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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.

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Ex Machina 4: March to War

Ex Machina 4: March to War 

By Brian K. Vaughn, Tony Harris, Tom Feister, Chris Sprouse, Karl Story & JD Mettler (WildStorm)
ISBN 1-84576-253-3

This volume of the adventures of retired superhero and New York City Mayor Mitchell Hundred collects issues #17-20 and the Ex Machina Specials #1 and #2. Set in early 2003, this storyline concerns the build-up to the invasion of Iraq and deals with all the disparate views of a troubled people whilst never losing sight of the big picture – making an entertaining story.

As the mobilisation tension builds the Mayor increasingly finds himself fighting good advice, and his principles war with his duties and common sense. He permits a major peace rally through the City streets, but when terrorists attack the demonstrators, the repercussions have personal, as well as professional consequences. And naturally, Joe Public lets the side down as ordinary Americans retaliate the only way they know how, by attacking anybody who doesn’t look or sound like they do.

The delightful conceit that a liberal independent could be elected to such high office never occludes the thoroughly grounded nature of this series. Despite all the fantasy elements involved, this is always a wonderfully ‘real’ tale. The tragic aftermath of the attack, hate-crimes and over-reactions of the security forces all have the painful authenticity and veracity of our world, not a comic book.

The remainder of this volume tells the history of Hundred’s ‘evil counterpart’, a man named Pherson, who had control of animals in the same way that the Mayor can manipulate machines. Of course this more traditional fare is couched in solid political terms as our liberal hero is ambushed in a radio debate on the death penalty.

I can’t say enough good things about this series. So I’ll just shut up and assume you’re already reading it. Don’t let me down.

© 2006 Brian K. Vaughn & Tony Harris. All Rights Reserved.

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Ex Machina 3: Fact v. Fiction

Ex Machina 3: Fact v. Fiction 

By Brian K. Vaughn, Tony Harris, Tom Feister & JD Mettler (WildStorm)
ISBN 1-84576-253-3

Retired superhero and current Mayor of New York City Mitchell Hundred never ducks a controversy, but even he is surprised at the reaction when he decides to enforce the laws against fortune telling by shutting down all the city’s psychics and grifters.

A bigger problem and a clever window into our protagonist’s past is Automaton, a semi-copycat vigilante who seems to be carrying on the Mayor’s previous career. Peeking into Hundred’s boyhood as a comic fanboy – no shock there – we see the events that inspired him, and possibly the seeds of his eventual downfall.

A further revelatory complication occurs when he decides to serve on a jury rather than dodge his obligations as a citizen. Naturally, it doesn’t go according to plan, but then nothing does in this wonderful, literate, clever series, featuring some of the most human characters ever seen in a funny-book, beautiful art, stunning dialogue and a dull, empty longing once you get to end of these too, too short volumes.

This is a series you should read, and re-read and tell others to read. I mean it.

© 2006 Brian K. Vaughn & Tony Harris. All Rights Reserved.

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Exiles

Exiles 

By Judd Winick & Mike McKone (Marvel Comics)
ISBN: 0-7851-0833-5

This mellow piece of fluff takes Marvel’s What If concept up a level by having an amorphous team of young mutants from alternate universes team up to correct mistakes and clear blockages in the fabric of the multiverse.

Reality is a plethora of differing dimensions, you see, and if things go awry in one it can have a cumulative and ultimately catastrophic effect on all of them. Led by Blink (who had her own miniseries and starred in the X-Men extended storyline Age of Apocalypse) this team of rejects from their own realities, acting like the cast of the OC in fancy dress zap from place to place doing the Dyno-Rod thing.

Notwithstanding the hackneyed concept, however, it’s not a bad package, but this first volume – which rushes through an origin of sorts and sends them to an Earth where their great mentor is evil and another where they have to re-engineer the X-Men’s greatest tragedy – relies overmuch on a familiarity with the minutiae of Marvel continuity that might deter the casual reader.

If you’re prepared to accept the fact that you won’t get all the gags and references you might enjoy the light tone, sharp dialogue and lush illustration, and unlike most comics books, at least the dead stay dead here. I think. Perhaps. Maybe.

© 2001, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Dan Dare: Voyage to Venus 2

Dan Dare: Voyage to Venus 2 

By Frank Hampson (Titan Books)
ISBN 1-84023-841-0

Earth is starving! The only hope is for the expeditionary force on Venus to find food! But Dan Dare and his team have not been heard from in weeks!

Colonel Dare has his own problems. Venus is inhabited by two advanced races trapped in a Cold War for that has lasted for millennia, but it turned pretty hot once the Earthmen got involved. As the Therons battle the ruthless Treens, the malevolent Mekon launches an invasion of our planet, too!

Breakneck pace, truly astonishing high concepts leavened with wholesome music hall larks and some of the most beautiful and powerful art ever to grace a comic page makes the concluding volume of Frank Hampson’s first Dan Dare adventure as much a magical experience now as it was in 1951. These stories captured and still hold the minds of a generation, and you’d be crazy not to see why for yourselves.

This volume also includes a fascinating and lavishly illustrated interview with the creator and a nominal ‘prequel’ in the form of a strip (from an annual) set on Mars eight years before that fateful trip to Venus.

This Titan Books series is glorious tribute to the unforgettable heroes of a forgotten future. They deserve and demand your attention. It makes one proud to be an Earthling.

© 2004 Dan Dare Corporation. All rights Reserved.

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Et Cetera

Et Cetera 

By Tow Nakazaki (Tokyopop)
ISBN: 1-59532-130-6

This irreverent, genre-bending western pastiche is a delightful romp if you don’t worry too much about history or logic, which sees young girl Mingchao leave her mountaintop shack and wild-west roots for an entertainment career in Hollywood. With her she takes the fantastic Eto Gun built by her grandfather that fires the spirits of the (Japanese) Zodiac. These fantastic bullets manifest in the form of animate animal ghosts.

Naturally it takes a while to discover how it works – by dipping the gun in the “essence” of the totem animal, such as food or clothing made from them or more often as not their droppings – and often the trouble she inevitably finds herself in is best dealt with by her innate feistiness and ingenuity. Along the way she has been befriended by a mysterious, young and good-looking “Preacher-Man” named Baskerville.

As they make their way to California they encounter many of the icons of the untamed bad-lands such as cowed townsfolk, villainous outlaws, evil cattle-barons, cows, ornery ol’ coots, cow-punchers, distressed widow-wimmin’, cows…

This light-hearted meander through the iconography of a million cowboy movies is fast paced, occasionally saucy and often laugh-out-loud funny, and has the added benefit of the freshness afforded by seeing these old clichés through fresher, oriental, eyes. This volume also includes a number of themed puzzle pages for anyone wanting to take a deeper dip into the legend.

© 1998, 2005 Tow Nakazaki. All Rights Reserved.
English script © 2005 Tokyopop Inc.