Category: Graphic Novels

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Marsupilami volumes 7 & 8: The Gold of Boavista & The Temple of Boavista


By Yann & Batem, coloured by Cerise and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-069-2 (Album PB/Digital edition Gold)
ISBN: 978-1 80044-099-9 (Album PB/Digital edition Temple)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Mad Monkeyshines with Gallic Aplomb… 9/10

One of Europe’s most popular comic stars is an eccentrically irascible, loyally unpredictable, super-strong, rubber-limbed ball of explosive energy with a seemingly infinite elastic tail. The frantic, frenetic Marsupilami is a wonder of nature and icon of European entertainment originally spun-off from another immortal comedy adventure strip…

When Andre Franquin began crafting eponymous keystone strip Spirou for eponymous flagship publication Le Journal de Spirou, he quickly abandoned the previous format of short complete gags to pioneer longer adventure serials, and began introducing a wide and engaging cast of new characters.

For 1952’s Spirou et les heritiers, he then devised a beguilingly boisterous South American critter and tossed him like an elastic-arsed grenade into the mix. Thereafter – until resigning in 1969 – Franquin constantly added the bombastic little beast to Spirou’s increasingly incredible escapades…

Marsupilami popped up constantly: a phenomenally popular wonder animal who inevitably grew into a solo star of screen, toy store, console games and albums all his own. In 1955 a contractual spat with Dupuis saw Franquin sign up with publishing rivals Casterman for Le Journal de Tintin: collaborating with René Goscinny and old pal Peyo whilst creating raucous gag strip Modeste et Pompon.

Franquin and Dupuis patched things up within days, and he went back to Le Journal de Spirou. In 1957, he co-created Gaston Lagaffe, but was still legally obliged to carry on his Tintin work too. From 1959, writer Greg and background artist Jidéhem assisted, but over the next decade Franquin reached his Spirou limit. In 1969 he quit for good, taking his mystic yellow monkey with him…

Plagued by bouts of depression, Franquin passed away on January 5th 1997, but his legacy remains: a vast body of work that reshaped European comics. Moreover, having learned his lessons about publishers, Franquin retained all rights to Marsupilami and in the late 1980’s began publishing his own adventures of the rambunctious miracle-worker.

He recruited old comrade Greg as scripter and invited commercial artist/illustrator Luc Collin (AKA Batem) to collaborate on – and later monopolise – art duties for the new adventures. In recent years, the commercial world triumphed again and – since 2016 – the universes of Marsupilami and Spirou have reconnected, allowing the old firm to participate in shared exploits of a world created and populated by Franquin.

Graced with a talent for mischief, the Marsupilami is a deviously ingenious anthropoid inhabiting the rainforests of Palombia. One of the rarest animals on Earth, it speaks a language uniquely its own and has a reputation for making trouble and sparking chaos. The species is rare and is fanatically dedicated to its young. Sometimes that takes the form of “tough love”. This behaviour frequently extends to any humans it encounters and “adopts”…

The first of two books telling one tale, L’or de Boavista was released in October 1992. The seventh of 33 solo albums, it was followed a year later by concluding volume Le Temple de Boavista, combining into an edgily gripping comedy drama with much dark and scary social activism underpinning the usual hairy hijinks.

It opens in Palombian capital Chiquito, where children are going missing. No one cared when it was orphans and homeless urchins, but it’s quite different when Donald Maxwell-Trent plays truant and is abducted off the street. He’s spoiled, rich and the son of the US Ambassador…

Tragically, that means nothing to the ruthless thugs who need a constant supply of kids his size and age to work at an illegal, highly polluting goldmine in the jungle upriver. The toxic mess and mercury-made mire these Garimpeiros are creating has incensed and outraged the Marsupilami who now deems them his worst enemies ever…

After another of the yellow terror’s night attacks, overseer Solaria – a slightly older boy with an agenda of his own – helps Donald, now cruelly called “Gordito” by his malnourished comrades, to escape into the green hell. The older boy is only interested in freedom, wealth and returning to the undiscovered tribe he was stolen from, but from his cough may have waited too long to make his break…

Soon brutal gang boss Ingo is in hot pursuit, but his party’s progress is severely hampered by the stalking Marsu – whenever the golden beast isn’t clandestinely helping the fugitives. The furious furry (called by Polombians “El diablo”, and “La catestrofe amarilla”) is then instrumental in linking up the lads with an acceptable resident human…

Transplanted animal trainer Noah keeps his menagerie of friends on a river boat. Appalled by what Solario tells him, Noah resolves to stop the mining but that confrontation does not work out as planned and soon they are all fleeing for their lives up the dreaded Rio Boavista into lethal, legend-drenched “Spatoolah Territory” with dozens of killers on their collective tails…

To Be Concluded…

 

The dark drama heads into even wilder regions with The Temple of Boavista as relentless pursuit drives our heroes ever deeper into unexplored locales of the mighty tributary. Thankfully the hidden people they meet are mostly friendly, but their heightened state of fear is not ended for long. That night the jungle reverberates with horrific laughter emanating from a gargantuan edifice almost reclaimed by centuries of encroaching trees and vines…

The building is an ancient Zygomaztec temple and in its lee are some very nasty tomb robbers. Zoltan and Zorrino plan on stealing Noah’s floating zoo to carry their latest haul, but haven’t reckoned on the alliance of kids and tribal people, nor whatever is making the dire noises wracking the night with sinister sounds.

… And that’s before Ingo’s Garimpeiros and utterly fed up and furious Marsupilami get involved, or morose millionaire Harold “Buster” Stonelove and his safari guide Rhode Island Smith show up. These “ugly Americans” are looking for the secret of laughter and believe the raucous ruins can supply their answer, when they should be watching the yellow critter with the elastic tail and bad attitude…

As all the competing factions calamitously converge on the temple interior, a remarkable answer to the mirth mystery emerges and in a storm of giggling terror everybody gets jut what they deserve…

These eccentric exploits of the garrulous golden monkey are moodily macabre, furiously funny and pithily pertinent, offering engagingly riotous romps and devastating debacles for wide-eyed kids of every age all over the world. Fancy channelling your inner El Diablo and joining in the fun? It all starts with Hoobee, Hoobah Hoobah…
Marsupilami: The Gold of Boavista Original edition © Dupuis 1992, by Batem & Yann
Marsupilami: Temple of Boavista Original edition © Dupuis, Dargaud-Lombard s.a. 1993, by Batem & Yann, Franquin. All rights reserved. English translations © 2022 Cinebook Ltd.
© Marsu Productions 1992. All rights reserved. English translation © 2022 Cinebook Ltd.

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Showcase Presents Aquaman volume 3


By Bob Haney, Nick Cardy, Sal Trapani, Leo Dorfman & Pete Costanza & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2181-2 (TPB)

We’re counting down to what augurs to be another Christmas movie megahit for DC, so let’s take a look at the lengthy history of page, screen, game and giant mutated seahorse…

Aquaman was one of a handful of costumed adventurers to survive the superhero collapse at the end of the Golden Age; a rather nondescript and genial guy who solved maritime crimes and mysteries when not rescuing fish and people from sub-sea disasters. Created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris, he first launched in More Fun Comics #73 (1941). Strictly a second stringer for most of his career he nevertheless continued on beyond many stronger features, illustrated by Norris, Louis Cazaneuve, Charles Paris, and latterly Ramona Fradon who drew every adventure from 1954 until 1960.

When Showcase #4 rekindled the public’s taste for costumed crimefighters with the advent of a new Flash, DC updated its small band of superhero survivors, especially Green Arrow and Aquaman. Records are incomplete, sadly, so often we don’t know who wrote what, but after the revamp fuller records survive and this third black and white collection starring the King of the Seven Seas has only two creative credit conundrums.

Now with his own title and soon to be featured in the popular, groundbreaking cartoon show Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, the Finned Fury seemed destined for super-stardom. These joyously outlandish tales, reprinting issues #24-39, a Brave and the Bold team-up with The Atom (# 73) and a scarce-remembered collaboration from Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #115 comfortably and rapturously mark the end of the wholesome, affable hero, laying groundwork for a grittily innovative run from revolutionary editor Dick Giordano and hot new talents Steve Skeates, Jim Aparo and Neal Adams…

Those are a treat for another time, but there’s entertainment a-plenty here beginning with Aquaman #24 (November/December 1965) by an uncredited author (Dave Wood, George Kashdan or Jack Miller are strong possibilities) and regular artistic ace Nick Cardy.

In ‘Aquaman: Save Our Seas!’, the titanic tussle with maritime malcontent The Fisherman found the new parents (the Sea King and Mera were the first 1960s superheroes to marry and have kids) almost fatally easily distracted when an alien plot threatens to destroy Earth’s oceans, whilst in #25, ‘The Revolt of Aquaboy!’ by Bob Haney & Cardy sees an ancient Chinese sorcerer rapid-age the proud parents’ newborn into a spiteful ungrateful teenager as part of a plot to subjugate the sunken city of Atlantis.

The entire world went spy-crazy in the first half of the Swinging Sixties and anonymous acronymic secret societies popped up all over TV, books and comics. With #26 (March/April 1966), Aquaman joined the party when seconded by the US government (even though absolute ruler of a sovereign, if somewhat soggy, nation) to thwart the sinister schemes of the Organisation for General Revenge and Enslavement in the still surprisingly suspenseful ‘From O.G.R.E. With Love!’

With Haney & Cardy firmly ensconced as creative team, thrilling fantasy became the order of the day in such power-packed puzzlers as #27’s ‘The Battle of the Rival Aquamen’ – wherein alien hunters unleash devious duplicates of the Sea King and his Queen – before #28’s ‘Hail Aquababy, New King of Atlantis!’ introduces rogue American geneticist Dr. Starbuck. He seeks to steal the throne with subtle charm, honeyed words… and a trained gorilla and eagle modified to operate underwater…

Archenemy Orm the Ocean Master returns to attack America – and the world – in tense undersea duel ‘Aquaman, Coward-King of the Seas!’, which also provides some startling insights into the hero and villain’s shared shadowy pasts as well as the requisite thrills and chills, after which ‘The Death of Aquaman’ proves to be a guest-star-studded spectacular of subterfuge, double-cross and alien intrigue. The very much alive Sea King then finds himself a fish trapped out of water when ‘O.G.R.E. Strikes Back!, attacking the United Nations!

Ocean Master’s obscured family connections clearly struck a chord with readers as he returns in #32 to unleash the ancient leviathan ‘Tryton the Terrible’ whilst the troublesome teenagers get a tacit acknowledgement of their growing importance with the introduction of Aqua-Girl in ‘Aqualad’s Deep-Six Chick!’ (stop wincing; they were simpler, more obnoxious times and the story itself – about disaffected youth being exploited by unscrupulous adults – is a perennial and worthwhile one).

Aquaman #34 featured another evil doppelganger ‘Aquabeast the Abominable’, typifying a new, harsher sensibility in storytelling. Even though the antagonists were still generally aliens and monsters, from now on they were far meaner, scarier aliens and monsters…

The Sea King teamed up with Justice League of America compatriot The Atom in The Brave and the Bold # 73 (August/September 1967) to tackle a microscopic marauder named ‘Galg the Destroyer’ in a taut drama written by Haney and illustrated by always impressive and vastly undervalued Sal Trapani, before returning to his home-title and another deadly clash with Ocean Master and ruthless nemesis Black Manta. Never afraid to tweak the comfort zone or shake up the status quo, Haney’s excellent tale ‘Between Two Dooms!’ epitomises the growing darker sensibilities of the title, resulting in all Atlanteans losing their ability to breathe underwater, leaving Aquaman’s subjects virtual prisoners in their own sub-sea city for years to come…

Now a TV star, Aquaman went from strength to strength as Haney & Cardy pulled out all the creative stops on such resplendent battles tales as ‘What Seeks the Awesome Three?’ – pitting the hero against mechanistic marauders Magneto (no relation), Claw and Torpedo-Man – and chillingly prophetic eco-drama ‘When the Sea Dies!’, due in no small part to villains Ocean Master and The Scavenger.

Closing out his volume are two more dark thrillers and a classic guilty pleasure. Firstly, Aquaman #38 introduced a relentless, merciless vigilante who accidentally set his sights on the Atlantean Ace in ‘Justice is Mine, Saith the Liquidator!’, before ‘How to Kill a Sea King!’ tells a tragic tale of an alien seductress set on splitting up the Royal Couple. The era and this collection end with a charming treat from scripter Leo Dorfman and artist Pete Costanza taken from Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #115 (October 1968).

The greatest advantage of these big value monochrome compendia was the opportunity they offered, whilst chronologically collecting a character’s adventures, to include crossovers and guest spots from other titles. When the star is as long-lived and widely travelled as Aquaman, that’s an awful lot of extra appearances for a fan to find, so the concluding tale here – taken from a title cruelly neglected by today’s fans – is an absolute gold-plated bonus…

‘Survival of the Fittest!’ sees the mystical Old Man of the Sea attempt to replace Aquaman with the far more pliant cub reporter: never realising the lad is made of far sterner and more decent stuff than the demon could possibly imagine…

DC has a long, comforting history of genteel, innocuous yarn-spinning delivered with quality artwork. Haney & Cardy’s Aquaman is an all-but-lost run of classics worthy of far more attention than they’ve received of late. It is a total pleasure to find just how readable they still are. With tumultuous sea-changes in store for the Sea King, the comics industry and America itself, the stories in this book signal the end of one glorious era and the promise – or threat – of darker, far more disturbing days to come.
© 1965-1968, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Doctor Strange Masterworks volume 4


By Roy Thomas, Stan Lee, Gardner Fox, Barry Windsor-Smith, Archie Goodwin, Gene Colan, Marie Severin, Herb Trimpe, Don Heck, Sam Kweskin, Frank Brunner, P. Craig Russell, Jim Starlin & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3495-4 (HB/Digital Edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Arcane Anniversary Astonishment… 9/10

When the budding House of Ideas introduced a warrior wizard to their burgeoning pantheon in the summer of 1963, it was a bold and curious move. Anthologically, bizarre adventures and menacing aliens were still incredibly popular, but most dramatic mentions of magic or the supernatural (especially vampires, werewolves and their equally eldritch ilk) were harshly proscribed by a censorship panel which dictated almost all aspects of story content – the self-inflicted Comics Code Authority.

That eldritch embargo probably explains writer/editor Stan Lee’s low key introduction of Steve Ditko’s mystic adventurer: an exotic, twilight troubleshooter inhabiting the shadowy outer fringes of society.

Within a year of Fantastic Four #1, long-lived monster-mystery anthology Strange Tales became home for the blazing boy-hero Human Torch (from #101, cover-dated October 1962), launching Johnny Storm on a creatively productive but commercially unsuccessful solo career.

In 1963, Tales of Suspense #41 saw new sensation Iron Man battle a crazed scientific wizard dubbed Doctor Strange, and with the name in copyrightable print (a long-established Lee technique: Thorr, The Thing, Magneto, The Hulk and more had been disposable Atlas “furry underpants monsters” long before they became in-continuity Marvel characters), preparations began for a truly different kind of hero.

The company had already devised a quasi-mystic troubleshooter for a short run in Amazing Adventures (volume 1 #1-4 & #6, spanning June-November 1961). The precursor was balding, trench-coated savant Doctor Droom – retooled in the 1970s as Doctor Druid when his exploits were reprinted. Psychiatrist, sage and paranormal investigator, he tackled everything from alien invaders to Atlanteans (albeit not the ones Sub-Mariner ruled). He was subsequently retro-written into Marvel continuity as an alternative candidate for Stephen Strange’s ultimate role as Sorcerer Supreme.

The man we know debuted in Strange Tales #110 (July 1963). After a shaky start, the Master of the Mystic Arts became an unmissable icon of cool counter-culture kids who saw in Ditko’s increasingly psychedelic art, echoes and overtones of their own trippy explorations of other worlds. That might not have been the authors’ intention but it certainly helped keep the mage at the forefront of Lee’s efforts to break comics out of the “kids-stuff” ghetto.

After Ditko abruptly left the company at the height of his fame and success in early 1967, the feature went through a string of creators before Marvel’s 1968 expansion allowed a measure of creative stability as the mystic master won his own monthly solo title in a neat moment of sleight of hand by assuming the numbering of Strange Tales. Thus, this enchanting full colour compilation gathers Doctor Strange #180-183 (May-November 1969) whereupon he became one of the earliest casualties of a superhero implosion heralding the end of the Silver Age. Also included are guest appearances in Sub-Mariner #22 and Incredible Hulk #126 (both 1970), prior to the sorcerer’s return in Marvel Feature #1 (December 1971) and a second bite of the cherry as star of Marvel Premiere #3-8 (July 1972 through May 1973).

Those complex, convoluted, confusing times are better explained in Roy Thomas’ Introduction before the drama resumes with #180’s ‘Eternity, Eternity!’

Previously, Dr. Stephen Strange had joined Black Night Dane Whitman and assorted Avengers in saving Earth from doom by Asgardian demons Surtur and Ymir and here – thanks to Thomas, Gene Colan & Tom Palmer – suffers nightmares and dire premonitions on New Year’s Eve before learning that the guiding spirit of creation has been enslaved by sadistic dream demon Nightmare…

After a Colan pin-up of the good doctor and his closest associates, ‘If a World Should Die Before I Wake…’ follows the mage into the dreamlands and beyond to rescue the lynchpin of reality where he is defeated and despatched to uncharted regions. In the miasma he makes an unlikely ally as concluding episode ‘And Juggernaut Makes Three!’ sees Eternity liberated, Nightmare defeated and Stephen Strange rewarded by the reality-warping over-god by being unmade and recreated in a new identity. In the minds of humanity, Dr. Stephen Sanders is nothing to do with recently outed, publicly vilified masked mystic Dr. Strange…

The radical reset was too little too late and Dr. Strange #183 (November 1969) was the final issue. In ‘They Walk by Night!’, Thomas, Colan & Palmer introduced a deadly threat in the Undying Ones, an elder race of devils hungry to reconquer the Earth.

The story went nowhere until Sub-Mariner #22 (February 1970 by Thomas, Marie Severin & Johnny Craig) as ‘The Monarch and the Mystic!’ brought the Prince of Atlantis into play, as told in a sterling tale of sacrifice wherein the Master of the Mystic Arts seemingly dies holding the gates of Hell shut with the Undying Ones pent behind them.

The extended saga then concluded on an upbeat note with The Incredible Hulk #126 (April 1970) ‘Where Stalks the Night-Crawler!’ by Thomas & Herb Trimpe, wherein a New England cult dispatches helpless Bruce Banner to the nether realms in an attempt to undo Strange’s sacrifice.

Luckily cultist Barbara Norris has last minute second thoughts and her sacrifice frees the mystic, seemingly ending the threat of the Undying Ones forever. At the end of the issue Strange retired, forsaking magic, although he changed his mind before too long as the fates – and changing reading tastes – called him back to duty.

Cover dated December 1971, Marvel Feature #1 bombastically introduced the trio of antiheroes united as The Defenders, and just how Strange resumed his mystic arts mantle was tucked into a heady 10-page thriller at the end, proving that not all good things come in large packages. Crafted by Thomas, Don Heck & Frank Giacoia, ‘The Return’ finds medical consultant Stephen Sanders back in Greenwich Village where his old Sanctum Sanctorum is home to an incredible impostor posing as his former self. It takes the intervention of his sagacious mentor The Ancient One to restore his forsaken skills before the conundrum is solved and a villain unmasked…

Back in arcane action, Dr. Strange took up residence in Marvel Premiere, beginning with #3 (July 1972) as Stan Lee, Barry Windsor-Smith & Dan Adkins employ cunning, misdirection and an ancient enemy to attack the mage in ‘While the World Spins Mad!’

That visual tour de force segued into an epic Lovecraftian homage/pastiche beginning in MP#4 when Archie Goodwin, Smith & Frank Brunner detail how Strange’s attempt to aid embattled Ethan Stoddard remove a ghastly malefic contagion from his New England hometown of Starkesboro goes awry. Shamelessly plundering Lovecraft’s literary lore for a graphic gothic masterpiece attempt leads to a severely weakened Master of the Mystic Arts ambushed by the victims he helped and offered as a sacrifice in ‘The Spawn of Sligguth!’

Written by Gardner F. Fox with art by Sam Kweskin (as Irv Wesley) & Don Perlin, and incorporating themes inspired by Robert E. Howard, the dark tale unfolds as Strange breaks free and learns that ‘The Lurker in the Labyrinth!’ is merely a herald for a greater primordial evil about to reawaken before facing another of its vanguard in #6’s ‘The Shambler from the Sea!’ (Fox, Brunner & Sal Buscema). With faithful allies Wong and Clea drawn into the weird war against now-exposed malignant mega-manipulator Shuma-Gorath, Strange’s latest triumph/close shave directs the secret heroes to Stonehenge…

Marvel Premiere #7 highlights ‘The Shadows of the Starstone!’ courtesy of Fox, P. Craig Russell, Mike Esposito Giacoia & Dave Hunt, as new players Henry Gordon and enigmatic medium Blondine join the human resistance just in time to combat latest horror Dagoth, but quickly enough to save Strange from a thaumaturgical boobytrap…

The serialised shocks pause with #8 (May 1973, by Fox, Jim Starlin, Giacoia & Hunt) as animated mansion Witch House assaults the assembled humans until Strange puts an end to the matter. Resolved to work alone he heads back to Stonehenge and employs ancient forces to defeat an army of devils and follow their trail to another world. However, even after destroying their lord he is marooned there by ‘The Doom that Bloomed on Kathulos!’…

To Be Continued…

Although the comics spellbinding ends here, there are still treats and surprises in store, beginning with the first cover to Doctor Strange #180 by Colan & Palmer. It had been lost in the post for years and required fast action to be replaced back in 1968. Also on offer are production art proofs and pre-editorial changes: a fascinating glimpse at the tricks behind the comics wonderment, and maybe the biggest Biographies section you’ve ever seen…

The Wizard of Greenwich Village has always been an acquired taste for superhero fans, but the pioneering graphic bravura of these tales and the ones to come in the next volume left an indelible mark on the Marvel Universe and readily fall into the sublime category of works done “ahead of their time”. Many of us prefer to believe Doctor Strange has always been the coolest of outsiders and most accessible fringe star of the Marvel firmament (and now we have mega-blockbuster movies to back us up, so Yar Boo Sucks to them naysayers!). This glorious grimoire is a miraculous means for fans to enter his world once more and the perfect introduction for recent acolytes or converts created by the movie iteration.
© 2016 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Hawk and The Dove: The Silver Age


By Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Nick Cardy, John Celardo, Sal Trapani, Wally Wood & various (DC Comics)

ISBN: 978-1401278052 (TPB/Digital edition)
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: For a Season of Heated Family Debates… 9/10

The 1960s changed the world, especially in comics. Fresh ideas, new freedoms, young talents emerging and a growing assurance among established creators that what they were doing mattered and had lasting relevance generated a wave of inspiration and new characters everywhere. Not all of them hit home, but all have lasting significance. Happy Anniversary Hawk & Dove…

Steve Ditko was one of our industry’s greatest and most influential talents and – in his lifetime – one of America’s least lauded. Reclusive and reticent by inclination, his fervent desire was always just to get on with his job, telling stories the best way he could: letting his work speak for him. Whilst the noblest of aspirations, that attitude was usually a minor consideration – and even an actual stumbling block – for the commercial interests which controlled all comics production back then and still exert an overwhelming influence upon the bulk of mainstream comic industry output. If you need more biographical background, there are plenty of wonderful books or even that internet stuff to find it. I’m sticking to his wish to have the stories tell you all you need to know…

After his legendary disagreements with Stan Lee led to Ditko quitting Marvel he worked at Warren Publishing and resumed his career-long association with Charlton Comics. Their laissez faire editorial attitudes always offered virtual creative freedom, if not great financial reward, but when their trailblazing editor Dick Giordano was poached by rapidly-slipping industry leader DC Comics in 1968, he brought with him some of his bullpen of key creators.

Whilst Jim Aparo, Steve Skeates, Frank McLaughlin and Denny O’Neil found a new home, Ditko began only a sporadic – if phenomenally fruitful – association with DC.

During this heady, unsettled period, the first strips derived from Ditko’s interpretation of novelist Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy began appearing in fanzines and independent press publications like Witzend and The Collector – an avenue of freer expression the artist wholeheartedly embraced in an era of social rebellion. For the “over-ground” publishing colossus DC, he devised numerous short stories for genre anthologies and a brace of cult classics. Beware The Creeper came first, followed by the superbly captivating concept gathered here: The Hawk and the Dove. Later visits to the house of Superman & Batman generated Shade, the Changing Man, Stalker and The Odd Man, plus truly unique reinterpretations of The Demon, Man-Bat, Legion of Super-Heroes and many more…

This slight but superb compilation gathers every Ditko-drafted episode of a feature very much of its time plus those who took up the task when he left: curating Showcase #75, The Hawk and the Dove #1-6 and Teen Titans #21, covering May/June 1968 to May/June 1969.

The domestic drama of a family at war naturally opens ‘In the Beginning’ (Showcase #75, with Ditko doing everything except dialoguing which was left to relative youngster Steve Skeates) as high school kids Don and Hank Hall resume their heated quarrel about what American society needs to be. Don is left-leaning pacifist and younger brother Hank is savagely reactionary: pro-military, pro-patriot and anti-dissent of any kind. It was a situation played out all over the world at that crucial stage of the Vietnam war as a new generation turned away from what their parents held dear…

The Hall boys’ paternal parent was doctrinaire small town Judge Irwin Hall of Elmond County: handing out harsh but fair pronouncements that were the cause of a minor superhero moment. When he throws the book at convicted racketeer Dargo, it sparks a wave of violent reprisals and assassination attempts that hospitalise the Judge. Constantly arguing their irreconcilable views, Don and Hank follow one gangster they suspect and are trapped in a warehouse, helpless to prevent a follow-up murder attempt. Their mounting panic and frustration ends when a mysterious voice magically grants them superpowers and costumed identities based on their divergent worldviews and allowing them to escape and foil the killers…

The gift only activates “when evil is present” and also magnifies their ability to act out their philosophical standpoint, and in typical Ditko manner is heartily vilified by the Judge who advocates the rule of law and enforcement of elected authority over criminal vigilantism…

Reaction was strong enough to warrant a solo series and cover-dated August/September that year, The Hawk and the Dove #1 (again scripted by Skeates) revealed ‘The Dove is a Very Gentle Bird’ as teen thieves The Drop-outs plunder at will, with Dove Don and Hawk Hank taking very different approaches to stopping them. The concept of the warring brothers was fascinating but extremely flawed in comic book terms.

Hawk happily smashed everything in traditional Fights ‘n’ Tights style whilst Dove second-guessed his own every action, enduring all kinds of permutation to be dynamic and proactive without ever actually hitting anyone: a definition of pacifism that struggled with itself…

The dichotomy clearly affected Ditko, who abandoned his creation after only three stories, although his swansong ‘Jailbreak’ (H&D #2 Ditko & Skeates) is a mini-masterpiece perfectly embodying all those innate contradictions to craft a powerful tale of ideology and redemption. When the Hall family vacation is overtaken by a mass prison escape, crazed killer Harker forces hopeless, despondent career-convict Davis and a genuinely-reformed young parolee to escape with him, intending to sacrifice them to aid his getaway. When Harker takes the Halls hostage, Hawk and Dove manifest, but as the belligerent bird-boy brutalises Davis and the many escapees he brought along, the repentant parolee saves the hostages whilst Dove stubbornly defeats Harker by taking the beating of his life and wearing his opponent down. Here, the true victory belongs to Don and the system that punishes the guilty and rewards the rule-followers: hardly a radical challenge to the social issues the series sought to redress…

The Hawk and the Dove #3 (December 1968/January 1969) brought a big creative change but more thematic confusion as Gil Kane & Sal Trapani joined Skeates for a brace of crime mysteries. ‘After the Cat’ has the heroes hunt a violent costumed burglar, where Dove’s principles directly lead to tragedy and death after which ‘Twice Burned!’ finds the avian avengers helpless when a savage assault and travesty of justice leads an angry teenager into vengeful violence…

Skeates, Kane & Trapani advanced the themes of ideology versus family bonds in #4 as ‘The Sell-Out!’ sees a mayoral run implicate Judge Hall in wrongdoing when Hawk and Dove expose their father’s oldest political ally as a murdering criminal mastermind funding his campaign through forgery and art theft…

The inevitable occurs in #5 when Kane takes over scripting and Wally Wood assumes the inker’s role in ‘Walk With Me O’ Brother… Death Has Taken My Hand!’

A pre-WWII infant immigrant from Latvia born Eli Katz, Gil Kane was a pivotal player in the developing US comics industry, and indeed the art form itself. Working as an artist, and an increasingly more effective and influential one, he drew for many outfits from 1942 on, tackling superheroes, crime, action, war, mystery, romance, animal heroes (Streak, Rex the Wonder Dog!), movie adaptations Westerns and Science Fiction tales.

In the late 1950s he became one of Julie Schwartz’s key artists: regenerating and rebooting the superhero concept. Yet by 1968, at the top of his profession, this relentlessly revolutionary and creative man felt so confined by the juvenile strictures of the industry that he struck out on bold new ventures that jettisoned the editorial and format bondage of comic books for new visions and media. His Name Is Savage was an adult-oriented black & white magazine about a cold and ruthless super-spy in the James Bond/Matt Helm/Man Called Flint mould; co-written by friend and collaborator Archie Goodwin. It was very much a precursor in tone, treatment and subject matter of many of today’s adventure titles.

His other venture, Blackmark (1971, also with Goodwin), not only ushered in the comic book era of Sword & Sorcery, but also became one of the medium’s first Graphic Novels. Technically, as the series was commissioned by fantasy publisher Ballantine as 8 volumes, it was also envisioned as America’s first comic Limited Series. Before them, though, there was Captain Action and The Hawk and The Dove. At this moment Kane was eager to stretch his creative muscles in a period of great change and challenge and editor Dick Giordano was happy to oblige…

The tale of betrayal and rage sees Irwin Hall uncharacteristically intercede when old friend and literal life-saver Sam Hodgins is framed for armed robbery and murder. When Hawk and Dove investigate they discover a shocking truth that leads to Hank Hall being near-fatally injured as Don – losing his mind with grief – betrays his principles in pursuit of vengeance, not justice…

The tale leads into Teen Titans #21 (June 1969) and a landmark guest shot in DC’s other young heroes title. Written by Neal Adams, pencilled by him and Sal Amendola with inks from brush-maestro Nick Cardy – one of the all-out prettiest illustration jobs of that decade – the tale is centrepiece of a triptych tale spanning TT #20-22.

Facing interdimensional invasion spearheaded by a human multinational crime gang, Titans (Kid Flash, Robin, Wonder Girl and Speedy) are briefly joined by our symbolic super-teens for ‘Citadel of Fear’: chasing smugglers, facing evil ETs and ramping up the surly teen angst quotient whilst moving the invaders story-arc towards a stunning conclusion that you’ll have to read elsewhere…

The unstoppable superhero recession of the late 1960s generated incredible and bold experiments, but all those groundbreaking advances went unheeded and unheralded – except by the next generation of comic creators who benefitted from them. Back then, costumed hero books fell like dominoes and The Hawk and The Dove died with #6 (June/July 1969, by Kane & John Celardo). ‘Judgment in a Small Dark Place!’ again focusses on Judge Hall as the son of a man he jailed years previously targets the family before kidnapping and torturing the draconian lawgiver.

Unable to cooperate, the boys search for him separately, but in the end it’s Hawk’s mindless violence that solves the problem and – as usual – Hall’s ungrateful response is seeking to arrest the lawless vigilantes…

This little slice of obscure hero history also includes spectacular covers by Ditko, Kane and Cardy.

The Sixties was the era when all assorted facets of “cool-for-kids” ephemera finally started to coalesce into a comprehensive assault on our minds and our parents’ pockets. Music, TV, movies, comics, bubble-gum cards and toys all began concertedly feeding off each other, building a unified and combined fantasy-land no kid could resist, but there was also deep and permanent change to the culture and social consciousness and kids became aware politically active for the first time. Those competing colliding forces have never been more wonderfully expressed than in the stories in this book and you would be mad to miss it.
© 1968, 1969, 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Captain Marvel: The Many Lives of Carol Danvers


By Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Chris Claremont, David Michelinie, Howard Mackie & Mark Jason, Kurt Busiek, John Jackson Miller, Brian Reed, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Gene Colan, John Buscema, Carmine Infantino, John Byrne, Dave Cockrum, Tomm Coker, George Pérez, Jorge Lucas, Paulo Siqueira, Adriana Melo, Dexter Soy & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2506-2 (TBP/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Miraculous Ascension to Marvel At… 8/10

In comic book terms, the soubriquet “Marvel” carries a lot of baggage and clout, and has been attached to a wide number of vastly differing characters over many decades. In 2014, it was inherited by comics’ first mainstream first rank Muslim superhero, albeit employing the third iteration of pre-existing designation Ms. Marvel.

Career soldier, former spy and occasional journalist Carol Danvers – who rivals Henry Pym in number of secret identities – having been Binary, Warbird, Ms. Marvel again and ultimately Captain Marvel – originated the role when her Kree-based abilities first manifested. She experienced a turbulent superhero career and was lost in space when Sharon Ventura became a second, unrelated Ms. Marvel. This iteration gained her powers from the villainous Power Broker, and after briefly joining the Fantastic Four, was mutated by cosmic ray exposure into a She-Thing…

Debuting in a sly cameo in Captain Marvel (volume 7 #14, September 2013) and bolstered by a subsequent teaser in #17, Kamala Khan was the third to use the codename. She properly launched in full fight mode in a tantalising short episode (All-New MarvelNow! Point One #1) chronologically set just after her origin and opening exploit. We’ll get to her another day soon, but isn’t it nice to see her annoying trolls on screen as well as in print?

Here we’re focusing on Carol Danvers in many of her multifarious endeavours, glimpsed via a wide set of comics snapshots spanning cover-dates March 1968 to September 2012, and comprising Marvel Super-Heroes #13, Ms. Marvel #1, 19, Avengers #183-184, Uncanny X-Men #164, Logan: Shadow Society, Avengers (1998) #4, Iron Man (1998) #85, Ms. Marvel (2006) #32-33, and Captain Marvel (2012) #1.

She began as a supporting character as the House of Ideas pounced on finally vacant property title Captain Marvel and debuted in the second instalment. Marvel Super-Heroes #13 picks up where the previous issue ended. That was ‘The Coming of Captain Marvel!’ – derived directly from Fantastic Four #64-65, wherein the quartet defeated a super-advanced Sentry robot marooned on Earth by a mythical and primordial alien race the Kree. They didn’t stay mysterious for long and despatched a mission to spy on us…

Dispatching a surveillance mission, the Kree had to know everything about us. Unfortunately, the agent they chose – Captain Mar-Vell – was a man of conscience, whilst his commanding officer Colonel Yon-Rogg was his ruthless rival for the love of the ship’s medical officer Una. No sooner has the dutiful operative made a tentative planet-fall and clashed with the US Army from a local missile base than the instalment – and this preamble – ends.

We begin here as Roy Thomas, Gene Colan & Paul Reinman took over for ‘Where Stalks the Sentry!’ as the spy assumes the identity of recently killed scientist Walter Lawson to infiltrate that military base and immediately arouses the suspicions of security Chief Carol Danvers. He is horrified to discover the Earthlings are storing the Sentry defeated by the FF on site. Yon-Rogg, sensing an opportunity, reactivates the deadly mechanoid. As it goes on a rampage, only Mar-Vell stands in its path…

Over many months Mar-Vell and Danvers sparred and shuffled until she became a collateral casualty in a devastating battle between the now-defected alien and Yon-Rogg in Captain Marvel #18 (November 1969). Caught in a climactic explosion of alien technology (latterly revealed to have altered her biology), she pretty much vanished until revived in Ms. Marvel #1 (January 1977). Crafted by Gerry Conway, John Buscema & Joe Sinnott, ‘This Woman, This Warrior!’ heralded a new chapter for the company and the industry…

Here irrepressible and partially amnesiac Danvers has relocated to New York to become editor of “Woman”: a new magazine for modern misses published by Daily Bugle owner J. Jonah Jameson. Never having fully recovered from her near-death experience, Danvers left the military and drifted into writing, slowly growing in confidence until the irascible publisher made her an offer she couldn’t refuse…

At the same time as Carol is getting her feet under a desk, a mysterious new masked “heroine” (sorry, it was the 70s!) started appearing and as rapidly vanishing, such as when she pitches up to battle the sinister Scorpion as he perpetrates a brutal bank raid.

The villain narrowly escapes to rendezvous with Professor Kerwin Korwin of Advanced Idea Mechanics. The skeevy savant promised to increase Scorpion’s powers and allow him to take long-delayed revenge on Jameson – whom the demented thug blames for his freakish condition…

Danvers has been having premonitions and blackouts since the final clash between Mar-Vell and Yon-Rogg and has no idea she transforms into Ms. Marvel during fugue state episodes. Her latest vision-flash occurs too late to save Jameson from abduction, but her “Seventh Sense” does allow her to track the villain before her unwitting new boss is injured, whilst her incredible physical powers and knowledge of Kree combat techniques enable her to easily trounce the maniac.

Danvers eventually reconciles her split personality to become a frontline superhero and is targeted by shape-shifting mutant Mystique in a raid on S.H.I.E.L.D. to purloin a new super-weapon. This triggers a blockbuster battle and features the beginnings of a deadly plot originating at the heart of the distant Kree Imperium…

The scheme culminates with our third tale as ‘Mirror, Mirror!’ (Chris Claremont, Carmine Infantino & Bob McLeod) sees the Kree Supreme Intelligence attempts to reinvigorate his race’s stalled evolutionary path by kidnapping Earth/Kree hybrid Carol Danvers. However, with both her and Captain Marvel hitting hard against his emissary Ronan the Accuser, eventually the Supremor and his plotters take the hint and go home empty-handed…

Avengers #183-184 from May and June 1979 then see her seconded onto the superteam by government spook Henry Peter Gyrich just in time to face ‘The Redoubtable Return of Crusher Creel!’ Courtesy of David Michelinie, John Byrne, Klaus Janson & D(iverse) Hands, a breathtaking all-action extravaganza sees Ms. Marvel replace the Scarlet Witch just as the formidable Absorbing Man decides to leave the country and quit being thrashed by heroes. Sadly, his departure plans include kidnapping a young woman “for company”, leading to a cataclysmic showdown with the heroes resulting in carnage, chaos and a ‘Death on the Hudson!’…

Carol was later attacked by young mutant Rogue, and permanently lost her powers and memory. Taken under the X-Men’s wing she went into space with The Starjammers and was eventually reborn as cosmic-powered adventurer Binary: the exact how of which can be seen in Claremont, Dave Cockrum & Bob Wiacek’s ‘Binary Star!’ from Uncanny X-Men #164 (December 1982)…

Jumping to December 1995, one-shot Logan: Shadow Society – by Howard Mackie, Mark Jason, Tomm Coker, Keith Aiken, Octavio Cariello & Christie Scheele – delves into Danvers’ early career as set pre-debut of the Fantastic Four. She links up with a sometime associate to counter a new and growing menace… something called “mutants”. She has no idea about the truth of her savagely efficient partner Logan but certainly understands the threat level of the killed called Sabretooth…

Following the Heroes Return event of 1997, a new iteration of The Avengers formed and in #4 (May 1998), Kurt Busiek, George Pérez, Al Vey & Wiacek decree there are ‘Too Many Avengers!’ prompting a paring down by the founders and admission of Carol in her newest alter ego Warbird, just in time to trounce a few old foes, whilst Iron Man #85/430 (August 2004, by John Jackson Miller, Jorge Lucas &Antonio Fabela), sees the beginning of the end in a prologue to the Avengers Disassembled event as Warbird is caught up in the breakdown…

Brian Reed, Paulo Siqueira, Adriana Melo, Amilton Santos, Mariah Benes & Chris Sotomayor then collaborate on a revelatory dip into the early life of USAF officer Major Carol Danvers as a chance encounter with boy genius Tony Stark gets her captured by the Taliban, tortured and turned into a secret agent in ‘Ascension’ and ‘Vitamin’: a brace of epic gung ho Top Gun meets Jason Bourne tales from Ms. Marvel (2006) #32-33 (December 2008 & January 2009), before this collection reaches its logical conclusion with her being officially proclaimed “Earth’s Mightiest Hero” in Captain Marvel #1 (September 2012) as Kelley Sue DeConnick, Dexter Soy & Joe Caramagna depict Carol’s embracing her past lives to accept the legacy, responsibility and rank of her universe-saving Kree predecessor…

With covers and variants by Colan, John Romita & Dick Giordano, John Romita Jr. & Joe Rubinstein, Pérez & Terry Austin, Cockrum & Wiacek, Coker & Aiken, Pérez & Tom Smith, Steve Epting & Laura Martin, David Yardin & Rain Berado, Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vine, Javie Rodriguez and Adi Granov, plus dozens of sketches, layout and original art pages, this epic retrospective is a superb short cut to decades of astounding adventure.

In conjunction with sister volume Captain Marvel vs Rogue (patience!, we’ll get to that one too) these tales are entertaining, often groundbreaking and painfully patronising (occasionally at the same time), but nonetheless, detail exactly how Ms. Marvel in all her incarnations and against all odds, grew into the modern Marvel icon of affirmative womanhood we see today.

In both comics and on-screen, Carol Danvers is Marvel’s paramount female symbol and role model. These exploits are a valuable grounding of the contemporary champion but also stand on their own as intriguing examples of the inevitable fall of even the staunchest of male bastions: superhero sagas…
© 2020 MARVEL.

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Batman: The Golden Age volume 1


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Gardner Fox, Whitney Ellsworth, Sheldon Moldoff, Jerry Robinson, George Roussos & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6333-1 (TPB/Digital edition)
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Vintage Comic book Perfection… 10/10

Next year marks Batman’s 85th Anniversary and we’ll be covering many old and new books about the Dark Knight over the year. However, why not pre-load the noir wonderment with this perfect compilation of how it all began. It’s not too big – like an Omnibus edition – or too small – like a measly pamphlet comic book – and would therefore make an ideal gift for the fan in your life (and we all know I mean you, right…)?

Batman: The Golden Age re-presents the Gotham Guardian’s earliest exploits in original chronological order, forgoing glossy, high-definition paper and reproduction techniques in favour of a newsprint-adjacent feel and the same flat, bright-yet-muted colour palette which graced the originals. There’s no fuss, fiddle or Foreword, and the book steams straight into the meat of the matter with the accumulated first year and a half of material featuring the masked mystery-man, plus all those stunning covers spanning Detective Comics #27-45, Batman #1-3 and the Dynamic Duo’s story from New York World’s Fair Comics 1940. That cumulatively covers every groundbreaking escapade from May 1939 to November 1940.

As Eny Fule Kno, Detective #27 featured the Darknight Detective’s debut in the ‘Case of the Chemical Syndicate!’ by Bob Kane and as yet still anonymous close collaborator/co-originator Bill Finger.

A spartan, understated yarn introduced dilettante playboy criminologist Bruce Wayne, drawn into a straightforward crime-caper as a cabal of industrialists are successively murdered. The killings stop when an eerie figure dubbed “The Bat-Man” intrudes on Police Commissioner Gordon’s stalled investigation to ruthlessly expose and deal with the hidden killer.

The following issue saw the fugitive vigilante return to crush ‘Frenchy Blake’s Jewel Gang’ before encountering his very first psychopathic killer and returning villain in Detective Comics #29. Gardner Fox scripted these next few adventures beginning with ‘The Batman Meets Doctor Death’, in a deadly duel of wits with deranged, greedy general practitioner Karl Hellfern and his assorted instruments of murder: the most destructive and diabolical of which was sinister Asiatic manservant Jabah…

This is my cue to remind all interested parties that these stories were created in far less tolerant times with numerous narrative shortcuts and institutionalised social certainties expressed in all media that most today will find offensive. If that’s a deal-breaker, please pass on this book… and most literature, pop songs and films created before the 1960s…

Confident of their new villain’s potential, Kane, Fox and inker Sheldon Mayer encored the mad medic for the next instalment and ‘The Return of Doctor Death’, before Fox & Finger co-scripted a 2-part shocker debuting the first bat-plane, Bruce’s girlfriend Julie Madison and undead horror The Monk in an expansive, globe-girdling spooky saga. ‘Batman Versus the Vampire’ concluded the tale with an epic chase across Eastern Europe and a spectacular climax in a monster-filled castle in issue #32.

Detective #33 featured Fox & Kane’s ‘The Batman Wars Against the Dirigible of Doom’: a blockbusting disaster thriller which just casually slips in the secret origin of the grim avenger, as mere prelude to intoxicating air-pirate action, before Euro-trash dastard Duc D’Orterre finds his uncanny science and unsavoury appetites no match for the mighty Batman in ‘Peril in Paris’.

Bill Finger returned as lead scripter in issue #35, pitting the Cowled Crusader against crazed cultists murdering everyone who had seen their sacred jewel in ‘The Case of the Ruby Idol’ – although the many deaths are actually caused by a far more prosaic villain. Inked by new kid Jerry Robinson, grotesque criminal genius ‘Professor Hugo Strange’ debuted with his murderous man-made fog and lightning machine in #36, after which all-pervasive enemy agents ‘The Spies’ prove no match for the vengeful Masked Manhunter in DC #37.

Detective Comics #38 (April 1940) changed the landscape of comic books forever with the introduction of ‘Robin, The Boy Wonder’: child trapeze artist Dick Grayson – whose parents are murdered before his eyes – thereafter joins Batman in a lifelong quest by bringing to justice mobster mad dog Boss Zucco…

After the Flying Grayson’s killers were captured, Batman #1 (Spring 1940) opened proceedings with a recycled origin culled from portions of Detective Comics #33 and 34. ‘The Legend of the Batman – Who He Is and How He Came to Be!’ by Fox, Kane & Moldoff delivers in two perfect pages what is still the best ever origin of the character, after which ‘The Joker’ (Finger, Kane & Robinson – who also produced all the remaining tales in this astonishing premiere issue) launches the greatest villain in DC’s pantheon via a stunning tale of extortion and wilful wanton murder.

‘Professor Hugo Strange and the Monsters’ follows as an old adversary returns, unleashing laboratory-grown hyperthyroid horrors to rampage through the terrified city whilst ‘The Cat’ – who later added the suffix ‘Woman’ to her name to avoid any possible doubt or confusion – plies her felonious trade of jewel thief aboard the wrong cruise-liner and falls foul for the first time of the dashing Dynamic Duo.

The initial issue ends with the ‘The Joker Returns’ as the sinister clown breaks jail to resume his terrifying campaign of murder for fun and profit before “dying” in mortal combat with the Gotham Guardians.

Following a superb pin-up (originally the back cover of that premier issue) of the Dynamic Duo by Kane, tense suspense and all-out action continues in Detective #39 and Finger, Kane & Robinson’s ‘The Horde of the Green Dragon’ – “oriental” Tong killers in Chinatown – after which ‘Beware of Clayface!’ sees the Dynamic Duo solving a string of murders on a film set which almost sees Julie Madison the latest victim of a monstrous movie maniac…

Batman and Robin solved the baffling mystery of a kidnapped boy in Detective #41’s ‘A Master Murderer’ before enjoying their second solo outing in a quartet of comics classics from Batman #2 (Summer 1940). It begins with ‘Joker Meets Cat-Woman’ (Finger, Kane, Robinson & new find George Roussos) wherein svelte thief, homicidal jester and a crime syndicate all tussle for the same treasure. with our Caped Crusaders caught in the middle.

‘Wolf, the Crime Master’ then offers a fascinating take on the classic Jekyll & Hyde tragedy after which an insidious and ingenious mystery ensues in ‘The Case of the Clubfoot Murderers’, before Batman and Robin confront uncanny savages and ruthless showbiz promoters in poignant monster story ‘The Case of the Missing Link’.

‘Batman and Robin Visit the New York World’s Fair’ comes from the second New York World’s Fair Comics. Finger, Kane & Roussos followed the vacationing Dynamic Duo as they track down a maniac mastermind with a metal-dissolving ray, after which Detective Comics #42 again finds our heroes ending another murderous maniac’s rampage in ‘The Case of the Prophetic Pictures!’ before clashing with a corrupt mayor in #43’s ‘The Case of the City of Terror!’

An unparalleled hit, Batman stories never rested on their laurels. The creators always sought to expand their parameters, as with Detective #44’s nightmarish fantasy of giants and goblins in ‘The Land Behind the Light!’. Then, Batman #3 (Fall 1940) has Finger, Kane, Robinson & Roussos rise to even greater heights, beginning with ‘The Strange Case of the Diabolical Puppet Master’: an eerie episode of uncanny mesmerism and infamous espionage…

A grisly scheme unfolds next as innocent citizens are mysteriously transformed into specimens of horror, and artworks destroyed by the spiteful commands of ‘The Ugliest Man in the World’ before ‘The Crime School for Boys!!’ registers Robin infiltrating a gang who have a cruel and cunning recruitment plan for dead-end kids…

‘The Batman vs. the Cat-Woman’ lastly reveals the larcenous lady in well over her head when she steals for – and from – the wrong people…

The issue also offered a worthy Special Feature as ‘The Batman Says’ presents an illustrated prose Law & Order pep-talk crafted by Whitney Ellsworth and illustrated by Robinson.

The all-out action concludes here with a magnificent and horrific Joker jape from Detective Comics #45 as ‘The Case of the Laughing Death’ displays the Harlequin of Hate undertaking a campaign of macabre murder against everyone who has ever defied or offended him…

With full Creator Biographies and comic covers by Kane, Robinson & Roussos plus all the other general action ones by Fred Guardineer & Creig Flessel (crafted before the superheroes took over the front page forever), this is a stunning monument to exuberance and raw talent. Kane, Robinson and their compatriots created an iconography which carried the Batman feature well beyond its allotted life-span until later creators could re-invigorate it. They added a new dimension to children’s reading – and their work remains captivatingly accessible.

These primal stories set the standard for comic superheroes. Whatever you like now, you owe it to these stories. Superman gave us the idea, but writers like Finger and Fox refined and defined the meta-structure of the costumed crime-fighter. Where the Man of Steel was as much Social Force and wish fulfilment hero, Batman and Robin did what we ordinary mortals wanted to do. They taught bad people the lessons they deserved…

These are tales of elemental power and joyful exuberance, brimming with deep mood and addictive action. Comicbook heroics simply don’t come any better. More than anything else, this book serves to perfectly recapture the mood and impact of a revolutionary masked avenger and, of course, delights my heavily concealed inner child no end.
© 1939, 1940, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Mighty Marvel Masterworks X-Men volume 3: Divided We Fall


By Roy Thomas, Werner Roth, Dick Ayers, John Tartaglione, Art Simek, Joe Rosen & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: ?978-1-3029-4901-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Celebrate in X-quisite Classical Style… 9/10

These stories are timeless and have been gathered many times so here’s my now-standard advisory on format.

The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line is designed with economy in mind. Classic tales of Marvel – such as the birthday boys and girl on show today – have been an archival book staple since the 1990s, but always in lavish, expensive hardback collectors’ editions. The new tomes are far cheaper, on lower quality paper and smaller, about the size of a paperback book.

Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but at 152 x 227mm, they’re perfect for kids. If you opt for the digital editions, that’s no issue at all…

Way back in 1963 things really took off for the budding Marvel Comics Group as Stan Lee & Jack Kirby expanded their meagre line of action titles: putting a bunch of relatively new super-heroes (including hot-off-the-presses Iron Man) together as The Avengers; launching a decidedly different war comic in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and creating a group of alienated heroic teenagers united to fight a rather specific, previously unperceived threat to humanity. Those halcyon days are revisited in this splendid trade paperback/eBook compilation, gathering from May 1966 to February 1967, the contents of X-Men #20-29.

Way back in the summer of 1963, the premiere issue had introduced Cyclops/Scott Summers, Iceman/Bobby Drake, Angel/Warren Worthington III and The Beast/Henry “Hank” McCoy: extremely special students of Professor Charles Xavier. This brilliant, driven, charismatic and wheelchair-bound telepath was dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the emergent off-shoot race: human mutants called Homo Superior. The story saw the students welcome newest classmate Jean Grey, who would be codenamed Marvel Girl. She possessed the ability to move objects with her mind.

No sooner has the Professor explained their mission than an actual Evil Mutant – Magneto – singlehandedly took over American missile base Cape Citadel. A seemingly unbeatable threat, the master of magnetism was nonetheless driven off in under 15 minutes by the young heroes on their first combat mission…

These days, young heroes are ten-a-penny, but it should be noted that these kids were among Marvel’s first juvenile super-doers (unless you count Spider-Man or Human Torch Johnny Storm) since the Golden Age, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that in early tales the youngsters regularly benefitted from a little adult supervision, such as is the case in the landmark tale that opens this book…

With Werner Roth & Dick Ayers making the pictures, in X-Men #20, the writing reins were turned over to Roy Thomas, who promptly jumped in guns blazing with ‘I, Lucifer…’: an alien invasion yarn starring Xavier’s arch-nemesis as well as old adversaries Unus the Untouchable and the Blob. Most importantly, it revealed in passing how Professor X lost the use of his legs.

With canny concluding chapter ‘From Whence Comes Dominus?’, Thomas & Roth completely made the series their own: blending juvenile high spirits, classy superhero action and torrid soap opera with beautiful drawing and stirring adventure.

At this time Marvel Comics had a vast and growing following among older teens and college kids, and the youthful Thomas spoke and wrote as they did (or maybe a little better?). Coupled with his easy delight in large casts, this would increasingly make X-Men a most welcoming read for any educated adolescent – like you or me…

As suggested already, X-Men was never one of young Marvel’s top titles, but it found a devout and dedicated following, with the frantic, freakish energy of Jack Kirby’s heroic dynamism comfortably transiting into the slick, sleek attractiveness of Roth as the fierce tension of hunted, haunted juvenile outsider settled into a pastiche of college and school scenarios familiar to the students who were the series’ primary audience.

The action continues with a crafty 2-parter resurrecting veteran Avengers villain Count Nefaria who employs illusion-casting technology and a band of other heroes’ second-string foes (The Unicorn, Porcupine, Plantman, Scarecrow and Eel, if you’re wondering) to hold Washington DC hostage and frame the X-Men for the entire scheme.

‘Divided… We Fall!’ and ‘To Save a City!’ form a fast-paced, old-fashioned Goodies vs. Baddies battle with a decided sting in the tail. Moreover, the tale concludes with Marvel Girl yanked off the team when her parents insist she furthers her education by leaving the Xavier School to attend New York’s Metro University…

Illustrated by Roth & Ayers she is off the team and packed off to college but here visits her old chums to regale them with tales of life outside. Her departure segues neatly into a beloved plot standard – Evil Scientist Grows Giant Bugs – when she enrols and meets an embittered recently-fired professor, leading her erstwhile comrades to confront ‘The Plague of… the Locust!’

Perhaps X-Men #24 isn’t the most memorable tale in the canon but it still reads well and has the added drama of Jean Grey’s departure crystallizing the romantic rivalry for her affections between Cyclops and Angel: providing another deft sop to readers as it enabled many future epics to include Campus life in the action-packed, fun-filled mix…

Somehow Jean still managed to turn up in every issue even as ‘The Power and the Pendant’ (#25, October 1966) finds the boys tracking new menace El Tigre. This South American hunter is visiting New York to steal the second half of a Mayan amulet which willgrant him god-like powers…

Having soundly thrashed the male X-Men, newly-ascended and reborn as Kukulkan, the malign meta returns to Amazonian San Rico to recreate a fallen pre-Columbian empire with the heroes in hot pursuit. The result is a cataclysmic showdown in ‘Holocaust!’ which leaves Angel fighting for his life and deputy leader Cyclops crushed by guilt…

Issue #27 see the return of some old foes in ‘Re-enter: The Mimic!’ as the mesmerising Puppet Master pits power-duplicating Calvin Rankin against a team riven by dissention and ill-feeling, before ‘The Wail of the Banshee!’ sees Rankin join the X-Men in a tale introducing the sonic-powered mutant (eventually to become a valued team-mate and team-leader) as a deadly threat.

This was the opening salvo of an ambitious extended epic featuring a global coalition of sinister, mutant-abductors… Factor Three.

This turbulent tome terminates with John Tartaglione replacing Ayers as regular inker beginning with bright and breezy thriller ‘When Titans Clash!’, wherein the power-duplicating Super-Adaptoid almost turns the entire team into super-slaves before ending the Mimic’s career…

Supplemented by original art – an unused Roth cover for X-Men #25 – these charming idiosyncratic tales are a million miles removed from the angst-ridden, breast-beating, cripplingly convoluted X-brand of today’s Marvel, and in many ways are all the better for it. Superbly rendered, highly readable adventures are never unwelcome or out of favour and it should be remembered that everything here informs so very much of the mutant monolith. These are stories for dedicated fans and the rawest converts. Everyone should have this book.
© 2023 MARVEL

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Mighty Marvel Masterworks Doctor Strange volume 2: The Eternity War


By Stan Lee & Steve Ditko, Art Simek, Sam Rosen & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-4887-0 (PB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Magical Marvel Unleashed… 10/10

When the emergent House of Ideas introduced a warrior wizard to their burgeoning pantheon in the summer of 1963 it was a bold and curious move. Bizarre adventures and menacing monsters were still incredibly popular, but most mention of magic or the supernatural (especially vampires, werewolves and their eldritch ilk) were harshly proscribed by a censorship panel dictating almost all aspects of story content. Almost a decade after a public witch-hunt led to Senate hearings on the malign influences of words and pictures in sequence, comics were ferociously monitored and adjudicated by the draconian Comics Code Authority. Even though some of the small company’s strongest sellers were still mystery and monster mags, their underlying themes and premises were almost universally mad science and alien wonders, not necromantic or thaumaturgic terrors.

Companies like ACG, Charlton and DC – and Atlas/Marvel – got around edicts against mystic thrills and chills by making all reference to magic benign or even humorous; the same tone adopted by TV series Bewitched about a year after Doctor Strange debuted. That eldritch embargo probably explains writer/editor Stan Lee’s low-key introduction of Steve Ditko’s mystic adventurer: an exotic, twilight troubleshooter inhabiting the shadowy outer fringes of society…

Prior to being Marvel, the company had already published a quasi-mystic precursor: balding, trench-coated savant. Doctor Droom – later rechristened (or is that re-pagan-ed?) Dr. Druid – had an inconspicuous short run in Amazing Adventures (volume 1 #1-4 & #6: June-November 1961).

He was a psychiatrist, sage and paranormal investigator tackling everything from alien invaders to Atlanteans (albeit not the ones Sub-Mariner rules). Droom was subsequently retro-written into Marvel continuity as an alternative candidate and precursor for Stephen Strange‘s ultimate role as Sorcerer Supreme.

After a shaky start, the Master of the Mystic Arts became an unmissable icon of the cool counter-culture kids who saw, in Ditko’s increasingly psychedelic art, echoes and overtones of their own trippy explorations of other worlds. That might not have been the creators’ intention but it certainly helped keep the mage at the forefront of Lee’s efforts to break comics out of the “kids-stuff” ghetto…

This enchanting full colour paperback compilation – also available as a digital download – gathers the spectral sections of Strange Tales #130-146 and Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2: spanning cover-dates March 1965 to July 1966. With no fuss or muss, a classic extended saga opens with ‘The Defeat of Dr. Strange’ as an enigmatic outer-dimensional sponsor enters into a pact with arch-foe Baron Mordo. He will be supplied with infinite power and ethereal minions in return for the death of Earth’s magical guardian. With the Ancient One assaulted and in a deathly coma, Strange is forced to go on the run: a fugitive hiding in the most exotic corners of the globe as remorseless, irresistible forces close in all around him…

A claustrophobic close shave trapped aboard a jetliner in in #131’s ‘The Hunter and the Hunted!’ expands into cosmic high gear a month later as Strange doubles back to his sanctum and defeats the returning foe The Demon only to come ‘Face-to-Face at Last with Baron Mordo!’ Crumbling into weary defeat as the villain’s godly sponsor is revealed, the hero is hurled headlong out of reality to materialise in ‘A Nameless Land, A Timeless Time!’ before confronting tyrannical witch-queen Shazana.

Upon liberating her benighted realm, Strange resumes being the target of relentless pursuit: recrossing hostile dimensions and taking the fight to his foes in ‘Earth Be My Battleground’.

Returning to the enclave hiding his ailing master, Strange gleans a hint of a solution in the mumbled enigmatic word “Eternity” and begins searching for more information as, in the Dark Dimension, a terrified girl seeks to sabotage Dread Dormammu’s efforts to empower Mordo…

As the world went superscience spy-crazy and Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. took over the lead spot with Strange Tales #135, the Sixties also saw a blossoming of alternative thought and rebellion. Doctor Strange apparently became a confirmed favourite of the blossoming Counterculture Movement and its recreational drug experimentation subculture. With Ditko truly hitting his imaginative stride, it’s not hard to see why. His weirdly authentic otherworlds and demonstrably adjacent dimensions were utterly unlike anything anyone had ever seen or depicted before…

‘Eternity Beckons!’ as Strange is lured to an ancient castle where an old ally betrays him and, after again narrowly escaping Mordo’s minions, the Mage desperately consults the aged senile Genghis in #136: a grave error in judgement. Once more catapulted into a dimension of deadly danger, Strange barely escapes a soul-stealing horror after discovering ‘What Lurks Beneath the Mask?’

Back on Earth and out of options, the Doctor is must test his strength against the Ancient One’s formidable psychic defences to learn the secret of Eternity in ‘When Meet the Mystic Minds!’ Barely surviving the terrible trial, he uses newfound knowledge to translates himself to a place beyond reality and meet the embodiment of creation in ‘If Eternity Should Fail!’

His quest for solutions or extra might failed, he despondently returns to Earth to find his mentor gone and his unnamed female friend prisoners of his worst enemies in anticipation of a deadly showdown…

Strange Tales #139 warns ‘Beware…! Dormammu is Watching!’, but as Mordo – despite being super-charged with the Dark Lord’s infinite energies – fails over and again to kill the Good Doctor, the Overlord of Evil loses all patience, dragging all concerned into his domain.

Intent on making a show of destroying his mortal nemesis, Dormammu convenes a great gathering before whom he will smash Strange in a duel using nothing but ‘The Pincers of Power!’ He is again bathed in ultimate humiliation as the mortal mage’s wit and determination score a stunning triumph in concluding episode ‘Let There Be Victory!’

As the universes tremble, Doctor Strange wearily heads home, blithely unaware his enemies have laid one last trap. The weary victor returns to his Sanctum Sanctorum; unaware his foes have boobytrapped with mundane explosives.

Scripted by Lee and plotted and illustrated by Ditko, Strange Tales #142 reveals ‘Those Who Would Destroy Me!’ as Mordo’s unnamed disciples prepare one final stab at the Master of the Mystic Arts. They would remain anonymous for decades, only gaining names of their own – Kaecillius, Demonicus and The Witch – upon their return in the mid-1980s.

Here, however, they easily entrap the exhausted wizard warrior, imprisoning him with a view to plundering all his secrets. It’s a big mistake as – in the Roy Thomas dialogued sequel ‘With None Beside Me!’ – Strange outwits and subdues his captors…

In #144 Ditko & Thomas take the heartsick hero ‘Where Man Hath Never Trod!’ Although Dormammu was soundly defeated and humiliated before his peers and vassals, the demonic tyrant takes a measure of revenge by exiling Strange’s anonymous female collaborator to realms unknown. Now, as the Earthling seeks to rescue her while searching myriad mystic planes, he stumbles into a trap laid by the Dark One and executed by devilish collector of souls Tazza…

On defeating the scheme, Strange returns to Earth and almost dies at the hands of far weaker, but sneakier, wizard Mister Rasputin in a yarn scripted by Dennis O’Neil. The spy and swindler uses meagre mystic gifts for material gain but happily resorts to base brutality ‘To Catch a Magician!’

All previous covers had been Kirby S.H.I.E.L.D. affairs but finally, with Strange Tales #146, Strange and Ditko won their moment in the sun. Although the artist would soon be gone, the Good Doctor remained, alternating with Fury’s team until the title ended.

Ditko & O’Neil presided over ‘The End …At Last!’ as deranged Dormammu abducts Strange before suicidally attacking the omnipotent embodiment of the cosmos called Eternity.

The cataclysmic chaos ruptures the heavens over infinite dimensions and when the universe is calm again both supra-deities are gone. Rescued from the resultant tumult, however, is the valiant girl Strange had loved and lost. She introduces herself as Clea, and although Stephen despondently leaves her, we all know she will be back…

This sideral swansong was Ditko’s last hurrah. Issue #147 saw a fresh start as Strange went back to his Greenwich Village abode under the auspices of co-scripters Lee & O’Neil, with comics veteran Bill Everett suddenly and surprisingly limning the arcane adventures. More of that next time.

Before that though there are still treats in store, beginning with a pinup published in 1967’s Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics #10 before we revel in one last Lee/Ditko yarn to enthral and beguile: Although a little chronologically askew, it is very much a case of the best left until last.

In October 1965 ‘The Wondrous World of Dr. Strange!’ (from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2) was the astonishing lead feature in an otherwise vintage reprint Spidey comic book. The entrancing fable unforgettably introduced the webslinger to arcane adventuring and otherworldly realities as he unwillingly teams up with the Master of the Mystic Arts to battle power-crazed wizard Xandu: a phantasmagorical, dimension-hopping masterpiece involving ensorcelled zombie thugs and the purloined Wand of Watoomb…

After this story it was clear Spider-Man worked in any milieu and nothing could hold him back – and the cross-fertilisation probably introduced many fans to Lee & Ditko’s other breakthrough series.

But wait, there’s even more! Wrapping up the proceeding is a contemporary T-shirt design by Ditko, and the briefest selection of original art.

Doctor Strange has always been the coolest of outsiders and most accessible fringe star of the Marvel firmament. This glorious grimoire is a magical method for old fans to enjoy his world once more and the perfect introduction for recent acolytes or converts created by the movie iteration to enjoy the groundbreaking work of two thirds of the Marvel Empire’s founding triumvirate at their most imaginative.
© 2023 MARVEL.

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Showcase Presents Superman volume 4


By Edmond Hamilton, Robert Bernstein, Jerry Siegel, Leo Dorfman, Al Plastino, Curt Swan, George Klein & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1847-8 (TPB)

By the time of the stories in this fabulous fourth monochrome compendium Superman was a truly global household name, with the burgeoning mythology of lost Krypton, modern Metropolis and the core cast familiar to most children and many adults.

The Man of Tomorrow was just beginning a media-led burst of revived interest. In the immediate future, television exposure, a rampant merchandising wave thanks to the Batman-led boom in superheroes generally, highly efficient world-wide comics, cartoon, bubble gum cards and especially toy licensing deals would all feed a growing mythology. Everything was in place to keep the Last Son of Krypton a vibrant yet comfortably familiar icon of modern, Space-Age America: particularly constantly evolving, ever-more dramatic and imaginative comicbook stories.

Spanning October 1962 to February 1964 and taken from Action Comics #293-309 and Superman #157-166, here the Man of Tomorrow faces evermore fantastic physical threats and critical personal and social challenges.

AC #293 gets things off to a fine start with Edmond Hamilton & Al Plastino’s ‘The Feud Between Superman and Clark Kent!’ as another exposure to randomly metamorphic Red Kryptonite divides the Metropolis Marvel into a rational but powerless mortal and an aggressive, out of control superhero, determined to continue his existence at all costs…

Superman #157 (November 1962) opens with fresh additions to mythology as ‘The Super-Revenge of the Phantom Zone Prisoner!’ – Hamilton, Curt Swan & George Klein – introduces permanently power-neutralising Gold Kryptonite and Superman’s Zone-o-phone – allowing him to monitor and communicate with the incarcerated inhabitants in a stirring tale of injustice and redemption. Convicted felon Quex-Ul uses it to petition Superman for release since his sentence has been served, and despite reservations our fair-minded hero agrees. However, further investigation reveals Quex-Ul was framed and innocent of any crime, but before Superman can make amends, he must survive a deadly trap the embittered (and partially mind-controlled) parolee had laid for the son of the Zone’s discoverer…

The issue also carried a light-hearted espionage yarn as the Action Ace becomes ‘The Super-Genie of Metropolis!’ (Robert Bernstein & Plastino) as well as ‘Superman’s Day of Doom!’ from Jerry Siegel, Swan & Klein, wherein a little kid saves the hero from a deadly ambush set during a parade in his honour.

Action #294 contains a classic duel between Superman and Lex Luthor in Hamilton & Plastino’s ‘The Kryptonite Killer!’ wherein the sinister scientist makes elemental humanoids to destroy his hated foe, whilst #295’s ‘Superman Goes Wild!’ (Bernstein, Swan & Klein) features an insidious plot by the Superman Revenge Squad to drive him murderously insane.

Issue #158 of his solo title hosted full-length epic ‘Superman in Kandor!’ (Hamilton, Swan & Klein) as raiders from the preserved Kryptonian enclave attack the Man of Steel in ‘Invasion of the Mystery Supermen’, describing him as a traitor to his people. Baffled, Action Ace and Jimmy Olsen infiltrate the Bottle City: creating costumed alter egos Nightwing and Flamebird to become ‘The Dynamic Duo of Kandor!’ By solving the enigma, they save the colony from utter destruction in ‘The City of Super-People!’

Action #296 seemingly offers a man vs. monster saga in ‘The Invasion of the Super-Ants!’ (Hamilton & Plastino) but the gripping yarn has a sharp plot twist and timely warning about nuclear proliferation, before in #297’s ‘The Man Who Betrayed Superman’s Identity!’ (Leo Dorfman, Swan & Klein), veteran newsman Perry White is gulled into solving the world’s greatest mystery after a head injury induces amnesia.

Editor Mort Weisinger was expanding the series’ continuity and building the legend, and realised each new tale was an event adding to a nigh-sacred canon: what he printed was deeply important to the readers. However, as an ideas man he wasn’t going to let that aggregated “history” stifle a good plot, nor would he allow his eager yet sophisticated audience to endure clichéd Deus ex Machina cop-outs which might mar the sheer enjoyment of a captivating concept. Thus “Imaginary Stories” were conceived as a way of exploring non-continuity plots and scenarios, devised at a time when editors felt that entertainment trumped consistency and fervently believed that every comic read was somebody’s first and – unless they were very careful – their last…

Taken from Superman #159, this book’s first Imaginary Novel follows, as ‘Lois Lane, the Super-Maid of Krypton!’ (Hamilton, Swan & Klein) sees a baby girl escape Earth’s destruction by rocketing to another world in ‘Lois Lane’s Flight from Earth!’ Befriending young Kal-El, she grows to become a mighty champion of justice. Clashing with ‘The Female Luthor of Krypton!’ and repeatedly saving the world, Lois tragically endures ‘The Doom of Super-Maid!’ at a time when attitudes apparently couldn’t allow a woman to be stronger than Superman – even in an alternate fictionality…

Dorfman, Swan & Klein’s ‘Clark Kent, Coward!’ leads Action #298 wherein a balloon excursion dumps Jimmy, Lois and the clandestine crusader in a lost kingdom whose queen finds the timid buffoon irresistible. Unfortunately the husky hunks of the hidden land take extreme umbrage at her latest dalliance…

In #160 of his eponymous publication, our hero temporarily loses his powers in ‘The Mortal Superman!’ (Dorfman & Plastino), almost dying in ‘The Cage of Doom!’ before his merely human wits prove sufficient to outsmart a merciless crime syndicate, after which the mood lightens as – fully restored – he becomes ‘The Super-Cop of Metropolis!’ to outwit spies in a classy “why-dunnit” from Siegel, Swan & Klein.

Action #299 reveals the outlandish motives behind ‘The Story of Superman’s Experimental Robots!’ in a truly bizarre tale by Siegel & Plastino, whilst Superman #161 offers an untold tale revealing how he tragically learned the limitations of his powers. In ‘The Last Days of Ma and Pa Kent!’ (Dorfman & Plastino) a vacation time-travel trip led to his foster parents’ demise and only too late did the heartbroken hero learn his actions were not the cause of their deaths. It’s supplemented by ‘Superman Goes to War’ (Hamilton, Swan & Klein) lightening the mood as a war game covered by Daily Planet staff devolves into the real thing after Clark discovers some participants are actually aliens.

Action Comics reached #300 with the May1963 issue ,and to celebrate Hamilton & Plastino crafted brilliantly ingenious ‘Superman Under the Red Sun!’ wherein the Man of Tomorrow is trapped in the far, far future where Earth’s sun has cooled to crimson and his powers fade. The valiant chronal castaway suffers incredible hardship and danger before devising a way home, just in time for #301 and ‘The Trial of Superman!’ – by the same creative team – as the Man of Steel allows himself to be prosecuted for Clark Kent’s murder to save America from a terrible threat.

Dorfman, Swan & Klein’s ‘The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue!’ (Superman #162) is possibly the most ambitious and influential tale of the entire “Imaginary Tale” sub-genre: a startling utopian classic so well-received that decades later it influenced and flavoured the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman continuity for months. It still does today. The Metropolis Marvel permanently divides into two equal beings in ‘The Titanic Twins!’, who promptly solve all Earth’s problems with ‘The Anti-Evil Ray!’ and similar scientific breakthroughs before both retiring with pride and the girls of their dreams, Lois Lane and Lana Lang (one each, of course) in ‘The End of Superman’s Career!’…

There’s no record of who scripted Action #302’s ‘The Amazing Confession of Super-Perry White!’ but Plastino’s slick, beefy art lends great animation to a convoluted tale with the Man of Steel replacing the aging editor to thwart an assassination plot, accidentally giving the impression that podgy Perry is his actual alter ego…

Superman #163 offered crafty mystery in ‘Wonder-Man, the New Hero of Metropolis!’ (Hamilton, Swan & Klein) who almost replaces the Man of Steel, were it not for his tragic foredoomed secret, before ‘The Goofy Superman!’ (Bernstein & Plastino) sees Red K deprive the hero of powers and sanity, resulting in a fortuitous stay in the local Home for the Perpetually Bewildered – since that’s where a cunning mad bomber is secretly hiding out…

In Action #303 Hamilton, Swan & Klein have the infernal mineral transform Superman into ‘The Monster from Krypton!’, almost dying at the hands of the army and a vengeful Supergirl who believes her cousin has been eaten by the dragon he’s become, and #304 hosted ‘The Interplanetary Olympics!’ (Dorfman, Swan & Klein), as Superman deliberately throws the contest and shames Earth…  but only for the best possible reasons!

Courtesy of Hamilton, Swan & Klein in Superman #164 (October 1963) comes classic clash ‘The Showdown Between Luthor and Superman’, pitting the lifelong foes in an unforgettable confrontation on post-apocalyptic planet Lexor – a dead world of lost science and fantastic beasts. ‘The Super-Duel!’ offers a new side to Superman’s previously 2-dimensional arch-enemy and the issue also includes ‘The Fugitive from the Phantom Zone!’ (Siegel & Plastino): a smart vignette with Superman outwitting a foe he can’t beat by playing on his psychological foibles…

Action #305 featured Imaginary Story ‘Why Superman Needs a Secret Identity!’ (Dorfman, Swan & Klein) detailing personal tragedies and disasters following Ma & Pa Kent’s proud and foolish public announcement that their son is an alien Superboy, whilst Superman #165’s ‘Beauty and the Super-Beast!’ and conclusion ‘Circe’s Super-Slave’ (Bernstein, Swan & Klein), see the Man of Steel seemingly helpless against the ancient sorceress. In fact, the whole thing is an elaborate hoax to foil alien invaders of the Superman Revenge Squad. The issue’s third tale, ‘The Sweetheart Superman Forgot!’ (Siegel & Plastino) offers heartbreaking forbidden romance wherein powerless, amnesiac and disabled Superman meets, loves and loses a good woman who wants him purely for himself. When memory and powers return, Clark has no recollection of Sally Selwyn, who’s probably still pining faithfully for him…

Action #306 sees Bernstein & Plastino tweak the Prince and the Pauper in ‘The Great Superman Impersonation!’ as Kent is hired to protect a South American President because he looks enough like Superman to fool potential assassins. Of course it’s all a byzantine con, but by the end who’s conning who?

The reporter’s crime exposés make ‘Clark Kent – Target for Murder!’ in Action #307 (by an unattributed scripter with Swan & Klein) but villainous King Kobra makes the mistake of his life when the hitman he hires turns out to be the intended victim in disguise, after which #308 concentrates on all-out fantasy as ‘Superman Meets the Goliath-Hercules!’ (anonymous & Plastino) after crossing into a parallel universe. Before returning, the Action Ace helps a colossal demigod perform “the Six Labours of King Thebes” in a yarn clearly cobbled together in far too much haste.

Superman #166 (January 1964) features ‘The Fantastic Story of Superman’s Sons’ by Hamilton, Swan & Klein: an Imaginary Tale/solid thriller built on a painful premise – what if only one of Superman’s children inherits his powers? (Sounds a bit familiar now, no?) The saga starts with ‘Jor-El II and Kal-El II’ and the discovery that Kal junior takes after his Earth-born mother. He subsequently grows into a teenager with real emotional problems and, hoping to boost his confidence, dad packs both boys off to Kandor so they’ll be physically equal. Soon the twins find adventure as ‘The new Nightwing and Flamebird!’

However, when a Kandorian menace escapes to the outer world, it’s up to the human son to save Earth following ‘Kal-El II’s Mission to Krypton!’ which wraps everything up in a neat and tidy bundle of escapist fun.

This volume closes with a strange TV tie-in tale from Action Comics #309 as an analogue of This Is Your Life honours Superman by inviting all his friends – even the Legion of Super-Heroes and especially Clark Kent – to ‘The Superman Super-Spectacular!’ (Hamilton, Swan & Klein). With no other option, the hero must share his secret identity with someone new so that they can impersonate him. Although there must be less convoluted ways to allay Lois’ suspicions, this yarn includes perhaps the oddest guest star appearance in comics’ history…

These tales are the comic book equivalent of bubble gum pop music: perfectly constructed, always entertaining, occasionally challenging and never unwelcome. As well as containing some of the most delightful episodes of a pre angst-drenched, cosmically catastrophic DC, these fun, thrilling, mind-boggling and yes, frequently moving all-ages stories also perfectly depict changing mores and tastes that reshaped comics between the safely anodyne 1950s to the seditious, rebellious 1970s, all the while keeping to the prime directive of the industry – “keep them entertained and keep them wanting more”.

I know I certainly do…
© 1962-1964, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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El Diablo


By Brian Azzarello, Danijel Zezelj & various (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1625-2 (TPB) 978-1-84576-777-8 (TPB Titan Books edition)

This extra-adult all-Vertigo interpretation of the classic DC Western avenger dates from a 2001 4-issue miniseries, and is an early precursor to the superb Loveless. None of these – as far as I’m aware – are available digitally yet, but they bloody well should be.

Moses Stone is a gunman turned sheriff in frontier town Bollas Raton. His fearsome reputation, as much as his actions, serves to keep the town peaceful, and he’s perfectly content not shooting anybody.

One night, the awesome and terrifying El Diablo comes to town: exacting his signature brand of gruesome vengeance on a band of outlaws, he inexplicably refuses to kill Stone when the lawman tries to halt the carnage.

Unable to understand or let it lie, sheriff and posse trail the vigilante to Halo, New Mexico where the bloodshed continues and a ghastly secret is revealed.

Although he is still a deep, brooding mystery tainted by supernatural overtones, fans of the original western avenger created by Robert Kanigher & Gray Morrow (who debuted in All-Star Western #2, October1970) will be disappointed to find that tragic Lazarus Lane – brutalised by thieves, struck by lightning and only able to wake from his permanent coma at the behest of Indian shaman White Owl – is all but absent from this darkly philosophical drama.

DC’s demonically-infested agent of vengeance is long, long overdue for a comprehensive reappraisal and definitive curated collection. The original occasional series of short tales from All-Star and Weird Western was illustrated by Morrow, Joe Kubert, Alan Weiss, Dick Giordano, Neal Adams, Alfredo Alcala and Bernie Wrightson, and the scripters included Sergio Aragonés, Cary Bates & Len Wein… And that’s not even counting the Sagebrush Satan’s many team-ups with the likes of Jonah Hex in various iterations of the bounty killer’s own titles.

In this moody epic, however, the phantom of the plains is more presence than personality.

There’s an awful lot of talking and suspense-building, but thanks to the moody graphics of Danijel Zezelj tension and horror remain intensely paramount and when the action comes it is powerful and unforgettable.

The dark star is a force but not a presence in El Diablo, but the tale of Moses Stone is nonetheless a gripping thriller to chill and intrigue all but the most devoutly traditional cowboy fans.

So can we PLEASE be having a proper compilation soon, yes?
© 2001, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved