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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…?

© 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. A BRITISH EDITION RELEASED BY PANINI UK LTD

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Adventures Of Buck Danny: Mission ‘Apocalypse’ Part 1


By Jean-Michel Charlier & Francis Bergése (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 Jijé), ‘Barbe-Rouge’ (with Hubinon) and ‘Jacques le Gall’ (with MiTacq).

With fellow master-storytellers Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny, he formed the Édifrance 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 Bergése (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 40th 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…
© 1988 Novedi, Brussels. All Rights Reserved.

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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 outré 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…

© & TM 2007 Brian K. Vaughn & Tony Harris. All Rights Reserved.

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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.

© 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

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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 11th 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.
© 1976, 1979, King Features Syndicate, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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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 3rd 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.

POSTMAN PAT ® & © 2009 Woodlands Animation Ltd., a division of Entertainment Rights PLC. All Rights Reserved.

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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…

© 2007, 2008 DC Comics.  All Rights Reserved

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THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD: THE LORDS OF LUCK


By Mark Waid & George Pérez (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-649-8 (trade paperback)

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 Pérez 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 Pérez’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.

© 2006, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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SILVERFISH


By David Lapham (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-600-9 (trade paperback)

David Lapham returned to the genre that elevated him to comics’ top rank (for the superb crime-thrillers Stray Bullets and Murder Me Dead) with this all-original yarn for the creator-owned Vertigo imprint, tailor-made to become a major motion picture.

Troubled teenager Mia Fleming doesn’t like her new stepmom, Suzanne. That’s not uncommon. However when she steals Suzanne’s diary, makes prank calls and snoops in her closet, she sets in motion a storm of bloody violence and terrifying consequences for her friends, her family, and ultimately the entire town of Seaside Heights, New Jersey.

Lapham has a chillingly direct line to contemporary America and his skill in exploring and exhibiting the simmering violence in that too-often dysfunctional society is put to efficient and engrossing effect in this fascinating blend of psycho-thriller and teen-Slasher tale, drawn with simple, provocative, clarity in moody, powerful black and white tones.

If you’re a comics missionary this a perfect book to recommend to crime-fans, thriller-aficionados, and all other acquaintances. You’ll also want a copy for yourself.

© 2007 David Lapham. All Rights Reserved.

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ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA VOLUME 2


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko, Gene Colan & various (Marvel)
ISBN13: 978-1-9041-5949-0

Marvel’s inexorable rise to dominance of the American comicbook industry really took hold in 1968 when a number of their characters finally got their own titles. Prior to that and due to a highly restrictive distribution deal the company was tied to a limit of 16 publications per month. To circumvent this limitation, Marvel developed “split-books” with two series per publication, such as Tales of Suspense where original star Iron Man was joined by Captain America with #59 (cover-dated November 1964). When the division came Iron Man started afresh with a First Issue, but Cap retained the numbering of the original title; thus he premiered in number #100.

This second Essential black and white compilation of those early classics begins from Captain America #103 with Stan Lee scripting and original co-creator Jack Kirby (the other being Joe Simon) still firing on all-action cylinders, ably assisted by inker Syd Shores, a superb draughtsman in his own right and another golden-ager who had worked on the original Star-Spangled Avenger.

‘The Weakest Link!’ sees a budding romance with S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent 13 (finally revealed after two years as Sharon Carter) interrupted by the nefarious Red Skull. The über-fascist’s scheme of nuclear blackmail extended to a second issue, wherein his band of war-criminal assassins, The Exiles, tested Cap nigh to destruction on the hidden isle where he became ‘Slave of the Skull!’

That issue and the following super-villain team-up wherein the Living Laser and the Swordsman joined with another old Cap foe to attack. ‘In the Name of Batroc!’ featured the loose flowing inking of Dan Adkins whilst Frank Giacoia embellished the spies-and-evil-doppelgangers romp ‘Cap goes Wild!’ in issue #106, before Shores returned in #107 for the sinister ‘If the Past Be Not Dead…’ an action-packed psycho-thriller that introduced the malevolent, mind-bending psychiatrist Doctor Faustus.

The Star-Spangled Avenger was rescuing Agent 13 again in the breakneck thriller ‘The Snares of the Trapster!’ before Captain America #109 (January 1970) redefined his origin with ‘The Hero That Was!’, a spectacular end to Kirby’s run on the Sentinel of Liberty – at least for the moment.

Comics phenomenon and one-man sensation Jim Steranko took over the art chores with #110, for a brief stint that was everybody’s favourite Cap epic for decades. After a swift and brutal skirmish with the Incredible Hulk, Rick Jones became his new sidekick in ‘No Longer Alone!’, just in time for the pair to tackle the iconic Madame Hydra and her obedient hordes in #111’s ‘Tomorrow You Live, Tonight I Die!’, both inked by Joe Sinnott in an landmark tale that galvanised a generation of would-be comics artists.

Seemingly killed at the issue’s close, the next month saw a bombastic account of Captain America’s career by fill-in superstars Kirby and George Tuska, before Lee, Steranko and Tom Palmer concluded the Hydra epic with ‘The Strange Death of Captain America’ in #113.

A period of artistic instability then kicked off with John Romita the Elder illustrating a tense spy-caper. ‘The Man Behind the Mask!‘ in Captain America #114 was merely the prologue to an extended war against the Red Skull. Issue #115, ‘Now Begins the Nightmare!’, drawn by John Buscema and inked by his brother Sal, saw the villain use the reality-warping Cosmic Cube to switch bodies with the Star-Spangled Avenger, whilst ‘Far Worse than Death!’ followed his frantic attempts to escape his own friends and allies. This issue saw the start of Gene Colan’s impressive run on the character, accompanied by the smooth inks of Joe Sinnott.

The third instalment returned him the Isle – and clutches – of the Exiles in a tale that introduced Marvel’s second black superhero. ‘The Coming of … the Falcon!’ was a terse, taut build-up to issue #118 where the neophyte hero took centre-stage in ‘The Falcon Fights On!’ and all the ducks fell into place for a spectacular finale in ‘Now Falls the Skull!’ in Captain America #119.

As 1970 dawned the company imposed a moratorium on continued stories for most of their titles, and Cap hopped on the disaffected youth/teen revolt bandwagon at this juncture for a series of slight but highly readable puff-pieces that promised nothing but delivered much. Kicking off was ‘Crack-up on Campus!’ in #120, an odd mélange of student radicalism and espionage that saw itinerant Steve Rogers become a Physical Education teacher to foil a scheme by the sinister Modok and his AIM cohorts.

A demented bio-chemist rediscovered the Super Soldier serum that had originally created Captain America in ‘The Coming of the Man-Brute!’ and Spider-Man’s old sparring partner mugged the wrong guy in #122’s ‘The Sting of the Scorpion!’ Issue #123 tapped into the “battle of the sexes” zeitgeist with ‘Suprema, The Deadliest of the Species!’ and AIM returned with their latest hi-tech weapon in ‘Mission: Stop the Cyborg!’ before Captain America #125 dipped into more headline fare when the hero was ‘Captured… in Viet Nam!’ although the mystery villain was anything but political…

Frank Giacoia returned to ink the last yarn in this fabulously economical monochrome compilation as did the Sentinel of Liberty’s erstwhile associate and partner. Issue #126’s ‘The Fate of… the Falcon!’ tapped into the blossoming “blacksploitation” trend to tell an entertaining (sadly not always intentionally) tale of gangsters and radicals in funky old Harlem that still has a kick to it. Just play the theme from Shaft whilst reading it…

Any retrospective or historical re-reading is going to turn up a few cringe-worthy moments, but these tales of matchless courage and indomitable heroism are fast-paced, action-packed and illustrated by some of the greatest artists and storytellers American comics has ever produced. As Captain America struggled for a place in the new ever-changing USA the graphic magic never wavered, never faltered. This is visual dynamite and should not be slighted or missed.

© 1968, 1969, 1970, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.