Category: Graphic Novels

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JLA: Tower of Babel


By Mark Waid, Howard Porter & various (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-304-4

After battling every combination of ancient, contemporary and futuristic foes, the World’s Greatest Superheroes found themselves pitted against an unbeatable threat in this startling exploration of paranoia that originally ran in issues #42-46 of the monthly comic-book, and spread into JLA Secret Files #3 and JLA 80-Page Giant #1

As a taster to the main event the book begins with ‘Half a Mind to Save a World’, an intriguing take on Asimov’s Fantastic Voyage from Dan Curtis Johnson, Mark Pajarillo and Walden Wong, wherein the Atom leads a JLA team on a mission to forcibly evacuate an advanced civilisation of bacteria that have taken up residence in a small boy’s brain, but of course, the bacteria aren’t that keen on moving…

Tower of Babel begins with immortal eco-terrorist Ra’s Al Ghul’s latest plan to winnow Earth’s human population to manageable levels well underway. In ‘Survival of the Fittest’ (Waid, Porter and Drew Geraci) a series of perfectly planned pre-emptive strikes cripple the Martian Manhunter, Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Plastic Man and Green Lantern whilst Batman is taken out of the game by the simple expedient of stealing his parents’ remains from their graves.

With the Dark Knight distracted and his fellow superheroes disabled the action begins: suddenly humanity has lost the ability to read. Books, newspapers, complicated machinery instructions, labels on medicine bottles – all are now gibberish. The death toll starts to rise…

In ‘Seven Little Indians’ as the League attempt to regroup and fight back Batman realises that the tactics and weapons used to take out his allies, now including Superman, were his own secret contingency measures, designed with sublime paranoia in case he ever had to fight his super-powered friends…

Inserted next is ‘Blame’ by Dan Curtis Johnson, Pablo Raimondi, Claude St. Aubin and David Meikis from JLA Secret Files #3 which reveals how Talia, Daughter of the Demon, stole Batman’s anti-hero files and devices before Tower of Babel resumes with ‘Protected by the Cold’ as Batman leads a counter-attack despite the shock and fury of his betrayed comrades, and as the final phase kicks in and humans lose the power of speech too, the disunited team mounts a last-ditch assault on Al Ghul in ‘Harsh Words’ (illustrated by Steve Scott and Mark Propst). The same team handled the epilogue where the recovered heroes angrily seek to understand how their trusted friend could have countenanced such treachery…

The volume concludes with two thematically linked vignettes from JLA 80-Page Giant #1, ‘The Green Bullet’ by John Ostrander, Ken Lashley and Ron Boyd and ‘Revelations’ by Priest, Eric Battle and Prentis Rollins wherein Batman clears the Man of Steel of a trumped-up murder charge whilst Aquaman and Wonder Woman seek to deal with their obvious dislike and distrust of each other…

This volume (voted by multimedia reviews website IGN as number 20 on their list of the 25 greatest Batman graphic novels) is indeed one of the best Batman tales ever: a perfect, defining example of the man who thinks of everything, and is tough enough to prepare for the worst of all outcomes. As the Dark Knight was (temporarily) cast out of the League a new era began and the fans couldn’t have been happier. That’s a feeling you can share simply by picking up this startlingly impressive tale.
© 1998, 2000 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Black Widow: The Coldest War – A Marvel Graphic Novel


By Gerry Conway, George Freeman & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 0- 87135-643-0

By 1990 Marvel’s ambitious line of all-new graphic novels was beginning to falter, and some less-than-stellar tales were squeaking into the line-up. Moreover, the company was increasingly resorting to in-continuity stories with established – and company copyrighted – characters rather than creator-owned properties and original concepts.

Not that that necessarily meant poor product, as this intriguing superhero spy thriller proves. The Coldest War is set in the last days of the US/Soviet face-off with what looks to be a pasted-on epilogue added as an afterthought, but as the entire affair was clearly scripted as a miniseries – most probably for the fortnightly anthology Marvel Comics Presents – an afterword set after the fall of the Berlin Wall doesn’t jar too much and must have lent an air of imminent urgency to the mix.

The Black Widow started life as a svelte and sultry honey-trap Russian agent during Marvel’s early “Commie-busting” days. She fell for an assortment of Yankee superheroes – including Hawkeye and Daredevil – and finally defected; becoming an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and occasional leader of the Avengers. Throughout her career she has been considered competent, deadly, efficient and cursed to bring doom and disaster to her paramours.

Gerry Conway provides a typically twisty, double-dealing tale set in the dog-days of Mikhail Gorbachev’s “Perestroika” (“openness”) government when ambitious KGB upstarts undertake a plan to subvert Natasha (nee Natalia) Romanova and return her to Soviet control using the bait of her husband Alexei Shostokoff – whom she has believed dead for years. Naturally nothing is as it seems, nobody can be trusted and only the last spy standing can be called the winner…

Low key and high-tech go hand in hand in this sort of tale, and although there’s much reference to earlier Marvel classics this tale can be easily enjoyed by the casual reader and art fan.

And what art! George Freeman is a supreme stylist, whose drawing work – although infrequent – is always top rate. Starting out on the seminal Captain Canuck, he has excelled on Jack of Hearts, Green Lantern, Avengers, Batman (Annual #11, with Alan Moore), Wasteland, Elric, Nexus and The X-Files (for which he won the Eisner Award for colouring). He co-founded the design/colouring studio Digital Chameleon in 1991.

Here, inked by Ernie Colon, Mark Farmer, Mike Harris, Val Mayerik and Joe Rubinstein with colours from Lovern Kindzierski he produced a subtle and sophisticated blend of costumed chic and espionage glamour that easily elevated this tale to a “must-have” item.
© 1990 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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John Constantine, Hellblazer: Son of Man


By Garth Ennis & John Higgins (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-830-3

Garth Ennis ended a spectacular run on the urban wizard and all-around nasty-piece-of-work John Constantine in grand manner with Hellblazer: Rake at the Gates of Hell. By wrapping up all his loose ends and eradicating almost everything built during his tenure Ennis gave the regrettable impression that he was never coming back, but to every fan’s delight he returned with frequent collaborator John Higgins (see Pride and Joy) to craft this terrifying and pitiless tale of urban horror and twisted heritage set in the darkly charismatic London underworld.

During the Falklands War, when John Constantine was still in and out of criminal asylums, gang boss Harry Cooper asked a favour. Already well acquainted with the worst that Hell housed, the cocky young wizard knew true evil when it stuck a gun up his nose and was wise enough to comply.

With a few of his friends – for they weren’t all dead back then – he successfully resurrected Cooper’s dead son, and counted himself lucky to escape with his life and knees intact. No one, especially Cooper, needed to know just how he’d accomplished the impossible.

Twenty years later an older wiser man, he’s being harassed by Copper’s thugs and their bought coppers again. The kid’s all grown up now and taking over the family business, but his actions don’t make sense. Rather than making money, all his efforts seem destined to turn the city into a seething cauldron of race-hate and gang warfare: a literal Hell on Earth.

Now Constantine has to deal with the thing he brought back before it settles with him and all London too – but the outlook is far from rosy…

Collecting issues #129-133 of the monthly comicbook, this is an excellent blend of crime-thriller a la “Cool Britannia” with the signature black comedy-horror that Ennis has made his own, and the expressive, boldly subtle art of John Higgins perfectly captures the brutality, hilarity and sheer fear generated in this terrific thriller.

Grown-up comics simply don’t get better than this and both crime fans and horror lovers can pick this book up with no prior familiarity and still have the time of their lives…

© 1998, 1999, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Green Lantern: Revenge of the Green Lanterns


By Geoff Johns, Carlos Pacheco, Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis & others (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-355-8

Following on from his triumphant resurrection in Green Lantern: Rebirth and return to the superhero “A-List” in Green Lantern: No Fear this third collection recounts the on-going adventures of Hal Jordan, troubled test-pilot and inter-galactic policeman in a sequence that encompassed the One Year Later publishing event (after the Infinite Crisis event, the company re-set the time line of all their publications to begin one year later. This enabled them to reconfigure their characters as they saw fit, provide a jumping on point for new converts and also give themselves some narrative wiggle-room), and firmly placed this series at the hub of all future DC continuity.

Collecting issues #7-13 of the monthly comicbook, all the stories here are written by Geoff Johns and the hints and plot-markers for both the upcoming Sinestro War and Final Crisis epics are liberally sprinkled throughout the yarn re-presented here.

‘A Perfect Life’ illustrated by Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino, paired GL with old friend Green Arrow in a riotous showdown with alien marauder Mongul, a two-part blockbuster that gave the veteran warriors a tantalising glimpse of how their lives could, or perhaps should have been.

Next comes ‘Branded’ with art by Ethan Van Sciver and Prentiss Rollins, which sees GL tackle a long-standing enmity with Batman, who cannot bring himself to trust a hero who has already gone rogue once, whilst the pair have to defeat a deadly new version of the Tattooed Man. The end of that tale marks the jumping-off point for One Year Later. The volume continues immediately with the eponymous ‘Revenge of the Green Lanterns’.

During the missing year the Infinite Crisis rocked the DC universe, and in its aftermath world politics shifted. Superheroes are no longer as popular as they once were and many countries have forbidden them to operate within their national borders. The story opens as Green Lantern invades Russian territory (and not for the first time) in hot pursuit of an alien foe, and when challenged by Rocket Red defenders takes out his impatience on them.

It transpires that year ago Hal Jordan rejoined the air force, and with old pals Jillian “Cowgirl” Pearlman and Shane Sellers was shot down by Chechnyan rebels. Held for months before escaping Jordan holds himself responsible: the arrogant hotshot had decided not to wear his ring in combat and his friends suffered torture and maiming because of his complacency. He has much to atone for and his patience with Earth politics is now non-existent…

 

Moreover, in ‘Revenge of the Green Lanterns’ (pictured by Ivan Reis and Marc Campos) many members of the revived Green Lantern Corps cannot forgive him for the deaths he caused when possessed by the fear-parasite Parallax, so when a lead to missing Lanterns supposedly dead at his hands crashes at his feet Jordan ignores direct orders from the Guardians of the Universe to track them down and sets out with fellow Lantern Guy Gardner for the edge of the universe…

Ending in a spectacular battle against the Cyborg Superman and the robotic Manhunters Hal Jordan’s moment of triumph seems supreme, but throughout the universe creatures of immense violence and evil are being recruited by an implacable old enemy and the Guardians are making secret preparations for an impending catastrophe that will shake the very heavens…

Breathtaking in scope, superb in execution, this is perfect superhero storytelling: but unless you have a basic familiarity with DC /Green Lantern history you’d best review some of the earlier graphic novel collections before even attempting this little cracker…

© 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Essential Iron Man volume 2


By Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin, Gene Colan, George Tuska, Johnny Craig, & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-90415-975-9

Marvel’s rise to dominance of the American comicbook industry really took hold in 1968 when most of their characters finally got their own titles. Prior to that and due to a highly restrictive distribution deal the company was tied to a limit of 16 publications per month. To circumvent this drawback, Marvel developed “split-books” with two features per publication, such as Tales of Suspense where Iron Man was joined by Captain America with #59 (cover-dated November 1964). When the division came the armoured Avenger started afresh with a “Collectors Item First Issue” – after a shared one-shot with the Sub-Mariner that squared divergent schedules – and Cap retained the numbering of the original title; thus premiering in number #100.

This second sterling black and white chronological compendium covers that transitional period, reprinting Tales of Suspense #73-99, Iron Man and the Sub-Mariner #1 and Iron Man #1-11, and also includes the Subby portion of Tales to Astonish #82, which held a key portion of an early comics crossover.

Tony Stark is the acceptable face of 1960s Capitalism; a glamorous millionaire industrialist and inventor – and a benevolent all-conquering hero when clad in the super-scientific armour of his alter-ego, Iron Man. Created in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis and at a time when “Red-baiting” and “Commie-bashing” were American national obsessions, the emergence of a brilliant new Thomas Edison, using Yankee ingenuity and invention to safeguard and better the World seemed inevitable. Combine the then-sacrosanct belief that technology and business could solve any problem with the universal imagery of noble knights battling evil and the concept behind the Golden Avenger seems an infallibly successful proposition. Of course it helps that all that money and gadgetry is great fun and very, very cool…

This volume begins with Tales of Suspense #73 (cover-dated January 1966) and picks up, soap opera fashion, on Iron Man, rushing to the bedside of his best friend Happy Hogan, gravely wounded in an earlier battle, and now missing from his hospital bed. ‘My Life for Yours!’ by a veritable phalanx of creators including Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gene Colan & Jack Abel (in their Marvel modes of Adam Austin and Gary Michaels), Sol Brodsky, Flo Steinberg and Marie Severin, pitted the Avenger in final combat against the Black Knight to rescue Happy but after this the creative stabilised at Lee, Colan and Abel, for ‘If this Guilt be Mine..!’ wherein Tony Stark’s inventive intervention saved his friend’s life but transformed the patient into a terrifying monster.

Whilst in pitched battle against ‘The Fury of… the Freak!’ (who scared the stuffings out of me as an comic-crazed seven-year-old!), Iron Man was helpless when the Mandarin attacked in #76’s ‘Here Lies Hidden…the Unspeakable Ultimo!’ The saga continued in ‘Ultimo Lives!’ and closed as the gigantic android went berserk in ‘Crescendo!’ dooming itself and allowing our ferrous hero to escape home, only to face a Congressional Inquiry and a battle crazed Sub-Mariner in ‘Disaster!’ The Prince of Atlantis had been hunting his enemy Warlord Krang in his own series, and the path led straight to Stark’s factory, so when confronted with another old foe the amphibian over-reacted in his usual manner.

‘When Fall the Mighty!’ in Tales of Suspense #80, was one colossal punch-up, which carried over into Tales to Astonish #82, where Thomas and Colan began the conclusion before the penciller contracted flu after delivering only two pages. Jack Kirby, inked by Dick Ayers, stepped in to produce some of the finest action-art of his entire Marvel career, fully displaying ‘The Power of Iron Man!’

TOS #81 featured ‘The Return of the Titanium Man!’ – and Gene Colan – as the Communist Colossus attacked the Golden Avenger on his way to Congress, and threatened all of Washington DC in the Frank Giacoia inked ‘By Force of Arms!’ before succumbing to superior fire power in ‘Victory!’ Stark’s controversial reputation was finally restored as the public finally discovered that his life was only preserved by a metallic chest-plate to kept his heart beating in ‘The Other Iron Man!’ – but nobody connected that hunk of steel to the identical one his Avenging “bodyguard” wore…

The Mandarin kidnapped the inventor’s recovering pal – temporarily wearing the super-suit – in another extended assault that began with ‘Into the Jaws of Death’ which compelled the ailing Stark to fly to his rescue in ‘Death Duel for the Life of Happy Hogan!’, in #87-88 the Mole Man attacked in ‘Crisis… at the Earth’s Core!’ and ‘Beyond all Rescue!’ and it was the turn of another old B-List bad-guy in ‘The Monstrous Menace of the Mysterious Melter!’ and its sequel ‘The Golden Ghost!’

‘The Uncanny Challenge of the Crusher!’ is an okay battle tale somewhat marred for modern audiences by a painful Commie-Bustin’ sub-plot featuring a thinly disguised Fidel Castro, and the impressions of the on-going “Police Action” in Indo-China are also a little gung-ho (if completely understandable) when Iron Man went hunting for a Red Menace called Half-Face ‘Within the Vastness of Viet Nam!’ and met an incorrigible old foe in ‘The Golden Gladiator and… the Giant!’ before snatching victory from Titanium jaws of defeat in ‘The Tragedy and the Triumph!’ (this last inked by Dan Adkins).

A new cast member was introduced in #95 as preppie S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jasper Sitwell was assigned as security advisor to America’s most prominent weapons maker, just as the old Thor villain Grey Gargoyle attacked in ‘If a Man be Stone!’ and ‘The Deadly Victory!’

Tales of Suspense #97 began an extended story-arc that would carry the series to the start of the solo-book and beyond. Criminal cartel the Maggia had a scheme to move in on Stark’s company which opened with ‘The Coming of… Whiplash!’ proceeded to ‘The Warrior and the Whip!’ and as the brilliant Archie Goodwin assumed the scripting reins and EC legend Johnny Craig came aboard as inker Iron Man found himself trapped on a sinking submarine ‘At the Mercy of the Maggia’, just as Tales of Suspense ended at #99…

Of course it was just changing its name to Captain America, as Tales to Astonish seamlessly transformed into the Incredible Hulk, but due to a scheduling snafu neither of those split-book co-stars had a home that month (April 1968) which led to the one-and-only Iron Man and the Sub-Mariner #1, and the concluding episode ‘The Torrent Without… The Tumult Within!’ wherein the sinister super-scientists of A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics, acronym-fans) snatch the Armoured Avenger from the Maggia sub intent on stealing the hero’s technical secrets.

Invincible Iron Man #1 finally appeared with a May 1968 cover-date, and triumphantly ended the extended sea-saga as our hero stood ‘Alone against A.I.M.!’, a thrilling roller-coaster ride that was supplemented by ‘The Origin of Iron Man’ a revitalised re-telling that ended Colan’s long and impressive tenure on the character. With #2, ‘The Day of the Demolisher!’, Craig took over the art, and his first job is a cracker, as Goodwin introduced Janice Cord a new romantic interest for the playboy, the killer robot built by her deranged father and a running plot-thread that examined the effects of the munitions business and the kind of inventors who work for it…

Following swiftly on Goodwin and Craig brought back Happy Hogan’s other self in ‘My Friend, My Foe… the Freak!’ in #3 and retooled a long-forgotten Soviet villain into a major threat in ‘Unconquered is the Unicorn!’ before George Tuska, another Golden Age veteran who would illustrate the majority of the Iron Man’s adventures over the next decade. Inked by Craig, ‘Frenzy in a Far-Flung Future!’ is a solid time-paradox tale wherein Stark is kidnapped by the last survivors of humanity, determined to kill him before he can build the super-computer that eradicated mankind. Did somebody say “Terminator”…

The super-dense (by which I mean strong and heavy) Commie threat returned – but not for long – in ‘Vengeance… Cries the Crusher!’ and the scheme begun in TOS #97 finally bore painful fruit in the two-part thriller ‘The Maggia Strikes!’ and ‘A Duel Must End!’ as the old Daredevil foe the Gladiator led a savage attack on Stark’s factory, friends and would-be new love…

This volume ends with a bold three-part saga as the ultimate oriental arch-fiend returned with a cunning plan and the conviction that Stark and Iron Man were the same person. Beginning in a “kind-of” Hulk guest-shot with #9’s ‘…There Lives a Green Goliath!’ proceeding through the revelatory ‘Once More… The Mandarin!’ and climaxing in spectacular “saves-the-day” fashion as our hero is ‘Unmasked!’, this epic from Goodwin, Tuska and Craig ends the book on a brilliant high note, just as the first inklings of the social upheaval America was experiencing began to seep into Marvel’s publications and their core audience started to grow into the Flower Power generation. Future tales would take the arch capitalist Stark in many unexpected and often peculiar directions…

But that’s a tale for another review, as this sparkling graphic novel is done. Despite some rough patches this is a fantastic period in the Golden Gladiator’s career and one perfectly encapsulates the changes Marvel and America went through: seen through some of the best and most memorable efforts of a simply stellar band of creators.

© 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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JLA: volume 8 Divided We Fall


By Mark Waid & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-392-6

When Grant Morrison and Howard Porter relaunched the World’s Greatest Superheroes in 1997 the result was everything jaded fans could have asked for, but nothing lasts forever. By the time of these tales (four years later, kick-starting a new century and reprinting issues #47-54) they were gone and nearly forgotten as scripter supreme Mark Waid assumed full control of story-making and a selection of top-notch artists took turns to produce a delightful run of exciting, entertaining epics that cemented the title at the apex of everybody’s “must-read” list.

Starting off this volume is a dark fable illustrated by Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary introducing a supernatural hell-queen who makes fairytales real – but not in a good way – in ‘Into the Woods’: an extended yarn that stretches into ‘Truth is Stranger’ (with a fairyland section from J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray) before Hitch, Neary, Javier Saltares and Chris Ivy bring it all to a conclusion in the spectacular ‘Unhappily Ever After.’

That brought up the celebratory fiftieth issue, and true to tradition it was resplendent with guest artists. ‘Dream Team’ reaffirmed and revitalised the heroes – who had developed a healthy distrust of Batman – through a series of pitched battles against old foe Doctor Destiny, with art from Hitch, Neary, Phil Jimenez, Ty Templeton, Doug Mahnke, Mark Pajarillo, Kevin Nowlan, Drew Geraci and Walden Wong, which segued neatly into another End-of-Days cosmic catastrophe, as a sixth dimensional super-weapon was unleashed on our universe.

In ‘Man and Superman’ (with art from Mike S. Millar and Armando Durruthy) the extra-planar Cathexis came seeking the JLA‘s help in recapturing their rogue wish-fulfilling “Sentergy: Id”, but it had already struck, separating Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Plastic Man from their secret identities, rendering them into twelve incomplete and ineffectual half-men. But all was not as it seemed…

Hitch and Neary resumed the art-chores as the wishing plague devastated Earth in ‘Element of Surprise’ with one unexpected benefit in the grotesque resurrection of dead hero Metamorpho, but the prognosis was poor until the un-reformed thug Eel O’Brian (who turned over a new leaf to become the daftly heroic Plastic Man) saw which way the wind had been blowing in ‘It Takes a Thief’ and led the disjointed team’s resurgence in the apocalyptic climax ‘United we Fall.’

Any worries that Morrison’s departure would harm JLA were completely allayed by these spectacular High Concept super-sagas, and the artwork attained even greater heights at this time. This volume is one of the very best of an excellent run: if you read no other JLA book at least read this one.

© 2000, 2001 DC Comics.  All Rights Reserved.

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Modesty Blaise: Yellowstone Booty


By Peter O’Donnell, Enric Badia Romero & John Burns (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-419-7

Originally a newspaper strip created by Peter O’Donnell and drawn by the brilliant Jim Holdaway, Modesty and her charismatic partner in crime (and latterly crime-busting) Willie Garvin have also starred in 13 prose novels and short story collections, two films, one TV pilot, a radio play and nearly one hundred comic strip adventures between 1963 and the strip’s conclusion in 2002. She has been syndicated world-wide, and Holdaway’s version has been cited as an artistic influence by many major comic artists.

Titan Books’ marvelous series re-presenting the classic British newspaper strip reaches a period of artistic instability with this thirteenth volume as Spanish collaborator Romero left in 1978 to concentrate on his own creation Axa; although if anything the strip actually improved under the all-too-brief tenure of his replacement.

John M. Burns had worked on Junior Express and School Friend but truly began his auspicious rise as part of the inimitable and beloved team of artists who worked on the Gerry Anderson licensed titles TV Century 21 and its sister magazines (he is particularly admired for Space Family Robinson in Lady Penelope). He drew strips for The Daily Sketch, Daily Mirror and Sun with long, acclaimed runs on The Seekers and the saucy “Good Girl” strip Danielle (expect a review of her really soon), before briefly – and controversially – taking over Modesty Blaise.

Since then he has worked on TV-based series for Look-In and Countdown before latterly abandoning pen and ink for painted art and finding a welcome home in the legendary British science fiction comic 2000AD, where he has – and continues to – work on Judge Dredd, Nikolai Dante and his own Bendatti Vendetta. He is also a regular adaptor of significant literary masterpieces, having already completed pictorial versions of Lorna Doone, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.

Although Burns only drew 272 consecutive daily strips, his influence on Modesty was marked and long-lasting. His deft ability with nib and brush are highlighted here with a complimentary feature reprinting 12 of his illustrations from some of those prose novels O’Donnell wrote starring his inimitable creation, and there are also sketches and cover reproductions from Titan Books’ 1980s Modesty collections.

The adventure portion of this book begins with ‘Idaho George’ an extremely engaging comedy thriller which sees Garvin and “the Princess” rescue an old acquaintance. The eponymous George is a marriage-dodging conman who accidentally fools the wrong mark: superstitious and extremely dangerous Anastasia Bone sets her gang of murderous crime specialists on the hapless trickster when he masquerades as a swami who can materialise gold from thin air…

Fast-paced and tremendously satisfying, that caper is just a taster for Romero’s last job ‘The Golden Frog’, a globe-girdling vendetta that brings Modesty back to her roots when Saragam – the martial arts master who taught her to fight – is captured by a revenge-crazed Khmer Rouge warlord with a grudge against her that stretches back to her days as leader of the criminal organisation The Network. Lured back to the “Killing Fields” of Cambodia and unsure who to trust, Modesty and Willie face possibly their greatest threat in this action-packed, fists of fury fight-fest.

John Burns seemed an ideal replacement for Romero, and is still remembered with affection and appreciation by fans, but he only illustrated two-and-a-half stories, beginning with ‘Yellowstone Booty’ which ran from November 1st 1978 to March 30th 1979 (if you’re curious Idaho George and The Golden Frog appeared in the Evening Standard from 23rd January to October 31st 1978).

His innate design sense, sleek, deceptive line and facility with the female form coincided with a much freer use of casual nudity in the feature, and the action scenes were to become graphic poetry in motion. All these advantages can be observed in this clever yarn of gangsters and lost treasure that sees a young couple save Willie from an ingenious murder-plot, incurring a debt that Modesty moves Heaven and Earth to repay…

These timeless tales of crime and punishments are more enthralling now than ever, and provide much-needed relief in a world increasingly bleak and confusing. At least here you always know who to cheer for and who to boo at. More than three decades later it’s quite odd to realise just mere months after the heroine shockingly – and controversially – bared her breasts, naked ladies adorned not just the comics pages but the “news” portions of so many British papers – all without the kingdom falling into flaming anarchy.

Odder still is the realization that heavy-handed censorship still occurs in America and other countries: boobies and botties – no matter how well-drawn – are still racy, shocking and a big deal opposed with all the vehemence one expects from populations when their Governments suspend Habeas Corpus and/or outlaw football.

I trust this will be all the warning you need, should you be of a sensitive disposition, but hope that such sights won’t discourage you from reading these incredible tales of fiction’s greatest adventuress.

© 2008 Associated Newspapers/Solo Syndication.

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Catwoman: Crime Pays


By Will Pfeiffer, David Lopez & Alvaro Lopez (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-972-7

Even the most resonant characters handled by the very best creators have bad patches, especially when tumbled into the destabilising chaos of company crossover events and so much more so when said creators are labouring under the cosh of knowing that the title they’re working on has already been cancelled.

So it is with this compilation of Catwoman (collecting issues #73-77 of her done-and-dusted monthly comic) as the urban defender of the downtrodden, freshly returned from a debilitating role in the Wonder Woman: Amazons Attack! storyline, having given up her daughter and abandoned her old secret identity, only narrowly escapes being blown up in her own apartment mere moments after discovering that somebody has stolen every stick and stitch she possessed…

Determined to discover who took the last remnants of her life, Selina Kyle has to steal one of her old costumes and gear from a demented collector before she goes after The Thief, only to be shanghaied by the Suicide Squad: a clandestine government penal battalion of super-villains, working black ops in return for eventual pardons… She awakens on another planet: a hellworld used as Devil’s Island of Space, where the government has been secretly dumping Earth’s villains without due process… and with no way back.

A world chock-full of metahuman psychopaths, thugs and megalomaniacs is bad enough, but when the likes of Luthor, the Joker, Vandal Savage and Gorilla Grodd start competing for the right to lead it’s going to get a little fraught. How long can Selina last before somebody remembers that she’s been fighting for the other side? And then she falls into a booby-trapped alien device that seems to send her somewhere even weirder and more dangerous…

For a fuller understanding of this tale you will have to read the collected miniseries Salvation Run, and yet again this book ends on a cliffhanger but regardless of those niggles this is still a good solid read and the end is finally in sight, with only one more book to come.

The great shame is that even though creators Pfeifer, Lopez and Lopez knew they were on clean-up detail, and compelled to add material not necessarily of their choosing, they still pulled out all the stops to make this a superbly engaging and compelling experience, and such artistic integrity shouldn’t go unnoticed or un-remarked.

Enjoyable and thrilling for established fans, this isn’t the book to start with if you’re a new reader. Those lucky latecomers should aspire to buy the complete series and indulge in the luxury of reading the lot all at one sitting…

© 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Death of Captain Marvel – A Marvel Graphic Novel


By Jim Starlin, coloured by Steve Oliff (Marvel)
No ISBN /later editions 978-0-7851-0040-9 and 978-0-7851-0837-5

Often reprinted and now released as a spiffy hardcover in their Premier editions range The Death of Captain Marvel was the first Marvel Graphic Novel and the one that truly demonstrated how mainstream superhero material could breach the wider world of general publishing.

Written and illustrated by Jim Starlin whose earliest efforts in the industry had revitalised the moribund hero with his epic, Jack Kirby-inspired ‘Thanos Saga’ (from issues #25-34 of the fantastically hit-or-miss comicbook) this tale effectively concluded that storyline in a neat symmetrical and textually final manner – although the tale’s success led to some pretty crass commercialisations in its wake…

Mar-Vell was a soldier of the alien Kree empire dispatched to Earth as a spy, but who subsequently went native becoming first a hero and then the cosmically “aware” protector of the universe, destined since life began to be a cosmic champion in its darkest hour. In concert with the Avengers and other heroes he defeated the death-worshipping mad Titan Thanos, just as that villain transformed into God, after which the good Captain went on to become a universal force for good.

That insipid last bit pretty much sums up Mar-Vell’s later career: without Thanos the adventures again became uninspired and eventually just fizzled out. He lost his own comicbook, had a brief shot at revival in try-out book Marvel Spotlight and then just faded away…

Re-enter Starlin, who had long been perceived as obsessed by themes of death, with a rather novel idea – kill him off and leave him dead.

In 1982 that was a bold idea, especially considering how long and hard the company had fought to obtain the rights to the name (and sure enough there’s been somebody with that name in print ever since) but Starlin wasn’t just proposing a gratuitous stunt. The story developed into a different kind of drama: one uniquely at odds with contemporary fare and thinking.

At the end of the Thanos Saga (see The Life of Captain Marvel, or you could try to track down the all-inclusive compendium The Life and Death of Captain Marvel which combines that tome with the contents of the book under discussion here) Mar-Vell defeated a villain called Nitro and was exposed to an experimental nerve gas. Now he discovers that, years later, just as he has found love and contentment, the effects of that gas have caused cancer which has metastasized into something utterly incurable…

Going through the Kree version of the classic Kubler-Ross Cycle: grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, the Space-Born hero can only watch as all his friends and comrades try and fail to find a cure, before death comes for him…

This is a thoughtful, intriguing examination of the process of dying observed by a being who never expected to die in bed, and argues forcefully that even in a universe where miracles occur by the hour sometimes death might not be unwelcome…

Today, in a world where the right to life is increasingly being challenged and contested by special interest groups, this story is still a strident, forceful reminder that sometimes the personal right to dignity and freedom from distress is as important as any and all other Human Rights.

No big Deus ex Machina, not many fights and no happy ending: but still one of the best stories the House of Ideas ever published.
© 1982 Marvel Comics Group. All Rights Reserved.

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Modesty Blaise: Death Trap


By Peter O’Donnell & Enric Badia Romero (Titan Books)
ISBN 13: 1-84576-418-0

Modesty Blaise and her devoted deputy Willie Garvin were retired super-criminals who got too rich too young without ever getting too dirty and are now usually complacent and bored out of their brains. When approached by Sir Gerald Tarrant, head of a British spy organization, they jumped at his offer of excitement and a chance to get some real evil sods. From that tenuous beginning in ‘La Machine’ (see Modesty Blaise: the Gabriel Set-Up) the pair began a helter-skelter thrill ride that has pitted them against the World’s vilest villains…

The legendary femme fatale adventurer first appeared in the Evening Standard on May 13th, 1963 and starred in some of the world’s most memorable crime fiction, all in three panels a day. Her creators Peter O’Donnell and Jim Holdaway (who had previously collaborated on Romeo Brown – a light-hearted adventure strip from the 1950’s and itself well overdue for collection) produced story after story until Holdaway’s tragic early death in 1970, whereupon Spanish artist Enric Badia Romero assumed the art reins taking the daredevil duo to even grater heights.

The tales are stylish and engaging spy/crime/thriller fare in the vein of Ian Fleming’s Bond stories (as opposed to the sometimes over-the-top movie exploits). Modesty and Willie are competent and deadly, but all too fallibly human.

Following an intriguing dissertation by fan and historian Lawrence Blackmore on how the strip was censored in America (entitled ‘Preserving Modesty’s Modesty’ ) this twelfth superb black and white volume, collecting strips which originally appeared in the between October 21st 1976 and January 20th 1978, kicks off in high style with the entrancing but ultimately tragic yarn ‘The Vanishing Dollybirds’ wherein the duo are drawn into a web of Arabic white slavery, administered by the frightfully British and thoroughly unpleasant Major Hamilton and his formidable wife Priscilla, not to mention their uniquely fey hitman and murder-artisan, Bubbles.

Combining high-octane drama with sly comedy and all the charms of the circus (Willie bought one when he was feeling bored…) this is a cracking, straightforward tale which acts as pace-setter for ‘The Junk Men’, a moody murder mystery set in Turkey. Willie is playing stuntman on a science fiction film before getting accidentally embroiled in a war between the police and the world’s three biggest drug lords. And whenever Willie is in trouble can Modesty be far away?

Closing the book is a truly sinister plot from a vengeance-crazed Warsaw Pact commissar determined to punish Modesty for past offences in the gripping, brutal thriller ‘Death Trap’. Comrade Director Breslin wants the retired super-criminal to suffer so he begins his campaign by murdering her current lover in the most appalling manner he could conceive of, but the ambitious politician could never imagine just how dangerous an angry Modesty Blaise could be…

Tightly plotted, with twist after turn, and cross after double-cross, this is no simple revenge story but a sharp, incisive romp that uses the madness of the Cold War “Mutually Assured Destruction” philosophy to great advantage and devastating effect…

In an industry where comic themes seem more and more limited and the readership dwindles to a slavish fan base that only wants more and shinier versions of what it’s already had, the beauty of such strips as Modesty Blaise is not simply the timeless excellence of the stories and the captivating wonder of the illustration, but that material like this can’t fail to attract a broader readership to the medium. Its content can hold its own against the best television and film. NCIS, Chuck Bartowski and Sydney Bristow beware – Modesty’s back to show you how it should be done…

© 2007 Associated Newspapers/Solo Syndication.