Category: Marvel Superheroes

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Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates: The Republic is Burning


By Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic, Brandon Peterson & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-504-8

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 tastes of 21st century readers – apparently a wholly different market from those baby-boomers and their descendents content to stick with the precepts sprung from founding talents Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee… or simply those unable or unwilling to deal with the five decades (seven if you include the Golden Age Timely tales retroactively co-opted into the mix) of continuity baggage which 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 which excised dozens of super-humans and millions of lesser mortals in a devastating tsunami which inundated Manhattan 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 #1-6 and Ultimate Comics: Fallout #4 (published in comicbook form from October 2011 to March 2012) which comprised 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 toppled from his position for blatant rule-bending – and being caught.

Now in the wake of the global inundation, internecine strife amongst the covert ops community and brushfire wars which have broken out all over the planet, Fury is back: once more running the entire spook show and firmly re-established in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s army of secret agents, an official superhero team for public consumption and another clandestine super-squad doing stuff the officially sanctioned Ultimates wouldn’t dream of…

It isn’t a job many would want: the world is falling apart at a phenomenal rate. Individual metahumans are classed as Weapons of Mass Destruction and personal superpowers are now the focus of a terrifying new global arms race. In Asia the new nation SEAR (South East Asian Republic) is dissolving into bloody civil war after developing a serum that will randomly spark fantastic abilities in humans dosed with it. They also stacked the deck by simultaneously releasing a global virus which has killed the genes responsible for causing natural mutation.

A new metahuman nation has grown up within the embattled country offering super-powers to anybody daring to take the Serum, as seen in sidebar series Ultimate Comics Hawkeye…

The gods of Asgard have been dragged from their heavenly halls and marooned on Earth where their wild warlike ways and fantastic powers are disrupting all of Europe. Premiere hero Spider-Man has been murdered, resurrected WWII super soldier Captain America has gone AWOL and in the wings an old friend turned foe has returned to remake the planet according to an impossible and remorseless agenda…

The constant calamity begins when enigmatic mastermind Maker and his dedicated band of volunteers entomb themselves in a high-tech dome in Northern Germany where enhanced time and ruthless scientific augmentation enables the inhabitants to hyper-evolve a thousand years in the space of a few days.

Whilst Iron Man Tony Stark is being conned by his fellow members of billionaires fraternity The Kratos Club and tricked into detonating a nuke over Montevideo in order to manipulate global stock markets, these Children of Tomorrow – now more alien ant farm than human science cult – break out as the Dome begins to expand and absorb Western Europe. The region’s superhumans, including current Captain Britain Jamie Braddock are busy losing a fight with the errant Asgardians and card-carrying Ultimate Thor when The Children attack…

As Hawkeye attempts to forestall the civil war in SEAR and Stark is dragged back from death by his bodyguard Jarvis, the Children perform the impossible feat of killing almost every god in Asgard.

Only Thor and Braddock survive but the Thunderer’s hammer and magic are gone forever…

Resorting to technology provided by Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. the Last Asgardian returns to the fray, intending to die gloriously in battle as a warrior should, but the expanding dome and ravening children are unstoppable. After an all-out final assault by S.H.I.E.L.D. and the World’s armies, humanity is utterly defeated and humiliatingly allowed to slink off to await the end…

When the Dome stops growing and stands revealed as an incredible future City the doom-hungry Thor invades it, freeing Braddock, who has been imprisoned and subjected to torturous scientific investigation. They are then captured by the Maker who reveals his impossible true identity, after which he discards the ineffectual and demoralised warriors.

Thor doesn’t care: he has just realised that he is being haunted by the ghosts of all the fallen Asgardians…

Fury is almost out of ideas. When technologist Sam Wilson AKA the Falcon finds a way to infiltrate the City he suddenly vanishes without trace, and even Captain America has refused to rejoin the Ultimates and lead mankind’s last hurrah against their implacable unshakable successors…

To Be Continued…

Hot off the presses this saga ends on a chilling cliffhanger as what might well be the Last Battle of the alternate Marvel Universe begins. However the always entertaining Jonathan Hickman, artists Esad Ribic & Brandon Peterson (as well as colourists Dean White, Jose Villsrrubia, Jim Charalampidis, John Raunch & Edgar Delgado) make this a slick and compulsive read for older Fights ‘n’ Tights fans and the impressive cover gallery by Kaare Andrews, Ribic & Chris Evans adds immeasurably to the book’s visual appeal.

Much more in tune with the visual feel and sensibilities of the assorted Movie franchises than the traditional comicbook market, the trademark post-modernity and cynical, dark action is amped to the max here; delivering the visceral shocks and staggering revelations fans of this sub-imprint seem addicted to.

Whilst perhaps not the best book for anybody thinking on jumping on to the decidedly different Ultimate World, The Republic is Burning will certainly strike a chord with older readers who love the darkest side of superheroes and readers who know the company’s films better than their publications.

A British edition licensed and published by Panini UK, Ltd. ™ & © 2012 Marvel Entertainment LLC and its subsidiaries. Licensed from Marvel Characters B.V. All Rights Reserved.

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Essential Astonishing Ant-Man

New Extended review

By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Don Heck, Dick Ayers & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-0822-1

Marvel Comics initially built its fervent fan base through strong and contemporarily relevant stories and striking art, but most importantly by creating a shared continuity that closely followed the characters through not just their own titles but also through the many guest appearances in other comics.

Such an interweaving meant that even today completists and fans seek out extraneous stories to get a fuller picture of their favourite’s adventures.

In such an environment, series such as Marvel’s Essential… and DC’s Showcase Presents… are an economical and valuable commodity which approaches the status of a public service for collectors.

If you’re of a particularly picky nature – and what true comic fan isn’t? – you could consider the Astonishing Ant-Man to be one of the earliest heroes of the Marvel Age of Comics. He first appeared in Tales to Astonish #27 (cover-dated January 1962), in one of the men-vs.-monsters anthology titles that dominated in those heady days of Science Fiction Double-Feature B-Movies.

This episodic, eclectic and eccentric black and white compendium (gathering the pertinent portions of Tales to Astonish #27 and the series which ran from #35-69: September 1962-July 1965) collects all the solo outings of a brilliant but troubled scientist who became an unlikely superhero and begins with what was just supposed to be another throwaway filler thriller.

The 7-page short introduced Dr Henry Pym, a maverick scientist who discovered a shrinking potion and became ‘The Man in the Anthill!’ discovering peril, wonder and even a kind of companionship amongst the lowliest creatures on Earth and under it.

This engaging piece of fluff, which owed more than a little to the classic movie The Incredible Shrinking Man, was plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber and stunningly illustrated by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers.

Obviously the character struck a chord with someone since, as the DC Comics-inspired superhero boom flourished, Pym was rapidly retooled as a full-fledged costumed do-gooder in issue #35 (September 1962) which featured ‘The Return of the Ant-Man’ by Lee, Larry Lieber, Kirby & Ayers. The plot concerned a raid by Soviet agents (this was at the height of Marvel’s ‘Commie-Buster’ period when every other villain was a Red somebody or other and rampaging socialism was a cultural bête noir) wherein Pym was captured and held prisoner in his own laboratory.

Forced to use the abandoned shrinking gases and cybernetic devices he’d built to communicate with ants, Dr. Pym soundly trounced the spies and determined to use his powers for the good of Mankind.

The same creative team produced the next four adventures beginning with ‘The Challenge of Comrade X!’ (Tales to Astonish #36) wherein an infallible Soviet super-spy was dispatched to destroy the Diminutive Daredevil, after which Ant-Man was temporarily ‘Trapped by the Protector!’ – a cunning jewel-thief and extortionist who ultimately proved no match for the Tiny Titan.

‘Betrayed by the Ants!’ featured the debut of arch-foe Egghead, a maverick and mercenary research scientist who attempted to usurp the hero’s control of insects whilst ‘The Vengeance of the Scarlet Beetle!’ saw a return to scary monster stories as a radioactively mutated, super-intelligent bug sought to eradicate humanity with only Hank Pym able to stop him…

Sol Brodsky replaced Ayers as inker for ‘The Day that Ant-Man Failed!’ (TTA #40), with a deadly Hijacker robbing trucks and pushing the shrinking inventor to new heights of ingenuity, after which Kirby too moved on: his lavishly experimental perspectival flamboyance replaced by the comfortingly realism and enticing human scale of new illustrator Don Heck who limned a classy alien invasion yarn in ‘Prisoner of the Slave World!’ and depicted a mesmerising menace who could control people with ‘The Voice of Doom’ (TTA #42).

The following issue H. E. Huntley (AKA veteran writer/artist Ernie Hart) replaced Lieber as scripter with ‘Versus the Mad Master of Time’ – a run-of-the-mill mad – or rather, disgruntled and misguided – scientist yarn but the next issue (TTA #44) saw Kirby return to pencil a significant change to the series.

‘The Creature from Kosmos’ (inked by Heck) introduced The Wasp – Pym’s bon vivant crime-fighting partner – in a double-length tale that featured a murderous alien marauder who killed her father as well as the secret origin of Ant-Man. In a rare and uncharacteristic display of depth we learned that Pym was a widower: his Hungarian wife Maria having been murdered by Communist agents, irrevocably changing the young scientist from a sedentary scholar into a driven man of action.

Ant-Man used his discoveries to endow Janet with the power to shrink and fly; she became his crime-fighting partner and together they overcame ‘The Terrible Traps of Egghead’ (Lee, Huntley & Heck) before travelling to Greece and thwarting another alien invasion in ‘When Cyclops Walks the Earth!’

Back in the USA the Diminutive Duo battled mystic trumpeter Trago in ‘Music to Scream By’ and then defeated an avaricious weapons designer who built himself a unique battle suit to become super-thief ‘The Porcupine!’ before the next big change came with Tales to Astonish #49’s ‘The Birth of Giant-Man!’.

Lee scripted and Kirby returned to pencil the epic story of how Pym learned to enlarge, as well as reduce, his size just in time to tackle the threat of trans-dimensional kidnapper the Eraser. In the next issue Steve Ditko inked The King in ‘The Human Top’, the first chapter of a two-part tale which showed our hero struggling to adapt to his new strength and abilities. The blistering concluding episode ‘Showdown with the Human Top!’ was inked by Dick Ayers who would draw the bulk of the stories until the series’ demise. Also with this issue (TTA #51) a back-up feature ‘The Wonderful Wasp Tells a Tale’ began, blending horror vignettes narrated by the heroine, fact-features and solo adventures. The first is a chilling space thriller ‘Somewhere Waits a Wobbow!’ crafted by Lee, Lieber and George Roussos in his Marvel identity of George Bell.

The super-hero adventures settled into a rather predictable pattern from now on: individually effective enough but rather samey when read in quick succession.

First up is a straight super-villain clash in ‘The Black Knight Strikes!’ by Lee & Ayers from TTA #52, supplemented by the Wasp’s homily ‘Not What They Seem!’ whilst #53 led with another spectacular battle-bout ‘Trapped by the Porcupine!’ and finished with a Wasp yarn ‘When Wakes the Colossus!’ by Lee, Lieber & Heck before #54 saw Heck briefly return to illustrate the Crusading Couple’s catastrophic trip to Santo Rico in ‘No Place to Hide!’, where they became trapped and powerless in the South American banana republic run by brutal commie agent El Toro, which was neatly counter-balanced by the Wasp’s sci fi saga ‘Conquest!’ by Lee, Lieber & Brodsky.

An implacable old enemy defeated himself in ‘On the Trail of the Human Top!’ when the psychotic killer stole Giant-Man’s size changing pills in #55, after which Lee, Lieber & Bell produced the Wasp’s tale of ‘The Gypsy’s Secret!’

A stage conjuror was far more trouble than you’d suspect in ‘The Coming of The Magician!’; even successfully abducting the Wasp before his defeat, which she celebrated by regaling us all with the tall tale ‘Beware the Bog Beast!’ (Lee, Lieber & Paul Reinman) after which TTA #57 featured a big guest-star as the size-changing duo set out ‘On the Trail of the Amazing Spider-Man!’ courtesy of Lee, Ayers & Reinman, with the sinister Egghead waiting in the wings, whilst the Wasp actually had a solo adventure with ‘A Voice in the Dark!’ by Lee, Lieber & Chic Stone.

These were not only signs of the increasing interconnectivity that Lee was developing but also indicated that the strip was losing impetus. In a market increasingly flooded with superheroes, the adventures of Giant Man were not selling as well as they used to… Captain America cameo-ed in #58’s battle with a giant alien ‘The Coming of Colossus!’ which was supplemented by the Wasp’s lone hand played against her old enemy in ‘The Magician and the Maiden!’

The beginning of the end came in Tales to Astonish #59 and ‘Enter: the Hulk!’ with the Avengers inadvertently prompting Giant-Man to hunt down the Green Goliath. The remainder of that all-action issue offered ‘A Giant-Man Bonus Special Feature: Let’s Learn About Hank and Jan…’ from Lee, Ayers & Reinman.

Although the Human Top engineered that blockbusting battle, Lee was the real mastermind as, with the next issue The Hulk began to co-star in his own series and on the covers whilst Giant-Man’s adventures shrank back to a dozen or so pages.

The first half-sized yarn was ‘The Beasts of Berlin!’ – a throwback in many ways to the daft old days as the duo smuggle themselves over the Wall and into the Russian Sector to battle Commie Apes (no, really!) behind the Iron Curtain.

The writing was on the wall by issue #61. With the Hulk already most prominent on the covers, substandard stories and a rapid rotation of artists, it was obvious Giant-Man was waning. ‘Now Walks the Android’ was a fill-in rather rapidly illustrated by Ditko & Bell starring Egghead and his latest technological terror whilst ‘Versus the Wonderful Wasp’ (by Golden Age icon Carl Burgos & Ayers) recycled an ancient plot wherein a thief stole Giant-Man’s costume and equipment leaving the mere girl to save the day.

‘The Gangsters and the Giant’ in #63, by Lee, Burgos & Stone incestuously reproduced the plot of #37 with the gem-stealing Protector there re-imagined here as “the Wrecker” after which ‘When Attuma Strikes’ (Burgos & Reinman) offered some crumb of imagination and wit as Hank and Jan split up and the poor lass managed to get herself abducted by an undersea tyrant. This last was scripted by incredibly under-appreciated and almost anonymous comics veteran Leon Lazarus.

One last attempt to resuscitate the series came with the addition of another Golden-Age legend. Bob Powell signed on as artist for issue #65’s ‘Presenting the New Giant-Man’ (scripted by Lee, inked by Heck) wherein the Man of Many Sizes got a better costume and powers but almost died at the hands of a cat and spider he accidentally enlarged.

With a fresh new look, these last five issues are actually some of the best tales in the run, but it was clearly too late.

Frankie (Giacoia) Ray inked Powell for ‘The Menace of Madam Macabre’, with a murderous oriental seductress attempting to steal Pym’s secrets and Chic Stone inked ‘The Mystery of the Hidden Man and his Rays of Doom!’ wherein a power-stealing alien removed Pym’s ability to shrink to insect size before the series concluded with a powerfully impressive two-parter in Tales to Astonish #68 and 69) ‘Peril from the Long-Dead Past’ and ‘Oh, Wasp, Where is Thy Sting?’, inked by Vince Colletta and John Giunta respectively.

So far along was the decline that Al Hartley had to finish what Stan Lee started, i.e. concluding a tense and thrilling tale of the Wasp’s abduction by the Human Top and the retirement of the weary, shell-shocked heroes at the saga’s end.

(Gi)-Ant-Man and the Wasp did not die, but instead joined the vast cast of characters which Marvel kept in relatively constant play through team books, via guest shots and in occasional re-launches and mini-series.

Despite variable quality and treatment the eclectic, eccentric and always fun exploits of Marvel’s premier “odd couple” remain an intriguing and engaging reminder that the House of Ideas didn’t always get it right, but generally gave their all to entertaining their fans.

By turns superb, stupid, exciting and appalling this Essential tome epitomises the best and worst of Early Marvel (with the delightful far outweighing the duff) and certainly won’t appeal to everybody, but if you’re a Fights ‘n’ Tights fan with a forgiving nature the good stuff here will charm, amaze and enthral you whilst the rest could just be considered as a garish garnish to provide added flavour…
© 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 2002, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Ultimate Comics Spider-Man: Who is Miles Morales?


By Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-503-1

When the Ultimate Comics Spider-Man died writer Brian Michael Bendis and Marvel promised that a new hero would arise from the ashes…

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 tastes of 21st century readers – apparently a wholly different market from those baby-boomers and their descendents content to stick with the precepts sprung from founding talents Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee… or simply those unable or unwilling to deal with the five decades (seven if you include the Golden Age Timely tales retroactively co-opted into the mix) of continuity baggage which 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 which excised dozens of super-humans and millions of lesser mortals in a devastating tsunami which inundated Manhattan courtesy of mutant menace Magneto.

In the aftermath Peter Parker and his fellow meta-human survivors struggled to restore order to a dangerous new world.

Spider-Man finally gained a measure of acceptance and was hailed a hero when he valiantly and very publicly met his end during a catastrophic super-villain confrontation…

This collection (re-presenting the introductory teaser from Ultimate Comics Fallout #4 – August 2011 – and the follow-up Ultimate Comics Spider-Man: Who is Miles Morales? #1-5) introduces a new and even younger Arachnid Avenger and describes how, just like his predecessor, a troubled boy learned the painful price of misusing the unique gifts fate had bestowed…

The epic opens with a skinny kid having the poor taste to parade around town in a cheap imitation costume of fallen hero Spider-Man encountering and somehow defeating vicious super-villain The Kangaroo before the revelations begin by spinning back to the recent past where manic industrialist Norman Osborn repeats the genetic experiment which first gave Peter Parker his powers (see Ultimate Spider-Man volume 1: Power and Responsibility) via artificially-mutated spider bite.

Unfortunately the deranged mastermind didn’t expect a burglar to waltz in and accidentally carry off the new test subject as part of his haul…

When grade-schooler Miles Morales got into the prestigious and life-changing Brooklyn Visions Academy Boarding School by the most callous of chances, the brilliant African American/Latino boy quickly and cynically realised that life is pretty much a crap-shoot and unfair to boot. Feeling guilty about his unjust success and sorry for the 697 other poor kids who didn’t get a chance, he snuck off to visit his uncle Aaron.

The visit had to be secret since his uncle was a “bad influence”: a career criminal dubbed The Prowler. Whilst there, a great big spider with a number on its back bit Miles and he began to feel very odd…

For a start he began to turn invisible…

Suddenly super-fast and strong, able to leap huge distances and fade from view, Miles rushed over to see his geeky pal Ganke, a brilliant nerd already attending Brooklyn Visions. Applying “scientific” testing the boy also discovers Miles can deliver shocking, destructive charges through his hands. When Miles goes home Ganke did more research and deduced a connection to the new hero Spider-Man; pushing his friend towards also becoming a costumed crusader.

However, after Miles assisted during a tenement fire, saving a mother and baby, shock set in and he decided never to use his powers again…

Time passed: Miles and Ganke had been roommates at the Academy for almost a year when news of a major metahuman clash rocked the city. The troubled Miles headed out and was a bystander at the scene of Spider-Man’s death.

Seeing a brave man perish so valiantly, Miles was once more consumed by guilt: if he had used his own powers when they first manifested he might have been able to help; to save a truly great hero…

As part of the crowd attending Parker’s memorial Miles and Ganke talked to another mourner, a girl who actually knew Parker. Gwen Stacy offered quiet insights to the grieving child which altered the course of his life forever: “with great power comes great responsibility…”

Clad in a Halloween Spidey costume borrowed from Ganke, Miles took to the night streets for the first time and stopped the Kangaroo from committing murder…

His third night out the exhilarated boy encountered the terrifying and furiously indignant Spider-Woman who thrashed and arrested him, dragging him to Government agency S.H.I.E.L.D where Hawkeye, Iron Man and master manipulator Nick Fury coldly assessed him.

However, before they could reach a decision on Miles’ fate, the murderous Electro broke free of the building’s medical custody ward and went on a rampage.

Despite defeating all the seasoned heroes the voltage villain was completely unprepared for a new Spider-Man: especially as the boy had a whole extra range of powers including camouflage capabilities and an irresistible “venom-strike” sting…

As Miles considered the full implications of his victory, Fury imparted a staggeringly simple homily: “With great power…”

Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli have crafted a stirring new chapter which is both engaging and intriguing and the volume also contains a gallery of alternate covers by Marko Djurdjevic and Pichelli.

Tense, breathtaking, action-packed, evocative and full of the light-hearted, self-aware humour which blessed the original Lee/Ditko tales, this is a controversial but worthy way to continue and advance the legend that Fights ‘n’ Tights addicts will admire and adore…
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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Stan Lee Presents Captain America Battles Baron Blood – a Marvel Illustrated Book


By Roger Stern, John Byrne & Josef Rubinstein (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-939766-08-6

Captain America was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby at the end of 1940, and launched in his own Timely Comics’ (Marvel’s earliest iteration) title. Captain America Comics #1 was cover-dated March 1941 and was a monster smash-hit. Cap was the absolute and undisputed star of Timely’s “Big Three” – the other two being the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner – and one of very the first to fall from popularity at the end of the Golden Age.

When the Korean War and Communist aggression dominated the American psyche in the early 1950s Cap was briefly revived – as were his two fellow superstars – in 1953 before they all sank once more into obscurity until a resurgent Marvel Comics once more needed them. When the Stars and Stripes Centurion finally reappeared he finally managed to find a devoted following who stuck with him through thick and thin.

After taking over the Avengers he won his own series and, eventually, title. Cap waxed and waned through the most turbulent period of social change in American history but always struggled to find an ideological place and stable footing in the modern world, plagued by the trauma of his greatest failure: the death of his boy partner Bucky.

After years of just ticking along a brief resurgence came about when creators Roger Stern & John Byrne crafted a mini-renaissance of well-conceived and perfectly executed yarns which brought back all the fervour and pizzazz of the character in his glory days.

This wonderful black and white mass-market digest paperback was part of Marvel’s ongoing campaign to escape the ghettoes of news-stands and find relative legitimacy in “proper” bookstores and opens with one of the most impressive tales of the comicbook’s lengthy run originally seen in Captain America #253-254 (January-February 1981).

A grave peril from the past resurfaced in ‘Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot’ when Cap was called to England and the imminent deathbed of old comrade Lord Falsworth who had battled Nazis as the legendary Union Jack in the WWII Allied superteam The Invaders. The picturesque village was undergoing a series of brutal serial murders and the aging patriarch suspected the worst. Of course nobody would take the senile and ailing old duffer seriously…

Steve found a brooding menace, family turmoil, an undying supernatural horror and breathtaking action in the concluding ‘Blood on the Moors’, which saw the return and dispatch of vampiric villain Baron Blood, the birth of a new patriotic hero and the glorious Last Hurrah of a beloved character: to this day still one of the very best handled “Heroic Death” stories in comics history.

That sinister saga is followed by ‘Cap for President’ from #250 (October 1980) as the unbelieving and unwilling Sentinel of Liberty found himself pressed on all sides to run for the highest office in the land. This truly uplifting yarn is still a wonderful antidote for sleaze and politicking whilst confirming the honesty and idealism of the decent person within us all.

If you’ve not read these tales before then there are certainly better places to do so (such as Captain America: War and Remembrance) but these are still fine super-hero tales with beautiful art that will never stale or wither, and for us backward looking Baby-boomers these nostalgic pocket tomes have an incomprehensible allure that logic just can’t fight or spoil…

© 1980, 1981, 1982 Marvel Comics Group, a division of Cadence Industries Corporation. All rights reserved.

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New Mutants: The Demon Bear Saga


By Chris Claremont & Bill Sienkiewicz (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-87135-673-4

New Mutants was the first regular X-Men spin-off series (unless the you count the brief but brilliant saga of The Beast in Amazing Adventures #11-17 (all six-and-a-half tales are reprinted in Essential Classic X-Men volume 3) and the return to grass roots of powerful alienated kids in training offered many opportunities for slightly different tales that resonated with teen-aged readers.

The team – or perhaps class – gradually expanded as scripter Claremont explored his twin pet themes of alienation and female empowerment and by the time of this collection (reprinting issues #18-21, August-November 1984) his original kid cast – Scottish lupine metamorph Rahne (Wolfsbane) Sinclair, Brazilian solar powerhouse Roberto (Sunspot)DaCosta, human Cannonball Sam Guthrie and projecting psionic Dani (Psyche) Moonstar – had been joined by two new pupils whilst the older Vietnamese Xi’an Coy Manh AKA Karma had been sidelined in the ensuing months.

New additions included Amara Aquilla, a living volcano codenamed Magma who hailed from a lost colony of the Roman Empire and Ilyana (Magik) Rasputin, little sister of Russian X-Man Colossus and recently returned after ten years trapped in a sorcerous, timeless nether-dimension…

With #18, iconoclastic artist Bill Sienkiewicz began a stellar and controversial run pushing the illustrative narrative envelope with his expressionistic, multi-disciplinary range of styles: a perfect place to begin a new kind of adventure for the mutant Next Generation…

‘Death-Hunt’ begins with a fearsome flash forward of horrors to come before Psyche reveals her own precognitive talents have been warning her of the approach of a legendary animal spirit inimical to her tribe. However, whilst training in the Danger Room she gains her first inkling that the threat might be more than myth…

Meanwhile in deep space, a young alien mutant technological organism is fleeing from a catastrophic threat… his own murderous paranoid father.

With Professor X absent and a blizzard hitting, Dani roams the snowy grounds of the school when an impossible ursine monster attacks…

The action switches to the local hospital for ‘Siege’ as Moonstar’s broken body is rushed into emergency surgery. Her personal bogeyman is terrifyingly real and not of this Earth; a magical foe of her people determined to invade this plane and convert Earth into a realm of dark spirits.

In space the alien fugitive flees unheedingly towards Earth, disastrously encountering the swashbuckling Starjammers, before plunging onward. In the hospital, doctors struggle to save Dani, and Magik gleans some useful information with her mystic powers. The Bear needs to destroy Psyche because she holds the secret of defeating it and preventing the poisoning of our world with its malign influence.

With her classmates desperately guarding her dying body during the operation, the Bear’s next attack transports the entire medical centre to its mystical dimension, the metaphysical ‘Badlands’…

On its home turf it is unstoppable, warping a cop and nurse into Native American archetypes to attack the kids whilst slowly tainting the soul of the planet with its evil. Fighting back with all they have, the valiant kids stumble onto a last-ditch plan of attack to defeat the Bear and when returned to Earth they discover a shocking secret about the permanently transformed nurse and policeman…

The book ends with the extra-long ‘Slumber Party’ as the girls of Xavier’s School indulge in a relatively normal part of growing up. With the boys – including new recruit Doug Ramsey – banished for the night, a group of girls from Salem Centre stay over for the time-honoured festivities, but when dying techno-organic parasite Warlock crashes the party – fleeing from his homicidally destructive sire The Magus – the frolics dissolve into planet-threatening horror…

With the introduction of the weirdly warped Warlock and down-to-Earth Doug, the New Mutants cast was relatively complete and an era of superb storytelling and sublime experimentation began…

Fast-paced, evocative, thought-provoking, funny and scary, this book epitomises the very best of Marvel’s second renaissance and these compelling tales are amongst the most impressive and enjoyable of the vast Mutant canon.
© 1984, 1990 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Captain America: American Dreamers


By Ed Brubaker, Steve McNiven, Giuseppe Camuncoli & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-505-5

One of the key moments in Marvel Comics history occurred when the Mighty Avengers recovered a tattered body floating in a block of ice (issue #4, March 1964) and resurrected the World War II hero Captain America. With this act bridging the years to Timely and Atlas Comics (begun with the return of the Sub-Mariner in Fantastic Four #4), Marvel confirmed and consolidated a solid, concrete, potential-packed history and created an enticing sense of mythic continuance for the fledgling company that instantly gave it the same cachet and enduring grandeur of market leader National/DC.

It’s just that rich heritage and history which informs and embellishes this grand old fashioned Fights ‘n’ Tights romp by Ed Brubaker and artists Steve McNiven, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Mark Morales, Jay Leisten & Matteo Buffagni which featured in the first five issue of the Captain America monthly comicbook (volume 6 September 2011 – February 2012).

After too long on the sidelines Steve Rogers has again taken up the uniform and shield of the Star Spangled Avenger but is soon forced to confront his tragic past when his WWII paramour Peggy Carter passes away. Whilst attending her funeral with fellow veterans Nick Fury and “Dum Dum” Dugan the trio are targeted by a sniper and plunged back into long unfinished business…

Back in 1944 Peggy and the young warriors were in Paris to destroy an advanced weapons facility operated by Nazi technocrat Baron Zemo and budding conquest-cult Hydra. With the aid of costumed crusader Agent Bravo and Jimmy Jupiter – a boy with the ability to enter dreams and travel to a dimension where wishes became reality – the Allied operatives infiltrated the factory but the mission went terribly wrong, leaving Jimmy a comatose vegetable and Bravo trapped inside the timeless meta-realm with no hope of return.

Now Bravo is somehow back on Earth and working with a new Hydra Queen. Equipped with impossible new armaments and teamed up with the latest Zemo, the vengeful veteran wants to destroy Cap and Fury, romance/abduct the Avenger’s current girlfriend Agent 13 and obtain vengeance on the world which had forgotten him…

As part of that ambition Bravo recruits a long-forgotten Cap adversary. Lyle Dekker was a Nazi scientist and certified lunatic who had long harboured a festering hatred for the Red, White and Blue champion. After the hero had thawed out in modern times Dekker tried to assassinate him and take his place by having his mind permanently transferred into an 18-foot tall Cap robot dubbed The Ameridroid.

When the manic automaton attacks it is but the prelude to Bravo’s masterstroke: exiling Steve Rogers to Jimmy Jupiter’s fantasy dimension and a darkly seductive faux existence Captain America would never dream of escaping, whilst merging the Dream Dimension with the plane of reality: a new kind of American nation he would control…

With an added-value gallery of alternative covers by Art Adams, Olivier Coipel, Neal Adams, Dale Eaglesham, John Romita Sr. and Salvador Larroca, as well as anniversary and Movie variant edition covers, this superbly fast-paced and action-packed adventure is a stirring, thrilling and immensely entertaining confection that will delight old aficionados, impress new readers and should serve to make many fresh fans for the immortal Sentinel of Liberty.

™ & © 2011 and 2012 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. Italy. A British Edition by Panini UK Ltd.

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Essential Human Torch

New, extended review –


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1309-6

Hot on the heels (Sorry, sorry – I simply couldn’t help myself) of the runaway success of Fantastic Four, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby spun the most colourful and youngest member of the team into his own series, hoping to recapture the glory of the 1940s when the Human Torch was one of the company’s “Big Three” superstars.

This captivating, esoteric and economical collection of pure 1960s superhero shenanigans gathers those eclectic but crucial yarns (no less than five major Marvel villains debuted in blistering battle against the Flaming Kid) between Strange Tales #101 and 134 (October 1962- July 1965) and this searing monochrome compendium also includes the team-up of the Torch and Spider-Man from the second Annual.

Within a year of FF #1, the monster anthology title Strange Tales became the home for the hot headed hero. In issue #101, young Johnny Storm started his ancillary solo career in the eponymous ‘The Human Torch’ – a run-of-the-mill script by Larry Lieber (over a plot by his brother Stan) superbly illustrated by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers wherein Johnny Storm investigated sabotage at a new seaside amusement park and promptly discovered Commie conniving by a Red spy called the Destroyer. Kirby would pencil the first few adventures before moving on after which inker Ayers would assume control of the series’ look for most of its run – although Kirby would generate some of the best covers of his Marvel career throughout the Torch’s tenure.

An odd inconsistency or, more likely, tension and drama-inducing gimmick did crop up here. Although public figures in the Fantastic Four, Johnny and his sister Sue lived part-time in the rural New York hamlet of Glenville and despite the townsfolk being fully aware of her as the glamorous and heroic Invisible Girl, they seemed oblivious to the fact that her baby brother was the equally famous Torch. Many daft pages but ingenious pages of Johnny protecting his secret identity would ensue before the situation was brilliantly resolved.

Although something of a hit-or-miss proposition, the strip was the origin point for many of Marvel’s greatest villains. The first of these appeared in the very next tale ‘Prisoner of the Wizard’ (Lee, Lieber, Kirby & Ayers) wherein a spiteful and publicity-hungry intellectual giant determined to crush the Torch to prove his superiority to the callow kid who stole all the newspaper headlines and the same creative team, then produced the captivating classic ‘Prisoner of the 5th Dimension’, as Johnny defeated a potential invasion and freed a captive populace from tyranny before easily trashing adhesive-toting adversary ‘Paste-Pot Pete!’ (later revamped as the terrifying Trapster), before teaming with sister Sue to tackle the deadly ‘Return of the Wizard’.

When Kirby moved on to engineer and design a host of new characters and concepts (occasionally returning as necessity or special events warranted) Ayers assumed full art duties beginning with Strange Tales #106 (March 1963). This yarn was notable in that it revealed that the entire town of Glenville had always known the Torch’s secret identity but were just playing along to keep him happy.

When Acrobat Carl Zante knocked on Johnny’s door and offered him a better-paying gig in ‘The Threat of the Torrid Twosome’ the kid’s head was swelled and swayed but he soon discovered he had been played by a master conman and diabolical bandit…

This first hint of tongue-in-cheek whimsy presaged an increasing lightness of touch which would come to characterise the Marvel style as much as the infighting between team-mates. The villainous Acrobat would return in another milestone in issue #114…

Issue #107 would be Lieber’s last as Ayers drew a splendid punch-up with the ‘Sub-Mariner’ – a tale reminiscent of the spectacular and immensely popular Golden Age battles of their publishing forebears. Veteran writer Robert “Berns” Bernstein scripted the next two, frankly daft yarns over Lee’s plots, but the saving grace of both ‘The Painter of a Thousand Perils!’(empowered by an alien art kit which brought illustrations to life in ST #108) and ‘The Sorcerer and Pandora’s Box’ (#109, with monstrous demons attacking humanity) was the brief return of King Kirby to the pencilling.

H.E. Huntley (Ernie Hart) typed the words for Ayers to illustrate in ‘The Human Torch vs. the Wizard and Paste-Pot Pete!’ a cunning clash which presaged the villain’s eventual evolution into the FF’s evil counterparts the Frightful Four. In #111 the Torch made short work of ‘Fighting to the Death with the Asbestos Man!’ – yet another demented scientist experiencing the travails and tragedies of simpler times.

Strange Tales #112 (scripted by Jerry Siegel under the pen-name Joe Carter) introduced murderous electrical marauder the Eel who accidentally swiped and activated a miniature A-Bomb in the tense, multifaceted thriller ‘The Human Torch Faces the Threat of the Living Bomb!’ after which Strange Tales Annual #2, featured ‘The Human Torch on the Trail of the Amazing Spider-Man!’ a terrific romp by Lee, Kirby & Steve Ditko wherein the wall-crawler was framed by international art thief The Fox, whilst back in the regular comicbook, “Carter” created another long-term baddie in ‘The Coming of the Plantman!’

Strange Tales #114 changed the face of the Marvel Firmament forever…

Written by Stan Lee himself, illustrated by Kirby & Ayers, it featured the return of the third of Timely Comics’ Golden Age Big Three – or at least an impersonation of him by the insidious Acrobat – in a blockbusting battle entitled ‘The Human Torch meets…Captain America!

Here’s a quote from the last panel…

“You guessed it! This story was really a test! To see if you too would like Captain America to Return! As usual, your letters will give us the answer!” I wonder how that all turned out?

Lee took over as scripter with ST #115’s ‘The Sandman Strikes!’ as Johnny impersonated Spider-Man to defeat the deadly atomic thug Flint Marko, after which the Torrid Teen and team-mate Ben (The Thing) Grimm battled each other ‘In the Clutches of the Puppet Master!’ in #116, with Ayers inked by George Roussos in his own secret identity of George Bell.

‘The Return of the Eel! proved far more of a challenge in #117 after which the Wizard had another go as ‘The Man Who Became the Torch!’, consequently nearly killing the Thing and Reed Richards besides.

A first brush with Marvel’s soon-to-be core readership came in #119 when ‘The Torch Goes Wild!’ due to a Commie Agent called the Rabble Rouser who mesmerised decent citizens, making them surly and rebellious, after which Kirby stepped in for #120 as ‘The Torch Meets Iceman!’, a terrific action extravaganza that pretty much ended the glory days of this strip. From then on, despite every gimmick and occasional burst of sheer inspiration the Bullpen could muster, a slow decline set in as the quirky back-up strip Doctor Strange grew in popularity – and cover space…

Issue #121 saw Johnny as ‘Prisoner of the Plantman!’ (Lee & Ayers) and #122 found a brute, conman and yogi all augmented by Dr. Doom and mustered as the woefully lame Terrible Trio launch an ill-conceived attack in ‘3 Against the Torch!’

Strange Tales #123 saw a creepy inventor build himself an impressive insectoid exo-suit to get rich the easy way as in an effort to boost ratings, The Thing became a permanent fixture in ‘The Birth of the Beetle!’ This so-so saga was most notable for the pencil job by Golden Age Torch creator Carl Burgos, after which Johnny and Ben tackled a fully re-designed ‘Paste-Pot Pete’ (inked by Paul Reinman) and then went after another old adversary in ‘The Sub-Mariner Must Be Stopped!’

‘Pawns of the Deadly Duo!’ saw the Puppet Master return, allied to the Mad Thinker in a clever but shallow yarn whilst #127 pitted Ben and Johnny against a bizarre puzzle and ‘The Mystery Villain!’

After a stunning Kirby Thing pin-up the Fantastic Two then unwillingly battled ‘Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch’ in #128 (inked by Frankie Ray, AKA Frank Giacoia), as the Homo Superior siblings made an abortive first attempt to quit Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, after which ‘The Terrible Trio!’ once more failed to impress or assassinate the heroes…

Pop culture reeled and staggered with #130 in ‘Meet the Beatles’ (some sort of popular musical combo, not villains, and they actually didn’t meet them at all) although the brilliant Golden Age artist Bob Powell (with inking from Chic Stone) did take over the art chores for the comedy of errors/crime caper. Ayers returned to ink #131, the dire ‘Bouncing Ball of Doom!’ with the Mad Thinker siccing a cybernetic bowling bowl on the pair but Larry Ivie then wrote a capable Space Race thriller in ‘The Sinister Space Trap!’ inked by Mike Esposito under his Mickey DeMeo alias.

Stan Lee returned for the last two tales in ST #133 and #134; ‘The Terrible Toys’ wherein the Puppet Master tried a new modus operandi and ‘The Challenge of… The Watcher!’ (inked by the majestic Wally Wood) with the Torch and Thing transported to legendary Camelot to battle time-reaver Kang the Conqueror, but it was clear that the writer’s mind was elsewhere, most likely with the new Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. strip that would replace the Torch and thing in Strange Tales #135.

It is interesting to note that as the parent Fantastic Four title grew in scope and quality The Human Torch’s own series diminished. Perhaps there is something to be said for concentrating one’s efforts or not overexposing your stars. What was originally a spin-off for the younger audience faded as Marvel found its voice and its marketplace, although there would be periodic efforts to reinvigorate the Torch.

Sadly the historic value often supersedes the quality of most of these strange tales, but there’s still a good deal that’s great about this series and Fights ‘n’ Tights fans with a sense of tradition and love of fun will find this book irresistible and unmissable.
© 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Stan Lee Presents Daredevil


By Stan Lee & Wally Wood (Marvel Illustrated Books)
ISBN: 0-939766-18-3

Here’s another look at how our industry’s gradual inclusion into mainstream literature began and one more pulse-pounding paperback package for action fans and nostalgia lovers, offering yet another chance to enjoy some of the best and most influential comics stories of all time.

After a few abortive attempts in the 1960s to storm the shelves of bookstores and libraries, Marvel made a concerted and comprehensive effort to get their wares into more socially acceptable formats. As the 1970s closed, purpose-built graphic collections and a string of new prose adventures tailored to feed into their all-encompassing continuity began oh, so slowly to appear.

Whereas the merits of the latter are a matter for a different review, the company’s careful reformatting of classic comics adventures were generally excellent; a superb and recurring effort to generate continuity primers and a perfect – if fickle – alternative venue to introduce fresh readers to their unique worlds.

The dream project was never better represented than in this classy little crime-busting cornucopia of wonders with crisp black and white reproduction, sensitive editing, efficient picture-formatting and two superb epics from the first “hot run” of the very variable Man Without Fear …

Matt Murdock is a blind lawyer whose remaining senses hyper-compensate, making him an astonishing acrobat, mind-blowing martial artist and living lie-detector. Very much a second-string hero for most of his early years, Daredevil was nonetheless a striking and popular one, due in large part to the captivatingly humanistic art of such modern Michelangelos as Wally Wood, John Romita and Gene Colan.

DD fought thugs, gangsters, a variety of super-villains and even the occasional monster or alien invasion. He quipped and wise-cracked his way through life and life-threatening combat, before under the auspices of Jim Shooter, Roger McKenzie and Frank Miller, the character transformed into a dark, moody avenger and grim, quasi-religious metaphor of justice and retribution…

After a shaky start, with the fifth issue Wally Wood assumed the art chores where his lush and lavish work brought power, grace and beauty to the series. At last this mere costumed acrobat seemed to spring and dance across the rooftops and pages. Wood’s contribution to the plotting didn’t hurt either. He actually got a cover plug on his first issue.

This brilliant black and white collection begins with the Daredevil #6’s ‘Trapped by the Fellowship of Fear!’: a minor classic wherein the Sightless Swashbuckler had to defeat not only the blockbusting Ox and electric assassin The Eel but his own threat-specific foe Mr. Fear who could instil terror and panic in victims, courtesy of his deadly gas-gun…

Another villain debuted in #8’s gripping industrial espionage thriller with meek, mild Wilbur Day hiring Nelson & Murdock to retrieve the rights to a stolen technology patent from industrialist Carl Kaxton. However, the case led to a clash with a bizarre and terrifying menace in ‘The Stiltman Cometh!’ Moreover Day proved to be far more than he at first appeared…

It’s easy to assume that such resized, repackaged mass market paperback collections were just another Marvel cash-cow in their tried-and-tested “flood the marketplace” sales strategy – and maybe they were – but as someone who has bought these stories in most of the available formats over the years, I have to admit that these handy back-pocket books are among my very favourites and ones I’ve re-read most – they’re handier, more accessible and just plain cool – so why aren’t they are available as ebooks yet?
© 1965, 1982 Marvel Comics Group, a division of Cadence Industries Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Ultimate Comics Hawkeye


By Jonathan Hickman, Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona & Brad Anderson (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-464-5

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 comics, after all) killed dozens of super-humans and millions of lesser mortals.

The era-ending event was a colossal tsunami triggered by Magneto which inundated the superhero-heavy island of Manhattan and 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 a ‘”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. The world quickly became a far more deadly and fast-changing place with science and paranoia running rampant…

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 eventually toppled from his position for sundry rule-bending antics – and being caught doing them.

Now Fury’s back, once more running the Federal Security Agency: firmly re-established and in charge of both secret agents and the official superhero team for public consumption whilst running another clandestine super-squad doing stuff the officially sanctioned Ultimates wouldn’t dream of…

As well as the pick of remaining and new superhumans, Fury’s sometime secret army consists of James Rhodes: a fanatical soldier wearing devastating War Machine battle armour; the Hulk, ruthless super-spy Black Widow, resurrected WWII super soldier Captain America (part of the bright and shiny public Image company but always happy to slum it when necessary) and the infallible professional fixer Hawkeye – the man who never misses…

This compilation collects the Ultimate Comics: Hawkeye four part miniseries from August to November 2011, which acted as prelude and sidebar to yet another relaunch of the constantly-changing grim and gritty alternate universe. Also on view in this tale is a new take on mainstream Marvel’s hidden race concepts of metahumans and monsters The Eternals, Deviants and Celestials and offers a big tip of the hat to Jack Kirby’s other paranormal alien-nation the Inhumans…

In this apocalyptic modern world individual metahumans can be Weapons of Mass Destruction and personal superpowers are now the focus of a terrifying new global arms race. When the new nation SEAR (SouthEast Asian Republic) devolves into civil war the outside world learns that they have developed a serum that will randomly spark fantastic abilities in anybody dosed with it.

To achieve a monopoly in metahuman resources the SEAR rulers have also released an artificial virus to eradicate the X-Gene: as it spreads around the planet it destroys the potential for any more mutants to be born. There will never again be naturally occurring challengers to “The People”…

Unfortunately for the SEAR government – and thus their ally America – the insurrectionists rampaging through the ambitious new nation comprise the now uncontrollable unwilling first test subjects of the chemical trigger they have dubbed “The Source”…

When S.H.I.E.L.D. is ordered to assist the beleaguered SEAR authorities, Fury sends his very best and most trusted agent but events too quickly spiral out of control as a race of belligerent New Gods go wild in the streets. Moreover, Hawkeye’s true mission is not to save some tin pot dictators from their own folly but to secure a sample of the source for the good old USA…

When the situation becomes irretrievable Fury dispatches covert Ultimate-X and the Hulk but even these formidable fighting forces are ill-equipped to halt the carnage; especially since the “The People of the Source” have decimated the capital city and already fractionated into two philosophically opposed sub-groups led by two feuding brothers Zorn and Xorn: the vengefully aggressive Eternals and pacific, philosophical Celestials.

Sadly for humanity, the former far outnumber the latter…

However one thing both factions agree on is that Earth now belongs to their kind and anybody – powered or merely human – are lowly “Deviants”…

Featuring some valuable hints on the history and abilities of Olympic champion and reformed felon Clint Barton and his close association with Fury, this intriguing tome is a terse and straightforward do-or-die action rollercoaster and classy “gathering doom” tale in its own right but was only ever intended as an introduction to bigger events in the core title The Ultimates.

However the always entertaining Jonathan Hickman and cruelly underrated Rafa Sandoval (augmented by the inks of Jordi Tarragona and colourist Brad Anderson) make this a sleek and glossy simple pleasure for older Fights ‘n’ Tights fans and the impressive cover gallery by such stars as Neal Adams, Adam Kubert and Kaare Andrews add immeasurably to the book’s visual appeal.

Even though far more upbeat and exuberant that the usual Ultimate fare, the trademark post-modernity and cynical, dark action is still here to deliver the visceral punch fans insist on, so this is a pretty good book for anybody thinking on jumping on to the decidedly different world of Wonder: one which will resonate with older readers who love the darkest side of superheroes and casual readers who know the company’s movies better than the comic-books.

A British edition licensed and published by Panini UK, Ltd. ™ & © 2012 Marvel Entertainment LLC and its subsidiaries. Licensed from Marvel Characters B.V. All Rights Reserved.

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The New Mutants – Marvel Graphic Novel #4


By Chris Claremont & Bob McLeod (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-93976-620-8   1994 edition 0-939766-20-5

Midway through an extended X-Men storyline wherein the maligned mutants were lost in space and Professor X was infected with a telepathic parasite which urged him to gather similarly super-powered, potential hosts for parasitic aliens The Brood, Marvel launched a spin-off X-series which returned thematically to the core concept of heroes-in-training.

This fresh yet retro venture was dubbed The New Mutants and to fully capitalise on the landmark undertaking the junior class debuted in the company’s hot new format as a Marvel Graphic Novel.

At that time Marvel led the field of high-quality original graphic novels: offering big event tales set in the tight continuity of the Marvel Universe, series launches, creator-owned properties, movie adaptations and licensed assets in lavishly expansive packages based on the well-established European Album format with bigger, almost square pages (285x220mm rather than the customary 258x168mm) which felt and looked instantly superior to the gaudily standard flimsy comicbook pamphlets – irrespective of how good, bad or incomprehensible the contents proved to be.

After the immensely successful in-House epic ‘The Death of Captain Marvel’, two licensed properties ‘Elric: the Dreaming City’ and ‘Dreadstar’ set the seal on Marvel’s dedication to experimentation. The New Mutants then proved the growing power of the burgeoning Comicbook Direct Sales Market as this introductory graphic novel (only available in those still-few emporia) led directly into a nationally distributed new monthly series. Some fans had to jump through incredible hoops to pick up that all-important initial adventure…

Entitled ‘Renewal’ the school days saga finds sometime X-Men doctor Moira MacTaggert in the Scottish Highlands saving lupine metamorph schoolgirl Rahne Sinclair from a lynch mob led by a pious religious demagogue. The action then switches to Brazil where millionaire’s son and sporting golden boy Roberto DaCosta transforms into an eerie ebony monster in the middle of a soccer match. With the massed spectators appalled and terrified, only Bobby’s girlfriend Juliana Sandoval rushes to his aid…

In Kentucky, 16 year old Sam Guthrie trudges toward the coalmine. With his father recently dead, the boy now has to forget dreams of higher education and provide for his brothers and sisters. However when a cave-in buries him and his crew Sam unexpectedly blasts his way out in an explosive burst of power…

Meanwhile in the Medicine Bow Mountains of Colorado, reclusive Cheyenne maiden Danielle Moonstar is appalled to hear that her beloved grandfather is about send her to live with a white man named Xavier. Old Black Eagle fears her uncanny psychic abilities will overwhelm her and menace everybody around her…

None of these widely scattered waifs is aware that a manic mutant-hater has made them targets of his obsessive hatred. Dani is the first to suffer as her grandfather is murdered by armoured warriors…

Meanwhile in Westchester, Charles Xavier is examining Rahne and another young mutant. Xi’an Coy Manh is a Vietnamese refugee whose ability to possess people led her into conflict with her crime-lord uncle and the Amazing Spider-Man under the soubriquet Karma. When news of Black Eagle’s death arrives, Xavier rushes to Colorado with the two girls in tow, arriving in time to help Moonstar drive off more armoured assassins.

Discerning that Hellfire Club villain Donald Pierce is behind the murders and attempted abduction, the group then travels to Rio de Janeiro but arrives too late to save Roberto and Juliana from being kidnapped by Pierce’s agents…

Juliana dies saving DaCosta during a botched rescue mission and the grieving boy swears to have his full measure of vengeance…

Pierce has not been idle: he has already deceived and recruited gullible, desperate Sam Guthrie and sent the superhuman Cannonball to capture Xavier, leaving only the mutant kids, codenamed Wolfsbane, Mirage, Sunspot and Karma, to save him and thwart Pierce’s mad schemes. In this they are helped in no small part by the conflicted but rapidly reconsidering Guthrie…

Beautifully illustrated by Bob McLeod this fast-paced rollercoaster of drama and action was the first step in the inexorable expansion of the X-Universe franchise and still reads amazingly well – especially for new fans – even after that Homo Superior bubble has long burst…

A slightly re-proportioned and reformatted edition was released in 1994, reduced in size to approximate standard comicbook proportions and the tales has also been reprinted, albeit in proportionally much-reduced standard format as the first chapter of New Mutants Classic Volume 1 TPB (from 2006) which also includes the comicbooks New Mutants #1-7 and Uncanny X-Men #167 within its 240 pages.
© 1982, 1994 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved.