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Smax

Smax 

By Alan Moore & Zander Cannon with Andrew Currie (ABC)
ISBN: 1-4012-0325-6

Here’s a delightful return to sardonic, edged humour for Alan Moore in this spin-off from the superhero crime series Top Ten. When big blue strong guy Smax is summoned to his home dimension, he drags along cute punkette co-worker Toybox.

The place they find themselves in is a land of magic and fable, full of Elves, Dwarves and Dragons. It’s a perfect setting for street-smart super-cops to crack wise and act baffled as they go through the Tolkienian motions of a quest, traditional and emotional.

Moore’s ironic and twistedly absurdist comedy successfully delivers a swift and long overdue knee to the cods of the ubiquitous Fantasy Fad. Parents and overly sensitive Christians might want to vet this before buying it for the kiddiwinks though, as it contains some sexual concepts that might pummel their world-view.

© 2004 America’s Best Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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JSA: Black Reign

JSA: Black Reign 

Geoff Johns, Rags Morales, Don Kramer, Michael Bair, Keith Champagne (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-984-0

Super-heroes get all geo-political in this latest compilation of the Justice Society (JSA #56-58 and Hawkman #23-25) as a breakaway branch of members and ex-members invade a Middle-Eastern country to depose a monstrous and tyrannical dictator and liberate his oppressed subjects. This naturally leads to the right-thinking team-mates having to go in and stop them. It is a long cherished tenet of super-hero ideology that the good guys don’t mess with political injustice and make no lasting changes.

The result is the usual punch-up and soul-searching all around, culminating in a portentously inconclusive stalemate while every troubled, heroic stalwart reconsiders his/her/its position. In keeping with the new spirit of realism, there are even some casualties, but they’re only among the “misguided” heroes and probably only to facilitate the freeing up of the brand name for the next round of re-treads/relaunches.

It’s also impossible to escape the rather heavy-handed political allusions to America’s dubious foreign policy adventures, but by fictionalizing such commentary surely the risk exists that one also trivializes it? As ill-informed as many Americans seem, is a comic-book really the best place to air such views? Especially if you can’t even name the countries you’re ‘discussing’?

Glossy, pretty, fatuous and ultimately, rather vacuous.

© 2003, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The OMAC Project

The OMAC Project 

By Greg Rucka, Jesus Saiz & Cliff Richards (DC Comics/Titan Books)
ISBN 1-84576-229-0

One of the many publishing projects that lead into DC’s Infinite Crisis, the Omac Project is a surveillance satellite built by Batman when he realised that he could not fully trust his fellow superheroes.

Using it to gather intelligence is one thing, but when the covert organisation Checkmate not only co-opts it but adds a nano-technology weapon that can transform ordinary citizens into cyborg warriors programmed to destroy superheroes, The Caped Crusader and other do-gooders find themselves fighting for their very survival against the very people they usually fight for.

Although the book has its moments of drama and is very competently illustrated, ultimately it’s just another strand of a larger story, and consequently does not deliver a satisfactory resolution but only sets the scene for yet another book. This story should not be read in isolation – and sadly, perhaps that is what the publisher intended from the get-go.

© 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Modesty Blaise: The Gallows Bird

Modesty Blaise: The Gallows Bird 

By Peter O’Donnell & Enric Badia Romero (Titan Books)
ISBN: 1-84023-868-2

The latest compilation of Modesty Blaise tales is not only timeless adventure in its purest form, but also manages to capture the current pop-culture zeitgeist by reprinting tales that originally appeared in that oddly magical year 1973. Combining style and derring-do with masterful story-telling and entrancing art is always going to produce wonderful results, but managing it twice with the same strips must be something of a world record!

The strips in question begin with ‘The Bluebeard Affair’ as Modesty and Willie Garvin are asked to help an old friend whose niece is in line to become the forth dead wife of that ruthless and sardonic charmer Baron Rath. The hedonistic French Riviera and heavily-fortified Villa Beaumaris provide a vivid backdrop to a suspenseful tale of damsels in distress, whilst the creepy daughters of the Baron supply macabre menace aplenty.

‘The Gallows Bird’ is a more traditional crime-caper set in New Orleans, as a blackmail plot to drown the city embroils our heroes in a murderous duel with a retired southern Colonel and his hanging-obsessed bride.

Willie’s protégé and British agent-in-training Maude Tiller returns as a kidnap victim in a scheme to free a soviet super-spy from a British prison in ‘Wicked Gnomes’, a light-hearted but no less thrilling romp that pits the adventurers against a sinister espionage corporation and a truly bizarre pair of eccentric assassins.

The jungles of New Guinea are the setting for the final tale. ‘The Iron God’ fairly rattles along, with the duo crashing their light plane deep in head-hunter territory, rescuing a native nurse from killers, discovering a long-lost rival criminal from their past massing the tribes for his own nefarious purposes, and contesting all and sundry for the secrets of an abandoned World War II Japanese treasure horde. Once again this strip courted controversy in its initial publication, as many bare native breasts were on show, although this time Modesty gets to keep her own top on (mostly).

How censorship affected the series at a time when society, and especially the newspaper industry was daily discovering the commercial value of undraped mammary glands is addressed in a bonus feature that compares printed episodes of the strip – heavily redrawn and censored – with the original art supplied by Spanish artist Enric Badia Romero – who probably couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

More than three decades later it’s quite odd to realise just what a big deal this kind of racy material was, and just how vehement the opposition to it could be. I trust this will be all the warning you need, should you be of a sensitive disposition, and that such sights won’t discourage you from reading these tales of one of the lost gems of adventure fiction.

© 2006 Associated Newspapers/Solo Syndication.

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JSA: Princes of Darkness

JSA: Princess of Darkness 

By Geoff Johns, David Goyer, Leonard Kirk, Don Kramer & Sal Velluto (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-035-2

As a kid I used to love any appearance of the Justice Society of America, DC’s most popular crime-busting characters from the 1940s. They seemed full of a power that was equal parts Mystery and History. They belonged to that mythical land “Before I Was Born” and their rare guest-shots always filled me with joy.

A few years ago they were permanently revived and I found very little to complain of. As superheroes go the stories and art were entertaining enough, though not outstanding, and certainly not exceptional. With this latest compilation (collecting issues #46 – 55), I finally find myself agreeing with those wise editorial heads of the 1960s who felt that less was more and that over-exposure was a real danger.

In a tired old plot where Darkness-wielding villains black out the Earth and let evil reign free, I finally thought to myself, “Seen It, Done It, Don’t Care No Mo’”.

These are characters that everybody in the industry seems to venerate. Surely if all we’re going to have is the same old tosh that the lesser heroes have to deal with on a monthly basis, we’d be better off stopping now and saving them for genuinely special occasions. I certainly saw nothing here to differentiate between this and a hundred other titles.

© 2003, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Marvel Masterworks: All Winners #1-4

Marvel Masterworks: All Winners #1-4 

By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Carl Burgos, Bill Everett & others (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-7851-1884-5

Unlike their Distinguished Competition, Marvel Comics have taken a very long time to get into producing expensive hardbound volumes reprinting their earliest comic adventures. In the cold hard light of day it’s often fairly clear to see why. The sad truth is that a lot of Golden Age Marvel material is not only pretty offensive by modern standards but is also of rather poor writing and art quality. A welcome exception, however, is this collection of the quarterly super-hero anthology, All Winners Comics.

Over the course of the first year’s publication (from Summer 1941 to Spring 1942) the stories and art improved exponentially, and in terms of sheer variety the tales and characters excelled in exploring every avenue of patriotic thrill that might enthral ten year old boys of all ages. As well as Simon and Kirby, Lee, Burgos and Everett, the early work of Mike Sekowsky, Jack Binder, George Klein, Paul Gustavson, Al Avison, Al Gabrielle and many others can be found as they gushed out the adventures of Captain America, the Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, the Black Marvel, the Angel, The Mighty Destroyer, and The Whizzer.

Modern readers might blanche at some of the racial and sexual stereotyping, and the propaganda machines that can generate titles such as ‘Death to Nazi Scourge’ and ‘The Terror of the Slimy Japs’ is one that obviously needs to be read in an historical as well as entertainment context, but that, in essence, is the point. This is populist publishing at the dawn of a new and cut-throat industry, working under war-time conditions in a much less enlightened time. That these nascent efforts grew into the legendary characters and brands of today attests to their intrinsic attraction and fundamental appeal. This is a book of much more than simple historical interest.

© 1941, 1942, 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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JSA: Savage Times

JSA: Savage Times 

By Geoff Johns, David Goyer, Leonard Kirk & Keith Champagne (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-984-0

When they’re producing what their dedicated readers want, today’s publishers seem to be on comfortably solid ground, so perhaps I shouldn’t be so harsh in my judgements. The tale collected as Savage Times is standard comic book fare, well crafted and revolving around a time-bending villain who attacks the venerable super-heroes of the Justice Society of America by travelling into their collective past.

No problem with that. I just question the long-term sense of slavish regurgitation. How many times can even the most dedicated collector swallow the same old things? And how many formats should they be expected to purchase it in? Stuff like this won’t expand the reader base, and shouldn’t be looking for growth not treading water?

© 2002, 2003 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Ex Machina 5: Smoke Smoke

Ex Machina 5: Smoke Smoke 

By Brian K. Vaughn, Tony Harris, Tom Feister & JD Mettler (WildStorm)
ISBN 1-84576-518-4

The real world is such a big part of his political fantasy series. This volume collects issues #21-25 of the award-wining comic series starring a retired super-hero who became the Mayor of New York City, and unravels a little more of the mystery of Mitchell Hundred’s powers, whilst apparently concentrating on the insoluble problem of drug use.

A liberal independent, Hundred has a bull-by-the-horns, head-on approach and his admission to smoking Marijuana has astounding repercussions. The smooth running of New York is further complicated by a murderous burglar masquerading as a fireman and a hideous self-immolation on the very steps of City Hall. Add the ever-present danger of barely suppressed racial tension and the mix is explosive and enthralling.

This is a gem of a series and has never been anything below superb. How then can I describe the last story in this volume? ‘Standalone’ features a glimpse into the mind and history of the Mayor’s advisor and bodyguard Rick Bradbury, and is without doubt the best thing yet in this amazing saga. Funny, sad, deliciously gratifying, it shows how much this is an ensemble series.

Ex Machina is now one of the best pieces of modern fiction being produced in English today, in any medium.

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

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JLA: Pain of the Gods

JLA: Pain of the Gods 

By Chuck Austen & Ron Garney (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-033-6

Getting over a post-celebration hump is always tricky for a long-running comic series. An anniversary or centenary is usually celebrated by some large-scale cosmos-shaking exploit which it’s impossible to top, leading to an anti-climactic “day in the life” venture. In the case of Pain of the Gods – reprinting JLA #101-106 – Chuck Austen and Ron Garney take that hoary tradition, and indeed the equally tired plot of heroes’ soul-searching angst after a failure to succeed, and run with it to produce a stirring and powerful exploration of humanity too often lacking in modern adventure fiction.

Each chapter deals with an emotional crisis affecting an individual Leaguer. Superman, Flash and Green Lantern all fail to save someone, Martian Manhunter is forced to confront the life-long emotional barriers left after the death of his entire species, Wonder Woman faces her own mortality and Batman has to acknowledge that he can’t know and do everything alone.

The entire story can be seen as a post 9/11 treatise on fallibility and post-traumatic distress with superheroes acting as metaphors for Police and Firemen and the sub-plot of a seemingly mundane family seeking redress plays well against the tragic grandeur of the stars. It’s good to see a super hero book that thinks with a heart rather than act with gaudily gloved fists for a change.

© 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters 

By Mike Grell with Lurene Haynes & Julia Lacquement (DC Comics)
ISBN 0-930289-38-2

First appearing in More Fun Comics #73 in 1941, Green Arrow is one of the very few superheroes to be continuously published (more or less) since the Golden Age of American comic books. This combination of Batman and Robin Hood seems to have very little going for him but has always managed to keep himself in vogue.

Probably his most telling of many makeovers came in 1987, when, hot on the heels of The Dark Knight Returns, Mike Grell was given the green light to make him the star of the second ‘Prestige Format Mini-Series’. Grell was a major creator at the time, having practically saved the company with his Edgar Rice Burroughs inspired fantasy series Warlord. He had also been the illustrator of many of GA’s most recent tales.

In the grim ‘n’ gritty late Eighties, it was certainly time for an overhaul. Exploding arrows yes, maybe even net or rope arrows, but arrows with boxing gloves on them just don’t work (trust me – I know this from experience!). Thus, in an era of corrupt government, drug cartels and serial killers, this emerald survivor adapted and thrived.

The plot concerns the super-hero’s mid-life crisis as he relocates to Seattle and struggles to come to terms with the fact that since his former sidekick, Speedy, is now a dad, he is technically a grandfather. With long-time ‘significant other’ Black Canary he begins to simplify his life, but the drive to fight injustice hasn’t dimmed for either of them.

As she goes undercover to stamp out a drug ring, he becomes embroiled in the hunt for a psycho-killer dubbed “The Seattle Slasher” who is slaughtering prostitutes. He also becomes aware of a second – cross-country – slayer who has been murdering people with arrows when the “Robin-Hood Killer” murders a grave-digger in the city.

Eschewing his gaudy costume and gimmicks he reinvents himself as an urban hunter to stop these unglamorous monsters, stumbling into a mystery that leads back to World War II involving the Yakuza, the CIA, corporate America and even the Viet Nam war.

This intricate plot effortlessly weaves echoing themes of vengeance and family into its subtle blending of three stories that are in fact one, and still delivers a shocking punch even now in its disturbingly explicit examination of torture, which won the series undeserved negative press when it was first published. Although possibly tame in many modern eyes this was eye-opening stuff in the 1980’s, which is a shame, as it diverted attention from the real issue. And that was quality.

Grell has produced a gripping, mystery adventure that pushes all the buttons and artwork – in conjunction with Lurene Haynes and Julia Lacquement – that was and is a revelation. The beautiful, painterly visuals perfectly complement the terse, sparse script, and controversy notwithstanding, this retooling quickly spawned a monthly series that was one of the best reads of the 1990s.

In fact I should be favourably reviewing collections of that series too. How about it, DC?

© 1987, 1989 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.