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Demeter & Persephone: Spring Held Hostage – A Greek Myth


By Justine & Ron Fontes, Steve Kurth & Barbara Schulz (Graphic Universe)
ISBN: 978-1-58013-318-0,     978-0-82256-570-3

The heroic tales and legends of older cultures have, for centuries formed an integral part of children’s educational development – and a good thing too. These days though, those magnificently inspiring and memorably visual yarns are as likely to be disseminated in graphic novel form as through the illustrated prose books which had such a formative influence on my early days.

Demeter & Persephone: Spring Held Hostage was released in 2007, one self-contained tome in a larger series which also retold in comics other Hellenic myths such as the Labours of Hercules, Jason’s journey with the Argonauts as well as other cultures’ founding fables like Isis & Osiris or King Arthur.

Packaged as full-colour, 48 page, card-cover booklets they – hopefully – introduced a wealth of kids to the magical riches of human imagination.

They also read very well as comics in their own right.

All religious stories are devised to explain away contemporary unsolved questions and unknowable mysteries. The liturgical lesson retold here was one people’s attempt to rationalise the progress of the seasons and the man-made miracle of agriculture, opening in the paradisiacal golden age of ‘A Winterless World’ where, thanks to the joyful bounty of the goddess Demeter, plants bloomed all year long and the Earth was bathed in perpetual warmth. The harvest goddess’ greatest joy was her glorious daughter Persephone, offspring of one of Zeus’ constant infidelities with any deity, supernatural creature or mortal he took a fancy to…

The supreme god ruled over the skies and Earth whilst his brothers Poseidon and Hades controlled the seas and underworld respectively. However, when the dolorous, lonely Lord of the Dead saw Persephone he wanted her for his wife – and callous, unthinking Zeus told him to just steal her and take her down to ‘The Dark Domain’ he ruled…

Despite her plight, Demeter’s daughter found a great deal that was admirable about Hades and his vast kingdom of judgement, punishment and reward. However, knowing how perilous her fate was, Persephone refused to eat anything that her embarrassed abductor offered, knowing that to do so would bind her to him forever…

In the bright lands above, Demeter frantically searched for her child. Discovering how Persephone had been taken, the Harvest Goddess pleaded with Zeus who refused to intervene, prompting her to abandon the pantheon’s home on MountOlympus. She wandered the Earth as ‘A Worried Mother’ and in the guise of a broken old woman became the nurse to Prince Demophoon of Eleusis, infant son of King Celeus.

Months passed whilst Demeter neglected the world’s lush abundance, defiantly ignoring the desperate pleas of man and god alike. Plants withered and starvation gripped the Earth, and on Olympus the crisis at last forced Zeus to act. He despatched messenger god Hermes to the underworld to negotiate with Hades and a compromise was reached.

‘The Seeds of Change’ saw a now reluctant Persephone leave the abductor she had come to care for. In all that time she had eaten nothing but as they parted she swallowed a few pomegranate seeds from a fruit Hades offered as final gesture…

Even whilst back in the clean air above, this caused great consternation as their consumption gave Hades a legitimate claim to Persephone. Moreover, she had come to love him but as her mother refused to be separated from her, her marriage to Hades would have doomed mankind to starvation.

‘The Pomegranate Problem’ was only solved by Rhea, mother of all gods, who suggested that the lovers should marry but that Persephone must spend two thirds of each year with her mother who would then cause the world’s plants to germinate, blossom, grow and ripen. After that the daughter would spend four months with her husband in the underworld, with Earth consequently becoming temporarily cold, dark and bleakly barren…

Satisfied with the solution but plagued by guilt, Demeter eventually returned to Eleusis where the baby Demophoon had grown to manhood. Here she taught her human charge the secrets of cultivation and plant improvement and the prince travelled the Earth, sharing his divinely-bestowed knowledge of agriculture to a grateful and eager humanity…

Engrossing, dynamic, pretty and blessed with a light touch, this splendid introduction to mythology is designed for kids with a reading age of nine or above – that’s Year 4, I suspect – and also contains a full glossary, a Further Reading and relevant websites list, and an index as well as fact-features on Creating Demeter & Persephone and biographies of the creators.
© 2007 Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Whiteout volume 2: Melt – Definitive Edition


By Greg Rucka & Steve Lieber (Oni Press)
ISBN: 978-1-932664-71-3

In Whiteout Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber created a powerful and determined truth-seeker wedded to a ferociously evocative and utterly distinct milieu in which to prove her worth. The tale was one of the very best crime comics thrillers ever conceived.

Riding a wave of critical acclaim the writer and artist thankfully reunited for a searing sequel and Melt was released by Oni Press as a 4-issue miniseries from September 1999 to February 2000 before being gathered into a graphic novel compilation: still readily available as a lovely, enticing monochrome Definitive Edition.

This dark, bleak tale begins with a quick body-bestrewn history lesson about Antarctica, from the deadly duel between Scott and Amundsen and the following frantic scurry – and brief brush wars – by a myriad of nations hungry to possess the territory until, in 1961, Cold War caution and the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction resulted in the Antarctic Treaty.

This landmark pact resulted in the region being designated a neutral area reserved for purely scientific research: one where all military activity was strictly prohibited.

Antarctica is a bizarre “Neutral Zone” co-managed by the USA,Russia, Argentina, Chile, Britain, Australia and sundry other nations. Mineral and commercial exploitation is completely forbidden, military weapons and equipment are utterly proscribed and there are 400 guys to every girl. Antarctica is a place where all Man’s basest instincts are curtailed by official accord – or at least that’s the international party line…

Since the treaty there has never been an act of war in Antarctica.

Officially…

US Marshal Carrie Stetko is recuperating from her injuries in New Zealand when the American embassy drags her in and a CIA spook named James tells her she’s going back to the ice – whether she wants to or not.

The Agency monitors chatter and has discovered that a Russian science station has been destroyed in an explosion, with the loss of all 14 personnel. They believe it was no accident. Overruling Stetko’s arguments about jurisdiction, the Feds tell her she’s going to investigate, or “offer help, in the spirit of the Treaty” because despite her naive beliefs, every nation represented on Antarctica has weapons stockpiled there – even America – and Tayshetskaya base was just such an armoury/staging ground for potential conflicts…

Weathering a tirade of threats and discounting a wealth of promised bribes, Carrie soon finds herself on a plane heading due south.

She is welcomed by her Russian opposite number Pyotr Danilovich and his emergency team at the burned out site of the base. The harassed investigator studiously knows nothing and is severely disquieted when Stetko points out that one of the burned bodies from the “accident” has a bullet hole in it.

Of course according to the Antarctica Treaty all weapons are banned on the jointly-administered continent, but this isn’t like anything she’s seen before…

Leaving Pyotr desperately trying to convince himself that it’s all just a mistake and accident, Carrie begins wandering through the burned-out wreckage and plunges through the flooring into a hidden room stuffed with crates of small arms. In a corner are three empty crates marked with the tri-foil – international symbol of radiation. The Russians also stored nukes here – but they’re missing now…

Far away, six killers are racing away on snow-mobiles with their prizes but have no true appreciation of the ice. After crashing into a hidden crevasse there are only five…

Back at Tayshetskaya a mysterious Russian has arrived on scene. Captain Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuchin claims to be her official back-up and official liaison, tasked by his government with giving her all the assistance she needs, and disarmingly adds that he is also there to quash any embarrassing scandal…

He also states that the killer thieves are ex-Speznaz: mercenaries who have stolen the nukes for a client and will be smuggling them out over the ice rather than through more normal channels. After checking in with her own bosses Carrie is told to get them – and proof of the Russian government’s treaty-breaking – if she ever wants to leave Antarctica…

Using satellite tech, Stetko and Kuchin narrow down the killers’ current location and set after them on skis, but the mutually suspicious manhunters are almost killed by a booby trap and buried alive in a crevasse…

Forced to trust each other for the duration, the pair brilliantly extricate themselves and resume the chase. They have an unsuspected ally: the brutal remorseless Antarctic is gradually eroding the confidence and capability of the fleeing mercenaries who are now reduced to four cold, gradually dying men. Unfortunately the ice plays no favourites and tries its damnedest to kill Carrie and her stoic companion too…

After surviving a deadly storm Carrie wakes up alone and, suspicions sadly confirmed, sets off after the duplicitous Kuchin. The cagy Russian, however, has been captured by his quarry and faces a most unpleasant end, but neither the killers nor their intended victim realise that the US Marshal has found their lost and flash-frozen comrade and now possesses the very best in mercenary weaponry and camouflage…

Escalating into an inevitable and spectacularly bloody climax, this grim, gritty and stunningly gripping thriller perfectly augments Carrie Stetko’s proven guts and smarts with a devastating display of her capacity for swift, effective, problem-solving violence and propensity to do the right thing no matter what the cost…

Sharp, hard-boiled and savagely ultra-cool, this magnificent cold-hearted intercontinental caper is a sublime second outing for one of the best female crimebusters in comics and the frustrating wait for the much-delayed third outing chafes worse than frostbite.

A wonderful experience for mature readers to while away those cold lonely nights alone…
™ & © 1999, 2000, 2007 Greg Rucka. Artwork © 1999, 2000, 2007 Greg Rucka. All rights reserved.

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AVX Versus


By Adam Kubert, Stuart Immonen, Steve McNiven, Ed McGuinness, Salvador Larroca, Terry & Rachel Dodson, Brandon Peterson, Kaare Andrews, Leinil Francis Yu, Tom Raney, Jim Cheung & various writers & artists (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-519-2

Mass metahuman mega-mosh-ups – call ’em braided crossover events if you want – are an intrinsic part of comicbook publishing these days, and Marvel’s big thing of the moment acknowledges a few utterly basic home truths. Most saliently, fans seem to want to see extravagant hero-on-hero action and – almost as crucial – that the stories must look very pretty showing it.

Avengers Vs. X-Men employed the company’s most successful movie franchise stars in spectacular fashion as the World’s Mightiest Heroes – and Spider-Man – strove against the misunderstood mutant outcasts for control of young Hope Summers; a girl destined to become the mortal host of an implacable force of cosmic destruction and creation known as The Phoenix. The tale involved incessant turmoil, sacrifice and death, and the conquest, reshaping and – almost – the destruction of humanity before a relatively stable status quo was tenuously restored.

It also featured a blistering array of dynamic duels between a host of fan-favourite characters, and Marvel cannily produced a bombastic and winningly tongue-in-cheek subsidiary 6-issue miniseries which isolated and spotlighted those cataclysmic combats, all safely removed from the tedious task of progressing the overarching storyline…

This admittedly delicious dose of sheer, visually visceral escapism superbly caters to the big kid in all of us comics fans, giving us just what we truly want: men in tights and buxom women in very little attempting to bash each others’ brains in for the most specious of motives…

Divided into a series of Matches taken as snapshots from the ongoing epic and even boldly declaring a winner to – most of – the bouts (I’m not crass enough to spoil the fun by revealing who won any of these tussles – just buy the book… it’s great fun), the furious fireworks begin with ‘Magneto, Master of Magnetism vs. The Invincible Iron Man’ by scripter Jason Aaron and illustrator Adam Kubert…

Match 2 features ‘The Thing vs. Namor the Sub-Mariner’ by Kathryn & Stuart Immonen with Wade von Grawbadger, whilst Steve McNiven & John Dell raucously reveal the outcome of ‘Captain America vs. Gambit’ before the 4th duel depicts a seemingly mismatched travesty with ‘The Amazing Spider-Man vs. Colossus’ by Kieron Gillen & Salvador Larroca.

Ben Grimm returns as ‘The Thing vs. Colossus’ (by Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness & Dexter Vines) tears up the Blue Area of the Moon and Match 6 features another bout of moon madness as rival Russians rumble in ‘Black Widow vs. Magik’ by Christopher Yost and art-team supreme Terry & Rachel Dodson.

Martial arts mayhem ensues in Match 7 as ‘Daredevil vs. Psylocke’ by Rick Remender & Brandon Peterson adds a darkly human scale to the proceedings before it’s back to peril of godlike proportions when ‘The Mighty Thor vs. Emma Frost’ (by Kaare Andrews) literally shakes the Earth. Match 9 from Matt Fraction, Leinil Francis Yu & Gerardo Alanguilan features a nasty, dirty grudge fight in ‘Hawkeye vs. Angel’ and emotions spiral completely out of control in ‘Storm vs. Black Panther’ (Aaron & Tom Raney) as the married couple work out their domestic problems in eye-popping combat.

The key clash of the parent series and this sidebar excursion occurs when the planet’s twin saviours spectacularly butt heads in ‘Scarlet Witch vs. Hope’ by Gillen, Jim Cheung, Mark Morales & Mark Roslan, after which the remainder of the book is taken up with lighter moments and outright comedy capers beginning with the insanely cool ‘Verbal Abuse’ by Brian Michael Bendis & Jim Mahfood.

The hilarity continues with ‘Science Battle!’ by the Immonens, ‘Captain America vs. Havok’ by Mike Deodato Jr. & Adam Kubert, the insanely manic ‘Red Hulk vs. Domino’ by McGuinness, a duel of devoted domestics in ‘Toad vs. Jarvis’ by Christopher Hastings & Jacob Chabot, the wickedly lascivious daydream ‘Spider-Woman vs. X-Women (kinda)’ by Loeb & Art Adams, the eccentric ‘Iron Fist vs. Iceman’ by Aaron & Ramón Pérez, and it all ends with a resumption of the appropriate perspective in the gloriously silly ‘How We Roll’ from Dan Slott & Katie Cook…

The covers and variants gallery collects the stunning artistic efforts of Kubert, Immonen, Javier Pulido, McNiven, Terry Dodson, Andrews, Raney and others and, although this fast, funny and furious collection doesn’t boast any of the App-augmentations of the core series (if you are experiencing web-based withdrawal you can always resort to the digital sidebar episodes available on Marvel’s Avengers vs. X-Men: Infinite website), the sheer rollercoaster riot of exuberant energetic comicbook action will indubitably delight and enthral any fan of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction.

Magnificently simplistic, this adventure extravaganza also packs the prerequisite punch to stun and beguile comics-continuity veterans and film-fed fanboys alike.
™ & © 2012 Marvel and subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A,Italy. All Rights Reserved. A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd.

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Avengers versus X-Men


By Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman, John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel, Adam Kubert, Frank Cho & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-518-5

The mainstream comics industry is now irretrievably wedded to blockbuster continuity-sharing mega-crossover events and rashly doling them out like epi-pens to Snickers addicts with peanut allergies.

At least these days, however, if we have to endure a constant cosmic Sturm and extra-dimensional Drang, the publishers take great pains to ensure that the resulting comics chaos is suitably engrossing and always superbly illustrated…

Marvel’s big thing of the moment is the extended clash between mega-franchises Avengers and X-Men, which began in Avengers: X Sanction when time-lost mutant Cable attempted to pre-emptively murder a select roster of the World’s Greatest Heroes to prevent a cosmic tragedy.

Hope Spalding-Summers was the first mutant born on Earth after the temporarily insane Avenger Scarlet Witch used her reality-warping powers to eradicate almost all the mutants in existence. Considered a mutant messiah, Hope was raised in the future before inevitably finding her way back to the present where she was adopted by X-Men supremo Scott Summers AKA Cyclops.

Innumerable signs and portents have always indicated that she was a reincarnated receptacle for the devastating cosmic entity dubbed The Phoenix…

This mammoth collection gathers the core 12-issue fortnightly miniseries from April to October 2012 which saw humanity and Homo Superior go to war to possess the celestial chosen one, and also includes the prequel Avengers vs. X-Men #0 which laid the plot groundwork for the whole blockbusting Brouhaha.

Moreover this up-to-the minute epic also incorporates 21st century extras for all those tech-savvy consumers with added value in mind. Many pages contained herein are marked by an AR icon (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which gives access to all sorts of extras once you download the little dickens – for free – from marvel.com onto your iPhone or Android-enabled device.

The entire tale is also supported by digital sidebar episodes available on Marvel’s Avengers vs. X-Men: Infinite website.

…Or like me you could simply concentrate on and revel in the staggeringly spectacular, plot-light but stunningly rendered old-fashioned, earth-shattering punch-up barely contained in this titanic tome…

Necessarily preceded by a double-page scorecard of the 78(!) major players, the story begins with a pair of Prologues (by Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron & Frank Cho) as a now-sane and desperately repentant Scarlet Witch Wanda Maximoff tries to make amends and restore links with the Avengers she betrayed and attacked. However, even after defeating an attack by manic mutate MODOK and an personal invitation from Ms. Marvel to come back, the penitent mutant is sent packing by her ex-husband The Vision and the other male heroes she manipulated.

Meanwhile in Utopia, the West Coast island fortress that houses the last 200 mutants on Earth, an increasingly driven Cyclops is administering brutally tough love to adopted daughter Hope. The young woman is determined to defy her inescapable destiny as eventual host for the omnipotent Phoenix force on some far future day and is regularly moonlighting as a superhero. Sadly she’s well out of her depth when she tackles the sinister Serpent Society and Daddy humiliatingly comes to her rescue.

…And in the depths of space the ghastly firebird of life and death comes ever closer to Earth…

In the first chapter (by Bendis, John Romita Jr. & Scott Hanna) the catastrophically powerful force of destruction and rebirth nears our world and the perfect mortal host it hungers for and needs to guide it, frantically preceded by desperate hero-harbinger of doom Nova, who almost dies to deliver a warning of its proximity and intent. Soon the Avengers and government are laying plans, whilst in Utopia Scott Summers is pushing Hope harder than ever. If thePhoenix cannot be escaped from or avoided, perhaps he can make his daughter strong enough not to be overwhelmed by its promise of infinite power…

At the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning ex X-Man and current Avenger Wolverine is approached by Captain America and regretfully leaves his position as teacher to once again battle a force that cannot be imagined…

With even his fellow mutants questioning his tactics and brutal pushing of Hope, Cyclops meets CaptainAmericafor a parley. On behalf of the world, the Sentinel of Liberty wants to take Hope into protective custody but the mutant leader, distrustful of human bigotry and past duplicity, reacts violently to the far-from-diplomatic overtures…

Jason Aaron scripts the second instalment as frayed tempers lead to an all-out battle on the shores of Utopia, and personal grudges fuel the brutal conflict. As the metahuman war rages, Wolverine and Spider-Man surreptitiously go after the hidden Hope, but even far off in space the Phoenix force has infected her and she blasts them…

Meanwhile in the extra-solar void Thor, Vision, War Machine and a select team of secret Avengers confront the mindlessly onrushing energy construct…

Chapter 3 is scripted by Ed Brubaker and begins with the recovering Wolverine and Wallcrawler considering how to catch the missing hyper-powerful Hope with both the Avengers and recently departed X-Men chasing her. When the feral mutant clashes over tactics with Captain America, the resulting fight further divides the Avengers’ forces whilst in episode 4 – authored by Jonathan Hickman – as the easily defeated space defenders limp back to Earth, Hope and Wolverine meet at the bottom of the world and devise their own plans fore her future…

All over the planet heroes are hunting the unhappy chosen one, and the clashes between mutants and superhumans are steadily intensifying in ferocity, but the fugitive pair soon evade all pursuit by stealing a rocket and heading to the ancient Blue Area of the Moon where revered mutant Jean Grey first died to save the universe from the Phoenix.

When the former Marvel Girl was first possessed by the fiery force she became a hero of infinite puissance and a cataclysmic champion of Life, but eventually the power corrupted her and she devolved into Dark Phoenix: a wanton god of planet-killing appetites…

As an act of valiant contrition, Jean permitted the X-Men to kill her before her rapacious need completely consumed her in the oxygen-rich ancient city on the lunar surface (of course that’s just the tip of an outrageously long and overly-complicated iceberg not germane or necessary to us here: just search-engine the tale afterwards, ok?), but when Hope finally reaches the spot of her predecessor’s sacrifice she finds that she’s been betrayed and that the Avengers are waiting… and so are mutants Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik and Namor the Sub-Mariner. With battle set to begin again, the battered body of Thor crashes into the lunar dust and the sky is lit by the blazing arrival of the Phoenix avatar…

Matt Fraction scripts the 5th chapter as the appalling firebird attempts to possess Hope, who then realises she has completely overestimated her ability to handle the force, even as Avengers and X-Men again come to blistering blows.

Some distance away super-scientists Tony Stark and Henry Pym deploy their last-ditch anti-Phoenix invention but it doesn’t work as planned… When the furious light finally dies down, the infernal energy has possessed not Hope but the five elder mutants who turn their blazing eyes towards Earth and begin to plan how best to remake it…

Olivier Coipel & Mark Morales begin their stint as illustrators with the 6th, Hickman-scripted instalment, as ten days later old comrades Magneto and Charles Xavier meet to discuss the paradise Earth has become – especially for mutants. Violence, disease, hunger and want are gone but Cyclops, Emma, Sub-Mariner, Magic and Colossus are distant, aloof saviours at best and the power they share incessantly demands to be used more and more and more…

Myriad dimensions away in the mystical city of K’un L’un, kung fu overlord Lei Kung is warned that an ancient disaster is repeating itself on Earth and dispatches the city’s greatest hero Iron Fist to avert overwhelming disaster, even as fearful humanity is advised that their old bad ways will no longer be allowed to despoil the world. Naturally the decree of a draconian “Pax Utopia” does not sit well with humanity, and soon the Avengers are again at war with the last few hundreds of mutantkind. This time however the advantage is overwhelmingly with the underdogs and their five godlike leaders…

A last ditch raid to snatch Hope from Utopia goes catastrophically wrong until the long-reviled Scarlet Witch intervenes and rescues the Avengers and Hope.

Astounded to realise that Wanda’s probability-altering gifts can harm them, the Phoenix Five declare all-out, total war on the human heroes…

In the 7th, Fraction-scripted, chapter the Avengers are hunted down all over the planet and the individual personalities of the possessed X-Men begin to clash with each other. As Iron Fist, Lei Kung and Stark seek a marriage of spiritual and technological disciplines, the Sub-Mariner defies the Phoenix consensus to attack the African nation of Wakanda…

Adam Kubert & John Dell took over the art from issue #8 with Bendis’ script revealing how an army of Avengers and the power of Wanda and Xavier turned the tide of battle, but not before a nation died…

Moreover, with Namor beaten, his portion of Phoenix-power passed on to the remaining four, inspiring hungry notions of sole control amongst the possessed…

In #9 (by Aaron, Kubert & Dell) as the hunt for heroes continues on Earth, in K’un L’un Hope is being trained in martial arts discipline by the city’s immortal master, and in sheer guts and humanity by Spider-Man, and when Thor is captured the Avengers stage an all-out assault and by some miracle defeat both Magik and Colossus. Tragically that only makes Cyclops stronger still and he comes looking for his wayward daughter…

Brubaker writes the 10th chapter as Cyclops invades K’un L’un with horrific consequences whilst on Earth Emma Frost succumbs to the worst aspects of her nature and begins to enslave friend and foe with her half of the infinitePhoenix force. At the same time CaptainAmerica and Xavier are laying plans for one last “Hail Mary” assault…

And in the mystic city Hope finally comes into her power and incredibly blasts Cyclops out the other reality and back to the moon where the tragedy began…

Bendis, Coipel & Morales created the penultimate instalment as the rapacious destructive hunger of the Phoenix causes Cyclops to battle Emma, even as the unifying figure of Xavier draws X-Men and Avengers to unite against the true threat, as with issue #12 (Aaron, Kubert & Dell) Cyclops finally descends into the same hell as his beloved, long-lost Jean by becoming the seemingly unstoppable and insatiable Dark Phoenix with only the assembled heroes and the resigned Hope prepared to stop him from consuming the Earth…

The series generated a host of variant covers (I lost count at 87) by Cho, Jason Keith, Jim Cheung, Laura Martin, Stephanie Hans, Romita Jr., Ryan Stegman, Carlo Barberi, Olivier Coipel, Morales, Skott Young, Arthur Adams, Nick Bradshaw, Carlo Pagulayan, Sara Pichelli, J. Scott Campbell, Jerome Opeña, Mark Bagley, Dale Keown, Esad Ribic, Adam Kubert, Alan Davis, Humberto Ramos, Leinil Francis Yu, Adi Granov and Billy Tan which will undoubtedly delight and astound the artistically adroit amongst you…

Fast, furious and utterly absorbing – if short on plot – this summer blockbuster is an extreme Fights ‘n’ Tights extravaganza that certainly delivers a mighty punch without any real necessity to study beforehand that comics-continuity veterans and film-fed fanboys alike will relish.
™ & © 2012 Marvel and subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A,Italy. All Rights Reserved. A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd.

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Shattered: the Asian American Comics Anthology – A Secret Identities Book


By Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow, Jerry Ma & various (The New Press)
ISBN: 978-1-59558-824-1

The very best thing about old comics periodicals, and a factor sadly deficient in most graphic novels these days, is the lack of variety. Those venerable weeklies and monthlies were generally stuffed with different strips and features offering a host of entertainment options that contemporary books just can’t match.

That’s certainly not the case in this marvellous collection of new stories supervised by Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow and Jerry Ma, who first came to Funnybook fans’ attention in 2009 with the satirical shared-universe superhero book Secret Identities. That tome showcased the talents of exclusively Asian American creators in comics amalgamating the US industry’s signature genre with the social, cultural and entertainment influences of a non-WASP, non-Jewish (it’s easy to argue that the American comicbook was primarily invented by immigrants – and largely Jewish ones at that) talent pool to produce a whole new take on the sequential narrative experience.

Now this fresh collection expands on that initial offering with new adventures set in that New Universe, as well as many sidebar and only notionally linked cartoon yarns, from a host of gifted writers and artists whose origins and ethnicity stem from Asia, India and all points East.

An overarching storyline links the tales here as the Eastern archetypes which permeate Western fiction – the Brute, the Brain, the Temptress, the Alien and the Manipulator – are reclaimed and transformed into the motivating force which links the Secret Identities tale into one longer epic, with each chapter then supplemented by additional, less canonical strips.

Thus the prologue set up of ‘The Sacrifice’ written by Yang, Shen & Chow and illustrated by Ma introduces a quintet of otherworldly demons who want to break back into our helpless world. Bo-Kwun the Manipulator, Kum-Sau the Brute, Zhi-Lik the Brain, Yi-Heung the Alien and Ngau-Yun the Temptress – collectively known as Ng Duk, the Five Venoms – were long ago banished and barred by two ancient Djinn heroes. Their tenuous triumph is now sustained by a cult of ever vigilant warrior priests…

The saga further builds in ‘Burn’, by Jimmy & Jerry Ma, as a masked westerner in 19th century China brought poisonous flowers to destroy the people’s way of life, even contaminating the soul of their greatest champion The Commissioner…

The story proper begins in America during the Gold Rush with ‘The Brute – Driving Steel: the Breaking’ by Yang & Krishna M. Sadasivam, as wandering oriental outcast Ifrit and his negro partner John Henry are tricked into breaking the Mirror of Divine Immortals and release the Five Venoms…

Tangential follow-ups then offer a new perspective on an old story in ‘Master Tortoise & Master Hare’ by Howard Wong & Jamie Noguchi, Bernard Chang’s ‘Showtime’ begins a demonic basketball battle resolved on the artist’s own website, whilst ‘Solitary’ (Michael Kang, Edmund Lee & Glenn Urieta) examines the contemporary gang scene and family bonds before ‘Clean Getaway’ (Jamie Ford & A.L. Baroza) perfectly pastiches EC crime comics, complete with faux cover from Tales of the Orient #12…

‘The Temptress’ leads off the next chapter of the ongoing epic with ‘Bai, Bai, Bai Tsai’ by Yang, Martin Hsu & Sophia Lin as the creators reference manga styles to relate how second generation kid heroes Magical Girl, Super Deformed and Hell Kitty solve an ancient mystery and uncover sinister exploitation involving a cancelled cartoon show after which ‘Ching Shih, Queen of Pirates’, by Natalie Kim & Robin Ha, details the history of a 19th century demimonde who uniquely took control of her own destiny.

Another kind of seductress figures in the bittersweet romantic fable ‘The Regrets We Talk About’ by Fred Chao whilst ‘Heroes Without a Country: Tokyo Rose’ from Daniel Jae Lee & Dafu Yu provides a delightfully smart WWII superhero spy-thriller and Amy Chu, Larry Hama & Craig Yeung cleverly recall a bad time for Japanese-American Nisei in ‘The Date’…

A full-colour glossy ‘Gallery’ of concepts and characters follows featuring art and synopses for ‘Adam Warrock’ by Eugene Ahn & Ming Doyle, ‘Revolution Shuffle’ by Bao Phi & GB Tran, ‘Tempest’ from Kai Ma & Eric Kim, ‘The Walkman’ hilariously conceived by Aaron Takahashi & Mukesh Singh, ‘Angry Asian Man’ Phil Yu & Jerry Ma, the utterly enchanting ‘Mei the Alien’ by Koji Steven Sakai & Deodata Pangandoyon, ‘Camp Mech’ by Eric Nakamura & Sara Saedi, and Thenmozhi Soundararajan & Saumin Suresh Patel’s ‘The Death Stalker’…

‘The Brain’ then takes centre stage for the unfolding epic in ‘Hide and Sikh’ from Parry Shen & Jeremy Arambulo wherein the atomic children born of the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki grow into their dormant power and uncover a huge secret of metahuman genesis…

The remainder of the chapter then focuses on the dreaming world described by ‘The Power of Petunia’ (Joy Osmanski & Yasmin Liang), Paul Wei & Chi-Yun Lau’s classy future shocker ‘Drones and Droids’, a parable of High School popularity contests resulting in ‘Camden’s Revenge’ by Keiko Agena & Louie Chin and a darkly traumatic decision made in ‘Metatron’ by Stuart Ng.

Possibly my very favourite tale in this masterful monochrome compilation is Greg Pak & Takeshi Miyazawa’s ‘Los Robos, Arizona’, joyously referencing the wide-eyed wonder of manga boys and their giant alien Mecha as a young cadet is selected by fate to befriend an incredible metal visitor, whilst Ford & Baroza again charm with new nostalgia in ‘A Cut Above’ parodying EC horror with a snippet from Weird Asian Science #46…

The over-epic resumes with ‘The Alien’ in ‘Peril: Welcome to the Terror’ from Keith Chow & Jerry Castro, returning to Goldfield, Arizona in 1900 and an outrage against the Chinese immigrant workers, before jumping to today and a manhunt for a misunderstood hero steeped in the horrors of then and the technology of tomorrow…

Kripa Joshi then takes a swingeing pot-shot at a culture of callous bullying in ‘Miss Moti, Shattered’, Johann Choi reveals the darkness of ‘The Stranger’ and Traci Honda deliciously, wordlessly plays childish games with ‘Personal Monsters’.

Tanji Chopra & Alice Meichi Li take a long dark look at the sordid future of negotiable affection in ‘Weightless’, whilst Angela Veronica Wong, Reinhardt Suarez, Christine Norrie & Craig Yeung explore the endless anticipation of kid superhumans and their insatiable aspirations in ‘A Dream of Flying’, before ‘Fashion Never Dyes’ again displays Ford & Baroza’s delight with EC thrillers by providing a shocker from the tragically non-existent Uncanny Tales of the Yellow Peril #27.

‘The Manipulator’ at last steps up in ‘Hibakusha: Secrets’ by Shen & Sean Chen as a determined team of atomic heroes uncover the clandestine nature of the Arizona scandal in a spectacular action adventure, whilst the ancillary aspects include ‘Push’ (Jennifer S. Fang, Ace Continuado & Julian San Juan) which reveals what happens when Yankee superhero brawn meets studious Asian serial killer planning, whilst ‘Persons of Mass Destruction’, by Gary Jackson & Cesar P. Castillo, offers a chilling dose of metahuman realpolitik in relation to the “threat” of North Korea.

Also on view are Ren Hsieh & Bryan Lee’s alien incursion ‘The Merciful’, stunning kung fu doomsday parable ‘Qi Lai!’ by Roger Ma, Dheeraj Verma & Tak Toyoshima, the indescribably odd ‘Occupy Ethnic Foods’ courtesy of a solo flying Toyoshima, and the gloriously hip strip featuring the maternal tribulations of a rather harried ‘Shadow Hero’ by Gene Luen Yang & Sonny Liew…

Yang, Shen, Chow & Urieta then bring it all to a triumphal finale in ‘The Sealing’ as the disparate heroes unite to battle the Five Venoms and restore the Mirror of Divine Immortals through an ultimate sacrifice or two, wrapping up this stirring and staggeringly impressive anthology celebration in grand manner.

Finally the publishing project further underscores its debt of thanks to the constantly-changing nature of the American Experiment in illustrated Epilogue. ‘The Vilcek Story’ (by Jeff Yang & Wendy Xu) précis the history of the family of Czechoslovakian Jews who fled to the USA during the years of Nazi atrocity and, after building successful lives, set up a foundation which celebrates and supports the ongoing immigrant experience – and funded this collection…

Combining the best aspects of a vast panoply of storytelling traditions and artistic styles, Shattered is a bold experiment in identity and assimilation that will amaze comics fans in search of something a little different…
Compilation © 2012 Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow and Jerry Ma. Individual pieces © 2012 each author. All rights reserved.

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Spider-Men


By Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli (Marvel/PaniniUK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-520-8

After Marvel’s financial and creative problems in the later 1990s, the company came back swinging. A key new concept involved remodelling and modernising much of their core pantheon for the new youth culture and the Ultimate imprint abandoned the monumental and slavish continuity which had always been Marvel’s greatest asset, giving its new players a separate universe to play in, with varying degrees of radical makeover to appeal to a contemporary 21st century audience.

Peter Parker was once again reduced to a callow, nerdy high-school geek, brilliant but perpetually bullied by his physical superiors and there was a fresh, fashionable, more scientifically feasible rationale for the fore-destined spider bite which imparted those patented, impossible arachnoid abilities.

His Uncle Ben still died because of the lad’s lack of responsibility. The Daily Bugle was still there, as was the bombastically outrageous J. Jonah Jameson, but now in a more cynical, litigious world, well-used to cover-ups and conspiracy theories, arch-foe Norman Osborn – a corrupt, ruthless billionaire businessman – was behind everything.

Any gesture towards the faux-realism of traditional superhero fare was surrendered to the tried-and-tested soap-opera melodrama which inevitably links all characters together in invisible threads of karmic coincidence and familial consanguinity but, to be honest, it seldom hurt the narrative. After all, as long as internal logic isn’t contravened, subplots don’t have to make sense to be entertaining.

After a short and spectacularly impressive career, the originally outcast Peter finally gained a measure of acceptance and was hailed a hero when the Ultimate Comics Spider-Man valiantly and very publicly met his end at Osborn’s hands during a catastrophic super-villain showdown…

Soon after he died a new champion cast in his image arose to carry on the fight…

In the aftermath child prodigy Miles Morales accidentally gained similar powers and as a freshly empowered 13-year old soon learned to cope with his astounding new physical abilities, painfully discovering the daily costs of living a life of lies and how an inescapable sense of responsibility is the worst of all possible threats…

Meanwhile in the mainstream Marvel Universe “our” Peter Parker underwent his own turmoil and travails, surviving to become a more-or-less grown man and first rank superhero…

This collection (collecting the miniseries Spider-Men #1-5 from June to September 2012) was designed as part of the celebrations for the web-spinner’s 50th anniversary and offers a slight but magically enthralling guest-star-packed riff on one of the superhero genre’s most popular themes.

The action begins in the original universe where Peter is on patrol, stopping a couple of fleeing thieves – and almost getting arrested for his help – when he spots an eerie light. Investigating he discovers the latest hideout of old foe Mysterio and after a brief struggle overpowers the sinister Special Effects genius.

Something is off though: the villain’s babblings make no sense. The creep is clearly delusional, screaming that Spider-Man is already dead before breaking loose and triggering the bizarrely glowing device he’d been defending.

In a blaze of light Spider-Man transits from a dark warehouse at night to a sunny rooftop in a New York radically different, and things get even stranger when he stops a mugging and the victim thanks him but says his costume is in “terrible taste” and asks if he knew Peter Parker…

And that’s when the kid in a way cool Spider suit shows up…

In another universe the Ultimate Mysterio wakes up and activates a telemetric avatar of himself to follow Spider-Man across the dimensions, where Parker is – in true Marvel style – fighting his namesake in a fever of confused misapprehension. Utterly underestimating his diminutive opponent, the elder Arachnoid is defeated by the kid’s secret powers (invisibility and a debilitating venom sting) and wakes up in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cell where an African-American Nick Fury confirms that he’s fallen into an alternate Earth…

Finally released into Miles’ custody, Peter is introduced to a New York where Peter Parker is a revered – albeit dead – hero, but before he can adapt the Mysterio avatar attacks with a lethal arsenal of ballistic weapons and mind-warping chemical weapons…

By the time Ultimate heroes Thor, Hawkeye and Iron Man appear the battle is won and the mechanoid trashed, but as the ferociously curious Tony Stark examines the dimensional transfer tech in our world, their Mysterio is preparing another deadly assault…

As the assembled heroes try to find a way home for the wall-crawling wanderer, Parker is torturing himself by visiting “his” old haunts and hangouts, leading to gut-wrenching meetings with Aunt May, Mary Jane Watson and a Gwen Stacy who hadn’t been murdered by Green Goblin Norman Osborn…

…And in the other universe Mysterio just can’t let go and once again prepares to launch his devilish devices across the dimensional rift to kill Spider-Man: all of them and whoever stands with them…

Brian Michael Bendis & Sara Pichelli, aided by painter/colourist Justin Ponsor, have crafted a massively impressive fresh take on the alternate Earth team-up: one drenched in genuine warmth and tragedy, brimming with breathtaking action and stuffed with light-hearted, razor sharp humour which elevates it from the rank of formularized Costumed Drama fare and makes it easily one of the best superhero tales of the decade.

As usual the volume also contains a gallery of covers and variants – by Jimmy Cheung, Humberto Ramos, Marcos Martin, Terry & Rachel Dodson, Travis Charest, Tommy Lee Edwards, Mike Deodato, Ponsor, Rainier Beredo and Pichelli, to delight and thrill in a rollercoaster ride of that tense, evocative suspense and easy-going adventure which blessed the original Lee/Ditko tales.
A British Edition ™ & © 2012 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. and published by Panini UK, Ltd. All rights reserved

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Whiteout volume 1 – Definitive Edition


By Greg Rucka & Steve Lieber (Oni Press)
ISBN: 978-1-932664-70-6

When done right there’s no artistic medium which can better depict the myriad intricacies of a murder-mystery than the comic strip.

The superb and seminal piece of crime fiction under review today was the 2D debut of novelist Greg Rucka and saw mid-ranking artist Steve Lieber achieve his full illustrative potential in a gripping chiller set in a world where, despite appearances, nothing is simply black and white…

Originally released as a 4-part miniseries from Oni Press in 1998, Whiteout introduces disgraced Deputy U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko, banished to the ends of the Earth – generally known as McMurdo Station,Antarctica – following a tremendous and unforgivable screw-up during her stateside duties.

Seamlessly filling in crucial background detail as it swiftly progresses, we soon learn that Antarctica is a bizarre “Neutral Zone” co-managed by the USA, Britain, Russia, Argentina, Chile, Australia, and other nations where mineral exploitation is forbidden by treaty, military weapons are proscribed and there are 400 guys to every girl.Antarcticais a place where all Man’s basest instincts are curtailed by official accord – or at least that’s the international party line…

In the cold and isolated outpost Stetko hadn’t gone out of her way to adapt, settle in or make friends in a place where few people stay for more than a few months whether they’re involved with the military, explorers, scientists or even dubious business types.

It’s dull drudgery all the way but that ends when Carrie is called out to examine a body on the ice…

The face has been horrendously removed from the brittle corpse but the remote area is a mess, with multiple deep core-samples removed from the frozen wastes and Stetko wouldn’t even be involved if the body wasn’t clad in a parka with American flags on it. Even after prying the cadaver loose from the ice, Carrie has to wait days for it to thaw enough before the camp doctor everyone calls Furry can begin his autopsy.

More worryingly, further investigation reveals that the international research expedition was supposed to comprise five men – two Americans, a Briton, an Argentinean and an Austrian. Where and who are the other four …?

Sole friendly face Furry is having little luck with the body. Somebody used an ice hammer to make sure identification was impossible, but the diligent doc gets enough from the remains of the feet to fax off prints to the U.S. Eventually the details return and Carrie begins to search for the killer of Alexander Keller, American citizen – and not one of the research team at all…

Interviewing the pilot who ferried the team produces no leads and days are wasted checking the other bases by radio. Moreover, time is running out. With true Winter coming most camps are preparing to shut down: ferrying all but the most essential staff back to civilisation until the slightly more hospitable Spring makes life on the ice survivable. Once “Winter-over” begins, the killer will be impossible to find…

When she gets a call back from British-administered Victoria Station that two of the missing team are there, she catches a break by hitching on a flight ferrying Australian pilot John Haden to his next gig. Despite his easy charm and manner Carrie knows there’s something not right about him…

Rendezvousing with officious administrator Lily Sharpe, Carrie refuses to wait out another impending storm and both women venture out onto the ice to find the outlying cabin of the missing men. As they enter they are attacked by an axe-wielding masked man who has just killed both of her suspects in the same way that Keller was dispatched…

Giving chase into the storm Carrie is overpowered and her vital guide-wire cut. Lost in a binding whiteout with the temperature drastically dropping by the second, she is going to die mere feet from safety and might not be found for months…

As Sharpe recovers and follows, Stetko has, with Herculean determination and a deal of sheer luck, found a sanctuary where she is temporary safe if no longer sound. She never will be again…

Lost in delirium and suppressed memories, Carrie almost fights her way free from her last-minute rescuer but is at last taken to the Station’s infirmary. When she’s fit enough to travel the mysterious Lily ferries the Marshal back to McMurdo and reveals that the two remaining suspects have been spotted on the ice at Amundsen-Scott base.

As much through anger and resentment as her boss’ insistence Carrie, with Sharpe in tow, heads after them and on reaching the distant station receives an astounding surprise when she spots dead man Keller in the canteen…

Sharpe meanwhile has got the last two suspects. Or at least, their bloody, battered remains…

Keller eludes the Marshal and lies hidden in Sharpe’s plane where he finds her gun. Of course according to the Antarctica Treaty all weapons are banned on the jointly-administered continent, but that is far from being the British woman’s biggest secret…

The drama kicks into high octane high gear as Keller and his hidden allies mercilessly strike back before the mystery and motives are revealed and the stunning conclusion reveals just how dangerous trust can be in a land which scours the heart and soul every minute of every day…

Smart, cynical and intoxicatingly devious, this superb fair-play murder mystery is one of the best comics crime capes of the last fifty years, spawning one sequel so far and offering the tantalising prospect of a third…

Cool, cruel and so, so good, this is a book for all mature comics readers and fiction fans alike…
™ & © 1998, 1999 2007 Greg Rucka. All rights reserved.

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Robin Archives volume 1


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Win Mortimer, Jim Mooney & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0415-0

Robin the Boy Wonder debuted in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940), created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson and introduced a juvenile circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mob boss. The story of how Batman took the orphaned Dick Grayson under his scalloped wing and trained him to fight crime has been told, retold and revised many times over the decades and still regularly undergoes tweaking to this day.

In the comics continuity Grayson fought beside Batman until 1970 when, as an indicator of those turbulent times, he flew the nest, becoming a Teen Wonder college student and eventually leader of a team of fellow sidekicks and young justice seeker – the Teen Titans.

He graduated to his own featured solo spot in the back of Detective Comics from the end of the 1960s, which he alternated and shared with Batgirl, and held a similar spot throughout the 1970s in Batman and won a starring feature in the anthology comic Batman Family and the run of Giant Detective Comics Dollar Comics. During the 1980s he led the New Teen Titans, first in his original costumed identity but eventually in the reinvented guise of Nightwing, re-establishing a turbulent working relationship with his mentor Batman.

His creation as a junior hero for younger readers to identify with has inspired an incomprehensible number of costumed kid crusaders, and Grayson continues in similar innovative vein for the older, more worldly-wise readership ofAmerica’s increasingly rebellious contemporary youth culture… but his star potential was first realised much earlier in his halcyon career…

From 1947 to 1952, (issues #65-130) Robin the Boy Wonder had his own solo series and regular cover spot in Star Spangled Comics at a time when the first superhero boom was fading to be replaced by more traditional genres such as crime, westerns and boys’ adventure stories. The stories blended in-continuity action capers with more youth-oriented fare with adults Batman and Alfred reduced to minor roles or entirely absent, allowing the kid crusader to display not just his physical skills but also his brains, ingenuity and guts.

This stellar deluxe hardback Archive compilation gathers together the first 21 tales from Star Spangled #65-85 covering February 1947 to October 1948, recapturing the bold, verve and universal appeal of one of fantasy literature’s greatest youth icons, opening with a fascinating Foreword by Roy Thomas, who discusses the origins and merits of boy heroes and the history of the venerable anthology title before offering some insightful guesses as to the identity of the generally un-named writers of the Robin strip.

Although almost universally unrecorded, most historians consider Batman co-creator Bill Finger to be the author of most if not all of the stories in this volume and I’m going to happily concur here with that assessment until informed otherwise…

Star Spangled Comics #65 started the ball rolling with ‘The Teen-Age Terrors’ illustrated by regular artist Win Mortimer (with the inking misattributed to Charles Paris) in which the Caped Crusaders’ faithful butler happens across an unknown trophy and is regaled with Dick’s tale of the time he infiltrated a Reform School to discover who inside was releasing the incarcerated kids to commit crimes on the outside…

That tale segues seamlessly into ‘The No-Face Crimes’ wherein the Boy Wonder acted as stand-in to a timid young movie star targeted by a ruthless killer, whilst #67 revealed ‘The Case of the Boy Wonders’ which saw our hero as part of a trio of boy geniuses kidnapped for the craziest of reasons…

An outrageously flamboyant killing in #68 resulted in the pre-teen titan shipping out on a schooner as a cabin and spending ‘Four Days Before the Mast’ to catch the murderer, after which modern terror took hold when Robin was the only one capable of tracking down ‘The Stolen Atom Bomb’ in a bombastically explosive contemporary spy thriller.

Star Spangled Comics #70 introduced an arch-villain all his own as ‘Clocks of Doom’ saw the debut of an anonymous criminal time-and-motion expert forced into the limelight once his face was caught on film. The Clock‘s desperate attempts to sabotage the movie Robin was consulting on inevitably led to hard time in this delightful romp (this one might possibly be scripted by Don Cameron)…

Chronal explorer Professor Carter Nichols succumbed to persistent pressure and sent Dick Grayson back to the dawn of history in #71’s ‘Perils of the Stone Age’ – a deliciously anachronistic cavemen and dinosaurs epic which saw Robin kick-start freedom and democracy, after which the Boy Wonder crashed the Batplane on a desert island and encountered a boatload of escaped Nazi submariners in ‘Robin Crusoe’ in a full-on thriller illustrated by Curt Swan & John Fischetti.

In #73 the so-very tractable Professor Nichols dispatched Dick to revolutionary France where Robin battled Count Cagliostro, ‘The Black Magician’, in a stirring saga drawn by Jack Burnley & Jim Mooney, after which the Timepiece Terror busted out of jail determined to have his revenge in ‘The Clock Strikes’, illustrated in full by Mooney who would soon become the series’ sole artist.

However Bob Kane & Charles Paris stepped in for the tense courtroom drama in #75 as ‘Dick Grayson for the Defense’ found the millionaire’s ward fighting for the rights of a schoolboy unjustly accused of theft, after which cunning career criminal The Fence came a cropper when he tried to steal 25 free bikes given as prizes to Gotham’s city’s best students in ‘A Bicycle Built for Loot’ (Finger & Mooney).

Prodigy and richest kid on Earth, Bert Beem was sheer hell to buy gifts for, but since the lad dreamed of being a detective, the offer of a large charitable donation secured the Boy Wonder’s cooperation in a little harmless role play. However when real bandits replaced the actors and Santa, ‘The Boy Who Wanted Robin for Christmas’ enjoyed the impromptu adventure of a lifetime…

Another rich kid was equally inspired in #78 and became the Boy Wonder of India, but soon needed the aid of the original when a Thuggee murder-cult tried to destroy ‘Rajah Robin’, whilst in ‘Zero Hour’ (illustrated by Mooney & John Giunta) The Clock struck one more with a spate of regularly-scheduled time crimes before Star Spangled #80 saw Dick Grayson become ‘The Boy Disc Jockey’, only to discover that the station was broadcasting clever instructions to commit robberies in its cryptically cunning commercials…

Robin was temporarily blinded in #81 whilst investigating the bizarre theft of guide dogs, but quickly adapted to his own canine companion and solved the mystery of ‘The Seeing-Eye Dog Crimes’, but had a far tougher time as a camp counsellor for ghetto kids after meeting ‘The Boy Who Hated Robin’. It took grit, determination and a couple of escaped convicts before the kids learned to adapt and accept…

A radio contest led to danger and death before one smart lad earned the prize for discovering who ‘Who is Mr. Mystery?’ in #83, after which Robin tried to discover the causes of juvenile delinquency by going undercover as a notorious new recruit to ‘The Third Street Gang’, and this initial outing ends on a spectacular high as the Boy Wonder sacrifices himself to save Batman and ends up marooned in the Arctic. Even whilst the distraught Caped Crusader is searching for his partner’s body, Robin has responded to the Call of the Wild, joined an Inuit tribe and captured a fugitive from American justice in #85’s ‘Peril at the Pole’…

Beautifully illustrated, wittily scripted and captivatingly addictive, these stirring all-ages traditional superhero hi-jinks are a perfect antidote to teen-angst and the strident, overblown, self-absorbed whining of contemporary comicbook kids. Fast, furious and ferociously fun, these are superb tales no Fights ‘n’ Tights fan will want to miss…
© 1947, 1948, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the Origin


By Joss Whedon, Christopher Golden, Daniel Brereton, Joe Bennett & various (Dark Horse/Titan Books Edition)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-105-2

Blood-drenched doomed love is still something of a hot topic these days so let’s take another look at one of the ancient antecedents responsible for this state of affairs – in the shape of Dark Horse Comics’ sequential reinterpretation of the cult B-movie which launched the global mega-hit TV franchise Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Starring Kristy Swanson, Donald Sutherland, Luke Perry and Rutger Hauer, the film was released in 1992 with a modicum of success and to the lasting dissatisfaction of writer/creator Joss Whedon.

Five years later he got to do the thing right and in the manner he’d originally intended. The ensemble action horror comedy series became something of a phenomenon and inspired a whole new generation of gothy gore-lovers and many, many “homages” in assorted media – including comics.

Dark Horse won the licensing rights in the USA, subsequently producing an engaging regular comicbook series and a welter of impressive miniseries and specials. In 1999 the company – knowing how powerfully the inclusivity/continuity/completism gene dominates comics fan physiology – revisited the troublesome movie debut. Scrupulously returning to the author’s script and core concept, restoring excised material, shifting the tone back towards what Whedon originally intended whilst subtly reconfiguring events until they better jibed with the established and beloved TV mythology, adaptors Christopher Golden and Daniel Brereton and artists Joe Bennett, Rick Ketcham, Randy Emberlin & J. Jadsen produced a new 3-issue miniseries which – finally – canonically established exactly what the former vapid Valley Girl did in her old hometown that got her transferred to scenic Sunnydale and a life on the Hellmouth…

The story opens in ‘Destiny Free’ as shallow but popular teen queen and cheerleader Buffy Summers shrugs off her recurring nightmares of young women battling and being killed by vampires throughout history to continue her daily life of smug contentment. Even a chance meeting with grungy stoner badboys Pike and Benny can’t dent her aura of self-assured privilege and studied indolence.

The nightmares keep mounting in intensity however, and all over town teenagers are disappearing…

Things come to a head the week her parents leave town for a trip. In a dark park, a maniac attacks Pike and Benny and is only driven off by the intervention of a mysterious, formidable old man. Even so the assailant manages to take the screaming Benny with him… Next day the old geezer is at school, annoying Buffy. She is blithely mocking until he tells her about her nightmares and explains that she has an inescapable destiny… as a slayer of monsters…

Deep in the bowels of the Earth a monster is marshalling his forces and making terrifying converts out of the spoiled worthless children of California…

Buffy’s stranger is exceedingly persistent and that night, despite her disbelieving misgivings, she and Merrick – an agent of an ancient, monster-hunting secret society – lurk in a graveyard waiting for a recently murdered man to rise from his fresh grave…

When he does – along with unsuspected others – Buffy’s unsuspected powers and battle reflexes kick in and against all odds she spectacularly triumphs…

‘Defenseless Mechanisms’ finds the altered Buffy grudgingly dropping her fatuous after-school activities – and former friends – to train with the increasingly strident and impatient Watcher Merrick. Even though her attitude is appalling and attention easily diverted, the girl is serious about the job, and even has a few new ideas to add to The Slayer’s traditional arsenal…

Even as she begins her career by luring vile vamps out by pretending to be a helpless lost girl in dark alleys, across town Pike is in big trouble. He also knows what is happening: after all every night Benny comes to his window, begging to be let in and offering to share his new life with his old, best buddy…

At school the change in Buffy is quite noticeable and all her old associates are talking and pointedly snubbing her, even as every sundown Lothos‘ legion gets bolder and bigger. A fatal mistake occurs on the night when Slayer and Watcher save the finally outmanoeuvred Pike from Benny and the Vampire Lord. Only two of the embattled humans survive and escape…

The tales escalates to a fantastic spectacular climax when the undead army invades the long-awaited Hemery High School dance looking for Buffy and fresh meat/recruits. With his bloodsuckers surrounding the petrified revellers and demanding a final reckoning, Lothos believed his victory assured, but in all his centuries of unlife he’d never encountered a Slayer quite like Buffy Summers…

Visually impressive, sassily scripted and proceeding at a breakneck rollercoaster pace, this smart and simple action-fest is extremely engaging even if you’re not familiar with the vast backstory, and is a creepy chronicle as easily enjoyed by the most callow neophyte as by the dedicated devotee – and besides with the shows readily available on TV and DVD, if you aren’t a follower yet you soon could – and should – be…
™ & © 1999 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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Power Surge Sunday

We’re trying something a little bit different today and concentrating on three exclusively paper-free entertainment experiences in recognition of the fact that we all live in the future now and – no matter how much I whinge about it – comics that you can’t trace with carbon paper are here to stay.

Maybe if it meets with general approval, doesn’t cause hair regrowth, a resumption of sexual of potency, or a falling of the skies we’ll do another digital Power Surge Sunday…

Let’s kick off with the latest batch of digitally archived British e-strips from Egmont UK’s Classic Comics line, comprising decades of superb material from Fleetway Comics, whose decades of existence under a variety of names produced a wealth of action-adventure, sports, romance, schools, science fiction, war, western, horror, spy and super hero stories, as well as some of the greatest and most innovative humour and gag-strips of all time.

In June the comic strip warehouse opened with four volumes from the legendary Roy of the Rovers football serial (originally published in the anthology Tiger from 1954 before gaining his own title in 1976). This has now been supplemented those with a fifth, all available from the iTunes store.

In addition this offering also added four new titles to the cartoon catalogue.

Seminal girl’s weekly Misty blended supernatural chills with relationship dramas and the title feature is now available to nostalgic adults and a whole new generation of fans.

Sinister suspense saga The Thirteenth Floor was a standout strip in short-lived 1980s horror title Scream and critically acclaimed cult combat classics Charley’s War and Major Eazy both contributed to the astounding success of weekly war comic Battle.

It’s a small and non-chronological start but, with the original periodicals in astonishingly short supply and print costs for graphic novels so high, this is a supremely cost-effective way to preserve and promote these fantastic fragments of our history.

With many more titles – such as the astounding Johnny Red – slated for inclusion, we can only hope that one day all of Fleetway’s prodigious storehouse of magnificent all-ages comics wonderment will be available for public perusal… and on more platforms.

Egmont’s Classic Comics are available from the iBooks Store on iPad for £1.99 each by following the links listed below.

MISTY:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/misty-comic-tales-from-mist/id573167123?mt=11

MAJOR EAZY:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/major-eazy-comic/id575022887?mt=11
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/major-eazy-comic-part-2/id575022909?mt=11

CHARLEY’S WAR:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/charleys-war/id575535490?mt=11
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/charleys-war-comic-part-two/id575567566?mt=11

ROY OF THE ROVERS:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/roy-rovers-comic-volume-5/id568395894?mt=11

THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/thirteenth-floor-comic-part/id573170121?mt=11
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/thirteenth-floor-comic-part/id573174728?mt=11


Aces Weekly
By David Lloyd and many and various

This isn’t a review at all; merely the strongest possible recommendation.

David Lloyd is one of the most dedicated and creative comics makers in the business. Whilst wowing the world with a superb body of work ranging from a host of licensed strips including Dr. Who, Hulk Comic, Night Raven, Wasteland, Espers, Hellblazer, Aliens, James Bond, as well as his groundbreaking collaborations with Garth Ennis on War Story and the landmark tour de force with Alan Moore on V for Vendetta, Lloyd spent huge amounts of time and energy training a generation of new creators at the London Cartoon Centre, Cartoon County and elsewhere.

Now he’s finally turned publisher, gathering together comic artists from Britain, the USA, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, China, New Zealand and the Philippines for a boldly new and enticing venture.

Aces Weekly is a new subscribers-only, exclusively digital comics experience starring some of the planet’s greatest sequential storytellers doing the kind of stories they’ve always wanted to.

The first anthologised issue contains:

Valley of Shadows by David Lloyd & Dave Jackson, Return of the Human by JC Vaughn & Mark Wheatley, Progenitor by Phil Hester & John McCrea, Paradise Mechanism by David Hitchcock, Shoot for the Moon by Alexandre Tefenkgi & Alain Mauricet, as well as shorter pieces from Lew Stringer, Carl Critchlow, Mychailo Kazybrid, David Leach, Phil Elliott, Esteban Hernandez & Rory Walker.

True Brit fanboys will be delighted to see the return of farcical-fave Combat Colin…

Stuffed with loads of added extras such as character sketches, working designs, line drawings and unlettered artwork, each volume of Aces Weekly comprises over 126 pages of top quality international strip material, and after the first 7-issue volume has been published on-line there will be a two week hiatus before the next volume begins.

Available to anybody with a computer/laptop/tablet device, internet access and a working credit/debit card, volume 1 of Aces Weekly only costs £6.99/$9.99/€7.99, accessible once you subscribe on the site cited below and get your personal password.

ACES WEEKLY is not available for download from any other on-line site, and is available exclusively digitally.

www.acesweekly.co.uk www.facebook.com/acesweekly http://youtu.be/n1G9iwsTqsc
@acesweekly
What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation?

 The Last Days – Truth, Justice and the Way (Kindle Edition)

By Andy Dickenson, illustrated by Sarah Evans (eBookPartnership.com)
No ISBN/ASIN B00A1AIBC8

Once again I’m compelled to admit a potential conflict of interest. I first met the author when he began attending my evening classes on comics scripting. I didn’t need to teach him much – just that the spell-checker is no substitute for proof-reading in our line of endeavour – and he showed me the proposal for a story he’d been working on. He found an artist and was planning to get that sucker done and published. That was in the last century and he’s since become a television journalist…

Some few years down the line here it is, transformed into an impressive debut novel and available as an e-book on Kindle…

In these enlightened days, the signature genre of comics – the super-hero – has finally gained a degree of literary legitimacy. Even if you ignore the pulp exploits of Doc Savage and the Shadow, the novelisations and prose experiments of the bigger comic publishers with their key brands and the success of such series as the ‘Wild Cards’, hyper-powered paladins and crazed masterminds have finally broken into mainstream publishing, but seldom with a much verve and all-out gusto as with this eerie, multi-disciplinary amalgam of supernatural chiller, conspiracy thriller, murder-mystery doomsday drama.

So, just to be clear: THIS IS A NOVEL. IT HAS VERY FEW PICTURES.

Thirty years ago civilisation came to an end. Now in the frozen foothills of Ben Nevis, perhaps the last stable community on Earth ekes out a precarious existence thanks to sullen cooperation and the incredible talents of a few impossibly gifted individuals.

Staggering out of the icy wastes one day towards the patchwork enclave of Albion comes German Klaus Gravenstein: a born survivor with a ghastly secret and a hidden master. The most telling factor in a concatenation of circumstances which resulted in mankind’s fall was a deadly hemorrhagic plague, and when the wanderer fails an impromptu medical at the city gates his quest seemingly comes to an abrupt and merciless end…

Albion was originally constructed as a vast reality TV set and after Armageddon set in the place became a haven for many different kinds of refugee, drawn in by the hope of safety and the wiles and comfortable charisma of a once-ubiquitous TV celebrity.

Here fallible mortal folk rub unwashed shoulders with faded stars, paramilitary warriors, a wizard, mad professors and a band of terrifying telepathic children. Ruled by an aged, self-appointed King and his dubious dynasty of schemers and paranormal prodigies, the far-from-contented populace soldiers on in the face of Armageddon’s dreary aftermath but is soon gripped in fresh terror and turmoil…

The community has its own team of heroes: noble Knights shepherded by an incredible mutant Messiah with astounding powers. Lord Truth had the ability to make wishes real and consequently supplied Albion with much of what it needed, from clothes to booze to guns and weapons – all conjured out of thin air. Yet he too was content to serve King and council, preferring to go on adventures and scavenging missions with his devoted, merely mortal squad of young warriors.

Now the world has been turned upside down. On the last away mission to the remains of London in search of the origins of the deadly Blood Plague and the true cause of the fall of mankind, Lord Truth was murdered…

Teenaged warriors and sole mission survivors Knight Six and Apprentice Tucker are far from forthcoming about what really happened, prompting pre-eminent Psionic court advisor Jon Way and Town Sheriff Sir Walter Justice to conduct their own uniquely distinctive private enquiries.

Neither is aware of the monstrous true threat to the entire town that begins when 12-year old super-telepath Neon Way – one of a core group of child psychics crucial to Albion’s infrastructure and survival – is targeted by a malign seductive force and slowly drawn from our reality into another universe from where she helplessly observes the ancient horror’s vile plot unfold.

In the imperilled enclave the innocent Six and Tucker independently conduct their own investigations into the death of their commander and comrades, gradually uncovering a Machiavellian web of deceit and double dealing, but the love-struck squire is only dimly aware that his beguiling comrade is harbouring a dreadful secret and appalling suspicions regarding the true perpetrator of the plot against Lord Truth…

Events surge into cataclysmic top gear when a ravening, unstoppable supernal monster invades the village hostelry and proceeds to inexorably decimate the screaming patrons before kidnapping Six and dragging her off into the dank service tunnels under the city, leaving only Tucker and Sir Justice to unravel the myriad interlinked mysteries poisoning the city before they can even begin the impossible task of saving the last dregs of feeble Humanity…

Captivatingly visual, cunningly intoxicating and perfectly picking through and living off the pop cultural scraps of our dying society, The Last Days seamlessly blends the exotic fantasy of the X-Men or Avengers with TV’s Alphas and Heroes, taps into the moody best of British Doomsday scenarists like John Wyndam, Christopher Priest and J.G. Ballard whilst referencing the urban horror of Stephen King and James Herbert.

This spellbinding yarn exuberantly mixes mysticism and science fiction elements with the catch-all bestiary of a comicbook universe: Mutants, demons, savvy sidekicks, gods, superheroes, warriors, monsters, mad scientists, obscure assassins and devious detectives all happily consort and interact in a cunning murder mystery that will entice and enthral comic readers booklovers.

Andy’s already hard at work on the sequel and I still think this one would make a stunning and outrageously eye-catching graphic novel…
© 2012 Andy Dickenson. All rights reserved.
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