Category: Graphic Novels

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The Futurians


By Dave Cockrum, with Ricardo Villagran & Paty (Marvel/Eternity)
ISBN: 0-939766-81-7 & 0-944735-00-2

Dave Cockrum was one of the last great classical stylists of the American comics industry; a supremely skilled draughtsman, proficient designer and uniquely imaginative yet whimsical storyteller who died far too young in 2006.

Born in 1943 in Oregon, he was raised an army brat, traveling all over America and found joy and companionship early on as part of the burgeoning fan community that developed during the Silver Age of Comicbooks.

A devoted science fiction reader and fan he was greatly influenced by the clean-lined, humanistic work of Wally Wood, Mac Raboy, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert and especially Murphy Anderson with whom Cockrum began his professional career as an art assistant and inker following military service in the navy during the Vietnam conflict.

After working with and then replacing Anderson on the freshly revived Legion of Super-Heroes strip in Superboy in 1973, Cockrum left for Marvel following a dispute over artwork ownership, bringing the same stylish flair and irrepressible imagination to the groundbreaking and landmark revamping of the moribund X-Men in 1975.

After co-creating the last true and enduring sensation of the 20th century, Cockrum moved on (and indeed, back) returning to the Merry Mutants for a second superb and innovative run from Uncanny X-Men #145- 164) before crafting this instantly intriguing, criminally underappreciated and tragically unfulfilled costumed fantasy very much in the manner of both the Legion and X-Men for the company’s new Marvel Graphic Novel format.

During the 1980s Marvel was an unassailable front-runner in the American comicbook business, outselling all its rivals and increasingly making inroads into the licensed properties market that once went automatically to the Whitman/Dell/Gold Key colossus. Far too much of their own superhero stable might have become cautious and moribund, but the company was eagerly expanding into other arenas and formats.

The company had moved quickly during the early days of the Direct Sales market and were soon market leader in the new field with a range of “big stories” told on larger sturdier, glossy white pages (285 x 220mm rather than the standard 258 x 168mm of the day’s standard comicbooks) emulating the long-established European Album.

The line had already featured not only proprietary characters in out-of-the-ordinary adventures (The Death of Captain Marvel and X-Men: God Loves Man Kills) but also in-continuity launches like The New Mutants, licensed assets like Elric: the Dreaming City and crucially creator-owned properties and concepts such as Super Boxers, Star Slammers and Dreadstar.

Let loose in a playground that clearly offered and delivered so much more bang-per-buck and peril-per-page, The Futurians synthesised and recapitulated with unbridled, enthusiastic abandon everything that Cockrum so obviously adored about swashbuckling comics adventures… liberally dosed with equal amounts of colourful escapism and dark, pragmatic common sense.

The story is cosmic in scope and chillingly effective in execution. In those long-gone days, actions seldom had truly far-reaching consequences but in The Futurians an entire superhero universe is constructed and the whole planet suffers accordingly. The death-toll was shocking for those innocent days but so logically apt…

In the far-distant world of Tomorrow a worn, spent planet Earth is still a place of war as humanity has developed into two species: the perfect men of terminus and the mutant “Inheritors” of Ghron. When the conflict escalated to the point where the Inheritors used the moon as a missile and literally destroyed the world the Science Generals of Terminus discovered that Ghron had taken an ultimate step – wrecking the sun itself and fleeing back into the planet’s past.

Unable to follow, the Last Men devised a desperate plan and, using the incredible sentient being who lived in our wounded star as a targeting method, sent packages of genetic material in scattershot fashion through Earth’s history: chromosomal “time-bombs” that would alter the nature of any mortals hit by the packets and create potential warriors to combat the Inheritors whenever and wherever they should materialise.

Not all the transformational bullets were on target, overshooting by millennia in some cases – but the majority strike the proper target: the 20th century. To make certain of their scheme the leader of the Last Men was reduced to bodiless intellect and dispatched to yesterday to act as shepherd, general and guide for the new champions.

The Time is Now: mysterious entrepreneur and technocrat Vandervecken has gathered a disparate group of individuals at the headquarters of Future Dynamics to participate in a grand – and extremely profitable – experiment. With the time-tossed aid of solar elemental Sunswift the eight men and women – all unsuspectingly primed by the mutagenic “time-bombs” – are transformed into incredibly powerful superhumans… and not a moment too soon as the Inheritors have also arrived and begun devastating the planet.

Animalistic Blackmayne, Terrayne the Earthmover, pocket-superman Avatar, aquatic metamorph Silkie, avian raptor Werehawk, insectoid Mosquito and phantasmal Silver Shadow join Sunswift and the tele-potent Vandervecken in defeating the initial assaults but not without terrible casualties – including New York City, utterly eradicated in a meteor bombardment…

In spectacular saves-the-day fashion the neophyte group finally overcome the temporal invaders and prepare themselves for further missions…

Which didn’t happen for quite a while since Cockrum then turned down a deal for a continued series with Marvel in favour of a too-good to-be-true and subsequently ill-starred alliance with new, independent publisher Lodestone Comics. That led to three issues (plus another that was never released) eventually all collected in an incredibly scarce, low-print run standard-format graphic novel from Eternity in 1987.


In that collection Cockrum, assisted as ever by his wife and colourist Paty and for the first time by inker Ricardo Villagran, explored the days after Doomsday beginning with ‘Aftermath’ wherein the world slowly adjusted to the destruction of Manhattan, a potential change in global climate and the psychic shock of what was to all intents and purposes an alien invasion. With fundamentalist groups claiming the wrath of their particular god, Cold War powers on nervous alert and a refugee crisis building on the East Coast, Sunswift set about repairing the atmospheric envelope whilst the rest of the team split up to tackle the rabble-rousing Thunderbolts and offer assistance to the survivors of New York.

Already at that monolithic Ground Zero are veteran superheroes Doctor Zeus, Hammerhand and affable mystic Jack O’Finagle, but there are also horrors lurking as monsters from deep within the Earth’s fractured mantle have begun hunting for tasty surface mortals in ‘The Burrowers From Beneath!’

Some metahumans and lots of mere mortals are missing so Avatar leads Silver Shadow, Mosquito and Terrayne after them and the AWOL Blackmane, resulting in a grisly and terrible showdown monster-mash deep within the ‘Web of Horror!’ that spills up and over onto the surface where the hard-pressed military bear the brunt of the battle…

Forced to retreat the Futurians regroup whilst Silkie discovers a new power which leads to a reassessment of their dire situation, the true origin of the giant horrors and a ratcheting up of tension when the army starts chucking nukes at the creatures which apparently feed on raw energy…

This glorious superhero fantasy saga resoundingly concludes as the heroes ‘Let the Fire Fall!’ but that was basically it for the Futurians. In recent years writer Clifford Meth has worked to bring the tale to Hollywood (with no news as of this writing) but if there’s any justice hopefully the renewed interest will at least lead to a proper and complete reissue of these cracking yarns in an appropriately grand deluxe edition…
The Futurians © 1983 David Cockrum. Volume 2 ™ and © 1987 David Cockrum. All rights reserved.

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JLA volumes 11 & 12: Obsidian Age books 1 & 2


By Joe Kelly, Doug Mankhe, Tom Nguyen & various (DC Comics)
ISBNs: 978-1-84023-702-3 & 978-1-84023-709-2

When the World’s Greatest Superheroes and cornerstone of the Silver Age of Comics were relaunched in 1997 (see JLA: New World Order) the intrinsic quality actually lived up to the massive hype and made as many new fans as it won back old ones, but the glistening aura of “fresh and new” never lasts forever and by the time of these tales there had been numerous changes of creative team – usually a bad sign…

However Joe Kelly, Doug Mankhe and Tom Nguyen’s tenure proved to be a competent blend of steadying hands and boldly iconoclastic antics through which the JLA happily continued their tricky task of keeping excitement levels stoked for a fan-base cursed with a criminally short attention-span.

Kelly’s run on the series has some notable highs (and lows) and these two impressive editions collect the author’s boldest and most audacious adventure, an epic which spanned a year of publication and rewrote millennia of DC continuity.

Collecting issues # 66-71 and # 72-76 respectively, The Obsidian Age began in Book 1 with ‘The Destroyers Part 1’ wherein peculiar water-based events and phenomena indicated that Aquaman – believed killed in a catastrophe which eradicated Atlantis – was alive and trying to contact his JLA comrades. When the team are subsequently attacked by an ancient mystical warrior they get their first clue that it’s not “somewhere” but “somewhen”…

‘The Destroyers Part 2’ sees the team recovering from a second attack by the terrifying Tezumak and shaman Manitou Raven whose coordinated manipulations bring the heroes into the ruins of ‘Stillborn Atlantis’ and all-out combat with the deranged Ocean Master. When Tempest (the all grown-up Aqualad and now a magical adept himself) and a conclave of mystic heroes, including Zatanna, Faust and Doctors Occult and Fate, are called in to assess the deteriorating situation in the no-longer sunken city, the assembled champions of science and magic realise that something truly terrible is about to be unleashed….

Renewed assaults from the past indicate another global crisis and when the JLA discover a message from Aquaman they head back 3000 years to discover an unsuspected era of Atlantean domination. With Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Plastic Man gone, a stand-in team of heroes are left to guard the world but the ancient mastermind behind the menace has also prepared a contemporary trap for the substitute JLA…

‘New Blood’ (illustrated by Yvel Guichet & Mark Propst) features Zatanna and the Atom trying to stave off a concatenation of clearly unnatural natural disasters with the aid of Green Arrow, Captain Marvel, Firestorm, Jason Blood (with and without Etrigan the Demon), Hawkgirl, ex-villain and troubled soul Major Disaster, Nightwing and new find Faith (as well as a little help from the Justice Society of America) – a desperate scratch-team woefully overmatched and under-trained…

Meanwhile the strands of mystery are unravelled in ‘Revisionist History’ which finds the time-lost First Team in 1000BC where an above-the-waves Atlantis leads a coalition of nations and super-warriors in a campaign to conquer the known world by sword and sorcery. This unknown episode of human history contravenes all the records and clandestine reconnaissance by the JLA reveals an enchantress named Gamemnae is behind the scheme.

But her plans extend far beyond her own epoch and to that end she has kidnapped the 21st century water-breathing Atlanteans and enslaved their king Aquaman…

However Gamemnae’s own team is far from united: Manitou Raven and his bride Dawn are deeply troubled by the venality of their allies and the obvious nobility of the Justice Leaguers… Meanwhile back in the future the last story of Book 1 returns focus to the new team in ‘Transition’ (by Guichet & Propst again) as the planet is ravaged by geological catastrophes and Gamemnae’s millennial booby-trap activates, intent on conquering the world of tomorrow by suborning its meta-human and mystic defenders…

Ending on a stunning mystery cliffhanger this volume also includes a behind-the-scenes text feature on the formidable enemy team ‘The Ancients’ including a delightful assemblage of design sketches.

 

Obsidian Age Book 2 opens with a handy précis of previous events before launching into ‘History is Written By…’ (Kelly, Mahnke & Nguyen) wherein the JLA battles hopeless odds in ancient Atlantis whilst trying to liberate the enslaved water-breathing descendents, and in modern times ‘Last Call’ (Guichet & Propst) finds the alternative League faring badly against Gamemnae’s monstrous animated time-trap until a ghostly message from the past enables them to turn the tide…

‘Obsidian’ follows the final tragic battle between the JLA and The Ancients, revealing how Gamemnae’s future assaults began whilst Manitou finally succumbs to his conscience and changes sides. ‘Tragic Kingdom’ (by Mahnke, Guichet, Darryl Banks, Dietrich Smith and inkers Nguyen, Propst, Wayne Faucher & Sean Parsons) simultaneously provides the origin and final fall of the deadly Witch-Queen in a cataclysmic confrontation that bends times, breaks the barriers between life and death and costs one of the heroes everything…

The story-portion culminates in ‘Picking up the Pieces’ (with art from Lewis LaRosa & Al Milgrom)  as the JLA conclude a 3000 year quest to restore their fallen comrade and re-jig their roster in the aftermath of the epic adventure that has left them all changed…

This volume ends with an insightful and revealing ‘Afterword’ by Kelly.

The action of Obsidian Age takes place in the devastated aftermath of the DC Crossover Event “Our Worlds At War” wherein an alien doomsday device named Imperiex almost destroyed the planet – but there’s enough useful background and build-up in the chapters collected in both books to circumvent any possible confusion should that saga have passed you by…

Engaging, engrossing and especially entertaining this is a superior superhero slugfest that will appeal to a lot of readers who thought the Fights ‘n’ Tights genre beyond or beneath them…
© 2002, 2003 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Y – The Last Man: volume 9 Motherland


By Brian K Vaughan, Pia Guerra Goran Sudžuka & José Marzán Jr. (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-358-9

When an apparent plague killed every male on Earth, only student Yorick Brown and his pet monkey Ampersand survived in a world instantly utterly all-girl. Even with a government super-agent and a geneticist escorting him across the unmanned American continent to a Californian bio-lab, all the boy could think of was re-uniting with his girlfriend Beth, trapped in Australia when the disaster struck.

With his rather reluctant companions secret agent 355 and Dr. Allison Mann – who were trying to solve the mystery of his continued existence – the romantically determined oaf trekked overland from Washington DC to California, getting ever closer to his fiancée… or so he thought. Each of his minders harboured dark secrets: Dr. Mann feared she might have actually caused the plague by giving birth to the world’s first parthenogenetic human clone and the lethally competent 355 had allegiances to organisations far-more far-reaching than the American government….

Also out to stake their claim and add to the general tension were renegade Israeli General Alter Tse’Elon and post-disaster cult called “Daughters of the Amazon” who wanted to make sure that there really were no more men left to mess up the planet. Other complications included Yorick’s occasionally insane sister, Hero, stalking him across the ultra-feminised, ravaged and now utterly dis-United States and the boy’s own desirability to the numerous frustrated and desperate women he encountered en route to Oz…

After four years and some incredible adventures Yorick (a so-so scholar but a proficient amateur magician and escapologist) and crew reached Australia only to discover Beth had already taken off on her own odyssey to Paris. During the hunt Dr. Mann discovered the truth: Yorick was alive because his pet Ampersand was immune and had insulated his owner via his habit of “sharing” his waste products if Yorick didn’t duck fast enough…

As this book, reprinting issues #49-54 of the award-winning comics series, opens with the eponymous four-chapter ‘Motherland’ (illustrated by Pia Guerra & José Marzán Jr.) Yorick and his guardians are following a trail to the true architect of the plague in Hong Kong, only to be captured by the cause of all the world’s woes – a deranged biologist cursed with genius, insanity and a deadly dose of maniacal misogynistic hubris.

Just before a breathtaking denouement wherein Yorick and Allison learn the incredible reasons for the plague, and Agent 355 and turncoat Australian spy Rose clash for the final time with the ninja who has been stalking them for years, the scene switches to France where Yorick’s sister Hero has successfully escorted the baby boys born in a hidden Space Sciences lab to relative safety… although General Tse’Elon is not a pursuer easily avoided or thwarted…

Even after the plague is demystified, the villain fully come-uppanced and the world on the verge of coming back from the brink of extinction there’s still stories to be told as seen in ‘The Obituarist’ (with art from Goran Sudžuka& José Marzán Jr.) wherein the murder of Yorick’s mother by Tse’Elon takes centre-stage in a divertissement which hints that the planet is already fixing itself and this penultimate volume concludes with ‘Tragicomic’ (Sudžuka& Marzán Jr. again) as the lunatic land of Hollywood begins its own comeback: making trash movies, spawning bad comicbooks and splintering into a host of territorial gang-wars…

The end was in sight and even with the series’ overarching plot engine seemingly exhausted there was still one last string of intrigue, suspense and surprise in store from writer Brian K. Vaughn. The last of Y the Last Man will prove to be the best yet but that’s an unmissable tale for another time…

© 2006, 2007 Brian K Vaughan & Pia Guerra. All Rights Reserved.

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Jack of Fables volume 3: The Bad Prince


By Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Tony Akins, Andrew Pepoy, Russ Braun & Andrew Robinson (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-913-0

In case you didn’t know, Fables are refugee fairytale, storybook and mythical characters hidden on our mundane Earth since their various legend-drenched realms fell to a mysterious and unbeatable Adversary. Arriving hundreds of years ago (and still coming) the immortal immigrants disguised their true natures from humanity whilst creating enclaves where their longevity, magic and sheer strangeness (such as all the talking animals safely sequestered on a remote farm in upstate New York) would not endanger the life of uneasy luxury they have built for themselves. Many of these elusive eternals wander the human world, but always under injunction never to draw any attention.

In Fables: Homelands the utterly self-absorbed and absolutely amoral Jack of the Tales (basis for such legends as Beanstalk, Giant-killer, Frost, Be Nimble and many more) did just that by stealing Fabletown funds to become a movie producer; creating the three most popular fantasy films of all time, based on (his version) of his life and consequently drawing physical power from the billions who inadvertently “believed” in him.  The avaricious toe-rag also coined vast amounts of filthy lucre in the process.

A key tenet of the series is that the more “mundies” (that’s mere mortals like you and me… well, me anyway) think about a fable character, the stronger that actual character becomes. Books, TV, songs: all feed their vitality.

In Jack of Fables: The (Nearly) Great Escape our irreverent faux-hero was brought low by the publicity-shy Fables Police, banished from Hollywood and ordered to disappear, with only a suitcase full of cash to tide him over.

Promptly captured by The Golden Bough, a clandestine organisation which had been “vanishing” Fables for centuries, Jack escaped during a mass break-out of forgotten, abridged Fables, all fleeing from a particularly horrific fate – metaphysical and contextual neutering.

He is presently on the run from those selfsame forces (in the distractingly vivacious shape of the Page Sisters, dedicated hunters of everything Fabulous and Uncanny) as this third volume – collecting issues #12-16 of the monthly Vertigo comic- commences with ‘Hit the Road, Jack’ the first chapter of the four part eponymous Bad Prince saga …

Written by Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges and illustrated by Tony Akins & Andrew Pepoy, the adventure opens with Jack and the metaphysical, engagingly peculiar but trouble-attracting sad-sack Gary, the Pathetic Fallacy desecrating the Grand Canyon and arguing – which allows the aforementioned Page girls to recapture them. Bundled in the back of their van is Wicked John, another escapee from the Golden Bough internment camp. Still feisty, Jack picks another fight and as the recaptured Fables bicker their spat causes the van to plunge into the Canyon…

Of course, nobody dies but there are some unfortunate consequences. They’re stranded at the bottom, Priscilla Page has a broken wrist and as they all dry out after their a dip in the Colorado River a wandering tramp shoves a six-foot sword through Jack’s chest…

‘I Forget’ (with additional pencils by Russ Braun) resumes the tale with the irate but otherwise unharmed Jack bitching and whining about how the sword – by all accounts the legendary Excalibur – won’t come out, whilst unbeknownst to all in New York an old and formidable metafictional menace is stirring…

Back in the Canyon, Gary has reached some unfortunate conclusions about Jack and discovered the downside of being the Most Popular Fable in the World. The Golden Bough is also making another move as Hilary Page pressgangs a few defanged inmates and sets off on a mission of her own. Chapter three reveals some startling secrets and the unsuspected, humiliating connection between Jack and ‘The Legend of Wicked John’ before the tale diverts into a re-examination of that dratted “Beanstalk/Giant-killer” debacle. And as the cast kvetches, another mysterious pursuer closes in on the stranded story-folk…

If you were confused before, the concluding ‘(Enchanted) Blade Runner’ (with supplementary inking by Bill Reinhold) might clear things up for you (or not – it all depends on how much attention you’re paying) as Jack finagles himself out of his human-scabbard situation and the sinister Mr. Revise opens up his unconventional family album for closer inspection: a sinister yet sardonic foretaste of odd events to come…

There’s one last eccentric endeavour in store however as ‘Jack O’ Lantern’, illustrated by Andrew Robinson, once more delves into our obnoxious hero’s chequered past and describes some of the unsavoury and hilarious events that stemmed from his various dealings and disputes with the devil…

This series just gets better and better. An imaginative and breathtakingly bold rollercoaster ride of flamboyant fantasy and snappy-patter street-smarts, these yarns are always beautifully drawn and continually push the boundaries of traditional storytelling.

Saucy, self-referential, darkly, mordantly funny, Jack of Fables is a deliciously whimsical fairytale for adults concocted with much more broad, adult, cynical humour and sex than your average comicbook – so mothers and matrons be warned! Every enchanting volume should be compulsory reading for jaded fantasists everywhere.

© 2007, 2008 Bill Willingham and DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents Batgirl volume 1


By Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Don Heck & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1367-1

Today comics readers are pretty used to the vast battalion of Bat-shaped champions infesting Gotham City and its troubled environs, but for the longest time it was just Bruce, Dick and occasionally their borrowed dog Ace keeping crime on the run. However in Detective Comics #233 (July 1956 and three months before the debut of the Flash officially ushered in the Silver Age of American comicbooks) the editorial powers-that-be introduced heiress Kathy Kane, who sporadically suited-up in chiropteran red and yellow for the next eight years.

In Batman #139 (April 1961) her niece Betty started dressing up and acting out as her assistant Batgirl, but when Editor Julie Schwartz took over the Bat-titles in 1964 both ladies unceremoniously disappeared in his root-and-branch overhaul.

In 1966 the Batman TV series took over the planet, but its second season was far less popular and the producers soon saw the commercial sense of adding a glamorous female fighter in the fresh, new tradition of Emma Peel, Honey West and The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. especially when clad in a cute cape, shiny skin-tight body-stocking and go-go boots…

Of course she had to join the comics cast too and this Showcase edition re-presents her varied appearances as both guest-star and headliner in her own series, beginning with her four-colour premiere…

In ‘The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl’ (Detective Comics #359, cover-dated January 1967) writer Gardner Fox and the art team supreme of Carmine Infantino and Sid Greene introduced young Barbara Gordon, mousy librarian and daughter of the Police Commissioner to the superhero limelight, so by the time the third season began on September 14, 1967, she was well-established.

Whereas in her small screen premiere she pummeled the Penguin, her funnybook origin featured the no-less-ludicrous but at least visually forbidding Killer Moth in a clever, fast-paced yarn involving blackmail and murder that still stands up today and which opens in fine style this long-awaited monochrome celebration of the brief but stellar career of one of the most successful distaff spin-offs in the business.

Her appearances came thick and fast after that initial tale: ‘The True-False Face of Batman’ (Detective #363, by Fox Infantino and Greene) was a full co-starring vehicle as the new girl was challenged to deduce Batman’s secret identity whilst tracking down enigmatic criminal genius Mr. Brains, after which she teamed-up with the Girl of Steel in World’s Finest Comics #169 (September 1967) wherein the uppity lasses seemingly worked to replace Batman and Superman in ‘The Supergirl-Batgirl Plot’; a whimsical fantasy feast from Cary Bates, Curt Swan & George Klein.

Detective #369, illustrated by Infantino and Greene, somewhat reinforced boyhood prejudices about icky girls in the classy thriller ‘Batgirl Breaks Up the Dynamic Duo’ which segued directly into a classic confrontation in Batman #197 as ‘Catwoman sets Her Claws for Batman!’ by Fox, Frank Springer and Greene. This frankly daft tale is most fondly remembered for the classic cover of Batgirl and Catwoman (with Whip!!!) squaring off over Batman’s prone body – comic fans have a psychopathology all their very own…

Gil Kane made his debut on the Dominoed Daredoll (did they really call her that? – yes they did, from page 2 onwards!) in #371′s ‘Batgirl’s Costumed Cut-ups’, a masterpiece of comic-art dynamism that inker Sid Greene could be proud of, but which proffered some rather uncomfortable assertions about female vanity that Gardner Fox probably preferred to forget – and just check out the cover of this tome if you think I’m kidding.

Batgirl next surfaced in Justice League of America #60, February 1968, wherein the team barely survived a return match with alien invader Queen Bee and were temporarily transformed into ‘Winged Warriors of the Immortal Queen!’ (by Fox, Mike Sekowsky & Greene whilst in the June-July The Brave and the Bold (#78) Bob Brown stepped in to draw her in for Bob Haney’s eccentric crime-thriller ‘In the Coils of the Copperhead’ wherein Wonder Woman found herself vying with the fresh young thing for Batman’s affections. Of course it was all a cunning plan… wasn’t it?

That same month another team-up with Supergirl heralded a sea-change in DC’s tone, style and content as the girls were dragged into ‘The Superman-Batman Split!’ (World’s Finest Comics #176) with Bates providing a far darker mystery for the girls and boys (including Robin and Jimmy Olsen) to solve whilst artists Neal Adams & Dick Giordano began revolutionising how comics looked with their moody, exciting hyper-realistic renderings.

Although Barbara Gordon cropped up in the background of occasional Batman adventures that was the last time the masked heroine was seen until Detective Comics #384, (February 1969) when Batgirl finally debuted in her own solo feature. Written by Mike Friedrich and illustrated by the phenomenal team of Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson ‘Tall, Dark. Handsome …and Missing!’ began a run of human-scaled crime dramas with what all the (male) scripters clearly believed was a strong female slant as in this yarn wherein librarian Babs developed a crush on a frequent borrower just before he inexplicably vanished.

Batgirl investigated and ran into a pack of brutal thugs before solving the mystery in the second part, ‘Hunt For the Helpless Hostage!’ (Detective #385), after which the lead story from that issue rather inexplicably follows here.

‘Die Small… Die Big!’ by Robert Kanigher, Bob Brown & Joe Giella is one of the best Batman adventures of the period, with a nameless nonentity sacrificing everything for a man he’s never met, but Babs is only in three panels and never as Batgirl…

Adventure Comics #381 (June 1969) made far better use of her skills as she went undercover and was largely at odds with the Maid of Steel whilst exposing ‘The Supergirl Gang’ in a tense thriller by Bates & Win Mortimer. Batgirl shared the second slot with Robin in alternating adventures, so she next appeared in Detective #388 which welcomed aboard newspaper strip veteran Frank Robbins to script ‘Surprise! This’ll Kill You!’ a sophisticated bait-and-switch caper which saw Batgirl impersonate herself and almost pay with her life for another girl’s crimes. Spectacularly illustrated by Kane & Anderson the strip had expanded from eight to ten pages but that still wasn’t enough and the breathtaking thrills spilled over into a dramatic conclusion in ‘Batgirl’s Bag of Tricks!

Although the tone and times were changing there was still potential to be daft and parochial too, as seen in ‘Batman’s Marriage Trap!’ (Batman #214, by Robbins, Irv Novick & Giella) wherein a wicked Femme Fatale set the unfulfilled spinsters of America on the trail of Gotham’s Most Eligible Bat-chelor (see what I did there? I’ve done it before too and you can’t stop me…). Not even a singular guest-shot by positive role-model Batgirl could redeem this peculiar throwback – although the art rather does…

‘A Clue… Seven-Foot Tall!’ (from Detective #392, October 1969, by Robbins, Kane & Anderson) was another savvy contemporary crime-saga which also introduced a new Bat cast-member in the form of disabled Vietnam veteran and neophyte private eye Jason Bard (who would eventually inherit Batgirl’s spot in Detective Comics). Here and in the concluding ‘Downfall of a Goliath’ Babs and Bard sparred and joined forces to solve a brutal murder in the world of professional basketball.

In issues #396 and 397 (February and March 1970) Batgirl faced the very modern menace of what we’d now call a psycho-sexual serial killer in the chilling and enthralling mystery ‘The Orchid-Crusher’ and ‘The Hollow Man’: a clear proof of the second string character’s true and still untapped potential…

The anniversary Detective #400 (June 1970) finally teamed her with Robin in ‘A Burial For Batgirl!’(Denny O’Neil, Kane & Vince Colletta) a college-based murder mystery that referenced the political and social unrest then plaguing US campuses, but which still found space to be smart and action-packed as well as topical before the chilling conclusion ‘Midnight is the Dying Hour!’ (Detective #401).

With issue #404 Babs became the sole back-up star as Robbins, Kane & Frank Giacoia sampled the underground movie scene with ‘Midnight Doom-Boy’ mischievously spoofing Andy Warhol’s infamous Factory studio in another intriguing murder-plot, diverting to and culminating in another branch of Pop Art as Batgirl nearly became ‘The Living Statue!’

In ‘The Explosive Circle!’ (#406, with Colletta back to ink) the topic du jour was gentrification as property speculation ripped Gotham apart, but not as much as a gang of radical bombers, leading to the cry ‘One of Our Landmarks is Missing!’ The next issue (#408) saw the vastly underrated Don Heck take over as artist, inked here by Dick Giordano on ‘The Phantom Bullfighter!’ wherein a work-trip to Madrid embroiled Batgirl in a contentious dispute between matadors old and new, leading to a murderous ‘Night of the Sharp Horns!’

Inevitably fashion reared its stylish head in a strip with a female lead, but Robbins’ immensely clever ‘Battle of the Three “M’s”’ (that’s mini, midi and maxi to you straights out there) proved to be one of the most compelling and clever tales of the entire run as a trendsetting celebrity found herself the target of an unscrupulous designer, leading to a murderous deathtrap for Babs in ‘Cut… and Run!’ Clearly inspired, Robbins stayed with girlish things for ‘The Head-Splitters!’ (Detective #412) and Heck, now inking himself, rose to the occasion for a truly creepy saga about hairdressing that features one of the nastiest scams and murder methods I’ve ever seen, ending in a climactic ‘Squeeze-Play!’…

Babs reunited with Jason Bard for an anniversary date only to stumble onto an ‘Invitation to Murder!’ (another celebrity homage; this time to Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor) – a classy fair-play mystery resolved in ‘Death Shares the Spotlight!’

A cop-killing had torn apart the city and Babs’ father Commissioner Jim Gordon was taking it badly in ‘The Deadly Go-Between!’, but militant radicals weren’t the only threat as seen in the concluding episode ‘A Bullet For Gordon!’, which presaged a far greater role for the once-anodyne authority figure and leading to the character’s integral role in today’s Bat-universe.

Robbins and Heck also revealed a shocking secret about the Commissioner that would build through the remaining Batgirl adventures, beginning with ‘The Kingpin is Dead!’, concerning a “motiveless” hit on an old gang-boss all cleared up in spectacular fashion with ‘Long Live the Kingpin!’ in #419.

‘Target for Mañana!’ saw Babs and her dad travel to Mexico on a narcotics fact-finding mission only to fall foul of a sinister plot in ‘Up Against Three Walls!’ before the series took a landmark turn in ‘The Unmasking of Batgirl’ as a charmer broker her heart and Babs decided to chuck it all in and run for Congress in ‘Candidate For Danger!’

Detective Comics #424 (June 1972) featured ‘Batgirl’s Last Case’ as “Battlin’ Babs” overturned a corrupt political machine and shuffled off to DC, leaving Jason to manage on his own, but that wasn’t quite the end of her adventures. Superman #268 (October 1973) found her battling spies in the Capitol beside the Man of Steel in ‘Wild Week-End in Washington!’ courtesy of Elliot S. Maggin, Curt Swan & Bob Oksner and repeating the experience a year later in ‘Menace of the Energy-Blackmailers!’ (Superman #279, by Maggin, Swan & Phil Zupa.

This eclectic but highly entertaining compendium concludes with one last Supergirl team-up, this time from Superman Family #171 (June/July 1975) wherein a distant descendent of the Empress of the Nile used magic to become ‘Cleopatra, Queen of America’ overwhelming even Superman and the Justice League before the Cape and Cowl Cuties finally lowered the boom…

Batgirl’s early exploits come from and indeed partially shaped an era where women in popular fiction were finally emerging from the marriage-obsessed, ankle-twisting, deferential, fainting hostage-fodder mode that had been their ignoble lot in all media for untold decades. Feminism wasn’t a dirty word or a joke then for the generation of girls who at last got some independent and effective role-models with (metaphorically, at least) balls.

Complex yet uncomplicated, the adventures of Batgirl grew beyond their crassly commercial origins to make a real difference. However these tales are not only significant but drenched in charm and wit; drawn with a gloriously captivating style and panache that still delights and enthralls. This is no girly comic but a full-on thrill ride you can’t afford to ignore…
© 1967-1975, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Hawkman volume 4: Rise of the Golden Eagle


By Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Joe Bennett & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1092-2

After an intense and impressive run of savage sagas (not all of which have been collected in graphic novels yet – and yes, that’s a hint…) Hawkman was eased out of his own book as a result of the impending Infinite Crisis company crossover event and – presumably – less than stellar sales…

Despite being amongst DC’s most popular and visually striking characters, Hawkman and Hawkwoman always struggled to find enough of an audience to sustain their numerous solo titles. From the very beginning as second feature in the Golden Age Flash comics they battled through many excellent yet always short-lived reconfigurations. From ancient heroes to space-cops and (post-Crisis on Infinite Earths) Thanagarian freedom fighters, they never quite hit the big time they deserved…

Created by Gardner Fox and Dennis Neville, Hawkman premiered in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940) with ultimately Sheldon Moldoff and Joe Kubert carrying on the strip’s illustration, whilst a young Robert Kanigher cut his teeth as writer on the late run of the strip. Carter Hall was a playboy archaeologist whose dormant memory was unlocked by a crystal dagger. He realised that once he was Prince Khufu of ancient Egypt, murdered with his lover Chay-Ara by High Priest Hath-Set. With his returned memories the eternal struggle was destined to play out once more…

Hall fashioned an outlandish uniform and anti-gravity harness, becoming a crime-fighting phenomenon. Soon the equally reincarnated Shiera Sanders was fighting and flying beside him as Hawkgirl. Together the gladiatorial “Mystery-Men” battled modern crime and tyranny with weapons of the past for over a decade before vanishing with the bulk of costumed heroes as the 1950s began.

Hawkman’s last appearance was in All Star Comics #57 (1951) as leader of the Justice Society of America, but the husband and wife hellions were revived and re-imagined nine years later as Katar Hol and Shayera Thal of planet Thanagar by Julie Schwartz’s crack creative team Gardner Fox and Joe Kubert – a space-age interpretation which even survived 1985’s winnowing Crisis. Their long career, numerous revamps and retcons ended during the 1994 Zero Hour crisis.

After the universe-shuffling a new team of Winged Wonders appeared (See Hawkworld) – refuges from a militaristic Thanagarian Empire who found new purpose on Earth.

When a new Hawkgirl was created as part of a revived Justice Society comicbook at the end of the 20th century, fans knew it was only a matter of time before her Pinioned Paramour rejoined her (see JSA: the Return of Hawkman). Immediately regaining his own book, the hero had been synthesized into a mélange of all previous versions: a reincarnating, immortal berserker-warrior who finally seemed to strike the right note of freshness and seasoned maturity. Superb artwork and stunning stories didn’t hurt either.

The current Hawkman remembers all his past lives: many millennia when and where he and Chay-Ara fought evil together as bird-themed champions, dying over and over at the hands of an equally renewed Hath-Set. Most importantly, Kendra Saunders, the new Hawkgirl, differs from all previous incarnations since Chay-Ara was not reborn in this instance but instead possessed the body of her grand-niece when that tragic girl committed suicide. Although Carter Hall still loves his immortal inamorata his companion of a million battles is no longer quite so secure or sure of her feelings…

Rise of the Golden Eagle (collecting issues #37-45 of the monthly comicbook) begins with a mysterious vendetta targeting the Pinioned Paladin as old enemy Fadeaway Man, leads an army of foes in a series of brutal attacks on Hawkman. However it seems the teleporting villain is not the real mastermind here…

Written by Justin Grey & Jimmy Palmiotti with art by Joe Bennett, Dale Eaglesham, Stephen Sadowski, Ruy Jose, Wade von Grawbadger, Lary Stucker Drew Geraci and Jack Jadson the all-out action and suspense begins with the legion of monstrous antagonists overwhelming the Winged Wonders until a new ally appears…

Former Teen Titan Charley Parker is Golden Eagle and claims to be the son of Hawkman – or at least the child of one of his past incarnations. Eager to join the immortal warriors, he is on hand and fighting valiantly when another ambush occurs and Kendra is grievously wounded. Eventually when his mentor is killed Parker ends up replacing the brutally murdered Carter Hall…

However, Parker has a secret nobody suspected and, just when the embittered and vengeance-crazed Kendra thinks she can trust him, reveals his astonishing secret and a master-plan that stretches across decades and light-years to the other side of the universe…

Meanwhile the true Hawkman has returned to life sans any shred of patience and compassion, determined to make an end to all his assembled enemies once and for all…

Tense, gripping and utterly compelling, this is the berserker warrior Hawkman always hinted he could be and the epic tale is both complex and gratuitously fulfilling; a perfect storm of art and story that every hard-bitten fights ‘n’ tights devotee will adore.

After a too brief but incredibly impressive run (something of a given and a tradition with Hawkman) the immortal Winged Wonder disappeared from his own title at the end of this volume as the exigencies of the Infinite Crisis left him missing whilst his pinioned partner Hawkgirl took over the book (see Hawkgirl: The Maw, Hawkman Returns and Hath-Set for details), but at least with books like this to remind us of just how good he could be there won’t be to much time passed until his next phoenix like revival…
© 2005, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Avengers: Death Trap, the Vault – A Marvel Graphic Novel


By Danny Fingeroth, Ron Lim, Jim Sanders & Fred Fredericks (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-87135-810-3

Marvel don’t generally publish original material graphic novel these days but once they were a market leader in the field with a range of “big stories” told on larger pages emulating the long-established European Album (285 x 220 mm rather than the standard 258 x 168 mm of today’s books) featuring not only proprietary characters in out-of-the-ordinary adventures but also licensed assets like Conan, creator-owned properties like Alien Legion and new character debuts.

However the company’s extended experiment with big ticket storytelling in the 1980s and 1990s produced some exciting (and if I’m scrupulously honest, appalling) results that the company has never come close to repeating in since. Many of the stories still stand out today – or would if they were still in print.

Released in 1991, Death Trap, the Vault is a conventional but enjoyable Fights ‘n’ Tights thriller in the Summer Blockbuster vein that fits solidly into the strictly-policed continuity of the mainstream Marvel Universe. Scripted by Danny Fingeroth and illustrated by Ron Lim with inking by Jim Sanders & Fred Fredericks, this yarn is potentially impenetrable to occasional fans but nevertheless delivers the tension, action and character byplay to the faithful readership that made Marvel the premier US comics publisher for such a long time.

The plot itself is simple and effective: with so many super-powered menaces on the loose the Federal Government constructed a specialised penitentiary to incarcerate villains once they’re captured. Some felons, deemed too dangerous for normal courts, are even tried there. Perhaps the authorities could have picked a better warden though: Truman Marsh might be a fine administrator but his parents were collateral casualties in a super-powered clash and he spends far too much time thinking about the Doomsday bomb hidden in the Vault in case of a mass breakout…

One day the inevitable finally occurs and a power outage enables a few convicts to bust free. Already on the scene Captain America and size-changing savant Doctor Pym fight a holding action against Venom, Mentallo, Orca, Bullet and a dozen other lethal adversaries, but with more being released every minute things look pretty grim and Marsh starts getting an itch in his trigger – or rather, button-pushing – finger…

With the super-creeps killing hostages and the entire complex in lockdown a team of Avengers and Government penal battalion Freedom Force have no choice but to break into the ultimate prison, unaware that the deadly clock is already counting down…

Moreover, since Freedom Force is composed of the kind of criminals the Vault was built to contain, can Earth’s mightiest Heroes risk trusting them whilst the rampaging escapees run riot?

Intense and visceral, this old-school, all-out action romp will delight the traditionally-minded reader and still holds a happy surprise or two for we older, ostensibly wiser, jaded, grumpy geezers…


The book was resized and repackaged in 1993 as Venom: Death Trap the Vault and if you don’t mind seeing your action on a slightly smaller scale this edition might be a little easier to find.
© 1991 Marvel Entertainment Group/Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman Beyond


By Hilary J. Bader, Rich Burchett, Joe Staton & Terry Beatty (DC comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-604-0

The Batman Animated TV series masterminded by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini in the 1990s revolutionised the Dark Knight and also led to some of the absolute best comicbook adventures in his seventy-year publishing history with the tie-in monthly printed series. With the Dark Knight’s small screen credentials firmly re-established, follow-up series began (and are still coming), even recently feeding back into the overarching DCU continuity.

Following those award-winning cartoons in 1999 came a new incarnation set a generation into the future, featuring Bruce Wayne in the twilight of his life and a new teenaged hero picking up the eerily-scalloped mantle. In Britain the series was inspirationally re-titled Batman of the Future but for most of the impressed cognoscenti and awe-struck kids everywhere it was Batman Beyond!

Once again the show was augmented by a cool kid’s comicbook and this collection re-presents the first 6-issue miniseries in a hip and trendy, immensely entertaining package suitable for fans and aficionados of all ages. Although not necessary to the reader’s enjoyment, a passing familiarity with the TV episodes will enhance the overall experience…

All stories are written by Hilary J. Bader and the book opens with a two part adaptation of the pilot episode, illustrated by Rick Burchett & Terry Beatty. ‘Not On My Watch!’ offers brief glimpses of the last days of Batman’s crusade against crime before age, infirmity and injury slow him down to the point of compromising his principles and endangering the citizens he’s sworn to protect.

Years later Gotham City in the mid-21st century (notionally accepted as 2039AD – 100 years after the comic book debut of Batman in Detective Comics #27) is a dystopian urban jungle where angry, rebellious school-kid Terry McGinnis strikes a blow against pernicious street-punks The Jokerz and is chased out of the metropolis to the gates of a ramshackle mansion.

Meanwhile his research-scientist father has discovered too much about the company he works for…

Wayne-Powers used to be a decent place to work before old man Wayne became a recluse. Now Derek Powers runs the show and is ruthless enough to do anything to increase his profits… Outside town Terry is saved from a potentially fatal encounter with the Jokerz by a burly old man who then collapses. Helping the aged Bruce Wayne inside the mansion Terry discovers the long neglected Batcave before being chased away by the surly Wayne but doesn’t really care until he gets home to find his father has been murdered…

A storm of mixed emotions, he returns to Wayne Manor…

The concluding chapter ‘I Am Batman’ sees McGinnis attempt to force Wayne to act before giving up in frustration and stealing the hero’s greatest weapon; a cybernetic bat-suit that enhances strength, speed, durability and perception. Alone, untrained and unaided the new Batman sets to exact justice and revenge…

In the ensuing clash with Powers the unscrupulous entrepreneur is mutated into a radioactive monster named Blight before Wayne and Terry reach a tenuous truce and understanding. For the moment Terry will continue to clean up the Dark Knight’s city as a probationary, apprentice hero…

With issue #3 Bader, Burchett & Beatty began to tell original stories in the newly established future Gotham, commencing with ‘Never Mix, Never Worry’ wherein Blight returns to steal a selection of man-made radioactive elements which can only be used to cause harm… or can they?

Joe Staton took over the pencilling with #4 as a schoolboy nerd freed a devil from limbo and old man Wayne introduced the cocksure Terry to parapsychologist Jason Blood and his eldritch alter ego Etrigan the Demon in the spooky shocker ‘Magic Is Everywhere’, a sentiment repeated when a school-trip to the museum unleashed ancient lovers who fed on the life energy in the delightfully comical tragedy of ‘Mummy, Oh! and Juliet’

This captivating compendium of action and adventure ends in another compelling and edgy thriller as Terry stumbles into a return bout with a shape-shifting super-thief in ‘Permanent Inque Stains’, only to find that there are far worse crimes and far more evil villains haunting his city…

Fun, thrilling and surprisingly moving, these tales are magnificent examples of comics that appeal to young and old alike and are well overdue for re-issue. And once that’s done, there’s still another 24 issues from the 1999-2001 run plus a Return of the Joker one-shot to collect in spiffy graphic novel compilations…

In 2000 Titan Books released a British edition re-titled Batman of the Future (to comply with the renamed UK TV series) and this version is a little easier to locate by those eager to enjoy the stories rather than own an artefact.
© 1999 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Emperor Doom starring the Mighty Avengers – A Marvel Graphic Novel


By Dave Michelinie, Bob Hall & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-87135-256-9

I can’t recall the last time Marvel published an all-original graphic novel as opposed to a collection of previously printed material, but once they were a market leader in the field with an entire range of “big stories” told on larger than normal pages (285 x 220 mm rather than the generally standard 258 x 168 mm of today’s books) featuring not only proprietary characters in out-of-the-ordinary adventures but also licensed assets like Conan, creator-owned properties like Alien Legion and new character debuts.

Nonetheless, Marvel’s ambitious dalliance with graphic novel publishing in the 1980s and 1990s produced some classy results that the company has never come close to repeating in the intervening years. Both original concepts and their own properties were represented in that initial run and many of the stories still stand out today – or would if they were still in print.

Released in 1987 Emperor Doom was conceived by Mark Gruenwald, David Michelinie and Jim Shooter, scripted by Michelinie and illustrated by Bob Hall with some additional inking by Keith Williams, and fits comfortably into the tightly policed continuity of the mainstream Marvel Universe.

If you’re wondering, despite coming out nearly two years after the launch of regular comicbook series West Coast Avengers, this saga is set just before that auspicious fresh start for Iron Man, Tigra, Wonder Man , Hawkeye and Mockingbird…

The plot itself is delightfully sly and simple: for once eschewing rash attacks against assembled superheroes, deadly dictator Doctor Doom has devised a scheme to dominate humanity through subtler means. Inviting Sub-Mariner to act as his agent the master villain uses the sub-sea anti-hero to neutralise mechanical heroes and rivals prior to using a pheromone-based bio-weapon to make all organic beings utterly compliant to his will. Naturally Doom then once-more betrayed his aquatic ally…

Meanwhile living energy being Wonder Man is undergoing a month-long isolation experiment to determine the nature of his abilities. When he exits the chamber 30 days later he discovers the entire planet has willingly, joyously accepted Doom as their natural and beloved ruler. Alone and desperate the last Avenger must devise a method of saving the world from its contented subjugation…

Of course there’s another side to this story. Doom, ultimately utterly successful, has turned the planet into an orderly, antiseptic paradise: no war, no want, no sickness and no conflict, just happy productive citizens doing what they’re told. In this perfect totalitarian triumph all the trains run on time and nobody is discontented. All Doom has to do is accept heartfelt cheers and do the daily paperwork.

With the entire world an idealised clone of Switzerland, the Iron Despot is bored out of his mind…

So it’s with mixed emotion that Doom realises Wonder Man and a select band of newly liberated Avengers are coming for him, determined to free the world or die…

Tense and compelling this intriguingly low-key tale abandoned the traditional all-out action for a far more reasoned and sinisterly realistic solution – disappointing and baffling a large number of fans at the time – but the clever premise and solution, underplayed art and wicked, tongue-in-cheek attitude remove this yarn from the ordinary Fights ‘n’ Tights milieu and elevate it to one of the most chillingly mature Avengers epics ever produced.

A cut above the average and well worth an open-eyed reappraisal, this is an Avengers adventure for every jaded superhero fan.
© 1987 Marvel Entertainment Group/Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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John Constantine, Hellblazer: Tainted Love


By Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-85286-994-6

John Constantine is probably the greatest anti-hero in comics: a cynical, wide-boy magician and seedy, troubled soul who danced on the edge of damnation every minute of his life, ever unsure of his own motives, shrewdly manipulating events and standing back just to see what happens.

Collecting issues #68-71 of the monthly comicbook, the Heartland one-shot, Hellblazer Special #1 and the Constantine tale from Vertigo Jam #1 this volume describes with astonishing effect the absolute nadir in the Scouse sorcerer’s chequered career and also reveals some hidden secrets from his sordid past… Also included herein is an impressive ‘Hellblazer Gallery’ with stunning contributions from Glenn Fabry, Gary Erskine, Richard Case and Phil Winslade as well as the beautiful Fabry covers which accompanied the original tales.

After years of saving the world without even knowing why – although he feared it was just to spite beings who thought themselves better than him – Constantine fell in love with Irish ex-pat Kit Ryan and seemed on the verge of turning his hell-bent life around, before as usual, his magical heritage and nasty nature messed it all up.

Kit returned to Ireland and Constantine fell apart, hitting the bottle harder than ever and ending up a booze-soaked derelict on London’s cold, hard streets. However, as low as he’s fallen, the entities he’s mocked, manipulated and made mischief with are unforgiving and ready to make things as bad as they can ever get…

This eclectic collection of most-modern horror-thrillers opens with the two-part ‘Last Night of the King of the Vampires’, the final encounter between Constantine and the supernal monster who had fed on humanity since we came down out the trees. Immortal, worldly-wise and blasé as he was the undying lych had never been so grossly insulted as when he first met and propositioned the arrogant magus in Hellblazer: Bloodlines.

Now in ‘Down All the Days’ the decadent bloodsucker executes his revenge on the debased, addled, gin-soaked street trash, determined to wring the last vestige of humiliation, pain and terror out of his fallen foe, commencing by killing the only person still talking to the Hellblazer in ‘Rough Trade’.

However, even in the very pit of despair Constantine had a surprise up his tattered sleeve. It’s not even that he particularly wanted to live; it’s simply his accursed pride wouldn’t let an overbearing, smug, supernatural tosser have the last word…

The second story-arc ‘Fall and Rise’ opens with the eponymous ‘Tainted Love’ (from Vertigo Jam #1) as the old souse relates a salutary tale to a fellow drunk. Once upon a time Constantine had a mate who was a bit of a player. And when Seth cheated on his girlfriend the wizard was there to profit from the revenge sex with Annette. Trouble was the wronged girl had more in mind than tit-for-tat and sneaked a peak at Constantine’s spell-books. Before the blood and dust settled Seth and Annette had both learned not to meddle with the dark arts and that in the end love hurts… and hurts and hurts and hurts…

Whilst the mage was pickling his brains and liver, Kit Ryan had returned to her home and broken family in Belfast. ‘Heartland’ – a superbly poignant shaggy dog tale – saw Kit revisit her formative years and able demonstrated that not all horror stems from devils and demons. Too often the monsters are us…

Constantine’s return to grace and glory finally began with ‘Finest Hour’ as the burned out wreck lay down to die by the river and was sucked into the life and final moments of a Spitfire pilot who had been shot down in flames during the Battle of Britain. Revitalised by his death-or-life experience the wizard took hold of himself and sobered up; ready to face the world once more, beginning with giving his ghostly saviour a decent and long-deserved send-off…

This episodic and eerily eccentric compendium closes with ‘Confessional’ (from Hellblazer Special #1) as the cleaned up conjuror has a chance second encounter with a defrocked priest who nearly succeeded where uncounted eldritch horrors had failed. Long ago a runaway teen named John Constantine hitched a lift with the wrong man, and now decades later there’s a piper to be paid…

I’m once again avoiding specific details since these masterful examples of bravura storytelling from Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon should be enjoyed without any dilution – but for the greatest impact you should also have handy their other collaborations. So track down >Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits, the aforementioned Bloodlines, Fear and Loathing and Damnation’s Flame to embark on a truly moving, terrifying and incredible experience.

Hellblazer is a superb series about flawed heroism and desperate necessity, with a tragic everyman anti-hero compelled to do the right thing no matter what the cost, arrayed against the worst that the world can offer. It’s also the best horror drama in comics and worthy of your devoted attention. Adult comics just don’t come any better than this

© 1993, 1998 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.