Category: Marvel Superheroes

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The Runaways


By Joss Whedon, Michael Ryan & Rick Ketchum, Jay Leisten, Andrew Hennessy, Victor Olazaba & Roland Paris (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-408-9

The Runaways are a bunch of super-powered kids whose parents kept from them the rather surprising news that were secretly a cabal of would-be world conquerors called “The Pride”. These extremely circumspect and clandestine villains played it smart for years and completely controlledLos Angeleswithout the populace knowing they even existed – which was why all the baddies and monsters in the Marvel Universe generally hung out aroundNew Yorkand the East Coast.

After many trials and tribulations – including the death of some of the rebellious kids – the young absconders overthrew and eradicated their progenitors, with the unwelcome result that LA became a soft target and open city for ambitious costumed ne’er-do-wells.

The orphans were all placed with well-meaning but clueless social services, forcing them to again run away, taking to the streets again.

Preferring life together and driven to protect the city they unwittingly endangered, the kids even found a few new recruits but not all of them were trustworthy either…

The underlying premise of this series is that adults can’t be trusted – only your friends and comrades – and this volume (collecting volume 2, issues #25-30 of the monthly comic-book) takes that to deliciously ludicrous extremes whilst simultaneously exploring a long-neglected era of America’s metahuman history, and even dabbling in a little doomed romancing as only the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Dollhouse could conceive it…

Visiting the Big Apple, the fugitive kids encountered such obstructive and overbearing adult luminaries as Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Luke Cage and Wolverine as well as the skeevyNew York underclass who were the Runaways’ East Coast counterparts…

Even after returning to their nominal home turf things weren’t easy and they even inconclusively clashed with the Federal Government…

The current roster comprises Nico Minoru, last in a long line of hereditary sorcerers, whilst Karolina Dean was once the compliant daughter of two domineering aliens intent on global conquest. But now they’re gone she’s unexpectedly entered into a loving relationship with the rebellious shape-shifting, gender-fluid apprentice Super-Skrull Prince Xavin that they had previously arranged for her to wed as a condition of truce between their warring civilisations…

Little Molly Hayes is much younger that the others, a super-strong, invulnerable child of evil mutant parents, whilst oafish teen Chase Stein was the son of genuine mad scientists. He might not have inherited their intellects but he has got lots of toys from their arsenal. He also sort of inherited the genetically-augmented 87th century empathic dinosaur Old Lace when her beloved owner Gertrude Yorkes was killed by the Pride.

Gertrude’s folks were time-travelling bandits and would-be world conquerors…

The latest edition to the group is Victor Mancha, who can control electricity and manipulate metals; gifts his “father” (robotic despot Ultron) considered quite useful in the secret weapon he was building and growing…

As this story opens the outcasts are back in the City that Never Sleeps (but Steals your Stuff if You Do), painfully aware of their legal status and parents’ reputation. In unfamiliar territory and perilously isolated, they enter into a deal with nefarious Wilson Fisk, the ganglord who truly rules New York. The kids want license to move about freely, unmolested by cops, heroes and Social Services. In return the Kingpin wants them to “acquire” a certain object for him…

…And across the sleeping city, a very old woman and her monstrous guardian angel wait for events to tragically replay themselves out…

With Gert dead, Nico has become leader – a role she neither wants nor believes herself qualified to perform – and reluctantly acquiesces to the ponderous crime-lord’s wishes, committing the kids to breaking into a skyscraper citadel and purloining a mysterious egg-like chronometer, but the mission goes horrendously wrong when urban vigilante Frank Castle explosively intervenes…

However The Punisher is himself ambushed by a ghastly winged apparition who apparently wants to kill the kids himself. Caught flat footed, the youngsters run away and regroup at the Leapfrog (their futuristic vehicle and another useful tool inherited from the deceased Yorkes) but are again surprised by Castle.

The ever-prepared and action-savvy Punisher learns a painful lesson however when he lets little Molly get too close and catches a super-punch somewhere between his chest armour and knee-guards…

Chase meanwhile has examined the object and realised it’s something his parents built using the Yorkes’ future tech…

When they meet up with the Kingpin, the mountainous malcontent attempts to double-cross them, but his ninjas are no match for the furious betrayed kids and in the melee the monster angel reappears and gives Victor a message…

On the run again the fugitives bundle into the Leapfrog and Chase plugs the stolen artefact into the dashboard. There is a strange flash of light and the ship crashes into an alley… in 1907…

Talking over their options the kids deduce that the time-jump was pre-programmed and therefore the deceased Yorkes must have cached helpful technology in this era. Setting out to search the primitive city they stumble upon a tenement fire and unhesitatingly use their flamboyant abilities to save the women and children trapped in what turns out to be a completely legal sweatshop.

The rubbernecking spectators don’t seem too shocked and the reason soon becomes apparent when shady character Eddie Gunnam introduces himself…

Carrying a lucky magic walking stick and calling himself The Swell, Eddie is part of a growing band of metahumans he calls “Wonders of the Modern Age”. Soon he’s introducing the time-lost tribe to own his band of ragamuffin companions; aerial dancer Lillie “The Spieler” McGurty, diminutive Creeper, brutish tomboy Hoyden, The Yellow Kid, Dead George Pelham and a hulking winged bravo named Tristan…

In this harsh exploitative world the street urchins try their best to survive but hard times are made worse by a brewing war between two gangs of Wonders with diametrically opposed philosophies: the nominally virtuous but ruthless Upward Path and The Sinners, a savage band of criminals led by a mysterious husband and wife team with fantastic inventive skills…

Karolina is distracted. During the fire she had tried to rescue a little Swiss immigrant girl – barely Molly’s age – only to see the waif use incredible plant hyper-acceleration abilities to save herself. The alien princess tracked the child to her home where her brutal, indolent father was beating the household’s only breadwinner for her laziness. With Molly in tow Karolina returns the next day and offers Klara Plast refuge, but the frightened lass is too scared to leave her husband…

Before she can be convinced, a riot between unionists and vicious strike-breakers erupts and Victor, seeing Spieler in all her combative flying glory, feels the first buzz and whirr of love in his artificial heart, utterly unaware that jealous Tristan is already besotted with her…

Across town Nico has raided a bank in search of the Yorkes’ stash of devices but has been captured by the Upward Path. Whilst torturing the future girl, their resident sorceress reveals that Nico is her direct descendent, but tragically for the time-tossed captive, loyalty to family has never been a Minoru trait…

The Swell, meanwhile has introduced Xavin and Chase to the Sinners and discovered that the enigmatic bosses are the Yorkes from an earlier period of their personal timelines…

The future felons instantly realise what has happened but are stunned to discover their daughter will die fighting them, allowing the Runaway lads to bust loose, as miles away Victor and Lillie cavort in the sky, lost in the sheer giddy exuberance of first love…

As a final showdown between the Sinners and The Upward Path inexorably approaches, the foredoomed but forewarned Yorkes make radical plans to escape their fate and change the history of the future…

The brutal bloody finale and all-out war of the Wonders leaves a trail of bodies in the streets ofNew Yorkand pits friend against friend until they discover a doomsday bomb set by the destiny-challenging Futurians…

Chase, however, has been busy and devised a way to save the day that allows the kids to return to the present day with the newest member of their youthful outcast family…

Sadly however in the aftermath, the original instigator of all the chronal chaos and calamity is revealed and has again failed to change the past or reverse the foolish decision she made on a dirty street in 1907…

Sexually frank but never explicit, this is a superbly well-reasoned and executed, thought-provoking and imaginatively mature Fights ‘n’ Tights tale from Whedon, stuffed to bursting with wit, action, horror, humour, charm and poignant passion and magically illustrated by Michael Ryan (ably assisted by inkers Rick Ketchum, Jay Leisten, Andrew Hennessy, Victor Olazaba & Roland Paris) which proves that superhero comics can surmount their escapist, gratuitous power-fantasy roots and deliver stories of true depth and worth.
© 2007, 2008 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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JLA/Avengers


By Kurt Busiek & George Pérez, coloured by Tom Smith & lettered by Richard Starkings (DC/Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1957-4

Fair Warning: this review deals with the very bedrock of superhero comics. If you’re not utterly au fait with the continuity minutiae of Marvel and DC Comics, this review won’t make much sense, and might well cause migraines or dizziness and could well prevent you from operating gigantic universe-bending machineries.

If you’d rather read something else I’ll quite understand and will hopefully see you tomorrow…

From the moment a kid first sees his second superhero the only thing he/she wants is to see how the new costumed crusader stacks up against the first. From the earliest days of the industry we’ve wanted our idols to meet, associate, battle together – and if you follow the Timely/Marvel model, that means against each other – far more than we want to see them trounce their arch-enemy one more time.

For many years that immature “who’s strongest/fastest/toughest?” preoccupation could only be addressed within individual company boundaries, but once publishers at DC and Marvel realised the sales potential of inter-continuity crossover clashes in the 1970s a veritable torrent of “impossible” superhero mash-ups (of generally excellent artistic quality but mired in inescapably mediocre plots) followed, all generally suffering from the protective partisanship of their legal owners.

After all, who wanted their pantheon to come off second-best in any confrontation?

When a much-touted and eagerly anticipated meeting of the Avengers and Justice League of America famously foundered due to irreconcilable creative differences between the sponsoring publishers, the crossover practise was shelved for years until cooler heads, a general sales decline and the far less hide-bound attitudes of smaller new companies (such as Valiant and Image) who simply found a negotiated way to make these temporary mergers work amicably and effectively, revitalised the whole concept and practise…

Which is a shame as Busiek is one of the most skilled writers in the business, easily ably to inject telling personal emotion and poignant character revelation into the driest plot – but here there’s simply not enough room…

Gathering together the deluxe 4-issue miniseries from 2003-2004, this powers-packed tome opens with a joint Introduction from the co-instigators of the Silver Age of Comics, Julie Schwartz and Stan Lee, after which the non-stop creative chaos begins with ‘A Journey into Mystery’ as the obsessive monster Krona smashes his way into the Cosmos we’ll call Marvel.

The cosmic intruder is a renegade Guardian of his own Universe, driven insane by an insatiable hunger to learn the origin of Reality. His previous rabid inquiries had already introduced evil into his own once-innocent continuum, shortened its sidereal lifespan and reduced an incomparable multiverse to a few straggling survivor dimensions, but now his impassioned search has brought him to a previously unreachable and unsuspected parallel realm only to encounter a being almost his equal…

En Dwi Gast, a puissant conniving being dedicated to games of chance, contests of power and duels of skill, is an Elder of the Universe and one of the most powerful creatures in this existence, but even The Grandmaster is helpless before Krona’s fanatical assault and manic inquisition. Nevertheless the wily immortal manages to inveigle Krona into a diverting little side-bet…

A month later, the world’s greatest champions in two vastly differing dimensions find themselves battling incomprehensible threats from beyond their reality. Investigations indicate that invaders from an alternate Earth are inexplicably appearing and causing devastating damage.

It also seems that the too-incompatible realms are colliding…

Offering a solution, the Grandmaster appears to the Justice League of Americaand sets them off in search of twelve objects of sublime power (six from each Earth) that will end the crisis. On Marvel Earth the morally ambiguous New God Metron tasks the Avengers with the same goal and soon the duped heroes are all engaged in furious and escalating clashes across two worlds, culminating in a shattering confrontation on Earth-DC…

In a place beyond physics and geography, the size-shifting Atom has hitched a ride with the unsuspecting Grandmaster and becomes privy to a private conversation with the New Genesisian God of Knowledge.

However, even after discovering the real nature of the crisis and the true threat involved, the hapless hero is unable to reach either fooled friends or foes to warn them…

‘A Contest of Champions’ open with the JLA and Avengers at war above Metropolis whilst the cooler heads of Batman and Captain America have both deduced that something is not kosher. The two surreptitiously declare a truce and leave their unnaturally enraged comrades to their futile battles and continued competition for the dozen arcane objects of power, and instead track down the Atom in the Grandmaster’s non-dimensional lair.

The deeper plan is revealed: the Grandmaster’s game is rigged and the prize Krona is vying for is possession of Galactus: a being from the reality that preceded the Big Bang…

Meanwhile the massed armies of heroes have finished their savagely fought duels. The Grandmaster’s side has been victorious…

…Which means nothing to Krona who simply blasts the Elder, cruelly claiming and dismantling the prized Galactus as nothing more than a new research tool. However the renegade Guardian has been duped: En Dwi Gast was after the twelve objects all along and uses them to reorder the realities and the once-incompatible Earths…

In a world of constant turmoil and ‘Strange Adventures’, the JLA and Avengers are now old allies, frequently pairing to battle overwhelming menaces in union, but Captain America can’t shake the feeling that something is not right. On anther Earth Batman has the same notion, as blips in reality and temporal hiccups shift heroes and even replace them with dead or departed predecessors. It’s soon clear that Existence is in big trouble and when Superman and Iron Man travel into space they observe huge metaphysical hands catastrophically mashing the two Earths together…

With chaos rising and all life threatened, the constantly changing teams are led by the inscrutably unfathomable Phantom Stranger to a place beyond where the dying Grandmaster – who has once again underestimated the merciless, self-destructive and utterly determined Krona – warns them of the imminent end of all since the Guardian is quite prepared to take the universe apart to find out how it began…

As both worlds shudder and shatter, all the heroes of the earths mobilise to save lives, allowing ‘The Brave… and the Bold’ JLA and Avengers to pursue Krona into the void for one last battle to preserve and restore the universes, but even here a double game is being played: Metron and the Grandmaster have one last surprise in store for when the status quo is inevitably restored…

With guest-shots from just about everybody created by the two comicbook companies over seven decades, there’s a awful lot of crowded, blistering action but not a lot of room for character or plot, but even so most action fans will find something to rave over. Moreover, for art lovers this book is a sublime treat, with some of Pérez’s most spectacular illustration, ably augmented by a stunning cover gallery at the back featuring all four of his stellar wraparound covers.

It’s fair to say that I’m not a great fun of such profit-led pairings, but there’s still enough of the fan-boy in me to viscerally thrill at armies of costumed stalwarts bashing the bezonkers out of each other and, even if the story is forced and patently menu-led (one from company A, one from Company B, over and over again…), there are still some nice fanatic-friendly touches and witty in-jokes whilst inarguably the artwork – every millimetre stuffed with manic detail and wry, deferential tributes and touches – is amongst the very best George Pérez has ever produced.

If you like this sort of thing this is certainly one of the best of its ilk…

© 2003, 2004, 2008 DC Comics and Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Ultimate Comics X-Men: His Will be Done


By Nick Spencer, Carlo Barberi, Paco Medina, Walden Wong & Juan Vlasco (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-516-1

Marvel’s Ultimates imprint launched in 2000 with major characters and concepts re-imagined to bring them into line with the presumed-different tastes of modern readers.

Eventually the alternate, darkly nihilistic universe became as continuity-constricted as its predecessor, and in 2008 the cleansing event “Ultimatum” culminated in a reign of terror which apparently (this is still comics, after all) killed dozens of super-humans and millions of lesser mortals.

The era-ending event was a colossal tsunami triggered by mutant terrorist messiah Magneto which inundated the superhero-heavyisland ofManhattan and utterly devastated the world’s mutant population. The X-Men – as well as many other superhuman heroes and villains – died, and in the aftermath anybody classed as “Homo Superior” had to surrender to the authorities or be shot on sight. Understandably most survivors as well any newly emergent X-people kept themselves well hidden…

Mutants had always been feared and despised: as the indisputable inheritors of Earth, the often lethally-empowered and wildly uncontrollable creatures were generally believed to be an intrinsically hostile species; a new race destined to take the world from humanity the way we took it from the Neanderthals…

This second compilation continues to document the return of mutants to the post-deluge world, collecting Ultimate Comics: X-Men issues #7-12 (April-September 2012) as the alternate Earth begins to crumble from the horrific tide of ongoing disasters following the cataclysmic flood. (For fuller comprehension the reader is also advised that a thorough reading of companion series Ultimate Comics: the Ultimates volumes 1 & 2 will greatly enhance understanding of the parlous state of this alternate universe in its darkest hours…)

In a grandiose and compelling story-arc by writer Nick Spencer, artists Carlo Barberi, Paco Medina, Walden Wong & Juan Vlasco and colourist Marte Gracia, the slow descent into catastrophe and chaos continues after a shattering announcement from Presidential Special Advisor on Superhuman and Mutant Affairs Valerie Cooper. When she publicly disclosed that X-people, proliferating around the globe, were the result of a 50-year old American program of covert genetic manipulation which got out of control, rather than a result of inexorable evolution and natural selection, humanity went crazy.

In a world where Homo Superior are registered like assault weapons and imprisoned in internment camps, and where good, normal God-fearing folk would rather execute their children than have them grow up afflicted with the sin of “mutant-ness”, the news instantly caused uproar and riot across the nation all over the world…

Former X-Man Karen Grant (nee Jean Grey) has been continuing Charles Xavier‘s dream of fostering Human/Mutant co-existence when the news not only ripped the rug out from under her; but drove her young charges into a state of rebellion.

Especially upset was Jimmy Hudson, who heard on National TV that his dead father Wolverine was the US Military’s ‘Mutant Zero’ and all the pain, prejudice, horror and super-powered proliferation stemmed from that subject’s initial escape from American captivity five decades earlier…

In the aftermath of the announcement and with the entire world in crisis from a genetic arms-race in Asia (see Ultimate Comics: Hawkeye and The Ultimates: The Republic is Burning), the President unexpectedly sidelined S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury in favour of co-operation with Magneto’s son Pietro Lensherr who had inherited control of the terrorist group known as the Brotherhood of Mutants.

The super-swift manipulator had a Faustian Bargain for the severely embattled Leader of the Free World, but their plans were subverted by fundamentalist preacher Reverend William Stryker who seized control of the government’s Sentinel technology and used it to attack mutants all overAmerica as part of his genocidal crusade to purify humanity…

Quicksilver‘s plan had been to co-opt the new Nimrod Sentinels to his own purposes but Stryker had outwitted him: taking control of the entire Sentinel program, the hate-filled preacher had unleashed every killer robot inAmerica’s arsenal to hunt down all the remaining mutants wherever they might be hiding…

With Nimrods executing victims everywhere, His Will be Done opens as Pietro, reeling at the repercussions of his failed scheme, is unable to outrace the deaths he has caused amongst his rapidly depleting people. His guilt-charged flight leads to a savage confrontation with his missing sister Wanda and the revelation that the World’s deadliest mutant has returned…

Meanwhile in Asiatwo floating cities house the Earth’s latest metahuman races: both Celestials and Eternals are the result of state-sponsored scientific tampering which turned thousands of unwilling victims into another deadly super-powered population threatening embattled humanity just by existing. Moreover their ill-advised creators had already released a tailored-plague which neutralised those genes which caused mutants to develop, hoping to corner the market in living weapons by eradicating naturally occurring super-humans.

Of course now everybody knew that there was nothing natural about mutant genesis…

In Washington, Fury thinks Jean Grey is working for him and leading his Ultimate X Homo Superior task force against targets he has selected – but he couldn’t be more wrong…

Meanwhile in the remote Mutant Internment enclave Camp Angel, the human guards are casually torturing former X-Man Colossus whilst his former comrade Storm determinedly advocates a policy of appeasement and good behaviour in the face of Warden Colonel Lake‘s obvious company-line cant about keeping mutants safe and contained for their own good.

Some of the younger mutants are increasingly swayed by the rabble-rousing demagogue Stacy X, but trouble really occurs after the prisoners see Valerie Cooper’s televised announcement, whichLake’s guards were too slow to intercept…

With tensions rising Storm abandons her pacifist stance and destroys all the Sentinel defences, leaving the human guards helpless before the enraged and liberated mutants. After freeing Colossus the internees discover what other atrocities the normals have been secretly perpetrating against the captives and, after a close but heated discussion, enact their own form of justice on the Warden. However before the situation can escalate further the sky is filled with unstoppable Nimrod sentinels who begin their program of eradication by targeting human and mutant alike…

…And after the Camps, the Nimrods turn their attention on the cities of humanity which foolishly allowed mutants to live amongst them, before beginning to construct their own robotic god and master…

This volume concludes by focusing on another lost strand of mutant lore, as in a quiet corner of New York State, a sinister stranger slaughters all the patients and staff at an exclusive mental healthcare facility to liberate the cosmic-powered Alex Summers and bring him to the offices of one of the world’s most devious and corrupt corporations.

Summers is bemused and bewildered: constantly conversing with his dead brother Scott, but if he suspected just what undying monstrosity has returned, even in his deranged state the hero once called Havoc would recoil in very rational dread…

To Be Continued…

This welcome return to the darkly trenchant and cynical Ultimate fare, with the trademark post-modernity and bleakly brutal action, still delivers the grim ‘n’ gritty punch fans crave, but with so much backstory to absorb this is definitely not a book for anybody thinking on jumping on to the decidedly different world of Wonder. Nevertheless the striking drama and returning cast-favourites will certainly please those older readers who love this savage iteration of superhero sagas and any casual readers who are more familiar with the company’s movies than the comic-books.
A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd. Licensed from Marvel Characters B.V. ™ & © 2012 Marvel & Subs. All Rights Reserved.

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Ultimate Comics the Utimates: Two Cities. Two Worlds.


By Jonathan Hickman & Sam Humphries, Esad Ribic & Luke Ross with Ron Garney, Butch Guice, Leonard Kirk & Patrich Zicher (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-517-8

Marvel’s Ultimates imprint began in 2000 with a new post-modern take on major characters and concepts to bring them into line with the presumed different tastes of 21st century readers and free of the sixty years of accumulated continuity baggage which had saturated the originals.

Eventually even this darkly nihilistic new universe became as continuity-constricted as its ancestor, and in 2008 the cleansing event “Ultimatum” culminated in a reign of terror and Tsunami which excised dozens of super-humans and millions of lesser mortals, courtesy of mutant menace Magneto.

In the aftermath the meta-human survivors struggled to restore order to a dangerous new world…

This compilation collects Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates issue #7-12 (published in comicbook form from April to September 2012) which continued and expanded the core-story for the latest relaunch of the constantly-changing grim and gritty alternate universe.

Before the Deluge, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury ran an American Black Ops team of super-humans called the Avengers, but he was removed from his position for blatant rule-bending – and being caught.

In the wake of the global inundation, civil war amongst the covert ops community, and deadly brushfire wars which have broken out all over the planet, Fury returned to seize control of the entire spook-show, along with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s army of secret agents and both clandestine super-squad The Avengers and the officially sanctioned Ultimates: a superhero team as much for vote-winning public consumption as traditional world-saving…

Civilisation is falling apart at a phenomenal rate. Metahumans are classed as Weapons of Mass Destruction and personal superpowers are now the focus of a terrifying global arms race. In Asia the new nation SEAR (SouthEastAsianRepublic) dissolved into bloody conflict after developing a serum which randomly sparked fantastic abilities in humans. The plan was to corner the living weapon market and they tried to stack the deck by simultaneously releasing a global virus which neutralised the genes which triggered natural mutation…

When the Asian state collapsed from internal dissent and open warfare, a dual metahuman nation was established and these Celestials and Eternals began offering super-powers to anybody wanting the Serum…

Meanwhile premiere hero Spider-Man was murdered, resurrected WWII super soldier Captain America had gone AWOL and the gods of Asgard, who had been dragged from their heavenly halls and marooned on Earth, were slaughtered by a new fantastic race called the Children of Tomorrow.

Thor was the sole survivor of the Aesir, although deprived forever of his magic hammer and elemental thunder. Moreover, the last god was perpetually haunted by the ghosts of all the fallen Asgardians who constantly called out to him…

The Children were the results of a fantastic experiment by the Maker – in actuality disgraced and insane genius Reed Richards – who created a high-tech dome inNorthern Germany where enhanced time and ruthless scientific augmentation enabled the inhabitants to hyper-evolve thousands of years in the space of a few days.

The Dome inexorably expanded and absorbed much of Western Europe, despite every effort of the region’s superhumans, until Thor raided the City within, aided by boffin Sam Wilson (AKA the Falcon) and freed captive hero Captain Britain.

Unable to stop the Children, defeated humanity could only wait for the end…

The saga continues as Fury and his surviving operatives Falcon, Hawkeye and Black Widow attempt to forge an alliance with the elevated inhabitants of Tian, but the Celestials of Xorn and Eternals of Zorn are initially reluctant to join. That all changes once Richards, in his arrogance, flamboyantly murders the celestial envoy Shu-Tan, Oracle of Peace, provoking an unprecedented and unsuspected retaliation from Zorn, whose exposure to the enhancement serum dubbed The Source transformed him into a sentient singularity…

S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Flumm is attempting to oust Nick Fury and begins his campaign by blackmailing Bruce Banner into attacking the Dome. Initially successful the Hulk‘s assault goes catastrophically wrong when Richards convinces Banner to switch allegiances, even as inAmerica, the President launches the nation’s entire nuclear arsenal at the ever-evolving city. To ensure no interference the Commander-in-Chief has invoked “the Winter Protocols” and set S.H.I.E.L.D. forces to capture and/or kill both the Ultimates and Avengers…

In New York the permanently drunk Thor and Iron Man Tony Stark – secretly dying of a malignant brain tumour – easily repulse their Federal attackers even as the missiles close in and the Children of Tomorrow engage the enraged forces of the Eternals and Celestials in the skies above Europe.

Even the nuclear fusillade and Zorn’s attack could not obliterate the Dome but the collective, component intelligence of the living City beneath is badly damaged. In retaliation the Maker unleashes the Hulk and a very special Child of Tomorrow he had cultured without the knowledge of the hive-mind to exact bloody vengeance. The deadly child then eradicatesWashingtonDC…

As the shock of losing the capital and the entire ruling structure sinks in, self-promoted S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Flumm is further frustrated when Fury escapes arrest and disappears just as his former employees come for him. This also allows Falcon, Hawkeye and the Widow to escape capture…

Tony Stark is suffering badly and experiencing complex hallucinations – constantly arguing with a younger version of himself – but still has a brilliant plan to strike back at Richards and the Children. Sadly it involves turning himself in to the ambitious Flumm and new Leader of the Free World President Howard, who only a day previously was the earnest but under-qualified Secretary of Energy.

This new POTUS can’t even cope with the relatively minor and pedestrian crisis of a state seceding from theUnionand declaring itself an independent nation. Still, backed up by the advanced technology of the four biggest S.H.I.E.L.D. bases inAmerica, now happily defending the New Republic of Texas, this is a problem that also needs dealing with immediately…

Recruiting Richards’ estranged wife Sue – a brilliant scientist and super-powered survivor of the defunct Fantastic Four – Stark allows himself to be traded to the increasingly unstable Maker in his damaged Dome, whilst unknown to all in the devastated ruins of fallen Asgard something strange and magical is awakening…

With Hawkeye and his comrades on the run and seeking allies from the top secret West Coast Operational Security (another of the eternally paranoid Fury’s off-the-books super-team projects), S.H.I.E.L.D.’s usurper Director is rapidly losing control and cannot cope with any more bad news…

Ebullient and utterly jazzed with his ultimate triumph, Reed Richards is delighted with his peace offering from President Howard and happily begins torturing his greatest intellectual rival, but Stark has an incredible implausible plan and by the most impossible of stratagems turns the City and its collective populace against its Maker, allowing Thor and the Invisible Woman to invade the Dome. However the Hulk, now enlarged to the size of a building, is waiting for them…

…And in the Arctic, news of the World’s imminent demise finally reaches a Star-Spangled hermit who had thought himself finally beyond the reach of humanity and his own irrepressible sense of duty…

To Be Continued…

Once again this hot-off-the-presses epic pauses on a potent cliffhanger as what might well be the Last Battle of the Ultimate Marvel Universe moves towards a catastrophic end-game with scripters Jonathan Hickman and Sam Humphries providing gripping suspense and spectacular tension. Illustrators Esad Ribic, Luke Ross, Ron Garney, Butch Guice, Leonard Kirk & Patrich Zicher readily transform the tale into stunning action-packed visuals that will enthral and astound all fans of grim and gritty cosmic costumed drama, and this slick and compulsive read for older Fights ‘n’ Tights fans also includes an impressive cover gallery by Kaare Andrews & Oliver Coipel which adds even more impact to the book’s artistic appeal.

Much more in tune with the feel and sensibilities of the assorted Movie franchises than the traditional comicbook market, the post-modernity and cynical, bleak adventure delivers the visceral shocks and staggering revelations fans of this sub-imprint seem addicted to.

Whilst perhaps not the best book for anybody thinking of jumping on to the decidedly different Ultimate World, Two Cities. Two Worlds. will certainly strike a chord with older readers who love the darkest side of superheroes and those who know the company’s films better than their publications.
A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd. Licensed from Marvel Characters B.V. ™ & © 2012 Marvel & Subs. All Rights Reserved.

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Nextwave Agents of H.A.T.E. the Ultimate Collection


By Warren Ellis, Stuart Immonen & Wade Von Grawbadger (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4461-8

Even for the most dedicated fans, superhero comics can become a little samey and pedestrian, so when gifted big- name creators such as Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen decide to have a little fun with the fringes of such a ponderous continuity as Marvel’s, expectations are always understandably high.

In 2006 Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. (Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort) launched for a breathtaking and controversial 12 issue run and happily proved to be everything one could hope for…

Wry, cynically Post-Modern and malevolently mischievous, the saga borrowed shamelessly from kid’s bubblegum pop culture – especially trans-pacific animation (there was even a theme-song you could hear online and a variant issue readers could colour in to win prizes) – as well as the forgotten contents of the daftest corners of Marvel’s nigh-seventy years of existence to captivatingly satirise the genre, the medium and itself – and it was hilariously anti-globalisation, counter-Capitalist, rude, sexy and excessively ultra-violent…

H.A.T.E. is another of those numerous acronymic quasi-governmental, covert high-tech agencies dedicated to keeping us all safe in our overpriced, indolent beds – at least that was what their eccentric team of operatives initially believed.

When they discovered that their employers were in fact a fully owned subsidiary of the Beyond Corporation© and the latest iteration of diabolical terrorist cabal S.I.L.E.N.T., former Avengers Monica Rambeau (Captain Marvel II/Photon) and artificial individual Aaron (Machine Man) Stack rightly rebelled.

With ex-X-Man girl Tabitha Smith (Meltdown/Boom Boom), stroppy immortal monster-hunter Elsa Bloodstone and hyper-powered, unimaginative enigma The Captain (formerly Captain $#!£ until ostracized by all the other military-monickered mystery-men, after which Captain America punched his foul-mouthed head in and washed his mouth out with soap) in tow, they went AWOL, intending to stop their former paymasters at all costs.

Further investigation disclosed that the terrorist conglomerate was actually planning to product-test potentially lucrative BWMDs – Bizarre Weapons of Mass Destruction – on American soil and ordinary folks, so the shocked quintet promptly stole a super-ship and all the plans, determined to stop the callous campaign and take down the despicable Beyond©-ers forever…

With their increasingly deranged, suicidal and sexually outré former commander Dirk Anger in hot pursuit, the team begins its fightback in Abcess, North Dakota where the legendary giant dragon in underpants Fin Fang Foom has been awakened and… stimulated… into going on a rampage of destructive frustration…

On the streets of Abcess, hordes of Beyond©’s mass-produced vegetable warriors are attacking the citizenry and exacerbating the chaos until Elsa and The Captain intervene with their signature lack of restraint.

As property damage and general unrest spiral upwards, Monica devises an unsavoury plan and orders Aaron – a fantastic robot who despises human “fleshy ones” and has reprogrammed himself to crave vast amounts of beer – to get himself swallowed and deal with the dragon from the inside…

With no rest for the Wicked-crushers the renegade revengers then head to Sink City, Illinoiswhere brutally corrupt cop Mac Mangel has been infected with a mechanistically mutating program, transforming him into a colossal flesh and steel beast hungry to eat metal and children…

With mounting carnage everywhere, the Captain still gets distracted into an origin flashback, leaving Tabitha to deal with the Transfomer-ed Mangel in her stylishly simple yet permanent manner…

In Wyoming, the Nextwave discover a Beyond© War Garden and set about destroying the next crop of broccoli berserkers and cabbage crusaders, just as Dirk Anger and his other – still-loyal – agents of H.A.T.E. arrive in their flying citadel to unleash all the insane instruments of doom in their arsenal. However even the Drop Bears of Cuddly Koala Death, a flock of Assault Pterosaurs, Samurai Robots and Homicide Crabs cannot contain the righteous indignation of the forgotten heroes, and when Aaron counterattacks by stealing Dirk’s chic-est most secret possession the deviant Director has no choice but to retreat…

Beyond©orp’s follow-up BWMD event sees the terrorist entrepreneurs summon an extremely minor and rather young Elder God, Rorkannu, Lord of the Dank Dimension, and trade that for access to a deadly invading army of mystic behemoths that Dr. Strange fans will recognise as merciless “Mindless Ones” to decimate the town of Shotcreek, Colorado. Ready to back-up the embattled townspeople are Monica and her crew but things take a decidedly surreal turn as the monolithic marauders prove to be not all that mindless…

In the blistering last-stand battle Elsa becomes lost in fond reminiscences of her truly unique and bloody childhood, before, against all odds, the Captain stumbles onto Rorkannu and contrary to everyone’s expectations finally does something right…

When Steve Rogers became CaptainAmerica in 1941, nobody realised that a second Nazi spy stole his urine sample. Now, through most torturous and arcane paths, that last remnant of the original Super-Soldier serum has allowed the ruling elite of the Beyond© group to create whole battalions of customised metahuman champions…

When Nextwave finally track the terrorists to their inverted floating fortress they are confronted by an army of esoteric adversaries derived and developed from the misappropriated hero-pee and aligned in specifically themed teams such as The Surgery, The Vestry and The Homosexuality, but even such lethally dedicated foes as Dr. Headless, Father Pain, Dr. Nosexy, Sun King, Red Rosary and Slightly Creepy Policewoman pale into insignificance beside the reality-altering threat of Forbush-Man and his eerily familiar comrades the New Paramounts…

Once again plunged into horrifically violent combat, the Nextwave are slowly making bloody headway until the diminutive demon plunges the team into depressing and dreary alternate lives from the worst recesses of their inner visions. Sadly for Forbush-Man, nobody had ever found any evidence of intellect or imagination in Tabitha, just an overwhelming vacuity, urge to steal and need to blow stuff up…

With the end in sight the triumphant heroes invade the Beyond Corporation©’s hidden HQ State 51 just as Dirk Anger, transformed and degraded beyond imagination, arrives culminating in an even more spectacular clash before confronting the utterly macabre mastermind behind the monstrous marketing campaign of destruction; only to discover an even more bizarre kingmaker behind it all and finally bringing the hammer down once and for all…

As action comics in their purest form, the tales are laced with light-hearted lethality and superbly smutty innuendo with hints of Garth Ennis and John McCrea’s Hitman, Ben Edlund’s The Tick, Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill’s Marshall Law and Ambush Bug, with all the verve, panache and invention of the Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, Time Squad and Kids Next Door, all wrapped up in pithy corporate sloganeering a la Better Off Ted and Joseph Goebells…

Stuffed with in-joke extras such as the faux letters pages, sketches, the original Nextwave Pitch and the lyrics for that aforementioned theme song this is a glorious comic – in every sense of the word – and an experience no modern, fun-loving fan could possibly find fault with.

“Healing America by Beating People Up” and making us laugh by taking the piss…
© 2006, 2007, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Fantastic Four – a Full Colour Comic Album


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott (World Distributors {Manchester} Ltd)
No ISBN:

The origin of the Fantastic Four saw maverick scientist Reed Richards summon his girl-friend Sue Storm, their friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s teenaged brother Johnny before heading off on their first mission against invading subterranean monsters and their malevolent master the Mole Man. In a handy flashback we discovered that they were driven survivors of a private space-shot which went horribly wrong.

In the depths of space Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding and they plummeted back to Earth where they found that they’d all been hideously mutated into outlandish freaks…

Reed’s body became elastic, Sue gained the initially involuntary power to turn invisible, Johnny could briefly and harmlessly burst into living flame and poor, tragic Ben turned irrevocably into a shambling, rocky freak. Shaken but unbowed they vow to dedicate their new abilities to benefiting mankind…

With their red and gold uniforms in stark contrast to the Torch’s lethally hot blue flame and the Thing’s gritty granular monolithic mauve hide, the heroes won global renown and…

No, wait, surely that’s not right…

Well yes, but only in this beguilingly peculiar British album released to tie-in with a strictly regional British release of the 1967-1968 Fantastic Four cartoon series produced by Hanna-Barbera and designed by the legendary Alex Toth.

As the only survivor of a family day out, it’s still one of my most treasured comic possessions and I’ll admit it makes precious little sense on a cognitive level.  It’s certainly no more than an intriguing or irrelevant oddity to most fans, but for me – and many similar Brits of a certain vintage – items like this are irreplaceable nostalgic touchstones of a personal Grand Age of comics wonderment which even smell and feel of thrills and fun and innocent joy…

The contents are an odd mix too. The cartoon show adapted many of the earliest and formative groundbreaking Stan Lee/Jack Kirby classics but the trio of terrific tales came from the stunning mid-Sixties run when the creators were at their absolute peak of perfection…

The only complete and self-contained yarn is ‘This Man This Monster’ from Fantastic Four #51 (June, 1966) and still considered by many to be the greatest single FF story ever. A masterpiece of mood and introspection, it found the Thing’s body usurped by a vengeful, petty maverick scientist who subsequently discovered the true measure of a man, paying the ultimate price for his jealous folly…

The Black Panther was an African monarch whose secretive kingdom was the only source of a unique alien metal dubbed Vibranium. These mineral riches had enabled him to turn his country into a technological wonderland and he had attacked the FF as part of an extended plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father. He was also the first Negro superhero in American comics.

Although that tale didn’t make the final cut his origin was revealed here in ‘The Way it Began..!’ (from Fantastic Four #53, cover-dated August 1966) and disclosed how decades before when a ruthless scientist and his mercenary army had invaded Wakanda,  the young Prince T’Challa had single-handedly avenged the murder of his father T’Chaka and driven off the raiders. Now, as incredible creatures of living sound ravaged the Hidden Kingdom, the Panther and the FF teamed up to stop the returned villain who had been transformed into an utterly new form of life and was calling himself Klaw, Master of Sound…

Fantastic Four #57-60 displayed Lee & Kirby at their utmost best; with an extended epic of astounding drama and majesty as the most dangerous man on Earth stole the Cosmic Power of alien refugee the Silver Surfer and rampaged unstoppably across the face of the planet.

Sadly, ‘Enter… Dr. Doom!’, ‘The Dismal Dregs of Defeat!’ and ‘Doomsday’ were omitted for this edition and the strangely compelling card cover classic only includes the very last chapter of that superlative saga wherein the team’s valiant resistance allowed Reed’s ingenuity and sheer guts to turn the tables and save all humanity in magnificent manner in ‘The Peril and the Power!’(#60, March 1967)…

These are the stories that cemented Marvel’s reputation and enabled the company to overtake all its competitors. They’re also still some of the best comics ever produced and as exciting and captivating now as they ever were, even in this truly bizarre and torturously truncated form. This is a surely only one for the most dedicated completists, but the timeless tales reprinted are stories every fan should know.

© MCMLXIX (that’s 1969 to you True Believer!) Marvel Comics Group. All rights reserved throughout the world.

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Spider-Man: The Osborn Identity


By Brian Reed & Philippe Briones with Patrick Olliffe, Chad Hardin, Wayne Faucher, Stephen Segovia, Hector Olazaba, Joe Caramagna & Todd Nauck (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-7851-4687-2

When the Spider-Man continuity was drastically dialled-back and controversially revised for the ‘Brand New Day’ publishing event, a refreshed, now single-and-never-been-married Peter Parker was parachuted into a 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.

That being said, in any continuity the Wall-Crawler’s greatest and most implacable foe will always be Norman Osborn, whether in his guise as the grotesque Green Goblin or as an insidious billionaire inventor/industrialist turned politician.

The psychotic Osborn has dogged Spider-Man/Peter Parker for years even though his abused son Harry was the maligned hero’s greatest friend and the stress and strain has, over time, turned the Osborn heir into a drug addict, a costumed carbon copy of his old man and latterly, a certifiable basket case.

Callously oblivious, Norman, through various machinations became America’s Security Czar: the “top-cop” in sole charge of the beleaguered nation’s defence and freedom, especially in regard to the USA’s costumed community.

Under his draconian tenure the Superhuman Registration Act led to the Civil War, Captain America was arrested, murdered and resurrected and numerous horrific assaults on mankind occurred: including the Secret Invasion and the oppressive Dark Reign as Osborn drove the World’s Mightiest Heroes underground and formed his own team of deadly Dark Avengers.

Not content with commanding all the covert and military resources of the USA, Osborn personally led the team, wearing his own formidable suit of Iron Man armour and calling himself the Iron Patriot, even while conspiring with a coalition of major super-villains to divvy up the world between them.

He finally overreached himself and led an unsanctioned assault on Asgard (see Siege: the Cabal) and when the fugitive Avengers reunited to stop him, Osborn’s fall from grace and subsequent incarceration led to a new Heroic Age.

During that period of ascendancy however, Osborn had again attempted to dominate, subjugate and manipulate his disgustingly disappointing heir Harry by dosing him with a mind-and-body bending blend of Goblin potions and Super-Soldier serum and forcing him to don a genetically triggered cybernetic super-suit, so that his unwilling boy could join the Dark Avengers as the crushingly conflicted American Son…

Thanks to Spider-Man however, Harry finally overcame his deadly daddy’s diabolical influence and violently turned on his sire. In the aftermath the shocked and traumatised junior Osborn retired to a life of anonymity and therapy…

This slight but engaging sequel – containing the 4-part mini-series Amazing Spider-Man Presents: American Son and supplemental material from Age of Heroes #2 – opens with a prologue tale from that latter anthology as ‘Heroic Rage’ by Brian Reed, Chad Hardin & Hector Olazaba, finds scoop-starved reporter Norah Winters on the scene when the American Son spectacularly slaughters a rampaging monster. She jumps to the same conclusion as the late-arriving Spider-Man that the certifiably unstable Harry Osborn is back inside the high-tech armour…

The saga proper – by Reed and artists Philippe Briones, Hardin, Patrick Olliffe, Wayne Faucher & Stephen Segovia – commences with ‘A Patriot Act’ as the recovering Harry, now running a coffee shop on the campus of Empire State University, is increasingly harassed by news-teams and paparazzi as American Son continues to appear in steadily escalating and high profile emergencies and in clashes with street thugs.

As the troubled vendor’s flatmate Mary Jane Watson asks Peter Parker to have a word with his former friend, both Norah and the FBI separately confront Harry, unwilling to believe that somebody else can be using the full-body weapons-system specifically geared to Osborn genes…

Harry is already at breaking point when Spider-Man also challenges him, but explodes in violent rage when the web-spinner also refuses to believe in his innocence…

Returning to the Coffee Bean, Harry serves one last customer who awkwardly introduces himself as Gabriel Stacy before abruptly claiming to Norman Osborn’s other child, pulling a gun and shooting the astounded barista…

In ‘The Other Son’ the enigmatic armoured object of media-frenzy then smashes through the wall and frantically rushes Harry to medical aid, categorically proving that the suit is being used by somebody else and leading to a swift change of priorities for the FBI, if not Norah.

Despite a credible threat, the merely wounded and incensed Harry checks himself out of hospital and teams up with the penitent yet determinedly suspicious Winters to track down the impossible truth.

First stop is a terrifying prison visit with Osborn Senior which culminates in the enraged madman claiming Gabriel is his true son…

With all she needs and Harry for corroboration, Norah goes straight to her editor with the story of a lifetime, but Stacy’s secret is far more crazy and convoluted than any of them could possibly suspect…

‘Side Effects’ further ramps up the psychological tension as good old police work determines how, if not why, American Son saved Harry from Gabriel’s murderous assault, but not before the other Osborn child kidnaps Norah and takes her to one of the Green Goblin’s old hideouts, leading to a spectacular and cataclysmic three (or is it four?) way showdown between Harry, Spider-Man and the terrifyingly twisted possessor of the sinister super-suit in ‘American Slayed’…

With the shocking suspense ended and order temporarily restored, there’s even room for a charming human interest yarn from Joe Caramagna & Todd Nauck as cash-strapped Harry battles a corporate incursion that threatens to undercut and close the Coffee Bean.

Luckily old friends, the outré tastes of ESU students, a handy drop-in by Spider-Man and a video-blogging super-villain eventually prove more than a match for the big-business blandishments of ‘Bargain Donuts!’ and Harry happily lives to brew another day…

Despite feeling a little rushed in places, this is a solid, engaging old-fashioned Fights ‘n’ Tights drama refreshingly focusing on the rich supporting cast and perfectly capturing the familial feel that made Spider-Man sagas such a compelling experience.
© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Iron Man: War of the Iron Men


By Fred Van Lente, Matteo Casali, Steve Kurth & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4730-5

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

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

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

Arch-technocrat and supreme survivor Stark has had many roles in the Marvel Universe since his debut in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963) when, as a visitor to an East Asian war-zone, he was critically wounded and captured by sinister, cruel Communists. Put to work building weapons with the dubious promise of medical assistance on completion, Stark instead created the first Iron Man armour to keep himself alive and deliver him from his oppressors.

Since then the inventor and armaments manufacturer became a liberal capitalist, eco-pioneer, space pioneer, Federal politician, Statesman and even Director of the world’s most scientifically advanced spy agency, the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate.

…And, of course, one of the world’s most prominent superheroes with the Mighty Avengers…

At this time in the mainstream Marvel universe, the perpetually shell-shocked citizenry of the planet are still recovering from an interminable series of major and almost annual catastrophes such as the Civil War and a Secret Invasion by shape-shifting Skrulls, and technical wizard and billionaire weapon-smith Stark has been publicly revealed to the world as the armour-clad superhero Iron Man – or at least one of them…

In this brief but decidedly back-to-basics compilation (collecting from 2010 the first 5-part story-arc of the on-going series Iron Man Legacy, plus a tale from the one-shot Iron Man: Titanium), Stark has cut himself loose from all his Governmental affiliations and returned to the life of a maverick entrepreneur, happily endangering the profits of global energy interests with his new, clean and cheap Arc Reactor technology.

Even as Iron Man is quelling rioting “environmental activists” – actually saboteurs in the pay of “Big Oil” – ancient ethnic strife in the Balkan country of Transia is turning into a very one-sided genocidal bloodbath as the Muslim Romani are targeted by Slavic death-squads calling themselves Zmaj and wearing old versions of Stark’s Iron Man armour.

It is the inventor’s worst nightmare come to life again. As the son of America’s greatest munitions maker, Tony is tormented by the generations of innocent blood spilled by the Stark dynasty’s genius, but whereas his father Howard always looked for more effective methods of carrying out combat, his heir has always believed his own inventions saved more lives than they cost. However, night after night the news shows helpless men, women and children slaughtered by barbaric travesties of his greatest creation…

With Russiaand China- both protecting illegitimate energy interests in the region – stalling the debate, the UN is locked in interminable useless argument over the situation and Tony is ordered by the American authorities not to interfere. But ignoring the advice – and commands – of the powers-that-be and his closest friends and allies, the tormented inventor goes undercover, invading the blood-soaked combat zone masquerading as one of his own bodyguards, leaving an android Tony Stark in charge of his company, programmed to placate the press and deter Federal gadfly Henry Peter Gyrich of the Metahuman Affairs Commission.

Utilising all his latest upgrades and innovations and with the aid of old Romani woman Nina, Stark begins hunting down and destroying the Iron Man knock-offs but soon discovers some are equipped with tech and kit that hasn’t even made it off his drawing board yet. Somehow, the rabid killers have a pipeline into the most secure crannies of Stark Enterprises…

Moreover, Transia’s neighbour Latveria is eagerly offering the assistance the UN is unable to expedite, but Doctor Doom never does anything for anyone but himself…

Still believing himself to have the upper hand, Iron Man is unexpectedly overwhelmed in blistering battle against his purloined creations and becomes a prisoner of the Zmaj leader Darko and his armourer Svarog, a being claiming to be the Slavic god of blacksmiths…

Once more put to work building weapons for bloody monsters, Stark meets fellow prisoner Dragana, a mutilated Romani genius forced into building and repairing the unstoppable Iron Warriors, knowing full well they are being used to exterminate her own people.

Those oppressed folk have a champion of their own now: Stark’s old foe Dreadknight has come to save the Romani at the express command of Doctor Doom, but what the Master of Latveria really wants is the pod of Stark Tech the infuriated but too-trusting inventor left in Nina’s barn…

History repeats itself as Stark again builds himself a weapon suit to escape his captors. But as he blasts free promising to return for the wheelchair-bound psychologically broken Dragana, the American is intercepted by Dreadknight…

Despite overwhelming odds Stark is victorious, but in Americahis deception has been discovered and his trusted assistant Pepper Potts arrested by Gyrich. Moreover Russiaand Chinahave dispatched super-powered assets to the region to clean things up quickly and quietly, but such ruthless agents as Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man and the Radioactive Man are chronically incapable of doing anything subtly, especially when their oldest enemy is there to muddy the waters and stubbornly resist their unmatchable nationalistic might…

The Iron Dictator, meanwhile, has incorporated the stolen Stark Tech into his latest generation of Doombots and moved to his long-planned endgame: annexing Transia and all its unimaginably secret untapped resources at the request of its endangered minorities, making it an autonomous Protectorate of Latveria…

As Iron Doombots invade the conflicted country, only Stark’s erstwhile enemies and a newly minted-national champion forged in this moment of final crisis are able to protect Transia until the original and genuine Iron Man finally triumphs over Doom…

Even then there’s that traitor to find at Stark and a hidden American instigator behind all the bloodshed to expose and punish…

Short, sweet, shocking and surprisingly engaging, this compelling Fights ‘n’ Tights thriller by Fred Van Lente & Steve Kurth offers breakneck pace, astounding action and superbly suspenseful global realpolitik underpinnings that will satisfy any fan who likes their fantasy tinged with a touch of contemporary hyper-authenticity.

This book also includes a stunning cover-gallery displaying the artistic talents of Francis Tsai, Brandon Peterson, Salvador Larroca, Pascal Alixe, Bill Pressing, Ryan Meinerding and a photographic movie variant cover-spread, as well as finding time and space for a blockbusting brief encounter between the Golden Avenger and a giant alien robot in ‘Heavy Rain’ by Matteo Casali & Kurth, originally seen as part of the Iron Man: Titanium one-shot.

Gritty, clever and hard-hitting, this is another explosively entertaining yarn that will delight regular fans, with the rare added bonus of being self-contained and readily accessible to new, returning or casual readers.
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Klaws of the Panther


By Jonathan Mayberry, Shawn Moll, Gianluca Gugliotta, Walden Wong & Pepe Larraz (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5118-0

Long lauded as the first black super hero character in American comics and one of the first to carry his own series, the Black Panther’s popularity and fortunes have waxed and waned since the 1960s when he attacked the Fantastic Four as part of an extended plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father. He was also the first Negro superhero in American comics, debuting in Fantastic Four #52 (cover-dated July 1966).

Time passed and T’Challa, son of T’Chaka was revealed as an African monarch whose hidden kingdom was the only source of a vibration-absorbing alien metal upon which the country’s immense wealth was founded. Those mineral riches – derived from a fallen meteor which struck the continent in lost antiquity – had enabled him to turn his country into a technological wonderland. The tribal wealth had long been guarded by a cat-like champion who derived physical advantages from secret ceremonies and a mysterious heart-shaped herb that ensured the generational dominance of the nation’s warrior Panther Cult.

In recent years the Vibranium mound had made the country a target for increasing subversion and incursion and after an all-out attack by the forces of Doctor Doom, culminating in the Iron Dictator seizing control of Wakanda, T’Challa was forced to render all Vibranium on Earth inert, defeating the invader but leaving his own homeland broken and economically shattered.

During this cataclysmic clash T’Challa’s flighty, spoiled brat half-sister Shuri took on the mantle of the Black Panther and became the clan and country’s new champion whilst her predecessor struggled with the disaster he had deliberately caused…

This slim, unassuming but extremely engaging Costumes Drama outing collects pertinent portions of the portmanteau Age of Heroes #4 and the guest-star packed Klaws of the Panther 4-part fortnightly miniseries from 2010-2011, and follows Shuri’s progress through the Marvel Universe as she strives to outlive her wastrel reputation, serve her country and the world and – most importantly – defeat the growing homicidal rage that increasingly burns within her…

The story starts with ‘Honor’ by Jonathan Mayberry, Shawn Moll & Walden Wong as the latest Panther Champion brutally repels an invasion by soldiers of AIM, merely the latest opportunist agency attempting to take over the decimated country of Wakanda. With her brother and Queen Storm absent, Shuri is also de facto ruler of the nation but faces dissent from her own people, as embarrassing reports and photos of her days as a millionaire good-time girl are continually being unearthed to stir popular antipathy to her and the Panther clan. So when opportunist G’Tuga of the outlawed White Gorilla sect challenges her for the role of national champion, Shuri almost sees the ritual combat as a welcome relief from insurmountable, intangible problems; but has badly misjudged her opponent and the sentiment of the people…

The main event by Mayberry, Gianluca Gugliotta & Pepe Larraz  opens with ‘Savage Tales’ as Shuri is lured to the fantastic dinosaur kingdom dubbed the Savage Land, where she hopes to purchase a supply of the metal-eating Vibranium isotope, but instead uncovers a deadly plot by Advanced Idea Mechanics and sentient sound-wave Klaw.

The incredible fauna of the lost world has been enslaved by the Master of Sound – who years ago murdered Shuri and T’Challa’s father in an earlier attempt to win ultimate power – and the villain has captured the region’s protector Ka-Zar whilst he strives to secure all the Savage Land Vibranium for his nefarious schemes.

Klaw however only thought he had fully compensated for the interference of Shuri and Ka-Zar’s wife Shanna the She-Devil…

Driven by a lust for vengeance, Shuri almost allows Klaw to destroy the entire Savage Land and only the timely intervention of mutant sister-in-law Storm prevents nuclear Armageddon in ‘Sound and Fury’, after which the impulsive Panther seeks out Wolverine on the outlaw island of Madripoor, looking for help with her out-of-control anger management issues. Once again however AIM attacks, attempting to steal the bandit nation’s priceless stockpile of Savage Land Vibranium but instead walking into a buzz saw of angry retribution…

Shuri is about to extract information from a surviving AIM agent in time-honoured Wakandan manner when Klaw appears, hinting at a world-shattering plan called “The Scream” which will use the mysterious device dubbed M.U.S.I.C. to totally remake the Earth…

After a deadly battle, the new Panther gains the upper hand by using SLV dust but squanders her hard-won advantage to save Wolverine from certain death…

With knowledge that the entire planet is at stake Shuri acknowledges the need for major-league assistance in ‘Music of the Spheres’ but unfortunately the only one home at Avengers Tower is the relatively low-calibre Spider-Man, Reluctantly she takes the wisecracking half-wit on another raid on AIM and finally catches a break when one of Klaw’s AIM minions reveals the tragic secret of the horrific M.U.S.I.C device…

All this time the Black Panther has had a hidden ally in the form of tech specialist Flea who has been providing intel from an orbiting spaceship. Now the truth is revealed and the heroes find that Klaw’s plans are also centred on an attack from space. The maniac is intending to destroy humanity from an invulnerable station thousands of miles above the planet and nothing can broach the base’s incredible defences. However Spider-Man and ex-Captain America Steve Rogers know the world’s greatest infiltration expert and soon ‘Enter the Black Widow’ finds Earth’s last hopes depending on an all-or-nothing assault by the icily calm Panther and the planet’s deadliest spy.

Cue tragic sacrifice, deadly combat, spectacular denouement, reaffirmed dedication and a new start for the ferociously inspired and determined Black Panther…

Slight but gloriously readable, this compelling thriller also comes with an impressive cover gallery by Jae Lee, Michael Del Mundo and Stephanie Hans, and also includes an information-packed text feature on Shuri’s life-history, career and abilities to bring the completist reader up to full speed.

If you don’t despise reboots and re-treads on unswerving principle and are prepared to give something new(ish) a go, there’s a lot of fun to be had in this infectious, fast-paced Fights ‘n’ Tights farrago, so why not set your sights and hunt this down?
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Ghost Rider – Danny Ketch Classic volume 1


By Howard Mackie, Javier Saltares & Mark Texeira with Jimmy Palmiotti (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3735-1

In the early 1970’s, following a downturn in superhero comics sales Marvel shifted focus from straight costumed crusaders to supernatural and horror characters and one of the most enduring was a certain flaming-skulled vigilante dubbed the Ghost Rider.

Carnival stunt-cyclist Johnny Blaze had sold his soul to the devil in an attempt to save his foster-father from cancer. As is always the way of such things Satan, or arch-liar Mephisto as he actually was, followed the letter, but not spirit, of the contract and Crash Simpson died anyway.

When the Demon Lord came for Blaze only the love of an innocent saved the bad-boy biker from eternal pain and damnation. Temporarily thwarted, Johnny was afflicted with a body that burned with the fires of Hell every time the sun went down and became the unwilling host for outcast and exiled demon Zarathos – the Spirit of Vengeance.

After years of travail and turmoil Blaze was liberated from the demon’s curse and seemingly retired from the hero’s life.

As Blaze briefly escaped his pre-destined doom, a tragic boy named Danny Ketch assumed the role of Zarathos’ host and prison by a route most circuitous and tragic…

From that dubious period of fashionably “Grim ‘n’ Gritty” super-heroics in the early 1990s comes this slight but engagingly fast-paced horror-hero re-imagining courtesy of writer Howard Mackie and artists Javier Saltares & Mark Texeira, which quickly secured the new Ghost Rider status as one of the hottest hits of the period.

This first Danny Ketch Classic volume reprints issues #1-10 of the revitalised series spanning May 1990 – February 1991, and opens, following a reminiscence from the author, with the bonanza-sized introductory tale ‘Life’s Blood’ which sees young Danny and his photographer sister Barbara looking for Houdini’s tomb in the vast Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn on the eve of Halloween.

Unfortunately they stumble into a bloody criminal confrontation between ninjas and gangsters over a mysterious briefcase. Discovered, the siblings flee but Barb is hit by an arrow, whilst the case itself is snatched by a juvenile gang who plague the wooded necropolis.

The ninjas and their macabre leader Deathwatch are the victors of the fire-fight and are soon hunting for their hard-won prize and the witnesses…

In an adjacent junkyard Danny is helplessly watching Barb bleed out when his attention is caught by a glowing pair of eyes. Closer inspection reveals them to be an arcane design on the gas-cap of an abandoned motorbike. The ninjas, having caught the girl who stole the briefcase, are closing in on the Ketch kids when Danny, his hands soaked in his sister’s blood, touches the glowing bike symbol and is inexplicably transformed into a spectral horror, burning with fury and indignation – a Spirit of Vengeance hungry to assuage the pain of innocent blood spilled with inhuman vitality, toting an infinitely adaptable bike chain and a mystic “Penance Stare” which subjected the guilty to unimaginable psychic pain and guilt…

The Blazing Biker makes short work of the ninjas, but when the police arrive and find him standing over the dying Barbara, they naturally jump to the wrong conclusion…

As the Ghost Rider flees on a bike with wheels of fire, causing spectacular amounts of collateral carnage, Barb is rushed to hospital, where a re-transfigured, bruised, bleeding and totally confused Danny finds her the next morning…

In the richest part of Manhattan, Wall Street shark and psionic monster Deathwatch makes a ghastly example of the man who lost his briefcase twice even as his rival for its possession, criminal overlord Wilson Fisk, similarly chastises his own minions for failure.

The contents of the case are not only hotly disputed but utterly lethal and both factions will tear Brooklyn apart to get them…

Meanwhile the teen thieves known as the Cyprus Pool Jokers find three canisters in that purloined case and hide them all over the vast cemetery, unaware that both Deathwatch’s ninjas and the Kingpin’s hoods are hunting for them. At Barbara’s bedside Danny is plagued by guilt and anger. Unable to help his comatose sister the lad determines to investigate what happened to him. When he awoke the blazing bike had returned to a normal configuration and now Danny climbs aboard and heads back to Cyprus Hills to look for answers just as the competing packs of killers are turning the streets into a free-fire zone.

Riding straight into the bloodbath, Danny sees his bike gas-cap glowing again and, almost against his will, slams his palm onto it, unleashing his skeletal passenger once again…

Devastating the assembled mobsters and murderers, the Ghost Rider then takes wounded Cyprus Pool Jokers Ralphie and Paulie to hospital and another pointless confrontation with the authorities…

‘Do Be Afraid of the Dark!’ finds open war between Deathwatch and the Kingpin’s forces for the canisters neither side possesses, with the Ghost Rider roaming the night tackling the increasingly savage hunters on both sides. The girl Paulie has admitted that she has no idea where two of the containers could be, since the Jokers split up to hide them and she’s now the last of them…

The urban horror escalates when Deathwatch’s metahuman enforcer Blackout joins the hunt: a sadistic man-made vampire with the ability to manipulate fields of complete darkness. This psychotic mass-murderer targets entire families and starts his search by “questioning” the cops who attended the initial battle in the graveyard…

Danny is on the verge of a breakdown, snapping viciously at his mother and girlfriend Stacy and utterly unable to share the horror that his life has become. Between days at Barb’s bedside, and nights as the slave to a primal force obsessed with blood and punishment, Ketch is drowning…

When Blackout tracks down the recovering Ralphie, the Ghost Rider is too late to save the young felon’s parents and only just manages to drive the vampire away before the boy too succumbs, leading to the inevitable final clash in ‘Deathwatch’, wherein the Wall Street dilettante’s forces find the canisters before being overwhelmed by the Kingpin. Ever pragmatic, the ninja-master simply surrenders, but the wildly unpredictable Blackout refuses to submit and slips into a berserker rage of slaughter, before escaping with the containers and terrified hostage Paulie.

The albino maniac knows the canisters contain a toxin that will wipe out New York and harbours an impossible plan to use them to kick-start an atomic war which will produce a nuclear winter on an Earth he would inevitably rule. However his delusional dreams are ended when the Ghost Rider appears and engages the vampire in blistering battle.

Incensed beyond endurance, Blackout savagely bites the blazing biker, but instead of blood sucks down raw, coruscating hellfire which leaves his face a melted, agonising ruin and burns the canisters to harmless slag…

Issue #4 found Danny, unable to resist the constant call to become the Furious Flaming Apparition, decide to lock up the cursed motorcycle beyond the reach of temptation in faraway Manhattan, only to find it had a mind of its own when a clash between a biker gang and an old Thor villain trapped both Ketch and an car full innocent bystanders in a subterranean parking garage. ‘You Can Run, but You Can’t Hyde!’ taught the troubled young man that the Rider was a cruel necessity in a bad world, an argument confirmed by the beginning of an extended subplot in which children began vanishing from the streets of Brooklyn…

The very epitome of Grim’n’Gritty stopped by for a two issue guest-shot in #5-6 as ‘Getting Paid!’ and ‘Do or Die!’ saw a mysterious figure distributing free guns to children, drawing the attention of not just the night-stalking Spirit of Vengeance but also the merciless, militaristic vigilante Frank Castle, known to criminals and cops alike as The Punisher.

The weapons are turning the city into a deadly battleground, but the cops and unscrupulous TV reporter Linda Wei seem more concerned with stopping the Ghost Rider’s campaign against the youthful killers than ending the bloodshed. Danny decides to investigate in his mortal form and quickly finds himself in over his head, but for some reason the magic medallion won’t transform him. He is completely unaware how close he was to becoming the Punisher’s latest statistic…

The situation changes that night and the flaming-skulled zealot clashes with the Punisher before uniting to tackle the true mastermind – a manic anti-nationalist, anti-capitalist terrorist known as Flag-Smasher.

With the insane demagogue determined to unleash a storm of death on Wall Street, the driven anti-heroes are forced to briefly unite to end the scheme and save the “bad” kids and the system that created them…

‘Obssesion’ in #7, illustrated solely by Texeira, saw the return of animal-trainer and contortionist the Scarecrow, who had barely troubled Iron Man, the X-Men and Captain America in his early days, but after having slipped into morbid thanophilia had become a death-preoccupied maniac who presented a truly different threat to the mystic agent of retribution.

A far greater menace was seen – or rather, not seen – with the return of Blackout who silently stalked Danny Ketch, savagely slaughtering everybody who knew him. Not even the police guards at Barbara’s hospital bedside could stop the fiend with half-a-face…

Through dreams Danny debated his cursed existence with the Spirit of Vengeance in #8’s ‘Living Nightmare’ (Mackie, Saltares & Texeira) constantly bemoaning his fate but seemingly unable to affect the implacable, terrifying being he couldn’t stop becoming. Adding to his fevered nights were visions of Deathwatch, Barbara and the vile psycho-killer Blackout.

As Blackout continued to murder anybody coming into contact with the troubled Ketch – who was seemingly paralysed by his dilemma – girlfriend Stacy neared the end of her training as a cop, and her father increased patrols to catch the blazing Biker. Impatient and scared, the Cypress Hills Community Action Group took controversial steps to safeguard their streets by hiring maverick private security company H.E.A.R.T. (Humans Engaging All Racial Terrorism – truly one of the naffest and most inappropriate acronyms in comics history) who promptly decided Ghost Rider was the cause of all the chaos and went after him with an arsenal of high-tech military hardware and a helicopter gunship…

The Spirit of Vengeance was already occupied, having found Blackout attacking a girl, but their final showdown was interrupted when the fiery skeleton was attacked by a colossal Morlock (feral mutants who live in tunnels beneath New York) who mistook the saviour for the assailant…

Issue #9 guest-starred the X-Factor – a reformed X-Men team comprising Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman and the Beast who uncover the mystery of the missing children in ‘Pursuit’ (with additional inks by Jimmy Palmiotti) when they follow the Ghost Rider and Morlocks under the city.

Tragically, Blackout too is on the Blazing Biker’s trail and finds in the concrete depths even more victims to torture Danny Ketch’s breaking heart and blistered soul before their climactic last clash…

This volume ends on a thematic cliffhanger with ‘Stars of Blood’ as Danny begins a new phase of life reconciled to his burden. When a series of horrific murders are attributed to a publicity-seeking serial killer named Zodiak, the boy begins investigating the deaths and discovers that the haunted gas-cap is again inactive, although it does transform him later when he stumbles over a couple of kids fighting…

Arcanely active again, the Ghost Rider then follows a convenient tip to the astrological assassin and discovers a far more prosaic reason for the string of slayings before an inclusive and unsatisfying battle with the insufferable, elusive Zodiak.

Meanwhile across town, the humiliated H.E.A.R.T. team accept a commission from Deathwatch to destroy the Spirit of Vengeance, whilst in the western USA the previous victim of the curse of Zarathos is riding his motorcycle hard, determined to get to New York and destroy the latest Ghost Rider as soon as possible…

To Be Continued…

This expanded re-issue of the 1991 Ghost Rider Resurrected trade paperback also includes the cover and introduction to that volume, pin-ups by Saltares, Texeira & Palmiotti and a full cover gallery and, despite being markedly short on plot and utterly devoid of humour, does deliver the maximum amount of uncomplicated thrills, spills and chills for action-starved fight fans.

If you occasionally feel that subtlety isn’t everything and yearn for a vicarious dose of simple wickedness-whomping, this might well be the book for you…
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