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Essential Marvel Two-In-One volume 3


By Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio, Tom DeFalco, John Byrne, George Pérez, Jerry Bingham, Ron Wilson, Alan Kupperberg & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3069-7

The concept of team-up books – an established star pairing with or battling and frequently doing both – with less well-selling company characters was not new when Marvel decided to award their most popular hero the same deal DC had long prospered from with Batman in Brave and the Bold.

After the runaway success of Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up, the House of Ideas repeated the experiment with a series starring bashful, blue-eyed Ben Grimm – the Fantastic Four‘s most iconic and popular member – beginning with a brace of test runs in Marvel Feature #11-12, before graduating him to his own guest-friendly title. This third economical, eclectic monochrome compendium gathers together the contents of Marvel Two-In-One #53-77 plus Marvel T-I-O Annuals #4 and 5, covering May 1979 to July 1981; a period which saw the best and worst the series could offer.

The innate problem with team-up tales was always a lack of continuity – something Marvel always prided itself upon – and which writer/editor Marv Wolfman had sought to address during his tenure through the simple expedient of having stories link-up through evolving, overarching plots which took Ben from place to place and from guest to guest.

Arguably the very best of these opens this volume; a big scale, and supremely convoluted saga known as “The Project Pegasus Saga”…

Although the company’s glory-days were undoubtedly the era of Lee, Kirby & Ditko leading through to the Adams, Buscema(s), Englehart, Gerber, Steranko and Windsor-Smith “Second Wave”, a lot of superb material came out the middle years when Marvel was transforming from inspirational small-business to corporate heavyweight.

This is not said to demean or denigrate the many fine creators who worked on the tide of titles published after that heady opening period, but only to indicate that after that time a certain revolutionary spontaneity was markedly absent from the line.

It should also be remembered that this was not deliberate. Every creator does the best job he/she can: posterity and critical response is the only arbiter of what is classic and what is simply one more comicbook. Certainly high sales don’t necessarily define a masterpiece – unless you’re a publisher…

Nevertheless every so often everybody involved in a particular tale seems to catch fire at the same time and magic occurs. A great case in point is the self-contained mini-saga which partnered the Thing with a succession of Marvel’s quirkiest B-listers and newcomers…

Project Pegasus had debuted in Marvel T-I-O #42 and 43: a federal research station tasked with investigating new and alternative energy sources and a sensible place to dump super-powered baddies when they’ve been trounced. Ten issues later writers Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio flexed their creative muscles with a 6-issue epic that found Ben back at Pegasus just as a sinister scheme by a mysterious mastermind to eradicate the facility went into full effect.

Scripted by Gruenwald & Macchio, it all begins as ‘The Inner War!’ (illustrated by John Byrne & Joe Sinnott) sees Ben visiting his educationally and emotionally challenged ward Wundarr who had been left at the secret base after exposure to a reality-warping Cosmic Cube.

Ben meets light-powered security chief Quasar – who debuted here – only to stumble into a treacherous plot to sabotage the facility which continues in ‘Blood and Bionics’ as a reprogrammed Deathlok cyborg stalks the base until the Thing and Quasar crush it.

Elsewhere, Ben’s old sparring partner Thundra is recruited by a team of super-powered women wrestlers (I know what you’re thinking but trust me, it works) with a secret and nefarious sideline…

One of the resident scientists at Pegasus is Bill Foster – who had a brief costumed career as Black Goliath – and he resumes adventuring with a new/old name just in time to help tackle freshly-liberated atomic monster Nuklo in ‘Giants in the Earth’. Sadly the traitor who let the infantile walking inferno out is still undiscovered and in the darkest part of the Project something strange is whispering to the comatose Wundarr…

George Pérez & Gene Day take over as illustrators from #56 as Thundra and her new friends invade in ‘The Deadlier of the Species!’ but even their blistering assault is merely a feint for the real threat and soon a final countdown to disaster is in effect…

Doomsday begins ‘When Walks Wundarr!’ and, in his mesmerised wake, a horde of energy-projecting villains incarcerated in the research facility break free…

With chaos everywhere the traitor triggers an extra-dimensional catastrophe, intent on destroying Pegasus ‘To the Nth Power!’, but as a living singularity tries to suck the entire institution into infinity, the end of everything is countered by the ascension of a new kind of hero as The Aquarian debuts to save the day…

Released as one of Marvel’s earliest trade paperback collections, the high-tension bombastic action of The Project Pegasus Saga rattles along without the appearance of any major stars – a daring move for a team-up title but one which greatly enhanced the power and depth of The Thing.

Moreover, by concentrating on rebooting moribund characters such as Deathlok and Giant-Man whilst launching fresh faces Quasar and The Aquarian instead of looking for ill-fitting, big-name sales-boosters, the story truly proves the old adage about there being no bad characters…

Another sound decision was the use of Byrne & Sinnott for the first half and Pérez & the late, great Gene Day to finish off the tale. Both pencillers were in their early ascendancy here and the artistic energy just jumps off the pages.

Deadlines wait for no one however and the pulse-pounding epic is immediately followed here by Marvel Two-In-One Annual #4 which offered an old-fashioned, world-busting blockbuster as ‘A Mission of Gravity!’ (plotted by Allyn Brodsky, scripted by David Michelinie and illustrated by Jim Craig, Bob Budiansky & Bruce Patterson) brought the Thing and Inhuman monarch Black Bolt together to stop unstable maniac Graviton turning into a black hole and taking the world with him…

Wolfman, Macchio, Chic Stone & Al Gordon then explored ‘Trial and Error!’ in monthly issue #59 as Ben and the Human Torch played matchmaker for a dopey dreamer, after which Marvel Two-in-One #60 featured Ben and impish ET Impossible Man in hilarious combat with three of Marvel’s earliest bad-guys.

‘Happiness is a Warm Alien‘ – by Gruenwald, Macchio, Pérez & Day – offers a delightful change-of-pace which applies much-needed perspective and lots of laughs as the madcap invader from beyond gets bored and creates a perfect mate…

A stellar epic started in #61 with ‘The Coming of Her!’ (Gruenwald, Jerry Bingham & Day) as time-travelling space god Starhawk became embroiled in the birth of a female counterpart to artificial superman Adam Warlock.

The distaff genetic paragon awoke fully empowered and instantly began searching for her predecessor, dragging Ben’s girlfriend Alicia and mind goddess Moondragon across the solar system, arriving where issue #62 observed ‘The Taking of Counter-Earth!’

Hot on their heels Thing and Starhawk catch Her just as the women encounter a severely wounded High Evolutionary and discover the world built by that self-made god has been stolen…

United in mystery the strange grouping follow the planet’s trail out of the galaxy and uncover the incredible perpetrators but Her’s desperate quest to secure her predestined, purpose-grown mate ends in tragedy as she learns ‘Suffer Not a Warlock to Live!’

Clearly on a roll and dedicated to exploiting Marvel Two-in-One‘s unofficial role as a clean-up vehicle for settling unresolved plotlines from cancelled series, Gruenwald & Macchio then dived into ‘The Serpent Crown Affair’ in #64.

‘From the Depths’ (illustrated by Pérez & Day) saw sub-sea superhero Stingray approach Reed Richards in search of a cure for humans who had been mutated into water-breathers by Sub-Mariner villain Doctor Hydro – a plotline begun in 1973 and left unresolved since the demise of the Atlantean prince’s own title.

Richards’ enquiries soon found the transformation had been caused by the Inhumans’ Terrigen Mist but when he had Ben ferry the mermen’s leader Dr. Croft and Stingray to a meeting, the trip was cut short by a crisis on an off-shore oil-rig, thanks to an ambush by a coalition of snake-themed villains.

The ‘Serpents from the Sea’ (art by Bingham & Day) were attempting to salvage dread mystic artefact the Serpent Crown, but luckily the Inhumans had sent out their seagoing champion Triton to meet the Thing…

Thundra meanwhile had been seeking the men responsible for tricking her into attacking Pegasus but fell under the spell of sinister superman Hyperion – a pawn of corrupt oil conglomerate Roxxon, whose CEO Hugh Jones possessed or had been possessed by the heinous helm…

With the situation escalating Ben had no choice but to call in an expert and before long The Scarlet Witch joins the battle, her previous experience with the relic enabling the heroes to thwart the multi-dimensional threat of ‘A Congress of Crowns!’ (Pérez & Day) and a devastating incursion by diabolical serpent god Set…

With Armageddon averted Ben diverted to Pegasus to drop off the emasculated crown in #67 and found Bill Foster had been diagnosed with terminal radiation sickness due to his battle with Nuklo. Thundra meanwhile, seduced by promises of being returned to her own reality, wised up in time to abscond from Roxxon in ‘Passport to Oblivion!’ (Gruenwald, Macchio, Ron Wilson, Day & friends), but hadn’t calculated on being hunted by Hyperion. Although outmatched her frantic struggle did attract the attentions of the Thing and Quasar…

Marvel T-I-O #68 shifted gears as Ben met former X-Man The Angel as they stumbled into – and smashed out of – a mechanical murder-world in ‘Discos and Dungeons!’ (Wilson & Day) after which ‘Homecoming!’ found Ben contending with the time-lost Guardians of the Galaxy whilst striving to prevent the end of everything as millennial man Vance Astro risked all of reality to stop his younger self ever going into space…

Issue #70 offered a mystery guest team-up for ‘A Moving Experience’ (Gruenwald, Macchio, Mike Nasser & Day) as Ben was again pranked by old frenemy’s The Yancy Street Gang and ambushed by real old foes when he helped his girlfriend move into new digs, after which the so-long frustrated Hydromen finally get ‘The Cure!’ (Wilson & Day) when Ben and Reed travel to the Inhuman city of Attilan.

Sadly a cure for the effects of Terrigen is a perfect anti-Inhuman weapon and when the process is stolen by a trio of freaks the trail leads to a brutal clash with a deadly Inhuman renegade wielding ‘The Might of Maelstrom’ (Gruenwald, Macchio, Wilson & Stone). The pariah is intent on eradicating every other member of his hidden race and just won’t stop until he’s done…

Marvel Two-In-One #73 by Macchio, Wilson & Stone then ties up loose ends from the Pegasus epic as Ben and Quasar pursue Roxxon to another Earth where the rapacious plunderers have enslaved a primitive population and begun sending their pillaged oil back here via a ‘Pipeline Through Infinity’ (#74), whilst Gruenwald, Frank Springer & Stone celebrate the festive season with ‘A Christmas Peril!’ as Ben and the Puppet Master are drawn into the Yuletide celebrations of brain-damaged, childlike, immensely powerful Modred the Mystic…

Alan Kupperberg & Pablo Marcos then detail another tumultuous clash between Hulk and Thing from Marvel Two-In-One Annual #5. ‘Skirmish with Death’ sees the titanic duo team with extraterrestrial explorer The Stranger to stop death god Pluto destroying the universe and cosmic epics remain in vogue in anniversary issue #75 where Ben and the Avengers are drawn into the Negative Zone to stop a hyper-powered Super-Adaptoid, only to find themselves inevitably ‘By Blastaar Betrayed!’ (Tom DeFalco, Alan Kupperberg & Stone)…

Thereafter hitting mundane reality with a bump, #76 exposes ‘The Big Top Bandits’ (DeFalco, Michelinie, Bingham & Stone) as Iceman and the Thing make short work of the Circus of Evil before this paladin-packed tome concludes with a double dose of action in #77 as Thing and Man-Thing nearly unite in a rescue mission where ‘Only the Swamp Survives!’ (DeFalco, Wilson & Stone), which also features a poignant, bizarre cameo from Sergeant Nick Fury and the Howling Commandoes…

There’s even one last treat: a revelatory cutaway diagram of Project Pegasus to make sense of all the carnage that you’ve just enjoyed…

Fiercely tied to the minutia of Marvel continuity, these stories from Marvel’s Middle Period are certainly of variable quality, but whereas some might feel rushed and ill-considered they are balanced by some superb adventure romps and a genuine modern comics classic; still as captivating today as it always was.

Even if artistically the work varies from only adequate to truly top-notch, most fans of Costumed Dramas will find little to complain about and there’s plenty of fun to be found for young and old readers. So why not lower your critical guard and have an honest blast of pure warts-and-all comics craziness? You’ll almost certainly grow to like it…
© 1979, 1980, 1981, 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Cat with a Really Big Head


By Roman Dirge (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-287-4

Roman Dirge is the multi-award winning, creatively twisted auteur behind the gloriously gruesome and deliriously disquieting Lenore: the Cute Little Dead Girl, but like quicksand and unpronounceable foreign cheese he also has a hidden, softer side.

Collected in this haunting hardback compilation are a brace of the mordant maestro’s lesser known works – as well as a bonus short vignette – all deviously masquerading as innocuously innocent if lavishly lurid illustrated fables and poems which nice kids might enjoy…

Eponymous tale of domestic tragedy and karmic comeuppance ‘The Cat with a Really Big Head’ was first released by Slave Labor Graphics in 2002 and details with charming indulgence the story of a poor macrocephalic kitty whose life is ruined by an awesome overabundance of cranium. You’d think that having eight more might be some comfort but you’d be wrong…

Following that there’s a brief doggerel divertissement as ‘A Big Question’ rhythmically relates what happened to little Alisa McGee after she asked the Autopsy Man what he was doing with her cadaver…

As revealed in Dirge’s Foreword, the agonised aftermath of a romantic break-up inspired ‘The Monsters in my Tummy’, originally seen as a black-&-white Slave Labor special in 1999.

Now remastered into resplendent rainbow hues, the grisly treatise on one man’s internal logistics and gory grieving process offers a certain sort of hope and lots of vicarious spleen for the newly heart-sore who still retain a smidgen of poesy and particles of a sense of humour…

Wittily weird, excessively eccentric and darkly hilarious, these fanciful fairytales for gloomy grownups readily blend whimsical charm with surreal introspection to create visual mood music and gothy glee for the down-at-soul; rekindling the mordant merriment of Charles Addams’ cartoons and so readily revived by modern macabrists such as Tim Burton, Jhonen Vasquez (Squee!, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac), Ted Naifeh & Serena (Gloom Cookie) and Jill “Scary Godmother” Thompson.

These fearsomely funny fables are an unwholesome treat for those kids of all ages with a taste for the richer, darker and less anodyne flavours of life and its inevitable final consequences.

Ever so much better for you than alcohol abuse, suicide pacts or stalking that certain someone in all weathers…
The Cat with a Really Big Head and The Monsters in My Tummy ™ & © 2015 Roman Dirge. All rights reserved.

The Cat with a Really Big Head will be released on June 30th 2015 and is available for pre-order now.

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Amongst the Stars


By Jim Alexander & Mike Perkins with Will Pickering (Planet Jimbot)
No ISBN:

The wonderful thing about comics is the fact that you can readily utilise huge casts, vast exotic locales and even the most intimate of inner landscapes with the simplest tools.

In fact very often the more limited the resources the greater the result in terms of creativity, innovation and quality. It’s like a law of inverse proportions affecting imagination…

A superb example of that dictum is independent comics publisher Planet Jimbot (canny fellows Jim Alexander and Jim Campbell) whose ongoing series Wolf Country will star in our next Small Press Sunday feature. The Little Company That Could numbers many intriguing projects in its burgeoning portfolio, with this slim monochrome trade paperback compilation being one of its best: a cerebral science fiction saga that challenges your mind, heart and soul… and there’s not a robot or fishbowl-helmeted bikini-babe in sight…

Writer Alexander’s prodigious back catalogue includes Calhab Justice and other strips for 2000 AD, Star Trek the Manga, GoodCopBadCop, many features for The Dandy and work for DC, Marvel, Metal Hurlant, and loads of other places whilst illustrator Mike Perkins has gone on to co-create Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and draw Ruse, Astonishing X-Men, Superman vs Terminator, Carver Hale, Captain America, Stephen King’s The Stand and a host of other major properties.

If I remember aright Amongst the Stars was first serialised in much-missed Caliber Comics anthology Negative Burn back in the 1990s, and like so many great fantasy concoctions it takes a hoary cliché and stands it on its head with immense style and total conviction.

The wonderment begins with ‘Naturally Occurring Reactions’ as all over Earth individuals go about their lives unaware that they are sharing them. Incomprehensible distances away a unified collective of alien called the Tchailungians have reached psionically out to make contact with us and been trapped en masse inside our angry/sad/hungry/terrified, chaotically helter-skelter minds…

From ‘The Fullness of Space’ their benign pacific unity is being irrevocably shredded and shattered by everything that makes us human, but perhaps some spark of hope remains in rediscovering individual action through the cosmic ruminations of a brilliant British physicist trapped inside his body by motor-neurone disease…

‘Contact: How Tchailung came across the Regressive Planet and all of this started’ details the extent of the stellar paragons’ greatest mistake and how one bold constituent – either less paralysed or more contaminated than the rest – begins fighting back against the all-encompassing mental malady even as that earthly shut-in ponders the myth of ‘Icarus’ and the tragic ‘Marker Point’ which divided the collective gestalt and now spurs the dying Tchailung to embrace radical action.

Moreover, on Earth at least one fragile example of the seething masses is becoming acutely aware that he has ailing passengers in his head whilst events on two worlds spiral towards a shocking revelation in ‘The Eagle’s Nest’…

The cosmic cogitation and eerie awe of the lurking unknown is supplemented and counterpointed by a grand paranoia-drenched vignette dedicated to the other end of the “They Lurk Amongst Us” literary spectrum. ‘Growing Pains’ by Alexander & Will Pickering takes us to an anonymous Scottish housing estate where the police are warily employing a very unlikely negotiations-specialist to counter the rarest – yet by no means unheard of – domestic violence situations.

Unfortunately no matter how experienced an alienist pretty Officer McGuinness might be, there’s always the possibility of overconfidence leading to deadly human error…

Light, bright, bold, beguilingly presented, confidently challenging and beautifully realised, Amongst the Stars is a delight for those who need some intellectual meat in their reading matter, so dig in now.
Amongst the Stars © 2015 Jim Alexander (story) and Mike Perkins (art). Growing Pains © 2015 Jim Alexander (story) and Will Pickering (art).

Amongst the Stars is available at the Planet Jimbot shop for a special SICBA price of £5.50 plus P&P, so go to: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/PlanetJimbot

Amongst the Stars has made the Scottish Independent Comic Book Alliance (SICBA) shortlist for Best Graphic Novel 2015. Why not get a copy and then vote for it? For relevant details check out the official SICBA site: http://www.sicba.org.uk/

The winners will be announced in Glasgow on the 4th of July so best get cracking…

Barring that, those generous Jimbot denizens have put together a PDF sampler which features 5 pages of the story, absolutely free to everybody, so please feel free to publish/share/comment on as you wish. Just head for: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1mcab4gr8utanu7/ATS_SICBA_Sampler.pdf?dl=0

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Clifton volume 1: My Dear Wilkinson


By De Groot & Turk translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905469-06-9

For some inexplicable reason most of Europe’s comics cognoscenti – and especially the French and Belgians – are fascinated with us Brits. Whether it’s Anglo air ace Biggles, indomitable adventurers Blake and Mortimer, the Machiavellian machinations of Green Manor or even the further travails of Long John Silver, the serried stalwarts of our Scepter’d Isles cut a dashing swathe through the pages of the Continent’s assorted magazines and albums.

And then there’s Clifton…

Originally devised by child-friendly strip genius Raymond Macherot (Chaminou, Les croquillards, Chlorophylle, Sibylline) for Tintin, the doughty troubleshooter first appeared in December 1959.

After three albums worth of material – compiled and released between 1959 and 1960 – Macherot left the magazine to join arch-rival Spirou and the eccentric comedy crime-fighter floundered until Tintin brought him back at the height of the Swinging London scene courtesy of Jo-El Azaza & Greg. These strips were subsequently collected as Les lutins diaboliques in French and De duivelse dwergen for Dutch-speakers in 1969.

It was back into retirement until the mid-1970s when writer Bob De Groot and illustrator Philippe “Turk” Liegeois revived Clifton for the long haul, producing ten tales of which this – Ce cher Wilkinson: Clifton from 1978 – was the fifth.

From 1984 onward artist Bernard Dumont AKA Bédu limned De Groot’s scripts before eventually assuming the writing chores too until the series folded in 1995.

In keeping with its rather haphazard nature, Clifton resurfaced again in 2003, crafted by De Groot and Michel Rodrigue in four further adventures; a grand total of 25 to date.

The setup is deliciously simple: pompous and irascible Colonel Sir Harold Wilberforce Clifton, ex-RAF and recently retired from MI5, has a great deal of difficulty accomodating being put out to pasture in rural Puddington. He thus takes every opportunity to get back in the saddle, occasionally assisting the Government or needy individuals as an amateur sleuth.

Sadly for Clifton – as with that other much-underappreciated national treasure Captain Mainwaring in Dad’s Army – he is too keenly aware that he is usually the only truly competent man in a world full of blithering idiots…

In this initial translated adventure first seen in 2005 , the forceful personality is seething at home one night and reading ghost stories when a sequence of odd events culminates in both he and his nationally celebrated cook and housekeeper Miss Partridge witnessing plates of food and glasses of wine flying about and crashing to the floor.

Fortifying themselves with the remaining decanter of sherry the staunch duo repair to their separate beds unaware that a very live presence has been spying on them and playing pranks…

The next day finds the perplexed gentleman at the town library, scanning the stacks for reports of similar phenomena and regaled by one of the whippersnapper counter-staff who just happens to be an amateur and closet psychokinetic; demonstrably and smugly able to move small objects with the power of his mind…

With proof of a rather more rational explanation for recent events and an appropriate reference tome, Clifton begins boning up and is soon made annoyingly aware of a stage performer dubbed the Great Wilkinson who is reputedly the world’s greatest exponent of the art of psycho-kinesis.

A quick jaunt to London in the old red sports car soon sees the former spy getting along famously with the diminutive performer who happily agrees to come down to Puddington and recce the Colonel’s troubled home. To be perfectly frank, the smiling showman is far more interested in meeting celebrated chef Miss Partridge…

A pleasant afternoon is interrupted by old associate Chief Inspector John Haig of Scotland Yard who is drowning in an uncanny mystery and desperately needs a second opinion from MI5’s most self-congratulatory alumnus. Giant safes are going missing, seemingly plucked from buildings as if by mighty, invisible hands…

And so proceeds a wickedly fast-paced romp with a genuine mystery tale at its comedic core. Clifton and Co fumble their way past roguish red herrings and through a labyrinthine maze of clues to the lair of a canny criminal mastermind with what seems the perfect MO. However, long before justice triumphs, the tinderbox temper of the suave sleuth is repeatedly triggered by clodhopping cops, obnoxious officials, short-fused chefs, imbecilic bystanders and a succession of young fools and old clowns all getting in the way and utterly spoiling the thrill of the chase…

Delightfully surreal, instantly accessible and doused with daft slapstick in the manner of Jacques Tati or our own Carry On films (but sans the saucy slap ‘n’ tickle elements), this light-action romp rattles along in the grand old tradition of Will Hay, Terry-Thomas and Alistair Sim – or Wallace and Gromit if you’re a callow yoof – offering readers a splendid treat and loads of timeless laughs.

Original edition © 1978 Le Lombard (Dargaud-Lombard S. A.) 1988 by De Groot & Turk. English translation © 2005 Cinebook Ltd.

 

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Canardo, Private Eye: A Shabby Dog Story


By Benoít Sokal (Xpresso Books/Fleetway)
ISBN: 978-1-85386-260-6

Artist, writer and games designer Benoít Sokal (Sanguine, Syberia, Amerzone, Kraa) was born in Brussels in 1954. He studied at the École Supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc De Bruxells, the prestigious art school where legendary creator Claude Renard (Belles Histoires de l’Oncle Paul, Aux Médianes de Cymbiola, Le Rail, Ivan Casablanca) taught and nurtured many students who would become Belgium’s modern masters of comics.

Sokal joined that select band of professionals in 1978, selling humorous strips and characters to À Suivre and striking gold early. He had been producing short, blackly comedic tales featuring anthropomorphic animals living in a world of contemporary humanity. Amongst the vast cast was a tawdry, unscrupulous, hard-drinking private detective named Inspector Canardo. Although never a true protagonist in those days, the dour duck was always around when events inevitably spiralled out of control…

The occasional series struck a chord with European audiences and soon Canardo was headlining his own series of albums. The first, in 1979, gathered those early shorts into an “Album #0” entitled Premières enquêtes and was followed by 22 more to date: the latest, Le vieux canard et la mer was released in 2013.

Dividing his time between his mallard megastar and more realistic dramas such as police thriller Silence, on Tue! (with François Rivière) and Le Vieil homme qui n’écrivait plus, by the close of the 1990s Sokal made the sideways jump from comics to the burgeoning videogames market, bringing in artist Pascal Regnauld to handle much of the illustration for his foul-feathered fowl.

Although a huge hit on the continent, Canardo struggled to find a place amongst English-speaking audiences. Sporadically released in translation between 1989 and 1991 by Rijperman and NBM for the American continent and through Fleetway’s Xpresso books in the UK, Sokal’s patently adults-only, philosophically nihilistic and bleakly moody homage to film noir came and went largely unnoticed, and I think it’s time some savvy publisher took another shot…

Volume #1 – Le Chien debout (1981 and more accurately translated as The Standing Dog) became initial British release A Shabby Dog Story as Xpresso – the experimental division of publishing monolith Fleetway – when the home of Judge Dredd, Buster and Roy of the Rovers sought to catch a pan-Atlantic wave of interest in comics for grown-ups.

The series readily toys with the internal consistency of storytelling: Canardo and other cast regulars have died several times, timescales are largely irrelevant, early tales have humans, anthropomorphic animals and regular critters cautiously coexisting side by side, science and magic happily co-mingle with the seedily traditional elements of sex, violence, depression and existential isolation and some of the players occasionally refer to themselves inhabiting a comics story.

As previously mentioned, in the earliest escapades the dowdy duck dick is little more than a disinterested spectator; an Éminence grise perfectly capable of shaping events and preventing tragedies but always unwilling to get involved unless there’s a direct benefit for him.

Here the focus is on shady nomad Ferdinand, a hooch-loving hobo pooch whose addiction to garbage brought him low and whose years of aimless peregrination have now brought him back to his hometown. Once an infamous bigwig and ruler of the roost amongst the skeevy bestial characters on the wrong side of the tracks, he’s now unrecognisable to the surviving patrons of Freddo’s Bar, but that’s okay.

All the down-and-out really cares about is seeing his adored Gilberte once more, but after he makes himself known in his traditional manner and hears she’s dead, Ferdinand regains some of his old fire and resolves to find out who killed her…

His anxious successor is Kartler, a blustering hound with a big bark but little bite, although he does have dangerous friends…

When thugs corner him our traumatised shabby dog is soon overwhelmed and left to die horribly, with Kartler’s accusation that Ferdinand was Gilberte’s killer ringing in his floppy, flea-bitten ears. Only as the dog is dying does former cop Inspector Canardo intervene, and only then because of the promise of scoring a stash of drugs…

The duck does offer a little info for nothing, revealing Gilberte had latterly lived with a human doctor named Calhoun after she stopped being Kartler’s main squeeze. Calhoun has a unique and unenviable reputation: a sadistic maniac operating on animals – especially dogs – turning them into mindless zombies for Kartler’s ever expanding army…

When desperate Ferdinand breaks into the surgeon’s compound he quickly discovers that’s the very least of the doctor’s many atrocities…

And back at the bar, against his better judgement a duck with an unslakable thirst breaks all his own rules and decides to get involved. After all, Canardo has known from the very start exactly how Gilberte died…

Stark, wry, bleak, outrageously amusing and almost Brechtian in its tone and execution of a demi-monde society, the saga of Carnardo is a powerful antidote to traditional adventure paladins and a supreme example of the antihero taken to its ultimate extreme. It’s also beguilingly lovely to look upon in a grim traffic accident, bunny-in-the-headlights manner.

Let’s hope some publisher with a little vision agrees…
Le Chien debout © 1981 Casterman. Translation © 1989 Cha Cha Comics. UK edition © 1991 Xpresso Books. All rights reserved.

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War of Kings: The Road to War of Kings


By Christopher Yost, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Andy Schmidt, Michael Hoskin, Dustin Weaver, Paul Pelletier, Bong Dazo, Frazer Irving & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3967-6

As every comics fan knows, the world is not enough. Eventually all horizons expand and your favourite character goes cosmic. Marvel Comics have long been capitalising on dramas from beyond the unknown and in 2006 constructed a monumental crossover epic which not only featured the usual stellar stalwarts but was also expansive enough to encompass a host of more Earthbound stars.

Annihilation spawned a cascade of sidereal sequels and in 2008 many of Marvel’s major players became deeply involved in one of the most expansive as War of Kings redefined the role of mutants, Inhumans and three perpetually warring stellar empires.

As usual the tale spread through a number of titles, miniseries and specials over many months, enveloping such disparate do-gooders as the Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, Skaar – Son of Hulk, Darkhawk and more.

This slim compilation collects pivotal opening sallies X-Men: Kingbreaker #1-4, Secret Invasion: War of Kings, War of Kings Saga and pertinent extracts from X-Men: Divided We Stand #2, spanning July 2008 to May 2009.

Crafted by writers Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning and illustrators Paul Pelletier, Bong Dazo, Rick Magyar & Joe Pimentel, Secret Invasion: War of Kings finds a fleet of shapeshifting Skrulls desperately fleeing Earth after their all-out incursion was repulsed.

As part of the scheme the invaders had imprisoned and tortured Inhuman ruler Black Bolt for months, and when his family freed him the silent monarch’s fury knew no bounds…

Conceived as another fantastic lost civilisation and debuting in 1965’s Fantastic Four #44-48 during Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s most fertile and productive creative period, The Inhumans are a race of (generally) humanoid beings genetically altered 25,000 years ago, after Imperial Kree explorers landed on Earth and tampered with the biology of a tribe of primitives, just as they had on hundreds of other worlds.

Consequently the guinea pigs became technologically advanced far ahead of emergent Homo Sapiens and isolated themselves from the world and barbarous dawn-age humanity in a fabulous city named Attilan: first on an island and latterly in a hidden valley in the Himalayas.

Long ago Randac, one of the rulers of the intellectual super-race, took DNA manipulation to its ultimate end, devising the Terrigen Mist process, which mutated citizens into infinitely unique individuals of astounding power. The measure originally met with much opposition and hordes of Attilans quit the city forever, setting up their own isolated enclaves and increasingly interbreeding with their less evolved cousins…

After millennia in hiding, growing global pollution levels began to attack the Inhumans’ elevated biological systems and they relocated their entire city-civilisation to the Moon. This bold act exposed them to military scrutiny and they became known at last to Earth’s teeming masses.

Run along quasi-mystic lines by a priesthood, the Attilan mark of citizenship is gained through immersion in the Terrigen Mists which enhance and transform individuals into radically unique and generally super-powered beings. The subspecies is obsessed with genetic structure and heritage, worshipping their ruling Royal Family as the rationalist equivalent of mortal gods.

Now, following the Skrulls’ shameful debasement of Black Bolt, the citizens are ready to fully embrace their millennial destiny as living weapons and carve a place for themselves in the greater universe.

The shapeshifters are only the first to fall and by the time he has done, Blackbolt has taken the Kree Empire by the throat and made himself its lord…

‘The Hole’ originally saw print in X-Men: Divided We Stand #2, wherein Andy Schmidt and Frazer Irving detailed the ordeal of former X-Men Alex Summers – AKA Havok – and his one-time lover Polaris following their participation in a coup intended to remove the head of the Shi’ar Empire.

That vile potentate was crazed mutant Vulcan (revealed as Alex’s half brother Gabriel Summers) who had risen from the rank of slave to seize power in a blood-drenched, if politically astute, campaign of terror. After failing to destroy his insane sibling, Havok was imprisoned under an ocean on a remote world and systematically tortured by the triumphant Vulcan.

It didn’t matter: Alex bided his time and waited…

Opportunity knocked at last in 4-part miniseries X-Men: Kingbreaker (by Christopher Yost, Dustin Weaver, Paco Diaz, Jaime Mendoza, Victor Olazaba & Vicente Cifuentes) which forms the majority of this introductory tome.

After consolidating his position Vulcan, with his Shi’ar queen-consort Deathbird, begin a studied attack on the intergalactic status quo, greedily snatching up new worlds in a devastating war of expansion. With the dominant states of the universe reluctantly ranging against him ,Vulcan is caught off-guard when a coalition of Earth mutants join freebooting space-pirates The Starjammers in a rescue mission to free Alex, Polaris and their own captured comrades…

Stretched and already unstable, the upstart Emperor responds by freeing the five greatest menaces in Shi’ar custody as a penal battalion and is utterly astonished when the devilish malcontents increasingly run amok, killing civilians and even destroying entire worlds…

When the dust finally settles his greatest foes are free and many of his dutiful allies and subjects are thinking of switching sides…

Truly deranged but undeterred Vulcan continues his rush to conquest, turning his attention to The Kree, where newly enthroned Supremor Black Bolt is ready and waiting…

To Be Continued in various War of Kings collections…

Although the sequential narratives end here this catalogue of cosmic calamity carries one last prize as the incipient interstellar insurrection is scrupulously diarised and knitted together from its scattered beginnings through extracts and snippets from a vast number of assorted comics issues collated by Michael Hoskin.

How it all began and where it will lead is diligently tracked via the sterling strip efforts of writers Carlos Pacheco, Rafael Marin, David Hine, Paul Jenkins, Sean McKeever, Andy Schmidt, Joe Pokaski, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Greg Pak, Abnett, Lanning & Yost with the appropriate and stunning visual accompaniments by Ladrönn, Jorge Pereira Lucas, Irving, Jae Lee, Matthew Clark, Roy Allan Martinez, Tom Raney, Jim Cheung, Alex, Maleev, Trevor Hairsine, Billy Tan, Adi Granov, John Romita Jr., Weaver, Wellington Alves & Pelletier to form a mosaic of data vital to further progress whether you’re a Marvel die-hard or callow comic neophyte.

Sprawling, epic and remarkably engaging, if you’re into cosmic conflagration this is a splendid starting point for a grand adventure…
© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Monsterjunkies Graphic Novel #1


By Eric Daniel Shein & Theresa A. Gates, illustrated by Jay Fotos Studios (ArkWatch)
ISBN: 978-0-9963872-0-0

It’s tough being an outsider and doubly so if you’re a teenager with weird interests and strange parents.

Just think how much worse it can be if you’re notionally foreign, have no friends and your family has a long tradition of keeping secrets…

Introduced in prose Young Adult novels The Monsterjunkies: An American Family Odyssey and its sequel Sanctuary, impressionable Cromwell and his far more sociably adaptable older sister Indigo negotiated the tricky path through high school, slowly finding friends and companionship, gradually sharing their clandestine clan’s big secret with the ordinary folk of Foggy Point, Maine.

Now that first gently inclusive tale of integration and assimilation has been adapted into a beguiling graphic novel by original authors Eric Daniel Shein & Theresa A. Gates and opens at the daunting gates of 1313 Road to Nowhere. Within the vast wilderness compound lurk an assortment of oddities who have found safety, anonymity and peace of mind under the custodianship of glamorous cryptozoologist Dr. Talon Monsterjunkie and his eldritch, ethereal wife Pandora.

The dedicated preservationists of everything outré have turned their secluded estate into a haven for the world’s rarest and most endangered lifeforms, and although young Cromwell (he prefers “Crow”) may lack for strictly human companionship he is beloved by the creatures resident on the expansive Eden-like grounds.

Amongst his closet confidantes are Chico the chupacabra, poetry-writing sasquatch Beauregard, pituitary giants Frances and Betty, Periwinkle Pterodactyl, Fan – who runs the family mailbox – and sea serpent Sybil joyously sporting in the waters off scenic Bizarre Beach.

A loner at school, Crow’s life is made even worse by spoiled rich kid and practised bully Rutherford Grimes, but things start to radically change for the better after local lads Larry, Todd and Edgar sneak beyond the forbidding walls on a dare.

Shocked and awed by what they find, the kids are “rescued” by the aloof Goth kid from a succession of terrifying but ultimately friendly beasts and monsters and are soon the best of buddies. They even form a gang of their own to stand up to the predatory “popular kids” at school…

Soon the centuries-long family policy is being gradually tweaked and before long select individuals are being invited to share the hidden treasures of the estate. Ruth Grimes, however, isn’t happy at all and after Crow creates a unique way for school kids to stand up to him the closet psychopath subsequently tricks his boorish, millionaire dad into instigating a malicious whispering campaign to drive the weird foreigners out…

Then comes the worst news of all: daredevil dad Talon has been lost on an expedition to Bolivia…

Comparisons to the filmic Addams Family are unavoidable, but there is a superficial similarity at best. The dark humour of unsettling fear and voluntary isolation which underpins the movies has been replaced here with a cast of warm, accommodating outriders heroically performing great works, eagerly accepting newcomers into their circle and prepared to change and enter the wider world that encroaches upon them…

Wild, imaginative, compassionate and packing a potent and welcome moral message, this is a wonderful interface between modern supernatural thrillers for teens and grand old-fashioned family romps like Willard Price’s “Adventures” series.

And there are more to come…
© 2015 Arkwatch Holdings LLC. All Rights Reserved.

For more information check out http://www.themonsterjunkieuniverse.com/ and www.redanvilcomics.com

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Justice Society of America: Black Adam and Isis


By Geoff Johns, Jerry Ordway (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2531-5

After the actual invention of the superhero – which means Superman in 1938 – the most significant event in the genre’s (and indeed industry’s) progress was the combination of individual stars into a group. Thus what seems blindingly obvious to us with the benefit of four-colour hindsight was proven: a number of popular characters could multiply readership by combining forces and fan-bases. Plus, of course, a whole bunch of superheroes is a lot cooler than just one – or even one and a sidekick.

The Justice Society of America was debuted in the third issue of All-Star Comics (Winter 1940-1941), a communal anthology title featuring established characters from various National and All-American Comics publications. The groundbreaking landmark was instigated by the simple expedient of having assorted heroes gather around a table and tell each other their latest adventure.

From this low key collaboration it wasn’t long before the guys – and they were all white guys (except Red Tornado: a woman who merely pretended to be one) – regularly joined forces to defeat the greatest villains and social ills of their generation. Within months the blockbusting concept had spread far and wide…

And so the Justice Society of America is rightly revered as a milestone in the development of comicbooks. When Julius Schwartz resurrected the superhero genre in the late 1950s, his game-changing moment came with the inevitable teaming of the reconfigured mystery men into a modern Justice League of America.

From there it wasn’t too long before the original and genuine article returned. Since then there were many attempts to formally revive the team’s fortunes but it wasn’t until 1999, on the back of both the highly successful rebooting of the JLA by Grant Morrison & Howard Porter and the seminal but critically favoured new Starman series by Golden Age devotee James Robinson, that the multi-generational team found a new mission and fan-base big enough to support them.

As the century turned the original super-team returned and have been with us in one form or another ever since.

This iteration, called to order after mega crossover events Infinite Crisis and Identity Crisis, found the last surviving heroes of World War II acting as mentors and teachers for the latest generation of young champions and metahuman “legacy-heroes” (family successors or inheritors of departed champions’ powers or code-names).

Such a large, cumbersome but worthy assemblage of raw talent, uneasy exuberance and weary hard-earned experience (for details see Justice Society of America: the Next Age and Justice League of America: The Lightning Saga) can certainly do with some help, and this turbulent tomes collects issues #23-28 of Justice Society of America (volume 3, spanning March – August 2009): finding the august body closing one era whilst nervously embarking upon the next.

Once upon a time Billy Batson was a little boy living on the streets of Fawcett City. His archaeologist parents left him with his uncle when they went on a dig to Egypt. They never returned, his little sister vanished and he was thrown out when his guardian stole his inheritance.

Sleeping in a storm drain, selling newspapers for cash, the indomitable lad grew street-smart and resilient, but when a shadowy stranger bade him follow into an eerie subway, the boy somehow knew it was all okay. Soon after, he met the wizard Shazam and gained the powers of six ancient Gods and Heroes.

Thus began an astounding career as wholesome powerhouse hero Captain Marvel. Billy eventually found his lost sister Mary and shared his nigh-infinite power with her, as they both subsequently did with disabled friend Freddy Freeman.

They battled but eventually reached an accommodation with militant progenitor Black Adam, the wizard’s first superhuman champion who had been reborn in the body of Theo Adam – the man who murdered the Batsons’ parents. However when a succession of crises arose, everything changed. Immortal Shazam was murdered, Billy was exiled to the transcendent Rock of Eternity as his replacement and Freddy became a new Captain Marvel; his mighty gifts supplied by a completely different pantheon of patrons.

Black Adam had found peace and redemption in the love of ascendant nature goddess Isis until she was cruelly taken from him but the worst tragedies befell poor Mary. Deprived of her intoxicating powers she found herself an addict without a fix… until soul-sick Adam shared his dark energies with her. His corrupted spirit fatally tainted the once-vibrant innocent…

The saga resumes here with wrap-up epic ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’ (by scripters Geoff Johns & Jerry Ordway with Ordway & Bob Wiacek supplying the artwork), commencing with ‘The Power of Shazam’ as Adam finds his beloved Isis has been resurrected by sorcerer Felix Faust and turned into his helpless plaything…

Whilst he is savagely saving his revenant inamorata from the mage’s vile clutches, far away in the JSA’s brownstone HQ, the rifts caused by the recent war against space god Gog result in hothead Hawkman quitting in fury over doctrinal issues and how best to train the next generation.

The remaining first rank of heroes continue doggedly debating the way forward as, outside, recent additions fear for their place on the team and beyond time and space Billy the wizard’s tedious monitoring of reality is interrupted by a surprise attack.

Despite a desperate struggle he soon falls to Black Adam and an eerily reborn Isis, who somehow has lost every ounce of the vast compassion and understanding she once embodied, but none of her shattering power…

Stripped of his magical might and adult frame, the terrified boy Billy is ignominiously dumped back on Earth whilst Isis plans her next step and faithful Adam begins to fear that he has made a horrific mistake…

‘Family Ties’ sees indomitable Billy begin the fight back by convincing an extremely dubious JSA to join him in a trip to the Rock of Eternity. The rescue mission first entails sharing his outrageous origins with the adults, backed up by confirmation from teenager Stargirl who has long known Billy’s secrets.

By the time the contingent of champions arrives, Isis has “adopted” Mary Batson – still polluted with Black Adam’s contaminated powers – as she pushes forward her operation to “fix” the world.

In a blistering blitz attack the JSA are separated: the bulk of the team barely surviving Adam’s frenzied assault, Billy and Stargirl cruelly targeted for torture by Black Mary and elder Flash Jay Garrick lured away by the ghost of Billy’s father…

The frantic furore ends in ‘Family Feud’ as Mary forces her powerless brother to share her debauched and corrupting energies, mutating into psychotic deviant Black Billy. The deadly Adam family then translates back to Earth and their former homeland Khandaq – where the global pariah and his bride are worshipped as messiahs – with the battered but determined JLA hot on their heels.

Flash and Mr. Batson (Deceased) have meanwhile traversed the most dangerous corridors of infinity (but not without consequences that will later threaten the world) to reawaken the only being capable of ending the accelerating cosmic catastrophe, but as the trio speed to Kahndaq the situation has again shifted.

The game-changing moment occurred when Isis casually eradicated her devoted human worshippers and revealed to her shocked husband that her intent is to scour Earth of all life and repopulate with beings of her own making…

By the time Jay arrives with a literal Deus ex Machina in his wake, Adam has repented and switched sides, but that makes no difference to the apocalyptic fury of the world’s enraged deliverer…

Following that tragic and spectacular clash a semblance of normality takes hold in heart-warming “day in the life” tale ‘Black Adam Ruined my Birthday’ (by Johns, Dale Eaglesham & Nathan Massengill) as Stargirl Courtney Whitmore is ambushed with a belated sixteenth birthday party and gets her most fervent wish granted… almost…

Ordway & Wiacek return for one last blast from the past in ‘Ghosts in the Darkness’ as the many-handed team are attacked by a horde of disposed and extremely angry sprits who breach the brownstone’s esoteric, ebon defences to hijack Flash, Green Lantern, Wildcat, Liberty Bell and Hourman.

The shanghaied stalwarts soon discover they have fetched up in Hiroshima moments before that fateful atomic bombing…

With the ghosts revealed to have been manipulated by a Machiavellian old foe, the saga shockingly concludes with a cunning doublecross and sneaky twist, even after nigh-omnipotent former JSAer The Spectre takes relative new kids on the block Power Girl, Damage, Atom Smasher and Judomaster on a time-busting rescue mission against the ‘Phantom Menace’…

Tipped in as an added bonus is a doom-laden recap of past glories and upcoming tragedies in a trenchant Origins and Omens strip-vignette courtesy of Matthew Sturges & Fernando Pasarin, deftly laying the groundwork for the horrors to come in forthcoming adventures…

Even with covers, variants and celebratory triptychs by Alex Ross, Ordway & Wiacek, this in one more blockbusting epic that will be all but unreadable to anyone not deeply immersed in the complex continuity of DC’s last three decades, which is a real shame as the writing is superb, the artwork incredible and the sheer scope and ambition breathtaking.

Nevertheless, if you love Fights ‘n’ Tights cosmic melodrama and are prepared to do a little reading around then you might find yourself with a whole new universe to play in…
© 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Essential Thor volume 6


By Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, Bill Mantlo, Len Wein, John Buscema, Rich Buckler, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6329-9

Whilst the ever-expanding Marvel Universe had grown ever-more interconnected as it matured through its first decade, with characters literally tripping over each other in New York City, the Asgardian heritage of Thor and the soaring imagination of Jack Kirby had most often drawn the Thunder God away from mortal realms into stunning, unique landscapes and scenarios.

However by the time of this sixth Essential monochrome compendium, the King had been gone – and was in fact readying himself to return to the House of (mostly his) Ideas – for five years and only echoes of his groundbreaking presence remained. John Buscema had visually made the Thunder God his own whilst a succession of scripters struggled to recapture the epic scope of Kirby’s vision and Stan Lee’s off-kilter but comfortingly compelling faux-Shakespearean verbiage…

When these monthly episodes (from Thor #221-247, March 1974 to May 1976) saw print, the Thunder God and his cosmic companions had become a quarrelsome, self-doubting band of fantasy spacemen generally roving the outer limits of the Marvel Universe, only occasionally touching base with Earth and Asgard, but that editorial policy began to change here as more and more adventures began – and ended – in the troubled lands of Midgard…

With scripter Gerry Conway firmly in the driving seat and legendary illustrator John Buscema (aided by inker Mike Esposito) delivering the art, the mythic mayhem opens with ‘Hercules Enraged!’ as the Thor brutally invades Olympus, in search of the Grecian Prince of Power. Asgardian maiden Krista has been abducted and All-Father Odin has seen a vision of her enchained in Hades with the Thunderer’s trusted ally gloating over her beside vile netherlord Pluto…

By the time lordly Zeus has stopped the shattering clash that follows, half of the celestial city is in ruins, but in that breathing space he proves Hercules is innocent of the atrocious act and the abashed comrades turn their attentions to the true culprit…

Inked by Joe Sinnott, Thor #222 finds the earnest comrades in search of Hercules’ insidious impersonator and taking advice from a scary sorceress even as war-god Ares receives an eldritch summons to meet his co-conspirator ‘Before the Gates of Hell!’

Sadly he is intercepted by the heroes before he gets there and receives the sound thrashing he deserves, prior to the enraged companions storming their way into the netherworld itself.

At the moment of their triumph however Pluto snatches up his hostage and vanishes. His trail leads to Earth where one final confrontation results in ‘Hellfire Across the World!’ (Esposito inks) and leaves kidnapped Krista near death…

Issue #224 finds Thor resuming his alter ego of surgeon Don Blake to operate on the Asgardian even as elsewhere in Manhattan a rash scientist accidentally reactivates Odin’s unstoppable battle construct and discovers ‘No One Can Stop… the Destroyer!’

With Krista saved Thor joins the sorely pressed Hercules and although outmatched by the Asgardian killing machine they devise a way to stop its human power source – only to then face ‘The Coming of Firelord!’ (inked by Sinnott).

The tempestuous, short-tempered herald of planet-consuming Galactus has been sent to fetch Thor and will brook no refusals…

Issue #226 finds the voracious space god on Earth, beseeching the Thunder God’s aid in ‘The Battle Beyond!’ (Esposito) against living planet Ego, who has seemingly gone mad and now poses a threat to the entire universe…

“Homaging” Jack Kirby, penciller Rich Buckler joined Conway and Sinnott in #227 as the Thunder God and Hercules – with Firelord in tow – go ‘In Search of… Ego!’ Penetrating deep within the raving planet and defeating incredible biological horrors, the trio reach his malfunctioning brain and relive the incredible origin of the “bioverse” in ‘Ego: Beginning and End!’ before contriving an earth-shaking solution to the wild world’s rampages…

In a final act of unlikely diplomacy the Thunderer then finds a replacement herald and secures Firelord’s freedom from Galactus…

Safely back on Earth a new kind of terror manifests in Thor #229 as ‘Where Darkness Dwells, Dwell I!’ (Conway, Buckler & Chic Stone) sees Hercules uncover an uncanny string of suicides amongst the mortals of Manhattan. After consulting the Storm Lord and his recently returned lover Sif, the Prince of Power is ambushed by a shadowy figure and himself succumbs to dark despondency…

Plucked from psychological catatonia by Iron Man and the recuperating Krista, severely shaken Hercules recovers enough to lead Thor under the city to jointly confront and conquer a horrific lord of fear in #230’s ‘The Sky Above… the Pits Below!’ (Buckler & Sinnott).

Of greater moment is the revelation in Asgard that almighty Odin has gone missing…

John Buscema returned in #231, inked by Dick Giordano to limn ‘A Spectre from the Past!’ wherein Thor learns that his former love Jane Foster is dying. Whilst doting Sif fruitlessly returns to Asgard seeking a cure, the grieving Thunderer is momentarily distracted when Hercules is attacked by anthropoidal throwback and disembodied spirit Armak the First Man who possesses the body of an unwary séance attendee and runs amok in the streets.

Since gaining his liberty Firelord had been aimlessly travelling the globe. Lured by Asgardian magic he becomes wicked Loki’s vassal in ‘Lo, the Raging Battle!’

Heartsick Thor meanwhile will not leave Jane’s hospital bedside, prompting Sif and Hercules to travel to the end of the universe to retrieve the mystic Runestaff of Kamo Tharnn. No sooner do they depart than the ensorcelled Firelord attacks and whilst incensed, impatient Thor knocks sense back into him, his evil half-brother leads an Asgardian army in a sneak attack on America…

With ‘Midgard Aflame’ (Buscema & Stone) Thor leads the human resistance and learns for the first time that his father is missing. Odin’s faithful vizier reveals that the All-Father has divested himself of his memory and chosen to reside somewhere on Earth as a hapless mortal…

With the humans preparing to unleash their atomic arsenal against the Asgardians, the invasion suddenly ends with a savage duel between Thor and Loki in ‘O, Bitter Victory!’ (Buscema & Sinnott) after which the Thunderer returns to Jane’s side, unaware that he is being stalked by a merciless old enemy. At the same time Sif and Hercules have clashed with he ‘Who Lurks Beyond the Labyrinth!’ and secured a remedy for Thor’s mortal beloved…

Thor #236 opens as the Storm God revels in furious combat with the Absorbing Man. Unknown to the blockbusting battlers, at that very moment Sif is expressing her own love for her wayward prince by using the Runestaff to fix Jane in ‘One Life to Give!’

…And somewhere in California an imposing old man called Orrin ponders his strangely selective amnesia and wonders how he can possibly possess such incredible strength…

With battle concluded Thor hastens back to Jane and finds her completely cured. His joy is short-lived however as he realises that Sif is gone, seemingly forever…

Issue #237 finds reunited lovers Don Blake and Jane Foster cautiously getting reacquainted and pondering Sif’s incredible sacrifice when a horde of Asgardian Trolls led by ‘Ulik Unchained’ calamitously attack New York. Before long they have made off with the recently restored Jane under cover of the blockbusting melee that ensues…

Gerry Conway concludes his run with Thor #238 as the Thunder God capitulates to his hostage-taking foe and is taken below the worlds of Earth and Asgard on the ‘Night of the Troll!’

Ulik wants to overthrow his king Gierrodur and is confident his hold over mighty Thor will accomplish the act for him, but he is utterly unprepared for the new martial spirit which possesses his formerly frail mortal hostage Jane…

…And in California old man Orrin decides to use his power to help the poor, quickly arousing the ire of the local authorities…

Writer/Editor Roy Thomas and artist Sal Buscema join Sinnott in Thor #239 as the Thunder God brutally ends his association with the trolls even as in California Orrin’s rabble-rousing civil unrest is cut short when a colossal pyramid containing Egyptian gods erupts from the ground in ‘Time-Quake!’

Thor knows nothing on the latest upheaval. He has taken off for distant Asgard, uncovering a mysterious force draining his people of their power and vitality. Warned by duplicitous seer Mimir the anguished godling rushes back to Earth and clashes with the puissant Horus ‘When the Gods Make War!’ (Thomas, Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema & Klaus Janson). The depleted Egyptian pantheon have desperate need of an All-Father and have conditioned Odin/Orrin to believe that he is their long-lost patron Atum-Re…

Jane is already waiting in California when Thor arrives and she is present when the elder deity devastatingly assaults his astounded son. Happily her cool head prevails and soon the warring deities are talking. An uneasy alliance forms and the truth comes out. Horus, Isis and Osiris are in a final battle with vile Death God Seth and need the power of a supreme over-god to assure a victory for the forces of Life…

The cosmic conflict concludes in #241 as ‘The Death-Ship Sails the Stars!’ (Mantlo, John Buscema & Sinnott) with the ghastly Seth and his demonic servants repulsed and Jane again playing a major role: even shaking Odin out of his mind-wiped state…

A semblance of creative stability resumed with #242 as writer Len Wein joined John Buscema & Sinnott, beginning their tenure with epic time travel tale ‘When the Servitor Commands!’ The colossal all-conquering construct had scooped up Thor, Jane and visiting Asgardians Fandral the Dashing, Voluminous Volstagg and Hogun the Grim at the behest of malevolent chrononaut and old enemy Zarrko…

The Tomorrow Man is claiming to be on the side of the angels this time: looking for heroes to help stop a trio of entropic entities travelling back from the end of time and destroying all life as they go. Although suspicious, the assemble crusaders agree to help stop ‘Turmoil in the Time Stream!’ caused by the diabolical Time-Twisters…

Constant clashes with vagrant monsters and warriors plucked from their own eras barely slows the heroes but neither do they hinder the widdershins progress of the Armageddon entities in ‘This is the Way the World Ends!’ However by the time the voyagers discover ‘The Temple at the End of Time!’ which spawned the Time-Twisters and end the crisis before it began, Zarrko has already reverted to type and tried to betray them… much to his own regret…

This bombastic battle book then concludes with a 2-part rematch between Thunder God and Flaming Fury as #246 reveals ‘The Fury of Firelord!’, following the unworldly alien’s meeting with a lovely witch working for Latin American rebel and would-be tin pot dictator El Lobo.

However, whilst Thor heads south to stop a civil war in Asgard, his boon companion Balder comes to a staggering conclusion: Odin may be back in body but his spirit is still ailing. In fact the All-Father might well be completely insane…

When Thor also succumbs to sinister gypsy enchantments and ‘The Flame and the Hammer!’ unite to crush the feeble democracy of Costa Verde, once again vibrant valiant Jane is there save the day…

To Be Continued…

The tales gathered here may lack the sheer punch and verve of the early years but fans of ferocious Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy will find this tome still stuffed with intrigue and action, magnificently rendered by artists who, whilst not possessing Kirby’s vaulting visionary passion, were every inch his equal in craft and dedication, making this a definite and decidedly economical must-read for all fans of the character and the genre.

©1974, 1975, 1976, 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Batman: Son of the Demon


By Mike W. Barr & Jerry Bingham (DC Comics)
ISBNs: 0-930289-24-2 (original hardcover), 978-0930289256 (2003 trade paper)

Debuting twelve months after Superman, “The Bat-Man” (joined within a year by Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented DC/National Comics as the market and conceptual leader of the burgeoning comicbook industry.

Having established the scope and parameters of the metahuman with their Man of Tomorrow, the magnificently mortal physical perfection and dashing derring-do of the human-scaled adventures starring the Dynamic Duo rapidly became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all four-colour crimebusters were judged.

Batman is in many ways the ultimate superhero: uniquely adaptable and able to work in any type or genre of story – as is clearly evident from the plethora of vintage tales collected in so many captivating volumes over the years.

One the most well-mined periods is the moody 1970-1980s era when the Caped Crusader was re-tooled in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths, becoming a driven – but still level-headed – deeply rational Manhunter, rather than the dark, out-of-control paranoid of later days or the costumed boy-scout of the “Camp”-crazed Sixties.

There had been many “Most Important Batman” stories over the long decades since his launch in 1939 but very few had the resounding impact of this pioneering album from 1987, capping a period when DC were creatively on fire and could do no wrong commercially.

Not only did the tale add new depth to the Dark Knight, but the package itself – oversized (294 x 226 mm), on high-quality paper and available in both hardback and softcover editions – helped kickstart the fledgling graphic novel marketplace. In 2006 to tie in with Grant Morrison’s unfolding Batman and Son storyline, a standard comicbook sized trade paperback edition was reissued, but deprived of the panoramic size it seemed somehow lacking…

The hardcover opens with an Introduction by Mark Hamill, illustrated with beautiful pencil character sketches by Jerry Bingham, whose dynamic, cleanly measured realism perfectly augments the terse and suspenseful script by author Mike W. Barr which follows…

The torrid tale begins as the Dark Knight ends a brutal terrorist/hostage crisis with typical efficiency and vanishes before anyone can see how the uncompromising clash has wounded him…

Collapsing on the way back to his subterranean lair, Bruce Wayne is astonished to awaken in his own bed, his wounds bandaged. Hovering over him is Talia, daughter of his most powerful enemy…

The concept of a villain who has the best interests of the planet at heart is not a new one, but Ra’s Al Ghul, whose avowed intent is to cull teeming humanity back to ecologically viable levels and save Earth from mankind’s poisonous polluting madness, hit a chord in the 1970s – a period where such issues first came to the attention of the young.

It was a rare kid who didn’t find a core of good sense in what “the Demon’s Head” planned.

Immortal mastermind and eco-activist Al Ghul was a contemporary and presumably more acceptable visual embodiment of the classic inscrutable foreign devil typified in a less forgiving age as the “Yellow Peril” and most famously embodied in Dr. Fu Manchu. This kind of alien archetype had permeated fiction for more than sixty years and is still an overwhelmingly potent villain symbol today, although the character’s Arabic origins, neutral at the time, seem to embody a different kind of ethnic bogeyman in today’s post 9/11 world.

Possessed of vast resources, an army of zealots and every inch Batman’s physical and mental match, Ra’s Al Ghul featured in many of the greatest stories of the 1970s and early 1980s. He had easily deduced the Caped Crusader’s secret identity and now wanted his masked adversary to become his ally… and son-in-law.

Talia explains to the wary manhunter how his latest exploit has brought him into conflict with one of her father’s greatest enemies, a murderous fanatic named Qayin. The plot thickens when Batman’s old ally Dr. Harris Blaine (who helped him defeat Ra’s in the Dark Knight’s first epochal clash with the eco-messiah) is murdered and all the evidence points to Al Ghul, despite Talia’s strenuous protests.

Batman boldly accepts her invitation to join The Demon’s Head at his secret base and soon learns the incredible truth: Qayin had once been part of Ra’s’ inner circle before killing Talia’s mother and fleeing. Over the decades he has evolved into a murderous, power-hungry madman whose current plans include blackmailing the world using satellites to weaponise the planet’s weather systems.

However, if Batman wants The Demon’s help in finding Blaine’s killer and ending Qayin’s threat, he must first wed Talia and wholeheartedly join the family…

The moody manhunter acquiesces but after Bruce and the Mrs lead a savage but ultimately futile strike against their nemesis and his allies in the rogue state of Golatia, the Batman receives some shocking news: Talia is pregnant…

The revelation completely skews the once-solitary manhunter’s perspective and when Qayin responds with a brutal counterstrike on Ra’s’ HQ, Batman’s obvious distraction almost costs his life. Seeing how the situation has changed and weakened her man, Talia comes to a horrific decision…

As the war between Al Ghul, Qayin and Batman escalates, encompassing the USA and Soviet Union and nearly sparking nuclear Armageddon, the final showdown with the merciless meteorological terror-monger provokes life-changing decisions for both the daughter and son of the Demon and forces Ra’s into making a choice he will always regret…

As deeply emotional as it is action packed, this stunning yarn is one of the most sophisticated and mature tales in Batman’s canon: intelligent, passionate, tragic and carrying a devious twist to delight and confound fans and casual readers alike.
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