Category: Marvel Superheroes

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Avengers versus X-Men


By Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman, John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel, Adam Kubert, Frank Cho & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-518-5

The mainstream comics industry is now irretrievably wedded to blockbuster continuity-sharing mega-crossover events and rashly doling them out like epi-pens to Snickers addicts with peanut allergies.

At least these days, however, if we have to endure a constant cosmic Sturm and extra-dimensional Drang, the publishers take great pains to ensure that the resulting comics chaos is suitably engrossing and always superbly illustrated…

Marvel’s big thing of the moment is the extended clash between mega-franchises Avengers and X-Men, which began in Avengers: X Sanction when time-lost mutant Cable attempted to pre-emptively murder a select roster of the World’s Greatest Heroes to prevent a cosmic tragedy.

Hope Spalding-Summers was the first mutant born on Earth after the temporarily insane Avenger Scarlet Witch used her reality-warping powers to eradicate almost all the mutants in existence. Considered a mutant messiah, Hope was raised in the future before inevitably finding her way back to the present where she was adopted by X-Men supremo Scott Summers AKA Cyclops.

Innumerable signs and portents have always indicated that she was a reincarnated receptacle for the devastating cosmic entity dubbed The Phoenix…

This mammoth collection gathers the core 12-issue fortnightly miniseries from April to October 2012 which saw humanity and Homo Superior go to war to possess the celestial chosen one, and also includes the prequel Avengers vs. X-Men #0 which laid the plot groundwork for the whole blockbusting Brouhaha.

Moreover this up-to-the minute epic also incorporates 21st century extras for all those tech-savvy consumers with added value in mind. Many pages contained herein are marked by an AR icon (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which gives access to all sorts of extras once you download the little dickens – for free – from marvel.com onto your iPhone or Android-enabled device.

The entire tale is also supported by digital sidebar episodes available on Marvel’s Avengers vs. X-Men: Infinite website.

…Or like me you could simply concentrate on and revel in the staggeringly spectacular, plot-light but stunningly rendered old-fashioned, earth-shattering punch-up barely contained in this titanic tome…

Necessarily preceded by a double-page scorecard of the 78(!) major players, the story begins with a pair of Prologues (by Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron & Frank Cho) as a now-sane and desperately repentant Scarlet Witch Wanda Maximoff tries to make amends and restore links with the Avengers she betrayed and attacked. However, even after defeating an attack by manic mutate MODOK and an personal invitation from Ms. Marvel to come back, the penitent mutant is sent packing by her ex-husband The Vision and the other male heroes she manipulated.

Meanwhile in Utopia, the West Coast island fortress that houses the last 200 mutants on Earth, an increasingly driven Cyclops is administering brutally tough love to adopted daughter Hope. The young woman is determined to defy her inescapable destiny as eventual host for the omnipotent Phoenix force on some far future day and is regularly moonlighting as a superhero. Sadly she’s well out of her depth when she tackles the sinister Serpent Society and Daddy humiliatingly comes to her rescue.

…And in the depths of space the ghastly firebird of life and death comes ever closer to Earth…

In the first chapter (by Bendis, John Romita Jr. & Scott Hanna) the catastrophically powerful force of destruction and rebirth nears our world and the perfect mortal host it hungers for and needs to guide it, frantically preceded by desperate hero-harbinger of doom Nova, who almost dies to deliver a warning of its proximity and intent. Soon the Avengers and government are laying plans, whilst in Utopia Scott Summers is pushing Hope harder than ever. If thePhoenix cannot be escaped from or avoided, perhaps he can make his daughter strong enough not to be overwhelmed by its promise of infinite power…

At the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning ex X-Man and current Avenger Wolverine is approached by Captain America and regretfully leaves his position as teacher to once again battle a force that cannot be imagined…

With even his fellow mutants questioning his tactics and brutal pushing of Hope, Cyclops meets CaptainAmericafor a parley. On behalf of the world, the Sentinel of Liberty wants to take Hope into protective custody but the mutant leader, distrustful of human bigotry and past duplicity, reacts violently to the far-from-diplomatic overtures…

Jason Aaron scripts the second instalment as frayed tempers lead to an all-out battle on the shores of Utopia, and personal grudges fuel the brutal conflict. As the metahuman war rages, Wolverine and Spider-Man surreptitiously go after the hidden Hope, but even far off in space the Phoenix force has infected her and she blasts them…

Meanwhile in the extra-solar void Thor, Vision, War Machine and a select team of secret Avengers confront the mindlessly onrushing energy construct…

Chapter 3 is scripted by Ed Brubaker and begins with the recovering Wolverine and Wallcrawler considering how to catch the missing hyper-powerful Hope with both the Avengers and recently departed X-Men chasing her. When the feral mutant clashes over tactics with Captain America, the resulting fight further divides the Avengers’ forces whilst in episode 4 – authored by Jonathan Hickman – as the easily defeated space defenders limp back to Earth, Hope and Wolverine meet at the bottom of the world and devise their own plans fore her future…

All over the planet heroes are hunting the unhappy chosen one, and the clashes between mutants and superhumans are steadily intensifying in ferocity, but the fugitive pair soon evade all pursuit by stealing a rocket and heading to the ancient Blue Area of the Moon where revered mutant Jean Grey first died to save the universe from the Phoenix.

When the former Marvel Girl was first possessed by the fiery force she became a hero of infinite puissance and a cataclysmic champion of Life, but eventually the power corrupted her and she devolved into Dark Phoenix: a wanton god of planet-killing appetites…

As an act of valiant contrition, Jean permitted the X-Men to kill her before her rapacious need completely consumed her in the oxygen-rich ancient city on the lunar surface (of course that’s just the tip of an outrageously long and overly-complicated iceberg not germane or necessary to us here: just search-engine the tale afterwards, ok?), but when Hope finally reaches the spot of her predecessor’s sacrifice she finds that she’s been betrayed and that the Avengers are waiting… and so are mutants Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik and Namor the Sub-Mariner. With battle set to begin again, the battered body of Thor crashes into the lunar dust and the sky is lit by the blazing arrival of the Phoenix avatar…

Matt Fraction scripts the 5th chapter as the appalling firebird attempts to possess Hope, who then realises she has completely overestimated her ability to handle the force, even as Avengers and X-Men again come to blistering blows.

Some distance away super-scientists Tony Stark and Henry Pym deploy their last-ditch anti-Phoenix invention but it doesn’t work as planned… When the furious light finally dies down, the infernal energy has possessed not Hope but the five elder mutants who turn their blazing eyes towards Earth and begin to plan how best to remake it…

Olivier Coipel & Mark Morales begin their stint as illustrators with the 6th, Hickman-scripted instalment, as ten days later old comrades Magneto and Charles Xavier meet to discuss the paradise Earth has become – especially for mutants. Violence, disease, hunger and want are gone but Cyclops, Emma, Sub-Mariner, Magic and Colossus are distant, aloof saviours at best and the power they share incessantly demands to be used more and more and more…

Myriad dimensions away in the mystical city of K’un L’un, kung fu overlord Lei Kung is warned that an ancient disaster is repeating itself on Earth and dispatches the city’s greatest hero Iron Fist to avert overwhelming disaster, even as fearful humanity is advised that their old bad ways will no longer be allowed to despoil the world. Naturally the decree of a draconian “Pax Utopia” does not sit well with humanity, and soon the Avengers are again at war with the last few hundreds of mutantkind. This time however the advantage is overwhelmingly with the underdogs and their five godlike leaders…

A last ditch raid to snatch Hope from Utopia goes catastrophically wrong until the long-reviled Scarlet Witch intervenes and rescues the Avengers and Hope.

Astounded to realise that Wanda’s probability-altering gifts can harm them, the Phoenix Five declare all-out, total war on the human heroes…

In the 7th, Fraction-scripted, chapter the Avengers are hunted down all over the planet and the individual personalities of the possessed X-Men begin to clash with each other. As Iron Fist, Lei Kung and Stark seek a marriage of spiritual and technological disciplines, the Sub-Mariner defies the Phoenix consensus to attack the African nation of Wakanda…

Adam Kubert & John Dell took over the art from issue #8 with Bendis’ script revealing how an army of Avengers and the power of Wanda and Xavier turned the tide of battle, but not before a nation died…

Moreover, with Namor beaten, his portion of Phoenix-power passed on to the remaining four, inspiring hungry notions of sole control amongst the possessed…

In #9 (by Aaron, Kubert & Dell) as the hunt for heroes continues on Earth, in K’un L’un Hope is being trained in martial arts discipline by the city’s immortal master, and in sheer guts and humanity by Spider-Man, and when Thor is captured the Avengers stage an all-out assault and by some miracle defeat both Magik and Colossus. Tragically that only makes Cyclops stronger still and he comes looking for his wayward daughter…

Brubaker writes the 10th chapter as Cyclops invades K’un L’un with horrific consequences whilst on Earth Emma Frost succumbs to the worst aspects of her nature and begins to enslave friend and foe with her half of the infinitePhoenix force. At the same time CaptainAmerica and Xavier are laying plans for one last “Hail Mary” assault…

And in the mystic city Hope finally comes into her power and incredibly blasts Cyclops out the other reality and back to the moon where the tragedy began…

Bendis, Coipel & Morales created the penultimate instalment as the rapacious destructive hunger of the Phoenix causes Cyclops to battle Emma, even as the unifying figure of Xavier draws X-Men and Avengers to unite against the true threat, as with issue #12 (Aaron, Kubert & Dell) Cyclops finally descends into the same hell as his beloved, long-lost Jean by becoming the seemingly unstoppable and insatiable Dark Phoenix with only the assembled heroes and the resigned Hope prepared to stop him from consuming the Earth…

The series generated a host of variant covers (I lost count at 87) by Cho, Jason Keith, Jim Cheung, Laura Martin, Stephanie Hans, Romita Jr., Ryan Stegman, Carlo Barberi, Olivier Coipel, Morales, Skott Young, Arthur Adams, Nick Bradshaw, Carlo Pagulayan, Sara Pichelli, J. Scott Campbell, Jerome Opeña, Mark Bagley, Dale Keown, Esad Ribic, Adam Kubert, Alan Davis, Humberto Ramos, Leinil Francis Yu, Adi Granov and Billy Tan which will undoubtedly delight and astound the artistically adroit amongst you…

Fast, furious and utterly absorbing – if short on plot – this summer blockbuster is an extreme Fights ‘n’ Tights extravaganza that certainly delivers a mighty punch without any real necessity to study beforehand that comics-continuity veterans and film-fed fanboys alike will relish.
™ & © 2012 Marvel and subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A,Italy. All Rights Reserved. A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd.

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Spider-Men


By Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli (Marvel/PaniniUK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-520-8

After Marvel’s financial and creative problems in the later 1990s, the company came back swinging. A key new concept involved remodelling and modernising much of their core pantheon for the new youth culture and the Ultimate imprint abandoned the monumental and slavish continuity which had always been Marvel’s greatest asset, giving its new players a separate universe to play in, with varying degrees of radical makeover to appeal to a contemporary 21st century audience.

Peter Parker was once again reduced to a callow, nerdy high-school geek, brilliant but perpetually bullied by his physical superiors and there was a fresh, fashionable, more scientifically feasible rationale for the fore-destined spider bite which imparted those patented, impossible arachnoid abilities.

His Uncle Ben still died because of the lad’s lack of responsibility. The Daily Bugle was still there, as was the bombastically outrageous J. Jonah Jameson, but now in a more cynical, litigious world, well-used to cover-ups and conspiracy theories, arch-foe Norman Osborn – a corrupt, ruthless billionaire businessman – was behind everything.

Any gesture towards the faux-realism of traditional superhero fare was surrendered to the tried-and-tested soap-opera melodrama which inevitably links all characters together in invisible threads of karmic coincidence and familial consanguinity but, to be honest, it seldom hurt the narrative. After all, as long as internal logic isn’t contravened, subplots don’t have to make sense to be entertaining.

After a short and spectacularly impressive career, the originally outcast Peter finally gained a measure of acceptance and was hailed a hero when the Ultimate Comics Spider-Man valiantly and very publicly met his end at Osborn’s hands during a catastrophic super-villain showdown…

Soon after he died a new champion cast in his image arose to carry on the fight…

In the aftermath child prodigy Miles Morales accidentally gained similar powers and as a freshly empowered 13-year old soon learned to cope with his astounding new physical abilities, painfully discovering the daily costs of living a life of lies and how an inescapable sense of responsibility is the worst of all possible threats…

Meanwhile in the mainstream Marvel Universe “our” Peter Parker underwent his own turmoil and travails, surviving to become a more-or-less grown man and first rank superhero…

This collection (collecting the miniseries Spider-Men #1-5 from June to September 2012) was designed as part of the celebrations for the web-spinner’s 50th anniversary and offers a slight but magically enthralling guest-star-packed riff on one of the superhero genre’s most popular themes.

The action begins in the original universe where Peter is on patrol, stopping a couple of fleeing thieves – and almost getting arrested for his help – when he spots an eerie light. Investigating he discovers the latest hideout of old foe Mysterio and after a brief struggle overpowers the sinister Special Effects genius.

Something is off though: the villain’s babblings make no sense. The creep is clearly delusional, screaming that Spider-Man is already dead before breaking loose and triggering the bizarrely glowing device he’d been defending.

In a blaze of light Spider-Man transits from a dark warehouse at night to a sunny rooftop in a New York radically different, and things get even stranger when he stops a mugging and the victim thanks him but says his costume is in “terrible taste” and asks if he knew Peter Parker…

And that’s when the kid in a way cool Spider suit shows up…

In another universe the Ultimate Mysterio wakes up and activates a telemetric avatar of himself to follow Spider-Man across the dimensions, where Parker is – in true Marvel style – fighting his namesake in a fever of confused misapprehension. Utterly underestimating his diminutive opponent, the elder Arachnoid is defeated by the kid’s secret powers (invisibility and a debilitating venom sting) and wakes up in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cell where an African-American Nick Fury confirms that he’s fallen into an alternate Earth…

Finally released into Miles’ custody, Peter is introduced to a New York where Peter Parker is a revered – albeit dead – hero, but before he can adapt the Mysterio avatar attacks with a lethal arsenal of ballistic weapons and mind-warping chemical weapons…

By the time Ultimate heroes Thor, Hawkeye and Iron Man appear the battle is won and the mechanoid trashed, but as the ferociously curious Tony Stark examines the dimensional transfer tech in our world, their Mysterio is preparing another deadly assault…

As the assembled heroes try to find a way home for the wall-crawling wanderer, Parker is torturing himself by visiting “his” old haunts and hangouts, leading to gut-wrenching meetings with Aunt May, Mary Jane Watson and a Gwen Stacy who hadn’t been murdered by Green Goblin Norman Osborn…

…And in the other universe Mysterio just can’t let go and once again prepares to launch his devilish devices across the dimensional rift to kill Spider-Man: all of them and whoever stands with them…

Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli, aided by painter/colourist Justin Ponsor, have crafted a massively impressive fresh take on the alternate Earth team-up: one drenched in genuine warmth and tragedy, brimming with breathtaking action and stuffed with light-hearted, razor sharp humour which elevates it from the rank of formularized Costumed Drama fare and makes it easily one of the best superhero tales of the decade.

As usual the volume also contains a gallery of covers and variants – by Jimmy Cheung, Humberto Ramos, Marcos Martin, Terry & Rachel Dodson, Travis Charest, Tommy Lee Edwards, Mike Deodato, Ponsor, Rainier Beredo and Pichelli, to delight and thrill in a rollercoaster ride of that tense, evocative suspense and easy-going adventure which blessed the original Lee/Ditko tales.
A British Edition ™ & © 2012 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. and published by Panini UK, Ltd. All rights reserved

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Amazing Spider-Man: Big Time


By Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, Neil Edwards, Stefano Caselli & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4624-7

For a popular character/concept lumbered with a fifty-year pedigree which only really works when the hero is played as a teenaged outsider, radical reboots are a painful if annoying periodic necessity. When the Spider-Man continuity was drastically dialled-back and controversially revised for the ‘Brand New Day’ publishing event, a refreshed, rejuvenated single (and never-been-married to Mary Jane) Peter Parker was parachuted into a similar yet different whole new life, so if this is your first Web-spinning yarn in a while – or you’ve drawn your cues from the movies – be prepared for a little confusion…

What is still valid: outcast, geeky school kid Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and, after seeking to cash-in on the astonishing abilities he developed, suffered an irreconcilable personal tragedy. His beloved guardian Uncle Ben was murdered and the traumatised boy determined henceforward to always use his powers to help those in dire need.

For years the brilliant boy hero suffered private privation and travail in his domestic situation, whilst his heroic alter ego endured public condemnation and mistrust as he valiantly battled all manner of threat and foe…

Now, all that changes in an instant as Big Time finds the Original Hard Luck Hero finally reaping some of benefits of his unique gifts and lonely crusade…

Collecting Amazing Spider-Man #648-651 (January – March 2011) this enchanting thriller opens with the Webslinger revelling in new-found glory and the benefits of back-up as the newest addition to the Mighty Avengers leads the team into battle against the incorrigible Dr. Octopus in the eponymous first chapter ‘Big Time’. This acceptance among the superhero set hasn’t affected New York City Mayor J. Jonah Jameson who is still on his fanatical anti-Spider-Man crusade, but the former publisher is blithely unaware that he too is the obsessive target of a deadly menace stalking him and his family…

Spidey has more pressing problems: his new girlfriend is Police CSI Officer Carlie Cooper, but old flame and barely-reformed super-thief Felicia Hardy – AKA the svelte and sexy Black Cat – continues to flirtatiously hang around raising suspicions and temperatures…

As the city burns Doc Ock’s new Sinister Six – Electro, Sandman, Chameleon, Mysterio and The Rhino – continue carrying out their tentacled tyrant’s latest doomsday plan until the Wall-crawler outperforms both his own team-mates and the fabled Fantastic Four to foil the explosive plot in the last seconds…

At the new Daily Bugle, reporter Ben Urich has got his nephew Phil a job as an office boy, unaware that the disbarred young photo-journalist once fought crime with a suit of Green Goblin armour and bag of tricks he’d found in an old warehouse owned by Norman Osborn. The poor kid isn’t happy and is beginning to resent his fall from grace after being caught doctoring some pictures he’d sold…

Peter Parker’s life is still a mess. Spending all his time saving the world has resulted in his being eviction after forgetting to pay the rent and this time he’s run out of friends to crash with…

However things are about to change radically after Pete’s Aunt May – newly married to Jameson’s wealthy father – show Jonah’s wife Marla the boy’s old High School science awards and scrap book. Marla is a very influential researcher and knows someone who might give Peter a job…

Soon young Parker is being interviewed by super-cool Max Modell – “the Johnny Depp of Einsteins” and owner of private think tank Horizon Labs – unaware that as part of Jameson’s extended family he too is being hunted by the Mayor’s latest nemesis…

The interview is a lucky disaster. When one of Modell’s scientific wonder-kids loses control of an experiment involving deadly new element “Reverbium”, Peter’s quick thinking saves the day and he’s offered a spot in the company’s exclusive team of geniuses. Soon the stunned lad has his own lab, an open brief to invent cool new stuff and a monthly salary that bigger than all his previous paychecks combined…

…And across town Wilson Fisk and his executive office Montana interview the murderous Hobgoblin for the position of enforcer. The Kingpin of Crime has been informed of Reverbium’s existence and he will stop at nothing to possess the potentially unstoppable new weaponised element…

In ‘Kill to Be You’, the recent bloody history of Hobgoblin Roderick Kingsley is revealed before the super-assassin discovers Phil Urich skulking in his hidden warehouse lair. Callously moving in for the kill, the mercenary is completely unprepared for the kid’s long-hidden super-power and is mercilessly slaughtered by the traumatised youth who, succumbing to the Osborn/Goblin “curse”, then appropriates his gadgets and guise to become the new and utterly psychopathic Hobgoblin…

As Spidey and Black Cat continue their strictly crime-busting affair, at high security Federal prison The Raft former foe the Scorpion is finally separated from the alien Symbiote which had turned him into the latest incarnation of Venom, but the process has caused a massive collapse. If warder Mach 5 and Doctors Coleman and Nichols can’t find a solution soon, inmate Mac Gargan is surely doomed…

Back at Horizon Labs, Peter hasn’t even been introduced to his six super-smart colleagues before the newest Hobgoblin busts in determined to fulfil his predecessor’s mission. However when Spider-Man overconfidently tackles the intruder, Urich’s irresistible sonic super-power quickly has the wall-crawler on the ropes and inches from death…

The third chapter (inked by Scott Hanna, Joseph Damon & Victor Olazaba) finds the hero ignominiously saved by fellow geeky brain-box Bella Fishbach who manages to drive the exultant Hobgoblin off, but not before the manic marauder snatches up the deadly Reverbium sample and delivers it to the Kingpin. Determined to retrieve the stolen sample Peter calls on the Black Cat, but also takes the time – and Horizon’s resources – to whip up a new high-tech stealth-mode Spidey-suit…

The blistering all-action finale (with inks from Cuevas & Damon) commences with a raid on the Kingpin’s skyscraper HQ, but even after beating an army of thugs and ninjas, Montana and Hobgoblin, Spider-Man and the Cat are unprepared for the ferocious physical might of the crime-lord and only the devastating escape of the catastrophically unstable Reverbium saves them from certain death – although it also allows Urich and Fisk to escape…

This magnificent slice of Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy also includes two short back-ups from issues #650 and 651 which act as pulse-pounding prologues for the next collected edition as ‘The Final Lesson’ (written by Slott with art from Neil Edwards & Hanna) finds genetics expert Professor Eli Folsom attempting to cure the ailing Mac Gargan. However it’s all a cunning plot by mad scientist Alistair Smythe to kidnap the former Scorpion, one that super guard Mach 5 is helpless to stop. The triumphant Spider-Slayer is then revealed as the menace stalking the Jameson clan as he further warps, augments and mutates Gargan in ‘The Sting that Never Goes Away’ (Slott, Stefan Caselli & Edgar Delgado) in preparation to unleashing an Army of Insect Warriors as part of his final ‘Revenge of the Spider-Slayer’.

To Be Continued…

With a cover gallery including variants by Ramos & Delgado, Mark Brooks, Caselli, and Marcos Martin, plus promotional art and pages of Ramos design sketches, this is a joyously light yet bombastic rollercoaster ride for fans but also works well as a jumping-on point for readers new or returning.
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Astonishing X-Men: Exogenetic


By Warren Ellis, Phil Jiminez & Andy Lanning (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3169-4

By now you’re either aware or not of mutant continuity, so in the spirit of this high octane, terse, gritty and bombastic monster-mashing thriller, I’ll forego the usual catch-up scorecard and précis and simply state that new readers can jump on with the minimum of confusion and, aided by the skilful use of banter, be readily brought up to cruising speed. Set in the aftermath of M-Day when the world’s mutant population was horrifically reduced to a couple of hundred Children of the Atom, the current official team of Cyclops, White Queen Emma Frost, Wolverine, Storm, the Beast and spunky Japanese teen Hisako Ichiki (AKA Armor) convene to tackle the latest threat to Earth’s dwindling mutant race.

To counter hostile public opinion in a world that has always hated and feared mutants, these heroes have renounced their traditionally clandestine lifestyle to fight their battles in the glare of the media. The new agenda is simple: carry on saving the day but do it in such a way that the world knows who to thank. Thus they can slowly change humanity’s attitudes and misperceptions whilst still doing their job.

It all sounded so easy…

Exogenetic opens with Abigail Brand and her agents of S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation & Response Department) sterilising yet another alien-infested asteroid base before succumbing to an overwhelming counterattack from the horrific invaders – parasitic Brood who have repeatedly attempted to ingest and assimilate our mutant champions.

Barely escaping, she heads back to Earth in a doomed ship where her helpless ground officers call in a little Homo Superior help…

Her craft is heading for a catastrophic crash into San Francisco, so it’s lucky that bestial Hank McCoy – the X-Men’s brilliant technical wizard and Brand’s current boyfriend – is heading the rescue mission, but even after a spectacular last-minute save nobody is truly safe…

In the gawping city-crowds avidly rubber-necking below is mutant Laurie Collins …but she’s been dead for months. The resurrected Wallflower suddenly mutates into a monstrous, marauding organic Sentinel indiscriminately determined to kill X-Men and human San Franciscans alike; firing off “her” inbuilt and reconfigured Brood drones in the way robotic Sentinels utilise missiles and ray-blasts…

After another breathtakingly bombastic imbroglio the mutants are eventually victorious, but forensic examinations of the remains indicate that Laurie was regrown, modified with ET DNA and mechanically augmented by agents unknown based on doomsday files stolen from McCoy’s own database and cell bank.

Someone has plundered the X-Men’s own secret technologies and desecrated their honoured dead…

Moreover the illicit harvester of dead X-Genes seems intent on using the purloined powers, stolen mechanisms and alien plasm to create an army to wage an all-out war of genocide on the Earth’s paltry remaining mutants…

With Abigail’s help the horrified heroes track down elderly geneticist Kaga who has apparently spent more than a decade on his plan to eradicate Earth’s Homo Superior. However after invading his floating storehouse of exotic and exhumed weaponry the appalled and traumatised X-Men discover that their race’s greatest foe has the most incredible and oddly logical motive for his fanatical crusade…

Untroubled by extraneous subplots or meandering sidebar storylines, starring an horrific host of “monsterised” old friends and foes whilst irresistibly combining stunning action and superb characterisation: this is a staggeringly impressive and addictive summer blockbuster.

Forthright, uncomplicated, and unforgettable, this riotous rollercoaster of thrills still finds moments for wrenching empathy and laugh-out-loud gags as the team again triumphs against impossible odds, and creators Warren Ellis, Phil Jimenez & Andy Lanning have a perfect grasp of their charges here, and even leave a sting in the tale to end on….

Collecting Astonishing X-Men #31-35 (with text features from Astonishing X-Men/Amazing Spider-Man: the Gauntlet Sketchbook), this book also includes a gallery of covers and variants by Jimenez, Frank D’Armata, Travis Charest & Justin Ponsor, plus a copiously illustrated lengthy interview with the artist discussing his approach and techniques to illustrating the saga in ‘Sketching Out Phil Jimenez’.
© 2009, 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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Dark Avengers volume 1: Assemble


By Brian Michael Bendis, Mike Deodato, Will Conrad & Rain Beredo (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3852-5

One of the most momentous events in Marvel Comics history occurred in 1963 when a disparate array of freshly minted individual heroes banded together to stop the Incredible Hulk. The Mighty Avengers combined most of the company’s fledgling superhero line in one bright, shiny and highly commercial package, and over the years the roster has waxed and waned until almost every character in their universe – and even some from others – has at some time numbered amongst their serried ranks.

In recent times when the draconian Federal initiative known as Superhuman Registration Act led to Civil War between costumed heroes, Tony Stark AKA Iron Man was appointed the American government’s Security Czar – the “top cop” in sole charge of a beleaguered nation’s defence and freedom: Director of high-tech enforcement agency S.H.I.E.L.D. and last word in all matters involving metahumans and the USA’s vast costumed community…

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

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

The erstwhile Spider-Man villain had begun his climb back to respectability after taking charge of the Government’s Thunderbolts Project; a penal program which offered a second chance to metahuman criminals who volunteered to perform Federally-sanctioned missions…

Not content with commanding legitimate political and personal power, Osborn also secretly conspired with a coalition of major menacing masterminds to divvy up the world between them. The Cabal was a Star Chamber of super-villains all working towards a mutually beneficial goal, but such egomaniacal personalities could never play well together and cracks soon began to show, both in the criminal conspiracy and Osborn himself.

As another strand of his long-term plan the Homeland Security overlord subsequently sacked the Avengers and formed his own, more manageable team…

Collecting the first six issues of the controversial Dark Avengers title by Brian Michael Bendis, Mike Deodato & colourist Rain Beredo (from March-September 2009), this beguiling, suspenseful chronicle commences a slow-building saga as part of the “Dark Reign” company-wide crossover event intended to reset the entire Marvel Universe…

The drama opens in 690AD as time-bending sorceress Morgana Le Fay spies on a coterie of 21st century masters of menace comprising Doctor Doom, Asgardian God Loki, gang-boss The Hood, mutant Emma Frost, ambivalent anti-hero the Sub-Mariner and the ostensibly reformed media darling Osborn…

Constantly courting public opinion the former Green Goblin launched his Avengers whilst building up a new, personally loyal high-tech paramilitary rapid-response force. Moreover, seemingly to keep himself honest, Osborn then hired ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. hardliner Victoria Hand as his Deputy Director, tasked with watching the recovering madman for any signs of regression into criminal insanity…

His second-in-command was also occupied with the day-to-day running of the organisation – giving Osborn time to convince Greek War-God Ares, mentally troubled golden superman Sentry and altruistic, dimensionally displaced alien Noh-Var – now dubbed Captain Marvel – to enlist on his team.

Unable to any recruit any other established champions, the master planner then offered devious deals to criminal psycho-killers Bullseye, Moonstone, Venom and Wolverine‘s deeply disturbed son Daken Akihiro to impersonate actual heroes Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man and the irascible mutant X-Man.

It still wasn’t enough for the cunning control freak. The answer finally came when he found a huge cache of Stark-built Iron Man suits. With a little judicious tinkering Osborn soon had his own super-armour, retooled and finished to invoke impressions of both Captain America and the Golden ex-Avenger. Now, as the Iron Patriot he could personally lead his hand-picked team from the front as a true hero should…

The first mission was nothing to boast of however as a H.A.M.M.E.R. diplomatic team escorted Dr. Doom back to his devastated homeland of Latveria, ravaged by a S.H.I.E.L.D. punitive mission in retaliation for the Dictator’s numerous outrages. No sooner had the escorts arrived though than Le Fay attacked, eager to kill Doom for a thousand slights and his previous treatment of her…

The second, flashback-filled issue fills in some blanks in the mystic rivals’ shared history as the Sinister Sorceress unleashes her horde of horrors against Doom and the American Agents, precipitating a deadly response from the Iron Patriot and his private army…

Soon the ersatz Avengers are knee-deep in gore as they mercilessly destroy the witch’s minions and when the unstoppable Sentry tears off Morgana’s head it seems their first mission is a complete success.

However Le Fay is the Mistress of Time and simply returns with a greater force, killing Sentry in her determination to kill Doom – until another Avenger brutally ends her only to be her first target on her next appearance. The pattern just keeps repeating and soon Iron Patriot is almost out of Avengers…

The third issue opens with more flashbacks as Osborn uses psychological warfare to bind the emotionally damaged Bob Reynolds to him. The too-good-to-be-true, nigh-omnipotent nice-guy metahuman is secretly afflicted with an alternate personality dubbed The Void and only a slavish, puppy-like devotion to childhood sweetheart-and-wife Lindy enables Sentry to resist the horrendous dark urgings of his other self…

Osborn has convinced the golden hero that his deadly split-personality is a fiction that can be fought – but they’re both quite wrong…

Back at the battle Doom and Osborn combine technological resources to take the fight back to Le Fay in the far past and undo most of her victories, even restoring Latveria to a measure of its former self. Only Sentry cannot be resurrected and the grim Americans head home pondering the early loss of their most powerful member. When they reachNew Yorkhowever Sentry is waiting for them and with horror Osborn realises that it’s not Bob Reynolds in charge of that tousled golden head…

Episode #4 changed tack by confronting a big issue head on. A crisis had occurred when the true Hawkeye attempted to expose his Avenger duplicate as a sham and Osborn quickly manufactured a televised confession which brilliantly turned the tables on his accuser by pushing all the viewers’ buttons. Now the reformed Goblin was merely a decent American patriot recovering from mental illness, thanks to the grace of God, and anyone who said otherwise a sick, ungrateful, godless traitor…

The former villain is on an unbeatable roll: after all didn’t he also talk down the Void and re-establish Bob as dominant personality in the composite meta-human time bomb of the reborn Sentry? Yet Osborn still isn’t as secure as he thinks: cracks begin to appear when the counterfeit Ms. Marvel begins her campaign to seduce and control her Avenger comrades. Without even knowing why she needs to undermine the team’s cohesion and challenge Osborn’s authority, the rogue former psychiatrist beds naive Noh-Var and lets slip to the innocent alien dupe the kind of people his fellow “heroes” truly are…

This first collection spirals to spectacular climax when a rebel band of Atlanteans attackLos Angelesand Osborn’s demand for a show of retaliatory force provokes a split in the Cabal. Unsatisfied when the Sub-Mariner quits the league of villains, the increasingly unstable Security Czar then sends his puppet Sentry into the depths of the ocean to deliver a very clear reprimand – one which leaves only one Atlantean alive…

And as Osborn discovers that his Captain Marvel has gone AWOL the manic, chaos-loving goblin voice inside the head ofAmerica’s Top Cop begins to laugh exultantly…

To Be Continued…

Certainly not one for younger fans, this is another striking saga from author Bendis, packed with intrigue, suspense and breathtaking action, magnificently illustrated and supplemented by a glorious cover gallery and variants by Deodato & Beredo, Marko Djurdjevic, Adi Granov, Mike Choi, Daniel Acuña, Stefano Caselli, Khoi Pham & Rafa Sandoval.

Experimenting boldly with narrative sequencing and contrasting time frames, flipping back and forth across a number of story-threads and superbly building tension through misinformation, Dark Avengers: Assemble is mired in the minutiae of Marvel Universe history, so whilst this offers a moodily different take on Fights ‘n’ Tights thrillers that will impress devotees of the genre and continuity, newer readers need to be prepared to put up with a little contextual confusion. Nevertheless, although the tale might be all but incomprehensible to casual readers, this clever display of comics creativity illustrates the mature extremes to which “straight” superhero stories can be pushed.
© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Venom: Birth of a Monster – a Marvel Pocketbook British Edition


By Peter David, David Michelinie, Rick Buckler, Todd McFarlane & various (Marvel/PaniniUK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-052-4

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

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

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

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

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

Although nominally a collection dedicated to the savagely driven, alien-infected vigilante who was amongst the Web-spinner’s greatest foes, Venom: Birth of a Monster only devotes a fraction of its content to the deadly dark double. Instead this Marvel Pocketbook compendium from 2007 collects the superbly powerful but barely relevant ‘Sin-Eater saga’ from Spectacular Spider-Man # 107-110 in 1985, and the contents of Amazing Spider-Man #298-300 (March-May 1988) which led to the actual debut of the Savage Symbiotic Sentinel…

The drama begins with chapter 1 of ‘Death of Jean DeWolff: Original Sin’ by Peter David, Rich Buckler & Brett Breeding, which begins with the eponymous lady cop who was Spider-Man’s only friend in the NYPD already murdered by a mystery assailant. In the stunned aftermath the department goes into cop-killer overdrive.

Meanwhile the Amazing Arachnid is savagely dealing with a trio of muggers who have robbed and brutalised a senior citizen. Ernie Popchik is a tenant at May Parker‘s boarding house and the senseless assault on the old man has enraged the hero to breaking point. His mood isn’t helped when the arresting cops inform him of Jean’s demise…

Forcing himself into the case, Spidey befriends lead detective Stan Carter, even as in a church across town a desperate young man attempts to expiate his recent sins in the confessional booth…

The next morning sightless crusader Matt Murdock (AKA Daredevil) is drawn into the affair when he successfully defends the three muggers and sets them back on the street. Peter Parker is in court and further incensed as justice again seems to be not only blind by indifferent. The controversial presiding Judge Horace Rosenthal is one of Murdock’s oldest friends, and when the lawyer later visits in his chambers, his super-senses detect a sinister presence…

Before anyone can react a ski-masked figure overwhelms Matt and blasts the judge point blank with a sawn-off shotgun…

‘Sin of Pride’ (with additional inks by Josef Rubinstein, Kyle Baker & Pat Redding) opens moments later in the street where Peter and his Aunt May are consoling the shaken and still-terrified Popchik, who can’t believe his attackers are free again. Suddenly the masked shooter erupts out of the courthouse and instantly provokes a panic. Ditching May and Ernie, Parker changes to Spider-Man and confronts the killer who casually blasts him. The hero’s incredible abilities easily enable him to dodge the shots, but in the heat of pursuit Spider-Man has forgotten that he’s in the middle of a crowded street…

Horrified, the wall-crawler attends to the collaterally injured, allowing the murderous Sin-Eater to make his escape. With no other choice, the badly shaken hero is forced to resort to plain old detective work to solve the maniacal mystery and finds that Jean DeWolff had indulged a secret passion for the Amazing Arachnid…

There are many mourners attending the murdered Police Captain’s funeral, but across the cemetery, only Matt Murdock and close family attend the interment of the killer’s second victim. However as the Rosenthal ceremony concludes Matt’s super-hearing detects the Sin-Eater’s distinctive heartbeat wafting from the gathered crowd of cops, politicians, clerics and celebrities across the still, green park…

The Daredevil in mufti is unable to isolate the source but now has a pool of suspects to track… which is reduced by one when, that night, the maniac kills the Reverend  Bernard Finn in the Confessional…

The tension shifts into overdrive in ‘He Who is Without Sin’ (David, Buckler & Breeding) when political opportunist Reverend Tolliver stirs up racial divisions and Peter learns that one of the bystanders he recklessly endangered has died. Pushed to breaking point, Spider-Man futilely tries to pry a lead from Wilson Fisk, New York’s Kingpin of Crime, but coincidentally discovers that Daredevil was there before him… The web-spinner, now nearing boiling point, then terrorises a local gang-boss and recklessly endangers a small child in his desperate urgency to find the Sin-Eater…

It all comes to a head at the Daily Bugle building later, when the scattergun killer comes looking for J. Jonah Jameson and is anticlimactically subdued by Peter Parker and other journalists. The malevolent vigilante is Emil Gregg, a simple schizophrenic driven by voices to do the Lord’s work, but when Daredevil confronts the captive at Police Headquarters, his hearing soon discerns that this Sin-Eater is merely a deluded copycat…

Meanwhile at Jameson’s mansion the authentic assassin is attempting to kill the absent publisher’s wife and Peter’s best friend Betty Brant-Leeds…

The shocking conclusion ‘All My Sins Remembered’ (Bucker and the inking army known as “M. Hands”) sees Spider-Man save the day and expose the real killer, but also explode in uncontrolled fury as his shock and betrayal erupts into a misguided, frustration-fuelled dust-up with Daredevil.

And in the subway, traumatised Ernie Popchik shoots three young thugs acting tough and intimidating defenceless passengers…

By way of background: During the Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars of 1984-1985, Spider-Man picked up a super-scientific new costume which was actually a hungry alien parasite which slowly began to permanently bond to its unwitting wearer.

After being discovered and removed by Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four “the Symbiote” ultimately escaped and, like a crazed and jilted lover, tried to re-establish its relationship with the horrified hero; seemingly destroying itself in the attempt.

During a stellar run of scripts by David Michelinie, the beast was revived with a new host and became one of the most acclaimed Marvel villains of all time, helped in no small part by the escalating popularity of rising star artist Todd McFarlane…

The action continues here with another only tangentially germane two-part thriller ‘Chance Encounter’ and ‘Survival of the Fittest!’ from Amazing Spider-Man #298-299, by Michelinie, McFarlane and Bob McLeod.

The story details how Spider-Man stumbles across a coterie of Survivalist millionaires covertly constructing a lavish high tech gated community in which to ride out the fall of civilisation in opulent splendour and lethally protected luxury. The scheme was only exposed when a series of weapons shipments went missing and Spidey’s old enemy Chance was kidnapped. Although a sharp action adventure in its own right – and very enjoyable – each of these tales concludes with a teaser showing a shadowy, bestial figure obsessing over clippings of Spider-Man…

The mystery is revealed in the anniversary issue #300 with the landmark introduction of ‘Venom’ wherein the monstrous shape-shifting stalker, having terrorised Peter’s new bride Mary Jane, begins a chilling campaign to psychologically punish Spider-Man.

Venom is a huge hulking, distorted carbon copy of the web-spinner: a murderous psychopath constituted of disgraced reporter Eddie Brock and the now eternally bonded bitter, rejected parasite whose animalistic devotion was spurned by its former ungrateful host. Parker had even tried to kill the faithful loving Symbiote…

Brock obsessively hates Parker for the craziest of reasons: when Emil Gregg was arrested, Brock was the first – and exclusive – reporter to reveal him as the Sin-Eater.

When the real killer was exposed hours later, Brock lost his job, his career and his grip on reality. As he hit the skids Brock blamed photo-journalist Parker for the debacle, but at his lowest moment, the rejected, starving Symbiote found him. As they merged, human and alien realised they hungered for vengeance on the self-same man…

The story is a stunning blend of action and suspense with an unforgettable classic duel between Good and Evil which famously saw Spider-Man finally return to his original Ditko-designed costume. It also kicked off a riotous run of astounding stories from a fresh generation of game-changing creators…

The savage, shape-changing anti-hero Рa perfect dark-side version of the Amazing Arachnid Рwent on to his own blood-drenched series and eventually the spidery rivals reached a tenuous d̩tente.

Although I’ve carped about this book’s incongruent and perhaps misleading title, Venom: Birth of a Monster does reproduce some of the most powerful, entertaining and cruelly forgotten tales of the hard-luck hero’s long and stellar canon. If it’s simply fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights action and excellent comics enjoyment you’re after, this might well be a very pleasant way to while away your midnight hours…
© 1985, 1988, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. A British edition published under license by Panini S.p.A.

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Marvel Adventures Spider-Man volume 2: Spectacular


By Paul Tobin, Roberto Di Salvo, Jacopo Camagni, Ronan Cliquet, Amilton Santos & Terry Pallot (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4560-8

Since its earliest days Marvel has always courted the youngest comicbook audiences. Whether through animated movie or TV tie-ins such as Terrytoons Comics, Mighty Mouse, Super Rabbit Comics, Duckula, assorted Hanna-Barbera and Disney licenses and a myriad of others, or original creations such as Tessie the Typist, Millie the Model, Homer the Happy Ghost, Li’l Kids or even Calvin, the House of Ideas has always understood the necessity of cultivating the next generation of readers.

These days however, accessible child-friendly titles are on the wane and with Marvel’s proprietary characters all over screens large and small, the company usually prefers to create adulterated versions of its own pantheon, making that eventual hoped-for transition to more mature comics as painless as possible.

In 2003 the company created a Marvel Age line which updated and retold classic original tales by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and combined it with the remnants of its failed manga-based Tsunami imprint, which was also intended for a junior demographic. The experiment was tweaked in 2005, becoming Marvel Adventures with the core titles transformed into Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man and the reconstituted classics replaced by all-original yarns. Additional titles included Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes, The Avengers and Hulk. These iterations ran until 2010 when they were cancelled and replaced by new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man which carried on the established continuities.

This digest-sized collection collects issues #5-8 of that second (2010) iteration and picks up where Spider-Man: Amazing left off. Paul Tobin continues scripting whilst 16-year old Peter Parker rounds out his first year as a reluctant – if driven – superhero: the mysterious Spider-Man.

Even after all the time he has prowled the streets and skyscrapers of New York, fighting crime and injustice, he’s still just a kid learning the ropes and pretty much in over his head all the time…

Illustrated by Roberto Di Salvo, the drama begins with the hero battered and close to death following his savage battle with manic assassin Bullseye. Meanwhile top gang enforcer Flip is still masterfully doing his illegal job, which he hates, especially all the lying to his wife – when big boss Berto Torino calls him in for a special mission.

Somewhere Spider-Man is holed-up and helpless. If Flip can find and finish the pestiferous punk there’s a $2 million pay-off up for grabs…

Across town Peter’s girlfriend Sophia Sanduval is frantic with worry. As a mutant who can communicate with animals and a part-time operative of the Blonde Phantom Detective Agency, “Chat” has got a lot of unusual resources at her disposal, but not even Wolverine and the X-Men can help her lost and wounded boy wonder…

Happily her bestial buddies make more progress. A horde of animals locate the unconscious wall-crawler and loyally cluster around his unconscious, recuperating form in a protective cordon…

Alerted by her birds, Chat rushes across town to his side, but the brutally efficient Flip is also closing in…

By the time she reaches Peter, the Mafioso is dealing with the severely battered wall-crawler – but her animal shelterers have already performed a redemptive miracle…

In school next day the bandage-bedecked Peter Parker is properly teased and quizzed by his class-mates, especially ex-girlfriend Gwen Stacy and her controversial new beau Carter Torino (her father is a New York cop who turns a blind eye to Parker’s vigilante sideline and the boy is the unwilling heir-apparent to the city’s paramount criminal empire).

Taking it all in stride, Peter also gets a stern talking-to from Chat and Police Captain George Stacy, both urging the guilt-fuelled hero to take it easy for a while. There’s little chance of that however, when a class trip to a museum is interrupted by murderous maniac Dr. Octopus…

When the still-sub-par Spider-Man leaps painfully into the fray, the furious Chat is forced to call in a favour and reinforcements by asking morally ambivalent psionic mutant Emma Frost AKA Silencer to take a telepathic hand in the affair…

An artistic fill-in by Jacopo Camagni, Ronan Cliquet & Amilton Santos sees a hilarious training session with Wolverine and ghostly X-Man Kitty Pryde turn into a bizarre comedy of errors when the Torinos try to buy off Spider-Man, whilst protestors (pro and anti) at a mutant rights rally are attacked by gun-toting gangsters afraid of losing their jobs to super-powered thugs-for-hire…

The flirty and fearsome Silencer rears her seductive head again in the final tale (art by Di Salvo & Terry Pallot), when Chat gets all snarky after refusing to introduce the increasingly bugged Peter to her enigmatic and never-seen older sister.

Burning with curiosity, Peter has trouble keeping within his boundaries, even after Chat helps him disastrously try out a new and “less-unlucky” heroic identity, but sparks fly when Silencer asks for their aid in taking out deadly mutant fire-starter Cinder and subsequently repays Chat by messing with Spider-Man’s obsessive mind…

These Spidey super stories are extremely enjoyable yarns, but parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the violence might not be what everybody considers “All-Ages Super Hero Action” and would perhaps better suit older kids…

Fast-paced and impressive, bright and breezy with lots of light-hearted action and loads of 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.

Never the success the company hoped, the Marvel Adventures project was superseded in 2012 by specific comics tied to Disney XD television 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 sometimes two generations or more away from those far-distant 1960s originating events.
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Marvel Super-Hero Squad – Infinity Sword Quest


By Mark Hoffmeier, Cort Lane, Todd Dezago, Eugene Son, Christopher Jones, Marcelo Dichiara & Leonel Castellani (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4741-1

The link between children’s comics, television and toys is a long established and mutually beneficial one and too vast to go into here. Suffice it to say that these used to be the big three methods of parting kids from their money and sparking their budding imaginations.

Even if the printed page now lags far behind, there are still moments when they can again fill every moment of a consumer’s life. Of course these days that definition includes children up to and including age 120.

In 2006 Hasbro released an action-figure line of Marvel icons portrayed in the Japanese Chibi or “Super Deformed” style, which reduces (tee hee) characters to chubby, cute child-like caricatures. Although intended for a fairly young market, the toys were fervently collected by all ages and types of fan, leading inexorably in 2009 to an animated cartoon entitled The Super Hero Squad Show.

Amongst further merchandising and licensing spin-offs was a one-shot tie-in comicbook followed by a continuing funnybook feature (initially online daily at Marvel.com) dedicated to the far kinder, gentler adventures of good guys and bad guys who inhabited the fantastic, thrill-packed but angst-free environs of Super Hero City.

This nifty Pocketbook edition collects strip material from Marvel Super Hero Squad #1-4, Super Hero Squad #1-2 plus Marvel Super Hero Squad: Hero Up! and, should you be wondering, the tales reprinted here are still part of the overarching comics continuity, with Marvel classifying this absolutely alternate Reality as Earth-91119…

Here’s all you need to know: the heroes live in a huge and pleasant city doing good things whilst the nasties all lurk in a bad part of town dubbed Villainville.

The child-friendly fun mostly consists of stopping supreme evil genius Doctor Doom from getting his galvanised gauntlets on mysterious but awesomely powerful crystals known as “Infinity Fractals”. These shiny shards are imbued with all sorts of uncanny properties that the wicked weirdo and his mean and moody minions are eager to possess…

It all begins on ‘Freaky Fractal Friday’ (by Mark Hoffmeier, Cort Lane & Christopher Jones) when Wolverine’s hot dog lunch is interrupted by M.O.D.O.K. invading X-Men HQ in search of one of the precious power-stones. In the ensuing battle the fractal switches their minds and the late-arriving Hulk, Thor and Iron Man are completely fooled…

Happily Ms. Marvel is not and foils the great-big-giant-evil-head in mutant’s clothing when he invades the heroes’ Heli-Carrier in search of more Fractals…

‘And Lo, There Shall be a Reptil!!’ (Todd Dezago, Lane & Marcelo Dichiara) introduces brash and obnoxious teenager Humberto Lopez, who dug up a Fractal in his garden and gained the power to change into various bits of dinosaurs.

Naturally he made a costume to fight crime but only made himself a target for Doom, Abomination and The Blob until Captain America stepped in. The Super Hero Squad then took over the garrulous Reptil’s mystery man education and made the short-tempered Wolverine his personal teacher…

The same creative team crafted ‘Imperius Wrecks!’ which sees Dr. Doom causing sub-sea quakes which accidentally destroy Namor the Sub-Mariner‘s underwater city. This causes the rather pompous Prince of Atlantis to mistakenly invade the surface world and, even with the regular champions and additional heroes She-Hulk, Ant-Man, Tigra, The Thing, Falcon and Hawkeye – in their swim-suits, naturally – the battle goes badly, especially after Doom offers his own team to the aquatic invaders.

Against the Atlantean armies and Crimson Dynamo, The Toad, Bulldozer, Whirlwind, Zzaxx, The Melter and Paste Pot Pete, the good guys are hard-pressed until Iron Man salvages Doom’s submerged machine and Namor learns who his real enemy is…

‘Every Inhuman Has its Day’ (Eugene Son, Cort Lane & Dichiara) finds Reptil on patrol in Pterodactyl form before saving a colossal dog from deadly dragon Fin Fang Foom and the rest of Doom’s cronies. Adopting the stupendous stray, Humberto soon discovers that the pooch he calls “Skippy” has powers too and can get out of any pen, cage or locked room.

…And that’s when mighty Inhumans Black Bolt, Medusa, Triton, Gorgon and Karnak arrive, determined to rescue young Crystal‘s teleporting pet from the humans who must have stolen him…

Even with the assistance of the Silver Surfer the Super Hero Squad are in for the fight of their lives before calmer heads – and paws – prevail…

After a flurry of gorgeous pin-ups and variant covers the terrific tales continue with ‘Baby on Board!’ by Dezago & Leonel Castellani, wherein Doom at last reveals the origin of the incredible Fractals scattered all over Earth.

Fragments of a gigantic cosmic scimitar which exploded aboveSuperHeroCity, the glowing shards offer infinite power to their possessor and the Steel Supremo’s latest plan to get them involves using his time machine to travel back to before the Infinity Sword detonated…

Unbelievably the heroes have been forewarned by a mysterious comicbook which detailed the Demon Doctor’s entire plan and they pre-emptively attack the Lethal Legion in their stronghold. During the frantic fray the time machine is damaged and everyone except Reptil is turned into a baby.

It’s a good thing that, even as toddlers, Doom and Iron Man were the smartest inventors on the planet…

‘Bowling for Squaddies!’ (Dezago & Dichiara) finds the nefarious Wrecking Crew of Wrecker, Thunderball, Piledriver and Bulldozer sneaking out of Villainville for a night off when Doom catches them. As punishment he despatches them to help the petrifying Grey Gargoyle steal some art-work. When they are confronted by the assembled Super Hero Squad the newcomer’s “stone touch” proves a huge advantage. Sadly it’s not a power he can turn off and soon even the bad guys have been temporarily turned into statues after which Hulk takes centre stage in ‘The Fixit!’ (illustrated by Castellani) and proves that sometimes brute force is the answer to every problem…

A Valentine’s Day debacle is declared when ‘Love is in the Air!’ (Dezago & Castellani) and bad girls Enchantress and Mystique compete to see who can get most boys to love them. Little drips like Mole Man are no effort but what about the Super Hero Squad? And to prove their love the Dashing Defenders could be made to hand over all the recovered Fractals stockpiled in their HQ…

Of course it all goes pear-shaped not heart-shaped and the wicked women only just escape, after which this first cheerful Chibi cartoon chronicle concludes with a brace of short romantic interludes illustrated by Dichiara.

‘Reptil’s’ Lonely Valentine!’ shows how the cocky schoolboy waits in vain for a billet-doux from some (or even one) of his female classmates and completely misses the potential true love doing everything bar kicking him to get his attention, whilst ‘Hulk’s Secret Valentine!’ finds the Bellicose Behemoth teased and lectured by his hooked-up hero comrades before finally revealing his own true love…

Graced with vivid Hero Profiles of Iron Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Thor, Falcon & Silver Surfer and stuffed with cool covers and mini-poster pin-ups, this tiny tome is a light-hearted, clever, wholesome and often intentionally hilarious treat. These teeny-weeny epics are a delightful way of bringing youngsters into the superhero fold – especially Marvel’s truly vast pantheon of characters – and, just like their original iterations, well able to stand up to infinite re-readings…
© 2009, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Marvel Adventures Spider-Man volume 1: Amazing


By Paul Tobin, Matteo Lolli, Scott Koblish & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4118-1

Since its earliest days the company we know as Marvel has always courted the youngest comicbook audiences. Whether animated tie-ins such as Terrytoons Comics, Mighty Mouse, Super Rabbit Comics, Duckula, assorted Hanna-Barbera and Disney licenses and a myriad of others, or original creations such as Tessie the Typist, Millie the Model, Homer the Happy Ghost, Li’l Kids or even Calvin, the House of Ideas has always understood the necessity of cultivating the next generation of readers.

These days however, general kid’s interest titles are on the wane and with Marvel’s proprietary characters all over screens large and small, the company usually prefers to create child-friendly versions of its own pantheon, making that eventual hoped-for transition to more mature comics as painless as possible.

In 2003 the company created a Marvel Age line which updated and retold classic original tales by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and mixed in with the remnants of the manga-based Tsunami imprint, all intended for a younger readership. The experiment was tweaked in 2005 becoming Marvel Adventures with the core titles transformed into Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man and the reconstituted classics replaced by all new stories. Additional series included Marvel Adventures series Super Heroes, The Avengers and Hulk. These iterations ran until 2010 when they were cancelled and replaced by new – and continuity-continuing – volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

This digest-sized collection collects the first four stories from the second (2010) volume and actually starts in the middle of the action – although writer Paul Tobin and artists Matteo Lolli and Scott Koblish (as well as inkers Christian Dalla Vecchia, Terry Pallot Koblish & Andrew Hennessy) take great pains to keep the stories as clear as possible.

Sixteen year old Peter Parker has been the mysterious Spider-Man for little more than six months. In that time he has constantly prowled the streets and skyscrapers ofNew York, driven to fight injustice. However as a kid just learning the ropes he’s pretty much in over his head all the time…

The opening tale finds him on a crusade against the all-pervasive Torino crime-family, and attempting to expose their bought-and-paid-for Judge Clive Baraby, whilst ex-girlfriend and wannabe journalist Gwen dogs his webbed heels and her father Police Captain George Stacy – who knows the boy’s secret and allows him to continue his vigilante antics – picks up all the well-thumped thugs the incensed wall-crawler leaves in his wake.

Even though Spidey can’t touch the corrupt Baraby, his campaign of attrition has the Torinos on the ropes and the Mafioso have engaged the services of super-assassin Bullseye to kill the Web-spinner. However, the Man who Never Misses is infuriatingly slow to act and soon there’s on open contract on the kid crusader…

Peter’s civilian life is pretty complicated too. Since he and Gwen split, the lad has taken up with schoolmate Sophia Sanduval – an extremely talented lass nicknamed Chat – who knows Peter’s secret, can communicate with animals and has a part-time job with the Blonde Phantom Detective Agency…

She also pays attention in class and suggests how what they learned in history can be used to trap the untouchable Baraby…

The second story opens with a brutal dog-napping and leads inexorably to a clash with merciless mercenary Midnight when the villain invades Peter’s school during a martial arts exhibition by Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu. Along the way Chat introduces Pete to new buddy Flapper – a very wise owl indeed – and new kid Carter Torino enrols at Parker’s school. How does the troubled new boy know the constantly watching Bullseye…?

Before the subplots get too intense however,Midnightand his ninjas attack Shang-Chi and Spider-Man joins the fracas, subsequently learning a few things from the combat expert – including who to return that stolen dog to…

Whilst close-mouthed gang-prince Carter gets closer to Gwen, Wolverine guest-stars in the third untitled tale when Chat asks her bug-boy beau to help hunt down the wild-haired mutant for a client who wants Logan to model their hair gel. Typically, whenever the Clawed Canadian appears trouble isn’t far behind, and when a gang ofTorino goons jumps Wolverine, Spidey is forced to join in the carnage. And that’s when Bullseye makes his move…

As conflicted Carter Torino confronts his criminal family, this volume concludes with a savage showdown between Bullseye and the sorely overmatched Spider-Man and also sees the death of one of the supporting cast…

Never the success the company hoped, the Marvel Adventures project was superseded in 2012 by specific comics tied to those Disney XD television shows designated as “Marvel Universe cartoons”, but these collected stories are still an intriguing and more culturally accessible means of introducing the character and concepts to kids born sometimes two generations or more away from the originating events.

Fast-paced and impressive, these Spidey tales are extremely enjoyable yarns but parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the violence might not be what everybody considers “All-Ages Super Hero Action” and would perhaps better suit older kids…
© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Ultimate Spider-Man: Venom


By Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley, Art Thibert & Rodney Ramos (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2873-1

After Marvel’s financial – and indeed creative – problems in the later 1990s, the company came back swinging. A key new concept was the remodelling and modernising of their core characters for the new youth culture. The ‘Ultimate‘ imprint abandoned the monumental continuity which had always been Marvel’s greatest asset, and the company’s major characters were given a separate universe to play in, with varying degrees of radical makeover to appeal to a contemporary 21st century audience.

Peter Parker was once again a nerdy high-school geek, brilliant but bullied by his physical superiors, and there was a fresh and fashionable, more modern and scientifically feasible rationale for the spider bite which imparted impossible arachnoid abilities.

Uncle Ben still died because of his lack of responsibility. The Daily Bugle was still there as was the outrageous J. Jonah Jameson. But now in a more cynical, litigious world, well-used to cover-ups and conspiracy theories, arch-foe Norman Osborn – a corrupt, ruthless billionaire businessman – was behind everything.

Any gesture towards the faux-realism of traditional superhero fare was surrendered to a tried-and-tested soap-opera melodrama that inevitably links all characters together in invisible threads of karmic coincidence and familial consanguinity, but, to be honest, it seldom hurt the narrative. After all as long as internal logic isn’t contravened, subplots don’t have to make sense to be entertaining.

By reworking key moments of Lee & Ditko’s Spider-Man – and their myriad successors – writer Brian Michael Bendis and illustrator Mark Bagley succinctly captured the core values of the original and certainly re-cast in it terms that newer readers readily assimilated. The Ultimate Peter Parker spoke to modern teen readers in the same way the 1960s incarnation spoke to me and my peers…

Collecting issues #33-39 of Ultimate Spider-Man from 2003, this premiere hardcover edition introduces an alternative vision for the web-spinner’s most memorable foe of recent vintage, and upped the angst-quotient by revealing untold connections with Peter’s long-dead parents.

The convoluted, clotted web of coincidence and continuity which had eventually bogged down the original Spider-Man was just beginning to creep into these tales, but perhaps that’s unavoidable if you’re concocting contemporary super-heroics.

What you need to know: Parker is the perennial hard-luck loser kid, a brilliant geek just trying to get by in a world where daily education is infinitely more scary than monsters and villains. His alter ego’s already shaky reputation has been destroyed by a burglar, who impersonated Spider-Man, went on a very public crime-spree and murdered Police Captain George Stacy.

Whilst Peter was dealing with the deadly doppelganger his widowed Aunt May was inviting Stacy’s orphaned daughter Gwen to move into the Parker household. In the aftermath Pete’s girlfriend and confidante Mary Jane Watson dumped him, unable to deal with the constant stress of having an underage superhero and perpetually potential corpse for a lover…

Shell-shocked and emotionally gutted by his bad break-up, Peter broods and mopes around the house until he finds an old box of junk which contains notes and video tapes of his 5-year old self and his parents; dead for a decade in a plane crash.

The idyllic scenes show a picnic in the park, attended by geneticists Richard and Mary Parker, their research partners the Brocks, Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Although he had forgotten, Eddie Brock Jr., despite being an older kid, was young Pete’s best friend for years – almost a brother…

Eddie’s folks had also died in the crash and the boy had been forced to leave the city and live with his grandparents.

All fired up, Peter tracks down Eddie and, discovering he’s now a student at Empire State University, resolves to find his old buddy and show him the tapes. So eager is the Arachnid kid that he doesn’t even glance at the notes and files in the box: enigmatic records pertaining to an incredible, radical cancer-cure code-named the Venom Project…

Under the tutelage of Dr. Curt Connors (whom Spidey once battled when the scientist temporarily mutated into a sentient Lizard), Eddie has grown into the coolest guy imaginable: a science student carrying on their father’s work and a player with lots of great-sounding advice about girls…

At the end of a great day on Campus, Eddie takes Peter to the labs and shows his bro-besotted pal “the work” – a shared inheritance from their departed fathers which will change the world forever…

The miracle-cure is a gloopy black liquid based on Ray Parker’s DNA: designed to coat a cancer sufferer’s entire body in a living bio-suit that would boost the victim’s system and repair organic malfunctions, and as Eddie shows it off he also discloses how corporate skulduggery scuttled the bold project even before the groundbreaking technologists died in that mysterious crash…

The suspicious and embittered Brock has spent years reconstructing the project using notes and samples kept by his grandfather. Now the student is close to total, vindicating success…

Back in High School Pete wants to confront Mary Jane, but Gwen advises against it. However when college-guy Eddie shows up in flashy sports car she joins the distracted Parker in another jaunt to ESU…

Fuming for hours at the imagined cause of his parents’ death and how well Gwen is getting on with Eddie, Parker breaks into the university labs to “obtain” his own test samples of the Venom prototype and is horrified when the goo attacks and utterly envelops his body…

That night, a new Spider-Man rampages through New York, clad in deepest black. Stronger, faster, tougher, far more reckless and wild and spectacularly crushing crimes big and small. After brutally foiling a celebrity kidnapping and easily trashing super-villain the Shocker, the dark Spider tackles a petty thief who reminds him of Uncle Ben’s killer and, lost in an emotional flashback, mutates into a fanged horror which tries to eat the gun-toting thug…

Petrified and aghast, Peter comes to his senses in time and tries to escape but the suit won’t let him go until the panicked lad blunders into high tension power cables and crashes to earth in the cemetery where his parents are buried…

Eddie is far from the cool guy he seems. After trying to take advantage of Gwen the frustrated frat boy sees TV footage of the Black Spider-Man and puts the pieces together. Rushing to the lab he finds Peter with the Venom sample and demands to know everything. Peter’s desperate warnings seem to hit home and he allows Parker to destroy the potentially homicidal sludge. Returning home he finds the still-shaking Gwen who tells him what Eddie did and slowly realises that his childhood friend might not be the paragon he imagined…

Brock meanwhile has retrieved another sample in his ongoing series of Venom experiments and activated it with his own body…

Plagued by nightmares, Peter seeks out Mary Jane who again rejects him and his dangerous lifestyle, whilst at ESU Eddie’s rash act has already cost the life of the cleaning woman who tried to help the mewling ebony mess on a lab floor.

Next day at Midtown High, Peter’s Spider-Sense alerts him to incredible peril and he realises that the suit has copied his memories and passed them on. Eddie has become a ravening, shape-shifting carnivorous version of Spider-Man, fuelled by a now unsuppressed psychotic paranoia and hatred…

With Richard Parker’s video-taped fears and misgivings on the Venom Project and life in general echoing in his head, Peter confronts the exultant, mutated Eddie and is soundly thrashed. The big black beast is going wild: slaughtering cops and civilians, whilst only really craving Peter. The savage suit is madly trying to reunite with Peter’s memories and Parker DNA…

In the pointless battle that follows, the monstrous avatar is vaporised by lightning and Peter flees. Dodging cops who want to arrest him for his various impostors’ crimes, the totally traumatised kid runs straight into the formidable Nick Fury.

The Director of covert security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. is the government’s go-to guy: responsible for superhuman affairs and crises. Moreover he had previously threatened to draft Spider-Man once he turned eighteen…

Despondent and dejected, the boy surrenders and begs to be cured of the curse of Arachnid powers, but instead receives an unexpected and life-changing pep-talk… Bewildered Peter again breaks into the ESU lab and meets Dr. Connors, wearily examining the vaults from which all the remaining Venom samples have been removed…

This version of the Wondrous Wall-crawler is very close to the movie iteration – surely a welcome benefit for all converts from celluloid to paper adventuring – and this book also includes added value features ‘Venom Arc Outline’ and 8 pages of beautiful Bagley pencils for the assorted comics and collection covers.

Moody and scary, but far more-concerned with angst-ridden melodrama than Fights ‘n’ Tights action, this thriller ends on a pensive, low-key and unsatisfactorily inconclusive note, deferring the eventual, inevitable showdown with the Venom-Brock amalgam to another day and leaving tragic Peter Parker even more conflicted and confused than before…

And that’s probably the point. Frenetic and compelling, the geeky charisma of the misunderstood alienated outsider fuels and permeates this readable pot-boiler of turbulent teen-tribulation and fashionable school-daze. Light yet addictive, this glossy super-soap brings great comics entertainment to the post-literate generation.
© 2003, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.