Category: Science Fiction

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Inhumans: Beware the Inhumans


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin, Gary Friedrich, Gerry Conway, Arnold Drake, Neal Adams, Gene Colan, Marie Severin, John Romita, Mike Sekowsky, Tom Sutton, Joe Sinnott, Vince Colletta, Syd Shores, Chic Stone, John Verpoorten, Bill Everett, Frank Giacoia, Tom Palmer, Barry Windsor-Smith & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-1081-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Debuting in 1965 and conceived as yet another incredible lost civilisation during Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s most fertile and productive creative period, The Inhumans are a subspecies of incredibly disparate (mostly) humanoid beings genetically altered in Earth’s pre-history. They consequently evolve into a technologically-advanced civilisation far ahead of and apart from emergent Homo Sapiens. The self-declared Inhumans isolated themselves from the world and barbarous dawn-age humans, first on an island and latterly in a hidden valley in the Himalayas, residing in a fabulous city named Attilan.

The mark of Inhuman citizenship is immersion in mutative Terrigen Mists which further enhance and transform individuals into radically unique and frequently super-powered beings. Inhumans are necessarily obsessed with genetic structure and heritage, worshipping the ruling Royal Family as the rationalist equivalent of mortal gods.

This compilation cumulatively spans July 1968 to January 1972, re-presenting early appearances (in whole or in part) from Marvel Super-Heroes #15, Incredible Hulk Annual #1, Fantastic Four #81-83, 95, 99 and 105, Amazing Adventures #1-10, Avengers #95, plus moments of spoofish light-relief from Not Brand Echh #12.

The Royal Family of Attilan are the hereditary aristocracy of a hidden race of paranormal beings. They comprise king Black Bolt, his paramour/cousin/eventual wife Medusa, aquatic Triton, bellicose Gorgon and subtle martial arts master Karnak, leading and representing a veritable horde of weirdly wonderful characters. Black Bolt, one of the most powerful beings on Earth, possesses phenomenal abilities but is afflicted with an uncontrollable vocal condition that makes his softest whisper a planet-shattering sonic explosion. Thus, he must never utter a sound…

In 1967 a proposed Inhumans solo series was canned before completion, with the initial episode retooled and published in try-out vehicle Marvel Super-Heroes. Written by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by Gene Colan & Vince Colletta, ‘Let the Silence Shatter!’ appeared in #15 (July 1968), revealing how the villainous Sandman and Trapster are enticed into reforming the Frightful Four after The Wizard promises Medusa a means to control Black Bolt’s deadly sonic affliction in return for her criminal services. As usual, the double-dealing mastermind betrays his unwilling accomplice, but again underestimates her abilities and intellect, resulting in another humiliating defeat…

Cover-dated October, The Incredible Hulk Annual #1 was one of the best comics of 1968. Behind an iconic Steranko cover, Gary Friedrich, Marie Severin & Syd Shores (with lots of last-minute inking assistance) delivered a passionate, tense and melodramatic parable of alienation that nevertheless was one of the most action-stuffed fight fests ever seen.

In 51 titanic pages ‘A Refuge Divided!’ saw the tragic lonely Jade Juggernaut stumble upon the hidden Great Refuge of genetic outsiders. The Inhumans – recovering from a recent failed coup by new creations Falcona, Leonus, Aireo, Timberius, Stallior, Nebulo and their secret backer (the king’s brother Maximus the Mad) – are distracted by the Hulk’s arrival and suspicion, and short tempers result in chaos. The band of super-rebels start the fight but it’s the immensely powerful Black Bolt who eventually battles the green giant to a standstill…

This is the vicarious thrill taken to its ultimate, and still one of the very best non-Lee-Kirby tales of that period.

Medusa’s little sister Crystal – and her giant teleporting dog Lockjaw – were the most visible Inhumans at that time. As girlfriend of Human Torch Johnny Storm, she was a regular in Fantastic Four and took a greater role once Susan Richards fell pregnant. In FF #81, with Sue a new mother, Crystal elects herself the first new official member of the FF and promptly shows her mettle by pulverizing incorrigible glutton-for-punishment The Wizard in the all-action romp ‘Enter… the Exquisite Elemental!’ (Lee, Kirby & Joe Sinnott).

In the next two issues, as Susan is side-lined to tend her newborn son, Crystal’s turbulent past and fractious family connections reassert themselves when cousin Maximus again attempts to conquer mortal humanity. ‘The Mark of… the Madman!’ sees the quirky quartet invade hidden Inhuman enclave Attilan to aid the imprisoned Royal Family and overcome an entire race of hypnotically subjugated super-beings before uniting to trounce the insane despot in the concluding ‘Shall Man Survive?’

Excerpted pages from FF #95 then reveal how, in the middle of a frantic battle against a super-assassin, Crystal is astoundingly abducted by her own family before the reason why is revealed in #99. All this time heartsick Johnny has been getting crazier and more despondent. He finally snaps, invading the Inhumans’ hidden home with the intention of reuniting with his lost love at all costs. Of course, everything escalates when ‘The Torch Goes Wild!’ and his rapidly following comrades find themselves in the battle of their lives…

Two months later, bi-monthly “split-book” Amazing Adventures launched with an August 1970 cover-date and The Inhumans sharing the pages with a new Black Widow solo series. The big news however was that Jack Kirby was both writing and illustrating ‘The Inhumans!’

Inked by Chic Stone, the first episode saw the Great Refuge targeted by atomic missiles apparently fired by the Inhumans’ greatest allies, prompting a retaliatory attack on the Baxter Building and pitting ‘Friend Against Friend!’ However, even as the battle raged Black Bolt was taking covert action against the suspected true culprits…

AA #3 sees our uncanny outcasts as ‘Pawns of the Mandarin’ when the devilish plotter dupes the Royal Family into uncovering a long-buried mega-powerful ancient artefact. He is, however, ultimately unable to cope with their power and teamwork in the concluding chapter ‘With These Rings I Thee Kill!’…

Intercepting the flow but chronologically crucial, the first half of Fantastic Four #105 (December 1970) follows. Crafted by Stan Lee, John Romita & John Verpoorten, ‘The Monster in the Streets!’ reveals Crystal is being slowly poisoned by the constantly increasing pollutants in Earth’s air and must leave Johnny for the hermetically pure atmosphere of Attilan…

Back in Amazing Adventures #5 (March 1971), a radical change of tone and mood materialised as the currently on-fire creative team of Roy Thomas & Neal Adams took over the strip following Kirby’s shocking defection from Marvel to DC Comics. Inked by Tom Palmer, ‘His Brother’s Keeper’ then sees Maximus finally employ a long-dormant power – mind-control – to erase Black Bolt’s memory and seize control of the Great Refuge.

The real problem, however, is that at the moment the Mad One strikes, Black Bolt is in San Francisco on a secret mission. When the mind-wave strikes, the silent stranger forgets everything and as a little boy offers assistance, ‘Hell on Earth!’ (inked by John Verpoorten) begins as a simple mumbled whisper shatters the entire docks and all the vessels moored there…

As Triton, Gorgon, Karnak and Medusa flee the now utterly entranced and enslaved Refuge in search of Black Bolt, ‘An Evening’s Wait for Death!’ finds little Joey and a still-bewildered Bolt captured by a radical black activist determined to use the Inhuman’s shattering power to raze the city’s foul ghettoes.

A tense confrontation with police in the streets draws storm god Thor into the conflict during ‘An Hour for Thunder!’, but when the blood and dust settles it appears Black Bolt is dead…

Gerry Conway, Mike Sekowsky & Bill Everett assumed storytelling duties with #9 as The Inhumans colonised the entire book. Finally reaching America after an epic odyssey, the Royal Cousins’ search for their king is interrupted when they are targeted by a cult of mutants.

‘…And the Madness of Magneto!’ shows amnesiac Black Bolt in the clutches of the Master of Magnetism. He needs the usurped king’s abilities to help him steal a new artificial element. All too soon though, ‘In His Hands… the World!’ (inked by Frank Giacoia) proves that with his memory restored nothing and no one can long make the mightiest Inhuman a slave…

The series abruptly terminated there. Amazing Adventures #11 featured a new treatment of graduate X-Man Hank McCoy who rode the trend for monster heroes by accidentally transforming himself into a furry purple Beast. The Inhumans simply dropped out of sight until Thomas & Adams wove their dangling plot threads into the monumental epic unfolding from June 1971 to March 1972 in The Avengers #89-97.

At that time Thomas’ bold experiment was rightly considered the most ambitious saga in Marvel’s brief history: an astounding saga of tremendous scope which dumped Earth into a cosmic war the likes of which comics fans had never before seen. The Kree/Skrull War set the template for all multi-part crossovers and publishing events ever since. It began when, in the distant Kree Empire, the ruling Supreme Intelligence is overthrown by his chief enforcer Ronan the Accuser. The rebellion results in humanity learning aliens are among them, and public opinion turns against superheroes for concealing the threat of alien incursions…

A powerful allegory of the Anti-Communist Witch-hunts of the 1950s, the epic sees riots in American streets and a political demagogue capitalising on the crisis. Subpoenaed by the authorities, castigated by friends and public, the Avengers are ordered to disband.

Unfortunately omitted here, issue #94 entangles the Inhumans in the mix, disclosing that their advanced science and powers are the result of Kree genetic meddling in the depths of prehistory. With intergalactic war beginning, Black Bolt missing and his madly malign brother Maximus in charge, the Kree now come calling in their ancient markers…

Wrapping up the graphic thrills for this volume, ‘Something Inhuman This Way Comes…!’ (Avengers #95, January 1972) coalesces scattered story strands as aquatic adventurer Triton aids the Avengers against government-piloted Mandroids before beseeching the beleaguered heroes to help find his missing monarch and rescue his Inhuman brethren from the press-ganging Kree…

Just so you can sleep tonight, after bombastically so doing, the Avengers head into space to liberate their kidnapped comrades and save Earth from becoming collateral damage in the impending cosmos-shaking clash between Kree and Skrulls  – a much-collected tale you’d be crazy to miss…

Appended with Barry Windsor-Smith’s Medusa pin-up from Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics #21, original art by Colan & Adams, a rejected Severin cover and house ads for the Inhumans’ debut, the cosmic drama is latterly leavened with some snappy comedy vignettes.

Originating in Not Brand Echh #12 (February 1969) ‘Unhumans to Get Own Comic Book’ – by Arnold Drake, Thomas & Sutton – and ‘My Search for True Love’ by Drake & Sutton detail and depict how other artists might render the series – with contenders including faux icons bOb (Gnatman & Rotten) Krane, Chester (Dig Tracing) Ghoul and Charles (Good Ol’ Charlie…) Schlitz, before following lovelorn Medoozy as she dumps her taciturn man and searches for fulfilment amongst popular musical and movie stars of the era…

These stories cemented the outsiders’ place in the ever-expanding Marvel universe and helped the company to overtake all its competitors. Although making little lasting impact at the time they are still potent and innovative: as exciting and captivating now as they ever were. This is a must-have book for all fans of graphic narrative and followers of Marvel’s next cinematic star vehicle.
© 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 2018 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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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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Second Shift


By Kit Anderson (Avery Hill Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-917355-20-9 (TPB)

The world has gone to crap and work sucks. This is the eternal verity wherever and whenever you are. Not much can be done about the world – except maybe make or find another one – but here’s a way to at least handle the work part of that equation…

Grand Master of short form graphic narratives – you can just call them comics if you want – Kit Anderson (Safer Places) originated in Boulder, Colorado but now lives near Zürich. Ceaselessly making graphic stories long before earning an MFA from The Center for Cartoon Studies in 2022 – Anderson’s earlier stuff – can be seen at Parsifal Press and The Rumpus and for greater elucidation and edification you could get check out Comics — Kit Anderson…

Here Anderson dives deep into the contemporary by employing a future setting, exploring our increasingly uncertain/presumed/predicted fate in terms of the proverbial Human Condition – especially our self-destructive, double edged sword capacity to simultaneously doubt and trust – in a tale also exploring memory, imagination, inner worlds, nature, secrets, self-help solutions and isolation…

Pensive, genteel and quietly suspenseful, with action reduced to the participants’ downtime entertainment, Second Shift takes its emotional lead from contemplative classic science fiction movies like Silent Running and Soylent Green by tracing the revelations of live-in labourer Birdie Doran. At a time where human beings are pragmatically honed into useful components for megacorporations, she – like a few “lucky” others – toils for Terracorp, living on a hostile planet shepherding complex machines as they terraform the environment when not harvesting cometary material in mind-numbingly repetitive tasks that one day others will benefit from. It’s a living…

She spends her downtime in ‘Dropout’, indulging in the rich fantasy life provided and recommended by Company Exclusive DreamSpace: an engaging VR/AI environment replacing mundane travails with immersive escape routes (wizard’s worlds, haunted houses, cyber-realities, Knights & Ladies, alien mindscapes, fresh starts). Even when not suspended in economically sensible life stasis, Birdie hardly ever interacts with her human workers, like her brother Heck and standoffish Porter. Most of her conversations are with avatars of monitoring AI algorithm Station… and those are about work and her operating efficiency…

Toil and rest don’t leave much room for stimulating conversation and playing in the Station provided ‘Ruined Castle’ leaves Heck and Birdie increasingly bored and anxious. So, when he picks up an inexplicable ‘Signal’ Station cannot convince Heck to ignore it, and soon Birdie must trek out into the ever-changing icy wilds to fetch him back…

Her trudging trek eventually finds him staring at another – abandoned – station outpost, similar to but also utterly different to the cloying womb they live in. Unable to resist exploring, they discover wonders and eventually the VR menu of whoever worked there. What particularly grips then is something labelled “Wildlife”…

Torn over whether to report what they’ve found, and almost killed on their return journey by an inexplicable and highly suspicious event, the Dorans’ discovery increasingly divides whilst intellectually invigorating the siblings. Soon the shared secret is disrupting their efficiency and they clandestinely ‘Return’ to the lost outpost. It soon it becomes apparent that life for them has forever changed and nothing can stop what lies ahead…

Revelations and realisations come quietly but inescapably as the mystery intensifies in ‘Debris’, ‘Drop-In’ and ‘Payload’ before resolution arrives in ‘Museum Hall’, but can even enhanced awareness and growing knowledge help change this world? Whatever the outcome, it’s one only Birdie alone can achieve…

Beguiling, subversive, intensely absorbing and asking all the right questions on where the world or work is taking us – how do you feel about trading up to guaranteed food, lodging and being coddled and coshed by VR babysitters in return for surrendering liberty and your own opinions and questions? – Second Shift is socially-charged speculative fiction in the grand manner and a sublime, layered read you’ll return to over and again.
© Kit Anderson 2025. All rights reserved.

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A Spirou and Fantasio Adventure: In the Clutches of the Viper (volume 22)


By Yoann & Fabien Vehlmann, designed by Fred Blanchard & coloured by Hubert: translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-162-0 (Album PB/Digital edition)

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

Boyish hero Spirou (which translates as both “squirrel” and “mischievous” in the Walloon language) was created by French cartoonist Françoise Robert Velter AKA Rob-Vel. This was before World War II for Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis, in response to the phenomenal success of Hergé’s Tintin at rival outfit Casterman. Soon-to-be legendary weekly comic Le Journal de Spirou launched on April 21st 1938 with a rival red-headed lad as lead feature in an anthology which bears his name to this day. The eponymous hero was a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed in the Moustique Hotel – in reference to the publisher’s premier periodical Le Moustique. The bellboy’s improbable adventures with pet squirrel Spip gradually evolved into far-reaching, surreal comedy dramas.

Spirou and his chums helmed the magazine for most of its life, with a cohort of truly impressive creators carrying on Velter’s work, beginning with his wife Blanche “Davine” Dumoulin who took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939. She was assisted by Belgian artist Luc Lafnet until 1943, when Dupuis purchased all rights to the property, after which comic-strip prodigy Joseph Gillain (Jijé) took the helm. In 1946, his assistant André Franquin assumed the creative reins: gradually ditching the well-seasoned short gag format in favour of epic adventure serials. He also expanded the cast, introducing a broad band of engaging regulars such as reporter Fantasio, phenomenally popular magic animal Marsupilami, master of mushroom Pacôme Hégésippe Adélard Ladislas de Champignac (the Count of Champignac) and one of the first strong female characters in European comics. Renamed Cellophine for Cinebook’s English translations, rival journalist Seccotine – of the tabloid The Moustic – became a regular foil and plays a key role in this very modern thriller…

Franquin was followed by Jean-Claude Fournier who updated the feature over nine stirring sagas tapping into the rebellious, relevant zeitgeist of the times: tales of environmental concern, nuclear energy, drug cartels and repressive regimes. By the 1980s, however, the series seemed outdated and lacking direction, so three separate creative teams alternated on it. Eventually overhauled and revitalised by Philippe Vandevelde (writing as Tome) and artist Jean-Richard Geurts AKA Janry. Adapting, referencing and in many ways returned to the beloved Franquin era and ethos, the strip found its second wind.

Their sterling efforts revived the floundering feature’s fortunes, generating 14 wonderful albums between 1984 and 1998. When the strip diversified into parallel strands (Spirou’s Childhood/Little Spirou and Guest-Creator Specials A Spirou Story By…), the team on the core feature were succeeded by Jean-David Morvan & José-Luis Munuera. Then Yoann & Vehlmann took over the never-ending procession of amazing adventures…

Multi-award-winning French comics author Fabien Vehlman was born in 1972, began his comics career in 1996 and has been favourably likened to René Goscinny. He’s probably still best known for Green Manor (illustrated by Denis Bodart), Seven Psychopaths with Sean Phillips, Seuls (drawn by Bruno Gazzotti and available in English as Alone), Wondertown with Benoit Feroumont and Isle of 1,000,000 Graves with Jason.

Yoann Chivard was born in October 1971 and drawing non-stop by age five. With qualifications in Plastic Arts and a degree in Communication from the Academy of Fine Arts in Angers, he became a poster/advertising artist whilst just dabbling in comics. His creations include Phil Kaos and Dark Boris for British Indie publications Deadline and Inkling, Toto l’Ornithorynque, Nini Rezergoude, La Voleuse de Pere-Fauteuil, Ether Glister and Bob Marone and he has contributed to Trondheim & Sfar’s Donjon. In 2006, Yoann was the first artist to produce a Spirou et Fantasio one shot Special. It was scripted by Vehlmann…

As globe-trotting journalists, Spirou and Fantasio regularly voyage to dangerously exotic places, uncover crimes, explore the fantastic and clash with exotic archenemies like Fantasio’s deranged and wicked cousin Zantafio and maddest of Mad Scientists, Zorglub. In 2011 one adventure (vol. 20 The Dark Side of the Z) saw Zorglub abduct them to the Moon where Spirou became a werewolf in a resort playground for the ultra-super-rich. It’s also – as we see here – where they first met their most insidious, pitiless and realistic supervillain…

As Spirou & Fantasio – dans les griffes de la vipère this cautionary tale from 2013 was the 53rd collected album in a series collectively approaching a landmark 100 volumes…

As Spirou chills out at a collectors market he meets excitable fan Annie: an adventure-hungry child determined to a roving reporter one day. The shy hero’s ego boost soon takes a hard knock however, as news comes that their magazine is being sued for inciting violence in children. The day in court is a disaster as seductive, bellicose lawyer Miss Jones, hired by affronted parents, makes the troubleshooters look like monsters, runs rings around Fantasio’s counsel and wins a million Euros in compensation from the deflated defendants. With ruin staring them in the face, the shocked wanderers wonder what they can do next. Miraculously, Spirou gets a visitation from his greatest hero…

Based on LJdS co-star Jean Valhardi, “Detective-Explorer” Gil Braveheart was downcast Spirou’s inspiration when he was growing up, and has again come to the rescue, offering to find a new investor to save the magazine…

He soon puts S&F in touch with an investment fund that will pay the parents off and fund continued publication, but as the heroes foolishly breeze past all the pages of a vast contract, Spirou sees old frenemy Cellophine being threatened by two very burly men-in-suits. All her efforts though cannot stop the lads signing on with the Viper Corporation…

Now paid incomprehensible amounts of money every month, Spirou and Fantasio initially flounder before simply giving it away to charities and good causes, but soon become bored as exploits and adventures apparently dry up. Soon after, Braveheart invites Spirou to visit Viper’s higher ups in their paradisical Marmalade Islands super resort and at last the canny crusader wises up. He’s blindly strolled into the most devious trap ever devised…

Again confronting one of the idle, petty super-rich magnates he’d met and disrespected on the Moon, Spirou realises all the power of money has been utilised to neutralise his friends and allies, obtrusively surveille his entire life and manipulate him into contractually and legally surrendering all aspects of his own life. He’s a brand of the corporation now and will do what he’s told when he’s told to, just like all the other heroes the top plutocrat has spitefully obtained in his constant search for meaning and validation and to counter his overwhelming boredom…

Trapped in a gilded cage and denied nothing except liberty, autonomy, fresh thrills and fun, Spirou refuses to bow to the admittedly heavenly, sybaritic life. Even sad broken Gil Braveheart’s admonishments can’t stop him making a bid for freedom, evading all the bugging tech and brutal heavies money can buy by recruiting brave Annie to act as his long-distance agent…

And then, after much preparation Spirou makes his break and the chase is on all over the Earth, but as the reporter seeks sanctuary, his flight across the globe and the way Viper treats ordinary people begins to inspire long-corrupted heroes and a way is found to reverse the intolerable situation. It’s not legal but it is unassailable and unstoppable…

Rocket-paced, action-packed, compellingly convoluted and with just the right blend of absurdity and helter-skelter excitement, In the Clutches of the Viper is a wry romp that is also genuinely terrifying, capturing the zeitgeist of modern concerns about the power of unchecked wealth and influence – and lawyers! This is pure cartoon gold, truly deserving of reaching the widest audience possible.
© Dupuis 2013, by Vehlmann, Yoann. All rights reserved. English translation © 2025 Cinebook Ltd.

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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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DC Finest: Metamorpho – The Element Man


By Bob Haney, Gardner Fox, Ramona Fradon, Joe Orlando, Sal Trapani, Chic Stone, Jack Sparling, Charles Paris, Mike Sekowsky, Jim Aparo, Mike Esposito, Bernard Sachs & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-184-8 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s a big year for comics anniversaries, and we can’t let this special guy go unmentioned – especially as he’s in this years much-debated new Superman blockbuster.

Sadly, most of his far & wide back catalogue is still unavailable even in digital formats, and when the star is as long-lived and media-present as this guy that’s an awful lot of extra appearances for a fan to find. Maybe this book and the film will act as a catalyst for DC to get a move on…

By the time Metamorpho, The Element Man was introduced to an increasingly superhero-obsessed world, the first vestiges of a certifiable boom were just becoming apparent. As such, his light-hearted, nigh-absurdist blue-collar take struck a Right-Time, Right-Place chord, blending far out adventure with tongue-in-cheek comedy. The bold, brash – often positively vulgar – “Man of a Thousand Elements” debuted in The Brave and the Bold #57, cover-dated January 1965 and on sale from October 29th 1964: just in time for Halloween. After a second try-out tale in the next issue, he and his crackers cast catapulted right into a solo title for an eclectic, oddly engaging 17-issue run augmented by plenty of opportunistic guest shots. Sadly, this canny compendium – collecting all those eccentric debut adventures from B&B #57- 58, 66, 68 & 101, Metamorpho, The Element Man #1-17 and Justice League of America #42 – is at present unavailable in digital formats too.

Sans dreary preamble, the action commences immediately with ‘The Origin of Metamorpho’, written by Bob Haney, who created the concept and character and wrote everything here bar the Justice League story. The captivating art is by Ramona Fradon & Charles Paris and introduces glamorous he-man Soldier of Fortune Rex Mason: employed as a globetrotting artefact-procurer and agent for ruthlessly acquisitive scientific genius/business tycoon Simon Stagg. Mason is obnoxious, tough talking and insolent, but his biggest fault as far as the boss is concerned is that the mercenary dares to love – and be loved by – the plutocrat’s only daughter Sapphire…

Determined to rid himself of the impudent “fortune-hunter”, Stagg sends his potential son-in-law to Egypt tasked with retrieving fantastic artefact the Orb of Ra from the lost pyramid of Ahk-Ton. The tomb raider is accompanied only by Java: formerly a fossilised Neanderthal corpse Rex had extracted from a swamp and whom Stagg subsequently restored to life. Mason plans to take his final fabulous fee and whisk Sapphire away from her controlling father forever, but fate and his companion have other plans…

Utterly faithful to the scientific wizard who was his saviour, Java sabotages the mission, leaving Mason to die in the tomb, victim of an ancient, glowing meteor. The man-brute rushes back to his master, carrying the Orb and fully expecting Stagg to honour his promise and give him Sapphire in marriage. Meanwhile, trapped and painfully aware his time has come, Mason swallows a suicide pill as the scorching star-stone rays burn through him…

Instead of death relieving his torment, Rex mutates into a ghastly chemical freak able to shapeshift and transform into any of the elements or compounds that comprised his human body: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, calcium, iron, cobalt and so many others…

Hungry for vengeance, Mason returns to confront his betrayers, only to be overcome by alien energies emanating from the Orb of Ra. An uneasy détente is declared as Mason accepts Stagg’s desperate offer to cure him – “if possible”. The senior Stagg is further horrified when Rex reveals his condition to Sapphire and finds she still loves him. Totally unaware of his employer’s depths of duplicity, Mason starts working for the tycoon as metahuman problem-solver Metamorpho, the Element Man…

Brave and the Bold #58 (February-March 1965) reveals more of Stagg’s closeted skeletons when old business partner Maxwell Tremayne kidnaps the Element Man and later abducts Sapphire to ‘The Junkyard of Doom!’ Apparently, the deranged armaments manufacturer was once intimately acquainted with the girl’s mother and never quite got over it…

The test comics an unqualified success, Metamorpho promptly started in his own title, cover-dated July-August 1965 and on sale from May 27th, just as a wildly tongue-in-cheek “High Camp” craze was catching on in all areas of popular culture. This blended ironic vaudevillian kitsch with ancient movie premises as theatrical mad scientists and scurrilous spies began appearing absolutely everywhere…

‘Attack of the Atomic Avenger’ sees nuclear nut-job Kurt Vornak seeking to crush Stagg Industries, only to be turned into a deadly, planet-busting radioactive super-atom, after which fashionably foreboding ‘Terror from the Telstar’ pits our charismatic characters against Nicholas Balkan, a ruthless criminal boss set on sabotaging America’s Space Program. Manic multi-millionaire T.T. Trumbull uses his own daughter Zelda to get to Simon Stagg through his heart, accidentally proving to all that the old goat actually has one. This was part of TT’s attempt to seize control of America in ‘Who Stole the U.S.A.?’ with the ambitious would-be despot backing up the scheme with an incredible robot specifically designed to murder Metamorpho. Happily, Rex Mason’s guts and ingenuity prove more effective than the Element Man’s astonishing powers…

America saved, the dysfunctional family head South of the Border, becoming embroiled in ‘The Awesome Escapades of the Abominable Playboy’ as Stagg schemes to marry Sapphire off to Latino Lothario Cha Cha Chavez. The spoiled, wilful child is simply trying to make Mason jealous and has no idea of Daddy’s true plans whilst Stagg senior has no conception of Chavez’s real intentions… or connections to the local tin-pot dictator…

With this issue gloriously stylish innovator Ramona Fradon left the series, to be replaced by two artists who strove to emulate her unique, gently madcap manner of drawing with varying degrees of success. Luckily, veteran inker Charles Paris stayed on to smooth out rough edges.

Before we see them though, the buzz extended to a quick guest shot in a top mainstream title.

A classic romp written by Gardner Fox and illustated by Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs, Justice League of America #42 (February 1966) sees the reluctant hero joyfully join the World’s Greatest Superheroes to defeat cosmic menace The Unimaginable. The grateful champions instantly offer him membership but are astounded when – and why – ‘Metamorpho Says… No!’:

In Metamorpho #5 the first substitute was E.C. veteran Joe Orlando whose 2-issue tenure began with outrageous doppelganger drama ‘Will the Real Metamorpho Please Stand Up?’ wherein eccentric architect Edifice K. Bulwark wants Mason to lend his abilities to his chemical skyscraper project. When Metamorpho declines, Bulwark and Stagg attempt to create their own Element Man with predictably disastrous consequences. ‘Never Bet Against an Element Man!’ (#6 May-June 1966) then takes the team to the French Riviera as gambling grandee Achille Le Heele snookers Stagg and wins “ownership” of Metamorpho. The Gallic toad’s ultimate goal was stealing the world’s seven greatest wonders (including the Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower) and, somehow, only the Element Man can make that happen…

Elemental entertainment returned to The Brave and the Bold in #66 (June/July 1966) as ‘Wreck the Renegade Robots’ by Haney, Sekowsky & Mike Esposito sees a mad scientist usurp control of the Metal Men just as their creator Will Magnus is preoccupied with a cure to turn Metamorpho back into an ordinary mortal…

Sal Trapani began drawing the regular title with #7’s ‘Terror from Fahrenheit 5,000!’ as the acronymic superspy fad hit hard. Metamorpho is enlisted by the C.I.A. to stop suicidal maniac Otto Von Stuttgart destroying the entire planet by dropping a nuke into the Earth’s core, before costumed villain Doc Dread is countered by an undercover Metamorpho becoming ‘Element Man, Public Enemy!’ in a diabolical caper of doom and double-cross.

B & B #68 (October/November 1966), the still chemically active crimebuster battles popular TV Bat-Baddies The Joker, Penguin and Riddler as well as a fearsomely mutated Caped Crusader in thoroughly bizarre tale ‘Alias the Bat-Hulk!’ – both yarns courtesy of Haney, Mike Sekowsky & Mike Esposito.

Metamorpho #9 shifted to classic fantasy when suave and sinister despot El Mantanzas maroons the cast in ‘The Valley That Time Forgot!’: battling cavemen and antediluvian alien automatons, after which a new catalysing element is added in ‘The Sinister Snares of Stingaree!’ This yarn introduces Urania Blackwell – a secret agent somehow transformed into an Element Girl and sharing all Metamorpho’s incredible abilities. Not only is she dedicated to eradicating evil like criminal cabal Cyclops, but Urania is also the perfect paramour for Rex, who even cancels his wedding to Sapphire to go gangbusting with her…

With a new frisson of sexual chemistry sizzling barely beneath the surface, ‘They Came from Beyond?’ finds a conflicted Element Man confronting an apparent alien invasion whilst ‘The Trap of the Test-Tube Terrors!’ sees another attempt to cure Rex of his unwanted powers. This allows mad scientist Franz Zorb access to Stagg Industry labs long enough to build an army of chemical horrors. The plot thickens with Zorb’s theft of a Nucleonic Moleculizer, prompting continuation in #13 wherein Urania is abducted only to triumphantly experience ‘The Return from Limbo’…

Prior to that, however, the tone of the times dictated the birth of a new – comedic – feature as ‘Meta-Maniacs of the World Unite!’ exposes domestic secrets of the cast. A second dose, ‘Meta-Maniacs of the World Unite… Again??’ closed the issue and even more in-vogue nonsense closed #14 in the form of ‘Meta-Maniacs of the Universe (we’re expanding) Unite… Once More??’

Events and stories grew increasingly outlandish and outrageous as TV’s superhero craze intensified, and ‘Enter the Thunderer!’ (#14, September/October 1967) depicted Rex pulled between Sapphire and Urania whilst marauding extraterrestrial Neutrog terrorises the world in preparation for the arrival of his mighty mutant master. The next instalment augured an ‘Hour of Armageddon!’ as the uniquely menacing Thunderer takes control of Earth until boy genius Billy Barton aids the Elemental defenders in defeating the alien horrors. The drama closed with more silliness and a competition in ‘Meta-Maniacs of the World, This is it… The Big Payola!’

Trapani inked himself for Metamorpho #16: an homage to H. Rider Haggard’s She novels (and the 1965 movie blockbuster) wherein ‘Jezeba, Queen of Fury!’ changes the Element Man’s life forever. When Sapphire marries playboy Wally Bannister, the heartbroken Element Man undertakes a mission to find the lost city of Ma-Phoor and encounters an undying beauty who wants to conquer the world… and who just happens to be Sapphire’s exact double.

Moreover, the immortal empress of a lost civilisation once loved an Element Man of her own: a Roman soldier named Algon who became a chemical warrior 2000 years previously. Believing herself reunited with her lost love, Jezeba finally launches a long-delayed attack on the outside world with disastrous, tragic consequences…

‘Metamaniacs! The Large Payola… Again???’ and a cast pinup by Fradon & Paris stridently underscore the parlous state of play before the oddly appetising series came to a shuddering, unsatisfactory halt with the next issue as the superhero bubble burst. Costumed comic characters suffered their second recession in 15 years and Metamorpho was an early casualty, cancelled just as (or perhaps because) the series was emerging from its quirky comedic shell with the March/April 1968 issue. Illustrated by Jack Sparling, ‘Last Mile for an Element Man!’ sees Mason tried – and executed! – for the murder of Bannister, resurrected by Urania Blackwell and set on the trail of true killer Algon. Consequently, Mason and Element Girl uncover a vast conspiracy and rededicate themselves to defending humanity at all costs. The tale ends on a never-resolved cliffhanger: when Metamorpho was revived as a back-up feature some years later no mention was ever made of these last game-changing issues…

Before that though, one final indigity to endure offers a last look at the cast as‘Meta-Maniacs of East Cupcake (wherever that is), Unite! More Mighty Element Man Contest Winners!’

delivers the last edirorial duties before the lights went out.

The final exploit in this volume as comes from Brave and the Bold #101 (April/May 1972) as, Haney & Jim Aparo close proceedings with a grim and gritty finish for our hero when he assists the World’s Greatest Detective in outrageous murder-mystery ‘Cold-Blood, Hot Gun!’: seeking to save stubborn disinherited Sapphire Stagg from the World’s deadliest hitman.

Individually enticing, always exciting but oddly frustrating in total, this book will delight readers who aren’t too wedded to cloying continuity but simply seek a few moments of casual, fantastic escapism.
© 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1972, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Yoko Tsuno volume 18: The Rhine Gold


By Roger Leloup, coloured by Studio Leonardo & translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-093-7 (Album PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

On September 24th 1970, “electronics engineer” Yoko Tsuno began a career as an indomitable intellectual adventurer in Le Journal de Spirou in “Marcinelle style” cartoonish 8 page short ‘Hold-up en hi-fi’. She is still delighting readers and making new fans to this day, in action-packed, astonishing, astoundingly accessible adventures numbering amongst the most intoxicating, absorbing and broad-ranging comics thrillers ever created.

Her globe-girdling mysteries and space-&-time-spanning epics are the brainchild of Belgian maestro Roger Leloup who properly started his own solo career in 1953 after working as studio assistant/technical artist on Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin.

Compellingly told, sublimely imaginative and – no matter how implausible the premise of an individual yarn – always firmly grounded in hyper-realistic settings underpinned by authentic, unshakably believable technology and scientific principles, Leloup’s illustrated escapades were at the vanguard of a wave of strips revolutionising European comics. Very early in the process, he switched from loose illustration to a mesmerising nigh-photo realistic style that is a series signature. That long-overdue sea-change in gender roles and stereotyping heralded a wave of clever, competent, brave and formidably capable female protagonists taking their rightful places as heroic ideals and not romantic lures; elevating Continental comics in the process. Such endeavours are as engaging and empowering now as they ever were, none more so than the travails of Miss Tsuno.

Her first outings (the aforementioned but STILL unavailable Hold-up en hi-fi, and co-sequels La belle et la bête and Cap 351) were mere introductory vignettes before epic authenticism took hold in 1971 when the unflappable troubleshooter met valiant but lesser (male) pals Pol Paris and Vic Van Steen. Instantly hitting her stride in premier full-length saga Le trio de l’étrange (starting in LJdS’s May 13th edition), from that point on, Yoko’s cases encompassed explosive exploits in exotic corners of our world, sinister deep-space sagas and even time-travelling jaunts. There are 31 European bande dessinée albums to date, with 19 translated into English thus far, albeit – and ironically – none of them available in digital formats…

Initially serialised in LJdS #2841 to 2861and spanning September 23rd 1992 – 10th February 1993 as L’Or du Rhin, The Rhine Gold chronologically follows deep space saga The Exiles of Kifa, with our tireless troubleshooter planting her feet firmly back on terra firma in familiar territory.

Revisiting Germany and old friend/occasional partner in crimefighting Ingrid Hallberg (The Devil’s Organ, On the Edge of Life, Wotan’s Fire) Yoko’s scheduled meeting in Cologne Cathedral abruptly catapults her headlong into industrial chicanery, political intrigue and murder, as well as a return engagement with devious billionaire war criminal/arch enemy Ito Kazuki (Daughter of the Wind).

When a woman is drugged and assaulted in the crypt, her last words before unconsciousness are “no police”, “Bahnhof” and “Rheingold”. Yoko and Ingrid instantly assist, and after getting her anonymously into hospital, discover Minako Yasuda is a Japanese interpreter… who came to the cathedral with burglary tools, handguns and plastic explosives!

Trading handbags with the victim, and pinching her car, Ms. Tsuno rashly assumes her identity, and from obscure clues she and Ingrid retrace the victim’s steps to the vast Haupt Bahnhof rail terminus… and finally deduce the incredible secret of code phrase Rheingold…

In pursuit of justice and answers, Yoko stumbles into a top secret conclave of unsavoury types convened to ride a very special luxury train from Cologne to Koblenz and ultimately Pfalz Grafenstein castle. Behind the “business jolly” is ruthless technocrat entrepreneur and family foe Ito Kazuki, who long ago defamed Yoko’s father Seiki.

The plutocrat is all apologies now: revealing he is merging his interests with German rivals, selling his newest world-changing super-weapon and retiring. However, many nefarious, potentially harmful details still need to be ironed out or erased. The clandestine rail conference is a way avoid press and government scrutiny whilst smoothing the transition and identifying pitfalls, but it also brings many opportunities for sabotage from foes and false friends.

Seemingly repentant, Kazuki implores Yoko to formally replace Miss Yasuda. She grudgingly accepts, not for the small fortune he offers for 36 hours as his secretary/translator, or his assurances that he has changed. Rather, she thinks how many innocents could be harmed by all the explosives she did not find in the package she recovered, and is convinced that, despite his frankness, the billionaire is still hiding something…

Thus, with overtones of Murder on the Orient Express, a story of betrayal, butchery and double cross unfolds. As Yoko, Kazujki’s sketchy staff and his pride-&-joy – AI computer/samurai robot Koshi – all hunt a killer amongst an elite passenger list including two disbarred doctors with the same name, rogue CIA and KGB operatives and eager Euro-capitalists, there are also indications that one of Kazujki’s inner circle is a Japanese agent. It’s a good thing Yoko has maximised her advantages by getting Pol hired as a waiter/attendant. It doesn’t prevent her being attacked again, but his support is welcome after Yoko is mysteriously “rewarded” with hidden files and documents giving fresh clues to what’s actually going on…

With the first attempt on her life spectacularly taking place even before the train leaves the station, and the utter conviction that Kazuki is playing his own game, the first murder inevitably occurs aboard the train and the terrors and tribulations continue all the way to Pfalz Grafenstein where the survivors cautiously gather.

It’s not what anyone expected or anticipated, but Yoko now has all the answers. All she has to do is escape the castle and save the rest of the passengers – who have all sought to go their own ways – and foil the last trick of the cunning mastermind behind all the chaos and carnage…

Blending high finance and wicked crimes with tecno-dread, killer robots, death rays, evil twins, deadly doppelgangers and humanity’s fascination with precious metal, The Rhine Gold displays our valiant troubleshooter triumphant in a taut, tense thriller of cutthroat corporate espionage and relatively mundane real-world menace. Once more, malevolence proves inadequate in the face of Yoko Tsuno’s passionate humanity, bold imagination and quick thinking…

Moodily-paced, deviously twisted and terrifying plausible, this tale reemphasises how smarts and combat savvy are pointless without compassion, and as ever, the most potent asset of these edgy exploits is astonishingly authentic settings, as ever benefitting from Leloup’s diligent research and meticulous attention to detail. The Rhine Gold is a magnificently wide-screen thriller, utterly enthralling and surely appealing to any fan of blockbuster action, felonious fantasy and gobsmacking derring-do.

…And Steam trains too, if that especially floats your boat…
Original edition © Dupuis, 1991 by Roger Leloup. All rights reserved. English translation 2022 © Cinebook Ltd.

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Marvel Masters: The Art of John Romita Sr.


By John Romita Sr. with Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Denny O’Neil, Gary Friedrich, Gerry Conway, Peter David, Roger Stern, J.M. DeMatteis, Frank Giacoia, Mike Esposito, John Verpoorten, Paul Reinman & Tony Mortellaro, Fred Fredericks, Al Milgrom, Dan Green & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-403-4 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Hard to believe that it’s exactly two years since John Romita died. As I wallow in melancholy over the passing of Brian Wilson, and listen to old Beach Boys classics, I can’t help but recall so many summers spent revelling in Romita’s clean cut graphic mastery, tracing his drawings with Pet Sounds and Smiley Smile playing – and especially grooving in my juvenile way to Good Vibrations and Heroes and Villains…

That kind of nostalgia grips like a vice and can only be indulged until something supplants it, so here’s a look at an old British compilation that encapsulates all that whilst reminding us all how much poorer we’ve become in recent time…

One of the industry’s most polished stylists and a true cornerstone of the Marvel Comics phenomenon, the elder John Romita began his comics career in the late 1940s (ghosting for other artists) before striking out under his own colours, eventually illustrating horror and other anthology tales for Stan Lee at Timely/Atlas.

John Victor Romita was Brooklyn born and bred, entering the world on January 24th1930. From Brooklyn Junior High School he moved to the famed Manhattan School of Industrial Art, and graduated in 1947. After spending six months creating a medical exhibit for Manhattan General Hospital in 1949 he moved into comics, working for Famous Funnies. A “day job” working with Forbes Lithograph was abandoned after a friend found him inking and ghosting assignments. Romita was drafted in 1951, and, showing his portfolio to a US army art director, after boot camp at Fort Dix New Jersey, was promoted to corporal, stationed on Governors Island in New York Bay crafting recruitment posters and allowed to live off-base… in Brooklyn. During that period he started doing the rounds and struck up a freelancing acquaintance with Stan Lee at Atlas Comics…

He illustrated horror, science fiction, war stories, westerns, Waku, Prince of the Bantu (in Jungle Tales), a superb run of cowboy adventures starring The Western Kid and 1954’s brief abortive revival of Captain America and more, before an industry implosion derailed his career – and many others. Romita eventually found himself trapped in DC’s romance comics division – a job he hated – before making the reluctant jump again to the resurgent House of Ideas in 1965. As well as steering the career of the wallcrawler and many other Marvel stars, his greatest influence was felt when he official became Art Director in July 1973 – a role he had been doing in all but name since 1968. Romita had a definitive hand in creating or shaping many key characters, such as Mary Jane Watson, Peggy Carter, The Kingpin, The Punisher, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Satana, ad infinitum.

After a brief stint as an inker, Romita took over Daredevil with #12, following on from Wally Wood and Bob Powell. Initially, Jack Kirby provided layouts to help Romita assimilate the style and pacing of Marvel tales but he was soon in full control of his pages. He drew DD until #19, by which time he had been handed the assignment of a lifetime…

We open here with the Captain America story from Tales of Suspense # 77 (May 1966). ‘If a Hostage Should Die!’ was written by Lee, with Kirby layouts and inks from Frank Giacoia (AKA Frank Ray), recounting a moment from the hero’s wartime exploits involving a mysterious woman he had loved and lost, and is followed by a classic Daredevil thriller from #18. ‘There Shall Come a Gladiator!’ introduced an armoured, buzzsaw wielding psychopath in a gripping tale of mistaken identity, by Lee and office junior Denny O’Neil with Giacoia once more handling the pens and brushes.

Up next is that aforementioned Big Break. By 1966 Stan Lee and Steve Ditko could no longer work together on their greatest creation. After increasingly fraught months the artist resigned, leaving the Spider-Man without an illustrator. The new kid was handed the ball and told to run. ‘How Green was my Goblin!’ and ‘Spidey Saves the Day!’ (“Featuring the End of the Green Goblin!” as it so facetiously and unconvincingly proclaimed) was the climactic battle fans had been clamouring for since the viridian villain’s first appearance. It didn’t disappoint and still doesn’t to this day.

Reprinted from issues #39 & 40 (August and September 1966, and inked by old DC colleague Mike Esposito under the pseudonym Mickey Demeo) this is still one of the best Spider-Man yarns ever, and heralded a run of classic sagas by the Lee/Romita team that saw sales actually rise, even after the departure of seemingly irreplaceable Ditko. Another such was the contents of Amazing Spider-Man #47-49.

‘In the Hands of the Hunter!’, ‘The Wings of the Vulture!’ and ‘From the Depths of Defeat!’ saw Romita finally provide pencils and inks (April, May and June 1967), comprising a complex, engrossing thriller featuring Kraven the Hunter and both the old and a new Vultures, as well as detailing a tension building subplot about the gone-but-not-forgotten Green Goblin.

Stan Lee considered Romita a safe pair of hands and “go-to-guy”. When Kirby left to create his incredible Fourth World for DC, Romita was handed the company’s other flagship title – and in the middle of an on-going storyline. Fantastic Four #103 (October 1970) ‘At War With Atlantis!’ is the second chapter in a gripping invasion tale where Magneto blackmails the Sub-Mariner into conquering the surface world with his Atlantean legions (as is so often the case, the first part is not included here, but there are recaps aplenty to bring you up to speed) and with the conclusion ‘Our World.. Enslaved!’ Inked with angular, brittle brilliance by John Verpoorten, they form the first non-Kirby classic of the super-team’s illustrious history. Sadly, the title began a gradual decline soon after…

Romita returned to the Star-Spangled Avenger in the early 1970s and ‘Power to the People’  is the culmination of an extended storyline very much of its time with the Falcon and Nick Fury helping to once again stop the insidious Red Skull. Gary Friedrich scripted Captain America #143 (November 1971) and another new kid was writing the web-spinner when Romita returned. Next comes ‘The Master-Plan of the Molten Man!’ (Amazing Spider-Man #132, May 1974), scripted by Gerry Conway, but the increasingly busy Romita, art directing all Marvel’s titles and projects, was here uncomfortably assisted by Paul Reinman & Tony Mortellaro in the inking of this two-fisted interlude.

Scripted by Peter David with Fred Fredericks inks, ‘Vicious Cycle’ is a quirky, moving short tale from Incredible Hulk Annual #17 (1991), followed by an adventure of Peter Parker’s parents seen in Untold Tales of Spider-Man #-1 (July 1997, and part of the company’s Flashback publishing event). Written by Roger Stern and inked by Al Milgrom, ‘The Amazing Parkers’ pitted the married secret agents against the deadly Baroness and guest-starred a pre-Weapon-X Wolverine in a delightful pacy spy-romp.

In 1997 the Wallcrawler and Daredevil teamed up in Spider-Man/Kingpin: To the Death: a one-shot reuniting Lee & Romita (plus inker Dan Green) for an old fashioned countdown caper to delight older fans, before this book’s narrative delights end with ‘The Kiss’: a trip down memory lane with a much younger Peter Parker still in the throes of first love with Gwen Stacy. Triggering those tears is writer J.M. DeMatteis, and the content proves to me, at least, that Romita’s detested romance stories must be something to see, all his protestations notwithstanding. With a superbly informative biography section from Mike Conroy to close out the volume, this is one of the most cohesive and satisfactory compilations in this series of Marvel Masters. If only they could all be as good…
© 2008 Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. (A BRITISH EDITION BY PANINI UK LTD)

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The Inhumans Masterworks volume 1


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Archie Goodwin, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Arnold Drake, Gene Colan, Neal Adams, Mike Sekowsky, Tom Sutton, Joe Sinnott, Vince Colletta, Chic Stone, Tom Palmer, John Verpoorten, Bill Everett, Frank Giacoia & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-41419 (HC) 978-0-7851-4142-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Debuting in 1965 and conceived as one more incredible lost civilisation during Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s most fertile and productive creative period, The Inhumans are a secretive race of phenomenally disparate beings genetically altered by aliens in Earth’s primordial pre-history. They subsequently evolved into a technologically-advanced civilisation far ahead of emergent Homo Sapiens and isolated themselves from the world and barbarous dawn-age humans, first on an island and latterly in a hidden valley in the Himalayas, residing in a fabulous city named Attilan.

The mark of citizenship is immersion in the mutative Terrigen Mists which further enhance and transform individuals into radically unique and generally super-powered beings. The Inhumans are obsessed with order, rank, genetic structure and heritage, worshipping the ruling Royal Family as the rationalist equivalent of mortal gods.

How the hereditary outsiders first impacted the Marvel Universe is gathered in this carefully curated tome which represents early solo-starring appearances from the Tales of the Uncanny Inhumans back-up series in Thor #146-153; a one-off yarn from Marvel Super-Heroes #15; their entire starring run from Amazing Adventures #1-10, plus a guest shot in Avengers #95 collectively spanning the period cover dates November 1967 to January 1972. Also included are a trio of spoof features taken from  Not Brand Echh #6 and 12 (February 1968 and February 1969).

Designed to delight all fanboy truth-seekers, former Kirby assistant and disciple Mark Evanier’s Introduction offers candid and informative behind-the-scenes revelations detailing the true publishing agenda and “Secret Origin of the Inhumans”, before reintroducing the Royal Family of Attilan. Black Bolt, Medusa, Triton, Karnak, Gorgon, Crystal and the rest who would soon become mainstays of the Marvel Universe.

After a plethora of guest shots in The Fantastic Four, the hidden ones began their first solo feature in Thor #146: a series of complete, 5-page vignettes detailing some of the tantalising backstory so effectively hinted at in previous appearances. ‘The Origin of… the Incomparable Inhumans’ (Lee, Kirby & Joe Sinnott) plunges back to the dawn of civilisation with cavemen fleeing in fear from technologically advanced humans who live on an island named Attilan.

In that ancient futuristic metropolis, wise King Randac finally makes a decision to test out his people’s latest discovery: genetically mutative Terrigen rays…

The saga expands a month later in ‘The Reason Why!’ as Earth’s duly-appointed Kree Sentry visits the island and reveals how in ages even further past his alien masters experimented on an isolated tribe of primitive humanoids. Now keen to determine their progress, the menacing mechanoid observes that the Kree’s lab rats have fully taken control of their genetic destiny and must now be considered Inhuman…

Skipping ahead 25,000 years, ‘…And Finally: Black Bolt!’ reveals how a baby’s first cries wreck Attilan and reveal the infant prince to be an Inhuman unlike any other: one cursed with an uncontrollable sonic vibration which builds to unstoppable catastrophic violence with every utterance. Raised in isolation, the prince’s 19th birthday marks his release into the city and close contact with the cousins he has only ever seen on video screens. Sadly, the occasion is co-opted by Bolt’s envious brother Maximus who coldly tortures the royal heir to prove he cannot be trusted. Sadly for the upstart the prince is strong enough for all that comes and prepares for a life determined by his ‘Silence or Death!’

Thor #150 (March 1968) opened a lengthier, continued tale as ‘Triton’ leaves the hidden city to explore the greater human world, only to be captured by a film crew making an underwater monster movie. Allowing himself to be brought to America, the wily manphibian escapes when the ship docks and becomes an ‘Inhuman at Large!’ The series concluded with Triton on the run and a fish out of water ‘While the City Shrieks!’ before returning to Attilan with a damning assessment of the Inhumans’ lesser cousins…

The first Inhuman introduced to the world was the menacing Madame Medusa in Fantastic Four #36: a female super-villain joining team’s antithesis The Frightful Four. This sinister squad comprised evil genius The Wizard, shapeshifting Sandman and gadget fiend The Trapster, and their repeated battles against Marvel’s first family led to the exposure of the hidden race and numerous clashes with humanity.

In 1967, a proposed Inhumans solo series was canned before completion, but the initial episode was retooled and published in the company’s try-out vehicle Marvel Super-Heroes. Scripted by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by Gene Colan & Vince Colletta, ‘Let the Silence Shatter!’ appeared in #15 (July 1968), revealing how the villainous quartet temporarily reunite after the Wizard promises a method for controlling Black Bolt’s deadly sonic affliction in return for Medusa’s services. As usual, the double-dealing mastermind betrays his coerced accomplice, but again underestimates her abilities and intellect, resulting in yet another humiliating defeat…

A few years later, bi-monthly “split-book” Amazing Adventures launched with an August 1970 cover-date and the Inhumans sharing the pages with a new Black Widow series. The big news however was that Kirby was both writing and illustrating the ‘The Inhumans!’ Inked by Chic Stone, the first episode saw the Great Refuge targeted by atomic missiles apparently fired by the Inhumans’ greatest allies, prompting a retaliatory attack on the Baxter Building and pitting ‘Friend Against Friend!’ However, even as the battle raged, Black Bolt takes covert action against the true culprits…

AA #3 sees the uncanny outcasts as ‘Pawns of the Mandarin’ when the devilish tyrant tricks the Royal Family into uncovering a mega-powerful ancient artefact, but he is ultimately unable to cope with their power and teamwork in concluding chapter ‘With These Rings I Thee Kill!’ before issue #5 (March 1971) ushered in a radical change of tone and mood as the currently on-fire creative team of Roy Thomas & Neal Adams took over the strip when Kirby shockingly left Marvel for DC. Inked by Tom Palmer, ‘His Brother’s Keeper’ sees Maximus finally employ a long-dormant power – mind-control – to erase Black Bolt’s memory and seize control of the Great Refuge. The real problem however, is that at the exact moment the Mad One strikes, Black Bolt is in San Francisco on a secret mission. When the mind-wave hits, the stranger forgets everything and as a little boy offers assistance, ‘Hell on Earth!’ (John Verpoorten inks) begins as a simple whisper shatters the docks and the vessels moored there…

As Triton, Gorgon, Karnak & Medusa flee the now utterly entranced Refuge in search of Black Bolt, ‘An Evening’s Wait for Death!’ finds little Joey and the still-bewildered Bolt captured by a radical black activist determined to use the Inhuman’s shattering power to raze the city’s foul ghettoes. A tense confrontation in the streets with the police draws storm god Thor into the conflict during ‘An Hour for Thunder!’, but when the dust settles it seems Black Bolt is dead…

Gerry Conway, Mike Sekowsky & Bill Everett assumed storytelling duties with # 9 as the Inhumans took over the entire book. Reaching America, the Royal Cousins’ search for their king is interrupted when they are targeted by a cult of mutants. ‘…And the Madness of Magneto!’ reveals Black Bolt in the clutches of the Master of Magnetism, who needs the usurped king’s abilities to help him steal a new artificial element. However ‘In His Hands… the World!’ (inked by Frank Giacoia) soon proves that with his memory restored nothing and no one can long make the mightiest Inhuman a slave…

The series abruptly ended there. Amazing Adventures #11 featured a new treatment of graduate X-Man Hank McCoy who rode the trend for monster heroes by accidentally transforming himself into a furry Beast. The Inhumans simply dropped out of sight until Thomas & Adams wove their dangling plot threads into the monumental epic unfolding in The Avengers #89-97 from June 1971 to March 1972.

At that time Thomas’ bold experiment was rightly considered the most ambitious saga in Marvel’s brief history: an astounding saga of tremendous scope which dumped Earth into a cosmic war the likes of which comics fans had never before seen. The Kree/Skrull War set the template for all multi-part crossovers and publishing events ever since…

It began when, in the distant Kree Empire, the ruling Supreme Intelligence was overthrown by his chief enforcer Ronan the Accuser. The rebellion resulted in humanity learning aliens hide among us, and public opinion turned against superheroes for concealing the threat of repeated alien incursions…

A powerful allegory of the Anti-Communist Witch-hunts of the 1950s (and more relevant than ever now that TacoPotUS misrules that benighted land), the epic saw riots in American streets and a political demagogue capitalising on the crisis. Subpoenaed by the authorities, castigated by friends and public, the Avengers were ordered to disband. Sadly omitted here, issue #94 entangled the Inhumans in the mix, disclosing that their advanced science and powers result from Kree genetic meddling in the depths of prehistory. With intergalactic war beginning, Black Bolt missing and his madly malign brother Maximus in charge, the Kree now come calling in their ancient markers…

Wrapping up the dramatic graphic wonderment, ‘Something Inhuman This Way Comes…!’ (Avengers #95, January 1972) coalesces many disparate story strands as aquatic adventurer Triton aids the Avengers against government-piloted Mandroids before beseeching the beleaguered heroes to help find his missing monarch and rescue his Inhuman brethren from the press-ganging Kree…

After so doing, Earth’s Mightiest head into space to liberate their kidnapped comrades and save the planet from becoming collateral damage in the impending cosmos-shaking clash between Kree and Skrulls (a much-collected tale you’d be crazy to miss…).

Appended with creator biographies and House Ads for the Inhumans’ debut, the thrills and chills are topped off with three comedy vignettes. The first, from Not Brand Echh #6 (the “Big, Batty Love and Hisses issue!” of February 1968) reveals how ‘The Human Scorch Has to… Meet the Family!’: a snappy satire on romantic liaisons from Lee, Kirby & Tom Sutton, complimented by ‘Unhumans to Get Own Comic Book’ (Arnold Drake, Thomas & Sutton) and ‘My Search for True Love’ by Drake & Sutton: both from Not Brand Echh #12 (February 1969).

The first of these depicts how other artists might render the series – with contenders including faux icons BOob (Gnatman & Rotten) Krane, Chester (Dig Tracing) Ghoul and Charles (Good Ol’ Charlie…) Schlitz, whilst the second follows lovelorn Medoozy as she dumps her taciturn man and searches for fulfilment amongst popular musical and movie stars of the era…

These stories cemented the outsiders place in the ever-expanding Marvel universe and helped the company to overtake all its competitors. Although making little impact at the time they remain potent and innovative: as exciting and captivating now as they ever were. This is a must-have book for all fans of graphic narrative.
© 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Superman: The Golden Age Dailies 1944 to 1947 (volume 2)


By Alvin Schwartz, Wayne Boring & the Superman Studio (IDW/Library of American Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-68405-197-7 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The American comic book industry – if it still existed at all – would be utterly unrecognisable without Superman. Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s unprecedented invention was first fervidly adopted by a desperate and joy-starved generation, and gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. Spawning an army of imitators and variations within three years of his 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of breakneck, breathtaking action and wish-fulfilment epitomising the early Man of Steel grew to encompass cops-&-robbers crimebusting, socially reforming dramas, sci fi fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East sucked in America, patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and vigorous, dashing derring-do.

From the outset, in comic book terms Superman was master of the world. Moreover, whilst transforming the shape of the fledgling funnybook biz, the Man of Tomorrow irresistibly expanded into all areas of the entertainment media. Although we all think of the Cleveland boys’ iconic invention as epitome and acme of comics creation, the truth is that very soon after his springtime debut in Action Comics #1 the Man of Steel was a fictional multimedia monolith in the same league as Popeye, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and Mickey Mouse. We parochial and possessive comics fans too often regard our purest and most powerful icons in purely graphic narrative terms, but the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, Avengers and their hyperkinetic kind long ago outgrew four-colour origins to become fully mythologized modern media creatures familiar in mass markets, across all platforms and age ranges…

In the last century and even more so in this one, far more people have seen and heard the Man of Steel than have ever read his comic books. These globally syndicated newspaper strips alone were enjoyed by countless millions, and by the time his 20th anniversary rolled around, at the very start of what we call the Silver Age of Comics, he had been a thrice-weekly radio serial star, headlined 17 astounding animated cartoons, become a novel attraction (written by George Lowther) and helmed two feature films. He had then seamlessly segued into the next Big Thing – television. His first smash 8-season live-action show was but the first of many, making Superman a perennial sure-fire success for toys, games, food, puzzle and apparel manufacturers all over the planet.

Although pretty much a spent force these days, for the majority of the previous century the newspaper comic strip was the Holy Grail all American cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country – and often the world – a strip feature could be seen by millions if not billions of readers and was generally accepted as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic books. It also – at the start! – paid better, and rightly so. Some of the most enduring, entertaining characters and concepts of all time were devised to lure readers from one particular paper to another and many of the best became cornerstones of a global culture. Mutt and Jeff, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, Charlie Brown and so many more escaped humble, tawdry newsprint origins to become meta-real: existing in the minds of earthlings from Albuquerque to Zanzibar. Most still do…

The daily Superman newspaper strip launched on 16th January 1939, swiftly augmented by a full-colour Sunday page from November 5th of that year. Originally crafted by luminaries like Siegel & Shuster and their studio (Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta & Wayne Boring), the mammoth task soon required additional talents like strip veteran Jack Burnley and writers including Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff & Alvin Schwartz. The McClure Syndicate feature ran continuously until May 1966, appearing, at its peak, in over 300 daily and 90 Sunday newspapers: a combined average readership of more than 20 million. Eventually, Win Mortimer & Curt Swan joined the unflagging Boring & Stan Kaye, whilst Bill Finger and Siegel also provided stories, telling serial tales largely divorced from comic book continuity throughout years when superheroes were scarcely seen.

This second volume of the Library of American Comics collection continues the vast reprint program begun in the Sterling/Kitchen Sink softcover editions which ceased production in 1999. All of that material – and these books too – are long overdue for re-release and digital editions. Here, however, the never-ending battle resumes with Siegel & Shuster and their helpers ceding control to new creators, but still addressing the World War the USA was close to ending. These sorties in “the never-ending battle” occur over episodes #31-46, pages #1815 through 2594, and publication dates October 30th 1944 to April 26 1947.

We open with an Introduction by Sidney Friefertig, discussing the changes from conflict to reconstruction and sharing why and how the strip aroused the ire of military intelligence and the FBI after casually stepping on the toes of the ultra-top-secret Manhattan Project. All they had wanted was to explore how atomic energy might affect the Action Ace. Also in review is the Man of Tomorrow’s post-war evolution via new scribe (and later poet, novelist and essayist) Alvin Schwartz (1916-2011) in the ever-evolving social stewpot of Metropolis and an increasingly smaller world.

With the majority of material credited to Schwartz (Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Tomahawk, Newsboy Legion, Slam Bradley, House of Mystery, A Date With Judy, Buzzy, Bizarro) and increasingly the sole province of artist Wayne Boring, the compilation kicks off with Episode 31 (strips #1815-1844 as seen between October 30th and December 2nd 1944) and the dilemma of ‘Superman’s Secret Revealed!’ as “World’s Richest Girl” Aline Wail announces her betrothal to the Man of Steel. Nobody is more despondent than Lois Lane or more surprised than Clark Kent, but by the time this genuine teletype typo is spotted, the story has gone global and Aline’s actual fiancé Aubrey Jones has been outed by frantic reporters – including Lois – as the superhero; thanks to a concatenation of accidents and misconceptions…

Sadly, inveterate gambler Aubrey needs to keep the deception going if he’s to pay off his bookies, and plans to cash in by suing Lois and the Daily Planet, until the real Superman steps in to divert and dispel the mounting media madness…

‘Lois Lane, Millionaire’ (strips #1845-1904, December 4th 1944 – February 10th 1945) then details how a murderous lawyer Homer G. Clutch and his virtual slave Mortimer attempt to procure the feisty journalist’s unsuspected inheritance of $3,000,000 from recently departed Grand-uncle Phineas Lane. Of course, to get the cash, Lois must marry within 10 days of receiving the official letter of notification, and account executor Clutch has many ways of intercepting the pay-out. Moreover, when Clark breaks the story, his scoop makes Lois the target of every other chancer and ne’er-do-well in town. They also all make it onto Clutch’s to-do list before Superman – and ironical fate – end Lane’s dreams of idle indolence…

Mundane crime gives way to wild fantasy next as ‘The Obnoxious Ogies’ (#1905-1946, February 12th – March 31st 1945) are annoying heard but not seen. When the invisible fairy pranksters attach themselves to Superman they make his life – and Clark’s – a cacophony of chaos until the Metropolis Marvel concocts something even these puckish pranksters cannot cope with…

Spanning April 2nd to June 23rd, strips #1947-2018 reveal ‘The Science of Superman’ as intractable intransigent physics Professor Ebenezer Duste refuses student Gil Gilmore his degree because the callow youth used clearly fictious examples of a Man of Tomorrow’s power set in his thesis. With his future career and current romance endangered the kid enlists Superman himself but even he cannot convince the sage of his authenticity, until at the height of a spiralling campaign of bizarre stunts, Duste finally finds his opinions shaken by attentive widow Prunella Busby who has her own way of winning an argument…

When a Daily Planet cooking contest prize goes to elderly spinsters Annabelle and Amelia, they parlay the reception into a longed-for meeting with Superman, inadvertently drawing the cataclysmic attention of Extra-Dimensional prankster Mr. Mxyztplk in ‘A Recipe for Disaster’ (June 25th – August 25th, strips #2019-2072)

Eager to impress, the sprite embarks on a career as a chef to win their attention/annoy the pants off his arch enemy and scare all Metropolis witless. It takes all Superman’s ingenuity and large helping of cunning from the old biddies before the Myxy can be convinced to go home again…

Lois finally finds herself ‘Engaged to Superman’ (#2073-2138, August 27th – November 10th) but when she insists that Clark be Best Man it triggers a wave of popular resentment among the city’s women, who protest in the streets and literally strike a blow for romance. As if that weren’t bad enough, mob chief Gaunt suspends all operations until after the wedding, planning to curb Superman’s anti-crime activities by threatening his bride. First, though, he has to marry Lois and the unhappy couple keep postponing the big day…

Domestic screwball comedy gives way to more traditional dramatic fare when Superman must save the Daily Planet – and Clark’s reputation – after a disgruntled employee publishes implausible predictions that Superman must make come true in ‘Phoney Prophecies’ (#2139-2198, November 12th 1945 to January 19th 1946) after which ‘Lois Lane, Editor’ (January 21st – April 6th, strips #2199-2264) confirms her courage, capability and ingenuity when high powered crooks seek to end her crusading crime reporting by seeking to buy her off with a major promotion. However, staunch and valiant, Miss Lane subverts the plot and makes The Daily Sphere a certified success before exposing the villains and negotiating a most rewarding return to the Planet…

A fantastic crimewave heralds the return of super-science bandit Lex Luthor (AKA Dr. Phineas Hackensack) between April 8th and June 1st (#2265-2312) as the villain unleashes ‘The Red Plague’ as a means of getting Superman into his lab and subjecting to a battery of horrific tests all designed to end his life. When all else fails he turns the Man of Steel into a living atomic bomb but once again tastes bitter defeat, after which ‘The Golden Scam’ (June 3rd – July 20th, #2313-2354) sees super conman J. Phineas Foxtrap gulled by his own greed and lose another fortune after selling fake gold bars to suckers with Superman’s approval. Of course, thanks to maverick atomic boffin Dr. Al Kemist, this time the ingots are completely genuine and vile trickster gets a taste of his own medicine…

In ‘Labors of Love’ (#2355-2378; July 22nd to August 17th) Superman again resolves to propose to Lois, but his heartfelt efforts are continually sabotaged by Mr. Mxyztplk, who spitefully decides that she’s actually the only girl in creation fit to be his mate. Cue crazed chaos, calamity and just a little carnage….

The trend towards whimsy and intellectual challenges continued when Lois is ordered to edit the Planet’s “Advice to the Lovelorn” column. She consequently asks our hero to cure a lazy dockside bum of being old, useless and unemployed in ‘Superman Finds a Job’ (#2379-2432; August 19th – October 2nd. He triumphs by inspiring aging wastrel Sam Brodie to discover his true calling and at last take the wrinkly hand of not-so-patient lady love Miss Tillie Crockett, but it’s a close call and takes all his super-wits and a lot of dumb luck…

Pure wickedness informs ‘The Prankster’s Peculiar Premonitions’ (#2433-2462; October 21st – November 23rd) as the lethal Joker-wannabe feigns clairvoyance and prophecy to humiliate Superman and plunder the city, before a war of aerial signwriters breaks out in ‘Sky Pirates’ (November 25th 1946 to January 4th 1947 and instalments #2463-2498) with a rogue pilot instigating a cunning crime wave of the air.

‘Portrait of a Crime’ (January 6th – February 8th; #2499-2528) introduces devious painter Pierre Laguerre who seeks to remove the Man of Steel from action by the strangest of methods, prior to the book concluding on a potent note of social relevancy.

‘Juvenile Delinquency’ (#2529-2594; February 10th to April 26th 1947) finds privileged brat Stanton Gladstone team up with dead-end kid Nicky Darrow to run wild, have fun and teach their respective families a lesson in parenting. However, rowdy rebellion escalates to felony and possibly murder when veteran criminals lead by top thug Big Jim step in to exploit the situation. Now Superman must not only punish the irredeemably wicked but save what remains of the boys’ tarnished innocence…

These yarns offer timeless wonders and mesmerising excitement for lovers of action and fantasy. The raw-boned early Superman is beyond compare and if you can handle the warts of the era or just crave simpler stories from less angst-wracked times, the adventures gathered here are ideal comics reading, and this a book you simply must see.
© 2018 DC Comics. All rights reserved. Superman and all related names, characters and elements are ™ DC Comics.