Category: Graphic Novels

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Cyclops: Retribution


By Bob Harras, Ron Lim, Jeff Albrecht, Carol Reim & Bruce Patterson (Marvel)
No ISBN

Do you love every TV show you watch? Do you carry on with series, soaps and serials long after they’ve started to pall? Most of us do – especially in comics. The time invested in favourite characters and scenarios is non-returnable and any relationships you’ve developed with even fictional persons and places – ones utterly unaware of your existence – are terribly hard to abandon.

And in comics there’s always the possibility that a mediocre or sub-par tale will one day be pivotal to something brilliant that you will adore and appreciate. So your continued consumption perforce becomes an investment in good times to come…

Which isn’t to say that this solo adventure (at least that’s how it starts) of quintessential X-Man Cyclops is utterly dire, but that it’s just an average mutant superhero yarn adequately produced for the dedicated consumer: a fillip for the faithful but no breakthrough phenomenon that will convert the unread masses or summon home all those wayward apostates who have stopped collecting funny-books.

Originally presented as the lead strip in the fortnightly anthology Marvel Comics Presents #17-24 (following stellar runs starring Wolverine and Colossus respectively) this tale sees the leader of X-Factor – as he then was – visiting the Scottish island where Moira MacTaggert runs a medical research facility for mutants, only to discover that the somnambulistic medic has been creating bio-weapons at the hypnotic behest of seemingly unkillable menace the Master Mold.

This amalgam of human xenophobe Scott Lang and a super-Sentinel has plans to eradicate mutantkind, but may have overplayed his hand by extracting his conscience and giving it a body of its own…

Intriguing concept, enthusiastic art and lots of action make this so close to a memorable outing that it’s only fair to err on the side of generosity: not as bad as I remembered and certainly worth a moment of any X-Fan’s time and budget…
© 1994 Marvel Entertainment Group. All rights reserved.

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Wallace & Gromit in A Grand Day Out – hardback graphic novel


By Nick Park, illustrated by David Lopez (Egmont)
ISBN: 978-1-4052-4532-6

Hard though it is to believe, Wallace and Gromit have been delighting us for twenty years and this delightful commemorative edition celebrates the fact in fine style by coming full circle. According to Nick Park’s informative Foreword the ingenious, quintessentially English cheese-loving duo were originally conceived as an art school graphic novel, before the Plasticene lure of movement and sound diverted the concept to the world of animation.

David Lopez sensitively adapts with a soft, water-coloured grace the classic tale of an ingenious man and his dog on an epic hunt for cheese that leads them to the moon and a unique confrontation with the dreamy robot that guards its edible treasures.

Lovingly rendered, perfectly timed, the skilful blend of low comedy and whimsy is just as memorable in two dimensions as four, and this book is going to make a lot of kids – of all ages – wonderfully happy.

Is it ever too soon to start recommending what to buy for Christmas? If not then consider this a “must have”…

© and ™ Aardman Animations Ltd. 2009

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JLA: the Tenth Circle – New Fully Revised Review


By John Byrne, Chris Claremont & Jerry Ordway (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-913-1

After battling all manner of contemporary and futuristic foes the World’s Greatest Superheroes found themselves pitted against an ancient malevolence from out of Earth’s oldest nightmares in this sadly lacklustre tale from three of the industry’s biggest talents that originally ran in issues #94-99 of the monthly comic-book.

When team mystic Manitou Raven divines that a great evil has come hunting he is silenced before he can warn his comrades. As Batman and Flash follow a rash of global child disappearances Superman is defeated by a pair of rather unique kids. Comparing notes with other JLA members the heroes discover a pattern of metagenic abductions: someone or something is taking super-powered children…

Meanwhile an enthralled Man of Steel has become the slave – and lunch – of the diabolical vampire lord Crucifer, whose race of undying leeches has been secretly working to conquer the world since their initial defeat by the Amazon warriors of Themyscira thousands of years ago.

And in the background a shady group of freaks and outcasts undertakes their own plan to save the day…

The X-Men team supreme reunited for this supernatural adventure, but their old magic is sorely lacking: Byrne co-writing with Claremont and pencilling for the criminally underappreciated Jerry Ordway to ink and embellish is a far better “look” than “read”.

Comic fans love these sorts of nostalgia stunts, but sadly the results seldom live up to expectations and the result here is a competent but woefully predictable heroes versus vampires yarn that suffers greatly because it’s blatantly obvious that the whole thing is a high-profile, extended gimmick designed to kick-start Byrne’s reinvention of the Doom Patrol, and not really a JLA story at all.

Although competent enough the whole extravaganza is insubstantial and vaguely unsatisfying: Not the kind of book for a casual bystander and no certainly no way to broaden the appeal or range of the comic experience.

© 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Hawkeye


By Mark Gruenwald, Brett Breeding & Danny Bulanadi (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-364-4

In advance of the Best of Hawkeye trade paperback due at year’s end I thought I’d take another look at this little gem from 1988, collecting one of Marvel’s earliest miniseries – 1983 – and one of the very best adventures of Marvel’s Ace Archer, written and drawn by the hugely underrated and much-missed Mark Gruenwald, ably assisted by inkers Brett Breeding and Danny Bulanadi.

Much like the character himself this project was seriously underestimated when it was first released: most of the industry pundits and more voluble fans expected very little from a second-string hero drawn by a professional writer. Boy, were they wrong!

Clint Barton is probably the world’s greatest archer, swift, unerringly accurate and supplemented with a fantastic selection of trick and high-tech arrows. After an early brush with the law as an Iron Man villain he reformed to join the Mighty Avengers, where he served with honour but always felt overshadowed by his more glamorous and super-powered comrades.

In the first chapter here, ‘Listen to the Mockingbird’, he is moonlighting as security chief for an electronics company when he captures a renegade SHIELD agent. She reveals that his bosses are crooks, secretly involved in some shady mind-control experiment.

After some initial doubt he teams with the svelte and sexy super-agent in ‘Point Blank’ to foil the plot, gaining a new costume and a rogues gallery of foes such as Silence, Oddball and Bombshell (part 3, ‘Beating the Odds’) in the process. As the constant hunt and struggle wears on he succumbs to but is not defeated by a physical handicap and wins a wife (not necessarily the same thing) in the concluding ‘Till Death us do Part…’ where the mastermind behind it all is finally revealed and summarily dealt with.

In those far away days both Gruenwald and Marvel Top Gun Jim Shooter always maintained that a miniseries had to deal with significant events in a character’s life, and this bright and breezy, no-nonsense, compelling and immensely enjoyable yarn certainly kicked out the deadwood and re-launched Hawkeye’s career. In short order from here the bowman went on to create and lead his own team: the West Coast Avengers, gain his own regular series in Solo Avengers and later Avengers Spotlight and consequently become one of the most vibrant and popular characters of the period.

I’m unsure how easily you can lay hands on this specific, terrific tale of old-fashioned romance, skullduggery and derring-do, but since its scheduled to be the main portion of the aforementioned collection you shouldn’t have too long to wait.

But oh, the tension, the tension…
© 1988 Marvel Entertainment Group Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Justice League Elite volume 2


By Joe Kelly, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-632-0

Joe Kelly, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen continue their examination of morality and necessity in the concluding volume of Justice League Elite (collecting issues #5-12 of the controversial series) as the assemblage of undercover heroes strives to cope with the poisonous nature of their black ops missions whilst holding on to the tattered shreds of their honour and integrity in a world so dark and seemingly beyond their control.

Multi-part saga ‘The Aftermath’ looks into the past of the energy wielding Coldcast, as the heroes infiltrate his own brother’s gang: a small-time mob of ordinary thugs with unexplained connections to alien narcotics and weaponry, whilst magician Manitou Raven makes some unwise bargains as he seeks the identity of the team-member who murdered the dictator of Changsha (in volume 1). Major Disaster succumbs to the constant pressure by going on a booze-and-drugs fuelled bender and Vera endures some very disturbing, persistent nightmares before their sting-operation brings them all into conflict with the out-of-the-loop Justice Society of America.

Parts 3 and 4 see the beginning of the end, and as is so often the case, infidelity between people who should know better starts the ball rolling. When the covert team finally meets the extraterrestrial mastermind behind the off-world contraband they discover just how hostile aliens can be, how duplicitous and self-serving humans are and, as a team mate dies, just how bad things can get…

‘Poison’ sees the guilt-ridden adulterers attempt to come to terms with their betrayal and someone finally confess to the murder that aborted the experiment before it began. Meanwhile Flash is super-quickly dying from a hideous toxin, assassin Kasumi reveals her true identity and human overseer and Naif al-Sheikh calls in the JLA Proper to end their missions for good.

The three part ‘Eve of Destruction’ finds the Elite in JLA custody, but far too late as the beast that has been possessing Vera erupts in a devastating orgy of destruction, giving the miserable failures one last spectacular chance to atone for all the harm their misguided efforts have caused in a classic, stirring epic of redemption.

Whether you like your heroes dark or shiny, this exploration of the ethics and morality of superhuman endeavour will address points you’ve never considered, and since the creators never forget that all that philosophy is “added value”, it’s all wrapped up in a tremendously rousing, intoxicating epic of superb writing and wonderful illustration. Enjoyment, Elucidation and Education: how can you resist?

© 2005, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Justice League Elite volume 1


By Joe Kelly, Doug Mahnke, John Byrne & Tom Nguyen and various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-191-2

Every comic-book is a product of – or at least reaction to – the times in which it was created. In the grim, authoritarian, morally ambiguous climate of post 9-11 America writer Joe Kelly wrote an issue of Action Comics (#775) that addressed the traditional ethics and practices of ultimate boy scout Superman in a world where old values were seen as a liability and using “The Enemy’s” own tactics against them was viewed with increasing favour by the public.

With art by Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen, ‘What’s So Funny about Truth, Justice and the American Way’ introduced super-Esper Manchester Black and his team of Elite metahumans who responded proactively and with extreme overkill to global threats and menaces in such a drastic and final manner (much like The Authority they very much resembled) that Superman was forced to take a long hard look at his core beliefs before triumphing over a team who saw absolutely no difference between villains, monsters or people who disagreed with them…

In a distressing sign of the times, the Elite proved so overwhelmingly popular that they returned in JLA #100 (‘Elitism’ by Kelly, Mahnke & Nguyen), led now by Black’s cyborg sister Vera, to oppose and eventually help the heroes save the Earth from a catastrophic ecological and metaphysical meltdown. Vera Black saw the fundamental flaws in her methodology but also the weaknesses in the JLA’s. She proposed becoming the League’s “Black Ops” division, gathering Intel, working undercover and decisively dealing with potential threats before they become global crises. Her team would get their hands dirty in a way the JLA simply could not afford to…

Over Superman’s protests, but with stringent oversight in place and using a combination of Elite and League volunteers, the plan was adopted and Justice League Elite subsequently won their own 12 issue series.

‘What’s So Funny about Truth, Justice and the American Way‘ and ‘Elitism’ form the first two chapters in this collected volume which demonstrates a chilling darker edge to the World’s Greatest Superheroes. After some Who’s Who pages from JLA Secret Files 2004 the intrigue begins in ‘Grand Experiment’ as Major Disaster, Green Arrow, Manitou Raven, Flash and mystery heroine Kasumi join Vera, energy manipulator Coldcast, human bio-weapon arsenal Menagerie and Naif al-Sheikh, a normal human spymaster who acts as Director, Adjudicator and Conscience for a unit designed to neutralise organizations and nations that threaten World Security before things ever reach a boiling point.

Their first mission is to infiltrate and dismantle the roving assassination team the Blood Brothers and retrieve mass-murdering terrorist Richard Atwa from the rogue state of Changsha. ‘Candle in a Hurricane’ is a tense two-part thriller full of twists, subterfuge and double dealing, but when the mission goes horribly wrong a prisoner is murdered by a member of the team. Has the grand experiment failed even before it has fully begun?

‘Same Coin’ mirrors a “straight” JLA mission against magician Felix Faust with the far less clear-cut capture and interrogation of a pair of witches who have attempted to bring about Hell on Earth, and this first volume concludes with ‘The Right Thing’ as the JLE looks inward to find the killer who broke protocol – and faith – to murder their captive in ‘Candle in a Hurricane’…

Deliberately distasteful, challenging and compelling these astonishingly fascinating stories are well told, with great art from Mahnke & Nguyen, plus guest illustrators Lee Bermejo, John Byrne, Wayne Faucher, Jose Marzan, Jim Royal, Dexter Vines and Wade Von Grawbadger, and ask the kind of questions of our comic heroes that we’ll be asking about our soldiers and politicians for many years to come.

A must have for every fan who likes to think about what they’re reading…

© 2002, 2004, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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JLA volume 2: American Dreams


By Grant Morrison, Howard Porter, Oscar Jimenez, John Dell & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-394-0

After getting off to an impossibly cracking start in JLA: New World Order the superb quality of storytelling actually improved as Morrison and Porter began laying the groundwork for their first big story-arc, and this collection of shorter tales (originally appearing in JLA issues #5-9) stands as excellent interlude as well as a fine example of how modern superhero comics can still surprise, beguile and addict impressionable minds.

Leading off is ‘Woman of Tomorrow’ wherein veteran League villains Professor Ivo and T. O. Morrow construct the perfect super heroine to infiltrate and destroy the World’s Greatest Superheroes from within – but for once they build too well…

This is followed by ‘Fire in the Sky’ and ‘Heaven on Earth’ (with Ken Branch joining John Dell to ink Porter’s hyper-dynamic pencils) as the Angel Zauriel risks everything to warn the heroes of a second rebellion in Heaven, and the League must defeat an invasion by God’s own armies. This spectacular mini-saga also features old foes Neron and arch-demons Abnegazar, Rath and Ghast and was intended to introduce a new Hawkman to the DC Universe, but somewhere, somehow, wiser heads prevailed and the original was eventually retooled and reintroduced with Zauriel winning his own place in the company’s pantheon.

Oscar Jimenez and Chip Wallace stepped in to illustrate ‘Imaginary Stories’ as mind-bending villain The Key attempted to conquer the universe by trapping the individual League members in perfect dreams, and the art team was augmented by Hanibal Rodriguez for the tense conclusion ‘Elseworlds’ which saw the Zen warrior Green Arrow (son of the original, irascible ultra-liberal bowman) join the team in classic “saves the day” style.

Savvy, compelling, dauntingly High-Concept but not afraid of nostalgia or laughing at itself, the new JLA was an all-out effort to be Smart and Fun. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman are the “World’s Greatest Superheroes” and these increasingly ambitious epics reminded everybody of the fact. This is the kind of thrill that nobody ever outgrows. Got yours yet?
© 1997 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Warlords – DC Graphic Novel #2


By Steve Skeates & Dave Wenzel (DC Comics)
ISBN: 0-930289-04-8

Being nothing but a bunch of banana-fingers with stubby thumbs and utterly immune to the specious allure of computer and video games, I can’t admit to much knowledge of the antecedents of this intriguing fantasy book. Still that means that I can dispassionately comment on the package as a read unswayed by its origins.

In the mid-1980s all the major comics companies were exploring the European concept of albums and graphic novels: enlarged and expanded narratives produced on better paper stock using more expensive printing techniques. Coincidentally, at this time DC had entered into a financial arrangement with video-gaming giant Atari resulting in such superb comics spin-offs as Atari Force (a comic still screaming out for a definitive collection) and Star Raiders.

Another Atari property that made the leap to the printed page was Warlords; at first glance one more Tolkienesque derivative comprised of fairies and elves, wizards and giants, with general blade-based mayhem aplenty. But on closer examination this colourful little epic has hidden charms: for a start it’s written for sly knowing laughs, isn’t afraid to poke fun at itself and even the genre it owes its existence to.

The other big plus is the creative team. The sharp and witty script by the hugely underrated Steve Skeates is illustrated by fantasy master (and honorary Hobbit) David Wenzel and together they produced this impressive and engaging tale of an underachieving troll “Just Plain Dwayne” who reluctantly finds himself holding a magic amulet that everybody wants in the middle of an eternal cold war between the four Warlords who control the world.

Unfortunately now that the scurrilous Dwayne has the mystic bauble that war’s going to heat up pretty quickly…

It’s relatively easy to parody a genre, but to be funny within the internal logic of one is a master’s trick: so when I tell you Dwayne’s little quest is still ripe with climactic battles, fabulous beasts, glorious creatures, hair-raising tension and incredible action you know its something you just have to see.

Trust me, I’m a Scholar…
© 1983 Atari Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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JLA volume 1: New World Order


By Grant Morrison, Howard Porter & John Dell (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-369-8

After the Silver Age’s greatest team-book died a slow, painful, wasting death, not once but twice, DC were taking no chances with their next revival of the Justice League of America and tapped Big Ideas wünderkind Grant Morrison to reconstruct the group and the franchise.

And the idea that clicked? Put everybody’s favourite Name superheroes in the team.

Of course it worked, but that’s only because as well as star quantity there was a huge input of creative quality. The stories were smart, compelling, challengingly large-scale and drawn with desperate vitality. With JLA one could see all the work undertaken to make it the best it could be.

This slim album collects the first four issues of the revival and covers a spectacular landmark tale that altered the continuity landscape of the DC Universe by introducing a family of alien superbeings called the Hyperclan whose arrival on Earth could have ushered in a new Golden Age – a least by their standards.

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Martian Manhunter, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman are the legends who see their methods and careers questioned only to uncover a deadly secret that threatens to doom the planet they’re pledged to protect in a splendid old-fashioned goodies ‘n’ baddies romp that re-sparked fan interest in the “World’s Greatest Superheroes”.

If you haven’t read this sparkling slice of fight ‘n’ tights wonderment then your fantastic life just isn’t complete yet…

© 1997, 1998 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Marshal Law: Fear Asylum


By Pat Mills & Kevin O’Neill with Mark A. Nelson (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-699-6

In 1987 Marvel’s creator-owned imprint, Epic Comics, published a six-issue miniseries starring a hero superficially very much in the vein of Judge Dredd, but one who took the hallowed American creation of the superhero genre and gave it a thorough duffing-up, Brit-boy style, in the tale of a costumed cop who did the Right Thing and did it His Way…

San Futuro is a Metropolitan urban dystopia built on the Post- Big Quake remnants of San Francisco. America is recovering from another stupid, exploitative war in somebody else’s country, and as usual the discharged and brain-fried veterans are clogging the streets and menacing decent society. Unfortunately this war was fought with artificially manufactured superheroes: now they’re home and a very dangerous embarrassment.

Marshal Law was one of them, but now he’s a cop; angry and disillusioned. His job is to put away masks and capes. This establishing series was collected as Marshal Law: Fear and Loathing.

Being a creator-owned property, old zipper-face went with Mills and O’Neill to the British independent outfit Apocalypse, publishers of the talent-heavy 2000AD rival Toxic, which ran from March to October 1991. But before that a final Epic one-shot ‘Marshal Law takes Manhattan‘ was released in 1989, and forms the first part of this final collection.

With some art assistance from Mark A. Nelson and Mark Chiarello, the Hero-Hunter was dispatched to New York to extradite a war criminal (and Law’s old army trainer) The Persecutor. Unfortunately (for them) the perp has hidden himself amongst the inmates of “The Institute” – a colossal Manhattan skyscraper housing all the Big Apple’s native superheroes; each and every one a brilliant, barmy, bile-filled parody of Marvel’s Mightiest.

Naturally carnage and mayhem are the result, but not before author Mills slips a few well-aimed pops at US covert practices and policies in South America under the door.

Less contentious – unless you’re a fan of the movie “Alien” or the Legion of Super Heroes – is ‘Secret Tribunal’ wherein the Marshal is sent to an orbiting Space Station where the government grows its manufactured superbeings just as a nasty incursion of fast-breeding carnivorous space-beasts starts ripping the immature supermen and wonder women to gory gobbets…

The book closes with the decidedly odd pairing of ‘The Mask/Marshal Law’ which finds the militant cape-crusher on the verge of resigning just as the magical mask that made mucho moolah for Dark Horse and a star out of Jim Carrey resurfaces in San Futuro… Cue chaos, carnage and lots of deadly silliness…

Although still fiercely polemical and strident, this is probably the least effective of the Marshal Law books. The feeling that Mills has said all he wanted or needed to say is ominously prevalent and although O’Neill’s art seemingly improves with every page – and the sketch and unseen art sections are engrossing and powerful – the overall feeling is one of tired duty rather than passionate verve.

Although still tremendously entertaining it’s clear than the Marshal hung up his barbed wire and boots just in time. Hero-Harriers Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill produced a wonderful edgy parody, but until the industry annoys them enough to come back with all Honking Great Guns blazing, fans should just content themselves with this one last hurrah.

© 2003 Pat Mills & Kevin O’Neill. Art © 1993 Kevin O’Neill. The Mask is © 2003 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.