Category: Marvel Superheroes

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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.
© 2004, 2005, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Avengers/Defenders War

Av-def war
By Steve Englehart, Bob Brown, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2759-8 (HC),       978-0-7851-5902-5 (2012 TPB)

For kids – of any and all ages – there is a simply primal fascination with brute strength and feeling dangerous, which surely goes some way towards explaining the perennial interest in angry tough guys who break stuff as best exemplified by Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner and the Incredible Hulk. When you add the mystery and magic of Doctor Strange the recipe for thrills, spills and chills becomes simply irresistible…

Last of the big star-name conglomerate super-groups, the Defenders would eventually number amongst its membership almost every hero – and a few villains – in the Marvel Universe. No surprise there then since the initial line was composed of the company’s major league bad-boys: misunderstood, outcast and often actually dangerous to know.

For Marvel in the 1970s, the outsider super-group must have seemed a conceptual inevitability – once they’d finally published it.

Apart from Spider-Man and Daredevil all their heroes regularly teamed up in various mob-handed assemblages, and in the wake of the Defenders’ success even more super-teams featuring pre-existing characters would be packaged: the Champions, Invaders, New Warriors and so on… but never again with so many Very Big Guns…

The genesis of the team in fact derived from their status as publicly distrusted “villains”, and they never achieved the “in-continuity” fame or acceptance of other teams, but that simply seemed to leave the creators open to taking a few chances and playing the occasional narrative wild card.

The Avengers, however, are the result of one of the most momentous events in Marvel Comics history, when in 1963 Stan Lee & Jack Kirby combined most of their disparate, freshly minted individual heroes as a response to the astounding success of National/DC’s Justice League of America.

The Mighty Avengers combined the company’s fledgling superhero stars Thor, Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp in one bright, shiny and highly commercial package: ostensibly called together by fate to stop the Incredible Hulk – although Asgardian nemesis Loki was actually the fiend behind it all.

Over the years the roster has waxed and waned until almost every character in their universe has at some time numbered amongst their serried ranks.

As described in his Introduction, in 1973 wunderkind scripter Steve Englehart was writing both series as (well as Doctor Strange, the Hulk and Luke Cage, Hero for Hire) and, yearning for the days of summer blockbuster annuals, decided to attempt his own massive multi-player epic. Bravely given the editorial go-ahead at a time when deadline crunches regularly interrupted ongoing storylines, the author and his regular pencillers Sal Buscema and Bob Brown laid their plans…

Threads had been planted as early as Defenders #4 with Englehart carefully putting players in place for a hugely ambitious cross-over experiment: one that would turn the comics industry on its head.

When madwoman Barbara Norris was cursed by Asgardian Amora the Enchantress she became an incarnation of old Avengers enemy The Valkyrie. The denouement of the tale also left part-time Avenger and Defender the Black Knight an ensorcelled, immobile stone statue, and as Strange and Co. searched for a cure, aided by the Silver Surfer and the tempestuous Hawkeye (another Assembler looking to forge a solo career), they fell into a subtle scheme orchestrated by two of the greatest forces of evil in all creation.

The massive cross-over experiment began with a little prologue taken from the end of Avengers #115 illustrated by Brown & Mike Esposito. ‘Alliance Most Foul!’ saw extra-dimensional demon lord Dread Dormammu and Loki unite to search for an ultimate weapon that would give them final victory against their foes. They would trick the Defenders into securing the six component parts by “revealing” that the reconstructed Evil Eye could restore the petrified Black Knight, a plan that began at the end of Defenders #8…

The first chapter in ‘The Avengers/Defenders Clash’ was ‘Deception!!’ (Buscema & Frank McLaughlin) as a message from the limbo-locked spirit of the Black Knight was intercepted and doctored by the twins of evil, leading directly to ‘Betrayal!’ wherein the Avengers, hunting for their missing comrade, “discover” that their oldest enemies Hulk and Sub-Mariner may have turned the Black Knight to stone.

This and following chapter ‘Silver Surfer Vs. the Vision and the Scarlet Witch’ comprise the contents of Avengers #116, illustrated by Brown & Esposito, wherein the rival teams split up: one to gather the scattered sections of the Eye and the other to stop them at all costs…

Defenders #9 (Buscema & McLaughlin) began with the tense recap ‘Divide …and Conquer’ before ‘The Invincible Iron Man Vs. Hawkeye the Archer’ and ‘Dr. Strange Vs. the Black Panther and Mantis’ shed more suspicion and doubt on the mystical villain’s subtle master-plan.

Avengers #117 ‘Holocaust’, ‘Swordsman Vs. the Valkyrie’ and the turning point ‘Captain America Vs. Sub-Mariner’ (Brown & Esposito) led to the penultimate clash in Defenders #10 (Buscema & Bolle) ‘Breakthrough! The Incredible Hulk Vs. Thor’ and the inevitable joining together of the warring camps in ‘United We Stand!’, but sadly too late as Dormammu seized the reconstructed Evil Eye and used its unimaginable power to merge his monstrous realm with ours.

Avengers #118 provided the cathartic climactic conclusion in ‘To the Death’ (Brown, Esposito & Giacoia) as all the heroes of the Marvel Universe battled the demonic invasion, whilst united Avengers and Defenders plunged deep into the Dark Dimension itself to end the threat of the evil gods forever (or at least for the moment…).

With the overwhelming cosmic threat over the victorious Defenders attempted to use the Eye to cure their stony comrade, only to find that his spirit had found a new home in the 12th century.

In Defenders #11’s ‘A Dark and Stormy Knight’ (inked by Frank Bolle), the group travelled to the distant past encountering wonderment, miracles and a kind of happy ending whilst combating black magic. However they ultimately failed to retrieve or restore the Knight and went their separate ways – as did departing scripter Englehart.

Also included in this perfect Fights ‘n’ Tights festival of fisticuffs and frantic action

is a cover gallery of all the issues – including the prologues from Avengers #115 and Defenders #8 – as well as Carlos Pacheco’s cover to the 2002 edition and the full-painted Buscema cover to this book, digitally enhanced by colourists Richard Isanove, Avalon’s Matt Milla & Michael Kelleher.

If all you want is spectacularly pure classic comicbook gratification then this is the book for you – especially as the latest paperback edition of this perennial favourite was only released last year…
© 1973, 2007, 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The First X-Men: Children of the Atom


By Neal Adams & Christos Gage with Andrew Currie (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-522-2

By now you’re either aware or not of mutant continuity, so in the spirit of this high octane, terse, and immensely enjoyable prequel, I’ll forego the usual catch-up scorecard and précis to simply state that new readers can jump on with the minimum of confusion and, by the skilful use of banter, be readily brought up to cruising speed.

Presumably designed to appeal as much to fans of the movie franchise as comicbook aficionados, the drama is set in those Cold War days when Charles Xavier was a college student – and latterly American G.I. – whilst immortal beast Wolverine and feral manhunter Sabretooth both worked as spies specialising in wet-work…

Even in the Marvel Universe today not all Children of the Atom are found and mentored by heroes, villains or the ever-vigilant Federal Government, and in the long-gone era revealed by this tale (originally released at the end of 2012 as 5-issue miniseries) we learn a few harsh secrets about the early moments of the burgeoning and isolated emergent mutant race and the tragic way today’s draconian status quo was established.

In a fast-paced romp from co-writers Neal Adams and Christos Gage, fully illustrated by the living graphic legend and artistic associates Andrew Wildman & Matthew Wilson, the action begins in the eponymous first chapter when the cagy mutant Logan meets with the son of an old friend.

Young Anthony is “special” in the same way Wolverine is, but just as the elder metahuman makes contact in the heart of Harlem, the boy starts glowing and explosively detonates…

When the boy’s remains are quickly shipped away the veteran spy realises it was by fellow spooks – American FBI agents.

Shocked and shaken Logan talks things over with savage sometime-partner Victor Creed and convinces him to help in hunting down, protecting and training all those other freaks popping up everywhere – before the government scoops them up as guinea-pigs or weapons…

However when Logan and Creed break into FBI HQ at Quantico they not only discover Anthony’s body in a lab but also files and plans for the capture of all mutants. Their own names are on a list…

Although ambushed by agents in robotic armour they easily escape and head for WashingtonDC to foil the next planned rendition – a young girl named Holly Bright – completely unaware that Anthony has revived…

Holly is living on the streets and has the ability to take thoughts and images from minds and cast spellbinding illusions, which comes in handy when a full compliment of robo-agents arrive just as Logan and Creed locate her.

The next name takes them to OxfordUniversity in England where brilliant PhD student Charles Xavier is planning his marriage – to Moira MacTaggert – and a rich, happy, uncomplicated future. When the trio of bizarre, brutal creatures turn up they tell him a preposterous story of hunted beings and ask him to join as their leader. He refuses and sends them packing, but he has to believe that he’s on the FBI’s catch list… after all he read it in their minds.

Disgusted with the telepath’s refusal to join or even acknowledge the problem, Logan, Creed and Holly head for South America and the next name – a magnetic mutant and determined killer named Erik Lehnsherr…

First however they find ‘Common Cause’ with a monstrous teen in Colorado, rescuing Ben Goldendawn – Yeti – from common hunters rather than Feds, before joining him in another assault on Quantico. Ben was in mental contact with his equally empowered brother, but when the mutants reach Virginia they find the government facility abandoned and reduced to rubble.

It’s not a complete disaster however. Buried in the debris is the now fully recovered Anthony who gratefully joins the refugees as Logan takes a time-out and  trains his kids in the basics of combat, survival and living under the radar…

Meanwhile in Argentina, Lehnsherr is increasingly active: tracking Nazi war criminals and exterminating them in the same ruthless manner that they eradicated his family and people. When Logan and the team find him, Magneto spectacularly refuses to join, declaring a war against oppression is no place for children.…

Somewhere in America, anthropologist Bolivar Trask stridently advises his FBI employers to renew all efforts to locate and destroy all “Homo Superior” beings before they supplant mankind, overruling the suggestions of senior Agent Fred Duncan who advises working with, not alienating and eliminating, the coming race…

Their Director Hartfield has his own short-term solution however: using their own pet mutant to enslave and subjugate the worrisome freaks…

In ‘A Place to Belong’ the government’s ghastly mind-controlling monster Lyle Doorne, AKA Virus, is deployed even as Wolverine’s pack tackle and fail to recruit a demented, super-strong and very crazy water-breathing wino in Manhattan (a sly tip of the hat to Fantastic Four #4, for all the long-term fans. Look it up if you want…). They are inexplicably aided by Agent Duncan, covertly and independently testing his policy of cooperation…

Later at their wilderness hideaway, the unwise relationship between Victor and Holly takes a major step forward even as, at the Pentagon, Private Xavier is removing all suspicious flags against his name and scrubbing his own government record via his psychic gifts before arranging his own transfer to the top-secret Federal Project Chimera in Pennsylvania…

Things are going badly: no one realised the full extent of Virus’ abilities nor that the horrific monster might have his own agenda for both humanity and Homo Superior, and when Logan’s heroes raid the facility to rescue Yeti’s long-lost brother, nobody realises it’s all part of Doorne’s game plan…

Secret origins lead off ‘Things Fall Apart’ before the team – now comprising nine mutants of varying age and ability – starts to disintegrate from internal tensions, ably abetted by the Trojan Horse that Virus has planted amongst them. The FBI’s shaky solidarity is also fracturing, with Duncan and Trask – who advocates using robot hunter/killers to utterly exterminate all mutants – constantly clashing.

Hartfield prefers the latter option and a flight of prototype Sentinels is launched to capture the rogue misfits. Desperate to see his toys in action, Trask and his driver Xavier head to the fugitive’s hideout in time to see Virus’ scheme come close to dreadful fruition before the subsequent horrific battle scars all the surviving outcasts forever, turning Sabretooth into Wolverine’s most vengeful and implacable foe forevermore in ‘I Dreamed a Dream’…

Clever and powerfully engaging, this sharp, gritty and very pretty exercise in dramatic in-filling skilfully operates as a prequel to many themes and events of the later overarching continuity whilst never losing sight of the principal objective of entertaining both devotees and newcomers alike.

This thrilling rollercoaster ride also includes a stunning selection of covers and variants from Adams, Ryan Stegman, Mike Deodato Jr., Shane Davis, Daniel Acuña and Adam Kubert for all art-lovers to enjoy.
™ & © 2012 and 2013 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Uncanny X-Men – First Class: Hated and Feared


By Jeff Parker, Scott Gray, Roger Langridge, Craig Rousseau, Roger Cruz, David Williams, David Calero, Sean Galloway, Joe Infurnari, Cameron Stewart & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-4051-4104-4

In 2006 the deliriously naive secret school-days adventures of the Marvel’s Merry Mutants were re-imagined as X-Men First Class (a comicbook iteration, not the movie) which updated and reinterpreted the seminal 1960s adventures for the far more sophisticated contemporary audience.

An 8-issue miniseries and a One-Shot Special led to a further 16 issue run: retrofitting old stories, creating new material by in-filling existing narratives and especially by integrating the kids with the mainstream continuity through team-ups with assorted guest stars such as Doctor Strange, Man-Thing, Gorilla-Man, Thor and Invisible Woman. The experiment was a conceptual success and even led to a number 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 the story of the trainees’ graduation and fed directly into the landmark tale which introduced a thoroughly modern new team…

In 1975 Len Wein & Dave Cockrum revived the revered but painfully uncommercial fan favourite in Giant Size X-Men #1, replacing most of the 1960s team – Iceman, The Angel, Marvel Girl, The Beast, Lorna Dane and Havok – with a second generation of edgier international mutants young and old.

With both field-leader Cyclops and wheelchair-bound telepath Professor Charles Xavier remaining to carry on the dream of brokering peace and achieving integration between the sprawling masses of humanity and an emergent off-shoot race with terrifying extra abilities, the stage was set for “All New, All Different” adventures, and the fledgling squad rapidly became the company’s biggest hit and asset.

Comic fans have an insatiable appetite for untold tales and details, so this fresh iteration of the First Class concept, rather than rewriting or updating canonical tales already perpetually in print and utterly familiar to fans, opted to exploit gaps and spaces between scenes and stories with all new yarns…

Collecting one-shot Giant-Size Uncanny X-Men: First Class #1 and the first four issues of the follow-up Uncanny X-Men: First Class from 2009, the revelations begin as quintessential good Soldier Cyclops struggles to adapt to the undisciplined strangers who comprise his unwelcome new team.

After an ill-omened and almost catastrophic battle against a giant mutant fungus, the lone remaining graduate of Xavier’s original intake takes stock by studying the early exploits of Storm as a thief in Cairo, Banshee‘s battle against a Faerie Bog Ogre in Ireland, Nightcrawler‘s formative days in a German circus and Peter Rasputin‘s very first transformation into a living steel Colossus.

Of course Wolverine‘s revelations were clearly a cover-story – if a hilariously funny one – but the effort to understand his new comrades in arms soon allowed a connection to be made by the earnest, dedicated, determinedly single-minded team leader…

That initial outing – a collaborative jam-session from writers Jeff Parker, Scott Gray & Roger Langridge and assembled illustrators Craig Rousseau, David Williams, Dennis Calero, Sean Galloway, Joe Infurnari, Cameron Stewart, John Beatty – was capped off with an hysterical glimpse at the list of ‘International Mutant’s Who Didn’t Make the Team’ before the regular series commenced with ‘Refugee’ by regular series scripter Gray and artist Roger Cruz.

Set just after Marvel Girl Jean Grey “died” and was resurrected as the cosmic entity Phoenix (approximately between X-Men #108 and 111 if you’re counting) the drama begins after demonic-seeming Nightcrawler Kurt Wagner was attacked by the very humans he had saved and went into a depression of disappointment and disgust.

Thus when the Royal Family of the mysterious Inhumans came to visit Professor X as part of a cultural exchange, the dejected hero was intoxicated by the concept of an entire society that venerated the concept of being physically different…

The Inhumans were conceived as an incredible lost civilisation and debuted in 1965 (in Fantastic Four #44-48, during Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s most fertile and productive creative period).

They are a race of disparate (generally) humanoid beings, genetically modified by aliens in Earth’s distant pre-history, who consequently became technologically advanced far ahead of emergent Homo Sapiens. Few in numbers, they isolated themselves from barbarous dawn-age humanity, first on an island and latterly in a hidden Himalayan valley, voluntarily closeted in their fabulous city Attilan – until a civil war brought them into the public gaze of the modern world.

The hidden race practised a ritual and doctrine wherein almost every member of their society – was on reaching maturity – subjected to mutagenic Terrigen Mists which transformed them into an utterly unique being: something Wagner was unaware of when he made a fervent request of Xavier and Inhuman monarch Black Bolt and his queen Medusa…

In the meantime his cousins Triton, Karnak, Gorgon, and Medusa’s bewitching sister Crystal (and her giant teleporting dog Lockjaw) were being entertained by the other X-Men until abrasive alpha-dogs Wolverine and Gorgon clashed and a bombastic battle broke out…

With no real harm done, arrangements were made and Kurt, accompanied by best friend Peter “Colossus” Rasputin, became guests in the hidden Himalayan retreat, enjoying the easy camaraderie of the society of strangers, until Kurt witnessed the Terrigen ceremony and went ballistic, incensed that perfectly healthy, normal youngsters were deliberately turned into monsters… just like him…

Struck down for disrupting the sacred ritual in ‘To Err is Inhuman…’ Nightcrawler was held for trial, but Triton and Colossus secretly warned the rest of the X-Men, and Cyclops led a rescue mission which quickly escalated into a small, short war that almost destroyed Attilan before order and peace were restored…

Banshee was the focus of ‘The Next Life’ as wise old Sean Cassidy was targeted for revenge by the father of his long-dead bride. That was bad enough, but the cruel weapon of choice was a mutant who could materialise ghosts of lost loved ones…

Meanwhile in space, astronomer astronaut Peter Corbeau of the UN satellite Starcore One detects three impossible entities cavorting on the surface of the sun…

This premiere volume concludes with a classic girl’s night out and a cosmic cliffhanger in ‘Sisters of the Dragon’ illustrated by David Williams, as African émigré Ororo Monroe (AKA Storm) joins Jean and her martial arts/Private Eye pals Colleen Wing and Misty Knight for some downtime, chat and socialisation, only to be ambushed by queen of criminality Nightshade.

The devious diva needs something from the impregnable S.H.I.E.L.D. Heli-carrier and unless the weather witch gets it her friends will die horribly. Complying and completing her task before spectacularly turning the tables on Nightshade, Ororo doesn’t realise the seriousness of messing with the vindictive spy agency…

Meanwhile Professor X is psychically shocked by a telepathic distress call from old colleague Corbeau. Starcore has been invaded by a trio of sadistic solar horrors… and Earth is next…

To Be Continued…

This superbly entertaining collection wisely keeps the continuity baggage to a bare minimum, determined to deliver a compelling, rocket-paced rollercoaster ride of thrills and chills, heavy on action and light on extended sub-plots.

Engaging, exciting and extremely enjoyable, these new adventures are a welcome continuation of the Good Old Days that will delight fans and newcomers alike, offering another bite of that long-lost perfect cherry for all lovers of grand mutant Fights ‘n’ Tights action, mirth and mayhem…
© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.