Category: Miscellaneous Superhero

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The Shield – America’s 1st Patriotic Comic Book Hero


By Irving Novick, Harry Shorten & various (Archie Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-87979-408-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There are numerous comics anniversaries this year. Some of the most significant will be rightly celebrated, but many are going to be unjustly ignored. As a feverish fanboy wedged firmly in the past, I’m still abusing my privileges to revisit another brilliant vintage book, criminally out of print but at least readily obtainable in digital formats…

Happy Birthday US of America! – even the less reasonable bits…

In the dawning days of the comic book business, just after Superman and Batman had ushered in a new genre of storytelling, many publishers jumped onto the bandwagon and made their own bids for cash and glory. Many thrived and many more didn’t, remembered only as trivia by sad blokes like me. Some few made it to an amorphous middle-ground: Not forgotten, but certainly not household names either…

The Shield was FBI scientist Joe Higgins who created a suit and vitamin supplement system bestowing enhanced strength, speed and durability. These advantages he used to battle America’s enemies in the days before the USA entered World War II. Latterly, he also devised a Shield Formula to increase his powers. Beginning with the first issue of Pep Comics (January 1940) he battled spies, saboteurs, subversive organisations and every threat to American security and well-being and was a minor sensation. He is credited with being the industry’s very first Patriotic Hero, predating Marvel’s iconic Captain America in the “draped in the Flag” field.

Collected here in this Golden-Age fan-boy’s dream (barely available as a trade paperback but also more accessible in digital formats) are the lead stories from monthly Pep Comics #1-5 (January – May 1940) plus three solo adventures from hastily assembled spin-off Shield-Wizard Comics #1 (Summer 1940).

Following a Foreword from Robert M. Overstreet and context-providing Introduction from Paul Castiglia the jingoistic wonderment opens with FBI agent Joe Higgins smashing a “Stokonian” spy and sabotage ring in his mystery man identity of The Shield – ‘G-Man Extraordinary’. Only his boss J. Edgar Hoover knows his dark secret and of the incredible scientific process that has made the young daredevil a veritable human powerhouse.

In Pep #2, as American oil tankers begin vanishing at sea, The Shield hunts down the ray gun-wielding rogues responsible and delivers punishing justice before #3 sees mini parachute mines cause devastating destruction in US waters… until the patriotic paragon locates the undersea base of brilliant science-maniac Count Zongarr and deals out some more all-American retribution…

There’s a whiff of prescience or plain military/authorial foresight to the blistering tale from Pep #4 (May 1940) when dirty, devious, diabolical Mosconians perpetrate a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Warned by a clairvoyant vision from new mystery man The Wizard, Higgins hurtles to Hawaii to scotch the plot. When fists and fury aren’t quite enough, the Shield turns an exploding volcano on the murdering backstabbers! Mission accomplished, Higgins takes an ocean liner home in Pep #5, only to have the ship attacked by vengeful Mosconians. After thwarting the sinister ambushers and battling his way home, Joe arrives back in the USA just in time to thwart a tank column attack on Congress!

The blistering pace, energising enthusiasm of the creators and sheer scale, scope and bravura of the Patriotic Paragon’s adventures made him an early hit, and he soon won a second venue for his crusade – the aforementioned Shield-Wizard Comics. The cunningly contrived shared title hit newsstands on June 20th 1940, and opened with the expanded origin for the red, white and blue blockbuster reprinted here.

In 1916 Joe Higgin’s father was a scientist and officer in US Army Intelligence. Whilst working on a formula to make men superhuman, Tom Higgins was attacked by enemy agents and lost his life when they blew up a fleet of ammunition barges. To make matters worse, the innocent dedicated agent was posthumously blamed for the disaster…

Joe grew up with the shame but swore to complete his father’s work and clear his name. By achieving the first – and gaining super-powers – Joe consequently lured out spy master Hans Fritz (who had framed his dad) and accomplished the most crucial component of his crusade: exonerating Tom Higgins. Then, with dad’s old partner J. Edgar as part of the secret, the son joined the FBI and began his work on America’s behalf…

Shield-Wizard #1 contained three complete exploits of the Star-Spangled Centurion, with the second introducing Joe to new partner Ju Ju Watson: a doughty veteran agent dedicated to completing the young operative’s training. Together they investigate a steel mill infiltrated by crooks holding the owner hostage and aiming to purloin the payroll. Young Higgins’ next case involves grisly murder as corpses are found concealed in a floating garbage scow with the trail leading back to vice racketeer Lou Zefke. His ongoing trial is stalling for lack of witnesses, but with only the slimmest of leads and plenty of enthusiasm, The Shield steps in and cleans up the mess…

Raw, primitive and inarguably a little juvenile, these are unadorned, glorious romps from the industry’s exuberant, uncomplicated daw days: Plain-&-simple fun-packed thrills from the gravely under-appreciated Irving Novick (Batman, Flash, Captain Storm, Wonder Woman, countless war comics, The Joker) & Harry Shorten (Archie Comics, Charlton Comics, The Black Hood, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, There Oughta be a Law!) and others whose names are now lost to history.

Despite absolutely not being to everyone’s taste, for dyed-in-the-woollen-tights superhero freaks, these guilty pleasures are worth a look, affording a rapturous tribute to those less complicated times and folk who always saw simple solutions to complex problems…
© 1940, 2002 Archie Publications In. All Rights Reserved.

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Word came yesterday that we’ve lost yet another comics giant. James Charles Shooter (27th September 27th 1951 – 30th June 2025) wrote countless comics stories, from the minor to the most major of major stars, and changed or steered the courses of US comic book stars with landmark tales like Marvel Super Hero Secret Wars, Secret Wars 2, Avengers: The Korvac Saga, The Superman vs. Flash race tradition, and Original Graphic Novels for Dazzler, Thor, the Avengers & X-Men (The Aladdin Effect) and more.

Wikipedia has a very fair assessment of him which you can read here .

Jim Shooter began his creative career at DC, a teenager helping his poorly-paid parents with bills. His submissions impressed editor Murray Boltinoff who bought his early stories, leading to residencies on the Legion of Super-Heroes and most of the Superman family of titles.

Combining his continued education with the stresses of being a jobbing writer, when he moved to Marvel his tales included continuity-changing runs on Daredevil, The Avengers, Super-Villain Team-Up, Ghost Rider, Spider-Man and others. As editor and publisher he created child-friendly imprint Star Comics for younger readers, sanctioned creator-owned venue Epic Comics and created Marvel’s New Universe sub-strand (writing core title Star Brand – some would say as autobiographical wish fulfilment). He pushed moving beyond the company’s established complex-continuity roots, writing “real world” material such as Team America and others. He also forged indelible links with toy and licensing brands that swiftly made Marvel the most profitable comics publisher in the US.

Outspoken, controversial and often ferociously dogmatic, Jim was Business to the bone without ever forgetting his blue-collar, poverty-driven roots. Bluntly, he alienated many key creators, but whatever others thought, did what he considered best. However, his work – he also pencilled many stories – was never dull and never, never, never boring. He was a master of science fiction themes, and understood childlike wonder, loss and comedy moments.

Always championing creator rights, Jim instituted return of artwork to artists and, when ousted from Marvel and setting up his later companies Valiant, Defiant and Broadway Comics, operated a collective writing policy that saw every participant in the incredibly collaborative process of making comics fully credited and remunerated for their contributions. He also always mentored new talent and encouraged everyone to push their own limits.

Jim Shooter was One of Us: a comics fan and story lover who made the jump from consumer to creator, so I’m asking those who care to remember him for his less well known – but often best written – efforts by hunting down and enjoying the items – or any Shooter effort – reviewed here.

The Valiant Era Collection and Warriors of Plasm
By Jim Shooter, Bob Hall, Faye Perozich, Kevin Vanhook, Don Perlin, Steve Ditko, Gonzalo Mayo, Stan Drake, Yvel Guichet, Ted Halsted, John Dixon, Paul Autio & various (Valiant)
No ISBN/ ASIN: B000H2UTEI

During the market-led, gimmick-crazed frenzy of the 1990s, amongst the interminable spin-offs, fads and shiny multiple-cover events a new comics company revived some old characters and proved once more that good story-telling never goes out of fashion. At DC, 14-year-old Shooter wrote epic runs on The Legion of Super-Heroes, Supergirl and Superman, and scripted the company’s first toy tie-in Captain Action, before moving to Marvel in 1976. When he became the Editor-in-Chief, Shooter made Marvel the most profitable and high-profile they had ever been. and, after his departure, used that writing skill and business acumen to transform an almost forgotten Silver-Age character pantheon into contemporary gold.

Western Publishing had been a major player since comics’ earliest days, blending a wealth of licensed titles such as TV and Disney titles, Tarzan, and the Lone Ranger with homegrown hits like Turok, Son of Stone and Space Family Robinson. During the 1960s superhero boom, these adventure titles expanded to include, Brain Boy, M.A.R.S. Patrol – Total War, Magnus, Robot Fighter and in deference to the atomic age of heroes, Nukla and the utterly brilliant Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom. Despite supremely high quality and passionate fan-bases, they never captured the media spotlight of DC or Marvel’s costumed cut-ups. Western shut up their comics division in 1984.

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 made those earlier adventures part-&-parcel of their refit: acutely aware that older 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 “happened”…

The company launched with a classy reinterpretation of science fiction icon Magnus, but the key title to the new universe they were building was the broadly super-heroic Solar, Man of the Atom Alpha & Omega and Second Death which launched with an eye to all the gimmicks of the era, but also cleverly realised and realistically drawn.

Hit after hit followed and the roster of heroes expanded until dire market conditions and corporate chicanery ended the company’s stellar expansion. Gradually it fractionated and despite many revivals since, has all but disappeared now…

Here’s another innovation of that idea-packed era – a sampler of hits and one of their earliest graphic novels – from the early days of the format we’re all so familiar with. The Valiant Era Collection, re-presenting Magnus #12, Solar #10-11, Eternal Warrior #4-5 and Shadowman #8 was released in 1994 as an introduction to the new old brand and canny compendium of first appearances from the company’s burgeoning continuity. It gathered a disparate selection of tales which had one thing in common: the debuts of characters that had quickly become “hot”.

In the collector-led era of the early 1990s – before one zillion internet sites and social networking media – many new concepts caught the public’s attention only after publication. The seemingly-savvy snapped up multiple copies of comics they subsequently couldn’t sell and many genuinely popular innovations slipped by unnoticed until too late. This trade paperback from a company that valued storytelling above all else addressed that thorny issue by simply bundling their own hot and hard to find hits in one book…

‘Stone and Steel’ was written by Faye Perozich & Shooter and illustrated by Gonzalo Mayo, and found Robot-Fighting superman Magnus transported to a timeless dimension where dinosaurs and cavemen existed side by side. Once there he became embroiled in a battle for survival against his old enemy Laslo Noel: a rabid anti-technologist not averse to using modern super-weapons to force his point of view.

The Lost Land had other defenders, most notably two Native American warriors named Turok and his young companion Andar. The pair had been a popular Western Publishing mainstay for over a quarter of a century (see Turok, Son of Stone) and their initial (re)appearance here led to their revival in a succession of titles which survived the company’s demise, as well as a series of major computer and video games.

That spectacular, entrancing epic is followed by a 2-part Solar saga introducing an immortal warrior prince and paving the way for the disclosure of the secret history which underpinned the entire Valiant Universe.

Solar was brilliant nuclear physicist Phil Seleski, who designed a new type of fusion reactor and was transformed into an atomic god when he sacrificed his life to prevent it destroying the world. His energized matter, troubled soul, coldly rational demeanour and aversion to violence made him a truly unique hero – but his discovery of hidden meta-humans and a genuine supervillain in the ambitious, mega-maniacal form of ultra psionic Toyo Harada led Solar into a constantly escalating Secret War. Solar #10 – ‘The Man who Killed the World’ by Shooter, Don Perlin, Stan Drake, John Dixon & Paul Autio – introduced a raft of new concepts and characters, beginning with troubled teen Geoffry McHenry – the latest in a long line of Geomancers blessed/cursed with the power to communicate with every atom that comprises our planet. When the world screams that a sun-demon is about to consume it, Geoff tracks down Seleski only to determine that Solar is not unique and the threat is still at large.

Meanwhile, Harada’s Harbinger Foundation has sent all its unnatural resources to destroy the Man of the Atom, supplemented by a mysterious individual named Gilad Anni-Padda: an Eternal Warrior who had been battling evil around the globe for millennia and has worked with a number of Geoff’s predecessors…

Concluding chapter ‘Justifiable Homicides’ (Shooter, Steve Ditko, Ted Halsted & Mayo) finds Geomancer, Gilad and Solar battling for their lives against an army of Harbinger super-warriors. As always with this series, the ending is not one you’ll see coming…

Gilad soon helmed his own series and Eternal Warrior #4-5 introduced his immortal but unnamed undying nemesis in ‘Evil Reincarnate’ (Kevin Vanhook, Yvel Guichet & Dixon), a tale of ancient China which segues neatly into a contemporary clash with a drug-baron who is his latest reborn iteration. Then nanite-enhanced techno-organic wonder warrior Bloodshot explodes onto the scene in ‘The Blood is the Life’ (Vanhook & Dixon): a blockbusting action epic setting up the enhanced assassin’s own bullet-bestrewn series and tangentially, the 40th century Magnus spin-off Rai…

The final debut in this volume was not for another hero but rather the introduction of the Valiant Universe’s most diabolical villain. Shadowman #8 held ‘Death and Resurrection’ (Bob Hall, Guichet & Dixon) and changed the rules of the game throughout the company’s growing line of books.

Jack Boniface was a struggling session saxophonist trying to strike it rich in the Big Easy when he was seduced by Lydia, a mysterious woman he picked up in a club. Her sinister, trysting assault left him unconscious, amnesiac and forever altered by a bite to his neck. Lydia was a Spider Alien: part of a race preying on humanity for uncounted centuries and responsible for creating many of the paranormal humans who secretly inhabit the world.

Her bite forever changes Jack and when darkness falls he becomes agitated, restless and extremely aggressive: forced to roam the Voodoo-haunted streets of New Orleans as the compulsive, impulsive daredevil dubbed Shadowman – violent, driven, manic and hungry for conflict… but only when the sun goes down. This tale examines the deadly criminal drug sub-culture of the city as a new narcotic begins to take its toll. a poison forcing its victims to careen through the streets bleeding from every orifice until they die. Witnesses call them “Blood Runners”…

As Shadowman investigates he is unaware that he is a target of the drug’s creator – ancient sorcerer Master Darque – and that soon the world will no longer be the rational, scientific place he believed. Before long, Jack will have terrifying proof that magic is both real and painfully close and that the Man of Shadow is not a creature of exotic physics and chemistry but something far more arcane and unnerving…

Despite being a little disjointed, these stories are immensely readable and it’s a tragedy that they’re not all readily available, as Valiant’s hostile takeover led to the breaking up of and selling on of various stars…

Still, there are always back issue comics and digital collections and the hope that the new revival might spawn a few trade paperback editions. Until then you can still hunt down this and the precious few other collections via your usual internet and comic retailers, and trust me, you really should…
© 1994 Voyager Communications Inc. and Western Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

Warriors of Plasm: The Collected Edition
By Jim Shooter, David Lapham, Mike Witherby, Bob Smith & various (Defiant)
ISBN: 978-1374700000, ASIN: B000R4LMUQ

If the 1980s was the decade where anybody with a pencil and a printer’s phone number could enter the business, the 1990s saw the rapid rise – and very often equally swift fall – of the small corporation publisher. Many businesses opened or acquired a comics division to augment or supplement their core business: like the Nintendo Comics that were packaged by and published in conjunction with Valiant Comics…

Jim Shooter founded Valiant with Bob Layton, and later went on to launch the short-lived but highly impressive Defiant Comics of which this book is – to my knowledge – the only collected edition. That’s a great pity as the range of talent that briefly worked there, as well as the titles themselves, showed immense promise. The legal war of attrition with Marvel that caused their early closure is well documented elsewhere, so I’ll swiftly move on to the product itself.

Flagship title Warriors of Plasm was a powerful alien intervention tale set mostly in an alternate universe where a single race had taken genetic science to such extremes that their homeworld had become a voracious planetary organism continually feeding on the biomass of other worlds.

Society on The Org was hierarchical, imperialistic and ritually sadistic, where the credos of “survival of the fittest” and “evolve or die” had the force of fanatical religion. Ruled by a weak Emperor, the court lived a life of brutal hedonistic luxury, revelling in decadence whilst relentlessly jockeying for advantage.

Lorca is a Seeker, high in the court and charged with finding new worlds for the Org to consume, but something within him defies official doctrine that personality is an aberration and that all bio-matter belongs to the greater whole. Bodies are mulched and recycled whilst individuality is an anti-social aberration, yet all organisms clearly would do absolutely anything not to die.

Spurred on by his corrupt rival Ulnareah, Lorca forms an illegal relationship with Laygen, a girl created without state-approval, and when caught, he is forced to recycle her to preserve his own existence.

Bitter and discontented, he eventually returns to work, but when he discovers Earth beyond the transdimensional veil he sees an opportunity to overthrow the Org and take supreme control. Humans are strong, individualistic, fierce warriors, and – with his tricks of genetic augmentation – could defeat any force the Org might muster. Thus, he teleports 10,000 test subjects to his private vats… but something goes wrong.

Only five humans survive, mutated into superhuman beings, but the Seeker is unaware of this since he’s been arrested by the authorities who never stopped watching him…

How the transformed humans escape and the uneasy alliance they form with unlikely liberator Lorca makes for a refreshingly novel spin on the old plot of revolution and redemption, and Shooter’s dialogue and characterisations of what could so easily have been stock characters add layers of sophistication to a fantasy drama many “adult” comics would kill for even today.

Simultaneously understated and outrageous as inked by Mike Witherby, David Lapham’s incredible art & design captivates and bewilders, adding a moody disorientation to a superb, action-packed thriller, especially in the incredible, climactic 4-page fold-out battle scene.

Originally produced as Warriors of Plasm #1-4, ‘The Sedition Agenda’ was preceded by an issue #0 daringly released only as a set of trading cards and supplemented by a prequel tale outlining the social relevance of gory global sporting phenomenon known as ‘Splatterball’, (written & drawn by Lapham with inks by Bob Smith), and these too are gathered here for your delectation.

Still seen on internet vendors’ sites, I have no idea where else you can find a copy of this terrific little book but I hope you do, just as I wish that some smart publisher would pick up the rights for all the Defiant material and the Broadway Comics Shooter produces after Defiant died: but maybe one day somebody will get the remaining band back together and finish all these lost stories…
© 1994 EEP, L.P. All Rights Reserved.

R.I.P. Jim…

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New Crusaders Legacy


By Rich Buckler, Ian Flynn, Robert Kanigher, Marty Griem, Lou Manna, Rex Lindsey, Stan Timmons, Bill DuBay, Jr., Rich Margopoulos, David M. Singer, Alex Toth, Carmine Infantino, Steve Ditko, Dick Ayers, Gray Morrow, Alec Niño, Tony DeZuñiga, Louis Barreto, Adrian Gonzales, Ricardo Villagran, Frank Giacoia, Alan Kupperberg, Jerry Gaylord, Ben Bates, Alitha Martinez & many more (Red Circle/Archie Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-936975-22-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In the dawning days of the comic book business, just after Superman and Batman pioneered a new genre of storytelling, many publishers jumped onto the bandwagon and made their own bids for cash and glory. Many thrived and many more didn’t; now relished only as trivia by sad old blokes like me. Some few made it to an amorphous middle-ground: not forgotten, but certainly not household names either.

MLJ were one of the quickest publishers to jump on the Mystery-Man bandwagon, following the spectacular successes of the Man of Tomorrow with their own small yet inspirational pantheon of gaudily clad costumed crusaders, beginning in November 1939 with Blue Ribbon Comics. Soon followed by Top-Notch and Pep Comics, their content was the standard blend of two-fisted adventure strips, prose pieces and gag panels and, from #2 on, superheroes. However, after only a few years Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater spotted a gap in the blossoming market and in December 1941 nudged aside their masked heroes and action strips to make room for a far less imposing hero; an “average teen” who would have ordinary adventures like the readers, but with triumphs, romance and slapstick emphasised. The teen phenomenon was pure gold and by 1946 the kids had taken over, so MLJ renamed itself Archie Comics; retiring its heroic characters years before the end of the Golden Age and becoming, to all intents and purposes, a publisher of family comedies. Its success, like Superman’s, changed the content of every other publisher’s titles, and led to a multi-media industry including TV shows, movies, a chain of restaurants and even a global pop hit Sugar, Sugar (a tune from their animated show).

By this stage the company had blazed through an impressive pantheon of mystery-men who would form the backbone of numerous future superhero revivals, most notably in the High-Camp/Marvel Explosion/Batman TV show-frenzied mid-60’s era. The heroes impressively resurfaced under the company’s Red Circle imprint during the early days of the Direct Sales revolution of the 1980s, but after a strong initial showing, again failed to sustain the public’s attention.

Archie let them lie fallow (except for occasional revivals and intermittent guest-shots in Archie titles) until 1991, when the company licensed its heroes to superhero specialists DC for a magically fun, all-ages iteration (and where’s that star-studded trade paperback collection, huh?!). Impact Comics was a vibrant, engaging and fun all-ages rethink that really should have been a huge hit but was again cruelly unsuccessful. When the line folded in 1993 the characters returned to limbo. DC had one more crack at them in 2008, incorporating The Mighty Crusaders & Co into their own maturely angst-ridden and stridently dark continuity – with the usual overwhelming lack of success.

Over the last decade the wanderers returned home to Archie in superbly simplistic and winningly straightforward revivals aimed squarely at old nostalgics and young kids reared on action/adventure TV cartoons: brimming with all the exuberant verve and wide-eyed honest ingenuity you’d expect from an outfit which has been pleasing kids for over 80 years.

Released initially online in May 2012 – followed by a traditional monthly print version that September – the first story-arc made it to full legitimacy with a thrill-packed trade paperback collection, equally welcoming to inveterate fanboys and eager newcomers alike. The series introduced a new generation of legacy heroes rising from the ashes of their parents/guardians’ murders to become a team of teenaged gladiators carrying on the fight as New Crusaders.

This collection supplements and follows on from that magical makeover: with mentor The Shield training the potential-filled juniors with the records of their predecessors. The stories included here come from those aforementioned 1980s Red Circle episodes; culled from the

Mighty Crusaders #1, 8, 9; The Fly #2, 4, 6; Blue Ribbon (vol 2) #3, 8, 14; The Comet #1 and Black Hood #2, collectively spanning 1983-1985.

Following an engaging reintroduction and recap, contemporary creative team Ian Flynn, Jerry Gaylord, Ben Bates & Alitha Martinez reveal how the grizzled, flag-draped veteran has trouble reaching his teenaged students until he begins treating them as individuals, and sharing past Crusaders’ cases. Starting with personal recollections of his own early days as America’s first Patriotic superhero in ‘The Shield’ (Mighty Crusaders #8, by Marty Greim, Dick Ayers & Rich Buckler), Joe Higgins explains his active presence in the 21st century, leading into a recapitulation of the first Red Circle yarn.

‘Atlantis Rising’ is from Mighty Crusaders #1, by Buckler & Frank Giacoia, which saw psionic plunderer Brain Emperor and immortal antediluvian Eterno the Conqueror launching a multi-pronged attack on the world. They are countered by an army of costumed champions including the Golden Age Shield, Lancelot Strong – the (other) Shield – and for a while there were three different ones active at once – Fly and Fly-Girl, The Jaguar, The Web, Black Hood and The Comet, who communally countered a global crimewave and clobbered the villains’ giant killer robots…

This is followed by a modern interlude plus pin-up and data pages on Ralph Hardy AKA ‘The Jaguar’ before a potent vignette by Chas Ward & Carlos Vicat. ‘The Web’ offers the same data-page update for masked detective/criminologist John Raymond before ‘The Killing Hour’ (Blue Ribbon #14, by Stan Timmons, Lou Manna, Rex Lindsey & Chic Stone) sees the merely mortal manhunter join his brother-in-law The Jaguar in foiling nuclear terrorism.

Modern pin-ups and data-pages reintroduce ‘The Comet’ before Bill DuBay, Jr., Carmine Infantino & Alec Niño reworked the original 1940’s origin tale by Jack Cole from Pep Comics #1 in (1940). Reproduced from 1984’s The Comet #1, this chilling yarn detailed how an idealistic scientist became the most bloodthirsty hero of the Golden Age, with a body-count which made The Punisher look like a social worker.

The infomercial for ‘Steel Sterling’ precedes a wild and whimsical origin-retelling of the star-struck, super-strong “Man of Steel” by his 1940s scripter Robert Kanigher, illustrated with superb style by Louis Barreto & Tony DeZuñiga from Blue Ribbon #3, after which ‘Fly Girl’ gets star treatment in a brace of tales, augmented as always by the ubiquitous fact-folio.

Buckler, Timmons, Adrian Gonzales & Ricardo Villagran’s ‘A Woman’s Place’ (The Fly #2) clears up an exceedingly sexist old-school extortion ring whilst ‘Faithfully Yours’ (Fly #6) sees her movie-star alter ego Kim Brand subjected to a chilling campaign of terror from a fan. Timmons, Buckler, Steve Ditko & Alan Kupperberg take just the right tone in what might be the first incidence of stalking in US comics…

‘Black Hood’ has no modern iteration in the New Crusaders. Still active in contemporary times, he encountered the kids during their debut exploit and is phenomenally cool, so he gets a place here. Following the customary introductory lesson he appears in a gritty, Dirty Harry styled caper (from Blue Ribbon #8 by Gray Morrow) as undercover cop – and latest convert – Kip Burland, who sidesteps Due Process to save a kidnapped girl and ensure the conviction of crooks hiding behind the law. The gripping yarn also discloses the centuries-long justice-seeking tradition of “The Man of Mystery”…

That’s followed by a snippet from Rich Margopoulos, Kupperberg & Giacoia’s ‘A Hero’s Rage’ wherein Kip discovers his uncle Matt (the Golden Age Black Hood) has been murdered. Ditching his leather jacket and ski-mask in favour of the traditional costume, the bereaved hero suits up and joins the Mighty Crusaders…

Without doubt the most engaging reprint in this collection and by itself well worth the price of admission is ‘The Fox’ from Black Hood #2. Written and drawn by the inimitable Alex Toth, this scintillating light-hearted period comedy-drama finds the devilish do-gooder in Morocco in 1948 and embroiled with wealthy expatriate ex-boxer Cosmo Gilly, who has no idea he’s become the target for assassination…

The recondite recollections surge to a climax with ‘Old Legends Never Die’ (MC#9, by David M. Singer, Buckler & Ayers) as the first Shield is accused of excessive force and manslaughter when his 1940’s crime-fighting style seemingly results in the death of a thief he apprehended. With Joe Higgins’ costumed friends in support but out of their depth in a courtroom, the convoluted history of the three heroes bearing his codename is unpicked during ‘The Trial of the Shield’ before the uncannily sinister truth is exposed…

Supplemented by a plentiful cover gallery and packed with the kind of ephemera that sends old Fights ‘n’ Tights fans into paroxysms of delight, I fear this is probably a book only the wide-eyed young and dedicated still ambulatory old fart nostalgists could handle, but it is such a perfect artefact of the superhero genre I strongly urge anyone with a hankering for masked adventure and craving Costumed Dramas to give it a long look.
NEW CRUSADERS and RED CIRCLE COMICS ® ACP, Inc. © 2013 Archie Comics Publications. All rights reserved.

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The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime vs The Crime Genie (volume 3)


By Jerry Siegel & Reg Bunn, with Geoff Campion, David Sque, Jesús Blasco & various (Rebellion)
ISBN 978-1-83786-173-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

I once again find myself in a quandary. When seriously reviewing something you must always keep a weather eye on your critical criteria. For me, the biggest danger when looking at comic collections is to ensure the removal of the nostalgia-tinted spectacles of the excitable, uncritical scruffy little kid who adored and devoured the source material every week in the long ago and long-missed.

However, after thoroughly scrutinising myself – no pleasant task, as you can imagine – I can honestly say that not only are the adventures of the macabre and malevolent Spider as engrossing and enjoyable as I remember, but will also provide the newest, most contemporary reader with a huge hit of superb artwork, compelling, caper-style cops ‘n’ robbers fantasy and thrill-a-minute adventure. After all, the strip usually ran two (later three) pages per episode, so a lot had to happen in pretty short order.

A triumphant beacon of Rebellion’s Treasury of British Comics line, The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime vs. The Crime Genie is the latest offering in what I hope will be a complete revival of the UK’s most marvellous vintage comics fantasies (bring on Smoke Man, Tri Man, Gadget Man & Gimmick Kid – we can take it!). Gathering material from peerless weekly anthology Lion and Champion spanning February 4th 1967- May 20th 1967, plus pertinent extracts from Lion Annual 1968 and 1969.

Mystery criminal genius and eventual superhero The Spider debuted on June 26th 1965 and reigned supreme until April 26th 1969. He has periodically returned in reprint form and occasional new stories ever since. As first introduced by Ted Cowan (Ginger Nutt, Paddy Payne, Adam Eterno, Robot Archie) & Reg Bunn (Robin Hood, Buck Jones, Captain Kid, Clip McCord), the moody malcontent was an enigmatic super-scientist whose goal was to be acclaimed the greatest criminal of all time. The flamboyantly wicked narcissist began his public career by recruiting crime specialists – safecracker Roy Ordini and genteelly evil genius inventor Professor Pelham – prior to a massive gem-theft from America’s greatest city. He was foiled by cruel luck and resolute cops Gilmore and Trask: crack detectives cursed with the task of capturing the arachnid arch-villain.

Cowan scripted the first two serialised sagas before handing over to comics royalty: Jerry Siegel (Superman, Superboy, The Spectre, Doctor Occult, Slam Bradley, Funnyman, The Mighty Crusaders, Starling), who had been forced to look elsewhere for work after an infamous dispute with DC Comics over the rights to the Man of Steel. His supervision of UK arachnid amazement began just as Britain and the entire, but less fab & groovy world succumbed to “Batmania”. In case you’re not old, the term covers a period of global hysteria sparked by the 1966 Batman TV show, as the planet went crazy for superheroes and an era dubbed “camp” saw humour, satire, and fantastic psychedelic whimsy infect all categories of entertainment. It was a time of peace, love, wild music and radical change, and I believe there were lots of drugs being experimented with at the time…

British comics were not immune, and a host of more conventional costumed crusaders sprang up in our traditionally unconventional pages. Scripted by the godfather of the genre – and an inveterate humourist – The Spider skilfully shifted gears without a squeak and became a superhero, battling in rapid succession The Exterminator, Crime Incorporated, The Silhouette, Dr. Mysterioso, The Android Emperor, The Infernal Gadgeteer, and The Crook From Outer Space…

Played out for months at breakneck rollercoaster pace, each monochrome story positively bulged with imaginative ingenuity, manic combats and crazy inventions peppering wide-eyed British kids with a bizarre conception of the USA. The strip grew ever more popular and by the time of this epic encounter demanded a full 5 pagers per episode, in a periodical where one or two pages a week was the norm. At the height of its creativity The Spider embraced full on surrealism in the tale as petty convict and recently escaped fugitive from a chain gang Steve Gurko finds a bottle with a djinn inside and strikes the deal of a lifetime…

Gifted with unlimited wishes, Gurko and the Genie go on a crime rampage and draw The Spider’s attention, leading to a protracted war of fantastic creatures against the arrogant hero’s ingenuity and inventions. A masterpiece of illustrative wonderment displaying Reg Bunn’s incredible gift for visualisation, the lengthy campaign finds The Spider, Pelham & Ordini facing hyper-enlarged insects, banishment to other eras, ancient warriors, terrible titans, wicked wizards, an army of modern mobsters, monstrous disembodied limbs, legions of trolls and giants, swarms of flying “stingers”, invading transdimensional “monstrogs”, erupting volcanoes, rampaging dinosaurs, missing links and Gurko himself willingly transformed into a super-heated “Sun-Man”…

Eventually, when he’s fed up with Gurko’s insipid uninspired ideas, the immortal genie turns on his Master and sets out to punish the infernal humans who have constantly escaped and humiliated him, and then the war gets really wild. Ultimately however, The Spider’s brain proves too much for ancient mystical brawn, especially after the increasing incensed apparition angers fellow mystical immortal Queen Lana of Valley of the Doomed…

It could have all ended there, but for the haughty Spider rebuffing her amorous advances and offers of alliance…

The climax comes when the retrenching genie mind controls the police as his new army and sets colossal arachnids on the hero, only to fall for a slick piece of conceptual sleight of hand and return to his own specialised “glass house”…

The months-long miracle war concluded, there’s still space for some extras, beginning with comic romp ‘The Spider and the Stone of Venus’. Illustrated by David Sque (The Skid Kids, Roy of the Rovers, Scorer) for Lion Annual 1968 and set when the Spider was seeking to shed his villainous, past it sees rival arch fiend Mister Mastermind frame him for a jewel theft and regret his folly very much indeed…

A year later an untitled Spider text story – lavishly adorned with Geoff (Battler Britton, Captain Condor, Typhoon Tracy, The Spellbinder, Captain Hurricane, D-Day Dawson) Campion illustrations – revealed how an army of assassins play on their enemy’s immense ego and successfully invade his castle as a film crew seeking to record his greatness for history. Sadly for them, even the Spider isn’t that vain…

Also from Lion Annual 1969, a second treat sees comics master Jesús Blasco (Steel Claw, Tex Willer, Buffalo Bill, Cuto, Capitán Trueno) limn a brutal war of wills and inventions as a fascistic tyrant threatens civilisation with his super weapons only to fall to the Spider’s boldness and amazing arachnid arsenal…

Completing the vintage treats is a full colour cover gallery, a Crime Syndicate pinup by Campion from Lion Summer Special 1968 and creator biographies. This compilation of retro/camp masterpieces is jam-packed with arcane dialogue, insane devices and outrageous antics that are perhaps an acquired taste. However, no one with functioning eyes can fail to be astounded by the artwork of Reg “crosshatch king” Bunn which handles mood, spectacle, action and Siegel’s frankly unbelievable script demands with captivating aplomb.

This titanic tome confirms that the King is back at last and should find a home in every kid’s heart and mind, no matter how young they might be, or threaten to remain. Batty, baroque and often simply bonkers, The Spider proves that although crime does not pay, it always provides a huge amount of white-knuckle fun…
© 1967, 1968, 1969, 2024 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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The Fox: Freak Magnet


By Dean Haspiel, Mark Waid, JM DeMatteis, Mike Cavallaro, Terry Austin & various (Red Circle Comics/Archie)
ISBN: 978-1-936975-93-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book also includes Discriminatory Content included for comedic and literary effect.

In the early days of the US comicbook biz, just after Superman and Batman had ushered in a new genre of storytelling, a rash of publishers jumped onto the bandwagon and made their own bids for cash and glory. Many thrived and many more didn’t, relished only as trivia by sad old blokes like me. Some few made it to an amorphous middle-ground: not forgotten, but certainly not household names either…

MLJ were one of the quickest outfits to pump out a mystery-man pantheon, following the spectacular successes of the Man of Tomorrow and Darknight Detective with their own small but inspirational pantheon of gaudily clad crusaders.

It all began in November 1939 (one month after a little game-changer entitled Marvel Comics #1) with Blue Ribbon Comics #1: content comprising the standard blend of two-fisted adventure strips, prose pieces and gag panels and, from #2 on, costumed heroes. They rapidly followed up with Top-Notch and Pep Comics. However, after only a few years Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater (hence MLJ) spotted a gap in the blossoming market and in December 1941 nudged aside their masked heroes and action strips to make room for a far less imposing hero; an “average teen” who would have ordinary adventures like the readers, but with triumphs, romance and slapstick emphasised.

Pep #22 (December 1941) featured a gap-toothed, freckle-faced, red-headed goof taking his lead from the popular Andy Hardy movies starring Mickey Rooney. Goldwater developed the concept of a youthful everyman protagonist, tasking writer Vic Bloom and artist Bob Montana with the job of making the concept work. A 6-page tale introduced Archie Andrews and pretty girl-next-door Betty Cooper plus an unconventional best friend/confidante Jughead Jones; all growing up in a small-town utopia called Riverdale.

The feature was an instant hit and by the winter of 1942 had migrated to its own title. Archie Comics #1 was the company’s first solo-star magazine and with it began a metamorphosis of the entire company. With the introduction of rich, raven-haired Veronica Lodge, all the pieces were in play for the comic book industry’s second Genuine Phenomenon (as influential, if not so all-pervasive, as Superman)…

By 1946 the kids had taken over, and MLJ – renamed Archie Comics – retired its heroic characters years before the end of the Golden Age, becoming, to all intents and purposes, a publisher of family comedies. Its success, like Superman’s, changed the content of every other publisher’s titles, and led to a multi-media industry including TV shows, movies, and a chain of restaurants. In the swinging sixties the pop hit Sugar, Sugar (a tune from their animated show) became a global smash, and their wholesome garage band The Archies has been a fixture of the comics ever since.

Nonetheless the company had by this stage also blazed through a rather impressive legion of costumed champions (such as The Shield who predated Captain America by 13 months) who would form the backbone of numerous future superhero revivals, most notably during the High-Camp/Marvel Explosion/Batman TV show-frenzied mid-60’s…

The heroes impressively resurfaced in the 1980s under the company’s Red Circle banner but again failed to catch enough public attention. Archie let them lie fallow – except for occasional revivals and intermittent guest-shots in regular Archie titles – until 1991, when the company licensed its heroes to superhero specialists DC for a magically fun, all-ages iteration (and where’s that star-studded curated collection, huh?!).

Impact Comics was a vibrant, engaging and fun all-ages rethink that really should have been a huge hit but was again incomprehensibly unsuccessful. When the Impact line folded in 1993 the characters returned to limbo until the company had one more crack at them in 2008, briefly and boldly incorporating Mighty Crusaders & Co into DC’s own maturely angst-ridden, stridently dark continuity… with the usual overwhelming lack of success.

In 2012 the company began restoring their superhero credentials with a series of online adventures under the aegis of a revived Red Circle subdivision. They began with The Mighty Crusaders (reinforced by traditional monthly print versions six months later): new costumed capers emphasising fun and action equally welcoming to inveterate fanboys and eager newcomers alike…

Moreover…

One of the company’s most tantalising and oddly appealing Golden Age second stringers was a notional Batman knockoff dubbed The Fox. Debuting in Blue Ribbon #4 (cover dated June 1940, but on sale from March 28th) the feature followed ambitious, go-getting young photojournalist Paul Patton, who initially dressed up as a costumed crusader to get exclusive scoops before inevitably and properly catching the hero-bug and doing his thing for the Right Reasons.

Running until #22 – March 1943 – the first Fox strips were scripted by Joe Blair and drawn by Irwin Hasen (who recycled the timelessly elegant costume design for DC/All American’s pugilistic powerhouse Wildcat in January 1942’s Sensation Comics #1). The dark detective vanished in the wave of Archie’s ascent, until revived as a walk-on in Mighty Crusaders #4 (April 1966). He was particularly well-served during a subsequent 1980s revival when visual narrative genius Alex Toth illustrated many of his new adventures. In 2013 the character – or rather his son – was singled out for solo stardom in the most recent (and mainly digital) Red Circle resurrection.

This superbly riotous collection collects the first story-arc and a few cool on-line extras published in 2013 as the sublimely witty and engaging action-romp The Fox: Freak Magnet #1-5. There was also a second miniseries/sequel collection that we’ll get to in the fullness of time…

As seen in New Crusaders: Rise of the Heroes, this Earth’s masked heroes were generally enjoying a well-deserved retirement in the ideal little city of Red Circle, until tracked down and murdered by old foe The Brain Emperor. Only elderly Joe Higgins was left to save their children and heirs. He shepherded them to safety thanks to a long-established and practised escape plan devised by the Mighty Crusaders and tutored the instant orphans to the eventual attainment of their true potential as heroes in their own right…

Higgins was a lucky choice: the world’s first masked superman and a trusty Shield against all evil and injustice…

At first, all that has very little to do with Paul Patton Jr., who has voluntarily followed in his own father’s footsteps both as a photojournalist and masked mystery man – and for the same venal petty reasons – only to discover that both jobs come at an inescapable price. In his case trouble and insanity always finds him, so he might as well be dressed and ready for the occasions…

Following a Foreword by Mike Allred, the further adventures of The Fox – as imagined by plotter/artist Dean Haspiel and scripter/dialoguer Mark Waid – begin with ‘Freak Magnet part 1: Public Face’ as the reluctant champion accidentally exposes the shady secrets of the world’s most beautiful social media tycoon whilst on a cushy photo assignment. Magnificent Lucy Fur seems to have everything going for her, but the Fox’s infallible gift for stumbling into unfortunate situations soon “outs” the beautiful siren as manic murder-monster Madame Satan…

No sooner has our Roguish Reynard despatched her and caught a breath than he’s accosted by an extradimensional princess in distress, desperately seeking a few good men in ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend’. The frantic Queen of Diamonds has already shanghaied some of Earth’s greatest champions, sending them to save her beloved husband from wicked menace the Druid who has transformed hubby into a ravening monster. Now, however, as her power to fight back – and options – dwindle, she finally arrives at merely mortal but weirdly lucky Patton…

Given no chance to refuse, the fed-up Fox is soon questing through a bizarre world, enduring horrific hallucinations (including his not-so-understanding wife Mae who infrequently suits-up as the savage She-Fox) and a succession of marauding man-things. After he defeats a particularly big beast, it reverts to the battered form of missing pulp hero Bob Phantom…

That issue also began a back-up serial by JM DeMatteis, Mike Cavallaro & Terry Austin, included here as ‘Shield: The Face of Hate part 1 – A Very Cold War’ which finds aged but still vital Joe Higgins in a bar, recounting one of his WWII exploits…

Debuting way back when in Pep Comics #1, Higgins was an FBI scientist who devised a suit which gave him enhanced strength, speed and durability, battling the USA’s enemies as The Shield in the days before America entered WWII. He also devised a serum which enhanced those powers, smashing spies, saboteurs, subversives and every threat to Democracy and decency. This particular old soldier’s yarn concerns a 1944 mission in Antarctica to crush an Axis super-weapon, but which found him facing not just a legion of monsters but also his Nazi and Japanese counterparts Master Race and Hachiman…

Chapter three of Freak Magnet resumed with Haspiel & Waid’s lucky lad wandering through ‘Hell’s Half Acre’ like a Lycra-draped Indiana Jones in Dante’s Inferno; en route defeating and curing lost hero/mutated monster Inferno, the Flame Breather prior to rescuing gun-toting pulp-era vigilante The Marvel from a macabre torture chamber. Unfortunately, once released, the Scourge of Gangland is a wee bit traumatised and can no longer tell friend from foe…

Meanwhile back in World War II, ‘The Face of Hate part 2 – The Enemy of My Enemy’ (DeMatteis, Cavallaro & Austin) sees the sworn enemies’ 3-way battle boil over into berserker rage… until a grotesque horror jumps all three of them…

In the Diamond Dimension of today, whilst Inferno tackles a maddened Marvel, Fox must face the Queen’s ensorcelled husband in ‘The Voodoo You Do’ (Haspiel & Waid), until the nigh-omnipotent Druid takes a personal hand. Happily, at that moment the more-or-less dutiful wives appear, the power of love and sparkly expensive engagement rings having allowed the Queen and Mae to cross the dimensional divide and tip the scales. With the Druid blasted to chunks, Patton believe the madness has subsided for a while… until the Diamond Ruler blasts the Earthlings home and Patton arrives alone in Antarctica, dumped into another insanely dangerous situation…

‘Shield: The Face of Hate part 3 – A Mind of Shattered Glass’ (DeMatteis, Cavallaro & Austin) saw the hate-filled human foes swallow their feelings to unite in combat against an incredible predatory horror which has grown from a fragment of a far greater being destroyed in antiquity and scattered throughout the universe. This entity fed on hate and planned to transform Earth into a world of monsters, but just as it completes its evolution into a new, much more malign and menacing Druid, a black clad, long-eared and annoyingly familiar figure materialises…

The time-tossed twin sagas combine for the epic conclusion ‘Freak Magnet: Future’s End’ (by DeMatteis & Haspiel) as Fox, Shield, Hachiman and Master Race team up: striving together to save humanity and finding themselves forever changed by the cosmic experience.

A fulsome ‘Afterword by Dean Haspiel’ follows and is augmented by one more comics treat as our effulgent everyman crafts a delicious and hilariously thrilling short yarn starring Paul Patten Jr., explaining his choice of cameras in ‘Epilogue: A Picture Lasts Forever’…

This delightful exercise in reviving the fun-filled excitement of comics that don’t think they’re Shakespeare or Orwell also includes such extra inducements as a covers-&-variants gallery (23 in total) from Haspiel and guests Darwyn Cooke, Fiona Staples, Mike Norton, Allen Passalaqua, Paul Pope, Mike & Laura Allred, David Mack, Howard Chaykin, Jesus Aburto, Mike Cavallaro & Alex Toth, as well as a fact-packed ‘Special Feature’ section revealing some of ‘The Fox Files’.

Beginning with the lowdown on the cagy crusaders in ‘Origin of the Freak Magnet’ and ‘She-Fox: The Vivacious Vixen’, there’s even room for bonus featurette ‘Red Circle Heroes: Extra Pulp’, offering character insights and publication histories for ‘Bob Phantom’, ‘Inferno’ and ‘The Marvel’.

… And best yet, there’s a great big tantalising “To Be Continued…”

Full of vim & vigour, this phenomenal Will Eisner-inspired romp delivers no-nonsense, outrageously emphatic superhero hijinks drenched in slick, smart, tried-&-true comic book bombast and outrageous action which manages to feel brand-new whilst simultaneously remaining faithful to all the past iterations and re-imaginings of the assorted superheroes.

Fast, fulfilling and immediately addictive, The Fox should always have been Archie’s long-awaited superhero superstar… and might just yet be the one…

If you yearn for all the uncomplicated fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights furore of your youth – whenever that was – this is a book you must not miss.
THE FOX ™ & © RED CIRCLE COMICS ® ACP, Inc. The individual characters; names and likenesses are the exclusive trademarks of Archie Comics Publications, Inc. © 2014 Archie Comics Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Take That, Adolf! – The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War


By Mark Fertig and many & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-987-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Long the bastion of the arcane, historic, esoteric and the just plain interesting arenas of the comics experience, Fantagraphics Books here celebrates the dawn age of Fights ‘n’ Tights funnybooks with a magnificent collection of (mostly) superhero covers culled from the fraught period which most truly defined the comics industry.

Comic book covers are a potent and evocative way of assessing the timbre of an era and a captivating shortcut into worlds far removed from our own. They are also half the sum total of fun generated by narrative art and arguably an art form all their own. In this torrid tome, educator, scholar and writer Mark Fertig (Chair of Art and Art History at Susquehanna University, Pennsylvania and revered film noir expert – check out his Where Danger Lives for more populist fun) offers an erudite, wide-reaching treatise comprehensively addressing every aspect of the four-colour Home Front’s graphic endeavours in support of America’s WWII war effort.

Detailing how Jewish émigré artists’ and writers’ creative influences advocated America surrender its isolationist stance in ‘Four Color Fantasies’ and ‘Building Towards War’, Fertig then traces the development of ‘Red, White, and Blue Heroes’ such as The Shield and Uncle Sam before ‘The Coming of Captain America’ sparks the invention of ‘An Army of Captains’.

After the USA finally enters the war ‘All-Out Assault: August & September 1941’  is followed by an examination of female masked fighters in ‘She Can Do It!’ and reveals how Wonder Woman became ‘An Amazon for the Ages’.

‘Kids Can Fight Too!’ reveals the impact of junior and underage crusaders as well as the sub-genre of Kid Gangs whilst ‘Attaboy, Steamboat!’ confronts head-on the depiction of ethnic characters – both vile foreign predators and monstrous conquerors and decent Pro-democracy non-white types…

From here in the distant future, some of the appalling jingoism and racism is even more disturbing than the tortures, torments and buckets of gore liberally scattered through the images of Evil Nazis and “Japs”…

Next ‘Into the Breach’ addresses the reasons omnipotent heroes such as Superman and Captain Marvel left the actual fighting in Europe and the Pacific to ordinary mortals before ‘Pulling Together’ details the promotion of Home Front solidarity munitions manufacture and the arming of the armies of Freedom. Then Hitler repeatedly gets his just deserts (in graphic effigy at least) ‘In Der Führer’s Face!’

‘Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines!’ follows the development of more human fictional soldiers and heroes whilst ‘More Thrilling Than Fiction’ sees the beginnings of fact-based accounts of true champions such as President Roosevelt and General Eisenhower before ‘Pitch Men’ follows the numerous examples of masked warriors and kiddie-characters inciting readers to help pay for the war through selling war bonds and liberty stamps before ‘On to Victory’ celebrates the end of hostilities and the aftermath.

The fact-packed lecture is also supplemented at the back of the book by creator biographies of industry giants and iconic cover crafters Charles Clarence Beck, Jack Binder, Charles Biro, Hardin “Jack” Burnley, Reed Crandall, Will Eisner, Lou Fine, Irv Novick, Manuel “Mac” Raboy and Alex Schomburg (regarded as the most prolific cover illustrator of the period) but the true merit of this enchanting tome is the covers gathered for your perusal.

Designed to incite patriotic fervour and build morale, the awesome majority of this tome features a potent avalanche of stunning covers from almost every company, displaying not only how mystery men and superheroes dealt with the Axis of Evil in those tense times but also the valiant efforts of “ordinary fighting men” and even cartoon fantasy stars such as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Walt Disney stars such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck…

Shopping List Alert: Feel free to skip if you must…

This book celebrates an absolute torrent of spectacular, galvanising scenes of heroes legendary and obscure, costumed and uniformed, all crushing tanks, swatting planes, sinking U-Boats and decimating enemy ranks, and unleashed before your assuredly goggled eyes by artists long forgotten, and never known as well as more familiar names. This battalion of the worthy includes Joe Shuster, Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, Eisner, Harry G. Peter, Jack Burnley, Frank Harry, Irwin Hasen, Al Avison, Bob Powell, Edd Ashe, Harry Lucey, Paul Gustavson, Bill Everett, Jerry Robinson, Gus Ricca, Al Gabriele, Charles Sultan, Gene Fawcette, Louis & Arturo Cazeneuve, Gill Fox, Sam Cooper, Jim Mooney, Elmer Wexler, Fred Ray, Dan Zolnerowich, Don Rico, Max Plaisted, Howard Sherman, Everett E. Hibbard, Ramona Patenaude, Pierce Rice, Harry Anderson, Lin Streeter, Dan Gormley, Bernard Klein, Stephen Douglas, Martin Nodell, Charles Quinlan, Dan Noonan, Sheldon Moldoff, Henry Keifer, Marc Swayze, Carl Buettner, Charles A. Winter, Maurice, del Bourgo, Jack Warren, Bob Montana, Bob, Fujimori, Vernon Greene, George Papp, John Jordan, Syd Shores, John Sikela, Alex Blum, Ray Ramsey, R. Webster, Harry Sahle, Mort Leav, Alex Kotzky, Dan Barry, Al Camy, Stan Kaye, George Gregg, Art Saaf, George Tuska, Alexander Kostuk, Al Carreno, Fred Kida, Ruben Moreira, Sidney Hamburg, Rudy Palais, Joe Doolin, Al Plastino, Harvey K. Fuller, Louis Goodman Ferstadt, Matt Bailey, Ham Fisher, Walt Kelly, Wayne Boring, John Giunta, Creig Flessel, Harold Delay, Lee Elias, Henry Boltinoff, L.B. Cole and George Marcoux – plus oh so many more who did their bit by providing safe thrills, captivating joy and astounding excitement for millions.

These powerful, evocative, charming, funny, thrilling, occasionally daft and often horrific images are controversial these days. Many people consider them Art with a capital ‘A’ whereas close-minded, reactionary, unimaginative, bigoted die-hard poltroons don’t.

Why not Dig back in time (For Victory!) and make your own decision?
© 2017 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. Main text © 2017 Mark Fertig. All comics covers and illustrations herein © 2017 the respective copyright holders All rights reserved.

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The Mighty Crusaders: Origin of a Super Team


By Jerry Siegel, Paul Reinman, Frank Giacoia, Joe Giella, Sam Rosen & various (Red Circle Productions/Archie Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-87979-414-6 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

If you like your superheroes grim, gritty and ultra-serious you won’t like what follows, but honestly in the final analysis it’s not Chekhov or Shakespeare, just people in tights hitting each other, so why not lighten up and have a little fun?

In the early days of the US comic book biz, just after Superman & Batman ushered in a new genre of storytelling, a rash of publishers jumped onto the bandwagon and made their own bids for cash and glory. Many thrived and many more didn’t, relished only as trivia by sad old duffers like me. Some few made it to an amorphous middle-ground: not forgotten, but certainly not household names either…

MLJ were one of the quickest outfits to manufacture a mystery-man pantheon, following the spectacular successes of the Man of Tomorrow and Darknight Detective with their own small but inspirational pantheon of gaudily clad crusaders. Beginning in 1939 (one month after a little game-changer entitled Marvel Comics #1) with Blue Ribbon Comics #1 the MLJ content comprised a standard blend of two-fisted adventure strips, prose pieces and gag panels before, from #2 on, costumed heroes entered the mix. The company rapidly followed up with Top-Notch Pep Comics and many more. However, after only a few years Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater (hence MLJ) spotted a gap in the blossoming market and in December 1941 nudged aside their masked mystery men and action aces to make room for a far less imposing hero: an “average teen” who would have ordinary adventures like the readership, but with triumphs, romance and slapstick emphasised.

Cover dated December 1941, Pep #22 featured a gap-toothed, freckle-faced, red-headed goof who took his lead from the popular Andy Hardy movies starring Mickey Rooney. Goldwater developed the concept of a youthful everyman protagonist, tasking writer Vic Bloom and artist Bob Montana with the job of making it work. The 6-page tale introduced Archie Andrews, pretty girl-next-door Betty Cooper and his unconventional best friend and confidante Jughead Jones living in a small-town utopia called Riverdale. The feature was an instant hit and by the winter of 1942 had won its own title.

Archie Comics #1 was the company’s first solo-star magazine and with it began a gradual transformation of their entire output. With the introduction of rich, raven-haired Veronica Lodge, all the pieces were in play for the comic book industry’s second Genuine Phenomenon (as influential, if not so all-pervasive, as Superman). By 1946 the kids had taken over, and MLJ renamed itself Archie Comics: retiring its superheroic characters years before the end of the Golden Age to become, to all intents and purposes, a publisher of family comedies. Its success, like Superman’s, changed the content of every other publisher’s titles, spawning a multi-media empire generating TV shows, movies, apparel, and even a chain of restaurants. In the swinging sixties the pop hit Sugar, Sugar (a tune from their animated TV show) became a global smash and wholesome garage band The Archies has been a fixture of the comics ever since.

Nonetheless the company had by this stage blazed through a rather impressive legion of costumed champions – such as The Shield: America’s first patriotic superhero, predating Captain America by 13 months. A select core of these lost titans would communally form the backbone of numerous future superhero revivals, most notably during the “High-Camp”, “Marvel Explosion”, “Batmania” frenzied swinging Sixties…

Archie Comics had tentatively, and with a modicum of success, tried out new characters – Lancelot Strong: The Shield, The Fly and The Jaguar – when DC first began bringing back costumed champions in the late 1950’s and used the titles to cautiously revive some of their own Golden Age stable in the early 1960s. However, it wasn’t until superheroes became a global craze, fuelled as much by Marvel’s unstoppable rise as the Batman TV show, that the company committed to a full return of costumed craziness, albeit by what seemed to be mere slavish imitation…

The comedy specialists simply couldn’t take the venture seriously though and failed – or perhaps refused – to imbue the revitalised wonder people with drama and integrity to match the superficial zaniness. I suspect they just didn’t want to. As harmless adventures for the younger audience, the efforts of their “Radio Comics” imprint manifested a manic excitement and uniquely explosive charisma all their own, with hyperbolic scripting by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel touching just the right note at exactly the key moment for a generation of kids…

It all began when The Fly (originally created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby) was reborn as Fly-Man to milk the growing camp craze. He began incorporating mini-revivals of forgotten heroes such as The Shield, Comet and Black Hood in his highly imitative pages. With the addition of already-well established sidekick Fly-Girl, an oddly engaging, viable team was formed. Thus – for a couple of truly crazy years – Archie Comics rolled out their entire defunct pantheon for an exotic effusion of multicoloured mayhem before fading back into obscurity…

Here, then, is a deliciously indulgent slice of sheer backward-looking bluster and bravado from 2003 when the House of Wholesome Fun stuffed a selection of Silver Age appearances into a brace of slim – and still sadly overlooked – compilations. The Mighty Crusaders: Origin of a Super-Team collects the three tenuous team-ups from Fly-Man #31-33 (May – July 1965) plus the first issue of spin-off Mighty Crusaders (November 1965) which finally launched the extremely quarrelsome champions as an official squad of evil eliminators…

The wacky wonderment begins with a history lesson and loving appreciation in a ‘Foreword by Michael Uslan and Robert Klein’ before those first eccentric inklings of a new sensation are re-revealed in Fly-Man #31. As previously stated, Jerry Siegel provided baroquely bizarre, verbally florid scripts, deftly parodying contemporary storytelling memes of both Marvel and National/DC: plenty of pace, lots of fighting, a whirlwind torrent of characters and increasingly outrageous expository dialogue.

The artist was veteran illustrator Paul Reinman who had been drawing comics since the dawning moments of the Golden Age. His credits included Green Lantern, Sargon the Sorcerer, The Atom, Starman and Wildcat. He drew The Whizzer, Sub-Mariner and Human Torch at Timely and for MLJ produced strips in Blue Ribbon Comics, Hangman, Jackpot, Shield-Wizard, Top-Notch and Zip Comics involving such early stars as Black Hood, The Hangman and The Wizard. He even found time to illustrate the prestigious Tarzan syndicated newspaper comic strip. Reinman excelled at short genre tales for Atlas in the 1950s and became a key inker for Jack Kirby on the Hulk, Avengers and X-Men as the King irrevocably reshaped the nature of comics storytelling in the early 1960s…

Here he uses all that Fights ‘n’ Tights experience to depict ‘The Fly-Man’s Partners in Peril’ as criminal mastermind The Spider (nee Spider Spry) broke out of jail to attack his old enemy, only to have all his cunning traps spoiled by alien-equipped tech-master The Comet and, in second chapter ‘Battle of the Super-Heroes’, by The Shield and man of mystery Black Hood (whose irrepressible sidekick at this time was a miraculous robotic horse dubbed Nightmare)…

Caustically christening his foes The Mighty Crusaders, the villain attempts to ensnare them all in ‘The Wicked Web of the Wily Spider!’ but ultimately fails in his plot. The story ends with our heroes hotly debating whether they should formally amalgamate and swearing that whatever occurred they would never call themselves by the name The Spider had coined…

Two months later they were back in Fly-Man #32, battling an incredible psionic dictator from long-sunken Atlantis. With Fly-Girl “adding glamour” but unable to quell the boys’ fractious natures, the still un-designated team clash with many monstrous manifestations of ‘Eterno the Tyrant’ before confronting the time-lost terror and banishing him to trans-dimensional doom…

One final try-out appeared in Fly-Man #33 (September 1965) as boisterous bickering boils over into outright internecine warfare between ‘Fly-Man’s Treacherous Team-Mates’, all ably assisted by the evil efforts of vile villain The Destructor. The sort-of team had been recently joined by two more veterans climbing back into the superhero saddle, but both The Hangman and The Wizard subsequently succumbed to rapacious greed as the Fly Guys gathered billions in confiscated loot and tried to steal the ill-gotten gains for themselves…

Finally in November 1965 Mighty Crusaders #1 premiered (by Siegel & Reinman with a little inking assistance from Frank Giacoia & Joe Giella). ‘The Mighty Crusaders vs. the Brain Emperor’ sees the heroes bowing to the inevitable after incredible aliens attack at the bilious bidding of an extraterrestrial megamind who could enslave the most determined of individuals with the slightest wrinkling of his see-through brow. However, the mental myrmidon proves no match for the teamwork of Earth’s most experienced crime-crushers…

Also included in this captivating chronicle is a splendidly strange cover gallery by Reinman.

The heroes all but vanished in 1967, before impressively resurfacing in the 1980s (albeit as a straight dramatic iteration) under the company’s Red Circle imprint, but again failed to catch a big enough share of the reading public’s attention. Archie let them lie fallow – except for occasional revivals and intermittent guest-shots in regular Archie comedy titles – until 1991, when they licensed its entire cape-&-cowl cohort to superhero specialists DC Comics for a magically fun, all-ages iteration (and where are those star-studded curated collections, huh?!).

Impact Comics was a vibrant, engaging and fun all-ages rethink that really should have been a huge hit but was again incomprehensibly unsuccessful. When the line folded in 1993 the characters returned to limbo until called for one more collaborative crack at the big time in 2008, briefly incorporating Mighty Crusaders & Co into DC’s own maturely angst-ridden and stridently dark continuity – with the usual overwhelming lack of success.

In 2012 Archie began reinventing their superhero credentials with a series of online adventures under the aegis of a revived Red Circle subdivision, beginning with a second generation of The Mighty Crusaders (reinforced by traditional monthly print versions six months later) and latterly The Fox: new costumed capers emphasising fun and action which were equally welcoming to inveterate fanboys and eager newcomers alike, so there’s still hope for the crazy gang to make good…

Jerry Siegel’s irreverent, anarchic pastiche of Marvel Comics’ house-style utilising Archie’s aged pantheon of superheroes is one of the daftest yet most entertaining moments of superhero history, and the sentiment and style of these tales has become the basis of so much modern kids animation, everything from Powerpuff Girls to Batman: Brave and the Bold to Despicable Me. That tells me these yarns urgently need to be reissued because at last the world is finally ready for them…

Weird, wild and utterly over the top! This is the perfect book for jaded veterans or wide-eyed neophytes in love with the very concept of costumed heroes. C’mon, prove me wrong…
© 1965, 2003 Archie Comics Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Mandrake the Magician: Fred Fredericks Dailies volume 1: The Return of Evil – The Cobra


By Lee Falk & Fred Fredericks (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-691-9 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

In this month of romantic anticipation and disillusionment, it’s worth remarking that every iconic hero of strips and comics has a dutiful, stalwart inamorata waiting ever so patiently in the wings for a moment to spoon and swoon. Here’s another beguiling outing starring one of the earliest and most resolute…

Regarded by many as comics’ first superhero, Mandrake the Magician debuted as a daily newspaper strip on 11th June 1934 – although creator Lee Falk had sold the strip almost a decade previously. Initially drawing it too, Falk replaced himself as soon as feasible, allowing the early wonderment to materialise through the effective understatement of sublime draughtsman Phil Davis. An instant hit, Mandrake was soon supplemented by a full-colour Sunday companion page from February 3rd 1935. Happy other Birthday, dapper tuxedo dude…

Whilst a 19-year old college student Falk had sold the strip to King Features Syndicate years earlier, but asked the monolithic company to let him finish his studies before dedicating himself to it full time. Schooling done, the 23-year-old born raconteur settled into his life’s work, entertaining millions with astounding tales. Falk also created the first costumed superhero – moodily magnificent generational manhunter The Phantom – whilst spawning an entire comic book subgenre with his first inspiration. Most Golden Age publishers boasted at least one (but usually many) nattily attired wizards in their gaudily-garbed pantheons: all roaming the world(s) making miracles and crushing injustice with varying degrees of stage legerdemain or actual sorcery. Characters such as Mr. Mystic, Ibis the Invincible, Sargon the Sorcerer, and an assortment of  “…the Magician” ’s like Zatara, Zanzibar, Kardak proliferated ad infinitum: all borrowing heavily and shamelessly from the uncanny exploits of the elegant, enigmatic man of mystery gracing the world’s newspapers and magazines.

In the Antipodes, Mandrake was a suave stalwart regular of Australian Women’s Weekly and became a cherished icon of adventure in the UK, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Spain, France, Turkey and across Scandinavia: a major star of page and screen, pervading every aspect of global consciousness.

Over the years he has been a star of radio, movie chapter-serials, a theatrical play, television and animation (as part of the cartoon series Defenders of the Earth). With that has come the usual merchandising bonanza of games, toys (including magic trick kits), books, comics and more…

Falk helmed Mandrake and The Phantom until his death in 1999 (even on his deathbed, he was laying out one last story), but also found some few quiet moments to become a renowned playwright, theatre producer and impresario, as well as an inveterate world-traveller. After drawing those the first few strips Falk united with sublimely polished cartoonist Phil Davis (March 4th 1906 -16th December 1964). His sleekly understated renditions took the daily strip, especially the expansive Sunday page to unparalleled heights of sophistication. Davis’ steadfast, assured realism was the perfect tool to render the Magician’s mounting catalogue of spectacular miracles. He rendered and realised Falk’s words until his death by heart attack…

Harold “Fred” Fredericks, Jr. (August 9th 1929 – March 10th 2015) took over – with strips starting in June 1965 – he was also handpicked by Falk who admired his work as both writer and/or illustrator on teen strip Rebel and family comic books such as Nancy, Boris Karloff, The Twilight Zone, The Munsters, Mister Ed, O.G. Whiz presents Tubby, Mighty Mouse, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, and Bullwinkle.

In later years tireless taleteller Fredericks became an inking mainstay at Marvel & DC on titles including New Titans, Catwoman, Robin, Punisher War Journal, Nth Man, Daredevil, Quasar, G.I. Joe and Defenders of the Earth.

Preceded by Roger Langridge’s essay ‘Fred Fredericks – An Appreciation’ and John Preddle’s appraisal ‘Mandrake: The Fred Fredericks Era’, the official changing of the artistic guard comes with a cheeky contemporary mystery…

However, firstly…

Mandrake was educated at the fabled College of Magic in Tibet, thereafter becoming a suave globetrotting troubleshooter, accompanied by his faithful African friend Lothar and eventually enchanting companion (and in 1997, bride) Princess Narda of Cockaigne. They co-operatively solve crimes, fight evil and find trouble and mystery apparently everywhere. Although the African Prince was a component from the start, Narda turned up fashionably late (in 1934) as victim/secret weapon in early escapade ‘The Hawk’ (see Mandrake the Magician: Dailies vol. 1 – The Cobra ): a distrait socialite forced to use her every wile to seduce and destroy the magician and Lothar. Thwarting each attack, Mandrake went after the monstrous stalker blackmailing Narda’s brother Prince Sigrid/Segrid and extorting her, decisively lowering the boom and liberating the embattled aristocrats. Bear all that in mind: it’s going to come in handy later…

Falk and Fredericks started as they meant to go on with ‘Odd Fellow’ (running from May 3rd to August 14th 1965) wherein a puckish little chap ruins a day of quiet contemplation for Narda before going on to peddle incredible inventions to greedy industrialists. By the time Mandrake gets involved, a lethal looking pursuer is hard on their heels and the mounting chaos is explained by the deduction that the jolly leprechaun is actually Roger the Rogue: a conman from the future with a deadly secret agenda but no idea who he’s messing with…

Following an interlude that introduces Mandrake’s palatial super citadel Xanadu, it’s back to basics for the next epic as the Princess goes to college to improve her mind and inadvertently uncovers and exposes a criminal gang embedded in world culture for hundreds of years. With echoes on modern conspiracy thriller 100 Bullets, ‘The Sign of 8’ (August 16th 1965 to February 6th 1966) arise from managed obscurity to discredit, hunt and destroy Narda with increasingly baroque and deadly assaults before falling to the counterattack of the Magician…

Growing contemporary fascination in the supernatural is addressed an capitalised upon in ‘The Witches’ (February 7th – May 28th) as criminal hypnotist Count Diablo and his all-women gang terrorise young heiress “Really” Riley , only to learn to their lasting regret what a master mesmerist can do to punish the wicked…

Another headline fuelled thriller, ‘The UFO’ May 30th – September 17th) sets the trio on the trail of aliens robbing banks with heat rays and escaping in flying saucers. Of course, it’s not long before Mandrake makes the connection between these uncanny events and missing military ordnance hot off the drawing board and takes steps to stop the plunderers from the stars…

In an era of super spies and covert cabals it wasn’t long before our heroes were back on ‘The Trail of the 8’ (September 19th 1966 – January 14th 1967) as Mandrake discovers evidence that the ancient order is still active. Teaming with good-guy agency Inter-Intel, the hunt makes Mandrake a target for repeated assassination attempts but ultimately leads to the organisation’s explosive demise. And yet the magician remains unconvinced…

This titanic tome terminates with a long-anticipated revival as ‘The Return of Evil – The Cobra’ (January 16th to June 3rd 1967) reveals how King Segrid of Cockaigne needs the help of his sister and her boyfriend after a sinister presence buys up tracts of the country and populace: using wealth, influence, chicanery, publicity stunts, blackmail and sheer dominating physical presence to rule the nation from behind the oval office throne. Thankfully, Mandrake and Lothar know just how to deal with the villain once he’s exposed as fatally flawed old foe The Cobra, and foil the fiend’s scheme to steal the nation from its legally-appointed ruler…

Supplemented here by a ‘Fred Fredericks – Biography’ before closing with ‘The Fred Fredericks Mandrake the Magician Complete Daily Checklist 1965-2013’, this thrilling tome offers exotic locales, thrilling action, fantastic fantasy, space age shocks, sinister spycraft, crafty criminality and spooky chills in equal measure. As always, the strip abounds with fantastic imagery from whenever “Mandrake gestures hypnotically” and drips with wry dialogue and bold action. Paramount taleteller Falk instinctively knew from the start that the secret of success was strong and – crucially – recurring villains and uncanny situations to test and challenge his heroes, making Mandrake the Magician an unmissable treat for every daily strip addict. These stories have lost none of their impact and only need you reading them to concoct a perfect cure for 21st century blues.
Mandrake the Magician © 2017 King Features Syndicate. All Rights Reserved. All other material © 2017 the respective authors or owners.

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Mega Robo Bros Book 8: Final Form


By Neill Cameron & various (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-337-0 (Digest TPB)

Mightily momentous in metal and powerfully potent in plastic, here’s the ultimate upgrade of this solid gold all-ages sci fi saga from Neill Cameron (Tamsin of the Deep, Pirates of Pangea, How to Make Awesome Comics, Freddy) as originally published in UK weekly comic The Phoenix. Purpose-built paladins, the mecha-miraculous Mega Robo Bros have previously learned that even they can’t punch out intolerance or growing pains in electronic exploits balancing frantic fun with portents of darker, violent days to come…
One last time then… It’s still The Future!… but maybe not for much longer…

In a London far cooler but just as embattled as ours, Alex and his younger brother Freddy Sharma are still fooling themselves that they are typical kids: boisterous, fractious, perpetually argumentative yet devoted to each other. They’re not too bothered that they’re adopted. It’s really no big deal for them that they were meticulously and covertly constructed by mysterious Dr. Roboticus before he vanished, and are considered by those “in the know” as the most powerful and only fully SENTIENT robots on Earth. Sadly, recent events have severely challenged those notions…

Life in the Sharma household aimed to be normal. Dad is just your average old guy who makes lunch and does a bit of writing (he’s actually an award-winning journalist), but when not being a housewife, Mum is pretty extraordinary herself. Surprisingly famous and renowned robotics boffin Dr. Nita Sharma harbours many shocking secrets all her own. Little Freddy was insufferably exuberant and overconfident, and Alex had reached an age where self-doubt and anxiety hit hard and often.
The family’s other robot rescues were also problematic. Programmed to be dog-ish, baby triceratops Trikey was ok, but eccentric French-speaking ape Monsieur Gorilla could be tres confusing, whilst gloomily annoying, existentialist aquatic waterfowl Stupid Philosophy Penguin ambushed everyone with quotes from dead philosophers…

Crucially, the boys were part-time super-secret agents, but because they weren’t very good at the clandestine bit, almost the entire world knew of them. Nevertheless, the digital duo’s parents loved them, making life as normal as possible: sending them to human school, encouraging human friends as part of their “Mega Robo Routine”, combining dull human activities, actual but rare fun, games-playing, watching TV when not training in the combat caverns under R.A.I.D. HQ. When situations demanded, the lads undertook missions for bossy Baroness Farooq: head of British government agency Robotics Analysis Intelligence and Defence. The boys were told it’s because they were infinitely smarter and more powerful than the Destroyer Mechs and other man-made minions R.A.I.D. utilises. Now though, everything has changed and old lessons are subject to re-examination…

The saga reopens and concludes with the global heroes’ reputations ruined. After defeating menaces like Robot 23 and thwarting a rebellion sparked by artificial life activist The Caretaker, the Bros repeatedly battled monstrous, deadly damaged droid Wolfram and learned he might be their older brother. Eventually, they had to destroy him, leaving Alex traumatised by guilt and wracked by PTSD…

Over the course of that case they learned that fifteen years previously their brilliant young roboticist Mum worked under incomparable but weird genius Dr. Leon Robertus. His astounding discoveries earned him the nickname Dr. Roboticus. Perhaps that’s what initially pushed him away from humanity. Robertus allowed Nita to repurpose individually super-powered prototypes into a rapid-response team for global emergencies. Their Mum had been a superhero, leading manmade The Super Robo Six. Whilst saving lives with them, she met crusading journalist Michael Mokeme. He proudly took her name when they wed…

Robertus was utterly devoid of human empathy but – intrigued by the Seven’s acclaim and human acceptance – created a new kind of autonomous robot. More powerful than any previous construct, Wolfram was equipped with foundational directives allowing him to make choices and develop his own systems. He could think, just like Alex and Freddy can. Only, as it transpired, not quite…
Robertus demoted Nita and made Wolfram leader of a new Super Robo Seven, resulting in an even more effective unit… until Wolfram’s Three Directives clashed during a time-critical mission and millions of humans paid the price for his confusion and hesitation. In the aftermath, R.A.I.D. was formed and they sought to shut down Robertus and decommission Wolfram. When the superbot rejected their judgement, a brutal battle ensued causing Wolfram’s apparent destruction. Roboticus also disappeared…

Ultimately Wolfram returned, attacking vast polar restoration project Jötunn Base. Covering many miles it was carefully rebalancing the world’s climate, when Wolfram took it over: reversing the chilling process to burn Earth and drown humanity. Ordered by Baroness Farooq to stay put, Alex and Freddy rebelled, but by the time the Bros reached Jötunn, Wolfram had crushed a R.A.I.D. force led by their friend Agent Susie Nichols. After also failing to stop the attacker, kind, contemplative Alex found a way to defeat – and perhaps, destroy – his wayward older brother and save humanity…

Their exploit made the Bros global superstars. Freddy revelled in the attention but Alex could not adjust to the acclaim and horrifying new power levels he attained to succeed… and also the apparent onset of robot puberty. As anti-robot hysteria and skilfully orchestrated human intolerance brought violent incidents everywhere, friction between Alex and Freddy grew: petty spats driving a wedge between them. With hate group “Humanity First” agitating to destroy all robots, their spokesman named the Bros a threat to mankind. The Baroness – in a bid to promote inclusivity – ordered the Bros to appear on TV show Mega Robo Warriors -but it was another trap. As Freddy delightedly trashed an army of warbots, his self-control slipped and Alex realised his sibling’s hostile attitudes and violent overreactions had been building for some time…

When a Humanity First protest at Tilbury Port became a full-on meat vs metal riot, Freddy lost control, attacking humans trashing helpless droids. What might have happened next was thankfully forestalled when all the robots – even R.A.I.D.’s police drones – were corrupted by the pernicious “Revolution 23” virus, and Wolfram appeared, offering oppressed machines sanctuary in Steelhaven: a utopia of liberated mechanoids claiming independence from humanity.…

When Alex dodged his troubles for a day to go out with human friends Taia and Mira and – under duress – Freddy, their trip to Camden Lock was spiced up by holographically incommunicado Crown Prince Eustace (Alex’s best pal and next king of Britain). The trip also provided a huge prize when Mira found a junked bot and worked out the secret of Revolution 23 Malware. More importantly, common people began to turn against Humanity First’s fanatics…

Thanks to Mira’s discovery, the battling Bros had a lead on the mastermind behind all their current woes, but Freddy’s emotional problems reached a point where he couldn’t be talked down. Fired by uncontrollable fury, the younger bot hot-headedly streaked into a trap designed by their most cunning and patient foe. Seized by rage and madness, Freddy began razing London, and Alex was forced to stop him…

Now the final chapter opens in The Global Robotics Court, Alexandria, Egypt, where Mum shares her records of rearing the robot babies she adopted after Roboticus first dropped from sight, making an impassioned plea to save her boys from being destroyed. Against all odds she triumphs, but the boys don’t appreciate it. To keep them alive, Nita Sharma is forced to neuter their powers, reducing them to the same physical and intellectual levels as humans of their equivalent ages. Alex is almost relieved, despite an instant increase in bullying from former school classmates, but Freddy is inconsolable and furious. To compound the agony, his mechanical menagerie – even Stupid Philosophy Penguin – are confiscated by R.A.I.D.

Trapped and impotent as Wolfram’s robot refugees square up for war with humanity, the Sharmas retrench and try to make a new life for themselves. It’s helped slightly by Freddy’s new kitten (a real, organic one) and news that Mum is making a human sibling for the Bros, but the loss of powers, pals like Prince Eustace (commanded to stay away from the controversial robot people) and the ability to help anyone in trouble weighs heavily on Alex and increasingly drives Freddy to more violent acts.

As they are at their lowest ebb, the sadistic arch-nemesis who has secretly manipulated them and orchestrated all the Bros’ woes strikes. Capturing the boys, he reveals their true origins and seeking to complete his grand experiment, tortures Alex with words, moral challenges and the death of his parents… and all of London! The fiend has, however, utterly underestimated his victims, and not counted on the fact that his sentient toys have made many true friends in their short lives: beings willing to risk their own organic and/or mechanoid lives for Alex and Freddy…

In the end it’s a battle of wills and ideologies with Alex and Freddy overcoming their origins and programming to defeat true evil and build a better world for everyone and everything to live together in…

Interweaving real world concerns, addressing issues of gender and identity with great subtlety and in a way kids can readily grasp, this epic yarn has always blended fantasy, action and humour with superb effect. Excitement and tension greatly outweigh hilarity here however, with poignant moments of insecurity and introspection resulting in life-altering thrills, chills, and spectacular action scenes. Alex and Freddy are utterly authentic kids, irrespective of their origins, and their antics and anxieties strike exactly the right balance of future shock, family fun and superhero action to capture readers’ hearts and minds. What movies these tales would make – and now the saga is done let’s hope that jump comes soon!
Text and illustrations © Neill Cameron 2024. All rights reserved.

Mega Robo Bros Final Form will be released on February 13th 2025 and is available for pre-order now.

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T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Classics volume 5


By Wally Wood, Steve Skeates, Jerry Siegel, Ralph Reese, Dan Adkins, Mike Sekowsky, George Tuska, Frank Giacoia, John Giunta, Ogden Whitney, Chic Stone & various (IDW)
ISBN: ?978-1-63140-182-4 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-62302-754-4

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The meteoric lifespan and output of Tower Comics is one of the key creative moments in American comic book history. The brief, bombastic saga of The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves was a benchmark of quality and sheer fun for fans of both the then-still-reawakening superhero genre and that era’s spy-chic obsession. In the early 1960s, the Bond movie franchise was going from strength to strength, with blazing action and heady glamour totally transforming the formerly low-key and seedy espionage genre. The buzz was infectious: soon a Man like Flint and Matt Helm were carving out their own piece of the action as television shanghaied the entire bandwagon with the irresistible Man from U.N.C.L.E. (premiering in September 1964), bringing the whole shtick into living rooms across the planet.

Veteran Archie Comics editor Harry Shorten was commissioned to create a line of characters for a new distribution-chain funded publishing outfit – Tower Comics. He brought in creative maverick Wally Wood, who called on some of the biggest names in the industry to produce material in the broad range of genres the company demanded; as well as T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and its spin-offs Undersea Agent, Dynamo and NoMan, there was a magnificent anthology war-comic Fight the Enemy and wholesome youth-comedy Tippy Teen.

Samm Schwartz & Dan DeCarlo handled the funny stuff – which outlasted everything else – whilst Wood, Larry Ivie, Len Brown, Bill Pearson, Steve Skeates, Dan Adkins, Russ Jones, Gil Kane, Ditko and Ralph Reese contributed scripts for themselves and the industry’s other top talents to illustrate on the adventure series. With a ravenous appetite for super-spies and costumed heroes growing in comic-book popularity and amongst the general public, the idea of blending the two concepts seemed inescapable…

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 appeared with no fanfare or pre-publicity on newsstands in August 1965 (with a cover off-sale date of November, so many, many, many happy returns team!). Better yet, all Tower titles were in the beloved-but-rarely-seen 80-page Giant format, offering a huge amount of material in every issue. All that being said these tales would not be so revered if they hadn’t been so superbly crafted. As well as Wood, the art accompanying the compelling, subtly more mature stories was by some of the greatest talents in comics: Reed Crandall, Gil Kane, George Tuska, Mike Sekowsky, Dick Ayers, Joe Orlando, Frank Giacoia, John Giunta, Ogden Whitney, Steve Ditko and more, as well as budding stars like Ralph Reese, Steve Skeates and Dan Adkins…

For those who came in late: When philanthropic benevolent supergenius Professor Emil Jennings perished in an assault by forces of the mysterious Warlord, late-arriving UN troops salvaged some of his greatest inventions. These included a belt that increased the density of the wearer’s body until it became as hard as steel; a cloak of invisibility and a brain-amplifier helmet. These uncopiable prototypes were divided between several agents: the basis of a unit of super-operatives to counter the increasingly bold attacks of multiple global terror threats such as the aforementioned Warlord. First chosen was affable, honest, but far from brilliant file clerk Len Brown. To the astonishment of everyone who knew him, he was assigned the belt and codename Dynamo.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent NoMan was previously decrepit Dr. Anthony Dunn who chose to have his mind transferred into an android body and then gifted with the invisibility cape. If his artificial body was destroyed, Dunn’s consciousness could transfer to another android body. As long as he had a spare ready, he could never die. The helmet went to John Janus: a seemingly perfect UN employee and mental and physical marvel. He easily passed all the tests necessary to wear the Jennings helmet. Sadly, he was also a double agent: the Warlord’s mole poised to betray T.H.U.N.D.E.R. at the earliest opportunity. All plans went awry once he donned the helmet and became Menthor as the device awakened his mind’s full potential, granting him telepathy, telekinesis and mind-reading powers, but also drove all evil from his mind. Such was the redemptive effect that Janus actually gave his life to save his comrades: an event which astounded readers at the time…

Guy Gilbert was leader of crack Mission: Impossible style T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad and asked to beta-test an experimental super-speed suit. As Gung-ho Lightning he proudly did so, even if every use of the hyper-acceleration gimmick shortened his life-span. As the concept grew and the niche universe expanded other augmented agent appeared – such as human fighter jet Raven and subsea spin-off U.N.D.E.R.S.E.A. Agent (AKA Davy Jones of the United Nations Department of Experiment and Research Systems Established at Atlantis…

This penultimate collection re-presents the compelling contents of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents#12-14 and Dynamo #4 (cover dated April to June 1967) – with the incomparably cool concept and characters going from strength to strength as a spirit of eccentric experimentation and raucous low comedy increasingly manifested in the wake of the defeat of the Warlord (part of a subterranean race intent on world conquest) and rise of independent supervillains, sinister crime cabals S.P.I.D.E.R. and O.G.R.E. or political foes like China’s Red Star…

As always the action opens with a Dynamo solo tale as ‘Strength is Not Enough’ by an unknown scripter, Steve Ditko, Dan Adkins & Wally Wood sees S.P.I.D.E.R. unleash a petty thug transformed into human weapon able to outpower the hero. Sadly, Rocky Stone loved to fight but had a conscience, and when he learned from Dynmao that his rebuild left him with only days to live he sought to make amends on his own terms. Fighting fire with fire was a persistent theme then, as Lightning battled a super-fast ‘Speed Demon’ unleashed by S.P.I.D.E.R.’s Nazi-trained mad scientist Herr Doktor in a rapidly unfolding romp by Steve Skeates, Mike Sekowsky & Frank Giacoia while android avenger NoMan faces ‘The Rock’ (John Giunta & Giacoia): a seemingly unkillable madman with the ability to vitrify his victims and petrify buildings…

Lightning quits using the speed augmenter and returns to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent squad in a tense thriller by Skeates, Mike Sekowsky & Giacoia, but the act is merely a ploy to locate ‘The Road to Spider HQ’ after which flying agent in Craig Lawson suits up in his heavily armed augmented flight-costume to crush another neo-Nazi revival in Manny Stallman’s politically-charged battle bonanza ‘The Raven Battles the Storm Troopers of Xochimilco’ …

Behind a Wally Wood cover for Dynamo #4, ‘The Maze’ (Wood & Dan Adkins) sees the strongman undergo terrifying psychologically reinforcement prior to being beamed to another world to face aliens that have previously probed Earth after which Ralph Reese, Joe Orlando, Adkins & Wood reveal the teething of a voice-controlled Thunderbelt in ‘The Secret Word is…’, before Reese & Chic Stone depict the awful monkeyshines of ‘Dynamo’s Day Off’ and the seductive power of returned foe The Iron Maiden who uses her wiles and stuff to turn the super-agent into ‘The Weakest Man in the World’…

The fun expands and concludes with a tale of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent Weed (a character Wally Wood regarded as his “spirit animal”) as ‘Once Upon a Time’ (Wood & Ditko) sees the seedy spook reinterpret state secrets and the final battle with the Iron Maiden as an expurgated fairy tale for the kids he’s babysitting…

The big spy bubble was bursting by this point and the spin-off titles had all folded by the time T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #13 was released. The anthological line up continued as always however, and opens here with Adkins & Wood’s ‘ “A” Bullet for Dynamo’ as a handheld atom bomb launcher is stolen by a S.P.I.D.E.R. infiltrator and only Len Brown has any chance of averting ultimate armageddon…

Jerry Siegel & Ogden Whitney then had NoMan seemingly ‘Escape From Destiny’ when a bizarre accident implants his consciousness in a human body. Sadly, conscience and sense of duty ruin his dreams of real life before Steve Skeates and Stone unite to pit Lightning against evil duplicates in ‘The Quick and the Changing’ and the entire T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents cadre unites against a villain using ‘The Black Helmet’ once used by Menthor in a titanic tussle by Reese, Wood & George Tuska. The issue ends with an unused U.N.D.E.R.S.E.A. Agent short by Skeates & Paul Reinman. Evil android duplicates also infest this fishy tale as Davy Jones and assistant Skooby inadvertently invade ‘The Second Atlantis’ and foils a dastardly plot to replace all their friends and allies…

Sporting a Gil Kane Raven cover, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #14 opens with Ditko & Wood & Adkin’s ‘Dynamo vs Andor! Return Engagement’: another spectacular bravura battle between the agent and a misunderstood modern Prometheus.

Long ago the Warlords stole a human baby and spent decades turning the waif into a biological superman devoid of sentiment or compassion. Sadly, they lost all control of the living weapon once he met fellow mortals. Since their defeat, the pitiful misfit’s attempts to rejoin mankind are constantly thwarted and derailed. Here, his latest sanctuary – a hippy commune – is taken over by S.P.I.D.E.R. until he single-handedly repels them and in retaliation they orchestrate a clash with their other nemesis Len Brown…

Lightning’s campaign against disguise master Mock-Man intensifies in return match ‘To Fight is to Die’ by Skeates & Stone and ends with the hero the loser, after which S.P.I.D.E.R. also score a win by reprogramming NoMan and making him an operative ‘On the Other Side’ (Skeates & Giunta) before Kane writes and illustrates ‘Darkly Sees the Prophet’ wherein Raven confronts a rabble rousing, clairvoyant demagogue who is far more than he seems before the entire gang reassembles to save New York and the UN building from terrifying weapons platform ‘The Fist of Zeus’ (anonymous & George Tuska).

With stories all shaded in favour of fast pace, knowing wit, sparse dialogue, explosive action and breathtaking visuals, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was decades ahead of its time and informed everything in Fights ‘n’ Tights comics that came after it. These are truly timeless comic classics which improve with every reading, so do yourself a favour and add these landmark super-sagas to your collection.
T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Classics volume 5 © 2015 Radiant Assets, LLC. All rights reserved.