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September 28, 2012September 27, 2012

Siege: Dark Avengers

By Brian Michael Bendis, Mike Deodato, Chris Bachalo & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4812-8

One of the most momentous events in Marvel Comics history occurred in 1963 when a disparate array of individual heroes banded together to stop the Incredible Hulk. The Mighty Avengers combined most of the company’s fledgling superhero line in one bright, shiny and highly commercial package, and over the years the roster has waxed and waned until almost every character in their universe – and even some from others – has at some time numbered amongst their serried ranks.

In recent years, Norman Osborn (the original Green Goblin) has, through various machinations, become the American government’s Security Czar: the â€œtop copâ€ in sole charge of a beleaguered nation’s defence and freedom, especially in regard to all metahuman threats and theUSA’s costumed community…

Under his draconian tenure the Superhuman Registration Act led to the Civil War, Captain America was arrested, murdered and resurrected, and numerous horrific assaults on mankind occurred: including the alien Skrulls’ Secret Invasion and Osborn’s oppressive â€œDark Reignâ€ which saw the World’s Mightiest Heroes driven underground, after which the mercurial mastermind replaced them with his own team.

These ersatz Dark Avengers comprised of dupes, puppets and a core of deadly super-villains disguised as long-established champions of justiceâ€¦

As well as commanding all of America’s covert agencies and military resources under his umbrella organisation H.A.M.M.E.R., Osborn also had his own suit of Iron Man armour and as Iron Patriot led his hand-picked team, which included Greek God of War Ares, befuddled golden superman Sentry and a dimensionally displaced alien dubbed Marvel Boy.

The more familiar public faces were Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel and Spider-Man played by criminal psycho-killers Bullseye, Moonstone and Venom. Osborn even convinced Wolverine‘s deeply disturbed son Daken Akihiro to masquerade as his despised mutant fatherâ€¦

Not content with such commanding political and personal power, Osborn also secretly conspired with a coalition of major menacing masterminds to divvy up the world between them. The Cabal was a Star Chamber of super-villains comprising Osborn, Asgardian God Loki, gang-boss The Hood, mutant Emma Frost, the sociopathic Taskmaster, Sub-Mariner and Doctor Doom, all working towards a mutually beneficial goal, but such egomaniacal personalities can’t play well together and cracks soon began to show, both in the criminal conspiracy and Osborn himself.

He finally overreached himself and led an unsanctioned assault on Asgard as Iron Patriot, promising to conquer theEarthboundCityof the Aesir for Loki, which prompted Doom to violently quit the group, resulting in a disastrous all-out battle between the assembled Masters of Evilâ€¦

When the fugitive Avengers reunited to stop him, Osborn’s fall from grace and subsequent incarceration led to a new Heroic Age, but before that happy moment there was a great deal of nefarious chicanery and double-dealing still to come…

This gritty action-packed tome, written by Brian Michael Bendis, collects the final fateful story-arc from Dark Avengers #13-16 and the first Annual, cataclysmically concluding the long and slow-building drama as part of a company-wide crossover event which reset the entire Marvel Universeâ€¦

The countdown to chaos begins here with that aforementioned Annual, illustrated by Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza & Al Vey, wherein the despondent Marvel Boy realises just what kind of men he’s allied with and goes AWOL.

Ensign Noh-Varr was a true hero in his own alternate dimension: a dedicated, decorated serving spacer; champion of the galaxy-spanning Kree Empire and passionate disciple of the ruling compound-intellect known as the Supreme Intelligence. However, since arriving on this planet he’d been manipulated and continually forced into dishonourable deeds until he could stomach no more.

Absconding with his cache of advanced weapons-tech, Noh-Varr undergoes a voyage of personal discovery on the streets ofNew York. He is befriended by feisty student Annie and almost inadvertently creates a huge tragedy when Osborn dispatches the utterly unstoppable Sentry to bring back the Dark Avengers’ errant extraterrestrial poster-boy.

Barely surviving a battle which decimates much of the City’s college district, the erstwhile Marvel Boy manages to escape and shamefully hide. His spirit all but broken, he manages to contact his cosmic mentor across the myriad infinities and receives a startling promotion when the Supreme Intelligence upgrades his tools and assigns him to protect Earth from all threatsâ€¦

Moreover, even though Osborn’s minions are unable to track the reborn star-warrior, other eyes are upon Noh-Varr and the fugitive true Avengers have bold plans for the new Captain Marvelâ€¦

Illustrated by Mike Deodato, the last hurrah of Osborn’s Avengers begins with some horrific revelations about Bob Reynolds, the too-good-to-be-true, nigh-omnipotent nice-guy metahuman Sentry. Not only is his established origin a deranged spin-doctor’s dream of heroic nonsense-mythology, but his true nature has proven too much for his wife Lindy.

Unable to stand the lies and tension any longer, she murders her husband in an off-guard moment, only to see him resurrect with no trace of any injury. The golden hero is afflicted with a deadly split-personality and the decent human within him is constantly and increasingly spectacularly battling to defeat the evil thing inside.

Not even suicide can long keep the malevolent Void beast quiet. To make matters worse, Osborn is actively conspiring with the ruthlessly evil half to eradicate the well-meaning, benevolent Robert Reynolds persona who is the only thing holding back what might well be the most malign and powerful force in existence.

The most annoying stumbling block is Bob’s deep love for his wife, but the ever-scheming Iron Patriot has the perfect solution to that minor obstacleâ€¦

Osborn is no stranger to inner turmoil and conflict. Part of him is earnestly striving to do the right thing – as he sees it – for America. Only his deputy Victoria Hand is close enough to see the spectre of the psychotic Green Goblin constantly nibbling away at the Security Czar’s resolve and conscience, but her attention is too often distracted.

Currently the cause is the wanton Moonstone/Ms. Marvel who is working her way through the Avenger’s roster; using sex to undermine the team’s cohesion and challenge Osborn’s authorityâ€¦

Just as Hand acts to assert her own dominance on the murderous crew, Sentry’s Void manifests and almost destroysNew York, until Osborn makes one final deal with itâ€¦

Things get a little complicated here and readers are strongly advised to consult Siege before continuing. However to recap for the sake of this reviewâ€¦

Asgard at that time was trapped in the Earthly realm and currently floating scant metres above the soil of Broxton, Oklahoma. Using his position as Chief of Homeland Security and capitulating to demands by evil god Loki, Osborn manufactured an â€œAsgardian incidentâ€ and launched an all-out invasion on the GleamingCity. The Iron Patriot actually overruled the American President and committed all the long-cultivated metahuman resources of H.A.M.ME.R., the Dark Avengers and a villainous penal battalion dubbed The Initiative to destroy the sorely pressed and time-lost Asgardiansâ€¦

This rash act also compelled an enraged and outvoted Dr. Doom to turn on the Cabal and unleash a deadly nanite swarm inside Osborn’sAvengersTowerâ€¦

Our story resumes here with Dark Avengers #15 as, with the Tower swiftly falling to Doom’s invading host and the team savagely counter-attacking, Osborn uses the opportunity to have â€œHawkeyeâ€ remove the aggravating hurdle of Lindy Reynolds foreverâ€¦

With the Void fully free and unleashed at last, the end of this saga results in a blockbusting knock-down, drag-out fight which sees the scattered and fugitive â€œrealâ€ superheroes such as Captain America, Nick Fury, Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Vision and all the other underground Secret Avengers triumphantly emerge to aid the Mighty Thor in ending Norman’s reign of terrorâ€¦

But not hereâ€¦

All that also occurs in Siege whilst this compelling but incredibly frustrating chronicle ends with the brooding aftermath of the epic wherein the vindicated true Avengers mop up their Dark replacements, mourn their dead, and put the disgraced Osborn behind barsâ€¦

This is a beautiful and powerful Fights ‘n’ Tights thriller full of fabulous incidents of character, suspense and adventure, all magnificently rendered by incredibly talented creators – as further proved by the cover gallery, Bachalo’s sketch pages and even Bendis’ pithy Afterword – but the inescapable truth here is that this book is only half the story (at the very least) and will be all but incomprehensible to new and casual readers.

Caveat so very Emptor, folksâ€¦

September 27, 2012September 26, 2012

NYX: Wannabe

By Joe Quesada, Josh Middleton, Robert Teranishi, Nelson & Chris Sotomayor (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1243-3

Not all Mutants in the Marvel Universe are found and mentored by heroes, villain or the ever-vigilant Federal Government. Some are just left to fend for themselves in a harsh and unforgiving world. That was the premise of an edgy but ill-starred seven issue X-Men spin-off created by scripter Joe Quesada and artists Josh Middleton & Robert Teranishi between 2003 and 2005: a much delayed and deadline-doomed saga which also introduced Wolverine’s â€œdaughterâ€ X-23 (originally an animation character) to the comic book continuity as part of a pack of homeless runaway mutant teenagers.

NYX: (New York: district X) Wannabe follows the troubled life of Kiden Nixon, who we first see as an innocent ordinary toddler witnessing her adored cop father gunned down in the streets. A decade later she is a very troubled bad-girl constantly battling her mom, her skeevy ratbag younger brother and everybody else; perpetually in trouble at school and just not giving a damn.

When she gets into a faceoff with juvenile gangbanger Hector Morales the violence and potential tragedy is only averted by teacher Cameron Palmer, who is pitifully unaware of how deep the animosities runâ€¦

When Hector attacks Kiden’s only friend Kara, the emotionally troubled but fiercely protective Nixon girl lashes out and an unsuspected power kicks in for the first time, leaving Morales with a shattered arm and Kiden horrified at what she might beâ€¦

If Cameron is baffled and traumatized by the bewildering event, Kiden is on the edge of reason and her positively toxic home environment doesn’t help. Waiting for the disciplinary hammer to fall at school and living in the middle of a frustrating and exasperating war between her male siblings and mother almost proves too much for the girl, but there’s worse waiting at Rudolph Giuliani High where the humiliated Hector has smuggled a gun past the metal detectorsâ€¦

When he shoots at her, Kiden’s time-freezing power spontaneously activates again and she easily disarms the static would-be killer. However when the world moves again she finds that Miss Palmer has been hit by the bullet she had so easily avoidedâ€¦

Kiden vanished for good that day, and six months later her tormented teacher has gone to pieces. The shock and trauma proving just too much, one typical day Cameron Palmer takes all her meds at once, slits her wrists in the bathtub and lets go of it all, only to be fortuitously found by Kiden Nixon, back from a chronological walkabout that has taken a little while, six months or many years, depending on your perspectiveâ€¦

As Kiden waits by Cameron’s hospital bedside, fending off the cops’ questions with practised maturity, across town a nigh-autistic child-hooker greets an old client with very specialised tastes. This john doesn’t want simple sex from Zebra Daddy‘s star turn, he just wants to be cut; deep and hard and oftenâ€¦

Daddy is the nastiest pimp in the Flatiron district and his clients and contacts are very powerfulâ€¦

Kiden is avoiding her family and stays with Cameron after her discharge, but cannot get her to accept that her former pupil is a mutant, nor that her being shot was the student’s fault. Still despondent, Palmer threatens to call Child Protective Services unless Kiden goes homeâ€¦

Nixon has another secret: for ages she has been receiving guidance and messages from the bloody ghost of her dead father, and that night he directs her to a sleazy hotel in the nastiest part of town. Following, Cameron finds Kiden in a room with a bleeding corpse, and an underage girl covered in blood and with claws projecting from the backs of her handsâ€¦

In the Bronxhardworking young Tatiana Caban uncomplainingly mixes her part-time jobs with schoolwork, but finds her greatest joy in caring for the veritable colony of stray animals she has gathered in the derelict ruins of the Borough. Meanwhile Cameron, the rescued cutter girl and Kiden sit in a Diner. The teacher is at last listening to her lost former student as the refugee girl describes her runaway months: when she learned how to use her powers, stopping and starting her personal time-line. Despite the obvious pitfalls it wasn’t all bad: avoiding cops, brutes and rapists eventually turned into living wild and free with fellow homeless kids and even finding first loveâ€¦

Eventually she returned home only to have her brother chase her away without ever seeing their mother or the new family she was marrying into. Sleeping in an ally that night her murdered father came to her and told Kiden to go to her teacher’s apartmentâ€¦

Tatiana’s home life is no picnic either with her mother preferring the company of bad men to caring for her own kids, but nothing like as bad as the story the hooker – â€œJadeâ€ -tells Kiden and Cameron about how her latest trick really died. â€¦and then dead Dad appeared againâ€¦

With issue #5 of the sporadically released and permanently deadline-missed series, artist Robert Teranishi and inkers Nelson & Chris Sotomayor replaced Josh Middleton, just as a flashback revealed how psychotic pimp Zebra Daddy took the news that a major repeat customer was dead and his best money-maker was in the wind with a couple of stray girlsâ€¦

In Cameron’s flat, the ghost – who only Kiden can see – is telling her to get out now and only moment’s later Daddy and his crew bursts in, all guns blazingâ€¦

Next morning Tatiana’s life changes forever as her mutant power triggers at school. Tragically that â€œgiftâ€ is to become an anthropomorphic form of any animal whose blood she touches – such as that wounded puppy she picked up on the way to classâ€¦

Her spectacular public transformation into a dog-faced girl sparks an anti-mutant riot in school and the terrified teen is hounded down Main Street by a crazed mob, until she runs straight into the hiding Kiden and her fugitive friends.

Zebra Daddy is going ballistic. Until the girls are safely disposed of, his business is a liability and potential death sentence, but none of his gang can find Jade or her friends. Lucky for him he knows someone who can helpâ€¦

Bobby Soul is a mutant too, a guy who can project his consciousness into others and possess them. As â€œFelonâ€, Bobby was a real asset to Daddy’s business but these days the guy was retired, spending his time looking after his severely mentally challenged and mute little brother. Nonetheless, Bobby could be persuaded to do a favour for an old comrade, especially as the money was so useful and his ex-boss promised nobody was going to get hurtâ€¦

Of course Daddy is unaware of the downside of Felon’s gift: all that time spent in other people’s heads meant that Bobby’s own memories were slowly erodingâ€¦

Events cascade to a bloody climax once Bobby’s powers ferret out the runaway girls and he passes on the information to ZD. However with his mission accomplished Bobby returns to his radically-impaired dependent and is horrified to see the blood-spattered ghost of a policeman hovering above the somnolent â€œLil’ Broâ€â€¦

With the dead white guy giving advice and instructions, Bobby realises how he’s been fooling himself and the errors of his solitary ways before setting off to make amends, well aware of what Zebra Daddy and his goons are really intending to doâ€¦

Of course nobody can conceive of what Kiden, Jade and â€œCatianaâ€ are capable of eitherâ€¦

Dark, harsh and pitilessly gritty this troubled tale of truly troubled teens effectively delves beneath the sordid underbelly of the urban cityscape to deliver a suspenseful, mature blend of mutant mayhem and hard-hitting social drama that will appal some Fights ‘n’ Tights fans but hopefully appeal to readers looking for an edge of tawdry realism in the fantasy fiction.

This collection also includes an exhaustive sketchbook section by Middleton, an examination of the cover creation process, an unused finished cover and extensive pencil art pages to enthral those with a need to know and a desire to make their own graphic epics one day.
Â© 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

September 26, 2012September 25, 2012

American Vampire Book 1

By Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque & Stephen King (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-0-85768-032-7

Here’s another welcome and long-past-due remedy to the scarlet deluge of lovey-dovey, kissey-poo tales of forbidden love between innocent modern maids and moody, tragic carriers of the Curse of the Night’s Children, and one that uses for its themes Darwinian Survival of the Fittest, old-fashioned Revenge and the ultimate grisly example of Manifest Destiny; all played out against the chillingly familiar backdrop of the bloody birth of a modern nationâ€¦

In Scott Snyder & Rafael Albuquerque’s stellar first narrative arc, augmented and supplemented here by a stunning sidebar storyline from the functionally mythical Stephen King, the kind of vampires that you should rightly beware of are introduced and explained, but although there are love stories in this series they’re probably not the sort you want your impressionable kids to readâ€¦

The sinister suspense begins with Snyder & Albuquerque’s ‘Big Break’ as, in the Hollywood of 1925, struggling but popular and ambitious would-be starlets Pearl Jones and Hattie Hargrove followed their dream of celluloid stardom working days as bit-players in movie mogul D. B. Bloch’s latest silent epic.

The girls had only been best friends for a short while but shared hardship had made them closer than sisters, even if, too often, Pearlwas distracted by itinerant musician Henry Preston and the aggravatingly persistent and obnoxious drifter who hung out near their Ladies-Only boarding house.

The actresses’ careers seemed destined to blossom when leading man Chase Hamilton invited the fame-hungry girls to one of Bloch’s legendary Producer’s parties. Despite shaded warnings from their laconic stalker,Pearl and Hattie attended but when the unctuous Chase took the Jones girl aside to meet D. B. it wasn’t for the kind of assignation she expected.

Reeling with horror the feisty actress found herself a morsel and kickback offering for a pack of wealthy European money-men who were also literal blood-sucking monstersâ€¦

King & Albuquerque then take us back to the hoary days of 1880 and Sidewinder, Colorado, as author Will Bunting relates the true story behind his novel ‘Bad Blood’ to a group of eager fans and historiansâ€¦

The ancient scribbler recounts the fantastic but apparently non-fictional tale of outlaw Skinner Sweet, a remorseless thief frustrating progress, killing good folks and stealing funds from sun-shy, Euro-trash millionaire railroad speculator Mr. Percy. When the psychotic bandit was finally captured by Pinkerton agent Jim Book and his deputy Felix Camillo, the triumphant banker laid on a special train and a gaggle of journalists to record the victory of civilisation over lawlessnessâ€¦

As the killer’s gang subsequently derailed the train and massacred everybody who survived the crash Skinner cruelly and casually took time out to reveal how he had killed Book’s wife â€¦

Sweet then gunned down Book and overwhelmed Camillo, but was utterly unprepared for the attack of the effete-seeming Percy who shrugged off the gang’s fusillade of bullets before slaughtering them all. Skinner didn’t die easily though, and in close combat with the fanged, gore-guzzling horror blew the European monstrosity’s eye out, consequently taking its blood into his own body before at last expiringâ€¦

Unknown to all, Bunting had seen everything and, as the fully-healed Percy tended to Book and Camillo, wisely decided to say nothing of the horror he’d witnessedâ€¦

The Hollywood story resumes with ‘Morning Star’ as Hattie and Henry discoveredPearl was missing. Driving to the isolated mansion they found her; ravaged, chewed to ribbons as if by some animal yet inexplicably clinging to life.

Pearlawoke in the Morgue, having been visited by her mysterious stalker. Skinner Sweet had shared his unique blood with her and now, as the once-deceased actress listened in astonishment, the smirking ghoul explained some facts of life – and death – to her.

Like himself she had been attacked by ancient, old-world vampires, but by sharing their blood – accidentally in his case but quite deliberately when Sweet bestowed his own kiss upon her – Pearl had become a new form of hybrid-bloodsucker, perfectly evolved to inhabit the New World, with completely different weaknesses to the old guard and, hopefully, sharing Sweet’s lust for revenge, taste for chaos and hunger for lifeâ€¦

After giving her a quick lesson on the differences between the European nosferatu who have carved themselves an almost unassailable position of closeted wealth and power in the young nation and the new American Vampires (now numbering two), the morally bankrupt wanderer then took off, leaving his hungry new offspring to sink, swim or stand on her own shape-shifting, taloned feetâ€¦

He did leave a present though: locked in her closet, Chase Hamilton quickly realised he was about to pay for all his many sinsâ€¦

‘Deep Water’ saw author Will Bunting also in 1925, talking about the re-issue of his fantastic novel to a store full of avid fans. The tale, which described the iconic life of heroic Jim Book and his battle against vampire outlaw Skinner Sweet, resumed at the point when the infected owlhoot woke up in his own grave. Far above him the cabal of expatriate vampires secretly dominatingAmerica’s nascent financial system continued accruing wealth and power and insouciantly turned the entire town ofSidewinder intoColorado’s latest reservoir and boating lakeâ€¦

For nearly thirty years Book continued with his peacekeeping profession and eventually Camillo became Mayor of the new town of Lakeview. Bunting had turned the tale of Sweet and the vampires into a popular dime-novel and sensation-seekers and treasure-hunters were regularly dredging the man-made mere for souvenirs of the infamous outlaw.

One day in 1909 a couple of them unearthed the now legendary bad-man’s buried, sunken coffin and unleashed a rabid horror unlike anything ever seen in the world before: a leech unaffected by running water, stakes or sunlight. Hungry for revenge and sustenance Skinner Sweet emerged into a newAmericaand began hunting old â€œfriendsâ€ he owed a debt toâ€¦

In TinselTownmeanwhile, Pearlhad returned to her lodgings and told the shell-shocked Hattie to flee before continuing her own quest for vengeance in ‘Rough Cut’. The immortal Euro-cabal were, as usual, discussing what to do about their personal nemesis Sweet and his protracted annoyance, unaware that they had a far more pressing problem. That all changed after the unstoppable and infinitely superior Pearl slaughtered three of them. Without knowing what could kill this new world species of vampire, the clique resorted to age-old stratagems even as Miss Jones – resuming mortal form – turned to Henry for a little comfort and supportâ€¦

Just then the phone rang and Bloch demanded that she surrender herself or Hattie would die horriblyâ€¦

Back in 1909 Sweet’s ‘Blood Vengeance’ eliminated every human in Lakeview and proclaimed his intentions to a horrified coterie of arrogant old-world bloodsuckers who had previously believed themselves the planet’s apex predators. Even so, the resurgent outlaw had more pressing business. Before the last man in town died, Sweet made him send a telegram to Jim Bookâ€¦

‘Double Exposure’ found Pearl desperately negotiating for Hattie’s life, knowing surrender would lead her to becoming the cabal’s eternal, experimental lab rat but utterly unaware that she had already been betrayed by someone close to her who was pitifully greedy and unable to resist the subtle pressures and obvious blandishments of the European ancients.

However even bushwhacked, mysteriously weakened and brutally assaulted, Pearl, with the aid of her last true friend, managed to turn the tables and even destroy Bloch’s fortress before escaping to prepare for one last showdownâ€¦

The writer’s tale was also approaching a climax as ‘One Drop of Blood’ found Book, Felix, the young Bunting and Camillo’s daughter Abilena hunting Sweet in the hellish ruins of Lakeview just as the bloodthirsty travesty discovered that his powers and energies were unaccountably waning. Watching unsuspected from a distant position of seclusion, the â€œEuro-Vampsâ€ bided their time and saw the shocking finale as the valiant comrades used dynamite to bury the debilitated devil in a deep mine-shaft under tons of unyielding rock – but not before the sadistic Skinner had deliberately infected Book with his own tainted, mutagenic bloodâ€¦

Pearl’s story in this first stunning volume concludes in a sustained spray of scarlet gore as she climactically confronts Bloch and his surviving comrades only to face one final tragic betrayal in ‘Curtain Call’ whilst ‘If Thy Right Hand Offend Theeâ€¦‘ discloses Jim Book’s last desperate battle against the cursed thirst Sweet had inflicted upon him, even as the unstoppable Skinner enjoyed one last chat with the Euro-leech who created himâ€¦

The time-distanced yet parallel tales then coincide and conclude with a hint of foreboding; presaging more horrors in the days and decades to comeâ€¦

This initial creepy, compelling chronicle also includes a pithy Afterword from Snyder, a welter of variant covers by Albuquerque, Jim Lee, Bernie Wrightson, Andy Kubert, JH Williams III and Paul Pope, a feature on the script-to-art process and 6 pages of designs and sketches by the supremely skilled and multi-faceted Albuquerque to delight and impress all fans of truly mature supernatural thrills and chills.

Far more True Blood than Twilight and substantially closer to Sam Peckinpah than John Ford or Tod Browning, this lightning-paced, sardonic and gory excursion into blood and sand and love and death is a spectacular and absorbing riot by two of the industry’s best and new talents, backed up and covered by an absolute master of tone and terror, combining to craft a splendid, sordid, sexy and utterly spellbinding saga, riddled with far deeper metaphors than â€œunrequited love sucksâ€.

American Vampire offers solid screams and enchantingly fresh ideas that all fear-fiends will find irresistible making this book an absolute â€œmust-haveâ€ and a certain reminder that there are such things as monsters and some beasts just should not be tamedâ€¦
Â© 2010, Scott Snyder and Stephen King.Â All Rights Reserved.

September 25, 2012September 20, 2012

‘There’s a Lot of it About’

By Geoffrey Dickinson (Columbus Books)
ISBN: 978-0-86287-253-3

Since we’re well into the snot and sniffles season I thought I’d cheer myself up with this handy handbook of ailments and medical mis-practice from one of Britain’s best and most influential cartoonists Geoffrey Dickinson, a veteran mainstay of Punch, Time, The Financial Times and many others. This is probably his best collection of gags but his second opinion on medical matters ‘Probably Just a Virus’ is almost as good but a lot harder to find these daysâ€¦

British cartooning has been magnificently served over the centuries by masters of form, line, wash and most importantly clever ideas, repeatedly poking our funny bones, pricking our pomposities and feeding our fascinations, and nothing says more about us than our rocky relationship with the beloved yet dreaded agents of the National Health Service.

Award-winning cartoonist Geoffrey Samuel Dickinson was born on May 5^th 1933 inLiverpool and studied at Southport School Art (1950-1953) before graduating to the Royal Academy Schools. Set on a career as a landscape painter he taught art in Croyden, atTavistockBoysSchool and theSelhurstGrammar School until 1967.

To supplement his income he freelanced as a graphic designer and animator for the BBC and began selling gags to Punch as early as 1963.

In 1966 his famous cover for the April 15^th issue of Time Magazine was deemed to have officially launched â€œthe Swinging Sixtiesâ€ and London as the capital city of cool, and a year later he took a staff position with Punch as Deputy Art Editor under the legendary Bill Hewison, but still found time to freelance, working for Reader’s Digest, Which?, Esquire, Highlife, Hallmark Cards and many more.

In 1984 Dickinsonleft the humour standard to take up a position at the Financial Times, drawing cartoons for the daily and producing illustration material for the weekend supplement. He died far too young in 1988.

Within the pages of ‘There’s a Lot of it About’ – and following a pithy introduction from much-missed master of acerbic wit Alan Coren – the fit, the fat, the festering and the foolish will all learn the truth about the health of the nation in such chapters of chilling encounters and dodgy diagnoses as ‘The Waiting-Room’, ‘In the Surgery’ and ‘Sharp Practice’, before meeting stroppy secretaries, seen-it-all sawbones and formidably starched matrons as well as the puling punks, cadaverous clerks and clerics, cocky kids, goofy old gaffers, loony little old ladies, brusque businessmen and other tedious time-wasters all abusing valuable visiting hours ‘On the Touchline’, ‘At the Barbers’ and ‘At the Dentist’â€¦

Moreover, as well as warning of ‘Student Doctors’, ‘Showbiz Doctors’ and the ‘Bogus Doctor’, we follow fully-rounded physicians into their private lives ‘On Holiday’, ‘At the Wheel’, in the garden with ‘Doctor Greenfinger’, at the ‘Doctor’s Wedding’, over ‘The Festive Season’ and on ‘The Morning After’, before examining doctors in love undergoing ‘Affairs of the Heart’â€¦

These kinds of cartoon collections were once ubiquitous best-sellers available everywhere, but these days are perennial library and jumble sale fare – in fact I actually found this brilliant cure-all for the blues at a Hospital charity shop – but if you ever see a Dickinson (or indeed, any cartoon collection) in such a place, do yourself a favour, help out a good cause and have a healthy horse-laugh with these all-but-forgotten masters of illustrative mirth.

They’re really good for what ails youâ€¦
Â© 1985 Geoffrey Dickinson. 1933-1988

September 24, 2012September 19, 2012

Spider-Girl: Who Killed Gwen Reilly?

By Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4319-2

During a truly scary sales downturn in comicbook sales that afflicted the mid-1990s, American publishers tried all manner of stunts and ideas to retain their rapidly-diminishing readerships. Marvel especially attempted ever-wilder schemes to bolster sales and the one with the most lasting effect, if not success, was to create a pocket universe of interlocking titles featuring the offspring of mainstream characters such as The Avengers and Spider-Man.

Kicking off with a throwaway tale in What Ifâ€¦? volume 2, #105 (February 1998 and clumsily asking ‘What If Mary Jane had never lost the baby, and Spider-Man had a Spider-Girl?’) the notion launched a batch of younger, ostensibly contemporary characters battling modern menaces in the old-fashioned way.

That introductory yarn was eventually re-released as Spider-Girl #0 and is reprinted at the end of this collection of recent episodes which primarily gathers the Alternate Arachnoid Avenger’s short stories from Amazing Spider-Man Family #1-8 and back-up strips from Web of Spider-Man (2009) #1-4.

May â€œMaydayâ€ Parker is the daughter of Peter Parker and wife Mary Jane, and she developed arachnoid superpowers whilst in High School, giving writer/creator Tom DeFalco a chance to rehash the teen-angst shtick of the primal, all-hallowed – and supremely successful – Stan Lee/Steve Ditko days of the company’s infancy.

What with disapproving parental units to dodge, vengeful enemies to tackle, lots of guest stars and the hell that has always been school days to wade through, it frequently felt like a pretty cynical attempt to recapture the glory days, but it was extremely entertaining, worked well and struck a chord with the Faithful.

Spider-Girl became Marvel’s longest running female-starring solo-title, outliving by years every other book in the â€œMC2â€ Universe.

Although she is much less a nerd than her father ever was – I suspect modern kids aren’t so ready to own their alienation issues, and besides, reading comic books is enough geekiness for anyone to admit to – Mayday still endured the traditional torments of teen life, but after many months her concerned guardians grudgingly accepted her need to help humanity as a bona fide super-hero and so, whilst perpetually dealing with classroom politics, hesitant romantic overtures, crushes and strained relations with the rest of the second-generation Marvel Offspring (such as Darkdevil, Stinger, The Buzz, New Avengers and the Fantastic Five), Spider-Girl gradually became a fixture of the alternate future Marvel Universe.

Eventually Mayday’s popularity waned and her first volume ended with issue #100 in 2005, only to return a year later for a 30-issue run as The Amazing Spider-Girl before transferring to support strip status in the anthological Amazing Spider-Man Family (#5-8) and simultaneously as a part of Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited webcomic experiment in 2009 as Spectacular Spider-Girl.

Thereafter Mayday sprang into the back of the latest incarnation of Web of Spider-Man, out into a 4-issue miniseries (Spectacular Spider-Girl again) and the finale one-shot Spider-Girl: The End.

I think I got all that right, butâ€¦

This quirky collection opens with the pertinent parts of Amazing Spider-Man Family #5-8, by DeFalco, Frenz & Sal Buscema, and asks ‘Who is Gwen Reilly?’ A very brief recap of those 130 intervening issues reminds us of May’s origins and how she is currently acting as big sister to her own clone who had been grown in secret by the maniacal secret society The Order of the Goblin. Subsequently she gained the metamorphic powers – and weaknesses – of the sinister alien Symbiote which had created Venom and Carnageâ€¦

The clone – who of course claims to be the original May – is wildly unstable and prone to viciously excessive violence, as seen when the girls encounter a robbery in the street, part of an escalating gang war between New Yorkcrime kingpin Black Tarantula and potential cyborg usurper Silverbackâ€¦

Peter and Mary Jane Parker, barely coping with their new son’s physical problems, are more concerned that there are two teenaged May’s in the house but whilst the clone solves that problem with her shape-shifting abilities, she is far more reluctant to surrender her claim to the actual identity of the â€œrealâ€ daughter of Spider-Manâ€¦

That all changes at school next morning when she rolls up as sexy, flamboyant wild-child â€œcousinâ€ April Parker and begins to steal all May’s friends. The senior Parker goes ballistic that night at home but is cut short when another impossible girl turns up.

Gwen Reilly claims to be the long-lost daughter of Peter’s brother Ben but is clearly unaware that the identity was just a fictitious persona used by a Spider-Man clone in the years before the Wall-crawler was maimed in battle against the Green Goblin and retired from costumed crusadingâ€¦

When the stranger leaves, May and April follow her but are separated by another gang crime. When May finally catches up she finds her doppelganger standing over the brutalised corpse of the mystery girlâ€¦

‘Who Killed Gwen Reilly? ratchets up the tension as May calls her dad – now a forensic scientist working in the NYPD crime lab – to deal with the mystery. Most troubling is April’s callous disregard for the stranger’s death: is it possible her emotionally stunted double could actually have committed the murder, despite all her protestations of innocence?

Certainly the female facsimile is no stranger to mischief, using her shape-shifting power to covertly cosy-up to the boy May shyly adores, but with a slaying to solve, Spider-Girl pushes it all onto a back-burner and seeks assistance from demonic do-gooder Darkdevil, before being ambushed by one of her father’s oldest and most savage foesâ€¦

As a result of her hopeless battle against Tombstone, May is left for dead and dumped in the New Jersey Pine Barrens whilst April is busy saving victims of a tenement blaze in ‘Into the Fire!’ but once the crisis is over, the clone ruthlessly ends the Granite Gangster’s threat for ever and simply assumes May’s identity, even fooling Peter and Mary Jane as she luxuriates in finally becoming the only child and declaring ‘There’s a New Spider-Girl in Town!’â€¦

The convoluted commotion continued without missing a beat in Web of Spider-Man (2009) #1-4, as two lazy thugs cut corners and dump May’s battered, broken body short of their regular disposal spot, thus allowing the supposed corpse a last, desperate chance to escape in ‘Angels and Devils’. Scared and furious, the gunsels track the wounded warrior but are attacked by a monstrous winged beast which can only be the mythical Jersey Devilâ€¦

Struggling back to relative civilisation May sneaks into her home, utterly unaware that â€œSpider-Girlâ€ has been ambushed by the deadly Goblin Queen in ‘Like a Fury Scorned!’ The last heir of the twisted Osborn legacy was responsible for creating the Mayday clone and the Gwen Reilly conspiracy but is in a desperate war with her sire’s Order of the Goblin Â personality cult. Claiming April as her spiritual sister, Fury has captured the spider-clone with the heartfelt intention of making her an ally.

May, meanwhile, has recovered and deduced how April has attempted to replace her. Heading to school and eager to reclaim her life, the bruised battler stumbles straight into another catastrophe as Goblin Queen attacks, attempting to kill RenÃ© DeSantos, an influential member of the Order whose unfortunate and unaware daughter Simone is a classmate of the real Ms Parkerâ€¦

Barely surviving the shattering attack, May and Darkdevil unite to track down Fury in ‘Whom Gods Destroy’, backed up by erstwhile Spider-clone super-menace Kaine – now a very senior and Special Federal Agent – and raid her lair only to find the morally ambiguous and definitely untrustworthy April in full Carnage Symbiote mode as the Goblin Queen’s allyâ€¦

The saga culminates in a blockbuster brouhaha as ‘They First Make Mad!’ brings the house down and sets events in motion for the final chapter in Mayday Parker’s fantastic lifeâ€¦

But that’s not included here, even though there’s still plenty of web-spinning wonderment on show.

First up is a terrifically enjoyable run of vignettes from Amazing Spider-Man Family #1-4, set in the same futureverse, but in the early years when May was still a baby. Mr. and Mrs. Spider-Man by DeFalco, Frenz & Sal Buscema opened with the still-active and cash-strapped Wall-Crawler battling the lethal Lizard whilst Mary Jane discussed the pressure of ‘Family Ties!’ with the mutated biochemist – and potential employer’s – distraught and desperate wife and childâ€¦

After a horrific drive-by shooting ‘Those Who Never Return!’ explored the understandable worries of the wife of a practising superhero confronted by a situation where only her hubby could make things right, the absolutely brilliant ‘Common Ground’ (illustrated by Todd Nauck) found Pete and MJ in a bustling, frustrating hospital Emergency Room, frantically waiting to see a doctor after baby May catches her first cold.

It’s not the place you want to see short-tempered super-villain the Rhino trying to cut the line because his beloved ancient auntie is really sickâ€¦

The domestic delights finish up with ‘Career Paths’ as a very convincing and sympathetic thief takes the young Marrieds hostage for the very best of reasons and for a very galling ride, after which this tome concludes with that aforementioned What If?/Spider-Girl #0 yarn.

‘Legacyâ€¦ in Black and White’, illustrated by Frenz & Bill Sienkiewicz, relates how ordinary lass May Parker suddenly found herself possessed of incredible abilities just as the last Green Goblin inexplicably attacked her fuddy-duddy crime lab daddy. When her mother revealed the long-kept secret of his former life, the horrified girl only had one real choice to makeâ€¦

Even though the stories are capable and well produced and accompanied by a superb cover gallery by Frenz, Paulo Siqueira, Joe Suitor, Nuno Plati, Pasqual Ferry & Jelen Djurdjevic to enchant the eyes, this is a truly odd book to read: starting in the middle, proceeding without conclusion to the penultimate, skipping back to a prologue and ending at the beginning.

Even after all the Spider-Girl issues I’ve read from the feature’s inception I found myself regularly stopping to check elsewhere before being able to continue with this collection, so I’ve never been more serious when I say don’t read this unless you’re well versed in the arcane arachnid arcane and lore or need a headache to get out of some even more onerous taskâ€¦

Even so: if some editor would kindly re-order and re-release this tome I’d happily give the Weirdly Winsome Webbed Wonder another goâ€¦
Â© 1998, 2009 & 2010 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

September 23, 2012September 19, 2012

The Runaways

By Joss Whedon, Michael Ryan & Rick Ketchum, Jay Leisten, Andrew Hennessy, Victor Olazaba & Roland Paris (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-408-9

The Runaways are a bunch of super-powered kids whose parents kept from them the rather surprising news that were secretly a cabal of would-be world conquerors called â€œThe Prideâ€. These extremely circumspect and clandestine villains played it smart for years and completely controlledLos Angeleswithout the populace knowing they even existed – which was why all the baddies and monsters in the Marvel Universe generally hung out aroundNew Yorkand the East Coast.

After many trials and tribulations – including the death of some of the rebellious kids – the young absconders overthrew and eradicated their progenitors, with the unwelcome result that LA became a soft target and open city for ambitious costumed ne’er-do-wells.

The orphans were all placed with well-meaning but clueless social services, forcing them to again run away, taking to the streets again.

Preferring life together and driven to protect the city they unwittingly endangered, the kids even found a few new recruits but not all of them were trustworthy eitherâ€¦

The underlying premise of this series is that adults can’t be trusted – only your friends and comrades – and this volume (collecting volume 2, issues #25-30 of the monthly comic-book) takes that to deliciously ludicrous extremes whilst simultaneously exploring a long-neglected era of America’s metahuman history, and even dabbling in a little doomed romancing as only the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Dollhouse could conceive itâ€¦

Visiting the Big Apple, the fugitive kids encountered such obstructive and overbearing adult luminaries as Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Luke Cage and Wolverine as well as the skeevyNew York underclass who were the Runaways’ East Coast counterpartsâ€¦

Even after returning to their nominal home turf things weren’t easy and they even inconclusively clashed with the Federal Governmentâ€¦

The current roster comprises Nico Minoru, last in a long line of hereditary sorcerers, whilst Karolina Dean was once the compliant daughter of two domineering aliens intent on global conquest. But now they’re gone she’s unexpectedly entered into a loving relationship with the rebellious shape-shifting, gender-fluid apprentice Super-Skrull Prince Xavin that they had previously arranged for her to wed as a condition of truce between their warring civilisationsâ€¦

Little Molly Hayes is much younger that the others, a super-strong, invulnerable child of evil mutant parents, whilst oafish teen Chase Stein was the son of genuine mad scientists. He might not have inherited their intellects but he has got lots of toys from their arsenal. He also sort of inherited the genetically-augmented 87^th century empathic dinosaur Old Lace when her beloved owner Gertrude Yorkes was killed by the Pride.

Gertrude’s folks were time-travelling bandits and would-be world conquerorsâ€¦

The latest edition to the group is Victor Mancha, who can control electricity and manipulate metals; gifts his â€œfatherâ€ (robotic despot Ultron) considered quite useful in the secret weapon he was building and growingâ€¦

As this story opens the outcasts are back in the City that Never Sleeps (but Steals your Stuff if You Do), painfully aware of their legal status and parents’ reputation. In unfamiliar territory and perilously isolated, they enter into a deal with nefarious Wilson Fisk, the ganglord who truly rules New York. The kids want license to move about freely, unmolested by cops, heroes and Social Services. In return the Kingpin wants them to â€œacquireâ€ a certain object for himâ€¦

â€¦And across the sleeping city, a very old woman and her monstrous guardian angel wait for events to tragically replay themselves outâ€¦

With Gert dead, Nico has become leader – a role she neither wants nor believes herself qualified to perform – and reluctantly acquiesces to the ponderous crime-lord’s wishes, committing the kids to breaking into a skyscraper citadel and purloining a mysterious egg-like chronometer, but the mission goes horrendously wrong when urban vigilante Frank Castle explosively intervenesâ€¦

However The Punisher is himself ambushed by a ghastly winged apparition who apparently wants to kill the kids himself. Caught flat footed, the youngsters run away and regroup at the Leapfrog (their futuristic vehicle and another useful tool inherited from the deceased Yorkes) but are again surprised by Castle.

The ever-prepared and action-savvy Punisher learns a painful lesson however when he lets little Molly get too close and catches a super-punch somewhere between his chest armour and knee-guardsâ€¦

Chase meanwhile has examined the object and realised it’s something his parents built using the Yorkes’ future techâ€¦

When they meet up with the Kingpin, the mountainous malcontent attempts to double-cross them, but his ninjas are no match for the furious betrayed kids and in the melee the monster angel reappears and gives Victor a messageâ€¦

On the run again the fugitives bundle into the Leapfrog and Chase plugs the stolen artefact into the dashboard. There is a strange flash of light and the ship crashes into an alleyâ€¦ in 1907â€¦

Talking over their options the kids deduce that the time-jump was pre-programmed and therefore the deceased Yorkes must have cached helpful technology in this era. Setting out to search the primitive city they stumble upon a tenement fire and unhesitatingly use their flamboyant abilities to save the women and children trapped in what turns out to be a completely legal sweatshop.

The rubbernecking spectators don’t seem too shocked and the reason soon becomes apparent when shady character Eddie Gunnam introduces himselfâ€¦

Carrying a lucky magic walking stick and calling himself The Swell, Eddie is part of a growing band of metahumans he calls â€œWonders of the Modern Ageâ€. Soon he’s introducing the time-lost tribe to own his band of ragamuffin companions; aerial dancer Lillie â€œThe Spielerâ€ McGurty, diminutive Creeper, brutish tomboy Hoyden, The Yellow Kid, Dead George Pelham and a hulking winged bravo named Tristanâ€¦

In this harsh exploitative world the street urchins try their best to survive but hard times are made worse by a brewing war between two gangs of Wonders with diametrically opposed philosophies: the nominally virtuous but ruthless Upward Path and The Sinners, a savage band of criminals led by a mysterious husband and wife team with fantastic inventive skillsâ€¦

Karolina is distracted. During the fire she had tried to rescue a little Swiss immigrant girl – barely Molly’s age – only to see the waif use incredible plant hyper-acceleration abilities to save herself. The alien princess tracked the child to her home where her brutal, indolent father was beating the household’s only breadwinner for her laziness. With Molly in tow Karolina returns the next day and offers Klara Plast refuge, but the frightened lass is too scared to leave her husbandâ€¦

Before she can be convinced, a riot between unionists and vicious strike-breakers erupts and Victor, seeing Spieler in all her combative flying glory, feels the first buzz and whirr of love in his artificial heart, utterly unaware that jealous Tristan is already besotted with herâ€¦

Across town Nico has raided a bank in search of the Yorkes’ stash of devices but has been captured by the Upward Path. Whilst torturing the future girl, their resident sorceress reveals that Nico is her direct descendent, but tragically for the time-tossed captive, loyalty to family has never been a Minoru traitâ€¦

The Swell, meanwhile has introduced Xavin and Chase to the Sinners and discovered that the enigmatic bosses are the Yorkes from an earlier period of their personal timelinesâ€¦

The future felons instantly realise what has happened but are stunned to discover their daughter will die fighting them, allowing the Runaway lads to bust loose, as miles away Victor and Lillie cavort in the sky, lost in the sheer giddy exuberance of first loveâ€¦

As a final showdown between the Sinners and The Upward Path inexorably approaches, the foredoomed but forewarned Yorkes make radical plans to escape their fate and change the history of the futureâ€¦

The brutal bloody finale and all-out war of the Wonders leaves a trail of bodies in the streets ofNew Yorkand pits friend against friend until they discover a doomsday bomb set by the destiny-challenging Futurians…

Chase, however, has been busy and devised a way to save the day that allows the kids to return to the present day with the newest member of their youthful outcast familyâ€¦

Sadly however in the aftermath, the original instigator of all the chronal chaos and calamity is revealed and has again failed to change the past or reverse the foolish decision she made on a dirty street in 1907â€¦

Sexually frank but never explicit, this is a superbly well-reasoned and executed, thought-provoking and imaginatively mature Fights ‘n’ Tights tale from Whedon, stuffed to bursting with wit, action, horror, humour, charm and poignant passion and magically illustrated by Michael Ryan (ably assisted by inkers Rick Ketchum, Jay Leisten, Andrew Hennessy, Victor Olazaba & Roland Paris) which proves that superhero comics can surmount their escapist, gratuitous power-fantasy roots and deliver stories of true depth and worth.
Â© 2007, 2008 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

September 22, 2012September 19, 2012

JLA/Avengers

By Kurt Busiek & George PÃ©rez, coloured by Tom Smith & lettered by Richard Starkings (DC/Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1957-4

Fair Warning: this review deals with the very bedrock of superhero comics. If you’re not utterly au fait with the continuity minutiae of Marvel and DC Comics, this review won’t make much sense, and might well cause migraines or dizziness and could well prevent you from operating gigantic universe-bending machineries.

If you’d rather read something else I’ll quite understand and will hopefully see you tomorrowâ€¦

From the moment a kid first sees his second superhero the only thing he/she wants is to see how the new costumed crusader stacks up against the first. From the earliest days of the industry we’ve wanted our idols to meet, associate, battle together – and if you follow the Timely/Marvel model, that means against each other – far more than we want to see them trounce their arch-enemy one more time.

For many years that immature â€œwho’s strongest/fastest/toughest?â€ preoccupation could only be addressed within individual company boundaries, but once publishers at DC and Marvel realised the sales potential of inter-continuity crossover clashes in the 1970s a veritable torrent of â€œimpossibleâ€ superhero mash-ups (of generally excellent artistic quality but mired in inescapably mediocre plots) followed, all generally suffering from the protective partisanship of their legal owners.

After all, who wanted their pantheon to come off second-best in any confrontation?

When a much-touted and eagerly anticipated meeting of the Avengers and Justice League of America famously foundered due to irreconcilable creative differences between the sponsoring publishers, the crossover practise was shelved for years until cooler heads, a general sales decline and the far less hide-bound attitudes of smaller new companies (such as Valiant and Image) who simply found a negotiated way to make these temporary mergers work amicably and effectively, revitalised the whole concept and practiseâ€¦

Which is a shame as Busiek is one of the most skilled writers in the business, easily ably to inject telling personal emotion and poignant character revelation into the driest plot – but here there’s simply not enough roomâ€¦

Gathering together the deluxe 4-issue miniseries from 2003-2004, this powers-packed tome opens with a joint Introduction from the co-instigators of the Silver Age of Comics, Julie Schwartz and Stan Lee, after which the non-stop creative chaos begins with ‘A Journey into Mystery’ as the obsessive monster Krona smashes his way into the Cosmos we’ll call Marvel.

The cosmic intruder is a renegade Guardian of his own Universe, driven insane by an insatiable hunger to learn the origin of Reality. His previous rabid inquiries had already introduced evil into his own once-innocent continuum, shortened its sidereal lifespan and reduced an incomparable multiverse to a few straggling survivor dimensions, but now his impassioned search has brought him to a previously unreachable and unsuspected parallel realm only to encounter a being almost his equalâ€¦

En Dwi Gast, a puissant conniving being dedicated to games of chance, contests of power and duels of skill, is an Elder of the Universe and one of the most powerful creatures in this existence, but even The Grandmaster is helpless before Krona’s fanatical assault and manic inquisition. Nevertheless the wily immortal manages to inveigle Krona into a diverting little side-betâ€¦

A month later, the world’s greatest champions in two vastly differing dimensions find themselves battling incomprehensible threats from beyond their reality. Investigations indicate that invaders from an alternate Earth are inexplicably appearing and causing devastating damage.

It also seems that the too-incompatible realms are collidingâ€¦

Offering a solution, the Grandmaster appears to the Justice League of Americaand sets them off in search of twelve objects of sublime power (six from each Earth) that will end the crisis. On Marvel Earth the morally ambiguous New God Metron tasks the Avengers with the same goal and soon the duped heroes are all engaged in furious and escalating clashes across two worlds, culminating in a shattering confrontation on Earth-DCâ€¦

In a place beyond physics and geography, the size-shifting Atom has hitched a ride with the unsuspecting Grandmaster and becomes privy to a private conversation with the New Genesisian God of Knowledge.

However, even after discovering the real nature of the crisis and the true threat involved, the hapless hero is unable to reach either fooled friends or foes to warn themâ€¦

‘A Contest of Champions’ open with the JLA and Avengers at war above Metropolis whilst the cooler heads of Batman and Captain America have both deduced that something is not kosher. The two surreptitiously declare a truce and leave their unnaturally enraged comrades to their futile battles and continued competition for the dozen arcane objects of power, and instead track down the Atom in the Grandmaster’s non-dimensional lair.

The deeper plan is revealed: the Grandmaster’s game is rigged and the prize Krona is vying for is possession of Galactus: a being from the reality that preceded the Big Bangâ€¦

Meanwhile the massed armies of heroes have finished their savagely fought duels. The Grandmaster’s side has been victoriousâ€¦

â€¦Which means nothing to Krona who simply blasts the Elder, cruelly claiming and dismantling the prized Galactus as nothing more than a new research tool. However the renegade Guardian has been duped: En Dwi Gast was after the twelve objects all along and uses them to reorder the realities and the once-incompatible Earthsâ€¦

In a world of constant turmoil and ‘Strange Adventures’, the JLA and Avengers are now old allies, frequently pairing to battle overwhelming menaces in union, but Captain America can’t shake the feeling that something is not right. On anther Earth Batman has the same notion, as blips in reality and temporal hiccups shift heroes and even replace them with dead or departed predecessors. It’s soon clear that Existence is in big trouble and when Superman and Iron Man travel into space they observe huge metaphysical hands catastrophically mashing the two Earths togetherâ€¦

With chaos rising and all life threatened, the constantly changing teams are led by the inscrutably unfathomable Phantom Stranger to a place beyond where the dying Grandmaster – who has once again underestimated the merciless, self-destructive and utterly determined Krona – warns them of the imminent end of all since the Guardian is quite prepared to take the universe apart to find out how it beganâ€¦

As both worlds shudder and shatter, all the heroes of the earths mobilise to save lives, allowing ‘The Braveâ€¦ and the Bold’ JLA and Avengers to pursue Krona into the void for one last battle to preserve and restore the universes, but even here a double game is being played: Metron and the Grandmaster have one last surprise in store for when the status quo is inevitably restoredâ€¦

With guest-shots from just about everybody created by the two comicbook companies over seven decades, there’s a awful lot of crowded, blistering action but not a lot of room for character or plot, but even so most action fans will find something to rave over. Moreover, for art lovers this book is a sublime treat, with some of PÃ©rez’s most spectacular illustration, ably augmented by a stunning cover gallery at the back featuring all four of his stellar wraparound covers.

It’s fair to say that I’m not a great fun of such profit-led pairings, but there’s still enough of the fan-boy in me to viscerally thrill at armies of costumed stalwarts bashing the bezonkers out of each other and, even if the story is forced and patently menu-led (one from company A, one from Company B, over and over againâ€¦), there are still some nice fanatic-friendly touches and witty in-jokes whilst inarguably the artwork – every millimetre stuffed with manic detail and wry, deferential tributes and touches – is amongst the very best George PÃ©rez has ever produced.

If you like this sort of thing this is certainly one of the best of its ilkâ€¦

September 21, 2012September 19, 2012

Ultimate Comics X-Men: His Will be Done

By Nick Spencer, Carlo Barberi, Paco Medina, Walden Wong & Juan Vlasco (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-516-1

Marvel’s Ultimates imprint launched in 2000 with major characters and concepts re-imagined to bring them into line with the presumed-different tastes of modern readers.

Eventually the alternate, darkly nihilistic universe became as continuity-constricted as its predecessor, and in 2008 the cleansing event â€œUltimatumâ€ culminated in a reign of terror which apparently (this is still comics, after all) killed dozens of super-humans and millions of lesser mortals.

The era-ending event was a colossal tsunami triggered by mutant terrorist messiah Magneto which inundated the superhero-heavyisland ofManhattan and utterly devastated the world’s mutant population. The X-Men – as well as many other superhuman heroes and villains â€“ died, and in the aftermath anybody classed as â€œHomo Superiorâ€ had to surrender to the authorities or be shot on sight. Understandably most survivors as well any newly emergent X-people kept themselves well hiddenâ€¦

Mutants had always been feared and despised: as the indisputable inheritors of Earth, the often lethally-empowered and wildly uncontrollable creatures were generally believed to be an intrinsically hostile species; a new race destined to take the world from humanity the way we took it from the Neanderthalsâ€¦

This second compilation continues to document the return of mutants to the post-deluge world, collecting Ultimate Comics: X-Men issues #7-12 (April-September 2012) as the alternate Earth begins to crumble from the horrific tide of ongoing disasters following the cataclysmic flood. (For fuller comprehension the reader is also advised that a thorough reading of companion series Ultimate Comics: the Ultimates volumes 1 & 2 will greatly enhance understanding of the parlous state of this alternate universe in its darkest hoursâ€¦)

In a grandiose and compelling story-arc by writer Nick Spencer, artists Carlo Barberi, Paco Medina, Walden Wong & Juan Vlasco and colourist Marte Gracia, the slow descent into catastrophe and chaos continues after a shattering announcement from Presidential Special Advisor on Superhuman and Mutant Affairs Valerie Cooper. When she publicly disclosed that X-people, proliferating around the globe, were the result of a 50-year old American program of covert genetic manipulation which got out of control, rather than a result of inexorable evolution and natural selection, humanity went crazy.

In a world where Homo Superior are registered like assault weapons and imprisoned in internment camps, and where good, normal God-fearing folk would rather execute their children than have them grow up afflicted with the sin of â€œmutant-nessâ€, the news instantly caused uproar and riot across the nation all over the worldâ€¦

Former X-Man Karen Grant (nee Jean Grey) has been continuing Charles Xavier‘s dream of fostering Human/Mutant co-existence when the news not only ripped the rug out from under her; but drove her young charges into a state of rebellion.

Especially upset was Jimmy Hudson, who heard on National TV that his dead father Wolverine was the US Military’s ‘Mutant Zero’ and all the pain, prejudice, horror and super-powered proliferation stemmed from that subject’s initial escape from American captivity five decades earlierâ€¦

In the aftermath of the announcement and with the entire world in crisis from a genetic arms-race in Asia (see Ultimate Comics: Hawkeye and The Ultimates: The Republic is Burning), the President unexpectedly sidelined S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury in favour of co-operation with Magneto’s son Pietro Lensherr who had inherited control of the terrorist group known as the Brotherhood of Mutants.

The super-swift manipulator had a Faustian Bargain for the severely embattled Leader of the Free World, but their plans were subverted by fundamentalist preacher Reverend William Stryker who seized control of the government’s Sentinel technology and used it to attack mutants all overAmerica as part of his genocidal crusade to purify humanityâ€¦

Quicksilver‘s plan had been to co-opt the new Nimrod Sentinels to his own purposes but Stryker had outwitted him: taking control of the entire Sentinel program, the hate-filled preacher had unleashed every killer robot inAmerica’s arsenal to hunt down all the remaining mutants wherever they might be hidingâ€¦

With Nimrods executing victims everywhere, His Will be Done opens as Pietro, reeling at the repercussions of his failed scheme, is unable to outrace the deaths he has caused amongst his rapidly depleting people. His guilt-charged flight leads to a savage confrontation with his missing sister Wanda and the revelation that the World’s deadliest mutant has returnedâ€¦

Meanwhile in Asiatwo floating cities house the Earth’s latest metahuman races: both Celestials and Eternals are the result of state-sponsored scientific tampering which turned thousands of unwilling victims into another deadly super-powered population threatening embattled humanity just by existing. Moreover their ill-advised creators had already released a tailored-plague which neutralised those genes which caused mutants to develop, hoping to corner the market in living weapons by eradicating naturally occurring super-humans.

Of course now everybody knew that there was nothing natural about mutant genesisâ€¦

In Washington, Fury thinks Jean Grey is working for him and leading his Ultimate X Homo Superior task force against targets he has selected – but he couldn’t be more wrongâ€¦

Meanwhile in the remote Mutant Internment enclave Camp Angel, the human guards are casually torturing former X-Man Colossus whilst his former comrade Storm determinedly advocates a policy of appeasement and good behaviour in the face of Warden Colonel Lake‘s obvious company-line cant about keeping mutants safe and contained for their own good.

Some of the younger mutants are increasingly swayed by the rabble-rousing demagogue Stacy X, but trouble really occurs after the prisoners see Valerie Cooper’s televised announcement, whichLake’s guards were too slow to interceptâ€¦

With tensions rising Storm abandons her pacifist stance and destroys all the Sentinel defences, leaving the human guards helpless before the enraged and liberated mutants. After freeing Colossus the internees discover what other atrocities the normals have been secretly perpetrating against the captives and, after a close but heated discussion, enact their own form of justice on the Warden. However before the situation can escalate further the sky is filled with unstoppable Nimrod sentinels who begin their program of eradication by targeting human and mutant alikeâ€¦

â€¦And after the Camps, the Nimrods turn their attention on the cities of humanity which foolishly allowed mutants to live amongst them, before beginning to construct their own robotic god and masterâ€¦

This volume concludes by focusing on another lost strand of mutant lore, as in a quiet corner of New York State, a sinister stranger slaughters all the patients and staff at an exclusive mental healthcare facility to liberate the cosmic-powered Alex Summers and bring him to the offices of one of the world’s most devious and corrupt corporations.

Summers is bemused and bewildered: constantly conversing with his dead brother Scott, but if he suspected just what undying monstrosity has returned, even in his deranged state the hero once called Havoc would recoil in very rational dreadâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

This welcome return to the darkly trenchant and cynical Ultimate fare, with the trademark post-modernity and bleakly brutal action, still delivers the grim ‘n’ gritty punch fans crave, but with so much backstory to absorb this is definitely not a book for anybody thinking on jumping on to the decidedly different world of Wonder. Nevertheless the striking drama and returning cast-favourites will certainly please those older readers who love this savage iteration of superhero sagas and any casual readers who are more familiar with the company’s movies than the comic-books.
A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd. Licensed from Marvel Characters B.V. â„¢ & Â© 2012 Marvel & Subs. All Rights Reserved.

September 20, 2012September 19, 2012

Ultimate Comics the Utimates: Two Cities. Two Worlds.

By Jonathan Hickman & Sam Humphries, Esad Ribic & Luke Ross with Ron Garney, Butch Guice, Leonard Kirk & Patrich Zicher (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-517-8

Marvel’s Ultimates imprint began in 2000 with a new post-modern take on major characters and concepts to bring them into line with the presumed different tastes of 21st century readers and free of the sixty years of accumulated continuity baggage which had saturated the originals.

Eventually even this darkly nihilistic new universe became as continuity-constricted as its ancestor, and in 2008 the cleansing event â€œUltimatumâ€ culminated in a reign of terror and Tsunami which excised dozens of super-humans and millions of lesser mortals, courtesy of mutant menace Magneto.

In the aftermath the meta-human survivors struggled to restore order to a dangerous new worldâ€¦

This compilation collects Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates issue #7-12 (published in comicbook form from April to September 2012) which continued and expanded the core-story for the latest relaunch of the constantly-changing grim and gritty alternate universe.

Before the Deluge, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury ran an American Black Ops team of super-humans called the Avengers, but he was removed from his position for blatant rule-bending – and being caught.

In the wake of the global inundation, civil war amongst the covert ops community, and deadly brushfire wars which have broken out all over the planet, Fury returned to seize control of the entire spook-show, along with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s army of secret agents and both clandestine super-squad The Avengers and the officially sanctioned Ultimates: a superhero team as much for vote-winning public consumption as traditional world-savingâ€¦

Civilisation is falling apart at a phenomenal rate. Metahumans are classed as Weapons of Mass Destruction and personal superpowers are now the focus of a terrifying global arms race. In Asia the new nation SEAR (SouthEastAsianRepublic) dissolved into bloody conflict after developing a serum which randomly sparked fantastic abilities in humans. The plan was to corner the living weapon market and they tried to stack the deck by simultaneously releasing a global virus which neutralised the genes which triggered natural mutationâ€¦

When the Asian state collapsed from internal dissent and open warfare, a dual metahuman nation was established and these Celestials and Eternals began offering super-powers to anybody wanting the Serumâ€¦

Meanwhile premiere hero Spider-Man was murdered, resurrected WWII super soldier Captain America had gone AWOL and the gods of Asgard, who had been dragged from their heavenly halls and marooned on Earth, were slaughtered by a new fantastic race called the Children of Tomorrow.

Thor was the sole survivor of the Aesir, although deprived forever of his magic hammer and elemental thunder. Moreover, the last god was perpetually haunted by the ghosts of all the fallen Asgardians who constantly called out to himâ€¦

The Children were the results of a fantastic experiment by the Maker – in actuality disgraced and insane genius Reed Richards – who created a high-tech dome inNorthern Germany where enhanced time and ruthless scientific augmentation enabled the inhabitants to hyper-evolve thousands of years in the space of a few days.

The Dome inexorably expanded and absorbed much of Western Europe, despite every effort of the region’s superhumans, until Thor raided the City within, aided by boffin Sam Wilson (AKA the Falcon) and freed captive hero Captain Britain.

Unable to stop the Children, defeated humanity could only wait for the endâ€¦

The saga continues as Fury and his surviving operatives Falcon, Hawkeye and Black Widow attempt to forge an alliance with the elevated inhabitants of Tian, but the Celestials of Xorn and Eternals of Zorn are initially reluctant to join. That all changes once Richards, in his arrogance, flamboyantly murders the celestial envoy Shu-Tan, Oracle of Peace, provoking an unprecedented and unsuspected retaliation from Zorn, whose exposure to the enhancement serum dubbed The Source transformed him into a sentient singularityâ€¦

S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Flumm is attempting to oust Nick Fury and begins his campaign by blackmailing Bruce Banner into attacking the Dome. Initially successful the Hulk‘s assault goes catastrophically wrong when Richards convinces Banner to switch allegiances, even as inAmerica, the President launches the nation’s entire nuclear arsenal at the ever-evolving city. To ensure no interference the Commander-in-Chief has invoked â€œthe Winter Protocolsâ€ and set S.H.I.E.L.D. forces to capture and/or kill both the Ultimates and Avengersâ€¦

In New York the permanently drunk Thor and Iron Man Tony Stark – secretly dying of a malignant brain tumour – easily repulse their Federal attackers even as the missiles close in and the Children of Tomorrow engage the enraged forces of the Eternals and Celestials in the skies above Europe.

Even the nuclear fusillade and Zorn’s attack could not obliterate the Dome but the collective, component intelligence of the living City beneath is badly damaged. In retaliation the Maker unleashes the Hulk and a very special Child of Tomorrow he had cultured without the knowledge of the hive-mind to exact bloody vengeance. The deadly child then eradicatesWashingtonDCâ€¦

As the shock of losing the capital and the entire ruling structure sinks in, self-promoted S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Flumm is further frustrated when Fury escapes arrest and disappears just as his former employees come for him. This also allows Falcon, Hawkeye and the Widow to escape captureâ€¦

Tony Stark is suffering badly and experiencing complex hallucinations – constantly arguing with a younger version of himself – but still has a brilliant plan to strike back at Richards and the Children. Sadly it involves turning himself in to the ambitious Flumm and new Leader of the Free World President Howard, who only a day previously was the earnest but under-qualified Secretary of Energy.

This new POTUS can’t even cope with the relatively minor and pedestrian crisis of a state seceding from theUnionand declaring itself an independent nation. Still, backed up by the advanced technology of the four biggest S.H.I.E.L.D. bases inAmerica, now happily defending the New Republic of Texas, this is a problem that also needs dealing with immediatelyâ€¦

Recruiting Richards’ estranged wife Sue – a brilliant scientist and super-powered survivor of the defunct Fantastic Four – Stark allows himself to be traded to the increasingly unstable Maker in his damaged Dome, whilst unknown to all in the devastated ruins of fallen Asgard something strange and magical is awakeningâ€¦

With Hawkeye and his comrades on the run and seeking allies from the top secret West Coast Operational Security (another of the eternally paranoid Fury’s off-the-books super-team projects), S.H.I.E.L.D.’s usurper Director is rapidly losing control and cannot cope with any more bad newsâ€¦

Ebullient and utterly jazzed with his ultimate triumph, Reed Richards is delighted with his peace offering from President Howard and happily begins torturing his greatest intellectual rival, but Stark has an incredible implausible plan and by the most impossible of stratagems turns the City and its collective populace against its Maker, allowing Thor and the Invisible Woman to invade the Dome. However the Hulk, now enlarged to the size of a building, is waiting for themâ€¦

â€¦And in the Arctic, news of the World’s imminent demise finally reaches a Star-Spangled hermit who had thought himself finally beyond the reach of humanity and his own irrepressible sense of dutyâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Once again this hot-off-the-presses epic pauses on a potent cliffhanger as what might well be the Last Battle of the Ultimate Marvel Universe moves towards a catastrophic end-game with scripters Jonathan Hickman and Sam Humphries providing gripping suspense and spectacular tension. Illustrators Esad Ribic, Luke Ross, Ron Garney, Butch Guice, Leonard Kirk & Patrich Zicher readily transform the tale into stunning action-packed visuals that will enthral and astound all fans of grim and gritty cosmic costumed drama, and this slick and compulsive read for older Fights ‘n’ Tights fans also includes an impressive cover gallery by Kaare Andrews & Oliver Coipel which adds even more impact to the book’s artistic appeal.

Much more in tune with the feel and sensibilities of the assorted Movie franchises than the traditional comicbook market, the post-modernity and cynical, bleak adventure delivers the visceral shocks and staggering revelations fans of this sub-imprint seem addicted to.

Whilst perhaps not the best book for anybody thinking of jumping on to the decidedly different Ultimate World, Two Cities. Two Worlds. will certainly strike a chord with older readers who love the darkest side of superheroes and those who know the company’s films better than their publications.
A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd. Licensed from Marvel Characters B.V. â„¢ & Â© 2012 Marvel & Subs. All Rights Reserved.

September 19, 2012September 18, 2012

The Co-operative Revolution – A Graphic Novel

By Polyp, with Paul Monaghan, Rachel Vorburg-Rugh, Gillian Lonergan, Ed May and Ian Nixon (New Internationalist on behalf of the Co-operative Group)
ISBN: 978-1-906523-19-0

You might not be aware of it but 2012 is the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives – which I’ll define here as people working in community rather than competition, and applying that fundamental principle to the world of business.

Today Co-operative societies and groups have spread to every corner of the globe and proved a successful and frequently innovation-friendly alternative model to straight consume-expand-or-die Capitalism in commercial arenas as varied as wholesale and retail, agriculture, journalism, banking, car-making, textiles, construction, hotel management, all sorts of service industries and even Healthcare provision.

The potential of the simple notion of working together for mutual benefit seems to terrify some people – let’s call them greedy and selfish – but since the successful experiment of the Rochdale Pioneers in 1844 the philosophy has grown and blossomed and provided decent livelihoods for generations of workers and enabled them to provide increasingly better lives for their children.

Co-operation isn’t a tactic or model but rather a philosophy that encourages people to take full responsibility and reward for the fruits of their labours, which necessarily makes all their endeavours operate on a human scale and with a face anonymous corporate production finds impossible to match or emulate. The modern, thriving international movement grew from an impassioned but measured response to the worst excesses of the Commercial Age and is deftly recounted in the first section of this compelling and informative graphic history.

During the early years of the Industrial Revolution it was standard practice for the owners of British factories and industrial works to pay appalling wages to their workforces and simultaneously run the only shops where those meagre remunerations could be spent. Usually the bosses also owned the houses where workers lived: another method of ensuring the monies they paid out coming back into their own coffers.

As you’d expect such a closed system was easily prone to abuse: sales to the labourers – food, candles, clothes and every other household need – were rife with shoddy, cheap workmanship, with debased and adulterated food frequently sold in short measures and priced in such a way as to keep workers alive but with no hope of improving themselves or escaping the system. Credit was always extended – with no real intention of ever collecting on it – and workers were trapped forever in an inescapable spiral of debt to the company. It was pure economic feudalism and little better than slavery.

Many times before, workers had attempted to address the problem by uniting to buy goods in bulk and distribute them communally, but always the enterprises had failed. However on December 21^st 1844 in Rochdale, a small band of working men – weavers, colliers, woolsorters and cloggers – pooled their small cash reserves and opened a rough-and-ready general store selling flour, sugar, butter and candles, promising â€œunadulterated wares in honest weights and measuresâ€.

Instead of mutually ruinous credit, The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers offered all members of their collective enterprise a dividend – a fair and regular redistribution of profit after working costs were covered.

As the chapter ‘Yesterday’ details, despite fierce and unscrupulous opposition from established businessmen and authorities terrified of revolution by the lower class, the Co-operative movement endured and grew. When farmers and companies were squeezed to stop them providing produce to the Pioneers, the Society simply went further afield and even began sourcing or making their own items – a process and solution repeated over and again through nearly 170 years of continued existence and growth.

The burgeoning movement was a constant force for social mobility and improvement: in their first rented premises in Toad Lane, the upper floor swiftly became meeting rooms and a free Library, with not just books but microscopes, globes and all modern scientific instruments where the poor could educate themselves to eventually escape the trap of ignorance and poverty the wealthy created for themâ€¦

The slow but solid growth and geographical expansion of the radical movement is charted against the changing social and cultural climate in a beguiling and elegiac potted history after which ‘Today’ recounts many examples of successful Co-operative practice currently improving lives better all over the world.

One of the movement’s greatest successes was the establishment of Fair-Trade farms, plantations and other businesses around the globe, from Canada where more than a third of the World’s Maple Sugar is produced by Co-ops, to the USA where 900 rural Co-ops produce 42% of the nation’s electricity distribution, covering 75% of the landmass.

In India – where 239 million people belong to a Co-operative society – a tribe of hereditary snake-catchers even transformed their unique, traditional but dying trade into a thriving repurposed business.

Closer to home, when I first started freelancing as an artist/graphic designer, I belonged to a loose association of specialists who shared or traded jobs according to our specialities and particular strengthsâ€¦

Almost as soon as they were published, Darwin’s discoveries regarding the fundamental evolutionary principle described as â€œSurvival of the Fittestâ€ were co-opted by Capitalists, hungry to justify their appalling excesses. Here ‘Always’ focuses on the plenitude of scientific discoveries which counter those spurious commercial notions and act as a happy rebuttal to the spurious commercial mantra of an utterly unchecked free market which continuously permits greedy and cavalier bankers to bankrupt economies and nations, whilst rapacious rampant tycoons and corporations create Crash after Recession after Depression, over and over again and with no thought of redress or reparations to the billions of people they impoverishâ€¦

‘Tomorrow’ takes a speculative look at how Co-operation could take us to even greater communal achievements by following a really good day in 2044 when the happy partners of the Rochdale Aerotech Co-op celebrate their contribution to the mission which is landing men on Marsâ€¦

This alluring and pleasingly education chronicle concludes with an absorbing ‘Timeline’ following the progress of â€œCo-operation Through Historyâ€ by tracking changes in politics and culture promoted, prompted and provoked by the movement from the very first recorded 1769 bulk purchase scheme of the Fenwick Weavers to the 2012 UN declaration of the International Year of Co-operativesâ€¦

Since its creation, the Co-operative movement has promoted education for the poor, social equality, universal health, and equanimity in farming, banking, manufacturing and production. By making simple retail fair it has freed society’s least advantaged from de facto slavery, shaped political and social reform across the world and offered true opportunity for improvement and a better life for all people.

This wonderful book – hopefully destined for every school library and history syllabus – using all the force and power which only comics narrative can provide, is a sterling example of what people can do when working together and in unity and one no fair minded individual should miss.

Â© The Co-operative Group. All rights reserved.
Radical cartoonist and activist Polyp has worked with campaigning organizations around the world for over fifteen years. He lives and works in a co-operative housing complex inManchester,England.

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