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August 4, 2013August 2, 2013

Showcase Presents World’s Finest Comics volume 4

By Cary Bates, Bob Haney, Robert Kanigher, Denny O’Neil, Mike Friedrich, Curt Swan, Ross Andru, Dick Dillin, Mike Esposito & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3736-3

For decades Superman and Batman were quintessential superhero partners: the â€œWorld’s Finest teamâ€. The affable champions were best buddies as well as mutually respectful colleagues, and their pairing made sound financial sense since DC’s top heroes could happily cross-pollinate and cross-sell their combined readerships.

This fourth mighty monochrome compendium re-presents the cataclysmic collaborations from the dog days of the 1960’s into the turbulent decade beyond (World’s Finest Comics #174-202, spanning March 1968 to May 1971), as radical shifts in America’s tastes and cultural landscape created such a hunger for more mature and socially relevant stories that even the Cape and Cowl Crusaders were affected – so much so in fact, that the partnership was temporarily suspended: sidelined so that Superman could guest-star with other icons of the DC universe.

However, after a couple of years, the relationship was revitalised and renewed with the World’s Finest Heroes fully restored to their bizarrely apt pre-eminence for another lengthy run until the title was cancelled in the build-up to Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986.

The increasingly grim escapades begin with ‘Secret of the Double Death-Wish!’ by Cary Bates, Pete Costanza & Jack Abel from #174 (cover-dated March 1968, so actually the last issue of 1967) wherein mysterious voyeurs seemingly kidnap the indomitable heroes and psychologically crush their spirits such that they beg for death.

Smart and devious, this conundrum was definitely old-school but the New Year saw subtle changes as, post-Batman TV show, the industry experienced superheroes waning in favour of war, western and especially supernatural themes and genres.

Thus 1968 saw radical editorial shifts to National/DC and edgier stories of the costumed Boy Scouts began to appear. Iconoclastic penciller Neal Adams first started turning heads and making waves with his stunning covers and a couple of spectacularly gripping Cape & Cowl capers in WFC beginning with ‘The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads!’, scripted by Leo Dorfman and inked by Dick from World’s Finest Comics #175.

The story detailed how the annual contest of wits between the crimebusters was infiltrated by alien and Terran criminal alliances intent on killing their foes whilst they were off guard.

Issue #176 then featured a beguiling thriller in ‘The Superman-Batman Split!’ by Bates, Adams & Giordano. Ostensibly just another alien mystery yarn, this twisty little gem has a surprise ending for all and guest stars Robin, Jimmy Olsen, Supergirl and Batgirl, with the artists’ hyper-dynamic realism lending an aura of solid credibility to even the most fanciful situations, and ushering in an era of gritty veracity to replace the previously anodyne and frequently frivolous Costumed Dramas.

Jim Shooter, Curt Swan & Mike Esposito also edged (but just slightly) towards constructive realism with #177’s ‘Duel of the Crime Kings!’ as Lex Luthor again joined forces with the Joker. This go-round the dastardly duo used time-busting technology to recruit Benedict Arnold, Baron Hieronymus Carl Friedrich von Munchausen and Leonardo Da Vinci to plan crimes for them, only to then fall foul of the temporally displaced persons’ own unique agendasâ€¦

WFC #178 began a 2-part Imaginary Tale with ‘The Has-Been Superman!’ (Bates, Swan & Abel) which saw the Man of Steel lose his Kryptonian powers and subsequently struggle to continue his career as a Batman-style masked crimebuster dubbed Nova. More determined than competent, he soon fell under the influence of criminal mastermind Mr. Socrates and wound up brainwashed and programmed to assassinate the Gotham Guardianâ€¦

The moody suspense saga was interrupted by #179 – a regularly scheduled, all-reprint 80-Page Giant featuring early tales of the team’s formative years and represented in this collection by its striking Adams cover – before the alternate epic concluded in #180 with the gripping ‘Superman’s Perfect Crime!’ by Bates and new regular art team Ross Andru & Espositoâ€¦

During the late 1950s when the company’s editors cautiously expanded the characters’ continuities, they learned that each new tale was an event which added to a nigh-sacred canon, and that what was printed was deeply important to the readers – but no â€œideas manâ€ would let all that aggregated â€œhistoryâ€ stifle a good plot situation or sales generating cover.

Thus â€œImaginary Storiesâ€ were conceived as a way of exploring non-continuity plots and scenarios, devised at a time when editors knew that entertainment trumped consistency and fervently believed that every comic read was somebody’s first and – unless they were very careful – potentially their lastâ€¦

Bates, Â Andru & Esposito also crafted #181’s ‘The Hunter and the Hunted’ wherein an impossibly powerful being from far away in space and time relentlessly pursued and then whisked away the heroes to a world where they were revered as the fathers of the race, whilst in the next issue ‘The Mad Manhunter!’ depicted a suspenseful shocker which found Batman routinely rampaging like a madman due to a curse. Naturally, what seemed was far from what actually wasâ€¦

Another massive con-trick underscored #183’s Dorfman-scripted drama as apes from the future accused the Man of Steel of committing ‘Superman’s Crime of the Ages!’ and Batman and Robin had to arrest their greatest allyâ€¦

In WFC #184 Bates, Swan & Abel concocted another bombastic Imaginary Tale which revealed ‘Robin’s Revenge!’, tracing the troubled sidekick’s progress after Batman was murdered and with Superman powerless to assuage the Boy Wonder’s growing obsession with revengeâ€¦

Robert Kanigher joined his old collaborators Andru & Esposito from #185 onwards, detailing the bizarre story of the ‘The Galactic Gamblers!’ who press-ganged Superman, Batman, Robin and Jimmy to their distant world to act as living stakes and game-pieces in their gladiatorial games of chance, before taking the heroes on a time-tossed 2-part supernatural thriller.

In #186 stories regarding Batman’s Colonial ancestor â€œMad Anthony Wayneâ€ prompted the heroes to travel back to the War of Independence where the Dark Knight was accused of deviltry as ‘The Bat Witch!’ and sentenced to death. Of course, it’s actually the Action Ace who was possessed and became ‘The Demon Superman!’ before all logic and sanity were restored by exorcism and judicious force of armsâ€¦

After the cover to World’s Finest #188 – another reprint Giant – Bates returned in #189 with a still shocking 2-parter beginning in ‘The Man with Superman’s Heart!’ as the Caped Kryptonian crashed to Earth from space and was pronounced Dead On Arrival.

As per his wishes many of his organs were harvested (this was 1969 and still speculative fiction then) and bequeathed to worthy recipients.

When Batman refused to accept any, Superman’s Eyes, Ears, Lungs, Heart and Hands (yes, I know – just go with it) were simply stored – until Luthor stole them and auctioned them to gangland’s highest biddersâ€¦

In the concluding episode, ‘The Final Revenge of Luthor!’ saw a combine of crooks running wild with the transplants bestowing mighty powers Batman and Robin could not combat, but the whole mess had a logical – if astonishingly callous â€“ explanation, and the real Man of Steel soon appeared to save the dayâ€¦

Bates, Andru & Esposito then explored ‘Execution on Krypton!’ in WFC #191, as impossible events on Earth led Superman (and Batman) back to Krypton before he was born to discover how his sainted parents Jor-El and Lara became radicalised college lecturers, and why they were teaching their students all the subversive tricks revolutionaries needed to knowâ€¦

Bob Haney then joined Andru & Esposito from #192 for a dark, Cold War suspense thriller as Superman was captured by the Communist rulers of Lubania and held in ‘The Prison of No Escape!’ When Batman tried to bust him out, he too was arrested and charged with spying by sadistic Colonel Koslov, who utilised all his brainwashing techniques to achieve ‘The Breaking of Superman and Batman!’ in the next issue. However, the vile totalitarian’s torturous treatment disguised an insidious master-plan which the World’s Finest almost failed to foilâ€¦

The popular public response to Mario Puzo’s phenomenal novel The Godfather most likely influenced Haney, Andru & Esposito’s next convoluted 2-parter. Issue #194 took Superman and Batman undercover ‘Inside the Mafia Gang!’ to dismantle the organisation of â€œBig Uncleâ€ Alonzo Scarns from within.

Sadly a head wound muddled the Gotham Gangbuster’s memory and Batman began believing he was actually the Capo di Capo Tutti, condemning Robin and Jimmy to ‘Dig Now, Die Later!’ Helplessly watching, Superman was almost relieved when the real Scarns showed upâ€¦

An era ended with #196 as ‘The Kryptonite Express!’ (Haney, Swan & George Roussos) detailed how a massive meteor shower bombarded America with tons of the deadly green mineral. After most decent citizens gathered up the Green K, a special train was laid on to collect it all and ship it to a place where it could be safely disposed of, and Superman was ordered to stay well away whilst Batman took charge of the FBI operation.

They had no idea that master racketeer and railway fanatic K.C. Jones had plans for the shipment and a guy on the insideâ€¦

After #197 – another all-reprint Superman/Batman Giant – a new era began as the Fastest Man Alive teamed up with the Man of Tomorrow.

DC Editors in the 1960s generally avoided questions like who’s best/strongest/fastest for fear of upsetting some portion of their tenuous and perhaps temporary fan-base, but as the superhero tide turned and the upstart Marvel Comics began making serious inroads into their market, the notion of a definitive race between the almighty Man of Steel and the Scarlet Speedster became an increasingly enticing and sales-worthy proposition.

They had raced twice before (Superman #199 and Flash #175 – August and December 1967) with the result deliberately fudged each time, but when they met for a third round a definitive conclusion was promised – but please remember it’s not about the winning, but only the taking partâ€¦

When World’s Finest became a team-up vehicle for Superman, the Flash again found himself in speedy if contrived competition. ‘Race to Save the Universe!’ and its conclusion ‘Race to Save Time!’ (#198-199, November and December 1970, by Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella) upped the stakes as the high-speed heroes were conscripted by the Guardians of the Universe to circumnavigate the cosmos at their greatest velocities to undo the rampage of the mysterious Anachronids, faster-than-light creatures whose pell-mell course throughout creation was actually unwinding time itself.

Little did anybody suspect that Superman’s oldest enemies were behind the entire appalling schemeâ€¦

In the anniversary issue #200, Mike Friedrich, Dillin & Giella focussed on brawling brothers on opposite sides of the teen college scene who were abducted with unruly youth icon Robin and â€œMr. Establishmentâ€ Superman to a distant planet where undying vampiric aliens waged eternal war on each other in ‘Prisoners of the Immortal World!’ Green Lantern then popped in for #201 contesting ‘A Prize of Peril!’ (O’Neil, Dillin & Giella) which would give either Emerald Gladiator or Man of Steel sole jurisdiction of Earth’s skies, and Batman returned for a limited engagement in #202.

The final tale in this compilation, ‘Vengeance of the Tomb-Thing!’ by O’Neil, Dillin & Giella, saw archaeologists unearth something horrific in Egypt as Superman seemingly went mad and attacked his greatest friends and allies. A superb ecological scare-story, this tale changed the Man of Tomorrow’s life foreverâ€¦

These are gloriously smart, increasingly mature comicbook adventures whose dazzling, timeless style has informed the evolution of two media megastars, and they still have the power and punch to enthral even today’s jaded seen it-all audiences.

The contents of this titanic team-up tome are a veritable feast of witty, gritty, pretty thrillers packing as much punch and wonder now as they always have. Utterly entrancing adventure for fans of all ages!
Â© 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

August 3, 2013August 2, 2013

The Complete Crumb Comics volume 5: Happy Hippy Comix â€“ New Edition

By R. Crumb & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-0-930193-92-8

This book contains really clever and outrageously dirty pictures, rude words, non-condemnatory drug references and allusions, apparent racism, definite sexism, godless questioning of authority and brilliantly illustrated, highly moving personal accounts and opinions.

If you – or those legally responsible for you – have a problem with that, please skip this review and don’t buy the book.

Really. I’m not kiddingâ€¦

Robert Crumb is a unique creative force in comics and cartooning, with as many detractors as devotees. His uncompromising, excoriating, neurotic introspections, his pictorial rants and invectives, unceasingly picked away at societal scabs and peeked behind forbidden curtains for his own benefit, but he has always happily shared his unwholesome discoveries with anybody who takes the time to lookâ€¦

In 1987 Fantagraphics Books began the nigh-impossible task of collating, collecting and publishing the chronological totality of the artist’s vast output and those critically important volumes are now being reissued.

The son of a career soldier, Robert Dennis Crumb was born in Philadelphia in 1943 into a functionally broken family. He was one of five kids who all found different ways to escape their parents’ highly volatile problems, and comic strips were paramount among them.

As had his older brother Charles, Robert immersed himself in the comics and cartoons of the day; not just reading but creating his own. Harvey Kurtzman, Carl Barks and John Stanley were particularly influential, but also comic strip masters such as E.C. Segar, Gene Ahern, Rube Goldberg, Bud (Mutt and Jeff) Fisher, Billy (Barney Google), De Beck, George (Sad Sack) Baker and Sidney (The Gumps) Smith, as well as illustrators like C.E. Brock and the wildly imaginative and surreal 1930’s Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts.

Defensive, introspective and always compulsively driven, young Robert pursued art and self-control through religion with equal desperation. His early spiritual repression and flagrant, hubristic celibacy warred with his body’s growing needsâ€¦

From this point onwards, the varied and exponentially impressive breadth of Crumb’s output becomes increasingly riddled with his often hard-to-embrace themes and declamatory, potentially offensive visual vocabulary as his strips grope towards the creator’s long-sought personal artistic apotheosis, and this third volume covers material created and published between 1960-1966 as the self-tormented artist began to find a popular following in a strangely changing world.

Escaping his stormy early life, he married young and began working in-house at the American Greeting Cards Company. He discovered like minds in the growing counterculture movement and discovered LSD. By 1967 Crumb had moved to California and became an early star of Underground Commix. As such he found plenty of willing hippie chicks to assuage his fevered mind and hormonal body whilst reinventing the very nature of cartooning with such creations as Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat, Devil Girl and a host of others. It is from this period that the engrossing, amazing and still shocking strips in this book stemâ€¦

He worked on in what was essentially a creative utopia throughout the early 1970’s but the alternative lifestyle of the Underground was already dying. Soon it would disappear: dissipated, disillusioned, dropped back â€œinâ€ or demised. A few truly dedicated publishers and artists stayed the course, publishing on a far more businesslike footing as Crumb carried on creating, splitting his time between personal material and commercial art projects whilst incessantly probing deeper into his turbulent inner world.

This particular collection covers the period when the insular, isolated Crumb first began to make a name for himself with a flood of gags, posters, commercial art jobs, short strips and longer material popping up seemingly everywhere. All are faithfully reproduced in this compilation – which makes for a rather dry listing here, I’m afraid – but (trust me) the pictorial output is both engrossing and legendary.

Actually, don’t trust me: buy the book and see for yourselvesâ€¦

After a photo and cartoon-stuffed (from 1968 sketchbooks) Introduction from the old scallywag himself, praising the effects of mind-altering chemicals and recalling the first heady days of Counter-Culture celebrity, the wave of visual excess and literary freewheeling begins with ‘The Old Pooperoo Pauses to Ponder’: a baroque procession of his fun-loving characters rounded off with a micro strip at the bottom, revealing Eggs Ackley’s opinion that ‘This Kid’s a Scream!’, after which Mr. Natural, Angelfood McSpade and all the rest are reassured that ‘You’re Gonna Get There Anyway’ (all from East Village Other December 1-16, 1967).

Next ‘Mr. Natural, the Man from Affiganistan’ shares more timeless wisdom with resident curious â€œStraightâ€ Flakey Foont (EVO December 15-30 1968), after which a rush of shorts from EVO January 12-17 begins.

‘Sky-Hi Comics’, ‘Then on the Other Handâ€¦’ are followed by ‘Nuttin’ but Nuttin’, ‘Here She Comes! It’s Hippy!’ and ‘Junior High & his Sidekick Judy Holiday’ from the January 19-25 edition whilst ‘Those Cute Little Bearzy Wearzies/George Gwaltny’ (EVO January 26-February 1 1968) precedes Natural’s inevitable return to act as guru to ‘Schuman the Human’ from EVO February 9-15^th.

The Wise one continues in revelatory style when ‘Mr. Natural Meets God’ (supplemented by) ‘Gail Snail and The Walkie Talkies’ from EVO February 16-22, whilst the next weekly issue described how ‘Mr. Natural Gets the Bum’s Rush’, and Schuman declared ‘Let’s Be Honest’ before Crumb confronted the period’s racism head on with customary shocking frankness in ‘Mr. Natural Repents’, ‘Hey, Mom!’ and attendant strip ‘Let’s Have Nigger Hearts For Lunch’ (EVO March 1-7 1968).

Zap #2 June 1968, then provided wry ‘Hamburger Hi-Jinx’ with Cheezis K. Reist and shockingly introduced iconic BÃªte Noir ‘Angelfood McSpade’ before closing with a warning to avoid cheap imitations from ‘Mr. Natural’.

Bijou #1, from Summer 1968, then supplies a wealth of intriguing, astonishing fare leading with ‘Neato Keano Time!’ before ‘The Big Little Boy’ and ‘Bo Bo Bolinski, He’s a Clown!’ went through their paces. Following that ‘Mr. Spiff’ makes a call and ‘Here They Are! Puppets of your favourite cartoon characters!’ provides paper-dolls of Angelfood and Mr. Natural. The harsh, ironic hilarity all ends with a laidback Bijou Funnies Adâ€¦

The inescapably controversial Ms. McSpade and friends then cropped up in ‘All Asshole Comics’ (Chicago Seed, July 1968), after which covers for ‘Nope #6’ and ‘Nope #7’ (both 1968) are followed here by ‘The Zap Show’ – a captivating art jam with Rick Griffin, Victor Moscoso & S. Clay Wilson.

A ‘Fritz the Cat title page’ then acts as prologue to an outrageous tale of student terrorism and teen licentiousness in ‘Fritz the No-Good’ (taken from Cavalier, September/October 1968), after which you’ll need to rotate the book to be shocked by the interiors of digest-sized Snatch #1 (October 1968): rude and raunchy spoofs such as ‘The Adventures of Andy Hard-on’, ‘Krude Cut-Ups’ and ‘The Fight’ plus assorted gags like ‘Jailbait of the Month’, ‘Hi, Swingers’ and much moreâ€¦

A rather lovely ‘Janis Joplin: original cover for Cheap Thrills‘ (1968) is followed by

‘The Phonus Balonus Blues’ and ‘Where the Action Isn’t’ (EVO September 27 1968) as well as the cover of that issue – ‘Can the Mind Know it?’

From the October 11 issue of East Village Other comes a barrage of strips: ‘Sleezy Snot Comics’, ‘Mr. Natural’, ‘Booger Buddies’ and more plus an ‘Ad for Head Comix’ whilst the October 18^th edition provided both ‘Angelfood McSpade’ and ‘Cum Comix’, and October 25^th a ‘Mr. Natural, disguised as a vacuum cleaner salesman, talks to the Housewives of America’ cover.

‘Edgar and Maryjane Crump’ and ‘Crime in the Streets’ both originated in EVO November 1) after which an ‘alternate cover for Zap #3′ segues into the infamous ‘Dirty Dog’ strip from Zap #3 (December 1968).

That underground classic also premiered ‘Mr. Goodbar â€œOff his Rockerâ€’, an astounding

‘Atomic Comics Jam’ with S. Clay Wilson, Gilbert Shelton, Victor Moscoso & Rick Griffin, grotesque shorts ‘Let’s Eat’ and ‘Mr. Natural’, ‘Hairy’ and ‘Street Corner Daze.’

Another digest-sized landscape section next reproduces the XXX-rated contents of ‘Snatch #2′ (January 1969) including ‘Look Out Girls!! The Grabbies are Coming’, ‘Down on the Farm’, ‘The Family that Lays Together Stays Together’ and far more before an ‘ad for San Francisco Comic Book Company’ from Bogeyman #2, 1969, leads seamlessly into ‘Don’t Gag On Itâ€¦ Goof On It!’ (Gothic Blimp Works, Ltd. #1, March 1969).

The April 1969 ‘cover for Creem #2′ precedes a stunning spoof of Romance comics with ‘The Bleeding Heart Syndrome’ (Tales from the Ozone #1, 1969) before ‘Shoo Shoo Baby’ and ‘The Pricksters’ (GBW #2, 1969) suspends the black and white barrage to briefly usher in a spectacular ‘Color Section’â€¦

The polychromatic madness begins with ‘Head Comix covers’ (front and back and 1968), keeping up the pressure with the ‘Zap Comix #2 covers’ from December, as well as a ‘Fritz the Cat cover’, the ‘Cheap Thrills’ record cover for Big Brother and the Holding Company and the December 1968 ‘Snatch #1 covers’.

The ribald rainbows end with ‘Snatch #2 covers’ (January 1969) before ‘Flower Children on Broadway’ from Bijou #2 (1969) return us to monochrome merriment, ‘Nutsboy’ (Bogeyman #2, 1969) presages today’s teen obsession with â€œSlasher-flicksâ€ and ‘Mr. Know-It-All and his pal Diz in What the Fuck’ (with S. Clay Wilson from GBW #3, 1969) continues the dark and bloody mood.

This landmark compilation concludes with Crumb’s contributions to Motor City #1 (April 1969) starting with ultra-independent femme fatal ‘Lenore Goldberg and her Girl Commandos’, after which cool dude ‘The Inimitable Boingy Baxter’ turns Detroit on its head, and mini-mystic Savannah Foomo explores reality with ordinary folk and ‘The Desperate Character’ in ‘Deep Meaning Comics’ and ‘More Deep Meaning Gommigs’, leaving good old Eggs Ackley to wrap thing up in macabre style with ‘Eyeball Kicks’â€¦

If Crumb had been able to suppress his creative questing, he could easily have settled for a lucrative career in any one of a number of graphic disciplines from illustrator to animator to jobbing comic book hack, but as this pivotal collection readily proves, the artist was haunted by the dream of something else – he just didn’t yet know what that wasâ€¦

Crumb’s subtle mastery of his art-form and obsessive need to reveal his most hidden depths and every perceived defect – in himself and the world around him – has always resulted in an unquenchable fire of challenging comedy and riotous rumination, and this chronicle begins to show his growing awareness of where to look.

This superb series charting the perplexing pen-and-ink pilgrim’s progress is the perfect vehicle to introduce any (over 18) newcomers to the world of grown up comics. And if you need a way in yourself, seek out this book and the other sixteen as soon as conceivably possibleâ€¦
Â© 1967, 1968, 1969, 1989, 2004, 2013 Robert Crumb. All contributory art material and content Â© the respective creators/copyright holders. All rights reserved.

August 2, 2013August 1, 2013

Ghost Riders: Heaven’s on Fire

By Jason Aaron & Roland Boschi (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4235-5

In the early 1970’s, following a downturn in superhero comics sales, Marvel shifted focus from straight costumed crusaders to supernatural and horror characters with one of the most adaptable and enduring proving to be a certain flaming-skulled vigilante dubbed the Ghost Rider.

Carnival stunt-cyclist Johnny Blaze had sold his soul to the devil in an attempt to save his foster-father from cancer. As is always the way of such things Satan, or arch-liar Mephisto as he actually was, followed the letter, but not spirit, of the contract and Crash Simpson died anyway.

When the Demon Lord came for Blaze only the love of an innocent saved the bad-boy biker from eternal pain and damnation. Temporarily thwarted, the devil afflicted Johnny was with a condition which made his body burn with the fires of Hell every time the sun went down and become the unwilling, unknowing host for outcast and exiled demon Zarathos – the Spirit of Vengeance.

After years of travail and turmoil Blaze was (temporarily) freed of the demon’s curse and seemingly retired from the hero’s life. As Blaze briefly escaped his pre-destined doom, a tragic boy named Danny Ketch assumed the role of Zarathos’ host and prison by a route most circuitous and tragicâ€¦

Over the years a grim truth emerged: Johnny and Danny were actually half-brothers and both the Higher Realms and Infernal Regions had big plans for them. Moreover the power of the Ghost Rider had always been a weapon of Heaven not a curse from Hellâ€¦

This riotous, rollercoaster grindhouse supernatural thriller collects the 6-issue miniseries Ghost Riders: Heaven’s on Fire (from August 2009 to February 2010) by Jason Aaron & Roland Boschi, featuring a horde of fan-favourite villains, a variety of previous fire-headed hosts, a gaggle of grim guest-stars and assorted Spirits of Vengeance in a bombastic, Hell-for-Leathers romp which concluded a long-running saga.

It all began when usurper Archangel Zadkiel – thanks to his unwitting dupe Danny Ketch – finally achieved his appalling ambition: ousting God to become the new Supreme Power of the universe. The sinister Seraph hadn’t reckoned on a motley crew of sinners and worse, led by Blaze, who were utterly resolved to stop Himâ€¦

With covers and variants by Jae Lee, Phil Jimenez, Das Pastoras, Dustin Weaver, Greg Land and Christian Nauck, the dark drama begins when Zadkiel’s angels raid a satanic fertility lab and slaughter all the infants and children. The victims were all prospective Antichrists, but one escapedâ€¦

When Hellstorm – a fully grown, naturally conceived Son of Satan – arrives, he finds himself in a peculiar position. Having spent his entire rebellious life battling his sire, Daimon Hellstrom and has no desire to aid the Evil One’s schemes, but by his murderous acts Zadkiel is actually trying to unmake Biblical Prophecy.

God always intended for an Apocalypse to finish His Divine Plan, and the usurper’s coup is actually beyond all concept of right and wrong. Thus the die is cast and Hellstorm must, albeit reluctantly, find the last Earthborn heir of Hell and ‘Save the Antichrist, Save the World’â€¦

Simultaneously, Blaze, accompanied by mystic Caretaker/combat nun Sister Sara, is tracking Zadkiel’s angelic agents, determined to find a door to Heaven and confront the renegade face to face. They also want to kill Johnny’s brother Danny, whose pig-headed hubris has led to Zadkiel replacing God and occupying the Vault of Heavenâ€¦

When the bikers wipe out a brace of boastful rearguard cherubim and learn of The Plan, they immediately change tack, joining the hunt for missing Anton Satan (AKA Kid Blackheart) to save him from the wrath of the Pretender Godâ€¦

Oblivious to the threat Anton is exactly where you’d expect an Antichrist to be: making millions as the youngest executive at a Wall Street Hedge Fund. His cruel, calm arrogance is soon shaken, however, when a Seraphic Assassin bursts in only to be promptly eradicated by occult terrorist Jaine Cutter and her â€œBreathing Gunâ€: another player determined to restore the Biblically-scheduled Armageddon.

She, however, has severely underestimated Zadkiel’s determination and sense of proportion and drags the protesting Hell-brat straight into an angelic ambush. And far across the country someone is gathering a small army of Ghost Rider villains. They already have Orb, Blackout and The Deacon on boardâ€¦

With tormenting demons replacing his lost arms, Master Pandemonium is a living doorway to Hell, but even he had no idea what true suffering was until Danny Ketch kicked his door in, looking for a quick introduction and shortest route to the Big Bad Boss of Gehennaâ€¦

Now, three days later in New York, Hellstorm explosively saves Cutter and Anton from the ruthless Flight of Angels, but when the self-serving kid bolts he runs right into the newly returned Ketch.

Blaze and Sister Sara arrive moments later and all parties very reluctantly agree to suspend hostilities for a team-up in ‘Are You There, Devil? It’s Me, Danny.’

The anti-Ghost Rider Squad is growing too. Freshly signed up are Zadkiel’s own flame-headed fanatic Kowalski AKA Vengeance, plus Scarecrow, Madcap, motorised maniac Big Wheel and a savagely sentient steam-shovel called Trullâ€¦

Thanks to Pandemonium, Ketch has met the Devil and made a deal. In return for preserving the last extant Antichrist from Zadkiel’s forces, Satan will provide the brothers with access to Heaven and give them their shot at restoring the previously incumbent Deityâ€¦

After brutally working out their operational differences in time-honoured fashion, Johnny and Danny at last unite just as ‘The Brothers Ghost Rider’ are bushwhacked by Big Wheel and Trull (an alien mind-force which could possess any mechanical contrivance: tractor, bulldozer, chainsawâ€¦)

The catastrophic clash brings the boys to a temple which is a gateway to the Eternal Realm, but thanks to Blackout they miss their chance to use itâ€¦

Meanwhile in a hidden location the secret sacred order of Gun Nuns prepare for their last battleâ€¦

‘Here Comes Hell’ starts in the Jasper County Sheriff’s holding cell where Scarecrow and Madcap have just slaughtered all the other occupants. Outside, Hellstorm, Sara, Jaine and obnoxious Anton have entered the quiet town, seeking safety and a useable satanic sanctuary to stash the kid in.

Zadkiel’s converts are waiting for them and a deadly duel ensues. In the melee Anton shows his true colours by attacking Sara and allying with Master Pandemonium even as Vengeance and the Orb lead an army of killer angels, demons and zombie bikers against the primed-for-martyrdom Gun Nuns protecting a fully operational highway to Heavenâ€¦

‘Sole Reigning Holds the Tyranny of Heaven’ finds the triumphant, power-drunk Zadkiel remodelling Paradise to his own gory tastes and fitfully rewriting snippets of Creation when the Ghost Riders storm in through the nun’s gateâ€¦

Meanwhile on Earth equally blockbusting battles break out as Hellstorm and Cutter at last suspend their truce and renew their personal vendetta. Elsewhere Kid Blackheart brutally uncovers Sister Sara’s impossible hidden destiny as a living portal to Heaven, and utilises her to transport battalions of demons to conquer Kingdom Comeâ€¦

The occult overdrive thus rockets to a cataclysmic conclusion as Zadkiel personally smashes the invading Spirits of Vengeance in ‘If You Can’t Lower Heaven, Raise Hell’. With the streets of Heaven knee-deep in blood, even a pep talk from his own dead wife and kids cannot keep Blaze battling against the new Omniscience, but when the Legions of Hell attack and Danny incites all the previously expired Ghost Riders to rise, Johnny sees one last chance to make things rightâ€¦

Fast, frantic, irreverent, satirically funny, violently gratuitous and clearly not afraid to be daft when necessary, this is a fabulously barmy, two-fisted eldritch escapade in the manner of TV’s Supernatural or Angel that will reward any fans of raucous road thrillers, magical monstrosity tours and the minutiae of Marvel’s horror continuity.
Â© 2009, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

August 1, 2013July 31, 2013

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Crash Test Demons

By Andi Watson, Cliff Richards & Joe Pimentel (Dark Horse/Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-199-8

Soon after securing her status as a certified media sensation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer won her own monthly comicbook in 1998, with smart, suspenseful, action-packed yarns (in her own monthly series and fully supplemented by spin-off miniseries and short stories in showcase anthology Dark Horse Presents) which perfectly complemented the sensational, groundbreaking and so crucial TV show.

This slim and sinister compilation (I’m once more featuring the British Titan Books edition which features stories set during the third TV Season) continues an extended storyline which pitted the eclectic â€œScooby Gangâ€ against ambitious narcissistic psycho-killer vampire Selke and her new breed of modified demonic thralls.

The ongoing ‘Bad Blood’ saga is written as ever by Andi Watson and illustrated by newcomers Cliff Richards & Joe Pimentel, with this volume collecting issues #13-15 (of the monthly Buffy the Vampire Slayer from September-November 1999).

As well as the usual wealth of covers, pinups and photos by Richards, Dave Stewart, Bennett, Jeff Matsuda & John Sibal, this chronicle also includes as bonus an interview with the Brazilian penciller, stuffed with his character designs and many un-inked pages of glorious art.

In case you’re a stranger to this dimension: Buffy Summers was an addle-pated cheerleader Valley Girl and total waste of teen protein until she inexplicably turned into a hyper-strong, impossibly durable monster-killer.

She learned – after being accosted by an old codger from a secret society of Watchers – that she was the most recent recipient of a meandering mystic lottery which transformed mortal maids into living death-machines for all things supernatural: a Slayer.

Moving with her recently divorced mom to the small California hamlet of Sunnydale, located on the edge of a arcane portal dubbed The Hellmouth, Buffy made a few close friends and, with her newest cult-appointed mentor Rupert Giles, proceeded with her never-ending war on devils, demons and every predatory species of terror inexorably drawn to the areaâ€¦

Following a handy â€œpreviously pageâ€, the wise-cracking action kicks off with ”Delia’s Gone’ as formerly disfigured and depleted vampire Selke pays a visit to local undead gang-boss Rouleau.

The last time he saw – and spurned – her, she was a pathetic, mutilated bag of scars and bile, but now she is both beautiful and overwhelmingly powerful – and bears a grudgeâ€¦

Nobody knows that she has found a plastic surgeon with a passion for alchemy and no morals at all. Dr. Flitter has taken up Selke’s cause, restoring and improving her with the promise of immortality as his oft-postponed reward.

However, since his normal scientific procedures didn’t work, he resorted to books of magic for a solution where his researches turned up a way to turn vampire blood into a super-steroid for Selke and her â€œoffspringâ€. Now she and her newly-minted children of the night hunt not only humans for food, but vampires for fuelâ€¦

Moreover she is still obsessed with making the Slayer sufferâ€¦

Meanwhile, in a vain semblance of normal teen activities, the Scooby Gang – Cordelia, Oz, Xander and Buffy – coach brainy, nervous Willow for an upcoming televised inter-school quiz show. Things start to come unglued when Selke incidentally consumes Sunnydale High’s resident nerd Lyle and Cordy, desperate to change her bimbo image, steals a magic charm from Giles to become a voracious consumer of facts. Sadly there’s no off-switch and ‘Delia’s brain quickly begins to overloadâ€¦

Selke’s Ã¼ber-vamps are also making mischief: Buffy and recently restored undead lover Angel are finding them almost impossible to destroyâ€¦

‘Love Sick Blues’ sees a nocturnal civil war break out between Selke’s squad and the town’s regular fangers. Buffy’s night patrols are crazily broken up by vampires constantly attempting to capture and drain each other, but things take a bleak dark turn when deadly demon lovers Spike and Drusilla return, keen on turning the chaos to their own decadently amused advantageâ€¦

Soon their unique talents for obtaining information have led them to the secret of â€œbad bloodâ€, but Selke and Flitter are oblivious to the new threat to their schemes. The cosmetic alchemist has discovered a way of mystically cloning their own â€œDark Slayerâ€ to take care of Buffy, and Selke wants one right now!

Sadly Flitter’s first attempts are woefully inadequate and promptly discardedâ€¦ even the one that was still sort-of aliveâ€¦

Even Buffy’s daylight problems are insane. Sleazy, lusty Todd once spread very nasty rumours about her before he temporarily turned into a girl, but now he’s male again he’s fallen desperately in love with the girl he wronged. His misplaced passion and rekindled conscience cost him his lifeâ€¦

Events reach crisis point in ‘Lost Highway’ as the war between leeches escalates, whilst on a rare night off from slaying, Buffy hits one of Selke’s pack with her mom’s (stolen) car and is subsequently ambushed by the whole mob. Even as she impossibly stakes them all, in a hidden lab, Flitter decants his masterpiece – a Summers simulacrum physically identical to and apparently far superior to The Slayerâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Engaging, witty, darkly light and fluffy, this fast and furious fists-flying action extravaganza rockets along at a breakneck pace, capturing the smart, intoxicating spirit of the TV show. Although this is only the middle section of the Bad Blood epic, the yarns here are all easily accessible even if you’re unfamiliar with the vast backstory, making this one more terrific thriller as easily enjoyed by the most callow neophyte as by any dedicated devotee.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer â„¢ & Â© 2000 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

July 31, 2013July 31, 2013

X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Mutants vs. Vampires

By Chuck Kim, Simon Spurrier, Duane Swierczynski, Chris Claremont, Bill Sienkiewicz & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5229-3

All major comics publishing events have satellite specials these days and the X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – which ran from July 2010 to May 2011 in selected Marvel titles – was no exception. Thus, this supplementary volume, gathering the One-shots Storm & Gambit, Smoke & Blood and Blade, plus the contents of the anthologized miniseries X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Mutants vs. Vampires, makes for a handy and beguiling adjunct to the main feature.

The sinister suspense begins with X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Storm & Gambit (by Chuck Kim, Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, Wayne Faucher, Al Vey, Victor Olazaba & Mark Irwin) as the mutant’s professional thieves are dispatched to the Mediterranean to steal Dracula’s headless corpse from an island infested with vampires.

When the stealthy duo are detected and their craft shot down, Storm quickly realises that they have an unseen ally on the island of blood. This proves crucial as they battle through legions of lychs to ultimate success – but the price of his aid might well be her soulâ€¦

Simon Spurrier & Gabriel Hernandez Walta then focus on the frustrations of super-genius Doctor Nemesis (and his X-Club associates Kavita Rao and Madison Jeffries) in X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Smoke & Blood.

Refusing to acknowledge something as stupid and primitive as the supernatural, Nemesis and his team furiously experiment on a captured vampire warrior, also seeking a cure for the infected victims slowly turning into evil blood-suckers in the drastically overstretched laboratories.

His efforts are constantly, inexplicably frustrated until the monster breaks free and the entire research station goes into lethal lockdown – with the doctor and his colleagues on the wrong side of the hermetically sealed wallsâ€¦

Men: Curse of the Mutants – Blade follows as writer Duane Swierczynski and artist Tim Green provide a revelatory prequel. ‘The Light at the End’ finds the demi-human hero uncovering a covert campaign to eradicate all vampire hunters and drawn into a trap where day-walking undead slaughter all his allies. Barely escaping the net of Xarus, the badly rattled sole survivor heads towards San Francisco and an unlikely allianceâ€¦

The two issues of X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Mutants vs. Vampires comprise a selection of short yarns starring many of the huge mutant cast in solo action, opening with ‘From Husk Til Dawn’ by James Asmus & Tom Raney, wherein the hard-body shapeshifter sets herself up as a walking honey – or is that blood? – trap to take vampires off the streets of San Francisco, one fanger at a time.

Christopher Sequeira & Sana Takeda then go all disco nostalgic as Dazzler meets a band of vampires who have all been grooving and chilling since they died during the glitter-balled, star-spangled Seventies in ‘I’m Gonna Stake You, Sucka’â€¦

Peter David & Mick Bertilorenzi continue in darkly comedic vein with ‘Rue Blood’ as Rogue confronts a somehow familiar bloodsucker and experiences an unsuspected karmic connection with the tragic, beautiful blood-beast, after which Rob Williams & Doug Braithwaite reveal a grim secret and lost comrade from Magneto’s past in ‘Survivors’â€¦

From issue #2 ‘Flesh, Fangs and Burnt Rubber’ by Mike Benson & Mark Texeira pits Gambit against a marauding gang of undead biker chicks from Hell, whilst in ‘Call Me Santo’ by Spurrier & Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Rockslide and Armor face the largest vampire ever turned whilst transporting food and supplies to Utopia.

Next Howard Chaykin goes ‘Skin Deep’ to reveal how Vietnamese mutant Karma uncovers a cunning fanged predator who had discovered how to hunt safely and with her victims’ tacit consentâ€¦

The last story, by Mike W. Barr & Agustin Padilla, stars The Angel in ‘Voices’ wherein the winged wonder hunts down a once-human beast who satisfies his drive to kill by only consuming murderers. As Angel constantly struggles against the dark desires programmed into him by the mutant horror Apocalypse, he can only wonder just who is the greatest monster here?

Following pencilled pages, sketches and roughs from Mico Suayan and Bachalo, plus character designs by Hernandez Walta, the story portion concludes with ‘Night Screams!’ by Chris Claremont, Bill Sienkiewicz & Bob Wiacek (from Uncanny X-Men #159, July 1982) relating the mutant heroes’ first encounter with the lord of vampires.

After Dracula ambushes Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde and Wolverine must race the dawn to confront her assailant and effect a cure before the Windrider becomes undead foreverâ€¦

With covers and variants by Suayan, Bachalo, Townsend, Christina Strain, Clayton Crain, Dave Wilkins, Nick Bradshaw, Jim Charalampidis and Sienkiewicz, this is a splendidly dark selection of Costumed Dramas which will delight both dedicated fans and casual readers alike. Just finish it before the sun setsâ€¦
Â© 1982, 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

July 31, 2013July 30, 2013

X-Men: Curse of the Mutants

By Victor Gischler, Paco Medina, Juan Vlasco & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4847-0

With a property as vast and valuable as the X-Men, change is a necessarily good thing, even if you sometimes need a scorecard to keep up. This thoroughly entertaining read (collecting X-Men volume 2 #1-6 and text features from X-Men: Curse of the Mutants Saga and X-Men: Curse of the Mutants Spotlight from July 2010 to May 2011) keeps the baggage to a sustainable minimum for non-addicts and concentrates on delivering a tense and action-packed thriller heavy on conflict and light on extended sub-plots.

Sweetening the pot is a veritable feast of superb covers and variants by Medina, Vlasco, Adi Granov, Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales, Laura Martin, John Romita Jr., Dean White, Marte Gracia, Marko Djurdjevic and Mike Mayhew.

As the story opens most of the World’s remaining mutants are residing on an island in San FranciscoBay dubbed â€œUtopiaâ€ with X-Men team-leader Cyclops running the enclave like a kingdom…

The bizarre freaks are generally welcomed by the easygoing human population.

In other news: the planet’s assorted vampire clans have been recently united after centuries of internecine struggle by Xarus, second son of Dracula, who executed his formidable father to succeed to the supreme position of Lord of Vampires. The horrific heir is a meticulous planner and has even secured technology and magics which allow the undead to walk safely in sunlightâ€¦

When a nosferatu suicide-bomber explodes himself in a crowded San Francisco plaza his fiendishly re-engineered blood taints and compromises the shocked, stunned bystanders with a virus that inexorably infects and overwhelms everybody exposed to it. The recently united night-hunters have declared all-out war on their food-supply, bolstering their ranks without risking being huntedâ€¦ and one of the first to succumb is veteran X-warrior Jubileeâ€¦

As the contagion spreads, Wolverine leads a scouting mission into the increasingly overrun city and discovers that the campaign is meticulously organised and extremely far advanced. Moreover the new vampire lord has planned carefully and ambitiously: a key tactic is to â€œturnâ€ every mutant in Utopia, providing the would-be conqueror with a compliant army of super-powered, blood-sucking storm-troopers. Jubilee has already joined themâ€¦

Always genned-up on undead affairs, half-vampire, all-Hunter Blade joins the party and brings the embattled mutants up to speed, making them realise that they face impossible odds. With new vampires springing up everywhere Cyclops makes the seemingly suicidal decision to revive Dracula, over Blade’s strenuous objections.

â€¦And then Wolverine finally succumbs to the manufactured virus and switches sidesâ€¦

When the Children of the Night make their final assault against the assembled mutant heroes all seems lostâ€¦ but Cyclops has a cunning planâ€¦

The bonus features section begins with material from X-Men: Curse of the Mutants Saga; specifically ‘X-Men a Go-Go!’ wherein John Rhett Thomas, assisted by Michael Kronenberg, interviews event main scripter Victor Gischler, after which ‘We are The X-Men’ pictorially introduces the major players – mutant and otherwise – in a spectacular spread.

Then from X-Men: Curse of the Mutants Spotlight, Chris Arrant and Gischler discuss the aftermath of the event in ‘X-Men: Lifting the Curse’, Paco Medina pictorially reveals all in ‘Drawing Blood’, and ‘Blade: Curse of the Vampires!’ details the history and possible future of Marvel’s most famous night-stalkerâ€¦

This is an exhilarating, exemplary romp that pushes all the right buttons, engagingly written by Gischler and entrancingly illustrated by Medina & Juan Vlasco. If you want fast, furious, grim ‘n’ gritty Fights ‘n’ Tights magic this is a perfect one-shop stop for your edification and delectation.
Â© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

July 30, 2013July 29, 2013

Showcase Presents Superman Family volume 3

By Otto Binder, Robert Bernstein, Jerry Siegel, Bill Finger, Curt Swan, Kurt Schaffenberger, Wayne Boring, Al Plastino, Dick Sprang & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-812-6

When the groundbreaking Man of Steel debuted in Action Comics #1 (June 1938) he was instantly the centre of attention, but even then the need for a solid supporting cast was apparent and wisely tailored for. Glamorous daredevil girl reporter Lois Lane premiered beside Clark Kent and was a constant companion and foil from the outset.

Although unnamed, a plucky red-headed, be-freckled kid started working for Clark and Lois from Action Comics #6 (November 1938) onwards. His first name was disclosed in Superman #13 (November-December 1941), having already been revealed as Jimmy Olsen when he had become a major player in The Adventures of Superman radio show from its debut on April 15th 1940.

As somebody the same age as the target audience for the hero to explain stuff to (all for the listeners’ benefit), he was the closest thing to a sidekick the Action Ace ever neededâ€¦

When a similarly titled television show launched in the autumn of 1952 it was another immediate sensation and National Periodicals began cautiously expanding their revitalised franchise with new characters and titles.

During the 1950s and early 1960s, being different in America was a Bad Thing. Conformity was sacrosanct, even in comicbooks, and everybody and thing was meant to keep to its assigned and intended role: for the Superman family and cast, that meant a highly strictured code of conduct and parameters.

Daily Planet Editor Perry White was a stern, shouty elder statesman with a heart of gold, Cub Reporter Jimmy was a brave and impulsive, unseasoned fool – with a heart of gold – and plucky News-hen Lois was brash, nosy, impetuous and unscrupulous in her obsession to marry Superman although she too was – deep down – another possessor of an Auric aorta.

Moreover, although burly Clark Kent was a Man in a Man’s World, his hidden alter ego meant that he must never act like oneâ€¦

Yet somehow even with these mandates in place the talented writers and artists assigned to produce their wholesomely uncanny exploits managed to craft tales both beguiling and breathtakingly memorable – and usually as funny as they were exciting.

First to fill a solo title were the gloriously charming, light-hearted escapades of that rash, capable but callow photographer and â€œcub reporterâ€. Â Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #1 launched in 1954 with a September-October cover date, the first spin-off star of the Caped Kryptonian’s rapidly expanding multi-media entourage.

As the decade progressed the oh-so-cautious Editors tentatively extended the franchise in 1957 just as the Silver Age of Comics was getting underway and it seemed that there might be a fresh and sustainable appetite for costumed heroes and their unique brand of spectacular shenanigans.

Try-out title Showcase, which had already launched The Flash (#4) and Challengers of the Unknown (#6), followed up with a brace of issues entitled Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane in #9 and 10 before swiftly awarding the â€œplucky News-henâ€ a series of her own – in actuality her second, since for a brief while in the mid-1940s she had held a regular solo-spot in Superman.

At this time Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane was one of precious few titles with a female lead and, in the context of today, one that gives many 21^st century fans a few uncontrollable qualms of conscience. Within the confines of her series the valiant capable working woman careered crazily from man-hungry, unscrupulous bitch through ditzy simpleton to indomitable and brilliant heroine – often all in the same issue – as the exigencies of entertaining children under the strictures of the Comics Code all too often played up the period’s astonishingly misogynistic attitudes.

The comic was clearly intended to appeal to the family demographic that made I Love Lucy a national phenomenon and Doris Day a ditzy latter day saint, so many stories were played for laughs in that same patriarchal, parochial manner; a â€œgosh, aren’t women funny?â€ tone that appals me today – but not as much as the fact that I still love them to bits.

It helps that they’re mostly illustrated by the wonderfully whimsical Kurt Schaffenberger.

Jimmy fared little better: a bright, brave but naÃ¯ve kid making his own way in the world, he was often the butt of cruel jokes and impossible circumstances; undervalued and humiliatingly tasked in a variety of slapstick adventures and strange transformations.

This third cunningly conjoined chronologically complete compendium collects the affable, all-ages tales from Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #35-44, March 1959-April 1960 and Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #8-16, April 1959-April 1960, and commences with the Man of Steel’s Go-To Guy in three tales drawn as (almost) always by the wonderful Curt Swan.

Jimmy’s comic was popular for more than two decades, blending action, adventure, broad, wacky comedy, fantasy and science fiction in the gently addictive, self-deprecating manner scripter Otto Binder had perfected a decade previously at Fawcett Comics on the magnificent original Captain Marvel.

As the feature progressed, one of the most popular plot-themes (and most fondly remembered and referenced today by most Baby-Boomer fans) was the unlucky lad’s appalling talent for being warped, mutated and physically manipulated by fate, aliens and even his friendsâ€¦

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #35 (March 1959) opens with ‘The Menace of Superman’s Fan Mail!’, by Binder & Swan with inks by Stan Kaye, wherein the cub reporter undertook to answer the mountain of missives for the Man of Steel and inadvertently supplied a crook with an almost foolproof method of murdering the Metropolis Marvel.

The remaining tales are inked by Ray Burnley and begins with a rather disingenuous yarn which saw the lad repeatedly get into trouble wearing a futuristic suit of mechanised super-armour which only made him look like ‘The Robot Jimmy Olsen!’, whilst in ‘Superman’s Enemy!’ the devoted kid overnight turned into a despicable, hero-hating wretch. However as a veritable plague of altered behaviour afflicted ClarkKent’s friends, the baffled Action Ace began to discern a patternâ€¦

Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #8 (April 1959) opened with ‘The Superwoman of Metropolis’, by Alvin Schwartz & Kurt Schaffenberger, heavy-handedly turning the tables on our heroine when she developed incredible abilities and took on a costumed identity, and was instantly plagued by a suspicious Clark determined to expose her secret.

‘The Ugly Superman!’ dealt with a costumed wrestler who fell for Lois, giving the Caped Kryptonian another chance for some pretty unpleasant Super-teasing. . It was written by the veteran Robert Bernstein, who unlike me can use the tenor of the times as his excuse, and pleasingly ameliorated by Schaffenberger delivering another hilarious dose of OTT comedic drama illustration.

Following is a far less disturbing fantasy romp: ‘Queen for a Day!’ (Bernstein, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye) found Lois and Clark shipwrecked on an island of Amazons with the plucky lady mistaken for their long-prophesied royal saviourâ€¦

Jimmy Olsen #36 began with Binder, Swan & Burnley’s ‘Super-Senor’s Pal!’, which found the boy South of the Border in the banana republic of Peccador helping a local rebel fight the dictators by masquerading as a Latino Man of Steel.

Stan Kaye inked the momentous debut of ‘Lois Lane’s Sister!’, which introduced perky air-hostess Lucy as romantic foil and regularly unattainable inamorata for the kid, in a smart, funny tale of hapless puppy love whilst the final tale (Burnley inks) described the cub reporter’s accidental time-trip to Krypton and ‘How Jimmy Olsen First met Superman!’

Although we all think of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s iconic creation as the epitome of comicbook creation, the truth is that very soon after his launch Superman became a multimedia star and far more people have seen or heard the Man of Steel than have ever read him – and yes, that does include the globally syndicated newspaper strip which ran from 1939 to 1966.

By the time his 20th anniversary rolled around he had been a regular on radio, starred in a series of astounding animated cartoons and two movies, and just ended his first smash live-action television serial. In his future were three more (Superboy, Lois & Clark and Smallville), a stage musical, a franchise of stellar movies and an almost seamless succession of TV cartoons beginning with The New Adventures of Superman in 1966 and continuing ever since. Even Krypto got in on the small-screen actâ€¦

It’s no wonder then that the tales from this Silver Age period should be so draped in the gaudily wholesome trappings of Tinseltown – even more so than most of celebrity-obsessed America. It didn’t hurt that editor Whitney Ellsworth was a part-time screenwriter, script editor and producer as well as National/DC’s Hollywood point man.

The Man of Tomorrow’s TV presence influenced much of Lois Lane #9: a celebrity-soaked issue scripted by Bernstein which began with artists Dick Sprang & John Forte detailing how performer Pat Boone (who coincidentally had his own licensed DC comic at that time) almost exposed Earth’s greatest secret with ‘Superman’s Mystery Song!’

The Silver Screen connection continued in the Schaffenberger-illustrated ‘The Most Hated Girl in Metropolis’ wherein Lois was framed for exposing that self-same super-secret as a ruse to get her to Hollywood for her own unsuspected This is Your Life special. The issue ended with return to fantasy/comedy as Schaffenberger introduced a lost valley of leftover dinosaurs and puny caveman Blog – ‘Lois Lane’s Stone-Age Suitor’â€¦

In JO #37 Bill Finger, Swan & John Forte revealed the incredible truth about multi-powered Mysterio in the case of ‘Superman’s Super-Rival’, whilst Binder, Swan & Kaye exposed the difficulties of frivolous Lucy Lane having ‘The Jimmy Olsen Signal Watch!’: a timepiece/communicator which kept the boy on a constant electronic leashâ€¦

This issue ended with a cunning caper which saw resident crackpot genius Professor Phineas Potter concoct a serum which allowed Jimmy to reprise his many malleable antics and tangled troublemaking as ‘The Elastic Lad of Metropolis’ (Binder, Swan & George Klein) – almost exposing Superman’s secret identity into the bargain.

Records from the period are sadly incomplete but Bernstein probably wrote each tale in Lois Lane #10, beginning with Schaffenberger-limned classic ‘The Cry-Baby of Metropolis’, wherein Lois – terrified of losing her looks – exposed herself to a youth ray and temporarily turned into a baby, much to the good-natured amusement of Superman and arch rival Lana Langâ€¦

Schaffenberger also illustrated ‘Lois Lane’s Romeo’ as the constantly spurned reporter finally gave up on her extraterrestrial beau and was romanced by a slick, romantic European. Of course he was also a conniving, crooked conmanâ€¦

She stormed back in formidable crime-busting form for ‘Lois Lane’s Super-SÃ©ance!’ (Boring & Kaye), apparently graced with psychic sight, but actually pulling the wool over the eyes of superstitious crooks.

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #38 also tapped the TV connection as the lad became ‘The MC of the Midnight Scare Theatre’ (Bernstein, Swan & Forte), uncovering an incredible mystery as his hoary, hokey act apparently scared four viewers to deathâ€¦

Although by the same creators, the broad humour of ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Wedding’ to Lucy had a far less ingenious explanation, but ‘Olsen’s Super-Supper!’ (Bernstein, Swan & John Giunta) ended things on a high as the impecunious kid entered an eating contest and allowed shady operators to try an experimental appetite-increasing ray on him. Of course the mad scientists had an ulterior, criminal motiveâ€¦

A plane crash and head wound transformed Lois into a fur-bikinied wild woman in #11 of her own magazine but, even after being rescued by Superman, ‘The Leopard Girl of the Jungle!’ (Bill Finger & Schaffenberger) still had one last task to valiantly undertake, after which the anonymously authored ‘The Tricks of Lois Lane!’ found the restored reporter up to her old schemes to expose Clark as Superman, whilst ‘Lois Lane’s Super-Perfume!’ (possibly Bernstein?) seemed able to turn any man into a love-slave – until the Man of Steel exposed the criminal scammers behind itâ€¦

Binder, Swan & Forte crafted all of Jimmy Olsen #39 which began with the lad stuck on another world where he quickly became ‘The Super-Lad of Space!’, after which, back in Metropolis, his ill-considered antics lost and won and lost him a fortune in ‘The Million Dollar Mistakes!’ before ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Super-Signals!’ saw him misplace his Superman-summoning watch and forced to spectacularly improvise every time he got into troubleâ€¦

Bernstein handled LL #12 beginning with two Schaffenberger specials: ‘The Mermaid of Metropolis’ in which an accident doomed Lois to life underwater beside Sea King Aquaman, until Superman found a cure for her piscoid condition, whilst in ‘The Girl Atlas!’ Lana sneakily turned herself into a super-powerhouse to corral the Man of Steel and learned what sneaky meant when her rival struck backâ€¦

Al Plastino illustrated ‘Lois Lane Loves Clark Kent!’ wherein Lois, believing she had incontrovertible proof of Superman’s secret, started a campaign to entrap the unknowing journalist in wedlockâ€¦

Swan & Forte illustrated all of JO #40, beginning with ‘The Invisible Life of Jimmy Olsen’ (scripted by Binder) as the hapless lad was enmired in all manner of mischief after a gift from his best pal unexpectedly rendered him unseen but not trouble-free, after which ‘Jimmy Olsen, Supergirl’s Pal!’ saw the reporter temporarily struck blind just as a crook with a grudge tried to kill him.

With Superman out of touch, the hero’s secret weapon Supergirl (a hidden trainee no one except cousin Kal-El knew of) rushed to the rescue, only to have the feisty lad disbelieve and dispute her very existence.

Bernstein then exposed ‘Jimmy Olsen, Juvenile Delinquent!’ as the kid went undercover to break up a prototypical street gang and discovered Perry White’s own son was a memberâ€¦

Bernstein & Schaffenberger led in the 13^th issue of the news-hen’s series, hilariously ‘Introducingâ€¦ Lois Lane’s Parents!’

Superman had offered the lady reporter a lift home to the farm of Sam and Ella Lane for a family reunion, but thanks to a concatenation of circumstances, local gossip and super-politeness, the Man of Steel quickly found himself press-ganged into a wedding.

Fair Warning: this tale also contains Lois’ first nude scene when proud father Sam got out the baby albumâ€¦

By the same creative team, and in a brilliant pastiche of My Fair Lady, ‘Alias Lois Lane!’ found the indomitable inquirer undercover as floozie Sadie Blodgett to snap candid shots of a movie star and hired by thugs to impersonate Superman’s girlfriend in an assassination plot bound to failâ€¦

Then, Finger, Boring & Kaye disclosed ‘The Shocking Secret of Lois Lane!’ following a tragically implausible incident which forced the reporter to cover her disfigured head in a lead-lined steel box. Thankfully the Action Ace was around to deduce what was really going onâ€¦

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #41 opened with Bernstein, Swan & Forte’s ‘The Human Octopus!’, which highlighted the lad’s negligent idiocy when he impetuously ate alien fruit and apparently grew six more arms. The true effect of the space spud was far more deviousâ€¦

Binder and Kaye joined Swan for ‘The Robot Reporter!’, as Jimmy used an automaton provided by Superman to do his job whilst he recuperated from a damaged ankle and managed to get into trouble from the comfort of his apartment. Thanks to some stupid showing off the kid was then mistaken for a master fencer and catapulted into a Ruritanian adventure as ‘Jimmy Olsen, the Boy Swordsman!’ (by Binder, Swan & Forte).

Lois Lane #14 led with ‘Three Nights in the Fortress of Solitude!’ (Binder & Schaffenberger) as the conniving journalist contrived to isolate herself with Superman long enough to prove how much he needed a woman in his life, only to suffer one disaster after another whilst the Bernstein scripted ‘Lois Lane’s Soldier Sweetheart!’ alternatively showed her warm and generous side as she helped a lonely GI attain his greatest desire.

Jerry Siegel then returned to the character he created using the still-secret Supergirl to catastrophically play cupid in ‘Lois Lane’s Secret Romance!’

Jimmy Olsen #42 started with the uncredited story of ‘The Big Superman Movie!’ (art by Swan & Forte), wherein the star-struck kid consulted on a major motion picture but would far rather have played himself, much to Lucy’s amusement. Nevertheless the sharp apprentice journalist had the last word – and laughâ€¦

Bernstein scripted ‘Perry White, Cub Reporter!’ which saw the Editor and junior trade places, with power only apparently going straight to Olsen’s head, after which ‘Jimmy the Genie!’ saw the something similar occur when boy reporter and magical sprite exchanged roles in a clever thriller by illustrated by Swan & Giunta.

Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #15 featured a landmark mystery tale in ‘The Super-Family of Steel!’ (Binder & Schaffenberger) which seemingly saw Lois attain her every dream. She and her Kryptonian Crimebuster first became ‘Super-Husband and Wife’, with ‘The Bride Gets Super-Powers’ as a consequence, and they even had a brace of super-kids before the astounding ‘Secret of the Super-Family’ was revealed to a shocked audienceâ€¦

In Superman’s Palâ€¦ #43 TV show 77 Sunset Strip got a name-check as ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Four Fads!’ (Swan & Kaye) found the kid attempting to create a teen trend to impress Lucy, whilst as ‘Phantom Fingers Olsen!’ (Boring & Kaye) he infiltrated a gang of murderous thieves, and was later adopted by ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Private Monster!’ (Siegel, Swan & Forte).

After causing no end of embarrassment in Metropolis, the bizarre beast took Jim to his home dimension where even greater shocks awaitedâ€¦

The final Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane in this collection is #16 from April 1960 and opens with ‘Lois Lane’s Signal-Watch’ with Schaffenberger art over (possibly) a Siegel script, as the Man of Steel learned to regret ever giving a woman who clearly had no idea what â€œemergencyâ€ meant a device which would summon him at any moment of day or nightâ€¦

That slice of scurrilous 1950s propaganda is inexplicably balanced by a brilliant murder thriller which showed off all Lois’ resilience and fortitude as she infiltrated and solved ‘The Mystery of Skull Island’, (Bernstein) whilst Siegel authored another cruel dark tragedy wherein Superman tried to cure Lois’ nosy impulses by tricking his own girlfriend into believing she had a death stare in ‘The Kryptonite Girl!’. (Of course, as all married couples know, such a power develops naturally not long after the honeymoonâ€¦)

I love these stories, but sometime words just fail meâ€¦

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #44 ends this third monochrome monolith, starting with ‘The Wolf-Man of Metropolis!’ (Binder, Swan & Kaye), which blended horror, mystery and heart-warming charm in a mini-classic which saw the boy cursed to hairy moon madness and desperately seeking a willing maiden to cure him with a kissâ€¦

That’s followed by Siegel, Swan & Forte’s ‘Jimmy’s Leprechaun Pal!’, a magical imp who made life hell for the cub until human ingenuity outwitted magical pranksterism, after which Bernstein, Swan & Kaye crafted possibly the strangest and most disturbing yarn in this compilation as the boy went undercover as a sexy showgirl to get close to gangster Big Monte in ‘Miss Jimmy Olsen!’

As well as containing some of the most delightful episodes of the pre angst-drenched, cosmically catastrophic DC, these fun, thrilling, deeply peculiar and yes, often potentially offensive stories also perfectly capture the changing tone and tastes which reshaped comics from the safe 1950s to the seditious, rebellious 1970s, all the while keeping to the prime directive of the industry – â€œkeep them entertained and keep them wanting moreâ€.

Despite my good-natured cavils from my high horse here in the 21^st century, I think these stories have a huge amount to offer funnybook fun-seekers. I strongly urge you to check them out.
Â© 1959, 1960, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

July 29, 2013July 29, 2013

Iron Man 2: Public Identity

By Joe Casey, Justin Theroux, Barry Kitson, Ron Lim & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4858-6

With new Superhero and comics-based Summer Movie Blockbusters now an annual tradition there’s generally a wealth of supplementary reading released to coincide, cash in on and tantalise we die-hard print addicts.

Thus, through the safe lens of enough time passed and all hype deflated, here’s a slim tome designed as one of many combination tie-in and prequels to the second Iron Man film.

Public Identity was a 3-part miniseries from April and May 2010 starring the filmic iteration of the Marvel characters, scripted by Joe Casey and Justin Theroux with art from Barry Kitson, Ron Lim, Tom Palmer, Victor Olazaba, Stefano Gaudiano & Matthew Southworth, which added nuance and background to the tale of Tony Stark’s very visible battle against rival arch-technocrat Justin Hammer and a whip-wielding maniacal amalgam of comicbook veterans Crimson Dynamo and Whiplashâ€¦

This compilation also includes a triptych of short back-up vignettes starring some of the supporting cast in solo adventures originally published as the one-shot Iron Man 2: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. plus a selection of text, art and photo-features culled from the promo magazine Iron Man 2 Spotlight.

At the conclusion of the first film Tony Stark had just revealed to the frantic media that he was the incredible Armoured Avenger and ‘No Reason’ takes up from there, before flashing back decades to when munitions magnate Howard Stark first moved into researching the astounding potential of ARC reactor technology with Soviet scientist Anton Vanko. ARC, you’ll recall, is the overwhelming power source which keeps son Tony alive and fuels his high-tech super-suitâ€¦

In the now the self-exposed son is revelling in the celebrity his admission has garnered, as old comrade James Rhodes and all his other close friends can only watch and worry. The government – and especially the Military – want the power of Iron Man under their explicit control and are applying increasing pressure to the hedonistic playboy to get their wayâ€¦

Grudgingly, to prove he’s still in control, Tony accepts a military reconnaissance job to insurgent-plagued Al Kut, but naturally goes off mission when he sees lives being lostâ€¦

Woefully disdainful of stifling protocol or American Military objectives, Stark kicks butt and posts footage with the world’s media, uncaring of the toes he’s stepping onâ€¦

Meanwhile in the Land of the Free and the padded invoice, Justin Hammer is unveiling his latest multi-billion dollar death machine to General Thaddeus â€œThunderboltâ€ Ross, a career soldier who wants kill-power like Iron Man’s, but free of the insubordinate or free-thinking, conscience-plagued playboy adventurerâ€¦

In the past, Howard Stark is appalled to discover his friend Anton stealing ARC secrets, and dejected when the far-from contrite technologist is deported by Federal agents. Years pass and his boy Tony endures abuse and neglect from his troubled dad, leading to some fateful decisionsâ€¦

Tony is still making poor choices in the present, blowing off business meetings to defuse traps and abandoned tech scattered throughout Afghanistan by the enigmatic Ten Rings organisation and even US forces. Rhodes, meanwhile, is with General Ross, deeply disturbed that the untested Hammer weapon is going straight into action with an unprepared live pilot on a dangerous covert and unsanctioned missionâ€¦

The op goes disastrously wrong. The Pentagon overrules the overtly hostile Ross and Rhodey begs Tony to intervene. Congolese Army units have shot down the Hammer craft and captured the American pilot, but the guerrillas are no match for Iron Man who pulls off a spectacular rescue without harming a single Congolese soldier in the undertakingâ€¦

However, when Stark delivers the wounded airman to Ross, the Thunderbolt is furious that a global symbol of American superiority refused to shoot back and prepares to take matters into his own handsâ€¦

And as the son of Anton Vanko completes his own Arc reactor and prepares to take vengeance on the Stark family, in the shadows Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. begin their own subtle moves to move in on Iron Manâ€¦

As the comicbook conclusion segues into the film, this book shifts into stealth mode with three Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. solo mini-thrillers all scripted by Casey, beginning with arch manipulator Fury in ‘Who Made Who’ (rendered by Tim Greene) which sees the Golden Avenger barnstorm into a S.H.I.E.L.D./Navy SEAL operation against the mysterious Ten Rings cabal, opening the bidding in a bizarre war of nerves between the controlling spymaster and the ferociously free-spirited hero who – for now – still owns Iron Manâ€¦

Then ‘Just off the Farm’ – with art from Felix Ruiz – shows Agent Coulson under fire but never pressure as he solves a minor personnel problem and field-tests his latest recruit, even as ‘Proximity’, illustrated by Matt Camp, details how lethal femme fatale Black Widow inserted herself into Stark’s company and positioned herself for her spectacular movie debutâ€¦

The text features lead with ‘Silver Screen Style’ wherein comics artist and movie production consultant Adi Granov reveals secrets of both print and screen iterations, complete with lashings of pictures including reinterpreted Classic Covers and pages of Extremis Armour Designs.

Chris Arrant then discusses ‘Iron Man vs. Whiplash’ with screenwriters Marc Guggenheim and Brannon Braga, and ‘#1 With a Bullet’ by Dugan Trodglen explores the role and history of superspy Black Widow.

Thereafter epic comics saga ‘Iron Man Disassembled’ is highlighted by scripter Matt Fraction and interviewer Jess Harold before ‘Iron Man: Lightning in a Bottle’ finds John Rhett Thomas debating the classic revival of the Steel-Shod Sentinel with 1980s creators David Michelinie and Bob Layton, before Arrant chats with Warren Ellis about his take on Iron Man in ‘Armor Wars 2.0’.

Presumably as a preamble to the then-upcoming team movie, this section concludes with a stirring stroll down memory lane as ‘The Armored Avenger’ pinpoints â€œEight of Iron Man’s Definitive Momentsâ€ with the Mighty Avengers, as compiled by Dugan Trodglen.

Also including a cover gallery by Granov and Salvador Larroca, this terse, explosive action package is a fine, fun comics read which should also act as an enticing interface for converting metal movie mavens into dedicated followers of funnybook fiction.Â© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

July 28, 2013July 27, 2013

Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird volume 1

By Greg Rucka, Eddy Barrows, Sidney Teles, Diego Olmos, Pere PÃ©rez & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2639-8

â€œThe Dynamic Duo of Kandorâ€ were first envisioned by pulp author Edmond Hamilton and artists Curt Swan & George Klein in Superman #158 (January 1963, ‘Superman in Kandor!’) which saw raiders from the preserved Kryptonian enclave attacking the Man of Steel and describing him as a traitor to his people.

Back then, the baffled Superman infiltrated the Bottle City with Jimmy Olsen where they created the Batman and Robin-inspired masked identities of Nightwing and Flamebird to ferret out the answerâ€¦

Over intervening decades the roles have been played by a number of others in Kandor and elsewhere, before eventually being appropriated for regular Earthbound characters when the original Robin became Nightwing and first Batgirl Bette Kane re-branded herself as Flamebird.

In this iteration, part of the recent overarching Superman publishing event â€œWorld of New Krypton/World Without Supermanâ€, the 100,000 preserved Kandorians have escaped imprisonment in the Bottle City and, gaining superpowers under Sol’s light, built themselves a planet in our solar system.

With the Man of Steel’s arch-nemesis General Zod prominent and pre-eminent in the newly re-established society and most of Earth crazy-scared about a world full of belligerent supermen flying around in their backyard, Kal-El has abandoned his adopted homeworld to keep an eye on the system’s newest immigrantsâ€¦

Earth is not completely defenceless, however. As well as the Justice League and Superman’s hand-picked replacement Mon-El of Daxam, Supergirl and a mysterious â€œSuperwomanâ€ still fly our skies and top-secret, sinister paramilitary, anti-alien task force Project 7734 is watching, certain that there are other ET insurgents just waiting in hidingâ€¦

Collecting Action Comics #875-879, Action Comics Annual #12 (from May to September 2009) and excerpts from Superman Secret Files 2009, this tense suspense thriller introduces a brace of apparently familiar new players to the cosmic drama of World Without Supermanâ€¦

Written throughout by Greg Rucka, 5-part saga ‘The Sleepers’ (illustrated by Eddy Barrows, Ruy JosÃ© & Julio Ferreira) begins in Australia with a masked and armoured duo attacking a media mogul and revealing that he is in fact Kryptonian agent Tor-An; placed in deep cover by Zod to infiltrate Earth’s echelons of power prior to invasion.

His cover spectacularly blown by Nightwing and Flamebird – Kryptonians masquerading as earthling heroes during these times of xenophobic hysteria – the alien infiltrator battles manically but is soon overcome and transported to Superman’s vacant Fortress of Solitude as, in Metropolis, Lois Lane ponders the implications of the televised battle.

Also considering the state of affairs is the fanatical leader of Project 7734. General Sam Lane is Lois’ father and a global war hero thought long-perished in service of humanity. However the severely off-reservation zealot is actually running his own covert agenda of rendition and murder under the noses of family and government, secure in his conviction that only he knows what’s best for Earth.

What he doesn’t know is who these newcomers are – although he does have some suspicionsâ€¦

On New Krypton military martinet – and Zod’s former lover – Ursa is investigating the disappearance of security officer Thara Ak-Var, unaware as yet that the young woman is AWOL on Earth, hunting down six Kryptonian sleepers the General and Ursa so assiduously trained. The twisted, sadistic soldier-fanatic has no idea how closely the mysterious Flamebird is to one she thought lost foreverâ€¦

And in the Fortress Thara, having locked up Tor-An, is horrified to see her teenaged companion Lor-Zod age ten years in agonising secondsâ€¦

Part 2 (with additional pencils from Sidney Teles) opens with the distraught pair ambushed and overwhelmed by the deranged, unstoppable Ursa, who seems to know all the bewildered boy-man’s secrets. So she should: Ursa is his motherâ€¦

Unfortunately, bringing him into the world doesn’t prevent the Kryptonian killer savagely beating Nightwing to the brink of death and stabbing Flamebird with a lethal Kryptonite knife. Only a desperate rally and sheer luck allows the tormented young man to fend her off and escape the Fortress with his dying partner.

In Metropolis some time later, Lois Lane looks out her window and sees the son she thought lost forever floating in mid-air with a dead woman in his armsâ€¦â€¦

Part 3 (illustrated by Teles & Sandro Ribeiro) opens with a furious and frustrated Ursa discovering the Fortress empty except for the incarcerated failure Tor-An as, in distant America, Lois is reunited with the strangely altered boy who was briefly adopted by her and husband Clark Kentâ€¦

It all began when Superman intercepted a spaceship crashing to Earth. Catching the blazing capsule he discovered a young boy within, apparently from Kryptonâ€¦

Claimed by the US government, the boy nearly disappeared into the nebulous miasma of US covert agencies until the Man of Tomorrow rescued him. Determined the boy should have a normal childhood he then closeted him with his own foster parents. Jonathan and Martha Kent were the only humans with any experience of raising super-kidsâ€¦

Thereafter the Action Ace decided to keep the authorities involved but at arms length, even after Lex Luthor sent the unstable juggernaut Bizarro to steal the boy, but was eventually forced to admit that only total anonymity could save the youngster from becoming somebody’s ultimate weapon.

He and Lois adopted the boy, naming him Christopher, just as three Kryptonian villains smashed free of the Phantom Zone (a stark and silent realm of nullity; formless and intangible, it was a time-proof, timeless prison for the worst villains of lost planet Krypton) and attacked Earth.

Challenging the Man of Steel, they claimed to know the boy’s true origins. Christopher – nee Lor-Zod – had been born in an aberrant, solid sector of the ghostly plane; impossible fruit of a union between disgraced Zod and psychotic killer Ursa. Subjected to constant torture and abuse at the hands of the twisted prison population the unearthly child finally escaped, but his uncanny genesis had made him a creature of disruptive potential.

His mere presence on Earth threatened to break down the walls to the Phantom Zone, and Lois last saw her adopted son when the brave little boy voluntarily returned to his birth dimension to save the world from invasion by an army of Kryptonian convictsâ€¦

Now only months later he is back, full grown and carrying a wounded woman he clearly loved deeply. Possibly the greatest human expert on Kryptonians, Lois promptly calls on Justice Leaguer Kimiyo Hoshi who – as Dr. Light – bombards Thara with yellow solar radiation to kickstart super-healing.

Unfortunately the spectacular radiance is picked up by covert 7734 surveillance. General Lane turns his paranoid attentions upon his daughter and discovers â€œEnemy Hostileâ€ Thara Ak-Var sunbathing on his little girl’s roofâ€¦

Christopher, assured that Thara is on the mend, returns to the Fortress. Once there though, he only finds Tor-An’s corpse and his own maniac birth-mother alternatively itching for another fight and beseeching him to come home.

Disgusted and distracted Nightwing flees but is ambushed over the icy wastes by Lane’s souped-up drone planes.

Now, in Nevada, a young Kryptonian couple begin a lethal rampage: hot, horny and obsessed with becoming the new Bonnie and Clyde in their own gory remake of â€œBadlandsâ€â€¦

Part 4 (art by Diego Olmos) finds former sleeper agents Az-Rel and Nadira in New Mexico, having gouged a bloody swathe through the Southwest, completely rejecting Zod’s schemes, preferring a life of murderous, sex-fuelled self-indulgenceâ€¦

Chris had been wounded in 7734’s attack and DNA has been gathered and processed by the covert xenophobes. The results confirm General Lane’s theory that Nightwing is the same child Superman prevented the US Government from confiscating and it also proves his own daughter is a traitor to humanity, consorting with and giving comfort to aliensâ€¦

Nightwing returns to Metropolis just as the recuperating Thara finishes telling Lois how she and the boy first hooked up, but no sooner are they all reunited than news of the spree-killers catapults the heroes into amother battleâ€¦

The furious fight against power-drunk Az-Rel and Nadira in Part 5 (Olmos art) is only interrupted when 7734’s top agent and an army of bizarre monsters join the melee.

Codename: Assassin is a powerful telepathic fanatic more concerned with capturing Nightwing and Flamebird than saving lives and his interference allows the Kryptonian thrill-killers opportunity to escape. Nightwing pursues, but the telepath remains, preferring to extract all the enigmatic crusaders’ secrets from Thara’s mind.

With Nightwing obliviously chasing the fugitive sleepers, all Flamebird’s memories are being sampled by the rapacious Assassin until he inadvertently triggers a terrifying explosive transformation and his captive manifests as a chaotic creature of blazing destructive energyâ€¦

In the aftermath Az-Rel and Nadira elude Chris and the shaken but restored Thara (but not 7734’s other metahuman assets) whilst at a distant grave Mon-El confirms Lois’ worst suspicions: her driven, duplicitous, obsessive father is still aliveâ€¦

Action Comics Annual #12 then provides ‘The Origin of Nightwing and Flamebird’ (illustrated by Pere PÃ©rez); disclosing how Kandor’s abduction by Brainiac set in motion a series of tragic events which orphaned Thara and led to her becoming a security officer in Kandor, protecting the parents of the girl who would one day become Supergirl.

We also learn how her life was further changed when, moved by an irresistible inpulse, she joined the city’s Spiritual Guild and somehow, impossibly, connected with a little boy lost in the Phantom Zone and constantly tortured by his own parents and all the ghostly inmates of the penal plane.

And then one day, prompted by urgings from a mythical deity, Thara broke into the Zone and spectacularly rescued Lor-Zod, battling demons in human form to bring them both into the lightâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

With a cover gallery by Andrew Robinson and Renato Guedes and including full fact file pages on both Nightwing and Flamebird, this slim exotic tome is fast paced, action-packed, pretty and engaging but as an opening shot in only a sidebar sequence to a major story arc, probably offers more bewilderment than wonderment to any reader not intimately aware with the ever-changing minutiae of the continuity.

July 27, 2013July 26, 2013

The Daniel Clowes Reader: A Critical Edition of Ghost World and Other Stories, with Essays, Interviews and Annotations

By Daniel Clowes, with Ken Parille & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-589-1

One of the greatest assets of the comics medium is the ostensibly straightforward nature of its storytelling. With pictures wedded to text, what you see is so clearly what you get. So whenever a master creator regularly, consciously and deliberately subverts that implicit convention the result might be occasionally obscure or confusing, but always utterly engrossing.

At the forefront of comics storytelling for nearly three decades, Daniel Clowes is, for many, an acquired taste. However, once he’s in your brain there’s certainly no shaking the things he can do with pen and ink, motive, character and the special kind of targeted situational magic that inhabits the world of pictures and words in static harmony.

Born in Chicago in 1961, Clowes began his career as a cartoonist with humour magazine Cracked before creating uniquely skewed short comic tales for Fantagraphics. His first piece debuted in Love and Rockets # 13 (September 1985), an introductory prelude to his retro-chic detective magazine Lloyd Llewellyn which launched soon after, running in various incarnations for three years.

In 1989 he created personal anthology vehicle Eightball and began producing a variety of tales – short and serial-length – spanning a range of topics and styles investigating all aspects of cartoon narrative from autobiography to social satire, nostalgic absurdist media-fuelled yarns to surreal, penetrating human dramas, all viewed through the lens of iconic popular cultures and social motifs.

All that material has since been collected in assorted albums with two, Ghost World and Art School Confidential, successfully adapted into critically acclaimed feature films.

His experiences in Hollywood combined with deep-seated childhood influences of noir movies and comicbooks combined and resulted in David Boring – another powerful literary comics statement.

The author is rightly renowned as a founding force in Graphic Novel publishing (a term he actually despises); instrumental in breaking the ghetto walls which had constrained the medium in English-speaking countries since the inception of the comicbook industry by creating popular stories of interest to a general audience of adults and helping the art become a recognised art form.

Now The Daniel Clowes Reader cements that idea by presenting a large body of selected classic works augmented with a profusion of scholarly articles and features, both as salute to Clowes’ achievements and an inexpensive introduction to many of the creator’s most impressive tales.

Subtitled Ghost World, Nine Short Stories and Critical Materials – Comics About Art, Life, Adolescence and Real Life, the book is compiled and edited by Literature Professor and reviewer Ken Parille, with contributions from a host of industry journalists and scholars.

The volume, packed with heavily illustrated text features, opens with an Introduction section offering thoughts and quotes from a multitude of sources in ‘Daniel Clowes onâ€¦’, followed by ‘An Aesthetic Biography of Daniel Clowes’ and a formal, informative ‘Introduction to the Daniel Clowes Reader’.

Section I: Ghost World, Girls and Adolescence offers ‘Daniel Clowes’ Introduction from Ghost World Special Edition’ before the entire tale is reproduced cover-to-cover.

In an uncanny comics-style coincidence, I was actually Â in the process of completing a much-postponed review of Ghost World when this new edition arrived so, in the interests of brevity and the certain assurance that it needs a fuller appreciation, I’m breaking my own rules by not properly covering the astonishing breakthrough novel here and now.

Come back in a couple of weeks for the full Monty, but for the present just be aware that the story concerns two young slackers Enid and Rebecca who shamble through and survive a climactic change in their lives and circumstances – after which hanging out, talking music, making fanzines and being generally post-ironic no longer grip their attentions quite so forcefullyâ€¦

Following the two-tone tale is a host of thoughtful and impressive essays and features on it, opening with comprehensive ‘Annotations for Ghost World’ compiled by the author and Parille, after which a full Ghost World Index precedes ‘An Interview with Daniel Clowes’ by Joshua Glenn from 1990.

Adele Melander-Dayton reveals ‘How Ghost World Made Me Brave’, Pamela Thurschwell examines ‘The Ghost Worlds in Modern Adolescence’ through the lens of the tale and Parille conducts a panel-specific literary dissection in ‘Close Reading Clowes’ Dialogue: â€œYou’ve grown into a very beautiful young woman.â€’

Kaya Oakes looks at a peculiar 1990s fad in ‘Literature at the Xerox Machine: The Rise of the Zine’ and small-press mogul Gilmore Tamny recalls the story of ‘Wiglet: An Introduction and Excerpts’ in a nostalgia-filled fillipâ€¦

The iconic lead character is expanded and probed via ‘Enid’s Bookshelf: Ghost World and Its Precursors with Poems by Russell Edson and Cartoons by Ann Roy’ and ‘Enid’s Record Player: Patience and Prudence and The Ramones’ before ‘Where Are They Now?: An Afterlife for Enid and Rebeccaâ€¦’ returns a decade later in a fourth-wall bending brace of obfuscatory full-colour strips created for the Ghost World Special Edition in 2008.

This opening sally then closes with a great big ‘Cartooning Glossary for Ghost World and Other Comics’.

Section II:Â Short Stories, Boys and (Post) Adolescence marries a number of pivotal Clowes’ quasi-autobiographical tales with more searching literary inquisitions. â€œBlue Italian Shitâ€ and â€œLike a Weed, Joeâ€: The Inner Life of Young Clowes sets up the illuminating monochrome strips – both starring official Clowes stand-in Rodger Young.

Over many years the artist has frequently adopted all manner of cartoon glove-puppets and dummies to act as spokesmodel and mouthpiece for satire, observation and reflectionâ€¦

‘Blue Italian Shit’ (from Eightball #13, 1994) is narrated by Rodger the old social misfit, recalling his life as an 18-year old virgin in 1979, whilst ‘Like a Weed, Joe’ (Eightball #16, 1995) finds a younger Young in 1974, suffering from what might be first love and simultaneously hanging out with bad influence/white trash Bemis, a best friend he has no affection for but who is at least more fun than his dementia-challenged, daily diminishing grandparent and guardiansâ€¦

Both episodes are fully annotated and followed by ‘Clowes on Rodger Young, Gender and Autobiography: Excerpts from Five Interviews’ and Scott Saul’s â€œEtc., Etc.â€: the Post-Punk Ballad of Rodger Young (the name was appropriated from a song about a real WWII war-hero who was killed in 1943), before another article by Pirelle introduces the next two strips in this section.

‘â€œThe Partyâ€ and â€œBuddy Bradley in Who Would You Rather Fuck: Ginger or Mary Ann?â€: Daniel Clowes vs. The Ironic Hipster’ concentrate on more contemporary sallies.

Rendered in full colour, ‘The Party’ (Eightball #11, 1993) is again cruelly, destructively autobiographical: revealing a harshly self-castigating inner monologue during a celebration both unwanted and unwelcome, whilst in monochrome one-pager ‘Buddy Bradley in Who Would You Rather Fuck: Ginger or Mary Ann?’ (Eightball #13, 1994), Clowes borrows characters from colleague cartoonist Peter Bagge to lampoon commercialism in the â€œSlacker Generationâ€ with devastating effect.

This is followed by a generalised discussion of Clowes’ unique viewpoint in Against Groovy by Joshua Glenn, further thoughts on commercialism in society in â€œMe Worry?â€/â€œU Buyâ€: Clowes and Advertising in the 1990s, before ‘â€œBlack Nylonâ€: Super-Beings and Psychic Battles’ discusses the artist’s most impenetrable yarn (reproduced in full from Eightball #18 (1995).

‘Black Nylon’ is a dreamy, scary, laconic, terse superhero/noir/psychodrama that should be read not debated, but is followed by a six-stage argument ‘Decoding â€œBlack Nylonâ€’ and extensive scene-by-scene commentary by Parille.

Section III: Comics, Artists and Audiences develops ideas on the interdependent relationships that inform the creator’s efforts and rewards, and opens with ‘â€œDaniel G. ClowesÂ®â„¢ in Just Another Dayâ€: Truth, Lies and Autobiography’ before the eponymous strip (from Eightball #5 (1991) mercilessly skewers the 1990s fad for introspective self-expression and, following more annotations, preloads the next strip with the brief discourse ‘â€œIntroductionâ€: Superheroes, Satire and Sympathy’.

The cartoon tale ‘Introduction’ (from a revised collected edition of the graphic novel Pussey! in 2006) traces Clowes’ career trajectory through comics reader to art-school and beyond, in one of his most forthright and direct autobiographical strips, fully annotated by Parille.

The cartoonist’s unhappy relationship with vocational art training and his days at Pratt Institute is further dissected in ‘â€œArt School Confidentialâ€: The Cartoonist as Undercover Cop’ before all the horrors and parasites are hilariously, graphically exposed in the full-colour Mad magazine inspired ‘Art School Confidential’ (Eightball #7, November 1991).

‘Changing Faces’ is a packed page tracking the evolution and constant revision of the artist’s past works after which ‘â€œUgly Girlsâ€: Looking at Ugly to Find Beauty’ discusses Clowes’ antipathy to manufactured, commercial, cosmeticised, socially-acceptable standards of beauty, before the stunning monochromatic – and annotated – cartoon diatribe ‘Ugly Girls’ (Eightball #8 1992) leads into a lengthy and far-reaching discussion by Anne Mallory and Parille regarding ‘Urban Romanticism, Mad Magazine and the Aesthetics of Ugly (1986-1998)’

‘Six Comic Strips about the â€œArtistic Triangle: Artist, Art and Audience’ precedes and deconstructs the following short pieces ‘King Ego’ (Eightball #12 1993), ‘Man-Child’, ‘Tom Pudd’, ‘Wallace Wood’ and ‘You’ (all from Twentieth Century Eightball 2002) whilst the extended ‘Justin M. Damiano’ (The Book of Other People, 2008) excoriates the isolating role of critic/reviewerâ€¦

‘Modern Cartoonist’ (originally an insert pamphlet from Eightball #18 1997), is Clowes’ manifesto – don’t call it a mission statement – a powerful pictorial/typographic polemic preceded here by the illuminating Modern Cartoonist: The Truth about Comics (again copiously annotated) and leads quite naturally into large tell-all feature Worlds on Paper: An Interview with Daniel Clowes on His Creative Process by Darcy Sullivan as well as A Daniel Clowes Chronology and a list For Further Readingâ€¦

This is another of those too-rare productions that shouldn’t really be reviewed, just read, with themes of adolescence, maturity, the quest for self and the impending end of life delivered via a landscape of comics, film noir, mock-heroics – and the irreducible knowledge that families make individuals – resulting in a truly personal experience for every reader.

It’s also a solid acknowledgement that only kids’ comics are for kids these days, and confirmation that the medium of cartooning in the English language has at last reached the lofty pinnacle of music, literature and film: popular commercial fields and forms of expression which can encompass and generate, trash, mediocrity and pure capital A Artâ€¦

All images and materials Â© 2013, Daniel Clowes, except where otherwise expressly held by individual copyright holders and used here by permission. The Daniel Clowes Reader: A Critical Edition of Ghost World and Other Stories, with Essays, Interviews and Annotations is Â© 2013 Ken Parille. This edition Â© 2013 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All rights reserved.

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