Marvel Superheroes – Page 52

March 2, 2015

Deadpool Corps volume 1: Pool-Pocalypse Now

By Victor Gischler, Rob Liefeld, Marat Mychaels & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4825-8

Stylish killers and mercenaries craving something more than money have long made popular fictional protagonists, and light-hearted, exuberant bloodbath comics will always find an appreciative audienceâ€¦

Deadpool is Wade Wilson (yes, a thinly disguised knockoff of Slade Wilson AKA Deathstroke the Terminator; get over it – DC did): an inveterate, unrepentant hired killer who survived cancer and genetics experiments that left him a grotesque bundle of scabs, scars and physical abnormalities but also practically immortal, invulnerable and capable of regenerating from any wound.

He is also a certifiable loonâ€¦

The wisecracking high-tech â€œMerc with a Mouthâ€ was created by Rob Liefeld & Fabian Nicieza, debuting in New Mutants #97, another product of the â€œWeapon Xâ€ project which created Wolverine and so many other mutant/cyborg super-doers. He got his first shot at solo stardom with a couple of miniseries in 1993 (Deadpool: the Circle Chase & Sins of the Past) but it wasn’t until 1997 that he finally won his own title, which blended fourth-wall-busting absurdist humour (a la Ambush Bug and Warner Brothers cartoons) into the mix and secured his place in Marvel’s top rank.

Since then he has become one of Marvel’s iconic, nigh-inescapable characters, perennially undergoing radical rethinks, identity changes, reboots and more before always â€“ inevitably – reverting to irascible, irreverent, intoxicating type in the endâ€¦

Here, following events too ludicrous to mention, Wilson has linked up with a quartet of alternate Deadpools from very different alternate Earths and formed the strangest team in Marvel’s history (and yes, that includes the Pet Avengers).

Collecting Deadpool Corps #1-6 (June-November 2010) the manic mayhem begins with the 5-part ‘Disrespect Your Elders’ (by Victor Gischler, penciller Liefeld and inker Adelso Corona) as the new comrades – Wilson, the strikingly female Lady Deadpool, killer bad boy and errant pre-teen Kidpool, a floating masked cranium from the Marvel Zombiverse dubbed Headpool and a costumed mutt who answers to Dogpool – are hired by the Elder of the Universe known as The Contemplator to expunge a horrific threat to creationâ€¦

From a universe preceding The Big Bang an unstoppable force has manifested which absorbs intelligence. Thousands if not millions of planets have succumbed to the power of The Awareness, their sentience and independence subsumed into a slavish nullity. Protected as they are by their own innate, intrinsic imbecility, Contemplator wants the Deadpools to go kill itâ€¦

In a bit of a dudgeon over their selection is another Elder calling himself The Champion. The mightiest physical specimen in existence feels the honour of saving universal intellect should be his, but although he’s no big brain either he just isn’t in the Wilson squad’s leagueâ€¦

Whizzing across the cosmos in the super ship â€œBea Arthurâ€ – with plenty of pit-stops in the skeeviest bars, cantinas and dives for information and violent recreation – the team soon confront and readily outwit their brawny rivalâ€¦

Forced to take a different tack, Champion teams up with fellow Elder The Gardener to remove his insufferable rivals but is utterly astounded by their response. Somehow elected their leader, â€œChampionpoolâ€ readies himself for glorious combat before again finding himself humiliatingly outsmarted by the Terran morons and stranded on a dead-end world whilst they fly off to reap all the gloryâ€¦

Tracking the menace involves going undercover, drinking, beating up lots of aliens, shopping and even colluding and cohabiting with legendary star smuggler The Broken Blade, but eventually they near the end of their questâ€¦

More a superb succession of gags than a plot, the adventure follows the Crazy Corps as they bumble and smart-mouth their way across the universe until finally they confront The Awareness and despite – or rather because of – their uniquely skewed mentalities, triumph in the strangest way possibleâ€¦

Rewarded with wishing rings by the exultant Contemplator, the Silly Squad stay in space where this initial compilation concludes with the bombastic ballad of ‘The Blue Buccaneer’ (illustrated by Marat Mychaels & Jaime Mendoza).

Trading on their intergalactic reputation as badasses-for-hire, the Deadpool Corps accept a commission to wipe out a pirate band preying on interstellar commerce, necessitating Lady Deadpool going undercover in the most shocking – to her at least – of disguises, uncovering the most unexpected of old acquaintances leading the perilous privateersâ€¦

Surreal, wickedly irreverent and excessively violent in the grand Bugs Bunny/Road Runner tradition, Deadpool Corps is frat boy foolish and frequently laugh-out-loud funny: a wonderfully antidote to the cosmic angst and emotional Sturm und Drang of most contemporary Fights ‘n’ Tights comics but pays lip service to being a notionally normal Marvel milestone by also offering a full covers-&-variants gallery by Liefeld and sketch variant by Ed McGuinnessâ€¦
Â© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 19, 2015February 18, 2015

Black Widow: Kiss or Kill

By Duane Swierczynski, Joe Aherne, Manuel Garcia, Brian Ching, Lorenzo Ruggiero, Bit & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4701-5

The Black Widow started life as a svelte and sultry honey-trap Russian agent during Marvel’s early â€œCommie-bustingâ€ days. Natalia Romanova was subsequently redesigned as a super villain, falling for an assortment of Yankee superheroes – including Hawkeye and Daredevil – defecting and finally becoming an agent of SHIELD, freelance do-gooder and occasional leader of the Avengers.

Throughout her career she has been considered efficient, competent, deadly dangerous and somehow cursed to bring doom and disaster to her paramours. As her backstory evolved, it was revealed that she had undergone experimental Soviet procedures which had enhanced her physical capabilities and lengthened her lifespan, as well as assorted psychological processes which had messed up her mind and memoriesâ€¦

Always a fan favourite, the Widow only really hit the big time after featuring in the Iron Man, Captain America and Avengers movies, but for us unregenerate comics-addicts her print escapades have always offered a cool, sinister frisson of delight.

This particular caper compilation (reprinting Black Widow volume 4 #6-8 spanning November 2010 to January 2011) was the second and final story arc of a short-lived series and includes a riotous team up tale from the Iron Man: Kiss & Kill 1-shot (August 2010).

The espionage elitism opens with the eponymous 3-chapter ‘Kiss or Kill’ by writer Duane Swierczynski, illustrated by Manuel Garcia, Lorenzo Ruggiero, Bit and colourist Jim Charalapidis, as idealistic young journalist and recently bereaved son Nick Crane finds himself the target of two mega-hot, ultra lethal female super-spies in Houston’s club district.

Both of them say they want to save him but each seems far more intent on ending Nick’s life, and in between mercilessly fighting each other and hurtling across the city in a stampede of violent destruction both have demanded that he name his privileged sourceâ€¦

Nick is inclined to believe the blonde called Fatale. After all, he has a surveillance tape of the redhead – the Black Widow – with his father moments before he diedâ€¦

After his senator dad was found with his brains all over a wall, Nick started digging and uncovered a pattern: a beautiful woman implicated in the deaths of numerous key political figures around the worldâ€¦

After a staggering battle across the city Natalia is the notional victor but isn’t ready when Nick turns a gun on her. She still goes easy on him and he wakes up some time later in Roanoke, Virginia utterly baffled. She explains she’s on the trail of an organisation devoted to political assassination using a double of her to commit their high profile crimes but the angry young man clearly doesn’t believe her.

Further argument is curtailed by the sudden arrival of an extremely competent Rendition Team who remove them both to a secret US base in Poland. After a terrifying interval the Widow starts thinking that her extreme scheme to get the name out of Nick might be working but that all goes to hell when a third force blasts in and re-abducts them.

Realising that her government liaison is playing for more than one side, the Widow blasts her way out, dragging Nick with her, and soon they are on the run with only her rapidly dwindling and increasingly untrustworthy freelance contacts to protect them.

The escape has however almost convinced Nick to trust her with his source but that moment passes when the latest iteration of Crimson Dynamo and illusion-caster Fantasma derail the train they’re onâ€¦

Another explosive confrontation is suddenly cut short when Fatale arrives but rather than assassination she has an alliance in mind. The mysterious mastermind behind the killings and framing the Widow has stopped paying the killer blonde and thus needs to be taught a lesson about honouring commitmentsâ€¦

Now armed with Nick’s contact’s details they go after the enigmatic â€œSadkoâ€ but the shady operator seems to be one step ahead of them as usual.

But only â€œseemsâ€â€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Rounding out this espionage extravaganza ‘Iron Widow’, written by Joe Aherne with art by Brian Ching and colourist Michael Atiyeh from Iron Man: Kiss & Kill, sees the Russian Ã©migrÃ© give Avenging inventor Tony Stark a crash course in spycraft after a very special suit of Iron Man armour is stolen.

Fully schooled, the billionaire succeeds too well in locating his missing mech but falls into a terrifying trap set by sinister Sunset Bain and becomes a literal time-bomb pointed at the origin of The Avengers. Luckily Black Widow is on hand to prove skill, ingenuity and guts always trump mere overwhelming powerâ€¦

A fast and furious, pell-mell, helter-skelter rollercoaster of high-octane intrigue and action, Kiss or Kill also includes a captivating collation of covers-&-variants by Daniel AcuÃ±a, J. Scott Campbell, Brian Stelfreeze, Ching & Chris Sotomayor and Stephane Perger, making this such a superb example of genre-blending Costumed Drama that you’d be thoroughly suspect and subject to scrutiny for neglecting it.
Â© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 17, 2015February 16, 2015

Hulk: Red Hulk volume 1

By Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2882-3

Bruce Banner was a military scientist who was accidentally caught in a gamma bomb blast of his own devising. As a result stress or other factors would cause him to transform into a giant green monster of unstoppable strength and fury. As both occasional hero and mindless monster he rampaged across the Marvel Universe for decades, finally finding his size 700 feet and a format that worked, becoming one of young Marvel’s most beloved features.

A phenomenally popular character both in comics and more global accessible media like TV and movies, he has often undergone radical changes in scope and style to keep his stories fresh and his exploits explosively compellingâ€¦

In the early part of the 21^st century the number of gamma-mutated monsters rampaging across the Marvel landscape proliferated to inconceivable proportions and the days of Bruce Banner getting mean and going green are long gone, so anybody taking their cues from the small or big screen incarnations would be wise to assume a level of unavoidable bewilderment.

There are a few other assorted ancillary atomic berserkers roaming the planet, so be prepared to experience a little confusion if you’re coming to this particular character cold. Nevertheless these always-epic stories are generally worth the effort so persist if you can.

At the time of this collection – gathering the contents of Hulk volume 2 #1-6 from March-August 2008, plus a gamma-tinged bonus tale from Wolverine volume 3 #50 (and March 2007) – the Banner iteration of the Jade Giant is presumed dead and a smattering of new gamma gargantua are only just beginning to appearâ€¦

This will be eventually revealed as the first public phase of an extended plot by the world’s wickedest brain trust to conquer everything (as would be later seen in the epic Fall of the Hulks) but here action and enigma take precedence in the form of a bizarre murder mystery as She-Hulk, gamma-augmented psychologist Leonard â€œDocâ€ Samson, veteran Hulk-Buster General Thaddeus â€œThunderboltâ€ Ross, SHIELD agent Maria Hill and her new boss/Director Tony â€œIron Manâ€ Stark work a crime scene in Dimitri, Russia.

The assembled experts are standing over the corpse of Emil Blonsky – formerly the vicious indestructible monster known as the Abomination. He was beaten near to death by something which can only have been the dearly-departed Hulk but finished off with a gun of implausibly large calibre and powerâ€¦

The assembled experts are baffled and suspicious. Since when has the Hulk ever been calm enough to use a gun? Other things don’t add up either – most notably the Hulk-sized footprints which were somehow so hot that they turned the ground to glassâ€¦

Before they get too far into their CSI task, however, Russia’s metahuman unit The Winter Guard show up and claim jurisdiction in a manner which can only lead to a fight and international incidentâ€¦

The still-unexplained gamma-assassination took out an entire village as collateral damage and the battle between the American intruders and People’s Patriots Dark Star, Ursa Major, Crimson Dynamo and Red Guardian looks set to do even more harm until a shellshocked little girl shambles from the wreckage, muttering one word over and over. The chastened warriors stop and Darkstar translates. The broken waif is saying â€œredâ€â€¦

Sometime later in Alaska, Banner’s greatest friend Rick Jones wakes up amidst a scene of devastation only a Hulk could have made, whilst in Gamma Base, Nevada, Samson and Ross enter a top secret dungeon to ask a prisoner ‘Who Is The Hulk?’

Just like the rest of the American investigators, they both know Blonsky’s killer can’t be Banner. The world at large may believe he’s dead but all the Hulk experts know he’s still alive and well, locked in the inescapable cell where they shoved himâ€¦

The mystery of the new Hulk resumes in ‘The Smoking Gun’ as aboard SHIELD Director Stark’s new Helicarrier, Hill reveals the gun used to kill Abomination was stolen from their own armoury deep within the flying super-fortress. She has no chance to expound further as She-Hulk is savagely attacked and beaten – by a colossal crimson monster that resembles the Hulk – so swiftly that even battle-seasoned Iron Man cannot react in timeâ€¦

With the monumental vessel crippled and about to smash into New York City, the heroes’ attentions are divided between hunting the monster and preventing an appalling disaster, leaving Red Hulk to pick off the champions at his leisureâ€¦

In Nevada, hitchhiking Rick Jones has reached the supposedly decommissioned Gamma Base, only to be attacked by a massive scarlet horror. The assault triggers a strange change and the young man suddenly transforms into a huge and hideous blue abomination calling itself A-Bombâ€¦

With more than one gamma suspect at large, ‘Creatures on the Loose’ opens in the smouldering remains of the downed Helicarrier as Stark reviews security footage from Gamma Base and realises that the captive Banner has had unmonitored conversations with Ross and Samson. Suspicions aroused, he takes the recordings to an expert even as at the Nevada site Red Hulk and A-Bomb engage in a furious no-holds barred battle.

So cataclysmic is the clash that it shatters the mile of ground above Banner’s cell and triggers the San Andreas Fault…

With a fight this ferociously apocalyptic, the impassive alien observer known as The Watcher naturally materialises to record the event but even he is not immune to the Crimson Barbarian’s unrelenting fury. However the beast’s attempted celestia-cide is interrupted by the resurgent return of the original Jade Juggernaut in ‘Red Light, Green Light’.

It is clearly what the devious scarlet newcomer has been wanting all along and their hyper-destructive duel carries them all the way to San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridgeâ€¦

With catastrophe imminent ‘Rolling Thunder’ introduces another recently resurrected champion as Asgardian storm lord Thor dives headlong into the fray seconds after the Red Hulk seemingly drowns his viridian counterpart. As their subsequent staggering struggle takes the combatants from Earth to the Moon, A-Bomb and green Hulk struggle out of the choppy waters in time to join a band of heroes (Iron Man, She-Hulk, Human Torch, The Thing, Sub-Mariner and Ares, God of War) in preventing the roiling San Andreas Fault tipping the city and a good part of the Golden State into the Pacific Oceanâ€¦

The semi-mindless Green Goliath soon falls into fighting with his allies and hurtles away – somehow able to track to his scarlet-skinned alternate – and arrives as the beast returns to Earth after trouncing the Thunderer. Loathing each other on sight they clash again with the ‘Blood Red’ barbarian finally falling before the pounding fists of the unstoppable original Hulk. As the weary victor wanders away, however, the mastermind behind the Red Hulk finally reveals himselfâ€¦

To Be Continued…

Also included in this collection is a collation of cartoon comedy vignettes (‘Hulk Art Class’, ‘Hulk Splash’ and ‘Hulk Zoo’) by Audrey Loeb & Chris Giarrusso) and a brief but visually bombastic retelling of the Jade Juggernaut’s first clash with manic mutant mainstay Wolverine in ‘Puny Little Man’ by Jeph Loeb, McGuinness & Vines from Wolverine volume 3 #50, and an assortment of covers and variants by McGuinness, Vines & Jason Keith, Michael Turner, Dale Keown, Daniel AcuÃ±a, Marko Djurdjevic, David Finch, Olivier Coipel and Arthur Adams.

If staggering, blockbusting Fights ‘n’ Tights turmoil is your fancy, a Hulk of any colour is always going to be at the top of every punch-drunk thrill-seeker’s hit listâ€¦
Â© 2008, 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 13, 2015February 20, 2015

Fantastic Four: the Beginning of the End

By Dwayne McDuffie, Karl Kesel, Paul Pelletier, Tom Grummett & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2554-9

The Fantastic Four has long been considered the most pivotal series in modern comicbook history, introducing both a new style of storytelling and a decidedly different manner of engaging the readers’ impassioned attentions.

More family than team, the roster has changed many times over the years but always eventually returns to the original configuration of Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and the Thing, who have together formed the vanguard of modern four-colour heroic history.

The quartet are actually maverick genius Reed Richards, his wife Sue, their trusty college friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s obnoxious and impetuous younger brother Johnny Storm; survivors of an independent space-shot which went horribly wrong once ferociously mutative Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding.

When they crashed back to Earth, the foursome found that they had all been hideously changed into outlandish freaks.

Richards’ body became elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible and form force-fields, Johnny could turn into self-perpetuating living flame, and poor, tormented Ben was transformed into a horrifying brute who, unlike his comrades, could not return to a semblance of normality on command.

The sheer simplicity of four archetypes – mercurial boffin, self-effacing distaff, solid everyman and hot-headed youth, uniting to triumph over accident and adversity – shone under Stan Lee’s irreverent humanity coupled to Jack Kirby’s rampant imagination and emphatic sense of adventure.

Decades of erratic quality and floundering plotlines followed the original creators’ departures, but from the beginning of the 21^st century Marvel’s First Family experienced a steady climb in quality which culminated in their own blockbuster film franchise.

A key factor in the series success was an incredible roster of unforgettable villains and this slim compilation – re-presenting Fantastic Four #525-526 and #551-553 – features a brace of the very best at their very worstâ€¦

By this time the FF had achieved the comfortably universal status of being defined mostly by their current creators (like a Brannagh or Olivier Hamlet, Rathbone or Cumberbatch Sherlock Holmes or Stan Lee vs. Frank Miller Daredevil) and this beguilingly mismatched collection gathers two story-oddments which wouldn’t comfortably fit in the themed compilations that surround it, but nonetheless offer some splendidly entertaining Fights ‘n’ Tights action from the â€œWorld’s Greatest Comics Magazineâ€ for fans and aficionados to enjoyâ€¦

The drama anachronistically kicks of with a 3-part ‘Epilogue’ from Fantastic Four #551-553 (January-March 2008) which followed the return of the original quartet after a period when the universe had been championed by a substitute team (see Fantastic Four: the New Fantastic Four)â€¦

‘The Beginning of the End’ by scripter Dwayne McDuffie, illustrated by Paul Pelletier & Rick Magyar, opens 75 years after the great superhero Civil War. Reed Richards has triggered a global revolution in humanity, but he spends his days as warden of a high security facility with only six incorrigible reprobates pent within.

When that number is suddenly reduced by one the science hero isn’t too bothered: after all, he remembers it happening decades agoâ€¦

Back at Now, the in-their-prime FF are astonished to find Doctor Doom accompanied by elderly incarnations of Sub-Mariner and recent team-mate Black Panther sitting on their couch. After the usual violent preamble the visitors explain they have come from the future to stop Richards from making the greatest mistake in human historyâ€¦

Reed has a secret room in the Baxter Building where he brainstorms his â€œ100 Ideasâ€ to create a utopia, but Doom and his fellow time-travellers are determined to stop the super genius from instigating Idea 101 – the concept which made the future a living hell.

To prove his point the Iron Dictator reveals the shocking fate of his wife and comrades in years to come. In response Reed picks up a gun and murders one of his â€œguestsâ€â€¦

The shocking saga continues with ‘The Middle of the End’ as Reed proceeds to expose the time-tossed terror’s true intent, but as combat climaxes his comrades – so recently sundered by the Civil War and still trying to regain trust in each – other cannot shake the dread that there’s a kernel of truth in what Doom predicts â€¦

The suspense then roars into overdrive when the Fantastic Four of Doom’s distant era materialise, determined to recapture the fugitive and prevent catastrophic time-branching no matter who has to pay the price in ‘The End’â€¦

After a stunning all-out battle, a measure of equilibrium is restored before this cunning chronicle harks back to Fantastic Four #525-526 (June-July 2005) for ‘Dream Fever parts I and 2’, written by Karl Kesel with art by Tom Grummett, Larry Stucker & Norm Rapmund.

A less conflicted First Family have just returned from a peril-packed jaunt to the Micro-verse when alarms alert them that arcane immortal alchemist Diablo is attacking a bank, but this time he’s not looking for loot or even a fightâ€¦

Revealing his origins in 9^th century Spain the mage wants the FF’s time machine so that he can return to his birth era and crush the sadistic Inquisition before it can torture and murder millions – and he’s prepared to raze New York to get his wayâ€¦

After failing to capture the mystic maniac the heroes return home but are plagued by shared horrendous dreams which increasingly set the family at each other’s throats. Reed’s researches, however, soon prove Diablo is not the cause but only another victim of what seems to be a globally debilitating epidemic of nightmaresâ€¦

Frantically racing against time the pliable genius traces the true cause of the contagion but to save the world the quarrelsome quartet might well have to strike that deal with the devilâ€¦

Supplemented with a cover gallery by Michael Turner and Jim Cheung plus a selection of pre-inked pencil pages from issues #551 and 553, The Beginning of the End is a fast-paced, action packed and tension-soaked chronicle of fantastic fragments that provides all the thrills and chills a devoted Costumed Drama lover could ever want.
Â© 2005, 2007 and 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 11, 2015February 10, 2015

Essential X-Men volume 2

By Chris Claremont, John Byrne & Terry Austin, Brent Anderson & Joe Rubenstein (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-0298-4

In 1963 TheX-Men #1 introduced Scott â€œCyclopsâ€ Summers, Bobby â€œIcemanâ€ Drake, Warren â€œAngelâ€ Worthington, Jean â€œMarvel Girlâ€ Grey and Hank â€œThe Beastâ€ McCoy: very special students of Professor Charles Xavier, a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the emergent off-shoot race of mutants dubbed Homo Superior. After years of eccentric and spectacular adventures the mutant misfits disappeared at the beginning of 1970 during a downturn in costumed hero comics whilst supernatural mysteries once more gripped the world’s entertainment fields.

Although the title was revived at the end of the year as a cheap reprint vehicle, the missing mutants were reduced to guest-stars and bit-players throughout the Marvel universe and the Beast was refashioned as a monster fit for the global uptick in scary stories until Len Wein & Dave Cockrum revived and reordered the Mutant mystique with a brand new team in Giant Size X-Men #1 in 1975.

To old foes-turned-friends Banshee and Sunfire was added one-shot Hulk hunter Wolverine, and all-original creations Kurt Wagner, a demonic German teleporter codenamed Nightcrawler, African weather â€œgoddessâ€ Ororo Monroe AKA Storm, Russian farmboy Peter Rasputin, who transformed at will into a living steel Colossus and bitter, disillusioned Apache superman John Proudstar who was cajoled into joining the makeshift squad as Thunderbird.

The revision was an instantaneous and unstoppable hit, with Wein’s editorial assistant Chris Claremont taking over the writing from the second story onwards. The X-Men reclaimed their own comicbook with #94 and it quickly became the company’s most popular – and high quality – title.

Cockrum was succeeded by John Byrne and as the team roster shifted and changed the series rose to even greater heights, culminating in the landmark â€œDark Phoenixâ€ storyline which saw the death of arguably the book’s most beloved and imaginative character.

In the aftermath team leader Cyclops left but the epic cosmic saga also seemed to fracture the epochal working relationship of Claremont and Byrne. Within months of publication they went their separate ways: Claremont staying with the mutants whilst Byrne moved on to establish his own reputation as a writer on series such as Alpha Flight, Incredible Hulk and especially his revolutionised Fantastic Fourâ€¦

After Apache warrior Thunderbird became the team’s first fatality, the survivors slowly bonded, becoming an awesome fighting unit under the brusque and draconian supervision of Cyclops and this second superlative monochrome Essential collection re-presents the groundbreaking tales from (Uncanny) X-Men #120-144, covering April 1979 to April 1981.

The action begins here with the introduction of a foreign super-squad in ‘Wanted: Wolverine! Dead or Alive!’, as the enigmatic mutant, accompanied by Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus, Banshee and Nightcrawler, return from a bombastic battle in Japan but are covertly herded into Canadian airspace so that the Ottawa government can confiscate their property.

Forced down by a magical tempest the heroes are soon on the run in Calgary, ambushed by the aforementioned Alpha Flight – specifically battle-armoured Vindicator, super-strong Sasquatch, magician Shaman, shapeshifting Snowbird and mutant speedster twins Northstar and Aurora – all ordered to repossess former special operative â€œThe Wolverineâ€â€¦

After a brutal but inconclusive clash at the airport the X-Men fade into the city but only after Wolverine and Nightcrawler are capturedâ€¦

The retaliation results in a ‘Shoot-Out at the Stampede!’ with the mutants confronting their pursuers as Shaman’s eldritch blizzard spirals out of control, threatening to destroy the entire province. Even after Storm fixes the problem, the Canadians are adamant and to end hostilities Wolverine surrenders himself in return for his comrades’ safe passage.

Of course he never promised to stay capturedâ€¦

With Byrne producing light breakdowns, inker Terry Austin stepped up to produce full art finishes for issue #122’s ‘Cry for the Children!’ as the heroes finally return to the Xavier School to find their home boarded up and deserted.

Months previously, following a catastrophic battle against Magneto of which Beast and Phoenix believed themselves the only survivors, heartbroken Professor X had grieved for his fallen pupils and left Earth to be with his fiancÃ©e Empress Lilandra of the Shi’ar.

As the prodigals slowly settle in at the Professor’s mansion again, they try to resume their previous routines but psychological stress testing shows Russian Colossus is having second thoughts about deserting his family and countryâ€¦

Reborn as the cosmic-powered Phoenix, Jean Grey went globetrotting to bury her woes and is currently in Scotland, unaware that she has been targeted by one of the team’s oldest enemies for a cruel assault. In New York, Storm has at last taken the time to trace her roots, visiting the old home of her American dad, only to find it now a junkie squat filled with doped and feral kids who viciously attack herâ€¦

Stabbed and bleeding she lashes out and only the sudden arrival of hero for hire Luke Cage and his friend Misty Knight (coincidentally Jean’s Manhattan room-mate) prevents a tragedy. None of them are remotely aware that they have been targeted by the world’s most outrageous hit-manâ€¦

With Byrne back in full pencil mode X-Men #123 includes a cameo from Spider-Man as jolly psycho-killer Arcade proceeds to pick off the oblivious mutants and run them through his fatal funfair Murder World in ‘Listenâ€¦ Stop Me if You’ve Heard Itâ€¦ But This One Will Kill You!’, subjecting the abductees to perils mechanical and psychological.

The former prove understandably ineffectual but family guilt and cunning conditioning soon transform the homesick Russian into a vengeful mind-slave dubbed The Proletarian, determined to smash his former comrades in the concluding ‘He Only Laughs When I Hurt!’ Happily his inner child and the assorted heroes’ gifts and training prove too much for the maniacal killer clownâ€¦

Jean re-enters the picture when her stay with biologist Moira MacTaggert leads to the release of a long secret family shame in ‘There’s Something Awful on Muir Island!’ Throughout her long holiday Phoenix has been gradually turned and psychically seduced by a psionic predator. Groomed for a life of refined cruelty and debauchery by a man calling himself Jason Wyngarde, the intention is to create a callous â€œBlack Queenâ€ for the mysterious organisation known as the Hellfire Clubâ€¦

At the other end of the galaxy Charles Xavier reviews records of how Phoenix once reconstructed the fragmenting universe and is gripped with terror at the thought of all that power in the hands of one frail human personality, whilst in his former home The Beast checks a tripped alarm and discovers his long-mourned friends are all alive.

The first thought is to tell Jean the incredible news, but no sooner is a transatlantic call connected than a scream echoes out and the line goes deadâ€¦

Issue #126 resumes frantic hours later as the X-Men approach Muir Island in their supersonic jet. With all contact lost and no telepath aboard, Cyclops assumes the worst and the team infiltrate in battle formation only to find a withered corpse and badly shaken comrades Lorna Dane, Havok, Madrox, Moira and Jean slowly recovering from a psionic assault.

In ‘How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Toothâ€¦!’ Dr. MacTaggert bitterly reveals the attacker is a psychic bodysnatcher imprisoned on Muir for years. He’s also her sonâ€¦

Rapidly burning out one of Madrox’s duplicate bodies, the monster has already reached the mainland, but as the mutants disperse to hunt him down Jean is hampered by a torrent of seductive mirages projected by the smugly confidant Wyngarde, allowing the predatory Proteus to ambush the X-Men and try to possess Wolverine.

It is his first mistake. Metal has an inimical effect on the formless horror and the feral fury’s Adamantium skeleton forces him to flee his victim in screaming agony. It is then the creature unleashes his most terrifying power: warping reality to drive Wolverine and Nightcrawler to the brink of madness. Only the late-arriving Storm prevents their immediate demise but soon she too is at the edge of destructionâ€¦

‘The Quality of Hatred!’ finds the badly shaken team undergoing desperate â€œtough-loveâ€ remedies from Cyclops to regain their combat readiness whilst Moira tries to make up for her dangerous sentimentality by putting a bullet into her deadly offspring.

Frustrated by the idealistic Cyclops but having divined the path Proteus is taking, she then heads for Edinburgh and an unpleasant reunion with her former husband: brute, bully, Member of Parliament and father of most merciless monster the world has yet producedâ€¦

As Jean finally shrugs off her distractions and telepathically homes in on Proteus, the team swing into action a little too late: the sinister son has possessed his scurrilous sire and created an unstoppable synthesis of world-warping abominationâ€¦

With Edinburgh and perhaps the entire world roiling and rebelling as science goes mad, X-Men #128 sees the valiant champions strike back and spectacularly triumph in ‘The Action of the Tiger!’ after which ‘God Spare the Childâ€¦’ sees another happy reunion as the heroes (all but the now retired Banshee) find Charles Xavier awaiting them when they reach Westchester.

Jean is increasingly slipping into visions of a former life as a spoiled, cruel child of privilege, contrasting sharply with her renewed love for Scott, but the home atmosphere is troubled by another discordant factor. Xavier is intent on resuming the training of the team, haughtily oblivious that this group are grizzled, seasoned veterans of combat, rather than the callow teenagers he first tutored.

Elsewhere a cabal of mutants and millionaires plot. Black King Sebastian Shaw, White Queen Emma Frost and the rest of the Hellfire Club hierarchy know Wyngarde is an ambitious and presumptuous upstart but the possibility of subverting the Phoenix to their world-dominating agenda is irresistibleâ€¦

When two new mutants manifest Xavier splits the team to contact both, taking Storm, Wolverine and Colossus to Chicago to meet the parents of naive thirteen year old Kitty Pryde who has just realised that along with all the other problems of puberty she can now fall through floors and walk through wallsâ€¦

However no sooner does Professor Xavier offer to admit her to his select and prestigious private school than they are all attacked by war-suited mercenaries and shipped by Emma Frost to the Hellfire Club. Only Kitty escapes, but instead of running she stows away on the transport; terrified but intent on saving the dayâ€¦

The other mutant neophyte debuts in X-Men #130 as Cyclops, Phoenix and Nightcrawler head to Manhattan’s club district to track down a disco singer dubbed ‘Dazzler’ unaware that they too have been targeted for capture. However little Kitty’s attempts to free the captives at the Hellfire base forces the villains to tip their hand early and with the assistance of Dazzler Alison Blair – a musical mutant who converts sound to devastating light effects – the second mercenary capture team is defeatedâ€¦

In #131 Kitty is frantically fleeing but her ‘Run for Your Life!’ leads straight into the arms of the remaining X-Men. Soon the plucky lass – after an understandable period of terror, confusion and kvetching – is leading an incursion into the lair of the White Queen and freeing Wolverine, Colossus and Xavier whilst Frost faces off for a psionic showdown with a Phoenix far less kind and caring than ever beforeâ€¦

The saga expands in #132 as ‘And Hellfire is their Name!’ brings the Angel back into the fold. The Hellfire Club is in actuality a centuries-old association of the world’s most powerful and wealthy individuals and Warren Worthington’s family have been members in good standing for generations. What better way of infiltrating the organisation than with someone on the inside?

As Wolverine and Nightcrawler scurry through sewers beneath the society’s palatial New York headquarters, Warren inveigles the rest through the grand front doors into the year’s swankiest soiree whilst he and the Professor await events.

It’s a bold move but a pointless one. Although the rank and file are simply spoiled rich folk, there is an Inner Circle led by Shaw which comprises some of Earth’s most dangerous men and womenâ€¦ and they have been waiting and watching for the mutants-in-mufti’s countermoveâ€¦

As soon as the heroes are inside, Wyngarde strikes, pushing Jean until she succumbs to the fictitious persona he has woven to awaken her darkest desires. With her overwhelming power added to the Inner Circle’s might, former friends quickly fall before the attack of super-strong Shaw and cyborg human Donald Pierce. Even Wolverine is beaten, smashed through the floors to his doom by mass-manipulating mutant Harry Lelandâ€¦

As the Inner Circle gloat, Cyclops – connected to Jean by their psionic rapport – sees the world through his lover’s corrupted, beguiled eyes and despairs. However, when Wyngarde, revealed as mutant illusion caster Mastermind, apparently stabs Cyclops the effect on â€œhisâ€ Black Queen is far from anticipatedâ€¦

Far below their feet, a body stirs. Battered but unbowed ‘Wolverine: Alone!’ begins to work his ruthless, relentless way through the Club’s murderous minions. His explosive entrance in #134’s ‘Too Late, the Heroes!’ gives the heroes a chance to break free and strike back, soundly thrashing the Hellfire blackguards. Sadly for Mastermind, not all his tampering has been expunged and when Jean catches him Jason Wyngarde’s fate is ghastly beyond imaginingâ€¦

As the mutants make their escape the situation escalates to crisis level as the mind-manipulation unleashes all Jean’s most selfish, self-serving desires and she shatteringly transforms into ‘Dark Phoenix’â€¦

Manifested as a god without qualm or conscience, Jean attacks her comrades before vanishing into space. Soon she reaches a distant system and, cognizant that she is feeling depleted, consumes the star, indifferent to the entire civilisation that dies upon the planet circling itâ€¦

Passing the D’Bari system is a massive ship of the Shi’ar star fleet. Rushing to aid the already extinct world they are merely a postprandial palate cleanser for the voracious Phoenixâ€¦

X-Men #136 opens with the horrified Empress Lilandra mobilising her entire military machine and heading for Earth, determined to end the threat of the ‘Child of Light and Darkness!’ On that beleaguered world Cyclops has called in the Beast to build a psychic scrambler to disrupt Jean’s immeasurable psionic might but when she cataclysmically reappears to trounce the team, the device burns out in seconds.

Sporadically Jean’s gentler persona appears, begging her friends to kill her before she loses control, but Dark Phoenix is close to destroying the world before, in a cataclysmic mental duel, Xavier shuts down her powers and establishes psychic circuit breakers to prevent her ever going rogue againâ€¦

With Jean left as little more than human, the heroes shudder in the aftermath of Earth’s latest close call when suddenly in a flash of light they all vanishâ€¦

The epic tale concludes in X-Men #137 as the outraged and terrified Shi’ar arrive in orbit to settle ‘The Fate of the Phoenix!’ With observers from the Kree and Skrull empires in attendance, Lilandra has come to exact justice and prevent the Phoenix from ever rising again. She is not prepared to accept her fiancÃ©’s word that the threat is already endedâ€¦

Summary execution is only avoided when Xavier invokes an ancient rite compelling Lilandra to accept a form of trial-by-combat. Relocating to the Blue Area of the Moon (with its pocket of breathable atmosphere) the mutants engage in all-out war with brigade of cosmic champions The Shi’ar Imperial Guard (an in-joke version of DC’s Legion of Super Heroes), but despite their greatest efforts are pushed to the brink of defeat.

With collapse imminent and her friends doomed, Jean’s psychic shackles slip and the Phoenix breaks free again. Horrified at what will inevitably happen, Jean commits suicide to save the universeâ€¦

Days later on Earth the X-Men mourn her passing in #138’s ‘Elegy’ as Cyclops recalls his life with the valiant woman he loved so deeply – and we get a comprehensive recap of the mutant team’s career to date. Heartbroken, the quintessential X-Man resigns just as Kitty Pryde moves inâ€¦

A new day dawns in issue #139 ‘â€¦Something Wicked This Way Comes!’ as the Angel rejoins the squad in time to see Nightcrawler join Wolverine in heading north for a reconciliation with the Canadian’s previous team, Alpha Flight. The visit turns into a hunt for the carnivorous magical monster Wendigo, culminating in a brutal battle and a rare clean win in #140’s ‘Rage!’

X-Men #141 saw the start of an evocative and extended subplot which would dictate years of tales to come. ‘Days of Future Past’ depicted an imminently approaching dystopian apocalypse wherein almost all mutants, paranormals and superheroes have been eradicated by Federally-controlled Sentinel robots.

The mechanoids rule over a shattered world on the edge of utter annihilation. New York is a charnel pit with most surviving superhumans kept in concentration camps and only a precious few free to fight a losing war of resistance.

Middle-aged Kitty Pryde is the lynchpin of a desperate plan to unmake history. With the aid of telepath named Rachel (eventually to escape that time-line and become the new Phoenix) Pryde swaps consciousness with her younger self in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the pivotal event which created the bleak, black tomorrow where all her remaining friends and comrades are being pitilessly exterminated one by resolute oneâ€¦

‘Mind Out of Time’ sees the mature Pryde in our era, inhabiting her juvenile body and leading her disbelieving team-mates on a frantic mission to foil the assassination of US senator David Kelly on prime-time TV by a sinister new iteration of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants – super-powered terrorists determined to make a very public example of the human politician attacking the cause of Mutant Rightsâ€¦

Fast-paced, action-packed, spectacularly multi-layered, bitterly tragic and tensely inconclusive – as all such time-travel tales should be – this cunning, compact yarn is indubitably one of the best individual tales of the Claremont/Byrne era and set the mood, tone and agenda for the next two decades of mutant mayhemâ€¦

With history restored and tragedy averted things slowed down at the X-Mansion as John Byrne left for pastures new. His swan song in #143 was a bombastic romp which found lonely, homesick Kitty home alone at Christmasâ€¦ except for a lone N’garai ‘Demon’ determined to eat herâ€¦

Her solo trial decimated the X-Men citadel and proved once and for all that she had what it takesâ€¦

The story portion of this classic compendium concludes with ‘Even in Deathâ€¦’ from X-Men #144, scripted by Claremont and illustrated by Brent Anderson & Joseph Rubenstein wherein heartbroken Scott fetches up in coastal village Shark Bay and joins the crew of Aleytys Forester‘s fishing boat.

Trouble is never far from the man called Cyclops however and when she introduces him to her dad the hero must draw upon all his inner reserves – and uncomprehending help of the macabre Man-Thing – to repel the crushing soul-consuming assaults of pernicious petty devil D’spayreâ€¦

Accompanied by fact-filled entries on Professor X, Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Beast and Angel, all taken from the Marvel Universe Handbook, this comprehensive monochrome includes some of the greatest stories Marvel ever published; entertaining, groundbreaking and painfully intoxicating. These adventures are an invaluable grounding in contemporary fights ‘n’ tights fiction no fan or casual reader can afford to ignore.
Â© 1979, 1980, 1981, 1997, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 9, 2015February 6, 2015

X-Men Legacy: Salvage

By Mike Carey, Scott Eaton, Phil Briones & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3876-1

Since its creation in 1963 and triumphant revival in 1975, Marvel’s Mutant franchise has always strongly featured powerful, conflicted and often controversial characters with the balance never resting solely on the side of light. One of the least explored and underused – except perhaps as the last-reel, deus-ex-machina, nuke-the-fridge problem solver – was the man who started it all: Professor Charles Xavier.

This particular collection gathers X-Men Legacy #219-225 (cover-dated February to August 2009); written by Mike Carey, it smartly redresses that imbalance as the usually sedentary mind-master becomes a fully participant mutant warrior determined to put right a number of sins and omissions plaguing his conscience and repay some too long outstanding debtsâ€¦

At this point in time, the evolutionary offshoot dubbed Homo Sapiens Superior is at its lowest ebb. As seen in the House of M and Decimation storylines, Scarlet Witch Wanda Maximoff – ravaged by madness and her own reality-warping power – has reduced the world’s multi-million plus mutant population to a couple of hundred individuals with three simple wordsâ€¦

The quest begins with ‘JagannÃ¡tha’ (illustrated by Scott Eaton, Phil Briones & Cam Smith) as Xavier is summoned by his murderous half-brother Cain Marko to settle a lifetime of grudges. The bullying wastrel was transformed by evil magic in decades past into the brutally unstoppable Juggernaut and wants to finally end the savant’s perpetual efforts to save and cure him.

Taking a bar and all its patrons hostage Cain thinks he’s got the upper hand, but when confronting the mightiest telepathic mind on Earth it’s never wise to trust what your brain and senses are telling youâ€¦

At last accepting that all he can do is contain his savage sibling, Xavier moves on to the student he feels he has most failed in the 4-part epic psycho-drama ‘Salvage’ with art by Eaton, Andrew Hennessy & Lee Bermejo.

When former Evil Mutant Rogue originally joined his school she was desperate to find a way to turn her power off and still the voices inside her. Anna-Marie could steal abilities with a touch but overlong contact stole the donor’s mind and personality, cramming them screaming inside her head until Rogue couldn’t hear her own thoughts.

After conflicted years of world-saving service she disappeared: exiling herself from the X-Men in search of peace. Now just as Xavier resolves to finally fix her, a brace of extra-terrestrial terrors simultaneously hone in on the missing mutantâ€¦

In New Orleans the savant asks former X-Man Gambit to join him in his mission. Remy Lebeau had spent frustrating years loving a woman he could never touch and knows her better than anyone, but Xavier doesn’t want him for his insights: where he’s going the mind-master might need a capable bodyguardâ€¦

In desolate Maynards Plains, Western Australia, Rogue is hotly debating her life with adopted mother Mystique. It’s not a conversation she can avoid: the murderous mutant is the most strident and forceful personality still stuck inside her headâ€¦

The argument is postponed when a lone social historian wanders into the ghost town Anna-Marie has made her home. The woman is going to be trouble – but not as much as the crew of the Boneyard Dog, a Shi’ar salvage vessel which has just picked up a most appetising and potentially profitable tech signatureâ€¦

As Xavier and Gambit approach the town – once a hidden base and scene of a colossal battle between the X-Men and an army of cyborgs – the alien scrap dealers land and trigger a horrific metamorphosis in the annoying anthropologistâ€¦

Revealed as a sentient but crippled AI born of the amalgamation of Shi’ar hard-light holographic technology and Xavier’s Danger Room programming software, the stranger fixates on Anna-Marie whilst transforming the entire region into nested scenes from her troubled past: everything from Sentinel assaults to attacks by past foes such as The Marauders, Magneto and Mystique and even the boy she killed when her powers first manifested.

Caught in the reality storm, the Shi’ar raiders unite with Gambit and Xavier as Rogue physically confronts past demons in the centre of a horrific mind-maze, but even as they gradually battle their way through to the victims at the heart of the chaos, the mutant heroes are painfully unaware that their alien allies are only in it for profit and are preparing to betray themâ€¦

Events take an even stranger shape when Xavier admits that he knew his hologram training suite had evolved into a free-thinking being. When it happened years ago he had, in a moment of weakness and fear, shackled, lobotomised and psychically enslaved the unique technological newborn.

With the Shi’ar about to kill them all to strip-mine and cannibalise her consciousness, Charles removes his hastily-applied psi-chains and Danger becomes a fully autonomous, remarkably forgiving but momentarily ticked-off creature. Deep within her, Rogue has been reliving her own crisis-moments and has reached an accommodation with her selves and her sins. Achieving a balance previously denied her, Rogue is ready and more than willing to take out her pent-up hostility on the unscrupulous scrap merchantsâ€¦ as is the now irrevocably autonomous Dangerâ€¦

With two more stains removed from his escutcheon, Xavier finally seeks to end a thorny problem which is more a threat to his race than his soul.

Charismatic mutant terrorist Magneto was responsible for many crimes and tragedies but the undoubted worst was inspiring a fanatical squad of zealots known as the Acolytes.

Led by almighty Exodus, Joanna â€œFrenzyâ€ Cargill, Carmella Unuscione, Amelia Voght, Omega Sentinel Karima Shapandar, Heather â€œTempoâ€ Tucker and shapeshifter Random are some of the most powerful beings on Earth and a constant threat to humanity and Xavier’s dream of peaceful coexistence.

They are utterly unprepared for their greatest enemy to walk alone into their citadel, intent on ending the animosity forever. Exodus is even less ready for how the telepathic scholar and humanitarian achieves this major miracle in ‘The Retreat’ (Eaton & Briones)â€¦

With covers by Mike McKone & John Rauch, Lee Bermejo, Morry Hollowell and Daniel AcuÃ±a and variants by Marko Djurdjevic, Frank Miller/Hollowell and Adriana Melo, this slim, stirring, compelling Fights ‘n’ Tights chronicle also is a superb example of how, even in comicbooks, brain always trumps brawn .

February 6, 2015February 5, 2015

Captain America: The Chosen

By David Morrell & Mitch Breitweiser with Brian Reber & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2016-2

The Sentinel of Liberty was created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby at the end of 1940 and confidently launched in his own title Captain America Comics #1, cover-dated March 1941. He was an unstoppable, overwhelming overnight success.

The absolute and undisputed star of Timely – now Marvel – Comics’ â€œBig Threeâ€ (the other two being Human Torch and Sub-Mariner), he was amongst the very first to fade as the Golden Age ended.

When the Korean War and Communist aggression gripped the American psyche Steve Rogers was briefly revived in 1953 – along with Torch and Subby – before sinking once more into obscurityâ€¦

A resurgent Marvel Comics drafted him again in Avengers #4. It was March 1964 and Vietnam was just beginning to pervade the minds of the American publicâ€¦

This time he stuck around. Whilst perpetually agonising over the tragic, heroic death of his young sidekick (James Buchanan Barnes AKA Bucky) during the final days of World War II, the resurrected Rogers stole the show, then promptly graduated to his own series and title as well.

He waxed and waned through the most turbulent period of social change in US history, constantly struggling to find an ideological niche and stable footing in a precarious and rapidly changing modern world.

After decades of vacillating and being subject to increasingly frantic attempts to keep the character relevant, in the last years of the 20^th century a succession of stellar writers finally established his naturally niche: America’s physical, military and ethical guardianâ€¦

That view was superbly taken to its most impressive extreme in an evocative 6-issue miniseries under the adult-attuned Marvel Knights imprint. As explained in David Morrell’s fascinating Afterword to Captain America: The Chosen, the author of First Blood (the original Rambo novel, and many others such as The Brotherhood of the Rose and Fireflies) jumped at the chance to play with America’s other abiding patriotic symbolâ€¦

Running November 2007 to March 2008, Captain America: The Chosen takes a simultaneously down-to-Earth and metaphorically fanciful look at the nation’s saviour which begins in ‘Now You See Me, Now You Don’t’ as Marine Corporal James Newman takes heavy fire after his patrol enters a seemingly quiet village in Afghanistan.

He’d rather be home in San Francisco with wife Lori and baby boy Brad, or at the very least just certain who the bad guys are and who the victims American like him are here to help, but a furious assault by Al Qaeda insurgents soon drives all thoughts other than survival out of his head.

Pinned down in a house he thinks his time has come until Captain America suddenly appears. The hero’s mere presence drives doubts away and steadies his fear. With the mighty crusader’s inspirational assistance – always repeating a mantra of â€œCourage. Honour. Loyalty. Sacrificeâ€ – Newman breaks out of the trap and rescues his endangered men from certain death.

In the aftermath the weary Corporal ducks the thanks and praise of his grateful comrades, attributing the lion’s share of credit to the Star Spangled Avenger. He cannot understand where Captain America vanished to, nor why nobody else saw himâ€¦

And thousands of miles away in a secret laboratory a Super Soldier lies dyingâ€¦

The mystery deepens in ‘The Shape of Nightmares’ as a bevy of scientists assess the Sentinel of Liberty’s rapidly declining state in the very building where he was created, whilst in Afghanistan Newman ruminates on the apparent hallucination which saved his life one day ago. As his squad investigate a cave his mind goes back to his own childhood, a time when an innocent game trapped him in a car boot and almost killed him. The event left its mark and he’s terrified of entering the hole in the ground which might hold all manner or perilâ€¦

The threat comes from enemy combatants with grenades and a brief fierce firefight results in a rock-fall which buries the squad under tons of rock. As Newman radios for help with mounting panic, Captain America is there again calmly repeating â€œCourage. Honour. Loyalty. Sacrifice.â€ None of his fellow survivors can see him as the superhero explains what’s really going onâ€¦

In a secret US citadel a paralysed Captain America is linked to radical technology. His perfect body is dying as the serum which created him fails, but has linked his still valiant mentality to experimental Remote Viewing equipment to provide strategic intel for the American forces in combat.

It’s fortuitously also allowed him to contact kindred spirits like Newman but being ‘Out of Bodyâ€¦ Out of Mind’ is only the start. Despite being also able to terrify many particularly receptive insurgents, his time on Earth is endingâ€¦

As the entombed soldiers slowly expire in the collapsed caves, Cap’s calm discourse again inspires Newman and the claustrophobic Corporal begins digging deeper into the mountain looking for a way out.

‘Fear in a Handful of Dust’ follows as he strives, accompanied by an ever-more skeletal patriotic phantasm. Perhaps to keep him steadied, Captain America tells James how it all started: how a skinny physical specimen, rejected by the army, was transformed into the perfect soldier during World War II, of the friends he made, the family he formed and the losses he endured for the sake of his country and the worldâ€¦

As Newman burrows through the mountain Captain America shares the most intimate details of his life in ‘The Crucible’ of service, but as the Corporal stubbornly overcomes every obstacle, on an operating table the Spirit of a Nation is dyingâ€¦

The saga ends as the President rushes to the side of America’s greatest resource. The hero’s mind is elsewhere, imparting details of his return after decades frozen in ice and the new world he found himself lost in, further triumph and sacrifice and his recent decline into frailty and powerlessness.

And how he knows one thing above all else: Captain America is not unique and a ‘Multitude’ of good people like him can be united to carry on his work. He has been patiently seeking them all out whilst his life was leaking awayâ€¦

As Newman inches his way to sunlight and freedom the communication suddenly ends. He has no idea that a world away the Star Spangled Avenger has seen one final crisis and overcome the body that has betrayed him to save America one last timeâ€¦

Scrabbling into the open air, the Corporal is ambushed by insurgents but somehow seems imbued with the energy of a superhero triumphing over impossible odds to save his men. He isn’t tired and knows this is only the beginningâ€¦

Moving, mythological, elegant and illustrated with sublime understatement by then-newcomer Mitch Breitweiser (ably augmented by colourist Brian Reber), this powerful paean to symbolism also offers Morrell’s complete script for the first chapter and a superb gallery of a dozen covers-&-variants from Breitweiser, Travis Charest & Julian Ponsor.

February 4, 2015

Dark X-Men

By Paul Cornell, Leonard Kirk, Jay Leisten & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4527-1

When draconian US Federal mandate The Superhuman Registration Act led to Civil War between costumed heroes, Tony Stark was hastily appointed the American government’s Security Czar – the â€œtop copâ€ in sole charge of the beleaguered nation’s defence and freedom. As Director of high-tech enforcement agency S.H.I.E.L.D. he became the final word in all matters involving metahumans and the vast costumed communityâ€¦

Stark’s mismanagement of successive crises led to the arrest and assassination of Captain America and unimaginable escalation of global tension, destruction, culminating in an almost-successful Secret Invasion by shape-shifting alien Skrulls.

Discredited, ostracised and declared a wanted fugitive, he was replaced by apparently rehabilitated, recovering schizophrenic Norman Osborn – the original Green Goblin – who assumed control of America’s covert agencies and military resources. Osborn promptly disbanded S.H.I.E.L.D. and placed the nation under the aegis of his own newly-minted organisation H.A.M.M.E.R.

The erstwhile villain had first begun his climb back to respectability after taking charge of the Thunderbolts Project; a penal program which offered second chances to super-criminals who volunteered to undertake Federally-sanctioned missionsâ€¦

Not content with legitimate political and personal power, Osborn also secretly conspired with a coalition of malevolent masterminds to divvy up the world between them. The Cabal was a Star Chamber of villains working towards mutually self-serving goals, but such egomaniacal personalities could never play well together for long and cracks soon began to show, both in the criminal conspiracy and eventually Osborn himselfâ€¦

As another strand of his long-term plan, the Homeland Metahuman Security overlord fired Stark’s Mighty Avengers and created his own, more pliable team consisting of compliant turncoats, tractable replacements and outright impostors.

Constantly courting public opinion, Osborn launched his Avengers whilst systematically building up a personally loyal high-tech paramilitary rapid-response force. After the Utopia crisis engulfed Earth’s depleted mutant population, he pulled the same scam with the world’s most recognisable Homo Superior teamâ€¦

Compiling his own team of X-Men to police â€œmutant problemsâ€ and be the face of law and order for the dangerous evolutionary minority, Osborn quietly continued exporting his seditious Dark Reign: a slowly destabilising madman who – through means fair and foul – officially worked to curb the unchecked power and threat of meta-humanity, with ever-decreasing successâ€¦

The repercussions of Osborn’s rise and fall were felt throughout and featured in many series and collections throughout the Marvel Universe, and this one, collecting 5-issue miniseries Dark X-Men (cover-dated January to May 2010, by writer Paul Cornell, artists Leonard Kirk & Jay Leisten with colour by Brian Reber) offers one of the first best nails in his coffinâ€¦

The drama begins with a strange plague: ordinary humans becoming dream-walking somnambulists communally declaring â€œI’m an X-Manâ€. The mystery provokes Osborn to convene his less-than-eager X-squad for a mission that will take them on a ‘Journey to the Center of the Goblin’â€¦

Team leader is devious, rebellious shapeshifter Mystique; kept honest and grudgingly showing willing because of bombs implanted in her bloodstream. She’s supplemented by clinical depressive Calvin Rankin AKA Mimic, emotionally troubled, power-absorbing Michael â€œOmegaâ€ Pointer and alternate-Earth Henry McCoy – a conscienceless and sadistic biologist dubbed Dark Beast. He at least is happy to play: Osborn has promised him unlimited resources, plenty of guinea pigs and no ethical oversightâ€¦

Dispatched to Burton, California – site of the largest outbreak – on a glorified PR jaunt, the federal X-Men – with Mystique wearing the shape of the dead saviour Jean Grey â€“ are interviewing a victim when Omega is suddenly overwhelmed and intoxicated by a huge influx of mutant energy and goes berserkâ€¦

Mimic heads off to stop him but is also affected by the strange force, gripped by a tantalising sense of precognition which promises to banish forever his crippling anxiety about his futureâ€¦

As the team-mates crash through Burton causing untold carnage, in the hospital a ghostly force materialises from the boy they were quizzing. The nebulous shape stares at Dark Beast and says â€œI know you from homeâ€ before coalescing into long-dead mutant superman Nate Greyâ€¦

Grey, also known as X-Man, originally came from the same world as the Beast: an apocalyptic hell where humanity was all but eradicated. On escaping to our world Nate – son of that tragic Earth’s Jean Grey and Scott Summers – slowly evolved into an immensely powerful, shamanic, trans-dimensional messiah before ascending to a state of pure energy.

Now he’s back and might see right through the rogues pretending to be his extended family. However he disperses again before realising his â€œmotherâ€ is also an impostorâ€¦

Retrenching in New York after their debacle, the mutant squad confer with Osborn – who is practically salivating at the prospect of suborning X-Man’s unlimited power – and receive orders to find and capture the psionic phantom at all costsâ€¦

The energy-absorbing team members are far from keen, but deviant Dr. McCoy loves a challenge and makes use of H.A.M.M.E.R.’s nascent Psi-Division (an army of interned psychics and telepaths forced into a gestalt by unscrupulous charlatan Dr. Jarl) to summon and stabilise the psionic fugitive.

Physically present and instantly aware of all Osborn and McCoy’s past sins, the reborn X-shaman arrives on Earth all-powerful and furiously outragedâ€¦

His first move is to attack the Dark Avengers, routing all of them until only Olympian war-god Ares remains. Battling simultaneously throughout numerous time-planes Grey might even have beaten him, had not the extremely conflicted Mimic intervened and distracted him, allowing the immortal warrior to destroy X-Manâ€¦

Things take a strange turn in the aftermath as Mystique quietly confronts the gloating security supremo. Expert at swiping identities for decades, only she has realised Nate has willing discorporated in order to possess the most influential man in the worldâ€¦

Determined to make Earth a paradise, Grey is wearing Osborn like a meat-glove: using him to carry out his own – benevolent – ambitions. However the mutant ghost has utterly underestimated the astonishing willpower of the madman he’s riding and the voracious fury of the savage elemental force pent at the core of Osborn’s fractured id.

To finally succeed in his evil plans, Norman Osborn had to hive off and imprison his maniacal, petty, angry other side, but with Grey now inside his head, the lethally dangerous, uncompromising Green Goblin is breaking freeâ€¦

Unable to convince Nate to withdraw and terrified of what the Goblin persona might do if it ever gained control, Mystique finds herself forced to play hero for real and, galvanising her team of monsters and no-hopers, she uses the remnants of Dr. Jarl’s brain brigade to transport her Dark X-Men into Osborn’s mindscape to fix – or if necessary end – the catastrophic three-way mindwar.

Only they’re a little too lateâ€¦

Rocket-paced, action-drenched, wryly imaginative and wickedly funny, this sharp sortie into weird worlds also includes sketches and designs by Leonard Kirk and a cover gallery by Simone Bianchi & Simone Peruzzi, Mike Choi, Sonia Oback, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Morry Hollowell to complete a perfect package for tried-and-true mutant mavens and Fights ‘n’ Tights aficionados everywhere.
Â© 2009, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 2, 2015February 1, 2015

Marvel Zombies Vs. Army of Darkness

By John Layman, Fabiano Neves, Fernando Blanco, Sean Phillips & various (Marvel/Dynamite Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4243-0

Swiftly catching a cultural wave to become one of modern Marvel’s most popular niche-franchises, a canny blend of gratuitous violence, sharp wit and arrant buffoonery led to the Marvel Zombies taking the comics-reading world by storm in the mid-2000s.

So big was the concept that, like a flesh-eating infection, it even escaped the confines of corporate continuity to engender an inter-company crossover with another hugely popular horror franchiseâ€¦

In one of the many Marvel universes an intruder from beyond brought an extra-dimensional curse to one tragic reality: a pestilence that without exception instantly turned the infected (for which read â€œbittenâ€) victims into ravenous, undead eating machines.

Confronted by wave after wave of valiant superheroes, â€œpatient zeroâ€ defeated them all and his all-conquering contagion spread exponentially as defenders fell to rise as voracious monsters. Before a day was out a chain-reaction of hungry terror had devastated the world, leaving its costumed champions nothing more than the apex predators atop a rapidly diminishing food sourceâ€¦

Ash Williams – as played onscreen by actor Bruce Campbell – is the implausible demon-killing star of the Evil Dead/Army of Darkness movies devised by Sam Raimi. A horny, misogynistic oaf and charmless goon, he is nonetheless chosen by fate to destroy all â€œdeaditesâ€: ravening evil ghosts intent on ending all life, spawned by a malignant, malevolent sentient tome known as The Necronomicon.

For a total butthole, Ash is surprisingly competent at his jobâ€¦

Dark Horse Comics produced the first Evil Dead comicbook series in 1992 and Dynamite Entertainment picked up the license in 2004 with dark and daft miniseries Army of Darkness: Ashes 2 Ashes. It led to 2005’s Army of Darkness: Shop Till You Drop (Dead) and Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator before an on-going series was commissioned in 2006.

Considering his predilection for gory, sardonic splatter-tainment, the dimension-hopping, time-jumping Ash was a dead cert to visit Marvel’s funerary fun houseâ€¦

This slim and sinister inter-company chronicle collects Marvel Zombies Vs. Army of Darkness #1-5 (May – September 2007), courtesy of scripter John Layman and illustrators Fabiano Neves with Fernando Blanco, Sean Phillips and colourist June Chung all contributing to the mix.

Unusual for such intersecting universe imbroglios, the events of this yarn are â€œin-continuityâ€, occurring during, contiguous with and affecting the tragic happenings seen in ‘Marvel Zombies: Dead Days’: even offering key story points not revealed in the exclusively Marvel talesâ€¦

It begins after Ash arrives on Earth in the hours before the infection first hits. A no-nonsense blue-collar kind of guy, the Deadite Destroyer can take demonic monsters and time-travel in his stride but is flabbergasted to see grown men in tights beating each other up.

Watching Daredevil battle super-villain Thunderball the nonplussed wanderer is unable to discern who is good and who evil but his amazement is suspended after the wicked spirit of the Necronomicon appears and taunts him with a prophecyâ€¦ â€œThis world will die and an army of the dead will riseâ€â€¦

Stuck in a world of costumed clowns, Ash decides to go straight to the top and seeks out Avengers Mansion, but the assembled heroes refuse to believe his warnings of doom. Being dumped in a lake by the Scarlet Witch only serves to jog his memory however and he recalls his last moments before arriving in this fruity, steroid-infested madhouseâ€¦

He was dead and about to enter Heaven when a costumed maniac attacked, biting the deceased, turning them into flesh-eating horrors and wrecking the entire Afterlife. Ash escaped back to the lands of the living, but the creature followed himâ€¦

The heroes are leaving to investigate reports of a monster when Ash finds them again, and Colonel America orders Spider-Man to take the raving lunatic away for his own safety. By the time the traveller convinces the Wallcrawler that he isn’t crazy, the damage has been done. Almost all of the World’s Mightiest Heroes are ravening undead horrors and Ash is ‘Earth’s Mightiest Zero’â€¦

Stunned, the late-arriving webspinner is easy meat for the Star-Spangled zombie, leaving Ash helpless before a hungry rabble of former heroesâ€¦

Events kick into grisly top gear in ‘Marvel Team-Ups’ as Spider-Man, frantically fighting the hunger that’s killing him, whisks Ash to temporary safety before fleeing, leaving the extra-dimensional demon killer all alone until seeming kindred spirit The Punisher shows up.

The man with the skull on his chest doesn’t care about undead monsters: he’s busy killing a few living ones like The Kingpin, Hammerhead and The Owlâ€¦

Once his current job is completed however he comes around to Ash’s way of thinking, but his confrontational manner of only dealing with things head on soon ends his usefulness. The vigilante does however leave Ash with a lot of serious ordnance, which the cocky Mr. Williams uses to save hot babe Dazzler from imminent death by superhero biteâ€¦

Ash is convinced that the Necronomicon is summoning Deadites to this Earth and, after informing her that an evil magic book is behind all the grief, Dazzler takes him to the home of Doctor Strange, reasoning that if the chronicle of chaos is to be found anywhere it will be in the library of Earth’s Sorcerer Supremeâ€¦

They are too late: ‘Night of the Livid Dead’ finds Ash meeting again the Scarlet Witch (now the only still-breathing Avenger) and encountering his Marvel Earth counterpart as well as a flesh-eating humanoid duck named Howard, but the mystic they’re seeking is long gone.

Ash and his new team do however convince the other tormented tomes in the library to tell them where the Necronomicon is currently located and, leaving scenes of escalating horror behind them, the mortals fly to Latveria to confront a foreigner with the unlikely name of Doctor Doomâ€¦

By the time they get there the plague has gone global and the Balkan kingdom is under siege: possibly the only place on Earth where humans still live – and only then behind the straining force-fields of Castle Doomstadt.

‘The Book of Doom’ opens with the Iron Dictator disregarding Ash’s warnings of infernal invasion in favour his own conclusions of a simple pan-dimensional virus, before dumping him in the pens where a breeding stock of humans is cached, ready to repopulate Earth after Doom inevitably destroys the zombie hordes.

Unconvinced by his captor’s arrogant assurances, Ash busts out and meets Scarlet Witch on her way to the dictator’s library. Soon they are interrogating the Devil Doctor’s copy of the Necronomicon and Ash discovers he been played from page oneâ€¦

Reeling with despair and defeat he then releases a hot chick in a glass tube who calls herself Amora the Enchantress, blissfully unaware that she is both an evil goddess and a plague-carrying zombie Doom has been experimenting onâ€¦

The tale and the world comes to an explosive, blood-drenched end in concluding chapter ‘The Stalking Dead’ wherein an army of undead heroes converge on Latveria, but not before Ash and Doom pull a minor rabbit out of their combined hats, ferrying the last humans to a place of other-dimensional safety. The hapless Deadite Hunter, however, is less lucky and lands in a dimension with a monster problem even he hasn’t encountered beforeâ€¦

Fast-paced, irreverent, raucous and gorily outrageous, this laugh-out-loud saga of no-guts-and-less-glory will sit well with readers hungry for immature entertainment and all comicbook completists, and comes with a splendid gallery of covers-&-variants by Arthur Suydam, recreating eight classic scenes from Marvel history. Also included are those inspirational originals by John Byrne, Terry Austin, Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Carmine Infantino, Ross Andru, Dick Giordano, Jim Lee, Jim Starlin and Frank Miller.

Â© 2007, 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. All Marvel characters, names and distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc. Army of Darkness and all characters, names and distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Orion Pictures â„¢ & Â© 1993-2009 Orion Pictures Corporation, Inc. All rights reserved. Licensed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. to Dynamic Forces Inc. Dynamite, Dynamic Entertainment & its logo â„¢ & Dynamic Forces Inc. Inc. All rights reserved.

January 30, 2015

Marvel Zombies: the Complete Collection volume 1

By Mark Millar, Robert Kirkman, Reginald Hudlin, Greg Land, Sean Phillips, Francis Portela, Mitch Breitweiser & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-8538-3

Swiftly catching a cultural wave to become one of modern Marvel’s most popular niche-franchises, the canny blend of gratuitous measured sarcasm and arrant cosmic buffoonery compiled here traces all the early appearances of the deadly departed, flesh-eating superheroes from an alternate universe which wasn’t so different from the one we all know – at least until a dire contagion killed every ordinary mortal and infected every super-human upon itâ€¦

This mammoth volume re-presents the first appearances of those chompy champions as seen in Ultimate Fantastic Four #21-23 and #30-32, Marvel Zombies #1-5, Marvel Zombies: Dead Days #1 and Black Panther volume 4 #28-30 (plus material from Marvel Spotlight: Marvel Zombies/Mystic Arcana collectively spanning September 2005 to October 2007) and leaps into sinister high gear following Robert â€œThe Zombie Guyâ€ Kirkman’s informative introduction ‘Marvelous Zombies’â€¦

In many ways a highly entertaining one-trick pony, these tales all depend on a deep familiarity with the regular Marvel pantheon, a fondness for schlock horror and the cherished tradition of superheroes beating the stuffings out of each other.

This time however, it’s for keeps, with beloved icons actually eating the stuffings out of each other – and just about everyone else – until only a handful of living breathing folk remain, desperately seeking a cure or a way to escape their universe without bringing the hunger plague with themâ€¦

It all begins with the first chronological appearance of the brain-eaters: a bleak and subtle exploit which appeared in Ultimate Fantastic Four #21-23. This team is a retooled version of the Lee/Kirby stalwarts created as part of the Marvel Ultimates imprint which began in 2000.

After Marvel’s near-demise in 1996, the new management oversaw a thoroughly modernising refit of key properties: fresher characters and concepts to appeal to a new generation of â€œki-dultsâ€ – perceived to be a potentially separate buying public from those readers content to stick with the various efforts that had gradually devolved from the Founding Fathers of the House of Ideas.

This super-powered quartet are part of a corporate think-thank tasked with saving the world and making a profit, and in ‘Crossover’ by Mark Millar, Greg Land & Matt Ryan, wÃ¼nderkind Reed Richards is contacted by a smarter, older version of himself offering the secrets of trans-dimensional travel.

Defying his bosses and comrades, Reed translates to the other Earth only to find he’s been duped by adult, zombie versions of the FF, looking for fresh fields to infect and people to digestâ€¦

Breaking free, young Richards discovers a devastated, desolate New York populated solely by manic monster superheroes, all eager to eat one of the last living beings on the planet. Suddenly rescued by Magneto, Reed meets other survivors as they prepare for their last hurrah. Offering them a chance to escape, Reed is blissfully unaware that he’s already allowed the Zombie FF to invade the still living world he came fromâ€¦

Culminating in a bombastic battle on two planes of reality and a tragic heroic sacrifice, this creepy chronicle ends with the zombie FF imprisoned on Ultimate Earthâ€¦

The concept evolved into a franchise in February 2006 with the launch of 5-part miniseries Marvel Zombies, by Robert Kirkman & Sean Phillips, which returned to the infected alternate Earth to detail the final fall of humanity and the improbable things that happened nextâ€¦

With the living all gone or infected, Earth’s former heroes and villains are at a loss. Fighting and bickering whiles away time but since nothing can kill them and only living flesh will sate their hunger for even a second, all hope seems lost until a strange glowing alien on a surfboard appears in the skyâ€¦

Unaware that Giant-Man has keeping a stash of live humans (including former friend Black Panther) to eat in secret and one piece at a time, the zombies are united by Colonel America and Iron Man into an army to capture and consume the cosmic skyrider.

As the living ruin who was the Panther escapes and fortuitously unites with Magneto’s remaining mutant acolytes, the Silver Surfer falls to a happily distracted army of zombies who devour him and somehow absorb his cosmic energies. But as they finish, the planetary devourer Galactus arrives, demanding to know where his herald isâ€¦

The star god eats entire planets to survive but even he has never encountered hunger such as possesses the zombies. Hundreds of the massed undead launch themselves at him and although he destroys many he cannot kill them allâ€¦

As Earth’s remaining human and mutants form an uneasy alliance and flee to a hidden sanctuary, Galactus readies himself to consume Earth but is unprepared for the ingenuity of the zombie Avengers who turn the tables and eat the eater.

Now the whole universe is at risk since Iron Man, Hulk, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Giant-Man and Spider-Man – fuelled by Galactus’ limitless cosmic energy – can travel from planet to planet to assuage their unceasing appetitesâ€¦

Following a few tantalising snippets culled from intervening UFF issues with the undead quartet describing what they’ll do when – not if – they get loose, the saga finally explodes into high gear in ‘Frightful’ from Ultimate Fantastic Four #30-32, by Millar, Land, Ryan & Mitch Breitweiser.

Here the Ultimate Universe Dr. Doom enacts a subtle plan to crush his arch-rival Reed Richards, but the imprisoned, lab-rat zombie FF have their own agenda: one which includes escaping and eating every living thing on the planetâ€¦

A far more serious tale of revenge and obsession, this yarn is a real chiller in a volume far more silly than scary and culminates in an unlikely sacrifice to save the world from the one person nobody expected to give a damnâ€¦â€¦

Events take a lighter tone if not turn when events on the original Marvel Earth impinge on the zombieverse.

Here a Civil War had erupted between costumed heroes after the US government ordered all superhumans to unmask and register themselves. From that period comes ‘Good Eatin”, a light-hearted, grotesquely slapstick 3-part hoot from Black Panther #28-30 (July-October 2007).

The tale revealed how, on undead Earth, the six victorious zombies – Tony Stark, Luke Cage, Giant-Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine and the Hulk – ate Galactus and absorbed all his power. With every other food source exhausted they then ranged their entire reality for forty years, killing every thing and every person in every civilisation they could find.

Convened for a brief time as the â€œNew Fantastic Fourâ€ of our Earth, X-Man Storm, Human Torch, Thing and the Panther went time- and dimension-hopping at just the wrong moment and ended upon a hidden citadel of the shape-shifting Skrulls just as the Galactal Zombie Diners Club discovers what just might be the last edible planet in their universe.

‘Hell of a Mess’, ‘From Bad to Worse’ and ‘Absolutely No Way to Win’ (by Reginald Hudlin & Francis Portela) comprise an action-packed, hilariously bad-taste splatter-fest to delight the thrill-seeking, grossness-engorged teenager in us allâ€¦

The story portion of this chronicle of the damned concludes with a one-shot prequel which concentrated on the tragedy of the final hours of that doomed alternity. In Marvel Zombies: Dead Days (May 2007), Robert Kirkman & Sean Phillips detailed exactly how humanity ended after Earth’s heroes all gathered to battle a super-villain from another dimension.

This intruder had unfortunately imported an extra-dimensional curse to this reality: one that turns the infected (for which read â€œbittenâ€) victims into ravenous, undead eating machines. Before a day was out a chain reaction of terror had devastated the world, leaving its costumed champions nothing more than the apex predators atop a rapidly diminishing food sourceâ€¦

This tome is as much art book as graphic narrative and also includes an incredible range of alternate and variant covers as well as a gallery of the landmark original covers used by zombie illustrator Arthur Suydam as the basis for the 50 new spoof and pastiche images he created: all referencing key moments from Marvel’s decades-long-history and adding so much to the project’s success.

These include Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko’s Amazing Fantasy #15 (from August 1962), Spider-Man #1 by Todd McFarlane (August 1990), Amazing Spider-Man #50 (July 1967 by John Romita Sr.), Hulk #1 by Kirby & Paul Reinman (May 1962), Avengers #4 (March 1964 by Kirby), Daredevil #179 (February 1988 by Frank Millar & Klaus Janson), X-Men #1 (September 1963, by Kirby & Sol Brodsky, Silver Surfer #1 (John Buscema, August 1968), Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961 by Kirby), Avengers #87 (April 1971 by John Buscema & John Verpoorten), the other X-Men #1 from October 1991 by Jim Lee & Scott Williams, Secret Wars #1 (May 1984, Mike Zeck & John Beatty) and so many more, all accompanied by the artist’s fascinating insights and commentary

As well as Suydam’s fiendish fifty reinterpretations there are 42 covers by Land, Matt, Frank D’Armata, Justin Ponsor, Jay Leisten, Phillips, Juan Bobillo, Kaare Andrews, David Aja, Leonard Kirk, Aaron Lopresti, Jeromy Cox, Carlo Pagulayan, Romita Sr., Ed McGuinness, Jason Keith, Richard Corben, Ariel Olivetti, David Yardin, Matt Milla, Scott Clark, Boris Vallejo, Earl Norem, Kyle Hotz and Dan Brown, all adding to the devilish dark art delights and augmenting the feature-packed prose section at the end.

Essays and snippets here include ‘Interview Excerpts from Marvel Spotlight: Robert Kirkman/Greg Land’, ‘A Gruesome Good Time: The Story of the Marvel Zombies’, ‘Whose Stomach Are You In?’, ‘Undead Again’ and ‘Life Among the Zombies’ – all by Dugan Trodglen – plus a picture-&-sketch packed expose of ‘The Crazy World of Arthur Suydam’ as explained to John Rhett Thomas, all adding to the comprehensive overbite overview of things ..

By no means to everyone’s taste, this blending of ferocious fangtastic fable with gross-out comedy mixes the sentiments of American Werewolf in London, the iconography of Shaun of the Dead and the cherished hagiography of the Marvel Universe to surprisingly engaging effect. Not for the squeamish or continuity-cherishing hardliners, there might be a loud laugh or frisson of fear awaiting the open-minded casual readerâ€¦
Â© 2005, 2006, 2007, 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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