Category: Graphic Novels

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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.

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Robin/Batgirl: Fresh Blood


By Bill Willingham, Andersen Gabrych, Damion Scott, Alé Garza & Jesse Delperdang (DC Comics)
ISBN: 987-1-84576-200-1

Batman has gathered young allies about him since the second year of his crusade: adopting waif and strays and training them to be the best that they can be, all for the greater good of his beloved Gotham City.

When Gotham City was devastated by an earthquake and abandoned by the US government (Batman: Cataclysm and Batman: No Man’s Land volumes 1-3), a few heroes stayed to protect the innocent. One of these was a new, mute incarnation of Batgirl.

The crisis ended and a semblance of normality returned to the battered metropolis. The new heroine, named Cassandra Cain, was brought under the wing of Barbara Gordon, wheelchair-bound crime-fighter Oracle (and the previous Batgirl) who now ran her own crew of women heroes – the Birds of Prey.

Cassandra, mute, unable to communicate in any manner yet fluent in reading gesture, posture and body-language, was raised as an experiment by her father, super-assassin David Cain. The hired killer had over-ridden her language centres to make combat her only method of expression. An apparent runaway, she was adopted by Batman as a weapon in his never-ending battle, but the more humane Oracle had become her guardian and teacher.

Cassandra’s brain and learning disabilities were subsequently alleviated by a telepath and the unbeatable martial artist was just beginning to carve out her own life when the War Games crisis made Gotham too hot for heroes…

Tim Drake was the third Robin, a child prodigy who deduced Batman’s secret identity and his impending guilt-fuelled nervous breakdown following the murder of Jason Todd – Robin #2. Drake attempted to manipulate Dick Grayson – the first boy hero to be dubbed “Boy Wonder” – into returning as the Dark Knight’s partner before grudgingly accepting the position himself (see Batman: A Death in the Family and Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying).

After a long period of training and acclimation Batman offered Tim the job instead, and this interpretation took fans by storm, securing a series of increasingly impressive solo mini-series (see Robin: A Hero Reborn) and eventually his own long-running comic book.

Being trained by Batman is clearly an arduous and agonising undertaking. During the terrifying Batman: Wargames saga Drake in his turn became estranged from his moody mentor and forcibly retired from the fights ‘n’ tights game. Batman replaced Tim with Stephanie Brown, daughter of the criminal Cluemaster, who became the vigilante Spoiler to compensate for her father’s depredations. Don’t get too excited though, since she only starred as the fourth Robin for a fraction over six pages…

Soon Tim was back – ‘though you won’t see how or why here – setting up on his own as defender of the nearby city of Blüdhaven – a mini-Metropolis that made Gotham look like paradise…

The slim volume collects monthly issues #132-133 of Robin and #58-59 of Batgirl, a canny crossover concoction entitled Fresh Blood that saw both newly emancipated and independent street warriors striking out on their own in the very heart of urban darkness. The drama opened with ‘Too Many Ghosts’ as Tim, still recovering from Stephanie’s death, cautiously planned his first anti-crime campaign.

With faithful family Butler Alfred in tow as mentor and quartermaster he had moved to Blüdhaven planning to methodically dismantle the city’s mob hierarchy, but had no inkling that deceased criminal-mastermind Blockbuster was seemingly returned from the dead. Whilst on his first reconnaissance run Robin was ambushed and almost killed by super-assassin Shrike until an unexpected ally stepped in…

‘Following Footsteps’ revealed how Cassandra Cain also set up in Blüdhaven to go it alone. Soon however she was working with Tim; her combat skills meshing perfectly with his strategic flair and deductive abilities. Establishing clandestine links with two of the few honest cops in town they planned to take down the returned Blockbuster, but discover a shocking secret in ‘The Auction’ and end up tackling one of Batman’s greatest and most insidious foes instead: a deadly and spectacular clash that they cannot possibly survive…

Na-aah, just kidding – of course they do: but the concluding chapter ‘Settling Up’ is probably one of the best and most satisfying fight-fests of that era, with assorted thugs, wise-guys and meta-threats Brutale and the Trigger Twins adding to the panorama of exotic carnage before the new kids in town triumph and carve up the territory between them: their incompatible approaches pulling them apart before they could really get together….

Where does the time go? It seems like only yesterday that these nifty little thrillers were the acme of the Batman franchise, but the pace of change in comics is relentlessly rapid and remorselessly unforgiving, so engaging little gems like this come and go like wisps of mist caught in a million candlepower bat-signal beam…

Nevertheless, the edgy, fresh scripting of Bill Willingham and Andersen Gabrych married to the unconventional but superbly effective art of Damion Scott, Alé Garza & Jesse Delperdang prove to be a heady and irresistible brew that delivers as much kick now as it ever did. This is a Bat-bunfight no fan could possibly bear to miss…

© 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Conan the Barbarian: The Horn of Azoth – A Marvel Graphic Novel


By Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Mike Docherty, Tony DeZuniga & Tom Vincent (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-87135-639-0

During the 1970′s, in response to a global downturn in superhero sales, and rise in interest in all things supernatural, the American comic book industry opened up after more than fifteen years of cautious and calcified publishing practices. These had come about as a reaction to the scrupulously-censorious oversight of the self-inflicted Comics Code Authority: A body created by publishers to police their product and keep it palatable and wholesome after the industry suffered their very own McCarthy-inspired Witch-hunt during the 1950s. Thus instead of crime comics – the other big casualty of the CCA – the first genre to be revisited was Horror/Mystery comics and from that came the pulp masterpiece Conan the Cimmerian.

Sword & Sorcery prose stories had undergone a global renaissance in the paperback marketplace since the release of soft-cover editions of Lord of the Rings (first published in 1954), and the 1960s saw the resurgence of the two-fisted fantasies of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Otis Adelbert Kline and Fritz Lieber, whilst many modern writers such as Michael Moorcock and Lin Carter kick-started their careers with contemporary versions of man, monster and mage. Indisputably the grand master of the genre was Robert E. Howard.

Marvel Comics tested the waters in early 1970 with a little tale called ‘The Sword and the Sorcerers’ (from the horror anthology Chamber of Darkness #4) whose hero Starr the Slayer bore no small resemblance to the Barbarian. It was written by Roy Thomas and drawn by young Englishman Barry Smith, a recent Marvel find, and one who was just breaking out of the company’s Kirby house-style.

Despite some early teething problems, including being cancelled and reinstated in the same month, the comic-strip adventures of Robert E. Howard’s characters were as big a success as the prose yarns. Conan became a huge success: a mega-brand that saw new prose tales, a TV series and cartoon show, a newspaper strip and most importantly a Major Motion Picture in 1982.

…And it all largely stemmed from the vast range of comics initiated by Thomas, Windsor-Smith (as he became) and the excellent succession of comics creators that followed.

Thomas was a huge fan of the prose material and took great pains to adapt the novels and short stories into the graphic canon, but he was also one of the top writers in his field and much of the franchise’s success devolves from his visceral grasp on the character, which makes this particular graphic novel of particular interest.

After the success of the first film Thomas and fellow Marvel stalwart Gerry Conway were invited to write the second movie script.  How they did and why their script was accepted and never made is textbook Hollywood (I know whereof I speak: buy us a drink one day and I’ll tell you my own tales of Tinsel Town Tactics) and makes a fascinating introduction to this tome; but the upshot was at the end of the protracted process the scripters had a brilliant Conan yarn that everybody loved but that wasn’t going to be Conan the Destroyer. This meant of course, that with a little wheeler-dealing and a few secured permissions it could be returned to the artform that spawned it…

Thus “King of Thieves” became the superb savage thriller ‘The Horn of Azoth’ and opens with the itinerant Barbarian earning a crust pit-fighting in Shadizar the Wicked until he runs afoul of a local Magistrate – to the legislator’s lasting regret. The burly brigand is captured by the city guard but escapes the dungeons with the aid of a beautiful young witch. Together they flee the city with her giant bodyguard and it transpires that she needs Conan to help her fulfil a dark and ancient prophecy. Of course she tells him it’s to help unearth a fabulous treasure…

Locating the lost fortress and broaching its defences are child’s play for a bandit like the Cimmerian, but the mages within prove an unexpected obstacle and the little band is soon augmented by a boy-wizard with his own hidden agenda and an Amazonian Nubian warrior princess as they all converge on a distant rendezvous with fate.

It’s soon clear that everybody is lying to Conan as warring factions struggle to awaken or re-inter antediluvian god Azoth. Whoever wins the world is equally imperilled and unless he works a miracle Conan is collateral damage in a cosmic war that has been brewing for eons…

With brawny battles, warring wizards and enough suspense to choke a mastodon, this action-packed yarn is rip-roaring fantasy fare, brimming with supernatural horrors, wild women and spectacular titanic clashes, cannily recounted by immensely talented creators at the top of their form. Especially effective is Mike Docherty’s supremely illustrative art, ably enhanced by Tony DeZuniga’s smooth inking and Tom Vincent’s lush colours.

Still available, this is a another magnificently oversized tale (produced in the European Album format with glossy white pages 285mm x 220mm rather than the standard US proportions of 258 x 168mm) that provides another heady swig of untrammelled joy for lovers of the genre and fans of the greatest hero ever to swing a sword or plunder a tomb…
© 1990 Conan Properties Inc All Rights Reserved.

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Superman Vs. The Revenge Squad!


By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-487-9

Here’s another thrilling snapshot which highlights the era of superb creativity following in the wake of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman reboot. If you’re counting, the tale first appeared – in whole or in part – in Adventures of Superman #539, 542, 543, Action Comics #726, 730, Man of Steel #61, 65 and Superman: Man of Tomorrow #7.

By extracting pertinent episodes from a selection of sub-plots and entire episodes, the assembled creators – writers Karl Kesel, David Michelinie, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson and Roger Stern in close conjunction with artists Jon Bogdanove, Sal Buscema, Tom Grummett, Stuart Immonen, Ron Lim, Tom Morgan, Paul Ryan, Brett Breeding, Klaus Janson, Dennis Janke, Jose Marzan Jr. & Denis Rodier – assembled a crafty and exciting romp which pitted the Metropolis Marvel against a peculiar array of particularly irate enemies all working for a mysterious mastermind who was far from what he appeared…

The action commences with ‘Dopplegangster’ wherein a clone from the top-secret Cadmus Project intercepts a high-tech intruder and is infected with a hideous condition which brings all his submerged evil to the surface.

The invader is Misa, a spoiled, fun-loving, metahuman brat with incredible futuristic devices who has plagued Superman and the Project before, but here her skirmish with the re-grown Floyd “Bullets” Barstow has lasting effects, accidentally transforming the good-natured clone into a troubled paranoid soul who might suddenly transform at any moment into a brutal Anomaly with elemental shape-changing powers and no conscience at all.

Meanwhile in Metropolis Superman has his hands full defending the city and shuffling his new job as Editor of The Daily Planet, whilst venerable boss Perry White recovers from lung cancer and the subsequent chemo-therapy. It gets no easier when living weapons-platform Barrage returns in ‘Arms’, determined to kill Police Chief Maggie Sawyer, whom he blames for the loss of his right limb, and the anarchic Riot – a raving loon who generates living duplicates every time he is struck – also pops up to cause mischief and mayhem in ‘Losin’ It’.

‘Hero or Villain?’ concentrates on the history of Lex Luthor, providing insight and oversight to the multi-billionaire inventor who is under arrest and awaiting trial, whilst alien superwoman Maxima frets and festers in her futile quest to find a suitable mate. The Man of Steel was her first choice and he refused her many times. Once again she tries to have her way with him and the violent rejection sends her straight into the influence of someone who is gathering a team to destroy the Caped Kryptonian forever…

The unified assault begins in ‘The Honeymoon’s Over’ as Riot, Misa, Anomaly and Barrage meet Maxima and take their shot at their mutual enemy in ‘President of the United Hates’, but there is something not quite right about their enigmatic, shadowy leader and besides, what strategic genius would put five incompatible, uncontrollable ego-maniacs in the same team and expect them to have a ghost of a chance against Superman?

The final, spectacular battle inevitably goes awry for the rogues in ‘Losers’ and as the dust settles all the evidence points to only one possible culprit for the Revenge Squad’s campaign of terror. But is it really that clear-cut…?

Although a little disconnected in places – this storyline was running simultaneously with another extended saga (collected in the soon-to-be-reviewed Superman Transformed!) and the excision of irrelevant pages doesn’t lend itself to a seamless and smooth read – this tale perfectly exemplifies the brilliant blend of cosmic adventure, fights ‘n’ tights action, soap opera drama and sheer enthusiastic excitement that typified the Superman franchise at this time.

This kind of close-plotted continuity was a hallmark of the 1980s and 1990s Superman, and that such a strong tale could be constituted from snippets around the main story is a lasting tribute to the efficacy and power of the technique. Superman vs. the Revenge Squad! is a delightfully old-fashioned fun-fest that will delight fans of The Legend and followers of the genre alike.

A British edition (ISBN: 978-1-84023-077-2) was released by Titan Books at the time and may well be easier to find than the out-of-print US original.

© 1996, 1997, 1999 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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StormWatch: Final Orbit


By Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch & Paul Neary, Michael Ryan & Luke Rizzo and Chris Sprouse & Kevin Nowlan (WildStorm/ DC Comics/Dark Horse Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-381-0

One era ended and another began with the brace of tales collected in this slim tome: a rare positive example of the often vilified (by me particularly) movie property/comicbook crossover events and one which actually impinges on and affects the continuity of one if not both partners in the enterprise.

StormWatch was the UN’s Special Crisis Intervention unit; created to manage global threats and superhuman menaces with international ramifications. From their Skywatch satellite in orbit above Earth they observed, waiting for a member nation to call for help…

The multinational mini-army comprised surveillance and intelligence specialists, tech support units, historians, researchers, detention facilities, combat analysts, divisions of uniquely trained troops, a squadron of state-of-the-art out-atmosphere fighter planes and a band of dedicated superheroes for front-line situations beyond the scope of mere mortals. In the pilot’s seat was the incorruptible overseer codenamed “Weatherman”.

The title was part of the 1990s comics revolution which saw celebrated young creators abandon major “work-for-hire” publishers to set up their own companies and titles – with all the benefits and drawbacks that entailed. Like most of those glossy, formulaic, style-over-content, painfully derivative titles, it started with honest enthusiasm but soon bogged down for lack of ideas.

Warren Ellis took over the moribund morass with issue #37 (collected in assorted graphic novels and reviewed in here recently) and immediately began kicking some life into the title. Soon the series became an edgy, unmissable treatise on modern heroism and the uses and abuses of power. Making the book unquestionably his plaything Ellis slowly evolved StormWatch out of existence, to be reborn as the no-rules-unbroken landmark The Authority.

This volume collects the concluding issues of the comic’s second volume (#11-12) between which a WildC.A.T.s/Aliens one-shot neatly slotted in to change that particular fictional universe forever.

It all begins with ‘No Reason’ (illustrated by Bryan Hitch & Paul Neary and Michael Ryan & Luke Rizzo) as the assembled heroes and foot-soldiers of the UN Crisis Intervention organisation detect an odd asteroid moving towards Earth. Dispatching two shuttles to examine and divert the giant rock before it can fall into our planet’s gravity-well, the explorers soon realise it’s a vessel of unknown origins.

When contact is lost the assorted tensions rise, but the re-routing of the ominous astral intruder goes off as planned and the mysterious moonlet is soon heading into the sun. However only one ship is returning to Skywatch and they aren’t answering the radio…

WildC.A.T.s/Aliens (Ellis, Chris Sprouse & Kevin Nowlan) opens with a StormWatch life-pod crashing into Manhattan: its few battered survivors telling of an alien attack by creatures all fangs and rage and spitting acid. The creatures were unstoppable and as soon as the refugees had escaped Weatherman sealed the space-station in an unbreakable quarantine…

Rogue heroes WildC.A.T.S, fearing the aliens are their marauding Daemonite enemies, decide to break the global protocols and investigate the locked down StormWatch citadel. But the beasts they find there are like nothing they have ever experienced before…

In one of the few comics situations where Ridley Scott and James Cameron’s Aliens truly worked and fully displayed their awesome ferocity, the WildC.A.T.S only just rescue the scant survivors of StormWatch’s 500+ compliment of mortals and metahumans, before sending the irreparably contaminated space station plunging into the sun after the star-rock that brought the Aliens to our doorstep…

With the immediate threat to Earth averted, ‘No Direction Home’ wraps up the tale and the saga of StormWatch as the organisation’s Black Ops unit Jenny Sparks, Jack Hawksmoor and Swift go deep undercover to tie-up all the loose ends preparatory to re-emerging as The Authority…

Combining low key drama and oppressive tension with staggering action and adventure this chilling tale was the perfect palate-cleanser before the landmark step-change of The Authority and their in-your-face, unconventional, uncompromising solutions to traditional costumed crusader problems.

StormWatch: Final Orbit – although certainly not to everybody’s taste – perfectly closes one chapter of the post-modern superhero saga: solidly in tune with the cynical, world-weary predilections of many older fans and late-comers to the medium.

© 1998 WildStorm Productions, an imprint of DC Comics, and Dark Horse Comics. Compilation © 2001 WildStorm Productions, an imprint of DC Comics, and Dark Horse Comics All Rights Reserved.

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The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told


By Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-930289-29-3  paperback ISBN: 978-0-9302893-9-3

When graphic novels were just establishing themselves as a separate collector commodity in the late 1980s DC launched an ambitious series of themed hardback compendiums celebrating “The Greatest Stories …” but after not nearly enough comprehensive chronicles the project was shelved. The title was revived early this century in a glossy, stripped down softcover format and continues intermittently to this day, exclusively focusing on individual heroes and titles.

One of the first of these collections naturally featured the Big Gun who started it all and this compelling array of fantastic adventures, also commemorating fifty years of Super Action, is as intriguing for what’s omitted as it is enticing for its included contents. After all, how do you pick 340 pages out of the incalculable thousands of magic moments filled with the exploits of one of the greatest and most enduring characters in world fiction?

Giving it a shot in 1987 – not long after the immensely successful reboot that came after Crisis on Infinite Earths – were co-editors Mike Gold and Robert Greenberger, who explain their methodology in ‘Gathering the Greatest’ and ‘End Notes’ respectively. Also contributing a weighty text treatise was John Byrne, the then architect of the Man of Steel’s new adventures who trace ‘The Origins of Superman’ in his lengthy but fascinating introduction.

After those passionate prose pieces the action begins with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s ‘Superman versus Luthor’ from Superman #4 (Spring 1940); a landmark first clash with the rogue scientist who, back then, was a rangy red-headed menace with a bald and pudgy henchman. Somehow he got confused with his boss in later adventures and became the slap-headed super-criminal we know today…

Full-on villains were few and far between back then but ‘Superman versus The Archer’ is cited as introducing the first costumed foe Superman ever faced (from #13, November-December 1941, credited here to Siegel and Shuster, but actually mostly the artwork of Superman Studio stalwart Leo Nowak) a riotous murder-mystery matched in energy and simplistic enthusiasm by the two-page feature ‘What if Superman Ended the War?’ from the tabloid Look Magazine (February 1940) wherein Hitler and Stalin, instigators of that distant “second European War” were hauled off to the World Court by the irresistible Man of Tomorrow. Once America joined the melee Superman was constrained to be far more circumspect…

‘The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk’ (Superman #30, September-October 1944, credited to Siegel and John Sikela, but actually drawn by Ira Yarborough) introduced the fifth dimensional imp who periodically tested the Man of Steel’s ingenuity and patience in a still hilarious perfect example of daffy screwball comedy. Much-reprinted, but always glorious, Mxyztplk (later Anglicised to Mxyzptlk, presumably to make it easier to spell) became a cornerstone of the Superman mythos: an insufferable pixie, against whom all Superman’s strength and power were useless. From then on brains were going to be as important as brawn as they introduced frustration as the Big Guy’s first real weakness.

We jump all the way to the 10th Anniversary issue for ‘The Origin of Superman’ (from Superman #53, July-August 1948, by Bill Finger & Wayne Boring) as new editor Mort Weisinger began expanding the mythology by introducing the heritage of lost Krypton to a new generation of fans.

From Superman #123 (August 1958) ‘The Girl of Steel’ by Otto Binder, Dick Sprang & Stan Kaye trialed the concept of a distaff Supergirl as part of a three-chapter yarn involving a magic wishing totem (the other two segments ‘The Lost Super-Powers’ and ‘Superman’s Return to Krypton’ are also included and just as impressive) whilst ‘Clark Kent’s College Days’ (#125, October-November 1958) by Jerry Coleman & Al Plastino) began an occasional series of ‘Untold Tales of Superman’ by revealing how, when and why Superboy became the Man of Steel.

From the same year Action Comics #241 provided ‘The Key to Fort Superman’ an intriguing puzzle-play featuring Batman, written by Coleman and illustrated by Boring & Kaye, whilst another major player in the Metropolis Marvel’s canon debuted in the  captivatingly tragic 3-part novel ‘The Battle With Bizarro’ (Superboy #68, October 1958) by Binder & George Papp. That Silver Age also introduced the bewitching mermaid Lori Lemaris in ‘The Girl In Superman’s Past’ – another Untold Tale of Superman by Finger & Boring which originally surfaced in Superman #129 (May, 1959).

By the late 1950s Superman had settled into an ordered existence. Nothing could really hurt him, nothing would ever change, and thrills seemed in short supply. With the TV show cementing the action, writers increasingly concentrated on supplying wonder instead. ‘Superman’s Other Life’ by Binder, Boring & Kaye (Superman #132, October 1959) shows what might have happened if Superman had grown up on an unexploded Krypton, courtesy of Batman and the projections of a super-computer.

This momentous costumed drama is counter-pointed by the deliciously whimsical and bizarre mystery romp ‘The Night of March 31st‘ (Binder, Curt Swan & Sheldon Moldoff from Superman #145, May 1961) and the compelling epic ‘The Death of Superman’ from #149 (November 1961, by Siegel, Swan & George Klein – possibly the most effective art-team ever to work on the Man of Steel).

They also illustrated Leo Dorfman’s ‘The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue!’ (Superman #162, July 1963) possibly the most influential tale of this entire sub-genre and a perfect response to the tragedy of the previous saga: a startling utopian classic so well-received that decades later it influenced and flavoured the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman continuity for months.

When Julie Schwartz took over the editorial duties in 1970, he decided to shake things up with spectacular results, but before then a brilliant but off-the-wall inclusion here is ‘The Forever People!’ (Forever People #1, February 1971, by Jack Kirby, Vince Colletta and infamously, Al Plastino who was engaged to redraw Superman’s head), a stunning tour de force of wonderment which introduced “The King’s” Fourth World universe to fans, instantly changing the way DC Comics were perceived and how the medium could be received.

Schwartz breathed fresh life into the Superman franchise when his editorial changes took hold in 1971, spearheading controversial and socially challenging material unheard of since the feature’s earliest days. From Superman #247 (January 1972) comes a groundbreaking yarn by Elliot Maggin, Swan and Murphy Anderson which questioned the nigh-omniscient hero’s effect on human development and self-reliance in ‘Must There be a Superman?’

Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons produced one of the last great Superman stories before the great upheaval of Crisis on Infinite Earths with ‘For the Man Who Has Everything’ (Superman Annual #11, 1985) as the alien despot Mongul attacks the Man of Tomorrow with the most insidious of weapons and not even Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman are enough to turn the tide…

When DC Comics decided to rationalise and reconstruct their continuity with Crisis on Infinite Earths they used the event to regenerate their key properties. The biggest shake-up was Superman and it’s hard to argue that change was unnecessary. The old soldier was in a bit of a slump, but he’d weathered those before. So how could a root and branch overhaul be anything but a marketing ploy that would alienate real fans for a few fly-by-night chancers who would jump ship as soon as the next fad surfaced?

Superman’s titles were cancelled/suspended for three months, and boy, did that make the media sit-up and take notice – for the first time since the Christopher Reeve movie. But there was method in this corporate madness…

Man of Steel, written and drawn by John Byrne and inked by Dick Giordano stripped away vast amounts of accumulated baggage and retuned the hero to the far from omnipotent edgy but good hearted reformer Siegel and Shuster had first envisioned. It was a huge and instant success, becoming the industry’s premiere ‘break-out’ hit and from that overwhelming start Superman returned to his suspended comic-book homes with the addition of a third monthly title premiering in the same month.

The miniseries presented six complete stories from key points in Superman’s career, reconstructed in the wake of the aforementioned Crisis and ‘The Secret Revealed’ (by Byrne & Terry Austin) comes from the second issue of that remodeled, Post-Crisis, Superman (July 1986) ending this glorious compendium with satisfactory circularity by revealing just how differently the new Lex Luthor thought and worked: a new kind of arch villain for the Reagan era…

Every generation has its own favourite Superman. This selection has the potential to make a fan reconsider just which one that might be. It’s probably wiser to just love them all…
© 1940-1986, 1987 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: The Cult


By Jim Starlin & Bernie Wrightson, with Bill Wray (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-93028-985-0

After the runaway success of The Dark Night Returns proved that fans wanted tales with darker, edgier heroes and would stump up big bucks to get them, the floodgates opened for miniseries released on expensive Baxter paper in book-like formats. DC quickly complied, following up with this deceptively effective thriller by two of the industry’s biggest fan-favourites: Jim Starlin and master of horror Bernie Wrightson, ably augmented by colour artist Bill Wray.

The story begins with ‘Ordeal’ as the Batman, experiencing mind-bending hallucinations and irresistible cravings to commit bloody slaughter, slowly awakes to the realisation that he has lost track of how long he has been a has been a prisoner of the army of hoboes and gutter-trash who have taken over Gotham City’s worst streets. They are being organised and led by a charismatic quasi-priest named Deacon Blackfire.

Moreover the dark messiah claims to be an immortal medicine man of the lost Miagani people who ruled the land before the White Men came…

Batman knows what Deacon is doing: using standard techniques developed by cult-leaders and spies to break down resistance. Pain, isolation, starvation and drugs are all employed to break down resistance and individuality: but he just can’t stop his iron resolve crumbling under the assault. It is more than any man can bear…

In flashbacks that heighten the aura of confusion, the story unfolds: the city’s worst predators were being found beaten or dead and the worst areas of the metropolis suddenly became safer to live in. But the good news soon took a dark turn. Fewer thugs were worked over and dumped but far more went missing with only bloodstains and silence to mark their passing. Batman followed the clues into the sewers… and wasn’t seen again.

Crime levels are down: thieves, pimps and muggers too scared to venture out. Commissioner Gordon and Robin know it’s too good to be true, but public opinion is hugely supportive of Deacon Blackfire’s campaign…

And deep underground the Dark Knight is crumbling as the army of derelicts find they have a taste for blood. Already their definition of what constitutes valid targets has slipped…

In ‘Capture’ the broken bat becomes one of Blackfire’s army but he balks at murder and instead escapes into the night, rambling and incoherent as he fights off the drugs and conditioning. When Blackfire moves to seize control of the entire city, assassinating police and officials, Batman is recaptured, but this time Robin follows him to the grim world of tunnels and terror. The dynamic duo make a break for freedom, but end up deeper underground and find horrifying proof of the depths of the Deacon’s terrible madness…

‘Escape’ sees the hobo army amok in the streets as Robin struggles to break the broken Batman out of the sewer citadel and Gordon finds impossible evidence that Deacon’s claims to immortality might not be spurious. However total anarchy has taken hold with citizens being casually murdered in their homes and when Gordon is gunned down the National Guard declares Martial Law. With Batman mentally incapacitated, when the military units are massacred the federal government pulls out, abandoning Gotham and its helpless population to Blackfire’s disciples…

With the situation hopeless Robin and Alfred can only wait to see if Bruce Wayne will ever be able to become Batman again. After a harrowing reexamination of his history and purpose, a determined, angry and far Darker Knight emerges with new tactics, harsher weapons and an unshakable hunger to destroy Blackfire and take back his city…

Batman: the Cult is a grim and powerful thriller that emphasises the psychological rather than physical or technical attributes of the most popular superhero in the world, but the saga is still packed with tension and suspense peppered with spectacular action set-pieces. Fierce, frenzied and ferociously fun, this is a long neglected slice of Batmania ripe for reappraisal.

© 1988, 2003, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Death of the New Gods


By Jim Starlin, Matt Banning, Art Thibert & Mark McKenna (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-871-3

When Jack Kirby returned to the home of Superman in 1970 he brought with him one of the most powerful concepts in comicbook history. The epic grandeur of his Fourth World saga grafted a whole new mythology over the existing DC universe and blew the developing minds of a generation of readers.

Starting in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, where he revived the 1940s kid-team The Newsboy Legion, introduced large-scale cloning in the form of The Project and hinted that the city’s gangsters had extraterrestrial connections, Kirby then moved on to the Forever People, New Gods and Mister Miracle; an interlinked triptych of projected finite length titles that together formed an epic mosaic.

Those three groundbreaking titles introduced two rival races of gods, dark and light, risen from the ashes of a previous Armageddon to battle forever …and then their conflict spread to Earth…

Kirby’s concepts, as always, fired and inspired his contemporaries and successors. The gods of Apokolips and New Genesis became a crucial keystone of DC continuity and integral foundation of that entire fictional universe, surviving the numerous revisions and retcons which periodically bedevil long-lived comics fans.

Many major talents dabbled with the concept over the years and a host of titles have come and gone starring Kirby’s creations. Recently, however as part of yet another attention-grabbing crossover Crisis publishing event, it was decided to kill them all off.

This compendium from 2007 collects the 8 issue miniseries that ostensibly finished Kirby’s wildest imagining – but of course this is comics and nobody dies forever…

The tale begins after a number of events around the planet, wherein denizens of Apokolips and New Genesis were found dead with gaping holes in their chests.

In ‘So Begins… the End’ Daily Planet reporter Jimmy Olsen investigates the bloody murder of paraplegic war veteran Willie Walker, unaware that the case is connected to the recent death of New God Lightray. In fact Walker was the host of the Black Racer, physical embodiment of Death for all Fourth World Deities.

Meanwhile God of Inquiry Metron has detected something subtly wrong with Reality and Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips and privy to secret data, makes fresh, bold plans… As Scott (Mister Miracle) Free and his beloved wife Big Barda play hero on Earth, in the Supertown floating above New Genesis the war god Orion makes a grisly discovery – another mighty warrior with his chest ripped open. On Earth Scott turns his back for a second and Barda too dies…

In ‘Celestial Genocide’ the New Gods take stock and realise that a vast number of superbeings have been cut down without a hint of a struggle and that the death toll is rising exponentially. Back on Earth, the Justice League begins to investigate the death of one of their own. Scott and Superman bring Barda’s body to New Genesis, where Orion is pressing for an attack on Darkseid, the obvious culprit for the deaths.

After conferring with Metron, Superman and Scott follow Orion to Apokolips, whilst the leader of New Genesis Takion goes with the aged Himon to examine the Cosmic Source Wall – a colossal barrier that separates the universe from the creation force that birthed reality…

‘Armageddon Tarantella’ sees the trio of heroes as they battle their way through the Darkseid’s forces, only to realise that the god-killer has been decimating Apokoliptians with equal ease… and the pace of deicide is increasing…

‘Bearing Witness’ follows Superman, Orion and Scott as they pursue the notion that the killer is someone they know, but each successive suspect turns up dead. Chaos and panic are building and whilst the gentle gods of New Genesis seem frightened but fatalistically resigned, the terrors of Apokolips are determined to fight and kill before they eventually succumb…

In the interim Metron has used his time-spanning capabilities to discover the brains if not the hands behind the slaughter, subsequently learning the true history of the Gods and meeting the source of all the horrors…

In ‘Mistakes’ Apokolips heavies Kalibak and Mantis lead an invasion of New Genesis with only Superman and Orion to face them, after which the war-god makes the ultimate sacrifice to draw out the mysterious and seemingly unstoppable killer in the sixth chapter ‘Sacrifice’…

The end draws close in ‘Seraphic Reunification’ as with only a handful of New Gods remaining Superman and Scott Free face the killer only to discover he has been an impostor all along. Whilst they are occupied in cataclysmic combat Darkseid finally makes his move attacking the mastermind behind the plot, determined to wrest ultimate power from the God-killer in ‘The End’…

Jim Starlin is the “go-to guy” for both cosmic storylines and major character deaths (see The Death of Captain Marvel or Batman: A Death in the Family for examples) and his introduction explains how and why he was pressured into writing the end to Jack Kirby’s ultimate comics achievement; and for my money nobody else alive could have done the job justice. It ain’t Kirby, but at least the deed was done with understanding and respect for what The King stood for.

A spectacular murder mystery, full of metaphysical flourishes and human depth with eye-popping action and even a few left-field surprises along the way, The Death of the New Gods is a fitting end to The Fourth World… at least until some editor decides that the concept is too valuable to leave alone…

This volume, which is strictly for fans of superhero tales and au fait with the minutiae of the original series (which absolutely ought to be read first…) also contains a stunning cover gallery by Starlin & Matt Banning and includes the variant cover by Ryan Sook.

© 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Deathstroke the Terminator: Full Cycle


By Marv Wolfman, Steve Erwin, Willie Blyberg & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-93028-982-9

Deathstroke the Terminator is a flamboyant cover identity for mercenary/assassin Slade Wilson who underwent an experimental procedure whilst an American Special Forces soldier. He was invalided out but later developed fantastic physical abilities that augmented his military capabilities.

He debuted in New Teen Titans #2 (1980), assuming a contract that had been forfeited when neophyte costumed assassin The Ravager died trying to destroy the kid heroes. The deceased would-be killer was actually Grant Wilson, a troubled young man trying to impress his dad. Slade Wilson’s other children would also be the cause of much heartache and bloodshed over the years…

Deathstroke was an implacable Titans foe for years, instigating many complex schemes to destroy the team before a weary d̩tente was achieved, all of which led to the graphic novel under review here. In recent years Deathstroke has returned to the path of pure Рif complex Рvillainy.

This rather hard to find volume comes from that grim-and-gritty era when ruthless vigilantes and killers-with-a-code-of-honour were market leaders, so a villain-turned (anti)hero in the vein of Marvel’s Punisher was sound business sense. When the Terminator got his own title (with covers by the Punisher’s Mike Zeck, all included here at no extra cost to you) it instantly became a smash-hit: issue #1 even had a second printing – an extremely rare event back in the early 1990s.

Full Cycle opens with a detailed prose account of the events which led to the release of Deathstroke from Editor Jonathan Peterson before beginning the non-stop action with the contents of The New Titans #70 (October 1990) a fill-in issue by Marv Wolfman, Steve Erwin & Willie Blyberg, that abandoned the titular teens for an entire adventure of their greatest enemy as he undertook a highly suspicious contract in a war-torn South American nation.

‘Clay Pigeons’ found Wilson and his faithful aide-de-camp Wintergreen hired to keep a charismatic peace-making rebel leader alive whilst the republic of San Miguel negotiated a longed for lasting solution to decades of apartheid and revolution. But if every clique and faction needed Jorge Zaxtro alive who could be behind all the brutal attempts on his life?

That tale preceded ‘Titans Hunt’ an extended epic which heavily involved Deathstroke wherein the tragic mercenary was forced to kill his other son Joe – the hero code-named Jericho – but you’ll need to look elsewhere for that epic. Full Cycle commences in the aftermath of that tragedy as a deeply shaken Slade Wilson retreats to his home in Africa to lick his psychic wounds.

‘Assault!’ opens the campaign with a devastating mercenary attack on a train transporting nuclear material through Germany. At the same time a helicopter raid almost kills Wilson and Wintergreen. Later, we gain insight into Deathstroke’s past when the mercenary visits the bedside of a survivor of the railway raid – his estranged wife Adeline.

She was his army trainer, schooling him in exotic battle techniques before the secret experiment augmented his combat abilities. They found love and married but when Slade’s arrogance and neglect resulted in their son Joey being maimed by a terrorist dubbed The Jackal Addie shot her husband in the face and divorced him.

As she slowly recovers in a German hospital she has no idea that Slade has just killed her beloved boy…

Slade has never stopped loving Addie and begins hunting her attackers; reviewing his own past too since whoever attacked her is also targeting his few remaining loved ones. Even so, there must also be some other motive in play…

‘Kidnapped!’ builds on the frantic action and piles the bodies high as Slade closes in on the brutal and all-pervasive enemy, only briefly detouring to rescue a young boy abducted to force his mother to reveal her husband’s munitions secrets. Meanwhile somebody claiming to be the long-dead Ravager is slaughtering both Wilson and Adeline’s people, with a trail leading to the rogue middle-Eastern state of Qurac.

And then the CIA get involved…

‘War!’ sees Deathstroke go bloodily berserk in the strife-torn desert kingdom as its new ruler General Kaddam seeks to consolidate his power whilst demonstrating to the West that Qurac is still the World’s principal exporter of Terror. As his alliance with the Ravager looks set to shake the entire globe, a clandestine group hidden within the CIA makes their own move and their target too, is Slade Wilson…

After a near fatal clash with Kaddam and Ravager, Terminator is captured. Bombastically breaking out he drags the gravely wounded Wintergreen out of the Middle East as the scene shifts to Washington DC where the stolen Plutonium is being readied for use. ‘…Bombs Bursting in Air!’ sees the terrorists turn on each other before Wilson becomes an unlikely and utterly secret saviour of the free world after a savage final clash with the new Ravager…

Meanwhile, the recuperating Adeline has learned of her son’s death …but not yet who killed him…

The first Deathstroke epic ends rather inconclusively in ‘Revelations and Revolutions’ as writer Wolfman and artists Erwin and Blyberg laid plot threads for succeeding story-arcs. Slade is visiting Adeline in the aftermath of atomic plot when the covert agents within the CIA stage an all-out armed assault on the hospital where both she and the faithful Wintergreen are recovering. Never a dull moment…

Complex, violently gratuitous and frenetic, the tale is sometimes too complicated for its own good, but nevertheless the pace, varied exotic locations and all-out, human-scale action (like a James Bond film where everyone wears masks and tights) result in a frenzied rollercoaster of gory fun for any fan of blockbuster adventure. Deathstroke the Terminator is a perfectly-produced slice of lost DC history that still holds up and could easily find new devotees if given the chance…
© 1990, 1991, 1992 DC Comics Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Conan: The Witch Queen of Acheron – Marvel Graphic Novel #19


By Don Kraar, Gary Kwapisz, Art Nichols & others (Marvel)
ISBN: 0- 87135-085-8

During the 1970′s the American comicbook industry opened up after more than fifteen years of calcified publishing practices maintained by the scrupulously-censorious oversight of the self-inflicted Comics Code Authority: A body created by publishers to police their product and keep it palatable and wholesome after the industry suffered their very own McCarthy-style witch-hunt during the early 1950s.

One of the first genres to be revisited was Horror/Mystery comics and from that came the creation of a new comics genre. Sword & Sorcery stories had been undergoing a prose revival in the paperback marketplace since the release of soft-cover editions of Lord of the Rings in 1954 and, by the 1960s, revivals of the two-fisted fantasies of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Otis Adelbert Kline, Fritz Lieber and others had been augmented by many modern writers such as Michael Moorcock and Lin Carter who kick-started their prose careers with contemporary versions of man against mage. The undisputed overlord of the genre was Robert E. Howard with his 1930s pulp masterpiece Conan of Cimmeria.

Gold Key had opened the field in 1964 with Mighty Samson, DC dabbled with Nightmaster in Showcase #82 -84 in 1969 whilst Marvel tested the waters with barbarian villain Arkon in Avengers #76 (April 1970) before going all-out with short tale ‘The Sword and the Sorcerers’ in horror anthology Chamber of Darkness #4.

Written by Roy Thomas and drawn by fresh-faced Marvel find Barry Smith, the tale introduced Starr the Slayer – who bore no small resemblance to the Barbarian in waiting…

Conan the Barbarian debuted with an October 1970 cover-date and despite some early teething problems, including being cancelled and reinstated in the same month, the comic-strip adventures of Howard’s primal hero were as big a success as the prose yarns that led the global boom in fantasy and the supernatural. Conan became a huge success: a pervasive brand that saw new prose tales, movies, a TV series and cartoon show, a newspaper strip and all the other paraphernalia of success.

Here the peripatetic Soldier-of-Fortune is enjoying some boisterous down-time in the flesh-pots of Belverus when the gold he’s spending like water comes to the attention of wicked Prince Tarascus. The coins are over three thousand years old and the ambitious ruler wants to know how a common sell-sword got hold of artefacts from a dead civilisation famed as the wealthiest in the world.

After spectacularly beating up most of the Prince’s Guard Conan passes out dead drunk and awakens in the infamous Tower of Pain. The Prince absolutely refuses to believe Conan’s tale of finding the gold on a dying man, who left them to him in return for a decent burial, so to avoid further torture Conan drags Tarascus, his hot-blooded wife Demetzia and a cohort of soldiers to the site of the long-dead city state in search of the fabled Treasure Mines of Acheron’s legendary Queen Xaltana…

Simply looking for a chance to escape, the Cimmerian inadvertently leads the rapacious army of gold-grubbers to a remote mountain range where they encounter a very unfriendly lost tribe of savages who claim to be the last Acheronians, who ambush and decimate Tarascus’ force.

Conan and the survivors’ headlong flight leads them to the lost mine which miraculously also houses the mythic Tomb of Xaltana, but Tarascus’ jubilation at the potential wealth of the discovery is marred by his advisors and engineers’ suspicions. Who ever heard of tomb that was locked and barred from the outside, as if to hold something in rather than keep robbers out…?

Nobody can safely tell a Prince of Nemedia what do however, so with the still-captive Conan in tow the tomb is broached… and all Hell hungrily breaks loose…

The Witch Queen of Acheron is classic rip-roaring pulp fare, chockfull of all the visceral elements that first propelled the barbarian to popular acclaim, written by veteran fantasy scripter Don Kraar (best known as the writer of the Tarzan newspaper strip for thirteen years as well as TRS properties for DC and a number of Hyborian epics for Marvel) and realised by artists Gary Kwapisz & Art Nichols, coloured by Julianna Ferriter and lettered by Janice Chiang.

Stuffed with two-fisted action, dripping with tension and loaded with the now-mandatory scantily-clad damsels, this worldly-wise, delightfully cynical horror-thriller produced in the European Album format (crisp and glossy white pages 285mm x 220mm rather than the customary US comicbook proportions of 258 x 168mm), perfectly revives the raw energy of the original tales and will provide untrammelled pleasures for lovers of the genre and fans of the greatest hero of the Hyborian Age.
© 1985 Conan Properties, Inc. Conan the Barbarian and all prominent characters are TM Conan Properties Inc. All Rights Reserved.