Category: Marvel Superheroes

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage


By Tom DeFalco, J.M. DeMatteis, Terry Kavanagh, David Michelinie, Mark Bagley, Sal Buscema, Ron Lim, Tom Lyle, Alex Saviuk & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-7851-0038-5 (1994)                                               978-0-7851-0987-7 (2005)

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

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

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

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

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

In the anything-goes, desperate hurly-burly of the late 1980s and 1990s, fad-fever and spin-off madness obsessed the superhero genre in America as comics publishers hungrily exploited every trick to bolster flagging sales. In the melee Spider-Man spawned an intractable enemy called Venom: a disgraced and deranged reporter named Eddie Brock who bonded with Peter Parker‘s black costume (an semi-sentient alien parasite called the Symbiote) to become a savage, shape-changing dark-side version of the Amazing Arachnid.

Eventually the spidery adversaries reached a brooding détente and Venom became a “Lethal Protector”, dispensing a highly individualistic brand of justice everywhere but New York City.

However the danger had not completely passed. When the Symbiote went into breeding mode it created a junior version of itself that merged with a deranged psycho-killer named Cletus Kasady (in Amazing Spider-Man #344, March 1991).

Totally amoral, murderously twisted and addicted to both pain and excitement, Kasady became the terrifying metamorphic Carnage – a kill-crazy monster who carved a bloody swathe through the Big Apple before Spider-Man and Venom united to stop him.

Collecting the franchise-wide crossover which originally appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #378-389, Spectacular Spider-Man #201-203, Spider-Man #35-37, Spider-Man Unlimited #1-2 and Web of Spider-Man #101-103 (spanning from May – August 1993), this mammoth and extremely controversial summer event featured the inevitable return of the terrifying travesty and his bloodcurdling assault on everything Peter Parker held dear: love, family, responsibility and the heartfelt faith that killing was never justifiable…

After a behind-the-scenes Introduction (‘Darkness, Light… and Free Food’– with a corresponding Afterword at the end of the epic) by J.M. DeMatteis, this fast and furious slash-fest kicks off with ‘Carnage Rising’ by Tom DeFalco, Ron Lim & Jim Sanders III from Spider-Man Unlimited #1.

When a seemingly powerless Kasady is moved from ultra high security penitentiary The Vault to an experimental lab at Ravencroft Asylum, ambitious psychiatrist Dr. Pournella believes she can cure the monster’s underlying psychosis. Those opinions die with her and the rest of the staff and security officers when the long-dormant Carnage entity manifests and breaks free…

Across town, tormented by guilt and shame, Peter Parker and his new wife Mary Jane are attending the funeral of their friend Harry Osborn – who had gone mad and perished battling Spider-Man as the second Green Goblin. As the downcast hero wallows in soul-searching and wonders at the point of his life, in Ravencroft a nihilistic scourge of insane bloodlust rampages through the facility until he is stopped in his tracks by another inmate.

Shriek is a creature after Carnage’s own heart; a survivor of appalling childhood abuse who discovered she possessed incredible powers to make all her vile drives and dreams come true…

Instantly attracted to each other the pair join forces as a twisted “couple” and resolve to kill as often and as many as they can…

Escaping into New York they soon encounter and battle a mystical, nigh-mindless Spider-Man Doppelganger (which has been stalking the Webslinger since the end of the Infinity War crossover event) and adopt it. Together the ultimate embodiment of a dysfunctional family set out to teach the city the pointlessness of life and the imminent inevitability of remorseless death…

Peter meanwhile has quarrelled with Mary Jane, but after making up he hears of the bloodbath at Ravencroft and dutifully rushes off to recapture Carnage. He is utterly unprepared for the trio of terror he finds and is savagely beaten before barely escaping with his life…

The tale continues in ‘Dark Light’ (by Terry Kavanagh, Alex Saviuk & Don Hudson from Web of Spider-Man #101) as the incapacitated Arachnid is accosted by street thugs hungry for vengeance and only saved by the appearance of homeless vigilantes Cloak and Dagger.

The nomadic teens are two juvenile runaways who fell into the clutches of drug-pushing gangsters. As part of a group of abducted kids they were used as guinea pigs for new designer drugs, but though all the other test subjects died horribly Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen were mutated by the chemical cocktail into something more – and less – than human.

Isolated, alone, and vengeful they swore to help other lost kids by fighting drug dealers and all who preyed on the weak in the blackest corners of New York City. Cloak is connected to a dimension of darkness; able to teleport, become intangible, amplifying and feeding on the wickedness in his targets. His unceasing hunger for these negative emotions must be regularly if only temporarily sated by super-acrobat Dagger’s dazzling radiance. Her power too has advantages and hazards. The power can cleanse the gnawing dependency afflicting addicts, but constantly, agonizingly, builds up within her when not released. Thus Cloak’s incessant hunger can be assuaged by her light-knives and his apparently insatiable darkness.

Whilst tending to Spider-Man – whose injuries include cripplingly painful broken ribs – Cloak and Dagger are ambushed by the Carnage clan and a catastrophic clash razes the church they are sheltering in.

Shriek especially is revelling in the chaos. She has battled Cloak before and loathes him, taking sublime joy in tormenting him. Her greatest triumph comes when she uses her sonic powers to disintegrate his beloved Dagger before his horrified eyes…

‘Demons on Broadway’ (Amazing Spider-Man #378, by David Michelinie, Mark Bagley & Randy Emberlin) ramps up the tension as Venom returns to New York, determined to exterminate the appalling threat he inadvertently created. The severely wounded Spider-Man is meanwhile trying to console Cloak who is crazed with grief and fury. Elsewhere Carnage, Shriek and Doppelganger are simultaneously gloating, planning further bloodshed and fighting each other…

When Cloak disappears in a blink of black torment the barely conscious Wallcrawler resumes his search for the trio of horrors and instead stumbles upon another old foe – Demogoblin.

Originally a science-powered super-crook, the mercenary killer was mystically cursed and transfigured into a supernatural scourge dedicated to cleansing the earth of sin. To his diseased mind that means slaughtering humans because they are all sinners…

As the messianic devil thrashes the utterly exhausted and overstretched Spider-Man in Central Park, Venom tracks down Kasady but is similarly crushed by Doppelganger, Shriek and his sadistically exultant “offspring”…

Brock barely escapes with his life and crawls to Peter and Mary Jane’s apartment in Spider-Man #35, driving Mrs. Parker crazy with fear and resentment. In fact it seems as if the entire city is on the edge and ready to explode in rage, negativity and violence…

As Spider-Man resigns himself to working again with his murderous worst nightmare, Demogoblin joins the fiendish family. The good guys recruit Peter’s ex-girlfriend The Black Cat to even the odds in ‘Team Venom’ (David Michelinie, Tom Lyle & Scott Hanna), but by the time they find their constantly bickering homicidal foes Cloak has already impetuously attacked them and is close to death…

As another blockbusting battle ends in defeat for the heroes, the Amazing Arachnid finds himself berated and deserted by his own allies. Taken to task for his foolish unwillingness to use lethal force, Peter questions his ingrained reluctance to go ‘Over the Line!’ (Spectacular Spider-Man #201, J.M. DeMatteis & Sal Buscema) even as Carnage adopts another psychotic menace into his growing killer kin.

The cadaverous mutated clone Carrion shares their ambitions and eagerly joins in their avowed mission to kill every human in New York.

The blood-soaked brood are aided in their task by the very citizens they imperil, as an inexplicable wave of fear and hatred grips the populace, sparking savage rioting and a tide of death. The inflamed innocents even attempt to lynch Spider-Man when he comes to their aid…

As Parker faces an overwhelming crisis of conscience in ‘Sinking Fast’ (by Kavanagh, Saviuk & Hudson from Web of Spider-Man #102), Venom’s vengeance squad recruits another old Spider-Man foe in the ghastly shape of Michael Morbius – a science-spawned Living Vampire with an unquenchable appetite for human blood.

After years of death and torment, the helpless victim had recently begun to seek a form of redemption by only slaking his thirst on the wicked…

With her husband insanely risking his life beside allies as bad as the villains, Mary Jane attempts to ease her own rage by going clubbing, just as Carnage’s “carnival of chaos” tears into the fashionable nightspot eager to display their warped philosophy of senseless death.

She is only saved by the appearance of Team Venom, with Spider-Man arriving far too late to help. After helping to drive off the macabre marauders a heartbroken Parker is forced to accept the antihero’s methods and rejoins the squad in time to confront ‘The Gathering Storm’ (Amazing Spider-Man #379, Michelinie, Bagley & Emberlin)…

As the notional white hats again spectacularly and pointlessly clash with the cotillion of crazies – resulting in the collateral deaths of the NYPD’s Extreme Emergency Team – a new player enters the conflict.

Deathlok was pacifist scientist Michael Collins until his consciousness was imprisoned within a cyborg body built to be the ultimate battlefield weapon. Rebelling against the corporate monsters who doomed him to the life of a mechanical zombie, Collins turned the war body into a macabre force for justice, so when he detected strange energies at work in town he immediately entered the fray… and was trashed by Clan Carnage, just as Spider-Man and Cloak recruited the idealistic mutant Firestar to their side…

Fighting chaos and terror with logic, the Web-spinner had reasoned that since all Symbiote spawn were chronically susceptible to excessive heat (as well as high energy sonic assault) a champion capable of emitting unstoppable microwaves would turn the tide in humanity’s favour…

As the heroes lay their plans, ‘Hate is In The Air’ (Spider-Man #36 by Kavanagh, Lyle & Hanna) reveals the horrific childhood of Cletus Kasady and events which shaped the unrepentant kill-crazed fiend. Meanwhile martial arts hero Iron Fist steps in to rescue the broken Deathlok and the Venom gang again engage Carnage’s crew. They almost succeed but for the rallying efforts of the increasingly rebellious and independent Shriek…

One secret is revealed in ‘The Turning Point’ (Spectacular Spider-Man #202, DeMatteis & Buscema) as a crazed mob attacks the battling metahumans, and Shriek discloses her powers enable her to broadcast her own madness to the entire city, driving everyone into paroxysms of despair and fury. With Spider-Man actively urging Firestar to kill Carnage, the heroes’ ethical collapse seems assured…

From the depths of his soul Peter’s moral core finally breaks through the madness and he stops the equally conflicted microwave mutant from committing the ultimate sin, just as inspirational legend Captain America arrives to take charge…

With both Avengers and Fantastic Four occupied elsewhere, the Sentinel of Liberty has rushed back to save ‘Sin City’ (Kavanagh, Saviuk & Hudson, Web of Spider-Man #103) from Armageddon, and instantly rallies the hard-pressed heroes and their more ambivalent allies.

Sadly his presence causes a schism and as mysterious vigilante Nightwatch joins the dark defenders in still more reactive, pointless violence, ‘Soldiers of Hope’ (Amazing Spider-Man #380, Michelinie, Bagley & Emberlin) sees Parker at last use his brains rather than brawn. With Cap’s resources, the philosophical discipline of Iron Fist and technical skills of Deathlok, a weapon is devised that could disable and even cure the frenzied killers running wild in the streets…

An even greater turnabout occurs in ‘The Light!’ ( courtesy of DeMatteis, Lyle, Hanna & Al Milgrom and Spider-Man #37) as, at the height of the most savage battle yet, the three factions are stunned by the luminescent resurrection of Dagger, who spearheads a triumphant ‘War of the Heart!’ (Spectacular Spider-Man #203, DeMatteis & Buscema) that crushes the clan and kills Carnage…

Of course it’s never that easy and the cunning maniac is only shamming, as the exhausted and traumatised Spider-Man and Venom discover when the blood-red maniac ambushes them in one last all-or-nothing attack in ‘The Hatred, the Horror, & the Hero!’ by DeFalco, Bagley, Lim, Sanders III & Sam de la Rosa from Spider-Man Unlimited #2…

If you love the extended hyperbolic, continual conflict which is at the core of all Costumed Dramas, this non-stop battle bonanza is the ideal way to spoil yourself. Logic and pacing are subsumed into one long, escalating struggle, and a working knowledge of the players is largely unnecessary to the raw, brutal clash of wills, ideologies and super-powers. One fair warning however: although handled with a degree of reserve and taste, this yarn has an appalling bodycount and scenes of torture that might upset younger fans of the Amazing Arachnid.
© 1993, 1994, 2005 Marvel Entertainment Group Inc/Marvel Characters Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Captain America: Castaway in Dimension Z


By Rick Remender, John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson, Scott Hanna, Thomas Palmer & Dean White (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-534-5

The MarvelNOW! publishing event, which began at the end of 2012, gave the publishing house an irresistible opportunity to try a few different things with its vast catalogue of characters: options a bit more imaginative than simply killing somebody off or changing the identity of the hero under the mask…

‘Castaway in Dimension Z‘ opens with a flashback to Steve Roger’s early life in Depression Era New York. This book is packed with such recurring, revelatory glimpses of the hero’s rough early childhood: scenes of crushing poverty, bravery, endurance and idealism that shaped the character of America’s indomitable ideal…

The contemporary action commences with Captain America crushing an insane plot by deranged eco-terrorist The Green Skull before meeting long term girlfriend and S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison Sharon Carter. It’s his birthday – the 4th of July, of course – and the immortal Sentinel of Liberty is celebrating by investigating a phantom subway train with his favourite partner.

His mind isn’t in the game however: after years of waiting, Sharon has given up and just asked Steve to marry her…

The train is a trap and before he can react Rogers is chained, drugged and catapulted into an impossible other universe leaving Sharon and a normal life behind, perhaps forever…

The Sentinel of Liberty groggily awakes strapped to a lab machine next to a baby floating in a tank. Monstrous radical geneticist and Fascist war-criminal Arnim Zola is an old foe, but here he seem to be working alone, intent on extracting the Super-Soldier serum which has kept Steve the world’s most perfect man for nine decades…

As the devil doctor plunges a giant needle deep into Steve’s chest, the still-doped champion breaks free and, retrieving his shield, impossibly battles his way to freedom past an army of monsters and genetically reconstructed horrors…

In the rubble of the ruined lab and shattered baby tank, Zola screams to a little girl that the Avenger has killed her brother, his “perfect son”…

As Captain America flies a stolen jet deep into the arid wastes of an unrecognisable place, Zola tasks his mutate army with hunting down the fugitive infanticide, utterly unaware that the rescued baby is safe in the hero’s brawny arms…

‘One Year Later’ Cap and the unnaturally advanced boy he’s named Ian are scavenging in the wastes of a world where all the recognised laws of physics seem optional. The food they hunt hunts them too and Zola’s patrols are everywhere. After a particularly brutal clash with Zolandian warriors and a hidden monster, the humans are unable to fend off a further attack and captured by hideous armoured beasts who seem to be an indigenous race…

The Phrox are on the edge of extinction: their harsh home further twisted by the invader Zola who is determined to exterminate them and repopulate with his ghastly subservient creations. Steve’s problems are more immediate. Zofjor, dictator of the Phrox, wants him dead but the harassed hero and his “son” are adopted by forward-seeing noble Ksul, who sees in them a future weapon against Zola…

A seeming diversion shows us Zola’s sordid past in Switzerland in 1929, before revealing how his Dimension Z daughter Jet has become a revenge-fuelled fighting fury. In the subterranean caverns of the Phrox Steve and Ian find friends and time to heal in relative security. However the Sentinel is keeping secrets: Zola did something to him when he was first captured and a true horror is growing inside him…

The genetic time-bomb doesn’t stop Steve overthrowing Zofjor, but even as the Phrox exult in their new-found freedom, Zola’s hidden gift reveals itself and begins a slow, remorseless conquest of Captain America’s mind and body…

‘Eleven Years Later’ Ian is an experienced soldier, trained by the Sentinel of Liberty to fight for what’s right even as Zola’s forces inexorably close in on the last remnants of the embattled Phrox. However even as they repel another mutate advance, the thing in Steve continually taunts him with Zola’s memories and urges him to return the boy to his creator. The decision is taken from him when he collapses and Ian sees and hears the infection for himself…

Knowing the end is near Steve settles on a drastic step: breaching his enemy’s citadel, fighting his way back to Earth for medical assistance and returning with Avengers reinforcements.

Zola too has plans. His now-grown daughter Jet Black is capably in command of his mass-manufactured armies and has captured a Phrox long-exiled by Rogers. After securing the location of the hidden hideaway, she leads the mutates and her father’s latest crop of warped horrors – all grown from Steve’s blood – on an all-out attack on the human who slaughtered her baby brother…

The devastating assault is a complete success. However as Jet recaptures her impossibly alive brother and beats Captain America to near-death she experiences doubts. The man she has hated all her life has clearly cared for the boy and is a valiant foe. What else might be untrue?

The hesitation is too much for Zola who uses a monster body to destroy his foe before ordering the extermination of the Phrox Ian considers his extended family.

Steve Rogers is not dead. Recovering in the ruins he takes a knife to his chest and excises Zola’s appalling agent and makes a plan. After 11 years on the defensive and on the run Captain America is ready to fight back and bring the war to his hated enemy…

To Be Continued…

Brutal, bewildering, bewitching and bombastic, this eye-popping otherworld epic re-presents Captain America volume 7, #1-5, originally released between November 2012-March 2013, wherein Rick Remender’s boldly unconventional action-packed saga at last creates a full childhood for America’s greatest champion to temper and inform the unshakable idealism.

Moreover the stunning art by John Romita Jr., inkers Klaus Janson, Scott Hanna & Thomas Palmer and colour-renderer Dean White is simply too good to be true.

This book also includes a vast cover-and-variants gallery by Romita Jr., Janson, Joe Quesada, Jerome Opeña, Charles Paul Wilson III, Ryan Meinerding, Skott Young, Paolo Rivera, Julian Totino, Tedesco, Alexander Maleev, Simone Bianchi & Jung-Geun Yoon and the now as-standard AR icon add-on sections.

This Marvel Augmented Reality App give access to story bonuses once you download the code – for free – from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

Magnificently reminiscent of the spectacular, innovative 1976-1977 Jack Kirby run on the Star-Spangled Avenger, this bombastic science-fiction epic of freedom fighting fantasy is a delicious, mysterious and mesmerising all-action extravaganza no Fights ‘n’ Tights can afford to ignore.

™ & © 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.

Posted on

All-New X-Men: Here to Stay


By Brian Michael Bendis, David Marquez, Stuart Immonen & Wade Von Grawbadger (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-547-5

Surely everybody wonders what might result if they could meet their older selves one day, and as scripter Brian Michael Bendis continues his intriguing regeneration and restating of the Mutant Question, the answers here increasingly indicate it might all be a very bad idea indeed…

Following all the poor choices and horrendous paths taken by assorted Homo Superior heroes over the last few years, and in the aftermath of the blockbuster Avengers versus X-Men publishing event, MarvelNOW! reformed the entire continuity, taking the outcast champions in truly bizarre old/new directions.

At the beginning 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 animalistic genius Henry McCoy were gathered up by “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, the 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 the intervening years the struggle to integrate mutants into society resulted in many tragedies and compromises, including Jean’s death, Warren’s mutilation, Hank’s further mutation and eventually Cyclops’ radicalisation. The steadfast and trustworthy team-leader eventually joined with former foes Magneto and Emma Frost in a hard-line alliance devoted to preserving mutant lives at the cost, whenever necessary, of human ones.

His former team-mates and newer X-Men such as Wolverine, Storm and Kitty Pryde stayed true to Xavier’s ideal, abandoning Scott to protect and train the next X-generation of mutant kids at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning…

When Hank McCoy realised he was fatally mutating, he became obsessed with the notion that the early idealistic First Class of X-Men – especially Scott– could bring the mutant terrorist Cyclops back from his current path of doctrinaire madness and ideological race war insanity.

To that end he utilised time-travel technology in a last-ditch attempt to avoid inevitable mutant civil war: risking the entire space/time continuum by bringing not only his old friend but also the rest of the valiant young team back to the future to reason with the fallen Cyclops.

The gamble paid off in all the wrong ways: rather than restoring noble, dedicated Scott Summers to the man he used to be, the confrontation simply hardened the maverick’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 “Evil” Cyclops was stopped…

Collecting All-New X-Men #6-10, cover-dated March-June 2013, this time-warping reboot finds the displaced teens adapting to a scary world (in a 3-part tale illustrated by David Marquez) as previously diffident wallflower Jean Grey suddenly takes charge of her future-shocked classmates.

At first overwhelmed by the instant onset of vast telepathic powers to augment her established telekinesis, Jean is given useful tips and hints on mental control by Kitty Pryde who resigns as headmistress to devote all her energies to training the chronally-displaced quintet.

Young Scott is especially traumatised. He just can’t believe the man he’s become and will not allow his later self to continue betraying his life’s purpose. Stealing Wolverine’s motorbike he flees the school where the First Class have been forcibly sequestered and heads out into the real world with the feral mutant hard on his heels…

Even as Warren at last meets his impossibly alien older self, Scott is learning far more than he ever wanted to about the 21st century, unaware that he has been discovered by one of the X-dynasty’s most cunning and ruthless enemies…

Teen Scott has made it to Manhattan and finagled his way into the bank where his older self has kept a safety- deposit box. The financial time-capsule contains one more big shock: a souvenir from his wedding to Jean and another impossible pill to swallow…

However before he can digest the fact, Wolverine catches him and convinces him to come quietly.

There’s another surprise though when the obnoxious Canadian turns into a quiet alley and transforms into a blue-skinned woman. Although he doesn’t know it, Scott is in the manipulative clutches of Raven Darkholme, a merciless mutant criminal known as Mystique. The innocent hours she spends talking to the still-naïve champion will affect his life forever…

When the real Wolverine finally tracks down the truant, he has no idea what Mystique has wrought as he drags the confused kid back to the WestchesterSchool, and when Scott shows Jean the retrieved wedding memento she too is speechless…

Young Warren cannot understand the changes time and circumstance have wrought upon his older self, and the ebullient flighty creature seems unable or unwilling to confide in him. However, as the two Angels soar through the heavens together they become aware of an attack on distant AvengersTower. Instantly back in battle mode the pair rout a deadly Hydra task force, but when the World’s Mightiest Superheroes meet, them Captain America is understandably aghast at the potentially continuum-rending consequences of five time-displaced teens running loose in their own future…

No sooner have the Avengers been temporarily placated than Cap’s fears are justified when young Warren, appalled at the things he’s seen and learned, attempts to commandeer the time-machine and return to his rightful time and place.

Shockingly, Jean seizes control of his mind and reprograms him so that he wants to stay…

Stuart Immonen returns to illustrate the final two chapters (with the assistance of Wade Von Grawbadger) as Kitty begins to accelerate the kids’ X-training and Scott lets slip that he’s met Mystique. As Kitty goes into damage control mode, in New York the subject of her fears is advancing her latest scheme.

With ravening psycho-killer Sabretooth she is raiding maximum security penitentiary The Raft to liberate mutant super-illusionist Lady Mastermind. Their new, shared ambition is lethally simple: use their powers to steal so much money that nobody will ever be able to touch them…

Meanwhile the ideological mutant conflict heats up when the elder Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magik and Magneto arrive at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning with a chilling proposition. Convinced of coming mutant extinction at human hands, the renegade terrorist Scott Summers has come with an open invitation: any students who wish may join his own academy – dedicated to training Homo Superior to fight and survive rather than co-exist with humanity…

With horror, X-Men young and old realise that the outrageous appeal has been accepted by some of the ungrateful students in their care…

Even as the faculty and temporal-fugitives ponder that shock, word arrives that the situation has worsened. A gang of mutants have slaughtered dozens of humans in a raid that netted millions of dollars and human/mutant relations have never been shakier…

To Be Continued…

Addictive, enthralling and utterly compelling, this second All-New X-outing mixes blistering action, sharp humour and slowly-mounting tension with the signature themes of alienation and personal freedom to deliver a refreshingly direct drive to the once water-treading mutant franchise and offers a perfect jumping-on point for new and retired fans alike as long as you also read the previous volume (All-New X-Men: Here Comes Yesterday)…

This book also includes a beautiful cover-and-variants gallery by Immonen, Chris Bachalo, Nick Bradshaw & Greg Horn 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.

Posted on

Superior Spider-Man: My Own Worst Enemy


By Dan Slott, Ryan Stegman, Giuseppe Camuncoli & John Dell (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-538-3

Over the years the Wondrous Wallcrawler has undergone many evolutions, refits and even backsliding revisions, but this new continuation, picking up where Amazing Spider-Man #700 shockingly ended, is probably the most radical character revamp yet and the boldest of all the MarvelNOW! relaunches.

There is no way to avoid this so be prepared to suffer at least temporary consternation and a major spoiler alert. If you don’t want to know what’s happened to Marvel’s signature character, stop now and read no further.

For those who remain: for the majority of the aforementioned anniversary epic, the mind of Peter Parker had been transferred into the rapidly failing body of deranged super-creep Otto Octavius and, despite his every valiant effort, in the end perished with that decrepit, expiring frame.

Now the former Doctor Octopus is permanently installed in the Amazing Arachnid’s body and ready to assume his life… with a few minor alterations and improvements…

The outlook for humanity is not as bleak as it might seem: on the very brink of defeat Parker pulled off a brilliant coup and forced Octavius to emotionally relive every moment of tragedy and sacrifice that made Spider-Man the champion he was.

From the turmoil came understanding and the villain reformed, swearing to live the rest of his stolen life in tribute to his enemy; honestly carrying on the mission of Spider-Man, guided by the binding principle that “with great power comes great responsibility”…

Written by Dan Slott with art by Ryan Stegman, Giuseppe Camuncoli & John Dell, My Own Worst Enemy collects issues #1-5 of The Superior Spider-Man (cover-dates March- May 2013) and opens with ‘Hero or Menace?’ as the still shell-shocked and guilt-tinged amalgam answers the call to duty when a new iteration of his old gang the Sinister Six begins a series of daring raids.

Boomerang, The Shocker, Speed Demon, Overdrive, a new female Beetle and robot prototype The Living Brain are attacking a science lab when the resolute Wallcrawler swings in with great intentions. Sadly when the opposition proves too much, the transplanted terror quickly reverts to type and flees.

…Until he spots an innocent in danger and, despite himself, turns back to effect a spectacular rescue and drive off his foes with a savage efficiency quite unlike Spider-Man and more fitting to a super-villain…

Appropriating the Living Brain for himself, “Parker” then reports for work at commercial think-tank Horizon Labs, determined to make stopping The Six his priority. Fellow workers notice a distinct change in their once easy-going pal and, after a cagy chat with head genius Max Modell, the arrogant, egotist agonisingly realises that every new scientific achievement, breakthrough and triumph will henceforward be credited to his greatest enemy.

There is one advantage however: as Parker, Octavius is rekindling an intimate relationship with the stunning female Mary Jane Watson…

When the Sinister Six attack again the Superior Spider-Man is waiting. A coldly methodical rationalist, the ingenious savant has deduced their plans and laid a trap: countering their numerical and power advantages by setting technological ambushes, stroking his own ego by calling the press in advance so that they can record his triumph.

However he almost blows it all by flying into a rage and nearly beating Boomerang to death.

Octavius has no idea what finally stays his hand: no conception that some portion of Peter Parker’s consciousness survives and is beginning to have a tangible effect on his purloined life…

As ‘The Peter Principle’ opens, the new, ultra-efficient Spider-Man has become New York’s darling. Even Mayor J. Jonah Jameson has embraced the Web-spinner, to the utter incredulity of not only the imperceptible phantom of Parker but also two of his former girlfriends.

Mary Jane and Police CSI Officer Carlie Cooper both know of Peter’s secret life and are discussing how much he’s changed. However when MJ reveals she’s considering getting back together with him, Carlie is reminded of something. The last time Spider-Man fought Doc Ock the killer maniac broke her arm. He also claimed that he was Peter trapped in the villain’s body…

The new Parker is exultant. He has spent his day improving Spider-Man’s costume, gimmicks and methodology, building spy robots to patrol the city for him while he plans a scientific strategy to bed Mary Jane, to the petulant horror of his unsuspected in-house voyeur.

Before the campaign can progress however another old Spider-foe resurfaces as The Vulture strikes, employing children as surrogate flying thieves working to steal one final big score for the ancient crook….

‘Everything You Know is Wrong’ opens as Jameson takes the City’s relationship with Spider-Man one step further towards full legitimisation, whilst MJ reels from a shocking announcement from “Peter” and Carlie’s suspicions begin to obsess her. The Web-spinner’s hunt for the Vulture is also stalled.

Octavius had a special affinity with the wily old bird and isn’t keen on catching him, but that all changes when he realises just how the flying Fagin truly regards his flock, inadvertently inflicting Otto’s horrific and revelatory childhood memories on the hapless ghost Parker. The appalling injuries the hero then inflicts on the Vulture push Carlie towards the only logical conclusion possible…

This stunning reinvention ends with a staggeringly potent 2-parter beginning with ‘The Aggressive Approach’ wherein the hidden Otto Octavius continues to shine at Horizon, smugly producing groundbreaking technologies until he is reminded that the body he wears never finished college.

Ego gutted by Parker having no doctorate, he determines to return to University and win the coveted honorific, even as at Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane the lethal sociopath Massacre escapes, leaving another trail of bodies. The ever-present shade of the true Peter Parker is appalled and wracked with guilt. He once had the chance to end the killer’s atrocities and chose not to…

The new Spider-Man has no such qualms and promises Mayor Jameson that will not be the outcome this time…

Unknown to all, the Wallcrawler’s greatest foe is also readying himself for a return match even as ‘Emotional Triggers’ finds Octavius turning all his intellect and resources to finding the murderous Massacre.

Well, almost…

With Phantom Parker incessantly and fruitlessly screaming at him, the decidedly less excitable Spider-Man first takes time off to cultivate a new lady-friend and satiate his culinary appetites before tackling the fugitive psycho-killer, who has meanwhile formed an alliance with an unscrupulous businesswoman keen on using his ability to grab headlines and air-time to promote her company.

Eventually, however, the Wallcrawler’s robot eyes find Massacre, and Spider-Man leads a SWAT team against the emotionless mass murderer, ending a horrific hostage crisis in a manner no real hero ever would…

This marvellously intriguing fresh start includes the usual cover-&-variants gallery – by Stegman, Mike Deodato, Jr., Joe Quesada, Camuncoli, J. Scott Campbell, Adi Granov, Humberto Ramos, Skott Young, Ed McGuiness, Simone Bianchi & Mike Bagley – behind-the-scenes production feature ‘Superior Insight’ and the now obligatory 21st century extra content for tech-savvy consumers in the form of AR icon sections.

These Marvel Augmented Reality App pages give access to story bonuses once you download the little dickens – free from marvel.com – onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

If you’ve never read a Spider-Man comic in your life you can start right here. Honestly, everything you need to start fresh and cold is covered in this smart spin, even if nobody in fandom really believes Peter Parker is gone for good…

™ & © 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.

Posted on

Thor God of Thunder: The God Butcher


By Jason Aaron & Esad Ribic (Marvel Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-533-8

In the wake of the game-changing Avengers versus X-Men publishing event, the company’s entire continuity was reconfigured. From that point on the banner MarvelNOW! indicated a radical repositioning and recasting of all the characters in an undertaking designed to keep the more than 50-year old universe interesting to readers old and new alike.

This involved a varying degree of drastic rethink for beloved icons, concepts and brands, always, I’m sure, with one wary eye on how the material would look on a movie screen…

Collecting Thor, God of Thunder #1-5 (cover-dated January-April 2013) by Jason Aaron & Esad Ribic, this big, bold blockbuster saga simultaneously unfolds over three separate eras and offers a spectacular clash as the bellicose Lord of Lightning faces his ultimate adversary…

It begins in Iceland in 893AD where a young god revels amongst his Viking worshippers, slaying monsters and bedding mortal maids in the days before he proved himself worthy enough to wield the mystic mallet Mjolnir.

During his revels a dismembered corpse washes up, terrifying the valiant Norsemen. They have never seen the like but Thor recognises it as a god from another pantheon, slaughtered and dismembered like meat…

In the now, Thor is summoned into deep space and the parched planet Indigarr. The Thunderer has mystically heard the desperate prayer of a little girl and on his arrival brings rain and salvation to her dying world.

Celebrated as a saviour, the Storm Lord wonders aloud why the people did not pray to their own gods – across the entire universe, all civilisations and peoples have deities – and learns they are dead. Investigating further he locates Indigarr’s god-palace and discovers the entire pantheon was tortured to death ages ago…

As a monstrous black beast ambushes him he remembers a horrific experience more than a millennium past and knows fear…

In the furthest future, an aged Thor sits in a shattered Great Hall of Asgard. He has only one arm and one eye and is the last god – perhaps the last being – in existence …except for the uncountable hordes of savage black beasts that surround him…

The cosmic conundrum continues in ‘A World without Gods’ as, in Iceland, Thor leads a bold band of worshipful reivers on a quest into what will one day be Russia and encounters a being who has killed all the gods of the Slavs.

Appropriating one of the perished pantheon’s flying horses Thor soars aloft to challenge the mysterious God Butcher and, amidst a welter of ‘Blood in the Clouds’, eventually defeats the maniacal alien Gorr…

In the present, an enraged Thunder God, having honourably disposed of the celestial corpses, sets off to discover the truth of the situation…

Arriving at the pan-cosmic metropolis of Omnipotence City, where gods of every world and time have met since the universe began, the Thunderer discovers that over the eons many divinities have gradually stopped visiting.

After consulting the infinitude of scrolls in ‘The Hall of the Lost’, Thor journeys to many of the worlds and finds the same thing over and again: slaughtered, desecrated corpses and planets bereft of godly life. Each of them does harbour a brutal black beast though…

In ancient Russia the Thunder godling recovers after seven days in a coma, tended by his faithful Vikings. Seeking to confirm his victory, Thor subsequently searches the icy wastes and finds the last of the Slavic Celestials, left as a swiftly expiring signpost to a rematch with the diabolical divinity-slayer…

In our time Thor and Avenger ally Iron Man visit the same region, scouting the cave where Thor ended the menace of Gorr, the God Butcher in the 9th century.

After all he has seen in space, however, the Thunderer is questioning his memory and conclusions. Wiser and warier than his youthful incarnation, the Prince of Asgard dispatches the Golden Avenger to warn Earth’s other pantheons of their imminent peril before entering the cave he’d last visited more than a thousand years ago…

At the very end of days the dotard Thunder God continues to slay black beasts, hungry for the honourable death they will not allow him…

And in the 21st century the Lord of Storms finds not his foe, but a pathetically broken alien god the Butcher has left with a personal message – “It’s all your fault, Thor…”

At the end of time ‘The Last God in Asgard’ is left to fight again but never die, as in the now, Thor and broken alien deity Shadrak return to Omnipotence City following a slipped reference to something called “Chronux” and stumble into a raid by beast creatures determined to erase all reference to it from the infinite library of the eternal omnopolis.

In 893AD the awful truth of what occurred in Gorr’s cavern is revealed, as the present-day Thor follows a faint hope to the planet of the Time Gods and learns the impossibly grandiose, history-shredding scheme of the Butcher.

Gorr meanwhile has uncovered the true origin-story of universal life and invades the corridors of time to achieve his ‘Dream of a Godless Age’…

The Celestial Slaughterman is even more elated when his 21st century nemesis is catapulted to Asgard at the end of eternity. Now the chronal marauder has two Thors to play with – for as long as he wishes…

To Be Continued…

Dark, complex, expansive and disturbing, this cruelly compelling yarn perfectly capitalises on the Thunder’s God’s key conceptual strengths to offer a decidedly different take on the venerable hero – one that should delight fans who think they’ve seen it all.

Also included herein are swathes of extra content for tech-savvy consumers via the AR icon option (described as “code for a free digital copy on the Marvel Comics app for iPhone®, iPad®, iPad Touch® & Android devices and Marvel Digital Comics Shop: a special augmented reality content available exclusive through the Marvel AR app – including cover recaps, behind the scenes features and more”) as well as the usual available-to-all expansive cover-and-variants gallery by Ribic, Skott Young, Daniel Acuña, Joe Quesada, Olivier Coipel & Rajko Milosevic Guera.

™ & © 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.

Posted on

Heroes for Hire: World War Hulk


By Zeb Wells, Fred Van Lente, Clay Mann, Alvin Lee, Leonard Kirk, Alé Garcia, James Cordeiro, Terry Pallot & John Bosco (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-7851-2800-7

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 Misty Knight and her ninja partner Colleen Wing assembled a squad of 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 revived their old firm Heroes for Hire to apprehend 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 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…

This collection, gathering issues #11-15 and primarily scripted by Zeb Wells, brings down the curtain on the second Heroes for Hire series (spanning August to December 2007) and saw the team founder and die amidst internal strife and the end of the world …

This particular Armageddon was the result of The Incredible Hulk returning to Earth after months away on another planet.

He had been peremptorily exiled to a brutal, barbaric world by Reed Richards, Dr. Strange and Tony Stark but found lasting love and family there. However, when the savage paradise was destroyed by Earthly technology, the Grim Green Giant returned to his homeworld at the head of an alien coalition of survivors dubbed The Warbound, determined to exact vengeance in kind…

The frantic call to arms begins in ‘Infestation’ (illustrated by Clay Mann & Terry Pallot) as the H4H team land in New York after a mission in the antediluvian Savage Land and walk into a city under martial law.

The job had been to capture a missing link Homo Habilis specimen (dubbed Moon Boy) for S.H.I.E.L.D.’s science division, but during the expedition, unknown to the others, insect avatar Humbug was taken by colossal bugs long-vanished from the rest of the world, leaving his friends to believe him dead and eaten.

He was subsequently found, but somehow changed: no longer the whiny clown they knew. Powerful, confident and slightly frightening, he informed them that they had to rush home to fight a threat to the entire planet. His friends had no idea what Earth’s ancient insect masters of had transformed their laughable companion into…

Brought up to speed by S.H.I.E.L.D., the heroes join the mobilisation to resist Hulk and the Warbound, ignoring the bizarre warnings of Humbug that the true threat was “the warrior-beetle and his queen”…

Seeing no profit, Paladin leaves even as the frantic insect master, wracked by inexpressible contacts with the invader-bugs, rushes off into the locked-down city. Following, Shang-Chi and the others discover their deranged comrade stalking bizarrely cute insect scavengers. As they try to befriend one of the “Hivelings”, Humbug casually dismembers it and showers them with its “blood”…

These tales were accompanied by a sidebar serial, ‘Killer Instincts’ (by Fred Van Lente, John Bosco & Pallot), wherein the absconding Paladin discovers S.H.I.E.L.D.’s new super-agent Scorpion raiding the NYPD’s confiscated super-weapon and evidence warehouse and gets into a fight he can’t win…

‘Subjugation’ (Wells, Mann & Pallot) finds the team and Moon Boy – fully-cloaked from the scout aliens’ chemical senses by bug ichor – infiltrating the Warbound flagship until the ultra-advanced King Miek penetrates the subterfuge.

Humbug chooses to slip away rather than warn his companions, leaving them all to be captured as he confronts the true threat to Earth. Tragically when he faces the sinister Brood Queen her presence is too much and the man-bug becomes her helpless thrall…

Meanwhile, back at ‘Killer Instincts’ (Van Lente, Bosco & Pallot), the struggle between Paladin and Scorpion escalates as both combatants begin employing all the stashed gimmicks impounded there…

‘Incarceration’ reveals how the situation goes from bad to worse as Humbug turns on his former comrades, allowing them to be tortured. However, whereas the Brood Queen sees his connection to Earth’s insect overlords as a means of subverting the entire planet – and making it her new global nest – Miek only sees a rival…

When the King demands to know which one of the infiltrators killed his Hiveling, Humbug blames Tarantula. Shocked and appalled, but refusing to snitch on Humbug, Colleen claims she did it and both women are dragged off to be tortured to death…

‘Killer Instincts’ concludes with the apparent death of Paladin, but the whole fight has been orchestrated as a test, with Scorpion utterly unaware who has been pulling her psychotic strings…

‘Procreation’ (Wells, Alvin Lee, Mann & Pallot) then finds Misty, Shang, Black Cat and Moon Boy casually discarded in Central Park as their framed companions are made the hosts and food for a new generation of horrific bugs…

As the Brood Queen prepares to do likewise to all of New York, Paladin steals a S.H.I.E.L.D. super-tank, links up with the remaining members of Heroes For Hire and leads a last charge into the proto-nest under MadisonSquareGarden…

The final confrontation comes in ‘Extermination’ (with art by Lee, Leonard Kirk, Alé Garcia, James Cordeiro & Pallot) as the heroes brutally clash with Humbug and discover how little humanity remains in his ghastly mutated form.

Defeated and discarded by their former sidekick, the Heroes regroup to rescue Colleen and Tarantula.

As Humbug agonisingly transforms into his ultimate form, the surprise secret weapon of the Insect Lords ends the threat of the Brood Queen, and one member of H4H takes uncharacteristic measures to end both Humbug’s dishonourable career and a beloved comrade’s eternal suffering.

Tragically, even in the aftermath of it all, there’s one final betrayal for the broken heroes to endure…

Dark, destructive and decidedly downbeat, this turbulent tome closed the books on the Commerce-fuelled Champions with a distinct tinge of unfinished business and led to a third iteration in 2010…

Before this lot shut up shop, however, there’s still space to mention that this collection includes a cover gallery by Clayton Henry, Takeshi Miyazawa, Sana Takeda & Francis Tsai, and again strongly recommend this splendidly gritty, witty, funny, fast-paced and spectacularly action-packed series which will surely delight all older fans of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction.
© 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Posted on

Marvel Platinum: the Definitive Iron Man Reloaded


By Stan Lee, Archie Goodwin, Mike Friedrich, Tony Isabella, Len Kaminski, Matt Fraction, Don Heck, George Tuska, Greg LaRocque, Kev Hopgood, Salvador Larroca, Carmine di Giandomenico, Nathan Fox, Haim Kano & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-529-1

With Summer Movie Blockbuster season hard upon us Marvel has again sagaciously released a wealth of film-inspired tie-in books and trade paperback collections to maximise exposure and cater to those movie fans wanting to follow up the cinematic exposure with a comicbook experience.

Produced under the always intriguing Marvel Platinum/Definitive Editions umbrella, this treasury of tales gathers a few of the more impressive but happily less obvious landmarks from the Steel Sentinel’s extensive canon; this time cannily focusing on sinister mastermind, ultimate arch-enemy and movie menace the Mandarin.

Contained herein are high-tech hi-jinks from Tales of Suspense #50, Iron Man volume 1, #21-22, 68-71, 291 & 500, Marvel Team-Up #146 and Iron Man volume 5 #19, (listed on Marvel’s Database as Invincible Iron Man volume 1 #19), spanning 1964 to 2011, which offers a fair representation of what is quite frankly an over-abundance of riches to pick from…

Arch-technocrat and supreme survivor Tony Stark has changed his profile many times since his debut in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963) when, as a VIP visitor in Vietnam observing the efficacy of the munitions he had designed, he was critically wounded and captured by sinister, cruel Communists.

Put to work building weapons with the dubious promise of medical assistance on completion, Stark instead created the first Iron Man suit to keep himself alive and deliver him from his oppressors. From there it was a simple jump to full time superheroics as a modern Knight in Shining Armour…

Since then the inventor and armaments manufacturer has been a liberal capitalist, eco-warrior, space pioneer, Federal politician, affirmed Futurist, Statesman and even Director of the world’s most scientifically advanced spy agency, the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate, and, of course, one of the world’s most prominent superheroes with the Mighty Avengers…

For a popular character/concept lumbered with a fifty-year pedigree, radical reboots are a painful but vital periodic necessity. To keep contemporary, Stark’s origin and Iron Man’s continuity have been drastically revised every so often with the crucible trigger event perpetually leapfrogging to America’s most recent conflicts. As always, change is everything but, remember Man, these aren’t just alterations, these are upgrades…

After the now-mandatory introduction from Stan Lee, the star-studded action begins with ‘The Hands of the Mandarin!’ from Tales of Suspense #50 wherein the wonderful Don Heck returned as regular penciller and occasional inker after a brief absence, and Lee introduced The Golden Avenger’s first major menace: a modern-day Fu Manchu who terrified the Red Chinese so much they tricked him into attacking America in the hope that one threat would destroy the other.

In response Iron Man invaded the mastermind’s oriental citadel where, after a ferocious but futilely inconclusive fight, he simply went back home to the Land of the Free.

The furious Mandarin held a grudge however and would make himself arguably Iron Man’s greatest foe.

Of course whilst Stark was the acceptable face of 1960s Capitalism – a glamorous millionaire industrialist, scientist and a benevolent all-conquering hero when clad in the super-scientific armour of his alter-ego – the turbulent tone of the 1970s soon relegated his suave, “can-do” image to the dustbin of history. With ecological disaster and social catastrophe from the myriad abuses of big business manifestly the new zeitgeists of the young, the Golden Avenger and Stark International were soon confronting a few tricky questions from their increasingly politically savvy readership.

With glamour, money and fancy gadgetry not quite so cool anymore, the questing voices of a new generation of writers began posing uncomfortable questions in the pages of a series that was once the bastion of militarised America…

Iron Man #21-22 (January & February 1970, by Archie Goodwin, George Tuska & Joe Gaudioso) found the multi-millionaire trying to get out of the arms business and – following a heart transplant – looking to retire from the superhero biz.

African-American boxer Eddie March, became ‘The Replacement!’ as Stark, free from the heart-stimulating chest-plate which had preserved him for years, was briefly tempted by a life without strife. Unfortunately, unknown to all, Eddie had a major health problem of his own…

As Stark pursued a romantic future with business rival Janice Cord, her chief researcher and would-be lover Alex Niven was revealed as a Russian fugitive using her resources to rebuild the deadly armour of the Crimson Dynamo. The renegade easily overcame the ailing substitute Avenger and, when Soviet heavy metal super-enforcer Titanium Man resurfaced with orders to arrest Niven, a three-way clash ensued. Stark was forced to take up his metal burden again – but not before Eddie was grievously injured and Janice killed in #22’s classic ‘From this Conflict… Death!’

Stark’s romantic liaisons always ended badly. Four years later he was ardently pursuing Roxie Gilbert, a radical pacifist and sister of his old enemy Firebrand. She, of course, had no time for a man with so much blood on his hands…

Iron Man #68-71 (June to November 1974) was the opening sortie in a multi-part epic which saw mystic menace The Black Lama foment a war amongst the World’s greatest villains with ultimate power and inner peace as the promised prize. Written by Mike Friedrich and illustrated by Tuska & Mike Esposito, it began in Vietnam on the ‘Night of the Rising Sun!’ as the Mandarin struggled to free his mind, which was currently trapped in the dying body of Russian villain the Unicorn.

Roxie had dragged Stark to the recently “liberated” People’s Republic in search of Eddie March’s lost brother, a POW missing since the last days of the war. Then the Americans were separated when Japanese ultra-nationalist, ambulatory atomic inferno and sometime X-Man Sunfire was tricked into attacking the Yankee Imperialists. The attack was abruptly ended when Mandarin shanghaied the Solar Samurai and used his mutant energies to power the mind-transfer back into his own body.

Reinstated in his original form, the Chinese Conqueror began his campaign in earnest, eager to regain his castle from rival oriental overlord Yellow Claw. Firstly though, he had to crush Iron Man who had tracked him down and freed Sunfire in ‘Confrontation!’ That bombastic battle ended when the Golden Avenger was rendered unconscious and thrown into space…

‘Who Shall Stop… Ultimo?’ found the reactivated giant robot-monster attacking the Mandarin’s castle as the sinister Celestial duelled the Claw to the death, with both Iron Man and Sunfire arriving too late and forced to mop up the sole survivor of the contest in ‘Battle: Tooth and Yellow Claw!’…

‘Hometown Boy’ (September 1984, by Tony Isabella, Greg LaRocque & Esposito) comes from the period when Stark succumbed to alcoholism and lost everything and his friend and bodyguard Jim Rhodes took over the role of Golden Avenger.

As Stark tried to make good with a new start-up company, this engaging yarn from Marvel Team-Up #146 sees the substitute hero still finding his ferrous feet whilst battling oft-failed assassin Blacklash at a trade fair in Cleveland, as much hindered as helped by visiting hero Spider-Man…

Despite successfully rebuilding his company, Stark’s woes actually increased. Iron Man # 291 (April 1993) found the technocrat trapped in total paralysis and using a neural interface to pilot the armour like a telemetric telepresence drone. He had also utterly alienated Rhodey who had been acting as his proxy in a tailored battle suit dubbed War Machine…

Concluding an epic saga, ‘Judgment Day’ by Len Kaminski & Kev Hopgood explosively revealed how the two feuding friends achieved a tentative rapprochement whilst battling a proverbial army of killer robots and death dealing devices programmed to hunt down Rhodes at all costs…

Invincible Iron Man #19 comes from December 2009 by Matt Fraction &Salvador Larroca. During this time the Federal initiative known as Superhuman Registration Act led to Civil War between costumed heroes and Stark was appointed the American government’s Security Czar – the “top cop” in sole charge of a beleaguered nation’s defence and freedom. As Director of high-tech enforcement agency S.H.I.E.L.D. he was the last word in all matters involving metahumans and the USA’s vast costumed community…

However his mismanagement of various crises led to the arrest and assassination of Captain America and an unimaginable escalation of global tension and destruction, culminating in an almost-successful Secret Invasion by shape-shifting alien Skrulls.

Discredited and ostracised, Stark was replaced by rehabilitated villain and recovering split-personality Norman Osborn (the original Green Goblin), who assumed full control of the USA’s covert agencies and military resources, disbanded S.H.I.E.L.D. and placed the nation under the aegis of his new umbrella organisation H.A.M.M.E.R.

Osborn was still a monster at heart however and wanted total power. Intending to appropriate all Stark’s technological assets, the “reformed” villain began hunting the fugitive ex-Avenger. Terrified that not only his weaponry but also the secret identities of most of Earth’s heroes would fall into a ruthless maniac’s hands, Stark began to systematically erase all his memories, effectively lobotomising himself to save everything…

‘Into the White (Einstein on the Beach)’ reveals the conclusion of that quest as Stark, little more than an animated vegetable wearing his very first suit of armour, faced his merciless adversary in pointless futile battle, whilst in America faithful aide Pepper Potts, the Black Widow and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s last deputy director Maria Hill raided Osborn’s base to retrieve a disc with Tony’s last hope on it and simultaneously engineer the maniac’s ultimate defeat…

The comics portion of this winning compilation concludes with the lead tale from Iron Man volume 1 #500 (March 2011) wherein the generally recovered Stark is plagued by gaps in his mostly restored memory.

‘The New Iron Age’ by Matt Fraction, Carmine di Giandomenico, Nathan Fox, Haim Kano & Salvador Larroca, is a clever, twice-told tale which begins when Stark approaches sometime ally and employee Peter Parker in an effort to regain more of his lost past.

Stark is plagued by dreams of a super-weapon he may or may not have designed, and together they track down the stolen plans for the ultimate Stark-tech atrocity which has fallen into the hands of murderous anti-progress fanatics resulting in spectacular showdown of men versus machines…

Contiguously and interlaced throughout the tale are dark scenes of the near future where the Mandarin has conquered the world, enslaved Tony Stark and his son Howard and, with the ruthless deployment of Iron Man troopers and that long-ago designed super weapon, all but eradicated humanity.

With Earth dying, rebel leader Ginny Stark leads the suicidal Black Widows in one last charge against the dictator, armed with primitive weapons, aided by two traitors within the Mandarin’s household and guided by a message and mantra from the far forgotten past…

The book is rounded out with pertinent covers from Jack Kirby, Tuska, Esposito, Jim Starlin, Dave Cockrum, Ron Wilson, John Romita Sr., LaRoque, Bob Layton, Hopgood & Larroca, plus a dense and hefty 21 pages of text features, including ‘The Origin of the Mandarin’ by Mike Conroy and history, background and technical secrets of Crimson Dynamo, Justin Hammer, Happy Hogan, Mandarin, Pepper Potts, Stark Industries, Titanium Man and War Machine.

This thoroughly entertaining accompaniment to the cinema spectacle is also a well-tailored device to turn curious movie-goers into fans of the comic incarnation and another solid sampling to entice the newcomers and charm the veteran Ferro-phile.
© 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.