Category: Miscellaneous Superhero

By Jim Shooter, Barry Windsor-Smith & Bob Layton with Kathryn Bolinger (Valiant)
No ISBN

The 1990s were a slow period for comics creativity: the industry had become market-led, with spin-offs, fad-chasing, shiny gimmicks and multiple-covers events replacing innovation and good story-telling in far too many places. One notable exception was a little outfit with some big names that clearly prized the merits of well-told stories illustrated by artists immune to the latest mis-proportioned, scratchy poseur style, and one with enough business sense to play the industry at its own game…

As Editor-in-Chief, Jim Shooter had made Marvel the most profitable, high-profile comics company around, and after his departure he used that savvy to pick up the rights to a series of characters with Silver-Age appeal and turn them into contemporary gold.

Western Publishing had been an industry player since the earliest days, mixing a plethora of licensed titles such as Disney titles, Tarzan, or the Lone Ranger with the occasional homegrown hit like Turok, Son of Stone. In the 1960s during the camp/superhero boom these latter expanded to included Space Family Robinson, Brain Boy, Magnus, Robot Fighter (by the incredible Russ Manning) and in deference to the age of the nuclear hero, Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom. All of supremely high quality, they won huge fan-bases, but never captured the media spotlight of DC or Marvel’s costumed cut-ups.

With an agreement to revive some, any or all of these four-colour veterans, Shooter and co-conspirator Bob Layton came to a bold decision and decided to incorporate those earlier adventures into their refits: acutely aware that old fans don’t like having their childhood favourites bastardized, and that revivals need all the support they can get. Thus the old days were canonical: they did “happen.”

Although the company launched with a classy reinterpretation of Magnus, the key title to the new universe they were building was the only broadly super-heroic character in the bunch, and they had big plans for him. Solar, Man of the Atom was launched with an eye to all the gimmicks of the era, but was cleverly realised and realistically drawn. However, that not what this book is about.

The main text of the series followed comic fan and nuclear physicist Phil Seleski, designer of the new Muskogee fusion reactor as he dealt with its imminent activation. Inserted into the first ten issues was a short extra chapter by Shooter, Windsor-Smith and Layton that described that self-same Seleski as he came to accept the horrific nuclear meltdown he had caused and the incredible abilities it had given him. As the world went to hell Seleski – or Solar – believed he had found one chance to put it right…

That sounds pretty vague – and it should – because the compiled ten chapters that form Alpha and Omega are a prequel, an issue #0, designed to be read only after the initial story arc had introduced the readers to Seleski’s new world. That it reads so well in isolation is a testament to the skill of all the creators involved, and when I review the accompanying collection Solar, Man of the Atom: Second Death hopefully that will convince you to seek out both these outstanding epics of science-hero-super-fiction.

Conversely you could take my word for it and start hunting now: and just by way of a friendly tip – each insert culminated with a two-page spread that was a segment of “the worlds largest comic panel”, and the slipcase edition I’m reviewing includes a poster that combines those spreads into a terrifyingly detailed depiction of the end of the tale…
© 1994 Voyager Communications and Western Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

By Jim Lee, Billy Tucci and various (Image/WildStorm)
ISBN: 1-887-279-24-5

The 1990s were a time of startling changes in the American comicbook industry. Young upstarts broke away from the big companies to do all the job themselves, with admittedly mixed results, but as they lived or died on their own merits and ingenuity, it signalled a way that the other creative arenas (and of course I’m thinking the music biz here) could learn from even after all this time.

There had always been independent titles, but where the new guys differed from past do-it-yourself attempts was in the slick production values. These guys knew the product had to look and feel as sharp and cutting edge as the best of DC or Marvel – it’s just a shame so much of the new independents concentrated only on the style and so often ignored the actual creative content.

After a while however the very best of those independents, such as Jim Lee’s WildStorm titles from the Image Comics co-operative and Billy Tucci’s gradually unfolding martial arts epic Shi rose in sheer Darwinian majesty from the shiny, colour-saturated mire and carved a lasting place for themselves.

One of the biggest advantages of being an independent creator was how few people stood in the way if you wanted to do a team-up tale. The respective owners could just talk to each other…

This pretty and engaging tale is an unchallenging but generally satisfying conspiracy quest very much in the traditional manner starring the charismatic soldier-of-fortune Cole Cash (better known as Grifter) and the startlingly compelling and unconventional dancer/samurai masterminded by Jack-of-all-trades Billy Tucci.

Shi is Ana Ishikawa, whose father was a Japanese Warrior Monk and her mother an American Catholic missionary. Her father and brother were murdered by Yakuza boss Masahiro Arashi, setting her on a path of brutal, unrelenting vengeance using the Sohei Warrior skills taught by her grandfather, a master of the Yambushi Monks’ ancient secrets. She chose the mythical guise of Tora no Shi (Tiger of Death) to mask her when she began her crusade, but as she continued her battles her Catholic upbringing increasingly conflicted with her Sohei methodology…

Grifter is a veteran of many years of combat, covert and otherwise, who began his troubled life on the other side of the law. After years of black Ops he eventually went rogue, joining the WildC.A.T,’s super-team and was trained in alien combat techniques by the super-amazon Zealot. He has a unique no-nonsense approach to getting the job done, and has psionic powers he doesn’t like to use.

In this visually appetising collaboration Grifter returns to Japan hunting terrorists who killed one of his comrades, as the 50^th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima approaches. Meanwhile a highly placed Japanese government official has stolen a North Korean nuclear weapon, embroiling Ana Ishikawa and her sensei grandfather in a plot to steal a priceless artefact known as the “Final Rite of Kusunoki”, a 150 year old artwork that can exert an undeniable influence on the real ruler of Japan. This mastermind’s scheme includes long-delayed vengeance on the Americans, political power and even settling a centuries old feud with his clan’s greatest enemies, the Sohei…

With a nuclear clock counting down Grifter must first work out who he can trust, especially the enigmatic Shi, before the convoluted machinations and seemingly endless string of opponents standing between him and his own particular brand of payback drags him down to dusty death.

Sometimes a little too complex for its own good, this is nevertheless a solid piece of entertainment from an incredible cast of creators (clearly doing it yourself includes a large amount of sub-contracting) including Brandon Choi, Peter, Gutierrez, Travis Charest, Ryan Benjamin, Jamal Igle, Troy Hubbs, Richard Bennett and John Nyberg. If you need a little more style than substance occasionally, then this is certainly the fashion to follow…
© 1996 Aegis Entertainment Inc., dba WildStorm Productions and William Elliott Tucci. All rights reserved.