Category: Graphic Novels

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Mighty Marvel Masterworks – The Fantastic Four volume 2: The Micro-World of Doctor Doom


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, with Dick Ayers, Steve Ditko, George Klein, Sol Brodsky, Joe Sinnott & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-3436-1 (PB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Properly Ultimate Comics Creations… 10/10

I’m partial to controversy so we’re starting off by declaring that Fantastic Four #1 is the third most important American comic book in the industry’s astounding history. Just ahead of it are The Brave and the Bold #28, which brought superhero teams back via the creation of the Justice League of America, and always at the top Showcase #4, which introduced The Flash and therefore the Silver Age. Feel free to disagree…

After a troubled period at DC Comics – National Periodicals as it then was – and a creatively productive but disheartening time on the poisoned chalice of the Sky Masters newspaper strip Complete Sky Masters of the Space Force), Jack Kirby settled into his job at the small outfit that used to be publishing powerhouse Timely/Atlas.

He generated mystery, monster, romance and western material in an industry and marketplace he suspected was ultimately doomed but, as always, did the best job possible. That quirky genre fare is now considered some of the best of its kind ever seen.

However, his fertile imagination couldn’t be suppressed for long and when the JLA caught the readership’s attention, it gave him and writer/editor Stan Lee an opportunity to change the industry forever.

Depending upon who you believe, a golfing afternoon led publisher/owner Martin Goodman ordering his nephew Stan to try a series about a group of super-characters like the one DC was doing. The resulting team quickly took fans by storm. It wasn’t the powers: they’d all been seen since the beginning of the medium. It wasn’t the costumes: they didn’t have any until the third issue.

It was Kirby’s compelling art and the fact that these characters weren’t anodyne cardboard cut-outs. In a real and a recognizable location – New York City – imperfect, raw-nerved, touchy people banded together out of tragedy, disaster and necessity to face the incredible.

In most ways, The Challengers of the Unknown (Kirby’s prototype partners-in-peril project at National/DC) laid all the groundwork for the wonders to come, but the staid, almost hide-bound editorial strictures of National would never have allowed the undiluted energy of the concept to run all-but-unregulated. The Fantastic Four was the right mix in the right manner at the right moment and we’re all here now because of it. These stories are timeless and have been gathered many times before, so I’m digressing to talk about format here.

The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line was designed with economy in mind. Classic tales of Marvel’s key creators and characters re-presented in chronological order have been a staple since the 1990s, but always in lavish, expensive collectors editions. These new books are far cheaper, with some deletions like the occasional pin-up. They are printed on lower quality paper and – crucially – are physically smaller, about the dimensions of a paperback book. Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but they’re perfect for kids and if you opt for the digital editions, that’s no issue at all…

Fantastic Four #1 (bi-monthly and cover-dated November 1961, by Lee, Kirby, George Klein & Christopher Rule) was crude: rough, passionate and uncontrolled excitement. Thrill-hungry kids pounced on it. That ground-breaking premier issue saw maverick scientist Reed Richards, his fiancé Sue Storm, close friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s bratty, teenaged brother in an ill-starred private space-shot after Cosmic rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding… and mutated them all into beings unlike any others.

Richards’ body became elastic, Sue became invisible, Johnny Storm could turn into living flame and poor, tragic Ben devolved into a shambling, rocky freak. Despite these terrifying transformations, before long the quartet had become the darlings of the modern age: celebrity stalwarts alternately saving the world and shamefully squabbling in public…

This second full-colour compendium spans February to November 1963, collecting Fantastic Four #11-20 plus the first Annual, and we open sans preamble with more groundbreaking innovations as FF #11 offers two short stories instead of the usual book-length yarn. ‘A Visit with the Fantastic Four’ provides a behind-the-scenes travelogue and examination of our stars’ pre-superhero lives, after which ‘The Impossible Man’ proves to be a baddie-free, compellingly comedic tale about facing an unbeatable foe.

FF #12 featured an early example of guest-star promotion as the team are required to help the US army capture ‘The Incredible Hulk’: a tale packed with intrigue, action and bitter irony as the man-monster was actually being framed by a Russian spy for acts of sabotage. It’s followed by an even more momentous and game-changing episode.

‘Versus the Red Ghost and his Incredible Super Apes!’ is another cold war thriller pitting the heroic family against a Soviet scientist in the race to reach the Moon: a tale notable both for the moody Steve Ditko inking of Kirby’s artwork (replacing adroit Dick Ayers for one glorious month) and the introduction of the oxygen-rich “Blue Area of the Moon” as well as the omnipotent, omnipresent cosmic voyeurs called The Watchers…

As the triumphant Americans rocket home, issue #14 touts the return of ‘The Sub-Mariner and the Merciless Puppet Master!’ – with one vengeful fiend made the unwitting mind-slave of the other. The romantic triangle of Reed, Sue and Namor added lustre and tantalising moral ambivalence to the mighty Sea King who was to become the company’s other all-conquering antihero in months to come…

That epic is followed by ‘The Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android!’. wherein a chilling war of intellects between driven super-scientists results in a cerebral duel and yet all-action clash with plenty of room for smart laughs to leaven the drama. There’s a pin-up extra this time: a candid group-shot of the entire team.

Fantastic Four #16 explores ‘The Micro-World of Doctor Doom!’ in a spectacular romp guest-starring new hero Ant-Man whilst also offering a Fantastic Four Feature Page outlining the powers and capabilities of elastic Mister Fantastic. Despite his resounding defeat, the steel-shod villain promptly returned with more infallible, deadly traps a month later in ‘Defeated by Doctor Doom!’ Of course, they actually weren’t and soon sent the sinister tyrant packing…

The shape-shifting aliens who challenged the team in their second adventure returned with a new tactic in #18 as the team tackle an implacable foe equipped with their own powers. ‘A Skrull Walks Among Us!’ is a potent prelude to greater, cosmos-spanning sagas yet to come…

The unused cover to Fantastic Four Annual #1 precedes the one that actually fronted one of the greatest tales in comics history. The colossal summer special comic book was a spectacular 37-page epic by Lee, Kirby & Ayers as – after finally reuniting with their sea-roving prince – the armies of Atlantis invade New York City and the rest of the world in ‘The Sub-Mariner versus the Human Race!’

A monumental tale by the standards of the time (and today!), the saga saw the FF repel the initially overwhelming undersea invasion through valiant struggle, brilliant strategy and technological innovation, as well as providing the hidden history of the secretive Homo Mermanus race and even an origin for the surly Sub-Mariner,,,

Nothing was really settled except a return to the original status quo, but the thrills are intense and unforgettable…

Also included are rousing pin-ups and fact file features. Interspersed by ‘A Gallery of the Fantastic Four’s Most Famous Foes!’ (potent pin-ups of The Mole Man, Skrulls, Miracle Man and Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner). You can also enjoy by learning in ‘Questions and Answers about the Fantastic Four’: a diagrammatic trip ‘Inside the Baxter Building’, before the rogue’s gallery resumes with pin-ups of Doctor Doom, Kurrgo, Master of Planet X and The Puppet Master, and a bemusing short tale ‘The Fabulous Fantastic Four meet Spider-Man!’ This is an extended re-interpretation of the first meeting between the two most popular Marvel brands, extrapolated from the premiere issue of the wallcrawler’s own comic. Pencilled this time by Kirby, the dramatic duel was graced by Ditko’s inking to create a truly novel and compelling look.

One last dose of villainous mug-shots highlights The Impossible Man, Incredible Hulk, Red Ghost and his Indescribable Super-Apes and The Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android, before we return to the regular run as – cover-dated October 1963 – Fantastic Four #19 introduced another remarkable, top-ranking super-villain after the quarrelsome quartet travel back to ancient Egypt and become ‘Prisoners of the Pharaoh!’

This time-twisting tale has been revisited by so many writers that it’s considered one of the key stories in Marvel Universe history; introducing a future-Earth tyrant who would evolve into three overarching time menaces: Kang the Conqueror, Rama Tut AND Immortus…

The vintage wonderment concludes here with one last universe-rending, keystone foe debut with the threat again overcome by brains not brawn. FF #20 (again preceded by another Kirby cover that didn’t make the final cut) shows how ‘The Mysterious Molecule Man!’ briefly menaces New York before being soundly outsmarted and removed…

Some might argue that these yarns might be a little dated in tone, but they these are still classics of comic story-telling illustrated by one of the world’s greatest talents approaching his mature peak. Fast, frantic fun and a joy to read or re-read, this comprehensive, joyous introduction/reintroduction to these immortal characters is a wonderful reminder of just how good comic books can and should be…
© 2021 MARVEL.

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Black Panther: Visions of Wakanda


By Jess Harrold, Rodolfo Muraguchi & Adam Del Re with Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas & John Buscema, Don McGregor, Rick Buckler, Billy Graham & Gene Colan, Ta-Nehisi Coates & Brian Stelfreeze and many & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1302919382 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Categorically Picture Perfect… 9/10

Celebrated as the first black superhero in American comics and one of the first to carry his own series, the Black Panther’s popularity and fortunes have waxed and waned since the 1960s when he first attacked the FF (in Fantastic Four #52; cover-dated July 1966) as part of an elaborate plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father.

T’Challa, son of T’Chaka was revealed as an African monarch whose hidden kingdom was the only source of a vibration-absorbing alien metal upon which the nation’s immense wealth was founded. Those mineral riches – derived from a fallen meteor which struck the continent in primeval antiquity – had powered his country’s transformation into a technological wonderland. That tribal wealth had long been guarded by a hereditary feline-garbed champion deriving physical advantages from secret ceremonies and a mysterious heart-shaped herb that ensured the generational dominance of the nation’s warrior Panther Cult.

After being a steadfast if minor Marvel stalwart for decades, the character and his world finally achieved global stardom thanks to a series of stunning movie interpretations and is now an assured icon of planetary consciousness…

With accumulated years of superb comics material to fall back on, the company would be crazy not to use that in reprints and overviews like this one: creating a resource for new fans to consult and veterans to relish again.

They’re not crazy and this spiffy landscape edition – written by Jess Harrold and designed by Rodolfo Muraguchi & Adam Del Re – came out a couple of years ago. With a sequel in cinemas and the Holiday Season looming, it’s only sensible to point you in this direction if you’re seeking gift suggestions…

Following Introduction ‘Dear Brian…’ by 1990s scripter Christopher J. Priest, what follows is a series of informative, contextualising – but accessibly fun – essays, dotted with candid behind-the-scenes illustrations (like Kirby’s original concept of “The Coal Tiger”), quotes from contributing creators and artwork from classic issues and storylines: tracing the entire career of the Hero/Heroes who have steered Wakanda through Marvel Comics history…

It starts with Chapter One and ‘Enter… The Black Panther!’, with the aforementioned debut and early days supplemented by printed pages, and original art by Kirby & inker Joe Sinnott, highlighting not just the man but especially the astonishingly futuristic kingdom he ruled. As well as origins, there are introductions to concepts and villains who would shape the destinies of the characters and country…

After treading the guest star route, T’Challa got his first regular gig as Captain America’s replacement on the World’s Mightiest Supergroup. ‘Avengers Assemble!’ reprises those walk-ons and traces the solitary hunter’s career as part of a team, with excerpted art and covers from Kirby, John Buscema, Frank Giacoia, Sal Buscema, Rich Buckler, George Tuska, John Romita Sr., Arthur Adams, Marcos Stein and Phil Noto.

‘Panther’s Rage’ reveals how the King faced an existential threat in his homeland as, after policing the Marvel Universe, the summer of 1973 saw the Black Panther finally advance to solo star in his own series. In Jungle Action #6-18, Don McGregor scripted an ambitious epic of love, death, vengeance and civil war: inventing from whole cloth and Kirby’s throwaway notion of a futuristic jungle, the most unique African nation ever imagined…

With art from Rich Buckler, Klaus Janson and Billy Graham, the chapter highlights the unique structure and page design of what is arguably one of comics’ earliest graphic novels. Also provided are the first maps of Wakanda and hits of McGregor’s follow-up tale.

The Panther versus the Klan shifted focus from war stories to crime fiction, replacing exotic Africa for America’s poverty-wracked, troubled, still segregated-in-all-but-name Deep South for a head-on collision with centuries of entrenched and endemic racism. The multi-layered tale ended but did not conclude as Jungle Action was cancelled before its time…

Two months later, under the auspices of returning creative colossus Jack Kirby, a wholly different kind of Black Panther enjoying utterly unrelated adventures was launched, and ‘The Return of the King’ celebrates a new era of excitement.

Kirby’s return proved to be controversial. He was never slavishly wedded to tight continuity and preferred, in many ways, to treat his stints on titles as a “Day One”. His commitment was to wholesome, eye-popping adventure, breakneck action and breathless, mind-boggling wonderment. Combined with his absolute mastery of the comic page and unceasing quest for the Next Big Thrill, it made for a captivating read, but found little favour with those readers fully committed to the minutiae of the Marvel Universe.

With Black Panther #1, what they got was a rollercoaster ride of classic Kirby concept-overload as the Hereditary King of a miraculous Lost Kingdom gallantly pursued fabulous time machines, fought future men and secret samurai clans, thwarted the plots of super-rich artefact stealers and foiled schemes to nuke his hidden homeland, usurp his rule and even consume his faithful subjects. Kirby even introduced an entire, unsuspected extended Royal Family: a Panther clan who would become an intrinsic part of the new mythology.

All this is dynamically revealed in a wave of wonder from Kirby before ‘Where Prowls the Panther?’ explores the 1980s – and a relative dry spell for the hero. Primarily back as a guest star, T’Challa nevertheless completed the “The Klan” saga, revealed a childhood adventure with Storm of the X-Men and closed the decade with a politically-charged miniseries confronting Apartheid. Art contributors here include Jerry Bingham, Al Milgrom, John Byrne, Bob McLeod, Walter Simonson, Steve Rude and Denys Cowan.

Chapter Six examines ‘Panther’s Quest… Panther’s Prey’ when, – as the 1990s began – South Africa’s morally bankrupt ruling system was buckling and became an acceptable target in many creative fields. McGregor returned after years away from the comics mainstream, and with artists Gee Colan & Tom Palmer, spun a shocking tale of intolerance as an epic serial in 25 chapters (published in fortnightly anthology Marvel Comics Presents #13-37, from February to December1989).

One of the most thought-provoking mainstream comics tales ever released, Panther’s Quest reveals how T’Challa infiltrated totalitarian South Africa in search of Ramonda, the beloved stepmother he had believed dead for decades. His hunt for her uncovered conspiracy and abduction, whilst placing him at the forefront of the battle for survival daily endured by the black majority. The saga added pressure to the ever-growing Anti-Apartheid movement in comics and western media, by examining not only the condition of racial inequality but also turning a damning eye on sexual oppression.

It was followed by prestige Limited Series Panther’s Prey, set in Wakanda and again examining the dichotomy of tradition versus progress that had underpinned Panther’s Rage. McGregor’s chilling script was transformed by the art of Dwayne Turner, as seen here in numerous pages and covers from the series, counterpointed by excepts from 2018’s reprise of the tale illustrated by Daniel Acuña from Black Panther Annual #1.

As seen in ‘The Marvel Knight’, T’Challa’s story took a huge leap when Christopher Priest utterly revamped and modernised the hero – and Wakanda – in an epically transformational run. How and why is supported by sketches, designs, finished art and covers by Mark Texiera, Joe Quesada, Joe Jusko, Mike Manley, Sal Velluto, Norm Breyfogle, Andy Kubert, Jim Calafiore, Kyle Hotz, Tomm Coker. Bruce Timm and more.

Screenwriter Reginald Hudlin’s tenure is covered next with ‘Who is the Black Panther?’ as the king takes a wife and full charge of his country in truly perilous circumstances, just as the secret history of Wakanda is revealed at last…

This epic period of change and revelation was supported by many artists and included here are John Romita Jr., Janson, Esad Ribi?, Fran Cho, David Yardin, Scot Eaton, Olivier Coipel, Leinil Francis Yu, Michael Turner, Joseph Michael Linsner, Trevor Hairsine, Mike Deodato Jr., Gary Frank, Nico Henrichon, Simone Bianchi, Arthur Suydam, Cafu, Alan Davis, Francis Portela, Jason Pearson, Jefté Palo and Denys Cowan.

Tribal wealth had always been guarded by hereditary feline champions deriving physical advantages from secret ceremonies and a mysterious heart-shaped herb. This ensured the generational dominance of Wakanda’s warrior Panther Cult. However, in recent years, Vibranium made the country a target for increasing subversion and incursion. After clashes with Namor the Sub-Mariner and an attack by Doctor Doom, T’Challa was forced to render all earthly Vibranium inert, defeating the invader but leaving his homeland broken and economically shattered.

During that cataclysmic clash, the King’s flighty, spoiled brat half-sister Shuri took on the mantle of Black Panther, becoming clan and country’s new champion whilst her predecessor struggled with the disaster he had caused and also recuperated from near-fatal injuries.

Despite initially being rejected by the divine Panther Spirit, Shuri proved a dedicated and ingenious protector, serving with honour until she perished defending Wakanda from alien invader Thanos. When T’Challa resumed his position as warrior-king, one of his earliest tasks was resurrecting his sister. She had passed into the Djalia (Wakanda’s spiritual Plane of Memories) where she absorbed the entire history of the nation from ascended Elders. On her return to physicality, she gained mighty new powers as the Ascended Future…

That’s addressed in rapid succession via ‘Shuri… the Black Panther!’, ‘The Most Dangerous Man Alive!’ and ‘King of the Dead’ – with art from J. Scott Campbell, Ken Lashley, Paul Neary, Paul Renaud, Will Conrad, Romita Jr., Mike Del Mundo, Francesco Francavilla, Simone Bianchi, Andrea Silvestri, Patch Zircher, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Alex Maleev, Adam Kubert, Tom Raney, Steve Epting, Deodato Jr., Jim Cheung, Christian Ward, Valerio Schiti, Kev Walker, Esad Ribi? and Kenneth Rocafort – before ‘A Nation Under Our Feet’ shows how writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and artists Brian Stelfreeze imagined the concept.

That 2016 reinvention again tackled revolution in Wakanda, but also addressed democracy versus autocracy, science against magic, women’s rights, freedom of education and body autonomy whilst telling astounding powerful heroic tales. Stelfeeze’s art and designs are augmented by art and commentary from Chris Sprouse, Wilfredo Torres, Leonard Kirk, Paolo & Joe Rivers and Janie McKelvie & Matthew Wilson.

The series sparked a renaissance and flurry of spin-off titles and ‘The World of Wakanda’

examines that expanded universe, and utilises art by Alitha E. Martinez, Stelfreeze, Jen Bartel, John Cassaday, Butch Guice, Sprouse, Juan Ferreya, Ed McGuiness, Davis, Deodato Jr., Sam Spratt, Leonardo Romero and Kirbi Fagan.

The Panther’s tale pauses here with Coates final storyline ‘The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda’ as T’Challa abandoned Earth to investigate a vast cosmic tyranny somehow based on his beloved country: a mystery gradually unfolded through the art of Stelfreeze, Acuña and Jen Bartel before we close with ‘Portraits of a Panther’ and a treasure trove of more incredible images that have resulted from the characters and stories preside here. This includes work and commentary by Bianchi, Mike McKone, Alex Ross, Kirby, Skottie Young, Coipel, Neal Adams, Yasmine Putri, Larry Stroman, Acuña, Mike Perkins, Sanford Greene, Jamal Campbell, Inhyuk Lee, Sophie Campbell, Tradd Moore, Natacha Bustos and Ribi?.

Emotionally engaging, powerfully inspirational, and cathartically thrilling, the fictive realm of the Panther People is one that every fan of thrills and lover of wonder should enjoy. This spectacular visual feast is certainly the only guidebook you should need…
© 2020 MARVEL.

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Spirou & Fantasio volume 18: Attack of the Zordolts


By Yoann & Vehlmann, designed by Fred Blanchard, colored by Hubert & translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-022-7 (Album PB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Manic Mirth and Mad Melodrama… 9/10

Spirou (which translates as both “squirrel” and “mischievous” in the Walloon language) was created by French cartoonist Françoise Robert Velter AKA Rob-Vel for Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis in response to the phenomenal success of Hergé’s Tintin at rival outfit Casterman.

Soon-to-be legendary weekly comic Le Journal de Spirou launched on April 21st 1938 with a rival red-headed lad as lead feature in an anthology which bears his name to this day. The eponymous hero was a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed in the Moustique Hotel – a sly reference to the publisher’s premier periodical Le Moustique. His improbable adventures with pet squirrel Spip gradually evolved into far-reaching, surreal comedy dramas.

Spirou and his chums have spearheaded the magazine for most of its life, with a phalanx of truly impressive creators carrying on Velter’s work, beginning with his wife Blanche “Davine” Dumoulin who took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939. She was assisted by Belgian artist Luc Lafnet until 1943, when Dupuis purchased all rights to the property, after which comic-strip prodigy Joseph Gillain (Jijé) took the helm.

In 1946, his assistant André Franquin assumed the creative reins, gradually ditching the well-seasoned short gag vignettes in favour of epic adventure serials. He also expanded the cast, introducing a broad band of engaging regulars and eventually creating phenomenally popular magic animal Marsupilami.

Franquin was followed by Jean-Claude Fournier who updated the feature over nine stirring adventures tapping into the rebellious, relevant zeitgeist of the times: offering tales of environmental concern, nuclear energy, drug cartels and repressive regimes.

By the 1980s the series seemed outdated and lacked direction. Three different creative teams alternated on the feature, until it was overhauled and revitalised by Philippe Vandevelde (writing as Tome) and artist Jean-Richard Geurts AKA Janry. They adapted, referenced and in many ways returned to the beloved Franquin era.

Their sterling efforts revived the floundering feature’s fortunes, generating 14 wonderful albums between 1984 and1998. As the strip diversified into parallel strands (Spirou’s Childhood/Little Spirou and guest-creator specials A Spirou Story By…), the team on the core feature were succeeded by Jean-David Morvan & José-Luis Munuera. Then Yoann & Vehlmann took over the never-ending procession of amazing adventures…

Multi-award-winning French comics author Fabien Vehlman was born in 1972, began his comics career in 1996 and has been favourably likened to René Goscinny. He’s best known for Green Manor (illustrated by Denis Bodart), Seven Psychopaths with Sean Phillips, Seuls (drawn by Bruno Gazzotti and available in English as Alone), Wondertown with Benoit Feroumont and Isle of 1000,000 Graves with Jason.

He assumed the writing reins on Spirou and Fantasio in collaboration with Yoann. beginning with the book on review here – 2010’s Spirou et Fantasio – Alerte aux Zorkons.

Yoann Chivard was born in October 1971 and was drawing non-stop by the age of five. With qualifications in Plastic Arts and a degree in Communication from the Academy of Fine Arts in Angers, he became a poster and advertising artist whilst dabbling in comics. His creations include Phil Kaos and Dark Boris for British Indie publications Deadline and Inkling, Toto l’Ornithorynque, Nini Rezergoude, La Voleuse de Pere-Fauteuil, Ether Glister and Bob Marone and he has contributed to Trondheim & Sfar’s Donjon. In 2006, Yoann was the first artist to produce a Spirou et Fantasio one shot Special. It was scripted by Vehlmann…

Cinebook have been publishing Spirou & Fantasio’s exploits since 2009, alternating between the various superb reinterpretations of Franquin and earlier efforts from the great man himself. When Jijé handed Franquin all responsibilities for the strip part-way through Spirou et la maison préfabriqué (LJdS #427, June 20th 1946), the new guy ran with it for two decades; enlarging the scope and horizons until it became purely his own. Almost every week fans would meet startling new characters such as staunch comrade and rival Fantasio or crackpot inventor and Merlin of mushroom mechanics Pacôme Hégésippe Adélard Ladislas de Champignac – The Count of Champignac…

Spirou and Fantasio became globe-trotting journalists, travelling to dangerously exotic places, uncovering crimes, exploring the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of exotic arch-enemies such as Fantasio’s deranged and wicked cousin Zantafio and that maddest of scientists, Zorglub.

This old school chum and implacable rival of Champignac is an outrageous Bond movie-flavoured villain who constantly targets the Count. A brilliant engineer, his incredible machines are far less dangerous than his mesmerising mind-controlling “Zorglwave” and an apparently unshakable desire to conquer Earth and dominate the solar system from a base on the Moon…

This tale opens with the seemingly reformed plotter stealing some of Champignac’s most incredible mushroom-based miracles and triggering a massive mutational event in and around the bucolic generally placid hamlet of Champignac-in-the-Sticks.

The first Spirou and Fantasio hear of it is a desperate cell phone call from Pacôme, who has just reappeared after weeks amnesiac and missing. Driving back from a promotional tour, our heroes race across country only to find the placid region is now an armed camp, with soldiers in biohazard gear brutally decontaminating villagers.

The little valley has become a monstrous alien jungle dominated and transformed by weird and incredible plant/animal/fungus creatures, but neither they nor the military – who are keen on immediately nuking the geographical atrocity – can stop our dedicated reporters sneaking in to find their friends.

On locating the Count and his two new chums – hot Swedish science students Astrid and Lena – the lads learn that the brave new world is an accident and hideous side effect of Zorglub’s latest scheme, and that he’s sorrier than anyone at the state of the local environment.

He’s certainly keen enough on fixing the problem…

Other than the fact that everything wants to eat everything else, and that many of the human locals seem comfortable and accustomed to the changes, the main problem seems to be a rapidly proliferating and aggressive form of beast man. The jungle is now a superfast evolutionary Petri dish with everything in it part of an arms race to out-compete all rivals. These brutish bipeds have for some reason evolved immunity to Zorglub’s Zorglwave by having oodles of aggression and not enough intellect. They are ravening, unstoppable Zordolts…

Not sure what’s happening, but resolved to stop the Army bombing the village before foiling Zorglub, everybody works frantically together and succeeds in part one of the plan, but when the jests are repelled and the Zordolts stopped by Champignac’s newly-liberated dinosaur they find the villain vanished.

By the time Champignac has worked his mushroom magic in reverse and restored most of the status quo, the Master of the Z ray is long gone. If our heroes could look up high enough, they might see him well on his way to the moon with Astrid in Lena in tow and about to set his Great Masterwork in motion…

To be Continued…

Rocket-paced, action-packed, compellingly convoluted and with just the right blend of perfectly blending helter-skelter excitement and sheer daftness, Attack of the Zordolts is a terrific romp to delight devotees of easy-going adventure.

Stuffed with an astounding array of astonishing hi-tech spoofery, riotous chases and gazillions of sight gags and verbal ripostes, this exultant escapade is a fabulous fiesta of angst-free action and thrills. Readily accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with beguiling style and seductive energy and wit, this is pure cartoon gold, truly deserving of reaching the widest audience possible.

Buy it for you, get another for the kids and give copies to all your friends…
Original edition © Dupuis, 2010 by Vehlmann, Yoann, Blanchard & Hubert. All rights reserved. English translation 2021 © Cinebook Ltd.

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Essential Rampaging Hulk volume 1


By Doug Moench, John Warner, Walter Simonson, Alfred Alcala, Alex Niño, Jim Starlin, Keith Pollard, Tony DeZuñiga, Herb Trimpe, Sal Buscema, Ron Wilson, Bill Sienkiewicz, Rudy Nebres, Bob McLeod & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2699-7 (TPB)

The Incredible Hulk was Marvel’s second “superhero” title, although technically Henry Pym debuted earlier in a one-off yarn in Tales to Astonish #27 (January 1962). However, he didn’t become a costumed hero until the autumn, by which time Ol’ Greenskin was not-so-firmly established.

The Hulk crashed right into his own comic book and – after some classic romps by Young Marvel’s finest creators – crashed right out again. After six bi-monthly issues the series was cancelled and Lee retrenched, making the man-monster a perennial guest-star in Marvel’s other titles (Fantastic Four #12, Amazing Spider-Man #14, The Avengers from #1 and so forth) until such time as they restarted his own exploits in the new “Split-Book” format. The Jade Giant landed in Tales To Astonish where Ant/Giant-Man was rapidly proving to be a character who had outlived his time.

It all began in The Incredible Hulk #1 (cover-dated May 1962) which saw puny atomic scientist Bruce Banner sequestered on a secret military base in the desert, and perpetually bullied by bombastic commander General “Thunderbolt” Ross as the clock counted down to the world’s first Gamma Bomb test. Besotted by Ross’s daughter Betty, Banner endured the General’s constant jibes as the clock ticked on and tension increased. During the final countdown, Banner spotted a teenager lollygagging at Ground Zero and frantically rushed to the site to drag the boy away…

Rick Jones was a wayward but good-hearted kid. After initial resistance he let himself be pushed into a safety trench, but just as Banner was about to join him The Bomb detonated…

Miraculously surviving the blast, Banner and the boy were secured by soldiers, but that evening as the sun set the scientist underwent a monstrous transformation. He grew larger and his skin turned a stony grey…

In six simple pages that’s how it all started, and no matter what any number of TV, movie or comic book retcons and psycho-babble re-evaluations would have you believe, it’s still the best and most primal take on the origin. A good man, an unobtainable girl, a foolish kid, an unknown enemy and the horrible power of destructive science unchecked. It was clearly also the idea for a later iteration where continuity was rolled right back to the era of the first run: set in the Sixties and revealing previously “untold tales”…

In December 1976 that’s how the retrospective spin-off series began. Now a literal and figurative Marvel powerhouse, the Jade Juggernaut was awarded a monochrome magazine free of Comics Code supervision to augment his many in-continuity appearances. The Rampaging Hulk took the controversial tack of telling stories of what Banner, Jones and the Big Guy did next during the further formation of the nascent Marvel Universe…

Keeping up the theme, early issues featured tales of monster-hunter Ulysses Bloodstone, but you’ll need to look elsewhere for them…

The Hulk stories were set in 1963, after his own first series foundered, and – following a terse retelling of the classic origin cited above – scripter Doug Moench and illustrators Walt Simonson & Alfredo Alcala channelled primal Jack Kirby via a rather heavy grey-tone wash in a wild yarn of flying saucer sightings over Rome. The portentous sightings heralded invasion and, by also referencing the company’s early Sixties monster mag triumphs, the second-generation creators tacitly acknowledged their target audience: a supposedly older magazine readership who were presumably many of the same kids who had bought the original fantasy masterpieces…

Moench’s scripts and tone were wryly tongue-in-cheek, offering constant visual and verbal comedic touches whilst channelling early Marvel continuity and the tropes of the Sixties, if only as seen from the distant perspective of ten years after…

The magazine phenomenon had only a minor impact and effect on the Hulk’s four-colour adventures at that time, but, as always, the fury-fuelled fugitive was alternately aided or hunted by General Ross and met a variety of guest-star heroes and villains…

Opening gambit ‘The Krylorian Conspiracy’ saw Banner and Jones teaming up with alien rebel Bereet: a pacifist techno-artist hiding on Earth and seeking to prevent her bellicose shape-shifting people conquering humanity. The militaristic, monster-obsessed Krylorians – having failed to recruit the Gamma Goliath – attack Rome whilst enlisting the aid of The Hulk’s first super-foe: renegade Russian mutant The Gargoyle. Of course, they intend to betray him at the first opportunity…

It all ends up in a colossal clash with lots of spectacular smashing, with Bereet, Jones, Banner and The Hulk all resolved to stop the invasion at any cost…

Embellisher Alcala switched to a drybrush technique for the second issue as ‘And Then… The X-Men’ finds the wanderers in Paris, contesting more Krylorian shapeshifters, robots and crazy creatures, and subsequently attracting the attention of a certain band of mutant hunting teenagers. After the customary violent misunderstandings, the clandestine outsiders join forces with the Hulk to stop the razing of the City of Lights…

Another early foe returned as #3 shifted the action to the South of France where ‘The Monster and the Metal Master’ sees the treacherous Krylorians dupe and exploit another alien – a manic metal-moulding malcontent who appeared in the last issue of the original Hulk comic – into piloting their new weapon (“The Ferronaut”), whilst Rick, Bruce and Bereet seek to save little boy Spirou from being abused by his guardian and hotel-running employer. When they also find the invaders, all hell breaks loose and another Krylor base gets rocked to rubble…

The Rampaging Hulk #4 diverts from the overarching plot arc as Jim Starlin & Alex Niño take the tormented Green Giant to another time and place situated on ‘The Other Side of Night!’ Scripted by John Warner from Starlin’s plot, the tale reveals how extraterrestrial wizard Chen K’an abducts Banner and places his intellect into the Hulk’s body to make him the ideal comrade in a quest to defeat evil and save his dying, demon-infested world. The plan succeeds, but as is always the case with mages, Chen K’an has been less than honest about his ultimate intentions…

Back on Earth and his own era, the Hulk next meets his undersea antithesis in an epic 2-part continued tale from Moench, Keith Pollard, Alcala & Tony DeZuñiga. Beginning with ‘Lo, the Sub-Mariner Strikes!’ wherein Krylorians use manufactured sea monsters to assault Atlantis and provoke Prince Namor’s retaliation on Rome. The scheme explosively escalates as Sub-Mariner rescues and is captivated by Bereet, provoking a far from chivalrous response from the Hulk…

During the monumental battle that follows, Bereet is wounded and taken by Namor to Atlantis. The ever-enraged Hulk and Rick follow for cataclysmic climax ‘…And All the Sea With Monsters!’ arriving just in time to duel Namor in his own element until another Krylorian undersea attack puts them on the same side… for a moment…

Throughout the series, Bereet’s semi-sentient techno-creations had played a major role in aiding their efforts but in #7 a typical Hulk tantrum unleashes an inimical spirit inhabiting her bag of tricks and spawning a terrifying ‘Night of the Wraith!’ (Moench, Pollard & Jim Mooney) before the end of the reprised era begins with #8’s ‘A Gathering of Doom!’ – illustrated by Hulk veteran Herb Trimpe & Alcala.

The Hulk’s biggest boost after his debut title was cancelled came as he fought, joined, co-founded and left The Avengers: a saga that took up the first five issues of the new team title. Here that debt is acknowledged in another 2-parter as the Krylorians at last attack America and the valiant trio go after them.

With the shapeshifters impersonating recently emergent hero Iron Man, and the Hulk battling the doppelganger, other new champions are drawn to the conflict. However, when Thor, Ant-Man, The Wasp and the real Iron Man converge, another wrong conclusion is leapt to and the “Pre-Vengers” turn on the big green angry monster…

The shattering finale is by Moench, Sal Buscema & Rudy Mesina as all-out chaos explodes when the assembled titans clash. It’s exactly to wrong moment for the Krylorian fleet to distract everybody with a screaming attack, but that’s what they do, accidentally uniting the suspicious heroic strangers who join forces to ‘To Avenge the Earth’ and repel the invasion…

Originally released as newsprint magazine, The Rampaging Hulk abruptly transformed (and became the testing ground of the company’s “Marvelcolor” process) when a hugely successful TV show starring the Green Goliath took off. It saw the periodical upgraded to slicker paper stock. Sadly, that’s not apparent in this monochrome collection, but I’m sure that one day we’ll see the tales as they were meant to be…

The obliquely continuity-adjacent storylines were instantly shelved and the narrative tone adjusted to address the needs of casual curious readers and television converts. Although guest stars were dropped the scenario shifted back to present day as a solitary emerald outcast wandered the world looking for a cure or at least a little peace…

Supposedly a more sophisticated product, the book also offered a home to Moon Knight, who moved in for a series of darkly modern tales also outside standard superhero parameters.

Only a taste of those is included here, but before those begin, #10 of retitled The Hulk! magazine offers ‘Thunder of Dawn’ with Moench, Ron Wilson & Ricardo Villamonte depositing Hulk/Banner in the Pacific west and working in a local mine.

A born trouble-magnet, Banner takes up with Dawn – a whistle-blower investigating kickbacks and environmental abuses but his assistance only triggers tragedy, murder and a blockbusting battle against colossal digging machines…

The tale is divided by a brief prose vignette by David Anthony Kraft & Dwight Jon Zimmerman with spot illustrations by Ernie Chan. ‘The Runaway and the Rescuer!’ channels a key moment of a classic Universal Pictures Frankenstein film as the lonely misunderstood monster befriends a little girl with tragic and unexpected consequences…

Issue #11 (October 1978) continues the scary star’s picaresque perambulations with restless vagrant Banner joining a travelling circus, only to find his cherished anonymity threatened by ‘The Boy Who Cried Hulk!’ (inked by Fran Matera). When the abused kid’s plight coincides with a string of suspicious fires, Banner’s new friends (such as strongman Bruno) turn against him, and the Hulk is again unleashed…

Moench, Wilson & Chan return to Bruno in #12 as ‘The Color of Hate!’ sees the humiliated performer – now obsessed by the mysterious green brute – sign up for a science experiment and steal an exoskeleton to destroy his personal bête noire (or is that vert?)

The Hulk! #13 finds Banner flying to Zurich after a newspaper headline hints at a possible cure for The Hulk. Inked by Bob McLeod, ‘Season of Terror’ starts with the Green Goliath bringing down the airliner an increasingly stressed Banner was a passenger on – and that was before hijackers took control of the cockpit…

The enraged colossus redeems himself by (mostly) saving it from crashing into an alp with a minimum of fatalities, but that only means the terrorists are able to make hostages of the survivors. As a wary, weary Banner tries to keep everyone safe until rescue parties arrive, he is reminded again what true monsters look and act like…

With Rudy Nebres inking Wilson, the Swiss tragedy resolves into a spark of hope as the fugitive scientist finds ‘A Cure for Chaos!’ in the chateau/schloss of Dr. Hans Feldstadt. Sadly, not all researchers are as altruistic as Banner and the hope is extinguished amidst a wash of unleashed gamma rays and a flurry of huge flying fists…

This initial compilation concludes with Alcala back for #15 (June 1980) to ink Wilson on ‘The Top Secret’. Banner is again in his southwestern desert stomping grounds, and headed for his old subterranean secret lab, resolved to cure himself but the region is now home to bunch of crazed militarists seeking to gain a technological head start on the Soviet Union, telemetrically planting good American patriots in fearsome Cybortron warbots…

When they stumble across and even capture The Hulk, the researchers think they’ve found a way to upgrade the tech even further, but it’s never a good idea to let Banner or The Hulk near your machines or plans…

Just for once, the full contents of this issue are included in the form of a notional crossover between headliner and back-up star. As stated above, Moon Knight was building his reputation in the rear of this title and here is part of a single encounter told from two perspectives. Moench, Sienkiewicz & McLeod explored ‘An Eclipse, Waning’ with millionaire playboy Steven Grant indulging a neglected passion for astronomy by visiting an old pal in the countryside on the night of a total lunar occultation. The event brings brutal burglars out of the woodwork and Moon Knight is required to stop them, but, bizarrely, at the height of the eclipse, during the moment of utter darkness, the Lunar Avenger encounters something huge, monstrous and unbeatable, barely escaping with his life.

Answers come in ‘An Eclipse Waxing’ as on that same night, fugitive Bruce Banner stumbles into burglars breaking into an isolated house. Helplessly transforms into the Hulk just as total night falls, the monster briefly encounters an unseen foe of uncanny capabilities…

With painted covers by Ken Barr, Earl Norem, Starlin, Val Mayerik and Bob Larkin, plus pin-ups and frontispiece from occasional series ‘Great moments in Hulk History’ revisited and reprised by Moench and artists Ed Hannigan, John Romita, Jr. & Nebres, Al Milgrom, Chan, Terry Austin, Rich Buckler, Simonson, Mike Zeck and Gene Colan, this tome concludes with a house ad and a bargain bonus.

In regular monthly comic book The Incredible Hulk #269 (cover-dated March 1982 and by Bill Mantlo &Sal Buscema) it was revealed that the entire tranche of lost 1960s stories and Krylorian Saga was actual an art installation by alien artis Bereet. That 5-page sequence is included here to denote the character finally joining the official Marvel continuity…

The Hulk is one of the most well-known comics characters in the business, thanks in great part to his numerous assaults on the wider world of both large and small screens. The satisfyingly effective formula of radioactively-afflicted Bruce Banner wandering the Earth seeking a cure for his gamma-transformative curse whilst constantly pursued by authoritarian forces struck a particular chord in the late 1970s as the first live action TV show captured the hearts and minds of the viewing public. You can relive or at last sample that simplistic but satisfying situation just by stopping here for little while before inevitably moving on…
© 1976, 1977, 1978, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice


By Len Strazewski, John Broome, Paul Levitz, Rick Burchett, Grant Miehm, Mike Parobeck, Tom Artis, Frank McLaughlin, Frank Giacoia, Arthur Peddy, Bernard Sachs, Joe Staton & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0744-0 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Golden Ageist Evergreen Enjoyment… 8/10

Released in 2021 to celebrate their 80th anniversary, here’s yet another DC core concept given fresh wings by a modern movie. If you can find it, this hardback/digital delight is good old fashioned fun and will make a perfect present for you or yours…

After the actual invention of the comic book superhero – the Action Comics debut of Superman in 1938 – the most significant event in the industry’s history was the combination of individual sales-points into a group.

Thus what seems blindingly obvious to us with the benefit of four-colour hindsight was proven: consumers couldn’t get enough of garishly-hued mystery men, and combining many characters inevitably increased readership. Plus, of course, a mob of superheroes is just so much cooler than one – or one-and-a-half if there’s a sidekick involved…

The creation of the Justice Society of America utterly changed the shape of the budding business and – technically – All Star Comics #3 (cover-dated Winter 1940-1941, released in December 1940) was the kick-off. However, in that landmark, the assembled heroes merely had dinner whilst recounting recent cases and didn’t actually go on a mission together until #4 (cover-dated April 1941).

With the simple notion that mighty mystery men hung out together, history was made and it wasn’t long before they started working together…

However, when WWII ended, superheroes gradually declined, and most companies had shelved them by 1950. The plunge in popularity led to a revival in genre-themed titles and characters, and it was a stripped-down team (Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom, Black Canary, Dr. Mid-Nite and Wonder Woman) who battled on in contemporarily tailored crime and science fiction sagas before the title abruptly changed into All Star Western with #58.

It would take a second age of superheroes to revive them, this time as the champions of a parallel universe dubbed Earth Two…

Gathered here is a near-forgotten limited series concerning the latter days of the team’s Golden Age that originally ran in Justice Society of America #1-8 (April to November 1991), augmented by the last tale of the original era as seen in All-Star Comics #57, (February/March 1951), plus a turning point tale from Adventures Comics #466 (December 1979). They are preceded a sparkling, informative and appreciative Foreword by Golden Age aficionado and super scripter Mark Waid.

The miniseries – subtitled Vengeance from the Stars! – that comprises the majority of this tome was scripted by journalist and educator Len Strazewski (Speed Racer, The Flash, Phantom Lady, Starman, The Fly, The Web, Prime, Prototype, Elven) and illustrated by a rotating team of artists, opening as Rick Burchett illustrates ‘Beware the Savage Skies’. Here recently-retired mystery man Ted Knight – AKA Starman – is attacked in his private New Mexico observatory by incredible astral energy beings. Broken and dispirited, he is then enslaved by an old enemy who purloins his wondrous gravity rod before luring Jay (Flash) Garrick into a deathtrap that results in power outages across America…

The plot thickens with ‘The Sack of Gotham’ (art by Grant Miehm) as radio and television executive Alan Scott seeks to keep the lights on in his city whilst Black Canary prowls the darkened streets deterring looters and career criminals. Distracted by a museum break-in, she finds herself punching way, way up as undead monster/moron Solomon Grundy and a gang of determined bandits help themselves to ancient Egyptian artefacts at the behest of a hidden client. By the time Scott arrives as Green Lantern, the Canary has been thrashed and captured, leaving him to battle an animated star constellation dubbed Sagittarius…

Burchett inks the astoundingly talented Mike Parobeck in #3’s ‘Dead Air’, as the star thing blacks out Gotham and Scott struggles to stop it. Complications occur when Grundy – afflicted with an obsessive hatred of Green Lantern – forgets the orders from the mystery Machiavelli to attack his emerald enemy. Far away, Ted Knight learns that his gleeful foe intends to conquer Earth by eradicating modern technologies and attitudes and replace them with primordial magic and tyranny…

Tom Artis & Frank McLaughlin limn #4 as ‘Evil of the Ancients’ sees reincarnating Egyptian warrior Hawkman uncovering star-themed neolithic treasures in his day job as archaeologist Carter Hall. These findings expose the history and provenance of the constellation creatures, but also trigger the arrival of another…

Despite aerial valour and the US Army’s best efforts, deadly colossus Andromeda storms off with a clutch of atom bombs and only the sudden arrival of The Flash prevents utter disaster. The clash resumes in ‘Double Star Rising!’ by Parobeck & Burchett, as arcane knowledge and modern tech savvy combine to trace the stellar plunderer and the incredible pyramid of power it is constructing. When the heroes try to destroy it they are confronted with a second energy horror but find a way to defeat both at once, compelling the man behind the plot to finally take a personal hand in the fight…

Far across the country the Lantern and the Canary escape captivity in ‘Danger Flies the Skies’ (Artis & McLaughlin), thanks to some timely aid from valiant sidekick Doiby Dickles, and track west after the museum artefacts in time to reinforce Flash and Hawkman in ‘The Return of the Justice Society’ (art by Miehm & Burchett). Redeemed and reinspired, Knight once more takes up his costumed identity to end the villain’s plot in ‘Battle of the Stars!’

In the heady aftermath, the JSA ponder what the next decade will bring, unaware that political conspiracies, public paranoia and a wave of intolerance masquerading as social conformity was waiting to change the world in ways no one could anticipate…

In continuity terms, this was technically the antepenultimate adventure of the JSA, with the rousing romp slyly heralding mood swings in the heartland of Democracy. It is thus smartly supplemented by the team’s final appearance of the Golden Age (in All-Star Comics #57) and a chilling, thematically-aligned codicil from Adventures Comics #466.

Written by John Broome and illustrated by Frank Giacoia, Arthur Peddy & Bernard Sachs, All-Star Comics #57 was the JSA’s last hurrah as ‘The Mystery of the Vanishing Detectives!’ pitted them against criminal mastermind The Key. When he abducted Earth’s greatest criminologists in advance of a spectacular robbery spree, the superheroes were called in to solve the case and prevent an impending catastrophe. It took a lot of time and effort, but the JSA never fail…

The fallow period and gradual return of the JSA was a major success of fan power in the 1960s, but that decade too ended with superheroes on the wane. During the torrid and turbulent 1970s, many of the comics industry’s oldest publishing ideas were finally laid to rest. The belief that characters could be “over-exposed” was one of the most pernicious and long-lasting (although it never hurt Superman, Batman or the original Captain Marvel), garnered from years of experience in an industry which lived or died on that fractional portion of pennies derived each month from the pocket-money and allowances of children which wasn’t spent on candy, toys or movies.

By the end of the 1960s, comic book costs and retail prices were inexorably rising and a proportion of titles – especially the newly revived horror stories – were consciously being produced for older readerships. Nearly a decade of organised fan publications and letter writing crusades had finally convinced publishing bean-counters what editors already knew: grown-ups avidly read comics too. Moreover, they happily spent more than kids and craved more, more, more of what they loved.

Explicitly: If one appearance per month was popular, extras, specials and second series would be more so. By the time Marvel Comics Wunderkind Gerry Conway left The House of Ideas, DC was willing and ready to expand its variegated line-up with some oft-requested fan-favourite characters. Paramount among these was the Justice Society of America, the first comic book super-team and a perennial gem whose annual guest-appearances in the Justice League of America and other superhero titles had become a beloved tradition and treat.

Thus in 1976 writer/editor Conway marked his second DC tenure (he had first broken into the game writing horror shorts for Joe Orlando) by reviving All Star Comics with #58.

In 1951, the original title transformed overnight into All Star Western with the numbering running for a further decade for the home of cowboy crusaders like Strong Bow, The Trigger Twins, Johnny Thunder and Super-Chief. Now, set on Earth-Two, and in keeping with the editorial sense of ensuring a series be relevant to young readers too, Conway reintroduced the veteran team, leavened with a smattering of teen heroes forming a contentious, generation gap-fuelled “Super Squad”…

Augmented by Robin (a JSA-er since the mid-1960s in Justice League of America #55), Sylvester Pemberton/Star-Spangled Kid and a busty young thing who rapidly became the feisty favourite of a generation of growing boys: Kara Zor-L – Power Girl. Closing this collection is a short piece as she and fellow newcomer Huntress discuss how the Golden Age ended…

Taken from massive 68-page anthology title Adventure Comics 466 where Paul Levitz & Joe Staton delivered a pithy history lesson exposing the reason why the team vanished at the beginning of the 1950s, ‘The Defeat of the Justice Society!’ shows how the American Government cravenly betrayed their greatest champions. Set during early days of the McCarthy era anti-communist witch-hunts, a sham trial provoked the mystery men into voluntarily withdrawing from public, heroic life. There they stayed until the costumed stalwarts of Earth-One started the whole Fights ‘n’ Tights scene all over again…

These exuberant, rapid-paced and imaginative yarns perfectly blend the naive charm of Golden Age derring-do with cynically hopeful modern sensibilities. Here you will be reassured that no matter what, in the end our heroes will always find a way to save the day. These are classic tales from simpler times and a glorious example of traditional superhero storytelling at its finest: fun, furious and ferociously engaging, excitingly written and beguilingly illustrated. No Fights ‘n’ Tights fan should miss these marvellous sagas.
© 1951, 1979,1991, 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: Strange Attractors


By Gail Simone, Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning, John Byrne & Nelson (DC Comics)
ISBN 978-1-4012-0917-9 (TPB)

Here’s a Superman collection tailored to the fight fan, as the mighty Man of Steel takes on a bevy of baddies in terse tales designed as an antidote to an over-abundance of multi-chapter epics. I’m focussing on it here primarily because it’s also a complication- and continuity-light compendium featuring movie Man of the Moment Black Adam…

Created by Otto Binder & C.C. Beck, Black Adam/Teth Adam debuted in The Marvel Family #1, cover-dated December 1945. There he was revealed as the power-corrupted predecessor of current magical superhero (the Original…) Captain Marvel. The Egyptian relic’s reign of evil ended with his death at the end of the story…

You can’t keep a good villain down though, and when the Golden Age Marvel was revived in the 1970s as Shazam!, the ancient antithesis eventually returned to bedevil the heroes. He even survived the continuity changing chaos of Crisis on Infinite Earths and numerous subsequent reboots.

For present purposes, the following is the backstory new readers should access…

Once upon a time Billy Batson was a little boy living on the streets of Fawcett City. His archaeologist parents had left him with an uncle when they went on a dig to Egypt. They never returned, his little sister vanished and Billy was thrown out so his guardian could steal his inheritance.

Sleeping in a storm drain and selling newspapers for cash, the indomitable lad grew street-smart and resilient, but when a shadowy stranger bade him follow into an eerie subway, the boy somehow knew it was all okay. Soon after, he met the wizard Shazam, who bestowed upon him the powers of six ancient Gods and Heroes.

Thus began an astounding career as wholesome powerhouse hero Captain Marvel. Billy eventually found lost sister Mary and shared his nigh-infinite power with her, as they both subsequently did with disabled friend Freddy Freeman.

They fought and eventually reached an accommodation with militant progenitor Black Adam, who was the wizard’s first superhuman champion, reborn in the body of Theo Adam – a distant descendant who had murdered the Batson’s parents. When a succession of crises arose, everything changed.

Immortal Shazam was murdered, Billy was exiled to the transcendent Rock of Eternity as his replacement and Freddy became a new Captain Marvel; his mighty gifts supplied by a completely different pantheon of patrons.

Meanwhile, Black Adam had found peace and redemption in the love of ascendant nature goddess Isis …until she was cruelly taken from him. The worst tragedies befell poor Mary. Deprived of her intoxicating powers she became an addict without a fix… until soul-sick Adam shared his dark energies with her. His corrupted spirit fatally tainted the once-vibrant innocent…

During his lost phase, the Egyptian warrior vacillated between hard-line hero and outright menace: joining the Justice Society of America but also arbitrarily administering his old testament brand of judgement whenever he felt the need…

This selection of Superman stories comes from Action Comics #827-828, and #830-835 (spanning July 2005 through March 2006). The run of was originally interrupted for the “Sacrifice” storyline (and collected as a graphic novel of the same name), so the volume reconvenes with the episode after…

First up is eponymous 2-part saga ‘Strange Attractors’ and Strange Attractors part 2 – Positive Reinforcement’: a battle against the incredibly bad and quite mad Master of Magnetism Dr Polaris, aided, if not abetted, by the resurrected reprobate Black Adam, currently holding a high position in supervillain army The Society…

Following the aforementioned Sacrifice pause, we reconvene with #830’s ‘The Great Society’ as the Man of Tomorrow tackles Dr. Psycho. The old Wonder Woman villain is a physically stunted, sadistic psychologist with the power to control minds. When he arrives in Metropolis intent on mischief, Superman finds that every citizen is a foe and hostage at the same time.

Once again, Black Adam is on hand to render ambivalent assistance as ‘Black & Blue’ (a Villains United tie-in) sees Adam reassess his role before it all devolves into the obligatory fist fight.

Scripted by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning ‘Old Ghosts’ sees Devil-surrogate Lord Satanus and the Spectre use the city as a phantasmal Ground Zero next, and, after refereeing that little cataclysm, Superman finds himself the target of a psychic and spiritual assault from old JLA foe The Queen of Fables in ‘Depths’ and ‘Awake in the Dark’ – with Norm Rapmund, Larry Stucker, Marc Campos, & Oclair Albert joining Nelson in applying inks to John Byrne’s pencils..

The furious ferocious fun concludes in a duel with Livewire, that perky punkette with absolute control of all things electrical who contracts ‘A Contagion of Madness’ with Gail Simone, John Byrne and inker Nelson delivering potent, punchy and self-contained mini-classics.

Not overly complicated, concentrating on exhilaration and excitement, but still managing to sustain some tense sub-plots involving Lois Lane-Kent and the rest of the venerable supporting cast, these stories are just plain fun. It’s a shame that the experiment doesn’t seem to have caught on …
© 2005, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Ultimate Comics Thor


By Jonathan Hickman, Carlos Pacheco & Dexter Vines & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5187-6 (HB/Digital edition)

Distressing times never come singly. Yet again I’m spreading unhappy news as another comics great leaves us way too young. Our condolences go out to his family and we share the sadness of the millions of devoted fans now deprived of future glories. Now let’s look again at one of his most remarkable, influential and neglected works and ponder what’s gone… 

Carlos Pacheco Perujo (14th November 1961 – 9th November 2022) was born in Spain but found his greatest fame in the USA drawing the cream of the superhero crop.

After learning his craft creating covers, pin-ups, posters and transition art for Spanish reprints of Marvel Comics – and inventing his own Spanish superheroes – Pacheco got his big break illustrating Dark Guard for Marvel UK in 1992. Before long, his cleanly effective, realistic visualisations graced numerous Ultimate Comics and X-Men titles and spin-offs; The Fantastic Four; Captain America; The Inhumans; Superman; Superman/Batman; Flash; Green Lantern and Justice Society of America.

Despite indie triumphs such as Arrowsmith and Astro City, the writer/artist will always be remembered for his mainstream superhero virtuosity and landmark limited series like Final Crisis and Avengers Forever, and Original Graphic Novels such as JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice.

In 2000, when Marvel retooled their traditional continuity into a separate, darker, grittier universe more relevant to the video game-playing, movie-watching 21st century readers, they started with the most popular characters and only gradually added analogues for the established characters and trademarks.

Even when the Avengers finally appeared in this continuity – as the Ultimates – readers were only sparingly brought up to speed on the assorted back-stories of these alternative heroes and villains – especially a wild, hammer-wielding warrior who couldn’t decide if he was Thorlief Golmen, mental patient, psychiatric nurse and anti-American radical protester or Thor, ancient Norse god of Thunder and battle.

After many struggles against his malicious, reality-warping brother Loki, incalculably mighty Thor is found here as a patient under the care of the European Union Super Soldier program. When their doctors call in linguistic expert/psychotherapist Donald Blake, the true and fantastic story of the patient’s origins unfold…

Eons ago, Asgard was a fantastic place of adventure and glory; an ideal paradise for the young warrior-brothers Balder, Thor and Loki to fight, carouse and enjoy life. But even gods grow older and apart…

The time was just prior to the start of World War II. Nazi Occult scientist Baron Zemo leads an army against Asgard, having already allied himself with the gods’ greatest enemies: Frost Giants…

All is not as it seems, however, and Zemo is no mortal invader. Moreover, his intention is to end all gods and bring about Ragnarok. Despite the magnificent heroics of the Norse deities, he eventually succeeds. But now it is revealed that the brothers did not die, but were reborn in mortal form on Earth.

Now as an Age of Supermen begins, the brothers awaken… and one of them is mad…

Compellingly scripted by Jonathan Hickman and beautifully illustrated by Pacheco with inks from Dexter Vines, Jason Paz, Jeff Het and colors by Edgar Delgado, J. Aburtov & Jorge Gonzalez, this spectacular yarn (originally released as a 4-issue miniseries) might be a mite confusing for readers unfamiliar with Thor’s other Ultimate appearances, or taking their cues from the movie iteration this version inspired.

It’s also quite choppy in delivery as it in-fills the missing portions of those stories but even so this is still a hugely engaging adventure that could easily act as an introduction to those other epics and is well worth your attention. And it is so very beautiful to look upon…
© 2020 MARVEL

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Sub-Mariner Marvel Masterworks volume 5


By Roy Thomas, Allyn Brodsky, Sal Buscema, Ross Andru, Frank Springer & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6619-1 (HB/Digital edition)

Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner is the offspring of a water-breathing Atlantean princess and an American polar explorer; a hybrid being of immense strength, highly resistant to physical harm, able to fly, and thrive above and below the waves. Created by young, talented Bill Everett, Namor technically predates Marvel/Atlas/Timely Comics.

He first caught the public’s avid attention as part of an elementally appealing fire vs. water headlining team-up in the October 1939 Marvel Comics #1 (which renamed itself Marvel Mystery Comics from #2 onwards). The amphibian antihero shared honours and top billing with The Human Torch, but had originally been seen (albeit in a truncated, monochrome version) in Motion Picture Funnies: a promotional booklet handed out to moviegoers earlier in the year. Rapidly emerging as one of the industry’s biggest draws, Namor won his own title at the end of 1940 (cover-dated Spring 1941) and was one of the last super-characters to vanish at the end of the first heroic age.

In 1954, when Atlas (as the company then was) briefly revived its “Big Three” line-up – the Torch and Captain America being the other two – Everett returned for an extended run of superbly dark, mordantly timely fantasy fables. However, even his input wasn’t sufficient to keep the title afloat and eventually Sub-Mariner sank again.

In 1961, as Stan Lee & Jack Kirby were reinventing superheroes with the landmark title Fantastic Four, they revived the awesome, all-but-forgotten aquanaut as a troubled, semi-amnesiac antihero. Decidedly more bombastic, regal and grandiose, this returnee despised humanity: embittered and broken by the loss of his sub-sea kingdom which had been (seemingly) destroyed by American atomic testing. His rightful revenge became infinitely complicated after he became utterly besotted with the FF’s Susan Storm.

Namor knocked around the budding Marvel universe for a few years, squabbling with other star turns such as The Hulk, Avengers, X-Men and Daredevil before securing his own series as one half of Tales to Astonish, and from there graduating in 1968 to his own solo title.

This fifth subsea selection trawls Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner #26-38 and portions of Ka-Zar #1, spanning June 1970 to June 1971, and opens with another heartfelt appreciation and more creative secret-sharing in an Introduction from life-long devotee – and primary scribe of this book – Roy Thomas. The drama recommences as recently self-appointed relentless guardian of the safety and ecology of all Earth’s oceans, the Prince of Atlantis furtively returns to the surface world.

In ‘“Kill!” Cried the Raven!’ by Thomas, Sal Buscema & Joe Gaudioso (AKA Mike Esposito) the Sub-Mariner has come to investigate reports of comatose superhuman Red Raven. He was the human emissary of a legendary race of sky-dwelling Birdmen recently encountered by The Angel of the X-Men in their last clash with Magneto. With the covert assistance of old friend Diane Arliss, Namor seeks to forge an alliance with the Avian race, but shocks, surprises and the Raven’s trauma-induced madness all conspire to sink the plan…

Back brooding in Atlantis in the wake of another failure, Namor’s mood is further plagued when a human pirate uses his giant monster-vessel to attack shipping with Atlantis bearing the brunt of blame ‘When Wakes the Kraken!’ His hunt for bizarre bandit Commander Kraken again involves Diane and ends only when the Sub-Mariner demonstrates what a real sea monster looks like…

Recuperating with her in New York City, Namor is incensed by the actions of an unrepentant industrial polluter and joins teen protestors fighting developer Sam Westman’s thugs and mega machines in ‘Youthquake!’ before we pause for a little diversion…

Beginning as a Tarzan tribute act relocated to a lost world in a sub-polar realm of swamp-men and dinosaurs, Ka-Zar eventually evolved into one of Marvel’s more complex and mercurial characters. Wealthy heir to one of Britain’s oldest noble families, his best friend is Zabu the sabretooth tiger, his wife is feisty environmental-crusader Shanna the She-Devil and his brother is a homicidal super-scientific bandit. Kevin Reginald, Lord Plunder is perpetually torn between the clean life-or-death simplicity of the jungle and the bewildering constant compromises of modern civilisation.

The primordial paragon even outranks Namor in terms of longevity, having begun as a prose pulp star, boasting three issues of his own magazine between October 1936 and June 1937. They were authored by Bob Byrd – a pseudonym for publisher Martin Goodman or one of a fleet of writers on his staff – and he was latterly shoehorned into a speculative new-fangled comic book venture Marvel Comics #1. There he roamed alongside another pulp mag graduate: The Angel, plus Masked Raider, the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner…

When Ka-Zar reappeared all rowdy and renovated in 1965’s X-Men #10, it was clear the Sovereign of the Savage Land was destined for bigger things. However, for years all he got was guest shots as misunderstood foe du jour for Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, Spider-Man, and the Hulk.

In 1969, he took his shot with a solo saga in Marvel Super-Heroes and later that year – after Roy Thomas & Neal Adams used him so effectively in their X-Men run (issues #62-63) – was awarded a giant-sized solo title reprinting many previous appearances. The title also incongruously offered all-new stories of Hercules and the second, mutant X-Man Angel. That same month, Ka-Zar’s first regular series began in Astonishing Tales…

That Hercules back up from Ka-Zar #1 (August 1970 by Allyn Brodsky, Frank Springer & Dick Ayers) is reprinted here as it impacts Namor’s exploits…

‘In his Footsteps… The Huntsman of Zeus!’ sees the potent Prince of Power on the run from an Olympian agent despatched by the King of the Gods. Following another bitter dispute with his sire Hercules returns to Earth, leaving Ares to foment trouble and prompt Zeus to set his terror-inducing Huntsman on the godling’s trail…

After seeking sanctuary with the Avengers, Hercules sees his mortal friends brutally beaten and flees once again…

The panicked rush takes him to Sub-Mariner #29 and the distant Mediterranean where the Huntsman ensorcells Namor and pits him against the fugitive. Although Hercules soon breaks the hypnotic spell, ‘Fear is the Hunter!’ reveals why the pursuer is so dreaded as he sends mythical terrors Scylla, Charybdis and Polyphemus against the heroes and the pitiful mortals of the region, until a valiant breakthrough ends the threat and forces a paternal reconciliation…

Another guest star treat materialises in #30 as ‘Calling Captain Marvel!’ sees Namor again reduced to a mesmerised puppet and attacking the Kree warrior and his human host Rick Jones. This time the condition is due to the amphibian’s falling in battle against toxic terrorist Mr. Markham who attempts to blackmail Earth by threatening to poison the seas with his molecular polluter. Once Captain Marvel batters Namor back to his right mind, they make quick work of the maniac in a concerted twin assault…

The fallout from his recent actions have unsettled Namor’s old friend Triton, and the Inhuman goes looking for the prince in #31 just as apparent Atlantean attacks on surface shipping mounts. Meeting equally concerned human Walt Newell (who operates as undersea Avenger Stingray) they finally find – and fight – the Sub-Mariner, only to learn the crisis has been manufactured by his old enemy who is now ‘Attuma Triumphant!’

The barbarian’s plans include destroying human civilisation, but he still has time to pit his captives against each other in a gladiatorial battle to the death; which of course is Attuma’s undoing…

Jim Mooney comes aboard as inker with #32 as a new and deadly enemy debuts in ‘Call Her Llyra… Call Her Legend!’ when fresh human atomic tests prompt Namor to voyage to the Pacific and renew political alliance with the undersea state of Lemuria. However, on arrival he finds noble Karthon replaced by a sinister seductress who lusts for war and harbours a tragic Jekyll & Hyde secret…

By the time he reaches Atlantis again the Sunken City is being ravaged by seaquakes and old political enemy Prince Byrrah is seizing control from Namor’s deputies and devoted paramour Lady Dorma. ‘Come the Cataclysm’ sees him first accuse surface-worlders before locating and defeating the true culprits – an alliance of Byrrah with failed usurper Warlord Krang and human mad genius Dr. Dorcas. In the throes of triumph, Prince Namor announces his imminent marriage to Dorma…

Antihero superteam The Defenders officially begin with Sub-Mariner #34-35 (cover-dated February & March 1971). As previously stated, the Prince of Atlantis had become an early and ardent activist and advocate of the ecology movement, and here he takes radical steps to save the planet by fractiously recruiting The Hulk and Silver Surfer to help him destroy an American Nuclear Weather-Control station.

In ‘Titans Three!’ and concluding chapter ‘Confrontation!’ (by Thomas, Sal Buscema & Jim Mooney) the always-misunderstood outcasts unite to battle a despotic dictator’s legions, the US Army, UN defence forces and the mighty Avengers to prevent the malfunctioning station from vaporising half the planet…

Inked by Berni Wrightson, Sub-Mariner #36 augurs a huge sea change in Namor’s fortunes that begins with time-honoured holy preparations for a happy event as ‘What Gods Have Joined Together!’ Elsewhere, arcane enemy Llyra is resuurected and seeks to steal the throne by abducting and replacing the bride-to-be whilst Namor is distracted by an invasion of Attuma’s hordes.

Ross Andru & Esposito take over illustration duties with #37 as an era ends and tragedy triumphs, leading to a catastrophic battle on ‘The Way to Dusty Death!’

Betrayed by one of his closest friends and ultimately unable to save his beloved, the heartbroken prince thinks long and hard before abdicating in #38 ‘Namor Agonistes!’: reprising his origins and life choices before choosing to henceforth pursue the human half of his hybrid heritage as a surface dweller…

To Be Continued…

More sunken treasures salvaged here include the cover to all-reprint Sub-Mariner Annual #1 (January 1971, and reprising the underwater portions of Tales to Astonish #70-73) plus Bill Everett’s pin-up of young Namor, contemporary House Ads and Marie Severin’s glorious cover sketch for #33, plus a huge Biographies section.

Many early Marvel Comics are more exuberant than qualitative, but this volume, especially from an art-lover’s point of view, is a wonderful exception: a historical treasure with narrative bite that fans will delight in forever. Moreover, with the Prince of Atlantis now a bona fide big screen sensation that no one’s ever heard of, now might be the time to get wise and impress your friends with a little insider knowledge…
© 2018 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore


By Dennis O’Neil, Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson, Dick Giordano & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0755 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Total Entertainment Perfection… 10/10

Superman is the comic book crusader who started the whole genre and, in the decades since his 1938 debut, has probably undertaken every kind of adventure imaginable. With that in mind it’s tempting and very rewarding to gather up whole swathes of his inventory and periodically re-present them in specific themed collections, such as this hardback celebrating one his greatest extended adventures. The episodes contained within were originally released just as comics fandom was becoming a powerful – if headless – lobbying force reshaping the industry to its own specialised desires and remains a true landmark of the superhero genre.

When Julie Schwartz took over editorial responsibility for the Man of Steel in 1970, he was expected to shake things up with nothing less than spectacular results. To that end, he sagely incorporated many key characters and events that were simultaneously developing as part of fellow iconoclast Jack Kirby’s freshly unfolding “Fourth World”.

That bold experiment was a breathtaking tour de force of cosmic wonderment which brought a staggering new universe to fans: instantly and permanently changing the way comics were perceived and how the entire medium could be received.

Schwartz, meanwhile, was again breathing fresh life into a powerful but moribund icon – a job he had been excelling at since he more-or-less singlehandedly kickstarted the Silver Age of Comics. Superman had been a mega-media star since his launch, with internationally syndicated comics, books, newspaper strips, movie and cinema serials plus hugely successful radio and TV shows (live action and animated) making the franchise globally recognizable. Whenever that happens, inevitably overkill and overexposure inescapably set in and the core property needs to be carefully overhauled or vanish forever. I’ll bet you can think of plenty of really famous and ubiquitous things from your childhood that one day you simply stopped noticing. Happily, sometimes they can be reborn…

Schwartz knew his market and was open to new ideas, and his creative changes were just appearing in 1971. The new direction was also vanguard and trigger for a wealth of controversial and socially-challenging story content unheard of since the feature’s earliest days: a wave of tales ultimately described as “Relevant”…

The era itself and those vital changes are described and contextualised in Paul Levitz’s Introduction, after which the crucial radical shift in Superman’s vast mythology starts to unfold.

With iconic covers by Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson, this titanic tome collects Superman #233-238 and #240-242, originally running from January to September 1971.

The groundbreaking epic was crafted by scripter Dennis J. “Denny” O’Neil, and veteran illustrators Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson – although stand-in Dick Giordano inked #240. A deliberate and very public abandonment of super-villains, fanciful Kryptonian scenarios and otherworldly paraphernalia instantly revitalised the Man of Tomorrow, attracting new readers and began a period of engagingly human-scaled stories which made Superman a “must-buy” character all over again.

The innovations began in ‘Superman Breaks Loose’ (Superman #233) when a government experiment to harness Kryptonite as an energy source goes explosively wrong. Closely monitoring the test, the Action Ace is blasted across the desert surrounding the isolated lab, but somehow survives a supposedly fatal radiation-bath. Then, reports begin filtering in from all over Earth: every piece of the deadly mineral has been transformed to harmless, common iron…

As he goes about his protective, preventative patrols, the liberated hero experiences an emotional high at the prospect of all the good he can now accomplish. He isn’t even phased when the Daily Planet‘s new owner Morgan Edge (a key Kirby character) shakes up his civilian life: summarily ejecting Clark Kent from the print game to remaking him as a roving TV journalist…

Meanwhile, the desert site of his recent crashlanding offers a moment of deep foreboding as Superman’s irradiated imprint in the sand shockingly grows solid and shambles away in ghastly parody of life…

The suspense resumes in #234’s ‘How to Tame a Wild Volcano!’ as an out-of-control plantation owner refuses to let his indentured native workforce flee an imminent eruption on the island of Boki. Handicapped by misused international laws, the Man of Tomorrow can only fume helplessly as the UN rushes towards a diplomatic solution. His anxiety intensifies when a sinister sand-thing inadvertently passes him and agonisingly drains him of his powers.

Crashing to Earth in a turbulent squall, the de-powered hero is attacked by work boss Boysie Harker‘s thugs and instantly responds to the foolish provocation, relying for a change on determination rather than overwhelming might to save the day…

The ‘Sinister Scream of the Devil’s Harp’ in #235 gave way to weirder ways – the industry was enjoying a periodic revival of interest in supernatural themes and stories – as mystery musician and apparent polymath Ferlin Nyxly reveals the secret of his ever-growing aptitudes and gifts is an archaic artefact which steals from living beings knowledge, talents and even Superman’s alien abilities.

The Man of Steel is initially unaware of the drain, as he’s trying to communicate with his eerily silent doppelganger, but once Nyxly graduates to a full-on raving super-menace self-dubbed Pan, the taciturn homunculus unexpectedly joins its living template to trounce the power thief…

Issue #236 offered a Batman cameo and a science fictional morality play as cherubic aliens seek Superman’s assistance to defeat a band of devils and rescue Kent’s friends from Hell. However, the ‘Planet of the Angels’ is nothing of the kind, and the Metropolis Marvel must pull out all the stops to save Earth from a very real Armageddon, after which Superman #237 sees him save an orbiting astronaut only to see him succumb to madness-inducing mutative disease. After another savage confrontation with the sand-thing further debilitates him, the harried hero is present as more mortals fall to the contagion.

Believing himself the cause, the ‘Enemy of Earth’ considers quarantining in space. As he decides, Lois Lane stumbles into another lethal predicament and the hero’s instinctive intervention seemingly confirms his earlier diagnosis, but another clash with the ever-present sandy simulacrum on the edge of space presents an incredible truth. Painfully debilitated, Superman nevertheless saves Lois and again meets the evermore human creature. Now able to speak, it offers a chilling warning and the Man of Steel realises exactly what it is taking from him and what it might become…

A mere shadow of his former self, the Man of Tomorrow is unable to prevent a band of terrorists taking over a magma-tapping drilling rig and endangering the entire Earth in #238’s ‘Menace at 1000 Degrees’. With Lois among their hostages and the madmen threatening to detonate a nuke in the pipeline, the Action Ace desperately begs his doppelganger to assist him, but its cold rejection forces the depleted hero to take the biggest gamble of his life…

Superman #239 was an all-reprint giant featuring the hero in his incalculably all-powerful days – so not included here – but the diminished Caped Kryptonian returned in #240 (with Giordano inks) to confront his own lessened state and seek a solution in ‘To Save a Superman’. The trigger is his inability to extinguish a tenement fire and the wider world’s realisation that their unconquerable champion is now vulnerable and fallible…

Especially interested are the Anti-Superman Gang who immediately allocate all resources to destroying their nemesis. After one particularly close call, Clark is visited by an ancient Asian sage who somehow knows his other identity and offers an unconventional solution…

From 1968 superhero comics began to decline – just as they had at the end of the 1940s – so publishers sought fresh ways to keep audience as tastes changed. Back then, the industry depended on newsstand sales, and if you weren’t popular, you died. Editor Jack Miller, innovating illustrator Mike Sekowsky and relatively new scripter Denny O’Neil came up with a radical proposal and made history by depowering the only female superhero then in the marketplace. They had the mystical Amazons leave our dimension, taking with them all their magic – including Wonder Woman‘s powers and all her weapons…

Reduced to mere humanity she chose to stay on Earth, assuming and legitimising her own secret identity of Diana Prince: resolved to fighting injustice as a mortal. Tutored by blind Buddhist monk I Ching, she trained as a martial artist, and quickly became a formidable enemy of contemporary evil.

I Ching claims he can repair Superman’s difficulties and dwindling might, but evil eyes are watching. Arriving clandestinely, Superman allows the adept to remove his Kryptonian powers as a precursor to restoring them, allowing the A-S Gang opportunity to strike. In the resultant brutal melee, the all-too-human hero triumphs in the hardest fight of his life…

The saga continues with “Swan-derson” back on art in #241 as Superman overcomes momentary but almost overwhelming temptation to surrender his oppressive burden and lead a normal life. Admonished and resolved, he then submits to Ching’s resumed remedy ritual and finds his spirit soaring to where the sand-being lurks before explosively reclaiming the stolen powers. Leaving the gritty golem a shattered husk, the phantom brings the awesome energies back to their true owner and a triumphant hero returns to saving the world…

Over the next few days, however, it becomes clear that something has gone wrong. The Man of Tomorrow has become arrogant, erratic and unpredictable, acting rashly, overreacting and even making stupid mistakes. In her boutique Diana Prince discusses the problem with Ching and the sagacious teacher deduces that whilst merely mortal and fighting AS gangsters, Superman received punishing blows to the head which have caused a brain injury that did not heal after his powers returned…

When the hero refuses to listen, Diana and Ching track down the dying sand-thing and beg its aid. The elderly savant recognises it as a formless creature from other-dimensional Quarrm and listens to the amazing story of its entrance into our world. He also suggests a way for it to regain some of what it recently lost…

Superman, meanwhile, has blithely gone about his deranged business until savagely attacked by a statue of a Chinese war-demon. Also able to steal his power, it has been possessed by a second fugitive from Quarrm. It has no conscience and wears ‘The Shape of Fear!…

The shocking saga concludes in ‘The Ultimate Battle’ as the second Quarrmer falls under the sway of two petty thugs who use it to put the again de-powered Superman into hospital…

Rushed into emergency surgery, the Kryptonian fights for his life as sand-thing confronts war-demon in the streets, but events take an even more bizarre turn once the latter drives off its foe and turns towards the hospital to finish off the flesh-&-blood Superman. Regaining consciousness – and a portion of his power – the Metropolis Marvel battles the beast to a standstill but needs the aid of his silicon stand-in to drive the thing back beyond the pale. With the immediate threat ended, Man of Steel and Man of Sand face off one last time, each determined to ensure his own existence no matter the cost…

The stunning conclusion was a brilliant stroke on the part of the creators, one which left Superman approximately half the man he used to be. Of course, all too soon he returned to his unassailable, god-like power levels but never quite regained the tension-free smug assurance of his 1950s-1960s self.

A fresh approach, snappy dialogue and more human-scaled concerns to balance outrageous implausible fantasy elements all wedded to gripping plots and sublime art make Kryptonite Nevermore one of the very best Superman sagas ever created. Also included are creator biographies, the iconic ‘House Ad’ by Swan & Vince Colletta which proclaimed the big change throughout the DC Universe, plus a thoughtful ‘Afterword by Dennis O’Neil’ to wraps things up with some insights and reminiscences every lover of the medium will appreciate.

A must-have graphic novel to sit on the same shelf as Watchmen, Batman: Year One, Segar’s Popeye, Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse, Kirby & Lee’s Galactus Trilogy and Chaykin’s American Flagg!: a shining exemplar of action- adventure comics captured at their most perfect moment. Why don’t you have this yet?
© 1971, 2009, 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Popeye Classics volume 8: I Hates Bullies and More


By Bud Sagendorf, edited and designed by Craig Yoe (Yoe Books/IDW Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-63140-676-8 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68406-044-3

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Sweet & Sour Salty Sailor Celebrations… 9/10

How many cartoon classics can you think of still going after a century? Here’s one…

There are a few fictional personages to enter communal world consciousness – and fewer still from comics – but this grizzled, bluff, uneducated, visually impaired old tar with a speech impediment is possibly the most well-known of that august bunch.

Elzie Crisler Segar was born in Chester, Illinois on 8th December 1894. His father was a general handyman, and the boy’s early life was filled with the solid, dependable blue-collar jobs that typified the formative years of his generation of cartoonists. Segar was a decorator, house-painter and also played drums; accompanying vaudeville acts at the local theatre.

When the town got a movie-house, Elzie played silent films, absorbing all the staging, timing and narrative tricks from keen observation of the screen. Those lessons would become his greatest assets as a cartoonist. It was while working as the film projectionist, at age 18, that he decided to become a cartoonist and tell his own stories.

Like so many others in those hard times, he studied art via mail – W.L. Evans’ cartooning correspondence course out of Cleveland, Ohio – before gravitating to Chicago where he was “discovered” by Richard F. Outcault: regarded by most in the know today as the inventor of modern newspaper comic strips with The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown. The celebrated pioneer introduced Segar around at the prestigious Chicago Herald. Still wet behind the ears, the kid’s first strip, Charley Chaplin’s Comedy Capers, debuted on 12th March 1916.

In 1918, Segar married Myrtle Johnson and moved to William Randolph Hearst’s Chicago Evening American to create Looping the Loop, where Managing Editor William Curley foresaw a big future for Segar and promptly packed the newlyweds off to New York: HQ of the mighty King Features Syndicate. Within a year Segar was producing Thimble Theatre, (launching December 19th 1919) in the New York Journal: a smart pastiche of cinema and knock-off of movie-inspired features like Hairbreadth Harry and Midget Movies, with a repertory of stock players acting out comedies, melodramas, comedies, crime-stories, chases and especially comedies for vast daily audiences. It didn’t stay that way for long…

The core cartoon cast included parental pillars Nana & Cole Oyl; their lanky, cranky, highly-strung daughter Olive; diminutive-but-pushy son Castor and the homely ingenue’s plain and (so very) simple occasional boyfriend Horace Hamgravy (latterly, plain Ham Gravy).

Thimble Theatre had already run for a decade when, on January 17th 1929, a brusque, vulgar “sailor man” shambled into the daily ongoing saga of hapless halfwits. Nobody dreamed the giddy heights that stubbornly cantankerous walk-on would reach…

In 1924, Segar created a second daily strip. Surreal domestic comedy The 5:15 starred weedy commuter and would-be inventor John Sappo and his formidable spouse Myrtle. This strip endured – in one form or another – as a topper/footer-feature to accompany the main Sunday page throughout the author’s career, and even survived his untimely death, eventually becoming the trainee-playground of Popeye’s second great humour stylist – Bud Sagendorf.

After Segar’s premature passing in 1938, Doc Winner, Tom Sims, Ralph Stein and Bela Zambouly all took on the strip as the Fleischer Studio’s animated features brought Popeye to the entire world, albeit a slightly variant vision of the old salt of the funny pages. Sadly, none had the eccentric flair and raw inventiveness that had put Thimble Theatre at the forefront of cartoon entertainments. And then, finally, Bud arrived…

Born in 1915, Forrest “Bud” Sagendorf was barely 17 when his sister – who worked in the Santa Monica art store where Segar bought his drawing supplies – introduced the kid to the master cartoonist who became his teacher and employer as well as a father-figure. In 1958, after years on the periphery, Sagendorf finally took over the strip and all the merchandise design, becoming Popeye’s prime originator…

With Sagendorf as main man, his loose, rangy style and breezy scripts brought the strip itself back to the forefront of popularity and made reading it cool and fun all over again. Bud wrote and drew Popeye in every graphic arena for 24 years. When he died in 1994, his successor was controversial “Underground” cartoonist Bobby London.

Bud had been Segar’s assistant and apprentice, and in 1948 became exclusive writer/artist of Popeye’s comic book exploits. That venture launched in February of that year: a regular title published by America’s unassailable king of periodical licensing, Dell Comics.

On his debut, Popeye was a rude, crude brawler: a gambling, cheating, uncivilised ne’er-do-well, but was soon revered as the ultimate working-class hero. Raw and rough-hewn, he was also practical, with an innate, unshakable sense of what’s fair and what’s not: a joker who wanted kids to be themselves – but not necessarily “good”. Above all else he was someone who took no guff from anyone…

Naturally, as his popularity grew, Popeye mellowed somewhat. He was still ready to defend the weak and had absolutely no pretensions or aspirations to rise above his fellows, but the shocking sense of dangerous unpredictability and comedic anarchy he initially provided was sorely missed… except not in Sagendorf’s yarns…

Collected in this superb full-colour hardback/digital edition are Popeye #35-39, crafted by irrepressible “Bud”: collectively spanning January-March 1956 to January-March 1957.

Stunning, nigh stream-of-consciousness slapstick sagas are preceded by an effusively appreciative ‘Society of Sagendorks’ briefing by inspired aficionado, historian and publisher Craig Yoe, offering a mirthful mission statement, and enhanced by another tantalising display of ephemera and merchandise in ‘A Bud Sagendorf Scrapbook’. This time we focus on the 1980 Robert Altman movie with candid cast photos, Sagendorf illustrated tie-in magazine articles, and multi-lingual cartoon iterations.

We rejoin the ceaseless parade of laughs, surreal imagination and thrills with quarterly comic book #35, opening with a monochrome inside front cover gag concerning the latest hobby of the sailor’s ward after which ‘Thimble Theatre presents Popeye and Swee’Pea in “Wishing” or Spinach is Still King!”’, wherein the bored “infink” shambles upon an alien incursion and tricks the haughty invaders out of their irresistible, unbeatable Wish-o-Matic machine…

Soon the impressionable kid is king of the world and Popeye is forced into drastic action…

The family is afloat for follow-up bedtime tale ‘I Hates Bullies!’ as the mariner, Olive and Wimpy are lured to an exotic island and seduced into liberating its people from enslaving Boss Black Allen…

Back-up feature Sappo was by now reduced to gullible foil and hapless landlord to the world’s worst lodger. Professor O.G. Wotasnozzle – The Professor with the Atomic Brain would callously inflict the brunt of his genius on the poor schmuck. Here that means inventing super-fast growing redwoods but being too self-absorbed to keep the seeds out of the rain…

The issue ends with an endpaper prose fable about a scientist who regretted getting cats to chase his lab mice and a back cover gag of bath night for Swee’Pea…

Issue #36 (April-June) began with ‘King Popeye of Popilania!’ as the sailor man sets out to create the perfect country, but soon finds kinging it is a lot of work, especially if your friends are all ambitious traitors and other nations think they can push you around…

For a while things look bleak for the Popilania, until the desperate King unleashes secret weapon General Wimpy…

An engaging Micawber-like coward, cad and conman, the insatiably ravenous J. Wellington Wimpy debuted in the newspaper strip on May 3rd 1931 as an unnamed, decidedly partisan referee in one of Popeye’s pugilistic bouts. Scurrilous, aggressively humble and scrupulously polite, the devious oaf struck a chord and Segar made him a fixture. Preternaturally hungry, ever-keen to solicit bribes and a cunning coiner of many immortal catchphrases – such as “I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today” and “Let’s you and him fight” – Wimpy was the perfect foil for our straight-shooting action hero and increasingly stole the entire show… and anything else unless it was very heavy or extremely well nailed down. He proved to be the ultimate deterrent in an extended war that depended on keeping troops fed…

Popeye an’ Swee’Pea then turn the tables on villainous reprobate Poopdeck Pappy after the sailor’s crooked father fakes his own death in ‘Pappy’s Spook’, before Professor O.G. Wotasnozzle – The Atomic Brain! conjures fresh chaos with his terrifying reducing pills in advance of another text tale. ‘Canned Nuts’ details the downfall of a prudent squirrel who had a plan (but no tin-opener) in advance of a back cover gag of Popeye and Wimpy fishing…

Cover-dated July-September, Popeye #37 opens with a monochrome inside cover about Swee’Pea’s garden before main event ‘The Search for the Spinach Icebox’ sees our well-travelled hero targeted by secret society WAFPOM (World Association For Prevention Of Muscles) after he buys two million tons of the miraculous mineral rich vegetable. With attacks mounting, he needs someplace safe to store his leafy treasure and on Wimpy’s suggestion heads to Antarctica, where WAFPOM and even stranger foes are waiting…

‘Amateur Inventor!’ Sappo gives O.G. Wotasnozzle a taste of his own medicine next, before ‘The Big Sting’ heralds the end of another issue with the prose history of a bullying bee…

Issue #38 opens with a monochrome pet gag and an extended colour epic as Popeye and The Gang meet ‘The Dog Who Wore A Crown” – or – Going To the Dogs!’ A quick visit with King Blozo finds the scatty ruler absent and his dog ruling in his stead. Most annoyingly, the monarch has appointed Popeye Royal Dog Sitter. As the dutiful sailor surrenders to the inevitable, things get more complicated when the moody pooch – AKA “Birdseed” – decides Swee’Pea should be in charge…

‘Bottle Fish!’ sees the text fixture shift to the comic’s centre with the tale of a mean bully stuck behind glass, after which Wotasnozzle and Sappo both go overboard in a fishing contest augmented by weird science and the chaos concludes with another black-&-white inner cover pet prank, preceding a new year of fun and frolic as #39 (January-March 1957) feature more monochrome madness for Swee’Pea’s pooch…

The gang are rattled in lead story ‘The Mountain that Talked Back!’ as Olive’s deteriorating nerves prompt a vacation on ominously named “Thunder Island” and a badly-timed stay on a volcano in full eruption mode…

Everything changes once Popeye realise the shakes are fakes and a gang of criminals are making them patsies in a plot and our hero breaks out the spinach…

Prose parable ‘Cow?’ reveals how bovine Mildred briefly lived her dream to be a horse, after which Wotasnozzle seeks to improve communication by reinventing words in ‘What Did He Say?’ before Swee’Pea and Birdseed monopolise interior monochrome and exterior color gags with devasting effect.

Outrageous and side-splitting, these universally-appealing yarns are evergreen examples of narrative cartooning at its most surreal and inspirational. Over the last nine decades Thimble Theatre’s most successful son has delighted readers and viewers around the world. This book is simply one of many, but each is sure-fire, top-tier entertainment for all those who love lunacy, laughter, frantic fantasy and rollicking adventure. If that’s you, add this compendium of wonder to your collection.
Popeye Classics volume 8 © 2016 Gussoni-Yoe Studio, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Popeye © 2016 King Features Syndicate. ™ Heart Holdings Inc.