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The Death of the New Gods


By Jim Starlin, Matt Banning, Art Thibert & Mark McKenna (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-871-3

When Jack Kirby returned to the home of Superman in 1970 he brought with him one of the most powerful concepts in comicbook history. The epic grandeur of his Fourth World saga grafted a whole new mythology over the existing DC universe and blew the developing minds of a generation of readers.

Starting in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, where he revived the 1940s kid-team The Newsboy Legion, introduced large-scale cloning in the form of The Project and hinted that the city’s gangsters had extraterrestrial connections, Kirby then moved on to the Forever People, New Gods and Mister Miracle; an interlinked triptych of projected finite length titles that together formed an epic mosaic.

Those three groundbreaking titles introduced two rival races of gods, dark and light, risen from the ashes of a previous Armageddon to battle forever …and then their conflict spread to Earth…

Kirby’s concepts, as always, fired and inspired his contemporaries and successors. The gods of Apokolips and New Genesis became a crucial keystone of DC continuity and integral foundation of that entire fictional universe, surviving the numerous revisions and retcons which periodically bedevil long-lived comics fans.

Many major talents dabbled with the concept over the years and a host of titles have come and gone starring Kirby’s creations. Recently, however as part of yet another attention-grabbing crossover Crisis publishing event, it was decided to kill them all off.

This compendium from 2007 collects the 8 issue miniseries that ostensibly finished Kirby’s wildest imagining – but of course this is comics and nobody dies forever…

The tale begins after a number of events around the planet, wherein denizens of Apokolips and New Genesis were found dead with gaping holes in their chests.

In ‘So Begins… the End’ Daily Planet reporter Jimmy Olsen investigates the bloody murder of paraplegic war veteran Willie Walker, unaware that the case is connected to the recent death of New God Lightray. In fact Walker was the host of the Black Racer, physical embodiment of Death for all Fourth World Deities.

Meanwhile God of Inquiry Metron has detected something subtly wrong with Reality and Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips and privy to secret data, makes fresh, bold plans… As Scott (Mister Miracle) Free and his beloved wife Big Barda play hero on Earth, in the Supertown floating above New Genesis the war god Orion makes a grisly discovery – another mighty warrior with his chest ripped open. On Earth Scott turns his back for a second and Barda too dies…

In ‘Celestial Genocide’ the New Gods take stock and realise that a vast number of superbeings have been cut down without a hint of a struggle and that the death toll is rising exponentially. Back on Earth, the Justice League begins to investigate the death of one of their own. Scott and Superman bring Barda’s body to New Genesis, where Orion is pressing for an attack on Darkseid, the obvious culprit for the deaths.

After conferring with Metron, Superman and Scott follow Orion to Apokolips, whilst the leader of New Genesis Takion goes with the aged Himon to examine the Cosmic Source Wall – a colossal barrier that separates the universe from the creation force that birthed reality…

‘Armageddon Tarantella’ sees the trio of heroes as they battle their way through the Darkseid’s forces, only to realise that the god-killer has been decimating Apokoliptians with equal ease… and the pace of deicide is increasing…

‘Bearing Witness’ follows Superman, Orion and Scott as they pursue the notion that the killer is someone they know, but each successive suspect turns up dead. Chaos and panic are building and whilst the gentle gods of New Genesis seem frightened but fatalistically resigned, the terrors of Apokolips are determined to fight and kill before they eventually succumb…

In the interim Metron has used his time-spanning capabilities to discover the brains if not the hands behind the slaughter, subsequently learning the true history of the Gods and meeting the source of all the horrors…

In ‘Mistakes’ Apokolips heavies Kalibak and Mantis lead an invasion of New Genesis with only Superman and Orion to face them, after which the war-god makes the ultimate sacrifice to draw out the mysterious and seemingly unstoppable killer in the sixth chapter ‘Sacrifice’…

The end draws close in ‘Seraphic Reunification’ as with only a handful of New Gods remaining Superman and Scott Free face the killer only to discover he has been an impostor all along. Whilst they are occupied in cataclysmic combat Darkseid finally makes his move attacking the mastermind behind the plot, determined to wrest ultimate power from the God-killer in ‘The End’…

Jim Starlin is the “go-to guy” for both cosmic storylines and major character deaths (see The Death of Captain Marvel or Batman: A Death in the Family for examples) and his introduction explains how and why he was pressured into writing the end to Jack Kirby’s ultimate comics achievement; and for my money nobody else alive could have done the job justice. It ain’t Kirby, but at least the deed was done with understanding and respect for what The King stood for.

A spectacular murder mystery, full of metaphysical flourishes and human depth with eye-popping action and even a few left-field surprises along the way, The Death of the New Gods is a fitting end to The Fourth World… at least until some editor decides that the concept is too valuable to leave alone…

This volume, which is strictly for fans of superhero tales and au fait with the minutiae of the original series (which absolutely ought to be read first…) also contains a stunning cover gallery by Starlin & Matt Banning and includes the variant cover by Ryan Sook.

© 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Salvatore volume 1: Transports of Love


By Nicolas de Crécy, colour by Ruby & Walter, translated by Joe Johnson (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-593-1

Salavatore is a car mechanic: an absolute wizard with all things mechanical but a grumpy sod who dislikes customers so much he built his garage on the peak of a mountain to discourage them. However he is just so good that they come anyway, prepared to put up with the grief and his attitude, if only he would fix their ailing vehicles… and besides, Salvatore has a secret he needs peace and quiet for…

Nicolas de Crécy has released more than thirty albums since he began working in 1990, both one-off books such as Journal d’un fantôme, Escales, Plaisir de myope and La Nuit du grand méchant loup and series/serials such as Léon la came, Monsieur Fruit and Salvatore; the first two of which comprise the artfully arch little romance under review here.

Salvatore is a dog with a lot of pain in his life but has struggled on, buoyed by his artisan’s dedication and sensibility which makes him such an exceedingly good mechanic. One day the tragically short-sighted widow Amandine pulls into his frosty, mountaintop garage with a suspicious knocking in her car engine and his life changes for ever.

As well as practically blind, Amandine is heavily pregnant with twelve piglets (not unknown for a sow of her breed) and something softens within the cold canine. Offering her the unexpected hospitality of his fondue lunch, Salvatore nevertheless succumbs to his one weakness – “borrowing” a surplus part from her vehicle for his great project.

The little dog has a dream and is prepared to sacrifice his principles to achieve it: he once loved and lost a bitch named Julie who moved to South America. Since then he has devoted all his spare time to building a fantastic vehicle to follow her and where undoubtedly, love will reunite them forever…

His super-car is almost ready: the last part necessary can be picked up on the way; all he has to do is reach an understanding with its current owner – a perfectly reasonable bull named Jerome.

Amadine however, has not quite left his life: a practically sightless, heavily pregnant lady should never be trusted to drive a small family runabout down a snow-capped mountain slope…

Her chaotic and magnificently slapstick journey leaves her and the car stranded many kilometres away atop a Parisian rooftop where she prematurely delivers her dozen babies. Horribly one little piggy goes missing on the way to hospital, and one fine day that stray waif will have a huge impact on Salvatore’s fate…

Originally released in 2005 as Transports Amoureux (beautifully coloured by Ruby) ‘Transports of Love’ seamlessly segues here into the second album, Le Grand Départ or ‘The Grand Departure’ with tints and hues provided this time by Walter.

Finally en route to his dream in the almost perfect Julie-Mobile Salvatore has hit a snag. Jerome might be an amenable type but the wife who just divorced him is not. She took the car – including that desperately needed final component – as part of the settlement and had it dismantled as an art installation – or possibly just out of spite.

Amadine meanwhile has broken out of hospital with her eleven piglets, driven by maternal hormones to find her missing baby. The lost cherub has fallen into odd circumstances, amongst sewer scum, political activists and a seductively dark and twisted catwoman siren of the underworld…

Hard-pressed by his defrayed desire for his distant Julie, Salvatore’s ethics have degenerated to the point where he is contemplating fraud and outright theft to get that vagrant last part: luckily he has allied himself with a mysterious and peculiarly moralistic tiny little mute man with a facility for computer science. Perhaps together they can find a way to ease true love’s path…

Surreal and joyously whimsical, but with a delightfully dark edginess, the multi-award winning cartoonist de Crécy has revolutionised French comics with such popular and groundbreaking works as Période glaciaire (released in English as Glacial Period) and this hypnotically addictive sophisticated fable is undoubtedly destined to be just as successful.

Funny, gently adventurous, subversively satirical and yet filled to bursting with empathy and pathos, this beguiling yarn will schmooze itself into your head and make itself too comfortable for you to remove…

© 2005 Dupuis, by de Crécy, Ruby. © 2006 Dupuis, by de Crécy, Walter. English edition © 2010 NBM. All rights reserved.

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Hammer of the Gods: Mortal Enemy


By Michael Avon Oeming & Frank Cho, (Image/IDW)
Image ISBN: 978-1-58240-271-0, IDW ISBN: 978-1-60010631-6

Mythology has always inspired our fantasies and is never far from our popular culture: just take a look at TV shows like Hercules: the Legendary Journeys and Supernatural or books and films such Clash of the Titans and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief which again reinvented and expanded the ancient tales for a new generation.

At the turn of this century all-rounder Michael Avon Oeming re-imagined the Norse tales which had already been so thoroughly exploited by Marvel (and even tangentially by DC in the splendid Arak, Son of Thunder series) to produce an outrageously addictive post-modern take in the five issue miniseries Hammer of the Gods. He was thoroughly aided and abetted by co-plotter, inker, letterer and colourist Mark Wheatley – a veteran comics maker who has been criminally undervalued for decades (see for example the staggeringly impressive Breathtaker to glean what I mean).

The lands of the far North are hard and cold and unforgiving, just like the gods that rule over them. In ‘Hammer of the Gods’ a peasant couple stand the deathwatch for their newborn son who will not survive the night, when a stranger comes seeking shelter from the icy storms. She is welcomed even though old Tyr and Gerda have nothing…

Delighted to finally find mortals who keep the old ways of hearth and hospitality the fierce warrior woman rewards them by blessing their child. He will live, growing strong and wise. Moreover he will possess the strength of the gods so long as he never wields a weapon. Knowing he will thrive the couple finally name their boy: “Modi” which means both Courage and son of Thorr…

The boy grows strong enough to topple trees with a blow and carve wood without a blade and becomes devout in the worship of the Thunder God he is named for. Because he will not fight the other village children constantly pick on him, but Modi is patient as well as strong…

When mature he becomes a globe-girdling explorer. After years he returns to his birthplace only to find the village destroyed by giants and monsters that have escaped from bleak Jotunheim to plague the Earth. Realising his beloved deities have done nothing to save his family or people, Modi swears a mighty oath and denounces the gods forever. Easily slaying the Frost Giant which destroyed his village, Modi pledges to walk the world until he has made the negligent gods pay for abandoning the devoted charges in their care…

Modi’s epic voyages begin in ‘Entrance to Valhalla’, as he roams the cold world destroying beasts and devils, recruiting like-minded men to his crusade. Soon he leads an army of hardened warriors embittered and disillusioned by the disdain and delinquency of their gods.

United together they eradicate the magical horror that plagues mankind, but it is never enough: what Modi wants is a confrontation with the gods themselves…

In ‘Falling For Gods!’ he first battles and then allies himself with Skögul, a fallen Valkyrie who shares his opinions, but when the trickster god Loki also tries to join them she preaches caution. Why would any overlord of Asgard offer them a free pass to Valhalla and their longed-for meeting with the absentee immortals? They refuse the overture and wander the world together, growing ever closer as they seek another way to storm the stronghold of the gods…

Eventually they find a way and enter Asgard for ‘The Final Battle’ only to receive a terrible shock: the magic hammer of Thorr has lost its power and the gods are old and broken men, helpless before the constant onslaught of the giants and demons of Ragnarok.

Much as he despises gods Modi hates giants more and soon he is whittling the frozen horde down to size, but even his might is not inexhaustible. Only a miracle can save him and all the lands of humanity…

This is a rousing rollercoaster ride of sheer adventure beautifully illustrated and magically compelling, with just the right touch of worldly cynicism and passionate mystery to fire up any reader who thinks they’ve seen all that can be done with these hoary old themes.

The book (which was re-issued by IDW in 2009) also includes text pieces from Peter David, WWE star Raven, Oeming and Wheatley, plus development sketches, front and back cover designs, pencil drafts, privately commissioned artworks and cover images and illustration art by Adam Hughes, Frank Cho and Dave Johnson.

™ Michael Avon Oeming and © 2002, 2009 Michael Avon Oeming & Mark Obie Wheatley. All Rights Reserved.

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Deathstroke the Terminator: Full Cycle


By Marv Wolfman, Steve Erwin, Willie Blyberg & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-93028-982-9

Deathstroke the Terminator is a flamboyant cover identity for mercenary/assassin Slade Wilson who underwent an experimental procedure whilst an American Special Forces soldier. He was invalided out but later developed fantastic physical abilities that augmented his military capabilities.

He debuted in New Teen Titans #2 (1980), assuming a contract that had been forfeited when neophyte costumed assassin The Ravager died trying to destroy the kid heroes. The deceased would-be killer was actually Grant Wilson, a troubled young man trying to impress his dad. Slade Wilson’s other children would also be the cause of much heartache and bloodshed over the years…

Deathstroke was an implacable Titans foe for years, instigating many complex schemes to destroy the team before a weary d̩tente was achieved, all of which led to the graphic novel under review here. In recent years Deathstroke has returned to the path of pure Рif complex Рvillainy.

This rather hard to find volume comes from that grim-and-gritty era when ruthless vigilantes and killers-with-a-code-of-honour were market leaders, so a villain-turned (anti)hero in the vein of Marvel’s Punisher was sound business sense. When the Terminator got his own title (with covers by the Punisher’s Mike Zeck, all included here at no extra cost to you) it instantly became a smash-hit: issue #1 even had a second printing – an extremely rare event back in the early 1990s.

Full Cycle opens with a detailed prose account of the events which led to the release of Deathstroke from Editor Jonathan Peterson before beginning the non-stop action with the contents of The New Titans #70 (October 1990) a fill-in issue by Marv Wolfman, Steve Erwin & Willie Blyberg, that abandoned the titular teens for an entire adventure of their greatest enemy as he undertook a highly suspicious contract in a war-torn South American nation.

‘Clay Pigeons’ found Wilson and his faithful aide-de-camp Wintergreen hired to keep a charismatic peace-making rebel leader alive whilst the republic of San Miguel negotiated a longed for lasting solution to decades of apartheid and revolution. But if every clique and faction needed Jorge Zaxtro alive who could be behind all the brutal attempts on his life?

That tale preceded ‘Titans Hunt’ an extended epic which heavily involved Deathstroke wherein the tragic mercenary was forced to kill his other son Joe – the hero code-named Jericho – but you’ll need to look elsewhere for that epic. Full Cycle commences in the aftermath of that tragedy as a deeply shaken Slade Wilson retreats to his home in Africa to lick his psychic wounds.

‘Assault!’ opens the campaign with a devastating mercenary attack on a train transporting nuclear material through Germany. At the same time a helicopter raid almost kills Wilson and Wintergreen. Later, we gain insight into Deathstroke’s past when the mercenary visits the bedside of a survivor of the railway raid – his estranged wife Adeline.

She was his army trainer, schooling him in exotic battle techniques before the secret experiment augmented his combat abilities. They found love and married but when Slade’s arrogance and neglect resulted in their son Joey being maimed by a terrorist dubbed The Jackal Addie shot her husband in the face and divorced him.

As she slowly recovers in a German hospital she has no idea that Slade has just killed her beloved boy…

Slade has never stopped loving Addie and begins hunting her attackers; reviewing his own past too since whoever attacked her is also targeting his few remaining loved ones. Even so, there must also be some other motive in play…

‘Kidnapped!’ builds on the frantic action and piles the bodies high as Slade closes in on the brutal and all-pervasive enemy, only briefly detouring to rescue a young boy abducted to force his mother to reveal her husband’s munitions secrets. Meanwhile somebody claiming to be the long-dead Ravager is slaughtering both Wilson and Adeline’s people, with a trail leading to the rogue middle-Eastern state of Qurac.

And then the CIA get involved…

‘War!’ sees Deathstroke go bloodily berserk in the strife-torn desert kingdom as its new ruler General Kaddam seeks to consolidate his power whilst demonstrating to the West that Qurac is still the World’s principal exporter of Terror. As his alliance with the Ravager looks set to shake the entire globe, a clandestine group hidden within the CIA makes their own move and their target too, is Slade Wilson…

After a near fatal clash with Kaddam and Ravager, Terminator is captured. Bombastically breaking out he drags the gravely wounded Wintergreen out of the Middle East as the scene shifts to Washington DC where the stolen Plutonium is being readied for use. ‘…Bombs Bursting in Air!’ sees the terrorists turn on each other before Wilson becomes an unlikely and utterly secret saviour of the free world after a savage final clash with the new Ravager…

Meanwhile, the recuperating Adeline has learned of her son’s death …but not yet who killed him…

The first Deathstroke epic ends rather inconclusively in ‘Revelations and Revolutions’ as writer Wolfman and artists Erwin and Blyberg laid plot threads for succeeding story-arcs. Slade is visiting Adeline in the aftermath of atomic plot when the covert agents within the CIA stage an all-out armed assault on the hospital where both she and the faithful Wintergreen are recovering. Never a dull moment…

Complex, violently gratuitous and frenetic, the tale is sometimes too complicated for its own good, but nevertheless the pace, varied exotic locations and all-out, human-scale action (like a James Bond film where everyone wears masks and tights) result in a frenzied rollercoaster of gory fun for any fan of blockbuster adventure. Deathstroke the Terminator is a perfectly-produced slice of lost DC history that still holds up and could easily find new devotees if given the chance…
© 1990, 1991, 1992 DC Comics Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Conan: The Witch Queen of Acheron – Marvel Graphic Novel #19


By Don Kraar, Gary Kwapisz, Art Nichols & others (Marvel)
ISBN: 0- 87135-085-8

During the 1970′s the American comicbook industry opened up after more than fifteen years of calcified publishing practices maintained by the scrupulously-censorious oversight of the self-inflicted Comics Code Authority: A body created by publishers to police their product and keep it palatable and wholesome after the industry suffered their very own McCarthy-style witch-hunt during the early 1950s.

One of the first genres to be revisited was Horror/Mystery comics and from that came the creation of a new comics genre. Sword & Sorcery stories had been undergoing a prose revival in the paperback marketplace since the release of soft-cover editions of Lord of the Rings in 1954 and, by the 1960s, revivals of the two-fisted fantasies of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Otis Adelbert Kline, Fritz Lieber and others had been augmented by many modern writers such as Michael Moorcock and Lin Carter who kick-started their prose careers with contemporary versions of man against mage. The undisputed overlord of the genre was Robert E. Howard with his 1930s pulp masterpiece Conan of Cimmeria.

Gold Key had opened the field in 1964 with Mighty Samson, DC dabbled with Nightmaster in Showcase #82 -84 in 1969 whilst Marvel tested the waters with barbarian villain Arkon in Avengers #76 (April 1970) before going all-out with short tale ‘The Sword and the Sorcerers’ in horror anthology Chamber of Darkness #4.

Written by Roy Thomas and drawn by fresh-faced Marvel find Barry Smith, the tale introduced Starr the Slayer – who bore no small resemblance to the Barbarian in waiting…

Conan the Barbarian debuted with an October 1970 cover-date and despite some early teething problems, including being cancelled and reinstated in the same month, the comic-strip adventures of Howard’s primal hero were as big a success as the prose yarns that led the global boom in fantasy and the supernatural. Conan became a huge success: a pervasive brand that saw new prose tales, movies, a TV series and cartoon show, a newspaper strip and all the other paraphernalia of success.

Here the peripatetic Soldier-of-Fortune is enjoying some boisterous down-time in the flesh-pots of Belverus when the gold he’s spending like water comes to the attention of wicked Prince Tarascus. The coins are over three thousand years old and the ambitious ruler wants to know how a common sell-sword got hold of artefacts from a dead civilisation famed as the wealthiest in the world.

After spectacularly beating up most of the Prince’s Guard Conan passes out dead drunk and awakens in the infamous Tower of Pain. The Prince absolutely refuses to believe Conan’s tale of finding the gold on a dying man, who left them to him in return for a decent burial, so to avoid further torture Conan drags Tarascus, his hot-blooded wife Demetzia and a cohort of soldiers to the site of the long-dead city state in search of the fabled Treasure Mines of Acheron’s legendary Queen Xaltana…

Simply looking for a chance to escape, the Cimmerian inadvertently leads the rapacious army of gold-grubbers to a remote mountain range where they encounter a very unfriendly lost tribe of savages who claim to be the last Acheronians, who ambush and decimate Tarascus’ force.

Conan and the survivors’ headlong flight leads them to the lost mine which miraculously also houses the mythic Tomb of Xaltana, but Tarascus’ jubilation at the potential wealth of the discovery is marred by his advisors and engineers’ suspicions. Who ever heard of tomb that was locked and barred from the outside, as if to hold something in rather than keep robbers out…?

Nobody can safely tell a Prince of Nemedia what do however, so with the still-captive Conan in tow the tomb is broached… and all Hell hungrily breaks loose…

The Witch Queen of Acheron is classic rip-roaring pulp fare, chockfull of all the visceral elements that first propelled the barbarian to popular acclaim, written by veteran fantasy scripter Don Kraar (best known as the writer of the Tarzan newspaper strip for thirteen years as well as TRS properties for DC and a number of Hyborian epics for Marvel) and realised by artists Gary Kwapisz & Art Nichols, coloured by Julianna Ferriter and lettered by Janice Chiang.

Stuffed with two-fisted action, dripping with tension and loaded with the now-mandatory scantily-clad damsels, this worldly-wise, delightfully cynical horror-thriller produced in the European Album format (crisp and glossy white pages 285mm x 220mm rather than the customary US comicbook proportions of 258 x 168mm), perfectly revives the raw energy of the original tales and will provide untrammelled pleasures for lovers of the genre and fans of the greatest hero of the Hyborian Age.
© 1985 Conan Properties, Inc. Conan the Barbarian and all prominent characters are TM Conan Properties Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Y- The Last Man: volume 8 Kimono Dragons


By Brian K Vaughan, Pia Guerra Goran Sudžuka & José Marzán (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-358-9

When a plague killed every male on Earth, only Yorick Brown and his pet monkey Ampersand survived in a world made instantly utterly all-girl. With a government agent and a geneticist escorting him across the devastated American continent to a Californian bio-lab, all the young man could think of was re-uniting with his girlfriend Beth, trapped in Australia when the disaster struck.

The romantic fool trekked from Washington DC overland to California, getting ever closer to his fiancée, whom he presumed had been stranded in Oz since civilisation ended. His reluctant companions were secret agent 355 and Dr. Allison Mann, who was trying to solve the mystery of his continued existence. The latter feared she might have actually caused the plague by giving birth to the world’s first parthenogenetic human clone.

Also out to stake their claim and add to the general tension were a crack squad of Israeli commandos led by the steely-willed General Tse’Elon, plus post-disaster cult Daughters of the Amazon who wanted to make sure that there really were no more men left to mess up the planet. To further complicate matters, for much of that journey Yorick’s occasionally insane sister, Hero, was also stalking them across the ultra-feminised, ravaged and now utterly dis-United States.

After four years and some incredible adventures Yorick (a mediocre student but a rather proficient amateur magician and escapologist) and entourage made it to Australia, only to discover Beth had set off for Paris a year previously. Along the way Dr. Mann had discovered the truth: the reason Yorick was alive was that Ampersand was inexplicably immune and had the disgusting habit of “sharing” his waste products – if Yorick couldn’t duck fast enough…

As this book opens (reprinting issues #43-48 of the award-winning comics series) the lad and his extremely tolerant lasses have reached Japan, following a ninja who had stolen the crucially important monkey. ‘Kimono Dragons’ (illustrated by Pia Guerra & José Marzán Jr.) finds the wanderers in Yokogata Port, joined by Rose, the ship’s captain who befriended them. They soon split up though, when Ampersand’s tracking device starts working again: Yorick and 355 follow it to Tokyo, whilst Rose and Allison explore a different path.

Dr. Mann is a brilliant scientist, but not as smart as her parents: both radical geneticists with major personal issues. She is convinced that her mother had something to do with the plague and Ampersand’s abduction. She’s right too, but as she and Rose reach the elder Doctor’s rural laboratory they have no idea that the pesky little simian has escaped and is loose in Tokyo somewhere. They are equally unaware that the lethally ruthless ninja is searching for the lost capuchin too…

Meanwhile, the heavily disguised Yorick and 355 have reached Tokyo, a city seemingly unchanged by the disaster… but appearances can be horrifyingly deceiving…

…And in Kansas, Yorick’s sister finds a hidden enclave where she sees proof that he is no longer the last male alive (See Y The Last Man volume 3: One Small Step)…

Ampersand’s trail has led Yorick and 355 into conflict with the now all-women Yakuza. They find an ally in undercover cop You, but her plan doesn’t inspire much confidence…

…And when Allison’s mother – let’s call her Dr. Matsumori – finally appears, Rose and Allison are too slow to prevent a bloody assault. As the aging doctor works to save a life, she reveals the hidden agendas and reasons why American politicians, Israeli soldiers and greedy opportunists around the globe have been hunting Yorick and Ampersand for the last four years…

In Tokyo the raid to recover the monkey has also gone brutally awry, but the big surprise occurs in Yokogata, as Allison learns who the Ninja actually works for and who has orchestrated the whole affair… the family member who actually designed and released the plague…

As renegade Israeli General Tse’Elon invades the Kansas enclave where Hero Brown is helping to raise the last children born on Earth, ‘Tin Man’ (with art from Goran Sudžuka& José Marzán Jr.) traces the convoluted history of Dr. Allison Mann as her biologist parents broke scientific barriers, ethical codes and each other’s hearts fighting over her affections and reveals the implications of the broken family’s genetic meddling,  before this volume closes with ‘Gehenna’ (Sudžuka& Marzán Jr.), an equally illuminating examination of General Tse’Elon’s past: how she rose to power before the fall of man, and how far she’ll go to achieve her ends, ending the book on a chilling cliffhanger…

By crafting his slow-burning saga with carefully sculpted, credible characters and situations Vaughan built an intellectually seductive soap-opera fantasy of telling power. As the impressive conclusion neared, this well-paced, dryly ironic, moving and clever tale blossomed into a very special tale that should delight any fan of mature fiction. Bear down, the best is yet to come…
© 2006 Brian K Vaughan & Pia Guerra. All Rights Reserved.

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Passionate Two-Face Book 1


By Youjung Lee (NetComics)
ISBN: 978-1-60009-177-3

Here’s an intriguing change of pace from the usual manga/manhwa love story: one aimed at a slightly older and more discerning audience.

Sangbaek Oh is a thoughtful young food science student desperately in love with Hyeji Min, the girl next door. He’s adored her since elementary school and now, back from his first term at University, he can’t wait to see his girl again. Unfortunately the boy’s got it bad, spying on her with high-powered binoculars, whilst his vapid, shallow parents blather on oblivious to his distressing preoccupation.

Of course spies often see things they shouldn’t and the hormone-crazed Sangbaek is devastated when his observations catch Hyeji getting distressingly intimate with some scumbag playboy in her own bedroom. The swine doesn’t even treat her decently: he’s a callous bully – but really good-looking…

Crushed, but deciding to play it cool, the lovelorn fool pretends nothing has happened when he goes out with Hyeji next day, but his discoveries have turned his creepily innocent interest into something far more carnal. His mind aflame with licentious images, he is utterly unprepared for the next blow. His truly beloved knows about his habits and doesn’t want to see him anymore – especially as she is preparing for her new career as a movie actress…

Sangbaek is destroyed and throws himself into an alligator pit at the Zoo, but when even they reject him (being too well-fed by their conscientious keepers) he notices, just before passing out, an old man taking photos of his distress.

As Hyeji pursues her disdainful new man Sangbaek regains consciousness in the home of the old photographer and his juvenile delinquent daughter Mihee. It transpires that the guy is a movie make-up artist who was captivated by the dumped lad’s agonised expressions. Moreover he knows Hyeji’s new beau – Gobong Choi, “the virgin hunter” owner and producer of soft-porn studio Climax Productions. Moreover, that inveterate womaniser is looking for fresh talent as he prepares to begin making far harder films…

Determined to save Hyeji from the path of inevitable degradation, Sangbaek confronts the sleazebag and gets thoroughly beaten up although he does manage to rescue the drunken, unconscious girl from Gobong’s clutches. After a night of terrific temptation and sweet childhood memories whilst she gradually sobers up, she delivers the ultimate rejection…

His life shattered Sangbaek can only watch from afar as Hyeji follows her wrong path. However when the papers begin advertising for a co-star to “work” with the new starlet the make-up man and his daughter offer him an incredible chance to be with his degraded love once more. They can make him a new face and he can win Hyeji back. He knows it will work; after all, hasn’t the old man being running around Seoul for weeks, perfectly disguised as Sangbaek and getting off with lots of young women?

The plan set, the make-up master exacts a strange price. He will turn Sangbaek into the most handsome actor in the world, but in return he must surrender all rights to his own face and original identity…

Thought-proving, darkly funny and just a little bit scary, this is a compelling fantasy tale of love, desire and obsession that is both extremely engaging and terrifically appealing. Even if you aren’t a fan of manga or the far edgier Korean manhwa equivalent, this enticing adult romance series might just change you forever…
© 1997 Youjung Lee. All Rights Reserved. English text © 2007 NetComics.

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StormWatch: Change or Die


By Warren Ellis, Oscar Jimenez, Tom Raney, & various (DC/WildStorm)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-631-6

StormWatch was the UN’s Special Crisis Intervention unit; created to manage global threats and superhuman menaces with international ramifications. From their Skywatch satellite in orbit above Earth they observed, waiting for a member nation to call for help…

The multinational mini-army comprised surveillance and intelligence specialists, tech support units, historians, researchers, detention facilities, combat analysts, divisions of uniquely trained troops, a squadron of state-of-the-art out-atmosphere fighter planes and a band of dedicated superheroes for front-line situations beyond the scope of mere mortals. In the pilot’s seat was incorruptible overseer Henry Bendix – “The Weatherman”.

The title sprang from the comics revolution which saw celebrated young creators abandon major “work-for-hire” publishers to set up their own companies and titles – with all the benefits and drawbacks that entailed. As with most of those glossy, formulaic, style-over-content, almost actionably derivative titles, it started with honest enthusiasm but soon bogged down for lack of ideas.

Warren Ellis took over the moribund morass with issue #37 (see the previous collection StormWatch: Force of Nature) and immediately began beating life into the title. Soon “just another high-priced team-book” became an edgy, unmissable treatise on practical heroism and the uses and abuses of power. Making the book unquestionably his plaything Ellis slowly evolved StormWatch out of existence, to be reborn as the no-rules-unbroken landmark The Authority.

This volume collects and concludes the comicbook’s first volume with issues #48-50 and bridges the gap to the second volume’s issues #1-3 with the extremely rare – and short – StormWatch Preview edition, all scripted by Ellis as he re-redefined the masked hero for a new millennium.

The action and suspense begins with ‘Change or Die’ (with art from Tom Raney & Randy Elliott) as the StormWatch team are targeted by a ruthless band of superhumans, led by a long dormant superman who first began fighting social injustice before World War II. After years of planning these underground wonder warriors are boldly using their powers to wipe out all the inequities of the old World Order and build a better world. Of course that means doing away with armies, politicians, all governments and any superheroes who don’t agree with them…

This more than any other is the tale which introduced The Authority – in concept at least – to the comics world, as the ambitious but completely best-intentioned team (including prototype versions of both The Doctor and The Engineer) strike on many fronts, turning deserts into gardens, brutally wiping out brutal dictatorships and revealing all those dirty little secrets to the global populace…

In a bid to save “human civilisation” Weatherman authorises all of StormWatch for a kill mission… but even as Bendix’s true character and plans are revealed the poor suckers on the front line – and even their idealistic antagonists – discover amidst bloody, spectacular battle that the real enemy in the way of a global paradise is, always, human nature…

Following the apocalyptic events which wrapped up the first series ‘Terminal Zone’ (illustrated by Oscar Jimenez & Chuck Gibson) opens with new Weatherman Jackson King and the surviving team members going through their paces in a rather subversive public relations exercise before ‘Strange Weather’ (rendered by the mob-handed art-horde of Jimenez, Michael Ryan, Jason Gorder, Mark McKenna, Richard Friend, Eduardo Alpuente & Homage Studios) launches the new adventures as StormWatch metahumans raid a clandestine US facility illegally weaponising US troops and other lethal biological materials.

It appears that America is willfully breaking UN Resolutions restricting the creation of super-soldiers; but is this the work of militant terrorists and disaffected renegades or does the chain of command reach higher – perhaps to the White House itself?

The team is soon hip-deep in DNA horrors and official hypocrisy when they infiltrate a sleepy Alabama town and the Federal government declares war on StormWatch…

Dark, scary and rabidly political, the tension and intrigue are ramped up to overload, but as always the hip and cynical message is leavened with spectacular action, mind-blowing big science thrills and magically vulgar humour.

Mixing tradition with iconoclastic irreverence this volume cleared the way and set the scene for the landmark step-change of The Authority and although certainly not to everybody’s taste, these perfect post-modern superhero sagas definitely deliver a blast of refreshing cool air for the jaded, world weary older fan.
© 1997, 1998, 1999 WildStorm Productions, an imprint of DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Young Justice: A League of Their Own


By Peter David, D. Curtis Johnson, Todd Nauck, Ale Garza & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-197-7

There are many facets that contribute to the “perfect mix” in the creation of any continuing character in comics. How much more so then, when the idea is to build a superhero team that will stand out from the seething masses that already exist? In the mid-1990s a fresh batch of sidekicks and super-kids started cropping up at DC after some years of thematic disfavour, and as the name and modus operandi of the Teen Titans was already established something new needed to be done with them.

But why were kid crimebusters back at all? Ignoring the inherent stupidity – and illegality if you acknowledge child-endangerment laws – of superhero apprenticeships for trainees who can’t even shave yet, why should callow champions appeal at all to comics readers?

I don’t buy the old line about giving young readers someone to identify with: the kids I grew up with all wanted to be the adult who drove the whatever-mobile, not a snotty smartass brat in short pants. Every mission would be like going to school with your dad…

I suspect it’s actually the reverse case: duffers like me with responsibilities and chores could fantasize about being powerful, effective and dangerously irresponsible: able to beat people up without having to surrender that hormone-fuelled, irredeemably juvenile frat-boy capacity for goofy fun that we’ve all missed ever since it finally died away…

After a delightfully cool try-out miniseries (see Justice League: World Without Grown-Ups) the latest crop of “ands…” soon stampeded into their own highly habit-forming monthly series. Also included in that introductory graphic novel collection was a subtly distressing tale wherein Robin, Superboy and Impulse rescued a young girl composed entirely of smoke and vapour from a supposedly benign federal agency: the Department of ExtraNormal Operations.

This second collection (repackaging issues #1-7 of the monthly comicbook with portions of Young Justice Secret Files #1) features fan-favourite writer Peter David scripting some inspired, tongue-in-cheek, gloriously self-referential adolescent lunacy, beginning with ‘Young, Just Us’ (illustrated by Todd Nauck & Lary Stucker) wherein the unlikely lads go for a sleepover in the old Justice League Secret Sanctuary and fall into a whole new career.

When a nearby archaeological dig uncovers an ancient New Gods Supercycle the boys are too busy vandalising the decommissioned mountain lair until the android Red Tornado objects. Before things become too tense the boys are called to the dig-site where DEO operatives Fite and Maad are attempting to confiscate the alien tech. After a brief skirmish with a fabulously mutated minor villain (transformed by a booby trap!) the bike adopts the kids and makes a break for it…

After a brief interlude with the pneumatically empowered Mighty Endowed the action switches to the Middle East for ‘Sheik, Rattle and Roll’ where the semi-sentient trans-dimensional cycle has brought Robin, Superboy and Impulse. Apparently uncounted years ago an Apokoliptian warrior named Riproar was entombed beneath a mountain after stealing the bike from New Genesis. Now the machine, enslaved to the thief’s ancient programming, is compelled to free the monster, but it has brought some superheroes to fight Riproar once he’s loose. Of course, they’re rather small heroes…

Hilariously victorious, the kids return to America just in time for Halloween and a riotous Trick or Treat time travel romp as meddling kids dabbling in magic snatch a nerdy Fifth Dimensional scholar out of his appointed place – endangering the entire continuum. Sadly, although YJ’s best efforts in ‘The Issue Before the One Where the Girls Show Up!’ restore reality they might have had a delayed bad influence on the quietly studious Master Mxyzptlk…

A bunch of chicks join the boys’ club in ‘Harm’s Way’ as writer David unerringly injects some dark undercurrents into the frenetic fun. Impulse’s sometime associate Arrowette (a second generation trick archer forced into the biz by her fearsome stage-struck mother) is being hunted by a psychotic youth who intends to become the world’s greatest villain and that aforementioned mist-girl Secret and the latest incarnation of Wonder Girl are dragged into the clinically sociopathic Harm’s lethal practice run before the assembled boys and girls finally manage to drive him off…

D. Curtis Johnson, Ale Garza & Cabin Boy then step in for ‘Take Back the Night’ as Secret leads the now fully-co-ed team in a raid against the clandestine and quasi-legal DEO orphanage-academy where metahuman kids are “trained” to use their abilities. It seems an awful lot of these youngsters aren’t there voluntarily or even with their parents’ approval…

‘First, Do No Harm’ (David, Nauck & Stucker) sees the return of the malevolent young nemesis as he invades their HQ and turns Red Tornado into a weapon of Mass destruction (that’s a pun that only makes sense after I mention that the Pope guest-stars in this tale). As the Justice League step in, the tale wraps up with a majestic twist ending…

The senior superstars are concerned about the kid’s behaviour and set a test, but since this is comics, that naturally goes spectacularly wrong in ‘Judgement Day’ as the ghost of alien horror Despero turns the simulation into a very practical demonstration of utter mayhem…

This terrific tome concludes with the edgy and hilarious ‘Conferences’ as the assorted guardians and mentors convene for a highly contentious parents/teachers evening, blissfully unaware that their boy and girls have snuck off for an unsanctioned – and unchaperoned – overnight camping trip together. As ever, it’s not what you’d expect but it is incredibly entertaining…

Teen issues and traditional caped crusading are perfectly combined with captivating adventure and deft, daft home-room laughs in this magical blend of tension and high jinks, comedy, pathos and even genuine horror in Young Justice.

The secret joy of sidekicks has always been the sheer bravura fun they inject into a tale and this book totally epitomises that most magical of essences. Unleash your inner urchin with this bright shiny gem and pray that now the kids have their own cartoon show DC will finally get around to releasing all the Young Justice tales in graphic novel collections.
© 1998, 1999, 2000 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Fuc_ __u, _ss__le: Blecky Yuckerella volume 4


By Johnny Ryan (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-415-3

Johnny Ryan is a comedian who uses comics as his medium of expression. Whether in his own Angry Youth Comix, or the many commissions for such varied clients as Nickelodeon, Hustler, Mad, LA Weekly and elsewhere, his job and mission is to make laughter. Depending on your point of view he is either a filth-obsessed pervert smut-monger or a social iconoclast using the same tactics as Lenny Bruce or Bill Hicks to assault the worst and/or most hidebound aspects of society.

His wild, loose cartoon drawing style is deceptively engrossing, and his seeming pictorial Tourette’s Syndrome of strips and gags involving such grotesque signature characters as Boobs Pooter (world’s most disgusting stand-up comedian), Loady McGee and Sinus O’Gynus will, frankly, appal many readers, but as with most questions of censorship in a Free Society, they are completely at liberty neither to buy nor read the stuff.

Ryan dubs his stinging graphic assaults on American culture ‘misanthropic comics’ and one of the most effective has been Blecky Yuckeralla. Originally running weekly in The Portland Mercury and Vice Magazine from 2003 before switching to Ryan’s own on-line site the strip was based on traditional, anodyne comics features and referenced many other popular art forms. This fourth bi-annual collection collects the last 99 four-panel pages up to and including the final episode which ran on www.johnnyryan.com on 30th July 2010.

Blecky is an ugly, unsavoury, unsanitary and very stupid girl: a cunning reinterpretation of Ernie Bushmiller’s beloved Nancy strip, with plenty of comics, movies and media pastiches thrown in too. There’s Bucksley – a ghastly, grotesque Richie Rich-clone, nerdy “boyfriend” Wedgie, guardian Aunt Jiggles and a host of guest-victims for the shocking puns and fouls antics of the little girl from hell …or maybe it’s New Jersey.

Here you’ll find gross, vulgar and shocking gags about sex, defecation, farting, bodily functions, feminine hygiene, and even the ultimate modern whited sepulchers, TV, money, religion, politics, race and sexual abuse. There are no safe areas or taboo subjects. Blecky and Co are equally free with cute animals, presidents, film stars, assorted Holy Books and even 9-11…

Depending on who you are and your social outlook this final collection is as brilliant or as appalling as the previous three so if you’re prudish, sensitive or concerned about moral standards – don’t buy this book. There’s plenty of us who will…

© 2010 Johnny Ryan. All Rights Reserved.