Ghost Rider – Danny Ketch Classic volume 1


By Howard Mackie, Javier Saltares & Mark Texeira with Jimmy Palmiotti (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3735-1

In the early 1970’s, following a downturn in superhero comics sales Marvel shifted focus from straight costumed crusaders to supernatural and horror characters and one of the most enduring was a certain flaming-skulled vigilante dubbed the Ghost Rider.

Carnival stunt-cyclist Johnny Blaze had sold his soul to the devil in an attempt to save his foster-father from cancer. As is always the way of such things Satan, or arch-liar Mephisto as he actually was, followed the letter, but not spirit, of the contract and Crash Simpson died anyway.

When the Demon Lord came for Blaze only the love of an innocent saved the bad-boy biker from eternal pain and damnation. Temporarily thwarted, Johnny was afflicted with a body that burned with the fires of Hell every time the sun went down and became the unwilling host for outcast and exiled demon Zarathos – the Spirit of Vengeance.

After years of travail and turmoil Blaze was liberated from the demon’s curse and seemingly retired from the hero’s life.

As Blaze briefly escaped his pre-destined doom, a tragic boy named Danny Ketch assumed the role of Zarathos’ host and prison by a route most circuitous and tragic…

From that dubious period of fashionably “Grim ‘n’ Gritty” super-heroics in the early 1990s comes this slight but engagingly fast-paced horror-hero re-imagining courtesy of writer Howard Mackie and artists Javier Saltares & Mark Texeira, which quickly secured the new Ghost Rider status as one of the hottest hits of the period.

This first Danny Ketch Classic volume reprints issues #1-10 of the revitalised series spanning May 1990 – February 1991, and opens, following a reminiscence from the author, with the bonanza-sized introductory tale ‘Life’s Blood’ which sees young Danny and his photographer sister Barbara looking for Houdini’s tomb in the vast Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn on the eve of Halloween.

Unfortunately they stumble into a bloody criminal confrontation between ninjas and gangsters over a mysterious briefcase. Discovered, the siblings flee but Barb is hit by an arrow, whilst the case itself is snatched by a juvenile gang who plague the wooded necropolis.

The ninjas and their macabre leader Deathwatch are the victors of the fire-fight and are soon hunting for their hard-won prize and the witnesses…

In an adjacent junkyard Danny is helplessly watching Barb bleed out when his attention is caught by a glowing pair of eyes. Closer inspection reveals them to be an arcane design on the gas-cap of an abandoned motorbike. The ninjas, having caught the girl who stole the briefcase, are closing in on the Ketch kids when Danny, his hands soaked in his sister’s blood, touches the glowing bike symbol and is inexplicably transformed into a spectral horror, burning with fury and indignation – a Spirit of Vengeance hungry to assuage the pain of innocent blood spilled with inhuman vitality, toting an infinitely adaptable bike chain and a mystic “Penance Stare” which subjected the guilty to unimaginable psychic pain and guilt…

The Blazing Biker makes short work of the ninjas, but when the police arrive and find him standing over the dying Barbara, they naturally jump to the wrong conclusion…

As the Ghost Rider flees on a bike with wheels of fire, causing spectacular amounts of collateral carnage, Barb is rushed to hospital, where a re-transfigured, bruised, bleeding and totally confused Danny finds her the next morning…

In the richest part of Manhattan, Wall Street shark and psionic monster Deathwatch makes a ghastly example of the man who lost his briefcase twice even as his rival for its possession, criminal overlord Wilson Fisk, similarly chastises his own minions for failure.

The contents of the case are not only hotly disputed but utterly lethal and both factions will tear Brooklyn apart to get them…

Meanwhile the teen thieves known as the Cyprus Pool Jokers find three canisters in that purloined case and hide them all over the vast cemetery, unaware that both Deathwatch’s ninjas and the Kingpin’s hoods are hunting for them. At Barbara’s bedside Danny is plagued by guilt and anger. Unable to help his comatose sister the lad determines to investigate what happened to him. When he awoke the blazing bike had returned to a normal configuration and now Danny climbs aboard and heads back to Cyprus Hills to look for answers just as the competing packs of killers are turning the streets into a free-fire zone.

Riding straight into the bloodbath, Danny sees his bike gas-cap glowing again and, almost against his will, slams his palm onto it, unleashing his skeletal passenger once again…

Devastating the assembled mobsters and murderers, the Ghost Rider then takes wounded Cyprus Pool Jokers Ralphie and Paulie to hospital and another pointless confrontation with the authorities…

‘Do Be Afraid of the Dark!’ finds open war between Deathwatch and the Kingpin’s forces for the canisters neither side possesses, with the Ghost Rider roaming the night tackling the increasingly savage hunters on both sides. The girl Paulie has admitted that she has no idea where two of the containers could be, since the Jokers split up to hide them and she’s now the last of them…

The urban horror escalates when Deathwatch’s metahuman enforcer Blackout joins the hunt: a sadistic man-made vampire with the ability to manipulate fields of complete darkness. This psychotic mass-murderer targets entire families and starts his search by “questioning” the cops who attended the initial battle in the graveyard…

Danny is on the verge of a breakdown, snapping viciously at his mother and girlfriend Stacy and utterly unable to share the horror that his life has become. Between days at Barb’s bedside, and nights as the slave to a primal force obsessed with blood and punishment, Ketch is drowning…

When Blackout tracks down the recovering Ralphie, the Ghost Rider is too late to save the young felon’s parents and only just manages to drive the vampire away before the boy too succumbs, leading to the inevitable final clash in ‘Deathwatch’, wherein the Wall Street dilettante’s forces find the canisters before being overwhelmed by the Kingpin. Ever pragmatic, the ninja-master simply surrenders, but the wildly unpredictable Blackout refuses to submit and slips into a berserker rage of slaughter, before escaping with the containers and terrified hostage Paulie.

The albino maniac knows the canisters contain a toxin that will wipe out New York and harbours an impossible plan to use them to kick-start an atomic war which will produce a nuclear winter on an Earth he would inevitably rule. However his delusional dreams are ended when the Ghost Rider appears and engages the vampire in blistering battle.

Incensed beyond endurance, Blackout savagely bites the blazing biker, but instead of blood sucks down raw, coruscating hellfire which leaves his face a melted, agonising ruin and burns the canisters to harmless slag…

Issue #4 found Danny, unable to resist the constant call to become the Furious Flaming Apparition, decide to lock up the cursed motorcycle beyond the reach of temptation in faraway Manhattan, only to find it had a mind of its own when a clash between a biker gang and an old Thor villain trapped both Ketch and an car full innocent bystanders in a subterranean parking garage. ‘You Can Run, but You Can’t Hyde!’ taught the troubled young man that the Rider was a cruel necessity in a bad world, an argument confirmed by the beginning of an extended subplot in which children began vanishing from the streets of Brooklyn…

The very epitome of Grim’n’Gritty stopped by for a two issue guest-shot in #5-6 as ‘Getting Paid!’ and ‘Do or Die!’ saw a mysterious figure distributing free guns to children, drawing the attention of not just the night-stalking Spirit of Vengeance but also the merciless, militaristic vigilante Frank Castle, known to criminals and cops alike as The Punisher.

The weapons are turning the city into a deadly battleground, but the cops and unscrupulous TV reporter Linda Wei seem more concerned with stopping the Ghost Rider’s campaign against the youthful killers than ending the bloodshed. Danny decides to investigate in his mortal form and quickly finds himself in over his head, but for some reason the magic medallion won’t transform him. He is completely unaware how close he was to becoming the Punisher’s latest statistic…

The situation changes that night and the flaming-skulled zealot clashes with the Punisher before uniting to tackle the true mastermind – a manic anti-nationalist, anti-capitalist terrorist known as Flag-Smasher.

With the insane demagogue determined to unleash a storm of death on Wall Street, the driven anti-heroes are forced to briefly unite to end the scheme and save the “bad” kids and the system that created them…

‘Obssesion’ in #7, illustrated solely by Texeira, saw the return of animal-trainer and contortionist the Scarecrow, who had barely troubled Iron Man, the X-Men and Captain America in his early days, but after having slipped into morbid thanophilia had become a death-preoccupied maniac who presented a truly different threat to the mystic agent of retribution.

A far greater menace was seen – or rather, not seen – with the return of Blackout who silently stalked Danny Ketch, savagely slaughtering everybody who knew him. Not even the police guards at Barbara’s hospital bedside could stop the fiend with half-a-face…

Through dreams Danny debated his cursed existence with the Spirit of Vengeance in #8’s ‘Living Nightmare’ (Mackie, Saltares & Texeira) constantly bemoaning his fate but seemingly unable to affect the implacable, terrifying being he couldn’t stop becoming. Adding to his fevered nights were visions of Deathwatch, Barbara and the vile psycho-killer Blackout.

As Blackout continued to murder anybody coming into contact with the troubled Ketch – who was seemingly paralysed by his dilemma – girlfriend Stacy neared the end of her training as a cop, and her father increased patrols to catch the blazing Biker. Impatient and scared, the Cypress Hills Community Action Group took controversial steps to safeguard their streets by hiring maverick private security company H.E.A.R.T. (Humans Engaging All Racial Terrorism – truly one of the naffest and most inappropriate acronyms in comics history) who promptly decided Ghost Rider was the cause of all the chaos and went after him with an arsenal of high-tech military hardware and a helicopter gunship…

The Spirit of Vengeance was already occupied, having found Blackout attacking a girl, but their final showdown was interrupted when the fiery skeleton was attacked by a colossal Morlock (feral mutants who live in tunnels beneath New York) who mistook the saviour for the assailant…

Issue #9 guest-starred the X-Factor – a reformed X-Men team comprising Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman and the Beast who uncover the mystery of the missing children in ‘Pursuit’ (with additional inks by Jimmy Palmiotti) when they follow the Ghost Rider and Morlocks under the city.

Tragically, Blackout too is on the Blazing Biker’s trail and finds in the concrete depths even more victims to torture Danny Ketch’s breaking heart and blistered soul before their climactic last clash…

This volume ends on a thematic cliffhanger with ‘Stars of Blood’ as Danny begins a new phase of life reconciled to his burden. When a series of horrific murders are attributed to a publicity-seeking serial killer named Zodiak, the boy begins investigating the deaths and discovers that the haunted gas-cap is again inactive, although it does transform him later when he stumbles over a couple of kids fighting…

Arcanely active again, the Ghost Rider then follows a convenient tip to the astrological assassin and discovers a far more prosaic reason for the string of slayings before an inclusive and unsatisfying battle with the insufferable, elusive Zodiak.

Meanwhile across town, the humiliated H.E.A.R.T. team accept a commission from Deathwatch to destroy the Spirit of Vengeance, whilst in the western USA the previous victim of the curse of Zarathos is riding his motorcycle hard, determined to get to New York and destroy the latest Ghost Rider as soon as possible…

To Be Continued…

This expanded re-issue of the 1991 Ghost Rider Resurrected trade paperback also includes the cover and introduction to that volume, pin-ups by Saltares, Texeira & Palmiotti and a full cover gallery and, despite being markedly short on plot and utterly devoid of humour, does deliver the maximum amount of uncomplicated thrills, spills and chills for action-starved fight fans.

If you occasionally feel that subtlety isn’t everything and yearn for a vicarious dose of simple wickedness-whomping, this might well be the book for you…
© 1990, 1991, 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Wolverine/Hercules: Myths Monsters & Mutants


By Frank Teiri, Juan Roman Cano Santacruz with Mary Jo Duffy, Ken Landgraf & George Pérez (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4110-5

Ever since his glory days in the AllNew, All Different X-Men, the mutant berserker known variously as Wolverine, Logan and latterly James Howlett has been a fan-favourite who appealed to the suppressed, put-upon, catharsis-craving comic fan by perpetually promising to cut loose and give bad guys the kind of final punishment we all know they deserve.

Always skirting the line between and blurring the definitions of indomitable hero and maniac murderer, Wolverine soldiered on, a tragic, brutal, misunderstood hero cloaked in mysteries and contradictions until society changed and, like ethically-challenged colleague the Punisher, final sanction and quick dispatch became acceptable and even preferred options for costumed crusaders.

Debuting as a foe for the Incredible Hulk in a tantalising teaser-glimpse at the end of issue #180 (October 1974) before indulging in a full-on scrap with the Green Goliath in the next issue, the semi-feral Canadian mutant with fearsome claws and killer attitude rode – and possibly caused – the meteoric rise of the reconstructed and rebooted X-Men before gaining his own series, super-star status and silver screen immortality.

He hasn’t looked back since.  Short and feisty, Logan has always promised an explosion of visceral, vicarious ultra-violence and grim, gritty justice at every moment and in this slim and superb collection (gathering the 4-issue miniseries Wolverine/Hercules: Myths Monsters & Mutants from 2011 plus an earlier encounter from Marvel Treasury Edition #26, 1980), the panting public once again gets what it’s never stopped clamouring for…

Logan’s come a long way since then; barely surviving chronic over-exposure in the process but now a solid star of the Marvel firmament. However that status is not without its own peculiar pitfalls, as such A-List players constantly find themselves wrapped up in improbable team-ups …

Himself no stranger to spectacular squabbles with the Jade Juggernaut, the Marvel iteration of Hercules first appeared in 1965’s Journey into Mystery Annual #1, wherein Thor, God of Thunder fell into the realm of the Greek Gods and ended up swapping bombastic blows with the easy-going but easily-riled Hellenic Prince of Power in the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby landmark ‘When Titans Clash! Thor vs. Hercules!’

Since then the immortal warrior has bounced around the Marvel Universe seeking out other heroes and heated fisticuffs as an Avenger, Defender, Champion, Renegade, Hero for Hire and any other super-squad prepared to take the big lug and his constant tales of the “Good Old Days”…

Scripted by Frank Tieri and deliciously depicted by Juan Roman Cano Santacruz, the saga starts with just such a reminiscence as the Lion of Olympus reveals how he avoided Zeus’ prohibition to not get involved in World War II by impersonating the Sub-Mariner in 1940’s Paris to fellow booze-hound Wolverine, who tops the tall tale by revealing that he was there too – albeit on a much darker mission…

Since their first official meeting (reprinted at the back of his book), the pair have become occasional drinking buddies: just two feisty fighting guys who love girls and cannot die…

The mood switches as Wolverine realises he will one day bury all his friends, and he remembers an appointment…

Years previously Ninja Master Matsu’o Tsurayaba murdered Logan’s true love Mariko, and ever since on the anniversary Wolverine has hunted him down and lopped off another piece of the Assassin-lord’s body. Now the time has come again and the weary mutant has decided to finish the punishment once and for all.

The once-supreme ruler of The Hand has fallen on hard times, with the organisation ostracising and shunning him, except for his most devoted personal guards. With the always ready Hercules in tow, Wolverine sets off on his-self-appointed mission, ploughing through the hapless ninja hordes like chaff, but this year the rules have been surreptitiously changed on the bereft berserker since the outcast Tsurayaba, now more machine than man, has been visited by supernatural entities offering the bargain of a lifetime…

Achelous is the bull headed Grecian god of rivers and his master the immortal – if bodiless – Eurytheus, beheaded by Hercules in pre-history but hungrier than ever for revenge. The perfidious pair are seeking an ally to unearth all their Weapons of Mythical Destruction as they prepare to unleash all the pent-up horrors of Hellenic hell on the Prince of Power, and aren’t too mean to share if it means the destruction of Wolverine and all the other superheroes who have replaced the gods and usurped the rightful worship of mortals…

The first revived are the Nemean Lion and the Minotaur but they only make short work for the hard-hitting heroes, unlike the ninja-clad gorgon Medusa who promptly turns Wolverine to stone…

Cunningly recruiting the most unexpected ally of all, Hercules soon cures his diminutive ally and the chase is on to stop the plotters and save the world from a terrifying return to the bad old days…

Jam-packed with mighty monster mashing, sinister schemes and barbed one-liners, all while hilariously and continuously riffing off the Clash of the Titans movies (be honest, could you resist?), this magnificently tongue-in cheek action-romp still finds time and space to be chillingly dramatic, poignantly moving and even deliver a shocking twist or two. Moreover the entire epic carefully avoids the need for any detailed foreknowledge on the part of new readers.

Furious, frantic fun for one and all with the day saved, virtue triumphant and the wicked punished in the worst possible ways. Who could ask for more?

As I previously mentioned, the collection also includes the rarely seen and wonderfully light-hearted first furious clash between the off-duty, grouchy mutant Logan and the fun-loving, girl-chasing godling which originally appeared in Marvel Treasury Edition #26. ‘At the Sign of the Lion’ is by Mary Jo Duffy, Ken Landgraf and a young George Pérez, and shows exactly why most pubs and bars reserve the right to refuse admission …

As the pithy vignette is a thematic prelude to the main event here, even though it’s tucked incongruously away at the back, nobody will mind if you read it first…
© 1980, 2011 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back


By Kathryn Immonen & Sara Pichelli (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4676-6

Pixie is Megan Gwynn, a purportedly Welsh mutant with fairy wings, a sparkly dust which causes hallucinations, a talent for mass teleportation and an affinity for sorcery. In her earlier appearances she battled necromantic monster Belasco and former New Mutant Magik and gained an eldritch super-weapon called the Souldagger which usually reposes safely inside her chest.

Originally something of a minor pest and a perennial X-Man-in-training, she has become a key player in the fortunes of the World’s Most Harried sub-species, having survived the numerous slaughters which have decimated her classmates, perpetual mystic attacks from assorted devils and elder gods such as the N’Garai and repeated assaults by mutant-hunters of all description.

That’s pretty much all you need to know (although the rest of her immensely convoluted back-story does make for interesting and entertaining reading) to enjoy this delightful, game-changing tale – originally released as a 4-part miniseries in 2010 – which set up the elfin X-Man for a far bigger role in the madcap mutant multiverse.

Written by Kathryn Immonen in a breezy, sassy girl-power style and superbly illustrated by Sara Pichelli, the action kicks off with Megan and BFFs Ruth Aldine, Laura Kinney, Hisako Ichiki and Cessily Kincaid strutting their stuff as the most popular girls in High School – as usual.

Only thing is Pixie, Blindfold, X-23, Armor and Mercury aren’t simple spoiled human brats but mutant warriors in training, and none of them particularly like the fairy dust flinger anyway…

Megan is in some distress: the comforting reality of a normal – if appallingly obnoxious and privileged – life is constantly unravelling and revealing glimpses of demons, monsters and excessive violence. Why is she constantly seeing such things?

Meanwhile on Utopia Island, isolated enclave of Earth’s few remaining Homo Superior, Pixie’s mother – and a genuine Faerie elder – has come looking for her daughter with the news that her father wasn’t actually the man who sired her…

Moreover a headcount reveals Mercury, Armor, X-23 and Pixie are missing, leaving Blindfold and classmates Rockslide and Anole to reluctantly seek help from baffled and harassed teachers Psylocke and Nightcrawler…

The missing girls have been abducted by an ambitious and overreaching demon dubbed Saturnine who is feeding them all tailored illusions powered by Megan’s own hallucinogenic dust. The foul hell-beast had a plan to achieve ultimate power by bringing Megan’s dark side out and capturing her Fey mother, but increasingly, Pixie is reshaping the unreal fantasy world to suit her own tastes and everything is slowly sliding out of his control…

Back on Utopia, Nightcrawler and the kids have called in snarky headmistress Emma Frost, and the White Queen is extremely unhappy to be bothered with such trifles. Only when the precognitive Blindfold begins experiencing terrible future-flashes does Frost take executive action in her own draconian manner…

In the otherworldly demon-dungeon Pixie is beginning to turn, attacking her friends with the eldritch Souldagger just as her still-searching mother tracks down Megan’s siblings: equally aberrant daughters of her beguiling mutant birth-father.

It appears Megan is the child of one of the X-Men’s most insidious enemies…

In Saturnine’s lair things are not going well. Pixie’s resistance is threatening to overturn all his multifarious plans. Moreover, the mutant maid’s distress should have drawn her puissant mother into his trap but “Mrs. Gwynn” is still conspicuously absent. To cap it all, the X-Girls Pixie stabbed with her Souldagger have been cleansed of her mystic glamours and are attempting to break free…

It all hits the fan at once as Pixie rejects Saturnine’s illusions just as X-23, Mercury and Armor bust loose at the very instant Mrs. Gwynn and Megan’s extremely wicked step-sisters arrive. Hard on their heels are an extremely upset Emma Frost with a squad of X-Men and the chaotic battle lines are drawn for apocalyptic confrontation…

His plans all in tatters and resorting to mindless violence at last, the demonic guardian of the Road of Lost Souls and his unholy hordes are astounded when Pixie seemingly turns on her rescuers and allies before giving Saturnine a mighty soulsword all of his own and the key to ultimate power…

Fast-paced, action-packed but still laced with devilishly clever sharp-clawed humour, this is a uncomplicated Fights ‘n’ Tights thriller that should appeal as much to casual girl readers as died-in-the-spandex aging X-Fans.

© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Rogue


By Howard Mackie & Mike Wieringo (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-0171-0

The mutant mystery woman known as Rogue began life as a super-villain and member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants: a disturbed young girl cursed with a power that stole traits, abilities and memories from anybody who touched her skin.

It was an ability she could not control or even turn off and any overlong skin-to-skin contact resulted in the victim falling into a coma with their entire history and essence drained into her. Rogue then became a reluctant jailer with stolen powers and personalities locked in her head forever.

After doing just such to Ms. Marvel whilst a member of the Brotherhood, Rogue joined the X-Men in sheer desperation and slowly became a trusted team-player, but she still had her secrets…

Played as a “bad-girl” and mystery woman for years, Rogue grew to become one of the most popular characters in the excessively large cast, and in 1995 won her own beautifully illustrated 4-issue miniseries which at last revealed a few more tantalising secrets, whilst dragging her through a very personal crisis that struck right to the heart of the burgeoning and increasingly convoluted X-franchise continuity…

Written by Howard Mackie, beautifully drawn by the late and much-missed Mike Wieringo and inked by X-Men veteran Terry Austin, the tale opens with ‘An Affair to Remember’ as the mighty, mysterious mutant is called to Mississippi and the bedside of a comatose boy named Cody.

Meanwhile in New Orleans the deadly External Candra attends a funeral for the recently deceased ruler of the Assassins’ Guild. The all-powerful mutant goddess bears the X-Men a grudge and wants to use leader-elect Bella Donna to exact her vengeance…

Donna’s ex-husband is Remy Lebeau and the Assassin-mistress has her own scores to settle with the man now known as Gambit and his new paramour…

Suffering from a love that cannot be realised, Gambit and Rogue have grown close. Now she reveals how, as kids, Cody was the first boy to kiss her and how her burgeoning power stole his entire vitality in that first tender moment, plunging him into an irreversible slumber and locking his memories within her…

Now Cody’s body is failing, but as Rogue visits him super-powered assassins attack and steal his inert body. Bella Donna, herself a victim of Rogue’s memory-stealing curse, appears as the assassins flee and warns the heartbroken mutant that everything she cares for will be taken from her…

In ‘Choices’ Rogue gets a much-needed heads-up from creole witch-woman Tante Mattie – currently the only thing keeping Cody from lingering death – and a warning to rush to Gambit’s side, whilst in New Orleans the Mistress of Death begins to realise the folly of her relationship with the autocratic External…

When Gambit is ambushed by Bella Donna’s agents, Rogue spectacularly saves his bacon but cannot bring herself to accept his help in finding Cody.

Flying alone to “The Big Easy” she plunges straight into an army of Bella Donna’s most lethal guildsmen, all powerfully augmented by Candra’s unlimited mutant might…

‘The Gauntlet’ finds Rogue battling hard and hopelessly, with Gambit frantically rushing to her aid, despite an injunction over his head. When he married Bella, Lebeau was an heir of the Thieves Guild and their union was intended to end a centuries-old rivalry, but his wilful nature scotched those plans and now he is forbidden from entering New Orleans on pain of death.

Despite one last warning from an old comrade, Gambit plunges heedlessly into the fray and is quickly overcome, but against all odds Rogue has battled her way through and is looking for a final confrontation…

One the double-dealing Candra is eager to facilitate, as she transports the exhausted Rogue to Bella Donna’s lair, before neutralising the frenzied foes’ amazing abilities and forcing them to battle with nothing more than fists and nails and mortal muscles…

The end comes brutally in ‘Back to Life!’ as, on the edge of victory, the Mistress of Assassins is again betrayed by the ruthlessly manipulative External, whose true interest all along has been Gambit…

Meanwhile the severely-wounded Rogue has finally overcome Bella Donna and still found determination enough to face and thwart Candra…

…And in the still and silent aftermath the battered but unbowed Southern Siren is granted one final moving moment with Cody…

Furiously fast-paced and action-stuffed, this gloriously illustrated, mile-a-minute mutant mayhem – with a crazed cod-Cajun flavour to it – is a fearsomely full-on Fights ‘n’ Tights thriller that will astound and delight all fans of the genre.
© 1995 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Wolverine and the X-Men: Regenesis


By Jason Aaron, Chris Bachalo, Duncan Rouleau, Matteo Scalera, Nick Bradshaw & others (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-513-0

Radical revision – or at least the appearance of such – is a cornerstone of modern comics. There must be a constant changing of the guard, a shifting of scene and milieu and, in latter times, a regular diet of death, resurrection and rebirth. However, with such regular re-fitting, even getting back to basics can be just as new and fresh as completely starting over…

A case in point is this wonderfully fun and frolicsome return to the old days, set immediately after the catastrophic events of X-Men Schism.

What You’ll Need To Know…

When the world’s mutant population was reduced to a couple of hundred desperate souls, most of them banded together in self-imposed exile on Utopia Island in San Francisco Bay, in a defensive enclave led and defended by the X-Men. Although generally welcomed by most of the easygoing residents of the city, tensions were high and leader Cyclops ran the colony in an increasingly draconian and military manner.

His relationship with war-weary second-in-command Wolverine was slowly, inexorably deteriorating as they squabbled over the methods and ideology of the X-nation, each interpreting the idealistic, Cooperative Co-existence dream of Professor Charles Xavier in increasingly different ways…

Matters came to head after Logan refused to train the latest batch of mutant children as warriors, concerned that they were being cheated of their childhoods. Then 16-year old anarchist telepath Quentin Quire – who called himself Kid Omega – provoked a terrified armed response from humanity by disrupting an arms-limitation conference intended to convince Homo Sapiens to abandon their “defensive” anti-mutant weapons – giant robotic Sentinels. All hell broke loose…

With the world once again panicked into insanity and individual nations declaring war on Homo Superior, the assembled mutants and assorted superheroes are kept busy saving humans from their own bellicose paranoid folly, allowing a bunch of very human, sociopathic rich kids to make a lethal power-play against their own parents.

The greedy, remorseless, ambitious and impatient scions of munitions millionaires, human traffickers and deranged scientists had waited too long for what they considered theirs and, after murdering their adult guardians, took over the Hellfire Club to initiate a bold scheme of ruling the Earth before they hit puberty…

Their cynical, vicious plan involved using the threat of mutants to stampede humans into buying the Club’s new, outrageously expensive Super-Sentinels, profiting from death and terror as the wisely wealthy always had…

In a devastating, if brief, war the embattled Utopians become the unwitting target of increasingly bloody attacks and Cyclops and Wolverine catastrophically clashed over the role of the super-powered children in their care, and although Utopia was ultimately saved in the nick of time, the policy-split led to a sundering of the Mutants as Wolverine took many of the youngest kids and some of Cyclops’ oldest, but most disappointed and disaffected, friends to a place where they could attempt to rekindle Xavier’s first endeavour – a school where mutants could live relatively normal lives…

The separation hopefully left Utopia Island as the highly visible fortress against and target for human aggression; populated by warriors and militaristic genocide-survivors ready to take the Race – or perhaps more correctly, Species – War to the oppressors, with the kids allowed to grow up in peace and safety…

Of course it didn’t work out that way…

Following on from the epochal events of X-Men Schism, this utterly engrossing tome (collecting Wolverine and the X-Men #1-7, from 2011) returns to the far lighter, fun-laced thrills of the 1960s Merry Mutants and opens with a 3-part epic in ‘Welcome to the X-Men… Now Die!’

Reluctant and decidedly unsure headmaster Wolverine is getting a much needed pep-talk from Professor X as the new Jean Grey School for Higher Learning opens on the site of the old X-Mansion…

Nervously occupying a daily evolving super-scientific facility, the faculty staff includes the Beast, Iceman, Kitty Pryde, Husk, Cyclops’ telepathic daughter Rachel Grey and other former X-Men, whilst the ever-growing student population comprises a number of earthly mutants old and new and even selected aliens such as a gentle and compassionate Brood and the obnoxious, troublesome, belligerent spoiled-brat heir to the star-spanning Shi’ar.

Admittedly Lord Kubark was only grudgingly accepted in return for past favours and cutting-edge alien tech…

Even as Chief administrator Kitty desperately attempts to convince the local School Board Inspectors that the institution poses no threat to the community or kids, the first crisis erupts as Kade Kilgore, Black King of the pre-pubescent Hellfire Club, launches an attack on the school, which he considers a personal affront to his plans.

Launching an attack by his lab-grown army of Frankenstein’s Monsters, Kade mischievously transforms the inspectors into ravening horrors. With the very land under the establishment turned into a colossal monster determined to eradicate everything above it, things look bleak until Iceman leads the other teachers in a spirited counterattack.

Quire is deemed an “Omega-level threat” by the Avengers, so Wolverine’s plans to turn him into a socialised asset are being closely scrutinised by Captain America, but when Rachel – with the unsuspected aid of Kid Omega – divines that the tectonic assault is being perpetrated by a cloned and brainwashed seed of Krakoa the Living Island (see Marvel Masterworks volume 11) the tide begins to turn…

With a little deft psychic surgery by the arrogant anarchist – for reasons even he can’t really explain – the all-terrain terror becomes the latest addition to the student body and repulses the other attacks after which Wolverine and cameo-star Matt “Daredevil” Murdock retaliate in a way little Kade least expects…

In a tale delightfully depicted by Nick Bradshaw and with the scene firmly set, the tone switches to raucous, action-packed hilarity as the long-suffering faculty come to grips with the unique daily challenges presented by their charges. The cyborg assassin and guest lecturer Deathlok foreshadows horrors to come when he demonstrates his Tachyon vision on the class. Broodling Broo, Shi’ar Student Prince Kid Gladiator and particularly Genesis (a boyish clone of arch-horror Apocalypse) hear predictions that give everyone cause for concern…

Meanwhile, another First-Class X-Man returns to the fold; but Warren Worthington is not the Angel of old and gives old friends Iceman and the Beast extreme cause for concern…

Of course the one with most cause for concern is celibate headmistress Kitty Pryde who went to bed with a headache and woke up eight months pregnant…

Trouble is mounting and the school is close to bankruptcy. Desperate for funds, Wolverine takes Kid Omega to an alien gambling station in a dubious ploy to win billions through Quire’s psionic abilities, whilst at the school the Beast diagnoses the true cause of Kitty’s condition. Somehow she’s been infected by a horde of microscopic Brood (the real, ghastly, voracious body-stealing, egg-implanting cosmic horror kind utterly unlike the erudite, genteel freak Broo), and after the headstrong Kid Gladiator invades her body via shrinking technology, the Beast has no choice but to follow, leading a determined team of students on a Fantastic Voyage into the Headmistress’ bloodstream…

Meanwhile, in space a deadly alien hunter who uses Brood as hunting dogs is hurtling towards Earth and the School…

On Planet Sin, Wolverine and Quentin are making millions but have underestimated the casino owners’ ingenuity and determination to discourage cheating, whilst within Kitty’s circulatory system, the mutants’ school field trip is slowly eradicating the micro-Brood infestation. However, when full-sized Brood-warriors invade the School, young Broo and Kitty are forced into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse simply to survive before über-alien Xanto Starblood reveals himself as the cause of all their woes…

An Extreme Xeno-Zoolologist, Starblood’s entire universe-view is offended by the existence of a benign Broodling and he’s taken drastic measures to correct the Cosmos’ mistake, but even as the micro-students finish cleaning up Kitty’s small parasite problem Broo, pushed to far, suddenly proves to the alien academic that he’s not that far removed from his mercilessly marauding forebears…

And in deep space, Quire pilots the ship back from Planet Sin. He and Wolverine have escaped the Gambler’s wrath… but hardly intact…

Fast, furious, funny and fulfilling, the whole splendid affair was scripted by the wickedly sharp Jason Aaron, illustrated by Chris Bachalo, Duncan Rouleau, Matteo Scalera and Nick Bradshaw with additional inking from Jaime Mendoza, Tim Townsend, Al Vey, Mark Irwin, Victor Olazaba, Walden Wong, Norman Lee, Jay Leisten & Cam Smith. As always there’s a glorious gallery of covers and variants from the likes of Bachalo, Townsend, Bradshaw, Frank Cho, Ed McGuinness and Mark Brooks.

If you crave full-on, uncomplicated yet witty and rewarding Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction this is another near-perfect one-stop shop for your edification and delectation.

™ & © 2011, 2012 Marvel and subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A, Italy. All Rights Reserved. A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd.

Avengers: X Sanction


By Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness & Dexter Vines (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-514-7

As the new Avengers film screens across the world, Marvel has released more books and trade paperback collections to maximise exposure and cater to those movie fans wanting to follow up the cinematic exposure with a comicbook experience.

This particular short and sweet saga from megastar scripter Jeph Loeb & the art team supreme Ed McGuinness & Dexter Vines engagingly entangles two filmic franchises as the World’s Mightiest Superheroes and Marvel’s misunderstood mutants clash in a time-busting tale originally released at the end of 2011 as the 4-part miniseries Avengers: X Sanction.

And that was merely the prologue to a summer-long publishing event which pitted Avengers against X-Men in a catastrophic all-out war…

Superbly self-contained, this epic encounter opens with Captain America, Iron Man, Red Hulk, Wolverine, Spider-Man and other heroes responding to a mass-escape by super-villains from the Lethal Legion when the Falcon is shot by a hidden sniper and spirited away…

Only the Sentinel of Liberty notices something amiss and follows the abductor to a freighter in the harbour, where he finds his friend trapped in a containment tube and wired to a colossal cache of explosives. The sniper is revealed as sometime-ally Nathan Summers AKA Cable, a mutant warrior from the far future possessing awesome psionic abilities yet cursed with an incurable, progressive techno-organic virus which is inexorably consuming his flesh and only held in check by the victim’s indomitable force of will…

In temporally tantalising forward flashbacks it is revealed that Cable is at last succumbing to his infection. He has a day to live and has travelled back from the end of time to unmake history and save his daughter Hope (destined to prevent the planet’s doom) from being killed. Unfortunately that can only be achieved by murdering the Avengers…

After a spectacular battle Cable also subdues Captain America just as Iron Man notices his missing comrades and tracks them to the Hudson River. Plagued by half memories and lost moments with Hope, Cable attacks and after a shattering struggle also overwhelms the Armoured Avenger, only to be ambushed by the brutally efficient Red Hulk…

Wracked by the final stages of his fleshly consumption, Cable is vastly overmatched, even with the timely martial assistance of his future mentor Blaquesmith, but Summers’ handicap becomes an advantage when the techno-organic contagion abandons his dying frame and infects the Crimson Colossus…

As Cable prepares to execute his targets, X-Men Cyclops and Hope burst in, intent on talking him down. Faced with his father and imminently endangered daughter (an outrageously long and overly-complicated time travel story which isn’t germane or necessary to know here: just Google it afterwards, ok?), Cable falters but can’t be dissuaded…

Just as he prepares to save the future by killing everyone present, the final players arrive when Spider-Man and Wolverine crash in…

Unable to stop and mere minutes from his own end, Cable attacks again knowing that no sacrifice is too great to prevent the death of Hope and the salvation of Earth…

Fast, furious and wickedly compelling, this time-twisting all-action thriller delivers a mighty punch without any real necessity to study beforehand that comics-continuity veterans and film-fed newbies alike will relish.

The comicbooks in this short series also sported a host of variant covers and the extensive gallery at the back includes simply stunning images from McGuinness, Bryan Hitch, Joe Quesada, Carlo Pagulayan, Stephen Platt, Ian Churchill, Steve Skroce and four from Leinil Francis Yu to delight and astound the artistically astute amongst you.

™ & © 2012 Marvel and subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A, Italy. All Rights Reserved. A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd.

Essential Iron Fist volume 1


By Roy Thomas, Gil Kane, Larry Hama, Chris Claremont, John Byrne & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-7851-1546-5

Comicbooks have always operated within the larger bounds of popular trends and fashions – just look at what got published whenever westerns or science fiction dominated on TV – so when the ancient philosophy and health-&-fitness discipline of Kung Fu made its unstoppable mark on domestic entertainment it wasn’t long before the Chop Sockey kicks and punches found their way en masse onto the four-colour pages of America’s periodicals.

As part of the first Martial Arts bonanza, Marvel converted a forthcoming license to use venerable fictional villain Fu Manchu into a series about his. The series launched in Special Marvel Edition #15, December 1973 as The Hands of Shang Chi: Master of Kung Fu and by April 1974 (#17) it became his exclusively. A month later the House of Ideas launched a second oriental-tinged hero in Iron Fist; a character combining the Eastern combat philosophy with high fantasy, magic powers and a proper superhero mask and costume…

The character also owed a hefty debt to Bill Everett’s pioneering golden Age super-hero Amazing Man who graced various Centaur Comics publications between1939 and 1942. The tribute was paid by Roy Thomas & Gil Kane who adopted and translated the fictive John Aman‘s Tibetan origins into something that gibed better with the 1970’s twin zeitgeists of Supernatural Fantasy and Chinese martial arts mayhem…

This collection gathers the multifarious appearances of the Living Weapon from Marvel Premier #15-25, Iron Fist #1-15, Marvel Team-Up #63-64 and Power Man & Iron Fist #48-50 spanning May 1974 to April 1978 which saw the bombastic human blockbuster uncover his past and rediscover his heritage and humanity before inevitably settling into the inescapable role of costumed superhero.

The saga began on a spectacular high in Marvel Premier #15 with ‘The Fury of Iron Fist!’ by Thomas, Kane and inker Dick Giordano which saw a young masked warrior defeat the cream of a legendary combat elite in a fabled other-dimensional city before returning to Earth. Ten years previously little Daniel Rand had watched as his father and mother died at the hands of Harold Meachum whilst the party risked Himalayan snows to find the legendary city of K’un Lun.

Little Danny Rand had travelled with his wealthy parents and business partner Meachum in search of the lost city which only appeared on Earth for one day every ten years. Wendell Rand had some unsuspected connection to the fabled Shangri La but was killed before they arrived, whilst Danny’s mother had sacrificed herself to save the child from wolves and her murderous pursuer.

As he wandered alone in the wilderness, the city found Danny and the boy spent the next decade training: mastering all forms of martial arts in the militaristic, oriental, feudal paradise and enduring arcane ordeals, living only for the day he would return to Earth and avenge his parents…

After conquering all comers and refusing immortality, Iron Fist returned to Earth a Living Weapon able to turn his force of will into a devastating super-punch…

From the outset the feature was plagued by an inability to keep a stable creative team, although, to be fair, story quality never suffered, only plot and direction. Reaching New York City in #16, ‘Heart of the Dragon!’ by Len Wein, Larry Hama & Giordano found Iron Fist reliving the years of work which had culminated in a trial by combat with mystic dragon Shou-Lao the Undying, winning him the power to concentrate his fist “like unto a thing of Iron” and other unspecified abilities, whilst permanently branding his chest with the seared silhouette of the fearsome wyrm. His recollections were shattered when martial arts bounty hunter Scythe attacked, revealing that Meachum knew the boy was back and had put a price on his head…

Danny had not only sacrificed immortality for vengeance but also prestige and privilege. As he left K’un Lun, supreme ruler of the city Yü Ti, the August Personage in Jade had revealed that murdered Wendell Rand had been his brother…

Marvel Premier #17 saw Doug Moench take over the scripting as Iron Fist stormed Meachum’s skyscraper headquarters, a ‘Citadel on the Edge of Vengeance’ converted into a colossal 30-storey death trap, which led to a duel with a cybernetically-augmented giant dubbed Triple-Iron and a climactic confrontation with his parents’ killer in #18’s ‘Lair of Shattered Vengeance!’

The years had not been kind to Meachum. He’d lost his legs to frostbite as he returned from the Himalayas, and hearing from Sherpas that a boy had been taken into K’un Lun, the murderer had spent the intervening decade awaiting in dread his victims’ avenger…

Filled with loathing, frustration and pity, Iron Fist turned away from his intended retribution, but Meachum died anyway, slain by a mysterious Ninja as the deranged multi-millionaire attempted to shoot Danny in the back…

In #19 Joy Meachum and her ruthless uncle Ward, convinced Iron Fist had killed the crippled Harold, stepped up the hunt for Iron Fist via legal and illegal means whilst the shell-shocked Living Weapon aimlessly wandered the streets. Adopted by the enigmatic Colleen Wing Danny then met her father, an aging professor of Oriental Studies who had fallen foul of a ‘Death Cult!’

In his travels the aged savant had acquired an ancient text The Book of Many Things, which, amongst other things, held the secret of K’un Lun’s destruction. The deadly disciples of Kara-Kai were determined to possess it. After thwarting another attempt Iron Fist tried to make peace with Joy, but instead walked into an ambush where the bloodthirsty ninja again intervened, slaughtering the ambushers…

A period of pitiful and often painful inconsistency began as Tony Isabella, Arvell Jones & Dan Green took over with #20 wherein the Kara-Kai cultists renewed their attacks on the Wings whilst Ward Meachum hired a veritable army to destroy the Living Weapon in ‘Batroc and other Assassins’ – with the identity of the ninja apparently revealed as the elderly scholar…

Marvel Premier #21 introduced the ‘Daughters of the Death Goddess’ (inked by Vince Colletta) as the Wing’s were abducted by the cultists and bionic ex-cop Misty Knight debuted first as foe but soon as ally. When Danny tracked down the cult he discovered some shocking truths – as did the ninja, who had been imprisoned within the ancient book by the August Personage in Jade in ages past and had possessed the Professor in search of escape and revenge…

All was revealed and the hero exonerated in #22’s ‘Death is a Ninja’ (inked by “A. Bradford”) when the ninja disclosed how, as disciple to sublime wizard Master Khan, he had attempted to conquer K’un Lun and been imprisoned in the crumbling tome. Over years he had discovered a temporary escape and had manipulated the Professor and Iron Fist to secure his release and the doom of his jailers. Now exposed, he faced the Living Weapon in one last cataclysmic clash…

A measure of stability began with #23 as Chris Claremont, Pat Broderick & Bob McLeod took the series in a new direction. With his life’s work over and nearly nine years until he could go “home”, Danny was now a man without purpose until whilst strolling with Colleen he stumbled into a spree shooting in ‘The Name is… Warhawk.’

When the cyborg-assassin had a Vietnam flashback and began sniping in Central Park, the Pride of K’un Lun instantly responded to the threat and thus began his career as a hero…

In ‘Summerkill’ (inked by Colletta) the itinerant exile battled an alien robot dubbed the Monstroid and began a long and complicated association with Princess Azir of Halwan as the mysterious Master Khan resurfaced, apparently intent on killing her and seizing her country…

Marvel Premier #25 saw the end of the hero’s run and the start of his short but sweet Golden Age as John Byrne became regular penciller for ‘Morning of the Mindstorm!’ (inked by Al McWilliams). When Colleen was abducted and her father driven to the edge of insanity by mind-bending terrorist Angar the Screamer, Danny, made of far sterner stuff, quickly overcame the psychic assaults and tracked the attackers to Stark Industries and into his own series…

Iron Fist #1 (November 1975) featured ‘A Duel of Iron!’ as the Living Weapon was tricked into battling Iron Man, whilst Colleen escaped and ran into Danny’s future nemesis Steel Serpent before being recaptured and renditioned to Halwan…

After a spectacular, inconclusive and ultimately pointless battle, Danny and Misty Knight also headed for Halwan in ‘Valley of the Damned!’ (#2, inked by Frank Chiaramonte) with the hero recalling a painful episode from his youth wherein his best friends Conal and Miranda chose certain death beyond the walls of regimented K’un Lun rather than remain in the lost city where they could not love each other…

As Master Khan began to break Colleen, Danny and Misty stopped-over in England where a nuclear horror named The Ravager slaughtered innocents by blowing up London Airport and the Post Office Tower (we rebuilt it as the BT Tower, so don’t panic), compelling Iron Fist to punch far above his weight in ‘The City’s Not For Burning!’

Inevitably it ended in ‘Holocaust!’ as Ravager was unmasked as master-villain Radion the Atomic Man, who fatally irradiated Danny until the hero discovered the cleansing and curative power of the Iron Fist and stormed to his greatest triumph…

Whilst Misty recuperated Danny became involved with a guilt-ridden IRA bomber named Alan Cavenaugh before tackling another of Khan’s assassins in ‘When Slays the Scimitar!’ after which Iron Fist and Misty finally infiltrated Halwan in #6, courtesy of crusading lawyer Jeryn Hogarth who also promised to secure Danny’s inheritance and interests from the Rand-Meachum Corporation. The Pride of K’un Lun didn’t much care since the successfully brainwashed Colleen had been unleashed by Khan, determined to kill her rescuers in ‘Death Match!’…

None of the earthly participants were aware that in a hidden dimension, Yü Ti spied on the proceedings with cold calculation…

By using the Iron Fist to psychically link with Colleen, Danny had broken Khan’s control and at last the malignant mage personally entered the fray in #7’s ‘Iron Fist Must Die!’, a blistering battle which broached the dimensions and exposed the August Personage in Jade’s involvement in Wendell Rand’s death. Given the choice between abandoning his friends on Earth or returning to K’un Lun for answers and justice the Living Weapon made a hero’s choice…

With Iron Fist #8 Danny returned to New York and tried to pick up the pieces of a life postponed for more than a decade. Unaware that Steel Serpent was now working for Joy Meachum, Danny joined the company until merciless mob boss Chaka and his Chinatown gangs attacked the business ‘Like Tigers in the Night!’ (inked by Dan Adkins), and Iron Fist was fatally poisoned. Sportingly offered an antidote if he survived a gauntlet of Chaka’s warriors, Danny triumphed in his own manner when ‘The Dragon Dies at Dawn!’ (Chiaramonte inks) but when a hidden killer bludgeoned Chaka, Danny was once again a fugitive from the cops and dubbed a ‘Kung Fu Killer!’ (Adkins) until he, Colleen and Misty exposed the entire plot as a fabrication of the gangster.

In #11 ‘A Fine Day’s Dawn!’ the Living Weapon squared off against the Asgardian empowered Wrecking Crew and, with Misty a hostage, was compelled to fight Captain America in #12’s ‘Assault on Avengers’ Mansion!’ until the Pride of K’un Lun and the Sentinel of Liberty were able to unite and turn the tables on the grotesque godlings…

In the intervening time Cavenaugh had arrived in New York, but not escaped the reach of his former Republican comrades who hired hitman Boomerang to kill the traitor and ‘Target: Iron Fist!’ with little success, but the villain introduced in issue #14 came a lot closer and eventually eclipsed Iron Fist in popularity…

‘Snowfire’, inked by Dan Green, found Danny and Colleen running for their lives in arctic conditions when a retreat at Hogarth’s Canadian Rockies estate was invaded by deadly mercenary Sabre-tooth. It just wasn’t their week as, only days before, a mystery assailant had ambushed Iron Fist and impossibly drained off a significant portion of the lad’s Shou-Lao fuelled life-force… Despite being rendered temporarily blind, the K’un Lun Kid ultimately defeated Sabre-tooth, but the fiercely feral mutant would return again and again…

With Claremont and Byrne increasingly absorbed by their stellar collaboration on the revived and resurgent adventures of Marvel’s mutant horde, Iron Fist #15 (September 1977) was their last Martial Arts mash-up for awhile. The series ended in spectacular fashion as through a comedy of errors Danny found himself battling Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Banshee, Storm and Phoenix in ‘Enter, the X-Men’.

The cancellation was clearly not planned however as two major subplots went unresolved: Misty had disappeared on an undercover assignment to investigate European gang-boss John Bushmaster and Danny again had his chi siphoned off by the mysterious Steel Serpent…

Fans didn’t have to wait long: Claremont & Byrne had already begun a stint on Marvel Team-Up and turned the Spider-Man vehicle into their own personal clearing house for unresolved plot-lines. MTU #63-64 (November & December 1977 and inked by Dave Hunt) exposed the secret of K’un Lun exile Davos in ‘Night of the Dragon’ as the Steel Serpent sucked the power of the Iron Fist from Danny, leaving him near death. Risking all she had gained, Misty broke cover and rushed to his aid.

With the Wall-crawler and Colleen (the girls using the team name “Daughters of the Dragon”) to bolster him, Iron Fist defeated Davos and reclaimed his heritage in ‘If Death be my Destiny…’ before shuffling off into a quiet retirement and anonymity.

…But not for long.

The creative team supreme, augmented by inker Dan Green took over Power Man with the December 1977 issue to finally close their extended saga beginning with#48’s ‘Fist of Iron… Heart of Stone!’

Spurned and furious, Bushmaster had tracked down Misty and, by kidnapping his girlfriend Claire Temple and mentor Noah Burstein, coerced Luke Cage into attacking Danny and the Daughters. A man of infinite subtlety, Bushmaster had dangled a carrot too: proof that would clear the fugitive of outstanding drugs charges and enable him to live as a free man under his real name once again…

When Cage couldn’t kill his targets he believed he had doomed his friends, but #49’s ‘Seagate is a Lonely Place to Die!’ (February 1978) revealed that the criminal mastermind’s real purpose was to force Burstein to repeat the chemical experiment which had given Cage super-strength and impenetrable skin. Now united with Iron Fist, Cage had to defeat a stronger, smarter, utterly ruthless version of himself before finally winning his ‘Freedom!’ in Power Man & Iron Fist #50 (April 1978) and beginning a new and extremely impressive partnership with the Living Weapon who had at last found his place in the world..

Although sadly suffering through some grim patches, the greater bulk of the Iron Fist saga ranks amongst the most exciting and enjoyable Costumed Dramas of Marvel’s second generation. If you want a good, clean fight comic this is probably one of your better bets…
© 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Power Pack and Cloak & Dagger: Shelter from the Storm – a Marvel Graphic Novel


By Bill Mantlo, Sal Velluto, Mark Farmer & Julie Michel (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-601-5

During the 1980s American comicbooks experienced a magical proliferation of new titles and companies following the creation of the Direct Sales Market. With publishers now able to firm-sell straight to retail outlets rather than overprint and accept returned copies from non-specialised shops, the industry was able to support less generic titles and creators were able to experiment without losing their shirts.

In response Marvel developed its own line of creator-owned properties and concentrated a lot of resources into the development of high quality original graphic novels: mixing said creator-owned properties, licensed assets and new series launches in oversized and key Marvel Universe tales (such as this one) in extravagant over-sized packages (a standard 285mm x 220mm rather than the now customary 258 x 168mm) which always felt and looked like far more than an average comicbook no matter how good, bad or offbeat the contents might have been.

Cloak and Dagger were created by Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan (first appearing in Spectacular Spider-Man #64 March 1982); two juvenile runaways who fell into the clutches of drug-pushing gangsters. As part of a group of other abducted kids they were used as guinea pigs for new designer drugs but when all the others died horribly Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen were mutated by the chemical cocktail into something more – and less – than human.

Isolated, alone, and vengeful they determined to help other lost kids and hunt drug dealers and all who preyed on the weak in the blackest corners of New York City, popping up all over the Marvel Universe and periodically winning and losing a number of short-lived series all their own.

Cloak is connected to a dimension of darkness; able to teleport, become intangible, and terrifyingly amplify and feed on the wickedness in people. His unceasing hunger for these negative emotions must be regularly if only temporarily sated by super-acrobat Dagger’s dazzling radiance. Her power too has advantages and hazards. The power can cleanse the gnawing dependency afflicting addicts, but constantly, agonizingly, builds up within her when not released. Thus Cloak’s incessant hunger can be assuaged by her light-knives and his apparently insatiable darkness provides a vital method of bleeding off the luminescent pressure within Dagger.

One of the most explored themes of their extended epic was the true nature of their abilities: were they monsters, mutants, transformed humans or were even greater spiritual forces at play in their origins and operations?

Power Pack, created by Louise Simonson & June Brigman in 1984, were four pre-teen siblings given a rare chance to shine in a world dominated by adults after a race of alien marauders kidnapped their parents. Alex, Julie, Jack and Katie Power were befriended by the patriarch of a rival extraterrestrial species who gave his life to save the galaxy and bequeathed his incredible abilities and sentient “Smart-ship” Friday to the valiant children who aided him in his final struggle.

The distraught and horrified kids inherited his fantastic abilities (one each) and, with the guidance and assistance of Friday, the super-powered kids decided to fight for truth and justice – after doing their homework and whenever possible before bed-time!

In Shelter from the Storm writer Bill Mantlo and art-team Sal Velluto, Mark Farmer and Julie Michel explore the nature and reasoning of runaway teens when Marjorie Rifkin discovers that her obsessively protective parents have sabotaged all her college applications, determined that she should marry and stay in their sheltered little town of Russet Corners. Meanwhile, on the other side of the tracks Juan Cordova again defends his mother and younger brother and sister from his drunken, abusive father before fleeing the house in fear of his life.

Although worlds apart, Marjorie and Juan are united in their desire to get way and as the strangers meet on a bus to New York, desperate friendship blossoms…

Meanwhile in Manhattan a news report about the Safe Refuge Shelter for runaways blends with a bedtime story of Hansel and Gretel and little Katie Power succumbs to nightmares of abandonment and loss…

When Marjorie and Juan hit the Port Authority Bus Terminal they are immediately targeted by pimps and chicken-hawks but rescued by Cloak and Dagger. In the brutal struggle the luminescent Tandy Bowen receives a savage blow to the head and wanders off, dazed and confused, unnoticed by her rampaging partner Ty Johnson…

Carrying Dagger, Juan and Marjorie make their way to Safe Refuge whilst the enraged Cloak’s ravening hunger and grim fury gives way to despair. With few allies to call on, the Demon of Darkness enlists the aid of Power Pack to help him find his symbiotic soul-mate…

Wise beyond her years, Julie suggests shelters such as Safe Refuge, but even as they make their way there – without their parent’s knowledge – Dagger, Marjorie and Juan have stumbled onto more problems.

In the City’s harsh social climate, Safe Refuge is facing closure. It can only stay open if enough runaways use it, but so many are defecting to new and upcoming residence The Shelter Society that it might die for lack of funds and occupants. Moreover, many of the residents are simply disappearing…

By the time Cloak and Power Pack arrive, Dagger, Marjorie and Juan have been kidnapped and forcibly dragged to the new home, rapidly discovering its horrifying secret: The Shelter Society is nothing more than a gigantic honey-trap run by a ghastly mutated travesty called Cadaver who feeds on the life energy of humans. Naturally his favoured repast is those dregs that society refuses to acknowledge and won’t miss if they vanish without fuss forever…

Even before Power Pack and the increasingly desperate Cloak arrive to save the day, former helpless victims Juan and Marjorie have taken their first steps towards true independence by escaping and striking back at Cadaver and his legion of drained, zombie mind slaves…

Produced in conjunction with and offering solid advice and contact information for homeless kids from the Nineline National Runaways Hotline service, this worthy tale never strays far from the point that to be effective, a message has to be entertaining too, and the dark drama has all the necessary action, adventure, thrills and spills to keep readers glued to this great-looking graphic page turner.
© 1989 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

X-Men: Asgardian Wars


By Chris Claremont, Paul Smith, Bob Wiacek, Arthur Adams, Terry Austin,
Alan Gordon & Mike Mignola (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-87135-434-1

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

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

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

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

In the aftermath, team leader Cyclops left and a naive teenaged girl named Kitty Pryde signed up just as Cockrum returned for another spectacular sequence of outrageous adventures.

The franchise inexorably expanded with an ever-changing cast and in 1985 a new slant was added as author Claremont began to forge links between Marvel’s extemporised Norse mythology and the modern mutant mythos through the two series he then scripted.

Released in 1990 as Marvel was tentatively coming to grips with the growing trend for “trade paperback” collections, this sturdy 224 page full-colour compendium (re-released as a deluxe hardcover in 2010) collects the 1985 two-issue Limited Series X-Men and Alpha Flight, The New Mutants Special Edition and X-Men Annual #9 which, taken together, comprise a vast saga of staggering beauty and epic grandeur…

Two-part tale ‘The Gift’, illustrated by Paul Smith & Bob Wiacek, saw the retired Scott  “Cyclops” Summers and his new girlfriend Madelyne Prior ferrying a gaggle of environmental scientists over Alaska in a joint American/Canadian survey mission, only to fall foul of uncanny weather and supernatural intervention…

When the X-Men receive a vision of Scott’s crashed and burning body they head North and attack Canadian team Alpha Flight under the misapprehension that the state super-squad caused the disaster. Once the confusion has been cleared up and a tenuous truce declared, the united champions realise that mystic avatar Snowbird is dying: a result of some strange force emanating from the Arctic Circle…

In another time and place the Asgardian god Loki petitions a conclave of enigmatic uber-deities “They Who Sit Above in Shadow” for a boon, but their price is high and almost beyond his understanding…

When the assembled teams reach the crash site they find not a tangle of wreckage and bodies but a pantheon of new gods dwelling in an earthly paradise, and amongst them Scott and Madelyne, also transformed into perfect beings. These recreated paragons are preparing to abolish illness, want and need throughout the world by raising all humanity to their level and most of the disbelieving heroes are delighted at the prospect of peace on Earth at last.

However Kitty Pryde, Talisman and Rachel Summers (the Phoenix from an alternate future) are deeply suspicious and their investigations uncover the hidden cost of this global transfiguration and, once they convince Wolverine, Loki’s scheme begins to unravel like cobwebs in a storm. Soon all that is left is anger, recrimination and savage, earth-shaking battle…

Once the God of Mischief’s plan was spoiled the malignant Prince of Asgard plotted dark and subtle revenge which began with ‘Home is Where the Heart is’ (by Claremont, Arthur Adams & Terry Austin in The New Mutants Special Edition) when he recruited the sultry Enchantress to abduct the junior X-Men whilst he turned his attentions to the adult team’s field commander Storm.

Sunspot, Magik, Magma, Mirage, Cannonball, Wolfsbane, Karma, Warlock and Doug Ramsey are dragged to the sorceress’ dungeon in Asgard, but manage to escape through a teleport ring. Unfortunately the process isn’t perfect and the kids are scattered throughout the Eternal Realm; falling to individual perils and influences, ranging from enslavement to adoption, true love to redemption and rededication…

Most telling of all, Mirage AKA Danielle Moonstar rescues a flying horse and becomes forever a Valkyrie, shunned by the living as one of the “Choosers of the Slain”…

With such power at her command Mirage soon gathers her scattered mutant comrades for revenge on the Enchantress before the dramatic conclusion in ‘There’s No Place Like Home’ (X-Men Annual #9, by Claremont, Adams, Alan Gordon & Mike Mignola)…

Loki, who has elevated the ensorcelled Storm to the position of Asgardian Goddess of Thunder, is simultaneously assaulted by a dimension-hopping rescue unit consisting of Cyclops, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Colossus and the future Phoenix as well as the thoroughly “in-country” New Mutants for a spectacular and cosmic clash which, although setting the worlds to rights, ominously promised that the worst was yet to come…

This expansive crossover epic proved that, although increasingly known for character driven tales, the X-Franchise could pull out all the stops and embrace its inner blockbuster when necessary, and this yarn opened up a whole sub-universe of action and adventure which fuelled more than a decade of expansion. More than that, though, this is still one of the most entertaining mutant masterpieces of that distant decade.

Compelling, enchanting, moving and oh, so very pretty, The Asgardian Wars is a book no Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy fan can afford to miss.

© 1985, 1988, 1990 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Avengers: The Children’s Crusade


By Allan Heinberg, Jim Cheung, Alan Davis, Olivier Coipel & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-485-0

As the new Avengers film screens across the world, Marvel has again released a bunch of tie-in books and trade paperback collections to maximise exposure and cater to those movie fans wanting to follow up the cinematic exposure with a comics experience.

This stunning yarn is every bit as epic as any big screen extravaganza but does depend a bit too much on a thorough grounding in Avengers lore so newbies might struggle a bit with the minutiae…

Once upon a time the mutant Scarlet Witch married the android Vision and they had – through the agency of magic and Wanda’s unsuspected ability to reshape reality – twin boys. Over the course of time it was revealed that the boys were not real (for further details see Marvel Platinum: the Definitive Avengers) and as the years passed the tragedy drove the Scarlet Witch to insanity.

When Wanda tipped completely over the edge and destroyed at least three of her team-mates, the “World’s Mightiest Heroes” were shut down and rebooted in a highly publicised event known as Avengers Disassembled. Of course it was only to replace them with both The New and Young Avengers. The event also spilled over into the regular titles of current team members, and affiliated comic-books such as the Fantastic Four and Spectacular Spider-Man ran parallel but not necessarily interconnected story-arcs to accompany the Big Show.

Said Big Show consisted of the worst day in the team’s history as the Witch manipulated people and events: betraying her oldest, closest friends and causing the destruction of everything they held dear.

In the later company crossover event House of M reality was rewritten (yes, again!) when she had another breakdown and altered Earth continuity so that Magneto’s mutants ruled a society where normal humans (“sapiens”) were an acknowledged evolutionary dead-end living out their lives and destined for extinction within two generations. It took every hero on Earth and a great deal of luck to put that genie back in a bottle and in the aftermath almost no mutants were left on Earth…

Needless to say in recent time Wanda Maximoff has not been anybody’s favourite person so it’s perhaps lucky that no one on Earth seems to know her current whereabouts…

This compilation collects portions of Uncanny X-Men #526, Avengers: the Children’s Crusade #1-9 and Avengers: the Children’s Crusade – Young Avengers issue #1 (published in comicbook form from October 2011 to March 2012) which comprised the core-story for the latest relaunch of the constantly-changing grim and gritty alternate universe.

This gripping but convoluted tale opens with ‘Rebuilding’ (from X-Men #526 by author Allan Heinberg and artists Olivier Coipel & Mark Morales) as the aging Magneto, now loosely aligned with the remaining mutants in the semi-autonomous enclave “Utopia”, learns that two members of the teen superhero team Young Avengers bear an impossible similarity to the twins his daughter conjured up years ago.

Moreover, the ultra-swift Speed and sorcerous Wiccan bear an uncanny resemblance to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch at the same age…

Can these superhero twins possibly be his grandchildren? When he decides to investigate, X-Man and Avenger Wolverine warns the master of Magnetism to leave them alone… or else…

The story proper begins with Young Avengers Stature, Vision, Hulkling, Hawkeye, Patriot, Speed and Wiccan battling the racist terrorists Sons of the Serpent just as the elder Avengers arrive. When the child sorcerer displays a terrifying burst of power, alarm bells start ringing for Captain America, Iron Man and Ms. Marvel who have also noticed the startling similarities to their crazed and deadly former member…

In a world where the impossible happens every day and twice on Sundays, Wiccan has always suspected that Wanda was his true mother, and as the veteran heroes seek to curb his rapidly developing powers the boy mage convinces his team-mates to accompany him on a search for the missing Scarlet Witch and the true story of how and why she went bad…

Every Young Avenger has a different motive for the quest: for Speed it’s a chance to prove his annoying twin wrong, whilst Hulkling sees a chance to give his boyfriend Wiccan a sense of peace and closure. For Stature it’s the remote possibility of resurrecting the father Wanda murdered…

As the kids break out of Avenger custody they are joined by Magneto, sparking a clash with Wolverine and the rest of the “A” Team…

Bloodshed is avoided only by Wiccan transporting his friends and the Mutant Mastermind to the Balkan nation of Transia where Wanda and her brother Pietro grew up. Here they discover that Quicksilver – who blames his father and the Avengers in equal part for his beloved sister’s fate – is waiting.

…And so is Wanda herself…

Except that it’s only a carefully constructed android facsimile, but one which takes the reluctant and inimical fellow questers to the door of one the world’s most dangerous men, who has been harbouring the Scarlet Witch ever since the cataclysmic events following her magical decimation of the planet’s mutant population…

Meanwhile the Avengers have recruited Wonder Man – who was brought back from the dead by Wanda – but he proves to be an unreliable ally once he realises that the World’s Mightiest Heroes intend to kill the Witch at the first sign of trouble…

In Avengers: the Children’s Crusade – Young Avengers issue #1, illustrated by Alan Davis & Mark Farmer, founding member Iron Lad returns to finish the mission he gathered the young heroes for.

The futuristic technologist is the teen iteration of Kang the Conqueror and formed the Young Avengers to prevent himself growing into the merciless Master of Time, but as this pithy behind-the-scenes and out of continuity saga shows, history and destiny are not easily cheated…

Back in Avengers: the Children’s Crusade #5 the chaos builds and the fabric of reality itself begins to unravel as Wanda and her notional boys are reunited and discover the true nature of her powers.

All Wanda wants to do is make amends whilst the man who claims to have caused all her breakdowns is prepared to keep her at all costs. Just as the Avengers arrive, determined to save the world from their former comrade, all hell breaks loose. When Iron Lad rejoins his team in real time he changes the recent past and the situation escalates to a catastrophic crescendo when the X-Men turn up, seeking justice for all the mutants “Wanda” destroyed in her crazy days…

With the dead rising, history unmaking itself and the true villain seizing control of all creation the stage is set for a truly tragic and spectacular climax…

Bombastic and cosmically broad in scope, this impressive tale by Allan (Wonder Woman, JLA, Sex and the City, The O.C., Gilmore Girls, Grey’s Anatomy) Heinberg seeks to undo and reset key milestones of Marvel history with boldness and generally succeeds in all his goals, aided by the impressive art of Jim Cheung and inkers Mark Morales, John Livesay, David Meikis & Dexter Vimes, but although this yarn will delight long-time fans I fear casual and new readers will struggle to pick up the nuances or even follow the plot. Still, the spectacular alternate cover gallery by Cheung, Jelena Kevic-Djurdjevic, Alan Davis & Mark Farmer, Travis Charest and Art Adams will enthrall art fans and the impetus afforded by the film release will certainly draw new followers to this extremely attractive package with many small and big screen connections.

™ & © 2010, 2011, 2012 Marvel and subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A, Italy. All Rights Reserved. A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd.