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February 27, 2009February 25, 2009

Batman: Joker’s Asylum

By various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84856-047-5

This slim collection focuses on the A-list villains in Batman’s Rogues Gallery, reprinting five sinister one-shots beginning inevitably with The Joker, who stays on as EC-style host narrator for all the tales from his comfy padded cell at Arkham Asylum.

‘The Joker’s Wild’, by Arvid Nelson with art from Alex Sanchez and colours by Jose Villarrubia, offers a genuinely different slant on the old plot of the homicidal maniac who hijacks a live TV show. This is followed by the Penguin who waddles onto centre stage for a chilling, poignant and very dark love story entitled ‘He Who Laughs Last…!’ by Jason Aaron and Jason Pearson (coloured by Dave McCaig).

Possibly the weakest of these collected tales is ‘Deflowered’ wherein the unearthly floral siren Poison Ivy wreaks her unique brand of vengeance on manipulative fat-cat property speculators in a gory thriller from JT Krul and Guillem March. Luckily it’s followed by the most seductive and compelling yarn in this book of horrors as ‘The Dark Knight of the Scarecrow’ is visited upon a gaggle of High School Bitch-Princesses whose bullying leads to enlightenment of a most instructive and permanent kind, courtesy of the deadly Dr. Jonathan Crane and creative team Joe Harris & Juan Doe.

The savagely tragic Two-Face rounds off the volume in a powerful and challenging tale of tough choices and powerful compulsions. ‘Two-Face, Too’ is by David Hine, Andy Clarke and colourist Nathan Eyring, and while we’re handing out credit Rob Leigh lettered it, as he did all the tales in this superbly creepy walk with monsters in the dire environs of Gotham City.

There’s a lot of Batman material out there and this collection shows that he doesn’t have to be present to cast a long shadow. This is one of the best Bat-books of recent vintage and a worthy addition to any bookshelf.

February 26, 2009February 25, 2009

Millennium

By Steve Englehart, Joe Staton & Ian Gibson, (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-094-9

DC Comics third braided mega-series was a bold effort intended to touch all corners of their universe, introduce new characters, tie-in many titles and moreover to do so on a weekly, not monthly schedule.

Hot on the heels of Crisis on Infinite Earths (ISBN: 978-1-56389-750-4) and Legends (ISBN: 978-1-56389-095-6) came Millennium, which saw writer Steve Englehart expand on an iconic tale from Justice League of America #140-141as well as his run on the Green Lantern Corps.

Billions of years ago the robotic peacekeepers called Manhunters had rebelled against their creators. The Guardians of the Universe were immortal and desired a rational, emotionless cosmos – a view not shared by their own women. The Zamarons had abandoned the Guardians at the inception of their grand scheme but after uncounted centuries the two factions had reconciled and left our reality together.

Now they had returned with a plan to midwife a new race of immortals on Earth, but the Manhunters who had infiltrated all aspects of society throughout the universe were determined to thwart the plan, whether by seduction, connivance or just plain brute force. The heroes of Earth gathered to protect the project and confront the Manhunters in their own private lives… and their own comics.

Unfortunately this volume, which only collects the eight-issue miniseries without even a synopsis of those individual tie-ins, is an incomprehensible morass of confusion. In its original form each weekly instalment of Millennium acted as a catalyst for events which played out in the rest of the DC Universe’s comics. Here, without those concluding chapters, the plot and characters bounce about from crisis to revelation to denouement and nothing makes any sense at all.

In addition to the miniseries itself, Millennium spread across 21 titles for two months – another 37 issues for a grand total of 44 comic-books. I know that there might be some small confusion about existing plot-threads in individual titles but nothing like the sheer bewilderment caused by just collecting the core miniseries as a stand-alone book. The target audience is clearly primed – both financially and in terms of story scope – for extended trade paperback series now in the wake of Seven Soldiers, 52 and Countdown to Final Crisis, so why foist this sad, truncated, bowdlerized abridgement on us?

Steve Englehart, Joe Staton and England’s own Ian Gibson may not be stellar names at the moment but this tale was ambitious, bold and highly entertaining, whilst many of the follow-up chapters were incredibly impressive, with individual contributions from such luminaries as George Perez, John Byrne, Kevin Maguire, Kieth Giffen, Jerry Ordway and a host of others. Even if it’s only in the cheap and cheerful Showcase Presents format, don’t the creators and especially the readers deserve the whole story?

February 25, 2009February 25, 2009

Secret Invasion

By Brian Michael Bendis, Leinil Francis Yu & Mark Morales (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-405-8

The Skrulls are shape-shifting aliens who have threatened Earth since the second issue of Fantastic Four, and have long been a cornerstone of the Marvel Universe. After decades of use and misuse the insidious invaders were made the stars of a colossal braided mega-crossover event beginning in April 2008 and running through all the company’s titles until Christmas.

The premise is simple: the would-be conquerors have undergone a mass religious conversion and are now utterly dedicated to taking Earth as their new homeworld. To this end they have replaced a number of key Earth denizens – including a number of superheroes. When the lid is lifted no defender of the Earth truly knows who is on their side…

This volume is just one of many collecting the vast number of episodes in this saga, and contains all eight issues of the core miniseries, the one-shot spin-off Who Do You Trust? and the illustrated text book Skrulls which claims to provide a listing and biography for every shape-shifter yet encountered in the Marvel Universe (but if they left any out could you tell?).

Fast-paced, well-drawn and suitably spectacular, this is a twisty-turny tale and quite enjoyable – if overly-complex in some places. When the heroes discover the plot they shift into high-gear, but everything gets really sticky when a Skrull ship crashes releasing a band of missing heroes who ought to be the originals that were replaced: but are they…?

Rather than give anything away let me just say that if you like this sort of thing you’ll love it, and a detailed familiarity is not vital to your understanding. However, for a fuller understanding, as well as the relevant 22 Secret Invasion volume that accompany this, you might want to seek out Secret Invasion: the Infiltration, Secret War (2004), Avengers Disassembled, and Annihilation volumes 1-3, as well as various Avengers: Illuminati issues.

Despite all that this is still a solid light adventure read, the kind of stuff-and-nonsense we all need occasionally and one that can honestly stand on its own two feet – or are those tentacles…?

February 24, 2009February 24, 2009

Adventures Of Buck Danny: Mission ‘Apocalypse’ Part 1

By Jean-Michel Charlier & Francis BergÃ©se (Amusement International Limited)
No ISBN

In advance of the imminent release of a fully translated series from Cinebooks I’m highlighting this brave oddity from the late 1980s; one of many attempts to bring the fabulous wealth and variety of European comics to the infamously resistant New World.

The strip was actually created by Georges Troisfontaines and drawn by drawn by Victor Hubinon (who worked on it until his death in 1978) before being handed to Jean-Michel Charlier, then working as a junior artist. Troisfontaines was director of the Belgian publisher World Press Agency. Charlier’s fascination with human-scale drama and rugged realism had been seen in such strips as L’Agonie du Bismark (‘The Agony of the Bismark’), a “true-war” tale published in Spirou in 1946.

As well as going on together to create Tarawa Atoll Sanglant (‘Tarawa, Bloody Atoll’ 1948-1949), Charlier devised such landmark features as ‘Tanguy and Laverdure’ (with Uderzo and later JijÃ©), ‘Barbe-Rouge’ (with Hubinon) and ‘Jacques le Gall’ (with MiTacq).

With fellow master-storytellers Albert Uderzo and RenÃ© Goscinny, he formed the Ã‰difrance Agency, which promoted and specialised in communication arts and comics strips. Charlier and Goscinny were edited Pistolin magazine (1955 to 1958) and created Pilote magazine in 1959.

His greatest triumph is the iconic Western series Blueberry (created in 1963 with Jean Giraud/Moebius). Four years before his death in 1989 Charlier expanded the feature by developing with artist Colin Wilson ‘La Jeunesse de Blueberry’ which explored the boyhood of Europe’s most memorable cowboy. He wrote Buck Danny until his death whereupon his artistic collaborator Francis BergÃ©se (who had replaced Hubinon in 1978) took sole charge of the adventures of the American Air Ace.

Buck Danny premiered in the legendary magazine Spirou in January 1947 and continues to this day. The strip describes the improbably long and historically pivotal career of the eponymous US Navy pilot and his two comrades Sonny Tuckson and Jerry Tumbler. It is one of the world’s last aviation strips and a series which has always closely wedded itself to current affairs such as The Korean War, Bosnia and even Afghanistan.

Operation ‘Apocalypse’ (the first of two parts – although I’m unsure if the second was ever published in English) is a fast-paced yarn of terrorism and intrigue with a fiendish plan initiated to use hijacked atom bombs and a flight of stolen Grumman F-14 Tomcats to destroy Western Civilisation. Like all the Danny tales it is awesomely authentic: a breezy and compelling action thriller and although this particular edition suffers from a rushed and ill-favoured translation and poor hand lettering the vivacity and power of the artwork is quite stunning.

Hopefully the new edition from Cinebooks will correct all these minor glitches, bur since Operation ‘Apocalypse’ is the 40^th of the 51 albums published to date it may be awhile before we see it in restored glory even if the company starts from the present and works its way back to WWII…
Â© 1988 Novedi, Brussels. All Rights Reserved.

February 23, 2009February 22, 2009

EX MACHINA: EX CATHEDRA

By Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, Jim Clark & JD Mettler (WildStorm)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-872-0

The seventh collection of high-powered politics (collecting issues #30-34 of the award-winning comics series) finds New York City Mayor Mitchell Hundred having to cope with something far outside his outside his already outrÃ© experience. In the final days of his Papacy, Pope John Paul II summons the super-hero-turned-civic-leader to a private audience in the Vatican. With forty percent of the city practicing Catholics, that’s simply an “offer” an independent candidate for re-election cannot refuse…

Since the Mayor is most definitely not a believer and his liberal views on Gay Rights, abortion and a thousand other doctrinal no-no’s have already led to a number of ecclesiastical frowns from all the major religions, our hero is already more than a little unnerved. But when the Vatican’s Chief Astronomer explains how the Church views the alien technology that bonded to the Mayor (giving him his powers to communicate with and command machinery) Mitchell Hundred’s world changes forever…

To further complicate matters a leftover team of Cold-War subversives have hit on a way to turn all that E.T. hardware in the Mayor’s brain into a remote control unit. Without his even knowing it Hundred could become a puppet, a spy or even an assassin at the flick of switch…

Sharp, witty, endlessly inventive and startlingly perspicacious, Ex Machina is still one of the absolute best comic reads on the market today, with characters and insights that always beguile and enthrall. And as the creators are never content to rest on their laurels it only gets better and better. If you’re not a fan yet, start today. If you are tell everyone you know. They’ll thank you for it…

February 22, 2009February 22, 2009

AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED: THOR

By Michael Avon Oeming, Daniel Berman & Andrea DiVito with Laura Villari (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1599-1

A few years ago the “World’s Mightiest Heroes” were shut down and rebooted in a highly publicised event known as Avengers Disassembled. Of course it was only to replace them with both The New and The Young Avengers. The event also spilled over into the regular titles of current team members and affiliated comic-books such as the Fantastic Four and Spectacular Spider-Man ran parallel but not necessarily interconnected story-arcs to accompany the Big Show.

Said Big Show consisted of the worst day in the team’s history as a trusted comrade betrayed the World’s Mightiest Superteam resulting in the destruction of everything they held dear and the death of several members. The side-bar saga collected here ups the ante somewhat…

An Avenger since the team’s very inception, the Asgardian godling Thor has more often than not gone his own way in recent years, but this saga (collecting Thor #80-85) reunited the mythic hero with his mortal team-mates one last time as a prologue to the really-and-truly final Ragnarok story.

Any long-term fan knows that’s almost an oxymoron but in this revelatory yarn the Thunder God loses everything he holds dear and experiences the death of his entire race as a way of breaking a cycle of death and rebirth which had reduced his immortal race into nothing more than cattle for a predatory force that cannot be defeated…

The grim inevitability of this high-powered fantasy with its heroic dooms and unwavering nobility makes it one of the better post-Lee/Kirby Thor epics and effectively wipes the slate clean in a fair and decent manner for the next incarnation, especially as writers Oeming and Berman have a proven feel for the barbaric scale of mythmaking, whilst DiVito’s pictorial narrative skills blend well with Laura Villari’s colour palette to capture that end-of-everything momentum in a captivating and painterly manner.

A trifle overblown and not to everyone’s taste, this is nonetheless a great treat for saga-lovers who yearn to feel their pulses race and their hearts soar.

February 21, 2009February 21, 2009

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN

By Lee Falk and Fred Fredericks (Tempo Books)
ISBN: 0-448-16473-6

Regarded by many as the first American superhero, Mandrake the Magician debuted on 11^th June 1934 (although creator Lee Falk had first tried to sell the strip a decade previously) illustrated with effective understatement by the superb Phil Davis.

Educated at the fabled College of Magic in the Himalayas, the suave sorcerer roamed the world with his faithful African friend Lothar and his beautiful companion (and finally, in 1997, bride) Princess Narda of Cockaigne, solving crimes and fighting evil. Star of stage, screen (large and small), radio and a thousand forms of merchandising, Mandrake has always been one of the top guns of the comics powerhouse King Features Syndicate, but inexplicably has seldom had his past exploits collected or reprinted.

This mass-market paperback book from 1979 (the same year that an above-average TV pilot was aired) collects two adventures illustrated by Harold “Fred” Fredericks, who took over the art production when Davis died in 1965, and who assumed full creative duties when Falk himself passed on in 1999.

The first story (from 1976) recounts the mystic champion’s origin by way of introducing his twin brother Derek, who also grew up in the Secret College but uses his powers for tawdry self-gratification and selfish gain. The duel of the siblings was the first of many family battles which continue to this day.

The second tale sees author Falk – who also created the first Costumed hero in the guise of the Phantom – recycle one of his favourite plots as ‘Narda and the Sheik!’ finds one of the richest men in the world enraptured with the lovely princess – to the point of abducting and trying to marry her…

With a major movie lurking somewhere in production limbo this fabulous comicbook archetype looks set for a cultural revival of fortune, so let’s trust that his seventy-five year history is set for a definitive re-release soon.
Â© 1976, 1979, King Features Syndicate, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

February 20, 2009February 19, 2009

POSTMAN PAT SPECIAL DELIVERY SERVICE: POSTMAN PAT AND THE BIG BALLOONS

Published by Egmont
ISBN: 978-1-4052-4531-9

Created by writer John Cunliffe and animator Ivor Wood (working as Woodland Animations) Postman Pat debuted in 1981 and has delighted generations of youngsters ever since. Cunliffe’s other big credit is the children’s show Rosie and Jim whilst Wood has worked on The Herbs, Paddington Bear and The Magic Roundabout.

Set in the Cumbrian village of Greendale (a delightful analogue of a picturesque part of the Longsleddale Valley), Pat Clifton used to be the local postie, always driving about in his van with Jess, his black and white cat. However in 2004 a new series of TV adventures showed how he was promoted to head of the Special Delivery Service, based in the bustling nearby town of Pencaster.

His job now is to deliver anything, anywhere and always on time! To help he has a whole fleet of wonderful vehicles including a motorbike and a helicopter!

This book adapts one of the episodes (from October 3^rd 2008) and tells how a delivery of helium balloons intended for the grand Re-Opening of the refurbished Town Hall get loose in transit and Pat has to gather them up – a job made extra difficult because police constable Selby has become entangled in them and been floated away into the sky! Can Pat retrieve his special delivery and rescue PC Selby before the big party at the Town Hall?

This wonderfully exciting tale for young children has plenty of thrills and fun moments, whilst the stills from the TV episode are beautiful and full of captivating energy. As something to read to or with a budding reader Postman Pat can’t be surpassed and as a stepping stone to both books and graphic novels this entire series is one that all parents should be happy to support – especially at such economical prices.

February 19, 2009February 16, 2009

HAWKGIRL: HATH-SET

By Walter Simonson, Renato Arlem & Dennis Calero (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1665-8

The climactic third and final volume of the adventures of Hawkgirl, collecting issues #61-66 of her monthly magazine, goes all-out to deliver drama and spectacle in a thrilling and satisfying manner.

Hawkman and Hawkgirl are Egyptian lovers Prince Khufu and Lady Chay-Ara, murdered by the evil priest and usurper Hath-Set millennia ago. The heroes are inescapably trapped by a reincarnation spell to reunite, fight injustice and be murdered by the mad villain. All three souls are equally prisoners of an inescapable deathbed curse.

The last time she died Chay-Ara’s soul somehow possessed the fully grown body of Kendra Saunders when that troubled young woman committed suicide. With one variable altered the curse has been unraveling for some time now, and in this book the hidden truth of the trio’s situation is finally revealed, but before that there’s a few other problems to deal with…

Firstly there’s the Apokolyptian death squad known as the Female Furies, here to recover a planet-breaker weapon stolen three and a half thousand years ago. Hidden by the first Hath-Set, the deadly Beta-3 Gizmoid has now been activated by his latest incarnation…

Then there’s the plague of ensorcelled zombie citizens in Gotham City that needs all of Hawkgirl and Batman’s undivided attention, and the legion of suicidal Hath-Set servants that blight her trip to Metropolis.

Even Superman and Oracle can’t prevent her capture there, and only Hawkman is able to track her to the Valley of the Kings where millennia of passion and conflict leads to a final deadly resolution and a breaking of the spell holding the accursed lovers and their eternal tormentor together…

Coming directly from the “going out with a very big bang” school of entertainment these tales are witty, thrilling and vast in spectacle and scope. Ancient history, lost gods, giant robots, zombies, aliens, mummies, guest-stars, stark heroism and undying love all vie for the readers attention but never once feel forced or crowded. This is a bravura comics performance and the best possible way to end a series.

At least until we meet again…

February 18, 2009February 16, 2009

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD: THE LORDS OF LUCK

It’s probably just my age but I often think that I might have a few deep-seated problems with most modern comics. I’ve seen the same old plots regurgitated over and over too many times. Maybe the old stuff is only better because I’ve bronzed it uncritically with my personal nostalgias. Nonetheless a large proportion of contemporary product feels shallow, glossy and calculatedly contrived to me.

But then something like this turns up. The trade paperback edition of The Brave and the Bold: The Lords of Luck collects the first six issues of another revival of this venerable DC title and returns it not only to the fitting team-up format we all enjoyed but does it with such style, enthusiasm and outright joy that I’m almost a gawping, drooling nine-year-old again. Mark Waid, George PÃ©rez and inkers Bob Wiacek and Scott Koblish have crafted an intergalactic romp through time and space that rips across the DC Universe in a funny, thrilling and immensely satisfying murder-mystery-come-universal-conquest saga.

When Batman and Green Lantern discover absolutely identical corpses hundreds of miles apart it sets them on the trail of probability-warping aliens and the missing Book of Destiny – a mystical chronicle of everything that ever was, is, and will be!

Each issue/chapter highlights a different team-up and eventually the hunt by Adam Strange, Blue Beetle, Destiny (of the Endless, no less), the Legion of Super Heroes, Lobo, Supergirl and a mystery favourite from long-ago (you’ll thank me for not blowing the secret, honestly!) plus an incredible assortment of cameo stars coalesces into a fabulous free-for-all that affirms and reinforces all the reasons I love this medium.

With the value-added bonus of a an annotated exploration of Waid and PÃ©rez’s creative process to entrance the aspiring creator-of-tomorrow, this is a great story, with great art and is perfect for all ages to read and re-read over and over again.

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