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\nBy Mike Costa<\/b>, Chris Cosentino<\/b>, Kris Anka<\/b>, Jake Wyatt<\/b>, Michael Dialynas<\/b> & Dalibor Talaji\u00c4\u2021<\/b> (Marvel\/Panini UK)
\nISBN: 978-1-84653-577-2<\/p>\n
\nBy Mike Costa<\/b>, Chris Cosentino<\/b>, Kris Anka<\/b>, Jake Wyatt<\/b>, Michael Dialynas<\/b> & Dalibor Talaji\u00c4\u2021<\/b> (Marvel\/Panini UK)
\nISBN: 978-1-84653-577-2<\/p>\n
Here’s a welcome return to those (relatively) uncomplicated Good Old Days, when you could pick up a comic or book without Ph.D. level preparation and just read for the sheer fun of it.<\/p>\n
Collecting the linked serial from 2013’s All-New X-Men Special<\/b> #1, Indestructible Hulk Special<\/b> and Superior Spider-Man Team-Up Special<\/b> (and incongruously including the Wolverine: In the Flesh <\/b>One-Shot), The Arms of the Octopus<\/b> offers just such a jolly \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blast from the Past\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in a gripping tale of time-banditry, courtesy of writer Mike Costa.<\/p>\n
Illustrated by Kris Anka All-New X-Men Special<\/b> #1starts the ball rolling with ‘Elegy in the Classroom’ <\/i>as time-displaced mutant teenagers Hank <\/i>(the Beast<\/i>) Pym<\/i>, Bobby <\/i>(Iceman<\/i>) Drake<\/i>, Scott <\/i>(Cyclops<\/i>) Summers<\/i> and Jean <\/i>(Marvel Girl<\/i>) Grey<\/i> spend their first vacation day on a trip to Manhattan and get a full-on face-full of 21st<\/sup> century future shock.<\/p>\n Escaping the bleeping sound and blinding visual fury of the telecommunications era, the kids head for Central Park where young Hank is smitten by a poetry-reading college girl. After catching a mugger, the Beast expects her to run screaming, but she’s actually so intrigued at meeting a mutant she invites him back to see her lab.<\/p>\n Hank knows it well: before he and the teen X-Men were brought into their own future he studied there under Gamma-medicine radiation research pioneer David Jude<\/i>. Decades later the genius is still in residence, but now his field of endeavour is Temporal Displacement\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n Dr. Jude is remarkably sanguine about meeting his young-looking old student, but before any questions can be asked the lab is brutally attacked by Doctor Octopus<\/i>, also oddly youthful and emitting huge amounts of Gamma rays.<\/p>\n As the rest of the X-Men join the bombastic battle the clash inevitably draws the attention of the Superior Spider-Man…<\/p>\n The Wallcrawler is astounded and furious. What the kids – or anybody else for that matter – don’t realise is that for months now the mind of Otto Octavius<\/i> has inhabited the Amazing Arachnid’s frame and to see his earlier self running wild in 2013 drives the cerebral bodysnatcher into a state of unthinking outrage\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n After fractiously cooperating with the mutant kids, Spider-Man defeats Doc Ock and drags him back to Jude’s time-lab, where examination of the Gamma-drenched mystery maniac leads to only one conclusion: some form of time travel\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n The X-kids are living proof of concept and with some reluctance the arrogant Arachnid admits that he needs to consult with an expert\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n ‘For a Friend Whose Work has Come to Triumph’<\/i> (illustrated by Jake Wyatt in (Indestructible Hulk Special<\/b> #1) picks up the tale as S.H.I.EL.D. Specialist Bruce Banner <\/i>is helicoptered in and, after getting over his astonishment at meeting genuine time travellers, gets stuck into unravelling the enigma of the radioactive rogue.<\/p>\n Before too long however another distraction hits the campus: a blockbusting assault by old Hulk foe the Abomination<\/i>. The Gamma-irradiated gargoyle is one of Banner’s oldest enemies, and he’s been dead for years\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n As the physicist gets green and mean to tackle the threat, the theory of a temporal anomaly caused by the displaced X-teens seems confirmed. Thus the mutants take Spider-Man and Dr. Jude back to their school to check out the time machine which brought them back to the future just as the Hulk makes a shocking discovery defeating his rampaging opponent.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6And in the copter speeding to Westchester, Jude realises he’s been rumbled and makes his move\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n The chronal conundrum concludes in ‘With Mercy for the Greedy’<\/i> (Superior Spider-Man Team-Up Special <\/b>#1, with art by Michael Dialynas) as the Machiavellian scientist (Jude, not Ock-in-Spidey for a change) uses previously concealed gamma radiation powers to blow up the transport before heading after the coveted time machine, leaving the assorted heroes in lethal freefall\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n Following a suitably spectacular cooperative save, the X-kids and Spider-Man set off on the villain’s trail whilst Banner and Pym frantically work on a method of containing the real radioactive menace. Eventually everything ends up in a ferocious fight before a measure of order is restored and grudging respect is meted out all round\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n Blending sinister suspense with riotous action and devilishly clever scenes of outright hilarity, this is a marvellously accessible romp no fan of clear-cut Costumed Dramas should miss and is followed by a rather strange – and unconnected – outing for the world’s favourite mutant.<\/p>\n Illustrated by Dalibor Talaji\u00c4\u2021, Wolverine: In the Flesh <\/b>is written by – and implausibly co-stars – celebrity chef <\/b>Chris Cosentino; detailing the hunt for cannibal killer the Bay Area Butcher<\/i>.<\/p>\n The satanic serial killer’s reign of terror can only be ended after the Canadian mutant recruits his old culinary chum to offer insights into the haute cuisine<\/i> methodology of cutting meat and invaluably intimate knowledge of San Francisco’s Food Truck culture.<\/p>\n Little do either know that their prey is fed up \u00e2\u20ac\u0153serving Man\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and needs just one little ingredient for his pi\u00c3\u00a8ce de r\u00c3\u00a9sistance<\/em>: a suitably trussed, tied and marinated mutant\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/em><\/p>\n Light, quirky and mordantly piquant, this one won’t be to everyone’s taste\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/em><\/p>\n With covers by Alexander Lozano and Tim Seeley, <\/em>The Arms of the Octopus<\/b> offers casual readers and faithful fans alike a smart break from cosmic epics and should certainly whet the appetite for all the monumental Marvel madness heading our way in the months to come. By Mike Costa, Chris Cosentino, Kris Anka, Jake Wyatt, Michael Dialynas & Dalibor Talaji\u00c4\u2021 (Marvel\/Panini UK) ISBN: 978-1-84653-577-2 Here’s a welcome return to those (relatively) uncomplicated Good Old Days, when you could pick up a comic or book without Ph.D. level preparation and just read for the sheer fun of it. Collecting the linked serial … <\/p>\n
\n\u00e2\u201e\u00a2 & \u00c2\u00a9 2013 and 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"