JLA: Kid Amazo!

JLA: Kid Amazo

By Peter Milligan & Carlos D’Anda (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-733-4

Here’s a short, pithy and fun little adventure that originally appeared in the highly underrated JLA: Classified monthly (issues #37-41, to be precise) from those inventive stalwarts Peter Milligan and Carlos D’Anda.

Frank Halloran is a pretty average guy, at least for Berkeley. But the stressed and testy philosophy student is going through a few changes, so he’s not quite sure how to respond when the Justice League come rampaging through the campus fighting a huge robotic guy dressed in a green bathing suit.

He’s even more nonplussed when the robot comes back later and explains that he/it is Frank’s real father. Frank is in fact an artificial construct of bio-plasm and mechanisms designed to be the next generation Amazo; an android designed to mimic the powers and abilities of the World’s Greatest Superheroes and programmed to do evil…

The themes of teenaged rebellion and isolation are taken to stunning extremes as Frank struggles to overcome his hardwiring and be his own person, but even with all his new abilities he is unaware of the lengths that Amazo has gone to in order to ensure his son follows in his footsteps.

And all the while the Justice League is watching to ensure Frank makes the Right Choice…

Free will and paranoia wrestle in this bizarre and enjoyable coming-of-age tale and casual readers needn’t fear as back-story knowledge requirements are kept to the barest minimum possible. This is light, fun and very pretty …and well worth a little of your time.

© 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Babar at Home

Babar at Home

By Jean de Brunhoff (Egmont)
ISBN: 978-1-4052-3821-2

This is actually the sixth tale of Babar the Elephant. First published in 1938 as Babar en famille it returns the King to centre stage after L’ABC de Babar (1934) and les vacances de Zéphir (1936) – both unavailable in English at this time – and tells how our now settled hero embarks on perhaps his greatest adventure – parenthood.

When Babar announces that Queen Celeste is pregnant, the entire kingdom rejoices and prepares for the great event. Very quickly after he realises that there is nothing for him to do! In the fullness of time, though, his boredom is replaced by shock and joy when Celeste presents him with triplets! The happy parents name them Flora, Pom and Alexander.

The remainder of the book deals with the frankly hair-raising exploits of the toddlers as they narrowly escape crashing off a cliff in their pram, getting lost in the woods and even drowning and being eaten by crocodiles!

This volume shows an artistic polish not seen in the earlier books (and even a slight experiment with comicbook formatting) that is truly delightful, and the boisterous storytelling belies the undeserved anodyne reputation the series has in some quarters. There are quite a few thrills in this book, so much so that parents might want to read this first before giving it to the very young or impressionable.

© 2008 Edition. All Rights Reserved.

Batman: Absolution

Batman: Absolution
Batman: Absolution

By J. M. DeMatteis & Brian Ashmore (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-984-5

This original graphic novel is a passable adventure with great aspirations that regrettably falls short of its intentions. Early in his career Batman survives a terrorist bombing of the Wayne Building which kills many of his employees. His helplessness amidst the tragedy resonates with the night a ten year Bruce Wayne couldn’t stop his parents from being murdered. When a video message from “The Children of Maya” claims credit for the atrocity he has a face and a name to hunt…

Over the next ten years he almost catches Jennifer Blake a number of times, but always she eludes him. Each time however he gets a little more of the puzzle and he knows that one day she will pay for her crimes. Eventually he tracks her to a mission in India, but once cornered she reveals a stunning secret. She has reformed, seen the light. In fact the locals believe her to be a true saint…

The attempt to bolt on a deeper meaning is painfully heavy-handed in places as DeMatteis’ usual subtlety seems to have deserted him in this tale which careens from obsessional parable to mystery-thriller, and Brian Ashmore’s painted art is painfully hit-and-miss, varying from moody brilliance to rushed and insubstantial daubing.

In a career that has seen some truly unforgettable comic stories this is one that perhaps should be.

© 2002 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Triton — The Adventures of Rocco Vargas

Triton — The Adventures of Rocco Vargas

By Daniel Torres (Catalan Communications)
ISBN: 0-87416-025-1

Torres returns with another scrumptiously retro, tongue-in-cheek pastiche of fifties Americana and Space Opera that nevertheless is a thumping good tale of action and intrigue. In this absurdist and over-the-top blend of detective thriller, science-fiction and B-Movie melodrama, retired and incognito space hero Rocco Vargas is lured back from his sedentary role of author Armando Mistral.

Earth is sweltering under a global heat-wave. Water is scarce and dwindling daily but effete Mistral simply idles in ennui. When old comrade Doc Covalsky comes to him with a scheme to mine icebergs from the winter resort world of Triton he scarcely raises an eyebrow. But when Covalsky dies in mysterious circumstances his daughter becomes the trigger for the return of the legendary Rocco Vargas for one last splendid adventure. The plot rockets along blending corporate skulduggery, insidious interplanetary spies and a plan to bankrupt Earth in a breezy comedy-thriller that Hollywood just isn’t capable of making anymore.

Classic movie fashions, technology with Fins and Jazz-culture pace make Triton a graphic delight. Raucous, racy, outrageous and passionately reverential to a by-gone age, this is a sheer delight for comic fans and anybody who loves American films from the 1930s and 1940s. Clever yet daftly sophisticated, it blends the sensibilities of Hergé’s classic Tintin tales with the exuberance of Raul Walsh and the verve of Buster Crabb’s Flash Gordon serials.

Torres’ work is always a hoot and a treat. In recent years Dark Horse have reprinted a few of his tales and I sincerely recommend you go find some and get back to a much missed Future.

©1986 Daniel Torres, copyrights managed by Norma Agency, Barcelona.
English language edition ©1986 Catalan Communications. All Rights Reserved.

Tangent Comics, Vol 2

Tangent Comics, Vol 2

By Dan Jurgens & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-747-1

The second volume of tales from Earth #9 of the new DC universe (see Tangent Comics: volume 1, ISBN13: 978-1-84576-670-2) collects the remaining four tales from 1997 and one from the sequel series from 1998. Tangent Comics: The Joker, Tangent Comics: Nightwing, Tangent Comics: Secret Six, Tangent Comics: Doom Patrol and Tangent Comics: The Batman all occur on an Earth where the Cuban Missile Crisis led to a nuclear exchange which changed the world and permanently entrenched the Cold War between the Soviets and the West.

The Joker is a mysterious madcap girl who seems determined to bedevil beat cop John Keel as he tries to do his job in the futuristic madhouse that is New Atlantis, built on the irradiated skeleton of Atlanta. ‘Laugh ’till it Hurts’ is written by Karl Kesel, drawn by Matt Haley and inked by Tom Simmons and provides a dark mystery to contrast the outlandish crime-busting hi-jinks.

Nightwing is the codename for a band of rogue mystics planning to expose and defeat a US government agency that uses Magic to achieve its ends – and naturally has its own agenda to fulfil. ‘The Most Dangerous Man in the World’ is by long-time creative collaborators John Ostrander and Jan Duursema.

The Secret Six is the inevitable star team-book, scripted by Chuck Dixon and illustrated by Tom Grummett. ‘Bad Moon’ sees newcomers The Spectre (a teen who can phase out of reality) and the artificial shape-changer Plastic Man unite with The Atom, The Flash, Joker and Manhunter to prevent a madman from becoming all the water on Earth, whilst the Doom Patrol are four enhanced individuals who travel back from 2030 AD to prevent the end of the World. ‘Saving Time’, by Dan Jurgens, Sean Chen and Kevin Conrad, is a rather formulaic chronal escapade with the misunderstood heroes discovering that they may be the trigger for the events they have come to prevent.

The volume closes with the lacklustre ‘Covenant of Iron’ as Jurgens and Klaus Janson reinterpret The Batman as an empty suit of armour animated by the willpower of Sir William, a cursed and lovelorn knight who survived the fall of Camelot, imprisoned in the ethereal Castle of the Bat.

As the middle of a trilogy of volumes it’s perhaps unwise to judge this book on its own merits, but frankly this is a mediocre book you don’t want to pick up without first reading its predecessor, and perhaps not at all until that third book comes out.

© 1997-1998, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Sub-Mariner

Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Sub-Mariner

By Bill Everett, Paul Gustavson & others (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-7851-1617-6

After his dynamic relaunch in Marvel Comics #1 (soon to become Marvel Mystery Comics) and having first appeared in black and white in Motion Picture Funnies, Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner, promptly gained his own title. Dated Spring 1941, that first issue featured two strips starring the hero/villain ruler of Atlantis as well as the costumed detective and adventurer The Angel in the first of a long run of macabre thrillers.

In the first tale the Sub-Mariner, hybrid offspring of a sub-sea Atlantean princess and an American polar explorer, goes to war against the perfidious Nazis when a fleet of German U-Boats depth-charges the underwater city. Namor retaliates in a bombastic show of super-power that perfectly displays the graphic virtuosity of creator Bill Everett.

The second story concerns a deadly disease afflicting his aquatic subjects which necessitates The Sub-Mariner’s return to New York to obtain – by any means necessary – a supply of Radium. The dual Hero/Villain nature of the character was always a major factor in Prince Namor’s popularity, and even a shared enemy couldn’t keep him on the good side of the American Authorities for long. These deluxe collections also include the mandatory text features that comics were compelled to include to keep their postal status (an arcane system that allowed them to procure large postal discounts as “second class mail”) so you can also enjoy ‘Namor… His Boyhood’ by Roy Gill before moving on to Paul Gustavson’s costumed detective in the 20 page gothic chiller ‘The Angel and the House of Horror’.

Although dressed like a superhero, this do-gooder was a blend of Leslie Charteris’s The Saint and The Lone Wolf (Louis Vance’s urbane two-fisted hero who was the subject of 8 books and 24 b-movies between 1917 and 1949), although his foes tended towards the spooky, the ghoulish and the just plain demented. He also seemed able to cast a giant shadows in the shape of an angel. Not the greatest aid to cleaning up the scum of the Earth but he seemed to manage. Dedicated fans should also note that this book reprints many of the original house ads for other comics the company were producing; and a very tantalising bunch they are.

Issue #2 (Summer 1941) starts off with another Nazi-busting tale (remember America was officially neutral until December 8th of that year) as Namor foils a scheme to spring thousands of German POW’s from internment in Canada. Everett’s hand is still in evidence but by this time an increasing number of assistants were slowly diluting his work as he struggled to produce a monthly strip in Marvel Mystery and his other commitments. The second adventure finds him in a Pennsylvanian town hunting fifth-columnists and spies who have fomented a strike amongst the miners producing coal for ships fuel. Cartoonist Lewis Glanzman provided a gag page and young Stan Lee a text feature entitled ‘The Story behind the Cover’ before The Angel quashed a sinister plot in New England to free ‘The Slaves of the Python’.

The Fall issue began with ‘The Mystery of the Disappearing Island’, a strikingly topical tale that includes Churchill, the question of Irish neutrality and a sub-sea city of druids captured by Nazis as a staging post for bomber raids. This exotic adventure, tinged with immediacy by political issues was an extra-long one (40 pages) followed by a mediocre prose tale ‘Dispatch from Africa’ and this issue closed with a rather incestuous murder mystery as the Angel hunts for a killer when ‘Death Draws a Comic Strip!’

The fourth issue begins with ‘Murders by Ghost Light’ as Namor investigates a haunted hospital, and continues a spooky theme when he encounters a giant monster in ‘The Horror that Walked.’ ‘Fresh Meat for a Raider’ is a prose naval adventure written by a young Mickey Spillane, and ‘Pop’s Woppers’ is a jolly gag feature from Art Gates followed by another spooky puzzler for the Angel: ‘Death’s Merry-Go-Round!’. The vintage thrills and laughs conclude with a lost gem from the legendary Basil Wolverton who wraps things up with a surreal Dr. Dimwit page.

Many early Marvel Comics are more exuberant than qualitative, but this volume, even if largely devoid of premiere league talent, is a wonderful exception and a reading as well as historical treasure that fans will find delightful.

©1941, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Best of Eagle Annual 1951-1959

Best of Eagle Annual

By Denis Gifford (Webb & Bower)
ISBN: 978-0-86350-345-0

Cartoonist and comics historian Denis Gifford scored another hit with this collection of snippets from the first nine Eagle Annuals. Eagle was the most influential comic of post-war Britain, and the seasonal hardback compendiums released each year for the Christmas market were in every way the equal in quality of the landmark weekly. Here Gifford has selected a wonderfully representative sampling of the comic strips that graced those pages. (Being a much cleverer time, with smarter kids than yours, the Eagle had a large proportion of scientific and sporting articles as well as prose fiction, but those gems have been left for another time.) Another huge bonus, and one seldom found in compilations of British comic strips, is a full list of creator credits so you know who to thank if you’re a fan and who to envy if you’re an aspiring creator.

There are four complete Dan Dare adventures: ‘Mars 1997’ by Frank Hampson and Harold Johns from 1951, ‘Mars 1988’ (by Johns and Greta Tomlinson) from 1952, ‘Operation Plum Pudding’ (by Desmond Walduck – 1955) and ‘Operation Moss’ (by Hampson and Don Harley from 1958) as well as two crime-busting PC49 yarns, ‘The Case of the Circus Comes to Town’ and ‘The Case of the Tiny Tec’, both by John Worsley and Alan Stranks, from 1952 and 1956 respectively. Jeff Arnold/Riders of the Range makes two appearances from 1952 and 1954 with art by John Andersen and Harry Bishop, and, as always, written by Charles Chilton.

Within these 130 pages you can find work by L Ashwell Wood, John Ryan, Norman Thelwell, Michael ffolkes, George Hickson, Richard Jennings and a host of others, illustrating gags, historical, scientific and fact features as well as the adventures of such lost legends as Storm Nelson, Luck of the Legion, Tommy Walls, Harris Tweed, Cavendish Brown and Waldorf and Cecil. These may not all resonate with modern audiences but the sheer variety of the material should sound a warning note to our contemporary, insular publishers about the fearfully limited range of comics output they’re responsible for.

But for us, it’s enough to see and wish that this book, like so many others, was back in print again (even though it is readily available through many internet retailers!)

© 1989 Fleetway Publications, London. All Rights Reserved.

Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty

Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty
Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty

By Mike W. Barr & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-5638-9390-2

This Elseworlds tale (created outside regular continuity and featuring small or large re-interpretations of a character’s fundamental properties) is a generational saga by Mike W. Barr featuring three heroes of the Wayne bloodline fighting against the eternal villainy of the immortal Vandal Savage.

Dark Past is painted by Scott Hampton and tells of Joshua of Wainwright, a Knight Templar accused in 1222 AD of theft and treason by his peers who could not believe his tale of undying warriors, shape-shifting temptresses and vanishing fortresses, whilst Dark Present, with art by Gary Frank and Cam Smith, crafts a different origin for the Bruce Wayne Batman when his life of indolence is cut short by the machinations of Vandal Savage.

This time the villain has become a playboy’s business manager in a scheme to use the Wayne fortune to capture the meteor that made him immortal 50,000 years ago, uncaring of the damage it will cause. Newlywed Bruce Wayne, outraged and inflamed, is determined to thwart the plan at all costs…

Dark Future, illustrated by Scott McDaniel and Bill Sienkiewicz, reveals the final battle between Savage and the House of Wayne in the dystopian Gotham of 2500 AD. Thinking he has neutralized the Wayne dynasty with sybaritic excess, the undying man has not reckoned on the forceful girl Brenna whose archaeological interests lead her to the secrets of the Batcave and one final chance to defeat her family – and Earth’s – greatest threat…

Although no masterpiece this undemanding chronicle is a fun and furious epic that will please action-fans and art-lovers everywhere. Old fashioned thrills just as you like them.

© 1998 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Tangent Comics, Vol 1

Tangent Comics, Vol 1

By Dan Jurgens & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-670-2

This Skip Week enterprise has been collected and revived due to its inclusion in the expanded DC Universe following the events of 52 and Countdown. A “Skip Week”, if you don’t know, was one wherein no regular comics would be released. This was due to the arcane fact that some five week months clash with regular printing and shipping schedules. Publishers like to ship on the same day/date each month if possible, but the vagaries of the calendar mean that about four times a year the stars just aren’t right. In the 1990s savvy companies, realising that we fans need our fixes, began timing special events for these periods.

The Tangent Universe was a specific re-imagining of DC concepts as tribute to Editor Julius Schwartz, whose invention of the practice created the Silver Age of Comics in 1956. Writer/artist Dan Jurgens was instigator and head imaginer for the nine one-shot titles that launched in 1997. The experiment was repeated in 1998 with another set of one-shots.

So what’s the difference?

In 1962 The Atom, an American superhuman fails to prevent the Cuban Missile Crisis which results in an exchange of nukes. Although he limits the destruction the world is forever changed. Everything from Cuba to Florida is vaporised. Atlanta is destroyed, but eventually rebuilt as New Atlantis. In the oceans the radiation mutates marine life, creating intelligent new species. As a political result the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 is met with American military intervention. The Soviet Union is ideologically strengthened and still controls half the world. It is a world of advanced science, powerful Magic, and fewer freedoms than ours; a much darker place than we’re used to.

This initial volume collects Tangent Comics: The Atom, Tangent Comics: Metal Men, Tangent Comics: Green Lantern, Tangent Comics: The Flash and Tangent Comics: Sea Devils with the balance of the 1997 releases collected in volume 2.

The Atom story ‘Truth’, by Jurgens and Paul Ryan, focuses on the debut of the squeaky clean grandson of the original nuclear superhero, but swiftly reveals the dark sordid truth of the Cuban Event. This look at the nasty underbelly of this world sets the thematic scene for all the titles, which have been created for a much more cynical and pessimistic audience than those of the 1950s.

The Metal Men is written by Ron Marz and illustrated by Mike McKone, Mark McKenna and Mick Gray. ‘Secrets & Lies’ reveals the story of a US Special Ops unit whose exploits during the 1968 War saved the Free World, and how those men have continued to affect it since. Green Lantern, ‘From Beyond the Unknown’ sees a mysterious woman whose Magic Lantern can revive the dead to conclude unfinished business in a seemingly unconnected set of tales by James Robinson, J. H. Williams and Mick Gray whilst The Flash tells the bright and breezy story of oh-so-modern Lia Nelson, teen actress-slash-model who just happens to be made of light. ‘Premiere’ provides a welcome change of pace and tone amidst the dire intrigue from Todd DeZago, Gary Frank and Cam Smith.

The final adventure is by Kurt Busiek, Vince Giarrano and Tom Palmer. Sea Devils is the name given to mutated sea-creatures born in the wake of the Cuban Nuclear Exchange. ‘Devils and the Deep’ is a tale of teen-age alienation as the new generation of Sea Devils seek their place both in the human and sub-sea worlds, led by the heroic, moody and charismatic Redfin, son of the awesome Ocean Master, who rules the irradiated depths.

These are tales for a bleak and disillusioned audience, and there is a crying need for an over-reaching narrative arc, but they are still very readable and their inclusion in both the Hyper-Time concept and latterly as part of the 52 Multiverse (their world is Earth #9 if you’re keeping tabs) underscores their relevance to the official DC universe.

© 1997-1998, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

New Avengers: Civil War

New Avengers: Civil War

By Brian Michael Bendis & various (Marvel/Panini UK) – UK EDITION
ISBN13: 978-1-905239-81-8

This collection gathers the Avengers tie-ins to the Marvel Crossover Event Civil War in which a super-hero confrontation results in huge collateral losses including a school and its occupants, provoking a panicked government to rush through legislation to register every super-being. Those who resist are guilty of treason.

This immediately divides the super-hero community, with Captain America as the most prominent dissident and rebel. Each of the five chapters spotlights one Avenger and progresses through the weeks and months of the crisis. Collecting issues #21-25 of the New Avengers comic book series, the implementation of the Superhuman Registration Act begins with an look into the heart of the Sentinel of Liberty, illustrated by Howard Chaykin, before moving on to focus on ex-convict Luke Cage (this one drawn by Leinil Yu), who is forced to separate from his wife and new baby to make a stand.

Spider-Woman is the focus of the next chapter as her links to terrorist organisation Hydra are finally clarified in an issue drawn by Olivier Coipel. Sentry and a guest shot by the Inhumans mark a turning point in the saga (illustrated by Pasqual Ferry with help from Paul Smith) before Iron Man takes centre-stage for a tense, beautifully illustrated (by Jim Cheung) but rather confusing final part.

These are well-delineated, edgy episodes that are designed to personalise the Civil War amongst the super-human community, and in parts they work wonderfully well. But unless you are a dedicated follower of the titles involved and read this book in close conjunction with the main text (Civil War – ISBN: 978-1-905239-60-3) you will have only the vaguest notion of what is going on.

© 2006, 2008 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.