Category: Marvel Superheroes

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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…
© 1982, 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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X-Men: Curse of the Mutants


By Victor Gischler, Paco Medina, Juan Vlasco & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4847-0

With a property as vast and valuable as the X-Men, change is a necessarily good thing, even if you sometimes need a scorecard to keep up. This thoroughly entertaining read (collecting X-Men volume 2 #1-6 and text features from X-Men: Curse of the Mutants Saga and X-Men: Curse of the Mutants Spotlight from July 2010 to May 2011) keeps the baggage to a sustainable minimum for non-addicts and concentrates on delivering a tense and action-packed thriller heavy on conflict and light on extended sub-plots.

Sweetening the pot is a veritable feast of superb covers and variants by Medina, Vlasco, Adi Granov, Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales, Laura Martin, John Romita Jr., Dean White, Marte Gracia, Marko Djurdjevic and Mike Mayhew.

As the story opens most of the World’s remaining mutants are residing on an island in San FranciscoBay dubbed “Utopia” with X-Men team-leader Cyclops running the enclave like a kingdom…

The bizarre freaks are generally welcomed by the easygoing human population.

In other news: the planet’s assorted vampire clans have been recently united after centuries of internecine struggle by Xarus, second son of Dracula, who executed his formidable father to succeed to the supreme position of Lord of Vampires. The horrific heir is a meticulous planner and has even secured technology and magics which allow the undead to walk safely in sunlight…

When a nosferatu suicide-bomber explodes himself in a crowded San Francisco plaza his fiendishly re-engineered blood taints and compromises the shocked, stunned bystanders with a virus that inexorably infects and overwhelms everybody exposed to it. The recently united night-hunters have declared all-out war on their food-supply, bolstering their ranks without risking being hunted… and one of the first to succumb is veteran X-warrior Jubilee…

As the contagion spreads, Wolverine leads a scouting mission into the increasingly overrun city and discovers that the campaign is meticulously organised and extremely far advanced. Moreover the new vampire lord has planned carefully and ambitiously: a key tactic is to “turn” every mutant in Utopia, providing the would-be conqueror with a compliant army of super-powered, blood-sucking storm-troopers. Jubilee has already joined them…

Always genned-up on undead affairs, half-vampire, all-Hunter Blade joins the party and brings the embattled mutants up to speed, making them realise that they face impossible odds. With new vampires springing up everywhere Cyclops makes the seemingly suicidal decision to revive Dracula, over Blade’s strenuous objections.

…And then Wolverine finally succumbs to the manufactured virus and switches sides…

When the Children of the Night make their final assault against the assembled mutant heroes all seems lost… but Cyclops has a cunning plan…

The bonus features section begins with material from X-Men: Curse of the Mutants Saga; specifically ‘X-Men a Go-Go!’ wherein John Rhett Thomas, assisted by Michael Kronenberg, interviews event main scripter Victor Gischler, after which ‘We are The X-Men’ pictorially introduces the major players – mutant and otherwise – in a spectacular spread.

Then from X-Men: Curse of the Mutants Spotlight, Chris Arrant and Gischler discuss the aftermath of the event in ‘X-Men: Lifting the Curse’, Paco Medina pictorially reveals all in ‘Drawing Blood’, and ‘Blade: Curse of the Vampires!’ details the history and possible future of Marvel’s most famous night-stalker…

This is an exhilarating, exemplary romp that pushes all the right buttons, engagingly written by Gischler and entrancingly illustrated by Medina & Juan Vlasco. If you want fast, furious, grim ‘n’ gritty Fights ‘n’ Tights magic this is a perfect one-shop stop for your edification and delectation.
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Iron Man 2: Public Identity


By Joe Casey, Justin Theroux, Barry Kitson, Ron Lim & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4858-6

With new Superhero and comics-based Summer Movie Blockbusters now an annual tradition there’s generally a wealth of supplementary reading released to coincide, cash in on and tantalise we die-hard print addicts.

Thus, through the safe lens of enough time passed and all hype deflated, here’s a slim tome designed as one of many combination tie-in and prequels to the second Iron Man film.

Public Identity was a 3-part miniseries from April and May 2010 starring the filmic iteration of the Marvel characters, scripted by Joe Casey and Justin Theroux with art from Barry Kitson, Ron Lim, Tom Palmer, Victor Olazaba, Stefano Gaudiano & Matthew Southworth, which added nuance and background to the tale of Tony Stark’s very visible battle against rival arch-technocrat Justin Hammer and a whip-wielding maniacal amalgam of comicbook veterans Crimson Dynamo and Whiplash…

This compilation also includes a triptych of short back-up vignettes starring some of the supporting cast in solo adventures originally published as the one-shot Iron Man 2: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. plus a selection of text, art and photo-features culled from the promo magazine Iron Man 2 Spotlight.

At the conclusion of the first film Tony Stark had just revealed to the frantic media that he was the incredible Armoured Avenger and ‘No Reason’ takes up from there, before flashing back decades to when munitions magnate Howard Stark first moved into researching the astounding potential of ARC reactor technology with Soviet scientist Anton Vanko. ARC, you’ll recall, is the overwhelming power source which keeps son Tony alive and fuels his high-tech super-suit…

In the now the self-exposed son is revelling in the celebrity his admission has garnered, as old comrade James Rhodes and all his other close friends can only watch and worry. The government – and especially the Military – want the power of Iron Man under their explicit control and are applying increasing pressure to the hedonistic playboy to get their way…

Grudgingly, to prove he’s still in control, Tony accepts a military reconnaissance job to insurgent-plagued Al Kut, but naturally goes off mission when he sees lives being lost…

Woefully disdainful of stifling protocol or American Military objectives, Stark kicks butt and posts footage with the world’s media, uncaring of the toes he’s stepping on…

Meanwhile in the Land of the Free and the padded invoice, Justin Hammer is unveiling his latest multi-billion dollar death machine to General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, a career soldier who wants kill-power like Iron Man’s, but free of the insubordinate or free-thinking, conscience-plagued playboy adventurer…

In the past, Howard Stark is appalled to discover his friend Anton stealing ARC secrets, and dejected when the far-from contrite technologist is deported by Federal agents. Years pass and his boy Tony endures abuse and neglect from his troubled dad, leading to some fateful decisions…

Tony is still making poor choices in the present, blowing off business meetings to defuse traps and abandoned tech scattered throughout Afghanistan by the enigmatic Ten Rings organisation and even US forces. Rhodes, meanwhile, is with General Ross, deeply disturbed that the untested Hammer weapon is going straight into action with an unprepared live pilot on a dangerous covert and unsanctioned mission…

The op goes disastrously wrong. The Pentagon overrules the overtly hostile Ross and Rhodey begs Tony to intervene. Congolese Army units have shot down the Hammer craft and captured the American pilot, but the guerrillas are no match for Iron Man who pulls off a spectacular rescue without harming a single Congolese soldier in the undertaking…

However, when Stark delivers the wounded airman to Ross, the Thunderbolt is furious that a global symbol of American superiority refused to shoot back and prepares to take matters into his own hands…

And as the son of Anton Vanko completes his own Arc reactor and prepares to take vengeance on the Stark family, in the shadows Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. begin their own subtle moves to move in on Iron Man…

As the comicbook conclusion segues into the film, this book shifts into stealth mode with three Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. solo mini-thrillers all scripted by Casey, beginning with arch manipulator Fury in ‘Who Made Who’ (rendered by Tim Greene) which sees the Golden Avenger barnstorm into a S.H.I.E.L.D./Navy SEAL operation against the mysterious Ten Rings cabal, opening the bidding in a bizarre war of nerves between the controlling spymaster and the ferociously free-spirited hero who – for now – still owns Iron Man…

Then ‘Just off the Farm’ – with art from Felix Ruiz – shows Agent Coulson under fire but never pressure as he solves a minor personnel problem and field-tests his latest recruit, even as ‘Proximity’, illustrated by Matt Camp, details how lethal femme fatale Black Widow inserted herself into Stark’s company and positioned herself for her spectacular movie debut…

The text features lead with ‘Silver Screen Style’ wherein comics artist and movie production consultant Adi Granov reveals secrets of both print and screen iterations, complete with lashings of pictures including reinterpreted Classic Covers and pages of Extremis Armour Designs.

Chris Arrant then discusses ‘Iron Man vs. Whiplash’ with screenwriters Marc Guggenheim and Brannon Braga, and ‘#1 With a Bullet’ by Dugan Trodglen explores the role and history of superspy Black Widow.

Thereafter epic comics saga ‘Iron Man Disassembled’ is highlighted by scripter Matt Fraction and interviewer Jess Harold before ‘Iron Man: Lightning in a Bottle’ finds John Rhett Thomas debating the classic revival of the Steel-Shod Sentinel with 1980s creators David Michelinie and Bob Layton, before Arrant chats with Warren Ellis about his take on Iron Man in ‘Armor Wars 2.0’.

Presumably as a preamble to the then-upcoming team movie, this section concludes with a stirring stroll down memory lane as ‘The Armored Avenger’ pinpoints “Eight of Iron Man’s Definitive Moments” with the Mighty Avengers, as compiled by Dugan Trodglen.

Also including a cover gallery by Granov and Salvador Larroca, this terse, explosive action package is a fine, fun comics read which should also act as an enticing interface for converting metal movie mavens into dedicated followers of funnybook fiction.
© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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X-Men: X-Termination


By Greg Pak, David Lapham, Marjorie Liu, Matteo Buffagni, André Araújo, David López & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-549-9

Since the 1960s comics fans have been totally au fait with the concept and complexities of alternate universes and the bewildering potentialities of an infinity of Earths. Offering irresistible temptations to writers and fans alike, the hallowed plot device offers the opportunity to creatively meddle and play at will and still back-pedal if readers get too stroppy or upset or – worse yet – bored and confused…

Marvel has a highly structured multiverse and every alternate realm comes with its own “Official Reality Number” – the regular mainstream continuity is set to Earth-616 and the Ultimates Universe is designated Earth-1610 for example.

Of course, once introduced, each and every new iteration is somebody’s favourite and consequently characters regularly traverse the cosmic void between continua barely distinguishable or wildly variant.

There have been many miniseries such as Avengers: United They Stand or Blink and even regular series set on or between these divergent planes such as Exiles, Age of Apocalypse and others…

It generally takes a clear head and true devotion to follow and wallow in the minutia of the enterprise. Consider that your only warning…

Collecting Age of Apocalypse #13-14, X-Treme X-Men #12-13, X-Termination #1-2 and Astonishing X-Men volume 3, #60-61 this hugely enjoyable but woefully continuity-entangled cosmic rumble attempts to bring a little clarity and clear some very crowded decks with a bombastic brouhaha that first appeared between March and April 2013.

The mini-event appeared in selected mutant titles beginning with Age of Apocalypse #13 which offered an ‘X-Termination Prologue’ by David Lapham, Renato Arlem & Valentine De Landro set on the alternate dubbed Earth-295, where the early death of Charles Xavier led to an appalling Reality in which the self-appointed mutant god of natural selection Apocalypse almost eradicated humanity before a coterie of radically different heroes and villains stopped him.

In the wake of the 1995 “Age of Apocalypse” event, many of this Earth-295’s inhabitants escaped to “our” world and generated a tidal wave of plots and story-arcs. One such was tragic widower Kurt Wagner, a teleporting sword-wielding X-warrior determined to hunt down a band of genocidal Apocalypse minions including Sugar Man, the Blob and evil twisted versions of Iceman and the Beast.

However, whilst he pursued vengeance in our world, on his own Earth the last survivors were losing a battle against the legacies of the defeated Apocalypse: a shattered eco-system, insuperable differences between the equally devastated human and mutant populations and even cosmic meddling by cosmic interlopers…

Led by Jean Grey , her lover Graydon “Horror Show” Creed and a mysterious strategist dubbed Prophet, a disparate band (including cyborg Donald “Goodnight” Pierce, Deadeye and Fiend) have spent more than a decade fighting Apocalypse’s self-appointed successor Weapon Omega and hunting a cosmic artefact dubbed a “Life Seed” hidden millennia past by one of the pan-dimensional star gods called Celestials.

Now their apparently futile battles are nearing an end, whilst on Earth-616 their old comrade Nightcrawler – currently working with Wolverine’s covert black ops team X-Force – having captured his major objective Henry (Dark Beast) McCoy, prepares to abandon his new friends and return to his broken home world…

Simultaneously in X-Treme X-Men #12 – another ‘X-Termination Prologue’ by Greg Pak & André Araújo – Alison Blair, the Dazzler of Earth-616, is leading a team of heroes from a plethora of Realities in a crusade against a league of malign Charles Xaviers. These terrifying telepotents have pooled their formidable psychic resources in a scheme to conquer the entire multiverse and Alison is determined to stop them

Even with an appalling attrition rate her squad – psionic super-computer Sage, Grecian man-god Hercules and strange versions of her old X-Men comrades Wolverine (Howlett), Scott Summers and a very young Nightcrawler Kurt Waggoner – are barely holding their own against the Evil Xaviers.

Now, on a predominantly Egyptian Earth, the rogue telepaths have opened an inter-dimensional rift and begun feeding on the energies released by sacrificing hundreds of humans. In a frantic assault the X-Treme team rescue and apparently redeem an enslaved Xavier (or rather a self-sustaining Professor X head in a jar), but the sinister psychic savants’ meddling has opened a hole to a far greater realm and deadlier threat…

The saga properly begins in X-Termination #1 (by Marjorie Liu, Pak, David López & Allen Martinez) with the origin of the multiverse – a deliberate construction of massive and ancient cosmic intellects designed to imprison their greatest mistake in the void between Realities, trapped for eternity between infinite layers of Creation.

Recently, however, the incessant crossings and transfers between supposed inviolate Realities has weakened those walls ands now the portal manufactured by the Xaviers has breached it completely, allowing something intolerable to break out…

On Earth-616 Wolverine’s X-Force team – Gambit, Iceman, Northstar and Karma – are hunting their treacherous former ally Nightcrawler (of Earth-295, remember?) whose actions have led to the death of team mate Fantomex, and brought him into an insane alliance with the Dark Beast.

The inter-dimensional fugitives are in San Francisco attempting to manipulate the power of a dormant Space God known as the “Dreaming Celestial” when X-Force arrives, but the Beast is able to use the giant’s power to open a gateway to 295 through which the pair escape.

However, as Nightcrawler hands the war-criminal McCoy over to Jean and Prophet, it becomes clear that something is wrong. The portal isn’t closing, only spewing out a torrent of vile detritus from who knows where…

Only when in short order both X-Force and then Dazzler’s X-Treme team emerge from the spitting, arcing rent in reality does Nightcrawler begin to realise the potential catastrophe his rash actions have triggered – a fear confirmed when a trio of monstrous unstoppable humanoids emerge and begin absorbing all this Earth’s energy and life-force. They have already consumed the Egyptian Earth to get here and within seconds the amassed, amazed army of heroes suffers its first fatality…

The saga continues in Astonishing X-Men volume 3, #60 (Liu, Matteo Buffagni & Arlem) as the assembled warriors redouble their efforts but are easily repulsed. The only successes come when Karma’s psionic talent provides the embattled heroes with the secret origin of the deadly devourers and Iceman’s powers provide a defence the creatures cannot absorb…

The elation is short-lived as the beings split up and one uses the still-open portal to voyage to Earth-616 and another irresistible, immovable feast…

Panicked and galvanised, the 616 heroes prepare to follow but Prophet bids them stop and think. He has a notion that the Celestial Life Seed lost somewhere on Earth-295 might be the only weapon capable of stopping the inter-dimensional ravagers. However as the heroes separate into teams to tackle the threat to multiple Earths and seek out the seed, Dark Beast McCoy makes his own plans to profit from the heroes’ sacrifices…

Lapham, Araújo & Arlem extend the epic in Age of Apocalypse #14 as Wolverine, Howlett, Hercules and Northstar join Prophet, Gambit, Deadeye, young Kurt Waggoner and Sage in San Francisco on 616 and find the devourer absorbing the inestimable energy of the Dreaming Celestial.

On 295 a team of X-champions and a battalion of robotic Sentinels fight a futile holding action as McCoy, Nightcrawler, Scott Summers, Dazzler and Jean hunt deep under the Earth for the Seed, painfully aware that the ancient artefact created Apocalypse and threatens to transform whoever uses it into something as bad, if not worse…

However when Jean and Nightcrawler secure the “Apocalypse pod” and abandon their former comrades, they are in turn ambushed by McCoy who steals the vital, yet horrific device for his own purposes…

On Earth 616 another hero dies as the antediluvian invader absorbs the forces within the Dreaming Celestial and grows to monumental proportions. Moreover as the X-fighters regroup in X-Treme X-Men #13 (Pak, Lapham, Liu, Guillermo Mogorron, Raul Valdés, Edgar Tadeo, Carlos Cuevas, Don Ho & Walden Wong) they discover an even more ghastly threat.

The trio are merely a vanguard for an infinite army of energy eaters and all the power being consumed will be used to free the horde to absorb and end each and every iota of creation…

With multiversal Armageddon imminent, Astonishing X-Men volume 3, #61 (Liu, Arlem, Jose Kleber de Moura Jr. Buffagni & Raul Valdés) sees more heroes fall, one self-despising villain redeemed and a valiant sacrifice to the Apocalypse Seed at last result in an effective weapon against the devourers. Also unleashed is the true secret origin of Reality, revealed before it all spectacularly wraps up in X-Termination #2 (Lapham, López, Mogorron, Valdés, Cuevas & Martinez) with the end of one universe and the migration of the last of the heroes to another.

No prizes for guessing which one…

Taught, fraught, beautifully rendered by many talented hands and unarguably spectacular, if a little hard to follow in places, X-Termination also includes a beautiful cover-and-variants gallery by Greg Land, Salvador Larroca, Kalman Andrasofszky, Ed McGuiness, Morry Hollowell, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Cam Smith, Rain Beredo, Mike Deodato and Philip Noto – but no digital add-ons or extras this time.
™ & © 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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Iron Man: The Secret Origin of Tony Stark


By Kieron Gillen, Greg Land, Dale Eaglesham & Jay Leisten (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-550-5

Supreme survivor Tony Stark has changed his profile many times since his 1963 debut in Tales of Suspense #39 when, as a VIP visitor in Vietnam observing the efficacy of the munitions he had designed, the arch-technocrat was critically wounded and captured by a Communist warlord.

Put to work building weapons with the spurious promise of medical assistance upon completion, Stark instead created a prototype Iron Man suit to keep his heart beating and deliver him from his oppressors. From there it was a small jump into a second career as a high-tech Knight in Shining Armour…

Since then the inventor and armaments manufacturer has been a liberal capitalist, eco-warrior, space pioneer, affirmed Futurist, civil servant, Statesman, and even Director of the world’s most scientifically advanced spy agency, the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate. Of course, he was also a founder of the world’s most prominent superheroes, the Mighty Avengers…

For a popular character/concept weighed down with a fifty-year pedigree, radical reboots are a painful but periodic necessity. To keep contemporary, Stark’s origin and Iron Man’s continuity have been drastically revised every so often, but never so radically as with the upgrade featured in this saga (originally seen as issues #8-12 of the MarvelNOW! relaunched Iron Man volume 5, April-August 2013) by scripter Kieron Gillen…

Illustrated by Greg Land & Jay Leisten the drama begins with a 3-part cosmic epic as ‘The God-Killer’ finds Stark in his new space armour routing star pirates for the effete, aristocratic and decadently beautiful Voldi Tear.

One of the most ancient races in the cosmos, the Voldi have mastered the art of living graciously – off the kindness of strangers – and have all their needs met by their sacred artefact the Heart of the Voldi, which cleanly draws infinite power from a myriad of cosmic entities.

Tempted by the delights of the open-to-all civilisation, Stark returns to their Citadel of Rapture, feeling great and looking forward to an intimate assignation with the glorious princess Veritina…

Until that is he removes his helmet and she starts puking…

The party-animal Voldi have an open door policy for most races and beings – even welcoming 30-foot tall robotic killers such as Freelance Peacekeeping Agent Death’s Head (never, ever call him a bounty hunter!) – but Iron Man is clearly no longer welcome since a trio of Voldi “mechnohoplites” immediately begin shooting.

Easily overcoming the drones, Stark is appalled to then find himself accused of Deicide. Good guy at heart, he can only surrender to the mercies of the Supreme Justicar, convinced that a little straight talking can clear up whatever misunderstanding has occurred.

Unfortunately the Voldi worship the Phoenix Force – which Stark and his allies (see Avengers vs. X-Men) did indeed destroy the last time it attacked Earth…

Languishing in a cell, Stark is approached by a flying drinks tray, which transforms into a Rigellian Recorder – one of millions of sentient automatons programmed to travel the universe acquiring knowledge. Recorder 451 however developed a programming flaw and has struck out on its own.

Surprisingly sympathetic to Stark’s plight, the mechanoid suggests a way out of the mandatory death sentence imposed at the very brief trial when the Justicar revealed the secret of the Voldi: the energy harvested by the Voldi Heart is stolen and the consequences would be dire indeed if creatures such as Galactus, The Celestials or the Phoenix realised they had parasites tapping their infinite resources…

The Recorder’s solution is simple: invoke an ancient rite of Trial by Combat and stay alive until the Voldi get bored or 451 can retrieve Stark’s confiscated armour…

Since his opponents are broadly similar humanoids it all starts well enough, until the Justicar, unable to bear the humiliation of seeing the desperate warrior Earth-ape escaping the rule of law, changes the rules and hires titanic terminator Death’s Head to end the fiasco.

Unhappily for the Voldi, however, 451 has been furthering his own secret agenda all along and uses the distraction to steal the Heart and bring cosmic cataclysm down upon the ancient race of leeches.

However The Recorder hasn’t finished with Stark yet and dispatches the Iron Man suit to save the human even as the benighted Voldi all expire in an apocalyptic attack from the cosmic giants they had exploited for eons. Furious and disgusted, Stark swears vengeance on the murderous mechanoid whose last infuriating communication claims the genocide was a necessary evil…

Dale Eaglesham handles the art for the next revelatory triptych as the eponymous ‘Secret Origin of Tony Stark’ completely changes everything the inventive genius believed about himself.

After checking in with self-appointed universal police force Guardians of the Galaxy and exhausting all his own leads, Iron Man resorts to hiring Death’s Head – the greatest tracker in history – to ferret out 451. Their brief hunt proves successful, but it’s all a trap and Stark is easily captured by the Rigellian renegade who reveals how he has been watching over the Earthly inventor since before he was born…

I’m not going to spoil the shocks for you here but suffice to say that 451 was working with Tony’s parents Howard and Maria Stark in a complex scheme on Earth in the era before superheroes returned, battling aliens beside such Marvel stalwarts as Lieutenant “Thunderbolt” Ross, special agents Jimmy Woo and “Dum Dum” Dugan and others.

The robot’s Machiavellian long-range plan would alter forever the fate of the unborn Stark heir and eventually impact upon the entire universe…

Ranging from bleak and grim to spectacular and hilarious, this fun and furious rocket-pace romp genuinely offers a brand new take on the Golden Avenger and the volume also includes the regular extra goodies of a vast and expansive cover-and-variants gallery by Land, Steven McNiven, Terry Dodson, Mike Deodato Jr., and a brace of photo covers plus the now standard 21st century add-on 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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Savage Wolverine: Kill Island


By Frank Cho, coloured by Jason Keith (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-539-0

It must be summer now, since here’s a popular entertainment featuring mutants and dinosaurs all garnished with heavy helpings of aliens, explosions and hot chicks in skimpy fur bikinis…

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.

The company initiative MarvelNOW! having reshaped the entire continuity, the various factors of X-champions are generally starting life anew and this collection, gathering issues #1-5 of Savage Wolverine (spanning March-July 2013), proffers a deliciously rare and oddly appetising aspect of the feral fury.

One word seldom applied to the exploits of the Clawful Canadian is “Fun” but that’s exactly what this sharp, explosive mystery adventure offers as 21st century heroic everyman Wolverine literally falls into an exotic, frantic, deadly dangerous and darkly hilarious romp in the antediluvian wonder world known as the Savage Land.

It all began eight months ago as jungle queen Shanna, the She-Devil led a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists and cartographers on a research trip to the most desolate and unmapped section of the vast Antarctic subterranean dinosaur preserve.

The voyage ended in disaster as their aircraft was disabled by a technological damping field enveloping an enigmatic island in an inland sea. The vehicle plunged to Earth and no more was heard from the explorers…

Now, following an explosion of light that turns night to day, Wolverine groggily regains consciousness and his super-senses inform him that somehow he has been transported to the Savage Land – split seconds before a velociraptor tries to make him supper.

After dispatching the hungry beast the amazed mutant spots a native war-party carrying a wounded S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and leaps to the rescue.

Slaughtering the primitives, he learns from the dying Mike McSwiggin where the ship went down and, locating the wreckage, also finds Shanna who mistakes him for an attacking native and almost kills him…

The She-Devil tells a grim tale of slow attrition that saw her entire team, deprived of their electronic arsenal, fall one by one as they repeatedly tried to escape the monsters and savages. Mike had reasoned that the damping device was hidden within a fantastic monster-shaped mountain at the centre of the isle and built a bomb to destroy it. Now the only survivor Shanna convinces Wolverine they must carry out Mike’s plan if they have any hope of returning to civilisation…

And then a flight of pteranodons attack, coordinated as if they had human intellects…

At the caveman camp, another flash of light has resulted in the unexplained arrival of abrasive teenaged super-genius Amadeus Cho.

With his advanced personal tech and universal translator he soon has the ape-men believing that he is a god and, despite being rather distracted by some of the more nubile offerings (teenage boy, right?), quickly ascertains the true history of the Island…

Wolverine has meanwhile been rescued by Shanna, and the pair – squabbling like an old married couple – set to battling their way through a horde of natives and beasts, intent on climbing the monster-faced mountain and destroying the tech-disruption gadget.

Amadeus has found something interesting in his discussions with the village head-man. The chief speaker has an elixir which can instantaneously heal wounds and perhaps even revive the dead. The story the chief tells is incredible and terrifying…

Uncounted eons past a star crashed to earth. When the dust settled it was revealed to be a colossal giant battling a horrific alien beast. Subduing the monstrous “Dark Walker” the giant (deduced by Cho to be one of the multiverse-spanning space gods known as “Celestials”) then imprisoned the thing inside a mountain with a Great Machine to keep it dormant.

To protect the device the Celestial, with a wave of its hand, casually evolved the primitive hominids who observed the spectacle into humans to forever guard the prison and prevent tampering. He even granted them uncanny powers, which was lucky as periodically humans from elsewhere would materialise, baffled but always intent on making trouble…

The latest such interloper is having second thoughts, but when a war party tentatively offers a truce, Shanna accidentally spooks them and the result is yet another appalling bloodbath that results in her death…

Pushed off a cliff, Wolverine of course survives but determines to destroy the machine whatever it takes, unaware that Cho has convince the chief to use his life-elixir to resurrect the She-Devil. When she revives she is no longer the same person…

The fluid connects the reawakened to the island and imparts immense power and greater intelligence, as the morose mutant finds when he is attacked by the mountain’s last defenders – a pack of super gorillas…

Cho, meanwhile, has uncovered another impossible mystery, one somehow connected to a monster thought tragically unique, but has no time to ponder upon it as Shanna – now onside – reveals that Wolverine has a bomb and will be more determined than ever to blow up the machine. With the terrifying realisation that it is the only thing containing a creature even Celestials could not kill, the assembled heroes and jungle guardians rush to the mountain just in time to meet the latest outsider teleported in… the rampaging, incredible Hulk…

And in the resulting chaotic melee the ancient alien sleeper awakes…

Blisteringly bombastic, lavishly beautiful and staggeringly visceral, this blockbuster book is enthralling and utterly compelling, with portents and warning of even greater epics to come, but nevertheless reserves plenty of room for humour and even baldly slapstick comedy – another perfect jumping-on point for new and retired fans alike…

Kill Island also includes a beautiful cover-and-variants gallery by Cho, Joe Quesada, J. Scott Campbell, Gabrielle Dell’ Otto, Skott Young, Milo Manara, Leinil Francis Yu, Adi Granov & David Johnson, 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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Uncanny X-Men: Revolution


By Brian Michael Bendis, Chris Bachalo, Fraser Irving, Jaime Mendoza, Tim Townsend, Al Vey & Victor Olazaba (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-548-2

Following all the poor choices and horrendous paths taken by assorted mutant heroes over the last few years, and spinning off from the events of Avengers versus X-Men, MarvelNOW! reshaped the entire continuity, taking the various factors of X-iterations in truly bizarre directions.

At the dawn of the Marvel Age, a very special bunch of kids were singled out by wheelchair-bound telepath Charles Xavier. Gloomy Scott Summers, ebullient Bobby Drake, wealthy golden boy Warren Worthington III, insular Jean Grey and simian genius Henry McCoy were gathered up by the enigmatic Professor X – a driven man dedicated to brokering peace and achieving integration between massed humanity and an emergent off-shoot race of mutants, ominously dubbed Homo Superior.

To achieve his dream he educated and trained the five youngsters – codenamed Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl and The Beast – for unique roles as heroes, ambassadors and symbols in an effort to counter the growing tide of human prejudice and fear.

Over years the struggle to integrate mutants into society resulted in constant conflict, compromise and tragedy, including Jean’s death, Warren’s mutilation, Hank’s further mutation and eventually Cyclops’ radicalisation.

The formerly idealistic, steadfast and trustworthy team-leader Cyclops was even forced to kill Xavier before eventually joining with old (demon-possessed) ally Magik and former foes Magneto and “White Queen” Emma Frost in a hard-line alliance devoted to preserving mutant lives at the cost, whenever necessary, of human ones.

Abandoning Scott, his surviving team-mates and newer X-Men such as Wolverine, Storm and Kitty Pryde stayed true to Xavier’s dream, opting to protect and train the next X-generation of kids at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning…

Furthermore when McCoy realised he was dying, he became obsessed with the notion that the still starry-eyed First Class of X-Men could bring the Mutant Enemy terrorist No. 1 back from his current path of doctrinaire madness and ideological race war insanity.

To that end the dying Beast used time-travel technology in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a species war: risking the entire space/time continuum by bringing the valiant youngsters back to the future to reason with the debased and possibly deranged Cyclops.

The gamble paid off in all the wrong ways. Rather than restoring noble, dedicated Scott Summers to reason, the confrontation simply hardened the renegade’s heart and strengthened his resolve.

Moreover, even though McCoy’s younger self impossibly cured his older iteration, young Henry and the rest of the X-Kids refused to go home until “bad” Cyclops was stopped…

All that occurred in All-New X-Men: Here Comes Yesterday but here Revolution offers the other side of the coin in a slim seductive tome collecting Uncanny X-Men volume 3, #1-5 from February-April 2013; a dark and angst-drenched chronicle of desperate freedom fighters’ war to save their endangered species…

Scripted by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Chris Bachalo (with Jaime Mendoza, Tim Townsend, Al Vey & Victor Olazaba), this suspenseful reboot opens with ‘The New Revolution’ as an impenetrable bastion of global security is broached with ease by a mutant outlaw with a personal agenda. The wanted warrior is offering to betray Cyclops and his “Extinction Team”, and S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill and her trusted advisors simply cannot afford to dismiss the intel or waste an opportunity…

The world is changing rapidly. New mutants are appearing in increasing numbers and all with more impressive talents than ever before. Worse still, by carefully avoiding unprovoked acts of violence, Cyclops’ crew are gaining the trust and respect of many oppressed sectors of humanity: the young, the poor, the disenfranchised and rebellious…

Summers and his allies are busy too: saving recently triggered student Fabio Medina from his own powers and police over-reaction in San Diego. The youthful and extremely telegenic Extinction Squad’s argument is all but made for them when a flight of hunter/killer Sentinels attack, utterly disregarding the safety of the humans watching in their programmed frenzy to destroy all mutants…

Following their possession by the Phoenix force in Avengers versus X-Men, the powers of Cyclops, Magik, Magneto and Frost are no longer reliable, flaring from overload to ineffectuality without warning and ‘Poink is the New Bamf’ finds the former White Queen agonising over the apparent loss of her telepathic gifts and recent break-up with Cyclops.

Magneto, meanwhile, is occupied with the often odious task of teaching obnoxious, frightened kids how to use their powers and survive in a state of perpetual combat readiness in the underground bunker dubbed the New Charles Xavier School for Mutants.

After a few terrifying sessions, raw recruits Fabio, metamorphic chameleon Benjamin Deeds and healer Christopher Muse – AKA Triage – welcome the prospect of a field trip, accompanying the grown-ups on a reluctant visit to the mother of time-bending Eva “Tempus” Bell in Australia…

However when the kids and their mentors teleport in, thanks to the mutant traitor, America’s greatest heroes are waiting for them…

‘Avengers vs. Uncanny X-Men Go!’ presents something totally unexpected as furious battle does not immediately break out and Captain America instead engages Cyclops in impassioned debate in front of the waiting media’s cameras.

The two sides are philosophically diametrically opposed, however, and with hotheads like Hawkeye and the Hulk itching for a fight inevitably negotiations break down. It’s no contest though as Eva instantly freezes all the Avengers in a static time bubble. After making another subversive, politically charged statement the Uncanny X-Men wink out; victorious without a blow being struck…

In the untitled 4th issue the repercussions begin. With the authorities going ballistic at the ease with which the Extinction team defeated the World’s Mightiest heroes and terrified by the terrorists’ successful wooing of discontented humans globally, the internecine ideological mutant conflict heats up after Cyclops, Emma, Magik and Magneto turn up at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning with a chilling proposition.

Convinced of coming mutant extinction at human hands, Scott has come with an open invitation to any student who might wish to join his own academy: one dedicated to training Homo Superior to fight and survive rather than wait for humanity to turn on them…

At first disquieted by confronting his younger, stupid self and his naive childhood friends, the elder Cyclops is gratified when the psychically conjoined, socially-challenged Stepford Sisters Celeste, Mindee and Phoebe agree to switch, and stunned when the teenaged Warren Worthington also agrees to ditch his former classmates…

Unfortunately even as Emma’s trio of telepotent protégés take a cruel opportunity to test and torment their “psi-blind” former tutor, back in the bunker the unsupervised new mutants have stumbled into the Danger Room and pushed some buttons they really shouldn’t have…

The adults and transfer students arrive in time to save the kids but then Magik explodes in an agonised paroxysm of demonic flame…

Fraser Irving illustrates the final chapter in this compelling compilation as an arcane spotlight falls on llyana Nikolievna Rasputina. The teleporting mutant is wielder of the puissant Soulsword and mortal host to a supernal, infernal entity known as the Darkchylde and her teleporting discs work by instantaneously shunting subjects through the hellish realm of Limbo, but now her jaunts are fraught with peril and pain.

On investigating she finds the Limbo dimension that is her true home has been annexed by dark god Dread Dormammu and she is forced to show the ghastly invader the extreme error of his ways by letting loose the very worst part of herself…

Addictive, enthralling and utterly compelling, this alternative X-outing mixes blistering action, paranoiac suspense and slowly-mounting tension with the signature themes of alienation and personal freedom to deliver a frighteningly direct continuation of the nihilistic end of the once directionless mutant franchise.

Nevertheless, there’s still room for humour and this book offers a perfect jumping-on point for new and retired fans alike – as long as you also read the companion All-New X-Men volumes…

Revolution also includes a beautiful cover-and-variants gallery by Bachalo, Irving, Joe Quesada, Gabrielle Dell’ Otto, Skott Young, Francesco Francavilla, Stuart Immonen, Phil Noto, Kris Anka & Ed McGuiness, and the now standard 21st century add-on 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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Marvel Platinum: the Definitive Wolverine Reloaded


By Chris Claremont, Larry Hama, Daniel Way, Marc Guggenheim, Rick Remender, Paul Smith, Alan Davis, John Buscema, Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, Steve Dillon, Howard Chaykin, Phil Noto & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-537-6

Wolverine debuted as a throwaway foe for the Incredible Hulk in a tantalising teaser-glimpse at the end of issue #180 (October 1974) before indulging in a full-on scrap with the Green Goliath in the next issue, and then vanished until the launch of the All-New, All Different X-Men.

The semi-feral Canadian mutant with fearsome claws and killer attitude rode – or perhaps caused – the meteoric rise of the reconstructed and rebooted outcast hero team before gaining his own series, super-star status and silver screen immortality.

He hasn’t looked back since, although over the years many untold tales of the aged agent (it was revealed in Origin: the True Story of Wolverine that he had been born in the 19th century) have explored his missing exploits in ever-increasing intensity and torturous detail.

Thus Wolverine’s secret origin(s) and stream of revelatory disclosures regarding his extended, self-obscured life have gradually seeped out. Cursed with recurring and periodic bouts of amnesia, and mind-wiped ad nauseum by sinister or even well-meaning friends and foes, the Chaotic Canucklehead has packed a lot of adventurous living into his centuries of existence – but frequently doesn’t remember much of it.

This permanently unploughed field has conveniently resulted in a crop of dramatically mysterious, undisclosed back-histories, some of which are contained within this intriguing but frequently contradictory action extravaganza produced under the always rewarding Marvel Platinum Definitive Editions umbrella.

This latest treasury of titanic tales gathers some more impressive – if less obvious landmarks – from the Savage Stalker’s extensive canon and cannily focuses on the character’s Asian connections and even a struggle with sinister mastermind (and movie menace) the Mandarin.

Contained herein are alien encounters, high-tech hi-jinks and samurai slaughter-fests from Uncanny X-Men #172-173 and 256-258, Uncanny X-Men Annual #11, Wolverine volume 2 #s 10 and 57, Wolverine Origins #5, Wolverine volume 3 #61 and Uncanny X-Force #34, spanning August 1983 to January 2013, offering a fair representation of what is quite frankly an over-abundance of riches to pick from…

The carnage begins with a sleekly impressive turn from scripter Chris Claremont and illustrators Paul Smith & Bob Wiacek from Uncanny X-Men #172 (August 1983) as ‘Scarlet in Glory’ sees Logan announcing his impending wedding to Mariko, daughter of old enemy Shingen Harada, lord of Yakuza Clan Yashida…

When the rest of the team arrive in Japan for the impending nuptials they are all poisoned, leaving Logan and Rogue – whom he deeply distrusts – to seek out an antidote. Meanwhile staid maternal Storm is transformed from placid nature goddess to grim-and-gritty bad-ass by mercenary maniac and devoted Logan-lover Yukio even as the last X-Man races a ticking toxic clock to a literal deadline…

The result is sheer carnage as the feral mutant goes wild. With desperate-to-please probationary X-Man Rogue in tow Wolverine carves a bloody trail to Yakuza mercenary (and Mariko’s rival for the rule of Clan Yashida) Silver Samurai and psychopathic mastermind Viper in ‘To Have and Have Not’…

Although the bold champions are eventually triumphant, the victory comes at great cost. Logan returns to America alone and unwed after Mariko inexplicably calls off the nuptials…

Depressed, heartbroken and far off the rails, Logan is dragged to another reality in ‘Lost in the Funhouse’ – by Claremont, Alan Davis & Paul Neary from Uncanny X-Men Annual #11 – when duplicitous super-mutant Horde compels the team (Storm, Rogue, Dazzler, Longshot, Psylocke and Havok plus guests Captain Britain and Meggan) to obtain the cosmic Crystal of Ultimate Vision for him. None are aware that the fate of all Mankind is at stake and that Wolverine’s bestial instincts are the key to humanity’s ultimate salvation…

Wolverine volume 2 #10 (from August 1989 by Claremont, John Buscema & Bill Sienkiewicz) then counted down ’24 Hours’ as the mutant’s solitary birthday drink in modern day Madripoor stirs horrific memories of ancient, distant tragedy. On the same day years ago Sabretooth had slaughtered Logan’s woman Silver Fawn and Wolverine’s attempts to gain justice and vengeance proved ineffectual and humiliating…

Moreover those agonised reminiscences keep getting interrupted by gun-toting idiots and even with the aid of Spider-Woman Jessica Drew the incognito hero – who goes by the nom-de-guerre “Patch” in the Asiatic sin city can’t catch the sinister stranger pulling the strings…

Uncanny X-Men #256-258 (December 1989-January 1990) highlight the artistic gifts of Jim Lee & Scott Williams in a dramatic but rather bewildering 3-part thriller that originally featured as part of Marvel’s “Acts of Vengeance” crossover event.

Wolverine hardly features at all in ‘The Key That Breaks the Lock’ which finds telepath Betsy Braddock AKA Psylocke captured by ninja cabal the Hand. The brainwashing and mystic body-swapping engineered by Hand boss Matsuo Tsurayaba turns the English Rose into a sexy Chinese assassin/siren and the perfect gift for the undisputed Overlord of the Orient who employs her as his ‘Lady Mandarin’ in #257 to attack the X-Men…

Just as a physically depleted and delusional Logan – with new sidekick Jubilee in tow – are captured by the Hand, their heroic comrades are targeted by the Mandarin attempting to honour his part of a super-villain pact to switch arch-enemies by destroying the misunderstood mutants…

The tale devolves into a hi-octane, turbulent and overblown battle and the chaotic clash concludes in ‘Broken Chains’ with loads of semi-naked, exotic women, ninjas, big guns, mutants and even ghosts shouting and hitting everything – just what every fan at the end of the 1980s demanded.

Wolverine volume 2 #57 follows with ‘Death in the Family!’ (by Larry Hama, Marc Silvestri, Dan Green, Al Milgrom & Joe Rubinstein from July 1992) as the long-running Clan Yashida storyline was brought to a tragic climax when Wolverine, Silver Samurai and X-Man Gambit came to Mariko’s aid in her struggle to restore the honour of her family, even as Jubilee and Yukio battle for their lives against the Hand and cyborg psycho-killer Cylla. There was no happy ending here…

Since his earliest glory days with the X-Men, the mutant berserker known variously as Wolverine, Logan, Patch and latterly (originally) James Howlett had been a fan-favourite who appealed to the suppressed, put-upon, catharsis-craving comic fan by perpetually promising to cut loose and give bad guys the kind of final punishment we all know they truly deserve. But he also seemed to be a loner within the team.

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

Inevitably Wolverine grew bigger than his team and increasingly worked alone, or with other groups and heroes.

When Wolverine Origins launched, the title was intended to fill in historical gaps and blanks, using an extended plot which revealed that over course of the 20th century Howlett had been repeatedly manipulated and tortured by a madman, who had moved invisibly in and out of his life, exerting complete mental dominance over the wandering warrior.

When Logan realised this he set all his prodigious instincts and skills to the task of finding the mysterious sadistic phantom known only as Romulus…

He discovered his quarry was the force behind numerous programs such as Weapon X (which first agonisingly bonded miracle metal Adamantium to Wolverine’s skeleton) and was dedicated to manufacturing and augmenting appalling human killing machines such as tortured US super-soldier Nuke, old associates like Wildchild and foes Sabretooth, Cyber and Omega Red…

From issue #5, ‘Born in Blood: Conclusion’ by Daniel Way & Steve Dillon ends the first leg of that monolithic hunt and sees Wolverine infiltrating the White House. It’s a trap and a magic Muramasa sword infects the obsessed mutant with a killing rage. The blood-crazed hero is barely held at bay by Captain America, Cyclops, Emma Frost and New Mutant Hellion and his fury is further stoked by the shocking new memory that decades ago Romulus had killed Logan’s wife Itsu and stolen the son the X-Man never knew existed…

The outré revelations continue in Wolverine volume 3 #61 as ‘Logan Dies: the Conclusion – Soul Survivor’ (January 2006, by Marc Guggenheim & Howard Chaykin) discloses that the true reason Howlett is still alive is that an Angel of Death named Lazear (née Azrael) spiritually battles him at every moment of death – and has since 1914.

Now Lazear, in alliance with enigmatic Hand mystic Phaedra, intends to finish the arcane arrangement, having already excised portions of Howlett’s soul. However the wily Wolverine has a plan to turn his weakness into triumphant strength…

The comics portion of this catalogue of death comes from Uncanny X-Force #34, January 2013. ‘From the Cradle to the Grave: Final Execution’ by Rick Remender & Phil Noto sees the final fate of Wolverine’s ultra-covert mutant wet-work squad as his fully grown and sadistically psychotic son Daken caps a lifetime of monstrous deeds by convening a new brotherhood of Evil, murders Wolverine’s ally Fantomex, turns an innocent child into the new Apocalypse and battles the father he never knew to the death…

With covers and pin-ups by Steven Segovia, Paul Smith, Dougie Braithwaite, Alan Davis & Paul Neary, Bill Sienkiewicz, Jim Lee & Scott Williams, Marc Silvestri & Dan Green, Joe Quesada, Arthur Suydam and Julian Totino Tedesco, this spectacular splatterfest also includes 10 pages of background and biographies of Wolverine’s foes Azrael/Lazear, Daken, Muramasa, Lord Shingen, Phaedra, Silver Fox, Sabretooth and Viper.

Stuffed with non-stop tension and blockbuster action, this another well-tailored on-target tool to turn curious movie-goers into fans of the comic incarnation and another solid sampling to entice the newcomers and charm even the most jaded slice ‘n’ dice fanatic.
© 2013 Marvel. 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.