fable. ‘The Case of the Disabled Justice League’ saw the team raise the morale of despondent kids with disabilities by overcoming physical handicaps to defeat the returning Brain Storm. This tale was in fact inspired by ‘A Place in the World’, a Justice Society adventure from 1945 (All Star Comics #27) produced at a time when returning servicemen disabled in combat were becoming an increasingly common sight on the streets of America.
These inexpensive compendiums are an absolute gift for modern fans desperate to catch up without going bankrupt. They’re also the perfect gift for youngsters needing an introduction to a fabulous world of adventure and magic. Of all the various reprint editions and formats available for such classic material, these monochrome tomes are my very favourite.
By J. F. Charles (Michel Deligne Co)
ISBN: 2-87135-020-5
European comics are different. Despite the notable exceptions of Tintin and Asterix, a huge number of classy and wonderful strips and characters have flown over the heads of the English speaking public and foundered. This tragically hard-to-find (but worth the effort) album is an entry from 1985, when America briefly looked elsewhere for graphic entertainment and the publisher Editions Michel Deligne rushed a rather poorly translated version of Jean-François Charles’ (also known as Bof) utterly magical 1982 adventure serial ‘Les Pionniers du Nouveau Monde’ into production.
Set in America and Canada in 1755 it follows the life of Parisian wastrel Benjamin Graindall, a hothead whose predilection for dueling has made France too small for him. Sent to Montreal to make his fortune and keep out of trouble he joins his uncle at the New France Company, bitter trading rival of England’s Hudson Bay Company.
War is brewing, and feuding native tribes have allied themselves to each Imperial nation, dividing along ancient tribal lines as bitter and hate filled as Britain and France’s. Thus when Graindall and the experienced trapper Billy the Nantese go deep inland trading furs they find that the cold war has turned hot and bloody.
Rescuing a number of French settlers including a beautiful aristocrat’s daughter, they make their way towards Fort Niagara, but are captured by the British whose Ox River Fort lies directly opposite the French bastion at the great falls. Prisoners, they must ensure that their enemies do not realize that the girl Louise is in fact the daughter of Fort Niagara’s commanding officer…
I’d imagine this book is impossible to find nowadays, and to be honest the translation and relettering are quite disappointing and distracting. But since so much European material is once again being tried here via new company Cinebook, I’d thought I’d mention this series as being one that is crying out for a decent shot from a considerate and dedicated publisher. Cross your finger, mes braves…
