Author: Now Read This

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Marvel Platinum: The Definitive Iron Man

UK EDITION

 Marvel Platinum

By various (Marvel/Panini Publishing UK)
ISBN: 978-1-905239-85-6

In the past I’ve berated previous editions of the “definitive” line from Marvel because of the editorial selections, but this volume, compiled to support the release of the big budget motion picture has a better than average blend of genuine classics and hidden gems to balance the less comprehensible choices, so well done this time, chaps.

This latest career retrospective kicks of predictably enough with the emotionally charged origin from Tales of Suspense #39, (cover-dated March 1963) by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, with art by the enduring and endearing Don Heck, before we jump all the way to 1977 and Iron Man #99 and 100 for a lost two-part classic by Bill Mantlo, George Tuska and Mike Esposito. ‘At the Mercy of the Mandarin’ and ‘Ten Rings to Rule the World!’ is a solid, old fashioned, world-saving punch-up guest-starring sometime X-Man Sunfire.

There are three selections from the superlative run of issues by David Michelinie, John Romita Jr. and others from the late1970s/early 1980s. No commemorative could be complete without the landmark – and still intensely moving and powerful – ‘Demon in a Bottle’ (from Iron Man #128, 1979, inked and co-plotted by Bob Layton), followed by a bombastic three-parter guest-starring the Incredible Hulk and the second Ant-Man. Jerry Bingham replaced JR Jr. for ‘Hulk is Where the Heart is!’, ‘The Man Who Would Be Hulk’ and the tense climax ‘The Hero Within!’, but Romita returned in 1981 for the time-travelling clash with Marvel’s deadliest villain in #149’s ‘Doomquest!’ and #150’s ‘Knightmare’ as the Armoured Avenger and Doctor Doom had to defeat Morgana Le Fey before they could return to their home time from the court of King Arthur!

Denny O’Neil had a long run as scripter in the mid-1980s, a sequence that saw Tony Stark lose everything, including his battle against alcoholism, and bodyguard Jim Rhodes take over the role of Golden Avenger. Iron Man #200 (November, 1985) was the culmination of a three-year plot arc which saw Stark redeem himself and regain all he had lost in battle with rogue industrialist Obadiah Stane and his Iron-Monger armour. As the template for much of the aforementioned film, I’m surprised this entire saga wasn’t released as a separate collection, but there are thrills aplenty in this double-length epic by O’Neil, Mark Bright and inkers Akin & Garvey.

From issue #256 (1990), ‘Soliloquy in Silence’ reunites scripter Bob Layton and John Romita Jr. (inked by Harry Candelario in the pencillers modern raw ‘n’ chunky art style) for a tense, technological bio-hazard chiller set aboard a doomed space-station, and the story-portion of the book concludes with another concluding chapter from a longer saga. ‘The Mask in the Iron Man – part 5 ‘Blood Brothers’ is written by Joe Quesada and illustrated by Sean Chen and Rob Hunter and originally appeared in Iron Man volume 3, #30 from 2000. In it there’s a final confrontation between the man Tony Stark and his own creation as the armoured suit gains autonomous intelligence and a bunch of “father-issues.”

The book is rounded out with pin-ups, cover reproductions and a dense and hefty ten pages of text features, history, background and “technical secrets” for a well-rounded and thoroughly entertaining accompaniment to the cinema spectacle, but more importantly a well-tailored device to turn curious movie-goers into fans of the comic incarnation too. If there’s a sequel, hope that Marvel has plans for all the great material by a vast range of creators omitted in this book, but at least here’s a solid sampling to entice the newcomers and charm the veteran Ferro-phile.

© 1963, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1990, 2000, 2008 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Archive: Justice League of America, Vol 4

DC Archive: JLA 4

By Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-412-1

By the time of this fourth collection’s contents (Justice League of America #23-30) a winning formula had been ironed out. Mix earth-bound crime and disaster with high-concept alien encounters, keep the super-villain content high and above all, get better and better with each issue.

Faced with the impossible task of topping the resurrection of the Justice Society of America in all their glory (see Justice League of America Archive Edition Volume 3 ISBN: 1-56389-159-X) creative team Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs rose to the challenge with the eccentric outer-space thriller ‘Drones of the Queen Bee’, wherein the heroes of Earth 1 had to fulfil the devious wishes of an alien super-criminal with aspirations of immortality. As the team escaped enslavement to the alien seductress, the continuity bug was growing, and the casual referencing of the ongoing cases of individual members would become a mainstay of most future issues.

Alien despot Kanjar Ro returned in ‘Decoy Missions of the Justice League’ (JLA #24) a sinister world conquest plot that featured another guest-shot for off-world adventurer Adam Strange whilst a perplexing mystery with planet-shaking consequences temporarily baffled the team in the rousing off-world thriller ‘Outcasts of Infinity!’ Issue #26’s ‘Four Worlds to Conquer’ dealt with an insidious revenge plot of the three-eyed alien Despero whilst a much more metaphysical menace assaulted the team in ‘The “I” Who Defeated the Justice League’. Although the deadly android Amazo was also on hand to add a more solid threat to the proceedings.

The charmingly naff Head-Mastermind and a bunch of second-string super-villains tried to outfox the League in #28’s ‘Case of the Forbidden Super-Powers’, but not so easily defeated or forgotten are the next two tales. ‘Crisis on Earth-Three’ and ‘The Most Dangerous Earth of All!’ reprised the team-up of the Justice League and Justice Society, when the super-beings of yet another alternate Earth discovered the secret of multiversal travel.

Unfortunately Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick and Power Ring were villains on a world without heroes, and saw the costumed crusaders of the JLA and JSA as living practise dummies to sharpen their evil skills upon. With this cracking two-part thriller the annual summer team-up became solidly entrenched in comic lore, giving fans endless joy for years to come and making the approaching end of school holidays less gloomy than they might have been.

(A little note: Although the comic cover-date in America was the month by which unsold copies had to be returned – the off-sale date – export copies to Britain travelled as ballast in freighters. Thus they usually went on to those cool, spinning comic-racks in the actual month printed on the front. You can unglaze your eyes and return to the review proper now, and thank you for your patient indulgence at my sad showing-off.)

The wonder years of the Justice League were a time of startling creativity and these tales just seem to get more marvellous with every re-reading. This deluxe format is an admittedly expensive indulgence, but these books are ones you always return to and their bright shiny resilience is well worth the extra outlay.

© 1963, 1964, 1998 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Iron Man: Crash

A MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL 

Iron Man: Crash

By Mike Saenz & Bill Bates (Marvel)
ISBN: 0- 87135-291-5

It’s an odd popular art form where as much work quickly becomes outdated and old-fashioned as becomes timeless. Here’s a sad example of the former, which still has much to recommend it but is actually painful to see in places.

The Near Future: Tony Stark has become a recluse, dealing with the real world at a distance via cybernetic systems. He has broken contact with all his old allies, is addicted to rejuvenation drugs and on this momentous day is about to sell all his Iron Man technological secrets to a Japanese industrial combine hostile to America.

At the last moment events rekindle the heroic spark of the man he used to be and amidst high drama and tension the Golden Avenger returns. It’s an old plot well scripted, but falls into two unfortunate traps, one of which is the overwhelming influence of the William Gibson style “cyberpunk” literary fashion prevalent at the time. That, at least, the reader can take-or-leave as required, but the other is a lot harder to ignore.

Billed as “the first computer generated graphic novel” there’s a kind of smug arrogance (reinforced by a frankly tedious technical section at the back) regarding the cutting-edge art created for the book which is simply unwarranted and undeserved – and was so even on the day it was first published.

Perhaps it was groundbreaking at the time – although I distinctly recall being underwhelmed by the grainy repetitiveness of the images even then – but surely the creators were aware that a few colour effects and graphs were no match for a star artist then and that they were only at the start of a process with all its glossy wonders still to come? If not, then I’ll bet they’re blown away by just the colouring in even the most mediocre of today’s comics.

Seriously though, this is a tale that still has merit and could benefit from a 2.0 upgrade, but it’s also a sterling reminder that it’s not the type of pencil that matters but the hand and mind holding it: and if that’s not a metaphor for Iron Man then I don’t know what is…

© 1988 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Hellblazer: Joyride

Hellblazer: Joyride

By Andy Diggle & Leonardo Manco (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-775-4

Modern trickster mystic John Constantine has been many things in the decades since his introduction in the Swamp Thing story arc American Gothic. But what he’s never been since that debut is exactly what new writer Andy Diggle returns him to in this collection (stories from issues #230-237 of the monthly comicbook). When he first introduced himself to the giant vegetable Bog God, Constantine was a cool, sharp-dressing, smug, in-control and very dangerous man-of-mystery we weren’t supposed to like. He oozed menace and untold secrets and was always in charge of the situation.

After twenty years and more of going to Hell and Back, that menacing stranger returns, but with enough accumulated shared history now that the reader can still empathise with this unlikely hero whom no sane man would actually want to have a pint with. Moreover, despite being a Scouser (someone born and bred in Liverpool) by birth, Constantine is a Londoner by disposition, and Diggle writes him with that so distinct voice and attitude.

Back on top and dressed to impress, the hard man does a favour for an old acquaintance in the first tale of this chilling collection. Pearly Grey was an old-school East End gangster, but he’s in Wormwood Scrubs now, at Her Majesty’s pleasure. His daughter’s dead and she was murdered. He knows how but not who because she told him when her ghost appeared in his cell. Pearly knew everybody once, and if this isn’t a normal job, it needs the attention of a specialist…

Solving the problem of the unquiet dead is only the first step however. The grateful Grey repays his debt by giving Constantine a chance to clean up old business at Ravenscar, once the scene of the Magician’s greatest failure, but now part of the gangster’s extensive property portfolio. It couldn’t have gone better if Constantine had planned it…

The final tale introduces a new nemesis for the chain-smoking wizard in a grimy, nasty tale of possession in the blighted urban hell of South London. With triggers lifted from any daily paper, this is a tale of murderous wasted youth, privilege and social disorder, murder and witchcraft, prompted by greed and the utter contempt of the elite for the rest of society. Political corruption stalks hand-in-hand with blood-hungry monstrosity in this very British horror story and at its blood-soaked centre is a bloke in a raincoat with a smile that can make a statue sweat…

This is a welcome advancement and return to terrifying form for one of American fantasy’s most striking characters. Thoroughly British once more (our comics never got the handle on heroism: All the best and most memorable characters were villains like The Spider, The Dwarf, Grimly Feendish and Charlie Peace or maniacs like Judge Dredd) this is a unique character at his compelling best, and another superb horror tome to add to your “spooky” shelf.

© 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Green Arrow: Crawling Through the Wreckage

Green Arrow: Crawling Through the Wreckage

By Judd Winick, Scott McDaniel & Andy Owens (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-446-3

The wonderfully flawed and ever so human Green Arrow reaches new heights and depths in this trade paperback collection of his monthly exploits culled from issues #60-65 of his eponymous comic adventures (which are technically from volume 2, in 2006). Set in the One Year Later continuity zone, it sees the ultimate social and political rebel as the crusading Mayor of his beloved, beleaguered Star City on the anniversary of the cataclysmic bloodbath that nearly destroyed it.

Despite the appallingly unsatisfactory deus ex machina contrivance that apparently reset everything at the end of the last volume (Heading into the Light: ISBN 1-84576-344-0) the city is still recovering from devastating damage and loss of life. The most troubled parts of the metropolis have been enclosed behind a gigantic wall and left to rot. In this no-go area the Gangsta super-villain Brick runs things as a dystopic private kingdom, but on the outside unscrupulous Big Money Interests are making plans to take over, and they’ve hired relentless assassin Deathstroke to make sure things proceed smoothly.

Determined not to abandon the helpless, Oliver Queen fights to free these disenfranchised under-folk, rebuild the lives and prosperity of the citizens on the healthy side of the Wall, and prevent the city becoming a bought-and-paid-for asset of corporate raiders. And in his spare time Green Arrow will root out corruption and abuse in the Reconstruction and find out just who is supplying mutagenic medical supplies to the poor, desperate S.O.B.’s trapped in Brick’s kingdom.

This rousing thriller has lots of added bite in the post-New Orleans/Hurricane Katrina world and the portrayal of the hero as social activist has never been better expressed. There’s plenty of high-octane action to counterbalance the realpolitik message and corporate intrigue, and the revelation that costumed adventuring produces even stranger bedfellows than politics is handled with style, aplomb and great big explosions. Magic Stuff!

© 2006, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall

Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall

By Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham & others (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-299-5 ISBN: 978-1-84576-393-0 (trade paperback)

The monthly comicbook Fables details the exploits of fairytale and storybook characters that we humans regard as fictional, living secret immortal lives among us, as refugees from a monstrous all-consuming Adversary who has conquered their original homelands. It is one of the best adult strips ever created.

This all-original graphic novel complements the collected trade paperback editions of the comic, which are handy, wonderful and absolutely indispensable reading before you even attempt the beautiful and compelling book I’m about to wholeheartedly recommend.

Written by series creator Bill Willingham and illustrated in a stunning variety of styles and manners by Esao Andrews, Brian Bolland, John Bolton, Mark Buckingham, James Jean, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Derek Kirk Kim, Tara McPherson, Jill Thompson, Charles Vess and Mark Wheatley with lettering and calligraphy by the great Todd Klein, the book uses the framing device of Snow White dispatched to the as-yet unconquered realm of the Arabian Fables (Fables: Arabian Nights {and Days} ISBN: 1-84576-278-9 (see below) on a diplomatic undertaking and forced to repeat the trick of Scheherazade to stay alive and complete her mission.

Using the (to us) untold histories of her fellow refugees as bedtime stories for the love-sick and homicidal Sultan Shahryar, Snow reveals the secrets of a number of our favourite characters including the Frog Prince, Frau Totenkinder, Old King Cole and Bigby Wolf in a superb mix of taut horror and broad comedy.

Now available in paperback as well as spiffy hardcover, this captivating volume of very adult yarns – and that doesn’t mean salacious; it means clever with violence, swearing and nudity – is a perfect book for people who never lost the ability to appreciate stories. Another absolute gem.

© 2006 Bill Willingham and DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days)

Fables: Arabian Nights

By Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham & Steve Leialoha and various (Vertigo)
ISBN 1-84576-278-9

Fables is one of those blessed delights that makes a reviewers job quite difficult. Series of matchless quality that somehow manage to get better with each release are rare and most welcome but you soon run out of superlatives to express your enthusiasm, and unless the reviewer wants to cross the border into Spoiler Territory (giving away a plot to a potential fan ought to be a Capital Offence) you really have nothing to offer.

Here’s the short review: Best One Yet – Get Them All.

If you need more, however, allow me to bring you up to speed. The saga details the exploits of fairytale and storybook characters we humans regard as fictional, living secret, immortal lives among us as refugees from a monstrous all-consuming Adversary who has conquered their original homelands. They are magical, perfect, cynical yet perversely human creatures who dream of one day returning to their own homes and interrupted lives. They live with the constant threat that their all-consuming foe will one day find them…

After a tense election Prince Charming has replaced Old King Cole as leader of the New York City enclave just in time to receive a mission from the Fables of the as-yet unconquered Arabian Fairytales Realm, brokered by Fable-at-Large Mowgli. Among them is Sinbad, a Hashishin Assassin, sundry slaves and a Vizier you just know is up to no good. They’re also carrying the Baghdad Fable equivalent of a Weapon of Mass-Destruction. Somehow these disparate and difficult societies must be forced or cajoled into cooperation before the Adversary swallows them all up, but a mutual enemy has seldom been enough to unite diametrically opposed cultures…

This four part tale is a wry, slick and hilarious dose of intrigue in the classic Preston Sturges manner (if you don’t know, that’s what search engines are for – and boy have you got some great movies to catch up on) that originally ran in issues #42-45, written by Willingham and captivatingly illustrated by Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha and Andrew Pepoy, and as well as standing magnificently on its own lays the groundwork for a number of major storylines to come.

The volume ends with a two part change-of-pace tale from issues #46-47 illustrated by Jim Fern and Jimmy Palmiotti. ‘The Ballad of Rodney and June’ tells the story of two of the Adversary’s most elite assets and the forbidden love they fall victim to. Trust me, it’s tragic and fascinating and not at all what you think or expect…

Fables is consistently the best serial comic on the market today and these collections are swiftly becoming as beloved as the characters that populate it. So that means somehow, somewhere, they must really exi…

Don’t go there, just get these books!

© 2005, 2006 Bill Willingham and DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Adventures of Dr. McNinja

VOLUME 1: THE FIRST THREE STORIES

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja

By Christopher Hastings & Kent Archer
No ISBN

It’s nice to give a heads-up on something that isn’t a lost gem but actually on-going and improving, and stands a good chance of becoming a bit of a sensation in the months and years ahead, so I’m devoting a little space and time to the first printed collection of a web-comic that’s turning a few heads around the place. The strip is Dr McNinja by Chris Hastings, aided and abetted by Kent Archer, and the first three adventures are now available in a handy trade paperback

Despite having a few — well okay, a lot — of rough edges, this tongue-in-cheek, frenetic and contagiously enthusiastic action-comedy features a medical practitioner who comes from a long line of Irish Ninjas but really wants to succeed in his chosen profession. The plots are fast-paced, the situations surreal and absurd whilst the dialogue is captivatingly, laugh-out-loud funny, (I’m delightfully reminded of the very earliest Cerebus issues from Dave Sim) as the conflicted healer deals with his “difficult” receptionist (a stroppy gorilla named Judy), rare ailments like Paul Bunyan’s Disease (which cause sufferers to turn into giant bearded lumberjacks), an ancestral feud with pirates, deadly cartoon Mexicans and his own unhealthy obsession with The Batman. Of course there’s an origin…

The art still lets the story down on occasion but the storytelling on these first adventures improves with every page and the sheer silly, manic exhilaration of high-potential creators having fun while learning their craft makes this a great read, warts and all.

You can obtain copies of the book and check out the latest episodes on the website, and if you like to Guffaw, chortle or just plain laugh, you really should.

© 2003-2007 Christopher Hastings. All Rights Reserved.
For further tales and ordering information please go to www.drmcninja.com

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Batman: Night Cries

Batman: Night Cries

By Archie Goodwin & Scott Hampton (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-066-6

One of the most important scripts in the incredible writing career of the late, great Archie Goodwin addressed a social issue that very much plagues us still, but is now so ubiquitous a plot maguffin, and often so poorly handled by contemporary creators in all narrative arts media that it threatens to become just another fashionable story device, and a weakened, trite one at that. That problem is child-abuse and Night Cries is one of the most effective stories dealing with it that comics have ever produced.

This is not a polemical or attention-seeking tale. The subject is key to the plot, affects the characters fundamentally, and is dealt with accordingly. There is no neat and tidy solution. This isn’t a soap-box subject and the victims and perpetrators aren’t paraded as single-faceted ciphers. This is a serious attempt to tell a story in which child-abuse is an integral factor and not cause nor excuse for violence and pain, but since the whole subject is a controversial one readers should be aware of the facts going in.

Gotham City is a pit of everyday horrors but when a serial killer is identified who seems to target entire families even Batman and Commissioner Gordon are troubled by the suppressed feelings the killings dredge up within themselves. Suspecting a link between the killings and a child-abuse clinic funded by Bruce Wayne, detectives interview a traumatised little girl who saw the killer. She identifies The Batman…

Moody, dark and chilling, this examination of family ties and group responsibilities reveals a complex web of betrayals and shirked duties that weaves throughout American society. When a connection to US servicemen, used, abused and betrayed by their own government is revealed, the metaphor for a system that prefers to ignore its problems rather than deal with them is powerfully completed.

Powerful and unsettling, yet blending startling action with horror and drama, this is a perfect vehicle for the talents of Scott Hampton, whose eerily haunting painted pages subtly disclose uncomfortable secrets that have been suppressed for far too long. This lost gem is out-of-print and long overdue for another release.

© 1992 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Wonder Woman: Who is Wonder Woman?

Wonder Woman: Who is Wonder Woman?

By Allan Heinberg, Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-557-6

When Wonder Woman was relaunched in the wake of Infinite Crisis and 52 with art stars Terry and Rachel Dodson illustrating the scripts of TV big gun Allan Heinberg (Grey’s Anatomy, The O.C. and Sex and the City among others) there was much well-deserved attention, but the comic was plagued by missed deadlines and most of the series’ momentum was lost. After the fourth issue the tale was abandoned unfinished and a new writer stepped in with very impressive work (although that’s a tale for another time and, I hope and trust, a separate review). The creators regrouped and the initial story-arc was concluded in Wonder Woman Annual volume 2, #1.

Now that all the dust has settled the completed adventure has been collected in this impressive if slim hardback and we can finally judge the story on its actual merit.

Following the reality realignment of Infinite Crisis there was a hiatus of a year when Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman vanished. Sort of…

The story opens with an Amazing Amazon battling some of her most fantastic villains and menaces, but she’s not Princess Diana of Themyscira. Rather Donna Troy, the first Wonder Girl, has taken the role and coped well, but said bunch of Wonder Woman’s oldest enemies have joined forces under the aegis of a mysterious mastermind and captured the replacement – and the new Wonder Girl as well.

Enter Sarge Steel, super spy Nemesis and the latest recruit to the Department of Metahuman Affairs, field agent Diana Prince! (Just in case you’re a complete newcomer to Amazon continuity – that’s supposed to be a big, bewildering shock because Diana is secretly the original Wonder Woman herself.)

What follows is an enjoyable romp with glamorous ‘big visuals’ art from the Dodsons as Diana resumes her place in DC’s Trinity of megastars but also assumes a valid “ordinary” human life to complement the superwoman persona – although that’s a relative term when the life consists of a day-job as a super-spy.

This big, bold extravaganza repositions Wonder Woman at the heart of DC continuity and attempts to rationalise the disparate, if not clashing, elements that have kept the various versions of the character at the forefront of debate for decades. Most fans ask not Who is Wonder Woman but rather, Which version is best?

My vote is a straight tie between the first three Nazi-busting years of the 1940s by William Moulton Marston and the unique Harry G. Peter, and the superb powerless adventurer of Mike Sekowsky, Denny O’Neil and Dick Giordano (for which see Diana Prince: Wonder Woman volume 1 ISBN: 978-1-84576-776-1). Still, in cases of such vigorous debate maybe it’s safest simply to get them all…

© 2006, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.