Category: Marvel Superheroes

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The Punisher: Return to Big Nothing


By Steven Grant, Mike Zeck & John Beatty (Marvel/Epic)
ISBN: 0-87135-553-1

Ever woken up in one of those bad moods where you just want to bite everybody and kick their dog, but just can’t justify the expense of spleen?

Well you could give in to the urge but you might want to try my remedy: find a good, old-fashioned kick-ass, gratuitous comic story and let someone more qualified in mayhem-management handle the hard work whilst you vicariously reap the subsequent rewards in karma and entertainment value.

A faithful standby in such situations is always the Punisher: an unreconstructed and unrepentant slice of “because I said so” gloriously devoid of such tricky downers as conscience, remorse or annoying, shilly-shallying moral grey areas.

Debuting as a villain in Amazing Spider-Man #129 (February 1974), the Punisher was created by Gerry Conway, John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru, a reaction to such popular prose anti-heroes as Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan: the Executioner and other returning Viet Nam vets who all turned their training and talents to wiping out organised crime.

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

After bouncing around the Marvel universe for a good few years a 1986 miniseries by Steven Grant and Mike Zeck (which I must review sometime soon) swiftly led to a plethora of “shoot-’em-all and let God sort it out” antics that quickly boiled over into tedious overkill, but along the way a few pure gems were cranked out, such as this intriguing and absorbing graphic novel which reunited the creative team, mysteriously released in 1989 under the generally creator-owned Epic imprint.

Still available in hardback and softcover in the so-satisfying oversized European format (284m x 215m) it sees the Urban Commando re-explore his early days as a Marine when his perpetual hunt for criminals reunites him with Supply Sergeant Gorman, his old Nam top-kick: a savage, cunning thug who couldn’t be outfought, and a man who murdered his own men to begin his career as a drug baron…

Years later Castle’s crusade has brought him to Las Vegas and to his horror the man he couldn’t beat is at the top of a pyramid of vice and death that leads from the US Army to the Asian drug-gangs that peddle death in the streets. Looks like the Punisher is going to need a bigger gun – or lots of them…

Hard, fast and deliciously brutal, this non-stop rocket-ride has everything that made the series so popular, stripped down to a form of costumed Noir that is absolutely irresistible. Grant, Zeck and Beatty completely understand the tough guy mystique of the character whilst the action and exotic locales fuel and feed the impression of a proper movie blockbuster that neither of the two actual films (so far) has got anywhere near.

If you truly need to see bullets fly and creeps die – then you need Return to Big Nothing.
© 1989 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Black Widow: The Coldest War – A Marvel Graphic Novel


By Gerry Conway, George Freeman & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 0- 87135-643-0

By 1990 Marvel’s ambitious line of all-new graphic novels was beginning to falter, and some less-than-stellar tales were squeaking into the line-up. Moreover, the company was increasingly resorting to in-continuity stories with established – and company copyrighted – characters rather than creator-owned properties and original concepts.

Not that that necessarily meant poor product, as this intriguing superhero spy thriller proves. The Coldest War is set in the last days of the US/Soviet face-off with what looks to be a pasted-on epilogue added as an afterthought, but as the entire affair was clearly scripted as a miniseries – most probably for the fortnightly anthology Marvel Comics Presents – an afterword set after the fall of the Berlin Wall doesn’t jar too much and must have lent an air of imminent urgency to the mix.

The Black Widow started life as a svelte and sultry honey-trap Russian agent during Marvel’s early “Commie-busting” days. She fell for an assortment of Yankee superheroes – including Hawkeye and Daredevil – and finally defected; becoming an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and occasional leader of the Avengers. Throughout her career she has been considered competent, deadly, efficient and cursed to bring doom and disaster to her paramours.

Gerry Conway provides a typically twisty, double-dealing tale set in the dog-days of Mikhail Gorbachev’s “Perestroika” (“openness”) government when ambitious KGB upstarts undertake a plan to subvert Natasha (nee Natalia) Romanova and return her to Soviet control using the bait of her husband Alexei Shostokoff – whom she has believed dead for years. Naturally nothing is as it seems, nobody can be trusted and only the last spy standing can be called the winner…

Low key and high-tech go hand in hand in this sort of tale, and although there’s much reference to earlier Marvel classics this tale can be easily enjoyed by the casual reader and art fan.

And what art! George Freeman is a supreme stylist, whose drawing work – although infrequent – is always top rate. Starting out on the seminal Captain Canuck, he has excelled on Jack of Hearts, Green Lantern, Avengers, Batman (Annual #11, with Alan Moore), Wasteland, Elric, Nexus and The X-Files (for which he won the Eisner Award for colouring). He co-founded the design/colouring studio Digital Chameleon in 1991.

Here, inked by Ernie Colon, Mark Farmer, Mike Harris, Val Mayerik and Joe Rubinstein with colours from Lovern Kindzierski he produced a subtle and sophisticated blend of costumed chic and espionage glamour that easily elevated this tale to a “must-have” item.
© 1990 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Essential Iron Man volume 2


By Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin, Gene Colan, George Tuska, Johnny Craig, & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-90415-975-9

Marvel’s rise to dominance of the American comicbook industry really took hold in 1968 when most of their characters finally got their own titles. Prior to that and due to a highly restrictive distribution deal the company was tied to a limit of 16 publications per month. To circumvent this drawback, Marvel developed “split-books” with two features per publication, such as Tales of Suspense where Iron Man was joined by Captain America with #59 (cover-dated November 1964). When the division came the armoured Avenger started afresh with a “Collectors Item First Issue” – after a shared one-shot with the Sub-Mariner that squared divergent schedules – and Cap retained the numbering of the original title; thus premiering in number #100.

This second sterling black and white chronological compendium covers that transitional period, reprinting Tales of Suspense #73-99, Iron Man and the Sub-Mariner #1 and Iron Man #1-11, and also includes the Subby portion of Tales to Astonish #82, which held a key portion of an early comics crossover.

Tony Stark is the acceptable face of 1960s Capitalism; a glamorous millionaire industrialist and inventor – and a benevolent all-conquering hero when clad in the super-scientific armour of his alter-ego, Iron Man. Created in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis and at a time when “Red-baiting” and “Commie-bashing” were American national obsessions, the emergence of a brilliant new Thomas Edison, using Yankee ingenuity and invention to safeguard and better the World seemed inevitable. Combine the then-sacrosanct belief that technology and business could solve any problem with the universal imagery of noble knights battling evil and the concept behind the Golden Avenger seems an infallibly successful proposition. Of course it helps that all that money and gadgetry is great fun and very, very cool…

This volume begins with Tales of Suspense #73 (cover-dated January 1966) and picks up, soap opera fashion, on Iron Man, rushing to the bedside of his best friend Happy Hogan, gravely wounded in an earlier battle, and now missing from his hospital bed. ‘My Life for Yours!’ by a veritable phalanx of creators including Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gene Colan & Jack Abel (in their Marvel modes of Adam Austin and Gary Michaels), Sol Brodsky, Flo Steinberg and Marie Severin, pitted the Avenger in final combat against the Black Knight to rescue Happy but after this the creative stabilised at Lee, Colan and Abel, for ‘If this Guilt be Mine..!’ wherein Tony Stark’s inventive intervention saved his friend’s life but transformed the patient into a terrifying monster.

Whilst in pitched battle against ‘The Fury of… the Freak!’ (who scared the stuffings out of me as an comic-crazed seven-year-old!), Iron Man was helpless when the Mandarin attacked in #76’s ‘Here Lies Hidden…the Unspeakable Ultimo!’ The saga continued in ‘Ultimo Lives!’ and closed as the gigantic android went berserk in ‘Crescendo!’ dooming itself and allowing our ferrous hero to escape home, only to face a Congressional Inquiry and a battle crazed Sub-Mariner in ‘Disaster!’ The Prince of Atlantis had been hunting his enemy Warlord Krang in his own series, and the path led straight to Stark’s factory, so when confronted with another old foe the amphibian over-reacted in his usual manner.

‘When Fall the Mighty!’ in Tales of Suspense #80, was one colossal punch-up, which carried over into Tales to Astonish #82, where Thomas and Colan began the conclusion before the penciller contracted flu after delivering only two pages. Jack Kirby, inked by Dick Ayers, stepped in to produce some of the finest action-art of his entire Marvel career, fully displaying ‘The Power of Iron Man!’

TOS #81 featured ‘The Return of the Titanium Man!’ – and Gene Colan – as the Communist Colossus attacked the Golden Avenger on his way to Congress, and threatened all of Washington DC in the Frank Giacoia inked ‘By Force of Arms!’ before succumbing to superior fire power in ‘Victory!’ Stark’s controversial reputation was finally restored as the public finally discovered that his life was only preserved by a metallic chest-plate to kept his heart beating in ‘The Other Iron Man!’ – but nobody connected that hunk of steel to the identical one his Avenging “bodyguard” wore…

The Mandarin kidnapped the inventor’s recovering pal – temporarily wearing the super-suit – in another extended assault that began with ‘Into the Jaws of Death’ which compelled the ailing Stark to fly to his rescue in ‘Death Duel for the Life of Happy Hogan!’, in #87-88 the Mole Man attacked in ‘Crisis… at the Earth’s Core!’ and ‘Beyond all Rescue!’ and it was the turn of another old B-List bad-guy in ‘The Monstrous Menace of the Mysterious Melter!’ and its sequel ‘The Golden Ghost!’

‘The Uncanny Challenge of the Crusher!’ is an okay battle tale somewhat marred for modern audiences by a painful Commie-Bustin’ sub-plot featuring a thinly disguised Fidel Castro, and the impressions of the on-going “Police Action” in Indo-China are also a little gung-ho (if completely understandable) when Iron Man went hunting for a Red Menace called Half-Face ‘Within the Vastness of Viet Nam!’ and met an incorrigible old foe in ‘The Golden Gladiator and… the Giant!’ before snatching victory from Titanium jaws of defeat in ‘The Tragedy and the Triumph!’ (this last inked by Dan Adkins).

A new cast member was introduced in #95 as preppie S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jasper Sitwell was assigned as security advisor to America’s most prominent weapons maker, just as the old Thor villain Grey Gargoyle attacked in ‘If a Man be Stone!’ and ‘The Deadly Victory!’

Tales of Suspense #97 began an extended story-arc that would carry the series to the start of the solo-book and beyond. Criminal cartel the Maggia had a scheme to move in on Stark’s company which opened with ‘The Coming of… Whiplash!’ proceeded to ‘The Warrior and the Whip!’ and as the brilliant Archie Goodwin assumed the scripting reins and EC legend Johnny Craig came aboard as inker Iron Man found himself trapped on a sinking submarine ‘At the Mercy of the Maggia’, just as Tales of Suspense ended at #99…

Of course it was just changing its name to Captain America, as Tales to Astonish seamlessly transformed into the Incredible Hulk, but due to a scheduling snafu neither of those split-book co-stars had a home that month (April 1968) which led to the one-and-only Iron Man and the Sub-Mariner #1, and the concluding episode ‘The Torrent Without… The Tumult Within!’ wherein the sinister super-scientists of A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics, acronym-fans) snatch the Armoured Avenger from the Maggia sub intent on stealing the hero’s technical secrets.

Invincible Iron Man #1 finally appeared with a May 1968 cover-date, and triumphantly ended the extended sea-saga as our hero stood ‘Alone against A.I.M.!’, a thrilling roller-coaster ride that was supplemented by ‘The Origin of Iron Man’ a revitalised re-telling that ended Colan’s long and impressive tenure on the character. With #2, ‘The Day of the Demolisher!’, Craig took over the art, and his first job is a cracker, as Goodwin introduced Janice Cord a new romantic interest for the playboy, the killer robot built by her deranged father and a running plot-thread that examined the effects of the munitions business and the kind of inventors who work for it…

Following swiftly on Goodwin and Craig brought back Happy Hogan’s other self in ‘My Friend, My Foe… the Freak!’ in #3 and retooled a long-forgotten Soviet villain into a major threat in ‘Unconquered is the Unicorn!’ before George Tuska, another Golden Age veteran who would illustrate the majority of the Iron Man’s adventures over the next decade. Inked by Craig, ‘Frenzy in a Far-Flung Future!’ is a solid time-paradox tale wherein Stark is kidnapped by the last survivors of humanity, determined to kill him before he can build the super-computer that eradicated mankind. Did somebody say “Terminator”…

The super-dense (by which I mean strong and heavy) Commie threat returned – but not for long – in ‘Vengeance… Cries the Crusher!’ and the scheme begun in TOS #97 finally bore painful fruit in the two-part thriller ‘The Maggia Strikes!’ and ‘A Duel Must End!’ as the old Daredevil foe the Gladiator led a savage attack on Stark’s factory, friends and would-be new love…

This volume ends with a bold three-part saga as the ultimate oriental arch-fiend returned with a cunning plan and the conviction that Stark and Iron Man were the same person. Beginning in a “kind-of” Hulk guest-shot with #9’s ‘…There Lives a Green Goliath!’ proceeding through the revelatory ‘Once More… The Mandarin!’ and climaxing in spectacular “saves-the-day” fashion as our hero is ‘Unmasked!’, this epic from Goodwin, Tuska and Craig ends the book on a brilliant high note, just as the first inklings of the social upheaval America was experiencing began to seep into Marvel’s publications and their core audience started to grow into the Flower Power generation. Future tales would take the arch capitalist Stark in many unexpected and often peculiar directions…

But that’s a tale for another review, as this sparkling graphic novel is done. Despite some rough patches this is a fantastic period in the Golden Gladiator’s career and one perfectly encapsulates the changes Marvel and America went through: seen through some of the best and most memorable efforts of a simply stellar band of creators.

© 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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The Immortal Iron Fist: the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven


By Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, David Aja & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2535-8

To save you looking up old graphic novel reviews (but please don’t let me stop you if you feel so inclined) Iron Fist was an early entry from Marvel during the 1970s Kung Fu boom, although the character also owed a hefty debt to Bill Everett’s golden Age super-hero Amazing Man – who graced various Centaur Comics publications between1939 and 1945. The tribute was paid by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane although a veritable host of successors (writers and artists included Len Wein, Doug Moench, Tony Isabella, Larry Hama, Arvell Jones, Keith Pollard, Pat Broderick and Al McWilliams) followed them in what was a relatively short run on the adventures of the “Living Weapon”.

Little Danny Rand travelled with his parents and uncle to the Himalayas, searching for the “lost city of K’un Lun” which only appears once every ten years. The boy’s father Wendell was murdered by the uncle, and Danny’s mother sacrificed herself to save her child. Alone in the wilderness, the city found him and he spent the next decade mastering all forms of martial arts.

As soon he was able he returned to the real world intent on vengeance, further armed with a mystic punch gained by killing the dragon Shou-Lao the Undying. When Iron Fist eventually achieved his goal the lad was at a loose end and – by default – a billionaire, as his murderous uncle had turned the family business into a multi-national megalith.

The series ran in Marvel Premier (#15-25; May 1974 to October 1975), before Chris Claremont and John Byrne steadied the ship and produced a superb run of issues in his own title (Iron Fist #1-15, November 1975 – September 1977). After cancellation the character drifted until paired with street tough hero Luke Cage. Power Man & Iron Fist ran from #51 until the book ended in 1986 (#125). The K’un Lun Kid has died, come back and cropped up all over the Marvel universe as guest star, co-star and even in a few of his own miniseries.

Recently revived and somewhat re-imagined as The Immortal Iron Fist, the new series revealed that there has been a steady progression of warriors bearing the title for centuries – if not millennia – and in volume 1 (The Last Iron Fist Story) Danny discovered that his predecessor Orson Randall went rogue, refusing to die for the Holy City, roaming the Earth ever since. He also knew Danny’s father…

This volume contains issues #8-14 of the monthly comicbook plus the first Annual and follows the orphan hero as he learns the true history and meaning of his life, a task complicated by the fact that a cadre of super scientific Hydra warriors have kidnapped his friend Jeryn Hogarth and are using Rand technology to break the dimensional walls and invade K’un Lun.

The title comes from the fact that there are in fact seven mystical cities in this universe and every 88 years their celestial orbits coincide to permit a grand martial arts tournament. Each city has a champion as puissant and dedicated as Iron Fist and they must fight. The eventual climax will change the hidden cities forever…

Interspersing revelations about Wendell Rand and the renegade Orson with scenes on Earth and in the confluence of Floating Cities, these tales reveal the true nature of K’un Lun, and the power of Iron Fist, easily blending traditional costume-capers with the best of movie martial arts fantasy. Old fans can revel in guest-appearances by Luke Cage, Colleen Wing and Misty Knight as well as tantalising glimpses of pre-Marvel Age 1920s and 1930s super-heroics whilst newcomers can simply enjoy the wonders of an enchanting, multi-layered action epic told exceedingly well.

Swift and compellingly exotic the story balances character and plot perfectly augmented by masterful artistic contributions from Roy Allan, Martinez, Scott Koblish, Kano, Javier Pulido, Tonci Zonjic, Clay Mann, Stefano Gaudiano, Jelana Kevic Djurdjevic, Dan Brereton and Howard Chaykin. This mesmerising saga resolves the cliffhanging ending of the previous volume and taken together these two books form one of the best Marvel Masterpieces of the last decade.

© 2006, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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The Death of Captain Marvel – A Marvel Graphic Novel


By Jim Starlin, coloured by Steve Oliff (Marvel)
No ISBN /later editions 978-0-7851-0040-9 and 978-0-7851-0837-5

Often reprinted and now released as a spiffy hardcover in their Premier editions range The Death of Captain Marvel was the first Marvel Graphic Novel and the one that truly demonstrated how mainstream superhero material could breach the wider world of general publishing.

Written and illustrated by Jim Starlin whose earliest efforts in the industry had revitalised the moribund hero with his epic, Jack Kirby-inspired ‘Thanos Saga’ (from issues #25-34 of the fantastically hit-or-miss comicbook) this tale effectively concluded that storyline in a neat symmetrical and textually final manner – although the tale’s success led to some pretty crass commercialisations in its wake…

Mar-Vell was a soldier of the alien Kree empire dispatched to Earth as a spy, but who subsequently went native becoming first a hero and then the cosmically “aware” protector of the universe, destined since life began to be a cosmic champion in its darkest hour. In concert with the Avengers and other heroes he defeated the death-worshipping mad Titan Thanos, just as that villain transformed into God, after which the good Captain went on to become a universal force for good.

That insipid last bit pretty much sums up Mar-Vell’s later career: without Thanos the adventures again became uninspired and eventually just fizzled out. He lost his own comicbook, had a brief shot at revival in try-out book Marvel Spotlight and then just faded away…

Re-enter Starlin, who had long been perceived as obsessed by themes of death, with a rather novel idea – kill him off and leave him dead.

In 1982 that was a bold idea, especially considering how long and hard the company had fought to obtain the rights to the name (and sure enough there’s been somebody with that name in print ever since) but Starlin wasn’t just proposing a gratuitous stunt. The story developed into a different kind of drama: one uniquely at odds with contemporary fare and thinking.

At the end of the Thanos Saga (see The Life of Captain Marvel, or you could try to track down the all-inclusive compendium The Life and Death of Captain Marvel which combines that tome with the contents of the book under discussion here) Mar-Vell defeated a villain called Nitro and was exposed to an experimental nerve gas. Now he discovers that, years later, just as he has found love and contentment, the effects of that gas have caused cancer which has metastasized into something utterly incurable…

Going through the Kree version of the classic Kubler-Ross Cycle: grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, the Space-Born hero can only watch as all his friends and comrades try and fail to find a cure, before death comes for him…

This is a thoughtful, intriguing examination of the process of dying observed by a being who never expected to die in bed, and argues forcefully that even in a universe where miracles occur by the hour sometimes death might not be unwelcome…

Today, in a world where the right to life is increasingly being challenged and contested by special interest groups, this story is still a strident, forceful reminder that sometimes the personal right to dignity and freedom from distress is as important as any and all other Human Rights.

No big Deus ex Machina, not many fights and no happy ending: but still one of the best stories the House of Ideas ever published.
© 1982 Marvel Comics Group. All Rights Reserved.

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Essential X-Men volume 2


By Roy Thomas, Werner Roth, Don Heck, Steranko & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2116-9

X-Men was never one of young Marvel’s top titles but it did secure a devout and dedicated following, with the freakish energy of Jack Kirby’s heroic dynamism comfortably translating into the sheer, sleek prettiness of Werner Roth as the blunt tension of hunted outsider kids settled into a pastiche of the college and school scenarios so familiar to the students who were the series’ main audience.

The core team still consisted of tragic Cyclops, ebullient Iceman, wealthy golden boy Angel and erudite brutish geek Beast in training with Professor Charles Xavier, a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the gradually emerging race of mutant Homo Superior. But by the time of this massive black and white tome (collecting issued #25-53 and the crossover Avengers #53) change was definitely in the air.

Jean Grey, Marvel Girl had recently left the team to attend university – although she still managed to turn up in every issue – and since Roy Thomas had replaced Stan Lee as writer a much younger atmosphere permeated the stories. ‘The Power and the Pendant’ (X-Men #25, October 1966, with inking by Dick Ayers) found the boys tracking a new menace, El Tigre; a South American hunter visiting New York to steal an amulet which granted him god-like powers, before returning to the Amazonian San Rico with the mutant heroes in hot pursuit for a cataclysmic showdown in ‘Holocaust!’

Issue #27 saw the return of some old foes in ‘Re-enter: The Mimic!’ as the mesmerising Puppet Master pitted the power-duplicating Calvin Rankin against a team already split by dissention, whilst in ‘The Wail of the Banshee!’ Rankin joined the X-Men in a tale which also introduced the sonic-powered mutant (eventually to become a valued team-mate and team-leader) as a deadly threat in the opening instalment of an ambitious extended epic which featured the global menace of the sinister organisation Factor Three.

John Tartaglione inked the bright and breezy thriller ‘When Titans Clash!’ as a power duplicating Super-Adaptoid nearly absorbed the entire team before ending the Mimic’s career, whilst Jack Sparling and Tartaglione illustrated ‘The Warlock Wakes’ wherein Merlin (an old Thor foe) got a stylish upgrade to malevolent mutant menace, and #31 (Roth and Tartaglione) had Marvel Girl and the boys tackle an Iron Man clone who was also an accidental time bomb in ‘We Must Destroy… the Cobalt Man!’

A somewhat watered down version of the counter-culture had been slowly creeping into these tales of teenaged triumph and tragedy, mostly for comedic balance, but they were – along with Peter Parker in Amazing Spider-Man – some of the earliest indications of the changing face of America. ‘Beware the Juggernaut, My Son!’ and its conclusion ‘Into the Crimson Cosmos!’ (guest-starring Doctor Strange and his mentor the Ancient One) extended that experience when the Professor was abducted by Factor Three and the kids were forced to stand alone against an unstoppable mystic monster.

Dan Adkins in full Wally Wood appreciation mode memorably illustrated #34’s ‘War… In a World of Darkness!’ as the team’s search for Xavier took them into the middle of a subterranean civil war between Tyrannus and the Mole Man, and he also inked Werner Roth on ‘Along Came A Spider…’ as everybody’s favourite wall-crawler was mistaken for a Factor Three flunky by the increasingly desperate X-Men. ‘Mekano Lives’ (with art from Ross Andru and George Roussos, nee Bell) found the team delayed in their attempts to follow a lead to Europe by a troubled rich kid with a stolen exo-skeleton super-suit…

Don Heck stepped in as inker over Andru’s pencils with #37, ‘We, the Jury…’ when the mutants finally found Factor Three – allied to a host of their old mutant foes – and ready to trigger an atomic war. Heck assumed the penciller’s role for ‘The Sinister Shadow of… Doomsday!’ (inked by “Bell”), before concluding the saga with the Vince Colletta embellished ‘The Fateful Finale!’

Werner Roth had not departed the mutant melee: with issue #38 a classy back-up feature had commenced, and his slick illustration was perfect for the fascinating Origins of the X-Men series. Inked by John Verpoorten ‘A Man Called… X’ began the hidden history of Cyclops, also revealing how Xavier began his relationship with FBI agent Fred Duncan… The second instalment ‘Lonely are the Hunted!’ displayed humanity in mob mode as terrified citizens rioted and stalked the newly “outed” mutant Scott Summers: scenes reminiscent of contemporary race-riots that would fuel the racial outcast metaphor of the later Chris Claremont team.

Thomas, Heck and George Tuska ushered in a new era for the team with #40’s ‘The Mask of the Monster!’ as, now clad in individual costumes rather than superhero school uniforms, they tackled what seemed to be Frankenstein’s unholy creation whilst in the second feature Scott Summers met ‘The First Evil Mutant!’

‘Now Strikes… the Sub-Human!’ and the sequel ‘If I Should Die…’ introduced the tragic Grotesk, whose only dream was to destroy the entire planet, and who introduced the greatest change yet. I’m spoiling nothing now but when this story first ran the shock couldn’t be described when the last page showed the death of Charles Xavier. I’m convinced that at the time this was an honest plot development – removing an “old” figurehead and living deus ex machina from a “young” series, and I’m just as certain that his subsequent “return” a few years later was an inadvisable reaction to dwindling sales…

From the rear of those climactic issues ‘The Living Diamond!’ and ‘The End… or the Beginning?’ (this last inked by neophyte Herb Trimpe) signalled the beginning of The Xavier School for Gifted Children as the Professor took the fugitive Scott Summers under his wing and began his Project: X-Men. Issue #43 began the reinvention of the mutant team with ‘The Torch is Passed!’ (Thomas, Tuska & Tartaglione) as arch-nemesis Magneto returned with reluctant confederates Toad, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch to ensnare the bereaved heroes.

This was supported by a back-up tale ‘Call Him… Cyclops’ which revealed the secrets of his awesome eye-blasts, whilst the next issue ‘Red Raven, Red Raven…’ saw the Angel escape and encounter a revived Golden Age Timely Comics hero in a stirring yarn from Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Heck, Roth and Tartaglione. This was accompanied by the opening of the next Origins chapter-play when ‘The Iceman Cometh!’ courtesy of Friedrich, Tuska and Verpoorten.

X-Men #45 led with ‘When Mutants Clash!’ as Cyclops also escaped only to encounter the highly conflicted Quicksilver; a battle that concluded with Magneto’s defeat in Avengers #53 ‘In Battle Joined’ by Thomas, John Buscema and Tuska, whilst back in #45 Iceman’s story continued in ‘And the Mob Cried… Vengeance!’

‘The End of the X-Men!’ occurred in issue #46, with the reading of Charles Xavier’s will. Agent Duncan reappeared and ordered the team to split-up, to monitor different parts of the country for mutant activity just as the unstoppable Juggernaut turned up once more, and Iceman’s origin concluded with ‘…And Then There were Two!’

Friedrich was joined by Arnold Drake to script Beast and Iceman’s adventure ‘The Warlock Wears Three Faces!’ as the ancient mutant Merlin once more re-branded himself: this time as the psychedelic guru Maha Yogi, and Drake, Roth and Verpoorten explained the cool kid’s powers in the info feature ‘I, the Iceman.’ As full scripter Drake penned The Cyclops and Marvel Girl tale, ‘Beware Computo, Commander of the Robot Hive’, a pacy thriller with a surprise guest villain, whilst ‘Your’s Truly the Beast’ wrong-footed everybody by explaining his powers before actually telling his origin epic.

X-Men #49 gave a tantalising taste of things to come with a startling and stylish Jim Steranko cover, behind which Drake, Heck, Roth and Tartaglione revealed ‘Who Dares Defy… the Demi-Men?’: nominally an Angel story but one which reunited the team to confront the assembled mutant hordes of Mesmero and Iceman’s new girlfriend – the daughter of Magneto! This shocker was supplemented by ‘A Beast is Born.’

Drake, Steranko and Tartaglione reached incredible heights with the magnificent ‘City of Mutants’ in #50; a visual tour de force that remains as spectacular now it did in 1968, but which was actually surpassed by Magneto’s return as ‘The Devil had a Daughter’ in #51 before the saga concluded in the disappointing ‘Twilight of the Mutants!’

Don’t misunderstand me, however: This isn’t a bad story, but after two issues of Steranko in his creative prime, nobody could satisfactorily end this tale, and I pity Heck and Roth for having to try.

The Beast origin chapters in those issues were ‘This Boy, This Bombshell’, ‘The Lure of the Beast-Nappers!’ and ‘The Crimes of the Conquistador!’, and that particular epic of child exploitation and the isolation of being different ended in #53’s ‘Welcome to the Club, Beast!’ but that issue’s main claim to notoriety was the lead feature which was drawn by another superstar in the making.

Hard to believe now, but in the 1960s X-Men was a series in perpetual sales crises, and a lot of great talent was thrown at it back then. ‘The Rage of Blastaar!’ was illustrated by a young Barry Smith – still in his Kirby appreciation phase – and his unique interpretation of this off-beat battle-blockbuster from Arnold Drake, inked by the enigmatic Michael Dee, is memorable but regrettably brisk.

These tales perfectly display Marvel’s evolution from quirky action tales to the more fraught, breastbeating, convoluted melodramas that inexorably led to the monolithic X-brand of today. Well drawn, highly readable stories are never unwelcome or out of favour though, and it should be remembered that everything here informs so very much of today’s mutant mythology. These are stories for the dedicated fan and newest convert, and never better packaged than in this economical tome. Everyone should own this book.

© 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Thunderbolts: Justice, Like Lightning…


By Kurt Busiek, Peter David, Mark Bagley & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-0817-7

At the end of  1996 the “Onslaught” publishing event removed the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Iron Man and Avengers from the Marvel Universe, unwisely (hindsight being a magical thing) handing over creative control to Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee for a year. For the early part of that period the “Image style” books got all the attention, but a new title created to fill the gap in the “real” universe proved to be the real star of the period.

Thunderbolts was initially promoted as a replacement team book; untried champions pitching in because the superhero big guns were dead and gone. Chronologically the team debuted in Incredible Hulk # 449, by Peter David, Mike Deodato Jr. & Tom Wegrzyn, in a fairly standard game of “heroes-stomp-monster”, but the seemingly mediocre tale is perhaps excusable in retrospect…

This volume gathers all the early appearances of the neophyte team: the Hulk tale, Thunderbolts #1-4 and their 1997 Annual, a Tales of the Marvel Universe one-shot, and Spider-Man Team-Up Featuring… #7, and although the stories are still immensely readable a book simply can’t recapture the furore the series caused in its early periodical days, because Thunderbolts was a high concept series with a big twist: one which impossibly for comics, didn’t get spilled before the “big reveal.”

The action here starts with issue #1 as Busiek, Bagley & Vince Russell introduce a new team who begin to clear the devastated, post-Onslaught streets of New York of resurgent super-villains and thugs who are making the most of the established heroes’ apparent demise. They consist of the Captain America clone Citizen V, size-shifting Atlas, super- armoured Mach-1, ray-throwing amazon Meteorite, sonic siren Songbird and human weapon Techno, and the terrified citizenry instantly take them to their hearts. But these heroes share a huge secret…

They’re all super-villains in disguise and Citizen V has major long-term plans…

When unsuspecting readers got to the end of that first story the reaction was instantaneous shock and jubilation.

The aforementioned Hulk tale incongruously appears next, followed by the Tales of the Marvel Universe tale ‘The Dawn of a New Age of Heroes!’ as the group continue to do good deeds for bad reasons, and #2 ‘Deceiving Appearances’ finds them winning more hearts and minds by defeating the Mad Thinker at a memorial service for the Fantastic Four and Avengers.

Spider-Man Team-Up Featuring… #7 ‘Old Scores’ by Busiek, Sal Buscema & Dick Giordano sees them even fool the spider-senses of everybody’s favourite wall-crawler as they take down the super-scientific Enclave, whilst Thunderbolts #3 finds them facing ‘Too Many Masters’ whilst dissension begins to creep in as the team round up more old allies and potential rivals such as Klaw, Flying Tiger, Man-Killer, Tiger-Shark and other assorted Masters of Evil. ‘A Shock to the System’ in #4 has them invading Dr. Doom’s castle to aid utterly oblivious innocent and potential new recruit Jolt; finding and fighting the monstrous creations of rogue geneticist Arnim Zola along the way.

Thunderbolts Annual 1997 concludes this collection; a massive revelatory jam session written by Busiek with art from Mark Bagley, Bob McLeod, Tom Grummett, Ron Randall, Gene Colan, Darick Robertson, George Pérez, Chris Marrinan, Al Milgrom, Will Blyberg, Scott Koblish, Jim Sanders, Tom Palmer, Bruce Patterson, Karl Kesel and Andrew Pepoy, which could only be called ‘The Origin of the Thunderbolts!’

This is a solid superhero romp that managed to briefly revitalise a lot of jaded old fan-boys, but more importantly it is a strong set of tales that still pushes all the buttons it’s meant to more than a decade after all the hoopla has faded. Well worth a moment of your time and a bit of your hard-earned cash.

© 1996, 1997, 2001 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Incredible Hulk: What Savage Beast


By Peter David, illustrated by George Pérez (Boulevard/Putnam Books)
ISBN: 0-399-14104-9

After a few abortive attempts in the 1960s and a more strategic attempt at the end of the 1970’s Marvel once more tried to move onto the prose bookshelves in the 1990s with a select series of hardback novels. To my mind the most successful of these was this hefty tome from Peter David, who had the advantage of being a prolific genre novelist (most notably of Star Trek adventures) and the current scripter for the Incredible Hulk comicbook.

The plot actually spun out of and referenced contemporary Hulk continuity and featured a Green Goliath that possessed Bruce Banner’s intellect, married to his long-term sweetheart Betty, and on the run from the US military. Whilst in hiding an aged psychologist “cures” the monster-afflicted scientist and Betty falls pregnant with twins, but when they are delivered their benefactor is revealed as the Maestro, a sick and twisted version of Banner from an apocalyptic future (first seen in the 1992 miniseries Hulk: Future Imperfect) who kidnaps one of the infants and returns to his Ghastly world of Tomorrow.

Desperate and traumatised, Banner turns to his friend Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, who provides a way to follow, but due to unforeseen circumstances he arrives two decades late: his son is now a heartless brute in the manner of the Maestro, and worse yet the abortive rescue mission has given the sadistic monster a method of plundering the time stream and alternate dimensions. Not only is Banner too late but now he must face an army of Hulks from divergent timelines to stop his future self from ravaging all of time and space…

Sharp and well-crafted, this tale is constructed in such a way that continuity-addicts can easily slot it into their preferred universal construct, whilst casual readers can simply enjoy an above-average time-travel yarn featuring a character they may or may not know from TV. Moreover this page turner is liberally illustrated by George Pérez, who drew the aforementioned Hulk miniseries. This is a solid example of how comics books can transfer to prose and perhaps a reason why they should…
© 1995 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

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Essential Sub-Mariner vol.1


By Stan Lee, Gene Colan, Bill Everett & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3075-8

Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner is the hybrid offspring of a sub-sea Atlantean princess and an American polar explorer; a man of immense strength, highly resistant to physical harm, able to fly and exist above and below the waves. Created by young, talented Bill Everett, Namor technically predates Marvel/Atlas/Timely Comics. He first caught the public’s attention as part of the fire vs. water headlining team in Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939 and soon to become Marvel Mystery Comics) alongside The Human Torch, but had originally been seen in a truncated version in the black and white Motion Picture Funnies, a weekly promotional giveaway handed out to moviegoers earlier in the year.

Quickly becoming one of the company’s biggest draws Namor gained his own title at the end of 1940 (cover-dated Spring 1941) and was one of the last super-characters to go at the end of the first heroic age. In 1954, when Atlas (as the company then was) briefly revived its “Big Three” (the Torch and Captain America being the other two) costumed characters, Everett returned for an extended run of superb fantasy tales, but even so the time wasn’t right and the title sunk again.

When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby began reinventing comic-books in 1961 with Fantastic Four, they revived the all-but forgotten amphibian as a troubled, semi-amnesiac, but decidedly more regal and grandiose anti-hero embittered at the loss of his sub-sea kingdom (seemingly destroyed by American atomic testing) whilst simultaneously besotted with the FF‘s Sue Storm (as seen in Essential Fantastic Four volume 1). He knocked around the budding Marvel universe for a few years, squabbling with other assorted heroes such as the Hulk, Avengers and X-Men, before securing his own series as part of “split-book” Tales to Astonish. This volume collects that entire run, issues #70-101, Daredevil #7, Tales of Suspense #80, Iron Man and the Sub-Mariner one-shot and the first issue of Sub-Mariner‘s second solo title.

As a prequel to the Tales to Astonish serial he had one last guest shot as a misunderstood bad-guy in Daredevil #7, (April 1965). The issue is a perfect comicbook and a true landmark: to my mind one of the Top Ten Marvel Tales of all Time. Lee and creative legend Wally Wood concocted a true masterpiece with ‘In Mortal Combat with… Sub-Mariner!’ as Prince Namor of Atlantis, recently reunited with the survivors of Atlantis, travelled to the surface world to sue mankind for their crimes against his people. He engages the services of Matt Murdock; little suspecting the blind lawyer is also the acrobatic Man without Fear.

Whilst awaiting a hearing at the UN Namor is informed by his love interest Lady Dorma that his warlord, Krang, has usurped the throne in his absence. The tempestuous monarch cannot languish in a cell when the kingdom is threatened so he fights his way to freedom through the streets of New York, smashing National Guard and the dauntless Daredevil with supreme ease. The hopelessly one-sided battle with one of the strongest beings on the planet shows the dauntless courage of DD and the innate nobility of a “villain” far more complex than most of the industry’s usual fare at the time.

A few months later Tales to Astonish #70 heralded ‘The Start of the Quest!’ as Lee, Gene Colan (in the pseudonymous guise of Adam Austin) and Vince Colletta saw the Sub-Mariner returned to an Atlantis under martial law, and rejected by his own people. Imprisoned, the troubled Prince was freed by the oft-neglected and ignored Lady Dorma. As the pompous hero began a mystical journey to find the lost Trident of King Neptune, which only the rightful ruler of Atlantis could hold, he was unaware that the treacherous Krang allowed him to escape the better to destroy him with no witnesses.

The search took Namor through a series of fantastic adventures and pitted him against a spectacular array of sub-sea horrors: a giant octopus in ‘Escape… to Nowhere’, a colossal seaweed man in ‘A Prince There Was’, a wizard and energy-sapping diamonds in ‘By Force of Arms!’ but as the end approached in ‘When Fails the Quest!’, with revolution in Atlantis, Namor sacrificed his kingdom to save Dorma from troglodytic Faceless Ones.

Issue #75 ‘The End of the Quest’, found the Prince battling his way back to Atlantis with a gravely injured Dorma, and the saga concluded in ‘Uneasy Hangs the Head…!’ as the status quo was restored and Namor finally assumed his throne. Back in charge the Prince once more turned his thoughts to peace with the surface world and undertook ‘To Walk Amongst Men’ but his mission was derailed when he encountered a deep-sea drilling platform and promptly found himself battling the US military and retired Avengers Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne. That fracas was abruptly curtailed in #78’s ‘The Prince and the Puppet’ as an old adversary once again seized control of the amphibian’s fragile mind.

‘When Rises the Behemoth’ found Namor battling the Puppet Master’s control and the US Army in the streets of New York, before returning to confront a cataclysmic doomsday monster in Atlantis, (inked by the brilliant Bill Everett), and Dick Ayers stepped in to ink the tense conclusion in #80’s ‘To the Death!’, wherein Warlord Krang returned and blackmailed Dorma into betraying her beloved Prince.

Heartbroken and furious, Namor followed them to New York in ‘When a Monarch Goes Mad!’ (TTA#81) in a violent melodrama that crossed over into the Iron Man feature in sister title Tales of Suspense #80. ‘When Fall the Mighty!’ (Lee, Colan and Jack Abel, using the pen-name Gary Michaels) was a spectacular combat classic which only got more incredible as it continued in Tales to Astonish #82. Colan was a spectacular illustrator, but no one could ever match Jack Kirby for bombastic battle scenes, and when the former contracted flu after delivering two pages The King stepped in to produce some of the finest art of his entire Marvel career, fully displaying ‘The Power of Iron Man’…

Kirby stayed on for #83 ‘The Sub-Mariner Strikes!’ wherein the enraged prince finally confronted Krang and Dorma, only to once again lose his memory and become the pawn of would-be conqueror Number 1 of the Secret Empire in ‘Like a Beast at Bay’ (Colan & Ayers), regaining his senses just in time to terrorise a New York already reeling from the Incredible Hulk’s mindless depredations in ‘…And One Shall Die!’ (inked again by Everett) before ‘The Wrath of Warlord Krang!’ (Lee, Jerry Grandenetti and Everett) resulted in the metropolis being inundated in an artificial tsunami. Naturally blamed for the catastrophe Namor faced a ‘Moment of Truth’ as he finally dealt with Krang and reconciled with Dorma, a conclusion made doubly delightful as Wild Bill Everett at last took full artistic charge of his greatest creation.

Tales to Astonish #88 saw the sub-sea barbarian Attuma attack once more when ‘A Stranger Strikes From Space!’, a tale concluded in ‘The Prince and the Power!’, and Namor’s greatest Golden Age rival returned in ‘To Be Beaten by Byrrah!’ as the Prince’s ruthless cousin used gutter politics to oust the Sub-Mariner, only to receive his comeuppance in ‘Outside the Gates Waits Death!’ : this latter seeing the inking debut of Dan Adkins.

Illustrating in a style that owed everything to Wally Wood, Adkins took over the pencilling too in #92’s ‘It Walks Like a Man!’ This tale of atomic pollution is a terse foretaste of the Sub-Mariner’s later role as eco-warrior, and the concluding part features Roy Thomas’ first script for the aquatic antihero in ‘The Monarch and the Monster!’

Namor was dragged into a surface tyrant’s war in ‘Helpless, at the Hands of Dragorr!’ (Thomas and Everett), and veteran scripter Raymond Marais joined Thomas, Everett & Colletta on ‘The Power of the Plunderer!’, before assuming sole scripting for the ‘Somewhere Stands Skull Island‘. This troubled tale of the antediluvian Savage Land continued in #97’s ‘The Sovereign and the Savages’ courtesy of Thomas and unsung star Werner Roth – who had actually taken over the art halfway through the previous episode. Inked by Adkins, the Plunderer’s assault on Atlantis was finally foiled in ‘…To Destroy the Realm Eternal!’, but had precipitated a similar attack on Namor’s homeland by a US atomic submarine in ‘When Falls the Holocaust!’ (by Archie Goodwin and Dan Adkins) in issue #99.

Marvel’s “split-books” had been devised as away to promote their burgeoning stable of stars whilst labouring under a highly restrictive distribution deal which limited the number of titles they could release each month. In 1968 the company ended this commitment and expanded exponentially. In the months leading up to that virtual relaunch a number of bold experiments occurred: the most impressive of which was the first actual meeting of the monstrous stars of Marvel’s antihero title since they had won their own series.

Tales to Astonish #100, by Lee, Marie Severin and Adkins had Namor’s plan to recruit the Hulk as an ally go spectacularly awry when the Puppet Master fomented a near-disaster that almost levelled Miami in ‘Let There Be Battle!’, a tale that took 22 pages to unfold. The final issue of Astonish introduced a villain who would alter forever the perception of the Sub-Mariner. ‘…And Evil Shall Beckon’ by Goodwin, Colan & Adkins saw the antihero plagued by visions of a bestial foe who threatened his throne and people, drawing Namor to a confrontation in the Polar regions where the first Atlantis had been built…

For reasons never disclosed (and I shall charitably keep my assumptions private) the Golden Avenger and Prince of Atlantis both had to wait a month before getting their own first issues, necessitating one last split-book. Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1 (April 1968) carried the middle parts of two epics that each concluded in memorable debut issues, but the amphibian’s contribution ‘Call Him Destiny …or Call Him Death!’ by Thomas, Colan and Frank Giacoia, did no more than whet the appetite by revealing half an origin and seemingly killing the lead character.

Sub-Mariner #1 (May1968, by Thomas, John Buscema & Giacoia), however more than made up for the confusion as Namor’s true origin and the reason for his bouts of amnesia were explained by the super-telepath Destiny, as ‘Years of Glory… Day of Doom!’ recapped Sub-Mariner’s gloriously checkered past whilst setting up another epic quest that would prove amongst this venerable character’s very best. That however is the subject of another volume.

These tales feature some of Marvel’s very best artists at their visual peak, and although a few of the stories no longer bear a critical scrutiny, the verve and enthusiasm still shine through. A vicarious thrill and fan’s delight, this volume also includes a half-dozen pages of original art and covers, a map of Atlantis and two text pages recounting the history of Namor and his most prominent Atlantean co-stars. Many early Marvel Comics are more exuberant than qualitative, but this volume, especially from an art-lover’s point of view, is a wonderful exception: a historical treasure that fans will find delightful.

©1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Captain Britain and MI13: Vampire State


By Paul Cornell, Leonard Kirk, Mike Collins & others (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-439-3

There’s an old maxim of the industry that’s usually applied to war comics which goes something like this: when it’s for Britain it’s “how we won the War”, and when it’s for America it’s “how He won the War”,  which although obnoxious and rather insulting does illustrate a signal difference in approach and reader expectation.

It’s one that is most apparent in this final collection of the excellent superhero espionage thriller featuring a hodge-podge of Marvel’s UK-based champions. Although Captain Britain is the named lead he is one of the least used characters in the ensemble show, regularly yielding focus to team-mates such as mutant spymaster Peter Wisdom, sometime Avenger Black Knight, WWII veteran (and vampire) Spitfire, spirit of Albion Dr. Faiza Hussain and spooky “Big Gun” Blade the Vampire Slayer.

This time the multiracial, multi-species, multi-purpose super-team are faced with utter Armageddon as Count Dracula attempts to turn Britain into a homeland for vampires, using all his arcane resources and Marvel’s Nosferatu back-catalogue to supplement his ranks. It’s a great read for all but the added value for long-term fans – especially of those quirky Marvel UK creations – is immense as minor characters and forgotten folk literally litter every page.

Dark, shocking and completely compelling, this is the way all comics blockbusters should be handled: with wit and sensitivity to bolster the spectacle, and high concept body-count. This book collects issues #10-15 and the Annual wherein writer Paul Cornell has constructed a solid British war story utilising monsters and superheroes to superb collaborative effect, magnificently complimented by regular artist Leonard Kirk, Mike Collins Ardian Syaf, Adrian Alphona, Jay Leisten, Robin Riggs, Craig Yeung and Livesay. It is a pure backs-to-the wall excitement and the perfect end to a hugely underrated series.

Buy enough copies (and of previous collections Captain Britain and MI13: Secret Invasion and Captain Britain and MI13: Hell Comes to Birmingham) and there’s every chance of a comeback, no?

© 2009 Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. All Rights Reserved.