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Essential Iron Man volume 3


By Archie Goodwin, Gerry Conway, George Tuska, Don Heck & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2764-2

Having finally overtaken the aging colossus of National/DC, upstart Marvel Comics sometimes seemed to be at a loss for what to do next. The answer is obvious to us: more of the same… but back then the rules were being constantly rewritten, the country was changing and conflict was everywhere. Perhaps what was needed was more experimentation…

Created in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis and at a time when “Red-baiting” and “Commie-bashing” were American national obsessions, the emergence of a brilliant new Thomas Edison, using Yankee ingenuity, invention and wealth to safeguard and better the World, seemed inevitable. Combine the then-sacrosanct belief that technology and business could solve any problem with the universal imagery of noble knights battling evil and the concept behind the Invincible Iron Man seems an infallibly successful proposition.

Of course where once Tony Stark was the acceptable face of 1960s Capitalism; a glamorous millionaire industrialist/inventor and a benevolent all-conquering hero when clad in the super-scientific armour of his alter-ego Iron Man, the tumultuous tone of the times soon resigned his suave, fat-cat image to the dustbin of history and with ecological disasters and social catastrophe from the abuse of industry and technology the new mantras of the young, the Golden Avenger and Stark International were soon confronting some tricky questions from the increasingly socially conscious readership.

All of a sudden maybe that money and fancy gadgetry weren’t quite so fun or cool anymore…?

This third gleaming black and white chronological compendium covers that transitional period, reprinting Iron Man #12-38 and also includes a tumultuous team-up with the Man Without Fear from Daredevil #73, which held a key portion of an rather complex comics crossover.

Writer Archie Goodwin and artists George Tuska & Johnny Craig continued their sterling run of solid science-flavoured action epics with the introduction of a new sinister super-foe in #12 with ‘The Coming of the Controller’ a twisted genius who used the energy of enslaved citizens to power a cybernetic exo-skeleton and the embezzled funds of Stark’s girlfriend Janice Cord to pay for it all. Of course Iron Man was ready and able to overcome the scheming maniac, culminating in a cataclysmic climax in ‘Captives of the Controller!’

With #14’s ‘The Night Phantom Walks!’ Goodwin paid tribute to Craig’s past history drawing EC’s landmark horror comics as the artist pencilled and inked the tale of a zombie-like monster which prowled a Caribbean island destroying Stark Industry installations. As well as being a terse, moody thriller this story marked the first indications of a different attitude as the menace’s ecologically inspired reign of terror included some pretty fair arguments about the downsides of “Progress” and rapacious globalisation…

Tuska returned with #15 and ‘Said the Unicorn to the Ghost…!’ as the demented former spy allied himself with Fantastic Four foe Red Ghost in a bid to find a cure for his drastically shortened his life-span. Attempting to kidnap Tony Stark the Ghost betrayed the Unicorn and retrenched to an African Cosmic Ray research facility in the concluding ‘Of Beasts and Men!’, and it took a risky alliance of hero and villain to thwart the phantom mastermind’s ill-conceived plans…

An extended epic began in Iron Man #17 as an android designed to protect Stark’s secret identity gained sinister sentience and actually replaced him. ‘The Beginning of the End!’ also introduced the enigmatic Madame Masque and her malevolent master Midas, who planned to take control of America’s greatest technology company.

Dispossessed and on the run Stark is abducted and aligns with Masque and Midas to reclaim his identity only to suffer a fatal heart-attack in ‘Even Heroes Die!’ (guest-starring the Avengers) before a ground-breaking transplant – still practically science fiction in those distant days – gave him renewed hope in ‘What Price Life?’ The opportunist Midas instantly struck again whilst the enigmatic Madame Masque switched sides…

X-Men’s alien nemesis attacked the restored hero in ‘Who Serves Lucifer?’ (inked by Joe Gaudioso – AKA Mike Esposito) before being returned to his dungeon dimension whilst an African-American boxer, Eddie March, became the next Iron Man in #21’s ‘The Replacement!’ as Stark , free from the heart-stimulating chest-plate which had preserved his life for years was briefly tempted by a life without strife. Unfortunately, unknown to all Eddie had a little health problem of his own…

When armoured menace Titanium Man resurfaced, another old threat in the form of the Crimson Dynamo returned in #22’s classic ‘From this Conflict… Death!’ and a vengeance-crazed Iron Man went ballistic in the innovative action-thriller ‘The Man who Killed Tony Stark!!’ before finding solace in the arms of Madame Masque as Johnny Craig returned to fully illustrate the superb mythological monster-mash ‘My Son… The Minotaur!’ and stayed on as Archie Goodwin pinned Iron’s Man new Green colours to the comic’s mast in #25’s stunning eco-parable ‘This Doomed Land… This Dying Sea!’

Teamed with and battling against antihero Sub-Mariner the Armoured Avenger was forced to destroy one of his own hyper-polluting facilities, subsequently changing his company’s ethical position and business model – although his attempts to convince other industry leaders to do likewise met with the kind of reaction that tragically typified America’s response to the real-world situation.

Original Iron Man artist Don Heck returned for the fantasy-fuelled romp ‘Duel in a Dark Dimension!’ (inked by Craig) with guest villain The Collector and racial tensions took centre-stage in ‘The Fury of the Firebrand!’ which introduced an inflammatory radical with secret and highly personal agenda of hate aimed squarely at Stark and the fat-cat he represented. He was also a human napalm grenade…

Goodwin bowed out with #28’s riotous return match ‘The Controller Lives!’ so Mimi Gold scripted an old-fashioned commie-buster yarn, drawn by Heck and inked by Chic Stone, as Iron Man freed a tropical paradise from its enslaving socialist overlords in ‘Save the People… Save the Country!’ before Allyn Brodsky took over as scripter with #30’s ‘The Menace of the Monster-Master!’ a rousing rampage full of Maoist menace as a giant lizard ravaged Japan until the Golden Avenger stepped in and took charge…

Far more intriguing were ‘Anything… For the Cause!’ wherein back-to-nature hippie protesters were manipulated by an unscrupulous businessman, and which introduced new regular cast-member Kevin O’Brian, and #32’s ‘Beware… The Mechanoid!’ (illustrated by Tuska & “Gaudioso”) which related the salutary tale of an alien explorer who made the lasting mistake of exploring America whilst disguised as a black man…

Heck & Gaudioso handled the art for ‘Their Mission: Destroy Stark Industries!!’ as corporate raider Spymaster unleashed his Mission: Impossible-inspired team the Espionage Elite to deprive America of both the inventor and his company, a fast-paced thriller which concluded in the bombastic finale ‘Crisis… and Calamity!!’

Something of a comics wunderkind, Gerry Conway assumed the writer’s reins in Iron Man #35 as the Armoured Avenger sought ‘Revenge!’ on the Spymaster but was distracted by an ongoing battle between Daredevil, Nick Fury, Madame Masque and criminal network called Zodiac – all contesting the ownership of an extra-dimensional wish-granting super weapon. That battle spilled over into Daredevil #73 ‘Behold… the Brotherhood!’ (Conway, Gene Colan & Syd Shores) before messily concluding halfway through Iron Man #36 (art by Heck & Esposito) before the Steely Centurion was waylaid by terra-forming aliens in ‘…Among Men Stalks the Ramrod!’

Incapacitated and with his new heart damaged, Stark revealed his secret to Kevin O’Brian ‘In This Hour of Earthdoom!’ (inked by Jim Mooney) before the invaders were finally repelled. This volume ends on a pleasantly low-key note in an engaging gangster drama from Conway, Tuska & Esposito wherein Iron Man is forced to respond quite assertively ‘When Calls Jonah…!’

With this volume Marvel firmly paced itself in the camp of the young and the restless experiencing firsthand the social upheaval America was experiencing. This rebellious teen sensibility and increased political conscience permeated the company’s publications as their core audience grew from Flower Power innocents into a generation of aware activists. Future tales would increasingly bring reformed capitalist Stark into many unexpected and outrageous situations…

But that’s the meat of another review, as this engrossing graphic novel is done. From our distant vantage point the polemical energy and impact might be dissipated, but the sheer quality of the comics and the cool thrill of the perennial dream of man in perfect synchrony with magic metal remains. These superhero shenanigans are some of the most underrated but impressive tales of the period and are well worth your time, consideration and cold hard cash…

© 1969, 1970, 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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The Sandman


By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby with Mike Royer & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2299-4

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect for the die-hard fanboy superhero purists and lovers of pure comic magic  9/10

In the early days of the American comicbook the fledgling industry was awash with chancers, double-dealers, slick operators and outright crooks. Many creative types fell foul of this publishing free-for-all but a rare few took to the cut and thrust and managed not only to survive but also to prosper.

Just as the Golden Age of comics was beginning two young men with big hopes met up and began a decades-long association that was always intensely creative, immensely productive and spectacularly in tune with popular tastes. Joe Simon was a sharp-minded, talented young man with five years experience in “real” publishing, working from the bottom up to art director on a succession of small paper such as the Rochester Journal American, Syracuse Herald and Syracuse Journal American before moving to New York City and a life of freelancing as an art/photo retoucher and illustrator. Recommended by his boss, Simon joined Lloyd Jacquet’s pioneering Funnies Inc., a comics production “shop” generating strips and characters for a number of publishing houses eager to cash in on the success of Action Comics and its stellar attraction Superman.

Within days Simon created The Fiery Mask for Martin Goodman of Timely Comics (now Marvel) and met young Jacob Kurtzberg, a cartoonist and animator just hitting his stride with the Blue Beetle for the Fox Feature Syndicate.

Together Simon and Kurtzberg (who went through a legion of pen-names before settling on Jack Kirby) enjoyed a stunning creative empathy and synergy which galvanized an already electric neo-industry with a vast catalogue of features and even sub-genres. They produced the influential Blue Bolt, Captain Marvel Adventures (#1) and, when Martin Goodman made Simon the editor of Timely, created a host of iconic characters such as Red Raven, the first Marvel Boy, The Vision, Young Allies and of course the million-selling mega-hit Captain America.

Famed for his larger than life characters and colossal cosmic imaginings, “King” Kirby was an astute, spiritual hard-working family man who lived though poverty, gangsterism, the Depression and World War II. He had seen Post-War optimism, Cold War paranoia, political cynicism and the birth and death of peace-seeking counter-cultures. He was open-minded, always saw the best in people and was utterly wedded to the making of comics stories on every imaginable subject.

When Goodman failed to make good on his financial obligations, Simon & Kirby jumped ship to National/DC, who welcomed them with open arms and a big chequebook. Initially an uncomfortable fit, bursting with ideas the company were not comfortable with, the pair were soon given two strips that were in the doldrums until they found their creative feet.

Once established and left to their own devices they created the “Kid Gang” genre with The Newsboy Legion (plus super-heroic mentor The Guardian) and the unique international army The Boy Commandos – who shared the spotlight with Batman in Detective Comics and whose own solo title was frequently the company’s third best seller.

Those moribund strips they were first let loose upon were a big game feature called Paul Kirk, Manhunter, which they overnight turned into a darkly manic, vengeful superhero strip, and one of comics’ first masked mystery-men – The Sandman.

This superb hardback collection reprints all the Simon and Kirby Sandman tales, including the covers they produced for the issues they didn’t craft, lost art pages, original art reproductions plus informative text articles from Kirby historian John Morrow and writer Mark Evanier and also includes Simon & Kirby’s reunion reinvention of Sandman from 1974 (which in turn spawned one of Kirby’s last, short-lived series for DC).

Created by Gardner Fox and originally illustrated by Bert Christman, the Sandman premiered in either Adventure Comics #40 July 1939 (two months after Batman debuted in Detective Comics #27) or two weeks earlier in New York World’s Fair Comics 1939, depending on whether some rather spotty distribution records can be believed.

Face utterly obscured by a gasmask; caped and business-suited millionaire adventurer Wesley Dodds wielded a sleeping-gas gun to battle a string of crooks and spies, accompanied by his paramour Dian Belmont, before gradually losing the readers’ interest and slipping from cover-spot to last feature in Adventure Comics, just as the cloaked pulp-hero avengers he emulated slipped from popularity in favour of more flamboyant fictional fare.

Possessing a certain indefinable style and charm but definitely no pizzazz, the feature was on the verge of being dropped when he abruptly switched to a skintight yellow and purple costume complete with billowing cape and gained a boy-sidekick, Sandy the Golden Boy (Adventure Comics #69, December 1941, by Mort Weisinger & Paul Norris), presumably to move closer to the overwhelmingly successful Batman model.

It didn’t help much.

So when Simon & Kirby came aboard with #72, the little banner above the logo on the Jack Burnley Starman cover gave no hint of the pulse-pounding change that had occurred. ‘Riddle of the Slave Market’ saw a sleek, dynamic pair of gleaming golden lions explode across eleven pages of graphic fury as the Sandman, sans that daft cape, crushed a white-collar criminal with a nasty line in illicit indentured servitude. Moreover the character had overnight acquired his unique gimmick: Sandman’s crusades against crime were presaged by the perpetrator suffering nightmares of imminent retribution…

This semi-supernatural element and fascination with the world of dreams (revisited by S&K a decade later in their short-lived experimental suspense series The Strange World of Your Dreams) added a conceptual punch to equal the kinetic fury of their art, and when #73 (with the S&K Manhunter now hogging the cover) the Sandman strip ‘Bells of Madness!’ ramped up the tension with another spectacular action epic as the Dream Warriors exposed a cunningly murder plot.

With Adventure #74 Sandman and Sandy took back the cover spot (only their third since #51) keeping it until the feature ended. Only once did Sandman not appear on the cover – #99: another S&K Manhunter classic. With #103 the magazine underwent a complete overhaul with new feature Superboy leading a cast of established regulars – Green Arrow, Aquaman, Shining Knight and Johnny Quick – parachuted in from other magazines.

The story in #74 was an eerie instant classic: ‘The Man Who Knew All the Answers’ was a small-town professor who artificially increased his intellect – but not his morality. When his perfectly planned crimes brought him into conflict with the Sandman it was clear that his brain enhancer did nothing for his common sense either.

‘The Villain From Valhalla!’ (Adventure Comics #75 June 1942) pitted the galvanic heroes against a hammer-wielding Norse god in a cataclysmic Battle Royale, which is followed here by an equally astounding clash with sinister floral villain Nightshade. ‘The Adventure of the Magic Forest’ comes from World’s Finest Comics #6 (Summer 1942), one of two S&K exploits in that legendary high-profile anthology.

Sandman was also a founding member of the Justice Society of America, appearing in many issues of All-Star Comics. A number of the pertinent chapters were also produced by Joe & Jack but are not included in this otherwise comprehensive compendium: completists will need to track down the superb All-Star Archives (volumes 4 and 5) for those dynamic classics.

Adventure #76 again heavily emphasised the foreboding dream element in ‘Mr. Noah Raids the Town!’ as a soothsaying mastermind unleashed preposterously intelligent animals to steal and kill whilst #77’s ‘Dreams of Doom!’ found an innocent man plagued by nightmares and compelled to solicit the aid of the Master of Dreams… and only just in time!

A sinister Swami was exposed in ‘The Miracle Maker!’ whilst the final World’s Finest guest-shot (#7, Fall 1942) dipped heavily into exotic fantasy for ‘A Modern Arabian Nightmare!’ before Adventure #79 perfectly banged the patriotic drum in an eerie temporal-trap mystery ‘Footprints in the Sands of Time!’

It was back to thrill-a-minute manic crime mayhem in #80’s ‘The Man Who Couldn’t Sleep!’ but ‘A Drama in Dreams’ presented a baffling conundrum for Sandy alone to solve whilst the creators went for seasonal shocks in the madcap Yule yarn ‘Santa Fronts for the Mob.’

Issue #83 led with a blockbusting boxing romance as the heroes came to the aid of ‘The Lady and the Champ!’ and included a gloriously over-the-top Boy Commandos ad featuring Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo as only Jack and Joe could defame them. Next comes the gloriously Grand Guignol saga of the ‘Crime Carnival’ and a delightfully wry romp ‘The Unholy Dreams of Gentleman Jack’ before the creators once more returned to a favourite theme of childhood poverty in ‘The Boy Who Was Too Big for his Breeches.’

The war was progressing and soon both Joe and Jack would be full-time servicemen so perhaps the increasingly humanistic tales of the latter run were only to be expected. The shift in emphasis certainly didn’t affect the quality of such gems as ‘I Hated the Sandman!’ from #87 wherein narcoleptic Silas Pettigrew learned a salutary lesson or the heartwarming and exuberant childhood fantasy ‘The Cruise of the Crescent’ whilst #89’s kidnap drama ‘Prisoner of his Dreams’ and the boisterous ‘Sleepy Time Crimes!’ proved that whatever else happened action and excitement would always be the series’ watchwords.

In the months prior to their induction Simon & Kirby went into overdrive, building up a vast reserve of inventory stories for their assorted strip commitments, but even so relentless publishing deadlines soon ate them up. Adventure Comics #91 featured the last S&K yarn for a year and a half, long after Kirby had shipped out to fight in Europe and Simon had begun his service with the US Coast Guard.

‘Courage a La Carte’ has precious little – if indeed any – Kirby art in it, but is nonetheless a sterling saga of malice unmasked and justice triumphant, after which only the covers of Adventure #92-97 reprinted here kept the artist’s light burning in the heart of their fans.

They returned for issue #100 (October/November 1945) with tempestuous crime caper ‘Sweets for Swag!’ – the cover of #101and again inside #102 with the swansong drama ‘The Dream of Peter Green!’ as Sandman and Sandy exposed shoddy dealings in city contracting and gave ghetto kids decent playgrounds to grow fit and healthy in.

National Comics was no longer a welcoming place for the reunited duo and by 1947 they had formed their own studio and begun a long and productive relationship with Harvey Comics (Stuntman, Boy’s Ranch, Captain 3-D, Lancelot Strong, The Shield, The Fly, Three Rocketeers and others) and created an stunning variety of genre features for Crestwood/Pines (supplied by their Essankay/Mainline studio shop) which included Justice Traps the Guilty, Black Magic, Fighting American, Bullseye, Foxhole and Young Romance amongst many more (see the superb Best of Simon and Kirby for a salient selection of these classic creations).

As comics went through bad times the pair eventually went their separate ways but were reunited for one last hurrah in 1974 whilst both working once more for DC. As a result they re-imagined the Sandman as a fully fantastic scientific master of the metaphysical, policing the nightmares of humanity from a citadel deep in “The Dream-stream.”

‘The Sandman’ (scripted by Joe, drawn/edited by Jack and inked by Mike Royer) is pure escapist delight as young Jed Paulsen tapped into the oneiric horrors of villainous cybrid General Electric as he attempted to conquer the World of Our Dreams. When all hope seemed exhausted Jed was rescued and befriended by the omniscient Lord of Sleep and his ghastly assistants Brute and Glob…

This rambunctious romp is a great place to end our volume but since six further adventures of this Weaver of Dreams were completed (albeit with no Simon and varying degrees of Kirby) perhaps one day they too will make the jump to graphic novel immortality…

After years of neglect the glorious wealth of Jack Kirby material available these days is a true testament to his influence and legacy, so this magnificent collection of his collaborations with fellow industry pioneer Joe Simon is another gigantic box of delights that perfectly illustrates the depth, scope sheer thundering joy of the early days of comics: something no amount of corporate shoddy behaviour can ever diminish.

© 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1974, 2009 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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Showcase Presents Batman volume 4


By Frank Robbins, Irv Novick, Bob Brown, Joe Giella & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84856-357-5

After three seasons (perhaps two and a half would be closer) the overwhelmingly successful Batman TV show ended in March, 1968. It had clocked up 120 episodes since the US premiere on January 12, 1966. As the series foundered and crashed the global fascination with “camp” superheroes – and no, the term had nothing to do with sexual proclivities no matter what you and Mel Brooks might think about Men in Tights – burst as quickly as it had boomed and the Caped Crusader was left with a hard core of dedicated fans and followers who now wanted their hero back.

For the editor who had tried to keep the most ludicrous excesses of the show out whilst still cashing in on his global popularity, the reasoning seemed simple: get him back to solving baffling mysteries and facing genuine perils as soon and as thrillingly as possible.

No problem.

This fourth impressively economical black and white compendium gathers Batman and Robin yarns from Batman #202-215 and the front halves of Detective Comics #376-390; the back-up slot being delightfully filled until #383 by the whimsically wonderful Elongated Man, whereafter he was unceremoniously dropped to make room for Batgirl’s own solo sallies.

The 27 stories here (some of the Batman issues were giant reprint editions so only their covers are reproduced within these pages) were written and illustrated by an evolving team of creators as editor Julie Schwartz lost some of his elite stable to age, attrition and corporate pressure, but the “new blood” was only fresh to the Gotham Guardian, not the industry and their sterling efforts deftly moulded the character into a hero capable of actually working within the new “big things” in comics: suspense, horror and the supernatural…

The book leads off with ‘Gateway to Death!’ (Batman #202, June 1968) by Gardner Fox, an un-attributed artist – possibly Dick Dillin or Mike Sekowsky – & Sid Greene, a spooky graveyard chiller which found the Dynamic Duo chasing a psychic plunderer towards their own prognosticated doom, after which Detective #376 (by the same creative team) asked ‘Hunted or …Haunted?’ as a time-traveller inadvertently put the fear of death and worse into the Caped Crusader.

Batman #203 was an 80-Page Giant with a cover by Neal Adams, whilst an old foe returned in ‘The Riddler’s Prison-Puzzle Problem!’ (Detective #377, Fox, Frank Springer & Greene) before Frank Robbins (creator of newspaper strip Johnny Hazard) joined the writing team for ‘Operation: Blindfold!’ illustrated by Irv Novick & Joe Giella, a two-part criminal conspiracy saga wherein a legion of thugs and sightless beggars almost took over Gotham.

With veteran penciller Bob Brown on Detective and Novick on Batman the artistic quality was high and consistent but unfortunately the strictly chronological reprinting works against the reader as the concluding episode is postponed and derailed here by Detective #378, the first half of a generation gap murder-mystery ‘Batman! Drop Dead… Twice!’ (Robbins, Brown & Giella) which itself climaxed after ‘Blind as a… Bat?’ from Batman #204 with a rollicking rollercoaster ride of spills and chills in ‘Two Killings For the Price of One!’ in Detective #379.

Issue #380 follows, introducing a new love-interest in Ginny Jenkins, the ‘Marital-Bliss Miss!’ (Robbins, Brown & Giella) who only pretended to be the new Mrs. Bruce Wayne for the very best of motives – saving his life – whilst in Batman #206 Novick & Giella illustrated a canny thriller ‘Batman Walks the Last Mile!’ pitting the Caped Crusader against a conman who claimed to be the brains behind the Dynamic Duo’s success.

In an era where teen angst and the counter-culture played an increasingly strident part Robin’s role as spokesperson for a generation was becoming increasingly important, with disputes and splits from his senior partner constantly recurring. Detective #381 featured one of the best as Batman literally dumped the Boy Wonder in ‘One Drown… One More to Go!’ – another clever crime conundrum from Robbins, Brown & Giella.

Batman #207 carried a classy countdown to catastrophe drama as all Gotham hunted for ‘the atomic nightmare’ of ‘The Doomsday Ball!’ whilst ‘Tec #382 continued the theme of youth in revolt with ‘Riddle of the Robbin’ Robin!’ but the disagreements were never serious or genuine, although that would soon change. Batman #208 was another reprint Giant: this time focusing on the women in his life. However even though Schwartz varied the usual format by having Gil Kane draw interlocking framing sequences, turning the issue into one big single story, all that has all been left out here so you just get the rather nifty Nicky Cardy cover.

Detective #383 was a straightforward thriller set in Gotham’s Chinatown: ‘The Fortune-Cookie Caper!’ but outlandish mind-bending mystery was the order of the day in ‘Jungle Jeopardy!’ in Batman #209 and ‘Tec #384 asked ‘Whatever Will Happen to Heiress Heloise?’ a crafty last tale of cross and double-cross from Gardner Fox, illustrated as ever by Brown & Giella.

Catwoman returned mob-handed – or is that mob-pawed? – in Batman #210 with eight other cat chicks in tow so the Caped Crimebuster was hard-pressed to solve ‘The Case of the Purr-Loined Pearl!’ whilst Bob Kanigher wrote one of the best tales of his long and illustrious career for Detective #385 as a nameless nonentity became the most important man Batman never met in the deeply moving ‘Die Small… Die Big!’

Issue #386 found Bruce Wayne a ‘Stand-In for Murder’ (Robbins, Brown & Giella) whilst the heroes had secret identity woes in ‘Batman’s Big Blow-Off!’ (#211, (Robbins, Novick & Giella) and Young Turk Mike Friedrich returned to script a reworking of Batman’s very first appearance for the 30th Anniversary issue of Detective Comics. ‘The Cry of Night is… Sudden Death!’ was a contemporary reworking of issue #27’s ‘The Case of the Chemical Syndicate’ which launched the Dark Knight on the road to immortality (and to see the original check out Batman Chronicles Volume 1, or any of the many “Best of” collections that feature this landmark tale) but once more the relationship between Batman and Boy Wonder came under probing scrutiny.

‘Baffling Deaths of the Crime-Czar!’ (Batman #212, Robbins, Novick & Giella) pitted a trio of exuberant hit-men against the heroes, before John Broome made a final scripting contribution that moved the Joker away from Clown crimes and back towards the insane killer we all cherish in ‘Tec #388’s ‘Public Luna-tic Number One!‘  – a classy sci-fi thriller that totally reinvented the Laughing Loon, in no small part thanks to the artistic efforts of Brown & Giella.

Batman #213 was another reprint Giant, celebrating other landmarks of the 30th Anniversary and featured a new retelling of ‘The Origin of Robin’ courtesy of E. Nelson Bridwell, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, which is included here after the spiffy cover from Bill Draut & Vince Colletta.

The road to a scary hero continued with Detective #389 and the Robbins-scripted ‘Batman’s Evil Eye’ wherein the Scarecrow infected Gotham’s Guardian with the power to terrify at a glance – obviously somebody saw the long-term story potential in that stunt…

There was still potential to be daft too, though as seen in ‘Batman’s Marriage Trap!’ (#214, Robbins, Novick & Giella) wherein a wicked Femme Fatale set the unhappy spinsters of America on the trail of Gotham’s Most Eligible Bat-chelor (see what I did there? Wishing I hadn’t…?) Not even a guest-shot by positive role-model Batgirl can redeem this peculiar throwback – although the art just might…

The last Detective tale is from #390 and pits the Dynamic Duo against lacklustre costumed assassin The Masquerader in ‘If the Coffin Fits… Wear It!’ before the end of an era is presaged in Batman #215 and ‘Call Me Master!’ by Robbins, Novick and the soon to become legendary Dick Giordano. Although a clever tale of mind-control skullduggery, this tale trialed the loss of Wayne Manor and an all-out split between Dark Knight and Boy Wonder: events that would come to pass within mere months, ushering in a bold new direction for the Bat-Universe

This volume brings three decades of Batman to a solid conclusion. Soon safe boy-scout Caped Crusader would become a terrifying creature of passion, intellect and shadowy suspense.

Stay tuned: This book is wonderfully good but the very best is still to come…

© 1968, 1969, 2009 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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Incredible Hulk: Return of the Monster


By Bruce Jones, John Romita Jr. & Tom Palmer (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-0943-3

Bruce Banner was a military scientist accidentally caught in a gamma bomb blast of his own devising. As a result he would unexpectedly transform into a giant green monster of unstoppable strength and fury when distressed or surprised. As both occasional hero and mindless monster he rampaged across the Marvel Universe for years, finally finding his size 700 feet and a format that worked, becoming one of young Marvel’s most resilient features.

An incredibly popular character both in comics and more global media beyond, he has often undergone radical changes in scope and direction to keep his stories fresh and his exploits explosively compelling…

One of the most impressive runs of recent vintage was by noted thriller and horror writer Bruce Jones (see especially his impressive Hitchcock pastiche Somerset Holmes) who injected some long-neglected suspense and pure menace back into the saga. This slim volume (re-presenting issues #34-39 of The Incredible Hulk comicbook from 2001) combines his moody, humanistic writing with the ponderously powerful pencilling of John Romita Jr. and the slickly realistic inking of Tom Palmer to stunning effect.

Always running from the authorities and himself, Banner has finally lost all hope in the aftermath of one of the Hulk’s bouts of mindless destruction which devastated Chicago and resulted in the death of a little boy, Ricky Myers. This book opens with ‘The Morning After’ as a cold and emotionally dead Banner hides in a sleazy hotel where he encounters Jerome, a kid so smart that he knows joining a gang is the only thing that can keep someone with his kind of brains alive.

The desperate lad gets a glimpse at another option after he tries to burglarize the skinny, repressed white guy down the hall and when Jerome gets in over his head it is Banner not the Hulk who is the solution…

Incognito, restlessly wandering but with a mysterious ally keeping him one step ahead of his myriad pursuers Banner is slowly reconnecting with the humanity he has avoided ever since the monster was first created. In the wordless, deeply moving ‘Silent Running’ the fugitive narrowly escapes capture at a diner due to the inadvertent assistance of an autistic child, whilst ‘The Gang’s All Here!’ introduces a mismatched pair of assassins hired by the secret organisation actually behind the current manhunt for Banner and the Hulk.

Both the lethal killer Slater and his rival/partner Sandra Verdugo have been co-opted by a cabal of Men in Black with an unspecified interest in ramping up anti-Hulk hysteria and they definitely want Banner. They also appear to have the literal power of life and death over their unwilling agents…

With Banner’s old friend Doc Samson lured into the pursuit the cabal makes its move in ‘You Must Remember This…’ but when the gamma-fuelled psychologist is distracted by a small child’s experience of school bullying the Hulk-hunters converge and generate a colossal amount of collateral damage at the ‘Last Chance Café’, before events get totally out of hand and terrifyingly weird in the concluding ‘Tag… You’re Dead!’

Using the theme of troubled childhoods and imagery based on the classic Frankenstein films that were such an integral part of the Jade Giant’s conceptual genesis, these tales focus on Banner and judiciously limit the use of his emerald alter ego to the point where the monster almost becomes a ghost. Ever-present but never seen (the monster is only on 21 of the 144 pages of this collection and that includes covers, dream-sequences, flashbacks and spot illustrations) like a catastrophic Rebecca haunting a Midwestern Manderley, the Hulk is a oppressive force of calculated salvation and last resort rather than mere reader-friendly graphic destruction and gratuitous gratification.

Like all great monsters he lurks in the shadows, waiting for his moment…

One of the most beguiling and impressive Hulk yarns of all, this book is the first of three self-contained volumes which utterly reinvigorated the character and completely refocused the series for the 21st century. If you’re new to the series or looking for an excuse to jump back on, this is the book for you…
© 2001, 2002 Marvel Characters Inc. All rights reserved.

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Fables volume 8: Wolves


By Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham & others (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-388-6

Fables is one of those blessed delights that makes a reviewers job almost impossible. Series of matchless quality that still improve with each volume are rare and most welcome but you soon run out of superlatives to express your enthusiasm, so unless the reviewer wants to cross the border into Spoiler Territory (giving away a plot to a potential fan ought to be a Capital Offence) you really have nothing to offer: therefore I’m repeating my standard short review: Best One Yet – Get Them All.

Still and all you might want a little more, so…

The monthly comicbook Fables details the exploits of fairytale and storybook characters that we humans regard as fictional, living secret immortal lives among us, refugees from a monstrous all-consuming Adversary who had conquered their original otherworldly homelands.

Allow me to elucidate. Keeping their true nature hidden from humanity the Fables have created enclaves where their magic and sheer strangeness (all the talking animals are sequestered on a remote farm in upstate New York, for example) keep them luxuriously safe. Many characters do wander the human world, but always under strict injunction not to draw attention. These magical, perfect, cynical yet perversely human creatures dream of one day returning to their own homes and interrupted lives.

They used to live with the constant threat that their all-consuming foe would one day find them…

However their nemesis has been revealed as the puppeteer Geppetto, who used his ability to carve living, sentient beings out of wood to build all-powerful armies, soon supplemented with goblins, monsters and collaborators who joined rather than die when his unstoppable marionette forces came marching in. ruling in anonymity from behind his greatest creation the Emperor. Geppetto has almost conquered all of Reality, but now with his secret revealed the indomitable refugees of Fabletown are planning to retaliate…

Collecting issues # 48-51 of the monthly comic this volume brings everybody up to speed with the handy ‘Who’s Who in Fabletown’ featurette before the eponymous two-parter ‘Wolves’ (illustrated by Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha & Andrew Pepoy) finds the eternally young Mowgli prowling the Arctic hinterlands attempting to track down absent friend – and experienced warrior – Bigby; shape-changing Big Bad Wolf and son of the storm god known alternately as Mr. North and the Great North Wind.

When the mortals of Siberia prove useless the Jungle Boy turns to the wolves and soon discovers what he needs. Meanwhile back in America on the farm Bigby’s cubs are growing increasingly hard to handle…

Of course Mowgli is eventually successful and Bigby returns to Fabletown, although not without some pretty conniving convincing, just in time for the celebratory 50th issue extravaganza which opens with ‘Secret Agent Man’ as Bigby undertakes an covert mission deep into the Adversary’s territory, reviews the Fables indescribably unique war-resources in ‘Castles in the Sky’ before dropping ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ to set up a spectacular confrontation and coup.

Breathtaking in its audacity ‘The Israel Analogy’ establishes a new relationship between Geppetto and the refugee Fables before Bigby returns to Earth in ‘Home is the Hunter’ for a different kind of confrontation and unexpected revelation with Snow White (long-abandoned mother of his cubs) in ‘Restoration’ leading to a reconciliation in ‘The Big Valley’ and ending, as proper stories should, in ‘The Wedding’. There’s even a pithy little epilogue ‘Mr. and Mrs. Wolf’ for all us helpless romantics…

Shawn McManus then illustrates ‘Big and Small’ wherein special emissary Cinderella goes to extraordinary lengths to maintain allies amongst both giants and mouse governments, which ends the narrative portion of this splendid tome but there are still treats in store beginning with assorted ‘Maps of the Fable Territories’ and ending with the complete script to Fables #50, illustrated by cover illustrator James Jean.

There is nothing around today that can touch this series for imagination, style and quality, and you’ll never know the real meaning of “happy ever after” until you turn on to this magnificent saga.

© 2006 Bill Willingham and DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere


Adapted by Mike Carey & Glenn Fabry (Vertigo)
ISBN 1-84576-353-X

Just as he was reaching the narrative heights with his comics works Neil Gaiman wrote a six part television series for the BBC which met with mixed responses from the not-necessarily overlapping audiences of print and TV. Neverwhere had plenty of literary antecedents but its contemporary setting and post-punk attitude clearly caused a few confusions, whilst the legendary BBC budget “make-do-and-mend” policy and financial restrictions left the show looking far less impressive than the writing and acting warranted (a superficial viewer prejudice which still deprives far too many potential fans from taking the pre-1989 Dr. Who series as seriously as they should…)

Concocted by Gaiman and comedian Lenny Henry – long-time comics fan – the show was broadcast on BBC 2 in 1996 and was soon forgotten, but they eventually returned to the concept and it was adapted, restored and expanded as a novel which became a substantial hit (most recently re-published in 2006 in an “Author’s Preferred Text” edition). The core concepts have also been referenced in some of Gaiman’s subsequent fiction.

In 2005 the story was adapted to comics form by Mike Carey and Glenn Fabry as a 9-part miniseries from Vertigo and this compilation graphic novel seems to be the ultimate and most comfortable arena for this engaging urban quest into the dark and hidden side of cities and civilisation.

Abridged and distilled rather than adapted from the novel, Neverwhere recounts the journey and fate of harassed would-be yuppie Richard Mayhew who, against his fiancée’s wishes, stops to help a young homeless girl they find collapsed on the streets of London.

The frail, Goth-like waif calls herself Door and reveals that she is running for her life. Unfortunately that life is a mystical, metaphysical, subterranean analogue of reality notionally located under the sewers beneath our feet. Populated by the lost and forgotten, indigents, outcasts and creatures of legend and fevered fantasy this world is both seductive and dangerous. Moreover, once on those hidden paths mere mortals almost never return…

Door is the last of House Portico, a dynasty once powerful in “London Below” but all dead now. Her family’s relentless enemies have followed her to the world above and when Mayhew is threatened by thugs-for-hire Messrs Croup and Vandemar, pressing him for her location, he inadvertently crosses over, becoming forgotten and eventually invisible to his old friends and acquaintances.

As Door assembles allies to combat the plot against her, Mayhew is dragged along; a well-meaning innocent determined to win back his old life by completing a quest to cross Night’s Bridge, defeat Croup, Valdemar and their hidden master, overcome the fearsome Beast of London and win the support of the supreme power of this underworld: the Angel called Islington.

The path is long and hard however and Mayhew isn’t sure if he and the orphan Door can trust such unique, uncompromising companions as the derelict Iliaster, the Marquis de Carabas, Lord Rat-Speaker, Old Bailey and Hunter. Most importantly, should he win his heart’s desire, is Mayhew even aware of what it might truly be…?

Clever and engaging this dark romance is packed with tension, drama and the lure of the arcane and exotic, skilfully wrangled by Carey and Fabry into a pretty, enthralling package. This is a solid comics treat for full-on fans and tantalised dabblers alike.

© 2005, 2006 Neil Gaiman. All Rights Reserved.

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JLA Volume 6: World War III


By Grant Morrison, J.M. DeMatteis, Howard Porter, Mark Pajarillo & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-184-7

With this sixth collection of breathtaking adventures starring the World’s Greatest Superheroes, the progression of gargantuan epics and mind-boggling conceptual endeavours culminated in the cosmic spectacle re-originators Grant Morrison and Howard Porter had been patiently working towards for three years: a “Big Finish” saga that proved well worth the wait.

This book, collecting issues #34-41of the monthly comic-book, also includes contributions from writer J.M. DeMatteis and art by Mark Pajarillo, John Dell, Drew Geraci & Walden Wong as an ancient extra-universal terror-weapon finally began to eat its way through reality.

Beginning with the thematic prelude ‘The Ant and the Avalanche’ (Morrison, Porter & John Dell) the JLA faced increased super-villain violence, natural disasters and general madness and New God Orion determines that a threat from the time of the Primal Gods is loose and closing on Earth. With the entire planet in turmoil, Lex Luthor and his malevolent allies prepared to destroy all heroes once and for all…

‘The Guilty’ by J.M. DeMatteis, Mark Pajarillo & Walden Wong took a timely sidestep to focus on debased angel Zauriel and the Hal Jordan-bonded Spectre and the past mortal sins of the assembled Leaguers. Cleansed and refreshed the team then embarked on the six-part epic ‘World War Three’ (Morrison, Porter and Dell), starting by learning the origins of Mageddon, a semi-sentient doomsday weapon that fostered hatred and violence. And now it approached Earth…

Responding to its presence the erstwhile hero Aztek (see JLA Presents Aztek, the Ultimate Man) came out of retirement as Luthor’s team ambushed the JLA in their lunar citadel with devastating success… Meanwhile on Earth, the inexorably approaching God-Weapon was driving the populace, human and not, into mania and blood-frenzy whilst the hard-pressed superhero community found that even they were not immune from Mageddon’s influence…

When even Heaven refused to act in Earth’s defence all hope seemed lost until the long-lost Flash returned with assistance from the end of time and space and Zauriel won help from an unexpected source, but even this was not enough until a hero made the ultimate sacrifice and humanity took its fate into its own disparate hands for a spectacular and cathartic cosmic climax that will delight fans of every persuasion and preference.

Compelling, challenging and genuinely uplifting this tale is a high-mark in modern superhero comics and one no fan can afford to miss. Morrison & Porter’s JLA was never afraid of looking back fondly or laughing at itself: an all-out effort to be Thrilling, Smart and Fun. For a brief moment in the team’s long and chequered career they were truly the “World’s Greatest Superheroes.” This is the kind of joyous frolic that nobody should ever outgrow and these are graphic novels to be read and re-read forever…

© 1999, 2000 DC Comics.  All rights reserved.

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Tomorrow Stories Books 1 & 2


By Alan Moore & various (America’s Best Comics)

ISBN: 978-1-56389-985-0 and 978-1-4012-0166-1

Alan Moore revolutionised American Comics with a series of stunningly well-crafted series and shorter stories featuring characters created by others and in the late 1990s began working for Jim Lee’s Wildstorm outfit. Initially writing for the imprint’s reductive and post-modern line of superheroes (see Alan Moore’s Complete WildC.A.T.s and Alan Moore: Wild Worlds) he gradually began constructing his own universe, loosely based on a number of perennial concepts, genre archetypes and the visual likenesses of some Golden-Age characters long unused – and unclaimed – by copyright farmers…

In 1999 he deftly injected some fun back into a medium plagued and overwhelmed by grim tales of assorted vengeances and mind-numbing violence. The stories also found room to intellectually challenge as well as play with the readership. Moore and a selection of his very talented friends employed all the vast benefits of a shared continuity without getting bogged down in histrionics and shallow bombast, producing a line of clever, witty, beautifully illustrated adventures aimed at those adults grown from the Baby-boomers who had fed the Silver-Age comics revolution and only to be somehow deprived of their fundamental fascination by an industry increasingly devoted to fads and short-term profits.

The most perfect example of this erudite graphic philosophy was undoubtedly Tomorrow Stories, a series designed as a themed anthology title and the greater part of which has been collected in two splendidly whacky volumes of action, suspense, adventure, mystery and imagination.

Volume one, fully scripted throughout by Moore, led with the introduction of Jack B. Quick – Boy Inventor illustrated by the incredibly talented Kevin Nowlan who introduced a junior Edison in ‘Smalltown Stardom.’ The juvenile super-genius, resident on a farm in rural Queerwater Creek, rashly created a miniature sun in the back pasture and had to deal with the diminutive solar system that develops – causing traffic chaos and concomitant conniptions amongst the townsfolk and livestock…

Blending cutting edge science with wondrous surreality this feature always concealed an uplifting laugh amongst its conceptually challenging wonders…

Rick Veitch illustrated Greyshirt (a fulsome tribute to Will Eisner’s urbane detective the Spirit) and the feature began here with ‘Amnesia’ a tale of stylish murder whilst Jim Baikie slipped comfortably into broad parody and biting satire with the patriotic wonders The First American and U.S.Angel; battling Nazis, aliens and daytime television audiences in ‘Dumbsday!’

The first issue closed with ‘The Cobweb’ an exotic pastiche of such (scantily) costumed Golden-Age mystery women as Phantom Lady and Tarpe Mills’ Miss Fury in a plethora of artistic styles provided by Melinda Gebbie. This crusading feminist Lady of the Night starred in a thought-provokingly whimsical yet sinister tale of scandalous delights and forbidden horrors wherein the Amorous Avenger battled a mad scientist who literally turned women into toys and playthings…

Issue #2 opened with Greyshirt in a visually arresting generational yarn of four stories in a building’s life. ‘How Things Work Out’ (illustrated by Veitch) played with Time, Space and vertical altitude to define how crime affects people over the course of decades whilst physics got another well-honed kicking from Jack B. Quick in ‘The Unbearableness of Being Light’ as the brainy boy determined that photons in Queerwater had been over-imbibing intoxicants…

It was ‘Waltztime’ for Cobweb when she encountered dancing alien phantoms in the asteroid belt whilst the First American crushed a backwards-looking felon wielding a deadly Nostalgitator in ‘The Curse of the Reverse!’ to close the proceedings.

Quick’s ‘Pet Theory’ is a triumph of bad-taste: an animal-testing black comedy that tips a cocky hat to Orwell’s Animal Farm; the ever experimental Moore & Gebbie pulled off an illustrated prose thriller-tragedy in the Cobweb fragment ‘Eurydice: A Retrospective’ and First American took a painful look at youth culture and juvenile crime in ‘The Peril of the Pediatric Perpetrators’ before the smoke-coloured man of mystery once more stole the show in ‘The Making of Greyshirt’: a different kind of origin from Moore & Veitch.

The President Clinton/Ken Starr clash got a jovial shout-out in #4’s First American micro-saga as ‘The Bitter Crumbs of Defeat!?!’ almost saw the Patriotic Poltroon investigated and legislated out of business whilst ‘Li’l Cobweb’ married the innocent charms of childhood with a more sordid look at modern relationships and ‘Tempus Fugitive’ pitted Greyshirt against a conceptually inept time-bandit, after which Jack B. Quick hilariously, confoundingly also got the chronal itch as he underwent ‘A Quick Geography of Time’.

Musical explorer ‘Dr. Crescendo!’ paid an ultimate price for his virtuosity in the Greyshirt tale that opened issue #5 whilst Cobweb slipped into moody old territory with the fabulous old Romance fragment ‘La Toile dans le Chateau des Larmes’ a gothic triumph hinting at the true vintage of the spidery siren and first American got in the festive spirit just in time for ‘A Christmas Cop-Out’.

The premiere volume closed with #6 and a Greyshirt saga entitled ‘Day Release’ wherein the supernatural supplanted the grimly urban blight of crime and First American manfully resisted any urge to get all “Touchy-Feely” in the impressively brusque ‘Lo! There Shall Come a Closeness and Commitment!’ with the ever-ambivalent U.S.Angel dragged along for the ride, after which Cobweb found herself distressingly confined with an arachnid opponent who left her ‘Shackled in Silk!’

The final tale is a debut, as an old champion awakened to a world that had pretty much outgrown him. Inky Idol Splash Brannigan: Indelible Avenger made a long-overdue first reappearance in ‘The Return of the Remarkable Rivulet!’ by Moore and Hilary Barta, wherein a downtrodden comics artist accidentally freed an ebullient liquid asset to fight crime and crush her intolerable deadlines…

The hardcover tome under review here also includes all the covers, a selection of sketches and artwork by Nowlan, Veitch, Gebbie and Barta and a copious informative biographies section.

The second volume (reprinting issues #7-12) was also fully written by Moore and riotously opened with the Barta limned Splash Brannigan romp ‘A Bigger Splash!’ as the Dark Stain and Miss Daisy Screensaver stumbled into the atrocity of the modern art market, after which Melinda Gebbie revealed the Maid of Mysteries’ flower-power experiences in the trippy flashback ‘Grooveweb’ and First American selectively recalled recent history from an ideal perspective in ‘The 20th Century: My Struggle’ before Veitch again stole the show with the compulsive Greyshirt thriller ‘How’s My Driving?’

First American muffed the chance to tell his story as a docu-soap in the biting ‘Justice in Tights!’, that Brannigan chap endured horror beyond description when he attended a comics convention and battled ‘Testostor the Terrible!’, Cobweb fans got a rare treat with the uncovering of rare (and faux) newspaper strips featuring her and bosom buddy Clarice clashing with a lost tribe of jungle women, and Greyshirt’s ever-varying cast examined their own interior monologues in the innovative ‘Thinx’.

Alternative Comics darling Dame Darcy illustrated Cobweb’s hardboiled fairytale detective yarn ‘Farewell, My Lullabye’, but series regular Jim Baikie stayed the course to mistreat us to ‘The Origin of the First American’ and Rick Veitch went for the gusto in the show-stopping ‘Greyshirt: The Musical!’ before Splash Brannigan ended the issue with a heartfelt parody parable in ‘Splash of Two Worlds!’

Jack B. Quick triumphantly returned in #10 to solve the mystery of Manure Circles in an alien extravaganza of bovine bombast ‘Why the Long Face?’, ably complimented by the fast-paced Greyshirt thriller ‘…For a Blue Lady’ whilst First American was inaugurated for his ultimate role in the uproarious ‘What We Probably Inhaled at the Toilet’s Last Cleaning!’ and Dame Darcy again enthralled in the quirky travelogue ‘Cobweb of the Future!’.

Splash Brannigan left an inky residue on the pristine world of Pop music in ‘Splash City Rocker!’, Greyshirt went all monster-hunter in the cleverly crafted ‘Vermin’ and we had a behind-the-scenes glimpse of super-patriotic life in ‘Being the First American’ before Joyce Chin illustrated the eerie Cobweb period-piece ‘Bedsheets & Brimstone!’.

This volume and the original series concluded with #12 (although a couple of Specials were later released) so Moore and Veitch celebrated the wind-up in grand style with a Greyshirt/Cobweb team-up ‘Strands of Desire’ wherein the Sultry Sleuth and Man of Smoke and Mirrors set out to catch the sinister, sexy Moneyspider, concluding in the evocative ‘Shades of Grey’ after which Jack B. Quick took one last chance to shock and amaze with the hilariously straight-faced vignette ‘The Facts of Life!!’, leaving the Flag-Draped Fool to close the comics experimentation with an audacious homage to the breadth of comics imagination in ‘The Death/Marriage/Son of the First American of the Future!’ neatly revering and skewering it and ourselves in one swell foop.

Bold, insightful, witty and not at all precious Tomorrow Stories was a brave attempt at being fresh with archetypes whilst asking audiences to respond with brain as well as gut. Comics fans alternatively love it, hate or don’t get it: I really hope you get it (them, they, whatever…)

© 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004 America’s Best Comics, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Essential Fantastic Four volume 4


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1484-X

This fabulous fourth black-and-white compendium of the classic and landmark “Stan & Jack” Fantastic Four sees the feature achieve its highest potential in a string of superlative tales that proved the bold boast on every cover… “World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!”

Jack Kirby was in his conceptual prime and continually unleashed his vast imagination on spectacular plot after plot whilst Stan Lee scripted some of the most passionate superhero sagas that Marvel – or any publisher, for that matter – has ever seen. Both were on an unstoppable roll, at the height of their creative powers, and full of the confidence that only success brings, with Kirby in particular eager to see how far the genre and the medium could be pushed.

This volume, covering the early career of comics’ First Family covers Fantastic Four #64-83 (July 1967-February 1969) plus the fifth and sixth annuals, a bombastic blend of super-science, soap opera and stunning action that has seldom been equaled and never bettered.

The magic commences with ‘The Sentry Sinister’ (inked as always by Joe Sinnott) a frenetic adventure romp which pitted the team against a super-scientific robot buried for millennia by an ancient star-faring race. This tropical treat expanded the burgeoning interlocking landscape to an infinite degree by introducing the imperial Kree who would grow into one of the fundamental pillars supporting the continuity of the Marvel Universe.

Although regarded as long-dead the Kree themselves resurfaced in the very next issue as the team was attacked by an alien emissary ‘…From Beyond this Planet Earth!’ The formidable Ronan the Accuser turned up looking to see what could possibly have destroyed his Sentry. Simultaneously The Thing’s blind girlfriend Alicia was abducted by a super scientific stranger…

The mystery of her disappearance was revealed in #66 in ‘What Lurks Behind the Beehive?’ as the heroes trailed the seemingly helpless girl to a technological wonderland where a band of rogue geniuses had genetically engineered the next phase in evolution but lost control of it even before it could be properly born…

‘When Opens the Cocoon!’ revealed the secret of the creature known only as Him and only Alicia’s gentle nature could placate the nigh-omnipotent creature (who would eventually evolve into the tragic cosmic voyager Adam Warlock), after which the tight continuity gradually paused to allow the Inhumans (a time-lost race of paranormal beings long secluded from mortal men) and the Black Panther to share the stage in that year’s Annual, wherein the sinister invader Psycho-Man attempted to ‘Divide… and Conquer!’

Frank Giacoia actually inked this wrongly attributed yarn that pitted the emotion-bending invader against both the King of Wakanda and the Royal Family of hidden Attilan until the FF could pitch in, delayed as they were by the news that the Sue Richards was pregnant – and soon to confined in the most appallingly sexist manner until the birth…

The Annual also included another comedy insight into the creation of Marvel Epics as Stan, Jack and Frank asked ‘This is a Plot?’ and after the now customary Kirby pin-ups (Inhumans Black Bolt, Gorgon, Medusa, Karnak, Triton, Crystal and Maximus, a colossal group shot of Galactus the Silver Surfer and others and a double page spread of the FF themselves) a rapidly rising star-in-the-making got his first solo appearance in ‘The Peerless Power of the Silver Surfer’ a pithy fable of cruel ingratitude that reintroduced the Mad Thinker’s lethal Artificial Intelligence creation Quasimodo…

In FF #68 the Thinker himself enacted his latest plan and ‘His Mission: Destroy the Fantastic Four!’ as the cogitating criminal replaced a famous doctor and subverted a potential cure for The Thing’s rocky condition into a mind-warping scheme to turn the Thing against his comrades (inked as ever by the remarkable Joe Sinnott). The scheme progressed in ‘By Ben Betrayed!’ as the newly malevolent Grimm attempted to murder the rest of the team only to be driven temporarily away. Desperately searching for him the FF soon captured the Thinker and freed Ben from mind-control in ‘When Fall the Mighty!’ but the victory left the heroes unconscious and only Sue conscious to tackle the villains last-ditch killer android in ‘…And So It Ends…’

With baby on board Reed and Sue resigned, leaving Ben, Johnny and the Inhuman maid Crystal to hold the fort when cosmic calamity came calling. In ‘Where Soars the Silver Surfer!’ the sky-born wanderer imprisoned on Earth by the world-devouring Galactus went cage-crazy and attacked humanity, forcing Reed’s return, whilst #73 presented the conclusion to a long-running Daredevil (see Essential Daredevil volume 2) story wherein the sightless crusader was ousted from his own body by the Iron Dictator Doctor Doom.

Warning the FF of imminent attack the Man without Fear then subsequently defeated Doom – but neglected to tell the heroes of his victory… outmatched and unable to convince them any other way DD enlisted Thor and Spider-Man in ‘The Flames of Battle…’ to solve the problem Marvel style – with a spectacular pointless and utterly riveting punch-up…

The Surfer was back in #74 ‘When Calls Galactus’ as the planet-eater returned to our skies demanding that his one-time herald once more become his food-finding slave, but despite his increasingly violent probings, Galactus cannot locate his target. That’s because the Surfer had departed for ‘World Within Worlds!’ forcing Reed, Ben and Johnny to follow. When attacked by Psycho Man they are ‘Stranded in Sub-Atomica!’ and as they struggle to survive Galactus applies ever-more pressure… ‘Shall Earth Endure?’

Turning himself in to save Earth, the Surfer is summarily returned to his captivity here as soon as ungrateful Galactus is finished feeding, just in time to begin his own landmark series – but that’s the subject of another review, another time…

Meanwhile in FF#78 another attempt to cure Ben Grimm goes awry in ‘The Thing No More!’ due to interference from old foe The Wizard and, in ‘A Monster Forever?’, Ben’s choice to stay a rocky monster and save his friends from the bludgeoning Android Man.

A brief change of pace took the team to the Indian Lands of old friend Wyatt Wingfoot to solve an eerie mystery ‘Where Treads the Living Totem!‘ before the sixth Annual spotlighted the birth of Franklin Richards. Unfortunately however, not before Reed, Ben and Johnny invaded the anti-matter Negative Zone to confront a monstrous creature named Annihilus whose power was the only thing that could prevent the death of Sue and her unborn child. ‘Let There Be… Life!’ is a groundbreaking 48 page epic that is as stunning to read now as it ever was, passionate thrilling and mind-boggling in its visual intensity.

With Sue a new mother faithful Crystal became the first new official member of the team and promptly showed her mettle by pulverizing the incorrigible Wizard in #81’s ‘Enter… the Exquisite Elemental!’ and this volume concludes with a classic two-part clash against the inhuman Maximus as he once more attempted to conquer mortal humanity. ‘The Mark of… the Madman!’ saw the FF come to the aid of the imprisoned Royal Family of Attilan before together trouncing the insane despot in ‘Shall Man Survive?’

Did I say concludes? Not quite as this book still finds room for a selection of 6 original art pages from Kirby and his alternate cover for issue #65, you lucky, lucky people…

These are the stories that confirmed Jack Kirby as the absolute master of superhero storytelling and gave Marvel the push needed to overtake the decades-dominant DC. They’re also some of the very best comics ever produced and as thrilling and compulsive now as they ever were. This is a must-have book for all fans of graphic narrative.

© 1967, 1968, 1969, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Teen-Aged Dope Slaves and Reform School Girls


By Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman & various (Eclipse Books)
ISBN: 0-913035-79-3   ISBN-13: 978-0-913035-79-5

As the flamboyant escapist popularity of superheroes waned after World War II newer genres such as Romance and Horror came to the fore and older forms regained their audiences. Some, like Westerns and Funny Animal comics hardly changed at all but crime and detective tales were utterly radicalised by the temperament of the times.

Stark, uncompromising, cynically ironic novels and socially aware, mature-themed B-movies that would become categorised as Film Noir offered post-war society a bleakly antiheroic worldview that often hit too close to home and set fearful, repressive, middleclass parent groups and political ideologues howling for blood.

Naturally the new forms seeped into comics, transforming two-fisted gumshoe and Thud and Blunder cop strip-thrillers of yore into darkly beguiling and frightening tales of seductive dames, big pay-offs and glamorous thugs. Sensing imminent Armageddon, the moral junkyard dogs bayed even louder as they saw their precious children’s minds under seditious attack…

From that turbulent period a number of tales and titles garnered especial notoriety from the doomsmiths and particular celebration amongst us tragic, psychologically scarred comics-collecting victims, so in 1989 Eclipse Comics parceled together a bunch of the most salacious, shocking, sensationalistic, best written and drawn examples, produced by an impressive variety of superstars and anonymous unsung draftsmen purely in the interest of historical research…

Still readily available through internet suppliers at extremely reasonable prices, this cool chronicle opens with a handy and informative introduction from Eclipse publisher Dean Mullaney before the sordid spectacle begins with the outrageously trashy tale of Faith: a Bad-Girl-gone-Badder, who only just found redemption in the arms of her equally penitent-and-going-straight ideal man Jeff. There’s no record of who scripted ‘Reform School Girl!’ (1951) but the splendidly kinetic art comes from Louis Zansky.

There are no credits at all for ‘Trapped!’ (also from 1951, and can I detect hints of John Rosenberger or Paul Reinman?); the tale of High School kid Bill Jones, sucked into a spiral of failing grades, lost friends and rebellion against parents and adults after he tries a reefer in the boys toilets. Fear not, however: love, decency and understanding once more save the day.

Joe Simon and Jack Kirby ushered in the American age of mature comics, not only with their creation of the Romance genre but with challenging modern tales of real people in extraordinary situations, seen in their other magazines produced for the loose association of companies known as Prize/Crestwood/Pines. From Headline Comics #27 (1947) comes the stunning saga of Stella Mae Dickson… ‘The Bobby Sox Bandit Queen.’

Fictionalising true crime cases was tremendously popular at the time and of the assorted outfits that generated such material nobody did it better than S&K as this incredibly hard-punching saga shows with the tale of a young girl willingly drawn into a life of robbery and violence. Her ending was not so happy…

Next up is something of an oddity but still addictively enthralling for all that. ‘Lucky Fights it Through’ was published in 1949, a popular song adapted in 16 pages by Harvey Kurtzman (there’s even a sheet music section) as part of an educational comics project sponsored by Columbia University (as was Trapped!), a contemporary western saga about an ignorant cow-poke (don’t! It’s what they were called, not what they did) dealing with and explaining how to cope with Syphilis.

Crime Detector #5 (September 1954) provided two anonymous stories: ‘Gun Happy’ and the single pager which closes this volume. The former details the sad, brief life of juvenile delinquent Thomas Parker whose obsessive love of firearms took him into the army and Korea but who couldn’t stop the shooting once he returned.

He is followed by a second Simon & Kirby classic from Headline Comics #28. ‘I Worked For the Fence!’ outlines the sorry tale of show-girl Monica who found the lure of a smooth-tongued hustler and other people’s jewels too great to resist, before the major part of this tome relates the shocking fall and rise of a High School Jock dragged down by narcotic addiction until medical attention and the love of a devoted girl dragged him back from the edge…

The notorious ‘Teen-Aged Dope Slaves’ by Martin Bradley & Frank Edgington came from Harvey Comics Library #1 (April 1952) but was actually a resized reprint of a sequence from popular family newspaper strip Rex Morgan, M.D. Nonetheless, for all its strident preachiness, it remains a powerful, well-meaning drama that never forgets the cartoon doctor’s prime doctrine “First, Don’t be Boring.”

That aforementioned one-pager from Crime Detector closes the volume on a tantalising high note as Homicide Inspector Craig challenges the reader to solve the fair-play mystery of ‘The Deadly Needle’…

These black and white tales from a simpler a time about a society in meltdown are mild by modern standard of behaviour but the quality of art and writing make them far more than a mere historical curiosity. Teen-Aged Dope Slaves and Reform School Girls is a book well worth your time and attention, but please beware: such material can be habit-forming…
© 1989 Eclipse Enterprises, Inc. Individual strips are © 1947-1954 their respective creators/copyright holders.