Category: Marvel Superheroes

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Captain America & the Korvac Saga


By Ben McCool, Craig Rousseau, Rachelle Rosenberg, with Jim Shooter, George Pérez, Pablo Marcos & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5160-9

Over the decades since its founding, Marvel has published a number of popular and/or critically successful mega-epics which fans always talk about with great fondness. In relatively recent years the company began to reconfigure some of them – such as Avengers & the Infinity Gauntlet and Spider-Man & the Secret Wars for younger readers in the manner of the company’s all-ages Marvel Adventures format: notionally “in-continuity” tales offering cosmic thrills, chills and light drama as a (possibly misdirected) way to bring kids in on the House of Ideas’ biggest successes.

This yarn is one of the most intriguing, greatly diverging from its source material as writer Ben McCool, illustrator Craig Rousseau and colourist Rachelle Rosenberg wittily wove an alternate interpretation adding a contemporary tone to the twice time-displaced Sentinel of Liberty.

This highly entertaining digest-sized collection collects the 4-issue miniseries Captain America & the Korvac Saga from February-May 2011 and also re-presents the opening shot in the original epic from Avengers #167 (January 1978) as crafted by Jim Shooter, George Pérez & Pablo Marcos.

The new yarn retells the saga, giving the Star-Spangled Avenger the leading role in an engaging and appealing way, adding contemporary sensibilities and a lighter take to a classic but rather dark and gritty Fights ‘n’ Tights yarn.

I would strongly suggest, however, that if you’ve never seen the original epic, you track it down either in Essential Avengers volume 8, Avengers: the Korvac Saga or elsewhere: it’s not strictly necessary but you will get to read an extremely classy piece of fantasy fiction as it was originally intended…

The action here opens in ‘Strange Days’ as Cap leads his avenging comrades Spider-Man, Scarlet Witch, Vision, The Beast and Iron Man against a quartet of super-villains inexplicably amped up and retooled into major menaces.

Maelstrom, Quasimodo, Living Laser and Super-Adaptoid are putting up far more resistance than expected and when the android Vision detects unusual emanations he and the Sentinel of Liberty track the signals to a sinister technologist who oddly presents no real threat and is easily subdued.

With his defeat the fearsome foursome also fold, but as Cap hauls him off to jail the mystery man exhibits an unnerving understanding of the Super Soldier’s sense of being a man cut off from his own time…

Disturbed without knowing why, the Star-Spangled Avenger later visits the stranger in jail and is on hand when a strange team of super-beings try to break the enigmatic prisoner out…

‘Souljacker’ finds the aggressive newcomers demanding custody of the stranger, a thing they call “Korvac”. They also claim it is a cyborg from a thousand years in the future…

The smug captive delights in all the commotion; turning to energy and freeing his villainous quartet to attack the newcomers. A time portal is opened but in the melee only the acrobatic alien named Nikki and tempestuous star-warrior Firelord follow Korvac through it. Before it finally snaps shut though, Captain America also hurtles into the stellar unknown…

On the other side is the year 3003 and a scene of fantastic future warfare where Nikki and Firelord reveal how they and her now-stranded companions Starhawk, Vance Astro and Charlie-27 – AKA The Guardians of the Galaxy – had been hunting Korvac before it could use the “Power Cosmic” it stole from space god Galactus to destroy humanity…

No sooner have the explanations finished than the energy entity attacks them. After valiantly driving the killer off Cap is determined to make things right and enquiring how to stop it learns that the long-gone star deity had a special weapon known as the “Ultimate Nullifier” which could negate Korvac’s purloined power…

As the trio set off for Taa-II, Galactus’ solar-system-sized ship, ‘The Traveler’ takes us back to the year 3001 when the battered fugitive cyborg first encountered the seemingly abandoned starship and tapped into incomprehensible energies which allowed it to became a transcendent new form of life…

Two years later as the determined trio vector in on the incredible vessel, Korvac materialises and ambushes them. With cosmic-powered Firelord taking the brunt of the assault, Cap and Nikki painfully crash into the system-ship and begin a terrifying safari through astounding beasts and terrors in search of the Ultimate Nullifier. They are within sight of their goal when their beaten companion crashes at their feet and the triumphant Korvac comes for them…

With doom inescapable ‘The Star Lord’ brings the cosmic odyssey to a tremendous conclusion as Captain America’s final indomitable battle against the cyborg God from Tomorrow brings the long vanished Galactus into the fray to set all things aright…

This star-spanning, time-busting blockbusting little box of delights includes a cover gallery by Rousseau & Chris Sotomayor, as well as one by Pérez & Terry Austin which precedes one final treat as the fresh adventure is capped off by a re-presentation of the original 1970s saga.

In the 1960s Jim Shooter was a child-prodigy of comics scripting writing the Legion of Superheroes and Superman before he’d even finished High School. After college, when he returned to the industry and gravitated to Marvel Comics it seemed natural to find him working on a comic with just as many characters as that fabled future super-team.

His connection to The World’s Mightiest Superheroes, although episodic, was long-lived and produced some of that series’ best tales, and none more so than the cosmic epic begun here: a sprawling tale of time-travel and universal conquest which originally ran in The Avengers issues #167-168 and 170-177.

In previous issues a difference of opinion between Captain America and Iron Man over leadership styles had begun to polarise the team and those submerged tensions started to show in ‘Tomorrow Dies Today!’

In the Gods-&-Monsters filled Marvel Universe there are entrenched and jealous Hierarchies of Power, so when a new player mysteriously materialises in the 20th century the very Fabric of Reality is threatened…

It all kicks off when star-spanning 31st century Guardians of the Galaxy materialise in Earth orbit, hotly pursuing a cyborg despot named Korvac.

Inadvertently setting off planetary incursion alarms, their minor-moon sized ship is swiftly penetrated by an Avengers squad, where, after the customary introductory squabble, the future men – Charlie-27, Yondu, Martinex, Nikki, Vance Astro and enigmatic space God Starhawk – explain the purpose of their mission…

Cap had previously fought beside them to liberate their home era from Badoon rule and Thor had faced Korvac before so peace soon breaks out, but even with the resources of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes the time travellers are unable to locate their quarry…

Meanwhile on Earth a new and mysterious being named Michael is lurking in the background. At a fashion show staged by Janet Van Dyne he achieves a psychic communion with model Carina Walters and they both vanish, oblivious to a pitched superhero battle that breaks out involving not only the Wasp and her husband Yellowjacket, but also Nighthawk against the perfidious Porcupine…

To Be Continued – Elsewhere…

In 2012 the Marvel Adventures line was superseded by specific comicbook titles tied to Disney XD TV shows designated as “Marvel Universe cartoons”, but these collected stories are still an intriguing and perhaps more culturally accessible means of introducing character and concepts to kids born often two generations or more away from those far-distant 1960s originating events.

However even though these stories are extremely enjoyable yarns, parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the violence might not be what everybody considers “All-Ages Super Hero Action” and might perhaps better suit older kids…
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Mighty Thor: When Gods Go Mad


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, John Buscema & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-185-9

When the Thor films screened across the world, Marvel quite understandably released a batch of tie-in books and trade paperback collections to maximise exposure and cater to movie fans wanting to follow up with or even rekindle a childhood comics experience.

In the UK the company’s British adjunct Panini collected an unlikely assemblage featuring the Thunderer’s most turbulent transition for one of its handy Pocket Book Editions (130 x 198mm) which, much to my surprise, works exceedingly well as an introductory epic into the wondrous worlds of contemporary Asgardian mythology…

Whilst the expanding Marvel Universe had grown evermore interconnected as it matured, with characters constantly tripping over each other in New York City, the godly heritage of Thor and the soaring imagination of Jack Kirby had often drawn the Storm Lord away from mortal realms into stunning, unique landscapes and scenarios.

More than any other Marvel feature, The Mighty Thor was the strip where Kirby’s creative brilliance always found its greatest release in cosmically questing exploration of an infinite and dangerous universe and the strip suffered a sharp, sudden loss of imaginative impetus when he unexpectedly quit Marvel in 1970.

His departure left the series floundering, despite the best efforts of (arguably) the company’s greatest remaining illustrators, Neal Adams and John Buscema. The King’s dreaming, extrapolating and honing of a dazzling new kind of storytelling and graphic symbology, wedded to soul-searching, mind-boggling questioning of Man’s place in the universe – and all within the limited confines of a 20-page action adventure – appeared an impossible act to follow, but now with the perspective of passing decades it might be worth reassessing that judgement…

Collecting Thor #179-188, cover-dated August 1970 to May 1971 and scripted throughout by Stan Lee, the saga opens following a cataclysmic clash with fire-demon Surtur which saw omnipotent over-god Odin imprisoned by treacherous Loki in “The Sea of Eternal Night” whilst his subjects battled fiery Armageddon.

The forces of good naturally persevered and here and now the action commences with ‘No More the Thunder God!’ as warrior companions Sif and Balder are dispatched to Earth to arrest the fugitive Loki in the wake of Thor’s early departure on the same mission.

This story was Kirby’s last tale of the Thunderer and he left on a cliffhanger with the Thunder God ambushed by his wicked step-brother. By mystically switching bodies, the cunning Lord of Evil gains safety and all the powers of the Storm Lord whilst Thor is fated to endure whatever punishment Odin decrees for the arch-schemer…

The epic resumed in ‘When Gods Go Mad!’ which introduced the totally different style of Neal Adams to the mix – even if inked by the comfortably familiar Joe Sinnott – as the true Thunder God is sent to Hades and the tender mercies of infernal demon-lord Mephisto, whilst on Earth Loki uses his brother’s stolen body to terrorise the United Nations Assembly and declare himself Master of the World…

Faithful lover Sif, however, knowing the truth leads the Warriors Three Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg on a rescue mission to the Infernal Realm, leaving valiant Balder to struggle against the power of Thor and malice of Loki in the concluding chapter ‘One God Must Fall!’

Eventually Mephisto is worn down by the innate nobility and unflagging courage of the Asgardians, banishing them from his vile domain and leaving the true Thunder God free to battle his brother and inevitably set the world to rights….

The new era truly began with Thor #182 as John Buscema assumed the artistic reins for ‘The Prisoner… The Power… and… Dr. Doom!’ as the First Son of Asgard becomes entangled in Earthly politics after a young girl entreats him to rescue her missile-designer father from the deadly Iron Monarch of Latveria.

The decidedly down-to-Earth and mismatched melodrama concluded with human alter ego Dr. Don Blake ‘Trapped in Doomsland!’ until Thor could retrieve his mislaid mallet and teach the insidious dictator the true meaning of power…

Lee, Buscema & Sinnott then began their own ambitious cosmic saga in #184 with ‘The World Beyond!‘ wherein a sinister and implacable force began devouring the outer galaxies, and the subsequent psychic reverberations began to unravel life on Earth and in Asgard. With all life imperilled Odin departs to combat the enigmatic threat alone…

Sam Grainger inked ‘In the Grip of Infinity!’ as the cosmic calamity intensified and the All-Father fell to the invader whilst ‘Worlds at War!’ revealed the true architect of the conflagration, leading to a desperate last-ditch ploy uniting the forces of Good and Evil together in ‘The World is Lost!’ before one final clash – inked by Jim Mooney – answered all the questions and led to ‘The End of Infinity!’

Although vast in scope and drenched in powerful moments revealing the human side of the gods in extremis, this tale suffers from an excess of repetitive padding and a rather erratic pace. At least this book wisely excludes the ponderous epilogue (from Thor #189) which saw the true architect of the universal rampage come calling for ill-considered revenge…

All in all, When Gods Go Mad offers a grandiose and bombastic series of battles and incipient ever-encroaching doom in the best Fights ‘n’ Tights tradition, illustrated by three of the most brilliant artists American comics have ever produced.

The Kirby Thor will always be a high-point in graphic fantasy, all the more impressive for the sheer imagination and timeless readability of the tales. With his departure the series foundered for the longest time before finding a new identity, yet even so the artists who followed him – whilst not possessing his vaulting visionary passion – were every inch his equal in craft and dedication.

Thus this book (which also includes covers by Adams, Sinnott, John Romita Sr., Marie Severin, John Buscema and John Verpoorten) is still an absolute must for all fans of action and inspirational, unearthly adventure.
™ & © 2013 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Wolverine: Season One


By Ben Acker, Ben Blacker, Salva Espin & Cam Smith, with Jason Aaron, Ramón Pérez, Laura Martin & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6672-6

Much as I’d love to believe otherwise, I know that the Cold War, transistor radio and pre-cellphone masterpieces of my youth are often impenetrable to younger fans – even when drawn by Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Bill Everett or Don Heck.

Perpetual and overarching revision – or at least the appearance of such – is the irresistible force driving modern comics. There must be a constant changing of the guard, a shifting of scene and milieu and, in latter times, a regular diet of death, resurrection and rebirth – all grounded in relatively contemporary terms and situations.

Even for relatively minor or secondary stars the process is inescapable, with increasing supra-comicbook media adjuncts (film, TV, games, etc.) dictating that subjects be perpetually updated because the goldfish-minded readers of today apparently can’t understand or remember anything that’s more than a week old.

Alternatively, one could argue that for popular characters or concepts with a fifty-year + pedigree, all that history can be a readership-daunting deterrence, so radical reboots are a painful but vital periodic necessity…

Publishing ain’t no democracy, however, so it’s comforting to realise that many of these retrofits are thankfully exceptionally good comics tales in their own right and anyway, the editors can call always claim that it was an “alternate Earth” story the next time the debut saga is modernised…

Released in 2013, Wolverine: Season One is an all-new distilation of the Feral Fury’s debut appearances in the Marvel Universe, delivered in a hardback graphic novel with hidden extras.

It was a late entry into a series designed to renovate, modify and update classic origin epics (following Fantastic Four, X-Men, Daredevil, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Hulk, Doctor Strange, and Avengers) which, despite clearly being intended as story-bibles for newer, movie-oriented fans and readers, mostly managed to add a little something to the immortal but hopelessly time-locked tales.

Scripted by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, illustrated by Salva Espin & Cam Smith with colours from Jim Charalampidis, the saga opens in the forested wilds of Canada where our unmistakable savage star is engaged in a ferocious struggle for survival against the mystical man-eating monster known as the Wendigo.

The horrific death-duel is witnessed by backpackers Heather and James Macdonald Hudson whose first assumptions – that the man is as bestial as the monster – are shaken when the clearly overmatched underdog intervenes after Wendigo turn his hungry attention to them…

Battle rejoined, the big beast slaughters the little man and shambles off, leaving the stunned couple to realise that – somehow, impossibly – their saviour is not dead…

Taking him back to their cabin, they nurse the incredibly fast-healing stranger to a semblance of health but although his body mends quickly his mind seems shattered. Moreover, they can see metal inside the clearly superhuman survivor…

Heather and James are not ordinary citizens either. They are employed by Canada’s security services where he is prominent in the clandestine Department H, building a suit of high-tech battle armour.

Idle chatter with the older scientists there leads James to rumours of a project called “Weapon X” wherein a man had indestructible Adamantium grafted to his bones before going crazy and slaughtering everybody…

The potentially homicidal maniac and certified amnesiac meanwhile has been patiently tended by Heather who has achieved a cognitive breakthrough. Reaching the man submerged by the animal, she has restored his power to speak but not to remember his past.

She was only slightly daunted by the razor sharp, nine-inch claws that tended to spring out of his arms whenever he became frustrated or upset…

James meanwhile has discussed Weapon X with his boss Dr. Myra Haddock and been told a pack of face-saving placatory lies about the whole shameful affair. She is however, extremely keen to bring the feral enigma into Department H, whose mandate is creating a super-soldier for Canada…

Soon the wild man is being groomed for the role of a special agent – a role he seems remarkably familiar with – but James is becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Heather’s new role as his “keeper” and the subject’s growing infatuation with his wife…

Throughout the training period the clawed conundrum has been subject to traumatic nightmares (buried memories of the tortures he endured as the involuntary test subject of the Weapon X program) and after a particularly arduous session in the laboratory he snaps, attacking Heather in berserk fury.

During the PTSD driven assault he shouted a name… “Logan”…

The net result is a huge fight as James dons the Exo-Suit he’d been building and goes after the mystery man. Total destruction of the base is only averted by scheming Dr. Haddock’s intervention; dragging them back to Heather’s bedside so she can shout at them both…

Chastened and frightened, the agent now known as Logan wants to quit, but Haddock has other plans. The monolithic man-monster known as the Hulk has wandered over the border into Canada and she wants her Weapon X to tackle the emerald invader. Not to kill him, necessarily: if Logan can get back with a gamma-irradiated blood sample that will be success enough. With such a transformative DNA to add to the Department’s discoveries, a Canadian super-soldier serum is an eventual certainty.

There’s only one little problem: the Jade Goliath is in the same region as the Wendigo and Logan still has a psychological handicap regarding the cannibal beast which all but killed him…

Outfitted in a tailored combat outfit and codenamed “Wolverine” the feisty scrapper is dropped into the middle of a brutal blockbusting battle between the behemoths – and is nearly pounded to jelly. Only last minute intervention by James saves the mighty mite, but he does come back with the Green Goliath’s blood all over him…

Haddock, however, has had enough of her subordinates’ seeming lack of guts and hires a freelance operative named Victor Creed who has similar abilities to Logan but none of his squeamishness about killing or following orders.

The big brute also claims to have shared history with Logan. The little amnesiac certainly has plenty of bad dreams and flashbacks after meeting the cruelly taunting new guy…

With Codename Wolverine benched due to his growing insubordination and repugnance at the Department’s methods, Creed – now using the combat appellative “Sabretooth” – is dispatched to bring in the Wendigo for Haddock’s vivisection labs whilst Logan is placed in lockdown and sedated.

He’s sprung by Heather who gives him a new costume to go after Sabretooth and her blinkered, out-of-his-depth husband. James might have a suit like Iron Man‘s but he’s no superhero, and accompanying Creed on this mission is likely to get him killed…

Thanks to Logan’s mutant super senses he locates the cannibal beast first and, due to his new rational state, manages to befriend the monster. Unfortunately when James – still writhing in unfounded jealousy of Logan – and Creed arrive, Sabretooth’s bloodlust soon provokes a terrifying four-way war…

Only when Heather becomes involved and endangered does James come to his senses and suddenly all bets are off…

The cataclysmic combat seems to shake a few hidden memories loose, however, and in the aftermath Wolverine wants out of Department H. James too has had enough of Haddock and goes to her superiors with a new idea: rather than super-soldiers, perhaps what Canada needs is a team of superheroes.

He even knows a consultant the government can hire: a metahuman specialist named Professor Charles Xavier. Once Logan and the American savant meet history is made…

The Beginning…

As an additional fillip the reimagined origin is supplemented with ‘Survival 101’ by Jason Aaron, Ramón Pérez and Laura Martin (from Wolverine and the X-Men #25, April 2013) wherein the tough-love terror, in his capacity as headmaster of the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning, drags a pack of his most troublesome and recalcitrant charges on an educational away-day to the dinosaur-infested Savage Land for a little team-building and bonding.

Of course if he’d realised his murderous big brother Dog had returned from the dead to hunt him, Professor Logan might just have opted for detentions and pop quizzes instead…

Fair Warning: this tale is funny, scary and extremely addictive but does not conclude here…

Also included are seven pages of design sketches, cover examples and variants by Espin, Julian Totino Tedesco, Pérez & Martin making this an enticing and entertaining package for both newcomers and dedicated aficionados alike.
© 2013 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Avengers World: Ascension


By Nick Spencer, Al Ewing, Marco Checchetto, Stefano Caselli, Dale Keown & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-629-8

Post-Infinity, the reshaping of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes into an unbeatable legion of justice continued in new title Avengers World which became the core title from which all other associated series would derive direction. Of course, that’s pretty much irrelevant if all you want is high stakes, high octane Fights ‘n’ Tights fun in the traditional Summer Blockbuster manner…

During the Origin Bomb bombardment by planetary sculptor-turned-probationary Avenger Ex Nihilo (see Avengers: Avengers World and The Last White Event), large parts of the planet were subjected to forced, random and rapid evolution. It was just the start of a season of extraordinary and escalating crises…

The most recent outbreaks brought an Avengers stealth team consisting of Shang-Chi, The Falcon, Black Widow and Wolverine to the Pacific island of Madripoor to investigate a hyperfast civil war. On arrival they discovered the entire place had been stolen.

Mystic ninja clan The Hand, at the behest of new chief The Gorgon, had enacted a ritual whose collateral effects enflamed the populace but whose true purpose was to awaken the unbelievably vast dragon the island rested upon. The heroes were too late to stop it taking flight wearing Madripoor as a hat and were trapped upon it as the Wyrm flew towards mainland China.

High over Southeast Asia, Shang-Chi challenged The Gorgon to single combat only to be cruelly beaten and tossed over the edge into the void…

Simultaneously Nightmask, Hawkeye, Spider-Woman and Starbrand were dispatched to Velletai in Italy. When the town’s entire population vanished a Continental super-team was deployed, but soon after arrival contact was lost. Exactly the same thing happened with the Avengers team, too.

Under Velletai, the American squad found a City of the Dead where the restless departed all screamed inside Starbrand’s head…

At S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ Bruce Banner had deduced that the newly autonomous nation A.I.M. Island was the crux of the cluster of contemporary crises. He also realised the rogue state’s landmass was changing shape and size so Captain America sent in relative neophytes Bobby “Sunspot” Da Costa, Sam “Cannonball” Guthrie and alien hybrid Izzy “Smasher” Kane (latest Superguardian of the Shi’ar Empire and granddaughter of Golden Age Earth hero Captain Terror) to investigate.

They were quickly captured and Smasher suborned to A.I.M.’s cause…

Scripted by Nick Spencer, Ascension collects issues #6-9 of Avengers World and Avengers #34.1 (spanning July to November 2014) and opens as a back-up team consisting of powerhouses Thor, Captain Marvel and Hyperion are teleported into A.I.M.’s capital city Barbuda by freshly recuperated new recruit Manifold. Illustrated by Marco Checchetto and colourist Andres Mossa, the action commences as a wave of A.I.M. warriors attack…

It is a bitter moment for Hyperion who was plucked from inter-dimensional limbo by the secret society’s Scientist Supreme Andrew Forson to spend an immeasurable time as an agonised guinea pig in the futuristic citadel. However it’s not his torment there that troubles him but the memory of having survived the death of two worlds and his new role as father-figure to a new race which developed in the distant Savage Land as the result of the recent Origin Bomb bombardment…

As the battle intensifies distracted Hyperion blasts his way into the heart of Forson’s lab to find the Scientist Supreme again ripping open doors between dimensions and is astounded by the incredible offer the maniac has the sheer audacity to make…

Before he can respond, however, the mind-warped Messenger (nee Smasher) intercepts and physically throws him off the island, with Thor and Marvel unceremoniously ejected in similar manner soon after…

Stefano Caselli illustrates the next chapter as attention switches to Madripoor where Falcon, Wolverine and Black Widow are helpless to save the rioting population from their own destructive panic. The Airborne Avenger soars off to find the missing Shang-Chi but is lured off the steadily progressing dragon-island and meets a most unlikely band of allies…

Smooth operator Xian Zheng rescued the defeated Shang after The Gorgon threw him off Madripoor with an astounding flying fortress dubbed The Circle but he is only the point man for a new direction in crisis-management by the Chinese Government…

The People’s Republic has formed its own covert peacekeeping force – S.P.E.A.R. – in response to S.H.I.E.L.D., but now employs a team of super-champions to deal with strictly Chinese problems…

As an army of mystic warriors riding small dragons attacks The Circle, the spy chief activates The Ascendants – Weather Witch, Saber, Vector, Devastator and Sun Wukong, the Monkey King: demonstrating to Falcon and the watching world that the new China will take a back seat to no one…

Checchetto returns to limn the third chapter set far below Velletai. When the mission went dark, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill circumvented the Avengers’ lack of mystic resource by seconding neophyte wizard Sebastian Druid to find out what was going on.

He divined that the site was a “spirit trap” built by Entropy-worshipping Cult of Yagzan but now being used by a being of malign power, and as the tale resumes the kidnapped Starbrand meets it head on…

Control of the Dead City has been usurped by infernal Avengers’ arch-foe Morgan Le Fay and, as she crows over her immensely powerful juvenile captive, elsewhere Hawkeye, Spider-Woman and Nightmask battle revenant legions until fortuitously rescued by the team they came to save…

Despite being cut off from the surface Euroforce was able to stay alive and gather intel for a counter attack and, although Swordswoman, Tumult, Sliver, Tiger and Mikhail Zamorska, the Baby Killer are strangers to the Avengers, their leader is not.

Black Knight Dane Whitman is an honoured past member of the World’s Mightiest Heroes who combines high tech weaponry with ancient magic. His take on the situation is crucial to the counterattack but despite the combined teams’ best efforts Le Fay makes her move and opens the doorway to doom in Zagreb, Munich, Madrid, Athens and Paris…

The ongoing series of extinction events reaches critical mass in #9 as Caselli illustrates ‘Operation Bar Fight’ which initially returns to Barbuda where Avengers Sunspot and Cannonball are being cosseted and feted by the A.I.M. in a vain – and expensive – attempt to “turn” the mutants into willing adherents.

Everything changes when, aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, Agent Phil Coulson finds a captured robotic Jocasta unit has spontaneously reactivated and begun dictating a message from the future…

Forson’s incredible technological breakthroughs are the result of collaboration with a faction of A.I.M. based decades ahead of now and Tomorrow’s Tech Terrorists are funnelling future advancements to today for reasons S.H.I.E.L.D. can only guess.

Hill risks destroying Sunspot and Cannonball’s cover, contacting and ordering them to find Forson’s time machine and use it to glean useful data from the future.

Hill has always been worried by the young mutants’ cavalier attitudes and frat boy silliness, but never more so than now when the fate of humanity is in the hands of two hormonal idiots with no sense of self-preservation…

Luckily she has no idea just how serious the mission is as the lads materialise in a fantastic alien-populated metropolis where master assassin Taskmaster is waiting for them…

The killer might not need to do anything as the two goons hit a bar for a quick drink and manage to start a riot. Thankfully the time-linked Jocasta unit is there to save them and amidst a fusillade of blaster bursts she drags them to meet the real reason for their temporal jaunt.

Now all the danger-loving buffoons have to do is rescue five extremely dangerous and rebellious kids: the children of today’s greatest heroes collectively known as The Next Avengers…

To Be Continued…

The chronal chronicles take a pause here, but the Fights ‘n’ Tights furore doesn’t end as this titanic tome closes with ‘The World in His Hands’ from Avengers #34.1 by Al Ewing, Dale Keown, Norman Lee & Jason Keith; taking a long hard look at extra-dimensional superman Hyperion…

Wrapped up in the tense search for a young boy abducted by a minor-league super-villain, the twice tragic history unfolds of a hero who is the last survivor of not only his ultra-advanced birthworld but also the alternate Earth which subsequently fostered and reared him…

More a collection of tantalising set-ups, introductions and prologues than an actual narrative adventure, this light confection of action and spectacle will nonetheless intrigue and astonish lovers of cosmic Costumed Dramas, and the tome also offers a potent covers-and-variants gallery by Neal Adams & Paul Mounts, Mark Brooks, Gabrielle Dell’Otto, Ryan Stegman & Edgar Delgado, Keown& Keith and Chris Bachalo.

Promising a stupendous clash and climactic conclusion (sometime, somewhere else) this is a book best appreciated by dedicated fans rather than occasional or casual readers, but if you’re a consumer with a little patience the eventual payoff that follows this collection will certainly be worth the wait…
© 2014 Marvel. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Avengers: Infinite Avengers


By Jonathan Hickman, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerardo Alanguilan & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-637-3

Following an unending string of universe-shattering crises, Iron Man Tony Stark and Steve “Captain America” Rogers swallowed old animosities and reunited to reshape The Avengers into a planetary defence-force more formal militia than voluntary association. Their new model army soon had more than twenty active members – human or alien and even some things less clear cut – whose specialities ranged from stealth and counter-intelligence to sheer, blockbusting stopping-power.

The posture and attitude also changed as the new group actively sought out potential disaster points rather than waiting for trouble to start…

Collecting Avengers volume 5 #29-34 (covering April to October 2014), the ongoing Big Picture series, as scripted by Jonathan Hickman with art by Leinil Francis Yu & Gerardo Alanguilan and additional colour work by Sonny Gho & Matt Milla, picks up a long-unfolding plot-thread and concludes an epic time-bending story-arc which also serves as an integral component of the vast Original Sin crossover event…

As previously established, Reality is composed of discrete entire universes – from the near-identical to the radically different – all held apart by an infinite crimson underspace dubbed the Superflow. In recent times that immemorial barrier somehow began fragmenting, with the timeless celestial engineers who maintained it helpless to curtail the carnage. Now whenever an Earth drifts into contact with one of its doppelgangers the result is the destruction of at least one and usually both…

On our Earth (Reality 616, if you’re counting) the world’s greatest minds – Stark, Reed Richards, Stephen Strange, Black Panther T’Challa, Inhuman king Black Bolt, Henry “The Beast” McCoy and Namor the Sub-Mariner – joined as a clandestine Star Chamber dubbed The Illuminati; devising and stockpiling weapons to ensure when and if such an event occurred, our world would the one to survive.

They invited Steve to join their council but when the unimaginable finally happened, his inflexible moral code baulked and he stopped his fellows deploying their planet-shattering ordnance against the intruder Earth.

Instead he used the incomprehensibly powerful totems known as the Infinity Gems to avert the crisis, but destroyed them in the process…

Knowing another incursion would inevitably occur, the cabal of geniuses returned to their original plans and, when the Sentinel of Liberty again objected, Stark had Dr. Strange tamper with his memories before kicking him out of the smart guys’ club…

Now as ‘Infinite Avengers’ opens Rogers is suffering a plague of nightmares and begins to remember those Illuminati meetings he “never attended”…

He recalls the power of the Infinity Stones pushing the invading Other-Earth back and ending the incursion. He sees them shatter again and experiences the fury of the other Illuminati but also notes something he missed then: the Time Gem did not shatter – it simply vanished…

Awaking with his memories restored, the furious and morally-outraged Star-Spangled Avenger recruits Hawkeye and Black Widow and goes seeking redress. He is soon joined by Thor, Hyperion and newest member Starbrand who follow him without question as he tries to arrest Stark for treason…

When justifying his position fails Iron Man resorts to physical resistance but, whilst the battle escalates, everything suddenly stalls as the Time Gem suddenly appears and finally shatters, yanking everybody 48 years into tomorrow…

The drama resumes ‘Fifty into the Future’ as the time tossed former team-mates materialise and start fighting again. It takes the sudden intervention of a squad of contemporary superheroes including aged iterations of Hawkeye and Hyperion and a young female Starbrand to stop the war…

The oldest members of the Avengers Union have urgent advice for their earlier selves and the ancient archer also has a secret message for Steve which the dotard delivers before attempting to kill Stark in a fit of righteous fury. As the heroes pull him off the wounded technocrat, fragments of the Time Gem reappear, drawing Stark and the young Hawkeye back to their original time whilst pushing Cap, the Widow, Thor, Starbrand and Hyperion ‘500 into the Future’…

Earth 422 years from their origin point is a disturbingly alien place but once again the unwilling chrononauts are greeted by a new and callously arrogant iteration of Avengers, including an aging Thor who is no longer worthy to hold the magic hammer Mjolnir.

Easily overcome, the time-travelling team are quickly imprisoned and that era’s Captain America cruelly taunts the icon he has been compelled by The State to mimic.

Steve is horrified to discover that implacable Avengers enemy and prime Artificial Intelligence Ultron infests every aspect of this forlorn tomorrow and cannot resist as his counterpart implants some appalling weapon within him, intended to attack the future.

No sooner is it buried within him than the Time Gem again draws its victims back into “Fractured Temporal Space”, dispatching Thor and Hyperion back whilst propelling Steve, Starbrand and Black Widow ‘Five Thousand into the Future’…

Awaiting them in paradisiacal gardens 5045 years from their own time is super-psionic Franklin Richards (immortal son of the Fantastic Four‘s Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman).

The sweet boy they all know has become a near-omniscient being and reveals to them the astounding changes in the solar system and humanity itself. He also has the answers to the Earth-incursion crisis and some crucial advice to solve the 21st century team’s internecine strife…

Franklin then asks Cap for the message Hawkeye had given him so long ago, but before the Avenger’s further questions can be addressed the Gem returns, hurling the Widow and Starbrand back and pushing the solitary last avenger ‘Fifty Thousand into the Future’…

In an incredible automated revolution the planet has become a sentient whole: a Worldcore which questions and challenges the time-lost primitive before attempting to inhume him into their perfect community of “Ideology Made Action”.

As Captain America valiantly resists, a battalion of distressingly familiar conceptual Avengers manifest and the electronic infection implanted within him in Planet Ultron’s era activates. As a result the coldly perfect tomorrow dies and, aware that his life is now over, the Sentinel of Liberty slips unresisting back into Fractured Temporal Space but is saved by the last person he ever expected…

Or at least a distant descendant, as ‘The Last Avenger’ sees the teenaged Young Avenger Kang – clad in Iron Lad armour – brings the weary warrior to the end of time to join the boy’s older selves Kang The Conqueror and Immortus. All three products of chronal multiplicity, temporal divergence and fractured time are claiming to be Earth’s last Avengers…

After extracting and capturing the wildly reacting Time Gem they give the unyielding Super-Soldier the answers he’s been seemingly forever looking for, but when they demand that, after Steve returns to his time, he allow the Illuminati to destroy any Earth caught in an incursion, they make a fatal error…

Captain America will always find a noble, ethical solution and after escaping back to his origin era he begins to implement it by declaring war on the smartest heroes on Earth.

To Be Continued…

Cosmically complex, conceptually challenging, confounding and ultimately cataclysmic, this collection also offers a plethora of astounding covers-and-variants by Frank Cho & Jason Keith, Leinil Yu & Gho, Stephanie Hans and Paulo Manuel Rivera plus a potent portion of digitally-diverting extra content for tech-savvy consumers courtesy of AR icon sections all accessible through a free digital code and the Marvel Comics app for iPhone®, iPad®, iPad Touch® & Android devices at Marvel’s Digital Comics Shop.

Vast in scope, suspenseful, compelling and superbly illustrated Infinite Avengers is the kind of comicbook blockbuster aficionados adore but its only fair to warn that casual readers might be best served by reading previous volumes before taking in this particular Fights ‘n’ Tights Celestial Conundrum…
™ and © 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Cyclops: Starstruck


By Greg Rucka, Russell Dauterman, Carmen Carnero, Terry Pallot & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-624-3

When mutant genius Henry McCoy learned he was dying, he used time-travel tech in a last-ditch attempt to give his life meaning. Seeking to prevent a species war, he brought the young, naive X-Men of his own youth into the future to reason with his radicalised former comrade Scott Summers, praying the still idealistic and hopeful teens could divert Mutant Enemy Terrorist No. 1 from his path of doctrinaire madness…

The gamble paid off in all the wrong ways. Rather than shocking Cyclops back to his senses, the confrontation hardened the renegade’s heart and strengthened his resolve. Moreover, after the younger McCoy miraculously cured his older self, he and the rest of the X-Kids were trapped in their own future and began gradually defecting to the fundamentalist team…

Eventually the temporally misplaced First Class all ended up living with the elder Cyclops’ crew, but everything changed after Gladiator of the Shi’ar realised that Jean Grey AKA Marvel Girl – and future host of the cosmic force known as the Phoenix – was back. The alien overlord rashly attempted to abduct and execute her for the crimes of her older self…

The insane pre-emptive punishment plan was foiled by an amalgamation of X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy and intergalactic buccaneers Hepzibah, Ch’od, Raza and bizarre medical wizard Sikorsky – collectively known as The Starjammers.

During the cosmic conflict 16-year-old Scott met his believed-dead dad Christopher, now called Corsair and undisputed leader of the cosmic privateers and, when the mutant heroes returned to Earth, he chose to remain in space with the father he had spent most of his brief life assuming killed in a plane crash…

Scripted by Greg Rucka and illustrated by Russell Dauterman, Carmen Carnero & Terry Pallot, stellar saga Starstruck collects issues #1-5 of Cyclops: (July-November 2014), following the chronal castaway to the ends of the universe and even further into uncharted emotional territory…

The story begins as the still shell-shocked teen spends some time in hard vacuum with his dad’s exotic paramour Hepzibah. Together they are testing his new spacesuit which allows him to fire his fearsome optic blasts safely through his helmet. That and reminiscing about how he got here and revelling in the sheer majesty of the intergalactic firmament, of course…

For most of his comicbook career Scott Summers has been capable and competent but also dour, grim, despondent and simply no fun at all. Here, however, we get to see the incredible hero he always was, but also follow a nervous, unsure kid hungry for affirmation and still capable of ingenuous wide-eyed wonder.

That’s never more ably demonstrated than when his attempts to write a letter to Jean (the girl everybody from the future tells him he will marry and lose) are interrupted by an attack on the starship.

The Starjammers are wanted by almost every empire in the universe but this ambush by the scurrilous Brotherhood of Badoon is easily repulsed and only results in the pirates capturing their attackers’ vessel primarily intact…

Not so easily handled is the growing gulf between Scott and Corsair. The boy simply cannot accept why his father would allow him – and indeed his future self – to believe he was dead for decades…

The grizzled star-pirate thinks he has a solution. Giving Scott a sword liberated from the vessel (apparently a crucial piece of kit for any space-farer regularly indulging in close combat) Christopher Summers suggests a father-and-son vacation: a few months tooling around the galaxies in their newest prize, just getting to know each other…

At first the grand tour is all mind-bending exploration and eye-popping alien encounters but eventually Scott begins to see a disturbing pattern to his dad’s actions and comes to a horrifying conclusion. Corsair is a drug addict and their numerous stopovers in quirky cosmic bazaars and seamy sidereal marketplaces are simply opportunities to restock his personal pharmacopoeia…

One such jaunt introduces the boy to unlikely barkeeper and crimelord Baroque and leads Scott into a potentially life-changing VR encounter with a svelte and sexy alien temptress named Vass. Unfortunately anything he might have learned is promptly forgotten when a multi-species band of merciless bounty hunters corners the father and son team.

The wily thief-takers are utterly unprepared for Cyclops’ optic blasts however and the displaced humans get away relatively unscathed… except for Corsair’s fresh stash of drugs…

The next crisis occurs soon after as the Badoon ship catastrophically malfunctions and shipwrecks them on an isolated planetoid. Painfully scouring through the wreckage some time later, Scott discovers a tracking device – now destroyed – and finally confronts his father about the drugs.

He is doubly appalled when Corsair shamefully reveals that rather than buying narcotics, his dad has been visiting every criminal dive in creation “scoring” proscribed nanite technology: the only thing currently keeping him alive…

Stranded on a primitive mudball filled with predators all becoming increasingly less cautious and more hungrily curious, Scott at last learns of his unsuspected brother Vulcan, a mutant who once seized control of the Shi’ar Empire, sparked an intergalactic war and killed their father…

Of course, his devoted comrades refused to leave Corsair dead and petitioned the enigmatic creatures known as the Shrouded to restore him. The cloaked wonders succeeded but the cure requires constant and illicit maintenance…

Days pass and as the last dregs of the contraband drugs are used up, fading father and son grow closer, even to the point where they unite to turn the tables on the horrific bird-things stalking them.

As Corsair impatiently tries to teach his son everything he’ll need to know to survive the decades he might be alone on the planetoid, the boy derives a desperate scheme to save them both. The first step is to repair the tracking device and lure the certainly still interested bounty hunters to their current location…

Everything goes according to plan and the hunters become the hunted, but at the critical moment Scott, seemingly swayed by the blandishments of the mercenaries’ female slave, sells his own dad out…

What happens next proves the boy hero’s astonishing tactical genius and saves everyone’s lives – if not necessarily their honour…

Heartwarming, thrilling, funny and astoundingly action-packed, Starstruck combines cosmic intrigue and dashing derring-do with solid characterisation and wild blue yonder wonderment, and comes with a covers-&-variants gallery by Alexander Lozano, Greg Land, John Tyler Christopher and Paul Renaud as well as AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) for access to story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

What more could any wide-eyed, entertainment-starved child of the wondering stars want?
™ & © 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Savage Hulk: The Man Within


By Alan Davis, Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema, Mark Farmer, Sam Grainger & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-630-4

In 1969, after six years of quirky, deliciously off-kilter adventures, The X-Men comicbook folded. It was a relatively early casualty of the latest periodic, repetitive changing-of-reading-tastes, which saw the buying public once again shun superhero stories in favour of genres like war, westerns and, most especially, supernatural horror yarns…

Of course after the fantasy fad receded again the team emerged resurgent and unstoppable in 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1 and have since become an unshakable fixture of contemporary comics and cinema culture. Nevertheless when they first folded, a goodly number of us strange funnybook fans couldn’t believe the loss of such outré and irreplaceable characters.

Despite their reappearance in recycled reprints a certain magic had gone from the world back then and this most modern confection by Alan Davis seeks to redress that loss, albeit 45 human years later…

That final 1960s X-Men exploit was a weird “sort-of” team-up and, as it pivotally informs the all-original 4-part tale by Davis, inker Mark Farmer and colourist Matt Hollingsworth which comprises the majority of this scintillating compilation chronicle, the editors at Marvel have thoughtfully included it – in all its raw glory – at the back of the book.

I’m reviewing it first because that’d just the way I am…

‘The Mutants and the Monster!’ by Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema & Sam Grainger (X-Men volume 1#66, cover-dated March 1970), was actually the epilogue to an epic clash between the mutants and voracious alien invaders.

The campaign had shockingly brought back long-believed dead Professor Charles Xavier, who then nearly killed himself for real by uniting every mind on Earth in a psychic thrust of unparallelled force to repel the already repellent Z’Nox.

The tragic aftermath was seen here: a debilitating coma caused by the exertion left the telepath near death, able only to convey a feeble psionic message which sent the team hunting for Bruce Banner in Nevada.

Apparently, the two cerebral heavyweights had previously and secretly collaborated on a gamma-powered device which might now be able to save and restore the fallen Xavier…

However the harried young heroes, in their hasty attempt to save their mentor, forgot one crucial fact: when you hunt Banner what you usually end up with is an immensely irate Incredible Hulk…

The resulting destructive debacle wrecked a lot of landscape but throughout the extended brouhaha, the Hulk seemed to be subconsciously leading the titanic teens to his hidden desert lab where the prototype Gamma Stimulator was stashed.

Despite colossal carnage and inevitable US Army interference the gadget was recovered and the Professor saved…

Flipping now to the front of the book, the main event reveals a previously undisclosed follow-up encounter published as Savage Hulk #1-4 (August to November 2014) ‘The Man within’ and opens with TV coverage of the Nevada battle being carefully scrutinised by Gamma-spawned evil super-genius The Leader. The sinister savant soon gleans a connection between the mutant warriors and their previously unsuspected boss Charles Xavier…

The Hulk meanwhile is fending of another furious attack by the military even as back in Westchester County the recuperating Xavier examines the life-saving device and realises Banner had completed it to cure himself of his emerald alter ego. The mutant mentor soon discovers why it didn’t work on the tragic titanic transformer. It needed a telepathic trigger…

Convinced he can return the favour and finally cure Banner, guilty, grateful Professor X accompanies Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast, Iceman, Havok and magnetic warrior Lorna Dane back to Nevada and Banner’s clandestine laboratory. They are all blithely unaware that The Leader has already staked the place out…

The frenzied fugitive at the heart of the matter meanwhile has been found by a well-meaning elderly couple whose offer of assistance leads to unbridled terror as the timid down-and-out suddenly shapeshifts into a mountain of angry green muscle…

Nearby the X-Men have been ambushed by the murderous, monstrous Abomination, who is also hunting for the Hulk and their titanic tussle soon intrudes on the Jade Giant’s agonised antics…

The three-way war immediately escalates after the army closes in, all guns blazing, but the merely human military are swiftly driven back by the mutants, leaving the Hulk to totally trash his gamma-powered nemesis single handed.

In the quiet aftermath, Marvel Girl uses her own still-developing telepathy to quell the victorious Hulk’s rage and re-manifest the deeply traumatised Bruce. Soon the physicist is conferring with Xavier and preparing to be rid of his ominous other for all time, but as their salvation device is set in motion none are aware that deadly threat is nearby, awaiting the perfect moment to strike…

Shock follows shock as the procedure goes awry with the hulk’s gamma-energy migrating to Marvel Girl, creating a bellicose green giantess reeling with incomprehensible psionic power.

…And that’s when The Leader makes his move at the head of an army of mechanoids and a legion of the Hulk’s old foes…

Only Xavier is aware that things are not entirely what they seem and is capable of combating the true source of the fantastic threat, aided by the Hulk’s most incredible gamma-fuelled transformation yet…

Also included in this splendid and explosively entertaining epistle are the original covers by Davis, Farmer, Val Staples, Matt Hollingsworth & Brad Andersen plus Marie Severin & Grainger’s 1969 classic image, and a selection of variants from John Cassaday, Alex Ross, Ryan Stegman, Jim Starlin and Dale Keown.

Cleverly conceived, beautifully illustrated, riotously action-packed and stunningly suspenseful, this tale of triumph and tragedy is pure vintage Marvel Mastery, ably augmented by the original inspirational yarn from the end of a unique era and offering readers young and old a magnificent chance to re-experience the glory days of the House of Ideas.

™ & © 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Inhuman: Genesis


By Charles Soule, Ryan Stegman, Joe Madureira, Marte Gracia & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-623-6

During mega-crossover blockbuster Infinity, mad Titan Thanos invaded Earth and clashed with The Inhumans‘ ruler Black Bolt. The almighty monarchs wrestled to a standstill and, as a last resort, the embattled Inhuman king crashed the flying city of Attilan onto New York and into the Hudson River. This act was simultaneously linked to a release of the Hidden People’s mutagenic Terrigen Mist into the atmosphere where it triggered mutation in millions.

Follow-up event Inhumanity traced the effects of that global inundation as millions of mortals were killed or transformed by Terrigen fallout, proving that Human and Inhuman were not necessarily different races…

The Inhumans came into existence 25,000 years ago, after Imperial Kree explorers landed on Earth and tampered with the genetics of a tribe of primitives, just as they had on hundreds of other worlds.

Millennia later Randac, one of the rulers of the intellectual super-race that subsequently developed, took that meddling to its ultimate end by devising the Terrigen Mist process, which enabled citizens to mutate into infinitely unique individuals of astounding power.

The measure originally met with much opposition and many citizens of Attilan quit the city forever, setting up their own isolated enclaves and increasingly interbreeding with their less evolved cousins.

Even as Inhumans retreated further into myth, isolation and dogma, and lately moved away from earth to carve place in the wild voids of deep space, their alien-altered genetic heritage was slowly spreading and disseminating throughout baseline humankind.

Now the Terrigen cloud slowly mixing with the biosphere has activated all those dormant genes, metamorphosing unsuspected millions into new lives and forms.

All this came to the attention of global guardians The Avengers when Inhuman royal diplomat Karnak became their unlikely prisoner. In comfortable custody, the wily warrior described the last moments of the mobile metropolis, how his people evacuated the doomed city and passed en masse through the chimerical living teleport door Eldrac; scattered to the place that living portal deemed they “most needed to be”…

Whilst Karnak ruminated, his cousin Queen Medusa arrived. Believing herself widowed and facing the shattering burden of saving her people without the aid of the messianic Black Bolt, she was further shaken when her ferociously logic-enslaved kinsman continued his evaluations and calculations until, suddenly arriving at an inescapable conclusion he simply would not abide, he killed himself before her eyes…

Since that moment Medusa and the world’s metahuman heroes have sought to contain the crisis, but the rise of many factions – from criminal scientists and exploitative geneticists to full-blooded rogue Inhumans (like exiled former king The Unspoken) – all seeking to monopolise the transformative pods and super-powered “NuHumans” are making the task increasingly difficult.

The job is even further complicated by the recent emergence of clandestine Inhuman colonies which have hidden themselves from both humanity and the denizens of Attilan for thousand of years also seeking to steal or recruit their share of the exposed and mutated new people…

Collecting Inhuman #1-6 (from June 2013 to November 2014), the epic Genesis of a race in crisis resumes as Queen Medusa struggles to integrate the many scattered factions of Attilan Inhuman, returning – and often hostile – “lost tribes” and burgeoning NuHumans into a united whole.

The tale of ‘The Queen in the Sky’ by writer Charles Soule, illustrators Ryan Stegman & Joe Madureira and colourist Marte Gracia begins in Bergen as the Terrigen cloud forever changes another horrified mortal, whilst in New York Medusa is informed that long-missing Eldrac has been finally located…

Back in Norway Nuhuman Kristian is shaken from shock by a wild creature named Lash who offers his own skewed and biased take on Inhuman history and a lethally partisan doctrine of survival worthiness. The ferocious judge hails from the clandestine enclave of Orrolan and believes that only the truly deserving should benefit from the blessing of Terrigen transformation…

In Battery Park the Queen patiently negotiates with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who have mistaken Eldrac for a piece of rubble. That done she then passes through his psychically-triggered portal to land in Illinois in the middle of a firefight…

She is just in time to save pregnant Gabriela, her brother-in-law Dante and the ghastly cocoon-pod which used to be their mother from Lash’s murderous attack. The Darwinian scourge of NuHumans is delighted to be held at bay by Dante’s furious flame-throwing abilities and chooses to withdraw instead of facing the furious Medusa…

The next chapter finds Dante and family safely ensconced in the remains of Attilan where it rests as the Hudson River’s latest island and resisting the urgings and insistent probings of Inhuman surgeon Vinatos. The short-tempered doctor is unable to make these latest converts understand that their mother has failed transformation and simply died within her cocoon…

There is a more urgent matter to be addressed, however. Dante’s tendency to explode into uncontrollable flammable fury is posing a danger to all and Medusa assigns her cousin and chief warlord Gorgon to teach the boy control.

His methods are brutal but extremely effective…

Gabriela is a problem less easily handled. Although she has not – apparently – been affected by the Mist cloud, her unborn baby has…

As Medusa entertains human envoy Captain America – visiting the tiny sovereign state in a friendly and not-at-all official capacity – in Brooklyn former gangster Lineage rehearses for his own impromptu audience. He feels his newly gained ability to glean knowledge from anybody he shares DNA with – ancient or modern – will be of great interest to the embattled queen, but will have to wait as news comes in that A.I.M. agents are attempting to confiscate a fragment of Attilan from Central Park…

The bloody battle is mercifully brief once she and the Sentinel of Liberty join forces to end the murderous endeavour…

In the aftermath the Queen uses her people’s advanced technology to broadcast a message to the world inviting everyone touched by Terrigen transformation to become part of the new nation of Attilan, but her big day out ends on a shocking note when Lineage finally approaches with hints of much-missed husband Black Bolt’s intentions at the moment he instigated the Terrigen release…

Issue #3 finds Lash back in Orrolan with a boy named Jason: someone who has survived his first test of worthiness. The lad is then introduced to other super-powered residents but cannot help wonder what their uncompromising mentor’s final game plan is…

In Attilan Dante’s training is going well and Gabby suggests that his new Inhuman name should be “Inferno”. The title seems to inspire him and he begs to be allowed to join the secret squad Medusa is leading against Lash…

The surprise invasion of Orrolan is shockingly sudden and the subsequent battle savage and short. Jason – AKA Flint – exacts massive damage through his control of stone and rock, but the Queen’s goal is not conquest but union. When Lash hears what Lineage has to say he reluctantly withdraws his opposition to her plans and rule…

With Lash’s charges now part of the constantly-expanding population of Attilan, the next chapter sees the introduction of enigmatic seeker “Reader” who spectacularly saves young Nuhuman Xiaoyi from a division of Chinese soldiers rooting out potential “security threats” to the People’s Republic.

Whilst that’s occurring, on Attilan island thunder god Thor is on hand when Medusa opens the borders to human tourists and traders. The event almost ends in a bloodbath when assassins try to kill her, but after the Avenger and Inferno apprehend the shooters only the queen is unsurprised to find her assailants are all NuHumans…

As Lineage works behind the scenes, cautiously ingratiating himself to anybody of potential use to him, Medusa experiences a massive shock when her nation’s greatest monster resurfaces with an astounding demand…

Long ago Black Bolt and his cousins Medusa, Gorgon and Karnak impossibly overthrew the reigning king – the most powerful Inhuman ever born. The monarch had overstepped his authority and stole the race’s most puissant weapon, the Terrigen-fuelled Slave Engine.

The device was created to balance the scales should the teeming hordes of humanity ever attack the pitifully small race of outcasts, but the complacent and too-soft King deemed it an abomination; stealing and hiding it from his fellows.

Although defeated and banished he would not return it, and for his crime his name was stricken from all records and was forever “Unspoken”. When he returned in recent times all pretence of nobility was abandoned and he tried to eradicate humanity and conquer the world…

The story resumes here and now in ‘Empty Throne’ as the villain – now wizened, aged and powerless – repeats an offer of marriage to Medusa, declaring his right and ability to lead the Inhumans to glory. When that ploy fails he tries to convince the appalled and still grieving Medusa that he knows where vanished Black Bolt is…

Across the water in Greenwich Village Inferno is listening to Jason’s incredible life story. The African boy had been adopted by American parents but only learned after the Terrigen outbreak that he had been born into one lost tribe of Inhumans and brought to the USA by another. By the time Lash found him Jason was the only survivor of the body-warping fallout…

Medusa knows that the fallen king’s true purpose is to ferret out any remaining Terrigen to restore his faded powers and locks the audacious scoundrel up. It is exactly what The Unspoken intended and he uses his ages-old technical knowledge of the fallen city to uncover one last stash of the miracle crystals and take over…

When Dante, Jason and new NuHuman friend Naja try to return to Attilan they are brusquely turned away by armed guards. Realising something bad is happening and desperate to get back to Gabby, Inferno leads a three-person commando raid and, with the aid of Dr. Vinatos, succeeds in tipping the balance back in Medusa’s favour in a brutal ‘Trial by Fire’.

The cost however is both tragic and horrific…

With the Unspoken securely imprisoned, Lineage again begins his games within games, secretly taunting the defeated usurper with stolen Terrigen crystals as he reveals that he truly knows where Black Bolt is… and who’s got him…

To Be Continued…

Blending themes of growth and alienation with hearty slices of excessive action and political intrigue, Inhuman: Genesis also offers a gallery of 11 covers-&-variants by Stegman, Madureira, Gracia, Jeff Scott Campbell, Humberto Ramos and Ed McGuinness, and comes with a selection of digital extras accessible via the AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which give access to story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

Suspenseful, dramatic, action-packed and brandishing a potent metaphorical message, this is a compelling and entertaining slice of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction to satisfy the most jaded comicbook palates.

™ & © 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Wolverine: 3 Months to Die


By Paul Cornell, Elliot Kalan, Kris Anka, Pete Woods, Salvador Larroca, Jonathan Marks & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-631-1

James Howlett, AKA Logan, AKA Wolverine, has faced a multitude of impossible situations in his long and bloody life but possibly the most groundbreaking shake-up only came at the conclusion of Wolverine: Killable which saw the mayhem-making mutant Methuselah coming to terms with the fact that his healing factor – and therefore his virtual immortality – were gone, removed by a sentient virus from an incredible alien microverse.

No longer able to properly defend himself nor, most importantly, his loved ones and innocent civilians from the likes of monsters such as Mystique or Sabretooth, he underwent a great deal of soul-searching and solution seeking to offset a seemingly insurmountable power loss.

As if to emphasise the point his most despised and unrelenting foe Victor Creed – tenacious, savage and still possessing the powers and skills Howlett once boasted, then renewed his campaign of terror upon his woefully diminished enemy.

As current leader of deviant sect of ninja cult The Hand, the mutant monster dubbed Sabretooth orchestrated a murderous snipe-hunt which killed dozens of helpless humans at a shopping mall whilst leaving the helpless Canadian Crusader physically crushed, emotionally humiliated and spiritually broken…

In response Logan switched to high-tech guns and armour, abandoning all his friends and comrades to run with a new – bad – crowd. Supported by a band of young super-powered criminals (Lost Boy, Fuel, Reflex and Pinch) Logan seemed to have gone to the dark side by joining the gang of up-and-coming underworld boss The Offer…

The truth was far more palatable. When S.H.I.E.L.D. learned Sabretooth was seeking a weapon of cosmic capacity they tapped Logan to go deep undercover with a potential rival to the Hand’s new Lord in a Byzantine scheme to stop him. The subterfuge was total and even led to Logan clashing with old friends like Thor…

Fully immersed in his covert role, Wolverine began an affair with new crony Pinch – who had subsequently come into possession of the reality-rending device – when Sabretooth caught up to the gang. Betrayed and incensed the heartbroken and furious thief was in no mood to be reasonable when Logan pleaded with her to hand over the planet-shattering globe.

Creed however made a telling counter-offer: give him the device and he would stop his Hand ninjas from killing the daughter Pinch thought she had safely hidden from the consequences of her so-dangerous lifestyle…

Written primarily by Paul Cornell, 3 Months to Die collects the contents of Wolverine volume 6, #8-12 and Wolverine Annual #1(August-October 2014), concluding the shocking saga of the fall of a legend…

The action begins with an eerie and portentous 2-part digression as ‘Games of Deceit and Death’ (illustrated by Kris Anka and colourist David Curiel) suddenly finds Wolverine transported to the island of Itsukushima where Master of Kung Fu Shang-Chi and living weapon Iron Fist have invited the emotionally-adrift old warrior in order that he might enter “The Secret Temple of Death on Holiday”.

At the height of his last battle with Creed, Wolverine – although possessing the upper hand – hesitated and could not finish his enemy. Now the martial artists are offering a spiritual solution for the baffled, desperate and demoralised Logan which involves having a heart-to-heart with the conceptual being who is the embodiment of Death…

Meanwhile in Sabretooth’s lair the Hand’s master is still dickering with Pinch for possession of the world-warping globe, but when her trusted boss the Offer secretly switches sides the negotiations take a most unwelcome turn.

Back at the temple Wolverine has quelled his doubts and entered for a debate with Death, whilst in the mundane world the Offer has sold out all his former associates. Gleaning Logan’s whereabouts from Lost Boy, the duplicitous dealer informs Creed who promptly dispatches an army of ninjas to destroy at last his personal nemesis…

The concluding chapter then finds Iron Fist and Shang-Chi frantically battling that army even as, deep within the temple, Wolverine learns a few startling truths from the creature he has for so long fed whilst himself avoiding.

At Hand HQ Creed has taken control of the globe and the first Logan learns of it is when the ghost of Fuel suddenly appears, begging him to go back and save Pinch, Lost Boy and the rest…

Spiritually reinvigorated and fortified, Wolverine heads for the final confrontation with Sabretooth, utterly oblivious to the fact that Death has been playing with him as part of a much deeper game…

‘The Last Wolverine Story’ (art by Pete Woods and Curiel) opens as Wolverine returns to the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning for a reconciliation with his mutant students and X-Men comrades before going after Creed.

Sabretooth meanwhile has established a New York base from where he intends to use the globe to rewrite reality: creating a world perfectly tailored to his highly specific predatory needs. He has also realigned himself with Machiavellian shapeshifting schemer Mystique to ensure his every dream comes bloodily true…

Blessed with a new enlightenment, Wolverine has eschewed his usual lone wolf tactics and sought out allies. The first to be contacted are the eclectic think-tank of the Guernica Bar. Situated on West Fourth, the legendary dive is a superhero hostelry where a most select crew regularly and above all quietly meet…

As well as comicbook writer Harold Harold, there’s an odds-maker on superhero battles, a professional powers cataloguer and the current CEO of repair conglomerate Damage Control as well as unflappable Weird Science surgeon Victoria Frankenstein (she pronounces it “Fronken-schteen”) amongst others.

However no sooner does the Feral Fury arrive than the bar is invaded by more murderous ninjas and in the resultant melee Harold reveals a potent secret which holds the horde at bay until thunder god Thor pops in to save the day, just moments ahead of Nick Fury Junior and S.H.I.E.L.D.

Despite the willing legion at his back, for strategic reasons Logan opts to invade Creed’s base in alone to free the hostages, but inevitably his mission ends up in a massive and escalating running battle. As the good guys are increasingly tied up fighting wicked alternate universe versions of themselves, the pivotal contest becomes the one it always has been: Wolverine against Sabretooth.

This time however it doesn’t end in the usual oft-replayed, inconclusive stalemate…

Following the catastrophic, catagoric conclusion Cornell, Salvador Larroca & Rachelle Rosenberg offer a short What If? vignette from Wolverine #12 in ‘That Which Didn’t Happen’ which re-examines the pivotal moment when the sentient virus offered to return Logan’s healing factor in return for fealty.

In this piece he said yes and Harold Harold is one of the last beings on Earth to suffer the ghastly consequences of that choice…

‘Wolf and Cub’ by Elliot Kalan, Jonathan Marks & Jose Villarrubia (from Wolverine Annual #1) ends this iteration of the long-lived legendary hero as Logan, feeling his age at last, takes adoptive daughter/former mutant/friendly vampire Jubilation Lee and her own recently-adopted baby Shogo for a walk on the wild side.

Feeling Death breathing down his neck, Wolverine takes his biped family into the wooded wilderness to meet the wolves who adopted him when he was at his most feral and mindless, but their camping trip takes a tragic turn when they encounter a husband and wife still suffering the effects of their experiences in Afghanistan…

The PTSD-afflicted Brad reacts with fear and violence when he sees a wild man apparently offering a baby to wolves and his frantic shots cripple Logan and decimate his lupine brethren.

Taking the child to what they think is safety, the soldier couple have no idea of the horror they’ve unwittingly unleashed by stealing a vampire’s child…

Tense suspense, non-stop visceral action, compelling mystery and an aura of impending, inescapable doom flavour this enticing chronicle from high-octane start to fraught finish and this splendidly entertaining treat also includes a dozen stunning covers-&-variants by Steve McNiven & Laura Martin, Dustin Nguyen, Ryan Stegman & Edgar Delgado and Ed McGuiness to delight and amaze all fan’s of fast and furious Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction.
™ & © 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

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Hulk: Banner D.O.A.


By Mark Waid, Mark Bagley, Andrew Hennessy & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-619-9

Once upon a time, Robert Bruce Banner was merely a military scientist accidentally caught in a gamma-bomb blast of his own devising. As a result, any undue stress could cause him to transform into a gigantic green monster of unimaginable strength and fury.

As both occasional hero and bombastic brute he rampaged across the landscape for decades, becoming one of comics’ most popular characters and most enduring multi-media titans.

Over the years he has undergone numerous radical changes in scope, character and format to keep his stories fresh and his exploits explosively compelling, whilst the number of gamma-galvanised grotesqueries crashing about the Marvel Universe has proliferated to inconceivable proportions.

The days of Bruce going green with anger at the drop of a hat are long gone, so anybody taking their cues from TV or movie incarnations would be wise to anticipate a smidgen of unavoidable confusion…

In a world of numerous Hulks, She-Hulks, Abominations and every kind of ancillary colour-swatched atomic berserker, the MarvelNOW! event saw the Jade Giant reinvented in a stripped-down, back-to-basics but startlingly original manner which energised new and old fans alike.

The big change occurred after S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill was “persuaded” to provide perennial fugitive Banner with resources and funding in order to sanitise his devastated scientific reputation. In return Hill could call on the Hulk as a living weapon of last resort…

One of the smartest men on Earth, Banner had lost years of success, progress and peer renown whilst trying to cure himself of the Hulk. Concerned about his legacy, the fugitive genius had at last decided to make his future headlines as a scientist, not a shattering force of nature – for as long as he could possible manage – rather than fruitlessly seek to cure his affliction. Additionally, in return for S.H.I.E.L.D. science labs and trained assistants, the beleaguered boffin would give the spy agency first use of his discoveries and inventions…

Despite the occasional catastrophic aberration now and then, the arrangement proved a success and both Banner and his emerald other became valued assets of the global peacekeeping force and key components of the latest assemblage of Mighty Avengers. However, after facing an escalating string of string of crises – the latest of which involved sinister scientific maverick Ted Goodrich and his reactivated rogue think-tank The Enclave – Banner was assassinated…

This volume (collecting Hulk #1-4, published from June-August 2014) picks up the tale as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents forcibly second brilliant neurosurgeon Dr. Aaron Carpenter for a top secret medical emergency.

The opening of 4-part saga ‘Who Shot the Hulk’ finds the medical wizard cautiously operating on old college associate Banner; marvelling at the precision needed to shoot someone in the brain twice and not kill them whilst simultaneously terrified that his slightest misstep could unleash the monster within…

As Carpenter works other teams finishing harvesting gamma-infused flesh, blood and other biological samples but he only begins to suspect something is awry when the shadow-enshrouded lead operative instructs him to implant a device which will allow the Hulk to be controlled like a weapon.

…And then the mystery-man admits that they are not S.H.I.E.L.D. agents at all…

Thankfully the decision to connect the device is taken out of Carpenter’s hands when one of his surgical team allows Banner to awaken and the furious Hulk manifests…

As chaos ensues the impostors attempt to kill everybody but the Gamma Goliath is unstoppable. In the resulting carnage the medics all escape but the villains vanish…

Two weeks later genuine S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives Maria Hill and Phil Coulson track down a “John Doe” in a rural hospital and are apprised of the long-missing Bruce Banner’s condition. One of the three smartest men on Earth is physically fine but irrevocably brain damaged…

The story picks up as Hill and Coulson pursue a fruitless task in trying to determine who shot, abducted and tried to weaponise the Hulk. The list is too long to contemplate but, even as they ponder, the mystery-man is using Banner’s bio-samples to resurrect the one old foe S.H.I.E.L.D. have confidently crossed off their list…

Meanwhile in Hightown, Colorado Reverend and Ms. Bassey are caring for their severely impaired grandson Bobby. They are particularly careful to never let him become overly frustrated or angry. Later, however, when a pack of bullies target the simpleton things get exceedingly strange as the thugs are suddenly surrounded by heavily armed agents and the truth comes out…

No sooner is Banner’s covert protective custody exposed than another crisis erupts and Hill is forced to actually brutalise the child-like man and rouse the Hulk within. The reason becomes clear when definitely deceased gamma monster The Abomination smashes into the town like a missile. Their enigmatic evil enemy has resurrected the creature using Banner’s DNA, unleashing a radioactive zombie programmed to hunt and destroy its debilitated nemesis…

As the enraged jade juggernauts wade into each other and subsequently raze the town, Hill realises it’s only a feint when masked soldiers phase through the walls in a sneak attack…

In the third episode Hill, despite easily defeating the ghost warriors, loses control of the overall situation when The Avengers, alerted by the escalating catastrophe in Colorado, storm in to rescue their long-missing comrade. Amidst a blockbusting battle Banner appears, with very little sign of ever having been lobotomised by bullets.

His recovered intellect doesn’t stay long and he quickly destabilises into confusion, fear and worse. As the Avengers struggle to stop the gamma-zombie, Hill realises Hulk’s gamma-charged rapid-healing abilities are restoring Banner’s brain but not his mind and warns Bruce that if he fully transforms his personality might be erased forever.

With the Avengers utterly unable to slow Abomination’s attack, Banner has only one choice to make…

The final chapter opens with a flashback to the moment Banner first convinced Hill to let him join S.H.I.E.L.D. It involved blackmail and the placing of incriminating time-sensitive files with ferociously independent lawyer Matt Murdock – AKA Daredevil – to ensure that if anything happened to the fugitive physicist everybody would suffer…

Back in the now, with hell unleashed in Hightown, the Hulk finds an unbeatable advantage and destroys the undead Abomination, seemingly dooming Banner forever. When the dust settles the Avengers claim the debilitated victor and Iron Man swears to save his childhood intellectual rival. Some time later, through use of the most dangerous and proscribed bio-technology available, he seemingly succeeds…

As Hill reaches an unhappy accommodation with Daredevil, in Tony Stark‘s futuropolis Troy one troubling question remains unanswered. Although apparently restored to rational brilliance, there is still a troubling doubt about the rapidly recovering patient. What cost has the biologically potent remedy had on the traumatised mind and battered soul within? Can Banner possibly be the same man he was before?

To Be Continued…

Sporting a stack of AR icons (Marvel’s Augmented Reality App featuring printed portals to online story bonuses and extras for everyone who downloaded the free software from marvel.com onto a smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet) and a Baker’s Dozen of covers-&-variants by Jerome Opeña, Dean White, Bagley, Jason Keith, Michael Del Mundo, Chris Samnee, Gerald Parel, Mike Grell & Skottie Young, this razor-sharp, tension-soaked, blisteringly action-packed and astonishingly compelling read offers a fantastic new beginning for one of Marvel’s oldest and greatest star turns.

This fresh and exciting epic brilliantly mixes astounding adventure with clever characterisation and an addictive excess of furious Fights ‘n’ Tights spectacle into a tale no comics fan could possibly resist.
™ & © 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.