Marvel Superheroes – Page 56

April 13, 2016April 12, 2016

Annihilation Classic

By Todd Dezago, Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Marv Wolfman, Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo, Doug Moench, Scott Edelman, Roy Thomas, Derec Aucoin, Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Paul Ryan, Mike Mignola, Tom Sutton, Mike Zeck, Gil Kane & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3410-7

Annihilation was another of those company-wide publishing events that â€œChanged the Marvel Universe Foreverâ€ (and don’t they all?) which ran for most of 2006, involving most of the House of Ideas’ outer space outposts and cosmic characters. Among the stalwarts in play were Silver Surfer, Galactus, Firelord, Moondragon, Quasar, Star-Lord, Thanos, Super-Skrull, Gamora, Ronan the Accuser, Nova, Drax the Destroyer, Watchers and a host of alien civilisations such as the Kree, Skrulls, Xandarians, Shi’ar et al., all falling before a invasion of rapacious Negative Zone bugs and beasties unleashed by the insectoid horror Annihilus.

If you’re new to the Marvel universe and that bewildering list of daunting data didn’t leave you screaming in frustration, then please read onâ€¦

As is usual in these public thinnings of the herd, a number of good guys and bad died and had their trademark assumed by newer, glitzier models whilst some moribund careers got a successful and overdue shot in the armâ€¦

The event spawned a number of specials, miniseries and new titles, (subsequently collected as three volumes plus this Annihilation Classic compilation which reprinted key and origin appearances of some major players) and led to follow-up event Annihilation: Conquest. Of particular interest to fun-loving screen-watchers should be early appearances of Galaxy Guardians Rocket Raccoon and Grootâ€¦

This smart selection comprises of and contains pertinent material from Bug #1, (March 1997), Tales to Astonish #13, (December 1960), Nova #1, (September 1976), Quasar #1 (October 1989), Rocket Raccoon #1-4 (May-August 1995) Marvel Spotlight #6 (May 1980), Logan’s Run #6 (June 1977) and Marvel Premiere #1 (April 1972) and opens with the frenetic and light-hearted solo outing for Galactic Warrior Bug (originally a cheeky stalwart from the 1970’s toy-license phenomenon Micronauts)â€¦

Here in ‘Apples and Oranges’ by Tod Dezago, Derec Aucoin, Rich Farber & Ralph Cabrera, the insectivorid from the Microverse accidentally clashes with all-consuming cosmic menace Annihilus and gets stuck in a time/space warp.

Bounced around the history of the Marvel Universe, the warring weirdoes reveal their unheralded contributions to the origin stories of a number of the company’s greatest stars before Bug finally triumphsâ€¦

With accompanying pinup by Pat Broderick and hilarious game pages by Fred Hembeck including ‘Bug’s Brain -Tik- lers’, ‘The Help Bug Right the Time/Space Continuum Board Game’, ‘What’s Wrong with This Picture?’ and ‘Bug’s Catch-All Activity Page’, this is a splendidly engaging and irreverent treat, followed by an absolute classic of the gloriously whacky â€œKirby Kritterâ€ genre as a humble biologist saved earth from a rapacious walking tree in ‘I Challenged Groot! The Monster from Planet X’ (from Tales to Astonish #13 by Stan Lee/Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers).

Next to grab the spotlight is The Man Called Nova who was in fact a boy named Richard Rider. A working class nebbish in the tradition of Peter Parker – except he was good at sports and bad at learning – Rich attended Harry S. Truman High School, where his strict dad was the principal. His mom worked as a police dispatcher and he had a younger brother, Robert, who was a bit of a genius. Other superficial differences to the Spider-Man canon included girlfriend Ginger and best friends Bernie and Caps, but Rich did have his own school bully, Mike Burleyâ€¦

An earlier version, â€œBlack Novaâ€ had apparently appeared in the author Marv Wolfman’s fan-mag Super Adventures in 1966 (produced with fellow writer Len Wein), but with a few revisions and an artistic make-over by the legendary John Romita (Senior) the Human Rocket was launched into the Marvel Universe in his own title, beginning in September 1976, ably supported by the illustration A-Team of John Buscema & Joe Sinnott.

‘Nova’– which borrowed heavily from Green Lantern as well as Spider-Man’s origin, was structured like a classic four-chapter Lee/Kirby early Fantastic Four tale, and rapidly introduced its large cast before quickly zipping to the life-changing moment in Rider’s life when a star-ship with a dying alien aboard transferred to the lad all the mighty powers of an extraterrestrial peacekeeper and warrior.

Rhomann Dey had tracked a deadly marauder to Earth. Zorr had already destroyed the idyllic world of Xandar, but the severely wounded vengeance-seeking Nova Prime was too near death and could not avenge the genocide. Trusting to fate, Dey beamed his powers and abilities towards the planet below where Richard Rider was struck by the energy bolt and plunged into a coma. On awakening Rich realised he had gained awesome powers and the responsibilities of the last Nova Centurionâ€¦

Wendell Vaughn had debuted at the end of 1977 as SHIELD super-agent Marvel Boy in Captain America #217, graduating to Quasar during a stint as security chief of Project Pegasus during the early 1980. He finally got an origin with his own title Quasar #1 in October 1989. He learned ‘The Price of Power!’ courtesy of Mark Gruenwald, Paul Ryan & Danny Bulanadi in a stirring tale wherein he washed out of agent training for lack of a killer instinct. Whilst acting in a security detail Wendell donned alien quantum wrist-bands to stop them falling into the hands of AIM, even though they had vaporised every SHIELD operative who had test-piloted them. As well as not dying he gained incredible powers and began his brief but glorious career as Avenger and Protector of the Universeâ€¦

Rocket Raccoon was a minor character who appeared in brief backup sci fi serial ‘The Sword in the Star’ (specifically Marvel Preview #7 in 1976). He won a larger role in Incredible Hulk #271 (May 1982), and like Wolverine years before refused to go away quietly.

Reprinted here in its entirety is the 4-issue Rocket Raccoon miniseries (cover-dated May to August 1985 as crafted by Bill Mantlo, Mike Mignola, Al Gordon & Al Milgrom): a bizarre and baroque sci-fi fantasy which blended the charm of Pogo with the biting social satire of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, all whilst ostensibly describing a battle between Good and Evil in a sector of space completely crazy even by comicbook standards.

Rocket was one of many talking animals in the impenetrable, inescapable Keystone Quadrant; a Ranger in charge of keeping the peace as robots and anamorphic beasties went about their holy, ordained task of caring for the distinctly odd and carefree humans known as The Loonies on their idyllic, sybaritic planet Halfworld.

However when a brutal shooting war between voracious apex toymakers Judson Jakes and Lord Dyvyne led to Rocket’s girlfriend Lylla Otter being kidnapped, the planet went wild, or more accuratelyâ€¦ ‘Animal Crackers’.

In rescuing her, Rocket and his faithful deputy Wal Rus had to contend with a murderous army of mechanised Killer Clowns, face an horrific, all-consuming bio-weapon at ‘The Masque of the Red Breath’, and even team up with arch-foe and disreputable mercenary bunny Blackjack O’Hare before uncovering the horrendous truth behind the mad society he so tirelessly defended in ‘The Book of Revelations!’

The final chapter then shook everything up as ‘The Age of Enlightenment’ saw the end of The Loonies, allowing Rocket and his surviving companions to escape the confines of the eternally segregated Keystone Quadrant into the greater universe beyondâ€¦

Starlord (without the hyphen) premiered in monochrome mature-reader magazine Marvel Preview # 4 in 1976, appearing thrice more – in #11, 14 and 15 – during the height of a Star Wars inspired Science Fiction explosion.

Years previously, a warrior prince of an interstellar empire was shot down over Colorado and had a fling with solitary Earther Meredith Quill. Despite his desire to remain in idyllic isolation, duty called the starman back to the battle and he left, leaving behind an unborn son and a unique weapon. A decade later, the troubled boy saw his mother assassinated by alien lizard men. Peter Jason Quill vengefully slew the creatures with Meredith’s shotgun, before his home was explosively destroyed by a flying saucer.

The newly-minted orphan awoke in hospital, his only possession a â€œtoyâ€ ray-gun his mother had hidden from him his entire life. Years later his destiny found him, as the half-breed scion was elevated by the divinity dubbed the â€œMaster of the Sunâ€, becoming StarLord. Rejecting both Earth and his missing father, Peter chose freedom, the pursuit of justice and the expanse of the cosmosâ€¦

Here, from Marvel Spotlight volume 2 #6 Doug Moench & Tom Sutton revisit and clarify that origin saga as the pacifistic Quill and his sentient starship return to Sol and discover the truth about his nativity and ascension as well as the true nature of The Master of the Sunâ€¦

Logan’s Run was a short-lived licensed property tie-in and #6 incongruously featured a 5-page short starring mad Titan Thanos in battle against his precision-crafted nemesis Drax the Destroyer: a typically inconclusive out-world clash over ‘The Final Flower’ by Scott Edelman & Mike Zeck before this star-studded compilation concludes with an allegorical masterpiece by Roy Thomas, Gil Kane & Dan Adkins from Marvel Premiere #1.

During a time of tremendous social upheaval Thomas transubstantiated an old Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four throwaway foe into a potent political and religious metaphor. Debuting as a dreaded mystery menace, the character dubbed Him was re-imagined as a contemporary interpretation of the Christ myth and placed on a world far more like our own than the Earth of Marvel’s unique universe.

‘And Men Shall Call Himâ€¦ Warlock’ adroitly recapitulated the artificial man’s origins as a lab experiment concocted by rogue geneticists eager to create a superman they could control for conquest. After facing the FF, Him subsequently escaped to the stars and later initiated a naive clash with Thor over the rights to a mate before returning to his all-encompassing cocoon to evolve a little more.

Now that stellar shell was picked by the moon-sized ship of self-created god the High Evolutionary who was wrapped up in a bold new experiment. The hand-made hero observed as the evolutionary created a duplicate Earth on the far side of the sun, running through billions of years of evolution in mere hours. The man-god’s intent was to create a civilisation without aggression or rancour, but the Evolutionary collapsed from exhaustion just as proto-hominid became Homo Sapien and his greatest mistake took instant advantage of the factâ€¦

Years previously Man-Beast had been hyper-evolved from a wolf and instantly became his creator’s nemesis. Now he and his equally debased minions invaded the ship and interfered with the experiment: reintroducing evil to the perfect creatures below and, in fact, making them just like us. At incredible speed Earth’s history re-ran with the creature in the cocoon afforded a ring-side seat to humanity’s fall from graceâ€¦

When the High Evolutionary awoke and fought Man-Beast’s army, Him broke out his shell and helped rout the demons, who fled to the despoiled Counter-Earth. With calm restored, the science-god prepared to sterilise his ruined experiment: a world now indistinguishable from our own. No superheroes; disease and poverty rampant; injustice in ascendance and moments away from nuclear Armageddonâ€¦ but the cosmic newborn begged him not to.

He claimed the evil tide could be turned and begged the Evolutionary to stay his hand. The grieving, despondent creator agreedâ€¦ but only until the rechristened Adam Warlock should admit that humanity was beyond redemptionâ€¦

And this ends a magnificent compendium of genuine magical Marvel moments: an eclectic but hugely entertaining procession of thrills, spectacle and laughs no comic fan or interested neophyte could possibly resist.
Â© 1960, 1972, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1985, 1989, 1997, 1997, 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

February 29, 2016

Marvel Adventures: Thor â€“ Bringers of the Storm

By Tony Bedard, Jeff Parker, Louise Simonson, Shannon Gallant, CAFU, Rodney Buchemi, Jon Buran & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5197-5

Since its earliest days the company we know as Marvel always courted the youngest comicbook consumers. Whether animated tie-ins such as Terrytoons Comics, Mighty Mouse, Super Rabbit Comics, Duckula, assorted Hanna-Barbera and Disney licenses and a myriad of others, or original creations such as Millie the Model, Homer the Happy Ghost, Li’l Kids and Calvin, or in the 1980s Star Comics – an entire imprint for originated or licensed comics targeting peewee punters – the House of Ideas has always understood the necessity of cultivating the next generation of readers.

These days, however, general kids’ interest titles are all but dead and, with Marvel’s proprietary characters all over screens large and small, the company usually prefers to create child-friendly versions of its own proprietary pantheon, making that eventual hoped-for transition to more mature comics as painless as possible.

In 2003 the company instituted the Marvel Age line which updated and retold classic original tales by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko, mixing it in with the remnants of the manga-based Tsunami imprint, all intended for a younger readership.

The experiment was tweaked in 2005, becoming Marvel Adventures with the core titles transformed into Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man and reconstituted classics supplanting original stories. The tone was very much that of the company’s burgeoning TV cartoon franchises, in delivery if not name.

Additional Marvel Adventures series included Super Heroes, The Avengers and Hulk. These iterations ran until 2010 when they were cancelled and replaced by new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

This digest-sized collection re-presents some the yarns associated with – if not starring – the ever-popular Prince of Asgard, culled from Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes (volume 1) #7 & 11 and Marvel Adventures: The Avengers #5 & 15 – gathered to accommodate the Thunderer’s transition to the live-action silver screen in 2011.

If you’re of a slavish disposition continuity-wise, these epic illustrated Eddas all occur on Marvel’s Earth-20051 and begin with ‘The Trickster and the Wrecker’ – by Tony Bedard, Shannon Gallant & John Stanisci from Marvel Adventures: The Avengers #5 (November 2006) – with the Thunder God notably absent as a new team of Earth’s Mightiest tackle the insidious threat of someone who claims to be Norse god Loki for the very first time.

Although Captain America, Storm, Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-Man, Giant-Girl and Wolverine initially drive off the magical mischief-maker, they are subsequently unable to stop the trickster investing a crowbar-wielding petty thug with the blockbusting might of an unstoppable juggernautâ€¦

Next up are Jeff Parker, CAFU & Terry Pallot who introduce us to Thor in ‘Bringers of the Storm’ (Marvel Adventures: The Avengers #15, October 2006) wherein the team follow mystic ravens Hugin and Munin to Asgard to battle Malekith the Dark Elf and an army of Frost Giants to save the ensorcelled gods from petrification and slaveryâ€¦

As written by Louise Simonson, the final brace of tales are both starring vehicles for the Storm Lord emphasising humour as much as action.

‘Lip Service’ (Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes #7, March 2009 and illustrated by Rodney Buchemi) sees Thor in his mortal identity of Dr. Don Blake taking his beloved nurse Jane Foster and precocious kid to a herpetology show at the zoo. As if a clash with the cunning Cobra was not peril enough, the doughty hero is unaware that crafty Loki has hexed Jane’s lips in anticipation of the thunder god stealing a kiss that will change his life – and appearance – foreverâ€¦

The mythical madness then bombastically ends in ‘Fire and Ice’ (Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes #11, July 2009, with art from Jon Buran & Jeremy Freeman) as the trickster inveigles a young Frost giant to attack Thor on Earth before further stacking the deck with a crazed fire demon. The mischief-maker foolishly assumed that Giants are creatures without honour or morals and is foiled when the little colossus proves that even bad guys have lines they won’t crossâ€¦

Never the success the company hoped, the Marvel Adventures project was superseded in 2012 by specific comics tied to those Disney XD television shows designated as â€œMarvel Universe cartoonsâ€, but these collected stories are still an intriguing, amazingly entertaining and more culturally accessible means of introducing characters and concepts to kids born sometimes three generations or more away from the originating events.

Fast-paced, enthralling and impressive, these riotous super stories are extremely enjoyable yarns, although parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the violence might not be what everybody considers â€œAll-Ages Super Hero Actionâ€ and might perhaps better suit older kidsâ€¦
Â© 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 19, 2016February 18, 2016

Daredevil: Guardian Devil

By Kevin Smith, Joe Quesada & Jimmy Palmiotti (Marvel Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4143-3

Up until that moment merely an upstart wÃ¼nderkind film-maker who’d also written Pop Culture essays and a few Indy comics (Jay and Silent Bob, Clerks, Chasing Dogma, Bluntman and Chronic), Kevin Smith generated a lot of excitement when he was announced as writer of the Daredevil relaunch in 1998.

That translated into big sales when the comics finally appeared.

Unlike Frank Miller’s legendary tenures, Smith wasn’t about tearing down and rebuilding as much as shining light on dusty forgotten corners; reminding jaded fans just why they liked the character whilst presenting him afresh to new readers.

This edition of Guardian Devil comes from 2010; an anniversary re-release of Daredevil volume 2 #1-8 (November 1998-June 1999) and celebrating a key moment in one of Marvel’s most malleable stars as well as the launching of the prestigious Marvel Knights mature reader imprint.

‘And a Child Shall Lead Them All’ sets the game in play as the sightless swashbuckler reels from the news that long-time lover Karen Page has left him for a broadcasting job on the West Coast.

Six months later Matt Murdock is still coming to terms with being abandoned. Daredevil is marking time dealing with the criminal scum of Hell’s Kitchen when he takes Gwyneth under his wing. The fifteen year old has just given birth and gone on the run.

It’s not so much the fact that she’s being inexplicably, relentlessly pursued by the thugs who murdered her parents which make her so fascinating. It’s not even that she completely believes she’s undergone an immaculate conception and delivered the new Messiah. The truly hard to rationalise bit is that angels told Gwyneth to trust complete stranger Matt because he’s secretly Daredevilâ€¦

Gwyneth soon vanishes, leaving Matt in possession of the putatively holy infant. World-weary and flabbergasted he consults former partner the Black Widow in ‘The Unexamined Life’. At least she’s a woman and knows how to care for kidsâ€¦

Things take a sinister turn when incomprehensibly sinister Nicholas Macabes comes to the office with an astounding proposition. He also knows of Matt’s other life and, on behalf of an ancient benevolent organisation, politely requests the lawyer hand over the child. According to him, it is the Antichrist and as long as it’s alive evil and misfortune will grow in the world. He even gives the bewildered hero a crucifix to ward off harmâ€¦

Confused and bewildered, with his super-senses telling him nothing whilst his innate faith and logical advocate’s training war over the issue, Matt’s disorientation grows when Karen unexpectedly returns. She’s just been diagnosed with AIDSâ€¦

Tensions grow in ‘Dystopia’ when best friend Foggy Nelson is charged with murder. He’d been cheating on his fiancÃ©e with a client when she turned into a demon and he was only defending himself andâ€¦

As a frustration-wracked Man without Fear hits the rooftops and falls into a cunning trap, Karen receives a visitor. Macabe explains how the baby is responsible for all Earth’s increasing evils – including Karen’s condition – and her only hope of salvation is to kill itâ€¦

Daredevil meanwhile awakens in a white room, confronted by a demon named Baal who also has good and sound reasons to want the baby. Matt barely escapes with his lifeâ€¦

Pushed to breaking point, he deliriously reclaims the child from the Widow. Savagely brushing aside her probing questions and reminders that not all his enemies wear spandex or wave guns, Matt blunders through the night away from ‘The Devil’s Distaff’. Cripplingly unsure whether he should kill or shield the infant in his arms, Daredevil rages on and collapses on holy ground. A nun who is also his mother is thereâ€¦

And across town, cunning men realise their schemes are not progressing satisfactorily. Nicholas Macabes makes a decision and contracts the infallible assassin Bullseyeâ€¦

Restored to rationality by his brush with true faith, Daredevil leaves the child at the Clinton Mission Shelter to consult an expert in ‘Devil’s Despair’.

Sorcerer Supreme Stephen Strange learns a few pertinent facts after an interview with satanic overlord Mephisto and confirms that although the baby is clean of all evil taint, Matt himself is drugged to the non-functioning eyeballsâ€¦

Dashing back to the Mission, Daredevil finds nuns and volunteers alike have been brutalised by his most twisted enemy. In the horrific battle that follows Bullseye takes the infant and leaves the hero mourning the woman he loved most in the worldâ€¦

Emotionally shattered and tormented by memories of the good times, Matt stews, frets and finally fights back in ‘The Devil Divested’ as the sadistic mastermind behind a most malign endeavour gloatingly reveals himself, his convoluted plan and the Machiavellian hidden ally in ‘The Devil’s Demon‘ before launching one last all-out assault on the hero’s mind, body and conscienceâ€¦

When the dust settles and the bodies are all accounted for, nothing remains but recriminations, apologies and slow, painful attempts to regain the trust of betrayed friends during the ‘The Devil’s Deliverance’â€¦

Packed with guest-stars and illustrated with florid excess and potent appeal by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti, Smith’s tale combines stunning scenes of trademark action with a powerful emotional and ethical undercurrent. Tasking responsibility-obsessed Matt Murdock with the fate of all humanity whilst simultaneously conflicting him over the apparently utterly necessary destruction of an innocent was a truly diabolical idea which paid off with stunning effect.

Despite living day-to-day among monsters and magicians, the Man Without Fear was always the most rational of champions but these events cut straight to his primal core, affecting his deeply held Catholic beliefs, whilst challenging him – and us – to look at evil in another wayâ€¦

Guardian Devil is a perfect example of an inspired idea properly executed. Smith chooses to embrace all Daredevil’s long and quixotic history rather than re-tailor the hero to fit his vision, and the highly design-oriented art is garish but oddly appropriate to this moody tale.

And it’s still a devilishly great read.
Â© 2001, 2005, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 16, 2016

Siege: Mighty Avengers

By Dan Slott, Koi Pham, Neil Edwards & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4800-5

One of the most momentous events in Marvel Comics history occurred in 1963 when a disparate array of individual heroes banded together to stop the Incredible Hulk. The Avengers combined most of the company’s fledgling superhero line in one bright, shiny and highly commercial package. Over the decades the roster has continually changed, and now almost every character in their universe has at some time numbered amongst their colourful ranksâ€¦

More recently, Norman Osborn (the original Green Goblin) had, through various machinations, replaced Tony â€œIron Manâ€ Stark as America’s Security Czar: the â€œtop copâ€ in sole charge of a beleaguered nation’s defence and freedom, especially in regard to ultra-technological threats and all metahuman influencesâ€¦

On Stark’s watch a Superhuman Registration Act resulted in a divisive Civil War amongst the costumed community with tragic repercussions, but the nation and the world were no safer and the planet was almost lost to an insidious Secret Invasion by shapeshifting alien Skrulls.

After executing the Skrull leader on live TV, Osborn’s popularity skyrocketed, and when Stark was inevitably fired the former villain got his job. Slowly at first, Osborn began to exert overt control over America, instigating an oppressive â€œDark Reignâ€ which saw the World’s Mightiest Heroes driven underground.

To cement his position, he replaced the Avengers with his own hand-picked coterie of criminals and impostors. As well as heavy-handedly commanding all the covert and military resources of the USA, Norman now had his own suit of confiscated Iron Man armour and as Iron Patriot led his team of ersatz champions. On paper at least, the country should have been beyond any possibility of threat or harmâ€¦

Eventually however the madman’s reach exceeded his grasp and Founding Avenger Henry Pym reclaimed the hallowed Avengers name; forming his own squad of champions to restore both the team’s reputation and his own.

In the past the periodically unstable Dr. Pym had operated as Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath and Yellowjacket whilst fighting crime, disaster and injustice, but since the Skrulls killed his ex-wife Janet Van Dyne (she was actually only mutated and lost in another dimension: it’s comics and nobody dies forever) he’s been calling himself The Wasp in her honourâ€¦

Aided by the mystic machinations of Wanda Maximoff, the once-reviled Scarlet Witch, Pym reluctantly gathered a disparate group of veterans and neophytes under his banner. Former Young Avengers Stature and a juvenile Vision joined Quicksilver, Hercules, child prodigy Amadeus Cho, U.S. Agent and faithful butler Edwin Jarvis in a reorganised, revitalised gang soon augmented by robotic siren Jocasta. The steel seductress had been forcibly encoded with the lost Janet’s brain patterns and memoriesâ€¦

The things modern superhero comicbooks do best are Spectacle and Cosmic Retribution: the cathartic comeuppance of someone who truly deserves it.

This collection reprints the Mighty Avengers chapters of the epic, demi-Wagnerian Siege saga (#32-35, February to June 2010): selected portions of a vast publishing event which re-set and restored the traditional â€œStan & Jackâ€ Marvel Universe after a time of appalling political darkness.

These tales wrapped up the eccentric history of the ever-changing team and offered a welcome hint of a new dawn in the otherwise bleak and angsty world of Marvel’s costumed cohortsâ€¦

Osborn has been playing a deadly double game from the start. The Cabal is a loose and treacherous association of super-villains and outcasts comprising Norman, Asgardian Mischief God Loki, sorcerous gang-boss The Hood, mutant telepath Emma Frost, Taskmaster, Sub-Mariner and Doctor Doom.

Cracks began to show – both in the criminal conspiracy and Osborn himself – and some of the confederates started fast-tracking their own schemes, forcing Iron Patriot to promise to conquer Asgard for Loki. Doom then seceded from the group, prompting a disastrous battle between the hidden Masters of Evilâ€¦

At this time Asgard was displaced from its other-dimensional home and floating scant metres above the soil of Oklahoma. Using his position as Chief of Homeland Security Osborn manufactures an â€œAsgardian incidentâ€ and launches an all-out invasion on the Gleaming City, overruling the new American President to do so.

He finally overreached himself and led an unsanctioned assault on Earthly Asgardia (see Siege, Siege: New Avengers and Siege: Dark Avengers) when an army of outlawed heroes united to stop himâ€¦

Written throughout by Dan Slott and primarily illustrated by Koi Pham, this strand of the cataclysmic confrontation opens with ‘Mighty/Dark: The Real Deal’ (inked by Craig Yeung) as troubled Quicksilver writhes in guilt and frustration. He is with the squad only because his sister Wanda is a member, but so far she has managed to avoid every overture of the super-swift mutant as he hunts for her in their transdimensional Infinite Mansionâ€¦

He misses her again as she pops in to warn of a crisis on Earth and pops out again before he can corner her. Of course, nobody has informed peevish Pietro that Pym believes the Witch to be an impostorâ€¦

Arriving on Earth, the team happily ruins one of Osborn’s interminable press conferences. Iron Patriot is trying to put a positive spin on the fact that his Avenger team has failed to stop the Absorbing Man rampaging through radical energy research station Project Pegasus.

Scoring points is soon forgotten, however, as the berserk fugitive explodes out of the complex, having just acquired the reality-reshaping properties of a Cosmic Cubeâ€¦

‘Deus Ex Machinations’ sees the rival Avengers outfits agreeing to a most necessary truce and team-up to combat cosmic thug Crusher Creel, but even as the reality ripping fight ensues, Osborn is heading for the Cosmic Cube – and control of absolutely everything – with Pym determined to thwart himâ€¦

In the end brains win over infinite brawn and Pym even manages to psych out Osborn, forcing the demented demagogue into a surly, face-saving retreat. The day gets better and better after Pym returns to the Infinite Mansion. His patient research has finally uncovered who has been masquerading as the Scarlet Witch, but the Scientist Supreme has completely missed the fact that his 10,000 mass-produced Jocastas have been compromised by his most implacable enemyâ€¦

Armageddon approaches in ‘Pre-Siege Mentality’ (illustrated by Neil Edwards, Andrew Currie & Andrew Hennessy) as Loki tricks his brother Thor into attacking Pym’s Mighty Avengers. After a catastrophic conflict the unpredictable savant then destroys his own team by offering Loki a place on it and can’t understand why everybody else quits in disgustâ€¦

Pham & Yeung return to limn the last two issues beginning with ‘Salvation: Heir Apparent’ as agents of the Global Reaction Agency for Mysterious Paranormal Activity pop in to revoke Pym’s authority and end their relationship with the Avengers. Pym is already distracted by the malfunctions in his Jocasta units and when news of Osborn’s manufactured Asgard incident breaks he’s completely off-guard and unprepared for a resurgent Ultron to attack him with a legion of enslaved and comprised Jocastas as his murderous bridesâ€¦

With the metal marauders in complete control of the Infinite Mansion and eagerly hunting him, Pym takes his last faithful Jocasta and G.R.A.M.P.A. agents Ace and One-Eyed Jacquie into the trans-dimensional Underspace around the lost citadel and reveals his greatest secretâ€¦

‘Salvation: WWJVDD (What Would Janet Van Dyne Do?)’ discloses the fate of his former wife and only love: mutated into an ever-expanding living explosion of Pym-particles he has been secretly attempting to restore. It’s too much for the Jocasta-with-Janet’s-mind. Slighted and furious, she attacks the callous Scientist Supreme even as in Oklahoma, Pym’s Mighty Avengers answer the call to arms against Osbornâ€¦ and are cut down like chaffâ€¦

Ultron meanwhile believes he has finally beaten his despised creator, but Pym has one last card to play and one final trick to pull offâ€¦

And with Ultron temporarily forestalled, Pym rejoins the founding Avengers for the last battle against Osbornâ€¦ which occurs in the aforementioned Siege, Siege: New Avengers and Siege: Dark Avengersâ€¦

Fun, furious and fast-paced, this is a compelling but incredibly frustrating chronicle which deserves to be more than just a stepping stone to a greater epic. There’s no real ending, just a charge into danger, and that’s not really fair to the reader.

Nevertheless this is still a beautiful and powerful Fights ‘n’ Tights thriller full of fabulous incidents of character, suspense and adventure, all magnificently rendered by incredibly talented creators â€“ as further proved by Pham’s cover gallery and unfinished original art pages included as extras â€“ but the inescapable truth here is that this book is only half the story (at the very least) and will be all but incomprehensible to new and casual readers.

Caveat so very Emptor, my friendsâ€¦
Â© 2009, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 13, 2016February 12, 2016

Essential Marvel Two-in-One volume 4

By Tom DeFalco, David Michelinie, David Anthony Kraft, Jan Strnad, John Byrne, Doug Moench, Ron Wilson, Alan Kupperberg & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6284-7

The concept of team-up books – an established star pairing with or battling and frequently doing both â€“ with less well-selling company characters was not new when Marvel decided to award their most popular hero the same deal DC had long prospered from with Batman in The Brave and the Bold.

After the runaway success of Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up, the company repeated the experiment with a series starring bashful, blue-eyed Ben Grimm – the Fantastic Four‘s most iconic and popular member – beginning with a brace of test runs in Marvel Feature #11-12 before graduating him to his own guest-friendly title. This fourth and final economical, eclectic monochrome compendium gathers together the contents of Marvel Two-In-One #78-98 and 100 (the omitted #99 being a pairing with Space Knight Rom, no longer an active Marvel licensed property) plus Annuals #6 and 7, covering August 1981 to June 1983; a period which saw the clearly weary series and concept dwindle and die to make room for straight solo vehicle for the Thing.

The innate problem with team-up tales is always a lack of continuity – something Marvel always prided itself upon – and which writer/editor Marv Wolfman had sought to address during his tenure through the simple expedient of having stories link-up via evolving, overarching plots which took Ben from place to place and from guest to guest.

That policy remained in play until the end, and here sees the lovably lumpy lummox head to Hollywood to head-off a little copyright infringement in ‘Monster Man!’ by Tom DeFalco, David Michelinie, Ron Wilson & Chic Stone. The sleazy producer to blame is actually alien Xemnu the Titan and Big Ben needs the help of budding actor Wonder Man to foil a subliminal mind-control schemeâ€¦

Marvel Two-In-One Annual #6 by Doug Moench, Wilson & Gene Day then introduces ‘An Eagle from America!’ as old pal Wyatt Wingfoot calls the Thing in to help in a battle between brothers involving Indian Tribal Land rights which had grown into open warfare and attempted murder.

The clash resulted in one sibling becoming new superhero ‘The American Eagle’, hunting his brother and a pack of greedy white killers to the Savage Land, consequently recruiting jungle lord Ka-Zar before ‘Never Break the Chain’ sees Ben catch up to them and join in a cataclysmic final clash against old enemy Klaw, Master of Sound in ‘â€¦The Dinosaur Graveyard’â€¦

Marvel Two-In-One #79 reveals how cosmic entity ‘Shanga, the Star-Dancer!’ (DeFalco, Wilson & Stone) visits Earth and makes a lifelong commitment to decrepit WWII superhero Blue Diamond whilst in #80 ‘Call Himâ€¦ Monster!’ sees Ben risk doom and damnation to prevent Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze from crossing the line with a pair of cheap punksâ€¦

Extended subplots return in ‘No Home for Heroes!’ as Bill (Giant-Man) Foster enters the final stages of his lingering death from radiation exposure. Ben, meanwhile, has been captured by deranged science experiment MODOK and subjected to a new bio-weapon, only to be rescued by old sparring partner Sub-Mariner. Before long ‘The Fatal Effects of Virus X!’ lay him low and he begins to mutate into an even more hideous gargoyleâ€¦

Helping him hunt for MODOK and a cure are Captain America and Giant-Man. Their success leads to super-genius Reed Richards taking over Bill’s treatment, resulting in the Thing heading north in #83 to ‘Where Stalks the Sasquatch!’

The most monstrous member of Alpha Flight is actually radiation researcher Dr. Walter Langkowski, but his impromptu medical consultation obliquely leads to the release of malign Indian spirit Ranark the Ravager and a Battle Royale which quickly escalates to include the entire team in ‘Cry for Beloved Canada!’

‘The Final Fate of Giant-Man!’ came in Marvel Two-In-One #85 as Spider-Woman teamed with the Thing to tackle Foster’s arch-nemesis Atom-Smasher, after which ‘Time Runs Like Sand!’ offered an astoundingly low key landmark as Ben and the sinister Sandman had a few bevies in a bar and turned the felon’s life aroundâ€¦

Also included was a short, sharp comedy vignette wherein Ben and godson Franklin have to deal with a bored Impossible Man and his equally obnoxious kids in ‘Farewell, My Lummox!’â€¦

The FF call in Ant-Man Scott Lang when Ben is kidnapped in #87, helping the rocky rogue defeat a duplicitous queen in the ‘Menace of the Microworld!’ after which David Anthony Kraft and Alan Kupperberg join Chic Stone in detailing a ‘Disaster at Diablo Reactor!’ with Ben and the Savage She-Hulk countering the nefarious Negator‘s plans to turn Los Angeles into a cloud of radioactive vapourâ€¦

They then pit the Thing and Human Torch against deranged demagogues seeking to stamp out extremes of beauty, ugliness, weakness and strength in ‘The Last Word!’ before Jan Strnad, Kupperberg & Jim Mooney pit Spider-Man and Ben against time-bending chaos in ‘Eyes of the Sorcerer’. A new extended epic begins as DeFalco, Wilson & Jon D’Agostino reveal what lurks in ‘In the Shadow of the Sphinx!’

When mystic master Doctor Strange asks the thing to investigate a vision of Egypt, the bold battler falls into the clutches of immortal wizard The Sphinx who wants to recover his power-providing Ka-stone. On the voyage home Ben encounters robotic Avenger Jocasta, but not in time to stop her helplessly reviving Ultron in ‘This Evil Returningâ€¦!’ by DeFalco, Wilson & A. Sorted inkersâ€¦

When handmade hero Machine Man and his human assistants insert themselves into the crisis, they unexpectedly score a narrow win but not before ‘And One Shall Dieâ€¦!’ (DeFalco, Wilson & D. Hands)â€¦

Kraft, Wilson & Ricardo Villamonte then place a sympathetic and over-protective Ben in the path of Power Man & Iron Fist as they reluctantly hunt down a sad-sack fugitive the Thing has befriended in ‘The Power Trap!’ after which Kupperberg & Jon D’Agostino illustrate Kraft’s supernatural saga ‘The Power to Liveâ€¦ the Power to Die!’, wherein the Living Mummy helps Ben free his beloved Alicia from the glamours of an Egyptian sorcerer.

Marvel Two-In-One Annual #7 is a multi-starred battle bonanza with an Elder of the Universe visiting Earth determined to defeat the world’s greatest fighter in a boxing match. ‘And They Shall Call himâ€¦ Champion!’ by DeFalco, Wilson and inkers Bob Camp, Mike Esposito, Frank Giacoia, Dan Green & Chic Stone sees Ben improbably remain after Thor, the Hulk, Sasquatch, Wonder Man, Doc Samson, Sub-Mariner and Colossus all fall, not because of superior strength but simply because he won’t lie down when beatenâ€¦

Following immediately on, MTIO #96 depicts Ben hospitalised and gradually recuperating in ‘Visiting Hours!’ (Esposito inks). Every villain in town thinks it’s the perfect moment for payback and reputation-building but singly or collectively never considered that Ben’s superhero friends might objectâ€¦

In ‘Yesterdaze!’ (Michelinie, Wilson & D’Agostino), a lucrative offer from Hollywood lands Ben in a battle with dinosaurs that are definitely not special effects. Thankfully Iron Man is around to help minimise the carnage after which ‘Vid Wars!’ (Michelinie, Wilson & Giacoia) finds Mr Grimm and little Franklin transported to an alien realm where they are trapped in a planet-sized (nigh copyright-infringing) competition against vast, voracious Pac-Man like monstersâ€¦

As previously mentioned the penultimate team-up with Rom is not included here, so the series – and this collection – ends with a return to probably Marvel Two-In-One‘s greatest triumph.

Anniversary issue #50 took a powerful and poignant look at the Thing’s formative months as a monster outcast and posited a few might-have-beens. Following another failure by Mr Fantastic to cure his rocky condition, Ben stole the chemicals and travelled into his own past, determined to use the remedy on his younger, less mutated self, but his bitter, brooding, brittle earlier incarnation was not prepared to listen to another monster and inevitably catastrophic combat ensuedâ€¦

For #100, John Byrne, Wilson, Giacoia & Kevin Dzuban revisited the yarn as Ben returned to that timeline in ‘Aftermath!’ What he found was Earth in ruins. Because he had cured his alternate the world was later devastated when Galactus came to consume the planet. Here and now the last survivors of humanity are struggling for their lives against the minions of the fanatical Red Skull. Tormented by guilt, the Thing joins freedom fighter Ben Grimm in liberating the last of humanity from its greatest monsterâ€¦

Although the company’s glory-days were undoubtedly the era of Lee, Kirby & Ditko leading through to the Adams, Buscema(s), Englehart, Gerber, Steranko and Windsor-Smith â€œSecond Waveâ€, a lot of superb material came out the middle years when Marvel was transforming from inspirational small-business to corporate heavyweight.

This is not said to demean or denigrate the many fine creators who worked on the tide of titles published after that heady opening period, but only to indicate that after that time a certain revolutionary spontaneity was markedly absent from the line.

It should also be remembered that this was not deliberate. Every creator does the best job he/she can: posterity and critical response is the only arbiter of what is classic and what is simply one more comicbook. Certainly high sales don’t necessarily define a masterpiece â€“ unless you’re a publisherâ€¦

This closing compendium is packed with simple, straightforward Fights ‘n’ Tights meet, greet and defeat episodes: entertaining and exciting with no hint of pretension and no real need to swot up on superfluous backstory.

Even if artistically the work varies from only adequate to truly top-notch, most fans of Costumed Dramas will find little to complain about and there’s plenty of fun to be found for young and old readers. So why not lower your critical guard and have an honest blast of pure warts-and-all comics craziness? You’ll almost certainly grow to like itâ€¦
Â© 1981, 1982, 1983, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 10, 2016February 9, 2016

Sub-Mariner & the Original Human Torch

By Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, Rich Buckler & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9048-6

Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner is the hybrid offspring of a sub-sea Atlantean princess and an American polar explorer; a being of immense strength, highly resistant to physical harm, able to fly and thrive above and below the waves. Created by young Bill Everett, Namor technically predates Marvel/Atlas/Timely Comics.

He first caught the public’s attention as part of the elementally electrifying 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 monochrome Motion Picture Funnies, a weekly promotional giveaway handed out to moviegoers earlier in the year.

Quickly becoming one of the new 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 â€œBig Threeâ€ (the Torch and Captain America being the other two), 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 & Jack Kirby began reinventing comic-books in 1961 with Fantastic Four, they revived the forgotten amphibian as a troubled, semi-amnesiac, yet decidedly more regal and grandiose anti-hero, understandably embittered at the loss of his sub-sea kingdom which had seemingly been destroyed by American atomic testing.

He also became a dangerous bad-boy romantic interest: besotted with the FF’s golden-haired Sue Stormâ€¦

Namor knocked around the budding Marvel universe for few years, squabbling with assorted heroes such as Daredevil, the Avengers and X-Men, before securing his own series as part of â€œsplit-bookâ€ Tales to Astonish with fellow antisocial antihero the Incredible Hulk,

In 1988, as part of Marvel’s 50^th Anniversary celebrations, that phenomenal half-century of comicbook history was abridged, amended, updated and generally prÃ©cised by avowed fan and self-appointed keeper of the chronology Roy Thomas and his writing partner Dann Thomas who collaboratively commemorated the Avenging Son’s contribution in 12-part Limited Series miniseries The Saga of the Sub-Mariner. The saga was rapturously drawn by Rich Buckler.

Roy and Rich did the same with The Saga of the Original Human Torch – a 4-part series which ran from April to July 1990 – and both sides of the tempestuous coin are triumphantly tossed together in this splendidly all-encompassing, no-nonsense textbook of historic Fights ‘n’ Tights mythologyâ€¦

It all begins thousands of years ago with ‘A Legend a-Borning’ from The Saga of the Sub-Mariner #1 (November 1988) with Buckler inked by Bob McLeod. A short history of the sinking of antediluvian Atlantis and its eventual reoccupation by nomadic tribes of water-breathing Homo Mermanus follows. The water-breathing wanderers splendidly flourish deep in the icy waters, and their story leads to a certain American research vessel which sails into icy waters in 1920â€¦

Its depth-charging and icebreaking has horrendous consequences for the citizens of the depths and in response Emperor Thakorr organises a possibly punitive expedition. Instead his daughter Princess Fen uses experimental air-breathing serums to infiltrate the ship and forms a brief liaison with Captain Leonard McKenzie. They even marry but neither is aware that the voyage has been arranged by unscrupulous telepath Paul Destine who is drawn to the area by an uncanny device of ancient power and originsâ€¦

Whilst Destine is being buried under a catastrophic avalanche trying to excavate the artefact, a raiding party from Atlantis boards the ship and drags Fen back home. She believes her husband is killed in the attackâ€¦

Nine months later a strange, pink-skinned baby is born beneath the deep blue seaâ€¦

The story resumes years later with teenaged Namor experiencing prejudice firsthand as he plays with his blue-skinned chums and royal cousin Prince Byrrah. The passing of his callow years are interspersed with his grandfather’s disdain, his mother’s tales of the fabled â€œAmericansâ€ and the annoying girl Dorma who is always hanging aroundâ€¦

Every day seems to point out another way in which he differs from his people, such as his ever increasing strength, ability to live unaided on the surface and the wings on his ankles which give him the power of flight.

Life changes forever when the youngster is salvaging a sunken ship and shockingly encounters a brace of clunky mechanical men from the surface world doing the same.

In panic he attacks, severing the control cables which connect to a ship far above and proudly hauling them to Atlantis as a prize. For once grandfather is delighted: especially when the face plates are pried open and he sees dead surface-men within.

He’s ever more gleeful when Byrrah suggests Namor should go beard the Surfacers in their own realm to pay them back for the past destruction of Atlantis. Young, feisty and gullible, Namor sets off, ready to live up to his name which means ‘Avenging Son’â€¦

‘A Prince in New York’ spectacularly depicts the fantastic reign of terror and destruction Sub-Mariner wrought upon the city until distracted and talked down by plucky blonde policewoman Betty Dean. It then reveals how he learns to despise Nazi Germany’s maritime depredations before ‘A Fire on the Water’ details how New York Special Policeman the (original) Human Torch is deputised to stop him at all costsâ€¦

He never quite succeeds but the ongoing clash resulted in some of the most astonishing scraps in comics history. With the city almost wrecked by their battles Betty Dean again steps in to calm the boiling waters and the next chapter – inked by Richardson & Company – introduced the ‘Invaders!’ as Hitler incomprehensibly decides to eradicate Atlantis with depth charges and U-boats. The act of wanton hatred merely secures the Sub-Mariner’s fanatical aid for the Allied Powers.

With Thakorr wounded, the people elect Namor Emperor by popular acclaim before watching him swim off to crush the Axis and their super-powered servants. He fights with and beside the Torch, Captain America, Bucky, Spitfire and Union Jack. By the time the war is won and Namor returns to his realm, Byrrah and his crony Commander Krang have turned recuperating Thakorr against his interim emperor and Sub-Mariner finds himself banished. Only Lady Dorma’s impassioned intervention prevents the homecoming becoming a bloodbathâ€¦

With nowhere else to go Namor rejoins his surface superhero friends to create the post-war All-Winners Squad, before eventually being summoned home by his cousin Namora. Atlantis has been ravaged by air-breathing gangstersâ€¦

Seeking vengeance they team up with Betty for a short-lived crusade against criminals, madmen and monsters until again recalled to the rebuilt underwater kingdom.

Namor’s years away had gradually diminished his mighty hybrid abilities, but now-recovered Thakorr orders Atlantis’ greatest scientists to restore them so the Sub-Mariner can renew the Realm’s war against all surface-menâ€¦

Instead, Namor attempts diplomacy but his State Visit to the United Nations resulted in violent protests and the death of a bystander. He returns to his grandfather a bitter man, but still argues against war, no matter how hard General Krang and Byrrah urge itâ€¦

When Atlantis is wracked by seaquakes Namor leads a patrol to the polar cap above and discovers freshly-exhumed Paul Destine is responsible. The psychic had found a fantastic Helmet of Power which magnified his gifts exponentially and decided to test his new abilities on the closest population centreâ€¦

Enraged Namor’s physical might is useless against the tele-potent madman and in an instant Destine wipes his fishy foe’s memories and sends him to live as an amnesiac amongst the dregs of New York, blindly awaiting his future ‘Dark Destiny’ (McLeod inks)â€¦

The epic history lesson reaches the dawn of the Marvel Age decades later as ‘Rage and Remembrance’ recaps the epochal events after new Human Torch Johnny Storm restores the memory of a weary derelict and unleashes the rage of the Sub-Mariner once again. With his mind and most of his memories back Namor instantly heads home to find Atlantis razed and his people scattered. Blaming the humans, he launches a series of blistering attacks on the Fantastic Four whilst attempting to win the heart of the clearly conflicted Invisible Girlâ€¦

As months pass he discovers his people had relocated and rebuilt Atlantis. Namor is re-elected Emperor over the protests of Byrrah and betrothed to Lady Dorma, unknowingly earning the eternal enmity of Warlord Krang who has always wanted herâ€¦

His war against the surface-men continues, escalating into a brief invasion of New York, a turbulent alliance with the Hulk and clash with the ‘Avengers!’ (Mike Gustovich inks) which results in the revival of his now-forgotten Invaders comrade Captain Americaâ€¦

Sub-Mariner’s pointless sorties against mankind continue as he forcefully adds the X-Men and Magneto to his roster of enemies whilst still trying to take Sue Storm away from Reed Richards.

After repelling an invasion by sub-sea barbarian Attuma he softens and again attempts to gain official recognition for Atlantis. Whilst he is making his embassage, however, Krang seizes control of Atlantis. After battling Daredevil, Namor returns too his kingdom, deals with the usurper and more-or-less dials back his campaign against the surface. Sadly this peace is interrupted as Destine again strikes inviting the new monarch to a ‘Rendezvous with Destiny!’ (McLeod inks).

Time and events telescope from now on as ‘Losses in Battle’ rapidly traces Namor’s showdown with the mental maniac, alliance with the Inhuman Triton and battles with Plantman, Dr. Dorcas, Tiger Shark, the Thing and a host of others, as well a reunion with Betty Prentiss (nee Dean) and rise of the sinister antediluvian Serpent Cult of Lemuria which first devised the formidable Helmet of Power in eons past.

Also revealed is how Namor’s marriage to Dorma is thwarted by murderous Lemurian LLyra and his subsequent agonising first and last meetings with his fatherâ€¦

‘Blood Ties’ then details his meeting with and adoption of Namora’s teenaged daughter Namorita, clashes with Doctor Doom and MODOK, an alliance of Byrrah and Llyra and origins of the Defenders before ‘Triumphsâ€¦ and Tragedy!‘ (inked by McLeod & Co) brings us to a cameo-packed conclusion, relating Namor’s enforced alliance with Doom, admission into the Mighty Avengers and loss of two of his greatest lovesâ€¦

Although appearing a tad rushed, the writing is strong: offering fresh insights for those familiar with the original material whilst presenting the chronicles in an engaging and appetising manner for those coming to the stories for the first time. Moreover Buckler’s solidly dependable illustration capably handles a wide, wild and capacious cast with great style and verve.

Balancing the watery wonderment is the later and far shorter comics chronology of Sub-Mariner’s arch ally and favourite enemy as first seen in The Saga of the Original Human Torch.

It starts with ‘The Lighted Torch’ by Thomas, Buckler & Danny Bulanadi, which shows how the Flaming Fury burst into life as a malfunctioning humanoid devised by troubled and acquisitive Professor Phineas Horton. Instantly igniting into an uncontrollable fireball whenever exposed to air, the artificial innocent was consigned to entombment in concrete but escaped to accidentally imperil the metropolis until it/he fell into the hands of a malign mobster named Sardo.

When the crook’s attempts to use the android as a terror weapon dramatically backfired the hapless newborn was left a misunderstood fugitive – like a modern day Frankenstein’s monster. Even his creator only saw the fiery Prometheus as a means of making money.

Gradually gaining control of his flammability, the angry, perpetually rejected android decides to make his own way in the worldâ€¦

Instinctively honest, the creature saw crime and wickedness everywhere and resolved to do something about it. Indistinguishable from human when not afire, he joined the police as Jim Hammond, tackling ordinary thugs even as his volcanic alter ego battled such outlandish bandits as Asbestos Lady. Before long the Torch met Betty Dean when New York City Chief of Police John C. Wilson asked him to stop the savage Sub-Mariner from destroying everything. The battles are spectacular but inconclusive but only end after Betty intervenes and brokers a tenuous ceasefire.

Later, a brusque reunion with Horton sets the Torch of the trail of his creator’s former assistant Fred Raymond. Hammond is too late to stop Asbestos Lady murdering the Raymonds in a train wreck but adopts their little boy Toro who gains the power to become a human torch as soon as he meets the artificial avenger. The partners in peril become a team who set ‘The World on Fire!’; battling beside Namor in the Invaders for the duration of WWII.

They even play a major role in ending the conflict in 1945 when they storm a Berlin bunker and incinerate Hitler, before rising ‘Out of the Ashesâ€¦’ (inked by Alfredo Alcala) by battling Homefront hostiles, exposing Machiavellian android mastermind Adam-II who, with knowledge of the future, attempts to assassinate a group of strangers who would all eventually be Presidents of the USA. The Fiery Furies formed the backbone of the All-Winners Squad, battling maniacs and conquerors from tomorrow, continuing their campaign against crime long after their comrades retiredâ€¦

When a family crisis benches Toro, the Torch soldiers on with new sidekick Sun Girl until he returns. The reunion is destined to short and far from sweetâ€¦

The hot history lesson concludes in ‘The Flaming Fifties!’ (inked by Romeo Tanghal) as Jim Hammond bursts from a desert grave during a nuclear test explosion, revived from a chemically-induced coma mimicking death. His last memory was of being ambushed by gangsters and sprayed with a chemical which inhibited his flame and knocked him out. Blazing back to the ambush site he attacks his assailants and discovers four years have passedâ€¦

When they try the same solution again the compound no longer works on his atomically charged form and after a band of G-Men burst in the truth comes out. The Torch and Toro vanished in 1949 and when pressed the crooks admit to having got their chemical cosh from the Russians. More chillingly, they paid for it by handing Toro over to the Redsâ€¦

After spectacularly rescuing and deprogramming the Soviets’ flaming secret weapon, the Torch brings Toro home and they continue their anti-crime campaign against weird villains, Red menaces and an assortment of crooks and gangsters but before long tragedy again strikes as the atomic infusion finally reaches critical mass in Jim’s android body.

Realising he is about to flame out in a colossal nova, the Human Torch soars into the desert skies and detonates like a supernovaâ€¦

The pre-Marvel Age adventures of the Torch end here but devotees already know Jim Hammond was resurrected a number of times in the convoluted continuity that underpinned the modern House of Ideasâ€¦

This substantial primer into the prehistory of the Marvel Universe also includes a quartet of original art covers plus a brace of full-colour, textless covers.

Fast, furious and fabulously action-packed, this is a lovely slice of authentic Marvel mastery to delight all lovers of Costumed dramas.
Â© 1988, 1989, 1990, 2014 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

January 18, 2016January 17, 2016

Essential Amazing Spider-Man volume 7

By Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, Len Wein, Ross Andru, Sal Buscema, Gil Kane & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1879-4

After a shaky start in 1962 The Amazing Spider-Man quickly rebounded, soon proving a sensation with kids of all ages and rivalling the creative powerhouse that was Lee & Kirby’s Fantastic Four. Soon the quirky, charming, action-packed comicbook soap-opera would become the model for an entire generation of younger heroes elbowing aside the staid, (relatively) old costumed-crimebusters of previous publications.

You all know the story: Peter Parker was a smart but alienated kid bitten by a radioactive spider during a school science trip. Discovering he had developed astonishing arachnid abilities – which he augmented with his own natural chemistry, physics and engineering genius – the kid did what any lonely, geeky nerd would do with such newfound prowess: he tried to cash in for girls, fame and money.

Making a costume to hide his identity in case he made a fool of himself, Parker became a minor media celebrity – and a criminally self-important one. To his eternal regret, when a thief fled past him one night he didn’t lift a finger to stop him, only to find when he returned home that his guardian uncle Ben Parker had been murdered.

Crazed with a need for vengeance, Peter hunted the assailant who had made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known, finding, to his horror, that it was the selfsame felon he had neglected to stop. His irresponsibility had resulted in the death of the man who raised him, and the traumatised boy swore to forevermore use his powers to help othersâ€¦

Since that night the Wondrous Wallcrawler has tirelessly battled miscreants, monsters and madmen, with a fickle, ungrateful public usually baying for his blood even as he perpetually saves them.

The Amazing Spider-Man was always a comicbook that matured with – or perhaps just slightly ahead of – its fan-base and this seventh exceedingly enthralling monochrome compilation of chronological web-spinning adventures sees the World’s Most Misunderstood Hero through one of the most traumatic periods of his career.

By the time of these tales Lee’s hand-picked successor Gerry Conway was giving way to fresher authorial hands. Nevertheless, scripts continued to blend contemporary issues (which of course often feel quite outdated from here in the 21st century, Man!) with soap opera subplots to keep older readers as glued to the series as the outrageous adventure and bombastic battle sequences beguiled the youngsters.

Thematically, there’s further decline in the use of traditional crimes and gangsters, overwhelmed by outlandish villains, monsters and capers, but the most sensational advance was a super-science plot which would reshape the nature of the web-spinner’s adventures for decades to comeâ€¦

Nevertheless the Wallcrawler was still indisputably mainstream comics’ voice of youth; defining being a teenager for young readers of the 1970s, tackling incredible hardships, fantastic foes and the most pedestrian and debilitating of frustrations.

High School nerd Peter Parker had grown up and gone to college. Because of his guilt-fuelled double-life he struggled there too, developed a stress ulcer but found true love with policeman’s daughter Gwen Stacyâ€¦

This volume, spanning November 1974 to September 1976, collects Amazing Spider-Man #138-160, Annual #10 and incorporates team-up tales from Giant-Size Spider-Man #4-5. Eagle-eyed completists might notice the third Giant-Size issue has been omitted: that’s because there the Wallcrawler met Doc Savage and Marvel no longer hold the license to publish the magnificent Man of Bronzeâ€¦

With no particular fanfare the action opens with Conway still very much in charge as ‘Madness Meansâ€¦ the Mindworm!’ – illustrated by Ross Andru, Frank Giacoia & Dave Hunt – finds Parker relocating downmarket to Queens in time to encounter a macabre psychic parasite feeding of the denizens of the district. Then issue #139 introduces a bludgeoning brute with a grudge against J. Jonah Jameson on the ‘Day of the Grizzly!’ When Spidey intervenes he is beaten and handed over to the costumed crazy’s silent partner the Jackal who melodramatically reveals he knows the hero’s true identity. Even though Peter escapes his diabolical trap in ‘â€¦And One will Fall!’ the maniac flees and remains at largeâ€¦

A long-running comedy thread ends as the ridiculous Spider-Mobile ends up in the river, but the Wallcrawler barely has time to care as an apparently dead enemy returns in #141’s ‘The Man’s Name Appears to beâ€¦ Mysterio!’

Despite the psychological assaults escalating and Pete continually questioning his own sanity, the mystery is solved in ‘Dead Man’s Bluff!’ before Giant-Size Spider-Man #4 (April 1975 and inked by Mike Esposito) which sees an eagerly-anticipated reappearance of Marvel’s most controversial antihero in an expanded role.

‘To Sow the Seed of Death’s Day’ finds the Webslinger forced into one of the Punisher‘s cases when ruthless arms dealer Moses Magnum perfects a lethal chemical-weapon and begins testing it on randomly kidnapped victims.

Tracking down the monster in ‘Attack of the War Machine!’, the unlikely comrades infiltrate his ‘Death-Camp at the Edge of the World!’ before summary justice is dispensedâ€¦ as much by fate as the heroes’ actionsâ€¦

The Lone Gunman was created by Conway, John Romita Sr. and Andru; an understandably muted response to popular prose anti-heroes like Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan: the Executioner: the cutting edge of a bloody tide of fictive Viet Nam vets who all turned their training and talents to wiping out organised crime in the early 1970s.

Although one of the industry’s biggest hits from the late 1980s onwards, the compulsive vengeance-taker was an unlikely and uncomfortable star for comicbooks. His methods were always excessively violent and usually permanent. It’s intriguing to note that unlike most heroes who debuted as villains (Black Widow or Wolverine come readily to mind) Punisher actually became more immoral, anti-social and murderous, not less: the buying public simply shifted its communal perspective; he never toned down or cleaned up his actâ€¦

That same month in Amazing Spider-Man 143 ‘â€¦And the Wind Cries: Cyclone!’ saw Peter in Paris to deliver a ransom for the kidnapped Jameson and battling a hyper-fast French super-villain. The story was average but the real kicker was the overly-fond farewell casual chum Mary Jane Watson expressed: a kiss that finally shifted traumatised, depressed Peter’s thoughts from his beloved and recently murdered Gwenâ€¦

Conway, Andru, Giacoia & Hunt capitalised on the situation when Pete returned as #144 launched ‘The Delusion Conspiracy’ and #145 exposed a baffled girl’s confusion and terror at everyone’s reactions when she comes home and the entire world screams ‘Gwen Stacy is Alive â€¦and, Wellâ€¦?!’

With Gwen somehow resurrected and Peter on the edge of a breakdown, Aunt May was hospitalised just in time for another old foe to strike again in ‘Scorpionâ€¦ Where is Thy Sting?’, but the real kick in the tale was irrefutable scientific reports which proved the increasingly bewildered Miss Stacy was not an impostorâ€¦

Giant-Size Spider-Man #5 (July 1975, inked by Esposito again) offers a strange yet welcome break from the mental tension as ‘Beware the Path of the Monster!’ sees Parker despatched to Florida to photograph the macabre Man-Thing only to discover the lethal Lizard is also loose and hunting ‘The Lurker in the Swamp!’ It takes all the web-spinner’s power and the efforts of a broken man in sore need of redemption to set things right in the climactic conclusion ‘Bring Back my Man-Thing to Me!’â€¦

Back in the Big Apple for #147, Peter finds some answers as further tests prove Gwen is a clone – remember, this was new and cutting-edge stuff in 1975 – but all too soon he’s distracted by another foe bad-guy with a grudge and hungry to prove ‘The Tarantula is a Very Deadly Beast’ (Andru, Esposito & Hunt).

It’s all part of a convoluted revenge scheme and the hero is ambushed by a mesmerised Gwen at the behest of an archfiend as ‘Jackal, Jackal, Who’s Got the Jackal?’ at last shares some shocking truths about one of Peter’s most trusted friends before the Delusion Conspiracy explosively concludes with #149’s ‘Even if I Live, I Die!’ (Andru & Esposito).

Learning he and Gwen had been cloned by their biology teacher Miles Warren, the Amazing Arachnid has to defeat his alchemical double in a grim, no-holds-barred identity-duel, with neither sure who’s the real McCoy. The battles eventually results in the copy’s deathâ€¦ maybeâ€¦

That moment of doubt over who actually fell informs anniversary issue Amazing Spider-Man #150, as Archie Goodwin, Gil Kane, Esposito & Giacoia take the hero down memory lane and up against a brigade of old antagonists to decide whether ‘Spider-Manâ€¦ or Spider-Clone?’ survived that final fight, before new regular scripter Len Wein joins Andru & John Romita Sr. to launch a new era of adventureâ€¦

After disposing of his duplicate’s corpse in an incineration plant, Spider-Man finds time to let Peter Parker reconnect with his long-neglected friends. However a jolly party is soon disrupted as blackouts triggered by a super-menace lead the Wallcrawler into the sewers for a ‘Skirmish Beneath the Streets!’, resulting in our hero almost drowning and nearly being ‘Shattered by the Shocker!’ (Andru, Esposito & Giacoia) in the conclusive return engagementâ€¦

A moving change-of-pace tale sees a blackmailed former football star give his all to save a child in ‘The Longest Hundred Yards!’ (Andru & Esposito) but it is left to Spider-Man to make the computer-crook culprits pay, after which #154 reveals ‘The Sandman Always Strikes Twice!’ (art by Sal Buscema & Esposito) – but with little lasting effect – until murder-mystery ‘Whodunnit!’ cunningly links three seemingly unconnected cases in a masterful â€œBig Revealâ€â€¦

A long-running romance-thread resulted in the oft-delayed wedding of Pete’s old flame Betty Brant to reporter Ned Leeds, but the nuptials are interrupted by a new costumed crook in ‘On a Clear Day, You Can Seeâ€¦ the Mirage’ (Andru & Esposito), even as a sinister hobo who had been haunting the last few yarns came fully into the spotlightâ€¦

Much of the previous Essential Spider-Man volume was taken up with a protracted struggle for control of New York with Spidey and elderly May Parker caught in the middle. The devilish duel concluded with a nuclear explosion and the seeming end of two major antagonists but #157 exposed ‘The Ghost Who Haunted Octopus!’ when the debased long-limbed loon turned to Aunt May for his salvation.

With Peter in attendance, the many-handed menace seeks to escape a brutal ghost but their combined actions actually liberate a pitiless killer from inter-dimensional limbo in ‘Hammerhead is Out!’, leading to a savage three-way showdown with Spidey ‘Arm-in-Arm-in-Arm-in-Arm-in-Arm-in-Arm with Doctor Octopus’ to save the horrified Widow Parkerâ€¦

A new insectoid arch-foe debuted in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #10, courtesy of plotter Wein, scripter Bill Mantlo and artists Kane, Esposito & Giacoia as ‘Step into my Parlorâ€¦’ depicts obsessed Spider-hater Jameson hiring unscrupulous biologist Harlan Stilwell to create a tailor-made nemesis to eradicate the Wallcrawler.

Elsewhere that detested hero is breaking up a vicious hostage situation manufactured by psychotic Rick Deacon, but when the killer escapes and breaks into a certain lab he is rapidly transformed into a winged wonder-man hungry for payback on the web-spinner in ‘â€¦Said the Spider to the Fly!’

This copious compendium then concludes with the opening shot in an extended epic as a criminal inventor who is one of the web-spinner’s oldest enemies recovers Spidey’s ditched vehicle and tricks it out to hunt down its original owner if #160’s ‘My Killer the Car!’ (Wein, Andru & Esposito)â€¦

Despite some qualifications this is still a superb selection starring an increasingly relevant teen icon and symbol. Spider-Man at this time became a crucial part of many youngsters’ existence and did so by living a life as close to theirs as social mores and the Comics Code would allow.

Blending cultural veracity with glorious art whilst making a dramatic virtue of the awkwardness, confusion and sense of powerlessness most of the readership experienced daily resulted in an irresistibly intoxicating read, delivered in addictive prime time melodrama moments, but none of that would be relevant if the stories weren’t so compellingly entertaining.

The tales in this again proved Spider-Man was bigger than any creator and was well on the way to becoming as real as Romeo and Juliet, Sherlock Holmes or Tarzan.
Â© 1974, 1975, 1976, 2011 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

December 30, 2015December 28, 2015

Essential Captain America volume 6

By Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, Don Glut, Sal Buscema, Frank Giacoia & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5091-6

Created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby in an era of ferocious patriotic fervour, Captain America was a dynamic and exceedingly bombastic response to the horrors of Nazism and the threat of Liberty’s loss.

He quickly lost focus and popularity after hostilities ceased: fading during post-war reconstruction to briefly reappear after the Korean War: a harder, darker sentinel ferreting out monsters, subversives and the â€œcommiesâ€ who lurked under every American bed. Then he vanished once more until the burgeoning Marvel Age resurrected him just in time to experience the Land of the Free’s most turbulent and culturally divisive era.

He quickly became a mainstay of the Marvel Revolution during the Swinging Sixties but lost his way somewhat after that, except for a glittering period under scripter Steve Englehart. Eventually however he too moved on and out in the middle of the 1970s.

Meanwhile, after nearly a decade drafting almost all of Marvel’s successes, Jack Kirby had jumped ship to arch-rival DC in 1971, creating a whole new mythology and dynamics pantheon before accepting that even he could never win against any publishing company’s excessive pressure to produce whilst enduring micro-managing editorial interference.

Seeing which way the winds blew, Kirby exploded back into the Marvel Universe in 1976 with a promise of free rein, concocting a stunning wave of iconic creations (2001: a Space Odyssey, Machine Man, The Eternals, Devil Dinosaur). At the same time he was handed control of two of his previous co-creations – firmly established characters Captain America and Black Panther – to do with as he wished.

His return was much hyped at the time but swiftly became controversial as his intensely personal visions paid little lip service to company continuity and went explosively his own way. Whilst his new works quickly found many friends, his tenures on those earlier inventions drastically divided the fan base.

Kirby was never slavishly wedded to tight continuity and preferred, in many ways, to treat his stints on Cap and the Panther as creative â€œDay Onesâ€. This was never more apparent than in the pages of Captain America

This sixth Essential monochrome collection features the last contentious stories by â€œThe Kingâ€, before Kirby quit writing, drawing and editing the Sentinel of Liberty; abruptly returning the patriotic paragon fully to Marvel’s restrictively overarching interlinked continuity.

Gathered within are Captain America #206-229 (cover-dated February 1977 to February 1978) and Captain America Annual #4 plus a bonus crossover tale from Incredible Hulk #232.

At the end of the previous volume the Fighting American had saved the nation from a conclave of aristocratic oligarchs attempting to undo two hundred years of freedom and progress with their â€œMadbombâ€, visited another dimension and liberated its human abductee-inhabitants and spectacularly turned back an invader from the far future.

The non-stop nightmares resume here with Captain America and the Falcon #206 as ‘Face to Face with the Swine!’ (inked by Frank Giacoia) sees the Star-Spangled Sensation mistakenly renditioned to deepest Central America and toppling the private kingdom and hunting ground of psychotic sadist Comandante Hector Santiago, unchallenged monarch of the prison of Rio del Muerteâ€¦

Never one to go anywhere meekly, Cap escapes and begins engineering the brute’s downfall in ‘The Tiger and the Swine!!’ but soon finds the jungles conceal genuine monsters. When they exact primal justice on the tormentors, Cap’s escape with the Swine’s cousin Donna Maria down ‘The River of Death!’ is interrupted by the advent of another astounding â€œKirby Kreationâ€â€¦ ‘Arnim Zolaâ€¦ the Bio-Fanatic!!’

The former Nazi geneticist was absolute master of radical biology, dragging Cap and Donna Maria to his living castle and inflicting upon them a horde of diabolical homunculi at the behest of a mysterious sponsor even as the Avenger’s partner Falcon was closing in on his long-missing pal.

Indomitable against every kind of shapeshifting horror, Captain America battles on, enduring a terrible ‘Showdown Day!’ (with Mike W. Royer taking over the inking) whilst back home his girlfriend Sharon Carter uses her resources as SHIELD’s Agent 13 to trace wealthy Cyrus Fenton and expose ‘Nazi â€œXâ€!’ as the Sentinel of Liberty’s greatest nemesisâ€¦

With his time on the title counting down, Kirby ramped up the tension in #212 as ‘The Face of a Hero! Yours!!’ finds Zola preparing to surgically give the Red Skull Cap’s form, resulting in a cataclysmic clash which leaves the hero bloodied and blind, but ultimately victoriousâ€¦

With the hero recuperating in hospital, Dan Green steps in to ink #213 as ultimate assassin ‘The Night Flyer!’ targets the ailing Captain America at the behest of unfettered capitalist villain Kligger from the insidious Corporation, but inadvertently triggers the return of the victim’s vision in blockbusting – if abrupt – conclusion ‘The Power’ (Royer inks)â€¦

Reading slightly out of sequence here, Captain America Annual #4 ‘The Great Mutant Massacre!’ ends the Kirby contribution to the career of the Star-Spangled Avenger: a feature- length super-shocker which again eschewed convoluted back-story and the cultural soul-searching which typified the character before and after Kirby’s tenure.

It saw America’s Ultimate Fighting Man strive against humanity’s nemesis Magneto and his latest mutant recruits Burner, Smasher, Lifter, Shocker, Slither and Peeper. This riot of rampaging action and end-of-the-world wonderment pitted the Sentinel of Liberty against a Homo Superior hit-squad aiming to take possession of a super-powered being whose origins were far stranger than anybody could conceiveâ€¦

When Kirby moved on it left a desperate gap in the schedules. Captain America #215 saw Roy Thomas, George Tuska & Pablo Marcos remix the hero’s origin story for the latest generation with ‘The Way it Really Was!’: reiterating also the history of the heroes who also wore the red, white & blue uniform whilst Steve Rogers was entombed in ice and ending with our hero desperately wondering who the man beneath the mask might beâ€¦

For all that, #216 was mostly a reprint. With a framing sequence by Thomas, Dave Cockrum & Giacoia ‘The Human Torch meetsâ€¦Captain America!’ was written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Kirby & Dick Ayers, rerunning November 1963’s Strange Tales #114. It featured the return of the third of Timely Comics’ Golden Age Big Three – or at least an impersonation of him by the insidious Acrobat – in a bombastic battle romp.

Here’s a quote from the last panelâ€¦

â€œYou guessed it! This story was really a test! To see if you too would like Captain America to Return! As usual, your letters will give us the answer!â€ I wonder how that turned out?

‘The Search for Steve Rogers!’ by Thomas, Don Glut, John Buscema & Marcos began in #217 and with SHIELD’s record division, but the Falcon was soon distracted by a surprising job offer as Nick Fury, busy with the hunt for the Corporation, asked Cap’s partner to train the agency’s newest project: the SHIELD Super-Agentsâ€¦

These neophyte wonders consisted of Texas Twister, Blue Streak, Vamp and a rather mature Marvel Boy, but the team was already flawed and deeply compromisedâ€¦

Issue #218 saw Cap targeted by a Corporation agent and fed data which turned his legendarily-fragmented memory to his thawing from the ice. Heading north to retrace his original journey, Cap spent ‘One Day in Newfoundland!’ (Glut, Sal Buscema & John Tartaglione) and uncovered a secret army, an old foe and a colossal robotic facsimile of himselfâ€¦

In #219 ‘The Adventures of Captain America’ (Glut, Sal B & Joe Sinnott) reveals how, during WWII, the hero and junior partner Bucky were ordered to investigate skulduggery on the set of a movie serial about them and exposed special effects wizard Lyle Dekker as a highly-placed Nazi spy.

Now in modern-day Newfoundland that warped genius has built a clandestine organisation with an incredible purpose; revealed in ‘The Ameridroid Lives!’ (inked by Tartaglione & Mike Esposito) as the captive crusader is mind-probed and dredges up shocking submerged memories.

When he and Bucky were chasing a swiftly launched secret weapon at the end of the war, the boy died and Steve Rogers fell into the North Atlantic and was frozen in a block of ice until found and thawed by the Avengers. At least, he always thought that’s how it happened.

Now as the probe does its devilish work, Captain America remembers that he was in fact picked up by Dekker after the spy was punished by the Red Skull and exiled for his failures. Deciding to work only for his own interests, Dekker then attempted to transfer Cap’s power to himself and it was only in escaping the original Newfoundland base that Rogers crashed into the sea and frozeâ€¦

Now decades later, the vile scheme is finally accomplished: Cap’s energies are replicated in a fifteen foot tall super-android with the aging Dekker’s consciousness permanently embedded in its metal and plastic brain.

â€¦And only then does the fanatic realise he’s made himself into a monster at once unique, solitary and utterly apart from humanityâ€¦

The deadline problems still hadn’t eased and this episode is chopped in half with the remainder of the issue giving Falcon a short solo outing as ‘â€¦On a Wing and a Prayer!’ by Scott Edelman, Bob Budiansky & Al Gordon finds the Pinioned Paladin hunting a mad archer who has kidnapped his avian ally Redwingâ€¦

The remainder of the Ameridroid saga appears in Captain America #221 as Steve Gerber and David Kraft co-script ‘Cul-De-Sac!’, wherein the marauding mechanoid is finally foiled by reason not force of arms whilst ‘The Coming of Captain Avenger!’ (Edelman, Steve Leialoha & Gordon) provides another space-filling vignette with former sidekick Rick Jones being given a tantalising glimpse of his most cherished dreamsâ€¦

Issue #222 sees Gerber fully in the writer’s seat as ‘Monumental Menace!’ (by Sal B, Tartaglione & Esposito) as â€œThe Search for Steve Rogersâ€ storyline moves to Washington DC.

As our hero examines army records at the Pentagon, the Corporation’s attempts to destroy him become more pronounced and bizarre. After escaping an animated, homicidal Volkswagen Steven Grant Rogers learns at last that he was once the son of a diplomat and lost a brother at Pearl Harbor (all these revelations were later rather ingeniously retconned out so don’t worry about spoilers). Soon however events spiral and Liberty’s Sentinel is attacked by the Lincoln Memorial, sacrilegiously brought to lethal lifeâ€¦

The madness continues as the hulking, monstrous horror responsible screams ‘Call Me Animus’ before unleashing a succession of blistering assaults which result in hundreds of collateral casualties before being finally repulsedâ€¦

The epic is again interrupted as Peter Gillis, Mike Zeck, Esposito & Tartaglione contrive a thrilling mystery with a battered Cap awakening in a river with partial amnesia and a new face. Forced to find out what happened to him, the sinister trail leads to guest-villains Senor Suerte and Tarantula in ‘Saturday Night Furor!’â€¦

The Search Saga resumes in #225 as ‘Devastation!’ (Gerber, Sal Buscema, Esposito & Tartaglione) as Fury gives Captain America access to incarcerated mind-master Mason Harding (inventor of the â€œMadbombâ€,as seen in Essential Captain America volume 5) who uses his embargoed technology to unseal the Avenger’s closed memories at long lastâ€¦

Sadly the cathartic shock has terrifying repercussions: although Rogers regains many memories, the mind machines somehow denature the Super-Soldier serum in his blood and he is forced to ask ‘Am I Still Captain America?’ when his perfect warrior’s frame reverts to the frail, sickly mess it used to be.

New scripter Roger McKenzie begins his superb run of tales – with Sal B, Esposito & Tartaglione still illustrating – as SHIELD puts all its resources into restoring the One Man Army but is suddenly brought low by an invasion of body-snatching Red Skulls.

Back in fighting trim, the incursion is repelled by the resurgent Patriotic Paragon in ‘This Deadly Gauntlet!’ but the aftermath sees the too-often compromised Peacekeeping agency mothball many of its facilities. During the closure and destruction of the Manhattan branch, Cap is ambushed by the Constrictor in #228’s ‘A Serpent Lurks Below’ and subsequently gets his first real lead on the Corporationâ€¦

The trail leads back to Falcon and the Super Agents, and with ‘Traitors All About Me!’ the Cap exposes the rotten apples working for Kligger – and another enemy force – leading to a spectacular ‘Assault on Alcatraz!’ (McKenzie, Roger Stern, Sal Buscema & Don Perlin) to rescue hostage friends and end the Corporation’s depredations in Captain America #230â€¦

While this solely unfolding epic was entertaining readers here, fans of the Hulk were reading of equally shady shenanigans in his title (and Kirby’s Machine Man) where the Corporation’s West Coast Chief Curtiss Jackson was ruthlessly enacting his own perfidious plans. This volume concludes as parallel plotlines converge into a bombastic action-extravaganza as the crossover conclusion from Incredible Hulk #232. ‘The Battle Below’ by Stern, David Michelinie, Sal Buscema & Espositoâ€¦

The King’s commitment to wholesome adventure, breakneck action and breathless wonderment, combined with his absolute mastery of the comic page and unceasing quest for the Next Big Thrill, always make for a captivating read and this stuff is as good as any of his post Fourth World stuff. However, it does make the collection a bit of a double-edged treat. Engaging and impressive as the last two thirds of this volume is, the stories are worlds away in style, form and content from the perfect imaginative maelstrom of Kirby at his creative peak.

Not better but very, very different.

You can hate one and love the other, but perhaps it’s better to try to appreciate each era on its own meritsâ€¦

Fast-paced, action-packed, totally engrossing fights ‘n’ tights masterpieces no fan should ignore and above all else, fabulously fun tales of a true American Dreamâ€¦
Â© 1977, 1978, 1979, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

December 7, 2015December 3, 2015

Mighty Avengers volume 3: Secret Invasion Book 2

By Brian Michael Bendis, Koi Pham, Stefano Caselli, Carlo Pagulayan, Lee Weeks, Jim Cheung, Danny Miki, Allen Martinez, Andy Lanning, Jeffrey Huet & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3650-7

The Skrulls are shape-shifting aliens who’ve bedevilled Earth ever since Fantastic Four #2 to become a pernicious cornerstone of the Marvel Universe. After years of humiliation and constant defeat, the metamorphic malcontents finally hit on a winning plan and to this end gradually and methodically replaced a number of key Earth denizens – most notably metahumans and their friends.

When the plot of the Secret Invasion (a colossal braided crossover which ran throughout all Marvel’s titles from Spring to Christmas in 2008) was first uncovered it led to a confrontation between Earth’s champions and a Skrull starship full of what appeared to be old comrades; many of whom had been accounted dead for years.

Were they truly escaped humans or yet another army of newly undetectable Super-Skrulls?

With no defender of the Earth knowing who to trust the planet almost fell to a determined massed onslaughtâ€¦

Most worrisome is the fact that the cosmic charlatans have recently unravelled the secrets of Terran magic and genetic superpowers, creating amped-up equivalents of Earth’s mightiest. They are now primed and capable of defeating the world’s champions in face-to-face confrontations.

This fear-fomenting fourth volume – scripted as ever by Brian Michael Bendis – reprints Mighty Avengers #16-20 (September 2008-February 2009), offering more insights into the slow progress of the invidious infiltration.

The slow-burning saga really began when New Avenger Spider-Woman seemingly switched sides to bring Stark the corpse of a Skrull impersonating ninja assassin Elektra.

The Arachnid Amazon’s own team – outlawed by Stark’s diktat and fighting crime as illegal resisters of the government’s Super-Human Registration Act – believed they could handle the prospect and (rightly) feared Stark and his squad might also be compromised with alien shapeshifters. Jessica Drew – a triple agent simultaneously working for SHIELD, Hydra and Nick Fury as well as the rebel Avengers – felt however, that only by going to America’s Security Director could the situation be successfully handledâ€¦

Stark kept the creepy cadaver undercover and invited Drew to join his team in hopes that her presence might cause any Skrulls in his squad to betray themselves. However, no sooner had Stark officially welcomed Jessica into the squad over their very strident protests than it all kicked off â€¦

Now Khoi Pham & Danny Miki illustrate the revelatory, cataclysmic clash which led to the human Elektra’s apparent demise and how her killer took over the criminal ninja cult The Hand. They follow up an issue later as a battalion of SHIELD agent-shaped Skrulls hunt one of their own. In the wilds of rural America the quarry fights manically to escape since his psychological deep-conditioning – used to protect the infiltrators from telepathic discovery – overwhelms the totally entrenched invader, making him believe he is the Avenger he mimicsâ€¦

Next up Stefano Caselli limns another sidebar as Nick Fury assembles his Secret Warriors Hellfire, Phobos, Stonewall, Yo Yo, the Druid and Quake, putting them through torturous final training before despatching them to kidnap/save SHIELD’s head honcho Maria Hill just as the Secret Invasion goes terrifyingly publicâ€¦

‘Back from the Dead?’ (Pham, Miki & Allen Martinez) then trains our attention on Thunderbolts HQ (a prison where super-criminals can join a covert government penal battalion to mitigate or reduce their jail sentences) as Kree captive Noh-Varr reacts with shock at the news that fallen legend and universal saviour Captain Mar-Vell has returned from the dead, just in time to be ambushed by a flight of murderous Super-Skrullsâ€¦

The displace neophyte and ancestral enemy of the scurrilous shapeshifters is naturally suspicious and doesn’t know how to reactâ€¦

‘Epilogue’ by Carlo Pagulayan, Lee Weeks, Jim Cheung & Jeffrey Huet brings the in-filling episodes to an end in the aftermath of Earth’s bitter, hard-won victory as one emotionally-shattered, memory-taunted Founding Avenger prepares to bury the boon companion who saved the world and paid the ultimate price.

It would be hard enough even if he wasn’t trying to absorb the cacophony of terrible events which occurred in the relatively brief time he was a Skrull prisonerâ€¦

Rather than give too much away, let me just say that if you like this sort of thing you’ll love these yarns and a detailed familiarity is not crucial to your understanding. However, for a complete experience, you will want to see the other 22 â€œSecret Invasionâ€ volumes that accompany this one, although at a pinch you could get by with only the key collection Secret Invasion. It contains the 8-issue core miniseries, one-shot spin-off â€œWho Do You Trust?â€ and illustrated textbook â€œSkrullsâ€, which claims to provide a listing and biography for every shape-shifter yet encountered in the Marvel Universe (but if they left any out, who could tell?).

With another tranche of superb pastiche covers by Aleksi Briclot & Marko Djurdjevic, this rollercoaster ride not only wraps up one crossover event but leads directly into the next one; a Dark Reign which is a tale for another time and placeâ€¦

December 3, 2015December 2, 2015

Mighty Avengers volume 3: Secret Invasion Book 1

By Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, Koi Pham, John Romita Sr., Danny Miki, Klaus Janson, Tom Palmer & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3010-9

Following the divisive and brutal superhero Civil War, Tony Stark (a staunch advocate of the draconian, nigh-totalitarian Super-Human Registration Act) formed a squad of Government-sanctioned heroes. His SHIELD-backed Mighty Avengers were designed to take care of business whilst he worked on his â€œFifty States Initiativeâ€, the objective of which was to eventually field teams of federally trained and licensed superheroes in every State of the Union.

Firstly, though, he had to restore public confidence, especially as the unregistered, rogue New Avengers continued to defy his orders to surrender to government authority: saving lives and crushing evil without his permission. Things never seemed to go Stark’s way however, and a series of catastrophic crises led inexorably to Earth succumbing to alien infiltration and conquest.

This seditious third volume is written throughout by Brian Michael Bendis and gathers Mighty Avengers #12-15 (June-August 2008), re-presenting some of the opening sallies in the major event dubbed Secret Invasion wherein the torturously unfolding plan by the shapeshifting Skrulls finally turns into a red-hot shooting war.

Since Fantastic Four #2 (January 1961), the Skrulls have been a pernicious cornerstone of the Marvel Universe. After decades of frustrating failure, the insidious intergalactic infiltrators were finally made the stars of a colossal braided crossover which ran from Spring to Christmas 2008 throughout all the company’s titles.

The premise? The aliens’ former all-encompassing empire had been crippled and scourged by a devastating catastrophe which destroyed much of their star-spanning power. Consequently the survivors underwent a mass fundamentalist-religious conversion: utterly resolved and dedicated to make Earth their new homeworld – just as their ancient scriptures foretoldâ€¦

To this end they imperceptibly replaced a number of Earth denizens – mostly superheroes, villains and/or their close associates. When the plot was finally exposed no defender of the Earth truly knew who was on their sideâ€¦

Moreover, the Skrulls had also unravelled the secrets of Earth magic and humanity’s unique genetics, creating legions of amped-up equivalents to the world’s mightiest heroes and villains. During this period they hid amongst us, primed and waiting to destroy mankind’s champions in head-to-head confrontations.

Not all Skrulls were fanatics however. Earth also harboured a few carefully hidden dissidents opposed to the new regime and non-fanatics simply unwilling to get properly involvedâ€¦

The mysteries start to unravel in the ‘The Awakening’ from #12-13 (illustrated by Alex Maleev) where a fugitive and closeted Nick Fury – on the run for manipulating an Avengers squad into attacking the sovereign state of Latveria – discovers his current squeeze is actually a shapeshifting alien. Taking the appropriate steps, he sneaks back into SHIELD to warn his replacement Maria Hill that she can trust no-oneâ€¦

Always playing a deeply convoluted game, he then contacts Spider-Woman – his mole in the Avengers, SHIELD and Hydra – to warn her of Skrull infiltration before activating his own plan B, gathering his long-cached cadre of super-powered non-entities and agents never on anybody’s radar. Then he sets all the pieces tumbling into turbulent motionâ€¦

The untitled issue #15 – illustrated by Khoi Pham & Danny Miki – returns focus to Stark’s Mighty Avengers team (field leader Ms. Marvel, Black Widow, Wonder Man, the Wasp, Sentry and Grecian war god Ares), all blithely going about their heroic business unaware that trusted major-domo Edwin Jarvis has been replaced by a high-ranking Skrull.

When the revelation day at last arrives the treacherous insider instigates a chilling plan to take incomprehensibly powerful superman Sentry out of action by attacking his mind and those he loves mostâ€¦

The campaign of terror concludes with a chilling flashback illustrated by John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson & Tom Palmer, revealing how a dedicated proponent of the Super-Human Registration Act, a key component of Iron Man’s Fifty States Initiative and Founding Avenger was long ago replaced by a Skrull. What that augurs for humanity, only the coming weeks and months can tellâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

With covers by Marko Djurdjevic and Bendis’ full script for issue #12 this slim tome offers another slick and stylish slice of breathtaking all-action entertainment which adds depth and weight to the impressive and appealing Secret Invasion main event but also reads perfectly well on its own merits.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: