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Fantastic Four: Extended Family


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, John Byrne, Steve Englehart, Walter Simonson, Dwayne McDuffie, John Buscema, Arthur Adams, Stuart Immonen, Paul Pelletier & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5303-0

The Fantastic Four has long been considered the most pivotal series in modern comicbook history, introducing both a new style of storytelling and a decidedly different manner of engaging the readers’ passionate attention. Regarded more as a family than a team, the roster has changed many times over the years and this long overdue examination from 2011 at last gathered a selection of those comings and goings to form a fascinating primer for new fans looking for a quick catch-up class.

I strongly suspect that it also performed a similar function for doddering old devotees such as me, always looking for a salutary refresher session…

If you’re absolutely new to the first family of super-fantasy, or worse yet returning after a sustained absence, you might have a few problems with this otherwise superb selection of clannish classics featuring not only Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Thing and the Human Torch but also most of the other Marvel stalwarts who have stuck a big “4” on their chests (or thereabouts) and forged ahead into the annals of four-colour heroic history.

However if you’re prepared to ignore a lot of unexplained references to stuff you’ve missed there’s a still a magically enthralling treat on offer in this terrific tome.

The Fantastic Four are – usually – maverick genius Reed Richards, his fiancée (later wife) Sue Storm, their trusty college friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s teenaged brother Johnny, driven survivors of a independently-funded space-shot which went horribly wrong after Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding.

When they crashed back to Earth, the quartet found that they had all been hideously mutated into outlandish freaks. Richards’ body became elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible and, eventually, project force-fields, Johnny could turn into living flame, and poor, tormented Ben was mutated into a horrifying brute who, unlike his comrades, could not return to a semblance of normality on command.

This compilation gathers issues #1, 81, 132, 168, 265, 307, 384 and 544 of “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” as well as issue #42 from the third volume which began in 1998. Confusingly, the title resumed its original numbering with this tale so it’s also #471.

It all began with the November 1961 premier release  which introduced ‘The Fantastic Four’ by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby and showed the mysterious Dr. Richards summoning his fiancée Sue, their friend Ben and Sue’s brother Johnny before heading off on their first mission. Via flashback we discover their incredible origins and how Cosmic Rays transformed them all into outlandish freaks…

Richards’ body had become impossibly pliable and elastic, Sue could fade away as a living phantom, Johnny could briefly blaze like a star and fly like a rocket whilst tragic Ben had been turned into a shambling, rocky freak. Shaken but unbowed the valiant quartet vowed to dedicate their new abilities to benefiting all mankind.

In ‘The Fantastic Four meet the Mole Man’ they foiled a sinister scheme by another hideous outcast who controlled a legion of monsters and army of subhuman slaves from far beneath the Earth by bravely uncovering ‘The Moleman’s Secret!’

This summation of the admittedly mediocre plot cannot do justice to the engrossing wonder of that breakthrough issue – we really have no grasp today of just how different in tone, how utterly shocking it all was.

“Different” doesn’t mean “better” even here, but the FF was like no other comic on the market at the time and buyers responded to it hungrily. Throughout the turbulent 1960s, Lee & Kirby’s astonishing ongoing collaboration rewrote the book on what comics could be and introduced fresh characters and astounding concepts on a monthly basis.

One such was The Inhumans. Conceived as an incredible lost civilisation and debuting in 1965 (Fantastic Four #44-48) during Stan & Jack’s most fertile and productive creative period, they were a race of disparate (generally) humanoid beings, genetically altered by aliens in Earth’s distant pre-history, who consequently became technologically advanced far ahead of emergent Homo Sapiens.

Few in numbers, they isolated themselves from the barbarous dawn-age humans, first on an island and latterly in a hidden Himalayan valley, voluntarily confined to their fabulous city Attilan – until a civil war brought them into the public gaze.

Old foe and charter member of the villainous Frightful Four, Madame Medusa was revealed as a fugitive member Royal Family of Attilan, on the run ever since a coup deposed her lover – the true king Black Bolt.

With her cousins Triton, Karnak and Gorgon, the rest would quickly become mainstays of the Marvel Universe, but Medusa’s bewitching teenaged sister Crystal and her giant teleporting dog Lockjaw were the real stars of the show. For young Johnny it was love at first sight, and Crystal’s eventual fate would greatly change his character, giving him a hint of angst-ridden tragedy that resonated greatly with the generation of young readers who were growing up with the comic…

Crystal stuck around for many adventures and eventually when the now-married Sue had a baby and began “taking things easy”, the Inhuman Princess became the first official replacement in the team.

From FF #81 (December 1968 by Lee, Kirby & Joe Sinnott) ‘Enter – the Exquisite Elemental’ saw the devastatingly powerful girl join Reed, Ben and Johnny just as incorrigible technological terror The Wizard attacked the team. In blisteringly short orderCrystal promptly pulverized murderous maniac and began a long combat career with the heroes.

After untold centuries in seclusion, increasing global pollution levels began to attack the Inhumans’ elevated biological systems and eventually Crystalhad to abandon Johnny and return to Attilan. By the time of Fantastic Four #132 (March 1973) Lee & Kirby had also split up and Roy Thomas, John Buscema & Sinnott were in charge of the show.

The concluding chapter of a 2-part tale, ‘Omega! The Ultimate Enemy!’ described how Crystal, her brand new fiancé Quicksilver and the rest of the Inhumans were attacked by their genetically-programmed slave-race the Alpha Primitives, seemingly at the behest of Black Bolt’s diabolical brother Maximus the Mad.

The truth was far stranger but the strife and struggle resulted in Medusa returning toAmericawith the team…

The more things changed the more they stayed the same, however, and by FF#168 (March 1976) Sue was back but the Thing was forcibly retired. ‘Where Have All the Powers Gone?’ by Thomas, Rich Buckler & Sinnott revealed how Ben had been reverted to normal, pedestrian humanity due to radiation exposure and a blockbusting battle with the Hulk and, deprived of the Thing’s sheer power, Reed had enlisted Hero for Hire Luke Cage as a replacement.

However the embittered Grimm simply couldn’t adjust to a life on the sidelines and when brutal bludgeoning super-thug Wrecker went on a rampage the merely mortal Ben risked life and limb to prove he could still play with the big boys…

After years in the creative doldrums the FF were dynamically revitalised when John Byrne took over scripting and illustrating the feature. Following a sequence of bold innovations the creator used the company wide crossover ‘Secret Wars’ to radically overhaul the team, and issue #265 (April 1984) revealed the big change in a brace of short tales re-presented here. Firstly in ‘The House That Reed Built’ the group’s Baxter Building HQ was the star as the automated marvel diligently dealt with a sinister home-invasion by Frightful Four alumnus The Trapster, after which Sue Richards was introduced to the Thing’s replacement (Ben having remained on the distant planet of The Beyonder for personal reasons) as the greenly glamorous She-Hulk joined up in ‘Home Are the Heroes’.

Jumping to October 1987, Fantastic Four #307 offered the most radical change yet as Reed and Sue retired to the suburbs to raise their terrifyingly mega-powered son Franklin, leaving the long-returned Thing to lead a team that consisted of the Human Torch, old flame Crystal and troubled super-strong Amazon Sharon Ventura who used the sobriquet Ms Marvel. However, before they even had a chance to shake hands, the new team was bitterly battling arcane alchemist Diablo in the gripping thriller ‘Good Bye’ by Steve Englehart, J. Buscema & Sinnott…

An even bigger shake-up occurred during Walter Simonson’s run in the gimmick-crazed ’90s. In an atmosphere of dwindling sales, high-profile stunts became the norm in comics as companies, realizing that a large sector of the buying public thought of themselves as canny “Investors”, began exploiting their readership’s greed and credulity.

A plot twist, a costume change, a different format or shiny cover (or better yet covers: plural), anything – just so long as The Press got hold of it – translated directly into extra sales. There are many stories and concepts from that era which (mercifully) may never make it into trade paperbacks and collections, but there are some that deserved to, did, and really still should be.

Simonson was writing (and usually drawing) the venerable flagship title with the original cast happily back in harness and abruptly interrupted his high-tech, high-tension saga with a gloriously tongue-in-cheek graphic digression. Three issues, #347-349, poked gentle fun at the trend-meisters and speculators, consequently becoming some of the “hottest” comics of that year.

Reprinted here from FF #347 (December 1990) is that splendid first chapter ‘Big Trouble on Little Earth’ (illustrated by Arthur Adams & Art Thibert, assisted by Gracine Tanaka) which revealed how a Skrull outlaw invaded Earth, with her own people hot on her viridian high heels. Evading heavy pursuit she attacked the Fantastic Four and seemingly killed them. Disguised as a mourning Sue Richards she then recruited the four best-selling heroes in the Marvel Universe – Spider-Man, The Hulk, Wolverine and Ghost Rider – to hunt down “the murderers” as The NEW Fantastic Four!

Their hunt took them to the bowels of the Earth and into battle with the Mole Man, and revealed fascinating background into the origins of monsters and supernormal life on Earth.

What could so easily have been a cheap stunt was elevated not only by the phenomenal art of Adams but also the lovingly reverential script, which referenced all those goofy old ‘Furry-Underpants Monsters’ of immediate pre-FF vintage, and was packed with traditional action and fun besides. Sadly only the first pulse-pounding chapter is included here but you really should track down the entire tale as seen in Fantastic Four: Monsters Unleashed…

Roster change became a constant during that desperate decade. When Tom DeFalco, Paul Ryan & Danny Bulandi took over the series they tried every trick to drive up sales but the title was in a spiral of commercial decline. Reed was dead – although Sue refused to believe it – and Franklinhad been abducted. Her troubled fellow survivors had their own problems. Johnny had discovered his wife Alicia was in fact the Skrull infiltrator Lyja, Sharon Ventura was missing and Ben had been mutilated in battle and taken to obsessively wearing a full-face helmet at all times.

In #384’s (January 1994) ‘My Enemy, My Son!’, Sue hired Scott Lang AKA Ant-Man to act as the team’s science officer whilst she led an increasingly compulsive search for her lost love. No sooner had the new boy arrived than Franklin reappeared, grown to manhood and determined to save the world from his mother, whom he believed to be possessed by a malign spirit named Malice…

Following the crossover event “Onslaught” the FF were excised from Marvel’s continuity for a year. When they returned rebooted and revitalised in 1998, it was as Stan & Jack first envisioned them in a brand-spanking new volume.

Always more explorers than traditional crimebusters, the FF were constantly voyaging to other worlds and dimensions. In Volume 3, #42 (June 2001 and double-numbered as #471) Carlos Pacheco, Rafael Marin, Jeff Loeb, Stuart Immonen & Wade von Grawbadger offered a blistering battle between the Torch and old frenemy Namor the Sub-Mariner which raged through New York City whilst Reed, Sue and Ben were lost in the Negative Zone. Strapped for allies, the two then formed an alliance against mutual foe Gideon with Johnny re-recruiting Ant-Man and She-Hulk before accepting the Atlantean’s cousin Namorita as the latest part-time member of the Fantastic Four…

This meander down memory lane concludes with another major overhaul, this one stemming from the publishing event The Initiative in 2007.

Fantastic Four #544 (March of that year) featured ‘Reconstruction: Chapter One – From the Ridiculous to the Sublime’ by Dwayne McDuffie, Paul Pelletier & Rick Magyar, with Marvel’s first family bitterly divided after the events of the superhero Civil War.

After years of stunning adventures, the close-knit group split up after the Federal Superhuman Registration Act divided them; Reed siding with the Government and his wife and brother-in-law joining the rebels. Ben, appalled at the entire situation, dodged the whole issue by moving toFrance…

A story-arc from issues FF #544-550 (originally running as ‘Reconstruction’) began in the aftermath in a group reconciliation, but with temperaments still frayed and emotional wounds barely scabbed over…

When Reed and Sue attempted to repair their damaged marriage by way of a second honeymoon to the moon of Titan – courtesy of the Eternal demi-gods who inhabited that artificial paradise – on Earth, Ben and Johnny were joined by temporary houseguests Black Panther and his new wife Ororo, the former X-Man Storm.

The royal couple of Wakanda had been forced to leave their palatial New York embassy after it was bombed, but no sooner had they settled in than old ally Michael Collins – formerly the cyborg Deathlok – came asking for a favour.

A hero named Gravity had sacrificed his life to save Collins and a host of other heroes and his body was laid to rest with full honours. But now, that grave had been desecrated and the remains stolen. When the appalled New FF investigated, the trail led directly into intergalactic space…

After visiting the Moon and eliciting information from pan-galactic voyeur Uatu the Watcher, the new questing quartet travelled to the ends of the universe where cosmic entity Epoch was covertly resurrecting Gravity to become her latest “Protector of the Universe”.

Unfortunately she wasn’t likely to finish her magic as the Silver Surfer and Galactus’ new herald Stardust were attacking the sidereal monolith, preparatory to her becoming the World-Eater’s next meal…

For the rest of that epic you’ll need to seek out Fantastic Four: the New Fantastic Four…

With a full cover gallery and pin-ups by Steve Epting & Paul Mounts, this power-packed primer and all-action snapshot album is a great way to reacquaint yourself with or better yet discover for the first time the comicbook magic of a truly ideal invention:  the Family that Fights Together…
© 1961, 1968, 1973, 1976, 1984, 1987, 1990, 1994, 2001, 2007, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Brain Eaters Bible – Sound Advice for the Newly Reanimated Zombie


By J. D. McGhoul with Pat Kilbane, Brian Ulrich, Dean Jones, Neil D’Monte & others (St. Martin’sGriffin)
ISBN: 978-1-250-02401-5

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: an ideal antidote for adult over-indulgence… 8/10

With the world in the dry, dusty grip of a Zombie Apocalypse and at least oneAmericanUniversityoffering Zombie Studies as part of its curriculum, it was only a matter of time before the perhaps misunderstood flesh-addicted revenants gained their own advocate for their particular post-lifestyle.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of zombie stories but occasionally something really tasty comes along and I’m forced to re-evaluate my position. Such an item is this wryly outrageous almanac from comedian, author and actor Pat Kilbane (Mad TV, Seinfeld, Semi-Pro, My Name Is Earl), a vast production team of artists, designers, photographers, make-up and FX folk, actors, models, martial artists, stuntmen and armourers, and ex-lab technician J.D. McGhoul who, since his passing, has worked tirelessly as an activist and educator for the burgeoning population of meat-seeking martyrs whose only hope is for a little piece – preferably of frontal, temporal or parietal lobe…

Together this dedicated group have merrily compiled a deliciously morbid foundation class in everything the newly-infected but so much more than brain-dead “walker” needs to keep unfit, unwell and full…

Although nobody living really knows the origins of the PACE (Postmortem Ambulation with Cannibalistic Encephalophilia) virus – the unsavoury savant here attributes it to stem-cell research gone wonky – the effects are obvious, apparent and permanent.

Thus there are plenty of sagacious asides about the worthlessness of moisturisers but extreme necessity of Febreze™, the commonsense of keeping your head covered, the pros and cons of working in groups and the necessity of never, ever underestimating the cunning and nastiness of the “Freshies” who constitute your preferred fodder…

Following the introspective Introduction and ‘Mouthful of Mud’ – the first of seven insightful Journal Entries about the unlife of the undead from Mr. McGhoul – the first comprehensive chapter Eat Brains describes in piercing detail ‘A Way of Life’, the ‘Reasons for Eating Brains’, ‘Only Live Brains; Only Human’, mind you, and then advises ‘Listen to your Cravings’, ‘Types of Brains’, ‘A Tough Nut’, ‘Brain Bits for the Connoisseur’ and ‘Health Concerns’ before discoursing ‘On Cannibalism’ and recommending ‘Just Love It’…

Know Your Body deals with ‘A New You’, ‘The PACE Infection’, how ‘A Plague is Born’, ‘Infection’, ‘Zombie Organs’, ‘Bodily Capacities’ and ‘Other Anatomical Facts’ whilst Hunt deals with ‘Brain Acquisition’, ‘Our Right to Make People Extinct’, ‘Pack Hunting’, ‘Ambush Hunting’, ‘New Principles of Combat’, ‘Close Combat Attack Techniques’, ‘Using Firearms’, ‘Using Other Weapons’ and offers some ‘Final Thoughts on Hunting & Combat’.

Interspersed with and following more plangent Journal Entries – ‘Hell’s Ragged Edge’, ‘Bitter and Raw’ and ‘Headhunter Laureate’, chapter 4 details how to Know Your Enemy: categorising the types and tactics of ‘Your Opposition in War’, ‘Sizing Them Up’ and pictorially detailing ‘Human Weaponry’ – ‘Handguns’, ‘Submachine Guns’, ‘Rifles and Carbines’, ‘Shotguns’, ‘Bows and Arrows’, ‘Thrown Weapons’, ‘Swung Weapons’ and ‘Thrusting Weapons’, before demonstrating ‘Human Combat Training’, ‘The Human Fear Response’, ‘Human Vulnerabilities’ and how in the end they are ‘Their Own Worst Enemy’.

‘Whom Shall I Fear’ is another inspiring extract from the author’s Journal Entries after which Move Your Head offers ‘A Defensive Mantra’, ‘Protective Stances’, ‘Self-Defense Techniques’, what is best when ‘Fighting Multiple Foes’, the merits of ‘Zombie Headgear’, ‘Serpentining’, ‘The Invisible Hunter’, how to be ‘The Elusive Traveller’ and why one must learn to ‘Stop, Look, Listen, Smell’, ‘Destroy Captured Assets’ and ‘Leave No Witnesses’…

From the Journal Entries comes the philosophy of ‘Self-Knowledge’ whilst the spiritual aspect and overarching mission of the Zombie Way is detailed in Infect Others as ‘The Four I’s’ – ‘Ingest’, ‘Infect’, ‘Inject’ and ‘Instruct’ before the final Journal Entry – ‘My Brother’s Maker’ reveals the aspirational hope that one day the world can be theirs…

Ostensibly written by erudite undead philosopher J.D. McGhoul, and with a savagely detached tongue firmly embedded in a torn and ragged cheek, this tome delivers a devilishly sly and hilarious fresh take on the undead, told with devastating, deadpan delivery and Goriously illustrated with photos, diagrams and drawings: a uproarious, marvellously authentic treat for every mordantly shambling horror fanatic and bleakly black humourist…

And if you can’t sleep at night just wear a steel crash helmet and keep telling yourself “Zombies don’t exist”.  You’ll be fine.

Probably.
© 2010 Mythodrome Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Adventures in Cartooning Christmas Special!


By James Sturm, Andrew Arnold & Alexis Frederick-Frost (First Second Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59643-730-2

Win’s Christmas Recommendation: a superb, truly interactive introduction to parental peace and perfect happiness – and no need for batteries to be included… 9/10

There are a host of books both academic and/or instructional, designed to inculcate a love of comics whilst offering tips, secrets and an education in how to make your own sequential narratives. There are precious few that do it with such style, enthusiasm and cunning craft as the far-too-occasional releases by the meritorious masters of the Adventures in Cartooning crowd.

Prolific and prestigious James Sturm has created a wealth of superb comics and graphic novels, worked for Raw, founded alternative news-mag The Stranger, established his own publishing house Bear Bones Press, and in 1997 he became a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. In 2004, with Michelle Ollie, he set up the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont; an educational institution dedicated to excellence in the narrative arts and current custodian of The Schulz Library (an American repository of rare comics, strips, books graphic arts and cartoons honouring the legendary creator of Peanuts).

In conjunction with Center graduates Andrew Arnold & Alexis Frederick-Frost in 2009, Sturm began a series of captivatingly bright and breezy books, cunningly contrived to lure youngsters into a life of line-drawing and full-colour story-making by making the lessons part-and-parcel of a fabulous magical excursion.

Now with the season of giving and kids bored-to-death-by-lunchtime upon us again, the quick-on-the-draw cartoon elf, his fractious friend the Princess Knight, their dragon and an overly sturdy steed return to help out Santa Claus in his darkest moment of existential doubt…

The stout Samaritan is wistfully pining for the good old days as his legion of diminutive helpers switches from crafting trusty toys and good old gadgets to writing code and packaging the electronic games, video clips, digital downloads and ubiquitous iWants Apps that modern children keep crying out for.

Convinced that this modern fascination is insubstantial and insufficient, Santa seconds the Magical Cartooning Elf and together they craft and construct a solid storybook for children to enjoy over and over again.

The crafty contributors assemble a torrent of tales all in rhyme so the readers will have the best of times.

There’s a snowman abominable and that valiant knight, plus kids who are giants and their tree of great height.

There’s a trip into space to capture a star and secrets of printing and distributing afar…

Once Santa’s happy that the book’s in the bag he assembles his team but hits a great snag.

Since the Yule’s now electric the Reindeer have retired, until enter the Dragon and that tubby old nag…

Zapped with Elf magic they deliver the books which are greeted with wonder not petulant looks.

All over the world kids are engrossed, and soon send their own comics back to Santa by post…

Seriously though: this book does include a handy “how-to” section, a selection of kid’s own creations and readers and purchasers are invited to send their works to Kris Kringle‘s newest recruits in Vermont at the Center for Cartoon Studies…

Aimed at ages 6 and above, this delightful, inspiring, inclusive and just plain fun book is a cheap, cheerful and potentially life-altering tome that could stop your youngsters from scribbling on walls and redirect that raw creativity onto safe, rewarding pages where we can all enjoy the fruits of their labours…
© 2012 James Sturm, Andrew Arnold & Alexis Frederick-Frost. All rights reserved.

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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.