Category: Marvel Superheroes

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Thor: Siege Aftermath


By Kieron Gillen, Richard Elson & Doug Braithwaite with Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Neal Adams & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4638-4

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

The series grew from formulaic beginnings battling aliens, commies and cheap thugs into a vast, breathtaking cosmic playground for Kirby’s burgeoning imagination with Journey into Mystery inevitably becoming the Mighty Thor where, after years of bombastic adventuring, the peculiarities and inconsistencies of the Don Blake/Thor relationship were re-examined and finally clarified to explain how the immortal godling could also be locked within frail Don Blake.

The epic saga took the immortal hero back to his long-distant youth and finally revealed that the mortal surgeon was no more than an Odinian construct designed to teach the Thunder God humility and compassion…

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

In 1998 Heroes Return and Heroes Reborn saw those properties rejoin the greater Marvel Universe, relaunched in brand new first issues with the Thunder God reappearing a few weeks later.

After many phenomenal adventures the second volume concluded with issues #84-85 (November-December 2004) which once-and-for-all depicted the Really, Truly, We Mean It End of the Gods and Day of Ragnarok as Thor himself instigated the final fall to end a ceaseless cycle of suffering and destruction, ultimately defeating the ruthless beings who had manipulated the inhabitants of Asgard since time began…

You can’t keep a profitable property down or a great comics character unresurrected, so he was reborn again as a mysterious voice summoned Thor back to life – and Earth (us fans call it Midgard) – in a crack of spectacular thunder. Revived for an unspecified purpose the solitary Lord of Asgard swiftly set about retrieving the souls of his fellow godlings, all scattered and hidden inside human hosts and set up Asgard on Earth a few paltry feet above the ground of Broxton, Oklahoma…

As this small, simple community with some intriguing neighbours increasingly became the focus of cosmic events, expatriate big city doctor Don Blake was corporeally merged with Thor and became the mortal host for the God of Thunder…

What you need to know: trickster god Loki is dead but his legacy of malign machinations continues to affect the earthbound Asgardians as they begin to rebuild their devastated city following an appalling assault by the massed forces of out-of-control American Security Czar Norman Osborn in Siege…

Balder the Brave is the latest leader of the displaced deities but the populace is far from united behind him, with factions forming advocating the accession of Thor or his brother Tyr, God of War. Neither blood-son of lost Odin wants the job or feels worthy of the throne…

When Asgard materialised on Earth, the afterlife realms of Hel and Valhalla were displaced and Hela, caretaker of the dead, allowed Loki to broker a deal which sublet a portion of Mephisto‘s Hell as a home for the wandering Norse dead. Hela feared her phantom charges would become prey to an ancient pre-Asgardian horror which consumed the spirits of fallen heroes, but she was unaware that the dire Disir were also pawns of the turbulent, troubled God of Evil who was her father…

Nor was she privy to the fact that, to seal the deal, Loki had given Mephisto mastery of the voracious, vile and utterly debased Dead-eaters…

Collecting issues #611-614 of Thor (from August to November 2010), this grim fury tale of Hells without a Heaven also includes a classic 3-part saga of Asgardians in the Underworld first seen in Thor #179-181 at the end of the 1960s.

‘The Fine Print’ consists of four chapters scripted by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Richard Elson & Doug Braithwaite and begins with Thor, Balder and Tyr officiating at a mass pyre for the hundreds who fell in defence of Asgard and Broxton. Meanwhile in Mephisto’s blazing inferno, lesser demons ousted from their hellish lands prepare to oust Hela and her transplanted Hall of Heroes, but are completely eradicated by the Disir – despised proto-Valkyries who served primordial god Bor until they acquired a taste for the flesh and souls of fallen warriors and were condemned for all eternity.

Simply to speak their communal name summons them from eternity to kill and consume. As none has done so in an age, most Asgardians believe them to be myth…

Now, with upheaval in the Realms of the Gods, the horrors are free to sate their insatiable hungers, first upon the demon armies and after on the hallowed Asgardian dead. First, however, they must gain the sanction of their new master Mephisto.

The arch deceiver won’t say yes – but he doesn’t say no either…

When the “Ever-Hungry Ones” raid Valhalla, the only place Hela can turn is to the living world where hopefully flesh and blood still honours the sanctity of the fallen…

In Asgard, Balder is uneasy with his stewardship and seeks comfort in the wisdom of weather goddess Kelda Stormrider, who sacrificed so much – including her mortal beloved Bill and briefly her own life – to defend the kingdom. He is completely unaware what Loki’s magics have made of her now…

When Hela materialises amongst the ashes of the recent dead and begs for aid, she is naturally rebuffed until one foolhardy warrior utters the forbidden name of the damned and is instantly rent to shreds by the terrifying harpies…

Rather than kill them all, Brün of the Disir leaves with a warning: her kind prefers meals seasoned by life’s ending and would prefer to dine on souls that have expired. After all, they are patient and have all the time in the world…

With the weakened Hela only able to carry two warriors, Thor and Tyr ignore their suspicious misgivings and return with her to rescue their departed friends and family. The War God goes with Hela to defend the embattled shades of Valhalla whilst the Thunderer prepares to fight his way across all Hell in search of the sword Eir-Gram, forged by Loki through despicable rite and ritual and the only weapon capable of harming Disir…

The puissant blade is lodged in Mephisto’s Great Hall but Thor wisely chooses to force his way to it rather than accept a sly offer of assistance from the Tempter to simply collect it…

Ferocious, grandly scaled, truly epic and astoundingly clever, this is a superb tale of operatic tone and proportions, full of twists and turns and surprises that adds volumes to the modern mythology of the Thunder God and will delight fans of comics and the cosmic.

This dark and brutal tome continues with a masterful changing of the guard and sign of the times which originally appeared in Thor #179-181, August to October 1970.

In #179 ‘No More the Thunder God!’ saw Thor, Sif and Balder dispatched to Earth to arrest Loki. This story was Kirby’s (and inker Vince Colletta’s) last: the entire vast unfolding new mythology was left on an artistic cliffhanger as the Thunder God was ambushed by his wicked step-brother who used infernal magic to trade places with his shining-souled half-brother…

By switching bodies, the Lord of Evil gained safety and the power of the Storm whilst Thor was doomed to endure whatever punishment Odin decreed…

‘When Gods Go Mad!’ introduced the totally different style of Neal Adams to the mix, inked by the comfortably familiar Joe Sinnott, as the true Thunder God was sent to Hell and the tender mercies of Mephisto, whilst on Earth Loki used his brother’s body to terrorise the UN Assembly and declare himself Master of the World…

In #181 ‘One God Must Fall’ Sif led Warriors Three Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg on a rescue mission to the Infernal Realm, whilst Balder struggled to combat the combined power of Thor and malice of Loki, until Mephisto was finally thwarted and a cataclysmic battle of brothers on embattled Earth set the world at last to rights.

Dark, brooding and ferocious, this is a breathtaking Costumed Drama that will enthral and delight fans of both comic and filmic Asgardian iterations which also includes covers and variants by Mico Suayan, Laura Martin, Adams, Sinnott, John Romita Sr., Marie Severin, John Buscema & Chris Stevens plus a beautiful selection of pencilled original art by Braithwaite.
© 1970, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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X-Men: Alterniverse Visions


By Anne Nocenti, Simon Furman, Mariano Nicieza, Kurt Busiek & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-0194-9

Although now commonplace in regular fiction media, once upon a time parallel worlds and alternate Earths were almost unilaterally the province of comicbooks, offering tantalising glimpses of intriguingly different yet profoundly familiar characters.

DC pretty much owned the shtick in the early 1960s but kept it separate from their other exploratory narrative strand “Imaginary Stories”, but over at up-and-coming Marvel Comics, Roy Thomas in particular had a notion to marry the twain…

To be clear: Alternate Earths are part of the overarching shared continuity and Imaginary Stories are just that – fanciful riffs and chimeras using established characters and scenarios, but never part of the nuts-&-bolts universe.

Thus, despite such surrogate Earthers as Thundra, Arkon, Mahkizmo, Gaard and the Squadron Supreme cropping up in regular Fantastic Four and Avengers issues, the House of Ideas followed their competitor’s lead until the launch of What If?

This was an anthological series wherein cosmic voyeur The Watcher offered peeks into a myriad of other universes where key “real” continuity stories were replayed with vastly different outcomes – the same basic idea as Imaginary Stories but with a back-handed acknowledgement that somewhere these epics were “real”…

The first volume (48 issues from February 1977 to June 1988) posed such intriguing questions as ‘What If… Loki had Found the Hammer of Thor?’, ‘the Fantastic Four had not gained Their Powers?’ or ‘Spider-Man’s Clone had Lived?’ and when the title relaunched in 1989 for another 115 issues including ‘What If Wolverine was Lord of the Vampires?’ and ‘What if Captain Marvel had not Died?’, the tales were all back-written into an over-arching continuity and began to be catalogued as variant but equally viable Earths/universes and alternate timelines.

There have been seven more volumes since and a series of “Alterniverse” tales…

In case you’re wondering, those gritty Ultimate Marvel sagas all occur on Earth-1610, the Age of Apocalypse happened on Earth-295, everybody got eaten in the Zombieverse of Earth-2149, the Squadron Supreme originally hailed from Earth-712 and mainstream Marvel tales take place on Earth-616, whilst we readers all dwell on the dull, dreary Earth-1218…

Keep calm then, but never forget that Reality is just a plethora of differing dimensions, and if things go awry in one it can have a cumulative and ultimately catastrophic effect on all of them…

Soon after designating this publishing idiom an Alterniverse, a selection of relatively recent What If? (all from volume 2) yarns starring a selection of X-Men were collected into a trade paperback which, despite then being closely dependent on familiarity with Marvel mainstream, might now – in the wake of all those various movies – be a little more accessible to a general readership…

The extra-dimensional dramas kick off with ‘What If… Wolverine Led Alpha Flight?’ (originally published in #59, March 1994, as ‘What If Wolverine Had Remained a Captive of Alpha Flight?’) by Simon Furman, Bryan Hitch & Joe Rubenstein, wherein the Feral Mutant was imprisoned by the Canadian Government after events in X-Men #119-120.

Once the X-Men are killed trying to get him back and depressed former berserker is left to lead a Canadian team against the Hellfire Club and their Dark Phoenix…

Next up is ‘What If… Storm Had Remained a Thief?’, courtesy of #40, August 1992 and first seen as ‘What if Storm of the X-Men Had Remained a Thief?’

This is a lovely and rare happily-ending tale by Anne Nocenti and Kirkwood Studios – AKA Steve Carr, Deryl Skelton & Rubenstein – which describes how instead of becoming a pickpocket in Cairo and weather goddess in equatorial Africa, the orphan Ororo Munroe is taken under the wing of benign grifter Herman Hassel. Years later when she meets the X-Men it is not as a friend…

‘What If… Rogue Possessed the Power of Thor?’ (#66, August 1994, by Furman, John Royle & Bambos Georgiou) takes a sharp left from a critical point in Avengers Annual #10 wherein the power-leeching mutant battled the team and Spider-Woman.

This time/space, however, Rogue doesn’t let go until the Thunder God is dead and drained and soon finds herself cursed with his might but still a pawn in a cosmic war between eternal Asgard and Loki‘s forces of Ragnarok…

From #69 (January 1995, by Mariano Nicieza, J.R. Justiniano & Roy Richardson) ‘What If… Stryfe Killed the X-Men?’ does what it promises and shows the catastrophic outcome after Professor X dies and his hapless students are left to face the homicidal future-clone of Cable as well as the mutant leveller Apocalypse, after which these walks on the wild side end with a visceral, dark thriller from Kurt Busiek, Ron Randall & Art Nichols who ask ‘What If… Wolverine Battled Weapon-X?’

From #62, June 1994, the grim chronicle details how the rogue Canadian science team that inflicted an Adamantium skeleton and experimental behaviour modification on secret agent Logan missed their mark in this universe and had to settle for a second-best human lab rat.

When their Weapon-X escaped to carve a swathe of slaughter through the country and wiped out neophyte superteam Alpha Flight, the grizzled veteran knew what he had to do, and to whom…

Action-packed, cathartic and just plain fun, these different strokes offer old-fashioned fun in vast amounts, and now that a wider world is filmically conversant with a (if not “the ”) Marvel Universe, perhaps it’s time to raid the vaults again and release similar collections starring Spider-Man, Thor, The Hulk, Fantastic Four, Iron Man and/or the Avengers…

© 1995Marvel Entertainment Group. All rights reserved.
A British edition by published by Boxtree is also available.

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Age of Ultron


By Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Waid, Bryan Hitch, Brandon Peterson, Carlos Pacheco & others (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-542-0

Blockbuster crossovers are an intrinsic part of the comics business these days and before us doddery older fans can even catch our collective breath here’s the next big change (actually the second phase of the MarvelNOW! root and branch reboot), with attention focused on the Avengers as the launch of the next movie looms before us.

From March to June 2013 a massive, time-bending Armageddon extravaganza revealed the ultimate triumph of Ultron – the insidious and genocidal artificial intelligence originally invented by troubled tinkerer Henry Pym (AKA Ant-Man, Giant Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket, Dr. Pym, The Wasp, et al), and the stupefying saga was augmented by more than a dozen sidebar stories occurring in Fantastic Four, Superior Spider-Man, Ultron #1AU, Wolverine and the X-Men, Avengers Assemble Uncanny Avengers and Fearless Defenders…

This impressively bombastic, streamlined and rocket-paced epic collects the core 10-part miniseries Age of Ultron and also includes as thematic epilogue Age of Ultron #10AI, with the drama beginning on a recently devastated Earth with human scum bartering lives and dignity amidst the ruins.

Hawkeye is on a solo mission to rescue a fellow superhero captured by barbaric, debased survivors of some apocalyptic attack which overnight blasted civilisation back to the Stone Age.

After freeing the barely-living Spider-Man from the dregs, the archer learns that the wall-crawler had been intended for trade with the new rulers of the world – legions of soulless, silently hovering, ever-vigilant Ultron Sentinels…

Scripted by Brian Michael Bendis, chapters #1-5 are illustrated by Bryan Hitch and Pauls Neary and Mounts and detail how the last Avengers and other metahumans – Captain America, Iron Man, Emma Frost, She-Hulk, Luke Cage, Storm, Invisible Woman & Wolverine amongst others – link up with similar pockets of superhuman resistance, such as Moon Knight and the Black Widow in San Francisco and Black Panther, Taskmaster and Red Hulk in Chicago, to discover just how Ultron achieved his shocking ultimate victory…

By sacrificing two comrades the assemblage determine that the attack came from the future via a contemporary proxy and, thanks to the intercession of a long-forgotten ally, the bulk of the team head off into tomorrow via Dr. Doom‘s time machine to crush the malign machine-monster forever.

Wolverine however has another idea, and despite being overruled by the majority and followed by Invisible Woman, travels into the recent past to assassinate Pym before he built the Artificial Oedipal Atrocity…

Issues #6-9 (with art from Brandon Peterson, Carlos Pacheco & Roger Martinez) reveals the horrific implications of Wolverine’s time-busting red-handed revisionism when he and Sue Richards return to find a world in even more horrifying condition.

With Pym gone the Skrull-Kree war engulfed Earth and in the savage aftermath 6th century sorceress Morgana Le Fey and Dr. Doom united to decimate the survivors…

After seeing what the time-shift had done to old friends such as Tony Stark, Charles Xavier, Cyclops, The Thing, Doctor Strange, Star-Lord, The Hulk and even himself, Wolverine knows he has to back and undo Pym’s fate…

And in a furious future the Avengers Task force is losing the battle against Ultron’s perfect, mechanised human-free society…

It all comes together in the shock and surprise-stuffed tenth chapter (illustrated by Alex Maleev, Hitch, Butch Guice, Peterson, Pacheco, Roger Bonet, Tom Palmer, David Marquez & Joe Quesada) as the much-travelled mutant meets a most unexpected obstacle and Pym himself devises the solution to save humanity and the much-abused time-line.

It’s almost enough: however the chronal catastrophes have had a disastrous “Butterfly Effect” on the fabric of reality and beings from beyond the multiverse (and indeed originally from another publishing company) are drawn into events yet to unfold in the months to come…

The collection concludes with a charming and clever epilogue issue reviewing and revising the origin of Hank Pym – Man of Many Names and Sizes – in ‘It Was Not a Wonderful Life’ (written by Mark Waid, illustrated by Andre Lima Araújo & Frank D’Armata), adroitly setting the scene for forthcoming series Avengers A.I.

With covers by Hitch, Neary & Mounts, Peterson, Sara Pichelli & Marte Gracia plus 30 variants by J. Scott Campbell, Mike Deodato Jr., Rock-He Kim, Marko Djurdjevic, Ed McGuiness, Skottie Young, Jung-Geun Yoan, In-Hyuk Lee, Adi Granov, Pacheco, Francis Leinil Francis Yu, Peterson, Jorge Molina, Joe Quesada, Mark Brooks, Salvador Larroca & Paola Rivera, this a spectacularly visual treat for fans of the time-buster genre which also reinforces Marvel’s game plan to make the stories more accessible to casual readers and non-comicbook fans.

Naturally the book also includes the now-standard added extras provided by many AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which are your gateway to story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

™ & © 2013 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Avengers


By Brian Michael Bendis, Steve McNiven & Sara Pichelli with Michael Avon Oeming, Ming Doyle, Michael Del Mundo & John Dell (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-542-0

Although heralded since its launch in the early 1960s with making superheroes more realistic, Marvel Comics has also maintained its close connection with outlandish and outrageous cosmic calamity (as embodied in their pre-superhero “monster-mag” days), and this latest iteration of space crusaders maintains that delightful “Anything Goes” attitude in an impressive new launch – part of the MarvelNow! group reboot – that lays the groundwork for the upcoming big budget movie next year.

The Guardians of the Galaxy were created by Arnold Drake in 1968 for try-out title Marvel Super-Heroes (#18, January 1969), a group of futuristic freedom fighters dedicated to liberating star-scattered Mankind from domination by the sinister, reptilian Brotherhood of Badoon.

Initially unsuccessful, they floated in limbo until 1974 when Steve Gerber incorporated them into Marvel Two-In-One #4-5 and Giant Size Defenders #5 and the monthly Defenders #26-29 (July through November 1975), wherein assorted 20th century champions travelled a millennium into the future to ensure humanity’s liberation and survival.

This in turn led to the Guardians’ own short-lived series in Marvel Presents #3-12 (February 1976-August 1977) before cancellation left them roaming the Marvel Universe as perennial guest-stars in such cosmically-tinged titles as Thor, Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One and The Avengers.

Eventually in June 1990 they secured a relatively successful series (#62 issues, annuals and spin-off miniseries until July 1995) before cancellation again claimed them.

This isn’t them; this is another bunch…

In 2006 a massive crossover involved most of Marvel’s 21st century space specialists in a spectacular “Annihilation” Event, leading writing team Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning to reconfigure the Guardians concept for modern times and tastes.

Among the stalwarts in play were Silver Surfer, Galactus, Firelord (and other previous heralds of the world-eater), Moondragon, Quasar, Star-Lord, Thanos, Super-Skrull, Tana Nile, Gamora, Ronan the Accuser, Nova, Drax the Destroyer, a Watcher 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 insectoid horror Annihilus.

The event spawned a number of specials, miniseries and new titles (subsequently collected in three volumes plus a Classics compilation that reprinted key appearances of a number of the saga’s major players), and inevitably led to a follow-up event…

In Annihilation: Conquest, the cast expanded to include Adam Warlock, the Inhumans, talking dog Cosmo, Kang the Conqueror, Vance Astro/Major Victory, Maelstrom, Jack Flag, Blastaar, the Magus, Galactic Warrior Bug (from the 1970’s phenomenon Micronauts), current Captain Universe (ditto), Shi’ar berserker Deathcry, failed Celestial Madonna Mantis, anamorphic adventurer Rocket Raccoon and gloriously whacky “Kirby Kritter” Groot, a walking killer tree and one-time “Monarch of Planet X”, amongst others…

I’ve covered part of that cataclysmic clash and will get to the rest one day: suffice to say that by the conclusion of the assorted Annihilations a new, pan-species Guardian group had appointed itself to defend civilisations and prevent any such wars from ever happening again.

This isn’t them either… exactly…

A few years later and many more cosmic crises – such as a devastating “War of Kings” – averted, the remnants of those many Sentinels of the Spaceways are getting the band back together, still determined to make the universe a safe place.

Thus this impressive and readily accessible volume (collecting Guardians of the Galaxy #0.1, Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers #1 & Guardians of the Galaxy #1-3 from February-June 2013) provides a handy jumping-on point, recapitulating the bare essentials before launching into a blistering and immensely absorbing interstellar romp which ties inextricably into mainstream Marvel continuity.

Brian Michael Bendis, Steve McNiven, John Dell & Justin Ponsor set the ball rolling with the secret origin of Star-Lord, revealing how thirty years ago warrior Prince J’Son of the interstellar empire of Spartax was shot down over Colorado and had a brief fling with solitary Earther Meredith Quill. Despite his desire to remain in idyllic isolation, duty called J’Son back to the battle and he left, leaving behind an unsuspected son and a unique weapon…

A decade later, the troubled boy saw his mother assassinated by alien lizard men determined on eradicating the legacy of Spartax. Peter vengefully slew the Badoon with Meredith’s shotgun, before his home was explosively destroyed by a flying saucer.

The orphan awoke in hospital, his only possession a “toy” ray-gun his mother had hidden from him his entire life…

Years later his destiny found him, and the half-breed scion of Spartax became Star-Lord. Rejecting both Earth and his father – now king of his corner of creation – Peter Quill chose freedom, the pursuit of justice and the comradeship of disreputable aliens…

The origin story concludes with Peter welcoming avid listener and neophyte spacer Tony Stark into his loose-knit fellowship of Guardians…

More delving into formative events occured in the anthological Tomorrow’s Avengers #1 (by Bendis and individually illustrated by Michael Avon Oeming, Ming Doyle & Michael Del Mundo), revealing how Quill tracked down old friends and prospective members for his new team, detailing recent exploits of at-large and unfocused stalwarts Drax the Destroyer, the decidedly odd couple Rocket Racoon and Groot and, of course, Gamora, “Deadliest Woman in the Galaxy”…

The former bane of Thanos Drax is idling away the days in pointless fighting when Star-Lord comes calling, whilst Groot at least is still defending the weak from the wicked in a classy farmers-vs.-bandits fable.

The unique, blaster-toting Peril-loving Procyonidae (look it up) was mouthing off in a bar, drinking and fighting as usual when he found tantalising evidence that there was at least one other Rocket Raccoon at large in the universe, whilst gorgeous Gamora just never stopped. She was still slaughtering her adopted dad’s minions when Star-Lord made his offer…

The series proper – by Bendis, McNiven, Dell & Ponsor – opens with Peter Quill diplomatically ambushed in a seedy dive by his long-lost dad. J’Son rules Spartax but the rift between him and the Star-Lord is wide and deep and impassable.

Dear old Dad also has a message: he has entered into a compact with the other major powers and principalities of the universe to declare Earth off limits and quarantined from all extraterrestrial contact. He and they will act immediately to stop any alien individual or species from contaminating it.

Of course that especially means his own wayward son…

A little later, Iron Man is playing with his new space armour when a Badoon starship attacks Earth. Overmatched, Stark is unexpectedly reinforced by Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon and Groot who devastate the monolithic vessel – but not before fighter ships break atmosphere and bombard London.

With the Home Counties under attack despite The Council of Galactic Empires’ edicts – and apparently by one of the signatory civilisations – the Guardians go to work ending the Badoon, with Peter distracted in trying to divine his duplicitous father’s actual intent.

In the Negative Zone, J’Son is conferring virtually with his opposite numbers from the Kree, Shi’ar, Brood, Badoon and Asgard, with a new Annihilus presiding over the fractious meeting, and indeed dirty work and dirty tricks are afoot…

In blistering battles the Badoon are beaten, but no sooner do the Guardians pause for breath than a starfleet supposedly blockading Earth arrests them for breaking the embargo.

Imprisoned on Spartax, Quill and Co eventually bust out and publicly declare war on J’Son, sowing the seeds of a future rebellion – but even they are unaware that the devious and double-dealing king is also being played for a sucker…

Bright, breezy, bombastic and immensely enjoyable, the action-packed Cosmic Avengers also includes a beautiful gallery of 23 covers and variants – including a lovely movie-art landscape/wraparound – by McNiven, Dell & Ponsor, Doyle, Ed McGuiness, Joe Quesada, Adi Granov, Mark Brooks, Milo Manara, Terry Dodson, Mike Deodato Jr., Phil Jimenez, Mike Perkins, Paola Rivera and Joe Madureira, and of course the book comes with the standard added extras provided by many AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which give access to story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

™ & © 2013 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Wolverine: Hunting Season


By Paul Cornell, Alan Davis, Mirco Pierfederici, Mark Farmer, Zach Fischer, Karl Kesel & Tom Palmer (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-541-3

Following all the desperate and life-altering debacles of recent years, the emergent race dubbed Homo Sapiens Superior has, after the epochal events of Avengers versus X-Men, won something of a fresh start and clean slate for most mutants, especially the perennially punching-above-his-weight feral fury Wolverine.

The company initiative MarvelNOW!, having reinvigorated the entire continuity, the various flavours of X-champion are generally starting life anew and this collection, gathering issues #1-6 of Wolverine volume 5 (cover-dated May-September 2013), proffers a compellingly attractive and decidedly different side of the Canadian Crusader which – like companion series Savage Wolverine – explores the man beyond the blood-blind berserker of yesteryear…

Scripted by Paul Cornell and illustrated initially by Alan Davis & Mark Farmer and then Mirco Pierfederici, Zach Fischer, Karl Kesel & Tom Palmer, the all-out action and sinister subversion begins with the eponymous 4-part ‘Hunting Season’ right in the middle of the mayhem as our horrified hero desperately tries to talk down a spree-killer in the midst of a body-strewn hostage situation in a Mall. Partially disintegrated, Wolverine can only attempt to reason with the man until his arms and legs grow back…

Mild-mannered Robert Gregson is acting really weird and has an impossibly powerful supergun. He’s calm, rational and displays diffident concern to his young son Alex as he systematically vaporises all the shoppers in the arcade. By the time he turns the raygun on the boy, Wolverine is just healed enough to stop the complacent killer. Amidst charred bones and human ashes the cops burst in and Logan sees old friend and NYPD Detective Chieko Tomomatsu in the lead.

In the blistered aftermath nobody realises that the odd odour which permeated Gregson now emanates from Alex, until the kid attacks them all and flees with the gun. As he utilises the hand cannon to ravage the city, Wolverine is in close pursuit. Refusing to eviscerate a 10-year old, he tries to Alex keeps talking but the boy sounds like a dispassionate boffin absentmindedly taking notes…

Across town a trio of cops intercepts a gang of drug-dealers and they too suddenly acquire a strange smell and completely detached attitude. In unison, they turn on and dispatch the guy who turned up late…

Repeatedly dodging instant incineration, the Clawful Canuck corners Alex high up on a construction site and confirms that something has possessed the lad. Desperately trying to establish contact with the controlling force – which refers to itself in the plural – Wolverine is horrified as the kid jumps to his doom and the gun finds another triggerman before the slaughter continues…

When the new Nick Fury (long story short: the son of the original and looks like the African American S.H.I.E.L.D. Director from the assorted movies – see Battle Scars for further details) arrives and downs the shooter, the gun flies off before anyone can stop it…

As Wolverine brings the superspy up to speed, he has a bizarre vision and the cosmic observer known as The Watcher appears – only to the mutant’s enhanced senses – thus indicating that whatever is going on it’s a danger to the entire universe…

Oddly enough, the first stop in sorting the problem is a bar. Guernica on West Fourth is a superhero hostelry and a very unique think-tank meets there. As well as a comicbook writer, there’s an odds-maker on superhero battles, a professional powers cataloguer and the current CEO of repair conglomerate Damage Control, but what the fast-healing hero needs is the services of talented and unflappable surgeon Victoria Frankenstein (she pronounces it “Fronken-schteen”), possibly the only sawbones capable of removing the smart-bullet Alex embedded in the mutant’s shoulder.

The last in line of such a fateful dynasty is necessary since Logan’s flesh knits back together faster than most scalpels can cleave it. The brainstorming/field surgery session also leads to one inescapable conclusion: whoever or whatever is possessing people acts like an airborne virus…

The gun meanwhile has found those co-opted cops and robbers. Fury and Wolverine are right behind them and subsequently uncover a plot to explode a bomb full of those pesky microbe invaders over Yankee Stadium during the biggest game of the season…

Logan of course spectacularly foils the plot but since he can still see The Watcher, the confused champion knows things aren’t quite over yet…

‘Drowning Logan’, illustrated by Mirco Pierfederici, Mark Farmer, Zach Fischer, Karl Kesel & Tom Palmer, takes up the story as the insidious organisms, now evolved to deceive Wolverine’s sense of smell, possess an entire S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier crew – Fury Jr. included – and then capture the one being able to resist their mind-bending infection.

Trapped with a trio of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents also (temporarily) immune to the takeover terrors and a fading phone-link to the Guernica group, the Feral Fury must defeat an army of friends and colleagues housing an unstoppable invasion force before it’s judgement day for our universe. Thankfully a clue to the microbial possessors’ incredible origins lead to a fantastic counter-attack and their eventual repulsion – but not without shocking personal cost to the formerly fast-healing hero…

To Be Continued…

Hunting Season also includes a beautiful gallery of 16 covers and variants by Davis & Farmer, Jason Keith, Olivier Coipel, Salvador Larroca, Skottie Young, Humberto Ramos, Mike Deodato Jr., Ed McGuiness & Pascal Campion, and comes with the now-standard added extras provided by of AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which give access to story bonuses once you download the code – for free – from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

™ & © 2013 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Heroes For Hire: Control


By Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Brad Walker, Robert Atkins, Andrew Hennessy, Rebecca Buchman, Sandu Florea & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5581-2

After a TV reality show starring actual superheroes went hideously wrong and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of children in Stamford, Connecticut, popular opinion turned massively against masked crusaders. The US government mandated a scheme to licence, train and regulate all metahumans but the plan split the superhero community, and an indignant, terrified general populace quivered as a significant faction of their former defenders refused to surrender to the bureaucratic vicissitudes of The Super-Human Registration Act.

The Avengers and Fantastic Four fragmented and, as the conflict escalated, it became clear to all involved that the increasingly bitter fighting was for souls as much as lives. Both sides battled for love of Country and Constitution and both sides knew they were right.

At the heart of the savage clash of ideologies, bionic detective Mercedes “Misty” Knight and her ninja partner Colleen Wing expanded their private detective agency, assembling a squad of costumed warriors to do some real good during the worst of times…

Knight and Wing – the Daughters of the Dragon – were former associates of Power Man & Iron Fist, and borrowed their old friends’ concept of Heroes for Hire to make a living apprehending metas who refused to comply with the SHRA.

However the new squad – ex-thief Black Cat, Kung Fu Master Shang-Chi, insect avatar Humbug, sadistic martial arts polymath Tarantula and super-mercenary Paladin – soon found themselves at odds with each other and the tricky path they were following as their promised role (only apprehending villains) began to suffer increasing “mission creep”…

Moreover as they tracked their sanctioned targets, they lost a comrade – Atlantean powerhouse Orka -, credibility and the trust of all sides in the Civil War…

Dissent, betrayal and death dogged the ill-fated team and during the alien invasion dubbed World War Hulk, the horrific fates of Tarantula and Humbug acrimoniously split life-long friends Misty and Colleen, seemingly forever…

This collection, scripted by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning, gathers issues #1-5 of a new Heroes for Hire iteration from 2011 and also includes background material from X-Men: Curse of the Mutants Spotlight, taking the concept into intriguing new territory…

It all begins with ‘Are You For Hire?’ illustrated by Brad Walker & Andrew Hennessy, as, in the aftermath of the devastating crime-war Shadowland, Misty launches a mutual assistance bureau where individual champions can bank and trade favours, earn intelligence and yes, even sometimes get paid, by teaming up to deal with specific problems of a less than universe shaking nature…

Notionally available is every hero Misty knows and, by staying back and “maximising the potential of her address book”, she can do the most good as “Control”, directing whoever is best suited and ready for action on a case-by-case basis from her ultra-secret hidden location…

The first mission is to stop a truck full of Atlantean super-narcotics from reaching the city and track down the sadistically heartless entrepreneur behind the drug: a job demanding finesse and blockbusting firepower to equal degree.

Luckily Misty can call on The Falcon, Black Widow, Moon Knight and Elektra to see justice is done…

With the situation resolved, the temporary agents return to their lives utterly unaware – as is Misty herself – that Control is a helpless mind-slave of the insidious Puppet Master… The next objective is far less straightforward: Silver Sable, Paladin, Satana and the infernal Ghost Rider are deployed to take a shipment of unstoppable demonic guns and ammo off the streets, but never expected to clash with malignant mystic Baron Brimstone or be enthralled themselves by the infernal ‘Damnunition’…

However, amidst all the supernatural Shock and Awe, the ultra efficient, heartless mercenary Paladin begins to suspect something is not quite right with Misty…

Those doubts are compounded in ‘Trace Elements’ as Moon Knight is dispatched to liberate a shipment of trafficked girls with no history and stumbles onto a vice-lord abducting humans – and even dinosaurs – from the UN Antarctic preserve the Savage Land…

Paladin’s off-the-books investigations have meanwhile brought him into painful contact with Misty’s old boyfriend Iron Fist, and after the traditional Marvel male-bonding mayhem they call a truce and set out to find Control and learn what’s really going on…

Robert Adkins, Rebecca Buchman & Sandu Florea assume the artistic reins for ‘No Strings’ as a quick glimpse at Misty’s early life leads to the revelation that even the mesmerising Puppet Master has a secret boss. Control’s controllers, meanwhile, are increasingly battling her indomitable will to be free and resort to breaking her growing resistance by inflicting on Misty a terrifying hallucination of combat against all her masked friends and comrades.

The tactic backfires however and arouses the somnolent detective from her compliant, semi-comatose state. Instantly aware, she attacks the diminutive manipulator only to discover that Puppet Master’s other mind-slave is the terrifying Frank Castle…

The rocket-paced action-fest concludes with ‘Slay Misty for Me’ as the villain’s master-plan is revealed and a scheme to commandeer the consciousnesses of the entire metahuman community is exposed. With the enslaved Punisher murderously stalking Misty, Paladin and Iron Fist race to her rescue, but unfortunately standing in their way is every brain-locked hero she has ever employed since becoming Control…

With covers by Doug Braithwaite, Sonia Oback & Rob Schwager plus 7 variants by Walker, Harvey Talibao, Morry Hollowell & Greg Horn, this slim, seductive and extremely engaging suspense thriller also includes such extras as historical background in ‘Heroes For Hire Saga’ and ‘Reading Chronology’ and ends with a fact-file section reviewing 17 potential and prospective operatives in ‘Who Are the new Heroes For Hire?’

Superbly gritty, witty, funny, and impossibly appetising, Control is a comicbook confection will surely delight all older fans of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction.

© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Young Avengers: Style > Substance


By Keiron Gillen, Jaime McKelvie & Matthew Wilson with Mike Norton (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-560-4

In the aftermath of the blockbuster Avengers versus X-Men publishing event, the company-wide reboot MarvelNOW! began repositioning and recasting the universe in the ongoing, never-ending battle to keep old readers interested and pick up new ones – a problem increasingly affecting all publishers of print periodicals, not just comicbooks…

For the House of Ideas this meant a drastic reshuffle and rethink of key characters, concepts and brands and, since movie media darlings the Avengers are the most public of the company’s current super-successes, the “World’s Mightiest Heroes” understandably got the most impressive – and accessible – refit. Happily it also meant a fresh lease of life for some favourites who had been lost in the titanic turbulence of periodical publishing…

Collecting material from the anthological MarvelNOW! Point One and the first five issues of Young Avengers volume 2 (from January to May 2013), this enticingly quirky reconfiguration combines original team members Wiccan, Hulkling and Kate Bishop – AKA Hawkeye – with notional newcomers Noh-Varr (don’t call him Marvel Boy!), Miss America and a reincarnated child who used to be Loki, Asgardian god of Evil.

Following scripter Kieron Gillen’s explanatory and motivational Foreword, a prologue on another Earth introduces suave, smarmy and charming Kid Loki who tries to induce former associate America Chavez to travel to Earth-616 and kill retired Young Avenger Billy (Wiccan) Kaplan.

After Miss America gives the devious little toe-rag the sound super-thrashing he deserves and delivers a stern warning that she will be watching him, the boy-god simply moves to Plan B and advertises ‘Wanted: Young Avengers’…

Illustrated throughout by Jaime McKelvie – assisted by Mike Norton and colourist Matthew Wilson – the series proper opens on “Earth-Earth” (that’s 616, right?) with ‘Style > Substance’ as new young lovers Kate Bishop and trans-dimensional Kree warrior Noh-Varr bask in a rosy glow in his luxurious spaceship, whilst in New York Billy Kaplan realise his boyfriend has been cheating on him.

Not sex though: teenaged shape-shifting Skrull Teddy Altman has been secretly sneaking around fighting crime, even after the lovers both swore to never be superheroes again…

After all they have a good life now: Billy’s so-cool parents even let them share a bed in the family home.

After a painful heart-to-heart talk, Wiccan decides to use his incredible reality-warping powers to do something nice for his lonely, orphaned alien boyfriend and probes the infinite multiverse to find Teddy’s beloved, deceased foster-mother – or at least the closest thing to her… and inadvertently triggers the end of creation.

Close by, Miss America is still watching Loki, but soon realises that maybe this time the Trickster might have been on the up and up…

Billy and Teddy are still oblivious to the threat in ‘DYS’ as “Mrs. Altman” settles into her new existence. She is in fact a cosmic parasite: appropriating and controlling living parents and even capable of resurrecting utterly compliant dead mums and dads…

The awful truth emerges when “she” lays down new ground rules for the boys and Wiccan is unable to send the protoplasmic horror back…

Frantically fleeing they head for Avengers Mansion only to find “Mother” already there, proving to the awesome assemblage that she truly does know best before sending the boys to their room in an antiseptic dungeon dimension.

With the maternal atrocity loose, Kid Loki has moved on with Plan B. After rescuing Hulkling and Wiccan he attempts to recruit them, but the distrustful pair instead subdue him and drag the Trickster to Asgardia (currently located in Broxton, Oklahoma) where adult Norse Gods can hopefully take control of the situation.

Sadly Mother is everywhere now and the teens are ignored by the Asgardians but not the resurrected giant Laufey – Loki’s cannibalistic and extremely angry biological father…

Mercifully ever vigilant, Miss America hurtles to the rescue in ‘Parent Teacher Disorganization’ only to have her own dead and cosmically scattered matrons both appear to admonish and belittle her. In a blink Loki teleports the kids back to New York for a brief period of catching-up and temporary truces, whilst Wiccan tries to contact the only really competent teenager he knows.

Kate however is unavailable and merely sends him odd text messages…

Loki has a potential solution but nobody likes it. All he needs to do is “borrow” Wiccan’s ability to Control And Reshape All Reality for ten minutes…

Before he can convince them, the assorted enslaved and reconstituted super-parents appear with Mother and overwhelm the rebellious kids just as Hawkeye and Noh-Varr show up in ‘Deus Ex Machine Gunner’, spectacularly busting everybody loose as an army of enraptured adults and reborn zombie parents converge on the kids. Retrenching, the troubled teens prepare to make their last stand in Central Park…

With the end in sight Wiccan agrees to Loki’s terms and transfers his power in ‘The Art of Saving the World’. To the astonishment of all concerned it works and Loki honours his end of the deal.

Not as anybody expected, however, and in the aftermath the weary teens find themselves bound together in an inescapable manner and forced to leave behind everything they knew and begin a life of nomadic wandering…

As yet this corner of the World’s Mightiest superhero sub-set (the others being plain old Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, Avengers Arena, New Avengers, Secret Avengers and Avengers Assemble) are all alone on the fringes but I’m sure there will be crossover madness ahead …

Fun, frantic and ferociously thrilling superhero magic that will delight every fan of Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy, this book includes a stupendous, sublime and expansive covers-and-variants gallery: eleven superbly playful images by McKelvie & Wilson, Bryan Lee O’Malley & Nathan Fairbairn, Skottie Young, David LaFeunte, Jim Cheung, Stephanie Hans & Tradd Moore,

There are also selections of extra content for tech-savvy consumers in the form of the now-standard added extras provided by AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which give access to story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.
™ & © 2013 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Doctor Strange: Season One


By Greg Pak & Emma Rios, with Alvaro Lopez, plus Matt Fraction, Terry Dodson & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6387-9

Much as I’d love to believe otherwise, I know that the Cold War, transistor radio, pre-cellphone masterpieces of my youth are often impenetrable to younger fans – even when drawn by Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Bill Everett or Don Heck.

Radical perpetual change – or at least the appearance of such – is the irresistible force driving modern comics. There must be a constant changing of the guard, a shifting of scene and milieu and, in latter times, a regular diet of death, resurrection and rebirth – all grounded in relatively contemporary terms and situations.

Even for relatively minor or secondary stars the process is inescapable, with increasing supra-comicbook media adjuncts (film, TV, games, etc.) dictating that subjects be perpetually updated because the goldfish-minded readers of today apparently can’t understand or remember anything that’s more than a week old.

Alternatively, one could argue that for popular characters or concepts with a fifty-year pedigree, all that history can be a readership-daunting deterrence, so radical reboots are a painful but vital periodic necessity…

Publishing ain’t no democracy, however, so it’s comforting to realise that many of these retrofits are exceptionally good comics tales in their own right and anyway, the editors can call always claim that it was an “alternate Earth” story the next time the debut saga is modernised…

Released in 2012, Doctor Strange: Season One was the fifth all-new graphic novel in a hardback series designed to renovate, modify and update classic origin epics (following Fantastic Four, X-Men, Daredevil and Spider-Man) and, despite clearly being intended as story-bibles for newer, movie-oriented fans and readers, mostly managed to add a little something to the immortal but hopelessly time-locked tales.

Once upon a time Steven Strange was America’s greatest surgeon, a brilliant man, yet vain and arrogant, caring nothing for the sick, except as a means to wealth and glory. When a self-inflicted drunken car-crash mangled his hands and ended his career, the arrogant Strange hit the skids, big time.

Then, fallen as low as man ever could, the debased doctor overheard a barroom tale which led him on a delirious odyssey – or perhaps pilgrimage – to Tibet, where an impossibly aged mage and eventual enlightenment through daily redemption transformed the derelict into a solitary, ever-vigilant watchdog for frail humanity against all the hidden dangers of the dark. Now he battles otherworldly evil as a Sorcerer Supreme, a veritable Master of the Mystic arts…

Putatively set in the period following his automotive Armageddon, this fast-paced mystic buddy-movie traces Strange’s first days and months under the tutelage of the puissant Ancient One and, after exposing the perfidy of senior disciple Mordo, his quest to prove himself worthy of the exalted station and inner peace he sought.

Still plagued with the tantalising dream of healing his shattered hands, regaining his status as a superstar surgeon and resuming his life of glamorous, sybaritic luxury, Strange struggles to master the most basic disciplines of magic, constantly competing with fellow postulant Wong – a flashy, smart-mouthed martial artist and life-long devotee of the cult of Kamar-Taj – the Ancient One’s mysterious homeland.

Because the students despise each other so vehemently their aged guru forces them to train together…

Their tempestuous cloistered life is soon shattered: first by a demonic assault and subsequently by the arrival of museum curator Sofia di Cosimo, who has discovered that three antique rings scattered around the world have the power to compel and command the astounding might of the hallowed trinity of gods known by sorcerers as the Vishanti. Whoever holds the rings has ultimate power in their hands, and someone very bad is obviously trying to find them…

When the Ancient One refuses to aid Sofia, Wong and Stephen sneak away with her, determined to save their complacent master and unsuspecting mankind from appalling horror…

And thus begins a smart, sharp and extremely engaging quest that takes the fledgling heroes to a corrupt politician in Salem, Massachusetts, a modern-day saint in the slums of Cairo, and a mad old biddy in the British Museum, all the while dodging demonic assaults, escaping angry, disdainful deities, foiling arch-foes and slowly becoming the people Earth needs them to be…

Also included in this attractive and compelling hardback is the tantalising first chapter of the then-new Defenders comicbook title wherein Strange, Sub-Mariner, Red She-Hulk, Silver Surfer and Iron Fist reluctantly reunite to help the Hulk destroy his eldritch antithesis in ‘Breaker of Worlds part 1: I Hate Myself and Want to Die’, by Matt Fraction, Terry & Rachel Dodson.

Be Warned: the tale is extremely addictive but concludes elsewhere…

Also included are nine pages of design sketches and many examples of the art production process from pencils through inks and beyond by Rios, making this a superbly enticing and entertaining package for both newcomers and returning readers alike.
© 2011 and 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Ghost Riders: Heaven’s on Fire


By Jason Aaron & Roland Boschi (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4235-5

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

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

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

After years of travail and turmoil Blaze was (temporarily) freed of the demon’s curse and seemingly retired from the hero’s life. As Blaze briefly escaped his pre-destined doom, a tragic boy named Danny Ketch assumed the role of Zarathos’ host and prison by a route most circuitous and tragic…

Over the years a grim truth emerged: Johnny and Danny were actually half-brothers and both the Higher Realms and Infernal Regions had big plans for them. Moreover the power of the Ghost Rider had always been a weapon of Heaven not a curse from Hell…

This riotous, rollercoaster grindhouse supernatural thriller collects the 6-issue miniseries Ghost Riders: Heaven’s on Fire (from August 2009 to February 2010) by Jason Aaron & Roland Boschi, featuring a horde of fan-favourite villains, a variety of previous fire-headed hosts, a gaggle of grim guest-stars and assorted Spirits of Vengeance in a bombastic, Hell-for-Leathers romp which concluded a long-running saga.

It all began when usurper Archangel Zadkiel – thanks to his unwitting dupe Danny Ketch – finally achieved his appalling ambition: ousting God to become the new Supreme Power of the universe. The sinister Seraph hadn’t reckoned on a motley crew of sinners and worse, led by Blaze, who were utterly resolved to stop Him…

With covers and variants by Jae Lee, Phil Jimenez, Das Pastoras, Dustin Weaver, Greg Land and Christian Nauck, the dark drama begins when Zadkiel’s angels raid a satanic fertility lab and slaughter all the infants and children. The victims were all prospective Antichrists, but one escaped…

When Hellstorm – a fully grown, naturally conceived Son of Satan – arrives, he finds himself in a peculiar position. Having spent his entire rebellious life battling his sire, Daimon Hellstrom and has no desire to aid the Evil One’s schemes, but by his murderous acts Zadkiel is actually trying to unmake Biblical Prophecy.

God always intended for an Apocalypse to finish His Divine Plan, and the usurper’s coup is actually beyond all concept of right and wrong. Thus the die is cast and Hellstorm must, albeit reluctantly, find the last Earthborn heir of Hell and ‘Save the Antichrist, Save the World’…

Simultaneously, Blaze, accompanied by mystic Caretaker/combat nun Sister Sara, is tracking Zadkiel’s angelic agents, determined to find a door to Heaven and confront the renegade face to face. They also want to kill Johnny’s brother Danny, whose pig-headed hubris has led to Zadkiel replacing God and occupying the Vault of Heaven…

When the bikers wipe out a brace of boastful rearguard cherubim and learn of The Plan, they immediately change tack, joining the hunt for missing Anton Satan (AKA Kid Blackheart) to save him from the wrath of the Pretender God…

Oblivious to the threat Anton is exactly where you’d expect an Antichrist to be: making millions as the youngest executive at a Wall Street Hedge Fund. His cruel, calm arrogance is soon shaken, however, when a Seraphic Assassin bursts in only to be promptly eradicated by occult terrorist Jaine Cutter and her “Breathing Gun”: another player determined to restore the Biblically-scheduled Armageddon.

She, however, has severely underestimated Zadkiel’s determination and sense of proportion and drags the protesting Hell-brat straight into an angelic ambush. And far across the country someone is gathering a small army of Ghost Rider villains. They already have Orb, Blackout and The Deacon on board…

With tormenting demons replacing his lost arms, Master Pandemonium is a living doorway to Hell, but even he had no idea what true suffering was until Danny Ketch kicked his door in, looking for a quick introduction and shortest route to the Big Bad Boss of Gehenna…

Now, three days later in New York, Hellstorm explosively saves Cutter and Anton from the ruthless Flight of Angels, but when the self-serving kid bolts he runs right into the newly returned Ketch.

Blaze and Sister Sara arrive moments later and all parties very reluctantly agree to suspend hostilities for a team-up in ‘Are You There, Devil? It’s Me, Danny.’

The anti-Ghost Rider Squad is growing too. Freshly signed up are Zadkiel’s own flame-headed fanatic Kowalski AKA Vengeance, plus Scarecrow, Madcap, motorised maniac Big Wheel and a savagely sentient steam-shovel called Trull…

Thanks to Pandemonium, Ketch has met the Devil and made a deal. In return for preserving the last extant Antichrist from Zadkiel’s forces, Satan will provide the brothers with access to Heaven and give them their shot at restoring the previously incumbent Deity…

After brutally working out their operational differences in time-honoured fashion, Johnny and Danny at last unite just as ‘The Brothers Ghost Rider’ are bushwhacked by Big Wheel and Trull (an alien mind-force which could possess any mechanical contrivance: tractor, bulldozer, chainsaw…)

The catastrophic clash brings the boys to a temple which is a gateway to the Eternal Realm, but thanks to Blackout they miss their chance to use it…

Meanwhile in a hidden location the secret sacred order of Gun Nuns prepare for their last battle…

‘Here Comes Hell’ starts in the Jasper County Sheriff’s holding cell where Scarecrow and Madcap have just slaughtered all the other occupants. Outside, Hellstorm, Sara, Jaine and obnoxious Anton have entered the quiet town, seeking safety and a useable satanic sanctuary to stash the kid in.

Zadkiel’s converts are waiting for them and a deadly duel ensues. In the melee Anton shows his true colours by attacking Sara and allying with Master Pandemonium even as Vengeance and the Orb lead an army of killer angels, demons and zombie bikers against the primed-for-martyrdom Gun Nuns protecting a fully operational highway to Heaven…

‘Sole Reigning Holds the Tyranny of Heaven’ finds the triumphant, power-drunk Zadkiel remodelling Paradise to his own gory tastes and fitfully rewriting snippets of Creation when the Ghost Riders storm in through the nun’s gate…

Meanwhile on Earth equally blockbusting battles break out as Hellstorm and Cutter at last suspend their truce and renew their personal vendetta. Elsewhere Kid Blackheart brutally uncovers Sister Sara’s impossible hidden destiny as a living portal to Heaven, and utilises her to transport battalions of demons to conquer Kingdom Come…

The occult overdrive thus rockets to a cataclysmic conclusion as Zadkiel personally smashes the invading Spirits of Vengeance in ‘If You Can’t Lower Heaven, Raise Hell’. With the streets of Heaven knee-deep in blood, even a pep talk from his own dead wife and kids cannot keep Blaze battling against the new Omniscience, but when the Legions of Hell attack and Danny incites all the previously expired Ghost Riders to rise, Johnny sees one last chance to make things right…

Fast, frantic, irreverent, satirically funny, violently gratuitous and clearly not afraid to be daft when necessary, this is a fabulously barmy, two-fisted eldritch escapade in the manner of TV’s Supernatural or Angel that will reward any fans of raucous road thrillers, magical monstrosity tours and the minutiae of Marvel’s horror continuity.
© 2009, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Mutants vs. Vampires


By Chuck Kim, Simon Spurrier, Duane Swierczynski, Chris Claremont, Bill Sienkiewicz & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5229-3

All major comics publishing events have satellite specials these days and the X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – which ran from July 2010 to May 2011 in selected Marvel titles – was no exception. Thus, this supplementary volume, gathering the One-shots Storm & Gambit, Smoke & Blood and Blade, plus the contents of the anthologized miniseries X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Mutants vs. Vampires, makes for a handy and beguiling adjunct to the main feature.

The sinister suspense begins with X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Storm & Gambit (by Chuck Kim, Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, Wayne Faucher, Al Vey, Victor Olazaba & Mark Irwin) as the mutant’s professional thieves are dispatched to the Mediterranean to steal Dracula’s headless corpse from an island infested with vampires.

When the stealthy duo are detected and their craft shot down, Storm quickly realises that they have an unseen ally on the island of blood. This proves crucial as they battle through legions of lychs to ultimate success – but the price of his aid might well be her soul…

Simon Spurrier & Gabriel Hernandez Walta then focus on the frustrations of super-genius Doctor Nemesis (and his X-Club associates Kavita Rao and Madison Jeffries) in X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Smoke & Blood.

Refusing to acknowledge something as stupid and primitive as the supernatural, Nemesis and his team furiously experiment on a captured vampire warrior, also seeking a cure for the infected victims slowly turning into evil blood-suckers in the drastically overstretched laboratories.

His efforts are constantly, inexplicably frustrated until the monster breaks free and the entire research station goes into lethal lockdown – with the doctor and his colleagues on the wrong side of the hermetically sealed walls…

Men: Curse of the Mutants – Blade follows as writer Duane Swierczynski and artist Tim Green provide a revelatory prequel. ‘The Light at the End’ finds the demi-human hero uncovering a covert campaign to eradicate all vampire hunters and drawn into a trap where day-walking undead slaughter all his allies. Barely escaping the net of Xarus, the badly rattled sole survivor heads towards San Francisco and an unlikely alliance…

The two issues of X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Mutants vs. Vampires comprise a selection of short yarns starring many of the huge mutant cast in solo action, opening with ‘From Husk Til Dawn’ by James Asmus & Tom Raney, wherein the hard-body shapeshifter sets herself up as a walking honey – or is that blood? – trap to take vampires off the streets of San Francisco, one fanger at a time.

Christopher Sequeira & Sana Takeda then go all disco nostalgic as Dazzler meets a band of vampires who have all been grooving and chilling since they died during the glitter-balled, star-spangled Seventies in ‘I’m Gonna Stake You, Sucka’…

Peter David & Mick Bertilorenzi continue in darkly comedic vein with ‘Rue Blood’ as Rogue confronts a somehow familiar bloodsucker and experiences an unsuspected karmic connection with the tragic, beautiful blood-beast, after which Rob Williams & Doug Braithwaite reveal a grim secret and lost comrade from Magneto’s past in ‘Survivors’…

From issue #2 ‘Flesh, Fangs and Burnt Rubber’ by Mike Benson & Mark Texeira pits Gambit against a marauding gang of undead biker chicks from Hell, whilst in ‘Call Me Santo’ by Spurrier & Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Rockslide and Armor face the largest vampire ever turned whilst transporting food and supplies to Utopia.

Next Howard Chaykin goes ‘Skin Deep’ to reveal how Vietnamese mutant Karma uncovers a cunning fanged predator who had discovered how to hunt safely and with her victims’ tacit consent…

The last story, by Mike W. Barr & Agustin Padilla, stars The Angel in ‘Voices’ wherein the winged wonder hunts down a once-human beast who satisfies his drive to kill by only consuming murderers. As Angel constantly struggles against the dark desires programmed into him by the mutant horror Apocalypse, he can only wonder just who is the greatest monster here?

Following pencilled pages, sketches and roughs from Mico Suayan and Bachalo, plus character designs by Hernandez Walta, the story portion concludes with ‘Night Screams!’ by Chris Claremont, Bill Sienkiewicz & Bob Wiacek (from Uncanny X-Men #159, July 1982) relating the mutant heroes’ first encounter with the lord of vampires.

After Dracula ambushes Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde and Wolverine must race the dawn to confront her assailant and effect a cure before the Windrider becomes undead forever…

With covers and variants by Suayan, Bachalo, Townsend, Christina Strain, Clayton Crain, Dave Wilkins, Nick Bradshaw, Jim Charalampidis and Sienkiewicz, this is a splendidly dark selection of Costumed Dramas which will delight both dedicated fans and casual readers alike. Just finish it before the sun sets…
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