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February 12, 2014

Infinity volume 1

By Jonathan Hickman, Jim Cheung, Jerome OpeÃ±a, Dustin Weaver, Leinil Francis Yu, Mike Deodato Jr., Mark Morales, John Livesay, David Meikis, Gerry Alanguilan & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-566-6

In the aftermath of the blockbuster Avengers versus X-Men publishing event, the company-wide reboot MarvelNOW! reformed the entire overarching continuity: a drastic reshuffle and rethink of characters, concepts and brands with an eye to winning new readers and feeding the company’s burgeoning movie blockbuster machineâ€¦

Moreover all the disparate story strands were slowly building and combining to kick off the Next Big Thing with the cosmically revamped Avengers titles forming the spine of an encroaching mega-epic.

The intergalactic Hammer of Doom finally fell as a two-pronged all-out attack which saw an impossibly ancient threat materialise to wipe out life in the cosmos whilst Earth itself was targeted by an old enemy with a long memory and monstrous agendaâ€¦

The culmination of the ever-unfolding pan-galactic saga is written by Jonathan Hickman, with the first half collected in Infinity volume I: re-presenting the first three issues of the eponymous miniseries plus interlocking issues of The Avengers (volume 5 #18-20) and New Avengers (#9-10) – spanning October and November 2013.

What Came Before: In recent Avengers episodes an impossibly ancient trio of galactic â€œGardenersâ€ – robotic Aleph, seductive Abyss and passionate Ex Nihilo – attempted to remake Earth into something special. To that end they bombarded the world with â€œOrigin bombsâ€, seeding locations with bizarre, exotic and uncompromising new life-forms.

When the Avengers went after the perpetrators, the invaders claimed to have been tasked by The Builders, first species in creation, and their Mother of the Universe to test and, whenever necessary, eradicate, recreate and replace life on all worlds. Although the World’s Mightiest Heroes defeated the intruders and set about mitigating the effects of the O-bombs on Earth, it seemed increasingly futile as global threats seemingly multiplied without surcease.

Evidence also indicated that the very structure and celestial mechanics of the multiverse were catastrophically unravelling.

And then rumours began of an incredible alien armada heading directly for Earthâ€¦

It all starts here with the miniseries’ first issue as ‘Infinity’ (illustrated by Jim Cheung, Mark Morales, John Livesay & David Meikis) focuses on Saturnian moon Titan where death-driven despot Thanos dispatches his monstrous Outrider to demand ‘The Tribute’ from another newly enslaved world in his growing interstellar empire.

Some of the Dark Lord’s most effective agents are already on Earth, stalking the planet’s greatest champions and ‘Constructing Apocalypse’â€¦

Sixty thousand light-years away an even bigger threat is mopping up the puissant Space Knights of Galador. Various varieties of Builders – of the same ancient order that spawned Aleph, Abyss and Ex Nihilo – have razed the planet whilst unearthly new Avenger Captain Universe (whom the Gardeners call â€œMotherâ€) can only look on with despair as her wayward children destroy another world tainted by contact with Earthâ€¦

‘Orbital’ finds Captain America and Hawkeye cleaning out a nest of Skrulls in Palermo, but these invaders are far from the arrogant, treacherous warriors they’re accustomed to. The shapeshifters are scared, cowering refugees, fleeing and hiding from something incomprehensibly badâ€¦

‘What was Hidden, Now Uncovered’ then focuses on the Inhumans‘ floating city Attilan, currently parked above Manhattan, where Outrider prepares to extract secrets from the brain of slumbering monarch Black Bolt. Even as the supremely powerful Inhuman foils the ghastly intrusion, the Avengers have regrouped following Captain Universe’s return with warnings of an oncoming impossibly vast Builder Armada. It merely confirms what Earth’s deep space monitoring already shows: The fleet is bearing directly on Earth and any race or empire in the way is summarily destroyed as the invaders move ever closer.

The once unbeatable Kree are only the latest to fallâ€¦

When a distress call arrives from the rulers of the Galactic Council representing Kree, Skrulls, Badoon, Spartax, Brood and Shi’ar, the Avengers are soon ‘Outbound’, resolved to stop the fleet long before it reaches Earth.

Severely wounded, Outrider returns to Titan to inform Thanos that the thing he seeks most in the universe has been hidden on Earth by Black Bolt, prompting an invasion by the Titan’s own fleet long before the Builders can arrive. Moreover, almost all the planet’s infernal metahuman champions have left for Kree spaceâ€¦

The tale continues as ‘Worlds Rise’ in Avengers #18 (‘Avengers Universe 1’ with art by Leinil Francis Yu & Gerry Alanguilan) as the hard-pressed leaders of the Council convene a frantic war cabinet and consider unleashing the Negative Zone hordes of former foe Annihilus to bolster the welcome – if humiliating – aid of the Earth heroes. The result is seen in ‘Fall into Singularity’ wherein the massed fleets of the embattled species engage the Builder Armada and are utterly routedâ€¦

‘The Stones, Shattered’, New Avengers #9, then introduces Thanos’ deadly subordinates ‘The Cull Obsidian’ (art by Mike Deodato Jr.). As Titanian forces sweep Earth seeking a reality-shaping Infinity Gem, pockets of desperate resistance – Reed (Mr. Fantastic) Richards and Iron Man in America, both Black Panthers of futuristic African nation Wakanda and Wolverine‘s X-Men in Westchester – battle on.

In Atlantis, however, Namor the Sub-Mariner surrenders to the sinister Proxima Midnight whilst Sorcerer Supreme Dr. Strange is corrupted and conquered by the Ebony Maw – the most personally ambitious of Thanos’ lieutenantsâ€¦

In Africa, hope swells as the twinned Panthers route the colossal Black Dwarf and his legions, but when T’Challa is summoned to an emergency meeting of The Illuminati (a clandestine cabal of Earth’s intellectual and factional powerhouses working to guide and dictate the future of the world: current membership comprising Black Bolt, Namor, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Reed Richards, Hank â€œthe Beastâ€ McCoy and T’Challa) the victory soursâ€¦

Following a fact page on The Black Order or Cull Obsidian (revealing all you need to know about Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Black Dwarf, Supergiant and the Ebony Maw), the epic resumes with Infinity #2 ‘Fall’ (illustrated by OpeÃ±a & Weaver), as ‘From Titan, the Horde’ invade The Peak: Earth’s orbital defence outpost, run by Abigail Brand, Director of the Sentient World Observation & Response Department (a sidebar story resolved in Guardians of the Galaxy volume 2: Angela).

Meanwhile ‘The Gauntlet’ sees Corvus Glaive occupy Attilan, requesting a secret that Black Bolt refuses to share and demanding a show of tribute: the lives of all Inhumans between 16 and 22 years oldâ€¦

The silent monarch has other ideas: dangerous notions involving his greatest foe and brother Maximus the Madâ€¦

In deep space ‘A War in the Heavens’ has left the Avengers broken and scattered amongst the survivors of the Galactic alliance forces. Captain America, Spider-Woman, Hulk, Hyperion, Smasher and Thor join Shi’ar emperor Gladiator in destroying advance Builder scouts but still don’t trust Ex Nihilo enough to employ his power against his progenitors.

That changes when the Gardener sees his ancestral life-generating brethren employed as mobile bio-weapons on a Shi’ar agri-world and with outrage realises that his former masters have all gone crazyâ€¦

On Earth ‘A Convenient Lie’ at last reveals Thanos’ true motivation when Black Bolt informs the rest of the Illuminati that the Titan is devastating Earth in search of a lost sonâ€¦

‘Binary Collapse’ opens Avengers #19 (‘Building Towards Collapse’ with art by Yu), wherein another Avengers squad – Carol â€œCaptain Marvelâ€ Danvers, Hawkeye, Sunspot and Cannonball endure capture and inquisition at the hands of a sinister Ex Nihila, whilst ‘Behemoth’ follows Manifold, Shang-Chi and Spider-Woman as they minister to the wounded on a malfunctioning ring-world.

Captain America and Thor in the meantime strive to convince the quarrelling leaders of the Council to let them take charge of the fight-back before ‘All These Things we’ve Made’ reveals that at least one of the alien overlords is callously and covertly suing for peace with the Buildersâ€¦

It’s a fool’s errand and the invaders use the embassage to target a shattering attack against the Council’s concealed locationâ€¦

On Earth New Avengers #10 reveals ‘The Thanos Seed’ (Deodato Jr. art) as Black Bolt explains to the Illuminati how the death-obsessed Thanos has been scouring the universe in search of the children he sired in his earlier, wilder days; now determined to eradicate every vestige of life he has ever spawned.

One such – born to an Inhuman mother – has been reared in the isolation of a lost colony of the genetically disparate secret raceâ€¦

‘Favor and Disfavor’ focuses on the Titan’s typically unforgiving response to Black Dwarf’s failure in Wakanda before the Illuminati begin ‘The Hunt’ for the missing son, all unaware that Stephen Strange is a slave to the will of the Ebony Mawâ€¦

‘Submit or Perish’ opens Infinity #3 (‘Kingdoms Fall’ illustrated by OpeÃ±a & Weaver) with a chilling list of familiar species who have capitulated to the Builders with Ronan of the Kree deeply regretting that his own leader The Supreme Intelligence has just joined that growing list. As the Council fractures into self-serving disunity, Captain America rallies the panicking rulers with a cruel and cunning planâ€¦

It begins on Kree homeworld Hala a day later, where warlord Ronan surrenders his forces to a Builder. At that moment a suicide attack on the victor’s fleet distracts all attention, allowing commandos to take and destroy the invaders’ squadron of gigantic planet-razing super-dreadnought ‘World Killers’ â€¦

With the tide humiliatingly turned the Builder fleet divides, with the main portion heading onwards to Earth whilst a full third remains to eradicate the resistance, unaware that the ploy within a ploy has served to free all the captive Avengers and unleash the unstoppable force of Ex Nihilo’s greatest Terran triumph – overwhelming human planetary defence system Kevin Connorâ€¦ the Starbrandâ€¦

On Earth, metahuman resistance to the Cull Obsidian’s armies mounts, and when Thanos personally attacks Black Bolt the Inhuman triggers ‘What Maximus Built’, drenching the planet in the genetically transformative Terrigen Mists and creating whole new armies of incredibly empowered super-warriorsâ€¦

This initial volume concludes with ‘The Words of a Gardener’ (Avengers #20, by Yu) as the liberated Avengers are met by Ex Nihila with ‘The Offer’.

Over-matched and with Hala still in Builder hands, Shi’ar, Skrull and Avenger strategists ponder ‘The Edge of Annihilation’ and consider unleashing their Negative Zone ace in the hole, whilst elsewhere ‘Without Judges we are Lost’ sees Ex Nihilo and Abyss surprised as all the Builders’ Gardener sub-class plead to be allowed to switch sides and battle their deranged mastersâ€¦

But above Hala, Captain America – after considering all the angles in ‘One Man Kneels’ – offers the Allies’ complete surrender to the Builder in residenceâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

A true blockbuster event filled with ferocious action and bewildering plot back-&-forth, there’s a daunting amount of continuity to ignore here, but for tried-and-true cosmic comics lovers and doom-drenched Costumed Dramas fans the effort is certainly worth it.

This titanic tome also offers a gallery of 37 stunning covers-and-variants by Adam Kubert, Deodato Jr., Laura Martin, Yu, Art Adams, Mark Brooks, Shane Davis, Marko Djurdjevic, In-Hyuk Lee, Phil Jimenez, Ron Lim, Alexander Maleev, Humberto Ramos, Skottie Young, OpeÃ±a, Steve McNiven, Simone Bianchi, Leonel Castellani, Daniel AcuÃ±a and John Cassaday and a wealth of extra content – trailers, character bios, creator video commentaries, behind the scenes features and more – for those consumers au fait with the AR icons accessed via a free digital code and the Marvel Comics app for iPhoneÂ®, iPadÂ®, iPad TouchÂ® & Android devices at Marvel’s Digital Comics Shop.
â„¢ & Â© 2013 and 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

February 11, 2014

The Arms of the Octopus

By Mike Costa, Chris Cosentino, Kris Anka, Jake Wyatt, Michael Dialynas & Dalibor TalajiÄ‡ (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-577-2

Here’s a welcome return to those (relatively) uncomplicated Good Old Days, when you could pick up a comic or book without Ph.D. level preparation and just read for the sheer fun of it.

Collecting the linked serial from 2013’s All-New X-Men Special #1, Indestructible Hulk Special and Superior Spider-Man Team-Up Special (and incongruously including the Wolverine: In the Flesh One-Shot), The Arms of the Octopus offers just such a jolly â€œBlast from the Pastâ€ in a gripping tale of time-banditry, courtesy of writer Mike Costa.

Illustrated by Kris Anka All-New X-Men Special #1starts the ball rolling with ‘Elegy in the Classroom’ as time-displaced mutant teenagers Hank (the Beast) Pym, Bobby (Iceman) Drake, Scott (Cyclops) Summers and Jean (Marvel Girl) Grey spend their first vacation day on a trip to Manhattan and get a full-on face-full of 21^st century future shock.

Escaping the bleeping sound and blinding visual fury of the telecommunications era, the kids head for Central Park where young Hank is smitten by a poetry-reading college girl. After catching a mugger, the Beast expects her to run screaming, but she’s actually so intrigued at meeting a mutant she invites him back to see her lab.

Hank knows it well: before he and the teen X-Men were brought into their own future he studied there under Gamma-medicine radiation research pioneer David Jude. Decades later the genius is still in residence, but now his field of endeavour is Temporal Displacementâ€¦

Dr. Jude is remarkably sanguine about meeting his young-looking old student, but before any questions can be asked the lab is brutally attacked by Doctor Octopus, also oddly youthful and emitting huge amounts of Gamma rays.

As the rest of the X-Men join the bombastic battle the clash inevitably draws the attention of the Superior Spider-Man…

The Wallcrawler is astounded and furious. What the kids – or anybody else for that matter – don’t realise is that for months now the mind of Otto Octavius has inhabited the Amazing Arachnid’s frame and to see his earlier self running wild in 2013 drives the cerebral bodysnatcher into a state of unthinking outrageâ€¦

After fractiously cooperating with the mutant kids, Spider-Man defeats Doc Ock and drags him back to Jude’s time-lab, where examination of the Gamma-drenched mystery maniac leads to only one conclusion: some form of time travelâ€¦

The X-kids are living proof of concept and with some reluctance the arrogant Arachnid admits that he needs to consult with an expertâ€¦

‘For a Friend Whose Work has Come to Triumph’ (illustrated by Jake Wyatt in (Indestructible Hulk Special #1) picks up the tale as S.H.I.EL.D. Specialist Bruce Banner is helicoptered in and, after getting over his astonishment at meeting genuine time travellers, gets stuck into unravelling the enigma of the radioactive rogue.

Before too long however another distraction hits the campus: a blockbusting assault by old Hulk foe the Abomination. The Gamma-irradiated gargoyle is one of Banner’s oldest enemies, and he’s been dead for yearsâ€¦

As the physicist gets green and mean to tackle the threat, the theory of a temporal anomaly caused by the displaced X-teens seems confirmed. Thus the mutants take Spider-Man and Dr. Jude back to their school to check out the time machine which brought them back to the future just as the Hulk makes a shocking discovery defeating his rampaging opponent.

â€¦And in the copter speeding to Westchester, Jude realises he’s been rumbled and makes his moveâ€¦

The chronal conundrum concludes in ‘With Mercy for the Greedy’ (Superior Spider-Man Team-Up Special #1, with art by Michael Dialynas) as the Machiavellian scientist (Jude, not Ock-in-Spidey for a change) uses previously concealed gamma radiation powers to blow up the transport before heading after the coveted time machine, leaving the assorted heroes in lethal freefallâ€¦

Following a suitably spectacular cooperative save, the X-kids and Spider-Man set off on the villain’s trail whilst Banner and Pym frantically work on a method of containing the real radioactive menace. Eventually everything ends up in a ferocious fight before a measure of order is restored and grudging respect is meted out all roundâ€¦

Blending sinister suspense with riotous action and devilishly clever scenes of outright hilarity, this is a marvellously accessible romp no fan of clear-cut Costumed Dramas should miss and is followed by a rather strange – and unconnected – outing for the world’s favourite mutant.

Illustrated by Dalibor TalajiÄ‡, Wolverine: In the Flesh is written by – and implausibly co-stars – celebrity chef Chris Cosentino; detailing the hunt for cannibal killer the Bay Area Butcher.

The satanic serial killer’s reign of terror can only be ended after the Canadian mutant recruits his old culinary chum to offer insights into the haute cuisine methodology of cutting meat and invaluably intimate knowledge of San Francisco’s Food Truck culture.

Little do either know that their prey is fed up â€œserving Manâ€ and needs just one little ingredient for his piÃ¨ce de rÃ©sistance: a suitably trussed, tied and marinated mutantâ€¦

Light, quirky and mordantly piquant, this one won’t be to everyone’s tasteâ€¦

With covers by Alexander Lozano and Tim Seeley, The Arms of the Octopus offers casual readers and faithful fans alike a smart break from cosmic epics and should certainly whet the appetite for all the monumental Marvel madness heading our way in the months to come.
â„¢ & Â© 2013 and 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

February 8, 2014

Avengers volume 3: Infinity Prelude

By Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer, Mike Deodato Jr., Stefano Caselli, Marco Rudy, Marco Checchetto, Frank Martin & Edgar Delgado & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-565-9

In the aftermath of the blockbuster Avengers versus X-Men publishing event, the total reboot MarvelNOW! reformed the entire overarching continuity: a drastic reshuffle and rethink of characters, concepts and brands with an eye to winning new readers and feeding the company’s burgeoning movie blockbuster machineâ€¦

This core title of the vast Avengers franchise (which can include Uncanny Avengers, Avengers Arena, New Avengers, Secret Avengers, Young Avengers, and more) conceptually links the many series and stars together, and here resumes an extended storyline which began when an incredibly ancient trio of â€œGardenersâ€ – robotic Aleph, seductive Abyss and passionate Ex Nihilo – turned Mars into the staging post for their latest project: remaking Earth into a worthy perfect world.

To attain their ends they bombarded the third rock from the sun with bio-mutational â€œOrigin Bombsâ€: seeding specific locations with new, exotic and deadly life-forms. When the Avengers went after the perpetrators, the infinitely antediluvian invaders claimed to have been tasked by the first species in creation and â€œThe Motherâ€ (of the entire universe) to test and, whenever necessary, eradicate, recreate and replace life on other worlds.

For Earth their keystone project was growing a new form of man: a prototype Adam to supersede humanityâ€¦

The Avengers defeated them, at the second time of trying, with an expansion team comprising Wolverine, Spider-Man, Falcon, Spider-Woman, Shang-Chi, Captain Marvel, former X-mutants Cannonball and Sunspot, teleporter/reality shaper Eden Fesi (AKA Manifold), pan-dimensional superman Hyperion, cosmic crusader Captain Universe and alien mystery-woman Smasher augmenting seasoned regulars Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow.

Although thwarted, Ex Nihilo and Abyss remained on Mars after the heroes took custody of their modern Prometheus. Tony Stark set out to understand the being left in the Avengers’ care and cracked the enigma of the strange creature – now calling himself Nightmask – who predicted an imminent end to everything and the advent of another extinction-level threatâ€¦

Elsewhere, as the aliens’ bio-attacks radically transformed and evolved flora, fauna and geography at six separate strike-sites – demanding constant attention from both superheroes and S.H.I.E.L.D. – obscure elements of the Infinite aligned, with Nightmask and Captain Universe simultaneously becoming aware of a shattering â€œWhite Eventâ€â€¦

Reality is composed of discrete universes all held apart by an infinite crimson underspace dubbed the Superflow. Here and now that immemorial barrier was somehow fragmenting, as the timeless alien engineers who maintained it stood by, helplessâ€¦

White Events herald the ascension of a universe. Normally the cosmic process throws up Nightmask as herald, and creates a Justice, a Cipher, occasionally a Spitfire and invariably, a being of infinite power: a Starbrand. This last now happens on Earth, but in our universe the entire machinery of the multiverse has been brokenâ€¦

Iron Man leads a team to a smoking, five-mile wide crater and finds traumatised teen Kevin Connor at the centre of devastation , singled out by celestial source-code and now wielding the power of a living planetary defence systemâ€¦

As the confrontation devolves into catastrophic combat, Connor easily thrashes the assembled Avengers before Nightmask intervenes, arbitrarily transporting the Starbrand to Mars where Abyss and Ex Nihilo are waitingâ€¦

There Kevin learns how, after millennia of world â€œimprovementsâ€, utterly bored Ex Nihilo tweaked his eternal brief and did something a little different with the Origin Bombs dropped on Earth. The alien had no prior idea what results his meddling might achieve, but after billions of years and missions, at least it would be differentâ€¦

Teleporting back to Earth with only the best of intentions, Connor and Adam assist the Avengers in dealing with O-Bomb biological fallout in Croatia and Saskatchewan, blithely unaware that when the mutagenic hard rain first fell there were in fact seven strikesâ€¦

In the wilds of Norway, ruthless techno-terrorists of Advanced Idea Mechanics successfully harvested the horrific result of that unnoticed Origin-strike and soon their unwise meddling will yield catastrophic resultsâ€¦

Collecting Avengers volume 5 #12-17 (cover-dated July-October 2013), the ongoing Big Picture series continues to set the scene for the time and space-bending crossover event Infinity. Written by Hickman and Nick Spenser, with art by Mike Deodato Jr. & Frank Martin, the breathtaking saga begins anew in ‘Evolve’ as the Avengers visit the Antarctic Savage Land strike and discover a band of fast-growing androgynous humanoid children. Happily the results of this O-strike are apparently benign and the weary heroes resolve to teach the bizarre foundlings how to live in their dinosaur paradise.

A curriculum is hard to agree upon: Thor, Hyperion, Iron Man, Spider-Woman, Hawkeye and especially Spider-Man (increasingly exhibiting the harsh, uncompromising character of Otto Octavius: see Superior Spider-Man) have very different ideas of what the kids need.

It’s certainly not basic survival skills: each child is a living power battery, not requiring sleep, food, respiration or fuel of any discernible natureâ€¦

They do respond to attention and are eager to interact, however; accepting each lesson with equanimity. They also have a strange affinity with Captain Universe, who has begun identifying herself as â€œThe Motherâ€â€¦

Lulled into an air of laxity, the heroes are caught off-guard when a wave of monstrous genetic amalgams attack, allowing an old adversary to abduct some of the incredible waifs for his own experimental program.

Only the unexpected intervention of SavageLand demi-deity Garrock, the Petrified Man allows the heroes to find the compulsively meddling High Evolutionary, disassemble his monumental Terminus robot and free the kids in the concluding ‘Strong’â€¦

The prologue to Infinity then begins with ‘The Signal’ (illustrated by Stefano Caselli) as the remaining pockets of new life are identified as parts of a colossal cosmic mechanism. The O-bomb creatures in India and Australia both construct inexplicable beacons and beam out a message declaring â€œWorld Terminalâ€, whilst back in civilisation Bruce Banner sets his prodigious intellect to solving a global crisis but can find no solution.

Every six minutes, all electro-mechanical activity on Earth shuts down: electrical grids black out, nuclear power plants melt down, automatic weapons systems – such as nuclear arsenals – trigger and every plane or satellite above humanity’s heads becomes an inert, downward-plunging projectile. With all the heroes desperately deployed to offset catastrophe and perform damage control, Banner at last ascertains that the all Origin-bomb sites are components of a massive biological beacon for transmitting a message deep into spaceâ€¦

The call sent, the multi-faced giants spawned in India mysteriously teleport to Australia, joining huge bugs ravaging Perth, with a contingent of Avengers frantically striving to contain them as Banner searches for a still-missing part of the puzzle.

That piece is currently emerging on A.I.M. Island. The robotic horror foolishly and hubristically nurtured by the techno-terrorists responds to the activated cosmic beacon, mercilessly devastating the warrior scientists even as the Avengers at last triumph down under in ‘Sent and Received’.

As the champions take stock, Captain Universe brings Manifold to another galaxy to witness the Beginning of the Endâ€¦

Far above Earth, Nightmask conscientiously schools Kevin in the subtle uses of the Starbrand as billions of light-years away on Galador, an alien scout ravages the invincible homeworld of the Space Knights. Meanwhile the thing from A.I.M. Island has fulfilled its role as protector of the signalling system, crushing the Avengers ‘To the End’â€¦

This action-heavy, portentous collection concludes with ‘â€¦To the Light’ as A.I.M. chief Superia attempts to regain control of her alien terror toy. As she subsequently prepares to murder the assorted unconscious and wounded Avengers fortuitously left lying around, Manifold blinks back in and savagely stops the would-be killers.

It’s almost an afterthought: he’s come back with terrifying intel and a message from The Motherâ€¦

To have even the slightest chance of surviving what’s coming, the team will need to convince Abyss and Ex Nilhilo to join the Avengersâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Utter Fights ‘n’ Tights overload that will delight fans of doom-drenched Costumed Dramas, this tome also offers a stunning covers-and-variants gallery by Francis Leinil Yu, Sunny Gho & Daniel AcuÃ±a and digitally-diverting extra content – trailers, character bios, creator video commentaries, behind the scenes features and more – for tech-savvy consumers courtesy of AR icon sections all accessible through a free digital code and the Marvel Comics app for iPhoneÂ®, iPadÂ®, iPad TouchÂ® & Android devices at Marvel’s Digital Comics Shop.

February 7, 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy volume 2: Angela

By Brian Michael Bendis with Neil Gaiman, Sara Pichelli, Olivier Coipel, Valerio Schiti, Francesco Francavilla, Kevin Maguire & Mark Morales (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-570-3

Since its momentous rebirth in the early 1960s Marvel Comics was synonymous with making superheroes more realistic. However the little publisher always maintained a close connection with the fantastic space-opera and outrageous cosmic calamity that typified its pre-renaissance – as cherished by oldsters like me who grew up reading their â€œHairy-underpants Monsters from Beyondâ€ stuff.

With Space bigger than ever (a little cosmology humour there), one of the resurgent company’s earliest concepts has had a major revamp and now ranks as one of the most entertaining titles to come out of 2012’s MarvelNow! group-wide reboot.

There’s even a major blockbuster movie scheduled for release this Augustâ€¦

The Guardians of the Galaxy were created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan for try-out title Marvel Super-Heroes (#18, January 1969): a band of freedom fighters dedicated to liberating star-scattered Mankind from domination by the sinister, reptilian Brotherhood of Badoon.

A rare â€œmissâ€ for the creatively on-fire publisher, they then vanished into limbo until 1974, when Steve Gerber incorporated them into Marvel Two-In-One, Giant Size Defenders and The Defenders, wherein assorted 20th century champions travelled a millennium into the future to ensure humanity’s liberation and survival.

This led to the Guardians’ own short-lived series in Marvel Presents (February 1976-August 1977) before premature cancellation again left them floating around the Marvel Universe as perennial guest-stars for such cosmically-tinged titles as Thor, Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One and The Avengers.

In 1990 they secured a relatively successful second series (#62 issues, annuals and spin-off miniseries) before cancellation struck again in July 1995.

This isn’t them; that Future was a Preludeâ€¦

In 2006 a monumental crossover epic involved most of Marvel’s 21^st century space stars in an â€œAnnihilationâ€ Event, and led writing team Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning to reconfigure the Guardians concept for contemporary times and tastes.

Amongst the stalwarts initially in play were Silver Surfer, Galactus, Firelord, Quasar, Nova, Thanos, Star-Lord, Moondragon, Super-Skrull, Gamora, Ronan the Accuser, Drax the Destroyer and a host of previously established alien civilisations such as the Kree, Skrulls, Watchers, Xandarians, Shi’ar et al., all falling before a invasion of rapacious Negative Zone beasties unleashed by undying horror Annihilus.

The saga spawned specials, miniseries and new titles (subsequently collected in many volumes) and inevitably led to a follow-up eventâ€¦

In Annihilation: Conquest, the cast expanded to tackle new threat, adding – and sometimes subtracting – such interstellar luminaries as Adam Warlock, the Inhumans, Kang the Conqueror, Blastaar, the Magus, Captain Universe, fallen Celestial Madonna Mantis, anamorphic adventurer Rocket Raccoon and gloriously whacky â€œKirby Kritterâ€ Groot, a walking killer tree and one-time â€œMonarch of Planet Xâ€, amongst othersâ€¦

I’ve covered part of that cataclysmic clash elsewhere and will get to the rest one day: suffice to say that by the end of the successive Annihilations and subsequent intergalactic War of Kings, a new, pan-species Guardian group had appointed itself to defend the recovering civilisations and prevent such calamities from ever happening again.

This isn’t them eitherâ€¦ not so muchâ€¦

A few years later and many more cosmic crises, the remnants of those many Sentinels of the Spaceways got the band back together, still determined to make the universe a safe place (for specifics you should consult Guardians of the Galaxy volume 1: Cosmic Avengers).

Thus this second compelling chronicle (collecting Guardians of the Galaxy volume 2 #4-10 from July 2013-January 2014) resumes the immensely absorbing interstellar interactions of a bunch of alien freaks and the human heroes who fight beside – when not actually with – them. Moreover, this time it all ties neatly into the overarching mainstream Marvel continuityâ€¦

Brian Michael Bendis continues the tale of Peter Jason Quill – half-breed Terran son of J’Son of Spartax: undisputed ruler of an interstellar empire but no friend of Earth – and his allies in pacifying an unruly and unforgiving universe as Drax, Rocket Racoon, Groot and Gamora (â€œDeadliest Woman in the Galaxyâ€) spend some downtime in a bar with their newest recruit, Tony Starkâ€¦

Iron Man had been spending time exploring the universe and become embroiled in the self-appointed Guardians’ ongoing trouble with a compact of major cosmic powers and principalities. A coterie of these had formed a Council of Galactic Empires and unilaterally declared Earth â€œoff limitsâ€: quarantined from all extraterrestrial contact.

That high-minded declaration hadn’t stopped one of the Signatories – the scurrilous reptilian Brotherhood of Badoon – from launching a sneak attack on London and being soundly thrashed by Quill, Stark and Coâ€¦

After open-minded â€œLadies Manâ€ Stark scores an amatory epic fail with Gamora (a wry episode which delivers plenty of laughs for his new comrades who can’t let it lie for the rest of the book), the viridian virago storms out to cool off and is ambushed by an alien bounty hunter.

Despite her formidable prowess she is only saved by the arrival of the Guardians who have just finished trashing a bar and the squad of Spartax soldiers who walked in on their drunken carousingâ€¦

With no information on who else now wants them dead, the disparate legion of the lost head back into space and a fateful dalliance with destinyâ€¦

Still being crushingly snubbed by Gamora, Stark occupies himself learning new ways to repair his comparatively primitive armour under the guidance of the aggravatingly disparaging racoon whilst Quill takes a secret meeting in one of the universe’s many unsavoury, unwelcoming armpits.

Starlord’s consultation with former ally Mantis about a bizarre episode (wherein he seemed to experience an inexplicable and debilitating chronal mindquake) provides no answers and he is forced to go ask the last person in creation he ever wanted to see againâ€¦

Meanwhile, Stark and the remaining Guardians have spotted an unidentifiable lifeform approaching Earth and rush to incept her before she can do any damageâ€¦

They reason they can’t identify her is because she’s from another universe and time. Angela (created by Neil Gaiman for Spawn #9 in 1993 and, after much legal foofawraw, brought under Marvel’s auspices in Age of Ultron) is lost and baffled, approaching a world her people have always considered a fairytale or religious myth when the still disgruntled Gamora smashes her into the moon, grateful for an excuse to work off her pent-up hostilitiesâ€¦

The satellite’s oldest inhabitant – Uatu the Watcher – is reeling from the conflict. Not because of its savage intensity but because he knows what Angela is and how she simply cannot be present in this Realityâ€¦

Quill however is pumping the mad Titan Thanos for information on his own time troubles and realises he has just poked the biggest bear in existence. The Death-Lover declares that humanity’s perpetual tampering with the time-stream has broken the universe and brought our pathetic mud-ball to the attention of races and powers that won’t let Mankind muck up Reality any longerâ€¦

Rushing back to his birthworld, Star-Lord finds his team faring very badly against the mysterious Angela and pitches in. When she is finally, spectacularly subdued, Uatu appears and proffers dire warnings for all Realityâ€¦

With uncharacteristic diplomacy Quill then coaxes the enigmatic intruder into relating her story. Apparently she’s a Hunting Angel from a place called Heven, fallen through a gaping crack in Everything That Isâ€¦

Drawn to Earth – a place her race reveres but considers a beautiful fiction – she was ambushed by Gamora, who cannot believe Star-Lord’s next move: freeing Angela and, after personally conducting her on a tour of the world, letting her go freeâ€¦

At this time almost all of Marvel’s titles had been building to a big Avengers-centric crossover event dubbed Infinity, and the next two issues (#8-9, stunningly illustrated by Francesco Francavilla) form the Guardians’ contribution to the epic, in which a double crisis afflicts our particular portion of space.

As Thanos invades Earth for his own dark personal motives, an ancient spread of races from far beyond attack those stellar empires still recovering from the Annihilation outrages and the War of Kings. It’s nothing personal: this invading alien Armada is tasked with eradicating every Earth in every dimension and the Kree, Skrulls, Badoon, Galadorians, Spartax, Shi’ar and all the rest are simply guilty of associating with humansâ€¦

With all the Avengers called into space to fight beside their former enemies, Earth is helpless when enemy E.T.’s overwhelm The Peak (the planet’s orbital defence citadel) and Abigail Brand – Director ofÂ the Sentient World Observation & Response Department – sends a desperate distress call to Star-Lord.

His affirmative answer enrages Gamora, already bristling from the knowledge Quill has been fraternising with the despised Thanos and she quitsâ€¦

With Iron Man also gone, Star-Lord, Groot and the Raccoon sneakily infiltrate the station (Drax doesn’t do unobtrusive) but quickly fall foul of the superior forces and only the sudden return of Angela saves the day. When Gamora and Drax then join the fray the Guardians are magnificently triumphantâ€¦ but at a terrible costâ€¦

This volume then closes with a far-lighter â€œGirls Night Out-rageousâ€ (#10, illustrated by Kevin Maguire) as Gamora and Angela enjoy a blistering bonding session and action-comedy moment whilst visiting the Badoon homeworld Moord, freeing the reptilians’ vast contingent of enslaved races and accidentally uncovering an impossible connection between the scurvy raider race and Angela’s dimensionally displaced peopleâ€¦

Bright, breezy, bombastic and immensely enjoyable, the Guardians of the Galaxy offer fast and furious adventure and captivating thrills, spills and chills, and this volume also includes a beautiful gallery of two dozen covers-&-variants by Pichelli & Justin Ponsor, Adi Granov, J. Scott Campbell, Julian Totino Tedesco, Brandon Peterson, Francavilla, John Tyler Christopher, Maguire, Paul Renaud, Skottie Young, Mike Deodato Jr., Terry Dodson, Milo Manara, Paolo Manuel Rivera, Mark Brooks, Leonel Castellani and Adam Kubert plus a wealth of as-standard added extras provided by a multitude of AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) offering story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

February 6, 2014February 5, 2014

The Flash: The Dastardly Death of the Rogues – a Brightest Day tie-in volume

By Geoff Johns, Francis Manapul, Scott Kolins & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3195-8

In the aftermath of the intergalactic Zombie Apocalypse known as Blackest Night, a number of heroes and villains were mysteriously resurrected. Just prior to that, Barry Allen, the second Flash and scarlet herald of the Silver Age of American comicbooks, also returned from the dead to play a pivotal part in the long-prophesied Crisis.

Once back, however, his life became increasingly complicatedâ€¦

This first volume of his post-revival exploits collects The Flash volume 3 #1-7 (June-December 2010) and portions of The Flash Secret Files and Origins 2010, revealing how the hero’s desire to return to a normal life proves a forlorn hope in a world still reeling from a swift succession of cosmic upheavalsâ€¦

The high-octane rush begins in the six-part ‘Case One: The Dastardly Deaths of the Rogues’ by Geoff Johns & Francis Manapul, as Barry returns to his old job as a CSI at Central City‘s Crime Lab.

His old friend Captain Darryl Frye is happy he’s back and believes the returnee’s claim that he’s been in Witness Protection, but is far too busy to chat. Recently the City’s been swamped with nuisance crimes committed by the costumed crazies of Flash’s Rogues Gallery as well as lesser, more pedestrian felons â€¦

Barry knows all about it: his trip to the office has already been interrupted stopping a bank job by the new Tricksterâ€¦

Before he has a chance to settle in, and already missing his old lab partner Patty Spivot, Barry is then dispatched to examine a body in East Park. Apparently somebody has murdered the Mirror Masterâ€¦

As his wife Iris joins the Press-pack behind the police tape, Barry makes a disturbing discovery: the ravaged corpse is neither of the two criminals to have operated as the Reflective Rogue but a mysterious unknown thirdâ€¦

This cadaver apparently appeared in a blaze of light and, when a second flare occurs, the Scarlet Speedster suits up and races across town to be greeted by five more strangers tricked out as his greatest foesâ€¦

The second issue finds Flash reeling at an incredible accusation. The costumed newcomers – Commander Cold, Weather Warlock, Top, Heatstroke and Trixster – are from the 25^th century; a special law-keeping unit dubbed The Renegades come back in time to apprehend him for the murder of Mirror Monarch – an act he will commit in eighty-four days henceâ€¦

The team have been trained to tackle their own era’s greatest menace – Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash – and have no qualms about testing their tactics on his 21^st century inspiration. Moreover, reasoned debate and the fact that he is still innocent of any crime are wasted on the future cops. The ensuing cataclysmic clash sees the Vizier of Velocity drive off his attackers, but only at the cost of an entire apartment buildingâ€¦

After diligently rebuilding the dwelling, Barry talks things over with Iris and decides to check on Zoom, currently incarcerated in the forbidding Iron Heights super-penitentiary, where at that very moment Digger Harkness – one of the dozen dead metahumans resurrected in the aftermath of the Blackest Night – is being confronted by the true Rogues.

Captain Cold and Co. have decided not to free their old ally, preferring to see if Captain Boomerang still has the necessary grit and class to be one of themâ€¦

At the harassed, stressed and over-worked Crime Lab, Barry has just annoyed his boss by reopening a cold case nobody has time for, when DNA evidence comes back that irrefutably proves that he is the murderer of the anachronistically expired Mirror Monarchâ€¦

Pressure mounts in the third chapter as Barry is understandably accused of contaminating a crime scene. His worry however, is that perhaps he is – or will be – the actual killerâ€¦

When Boomerang discovers he has returned to life with a new and deadly super power he murderously busts out of prison, arriving back in Central City just as the Renegades attack Barry and Iris.

Whether out of mistaken identity or sheer bloody-mindedness, Harkness joins the blockbusting battle, targeting the tomorrow cops and leaving Flash to frantically save the endangered bystandersâ€¦

Despite the bad odds and mounting chaos, Barry is subduing the riotous Rogue and Renegades when Top delivers a chilling warning and ultimatum. Unless Flash surrenders, Iris will die and the rest of the Rogues will unleash a horrific menace from the Mirror Dimensionsâ€¦

Afetr Top apparently switches sides, the speedster is propelled into an all-out attack on Captain Cold’s crew. The battle is soon wildly out of control but is interrupted when Boomerang is contacted by the White Entity responsible for bringing back the Dead Dozenâ€¦

His response ends the street war in an unpredictable manner which allows Flash to divine the true nature and target of all the time shenanigans – and stop the real architect of all his present woes.

â€¦At least he would have, if the Renegades hadn’t used that moment to shanghai him into the future to face trial for murderâ€¦

The epic encounter concludes with the resurgent Scarlet Speedster deducing the reason for all the temporal turmoil, foiling his secret foe and heading home to Iris, utterly unaware that a mystery rider from the unknown is heading for him bearing a warning of a coming splintering time stream and an oncoming â€œFlashpointâ€â€¦

The Flash #7 shifts focus to Captain Boomerang as ‘What Goes Around, Comes Around’ (with art by Scott Kolins) reveals the origins and offers career highlights of the Ozzie outlaw, culminating in portentous meeting with the incalculably dangerous Zoom and an ominous confrontation with Captain Cold’s Roguesâ€¦

Perhaps narratively parked in the wrong place, ‘Running to the Past’ – also illustrated by Scott Kolins – then offers insights into Barry Allen’s troubled past as the hero dreams again of his mother’s murder and rededicates himself to one day closing that particularly painful cold case, before being welcomed back to the fold of his Speed Force Family, whilst across town the Rogues find the final legacy of Sam Scudder, the original Mirror Masterâ€¦

Also included are a 2-page preview teaser for upcoming publishing event Flashpoint (inked by Paul Neary), a selection of wry and pithy Flash Facts (‘How Does a Boomerang Work?’, ‘How Do Captain Boomerang’s Boomerangs Work?’, ‘How Does a Mirror Work?’ and ‘How Do Mirror Master’s Mirrors Work?’) plus a mesmerising covers-&-variants gallery by Manapul & Brian Buccellato, Tony Harris, Ryan Sook, Greg Horn, Kolins & Michael Atiyeh, Fernando Pasarin, Joel Gomez, Randy Mayor & Carrie Strachan, AlÃ© Garcia, Sandra Hope & Alex Sinclair and Darwyn Cooke.

The Flash has always been the epitome and paradigm of Fights ‘n’ Tights comics adventure and this blistering – if short-lived – iteration offers so much more than the requisite dose of thrills, chills and spills to satisfy the craving of every tension tripper, suspense junkie and (super) speed freak. Catch it if you can!
Â© 2011 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

February 5, 2014February 4, 2014

Snowpiercer volume 1: The Escape

By Jacques Lob & Jean-Marc Rochette translated by Virginie Selavy (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978- 1-78276-133-4

All science fiction is social commentary and, no matter when, where or how set, holds up a mirror to the concerns of the time of its creation. Many stories – in whatever medium – can go on to reshape the culture that spawned them.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, War of the Worlds, Metropolis, Brave New World, 1984, Dan Dare, Day of the Triffids, Star Trek, Thunderbirds, Dune, Star Wars, Stranger in a Strange Land, Solaris, Alien, Neuromancer and so many others escaped the ghetto of their genre to change the cognitive landscape of the world, and hundreds more such groundbreaking and worthy efforts would do the same if we could get enough people to read or see them.

There’s a reason why the Soviets proscribed many types of popular writing but actively encouraged (certain flavours of) Science Fictionâ€¦

And most importantly, when done well and with honesty, all such stories are also incredibly entertaining.

All over the world comics have always looked to the stars and voyaged to the future. Europe especially has long been producing spectacularly gripping and enthralling â€œWorlds of Ifâ€¦â€ and Franco-Belgian graphic storytelling in particular abounds with undiscovered treasures.

For every Blake & Mortimer, (Tintin’s) Destination Moon or Barbarella, ValÃ©rian & Laureline, The Airtight Garage, Jeremiah, Lone Sloane or Gods in Chaos there is an impossible hidden wealth of others, all perched tantalisingly out of reach for everybody unable or unwilling to read nothing but English.

Now however, with the imminent UK release of the movie Snowpiercer, Titan Comics (whose previous translated offerings include Storm, Towers of Bois-Maury, The Magician’s Wife and assorted classics by Enki Bilal and Moebius amongst others) have brought another long-overlooked masterpiece to our parochial Anglo-centric attention.

The original comics series – a stunning example of bleak Cold War paranoid fantasy – is released in a superb two-volume monochrome hardback set, the first of which is available now.

The original tale was serialised in 1982 in Ã€ Suivre and collected two years later as Le Transperceneige, written by Jacques Lob (TÃ©nÃ©brax, Submerman, Superdupont, Blanche Ã‰piphanie, Roger Fringan and more) and rendered by painter/illustrator Jean-Marc Rochette (Le DÃ©poteur de ChrysanthÃ¨mes, Edmond le Cochon, Requiem Blanc, Carla, Les Aventures Psychotiques de NapolÃ©on et Bonaparte, etc.) and the driving central conceit is brilliant and awesome.

In the near future life is harsh, oppressive and ferociously claustrophobic. As eternal winter almost instantaneously descended upon the Earth, fugitive remnants of humanity boarded a vast vacation super-train and began an eternal circumambulation of the iceball planet on railway tracks originally designed to offer the idle rich the ultimate pleasure cruise.

Due to lax security as the locomotive started its unceasing circuit of the globe, rogue elements of the poor managed to board the vehicle, but were forced by the military contingent aboard to inhabit the last of 1001 cars pulled by the miracle of engineering.

Now decades later the self-contained and self-sustaining Engine hurtles through unending polar gloom in a perpetual loop, carrying within a raw, fragmented and declining microcosm of the society that was lost to the new ice ageâ€¦

All contact with the Tail-enders of the â€œThird Classâ€ has been suspended ever since they tried to break through to better conditions of the middle and front carriages. Their frantic â€œWild Rushâ€ was repelled by armed guards and the survivors – who know that event as â€œthe Massacreâ€ – were kicked back to their rolling slums and sealed in to dieâ€¦

The story proper begins as Lieutenant Zayim is called to an incident in a toilet. Somehow an individual has survived the minus 30 degree chill, climbed along the outside of the train and broken in to the centre carriages. The desperate refugee should be killed and ejected but the stunned officer receives instruction from his Colonel that the indigent – named Proloff – is to be interviewed by the leaders up in First Class.

Before that, however, the invader must be quarantined as the carriage doctor has no idea what contagions must proliferate in the squalor of the rear. But whilst Proloff is isolated, young idealistic activist Adeline Belleau forces her way into the car.

She is with a humanitarian Aid Group agitating to integrate the abandoned Tail-enders with the rest of the train, but is unceremoniously confined with the Tail-Rat and suffers the same appalling indignities as her unfortunate clientâ€¦

After a â€œnightâ€ in custody Proloff and Adeline are cautiously escorted by Sergeant Briscard and his men through the strange and terrifying semi-autonomous carriages: each a disparate region of the ever-rolling city, contributing something to the survival of all. Travelling through each car during their slow walk, Proloff sees how humanity has uniquely adapted to the journey to nowhere, but that each little kingdom is filled with people scared, damaged and increasingly dangerous.

In one car they are even attacked by banditsâ€¦

He also begins to pick up things: a religion that worships the unlimited life-bestowing power of Saint Loco, rumours that the train is slowing down, reports that a plague has begun in the carriage he broke into. Even Adeline has picked up a cold from somewhereâ€¦

As they slowly approach the front, Proloff and Adeline grow closer, uniting against the antipathy of the incrementally better off passengers who all want the Powers-That-Be to jettison the dragging carriages packed with filthy Tail-endersâ€¦

When they at last reach the luxurious â€œGolden Carsâ€ the outcasts are interviewed by military Top Brass and the President himself.

He confirms that the train is indeed slowing down and that the furthest carriages will be ditched, but wants Proloff to act as an emissary, facilitating the dispersal of the human dregs throughout the rest of the train.

Billeted with Al, the timidly innocuous Train Archivist, Historian and Librarian, Proloff quickly confirms his suspicion that he is being played. Whilst deftly avoiding the grilling regarding conditions at the train’s tail, he swaps some theories about how the ice age really began and just how coincidentally lucky it was that this prototype vacation super-train was set up, ready and waiting to save the rich and powerfulâ€¦ and only accidental selections of the rest of humanityâ€¦

Stoically taking in the decadent debauchery of the First Class cars, Proloff is ready to die before going back, and when word of plague and revolution provokes an attack by the paranoid autocrats, he and Adeline decide to go even further forward, to see the mighty Engine before they die.

What they find there changes everything for everyone, foreverâ€¦

This incisive exploration of a delicately balanced ostensibly stable society in crisis is a sparkling allegory and punishing metaphor, playing Hell and poverty at the bottom against wealth in Heaven at the top, all seen through the eyes of a rebel who rejects both options in favour of a personal destiny and is long overdue for the kind of recognition bestowed on that hallowed list of SF greats cited above.

At least with this volume, even if the movie adaptation doesn’t do it, you’ll still have the comics source material to marvel at and adoreâ€¦
Transperceneige/Snowpiercer and all contents are â„¢ and Â© 2013 Casterman.

February 4, 2014

Superior Carnage

By Kevin Shinick, Stephen Segovia, Dennis Crisostomo, Don Ho & Dan Mexia (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-567-3

Back in the anything goes, desperate hurly-burly of the late 1980s and early1990s, fad-fever and spin-off madness gripped the superhero genre in America as publishers hungrily exploited every trick to bolster flagging sales. In the melee Spider-Man spawned an intractable enemy called Venom: deranged, disgraced reporter Eddie Brock who bonded with Peter Parker‘s Secret Wars costume (a semi-sentient alien parasite dubbed the Symbiote) to become a savage, shape-changing dark-side version of the Webspinner.

Eventually the arachnid adversaries reached a brooding dÃ©tente and Venom became the â€œLethal Protectorâ€, dispensing his own highly individualistic brand of justice anywhere but New York City.

But then the symbiote went into breeding mode; spawning a junior version which merged with serial psycho-killer Cletus Kasady. Utterly amoral, murderously twisted and addicted to both pain and excitement, he became the terrifying metamorphic Carnage: a murder-crazy monster tearing a bloody swathe through the Big Apple before an army of superheroes caught him and his equally lethal â€œfamilyâ€ (as seen in the crossover epic Maximum Carnage).

One of the most dangerous beings on Earth, eventually Kasady was executed with his remains dumped safely into high-Earth orbit.

However, â€œsafeâ€ is an extremely relative word and eventually the crimson killer returnedâ€¦

More recently, as part of the MarvelNow! restart event, Spider-Man underwent a startling shake-up which left arch villain Otto Octavius in control of the Wallcrawler’s body and permanently installed in Peter Parker’s brain.

The hero’s mind had been maliciously transferred and trapped in the dying body of Dr. Octopus where, despite his every desperate effort, Parker perished with and within that decrepit, expiring frame. With his final efforts he bombarded the psychic invader with his full unvarnished memories and forced Octavius to experience every ghastly moment of tragedy and sacrifice, binding Ock to living the rest of his stolen life in tribute to his enemy and earnestly endeavouring to carry on Spider-Man’s self-imposed mission. However, Octavius’ personality gradually was in control, resulting in a cold, calculating and obsessively Superior Spider-Man.

Scripted by Kevin Shinick (Avenging Spider-Man, Robot Chicken) with art from Stephen Segovia, Dennis Crisostomo, Don Ho & Dan Mexia, this slim, grim tome collects the 5-issue miniseries Superior Carnage (September 2013-January 2014), beginning in an undisclosed containment facility where the recently recaptured Kasady -lobotomised in a clash with the Scarlet Spider – has been transferred to be dumped and forgotten.

Sadly it only makes the monster available to another ruthless maniacâ€¦

The Wizard has his own problems: once one of the smartest men on Earth, a battle with Black Bolt has left him with induced and progressive dementia which will soon kill him. Desperate to prove himself to his son (who couldn’t care less), the sinister savant uses mind-control tech to release Carnage – dormant since Kasady became functionally brain-dead – and lets the bloodthirsty beast run wild amongst the prison populationâ€¦

The Wizard’s goal is to revive and restock his gang The Frightful Four, but he hits a slight snag when the beast proves uncontrollable due to the simple fact that Kasady has no mindâ€¦

Lucky for the bewildered boffin his already-restored ally Klaw is still loyal. The creature is composed of solidified sound and easily subdues the rampaging Carnage, since the only vulnerabilities symbiotes possess are no tolerance for fire and extreme sonic frequenciesâ€¦

With Plan A a bust, the increasingly unstable Wizard then transfers the alien parasite to his confederate Karl Malus, a wheelchair-bound rogue surgeon who is far from happy to be the monster’s new home, but upon whom the aforementioned mind-control mechanisms will workâ€¦

And all this time the Superior Spider-Man has been hunting the escapees: dedicating his vast crimefighting resources to seeking out the Wizard, even though he believes there’s little to fear from a demented ex-genius and brain-dead serial killerâ€¦

Impossibly, the impromptu tactic works and Malus’ intellect has had a transformative effect on the alien, which now augments its lethal metamorphic abilities with an arsenal of high-tech weaponry.

Delighted and delirious, the rapidly declining Wizard then leads his team in a murderous assault on City Hall, attacking New York’s controversial Mayor J. Jonah Jameson. The big brain has no intention of surviving the foray and fully intends to go out in a headline-grabbing blaze of gloryâ€¦

It’s just as well, as Malus’ grip on the Carnage creature is slowly slippingâ€¦

The doomed desperadoes are just too late. Spider-Man has deployed his own mercenaries to spirit Jameson away, but has in turn severely underestimated the threat posed by the invaders.

Only after all of his men are slaughtered does the Wallcrawler realise his error, and is further shocked when the Wizard – despite his declining faculties – discerns that he’s fighting Dr. Octopus in Spider-Man’s bodyâ€¦

When the Wizard’s control fades Carnage then takes over its host and goes completely wild, beating Spider-Man and destroying Klaw, but as the sound-master’s body explodes, the uncontained fury blasts the Symbiote off and out of Malusâ€¦

And into the Wizardâ€¦

Shock follows shock as the tales escalates to a spectacular and fearsomely foreboding conclusion that will satisfy every Fights ‘n’ Tights fan’s wildest dreams whilst promising even nastier surprises in days to comeâ€¦

Smart, sharp, fast-paced and addictively action-packed, this stand-alone saga keeps tensions high and the suspense bubbling, and this creepy chronicle also includes a covers-&-variants gallery by Clayton Crain, Marco Checchetto and Raffa Garres.
The Spider-Man has been reinvented so often it’s almost become commonplace, but this
â„¢ & Â© 2013 and 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. Italy. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

February 3, 2014

Wolfsmund volume 3

By Mitsuhisa Kuji, translated by Ko Ransom (Vertical)
ISBN: 978-1935654-96-4

Pseudonymous woman of mystery Mitsuhisa Kuji steps up the pace in this third volume (originally seen in Japanese publication Fellows! from 2009 as Ookami no Kuchi: Wolfsmund and a tankobon edition in 2011) of her gripping and chillingly fatalistic historical drama reinterpreting the legend of William Tell.

Set in 14^th century Switzerland, the serial details the struggle of three conquered alpine cantons – Uri, Unterwalden and Schwyz – for freedom and independence from the cruel, oppressive and savagely rapacious Habsburg proto-Empire.

At first this interpretation centred around the monolithic fortress Wolfsmund, situated in the Sankt Gotthard Pass: an impenetrable Keep, barrier and waystation between dangerous mountain passes which dictated and controlled the population’s ability to move – or flee, find allies, gather intelligence or stockpile war materiel.

The triple-castle complex is a crucial trade bottleneck between Germany and Italy, housing a garrison of hard-hearted soldiers commanded by a human devil with an angel’s face.

Wolfram the Bailiff is a sadistic sentinel with an infallible eye for spotting resistance: slaughtering freedom fighters and crushing the people’s hopes with baroque and monstrous flair and ingenuity.

Until now no one has survived falling under his excoriating gaze, but the lust for liberty has grown strong in the hearts of a people pushed too far for too longâ€¦

The horrific murderously medieval passion play resumes with ‘Albert and Barbara Part One’ and a spectacular display of martial arts illustration as a brother and sister, creatively maimed on Wolfram’s orders, complete their training of a very special student. Elsewhere in Lugano, on the Italian side of the mountains, the rebel force of â€œthe Eternal Allianceâ€ lay their final plans for taking back their land. Everything depends upon a suicide mission to take the barrier fortress and Walter, the forbidding and guilt-wracked son of the fallen liberator Wilhelm Tellâ€¦

The resistance leaders have devised a scheme for the young avenger to climb across the unforgiving mountain peaks whilst his combat-teachers sacrifice themselves as living decoys. Albert and Barbara are keenly resigned to their fate, ignoring Walter’s crushing â€œSurvivor’s Guiltâ€. He has to get through to coordinate the uprising within the cantons and their lives are just a fair price for victoryâ€¦

The darkly uplifting parable concludes in ‘Albert and Barbara Part Two’ as the siblings boldly introduce themselves at the gates of Wolfsmund and, by sheer bravado and indomitable courage, invade the castle, chasing Wolfram deep into the bowels of his lair.

Their audacious attack leaves them dead, surrounded by a vast harvest of fallen enemies, and their greatest triumph is that the grinning bailiff’s confident poise is shaken as, in a rush of fury, he realises too late that the true blow against him has been struck elsewhereâ€¦

In ‘Walter and the Comrades in Fate’ that realisation is revealed after flashbacks disclose the siblings’ pep talks with the valiant Tell. The scene then switches to show in harrowing detail the mountaineer’s epic re-crossing of the treacherous peaks – an act of unsurpassed heroism balanced by Wolfram’s shrewd assessment that his hidden foe can only be the legendary Wilhelmâ€¦ or perhaps his missing sonâ€¦

The closing chapters of this excessively graphic and visually uncompromising saga at last relate a turning of the tide as ‘Hedwig and Wilhelm’ opens with a particularly shocking sequence wherein the sadistic bailiff personally tortures Walter’s mother and younger brother seeking confirmation of his mysterious foe’s identity. The interview proves fruitless and Wolfram feels his master’s growing wrath and impatience when he is summoned to report to the Emperor Leopoldâ€¦

With rebellion brewing in distant Bavaria the supreme overlord is reluctantly forced to leave the Canton situation in Wolfram’s handsâ€¦ but he is far from contentâ€¦

Meanwhile Walter makes his way to the rebel rendezvous where he is informed of his family’s plight. Clandestinely joining the crowds rounded up to observe the macabre and grisly executions, the doom-laden wretch can only watch helplessly as the last of his family are put to death by the grinning monster. He might however draw some shred of solace if he knew the dread which secretly grips the bailiff’s heartâ€¦

This volume concludes with the climactic ‘Hilde and the Young Cowhands’ as the long-awaited uprising begins and the populace storms and destroys the barrier station’s Southern fortress. With the castle burning the surviving soldiers flee for Wolfram’s Central Keep, unaware that on the German frontier the Northern Fort is now under attack.

Whilst an enraged mob engages the defenders with a frontal assault, Walter leads another suicidal commando raid, bolstered by the jibes of a wanton woman prepared to sacrifice everything for vengeanceâ€¦

Hilde is the widow of the leader of a local trades Guild. When her husband fell victim to Wolfram’s games she dedicated herself to avenging him, and with the last of his faithful retainers began a reign of horrific reprisals which earned her the nickname â€œthe Ripper of Schwyzâ€. Now she and the last two cowhands, infiltrated through the roof of the North Castle by Walter’s climbing skills, grimly make their way down to the ground floor, unstoppable engines of destructionâ€¦

When the castle falls, the last Tell understands that he not alone in his guilt, but that some things are greater than human life. And now, with both wings fallen, only Wolfram’s force remains, isolated and trapped in the central keep of Wolfsmundâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Never a tale for the faint-hearted, with this volume the saga explodes into stunning savagery, forensically examining the costs of liberty in brutally uncompromising character vignettes and breathtakingly intimate portrayals of death at close quarters.

Harsh, seductively cruel and inspirationally ferocious, this unhappy saga is probably most comfortably enjoyed by older readers and those who already know that not everybody lives happy ever afterâ€¦

February 2, 2014February 5, 2014

Ark

By Peter Dabbene & Ryan Bayliss (Arcana Studio)
ISBN: 978-1-77135-122-5

It’s not that often that I can allow myself to be relatively succinct, but every now and then a tome turns up which is pretty much comic book perfect and I’m left with very little to say except read this by any means necessaryâ€¦

The first one I’ve seen this year is a gloriously understated science fiction thriller suitable for older teens that got far too little attention (mine included) when it came out, and which is definitely worth the time for any fan of science fiction or offbeat detective storiesâ€¦

This transatlantic collaboration is written by New Jersey Boy Peter Dabbene and illustrated by British artist Ryan Bayliss, who combine to tell an all too human tale which holds your interest in both the characters and concept long after the final page turnsâ€¦

It begins far beyond the orbit of Pluto where Explorer, Earth’s first extra-solar colonisation ship, silently drives ever deeper through interstellar space.

The crew, whose families are also aboard, are all fatalistically dedicated to their mission – to find and settle a new world – although some still harbour suspicions and distrust of the unique passengersâ€¦ even after thirteen years of watching them grow from little children into young adults.

That small select group are all civilians and all Meta-Humans: genetically engineered hybrids combining human and animal DNA, with incredible abilities still barely revealed or explored.

But now a crisis has arisen and Captain Smith is at odds with his Second-in-Command Victor Diaz about how to proceedâ€¦

As the entire ship’s company discovers next morning, all contact with Earth has stopped and the Captain wants to ask the Hybrids to join the crew in running the vessel as it continues the mission. Commander Diaz however does not like the freaks and believes it dangerous to allow them full and unfettered access to the ship.

Even the teenagers in question are undecided on the matter. Some, like chimp-form Gerry, are keen and eager to do their bit, but a small rebellious faction feels they are being drafted and exploited.

Debate rages throughout Explorer: many humans have grown close to their cargo over the years and, now the Hybrids have matured, fraternisation – if not love – has become an issue. The die-hard crewmembers draw much comfort from the fact that the freaks age faster than humans and were all designed to be sterile mulesâ€¦

Most importantly, many of the crew have begun to question the very nature of the mission itself; constantly finding glaring illogicalities in the whole undertakingâ€¦ Thoughts turn to the possibility that some disaster has befallen the mother planetâ€¦

Smith is more worried about the loss of signal than he lets on, however, and tasks Gerry – who is a very literal-minded mega-genius – to help communications officer WinfieldÂ look into why Earth has gone silent.

Ever eager to please, the simian sets to, uncovering a coded message where no normal person would expect to find it and rushes to share it with Captain Smith. The next morning Gerry is gone: apparently lost in spaceâ€¦

Lizard-girl Darien was a silent observer of what truly happened, and although she refuses to share what she saw, mistrust and paranoia run rampant throughout the enclosed community. Nobody believes Gerry died accidentally, but was it suicide or murder?

As suspicions mount and tensions rise, a microcosmic species war erupts which only a concerted coalition of humans and Metas can quash. Throughout the crisis, however, a greater mystery and threat remains: what was in that final message from Earth and does it reveal the real true purpose of the Ark in space?

Clever, beguiling and splendidly aware that with murder what’s paramount is who dies rather than how many, Ark offers a singularly sophisticated tale of unalterable human passion that will delight readers jaded by cosmic megadeaths and overblown angsty overkill.

Perhaps a little hard to find now as a physical book, Ark is available digitally at http://www.comixology.com/ARK/comics-series/10257 but if, like me, you’re a sucker for paper and the scent of ink and glue, you can get a proper book edition from the U.S. Amazon website (http://www.amazon.com/Ark-Peter-Dabbene/dp/1771351225/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391613791&sr=8-1&keywords=ark+dabbene) Or from the publisher Arcana at http://www.arcana.com/store.php?item=633
Â© 2012 Arcana Studio, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 1, 2014January 31, 2014

Trans-Dimensional Zombie Bummers volumes 1 & 2

By Maree & J.A.H.N.
ISBNs: 978-1-4947-1244-0 & 978-1-4947-2240-1

In Britain we have a glorious tradition of Gentlemanly Amateur Excellence. In the Good Old Days we decried crass commercial professionalism in favour of gifted tryers: Scientists, Inventors, Sportsmen – even colonialists and missionaries – all those who in their time eschewed tawdry lucre, hefty development budgets and â€œPracticing Beforehandâ€ (â€œâ€¦which ruins the funâ€) in favour of just getting on with it and pluckily â€œHaving-a-Bashâ€.

And a surprising number of those local heroes soared, like Charles Darwin, Robert Boyle or Henry Fox Talbot, and the tradition continues to this day like Trevor Baylis (inventor of the clockwork radio) and has spread to other areas of endeavour such as Eddie â€œThe Eagleâ€ Edwards or our many self-publishing stars like Eddie Campbell or John Maybury.

With such antecedents it especially generates a manly pang of pride in me when that â€œCan-Do Spiritâ€ results in good comicsâ€¦

So despite both creative participants here having non-resident status I’m doing them the honour of according them Notional Nationality status for the duration of this review â€“ or as long as they can handle itâ€¦

Candidly drawing on Britain’s the venerable tradition of appalling bad-taste, surreal zaniness and shameless, protracted double entendres, Trans-Dimensional Zombie Bummers takes the topical taste for Zombie Apocalypse fiction and convincingly tweaks, twists and tortures (not to mention folds, spindles and mutilates) the genre and zeitgeist with wit, remorseless, sarcastic invention and cynical, surreal socio-political shots to the ‘nads.

The physical editions (the tomes are as available as Kindle editions and in other formats) are big black-&-white paperback tomes (280 x 207mm) stuffed with sly, wry innuendo and, whilst artist J.A.H.N. might have benefited from better reference material and more drawing time in places, author Maree’s trenchant pacing and remorseless parody riffs carry the tale along with frantic, furious, madcap paceâ€¦

The end of everything begins in volume 1: The Thin Goo Line where, in a faraway dimension, the world has collapsed into disaster. On this parallel Earth, vain and foolish geneticists meddled with male mating urges and accidentally spawned a virus which turned men into unthinking, out-of-control anally-fixated undead rapists. Of course, it killed them firstâ€¦

In the wink of an eye civilisation fell, but one scientist built a trans-dimensional portal, intending to escape, only to fall foul of the rectal Armageddon at the very last minute and on landing transformed in another London as a fully-fledged trousers-down crusty carrierâ€¦

In the essentially Third World London Borough of Sutton, the brain-dead and preternaturally horny Apocalypse-beast arrives and immediately assaults an unwary Irishman outside a local hostelry.

Instantly infected, the traumatised Son of Erin is comforted by Basil, Rupert and Mandingo (an out-&-proud Gay Black Police Detective); passing homosexual partygoers who take pity on the stunned and shell-shocked (and dying/mutating) Kerryman. Feeling very out of sorts he goes with them for a medicinal drink or ten at their favourite night-spot…

The taint he carries works with terrifying rapidity and within hours the first victim has himself infected hundreds of eager and willing fun-seekers at the wild and woolly clubâ€¦

Meanwhile his trans-dimensional transgressor has continued its own mindless rampage, only to be arrested by unbelieving coppers who catch him/it having his way with a doubled-over store mannequin. The green and mouldy incoherent invader is thrown into a cell and largely forgotten as reports rapidly come in concerning a rash of unwholesome acts in the streetsâ€¦

At Sutton police station â€œold school copperâ€ (for which read brutal, bigoted, bullying undiagnosed psychopath) Inspector Jake hears of the plague of Sodomy and sends his boys out to crush it, but his Manor is not a happy, rich, fashionable borough like utopian paradisiacal neighbour Croydon and he expects terrific resistance from the surly, unruly multi-cultural hoi-polloi who dwell thereâ€¦

People like class-traitor Julie, a blue-blooded lass and latter-day chav, married to staunch socialist-liberal ex-aristocrat Dale, wine critic for the Workers Revolution newspaper.

She has unspecified connections to the highest in the land but prefers to slum it with her commie-pinko chums, or ultra-extreme Politically Correct roving reporter Bunting Bell of the BBC.

Jake almost prefers the deranged, greedy fundamentalist cant of Pox News journo P. Chariti, eagerly spreading panic around the globe by perpetually broadcasting scenes of what she is sure is the biblical End of Days.

Julie’s first clash with the Priapic perambulators forces her to reveal her deadly proficiency in ninja fighting arts and, barely escaping the shamblers, she dashes home to save her man from another clutch of zombies even as Inspector Jake’s attempts to reclaim his streets goes very badly wrong and his diminished force of rozzers retreats back behind the firmly clenched doors of the police station.â€¦

With the crisis growing and an exponentially growing wave of bumbies roaming the streets, Mayor Hussein broadcasts a call for all uninfected residents – whatever their gender, race or orientation – to take refuge at the huge and sturdy Grand Mosque on Winnie Street and Jake and his men make a desperate dash to comply.

A couple of social classes away at 10 Downing Street, Prime Minister David Cameroon, Chancellor Assbourn and Homely Secretary Terry Pays are aroused from their posh-boy (and girl) games and appraised of the growing disaster somewhere in one of the poor bits of townâ€¦

As the situation worsens the triumvirate of Toffs endure a bollocking in Parliament, and wishy-washy Cameroon decides that they need to be seen doing something. However their publicity-junket to the front lines goes horrifically wrong when their helicopter goes down in hostile territory.

Trapped in Sutton and surrounded by insatiable undead rear-enders, Pays is beginning to regret her obsessive purge of police numbers when the political poltroons are surprisingly saved by turban-wearing, sword-wielding worshippers from the Mosque.

Temporarily secure behind its stout walls, they are soon joined by infamous police-hating lawyers Micky Manksfield and Inman Khant who have rushed to Sutton to make sure the rampaging monsters are not brutalised and framed by the copsâ€¦

With the country’s governors lost, Parliament is in uproar and ripe for takeover. The blow comes when Britain’s real masters brutally emerge from their shadows and cow the pewling Parliamentarians at the point of their guns.

The scraggy, reanimated remains of Dorris Stokes, Mary Whitehouse, Claire Rayner and Fanny Craddock are scary enough, but when their squad leader exposes herself as the terrifying Maggie T, the Mother of all Parliaments rocks with horror, shock and – from the simpering mummies-boys of the Tory back-benches – fawning adoration and reliefâ€¦

At the Winnie Street Mosque, the deflated, unsuspectingly ousted government’s very worst enemy has just fought his way through the anarchy-riven borough to join the unsullied survivors, but Radical Scots Islamist Georgy Goaway and his Unregulated Mini Scab Taliban are not there to save their scalps: quite the opposite in factâ€¦

And back in Proper London, Maggie is back to steer the country through its greatest crisis, but as dawn breaks over Sutton nobody is aware that the Ironed Lady is herself in the clutches of a far darker mistressâ€¦

The lewd lunacy escalates into even crazier political capital and horrific hoots in the concluding volume – Trans-Dimensional Zombie Bummers 2: In Sutton, No-One Can Hear You Cream – with Jake deploying the nauseating Police Community Support Officers whilst Maggie activates the Metropolitan Police’s long-hidden, obscenely secret doomsday weapon (the last working member of the notorious Special Patrol Group, or Bob as likes to be called) before, in the dead zone, Julie reveals her own clandestine links to Britain’s real rulers and the zombie bottom-feeders try to break out of Sutton and spread their atrocious acts into Croydon and other, lesser realmsâ€¦

Appallingly bad-taste, brutally non-PC, simultaneously fancifully macabre and punishingly politically astute, this extremely funny story takes on a far more powerful significance if you actually live in or around London.

Although drenched in local colour gone wild and geographical in-jokery of a highly refined kind, this is a tale totally unfettered by the strictures of good taste: sardonically blessed with chapter headings such as ‘Play Fisty For Me’, ‘The Evil Head’ and ‘The Porking Dead’ (apparently some of these are under revision so I’ve spitefully chosen not to share them you: get your own copies) whilst always carefully balancing political pokes with blisteringly vulgar sallies at the insanity of modern life.

Shamefully, laugh-out-loud, spit-take, blasting-coffee-from-your-nose funny and happily reminiscent of Robert Rankin’s wonderful Brentford Triangle novels (but with pictures and many, many more bottoms) and as addictively addled as Whoops Apocalypse (Andrew Marshall & David Renwick’s sublime satirical TV show, not the bowdlerised movie adaptation), Trans-Dimensional Zombie Bummers is the kind of story only certain people will want – or be able – to read, so I hope you’re one of us and not one of themâ€¦

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