Category: Marvel Superheroes

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Marvel Masterworks volume 12: The X-Men 101-110


By Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, John Byrne & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-628-7

In 1963 The X-Men #1 introduced Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl and the Beast: very special students of Professor Charles Xavier, a cerebral, scholarly wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the emergent off-shoot race of mutants dubbed Homo Superior.

After years of eccentric and spectacular adventures, the mutant misfits disappeared at the beginning of 1970 (issue #66 cover-dated March) during a sustained decline in costumed hero comics, when mystery and all things supernatural once more gripped the world’s entertainment fields.

Although their title was revived at the end of the year as a reprint vehicle, the missing mutants were reduced to guest-stars and bit-players throughout the Marvel Universe and the Beast was transformed into a monster to cash in on the horror boom, until new editor-in-chief Roy Thomas green-lighted a bold one-shot in 1975 as part of the company’s line of Giant-Sized specials…

This superb second deluxe hardcover compendium recaptures the stellar excitement of those exuberant days through X-Men #101-110 of the decidedly “All-New, All-Different” X-Men (from October 1976 to April 1978) when the merry mutants were still young, fresh and delightfully under-exposed and only beginning their inexorable rise to mega-stardom. Moreover scripter Chris Claremont & artist Dave Cockrum were on the on the verge of utterly overturning the accepted status quo of women in comics forever…

What You Need to Know: The team now consisted of old acquaintance and former foe Sean “Banshee” Cassidy, Hulk villain Wolverine, and new creations Kurt Wagner, a demonic German teleporter codenamed Nightcrawler, African weather “goddess” Ororo Monroe AKA Storm and Russian farmboy Peter Rasputin, who could transform into a living steel Colossus and joined field-commander Scott (Cyclops) Summers and Jean Grey – still labouring under the nom-de guerre Marvel Girl…

But not for much longer…

For months a long-running, blockbuster-widescreen plotline had been building. Xavier, plagued by visions of interstellar wars and alien mind-mates, was on the verge of a mental breakdown. Not coincidentally, former students Havok and Polaris had attacked the new team, apparently willing allies of a mysterious madman disguised as Cyclops’ old alias Eric the Red.

That devastating conflict then segued into a spectacular battle as remorseless robotic Sentinels returned under the hate-filled auspices of rogue Federal Agent Steven Lang and his mysterious backers of Project Armageddon. Coordinated attacks successfully snared the semi-retired Jean, Wolverine, Banshee and Xavier himself, compelling Cyclops to co-opt a space-shuttle and, with the remaining team, storm an orbiting space-station to rescue them.

Although the new X-Men were victorious, their cataclysmic clash wrecked their only means of escape and, as an immense solar flare threatened to eradicate the complex, their only chance of survival meant certain death for one X-Man…

Bracketed by a brace of team pin-ups (by Paul Ryan and Javier Saltares respectively and both inked by Al Williamson), the ten tales of stunning power and imagination contained herein begin with the debut of a landmark character in ‘Like a Phoenix from the Ashes’ (by Claremont, Cockrum & inker Frank Chiaramonte) as the shuttle spectacularly crashes back to Earth.

The X-Men had travelled in a specially shielded chamber but Marvel Girl had been compelled to pilot the vehicle unprotected through the lethal radiation storm.

As the mutants escaped the craft slowly sinking in JamaicaBay, a fantastic explosion propelled the impossibly alive Jean into the air, clad in a strange gold and green uniform and screaming that she was “Fire and Life Incarnate… Phoenix!”

Immediately collapsing, the critically injured girl was rushed to hospital and a grim wait began.

Unable to explain her survival and too preoccupied to spare time to teach, Xavier then packs Banshee, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Storm and Colossus off to the Irish mutant’s home in County Mayo for a vacation, blissfully unaware that Cassidy Keep has become a deadly trap for his new students…

Within the ancestral pile, Sean Cassidy’s mutant cousin Black Tom has usurped control of the manor and its incredible secrets and at Eric the Red’s behest has contrived an inescapable ambush, assisted by an old X-Men enemy.

‘Who Will Stop the Juggernaut?’ (inked by Sam Grainger) sees the neophyte heroes in well over their heads and fighting for their lives, but finds room to tell the origin of weather-witch Storm and provide an explanation for her crippling claustrophobia, before ‘The Fall of the Tower’ shockingly concludes the tale as the heroes and the Keep’s Leprechauns (no, really) unite to expel the murderous invaders.

Although bi-monthly at the time, the epic kicked into strident top gear with ‘The Gentleman’s Name is Magneto’ as the weary heroes then divert to Scotland and check up on their gun-toting biologist/housekeeper Moira MacTaggert‘s island lab: a previously secret facility containing many of the mutant menaces the X-Men have defeated.

It’s a bad move as the ever-active Eric has restored the dormant master of magnetism to full power. He’d been turned into a baby – a strangely common fate for villains in those faraway days – but was all grown up again now – and very angry…

Arriving from America, MacTaggert and Cyclops are only just in time to lead a desperate, humiliating retreat from the exultant, triumphant Magneto. Cyclops doesn’t care: he realises the entire affair has been a feint to draw the heroes away from Xavier and Jean…

He needn’t have worried. Although in ‘Phoenix Unleashed’ (inks from Bob Layton) Eric orchestrated an attack by Firelord – a cosmic flamethrower who had been a herald of Galactus much like the Silver Surfer – Jean was now fully evolved into a being of unimaginable power who readily held the fiery marauder at bay…

In the interim a long-standing mystery was solved as the vision which had haunted Xavier was revealed as a fugitive princess from a distant alien empire.

Lilandra of the Shi’ar had rebelled against her imperial brother and whilst fleeing had somehow telepathically locked onto her inter-cosmic soul-mate Xavier. As she made her circuitous way to Earth, embedded Shi’ar spy Shakari had assumed the role of Eric the Red and attempted to remove Lilandra’s potential champion long before she arrived…

During the blistering battle that followed the X-Men’s arrival, Shakari snatched up Lilandra and dragged her through a stargate to another galaxy, but now, aware that the fate of entire universe is at stake, Xavier urges his team to follow.

All Jean has to do is re-open a wormhole to the other side of creation…

A slight digression followed as overstretched artist Cockrum was given a breather by a fill-in “untold” tale of the new team featuring an attack by psychic clones of the original X-men in ‘Dark Shroud of the Past’(by Bill Mantlo, Bob Brown & Tom Sutton, but with a framing sequence from Cockrum).

The regular story resumes in a wry tribute to Star Trek as ‘Where No X-Man Has Gone Before!’ (by Claremont, Cockrum & Dan Green) finds the heroes stranded in another galaxy where they meet and are defeated by The Shi’ar Imperial Guard (an in-joke version of DC’s Legion of Super Heroes), until bold interstellar freebooters The Starjammers arrive to turn the tables and uncover a mad scheme to unmake the fabric of space-time.

Lilandra’s brother Emperor D’Ken is a certified maniac and wants to activate a cosmic artefact known alternatively as the M’Kraan Crystal and “the End of All that Is” in his quest for ultimate power. He’s also spent time on Earth in the past and has played a major role in the life of one of the X-Men …

This tale (from issue #107) was the last drawn by Cockrum for many years. He would eventually return to replace the man who replaced him.

As X-Men and Starjammers battle the Crystal’s impossibly deadly automated guardians, this final chapter sees the newly puissant Phoenix literally save all of reality in a mind-blowing display of power and skill, all whilst trapped in a truly staggering other realm before taking the heroes home, appalled and enthralled by the intoxicating, addictive nature of her own might.

The conclusion of this ambitious extended saga was drawn by John Byrne (with inks from Terry Austin) and his efforts were to become an industry bench-mark as the X-Men grew in popularity and complexity. However, even though the bravura high-octane thrills of “Armageddon Now” seemed an unrepeatable high-point, Claremont & Byrne had only started. The best was still to come…

In ‘Home Are the Heroes’ Wolverine finally began to develop a back-history and some depth of character as technological wonder Weapon Alpha attacked the recuperating team in an attempt to force Logan to rejoin the Canadian Secret Service. Renamed Vindicator he would later return with Alpha Flight – a Canadian super-team which would eventually graduate to their own eccentric high-profile series.

This splendid compilation ends rather limply with another hasty fill-in as ‘The “X”-Sanction’ (illustrated by Tony DeZuniga & Cockrum), finds hired cyborg-assassin Warhawk infiltrating the mansion in search of “intel” for a mysterious, unspecified master before getting his shiny silver head handed to him…

The immortal epics compiled here are available in numerous formats (including softcover editions of the luxurious and enticing hardback under review here), but for a selection that will survive the continual re-readings of the serious, incurable fan there’s nothing to beat the sturdy and substantial full-colour feel of these sturdily Marvellous Masterwork editions.
© 1976, 1977, 1978, 1990 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc/Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Iron Man: Extremis – Enhanced Edition


By Warren Ellis & Adi Granov (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-527-7

Arch-technocrat and supreme survivor Tony Stark has played many roles in the Marvel Universe since his debut in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963) when, as visitor to an East Asian war-zone, 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.

Since then the inventor and armaments manufacturer became a liberal capitalist, eco-pioneer, space pioneer, Federal politician, 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…

First conceived in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis at a time when the economy was booming and “Commie-bashing” was an American obsession, the emergence of a glamorous new Thomas Edison using Yankee ingenuity, wealth and determination to safeguard the Land of the Free and better the World was an inevitable development. Combining the then-sacrosanct faith that technology and Capitalism in unison could solve any problem with the universally evocative imagery of noble knights battling evil, the Invincible Iron Man seemed an infallibly successful proposition.

Of course whilst Tony Stark was the acceptable face of 1960s Capitalism – a sexy millionaire industrialist and secretly a benevolent all-conquering hero when clad in the super-scientific armour he built with his own two hands – 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 myriad abuses of big business abounding, the zeitgeists of the young shifted leaving the Golden Avenger and Stark International facing some tricky questions from the increasingly politically savvy readership.

With money, fancy gadgetry and unthinking patriotism 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 …

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 feature America’s most-recent conflicts.

Thus, whereas the debut tale saw the inventor captured by Viet Cong guerrilla Wong Chu, who ordered his dying hostage to build weapons or perish from shrapnel embedded in his chest, later revamps had that life-preserving chest-plate and weaponised armour evolve as defiant responses to oriental mastermind the Mandarin and Chinese bandits before this latest logical upgrade brought the hero fully into the 21st century…

With the third Iron Man movie hurtling like a missile towards us, The House of Ideas has re-released an augmented collection of Warren Ellis’ updating of the legend: one wherein the always-futuristic noble knight got a stunning cyberpunk upgrade in a tale which directly influenced the filmic franchise and led to illustrator Adi Granov working as a designer and producer on the cinema interpretation.

Collecting Iron Man volume 4, issues #1-6 – January 2005-April 2006 – the fable follows the continuity-shattering “Disassembled” publishing event (involving and affecting The Avengers, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Thor, Captain America and Iron Man himself), which rebooted a number of core concepts and repositioned the inventor-hero as a driven futurist attempting to expiate the blood on his hands at any and all costs…

Although Stark has cut himself loose from official Governmental affiliations and all military contracts, abandoning guns and bombs to return to the life of a maverick entrepreneur, happily risking profits for the betterment of humanity, once upon a time he was an inspired deviser of death-dealing inventions…

Everything kicks off somewhere in Texas when dangerous men utilise stolen science to create a volunteer monster even as, in New York, shell-shocked, weary Stark struggles to get his life on course. Things aren’t made any easier by a conscience-shaking interview with journalist John Pillinger: a forthright, honest individual determined to pick at old scabs by reviewing Stark’s deadly contributions to America’s inhuman arsenal of destruction.

In an uncompromising exchange, Stark is reminded again that his cluster-bombs and landmines have killed so many more than enemy combatants in Iraq and Afghanistan…

With his own Board of Directors daily undermining the head of Stark International, trying to sideline him so that they can go back to building weapons, Stark’s only refuge is the good works performed by his secret identity.

So, when a respected researcher kills himself at biological innovation firm Futurepharm, and the company’s latest project goes missing, Tony jumps at the chance to help its founder – and old girlfriend – Maya Hansen…

Once upon a time they were brilliant young idealists who believed their innovations would reshape humanity, both inspired and influenced by scientific philosopher and truly radical thinker Sal Kennedy and both unhappy at the dirty compromises their work demanded, if they were to build a better world. Now, years later, they both seem closer to achieving their naïve dreams…

The stolen bio-package is codenamed “Extremis”: a nano-tube solution designed to overwrite human biology and cure any disease or injury. This also makes it a super-soldier serum capable of making a body, faster, stronger, tougher and able to build new organs with unsuspected capabilities.

In a hidden place, a man named Mallen comes out of the mutative coma caused by taking Hansen’s Extremis solution. He is no longer remotely human…

As Maya and Tony catch up with their old mentor Sal and are forced to ponder some unpalatable ethical dilemmas, Mallen is invading a Texas FBI office, slaughtering fifty agents and innocent bystanders with uncanny powers.

Long ago his radical, white supremacist family were killed in a domestic siege by Federal Agents, and now the vengeful anti-government libertarian militiaman is just starting his campaign to reclaim his America for his people…

He’s quickly tracked and intercepted by Iron Man and a terrifying battle between technology and biology, Government tool and freedom fighter, super-machine and enhanced man ensues. The Armoured Avenger doesn’t have a chance…

Crushed and broken by Mallen, Stark is perilously wounded and trapped inside his broken billion-dollar toy. The Extremis-enhanced terrorist is simply too strong and far too fast. Slowly dying, Iron Man convinces Maya to take him to Futurepharm, where he reveals his true identity to the astounded scientist and convinces her to give him a diluted, specifically-tailored dose of her incredible restorative…

As the serum goes to work, reconfiguring his system and incorporating elements of armour and processing systems within his body, Stark’s mind wanders back to the distant day when he was captured by Al Qaeda insurgents in Afghanistan.

Wounded, with shrapnel pressing against his heart, he and fellow prisoner Ho Yinsen were ordered to make weapons for their captors, but instead built a device to hold the lethal metal shards in place. The chest-plate soon evolved into a mobile weapons system and Stark broke free – but not without terrible consequences…

History repeats itself now as Stark again contrives a weapon-suit to overcome his problems – but this time he’s not wearing or piloting it. Now he truly is an Iron Man inside and out…

All that’s left for the new Avenger is the final battle against Mallen, one last duel between brutal past and shining future, and one more breathtaking betrayal…

Short, sweet, shocking and surprisingly engaging, this compelling Fights ‘n’ Tights thriller offers breakneck pace, astounding action and superbly suspenseful realpolitik, ethical and philosophical quandaries that will satisfy any fan who likes their fantasy tinged with a touch of contemporary hyper-authenticity.

This book also includes a stunning cover-gallery by the artist and a selection of features taken from Marvel Spotlight: Iron Man Movie from 2008, such as the Granov interview, ‘Iron Man to the Extreme’, more stunning art samples in ‘Covering Adi Granov’ and a history and appreciation of the Extremis project in Mike Conroy’s ‘Extreme Visions’.

Gritty, clever and hard-hitting, this is another explosively entertaining yarn to delight established fans with the added distinction of being self-contained and readily accessible to new, returning or casual readers.

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

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Ultimate Comics Iron Man: Demon in the Armour


By Nathan Edmondson & Matteo Buffagni (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-526-0

The upcoming third Iron Man film has naturally inspired a few new releases and this one, following the latest refit of the alternate Ultimate Marvel Universe (in the Divided We Fall/United We Stand publishing event), is a pretty good place for new or returning readers to get acquainted with the franchise…

The Marvel Ultimates project started in 2000 with a thoroughly modernizing refit of key characters and concepts to bring them into line with contemporary “ki-dults” – perceived to be a completely different buying public to us baby-boomers and our declining descendents.

Eventually even this streamlined new universe became as crowded and continuity-constricted as its predecessor, and in 2008 the cleansing publishing event “Ultimatum” culminated in a reign of terror which apparently (this is comics, after all) wiped out loads of heroes and villains as well as millions of ordinary mortals.

Even after, slowly rebuilding this darker, grimmer continuum, it had to happen again in 2012 as a perilously destabilised world sank into international metahuman anarchy and America succumbed to a mass secession of rogue states resulting in a second Civil War before the remaining heroes, surviving mutants and a new Spider-Man brought a measure of peace and stability to the planet…

From this latest aftermath comes a post-apocalyptic thriller (reassembling issues #1-4 of Ultimate Comics Iron Man from October 2012-January 2013) which simultaneously explores the past and future of Tony Stark: über-genius weapon-smith, world-class philanderer, amiable drunk, cancer victim and the latest arrogant financial Master of the Universe from a dynasty of armaments manufacturers and profiteers.

Demon in the Armour (and yes, it has been spelled differently for this British Edition) opens with the Golden Avenger spectacularly stopping a railway theft of super-guns before flashing back to earlier times when the rebellious son broke away from his overbearing father Howard Stark and attempted to set up his own company with cherished pal and partner Josey Gardner.

It was one of the last times he defied his dad’s demands.

Despite everything Tony tried, Stark senior was determined that his son would assume control of the family business, and as always, what the old man wanted he got. Six months later, Josey died in a plane crash but by then Tony was too busy in his new role to notice much…

Howard Stark was a complex man: over four decades he had built his small firm into a globe-girdling colossus, and although he never had time for family or sentiment there was always room for one more lesson on how Tony should run it once the old boss was gone…

Back in the present, the current owner is apprised of a brutal sabotage attack which masked a hacking attack. When Iron Man investigates the multi-pronged security breach he is completely outmanoeuvred by a mysterious “Mandarin” organisation which has infiltrated the company databases and even overridden control of Stark’s impregnable armoured suit.

The enigmatic ghost company claim they now own Stark Industries, just as they always have…

With the grudging assistance of ex-girlfriend, former boss super-spy and current White House Insider Carol Danvers, Tony and his major domo Jarvis track Mandarin to shell-company South Pacific Financial in Hong Kong, but the group has such strong ties to the Chinese Government – and the clout to make almost any problem go away – that even the USA officially considers them too big to mess with…

None of which matters one iota to Stark who, hot for answers and payback, ignores advice from friends, orders from the government and simple common sense to invade the company HQ in Hong Kong, only to again fall victim to the mal-ware and unlimited resources of Mandarin…

Barely escaping intact and with China personally suing him, the unrepentant Stark calls in a favour from military man James Rhodes (pilot of the US Air Force iteration of Stark armour dubbed War Machine)… who cheerily refuses…

A dedicated patriot, Rhodey has no time for the self-absorbed inventor and his headstrong manner, but when the latest Mandarin ploy compromises America’s Stark-built automated drone-system and causes untold damage, he joins Carol in a last-ditch scheme to destroy the sinister phantom cabal.

Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. satellite data pinpoints an uncharted PacificIsland as the probable home base of Mandarin, but when Iron Man blazes in, Tony is easily overwhelmed. Mandarin has him exactly where it has always wanted him and the overmatched, outfoxed inventor subsequently discovers the family secrets and appalling obligations he could never have imagined as well as an unobtrusively all-pervasive foe unlike any other he has ever faced…

Luckily the unlikely hero always had plans and allies to match his impulsive nature and selfish indignation…

Cunning, devious, fast-paced and action-packed, this sharp, straightforward thriller perfectly fills the bill as a place to jump on to the Iron Man experience as writer Nathan Edmondson & artist Matteo Buffagni (ably augmented by colourist Andy Troy) fill in some questions about Tony Stark and reboot the Technological Titan just in time for the next movie…

With covers and variants by Frank Stockton & Gabrielle Dell’otto, this is a deliciously wry, cynical shocker: another breathtakingly effective yarn only possible outside the Marvel Universe and one which will resonate with readers who love the darkest side of science fiction and superheroes as well as casual readers who know the company’s movies better than the comicbooks.

Heavy on attitude and action and over almost too quickly, this is another splendid tale that leaves the reader genuinely hungry for more…

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

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Wolverine Origins: Romulus


By Daniel Way, Scot Eaton & Andrew Hennessy (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3539-5

Ever since his glory days in the All–New, All Different X-Men, the mutant berserker known variously as Wolverine, Logan, Patch and latterly James Howlett has 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.

Always skirting the line between and blurring the definitions of indomitable hero and maniac murderer, Wolverine soldiered on, a tragic, brutal, misunderstood hero 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.

Debuting as a 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, the semi-feral Canadian mutant with fearsome claws and killer attitude rode – and maybe even caused – the meteoric rise of the reconstructed and rebooted X-Men 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 (since the original miniseries Origins revealed the hero had been born at the end of the 19th century) have explored his missing exploits in ever-increasing intensity and torturous detail.

Thus Wolverine’s secret origin(s) and increasingly revelatory disclosures regarding in his extended, conveniently much-brainwashed 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 doesn’t remember most of it.

This permanently unploughed field has conveniently resulted in a crop of dramatically mysterious, undisclosed back-histories, so from June 2006 to July 2010 supplementary series Wolverine Origins, for a 50-issue run, began revealing certain discrete pockets of that rich but occluded seam of comicbook gold.

Short and feisty, Logan has always threatened and promised an explosion of visceral, vicarious ultra-violence and grim, gritty justice at every moment and in this slim, savage collection (gathering issues #37-40 of Wolverine Origins from), the panting comicbook public once again gets what it’s never stopped clamouring for…

Wolverine is the ultimate tracker and for months has been hunting for his own past. His search has revealed one inescapable, horrific fact: for most of his life the mutant has been repeatedly manipulated and tortured by a madman. Over decades a mysterious mastermind has been invisibly moving in and out of his life: even exerting complete mental dominance over the wandering warrior.

Only recently has Logan realised this and by setting all his prodigious instincts and tracking skills to the task, is at last closing in on the sadistic phantom he only knows as Romulus…

The infinitely patient phantom is the force behind numerous programs such as Weapon X (which first agonisingly bonded miracle metal Adamantium to Wolverine’s skeleton) and is dedicated to manufacturing and augmenting appalling human killing machines.

Of late Logan has been confronted by many of Romulus’ greatest successes, overcoming walking tragedies and monstrous atrocities such as tortured US super-soldier Nuke, old associates Wildchild and Sabretooth, foes Cyber and Omega Red and even his own, now-adult, psychotic son Daken.

Crisscrossing the globe, the implacable stalker has gradually come closer to finding his ancient tormentor, discovering ever-more chilling details about his shadowy opponent. Now he is ready for a final showdown…

The eponymous 4-part ‘Romulus’ opens with Wolverine in Russia following the mastermind’s trusted factotum Victor Hudson to the brutal Vutluga Prison, where a modern pestilence is plaguing hope-starved, desperate inmates and warders alike. As the infuriated mutant moves in for the long-deferred confrontation he’s been hungering for he realises he’s been set up in another stupid test… just as the life-leeching Omega Red ambushes him…

The staggeringly brutal battle goes to Wolverine – but only just – and as the exhausted victor staggers outside he falls prey to fellow feral mutant Wildchild.

Dragging the battered hero to a steel mill and a doom even Wolverine’s legendary healing factor can’t overcome, the boastful brat reveals a shocking truth.

Inhuman Romulus is apparently thousands of years old and considers himself the planet’s absolute apex predator. Logan’s quarry has spent centuries creating, shaping and honing his own successor. To this extent he has bred, if not actually farmed, Wolverine’s bloodline – among others – for generations: constantly improving human killers through technology and the crucibles of torment and combat, even killing Logan’s first wife Itsu and stealing the son the X-Man never knew existed…

Moreover, although Logan was the preferred option to succeed him, Romulus has always had other prospects in play and is content to stand well back and let the very best killer win…

Wildchild’s plan comes undone when the seemingly unstoppable Omega Red intervenes, resulting in one more cutthroat clash as another of Romulus’ frontrunners falls. Soon after, with the aid of Russian super-spy The Black Widow, Wolverine’s last rival falls and the master manipulator finally reveals himself for the climactic last battle…

It doesn’t end in the way you’d expect…

With covers by Doug Braithwaite & Art Lyon, variants from Mike Mayhew, Herb Trimpe and Simone Bianchi, fact-files on Omega Red and Logan and a comprehensive bibliography in ‘Wolverine: the Reading Chronology’, this plot-light, carnage-driven collection of gory delights is a vicarious thrill for the devoted but might well be hard to follow for new or returning readers.
© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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X-Men: First Class volume 1


By Jeff Parker, Roger Cruz, Kevin Nowlan & Victor Olazaba (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5313-9

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

With a property as valuable as the X-Men such incessant remodelling is a necessarily good thing, even if you sometimes need a scorecard to keep up, and over the decades the franchise has repeatedly reinterpreted, refashioned and updated the formative early epics by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Alex Toth, Roy Thomas and Werner Roth to give a solid underpinning to all the modern Mutant mayhem.

A case in point is the impressive and deliciously upbeat restating of the Mutant paradigm wherein the latest status quo gets the boot and a new beginning equates with a return to the good old days…

In 1963, The X-Men #1 introduced gloomy, serious Scott Summers/Cyclops, ebullient Bobby Drake/Iceman, wealthy golden boy Warren Worthington III/Angel, Jean Grey/Marvel Girl and erudite, brutish genius Henry McCoy/Beast: very special youngsters and students of Professor Charles Xavier, a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and achieving integration between the sprawling masses of humanity and an emergent off-shoot race of mutants with extra abilities, ominously dubbed Homo Superior.

The team was also occasionally supplemented by magnetic minx Polaris and cosmic powerhouse Havok – although they were usually referred to respectively if not respectfully as Lorna Dane and Scott’s brother Alex.

After eight years of eccentric, quirky adventures, the masked misfits faded away in early 1970 when mystery and supernatural themes once again gripped the world, causing a consequent sustained downturn in costumed hero comics.

Although the title was revived at the end of the year as a reprint vehicle, the mutants were reduced to guest-stars and bit-players across the Marvel Universe whilst the Beast was further mutated into a monster to cash in on the new big thing. Then in 1975 Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas green-lighted a risky Giant-Size one-shot as part of the company’s line of over-sized specials. The introduction of a fresh team of mutants made history and began a still-burgeoning frenzied phenomenon…

In 2006 those deliriously naive secret school days inspired X-Men: First Class (a comicbook iteration, not the movie) which once again updated the seminal 1960s adventures for a far more sophisticated modern audience (as had happened twice before in the intervening decades).

Most people who read comics have a passing familiarity with Marvel’s ever-changing X-franchise so newcomers and occasional consumers won’t have too much trouble following the backstory, so let’s plunge in as the hostile world once more kicks sand in the faces of the planet’s most dangerous and reviled minority…

An 8-issue miniseries and a One-Shot Special led to a further 16 issue run: retrofitting old material around new stories, in-filling cases and teaming the teenaged school squad with assorted adult guest-stars such as Man-Thing, Invisible Woman, Gorilla-Man and those included in this book. The series inevitably led to a slew of spin-off series based on the same winning “untold X-tales” format.

However all good things come to an end – until the next time a few years from now – and the junior league finally had to move on into their later lives and rejoin the ongoing Marvel Universe continuity. Thus in 2009 the 4-issue miniseries X-Men First Class: Finals revealed how the student heroes’ graduation fed directly into the introduction of the All-New, All Different modern team…

This rousing compilation – illustrated throughout by Roger Cruz with inks from Victor Olazabo – is an introductory/best of edition with series scripter Jeff Parker picking his favourite stories from the initial run (specifically issues #1, 2, 4, 5 and 7 plus a cracking vignette from 2007’s X-Men: First Class Special) and opens with ‘X-Men 101’ as youngest student Bobby Drake writes a letter to his mum, giving the lowdown on his new classmates and detailing the eventful last few days.

The edited highlights include a battle against an utterly alien hive-mind, rich-kid pal Warren being possessed, childish pranks going scarily awry on a quick field-trip to the Arctic and the saving of the oldest creature on earth from well-meaning but oblivious scientists…

Warmer climes beckon next as Professor X takes the kids on a vacation to Florida, playing anonymous matchmaker to Scott and Jean, whilst star scholar Hank and the Angel get stuck with hunting for scientist Curt Connors, who has once more mutated into a deadly human-hating saurian scourge in ‘The Bird, the Beast and the Lizard’. In the end however it was Iceman who held the key to their success…

Issue #4 then gave us a glimpse into the inner world of Cyclops with ‘Seeing Red’ as he is targeted by an escaped demon from the Ruby Realm of Cyttorak and the team require the aid of Doctor Strange to set two dimensions to rights…

Dr. Donald Blake appears in ‘The Littlest Frost Giant’ as the X-Men battle an Ice Troll, unaware that young Bobby is being hunted by an ancient Viking cult intent on awakening the primal monster and Lord of Winter Ymir. However once they make their move the villainous Vanir are soon in over their heads and the aroused and angry Frost Giant can only be stopped by the hard-pressed mutants and their new friend The Mighty Thor…

Young romance is in the air when ‘Who Wants to Date a Millionaire?’ finds Warren skipping classes to make out with European hottie and newly-reformed member of The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants Wanda Maximoff. Sadly the Scarlet Witch‘s twin brother Pietro is the old fashioned protective type and Quicksilver‘s enraged over-reaction endangers an entire playground full of kids before the X-Men can satisfactorily calm the situation down…

The all-new classic cases conclude with a short, sharp skit wherein Iceman and the Beast are dispatched by mutant-detecting electronic wonder-computer Cerebro to find a hidden Homo Superior lurking within the vaudevillian confines of ‘The Museum of Oddities’, brilliantly illustrated by the superb Kevin Nowlan.

This perfect primer also includes the usual cover gallery – by Marko Djurdjevic and Nowlan – plus character designs and model sheets by Cruz and pencilled cover sketches from Djurdjevic for art lovers to drool over.

Engaging, exciting and extremely entertaining; blending outrageous adventure with raucous humour and sheer comradely warmth and affection, this thoroughly beguiling collection always keeps the continuity baggage to a sustainable minimum for non-addicts and concentrates on delivering vibrant fun and fast-paced rollercoaster thrills packed with smart laughs, heavy on action and light on extended sub-plots.

For moments of mutant mirth and mayhem gloriously free of angst and overkill, these tales are without doubt top of the class…
© 2006, 2007, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Spider-Man & the Secret Wars


By Paul Tobin, Patrick Scherberger, Clayton Henry & Terry Pallot, with Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck & John Beatty (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4449-6

Presented in the manner of the company’s all-ages Marvel Adventures format, this notionally “in-continuity” tale offers cosmic thrills, chills and light drama by in-filling on one the House of Ideas’ biggest successes. Assiduously revisiting the epic “maxi-series”, writer Paul Tobin, penciller Patrick Scherberger and inkers Clayton Henry & Terry Pallot have cannily crafted an engagingly expanded selection of Spider-sagas faithful to the original whilst adding a contemporary complexity and depth to the iconic wall-crawler

This highly satisfying digest-sized collection collects the 4-issue miniseries from February-May 2010, and also re-presents the original Secret Wars #1 (May 1984) and its opening chapter by James Shooter, Mike Zeck & John Beatty.

The premise of the original 1980s blockbuster was that an all-powerful alien calling itself The Beyonder abducted an army of Earth heroes and villains to an alien purpose-built Battleworld created as an arena in which to prove which was mightier – Good or Evil.

Whilst by no means a new plot, it gave the entire company a massive commercial boost and allowed a number of major series to radically retool at a time when comicbook sales were in a dire downturn. This canny slice of infilling explores some of the saga’s untold moments in an engaging and appealing way, adding contemporary sensibilities and a lighter take to a classic but rather dated and straightforward Fights ‘n’ Tights yarn.

I would strongly suggest however, that if you’ve never seen the original epic, you track it down before tackling Spider-Man & the Secret Wars – it’s not actually necessary but you will get the most out of the new material that way…

The drama opens at a most critical moment, seconds after the almighty Molecule Man has dropped an entire mountain on top of the embattled heroes. With the Incredible Hulk holding up millions of tons of rock, the entombed good guys perforce take a few moments to chill and reminisce.

Top of Spider-Man’s list is the many gaffes he’s made since arriving, particularly the way he’s treated Captain America and the monstrous Green Goliath currently holding all their lives in his big green hands…

Thanks to heroic teamwork, all of the buried brigade eventually emerge safely but the wall-crawler has learned a hard lesson in a most harrowing manner…

The second chapter also focuses strongly on damaging mis- and pre-conceptions as the residents of Denver, Colorado – simultaneously shanghaied by the Beyonder and dumped on his remodelled planet as some kind of control group – is assaulted by a horde of marauding aliens, and the heroes form a living barricade with the valiant but all-too-human civilian defenders to lives and property.

They are surprisingly assisted by arch-nemesis and ultimate evil Doctor Doom, but try as he might Spider-Man cannot fathom the Iron Dictator’s true purpose…

At one critical juncture the world-devouring cosmic god Galactus decided to end the contest early by eating Battleworld, prompting a desperate alliance by the transplanted heroes and villains to stop him. Here, portions of their combined assault are examined in detail as Spider-Man experiences bizarre reality-warping episodes – a natural side effect of proximity to the perilous planetivore – and flashes back and forward through his personal past and futures, experiencing happiness and the darkest of imagined terrors…

The original miniseries culminated with Doom actually stealing the Beyonder’s power and becoming omnipotent. In this modern re-visitation, that conditional triumph is examined as the web-spinner is granted a taste of paradise by the troubled new god who is finding it hard to hang on to lust for conquest, or even personal ambition, after achieving all-consuming divinity…

The cleverly introspective human adventure is capped off by a re-presentation of the original saga’s first issue from 1984, wherein ‘The War Begins’ with the Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four, Magneto, the Hulk and the utterly out-of-his-depth Spider-Man all teleported into the deep unknown to see a galaxy destroyed and a world constructed purely so that a cosmic force could determine which of two philosophies was correct.

Arrayed against them were Doom, Galactus, Molecule Man, Ultron, the Lizard, Dr. Octopus, the Enchantress, Absorbing Man, Kang the Conqueror and the Wrecking Crew, all of whom had no problem with a disembodied voice telling them “Slay your enemies and all you desire shall be yours”…

Unceremoniously dumped on the brand new world the sides split into factions and the War began…

This blockbusting little box of delights also includes a full cover gallery by Scherberger, Christina Strain, Chris Sotomayor, Veronica Gandini, Jean-Francis Beaulieu, Zeck & Beatty as well as pages of Scherberger’s early character sketches.

Fast-paced and impressive, bright and breezy with lots of light-hearted action and some solid sly laughs, this book really sees the alternative web-spinner hitting his wall-crawling stride with the violence toned down and “cartooned-up” whilst the stories take great pains to keep the growing youth-oriented soap opera sub-plots pot-boiling on but as clear as possible.

In 2012 the Marvel Adventures line was superseded by specific comicbook titles tied to Disney XD TV shows designated as “Marvel Universe cartoons”, but these collected stories are still an intriguing and perhaps more culturally accessible means of introducing character and concepts to kids born often two generations or more away from those far-distant 1960s originating events. However even though these Spidey super stories are extremely enjoyable yarns, parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the violence might not be what everybody considers “All-Ages Super Hero Action” and might perhaps better suit older kids…
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Spider-Man: Fever


By Brendan McCarthy with Stan Lee & Steve Ditko (Marvel)
ISBN: 987-0-7851-4125-9

It wasn’t too long before Stan Lee & Steve Ditko’s astonishing Spider-Man proved himself a contemporary hero who fitted every possible milieu and scenario; at home against cheap hoods, world-busting super-menaces or the oddest of alien incursions, and this superbly outré modern masterpiece celebrates that astounding versatility by reprising one of the most brilliantly bizarre team-ups from the early Marvel Age.

The legendary classic first meeting of Mystic Master and Webbed Wall-crawler occurred in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2 and it’s happily included in this slim beguiling tome which features über-imaginative narrative art trendsetter Brendan McCarthy’s tribute to Ditko’s dazzling graphic magic.

London-born McCarthy came to prominence in comics on 2000AD before branching out into international comics stardom whilst pursuing a parallel career in film, television and design. His most notable works range from Strange Days and Paradax to Judge Dredd, Zenith, Sooner or Later, Skin, Rogan Gosh and innumerable stunning covers whilst his moving media credits include The Storyteller, Highlander, Lost in Space, Reboot, the upcoming Mad Max 4: Fury Road and so much more.

Collected here is a digitally-psychedelic, intoxicatingly appealing yarn 3-issue miniseries from 2010, written and illustrated by McCarthy – with lettering and additional colouring from old comrade Steve Cook – which begins with the web-spinner battling old foe The Vulture even as Sorcerer Supreme Stephen Strange explores a few Outer Realms and inadvertently activates an ancient trap set in an old grimoire – the Lost Journal of Albion Crowley…

The “webwaze” energy escapes into the very architecture and infrastructure of New York City, finding its way to the cornered Vulture and possessing the bad old bird before passing through him, permeating and infecting the Arachnoid Avenger…

As Strange further examines the cursed chronicle, he discovers the sorry tale of Crowley and his unlucky acolyte Victor Neumenon, whose long ago trans-dimensional forays led them into fateful contact with cosmically peripheral spider-demons dubbed Arachnix, who haunted the darkest corners and crannies of Creation.

Both were subjected to unimaginable atrocity at the many hands of the hairy horrors, but only Crowley returned to recount his experiences…

Meanwhile the ensorcelled Spider-Man, reeling in delirious torment, has instinctively crawled into the bathroom of Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum where his now-tainted soul is snatched away by arcane Arachnix hunter Daddy Longlegs, who drags the essence of the hero to its hideous homelands to be devoured by the ghastly King Korozon…

Arriving too late to assist, the Master of the Mystic Arts gives chase through increasingly impossible planes of existence, following the ethereal webwaze paths in his frenzied attempts to save his old friend from utter horror and damnation…

Along the way the wizard meets keenly helpful void-dwellers Fetch Doggy Fetch and Pugly even as Peter Parker’s enmeshed spirit faces consumption by the Eight-Legged Tribe. However the hero’s dual nature confounds the beasts who cannot determine if he is Spider – and therefore kin – or Man, and thus the most appealing meal ever presented to any Arachnix.

To decide his prey’s future fate Korazon despatches the befuddled soul-shell through the Insect Gate to catch the fabled feast known as the Sorror-Fly from the home dimension of all arthropods. If the arbitrary man-spider can snare the elusive treat he is their brother, but if he returns empty-handed he’s just lunch…

Whilst the englamoured hero hunts in the insect realm, Strange rescues fellow Earth-born traveller Ms. Ningirril, trapped during her dimensional Walkabout. In gratitude the Antipodean wanderer provides the mage with useful intelligence, sound advice and a safer, swifter means of navigating his search for Spider-Man…

In a fantastic City of Termites the befuddled hero has succeeded in his task and is dragging the woeful Sorror-Fly back to the Arachnix: succumbing with each moment to the inexorable, bestial allure of his Spider side, even as the garrulous meal he holds relates the dread history of the insect dimension and a prophecy of telling magnitude.

As the Sorcerer Supreme and his allies fortuitously arrive, the Fly transforms back to a form he has not held for over a century, presaging the redemption and cure of the fallen Wall-crawler and the spectacular end to an infinitude of eight-legged terrors…

Bold, ambitious and visually off the wall, this superb magical mystery tour is perfectly accompanied by that aforementioned first meeting.

In 1965 Steve Ditko was blowing away audiences with another oddly tangential and daringly different superhero. Amazing Spider-Man King Size Annual #2 cover featured ‘The Wondrous World of Dr. Strange!’ and stupendously introduced the web-slinger to whole other realities and menaces when he accidentally interrupted an attack by wannabe wizard Xandu upon the Master of the Mystic Arts.

The villain had stolen the puissant Wand of Watoomb from Strange to achieve ultimate power, and when that pesky interfering Spider-Man butted in, the power-crazed dilettante banished him to an alien dimension – but not before the hero’s webbing snatched the arcane artefact from Xandu’s hand and took it with him…

Cue an involuntary incredible journey to phantasmagorical, mind-bending worlds pursued by unstoppable zombie slaves and a desperately determined Doctor Strange in a dimension-hopping masterpiece of mystery and imagination…

Moody, creepy and staggeringly engrossing, this eerie eldritch escapade also includes the author/artist’s ‘Notes on the Design and Story Ideas for Spider-Man: Fever’ – a selection of commentary, roughs and sketches offering a fascinating glimpse of into the creative process of a truly unique talent…
© 1965 and 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman volume 1: Solve Everything


By Jonathan Hickman, Dale Eaglesham & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5303-0

The Fantastic Four has long been considered the most pivotal series in modern comicbook history, introducing both a new style of storytelling and a decidedly different manner of engaging the readers’ impassioned attentions.

More a family than a team, the roster has changed many times over the years but always eventually returns to the  original configuration of Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Thing and the Human Torch, who have together formed the vanguard of modern four-colour heroic history.

The quartet are better known as maverick genius Reed Richards, his wife Sue, their trusty college friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s obnoxious younger brother Johnny Storm; driven survivors of an independently-funded space-shot which went horribly wrong after Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding.

When they crashed back to Earth, the foursome found that they had all been hideously mutated into outlandish freaks. Richards’ body became elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible and eventually, project force-fields, Johnny could turn into living flame, and poor, tormented Ben was mutated into a horrifying brute who, unlike his comrades, could not return to a semblance of normality on command.

Throughout its history the series has always been more about big ideas than action/adventure and this compilation – gathering issues #570-574 from October 2009 to February 2010 – highlights the first forays of a truly mind-boggling run from scripter Jonathan Hickman (The Nightly News, Pax Romana, Secret Warriors and much more) who truly lived up to the series’ “Big Sky Thinking” antecedents…

It all begins with the breathtaking 3-parter ‘Solve Everything’ – illustrated by Dale Eaglesham – and ‘Is It Playing God If You’re Truly Serious About Creation?’ wherein certified super-genius Richards, driven by childhood memories of his demanding father, faces the greatest challenge and most beguiling seduction of his fantastic life.

After defeating the latest mad assault by scientific criminal Bentley Wittman – giant robots piloted by hideously modified clones of the deranged hyper-intellectual super-foe – the villain upsets and destabilises the victorious Richards by challenging him to examine some cold hard facts.

The Wizard postulates that the world is broken and about to tear itself apart but everyone is too busy applying band-aids to try fixing it…

The exchange stays with Richards. Even as the family goes about its usual business Mr. Fantastic discusses things with his three year old daughter Valeria – a savant even smarter than he is – and then retires to his private lab to mull things over.

The Room of 100 Ideas is the place where Richards has made his greatest breakthroughs and triumphs, the sanctum from which he has changed the world over and over again, but it also harbours one last dream and goal…

Idea 101: Solve Everything…

Now he uses a long-mothballed device to contact a mysterious inter-dimensional organisation of intellectual supermen to help him fix the world and at last discovers that the benevolent Council is completely composed of alternate Earth iterations of himself, all waiting patiently for him to join their elevated ranks. The self-appointed champions of rationality and guardians of the multiverse feel it is time he lived up to his true potential. He is sorely tempted…

The grand tour of perfect possibilities continues in ‘You Stood Beside Me, Larger Than Life and Did the Impossible’ as the newcomer proves his worth by killing an attacking planet-devouring Galactus and a legion of Silver Surfers on Earth 2012, all before popping home to touch base with his friends and family at breakfast. They are preparing for son Franklin‘s upcoming birthday and, even though Richards cannot share his new experiences with them, Sue knows something big is troubling him.

After a frank but vague discussion, the distracted super-mind promises to have everything sorted one way or another in seven days…

His time “in the lab” in actuality finds him travelling to every incredible corner of Creation where his agglomerated alternates police and improve the lot of all humanities. Over and again their combined efforts have created a fantastic technological paradise but still Richards has unresolved, inexplicable reservations, especially at night in bed, thinking about his family and recalling conversations with his own father…

The intellectual idyll is rudely shattered in ‘We Are Men We Have No Masters’ when the multiversal Council is attacked by Celestial Space Gods intent on using their inter-dimensional discoveries to take control of all realities. The apocalyptic battle decimates the ranks of the Richards before a solution and ultimate victory is achieved, and, as the cosmic dust settles Reed at last makes his decision – the only one a really smart man can…

Originally published as ‘Adventures on Nu-World’ (and illustrated by Neil Edwards & Andrew Currie) the next tale focuses on the Thing and Human Torch as they take a long-anticipated vacation-break on an artificial resort much like a cosmic Las Vegas, blithely unaware of two extremely important facts.

Firstly, that Reed and Sue’s kids have stowed away aboard their transport, but probably more critical is the realisation that the man-made world is in the midst of a civil war prompted by the entire planet having slipped into the event horizon of a Black Hole…

With a host of guest villains including Skaar, Son of Hulk, ‘These Are the End Times’ follows the slow procession and brutal struggle to total obliteration and highlights the astounding gifts of toddler Valeria who secretly solves the problem and gets (almost) everyone home safely…

The story portion of this splendid celebration of all things Fantastical concludes with ‘All Hope Lies With Doom’ (originally ‘Days of Future Franklin’ by Edwards & Currie again) as the boy’s birthday finally arrives and the extended family – including Dragon Man, uncle Spider-Man, the kids from Power Pack and mutant orphans Artie and Leech – enjoy the party of a lifetime. It’s only slightly spoiled when a time-travelling raider crashes the affair, and he’s soon sent packing by the adults – but not before he delivers a secret warning to Valeria and a unique gift for the birthday boy.

Valeria isn’t worried: after all, if there’s one person she can trust, it’s her grown up brother Franklin…

This collection also includes a huge Cover Gallery by Alan Davis, Mark Farmer, Dave McCaig, John Rausch & Javier Rodriguez with variants from Eaglesham & Paul Mounts, John Cassaday & Laura Martin, Marcelo Dichiara, Christopher Jones & Sotocolor.

Smart, tense, thrilling and exhibiting genuine warmth and humanity, this is a grand starting point for new or returning readers with a view to recapturing the glory days of fantasy and science fiction, and especially a different kind of Fights ‘n’ Tights theatre…
© 2009, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Deadpool volume 4: Monkey Business


By Daniel Way, Carlo Barberi, Tang En Huat, Dalibor Talajić & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4531-8

Bloodthirsty, stylish killers and mercenaries craving something more than money have long made for popular comics protagonists. Deadpool is Wade Wilson (and yes he is a thinly disguised knockoff of DC’s Slade Wilson AKA Terminator: get over it – DC did), a hired killer and survivor of genetics experiments that have left him a scarred, grotesque bundle of scabs, scars and physical unpleasantries but practically invulnerable and capable of regenerating from any wound.

The wisecracking high-tech “Merc with a mouth” was created by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza, debuting in New Mutants #97, another product of the Canadian “Weapon X” project which created Wolverine and so many other mutant/cyborg super-doers. He got his first shot at solo stardom with a couple of miniseries in 1993 (Deadpool: the Circle Chase & Sins of the Past) but it wasn’t until 1997 that he finally won his own title, which blended 4th-wall busting absurdist humour (a la Ambush Bug) into the mix and secured his place in Marvel history.

Since then he has come and gone with frightening frequency, undergoing radical rethinks, identity changes and reboots, but always inevitably reverting to irascible, irreverent, intoxicating type in the end…

This gloriously continuity-light and baggage-free romp collects issues #19-22 of Deadpool volume 4 and also includes the (originally digital) One-Shot origin tale of Simian Sensation and World’s Greatest Assassin Hit-Monkey, all from 2010.

A sucker for sentiment and plagued with an urge to be better than he is, in the extended saga ‘Whatever a Spider Can’ (Daniel Way, Carlo Barberi, Juan Vlasco & Sandu Florea), Wade Wilson has decided to give up the murder-for-profit business model in favour of a life as a conventional superhero, but lacks both a mentor and commitment. Thus in ‘Start Spreadin’ the News’ he turns up in New York City looking to learn the ropes from a far-from-welcoming web-spinner, just as Spider-Man discovers a massacre in the back of his favourite Deli…

Wrong conclusions are reached on all sides: the copious blood-spatter indicates a killer who hops about and shoots from walls and ceiling and the wall-crawler knows it wasn’t him…

Tracking down Deadpool – who has set his incredible healing factor the nigh-impossible task of saving his intestines and dignity from the effects of forty street-vendor hotdogs – the Amazing Arachnid takes a lot of convincing before he believes the Merc wasn’t responsible for the murders… but only the merest hint to stay well downwind of the reformed killer’s turbulent digestive process…

After Wade examines the crime scene he has only one suggestion as to the actual perpetrator: a stone-cold killer who’s a legend in the assassin community and never takes just one job per city. Moreover he only goes after really unique targets like a hit-man with a healing factor…

The four-handed hunter has other killers in his sights too and, as Spider-Man and Deadpool bicker and snipe, Hit-Monkey is dispassionately dispatching a couple of cops using their positions for ruthless gain. Soon however he has tracked down Wade and it seems the only way to stop the anthropoid assassin is to just let him shoot the Merc with the mouth until he finally shuts up…

Sadly the simian soon learns that it takes more than just bullets to keep Wade down, and Spider-Man becomes an unwilling pawn and collateral damage in Deadpool’s sorry excuse for a plan to get the monkey off their backs forever…

In the explosive aftermath of the killers’ final confrontation Wade sneaks out of town and heads south, only to have his bus hijacked by cops pretending to be robbers in rural Georgia. Unfortunately, them Good Ol’ Bad Boys has a electrically-charged super-hick on their side and, when the astonished Deadpool finally recovers, the keen wannabe-hero resolves to clean up the county in ‘Do Idiots Dream of Electric Stupidity?’ (with art by Tang En Huat.

Luckily, even though it is really hard to tell the good guys from the robber scum in Dukes of Hazzard territory, the former killer has unsuspected help from the most unlikely sources…

The remainder of this slim engaging tome is given over to the anthropoid super-star discovery of the decade…

Something of an overnight sensation, ‘Hit-Monkey’ quickly graduated to an online solo story on Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited and that weirdly moving eponymous origin tale was rapidly reprinted in comicbook format in April 2010, written by Way and illustrated by Dalibor Talajić.

The fabled furball’s history was revealed as, years ago, a desperate killer for hire fled the authorities in the heart of a chilling Asiatic winter and almost died before being found by loving monkeys living near and often within the hot springs of a mountain thermal pool.

All but one of the simians welcomed the human in their wordless, loving way, and that young dissident assiduously watched the interloper, keenly observing as the human practised all his killing arts in preparation for the day when the cops and soldiers would find him.

When they finally came and the winter night erupted into hot brutal butchery, there was only one to avenge the slaughter – and he was far from human as he extracted his bitter brand of justice…

Although staying close to his superhero roots and the X-franchise that spawned him, Deadpool is more often than not a welcome break from the constant sturm und drang of his Marvel contemporaries: weird, wise-cracking, and profoundly absurd on a satisfyingly satirical level. This is a great reintroduction to comics for fans who thought they had outgrown the fights ‘n’ tights crowd.

Including covers and variants by Jason Pearson, Marko Djurdjevic & Frank Cho, this frenetic blend of light-hearted, surreal, fighting frolics and incisive, poignant relationship drama is absolutely compulsive reading for dyed-in-the-wool Fights ‘n’ Tights fans who might be feeling just a little jaded with four-colour overload.
© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Spider-Man by Mark Millar Ultimate Collection


By Mark Millar, Terry & Rachel Dodson with Frank Cho (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851- 5640-6

Outcast, orphaned science-nerd schoolboy Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and, after seeking to cash-in on the astonishing abilities he subsequently developed, suffered an irreconcilable personal tragedy. His beloved guardian Uncle Ben was murdered by a burglar Peter could have stopped but didn’t because he didn’t want to get involved.

Feeling irreconcilably responsible for the tragedy and permanently traumatised by Ben’s death, the 15-year old determined henceforward to always use his powers to help those in need.

For years the brilliant, indomitable everyman hero suffered privation and travail in his domestic situation whilst his notorious alter ego endured public condemnation and mistrust as he valiantly battled all manner of threat and foe.

Parker has loved and lost many more close friends and family during his crime-busting, world-saving career, but eventually won a measure of joy from all the heartache when he married the girl next door: Mary Jane Watson…

During his perpetual crusade for the ordinary underdog, the guilt-ridden, unlikely champion faced many uncanny, bizarre and inexplicable menaces but none more determined and dangerous than Norman Osborn, father of Peter’s best friend Harry and a brilliant, utterly insane scientist who sought power as the malignly Machiavellian Green Goblin.

Early on the elder Osborn had uncovered the Web-spinner’s true identity and subsequently tormented his adversary with the fact ever since. Even after he murdered Peter’s fiancée Gwen Stacy and apparently died in the bitter retaliation, Osborn kept the precious secret to himself, extracting every iota of psychological pressure he could from the morally-handcuffed hero…

Following a catastrophic bankruptcy scare – both money and ideas – in the late 1990s, Marvel returned reinvigorated and began refitting/retooling all their core character properties. In 1999 the expansive Spider-Man franchise was trimmed down and relaunched as two new titles – Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker: Spiderman and the constricting, fad-chasing policy of mindlessly chasing sales at any cost was replaced by a measured concentration on solid, character-based storytelling and strong art.

In 2004 the franchise expanded again as the Marvel Knights imprint (a notional subset of the over-arching continuity concerned with stronger, edgier, more mature themes where the heroes “populate and guard the dark corners of the Marvel Universe”) began its own Marvel Knights Spider-Man, offering canonical in-continuity sagas to entice older, presumably more jaded readers.

The first year featured an extended saga written by fan-favourite Mark Millar and mostly illustrated by the sublimely beguiling Terry & Rachel Dodson, which spectacularly capitalised on the dark potential of the Osborn situation…

Gathering the entire epic – previously published as three smaller trade paperbacks -  this titanic tome offers the entire astounding 12-issue tale (running from June 2004 to May 2005) of a family in crisis in one blistering burst, sub-divided into a triptych of interlinked episodes.

It all begins with ‘Down Among the Dead Men’ as, following another cataclysmic clash with the Green Goblin, the wall-crawler at last succeeds in exposing the maniac and sending Norman Osborn to prison. Battered and bruised, Peter Parker returns to Mary Jane just in time to help move Aunt May into her new apartment, before heading off to his day job as a High School science teacher.

The first inkling of trouble comes when he receives a call: someone has desecrated Uncle Ben’s gravestone…

The next phone call is worse: a mysterious voice reveals it knows his secret and tells Peter he’ll never see Aunt May again…

With the frail widow kidnapped Peter realises his wife could be next and, over her objections, packs Mary Jane off to relative safety in another city before contacting ex-girlfriend and semi-retired super-thief Black Cat for help…

Even though he has fought untold hundreds of thugs and masterminds there’s only one real suspect and soon Spider-Man has broken into the maximum security prison where a smug Osborn callously mocks him whilst feigning utter innocence. The villain is playing mind games and reveals he has shared their secret. Now as payback for having the temerity to have the once-respected businessman arrested and publicly shamed, all Parker’s loved ones will suffer…

After an ill-tempered discussion with the Avengers which results in absolutely nothing productive, the frantic arachnid goes looking for answers in all the wrong places, engaging in a Faustian bargain with resurgent crime-lord The Owl. This aging miscreant is slowly easing himself back into the underworld hierarchy following the recent bloody fall of the crime Kingpin Wilson Fisk, and is happy to make a deal…

In return for a future favour the gangster reveals former foes Electro and the Vulture were responsible for the abduction of a certain little old lady, but by the time a fighting mad, out of control Spider-Man has found, fought and finished with them, the wall-crawler realises he’s been played for a fool and the crafty old bird bandit has simply used him to punish two employees who stole $20 million from their new boss…

The battle quickly escalates out of all control and as Spider-Man realises he’s been had, Electro fries the hero and kicks him off a skyscraper roof…

When Mary Jane sees on TV that her barely alive husband is in the Intensive Care Unit, she picks up a gun and turns back for New York City…

Before she can get there, however, the Vulture breaks in, hungrier than ever for a pound of flesh. The aged maniac had intended to do the only decent deed of his life with the stolen cash and his old enemy has spoiled it. Now he was planning a grotesquely memorable revenge but hadn’t reckoned on a savagely protective Black Cat guarding the broken hero…

Spider-Man’s troubles were only beginning, however, as unbeknownst to anyone a nurse had taken pictures of the face under the mask and offered them to the Daily Bugle’s gadfly publisher J. Jonah Jameson…

As Parker’s astonishing powers of recuperation pulled him back from death’s door, many disparate strands were slowly knitting together in the second story arc ‘Venomous’ (with additional art from Frank Cho) as deadly psychopath Eddie Brock returned to the Big Apple intent on auctioning off the alien Symbiote which enabled him to be a bigger, stronger, deadlier web-spinner…

Due to financial reversals Peter and Mary Jane are on the verge of bankruptcy, but young Mrs. Parker has bigger worries. Even with the ever-present threat to her life from May’s mysterious abductor, all she can think about is how much better-suited Black Cat Felicia Hardy is to a life with Spider-Man…

At least the photos of the arachnid hero in his hospital bed prove to be a huge flop since Peter’s face was so badly beaten as to be unrecognisable. However now the Daily Bugle is offering a $5 million reward to anyone who can positively identify the wall-crawler…

When Doctor Octopus goes on a strangely mindless rampage, Spider-Man suspects that someone has brainwashed his arch-enemy, but after the madman is finally subdued the police SWAT teams abruptly turn on the web-spinner, in a concerted effort to win the Bugle’s bounty. Only the intervention of an honest cop prevents Parker’s total exposure…

Jameson meanwhile is plagued by a host of crazies claiming the reward with every stupid stunt imaginable, and another clandestine meeting with the incarcerated Osborn only makes Spider-Man more scared and desperate. With nothing left to lose, the arachnid visits the X-Men where their resident telepath Rachel Summers psi-scans for the missing widow and, unable to detect her, comes to the chilling conclusion that she must be dead…

In a hidden hideaway the underworld auction is well under way and soon the Venom Symbiote has a new host…

In the course of his searches Spider-Man has discovered that the Vulture had not been lying. The villain was stealing to pay for an experimental treatment for a boy dying of cancer: a kid completely innocent, oblivious to the villain’s crimes and the son of someone the wall-crawler owes…

Life rolls mercilessly on. Peter now teaches science at his old High School and during a class reunion the next turn of the screw occurs when the party is crashed by a new Venom who’s been told he can hurt Spider-Man by attacking a guy named Parker…

Ruthlessly slaughtering those witnesses unfortunate enough to talking over old times with the nerd they used to bully, the metamorphic monster soon has the frantically resisting Peter on the ropes; even briefly believing he has slain the web-spinner until the Symbiote inexplicably abandons its new owner in mid-air…

Miraculously victorious, Parker determines to end the Bugle’s bounty hunt by faking evidence of Spider-Man’s true identity – the one person in the world Jameson would protect rather than gloatingly expose – and discovers the money was donated by a mystery donor.

When the publisher forces him to accept $500, 000 as hush money, the guilty, conflicted but desperately cash-strapped Peter accepts.

In the end however, he cannot keep it, and finds a suitably worthy cause to donate it to… and that’s just when the kidnapper calls again and offers to meet the harassed hero for lunch…

The saga hurtles to a blistering tension-filled climax in ‘The Last Stand’ as the enigmatic tormentor is revealed as a B-Lister from Spider-Man’s extensive Rogue’s Gallery, but one working under explicit, pre-prepared instructions from Norman Osborn.

He also reveals a vast criminal conspiracy that has governed much of American society since the end of World War II, expending vast amounts of time, money and resources keeping the relatively uncontrollable, incorruptible super-hero population occupied and distracted whilst they covertly carry on running the country.

Discretion and secrecy are their greatest assets and Osborn was one of them. Moreover – now that he’s made the cardinal error of being caught – the billionaire businessman needs to be sprung from jail before his former colleagues take the usual steps to ensure their continued peace and profitable security…

They’ve already made Otto Octavius into their highly visible, utterly untraceable, plausibly deniable tool. The completely mind-wiped maniac is a human weapon just ready to fire at the helpless Green Goblin, and unless Spider-Man frees his arch-foe immediately, May Parker will finally truly die…

Knowing he’s being played and well aware that it might be for the last time, Peter says goodbye to Mary Jane and with Black Cat breaks into Riker’s Island Penitentiary to free the most evil man alive…

Of course it’s a trap and the Goblin double-crosses him as soon as they’re clear: unleashing old enemies Vulture, Electro, Sandman, Boomerang, Chameleon, Hydro–Man, the Lizard, Hammerhead, Tombstone and the Shocker on the web-spinner and his companion as soon as he’s free.

At least that was the plan, but his most faithful minion has been unexpectedly possessed by the Symbiote – turning him into a most unpredictable and uncontrollable incarnation of Venom – and even as Osborn flies off to murder the beloved wife of his ultimate nemesis, the Avengers, Fantastic Four and Daredevil all show up to tackle the Sinister Twelve, leaving Parker to pursue in the most terrifying and important chase of his life…

When Venom suddenly attacks, the infuriated Parker is unstoppable, and easily overcomes his tormentor, but it’s too late. By the time he reaches their home MJ and Osborn are gone, headed to the same bridge where the Goblin killed Peter’s first love Gwen.

Moreover the maniac boasts that May is still alive but hidden in the last place Parker would look with only a half hour of air…

History looks certain to be repeated but both adversaries have forgotten the berserker Doctor Octopus and his deep-programmed mission of murder…

Stylish, powerful, suspenseful and utterly absorbing, this is a truly epic adventure of everybody’s favourite bug-based hero, beautifully illustrated and so smartly written that any new or long-lost reader can extract the maximum enjoyment with the minimum confusion.

In case you’re wondering: Marvel Knights Spider-Man rejoined the mainstream when it was re-titled Sensational Spider-Man with #23 so if continuity is your thing it even actually happened (at least in the sense that us comics zombies understand…) so there’s absolutely no reason not to acquaint yourself with this spectacular slice of Fights ‘n’ Tights wonderment.
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