Category: Spider-Man

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Black Panther Adventures


By Jeff Parker, Marc Sumerak, Christopher Yost, Elliot Kalan, Roy Thomas, Manuel Garcia, Ig Guara, Scott Wegener, Christopher Jones, Chris Giarusso, John Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-1034-1 (Digest PB/Digital edition)

From its earliest days, Marvel always courted and accommodated young comic book consumers, often through separates titles and imprints. In 2003, the company instituted the Marvel Age line to reframe classic original tales by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others for a fresh-faced 21st century readership.

The experiment was tweaked in 2005, becoming Marvel Adventures. The tone of all the tales was very much that of the company’s burgeoning TV animation franchises, in execution if not name. Titles bearing the Marvel Adventures brand included Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and The Avengers and ran until 2010 when they were all cancelled and replaced by new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

Most of those comic book yarns have since been collected in digest-sized compilations such as this one, gathering a quartet of all-ages Black Panther tales but also including a brace of early1960s episodes from his first stint in mainstream MU series The Avengers.

Acclaimed as the first black superhero in American comics and one of the first to carry his own series, the Black Panther’s popularity and fortunes have waxed and waned since he first debuted as a character in Fantastic Four #52.

In that 1966 landmark the cat king attacked Marvel’s First Family as part of his extended scheme to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father, before eventually teaming up with them to defeat malign master of sound Klaw.

This eclectic compilation – comprising Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #10, Marvel Adventures The Avengers #22, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #1, Marvel Universe Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #8, plus Silver Age epics from Avengers #52 and 62 – begins by broadly reimagining that initial FF encounter in ‘Law of the Jungle’ by Jeff Parker, Manuel Garcia & Scott Koblish (from Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #10; May 2006) wherein the quixotic quartet are suckered into buying smuggled Vibranium.

The miracle mineral is Wakanda’s only export and the illegal sale quickly brings the duped heroes into savage conflict with a mysterious cat-garbed super-warrior. Tracking the Black Panther back to his super-scientific jungle kingdom, the team  eventually convince the king of their innocence and good intentions before teaming up to tackle the true villains…

Two years later Marvel Adventures The Avengers #22 (May 2008 and by Marc Sumerak, Ig Guara & Jay Leisten) revealed the ‘Wakanda Wild Side’ as sightings of murderous mutant Sabretooth in Africa draws Wolverine, Storm, Captain America, Spider-Man, Giant-Girl and the Hulk into an uncharted kingdom. They needn’t have bothered: Wakanda’s Panther chieftain is more than equal to the task of taking down the savage invader…

Following a page of comedic Marvel Mini Classics by Chris Giarusso, a short vignette from Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #1 (November 2010) as Christopher Yost & Scott Wegener reveal how rival heroes T’Challa and Hawkeye work out their ‘Trust’ issues whilst battling crazed villain Whiplash.

Never the success the company hoped, the Marvel Adventures project was superseded in 2012 by specific comics tied to those Disney XD television shows designated as “Marvel Universe cartoons”, but these collected stories are still an amazingly entertaining and superbly accessible means of introducing characters and concepts to kids born sometimes three generations or more away from the originating events. They’re also pretty good fun for us old lags too…

Another short tale – this time from Marvel Universe Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #8 (November 2012) – unites the Panther with the Hulk. Crafted by Elliott Kalan, Christopher Jones & Pond Scum, ‘Mayhem of the Madbomb!’ finds Green Goliath and Cat King furiously fighting Hydra to prevent he detonation of an insanity-inducing WMD stashed in the Empire State Building…

Wrapping up the action are a brace of classic exploits from Roy Thomas & John Buscema.

On Captain America’s recommendation the Black Panther joined the Avengers in #52’s ‘Death Calls for the Arch-Heroes!’ (May 1968, inked by Vince Colletta): a fast-paced murder mystery which also saw the advent of obsessive super-psycho The Grim Reaper who tried to frame the freshly-arrived-in-America T’Challa for the murder of Goliath, The Wasp and Hawkeye.

Then ‘The Monarch and the Man-Ape!’ (Avengers #62, March 1969, and inked by George Klein) offered Marvel fans the first real view of hidden Wakanda – and a brutal exploration of T’Challa’s history and rivals – as his trusted regent seeks to usurp the kingdom and overturn the state religion after declaring himself to be ‘M’Baku the Man-Ape!’…

Augmented by a cover gallery from Carlo Pagulayan & Chris Sotomayor, Leonard Kirk & Val Staples, Scott Wegener & Jean- François Beaulieu, Khoi Pham & Edgar Delgado and John Buscema, these ferociously enthralling riotous mini-epics are extremely enjoyable and engaging, but parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the level of violence might not be what everybody considers “All-Ages Super Hero Action”…
© 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Monster of Frankenstein


By Gary Friedrich, Doug Moench, Bill Mantlo, Gerry Conway, Mike Ploog, John Buscema, Bob Brown, Val Mayerik, Don Perlin, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9906-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

Whereas DC Comics capitalised on the early 1970s global boom in all things supernatural and mystic by creating a plethora of short-story anthologies and the occasional spooky star, Marvel Comics took the trend in another direction and created a small army of horror-heroes to headline their own series.

This particular collection reprints the House of Ideas’ interpretation of the Mary Shelley classic from a time when the censorious Comics Code Authority first loosened some of its strictures banning horror material from the pages of comics. That translates here to 18 issues of the colour comicbook; Giant-Sized Werewolf #2, Marvel Team-Up #36-37 and all the pertinent strips from adult-oriented Marvel magazines Monsters Unleashed #2, 4-7, 9-10 and one-shot Legion of Monsters (spanning January 1973-September 1975), all awaiting your rapt attentions.

Some comic artists work best in black-&-white. Such is certainly the case with Mike Ploog. A young find who had previously worked with Will Eisner, Ploog illustrated Gary Friedrich’s pithy adaptation of the original novel before moving on to groundbreaking new ventures as the strip graduated to in-house originated material. This monumental tome is presented mostly in colour, but if you are of a similar opinion you could try to lay your hands on the 2004 monochrome Essential Monster of Frankenstein edition…

Cover-dated January 1973, ‘Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein!’ introduced Robert Walton IV, great grandson of the sea-captain who had rescued scientist Victor Frankenstein from the polar ice and who was subsequently regaled with the incredible tale of “the Modern Prometheus”.

Now, in 1898 and leading a band of rogues, cutthroats and sullen Inuit, Walton finds the fabled monster interred in a frozen slab and brings it aboard his ice-breaker. He then recounts the story to his fascinated cabin-boy, unaware of the fear and discontent simmering below decks…

A bloody mutiny during a terrible gale opens the second issue as the burning ship founders. Meanwhile the flashbacked saga of tragic Victor reaches the terrible moment when the monster demanded a mate. The guilt-plagued scientist complied only to baulk at the last and destroy his second creation. ‘Bride of the Monster!’ concludes with the creature’s fearsome vengeance on his creator, paralleling the grim fate of the storm-tossed ship…

In The Monster of Frankenstein #3, ‘The Monster’s Revenge!’ has the reawakened creature freed from its ice-block to overhear the continuation of his life-story from Walton’s lips, even as the last survivors struggle to find safety in the Arctic wastes.

Thereafter ‘Death of the Monster!’ – with inker John Verpoorten taking some of the deadline pressure off hard-pressed Ploog – turns the tables as the monster reveals what happened after the polar showdown with his creator, leading to a new beginning as Walton reveals that not all the Frankensteins were eradicated by the Monster’s campaign of vengeance. Their warped blood-line lives on…

A new direction began with issue #5 in ‘The Monster Walks Among Us!’. Making his way south, the tragic creature arrives in a Scandinavian village in time to save a young woman from being burned at the stake on a blazing longboat, only to rediscover that when villagers pick up pitchforks and torches to go a-screamin’ and a-hollerin’ for blood, they generally have a good reason…

With issue #6 the comic book renamed itself The Frankenstein Monster as the undying creature reaches the village of Ingolstadt a century after he first wreaked bloody vengeance on his creator’s loved ones.

‘…In Search of the Last Frankenstein!’ is a mini-classic of vintage horrors scripted as usual by Friedrich but plotted, pencilled & inked by Ploog, who was reaching an early peak in his artistic career. It was also his last issue.

Ploog was followed by John Buscema & Bob Brown before Val Mayerik settled as regular artist whilst Friedrich gave way to Doug Moench, a writer once synonymous with Marvel’s horror line.

Issues #7, 8 and 9 bowed to the inevitable, pitting the Monster against Marvel’s top horror star (albeit 75-ish years prior to his contemporary adventures). Beginning with ‘The Fury of a Fiend!’ continuing in ‘My Name is… Dracula!’ and concluding with ‘The Vampire Killers!’, this is an extremely classy tribute to the old Universal movies and then-current Hammer Films in equal measure, wherein the misunderstood misanthrope battled an undying evil for ungrateful humanity, consequently losing the power of speech; and becoming more monstrous in the process.

Produced by Friedrich, Buscema and Verpoorten, this trilogy lacks the atmosphere of Ploog’s tenure, but the action is very much in the company’s house-style. With #10 (inked by Frank Giacoia and Mike Esposito) the creature finally found ‘The Last Frankenstein!’ …much to his regret.

With number #11’s ‘…And in the End…!?’ – illustrated by Brown & Vince Colletta – and #12’s ‘A Cold and Lasting Tomb’ (Moench, Mayerik and Colletta), the Monster wrapped up his historical adventures by falling into a glacial sea. Frozen once again into another block of ice he was revived, Captain America-style, in modern times: i.e. the swinging 1970s…

The epic account then switches to monochrome as more mature episodes from Monsters Unleashed begin, starting with #2 and ‘Frankenstein 1973’ by Friedrich, Buscema & Syd Shores. Here we see how an obsessive young man finds the Monster preserved as a carnival exhibit, only to see his jealous girlfriend revive it whilst trying to burn down the sideshow. The story continued in #4 as ‘Frankenstein 1973: Chapter Two – The Classic Monster’ (Friedrich, Buscema & Win Mortimer), with a literal mad scientist actually putting his own brain in the monster’s skull. Happily, the unnatural order is restored in ‘Once a Monster…’

Monsters Unleashed #6 introduced new creative team Doug Moench & Val Mayerik who completed the introduction to modern times with a good old-fashioned monster hunt in ‘…Always a Monster!’

This leads directly to #7’s ‘A Tale of Two Monsters!’: a dark, socially relevant tale of the modern underclass and man-made horrors carried over into ‘Frankenstein 1974: Fever in the Freak House’ before concluding in #9’s ‘The Conscience of the Creature’.

The horror boom was fading by this time and Monsters Unleashed #10 was the Monster’s last outing there: a superbly dark and sardonic Christmas offering complete with elves, snow, terrorists and a Presidential assassination attempt.

One final monochrome tale from Moench, Mayerik, Dan Adkins & Pablo Marcos (accompanied by a chilling frontispiece by Marcos) appeared in 1975 one-shot The Legion of Monsters. ‘The Monster and the Masque’ was a bittersweet morality play seeing the creature accidentally accepted at a fancy dress party, which is ruined when a different sort of monster gets carried away…

Switching back to full-colour comics, next up is a rather tame team-up/clash from Giant-Size Werewolf #2 wherein ‘The Frankenstein Monster Meets Werewolf by Night’ (Moench, Don Perlin & Colletta) to collaterally combine and quash a band of run-of-the-mill West Coast Satanists.

Resuming his own series, The Frankenstein Monster #13 displays ‘All Pieces of Fear!’ (Moench, Mayerik & Jack Abel) as, shoe-horned into mid-1970s America, the Monster is drawn into a tale heavy with irony as men act like beasts and an obsessive father ignores his family whilst building his own abominations through the nascent science of cloning.

With a hip young teenager as sidekick/spokesperson, ‘Fury of the Night-Creature’ (Dan Green inks) extends the saga by introducing I.C.O.N. (International Crime Organizations Nexus): yet another secret organisation intent on conquest by merging corporate business practices with traditional gangsterism.

Issue #15’s ‘Tactics of Death’ (Klaus Janson inks) briefly concludes the acronym-agenda as the Monster and companion Ralph mop up the men in suits only to be shanghaied to Switzerland to meet the latest Last-of-the-Frankensteins in ‘Code-name: Berserker!’ (inked by Bob McLeod – who managed to handle the next issue too).

Veronica Frankenstein was still absorbed in the family business, but claimed to be fixing her ancestors’ mistakes when I.C.O.N. creeps showed up, demanding her biological techniques in ‘A Phoenix Beserk!’. Beautifully inked by Mayerik and Adkins, the last colour issue ended on a never-to-be completed cliffhanger (although scripter Bill Mantlo covered elements of the story in Iron Man some years later) as the Monster and his new friend met ‘The Lady of the House’ – the utterly bonkers creature-crafter dubbed Victoria Von Frankenstein…

Perhaps the abrupt cancellation was a mercy-killing after all…

Rounding off the narrative wonderment is a 2-part tale from Gerry Conway, Sal Buscema & Colletta first seen in Marvel Team-Up #36-37 wherein Spider-Man is kidnapped and shipped off to Switzerland by the assuredly insane Baron Ludwig Von Shtupf, who proudly proclaims himself The Monster Maker…

In ‘Once Upon a Time, in a Castle…’ the bonkers biologist wants to pick-&-mix creature traits – having already secured the Frankenstein Monster to practise on… After the webslinger busts them both out, they stumble upon sexy SHIELD Agent Klemmer, but a rapid counterattack goes badly wrong when Von Shtupf unleashes his other captive – the furiously feral Man-Wolf – and only big Frankie can prevent a wave of ‘Snow Death!’

This codex of comic creepiness concludes with a mammoth bonus section offering art lovers and funnybook historians additional treats such as Ploog’s very first design sketch of the monster from 1972, original art, illustrations and (finished but pre-editorial addition) painted covers by Boris Vallejo.

Also on show are assorted frontispieces, pencils, inks and previous collected editions, covers and original art by Tom Sutton, Gray Morrow, Vince Evans, Mayerik, Bernie Wrightson & Arthur Adams, making this compendium a perfect treat for fantasy fans and dedicated horrorists: one that should be a first choice for introducing scare-loving civilians to the world of comics.
© 1973, 1974, 1975, 2015 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Mighty Avengers: No Single Hero


By Al Ewing, Greg Land, Jay Leisten & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0785188742 (TPB/Digital edition)

Following blockbuster Avengers Versus X-Men publishing event, company-wide reboot MarvelNOW! reformed the entire overarching continuity: a drastic reshuffle and rethink of characters, concepts and brands with an eye to winning new readers and feeding the company’s burgeoning movie blockbuster machine…

Moreover, many disparate story strands were congealing to kick off the always-imminent Next Big Thing, with the cosmically expanded Avengers titles forming the spine of an encroaching mega-epic. The colossal Infinity storyline detailed a grandiose advance into Armageddon as an intergalactic Hammer of Doom fell with an all-out attack by impossibly ancient race The Builders. They claim to have sparked universal life, but now seek to rectify their mistake on Earth – and woe betide any species or intergalactic civilisation in their way.

When The Avengers mobilised most of their assemblage off-planet to tackle the threat before it reached them, Thanos of Titan took advantage of the dearth of metahuman defenders to invade, leaving the remaining superheroes with an almost impossible task…

Written by Al Ewing and illustrated by Greg Land & Jay Leisten, Mighty Avengers volume 2 #1-5 (November 2013 – March 2014) describes how those left behind unite as a resistance force and stayed together as a decidedly different kind of crusading team… one primarily comprising heroes of colour, not the usual bunch of white guys and ones who looked at problems beyond a self-appointed cosmic jurisdiction…

The action opens as Thanos hits Earth, where blithely unaware ex-Avenger Luke Cage is pitting his Heroes for Hire apprentices White Tiger and a new, teenaged Power Man against seasoned super-thief The Plunderer. Their efforts are interrupted and derided by the Superior Spider-Man who orders them to quit before insultingly offering Cage’s kids a real job.

Everybody sees that the wallcrawler has become insufferable since he technologically upgraded his act and hired a paramilitary gang as his deputies. Many of his oldest friends even think he might be going crazy. What no one knows is that the mind inside the arachnid hero’s head is actually archvillain Otto Octavius AKA Doctor Octopus who – despite a passionate initial desire to reform – is slowly reverting to his true manner and bad habits…

The webspinner’s derision spurs White Tiger into quitting, but only fuels her male teammates into trying harder to prove Spider-Man wrong…

Elsewhere ex-Avenger Monica Rambeau (formerly Captain Marvel and Photon, but now calling herself Spectrum) is getting back into the crime-busting game after a bout of retirement. She’s sorting out her costume and talking over old times with an enigmatic fellow champion when the first wave of the Titan’s invasion force smashes into New York.

Donning a store-bought comedy costume, the stranger – also black – joins Monica as a generic “Spider Hero” and converges on the landing site where Cage and the still-enraged Superior Spider-Man are battling the Titan’s ferocious warlord Proxima Midnight…

Elsewhere, Mystic Master Doctor Strange has been possessed and corrupted by the Ebony Maw – the most personally ambitious of Thanos’ lieutenants – whilst at the bottom of the sea  Dr. Adam Brashear receives a cosmic visitor. A forgotten African American superhero forbidden by Presidential mandate from operating during the Civil Rights era, The Blue Marvel is thus stirred from a lengthy self-imposed exile and grudgingly agrees to return to the world which shunned and sidelined him…

In New York, ‘The Assembly’ give battle, but the Amazing Arachnid seems more concerned with suing his “copyright infringer” than defeating the invaders, and Spectrum is gravely wounded by Midnight. As Cage tackles Proxima, ordinary citizens are emboldened to join the struggle, compelling ever-watching Thanos to order a retreat.

It’s not over though, as the ravaged metropolis is then assaulted by an overwhelming aspect of voracious Elder God Shuma-Gorath, summoned by enslaved Stephen Strange. The rampant horror gleefully begins transforming native New Yorkers into ghastly demon duplicates…

As Blue Marvel rockets to the rescue, temporarily stymieing the devil god and healing Spectrum, mystically empowered White Tiger and Power Man arrive and Spider Hero -demonstrating a keen knowledge of arcane rites – devises a scheme to drive the Lovecraftian horror back to its own dimension for good.

Cage then has a eureka moment, realising ‘No Single Hero’ could have managed, declaring that they are all Avengers…

Originally parked above Manhattan, the Inhumans’ floating city Attilan was destroyed during the war and its ruins now languish in the Hudson River. Moreover, when Thanos personally attacked Black Bolt, the embattled Inhuman monarch released genetically transformative Terrigen Mists thereby unleashing a host of new super-powered warriors from the ranks of the humans below…

Issue #4 is set after the invasion is finally repelled, with the city engrossed in rapid reconstruction. The space-bound Avengers are still missing off-world but life is returning to normal.

Sleazy entrepreneur Jason Quantrell despatches his personal industrial spy Quickfire – a recent recipient of Terrigen-induced abilities – to raid the sunken citadel in search of fresh mutagens he can monetise, whilst in Times Square Cage has turned his old Gem Theatre offices into a storefront Avengers HQ.

He has a bold new idea: opening the heroic volunteer brigade to the public who can come to them with meta-related problems or issues of injustice. Even though Reservist The Falcon has come aboard, Spider-Man is becoming increasingly intolerant, alternately demanding to be placed in charge and ordering Cage’s crew to cease and desist. Unable to convince them, the furious superior wallcrawler storms off…

Meanwhile Spider Hero – who has some ominous magical acquaintances older fans might recognise – has detected an encroaching mystic crisis and resolved to stay. Adopting the vacant costume and identity of martial arts mystery man Ronin, he invites the team to join him in stopping an impending burglary in Attilan. It’s not Quickfire’s illegal raid that’s the problem, but rather that she’s going to inadvertently awaken the slumbering submerged threat of the Death Walkers if somebody doesn’t stop her…

However, as the most recent Ronin leads the Avengers to the already-in-progress monster catastrophe, Octavius returns to the Gem Theatre and – in a manic fit of frustrated rage – attacks Cage with all the paramilitary resources he can muster: mercenaries, spider-bots and urban assault vehicles all primed to shut down the Avengers forever.

Happily, the harassed Hero for Free had already contacted his lawyer and is delighted to follow Jennifer Walters’ guidance… which basically boils down to “She-Hulk Smash!”…

Fast, furious and fantastically offbeat, this epic epistle also offers a selection of editorial features from the issues in question and a covers gallery, as it delivers hard, fast, thrilling and funny stories about heroism on the other side of the tracks…
© 2013 Marvel Characters Inc.. All rights reserved.

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Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection volume 1


By Brian Michael Bendis, Sarah Pichelli, Chris Samnee, David Marquez & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9778-2 (TPB/digital edition)

After Marvel’s financial and creative problems in the late 1990s, the company came back swinging. A key new concept involved remodelling and modernising their core pantheon for the new youth culture. The Ultimate imprint abandoned the monumental, slavish continuity which had always been Marvel’s greatest asset, giving its revamped players a separate reality to play in. Varying degrees of radical makeover appealed to a contemporary 21st century audience and proved a godsend as base material for the new Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Peter Parker was once again reduced to a callow, nerdy high-school geek, brilliant but perpetually bullied by his physical superiors. There were even fresh, fashionable, more scientifically feasible rationales for the fore-destined spider bite which imparted those patented, impossible arachnoid abilities.

His uncle Ben Parker still died because of the lad’s lack of responsibility. The Daily Bugle was still there, as was bombastically outrageous J. Jonah Jameson. Now, however, in a more cynical, litigious world, well-used to cover-ups and conspiracy theories, arch-foe Norman Osborn – a corrupt, ruthless billionaire businessman – was behind everything.

Any gesture towards the faux-realism of traditional superhero fare was surrendered to the tried-and-tested soap-opera melodrama which inevitably links all characters together in invisible threads of karmic coincidence and familial consanguinity but, to be honest, it seldom hurt the narrative. After all, as long as internal logic isn’t contravened, subplots don’t have to make sense to be entertaining.

After a short and spectacularly impressive career, the originally outcast Peter finally gained a measure of acceptance and was hailed a hero when the Ultimate Comics Spider-Man valiantly and very publicly met his end at Osborn’s hands during a catastrophic super-villain showdown…

Soon after he died, a new champion cast in his image arose to carry on the fight…

Written throughout by Brian Michael Bendis, this collection concerns controversial new kid Miles Morales, and contains material published before mega-crossover events Time Runs Out and Secret Wars merged him and other remnants of the Ultimate Universe with the mainstream Marvel continuity. It specifically re-presents an introductory teaser from Ultimate Comics Fallout #4 (August 2011), Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1-12 (-February 2013) and trans-multiversal team-up Spider-men #1-5 (June to September 2012).

In the aftermath of Parker’s last moments, brilliant African American/Latino child prodigy Miles Morales was revealed to have gained similar powers. The freshly empowered 13-year old quickly adjusted to his astounding new physical abilities whilst painfully discovering the daily costs of living a life of lies and how an inescapable sense of responsibility is the worst of all possible burdens…

The revelations here begin by spinning back to the relatively recent past when manic industrialist Osborn repeated the genetic experiment which first bestowed incredible powers on Peter Parker via the accidental bite of a deliberately-mutated spider. Unfortunately, the deranged mastermind failed to anticipate a burglar waltzing in and carrying off the latest test animal as part of his haul …

When grade-schooler Miles gets into prestigious, life-changing Brooklyn Visions Academy Boarding School by the most callous of chances, the boy cynically realises life is pretty much a crap-shoot… and unfair to boot. Feeling guilty about his unjust success and sorry for the 697 other poor kids who don’t get his lucky break, he sneaks off to visit his uncle Aaron. The visit has to be secret since his uncle is a “bad influence” and a career criminal …

Whilst there, a huge spider with a number on its back bites Miles and the boy begins to feel very odd. He also starts fading from sight…

Suddenly super-fast and strong, able to leap huge distances and become practically invisible, Miles rushes to consult geeky pal Ganke, a prodigious nerd already attending Brooklyn Visions. Applying “scientific testing”, the self-proclaimed hero-expert confirms Miles is similar to Spider-Man but can also deliver shocking, destructive blasts through his hands.

When Morales heads home, Ganke continues online research and deduces the connection to the wallcrawler, and is soon strenuously pushing his friend towards becoming a costumed crusader just like him…

However, after Miles intervenes during a tenement fire and saving a mother and baby, shock sets in and he resolves never to use his powers again…

Time passes: Miles and Ganke have been roommates at the Academy for almost a year when news of a major metahuman clash rocks the city. Troubled Miles heads out and becomes an accidental witness to Spider-Man’s murder. Seeing a brave man perish so nobly, he is again consumed by guilt: if he had used his own powers when they first manifested, he might have been able to help save a true hero…

Part of the crowds attending Parker’s memorial, Miles and Ganke talk to another mourner, a girl who actually knew Parker. Gwen Stacy offers quiet insights to the grieving boys and a phrase which alters the course of Miles’ life forever – “with great power comes great responsibility…”

Clad in a Halloween Spidey costume borrowed from Ganke, Miles takes to the night streets for the first time and stops minor miscreant Kangaroo from committing murder…

Feeling he’s come full circle, on his third night out the exhilarated 13-year old encounters the terrifying and furiously indignant Spider-Woman who thrashes and arrests him. Morales wakes at a Government agency in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody where Hawkeye, Iron Man and master manipulator Nick Fury coldly assess him.

However, before they can reach a decision on the boy’s fate, murderous malcontent Electro breaks free of the Triskelion’s medical custody ward and goes on a rampage. Despite easily defeating the seasoned heroes, the voltaic villain is completely unprepared for a new Spider-Man: especially as the kid’s extra powers include camouflage capability and an irresistible “venom-strike” sting…

As Miles considers the full implications of his victory, Fury imparts a staggeringly simple homily: “With great power…” even as he arranges for the kid a properly designed and tooled high-tech costume to crusade in…

Now a day resident at the Brooklyn Boarding School, Miles spends only weekends at home and is coming to terms with some unpleasant truths. Foremost is that his secrets must be kept from his parents, but also poisoning the family air is the fact that his father used to be a street-thug and now passionately hates costumed heroes like Spider-Man.

Almost as bad is the discovery that Uncle Aaron is a major thief and bad-guy known in the game as The Prowler …

Ever since a living piece of Aaron’s loot bit Miles and transformed him, the Prowler has been laying low, but the tide turns here as he resurfaces in Mexico, narrowly escaping a deal-gone-sour with local super-powered gang-lord the Scorpion. Meanwhile the new Spider-Man has been making a name for himself in New York, and news of a junior Arachnid Avenger is making global headlines…

With additional art from Chris Samnee, David Messina and David Marquez, classmate, confidante and fellow nerd Ganke undertakes to “train” Miles using candid footage of the deceased Peter Parker in action and – when continued sightings of the boy hero reach Aaron south of the border – the wily rogue instantly puts two and two together and heads back to the Big Apple.

As the troubled teen tackles street scum and old Spidey villains like Omega Red – triumphing more by luck than skill or judgement – Uncle Aaron murders underworld tech-guru The Tinkerer and swipes his ingenious arsenal of criminal gadgets before confronting Miles at school. He’s thinking possible partnership…

Since Parker perished his Aunt May and true love Gwen have been world travelling. They’re in Paris when the shocking news of a successor reaches them…

In New York, Police Captain Quaid is also coming to terms with a new wallcrawling crazy complicating his life, but is utterly unaware that major grief has hit town as the Scorpion, following the Prowler, has realized New York is wide open for a new Kingpin of Crime to step in and take over…

After a brutal battle against The Ringer, Spider-Man and Quaid reach an accommodation of sorts, but Prowler’s first North American clash with the Scorpion doesn’t go nearly as well and Aaron Morales once again accosts his nephew with veiled threats and a shocking offer…

Of course it all devolves into a fist-fight before calmer heads prevail and Miles really thinks over what’s on the table: one of the world’s most effective and capable villains is offering to train him in combat, strategy and survival on the streets whilst schooling him in the myriad ways the underworld works…

Only problem is that the Prowler has no intention of reforming and won’t say what he expects in return…

Eventually Miles realises his uncle has been secretly grooming him ever since some of his loot bit the youngster, and refuses to let the manipulative creep tricks Miles into attacking the seemingly unstoppable Mexican gang-lord seizing control of the city…

The action (illustrated by David Marquez) begins with a blistering raid on the Scorpion’s plush new club where, in the heat of battle, the novice wall-crawler at last realises Aaron will never change or make amends, but his simply eradicating opposition in advance of his own attempt to take over the underworld…

Events explode tragically when Aaron accosts Miles at school, trying to blackmail him with threats of telling the boy’s father all about Spider-Man, and resulting in a devastating showdown. Equipped with years of criminal experience and Tinkerer’s ingenious arsenal, Aaron goes crazy, determined to finish his rebellious nephew.

The fight inevitably escalates, endangering a busload of civilians who all apparently see the neophyte wallcrawler first save them before killing the Prowler in a horrific explosion…

To Be Continued…

Meanwhile in the mainstream Marvel Universe, “our” Peter Parker underwent his own turmoil and travails, surviving to become a more-or-less grown man and first rank superhero…

The miniseries Spider-Men #1-5 was designed as part of celebrations for the webspinner’s 50th anniversary, and offers a slight but magically enthralling guest-star-packed riff on one of the superhero genre’s most popular themes.

The action begins in the original universe where Peter is on patrol, stopping some fleeing thieves – and almost getting arrested for his help – when he spots an eerie light. Investigating, he discovers the latest hideout of old foe Mysterio and – after a brief struggle – overpowers the sinister Special Effects savant.

Something is off though and the villain’s babblings make no sense. The creep is clearly delusional, screaming Spider-Man is already dead before breaking loose to trigger a bizarrely glowing device he’d been defending.

In a blaze of light, Spider-Man transits from a dark warehouse at night to a sunny rooftop in a radically different New York. Things get even stranger when he stops a mugging and the victim thanks him but says his costume is in “terrible taste” before enquiring if he knew Peter Parker.

…And that’s when the kid in a way cooler Spider suit shows up…

In another universe, the Ultimate Mysterio wakes up and activates a telemetric avatar of himself to follow Spider-Man across dimensions, where Parker is – in true Marvel style – fighting his namesake in a fever of confused misapprehension. Utterly underestimating his diminutive opponent, the elder Arachnoid is defeated by the kid’s secret powers (invisibility and a debilitating venom sting) and wakes up in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cell where an African-American Nick Fury confirms that he’s fallen into an alternate Earth…

Eventually released into Miles’ custody, the newcomer is introduced to a New York where Peter Parker is a revered – albeit dead – hero. Before he can adapt, the Mysterio avatar attacks with a lethal arsenal of ballistic weapons and mind-warping chemical weapons…

By the time Ultimate operatives Thor, Hawkeye and Iron Man appear, the battle is won and the mechanoid trashed, but as ferociously curious Tony Stark examines the dimensional transfer tech in our world, their Mysterio is preparing another deadly assault…

As the assembled heroes seek a way home for the wallcrawling wanderer, Parker is torturing himself by visiting “his” old haunts and hangouts, leading to gut-wrenching meetings with Aunt May, Mary Jane Watson and a Gwen Stacy who wasn’t murdered by the Green Goblin…

…And in the other universe, Mysterio just can’t let go: once again preparing to launch his devilish devices across the rift to kill Spider-Man… all of them and whoever stands with them…

Aided by painter/colourist Justin Ponsor, Bendis & Sara Pichelli crafted a hugely impressive and fresh take on alternate Earth team-ups: drenched in warmth and tragedy, brimming with breathtaking action and stuffed with light-hearted, razor sharp humour, elevating it from the ranks of formularized Costumed Dramas into it easily one of the best superhero tales of the decade.

This initial Ultimately Ultimate compendium also offers a colossal gallery of covers and variants by Kaare Andrews. Jorge Molina, Marquez, Rain Beredo, Pichelli, Ponsor, Adi Granov Marko Djurdjevic, Mark Bagley, Marcos Martin, Terry & Rachel Dodson, Travis Charest, Tommy Lee Edwards, Jimmy Cheung, Humberto Ramos & Mike Deodato to delight and thrill in a rollercoaster ride of tense, evocative suspense and easy-going adventure that is the essential Spider-Man.

Tense, breathtaking, action-packed, evocative, suspenseful and full of the light-hearted, self-aware razor sharp humour which blessed the original Lee/Ditko tales, this second Spider-Man is here to stay …unless they kill him too…
© 2019 MARVEL.

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Brother Voodoo Marvel Masterworks volume 1


By Len Wein, Doug Moench, Roy Thomas, Marv Wolfman, David Anthony Kraft, Roger Slifer, Roger Stern, Scott Lobdell, Jean-Marc Lofficier, Randy Lofficier, Gene Colan, Don Perlin, Jim Mooney, Tony DeZuñiga, Ron Wilson, Marshall Rogers, Vicente Alcazar, Fred Hembeck, Geoff Isherwood & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2923-7 (HB/Digital edition)

In 1968 the consciousness-raising sporting demonstration of Black Power at the Olympic Games politicised a generation of youngsters. By this time a few comics companies had already made tentative but concerted efforts to address what were national and socio-political iniquities. Nevertheless, issues of race and ethnicity took a bloody long time to filter through to still-impressionable young minds avidly absorbing knowledge and attitudes via four-colour pages that couldn’t even approximate the skin tones of African-Americans.

As with TV and films, breakthroughs were small, incremental and too often reduced to a cold war of daringly liberal “firsts.” Excluding characters in 1940s-1950s jungle themed comic books, Marvel clearly led the field with a recurring character: historically impossible Gabe Jones, a black soldier in Sgt. Fury’s Howling Commandos – debuting in #1 (May 1963).

Technically, he was beaten to that dubious honour by DC’s Jackie Johnson. Created by Robert Kanigher & Joe Kubert, the negro prizefighter joined Sgt Rock’s Easy Company in late 1961 (Our Army at War #113), but it was years before he was a regularly-seen character…

By the way, so unlikely a character was ol’ Gabe in 1963 that he was – without even consulting editor Stan Lee – helpfully re-coloured Caucasian at the printers who didn’t realise his ethnicity but just knew that he just couldn’t be non-white. Jones was eventually followed by actual black superheroes Black Panther in Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966), and the Falcon in Captain America #117 (September 1969). America’s first hero or colour to helm his own title had come and gone (largely unnoticed) in a little remembered or regarded title from Dell Comics. Debuting December 1965 and created by artist Tony Tallarico & scripter D.J. Arneson, Lobo was a wild west gunslinger battling injustice just like any cowboy would.

Arguably the greater breakthrough was Joe Robertson, City Editor of the Daily Bugle: an erudite, brave, proudly ordinary mortal distinguished by his sterling character, not costume or skin tone. He debuted in Amazing Spider-Man # 51 (August 1967), proving in every panel thereafter that the world wouldn’t end if black folk and white folk shared the same spaces…

This big change slowly grew out of raised public awareness during a terrible time in US history: even worse than today’s festering social wounds and agonisingly commonplace occurrences of cops claiming to misjudge immediate life-or-death situations, perilous racial pressures and a seemingly constant, officially policy of Black Lives Not Mattering. These tragedies occur unpardonably often the UK too, so we’ve nothing to be smug about…

Britain has suffered race riots since the Sixties, leaving simmering scars that only comedians and openly racist politicians dare to talk about. Things today don’t seem all that different, except the bile and growing taste for violence is turned towards European accents, or health workers as well as brown skins, and now includes non-white sectarian aggravation too…

As the 1960s became a newer, darker decade, more positive and inclusive incidences of ethnic characters appeared in the USA, with DC finally getting an African-America hero in John Stewart (Green Lantern #87 December 1971/January 1972) – although his designation as a replacement Green Lantern might be construed as more conciliatory and insulting than revolutionary.

The first DC hero with his own title was Black Lightning. He didn’t debut until April 1977, although Jack Kirby had introduced Vykin in Forever People #1, the Black Racer in New Gods #3 (March and July 1971) and Shilo Norman as Scott Free’s apprentice (and eventual successor) in Mister Miracle #15 (August 1973). A month later there was Dr. Jericho Drumm: Brother Voodoo…

It was a turbulent time culturally, but it was also a life-or-death moment for comics. The American industry was in turmoil if not meltdown, much like the youth of the nation they courted. With costs of production skyrocketing, every title had to be a success and no one seemed clear on what audiences wanted…

Superheroes had dominated for most of the 1960s: peaking globally before explosively falling to ennui and overkill. Traditional genres like horror, westerns, romance and science fiction returned, fed by radical trends in movie-making where another wrinkle had emerged: films by and for African American audiences. Most called them “Blacksploitation” films…

Marvel was already a pioneer in diversity. As well as a plethora of white Christian males there were pagan gods, female characters (a few but not for long), extraterrestrials, native Americans, Atlanteans and monsters spearheading their own features. Why not another black lead with roots in multiple of genres at once?

Contemporary Blaxsploitation cinema and novels had fired up commercial interests throughout America, and in that miasma of outlandish dialogue, daft outfits and barely concealed – if justified – outrage, an angry black man with a shady past and questionable morals must have felt like a sure-fire hit to Marvel’s bosses. Luke Cage, Hero for Hire launched in the summer of 1972. A year later, Black Panther finally got his own series in Jungle Action #5 and Blade: Vampire Hunter debuted in Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973. Surely there was room for more?

Astonishingly soon after, with the Comics Code prohibition against horror hastily rewritten (amazing how plunging sales can affect ethics), scary comics returned in force and a fresh crop of supernatural superheroes and monsters began appearing on newsstands to supplement the ghosts, ghoulies and goblins already infiltrating the once science-only scenarios of the surviving Fights ‘n’ Tights titles.

In fact, the lifting of the Code ban resulted in such an avalanche of horror titles in response to the industry-wide downturn in superhero sales, that it probably caused a few more venerable costumed crusaders to – albeit temporarily – bite the dust.

Almost overnight nasty monsters – both new and reprinted from the1950s (and narcotics; but that’s another story) became acceptable fare on four-colour pages. Whilst a parade of pre-code reprints made sound business sense, the creative aspect of the contemporary fascination in supernatural themes was catered to by adapting popular cultural icons, before risking whole new concepts on an untested public. Oddly the last Code-embargoed genre – Crime comics – never figured in this particular populist revival…

As always in entertainment, the watch-world was fashion: what was hitting big outside comics was to be incorporated into the mix as soon as possible. When proto-horror Morbius debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #101 (cover-dated October 1971) and the sky failed to fall in, Marvel moved ahead with a line of shocking superstars.

They began with a traditional werewolf and a vampire before chancing something new: a haunted biker who tapped into both Easy Rider’s freewheeling motorcycling chic and the prevailing supernatural zeitgeist. Recycling an old western’s title, the all-new Ghost Rider debuted in Marvel Spotlight #5, August 1972. He had been preceded by western hero Red Wolf in #1 and the aforementioned Werewolf by Night in #2-4. From these beginnings spooky floodgates opened to such an extent there was even room for non-white stars like The Living Mummy and our star turn today…

This quirky compendium collects Brother Voodoo’s earliest exploits from a time when he was equal parts tragic outsider and in-joke laughing stock and long before he was reclaimed as a major hero and rebooted as Doctor Voodoo. These adventures from Strange Tales #169-173, Tales of the Zombie #6 &10, Marvel Team-Up #24, Werewolf by Night #38-41, Marvel Two-in-One #41, Doctor Strange #48, Moon Knight #21, Marvel Super-Heroes #1 and Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #16, 17, 20 also include extracts from Tomb of Dracula #34-37: epically spanning cover-dates September 1973 to August 1990. The mystic materials are preceded by an informative Introduction from Ron Wilson on how the series came to be and his editorial origins…

Built from an idea by then Editor-in-Chief  Roy Thomas, with defining input from Stan Lee, John Romita and eventual assigned creators Len Wein & Gene Colan, the end result was a complex and convoluted affair spread out over a number of issues. It’s also fair to say that there’s a lot of dialogue and some notions that haven’t fared well as we’ve become a more inclusive society. If you can’t temper your modern sensibilities in the face of well-meaning but dated attitudes, it might be best to look elsewhere for evidence of role models for young black readers…

Brother Voodoo was a series that took its time to tell a tale, and we need to remember that the idea was to create a hero who could have lots of adventures for as long as possible: a new Doctor Strange or Spider-Man or Daredevil, created at a moment when society and the comic industry were in utter turmoil. Lots of good ideas debuted and died unfulfilled, only to blossom again in years to come…

With their hero ready to launch, Marvel capitalised on the times as much as possible. The company had launched a wave of new titles (many of them cost-effective reprint anthologies) and restored defunct titles to crowd rival publishers off newsstands. Cover dated May 1968, Strange Tales #168 was officially the last issue of a prestigious horror book that had run from the 1951 before becoming a vehicle for The Human Torch, Doctor Strange and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the 1960s. When Marvel the top-selling brand in 1968, its numbering had carried on for Doctor Strange’s first solo title.

Cover dated September 1973, the book was revived after a 5-year hiatus as a try-out title, kicking off with Brother Voodoo who occupied #169-174, after which The Golem, classic horror reprints and Jim Starlin’s landmark reinterpretation of Adam Warlock took the magazine to its ultimate oblivion in 1975.

Enough background now: let’s get down among the dead men…

The drama commences in the eponymous ‘Brother Voodoo!’ (Wein, Gene Colan & Dan Adkins), as a UN special investigator lands in Haiti and is saved from murderous ambush by an oddly-garbed man with incredible powers, emerging from clouds of smoke amidst thunderous frenetic drum beats. Accompanied by elderly aide Bambu, the stranger escorts Dr Maitland to safety even as his mind flashes back to how it all began…

Years ago, Jericho Drumm abandoned his brother Daniel and family heritage as voodoo priests for the rationalism, wealth and acclaim of the USA. Almost 20 years later, celebrated psychologist Dr. Drumm returned to Haiti to witness his brother’s murder by magic. Daniel had taken his brother’s destined place as houngan (voodoo priest) of his people but was dying from a curse laid by evil loa (spirit)/serpent god Damballah…

Utterly disbelieving, Jericho was helpless to prevent his brother’s death and his own subsequent humiliation by Damballah, and after swallowing his civilised pride sought out Daniel’s teacher Papa Jambo to accept his fate, learn the lore and accept the onerous responsibilities of protecting the world from evil magic. Now splitting his time between his Caribbean homeland and his practice in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Dr. Jericho Drumm ministers to the world’s unknown ailments and hidden horrors…

The origin flashback extended to the next issue with a ‘Baptism of Fire!’ tracing Jericho’s accelerated course of study and triumphant battle against the loa lord. Amongst his many new gifts, the power that tipped the balance was his eerie ability to channel his dead brother’s power and soul: a chilling tactic possible because Daniel now lived within him…

We return to the present with ST #171 and learn why the UN is under attack in Haiti when ‘March of the Dead!’ (with Frank Giacoia inking Colan’s gloriously beautiful, increasingly scary pencils) sees Drumm attacked by the walking dead.

Thanks to the Comics Code, at this time the literal word “zombie” was banned in newsstand publications, compelling writers and editors to take torturous steps to do their job. Marvel’s monochrome magazines used the term with impunity and without sanction, but for the mainstream colour titles, Wein had to coin a new appellation, which is why Brother Voodoo here clashes with “zuvembies” in a graveyard. You couldn’t make it up, could you?

These specific “soulless ones” prowl at the command of sinister Baron Samedi, sabotaging much-needed industry providing jobs for the impoverished nation. The tale catapults BV into the heart of Marvel continuity as the true perpetrators are exposed as far-from-supernatural assailants and one of the MU’s greatest threats to life and liberty…

Dick Giordano inked #172 and 173 as the hero returns to Louisiana. Seeking to assist a woman targeted by mystic malevolence, in ‘Fiend in the Fog!’, police chief’s daughter Loralee Tate is singled out by voodoo villain and cult leader Black Talon and Drumm is inexorably drawn into a massive conspiracy demanding a ‘Sacrifice Play!’ and the initially unwelcome aid of local legend Mama Limbo. The spooky thrills culminate in a do-or-die battle with the Talon’s tribe and Brother Voodoo’s defeat and capture, resulting in a painful cliffhanger since the series ceased here with April 1974 episode…

Mere months later, the already drawn conclusion resurfaced in one of those aforementioned mature Marvel magazines. The Black Talon tale concluded in July’s Tales of the Zombie #6, with Doug Moench scripting Wein’s plot and Frank Chiaramonte inking Colan – who always worked best in monochrome. ‘End of a Legend!’ exposes devious duplicity and reaps a rich harvest of destruction when Drumm breaks loose and unleashes all his power…

He then appeared in New York, joining Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #24 (August 1974) in a Wein yarn illustrated by Jim Mooney & Sal Trapani: a decidedly offbeat hero haunting the Big Apple to quash a Manhattan murder cult in ‘Moondog is Another Name for Murder’

Almost one year later, Brother Voodoo returned as Tales of the Zombie #10 delivered ‘The Resurrection of Papa Jambo!’ (March 1975, by Moench & Tony DeZuñiga) wherein Jericho Drumm’s long-departed tutor is forcibly revived by malign Dramabu, the Death-Lord. As the revered savant stalks the shanty towns of Haiti, claiming sacrificial fodder for his power-hungry new master, the harassed hero and Bambu return to their roots and make some hard decisions to save their people…

Following that yarn, Brother Voodoo joined Marvel’s own ranks of the living dead: reduced to occasional cameos and guests shots in other series. Represented here in excerpts from The Tomb of Dracula #34-37 (July to October 1975 as crafted by Marv Wolfman, Colan & Tom Palmer), the houngan visits the Brazilian Amazon, rescuing vampire hunter Frank Drake from an army of zuvembies unleashed by the Transylvanian terror. Times and tastes were changing, with superheroes again ascendent, and the horror fad fading. Soon, only The Tomb of Dracula would remain…

Lovingly realised by Moench & Don Perlin, former furry hit Werewolf by Night had ridden the storm longer than most: deftly adapting to new trends and ideas by allowing character and not plot dictate the course. An earlier arc depicting Haiti holding a cure for lycanthrope Raymond Coker was revisited and an extract here from WBN#38 (May 1976) sets up an epic intervention and unfolding wonder as Coker now requests the aid of Brother Voodoo…

Cover-dated July, Werewolf by Night #39 reveals ‘Some Are Born to the Night’ as – after being visited by a trinity of infinite beings who threaten to alter his existence forever – wild werewolf Jack Russell is hurled into a life-changing crisis. The celestial visitants are also in touch with Coker as he squats in a hut in far off Haiti, and even appear to Russell’s sister Lissa and girlfriend Topaz.

The “Three Who Are All” are manoeuvring players into a game of cosmic consequences and when Jack gets home, he finds Coker and Drumm waiting. No sooner are introductions made than another army of zuvembies attack and Russell learns that ‘Some are Born to the Night!’

Portentous proclamations of unfulfilled destinies propel the adventurers and Topaz back to Haiti where they are abducted and taken to an infernal pit nurturing a shocking travesty of life with resurrected wizard/old enemy Dr. Glitternight in charge of ‘Souls in Darkness’…

Revealed in WBN #41 as an ex-member of the gestalt once called “Five Who Are All”, the villain’s obsessive monster-making is explained before his attempts to dominate reality are spectacularly thwarted through the return of a missing fourth being and the indomitable resistance of Jack and Brother Voodoo in ‘…And Death Shall Be the Change’…

Key to their eventual triumph is the moment when Russell discovers how to transform into a werewolf fully in control of his mental faculties day or night. Returning to America, the Werewolf-by-Choice naturally became a superhero and moved to New York, but for Jericho Drumm it was time to fade into the shadows once more…

Marvel Two-in-One #41 (July 1978) sees David Anthony Kraft, Ron Wilson & Pablo Marcos close an open case where The Black Panther had vanished whilst fighting a “zombie-vampire” stalking New York’s streets and abducting prominent African Americans. Here, concluding chapter ‘Voodoo and Valor!’ sees Drumm volunteer his specialised services to Ben “The Thing” Grimm to save T’Challa, and end the crisis. The trail takes them to Uganda for a confrontation with Doctor Spectrum and far deadlier crazed killer Idi Amin…

Jumping to August 1981 and Doctor Strange #48, Roger Stern, Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin reveal how the voodoo vigilante and his passenger Daniel are possessed by minor god Damballah and require ‘The Power of Dr. Strange’ to restore them to sanity and safety, after which Moon Knight #21 (July 1982) is paid a visit by ‘The Master of Night Earth!’

Crafted by Moench, Vicente Alcazar, John Tartaglione & Bob Camp. This dark delight sees the Fist of Khonshu join Brother Voodoo in Haitian port city Mirebalais. Battling gunrunners before colliding with a thug possessed by Daniel Drumm, the lunar avenger is soon helping head off a revolution: one fought by zuvembies on zombie alligators fighting for a greedy politician with voodoo training…

May 1990 brought giant anthology Marvel Super-Heroes (Spring Special) #1 and buried deep inside Scott Lobdell, Fred Hembeck & Dell Barras detailed short done-in-one saga ‘Don’t Do that Voodoo You Do So Well’ with Drumm saving hurricane victims and unexpectedly encountering again a lost love from his youth…

Contemporaneously, Drumm scored a short back-up series in Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme (April-August 1990) seen here as ‘The Book of the Vishanti: The Mark of the Vodû! Part I-III’ as featured in issues #16-17 and 20. A way of reinventing the hero whilst revisiting and revising his origins, the serial by Roy Thomas, Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier and illustrator Geoff Isherwood, Mickey Ritter reprised the Brother’s career and legacy, whilst laying out how the history and practise of voodoo slotted into Marvel’s cosmology. and continuity.

With covers by Romita, Gil Kane, Giordano, Giacoia, Rich Buckler, Ernie Chan, Earl Norem, Palmer, Keith Pollard, Bill Sienkiewicz & Jim Lee, pages of original art by Colan, Kane and a host of forementioned inkers, this tome also offers contemporary house ads, info pages on Brother Voodoo and Black Talon from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and the 2008 cover of Essential Marvel Horror volume 2. These are supplemented by full creator biographies, ‘Introducing Brother Voodoo!’ – a heavily illustrated feature by Tony Isabella from Tales of the Zombie #2 in anticipation of his imminent debut in Strange Tales #169 and ‘Brother Voodoo Lives Again’ from TotZ #5 discussing his move out of colour comics.

Definitely not everybody’s role model or anyone’s “Great White Hope”, Brother Voodoo remains a noble experiment and intriguing concept that still offers great enjoyment and astounding art for those who like their fun challenging and off centre.

Don’t let silly prejudice make you miss out on something special…
© 2021 MARVEL.

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Thor Volume One


By Dan Jurgens & John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson, with Howard Mackie, Scott Hanna, & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4632-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

In the middle of 1962, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby launched their latest offbeat superhero creation in anthology monsters-and-mysteries title Journey into Mystery #83. The tale introduced meek, disabled American doctor Donald Blake who took a vacation in Norway only to encounter the vanguard of an alien invasion. Fleeing in terror, he was trapped in a cave and found an old, gnarled walking stick. When, in helplessness and frustration, he smashed the cane into a huge boulder obstructing his escape, his insignificant frame was transformed into the hulking and brawny Norse God of Thunder, Thor!

The series grew from formulaic beginnings battling aliens, commies and cheap thugs into a vast, breathtaking cosmic playground for Kirby’s burgeoning imagination with Journey into Mystery inevitably becoming the Mighty Thor. After years of celestial adventuring, the peculiarities and inconsistencies of the Don Blake/Thor relationship were re-examined – as well as his doomed romance with his nurse Jane Foster – and all was finally clarified and explained regarding how an immortal godling could also be frail Don Blake.

The epic saga took the immortal hero back to his long-distant youth, ultimately revealing that the mortal surgeon was no more than an Odinian deception: a living shell designed to teach the Thunder God humility and compassion…

Time passed, Kirby left and the Thunderer’s fortunes waxed and waned. During the troubled mid-1990’s the title vanished, culled with The Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America and Fantastic Four and subcontracted out to Image creators Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld during 1996-1997 in a desperate attempt to improve sales after Marvel’s apocalyptic Onslaught publishing event.

In 1998 Heroes Return and Heroes Reborn saw those properties rejoin the greater Marvel Universe, relaunched with brand new first issues with the Thunder God reappearing a few weeks later. In July, Mighty Thor volume 2 launched, and this compendium gathers #1-8, plus Peter Parker, Spider-Man #2 spanning July 1998 to February #1999.

It begins with ‘In Search of the Gods’ by Dan Jurgens, John Romita Jr. & Klaus Janson and finds the Thunderer back on Midgard after more than a year away from the home cosmos, and instantly involved in a desperate hostage situation.

Acting immediately, he ends the crisis only to discover the perpetrator is the now-powerless Guardian God Heimdall. In the recently relaunched Avengers #1, Thor had found Asgard devastated and deserted and now that shocking mystery has been further compounded on Earth…

Elsewhere, Death Goddess Hela and Volla the Prophetess conspire in anticipation of cosmic calamity and desires reaching fruition, even as a military shipment goes badly wrong at New York’s docks where EMT/paramedic Jake Olsen gets the call to assist…

Before leaving Heimdall with (now) Doctor Jane Foster, Thor and the sentinel Asgardian explored shattered Asgard again, inadvertently liberating an unknown horror from ancient captivity, but that is forgotten as the docks situation worsens and Thor joins the hard-pressed Avengers in battling reawakened Odinian ultimate weapon The Destroyer…

Despite the best efforts of the World’s Mightiest Heroes, the carnage is shattering and people die. People like Olson… and Thor…

Thor’s story nevertheless continues as his journey to Hela’s realm is interrupted by disturbing new cosmic entity Marnot who claims the Thunderer’s soul and returns it to the living world, bound to equally-miraculously resurrected Olsen in a revival of the spell that created Don Blake and just in time to stop The Destroyer. However, the new-old arrangement will prove to be a true ‘Deal with the Devil!’

Reborn as ‘God and Man’ in #3, the Storm Lord again walks the Earth – but only as the dormant-until-summoned alter-ego of another frail mortal host with a painfully complex personal life. It makes battling the sea-monsters of beguiling sea-goddess Sedna beside former Avenger Namor the Sub-Mariner a far from friendly reunion in ‘From the Ashes’ and leads to Mjolnir rebelling after Thor’s take-charge personality overrules Olsen’s legal authority when the Thunderer compels the paramedic to perform illegal surgery to save a life in ‘Heroes’ …

The wreckers of Asgard and Marnot have all been manoeuvring in the background throughout and following a flashback to Asgardian childhood ‘What’s a God to Do?’ finds Thor edging closer to the truth after another pointless clash with best pal Hercules. Once the dust has settled, Thor finds his people have been framed for attacking Olympus even as in Asgard the fate of the vanquished All-Father is revealed. However,  the ‘Deception’ has proven effective and Thor and Hercules are attacked by the entire outraged Hellenic pantheon…

The true architects of most of this mayhem are a pantheon of previously unknown Dark Gods – Perrikus, Adva, D’Chel, Slottoth, Tokkots and Majeston Zelia – so powerful that they have managed to take possession of the fallen Fabled Realm, constantly attack Thor since his return to Asgard and now bar him entirely from reaching his sundered home…

This initial collection concludes with a stellar crossover between hammer-hurler and webspinner as Thor #8 sees the Thunder God encounter Spider-Man when Tokkots goes on an Earthly rampage of destruction in ‘…and the Home of the Brave!’ before being spectacularly defeated and despatched to enslaved Asgard in ‘Plaything of the Gods’ (Peter Parker, Spider-Man #2, by Howard Mackie, Romita Jr. & Scott Hanna).

An all action, rocket-paced return to comic book basics, this revival includes a wealth of covers and variants by Romita Jr., Janson & Hanna, and, whilst perhaps not to everyone’s taste (it’s woefully short of anything even approaching a funny moment) is a blistering epic to delight the Fight’s ‘n’ Tights faithful, with the artwork undeniably some of the best of the modern Marvel Age. If you want your pulse to pound and your graphic senses to swim, this is the ideal item for you.
© 1998, 1999, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. Digital version © 2020 MARVEL

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Hawkeye Epic Collection volume 1: The Avenging Archer 1964-1988


By Stan Lee & Don Heck, Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Steven Grant,  Mark Gruenwald, David Michelinie, Mike Friedrich, J.M. DeMatteis, Scott Edelman, Roger Stern, Charlie Boatner, Jack Kirby, Gene Colan, Sal Buscema, John Byrne, Carmine Infantino, Greg LaRoque, George Evans, Jimmy Janes, Paul Neary, Joe Staton, Dick Ayers, Mike Netzer, Trevor Von Eeden, Eliot R. Brown & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3723-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

Clint Barton is probably the world’s greatest archer: swift, bold, unerringly accurate and augmented by a fantastic selection of multi-purpose high-tech arrows. Other masked bow persons are available… including a young, female Hawkeye…

Following an early brush with the law and as a reluctant Iron Man villain, Barton reformed to join the Mighty Avengers, serving with honour and distinction, despite always feeling overshadowed by his more glamorous, super-powered comrades.

Long a mainstay of Marvel continuity and probably Marvel’s most popular B-list hero, the Battling Bowman has risen to great prominence in recent years, boosted by his film and television incarnation.

This brash and bombastic collection – available in paperback and digital formats – re-presents breakthrough miniseries Hawkeye #1-4, the major early appearances from Tales of Suspense #57, 60, 64 and momentous moments from The Avengers #16, 63-65, 189, 223: supplemented by outings in Marvel Team-Up #22, 92, 95; Captain America #317 and pertinent material from Marvel Tales #100; Marvel Fanfare #3, 39 and Marvel Super Action #1, all chronologically covering September 1964 to August 1988. It should be noted that some of these tales feature his occasional wife and partner Mockingbird…

It naturally begins with a blockbusting debut from Tales of Suspense #57. In ‘Hawkeye, the Marksman!’ – by Stan Lee & Don Heck – as the villainous Black Widow resurfaces to beguile an ambitious and frustrated former carnival performer-turned-neophyte-costumed vigilante. She convinces him to attack her archenemy Iron Man and, despite a clear power-imbalance, the amazing ingenious archer comes awfully close to beating the Golden Avenger…

Natasha Romanoff (sometimes Natalia Romanova) was a Soviet Russian spy who came in from the cold to become one of Marvel’s earliest female stars. She started life as a svelte, sultry honey-trap during Marvel’s early “Commie-busting” days, periodically targeting Tony Stark and battling Iron Man. She was subsequently redesigned as a torrid, tights-&-tech super-villain before defecting to the USA, falling for an assortment of Yankee superheroes – including Hawkeye, Daredevil and Hercules – and enlisted as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., setting up as a freelance do-gooder before joining (and occasionally leading) The Avengers.

Tales of Suspense #60 (December 1964, by Lee, Heck & Dick Ayers) featured an extended plotline with Stark’s “disappearance” leading to Iron Man being ‘Suspected of Murder!’. Capitalizing on the chaos, lovestruck Hawkeye and the Widow again attacked the Armoured Avenger, but another failure led to her being recaptured and re-educated by enemy agents…

Abruptly transformed from fur-draped seductress into gadget-laden costumed villain, she resurfaced in #64 (April 1965 by Lee, Heck & Chic Stone), again steering the bewitched bowman into attacking her enemy. Her final failure led to huge changes…

Most importantly, one month later, Avengers #16 saw the superstar team split up following climactic battles against Zemo and the Masters of Evil. Laid out by Jack Kirby & embellished by Ayers, ‘The Old Order Changeth!’ introduced a dramatic change of concept for the series. As Lee increasingly wrote to the Marvel’s unique strengths – tight continuity and strongly individualistic characterisation – he found juggling individual stars in their own titles in addition to a combined team episode every month was almost impossible…

As Captain America and substitute sidekick Rick Jones fight their way back to civilisation, the Avengers institute changes and seek out their own replacements. The big-name stars resigned making way for three erstwhile villains: Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye, all reformed, reenergised and hungry for redemption…

The Straightshooter became a mainstay and backbone of the team, but in Avengers #63, survived a battle epiphany that triggered a big change after returning from a mission in Wakanda.

Beginning a 3-part tale illustrated by Gene Colan & George Klein ‘And in this Corner… Goliath!’ saw Barton abandon the arrow schtick in favour of true super-powers as Roy Thomas finally gave the enigmatic Avenger an origin.

The first chapter was part of a broader tale: an early crossover experiment intersecting with the 14th issue of both Sub-Mariner and Captain Marvel, wherein a coterie of cerebral second-string villains combined to conquer the world by stealth…

Within the Avengers portion of proceedings, Hawkeye revealed his civilian identity for the first time. He was ex-circus performer Clint Barton and shared his origins before forsaking bow and trick-arrows to become a size-changing hero using Pym particles. He then adopted the now-vacant name Goliath to save the Black Widow.

In #64’s ‘Like a Death Ray from the Sky!’ he reluctantly reunited with his mobster brother Barney Barton and led the team against a terror satellite scheme cooked up by Egghead before #65 (inked by Sam Grainger) saw him attacked by his old enemy/mercenary mentor the Swordsman in ‘Mightier than the Sword?’

Jumping to June 1974 – a time when the archer pursued a solo career – Marvel Team-Up #22 (by Len Wein, Sal Buscema & Frank Giacoia) unleashes ‘The Messiah Machine!’ as Battling Bowman and Amazing Spider-Man frustrate deranged computer Quasimodo’s ambitious if absurd mechanoid invasion of Earth.

Cover-dated February 1979, reprint title Marvel Tales #100 concealed ‘Killers of a Purple Rage!’: a new short tale by Scott Edelman, Michael Netzer & Terry Austin which finds time-displaced Two-Gun Kid and Hawkeye battling each other and then mind controlling menace Killgrave the Controller…

Avengers #189 (November 1979, by Steven Grant, John Byrne & Dan Green) then reveals how official reservist Hawkeye get a day job at Cross Technological Enterprises in ‘Wings and Arrows!’ Before long, he’s earning every penny as the new security chief by battling alien avian interloper Deathbird…

For Marvel Team-Up #92 (April 1980) Grant, Carmine Infantino & Pablo Marcos reunite Archer and Arachnid after a new iteration of Mr. Fear steals CTE technology and almost cripples the heroes with ‘Fear!’ after which vigilante activist El Águila raids the corporate citadel in a tight tale from Marvel Fanfare #3 (July 1982). Crafted by Charlie Boatner, Trevor Von Eeden & Josef Rubinstein, ‘Swashbucklers’ at last opens Hawk’s eyes to what his bosses are truly like and what they do with their discoveries…

Cover-dated September 1982, Avengers #223 talked ‘Of Robin Hoods and Roustabouts’. Devised by David Michelinie, Greg LaRocque, Brett Breeding & Crew, it saw reinstated Avenger Clint Barton join Ant-Man Scott Lang, when he and daughter Cassie attend a circus and stumble into a clash with skills-mimic Taskmaster to extricate an old friend from the maniac’s clutches and influence.

Hawkeye was always a team player and unlucky in love, but that was all about to change. In the interests of complete clarity, this collection pops briefly back to 1976 for some classy comics context and the first (costumed) appearance of occasional wife and frequent paramour Bobbi “Mockingbird” Morse as first seen in January 1976.

Preceded by a Howard Chaykin frontispiece from monochrome Marvel Super Action #1, former Ka-Zar romantic interest Dr. Barbera Morse was reinvented by Mike Friedrich, George Evans & Frank Springer in ‘Red-Eyed Jack is Wild!’ Adopting unwieldy nomme de guerre Huntress, skilled combat operative Morse devotes herself to cleaning up corruption inside S.H.I.E.L.D., no matter what the cost…

Huntress became Mockingbird in Marvel Team-Up #95 (July) in a smart thriller by Grant, Jimmy Janes & Bruce Patterson. ‘…And No Birds Sing!’ ended the long-extant S.H.I.E.L.D. corruption storyline as Morse invited Spider-Man to join forces and expose the true cancer at the heart of America’s top spy agency…

All this was laying the groundwork for something truly game-changing…

Written and drawn by the hugely underrated and much-missed Mark Gruenwald, assisted by inkers Brett Breeding & Danny Bulanadi and running from September-December 1983, Hawkeye #1-4 was one of Marvel’s earliest miniseries and remains one of the very best and most eventful adventures of the Ace Archer. Much like the character himself, this project was seriously underestimated when first released. Most industry pundits and the more voluble fans expected very little from a second-string hero drawn by a professional writer. Guess again, suckers!

 ‘Listen to the Mockingbird’ sees Clint still moonlighting as security chief for electronics corporation CTE when he captures a renegade S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. She reveals that his bosses are all crooks, secretly involved in shady mind-control experiments.

After some initial doubts, in ‘Point Blank’ Barton teams with the svelte and sexy super-agent to foil the plot, gaining in the process a new costume and an instant rogues’ gallery of archfoes such as Silence, Oddball and Bombshell by third chapter ‘Beating the Odds’…

As the constant hunt and struggle wears on, Barton succumbs to – but is not defeated by – a life-changing physical injury leading to permanent disability. He also impetuously marries in explosive conclusion ‘Till Death us do Part…’ wherein the sinister mastermind behind everything is finally revealed and summarily dealt with.

In those faraway days both Gruenwald and Marvel Top Gun Jim Shooter maintained that a miniseries had to deal with significant events in a character’s life, and this bright and breezy, no-nonsense, compelling and immensely enjoyable yarn certainly kicked out the deadwood and re-launched Hawkeye’s career.

In short order from here the bowman went on to create and lead his own team: The West Coast Avengers, gained a regular series in Solo Avengers/Avengers Spotlight and his own titles, consequently becoming one of the most vibrant and popular characters of the period and today as well as a modern-day action movie icon…

However, there are still treats to share

Next here is fun foray from Captain America 317 (May 1986) by Gruenwald, Paul Neary & Dennis Janke. In ‘Death-Throws’ Hawkeye and Mockingbird hunt circus-themed villains and their boss Crossfire with the Sentinel of Liberty reduced almost to a spectator and proud dad watching the kids grow up…

The comics wonderment concludes with a little-seen story from Marvel Fanfare #39 (August 1988). Courtesy of J.M. DeMatteis, Joe Staton & Kim DeMulder, ‘The Cat’s Tale’ finds the Ace Archer seriously off his game until taken on a vision-quest by Navajo shaman Jesse Black Crow to confront the predatory feline spirit that is poisoning his existence…

Packed with terrific tales of old-fashioned romance, skulduggery and derring-do, this book comes with extras including the Gil Kane cover to Marvel Triple Action #10, text articles on the Hawkeye miniseries from Marvel Age #6; the event’s 1983 house ad by Gruenwald & Brett Breeding and the covers and introduction from the 1988 TPB collection (and three subsequent re-releases), plus text pieces from Archie Goodwin, & Gruenwald.

Also on view are contemporaneous info pages from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, about Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Death-Throws, Ringleader, Oddball, Bombshell, Tenpin and KnickKnack, plus diagrammatic cutaways by Eliot R. Brown, detailing the secrets of ‘Hawkeye’s Skymobile’, ‘Hawkeye’s Quiver and Bows’ and ‘Mockingbird’s Battle-Staves’.

This is a no-nonsense example of the straightforward action-adventure yarns that cemented Marvel’s reputation and success and a collection to enhance any Fights ‘n’ Tights fans’ place of honour on the bookshelf.
© 2021 MARVEL.

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Morbius Epic Collection volume 1: The Living Vampire 1971-1975


By Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, Don McGregor, Gerry Conway, Mike Friedrich, Doug Moench, Gil Kane, Pablo Marcos, Ross Andru, Paul Gulacy, P. Craig Russell, Tom Sutton, Rich Buckler, Luiz Dominguez, Virgil Redondo, Mike Vosburg, Frank Robbins & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2835-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

One of the most crucial aspects defining classical horror archetypes and characters is tragedy in equal amount to fear and violence. Frankenstein’s monster and werewolves are more victims than villains and even true predators like Dracula wed desire to necessity to underpin their dark depredations. This factor was the prime driver of Marvel’s many misunderstood monster stars in the early 1970s, and none more so than doomed researcher Michael Morbius who surrendered his humanity in service of physical survival and paid the price in shame, regret and guilt every time his thirst resurged….

This century’s transition of Marvel’s print canon to every size of screen seems unstoppable and with their pioneering horror hero/villain now a film presence, the company released a wave of collections to support the release. The most comprehensive and contextually crucial are the Epic Collections revisiting his life in more or less chronological order.

This initial titanic tome re-presenting Amazing Spider-Man #101-102; Marvel Team-Up #3-4; Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1; (Adventure into) Fear #20-26; Giant-Size Werewolf by Night #4, and pertinent material from Vampire Tales #1-8, cumulatively comprising cover-dates October 1971 to April 1975. It traces the science-spawned nosferatu through debut, guest villain shots and ultimately to his time in the spotlight as a confirmed horror hero…

It all begins with The Amazing Spider-Man #101: the second chapter in an anniversary trilogy tale begun by Stan Lee, Gil Kane & Frank Giacoia which saw the wallcrawler accidentally mutate himself and gain four extra arms…

Roy Thomas takes over with ‘A Monster Called… Morbius!’ as our 8-limbed arachnid oddity desperately seeks a way to reverse his condition. Whilst hiding out in Dr. Curt Connors’ Long Island home/lab, Peter Parker stumbles across a costumed horror who drinks human blood. The newcomer has just reached shore fleeing from a ship that he left a charnel house. Making matters even worse is Connors’ sudden arrival in scaly savage form of The Lizard. Suddenly surprised and always enraged, the saurian attacks, set on killing all intruders…

Amongst the many things banned by the Comics Code Authority in 1954 were horror staples zombies, werewolves and vampires, but changing tastes and spiralling costs of the era were seeing superhero titles dropping like flies in a blizzard.

With interest in suspense and the supernatural growing globally , all publishers pushed for a return to scary comics, and the covert introduction of a “Living Vampire” in superhero staple Spider-Man led to another challenge to the CCA, the eventually revision of the Code’s horror section and a resurgent rise of supernatural heroes and titles.

For one month Marvel also experimented with double-sized comic books (DC’s switch to 52-page issues lasted almost a year: August 1971 to June 1972 cover-dates). Thus, Amazing Spider-Man #102 featured a bombastic 3-chapter blockbuster brawl beginning with ‘Vampire at Large!’ wherein the octo-webspinner and anthropoid reptile joined forces to hunt a science-spawned bloodsucker after discovering a factor in the bitey brute’s saliva could cure both part-time monsters’ respective conditions.

‘The Way it Began’ abruptly diverges from the main narrative to present the tragic tale of Nobel Prize winning biologist Michael Morbius and how be turned himself into a haunted night-horror in hopes of curing his fatal blood disease, before ‘The Curse and the Cure!’ brought a blistering conclusion: restoring the status quo and requisite appendage-count…

Gerry Conway assumed the writer’s role for the third appearance of the living (not dead; never ever undead but “Living”, okay?), breathing humanoid predator who drank blood to live, in Marvel Team-Up #3 (July 1972). Illustrated by Ross Andru & Giacoia) it saw Spidey and Human Torch Johnny Storm hunting a resurgent Morbius after he attacks student Jefferson Bolt and somehow passes on his plague of thirst.

The conflicted scientist still seeks a cure and tracks old colleague Hans Jorgenson to Parker’s college, but his now-vampiric servant Bolt wants just what all true bloodsuckers want in ‘The Power to Purge!’…

The horror was still acting the villain in MTU #4, as the Torch was replaced by most of Marvel’s sole mutant team (The Beast having gone all hairy – and solo – in another science-based workaround to publish comic book monsters who were anything but supernatural) in ‘And Then… the X-Men!’

This enthralling thriller was magnificently illustrated by Kane at the top of his game and inked by Steve Mitchell, with the webslinger and X-Men at odds while both hunting the missing Jorgenson. After the unavoidable butting of heads, the heroes united to overcome Morbius and left him for Professor Charles Xavier to contain or cure…

Sadly, as we already know, his Nobel Prize-winning research only led to the death of his greatest friend and colleague, the abandonment of his true love and an unlife sentence as a rampaging killer…

Like Hawkeye, The Punisher, Wolverine and many others, Morbius followed the classic Marvel character arc and tradition of villain-turned-hero, but he fits far more in the mould of Doctor Doom, Magneto, The Hulk and Namor the Sub-Mariner: a driven protagonist whose needs and agendas generally set him apart from and in conflict with society and civilisation. Despite his every wish and effort, Morbius is repeatedly forced to feed on humanity: a victim of his own mutated body.

As the superhero decline continued and horror bloomed, Morbius found refuge in Marvel’s black-&-white magazines. Designated mature material, these titles skated around Comics Code rules, offering adult scenes and themes and an early home for numerous horror stars, barbarians like Conan and Kull, as well as more sophisticated superhero fare for The Punisher, Mockingbird, Moon Knight and others.

Vampire Tales #1 launched in August 1973 with ‘Morbius’ as lead feature. Following the painted cover by Esteban Maroto, contents page and vintage vamp movie still, a moody monochrome shocker by Steve Gerber & Pablo Marcos details the bloodsucker’s relocation to Los Angeles and immersion in its wild night life scene as he searches for former lover Martine… Instead he became entangled with sinister swinger Carolyn: a satanic cultist looking for recruits …and victims…

Lured to a séance with spiritualist Madame Laera, Morbius is intended to feed a demon but instead turns the tables on his attackers…

The bloody predator was a constant presence there, but in this instance story-sense overrules chronology and that first outing is followed by a return to four-colour publishing with a classic monster team-up from Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 (June 1974).

With the monster boom in full swing, Marvel during this period flooded newsstands with horror antiheroes. Morbius had already launched in his own newsstand, code-sanctioned series but is here cannily paired with another of  the Amazing Spider-Mans’s eeriest enemies in a double-length epic as ‘Man-Wolf at Midnight!’ (Conway, Kane & Mike Esposito) finds John Jameson again gripped by murderous moon-madness. Now, however, the tormented former astronaut was controlled by the Living Vampire and used to help the bloodsucker secure a possible cure for his appalling condition ‘When Strikes the Vampire!’

The saga then shifts to (Adventure into) Fear #20 (cover-dated February 1973). The title had previously hosted the macabre Man-Thing, and his/its promotion to a solo title gave Morbius opportunity to spread his own (glider) wings. Spawned by scripter Mike Friedrich and artists Paul Gulacy, Jack Abel & George Roussos, ‘Morbius the Living Vampire!’ revealed how the bloodsucker escaped X-Men captivity before moving to Los Angeles to live (whenever possible) off victims who deserved his voracious bite.

The initial tale also set up a bizarre relationship with Rabbi Krause and Reverend Daemond who sought to cure him, before one was exposed as a human devil, catapulting Morbius into intergalactic conflict that had shaped humanity over millennia.

That began in Fear #21 as ‘Project: Second Genesis!’ – by Gerber, Kane & Vince Colletta – sees Morbius ordered to consume a most remarkable little girl by Daemond. Despite his best intentions and all his moral compunctions, the vampire succumbs to temptation and attacks the child Tara only to face her super-powered future-self.

He is then reluctantly recruited by a cult of alien technologists who claim to have shepherded homo sapiens from barbarism to civilisation. These “Caretakers” are trying to create a race of supermen but are losing a secret war with Daemon.

By the time Morbius returns to the reverend’s fold however, the mage and his acolyte – Martine – have summoned cat demon Balkatar to destroy the Living Vampire…

Illustrated by Rich Buckler & Luis Dominguez ‘…This Vampire Must Die!’ finds Morbius easily overwhelmed before the victorious demon abruptly defies Daemond, bringing his foe to another realm – The Land Within – to become a very grim saviour. His kind breed but do not die and their king wants Morbius to cull the overcrowded herd by acting as an invited apex predator…

A little fan side note: this storyline fed into Gerber’s later arcs in The Defenders and Guardians of the Galaxy so continuity completists should pay close attention…

Instead the appalled vampire escapes and discovers he is on another planet, standing ‘Alone Against Arcturus!’ (Fear #23, by Gerber, P. Craig Russell & Colletta). The world has been devastated by genetic conflagration and is now populated by automatons, cyborgs and mutants who were once the same race as the Caretakers. They long only for death…

Realising the same unresolved conflict is currently unfolding on Earth, Morbius employs alien technology and volunteer “meals” to ‘Return to Terror!’ and his birthworld in #24 (October 1974, and inked by Jack Abel). Tragically the ship crash lands in front of Blade the Vampire Slayer…

Morbius has still not met an actual vampire and thinks he’s fighting a crazy man whilst Blade believes he’s facing a blood sucker from space and the brutal clash ends inconclusively. In the aftermath Morbius treks back to LA to find the war between Daemond and the Caretakers has intensified…

We now travel back to October 1973 for a run of Vampire Tales appearances starting with #2 and ‘The Blood Sacrifice of Amanda Saint!’ with Don McGregor, Buckler & Marcos revealing how a potential snack becomes an unlikely and enduring ally after devil cult Demon-Fire targets her.

Forced into the role of rescuer and defender, Morbius endures mystery, monsters, the torture of a toxic family and his own taste of American Gothic as he unceasingly defends Amanda whilst tearing apart a mystic secret society entwined around a culture in decline and modern American mythology.

The fightback begins with ‘Demon Fire!’ (#3 February 1974 and inked by Klaus Janson), moves mercilessly on to Malevolence, Maine and the ‘Lighthouse of the Possessed’ (April 1974, illustrated by Tom Sutton) to repel more monstrosities and turn back a ‘Blood Tide!’ (#5 June, Buckler & Ernie Chua/Chan)…

Morbius took a break in #6 – represented here by the cover and ‘Frontispiece’ – before we resume in Malevolence, Maine with #7, asking ‘Where is Gallows Bend and What the Hell Am I Doing There?’ before events shamble to a chilling conclusion in #8 (December 1974, limned by Mike Vosburg & Frank Chiaramonte) at ‘High Midnight’ presenting a final clash with hidden manipulators Apocalypse and Death-Flame and a return to less complex exploits in the colour comics…

The monochrome madness was supported  throughout by painted covers from JAD, Boris, & Maroto and was all augmented by essays, photo-features and material from the magazines.

Also cover-dated December 1974, Fear #25 sported a Gerber plot and Doug Moench script  for Frank Robbins & Frank Giacoia to illustrate. After briskly recapitulating the Caretakers of Arcturus storyline ‘And What of a Vampire’s Blood?’ rapidly brings events to a conclusion as Morbius’ presence triggers a premature final battle between the ancient schemers, Daemond, Martine, Tara,  and the freshly-hatched Children of the Comet, resulting in ‘A Stillborn Genesis!’ (Moench, Robbins & Giacoia in #26, February 1975) and an abrupt change of direction…

That’s for the next volume however, whilst here we enjoy a crossover clash from April 1975’s Giant-Size Werewolf by Night #4 which brings the story portion of this pulse-pounding package to a close with a long-delayed and anticipated clash with fellow hostage to macabre fortune Jack Russell.

Cursed with uncontrolled lycanthropy under a full moon, and also a California kid, he endured ‘A Meeting of Blood’ (by Moench & Virgil Redondo) after the mutated biologist tracks Martine following Daemond’s destruction and discovers a possible cure for his own exsanguinary condition.

Unfortunately, the chase brings him into savage and inconclusive combat with a certain hairy hellion and the solution is forever lost…

This initial outing comes with a wealth of extras beginning with 9 house ads from 1973-1974; editorial page ‘Mail it to Morbius’ from Fear #21; un-inked original art pages by Kane; full art originals by Gulacy & Abel, Russell, Colletta & Abel; cover art by Kane, Giacoia, John Romita Sr., and Ron Wilson.

The compendium concludes with cover reproductions of Marvel Treasury Edition #14 (1977: front by Kane & Giacoia, back by Romita Sr., plus contents page by Dave Cockrum); #18 (1978: front & back by Bob Budiansky & Chan); cover galleries of Marvel Tales – #234 (Todd McFarlane), #252 (Marshal Rogers) and 253 (Moebius & Sylvain) – Spider-Man Megazine #3-4 (Ron Frenz/Stuart Immonen), Spider-Man Strange Adventures (Steve Lightle) and Marvel Selects: Spider-Man #2-3 4 (Mike Wieringo).

Compelling, complex, dark, often daft and always fretfully poised on the tightrope between superhero shenanigans and antihero angst, Morbius is one of Marvel’s most fluid and versatile characters, and can honestly promise something to please every type of fan or casual reader. Moreover, there’s even better to come that won’t work unless you take a big bite out of this tempting tome.
© 2021 MARVEL.

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Spider-Man: India


By Jeevan J. Kang & Gotham Studios Asia, Suresh Seetharaman & Sharad Devarajan & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1640-0 (TPB/Digital edition)

It’s a small world these days and petty hindrances like geography, culture and social preference are no longer a barrier to brand expansion for major properties. Sherlock Holmes and Mickey Mouse are universal, DC and Marvel heroes have long generated locally-sourced adventures on other continents and countless other fictional stars have been tailored to suit relatively closed markets.

That’s what happened in 2004 when Marvel’s most recognisable property was reinvented for the South East Asian region and its burgeoning comics industry. The instigator was Indian entrepreneur, film producer, educator, publisher and computer game impresario Sharad Devajaran whose subsequent experience includes digital entertainment platform Virgin Comics/Liquid Comics, and Graphic India. In 2013, he and Stan Lee co-created Indian superhero Chakra the Invincible…

Before all that, Devajaran was co-founder, president and CEO of South East Asia’s leading comic book publisher Gotham Entertainment Group: spearheading the official introduction of Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Cartoon Network and Warner Brothers properties like X-Men, The Hulk, Batman and Superman to a vast and vibrant new market. That naturally led to closer collaboration and in 2004 Marvel sanctioned a new iteration of the wondrous webspinner specifically tailored to the Indian market and broadly based on the first Toby Maguire Spider-Man movie from 2002. The result of South East meets West was dubbed the first comics “trans-creation”…

The idea was not new. Translated US comics had been syndicated across the world since before WWII and Japan especially had pioneered reworkings of top brands for conservative national readerships with the 1966-1967 “Battoman” – derived from the US Batman TV series, freely adapted by Jiro Kuwata – and Ryoichi Ikegami’s Spider-Man: The Manga (1970-1971) placing remastered wallcrawler Yu Komori in a Japanese setting s seen in Monthly Shonen Magazine.

Devised by Jeevan J. Kang, Suresh Seetharaman & Sharad Devarajan and illustrated by Kang & Gotham Studios Asia, it was released as a 4-issue miniseries for India: massaging the timeless legend in a way that eventually and inevitably became a part of the larger Marvel Multiverse…

This English language collection from 2005 was lettered by Virtual Calligraphy’s Dave Sharpe: a cross cultural collaboration that opens with a mysterious mystic foretelling in nightmares a shocking future for poor but brilliant teenager Pavitr Prabhakar. Recently moved to Mumbai with his guardians Uncle Bhim and Aunt Maya to take up a school scholarship, the boy has been marked for tragedy, loss and a great but dangerous life…

His low standing and status – he comes from a distant provincial village – make Pavitr a target for the rich kids in school, but for some reason the amazing and popular Meera Jain defends and befriends him…

Across the city, crime lord and sinister industrialist Nalin Oberoi is content. His Corporation thugs have razed an entire village, and the amulet he wants so badly is his. Now after an unholy ceremony he attains incredible power at an ungodly cost: transformed into a fire-spitting green devil. He does not yet realise that he is now a living gateway for an army of demons to invade the human plane…

Another bad at school ends with Pavitr again chased by vicious bullies. He’s saved by an old yogi who looks very familiar, and declares the boy has a great destiny. In a time when the gods have no avatars to set in humanity’s defence, the world must depend on a good person empowered by the forces of the intangible Web of Life. Filled with the Spider’s power clad in bold raiment, the boy is told to fulfil his karma…

Giddy with a sense of power, Spider-Man cavorts over the city and ignores the desperate cries of those in dire need, even as, far below, Uncle Bhim gives his life to save a woman from molesters. Pavitr is too late to save him but learns an immutable life lesson and thereafter dedicates himself to living with great responsibility…

Thus begins the saga of India’s Spider-Man, with a devil-driven analogues of Doctor Octopus and Venom also debuting as Oberoi kidnaps Maya and Meera Jain. The green rakshasa’s scheme to manifest Hell on Earth culminates in a monumental clash at a refinery as the boy hero deploys the divine magic amulet, and seeks to sever the debased villains’ connection to his demonic masters with courage, the power of the web of life and his innate purity…

Most Marvel US readers recognise Pavitr Prabhakar from assorted mainstream events like Secret Wars and Spider-Verse and their fallout spin-offs, where his uniqueness is rather lost and definitely downplayed. However, this initial outing offers a truly different spin on the webspinner and if you require a fresh taste or something a little different, this is well worth a visit.
© 2021 MARVEL.

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X-Men Epic Collection volume 8: I, Magneto (1981-1982)


By Chris Claremont, Jo Duffy, Bob Layton, Dace Cockrum, Michael Golden, Brent Anderson, Paul Smith, Jim Sherman, Bob McLeod, John Buscema, George Pérez & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2952-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

In 1963, The X-Men #1 introduced Scott (Cyclops) Summers, Jean (Marvel Girl) Grey, Bobby (Iceman) Drake, Warren (Angel) Worthington III and Hank (The Beast) McCoy: unique students of Professor Charles Xavier. Their teacher was a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the emergent off-shoot race of mutants dubbed Homo superior; considered by many who knew him as a living saint.

After eight years of eccentrically amazing adventures, the mutant misfits almost disappeared at the beginning of 1970 during another periodic downturn in superhero comics sales. Just as in the 1940s, mystery men faded away whilst traditional genres – especially supernatural yarns – dominated entertainment fields. The title returned at year’s end as a reprint vehicle, and the missing mutants became perennial guest-stars and bit-players throughout the Marvel Universe. The Beast was suitably refashioned as a monster fit for the global uptick in scary stories…

Everything changed again in 1975 when Len Wein & Dave Cockrum revived and reordered the Mutant mystique via a brand-new team in Giant Size X-Men #1. Old foes-turned-friends Banshee and Sunfire joined one-shot Hulk hunter Wolverine and original creations Kurt Wagner (a demonic German teleporter codenamed Nightcrawler), African weather “goddess” Ororo Monroe – AKA Storm, Russian farmboy Peter Rasputin (who transformed into a living steel Colossus) and bitter, disillusioned Apache superman John Proudstar who was cajoled into joining the makeshift squad as Thunderbird.

The revision was an instant hit, with Wein’s editorial assistant Chris Claremont assuming the writer’s role from the second story onwards. The Uncanny X-Men reclaimed their comic book with #94, which soon became the company’s most popular – and highest quality – title.

After Thunderbird became the team’s first fatality, the survivors slowly bonded, becoming an unparalleled fighting unit under the brusquely draconian supervision of Cyclops. Cockrum was succeeded by John Byrne and as the team roster changed, the series scaled even greater heights, culminating in the landmark Dark Phoenix storyline which saw the death of arguably the book’s most beloved, imaginative and powerful character.

In the aftermath, team leader Cyclops left but the epic cosmic saga also seemed to fracture the groundbreaking working relationship of Claremont & Byrne. Within months they went their separate ways: Claremont staying with mutants whilst Byrne went on to establish his own reputation as a writer with series such as Alpha Flight, Incredible Hulk and especially his revolutionary reimagining of The Fantastic Four…

This comprehensive compilation is an ideal jumping-on point, perfect for newbies, neophytes and old lags nervous over re-reading these splendid yarns on fragile, extremely valuable newsprint paper. It celebrates a changing of the guard as the mutants consolidated their unstoppable march to market dominance through high-quality storytelling Seen here are issues #144-153 of the (latterly re-renamed “Uncanny”) X-Men; X-Men Annual #5, Avengers Annual #10 and material from Bizarre Adventures #27 and Marvel Fanfare #1-4, spanning April 1981-September 1982.

Scripted by Claremont and illustrated by Brent Anderson & Joseph Rubenstein the drama resumes with X-Men #144 as ‘Even in Death…’ finds heartbroken wanderer Scott Summers (who quit after the death of Jean Grey) fetching up in coastal village Shark Bay before joining the crew of a fishing boat.

Trouble is never far from Cyclops, however, and when captain Aletys Forester introduces him to her dad, Scott must draw upon all his inner reserves – and instinctive assistance of macabre swamp guardian Man-Thing – to repel crushing, soul-consuming psychic assaults from pernicious demon D’spayre, who has made the region his personal torture garden…

Cockrum returned to the team he co-created in #145, joining Claremont & Rubinstein in an extended clash of cultures as ‘Kidnapped!’ sees the X-Men targeted by Doctor Doom, thanks to the machinations of deranged assassin Arcade.

With Storm, Colossus, Angel, Wolverine and Nightcrawler invading the Diabolical Dictator’s castle, a substitute-squad consisting of Iceman, Polaris, Banshee and Havoc are despatched to the killer-for-hire’s mechanised ‘Murderworld!’ to rescue family and friends of the heroes, all previously kidnapped by Arcade. In the interim, Doom has defeated the invading X-Men of his castle, but his cruel act of entrapping claustrophobe Ororo has backfired, triggering a ‘Rogue Storm!’ that could erase the USA from the globe…

Issue #148 opens with Scott and Aletys shipwrecked on a recently reemergent island holding the remnants of a lost civilisation, but the main event is a trip to Manhattan for 13-year-old X-Man Kitty Pryde, accompanied by Storm, Spider-Woman Jessica Drew and Dazzler Alison Blair. That’s lucky, since nomadic mutant empath Caliban calamitously attempts to abduct the child in ‘Cry, Mutant!’ by Claremont, Cockrum & Rubinstein…

A major menace resurfaces in #149 to threaten the shipwrecked couple, but the active X-Men are too busy to notice, dealing with resurrected demi-god Garokk and an erupting volcano in ‘And the Dead Shall Bury the Living!’ before all the varied plots converge in #150 (October 1981). Before that, though, there’s a crucial diversion that will affect and reshape the X-Men for years to come.

Crafted by Claremont, Michael Golden & Armando Gil, ‘By Friends… Betrayed!’  comes from Avengers Annual #10: seemingly closing the superhero career of Carol Danvers AKA Ms. Marvel. Powerless and stripped of her memories, Danvers is rescued from drowning by Spider-Woman, even as mutant shapeshifter Mystique launches an attack on the World’s Mightiest Superheroes to free her Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from jail.

It’s revealed that Danvers’ mind and abilities have been permanently stolen by a power-leaching teenager dubbed Rogue and in the aftermath of the assembled heroes defeating Mystique, the Avengers learn a horrific truth: how they had inadvertently surrendered their comrade Carol into the grip of a manipulative villain acting as the perfect husband…

Returning to the X-Men, the anniversary issue delivers extended epic ‘I, Magneto’ seeing the merciless, malevolent master of magnetism threaten all humanity. with Xavier’s team helpless to stop him… until a critical moment triggers an emotional crisis and awakening of the tortured villain’s long-suppressed humanity…

Claremont, Anderson & Bob McLeod then craft riotous intergalactic wonderment in X-Men Annual #5’s ‘Ou, La La…Badoon!’ When the Fantastic Four help an alien fugitive stranded in Manhattan they are in turn targeted by unsavoury, invisible lizard-men. Only Susan Richards escapes, fighting her way to Westchester to enlist the aid of the X-Men: combat veterans well acquainted with battling aliens.

The rescue mission starts with a stopover in the extradimensional realm of Arkon the Magnificent where the Badoon have already triumphed and where, amid much mayhem, the liberators overthrow the invaders and provide salvation for three worlds…

Chronologically adrift but sacrificed to a cohesive reading order, the contents of Marvel Fanfare #1-4 follow. Published between March and September 1982, the astounding saga was an elite yarn designed to launch a prestige format showcase of Marvel characters and talent. The new title featured slick paper stock, superior printing (all standard today) and a rolling brief to promote innovation and bold new directions.

Under Al Milgrom’s editorial guidance, numerous notable tales from exceptional creators were published, but cynical me – and not just me – soon noticed that many of those creators were ones who had problems with periodical publishing and couldn’t make fixed deadlines…

These day’s that’s nothing to shout over: comics come out when they do and editors have no real power to decree otherwise, but in the 1980s it was big deal, because printers booked a project for a pre-specified date, and charged punitive fees if publishers didn’t get product in on time. That’s why inventory tales were created: fill-ins that sat in a drawer until a writer blew it or an artist had his work eaten by the dog. Sometimes the US Mail simply lost completed stuff in transit…

Scripted by Claremont, and also including Milgrom’s humorous ‘Editor-Al’ intro pages, Savage Land was collected in 1987 and again in 2002: uniting Spider-Man, Ka-Zar and a grab bag of X-Men in a spectacular return to that primordial paradise: an antediluvian repository beneath the South Pole where fantastic civilisations and dinosaurs fretfully co-exist.

Illustrated and coloured by Golden, it begins with a ‘Fast Descent into Hell!’ when distraught Tanya Anderssen tries to find her missing lover, last seen in that lost world. Disturbingly, the missing man is Karl Lykos, a troubled soul addicted to feeding on mutants and likely to become ghastly humanoid pteranosaur Sauron. Tanya’s only hope of saving him was via Warren Worthington III – publicly infamous as former/occasional X-Man The Angel.

The billionaire’s reluctant expedition to the Savage Land ultimately includes an embedded news team from the Daily Bugle, including photographer/trouble magnet Peter Parker, who quickly stumbles across a band of native evil mutants planning to conquer the outer world by creating mutant hybrids from human victims – like Spider-Man…

Second chapter ‘To Sacrifice my Soul…’ has Spidey and local hero Ka-Zar, the Jungle Lord, join forces to crush the mutation plot, inadvertently unleashing Sauron on the sub-polar world.

Golden’s stylish easy grace gave way to the slick, accomplished method of Dave Cockrum, & Bob McLeod for ‘Into the Land of Death…’ as X-Men Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Storm join Angel to thwart the diabolical dinosaur man and his malign mutant allies, before legend-in-training Paul Smith – assisted by inker Terry Austin – stepped in to finish the epic in grand style and climactic action in ‘Lost Souls!’

We then pop back to November 1981 for X-Men #151 wherein Jim Sherman, McLeod & Rubinstein welcome back Cyclops and wave Kitty goodbye in ‘X-Men Minus One!’

Due to the manipulations of White Queen Emma Frost, the teenager’s parents withdraw their daughter from Xavier’s school to enrol her in the Massachusetts Academy which covertly operates as the Hellfire Club’s training camp for young recruits. However, the sinister scheme is even deeper than the X-Men fear, as telepath Frost switches bodies with Storm to further her plan to eradicate the mutant heroes.

What nobody seems to realise is that although Frost has gained Ororo’s weather powers, her victim now has her appearance, loyal henchmen and psionic powers. Despite the deployment of terrifying robotic Sentinels, the plot spectacularly fails in closing instalment ‘The Hellfire Gambit’, illustrated by McLeod & Rubinstein…

Cockrum was back for #153, adding layers of whimsy to the usual angst and melodrama as ‘Kitty’s Fairy Tale’ sees the X-Mansion under reconstruction and the teen back where she belongs. As repairs continue, she tells bedtime stories to Colossus’ baby sister Illyana: using her teammates as inspiration, she spins a beguiling yarn of fantastic space pirates…

The action closes with the contents of monochrome “mature-reader” magazine Bizarre Adventures #27 (July 1981) sharing untold tales under the umbrella heading of ‘Secret Lives of the X-Men’…

Preceded by editorial ‘Listen, I Knew the X-Men When…’ and ‘X-Men Data Log’ pages by illustrated by Cockrum, these are offbeat solo tales of our idiosyncratic stars, opening with Phoenix in ‘The Brides of Attuma’ by Claremont, John Buscema & Klaus Janson. Here the dear departed mutant’s sister Sara Grey recalls a past moment when they were abducted by an undersea barbarian and even then Jean proved to be more than any mortal could handle…

That’s followed by Iceman vignette ‘Winter Carnival’ by Mary Jo Duffy, Pérez & Alfredo Alcala, wherein Bobby Drake is embroiled in a college heist with potentially catastrophic consequences, before ‘Show me the way to go home…’ (Bob Layton, Duffy, Cockrum & Ricardo Villamonte) pits Nightcrawler against villainous teleporter the Vanisher in a light-hearted trans-dimensional romp involving warrior women, threats to the very nature of reality and gratuitous (male) nudity…

Extras include original art pages by Cockrum, Rubinstein, Anderson & McLeod; Cockrum’s cover to fanzine The X-Men Chronicles; Byrne & Austin’s cover for the X-men parody issue of Crazy (#82, January 1982) and John Buscema’s 1987 Savage Land collection.

For many fans these tales comprise a definitive high point for the X-Men. Rightly ranking amongst the greatest stories Marvel ever published, they remain supremely satisfying, groundbreaking and painfully intoxicating: an invaluable grounding in contemporary fights ‘n’ tights fiction no fan or casual reader can afford to ignore.
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