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March 3, 2018February 25, 2018

Avengers Epic Collection Volume 4: Beholdâ€¦ The Vision

By Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Barry Windsor-Smith, Sal Buscema, Gene Colan, Frank Giacoia, Howard Purcell & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9165-0

One of the most momentous events in comics history came in the middle of 1963 when a disparate gang of heroic individual banded together to combat an apparently out of control Incredible Hulk.

The Avengers combined most of the company’s fledgling superhero line in one bright, shiny and highly commercial package. Over the intervening decades the roster has unceasingly changed, and now almost every character in the Marvel multiverse has at some time numbered amongst their colourful ranksâ€¦

The Avengers always proved that putting all one’s star eggs in on single basket can pay off big-time. Even when all Marvel Royalty such as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man are absent, it merely allows the team’s lesser lights to shine more brightly.

Of course, the founding stars always regularly feature due to a rotating, open door policy ensuring most issues include somebody’s fave-rave. After instigators Stan Lee & Jack Kirby moved on, the team prospered under the guidance of Roy Thomas who grew into one of the industry’s most impressive writers, guiding the World’s Mightiest Heroes through a range of adventures ranging from sublimely poetic to staggeringly epicâ€¦

This fourth trade paperback compilation – also available in eBook iterations – collects Avengers #57-79, plus a solo saga starring a soon to be recruited addition from Marvel Super-Heroes #17 collectively covering October 1968 to August 1970.

This all-action extravaganza opens with the introduction of a new character with John Buscema and George Klein illustrating the 2-part introduction of possibly the most intriguing of all the team’s roster.

‘Beholdâ€¦ the Vision!’ and the concluding ‘Even an Android Can Cry’ retrofitted an old Joe Simon & Jack Kirby hero from the Golden Age (an extra-dimensional mystery-man) into a high-tech, eerie, amnesiac artificial man with complete control of his mass and density: playing him as the ultimate outsider, lost and utterly alone in a world that could never, never understand him.

After attacking the team but inexplicably stopping short of killing the human heroes, the then-nameless â€œVisionâ€ led the Avengers into astounding adventure as the enigma of his creation unfolded.

It was revealed that he/it had been built by the relentless, remorseless robotic Ultron-5 to destroy the Avengers and especially his own creator Henry Pym. Furthermore, the mechanical mastermind had used the brain pattern of deceased hero and fallen Avenger Wonder Man as a cerebral template. Perhaps that was a mistake since the synthetic man apparently overruled his programming to help defeat his maniac makerâ€¦

Avengers #59 and 60, ‘The Name is Yellowjacket’ and ‘â€¦Till Death do us Part!’ (the latter inked by Mike Esposito moonlighting as Mickey DeMeo) saw Goliath and the Wasp finally wed after the heroic Dr. Pym is seemingly replaced by a new insect-themed hero, with a horde of heroic guest-stars and the murderous Circus of Evil in attendance, followed here in swift succession by another of Marvel’s increasingly popular and commonplace crossovers.

‘Some Say the World Will End in Fireâ€¦ Some Say in Ice!’ concluded a storyline from Doctor Strange #178 wherein a satanic cult unleashed Norse demons Surtur and Ymir to destroy the planet, with occasional ally the Black Knight adding his recently acquired mystic prowess to the defence of the realm.

He hung around for ‘The Monarch and the Man-Ape!’ in Avengers #63; a brief and interlude in hidden nation Wakanda and a brutal exploration of African Avenger Black Panther‘s history and rivals – most notably a usurping super-strong trusted regent declaring himself M’Baku the Man-Apeâ€¦

The next issue began a 3-part tale illustrated by Gene Colan & Klein whose lavish humanism was intriguingly at odds with the team’s usual art style. ‘And in this Cornerâ€¦ Goliath!’, ‘Like a Death Ray from the Sky!’ and ‘Mightier than the Sword?’ (the final chapter inked by Sam Grainger) was part of a broader tale; another early crossover experiment intersecting with both Sub-Mariner and Captain Marvel issues #14, wherein a coterie of cerebral second-string villains combined to conquer the world by stealthâ€¦

Within the Avengers portion of proceedings, Hawkeye revealed his civilian identity to be circus performer Clint Barton and recounted his origins before forsaking his bow and trick-arrows to become a size-changing hero and subsequently adopting the now-vacant name Goliath. Along the way the team scotched a terror satellite scheme cooked up by Egghead and enforced by the sinister Swordsmanâ€¦

Another triple-chapter story-arc followed; giving new kid Barry (Winsor) Smith a chance to show just how good he was going to become.

Inked by the legendary Syd Shores, ‘Betrayal!’ (#66) reveals how the development of new super metal Adamantium triggers a long-dormant back-up program in the Vision who is slavishly compelled to reconstruct his destroyed creatorâ€¦

As ‘We Stand atâ€¦ Armageddon!’ (Smith & Klein opens), adamantium-reinforced Ultron-6 is moments away from world domination and the nuking of New York when a now truly independent Vision violently intercedes before dramatic conclusion ‘â€¦And We Battle for the Earth’ (illustrated by young Sal Buscema & Sam Grainger) sees the team – augmented by Thor and Iron Man – prove that the only answer to an unstoppable force is an unparalleled mindâ€¦

In Avengers #69 ‘Let the Game Begin’ (Thomas, Sal Buscema & Grainger) finds the team – Captain America, Yellowjacket, Wasp, Goliath, Vision and Thor – called to the hospital bedside of ailing Tony Stark just in time to prevent his abduction by the grotesque and gargantuan Growing Man. After battling boldly against the unbeatable homunculus, the team are summarily and collectively snatched into the future by old enemy Kang the Conqueror who co-opts the team to act as pieces in a cosmic chess-game with an omnipotent alien called the Grandmaster.

If the Avengers fail – Earth would be eradicated from the cosmosâ€¦

Issues #70 and 71 began a fertile period for writer Thomas as he introduced two new teams who would, in the fullness of time, star in their own stellar series: Squadron Supreme and The Invaders.

‘When Strikes the Squadron Sinister!’ sees the Avengers returned to their own time to battle a team of deadly villains (mischievously based on DC’s Justice League of America) before ‘Endgame!’ – guest-starring the Black Knight – finds the Vision, Black Panther and Yellowjacket dispatched to 1941 to clash with the WWII incarnations of the Sub-Mariner, Human Torch and Captain Americaâ€¦

After foiling Kang’s ambitions and surviving his betrayal the team victoriously return to the present where Avengers # 72 offered a guest-appearance from Captain Marvel and Rick Jones.

‘Did You Hear the One About Scorpio?’ also debuts malignantly menacing super-mob Zodiac, after which ‘The Sting of the Serpent’ (illustrated by Frank Giacoia & Grainger) pits the Panther against seditious hate-mongers determined to set New York ablaze, leading to a spectacular and shocking clash between Avengers and the Sons of the Serpent in ‘Pursue the Panther!’; the first in a string of glorious issues illustrated by the artistic dream team of John Buscema & Tom Palmer.

Long-missing mutant Avengers Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch resurfaced in #75, desperate to warn of and stave off extra-dimensional invasion and nuclear Armageddon by Conan prototype Arkon the Magnificent in ‘The Warlord and the Witch!’ before the staggering threat is finally extinguished in ‘The Blaze of Battleâ€¦ the Flames of Love!’

As the tone of the times shifted and other titles entered a period of human-scaled storytelling dubbed â€œRelevancyâ€, a far more mundane and insidious menace manifested as billionaire financier Cornelius Van Lunt manoeuvres to bankrupt Avengers sponsor Tony Stark, compelling the team to become the mystery magnate’s ‘Heroes for Hire!’

With the end of the book fast approaching here, Sal Buscema popped in to pencil ‘The Man-Ape Always Strikes Twice!’ as the team are targeted by a coterie of vengeful villains competing to join a new league of evil, spectacularly culminating in a grand clash with the aforementioned anthropoid, Swordsman, Power Man, Living Laser and the Grim Reaper in ‘Lo! The Lethal Legion!’, which concluding chapter also heralded the artistic return of Big Brother Johnâ€¦.

Chronologically adrift but adding plenty of bonus thrills, the comics adventures end for now with ‘The Black Knight Reborn!’ by Thomas, Howard Purcell & Dan Adkins from try-out title Marvel Super-Heroes #17 (November 1968). Here American part-time superhero Dane Whitman inherits an English castle and discovers through ghostly intervention that he is the last descendent of King Arthur’s trusty comrade Percy of Scandia – history’s first Black Knight and Merlin’s last resort against all forces of evil.

Gifted with a mystic ebony blade that can cut through anything, Dane readies himself to fight the good fight in modern times. He soon becomes painfully aware that the malign ghostly spirit of vile Modred is also abroad and empowering dupes such as French derelict Le Sabre with magical weapons to end his crusade before it can even beginâ€¦

Unceasingly enticing and always evergreen, these timeless sagas defined and cemented the Marvel experience and are a joy no fans of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction should deny themselves or their kids.
Â© 1968, 1969, 1970, 2015 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

March 2, 2018March 1, 2018

An Android Awakes: Fictional Alignment

By Mike French & Tony Allcock (Elsewhen Press)
ISBN: 978-1-911409-20-5Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â eISBN: 978-1-911409-30-4

It’s been a while since we looked at anything non-traditional so here’s an intriguing illustrated book which has a lot to recommend itâ€¦ most importantly, that it’s a long-awaited sequel to a captivating and fascinating tome we reviewed way back in 2015…

In the far future of An Android Awakes, human beings are practically extinct and androids have become the dominant intellects ruling the planet. Sadly, our synthetic successors are as prone to emotional foibles, personal insecurities, obsessive manias and ruthless zealotry as us meat-bags ever were.

To a great extent they also assimilated our creative urges too. One such was Android Writer PD121928 who was part of the Android Publishing Program. The state provided for his needs (drugs, whores, deep-frozen pets and the removal of his wife so that he can achieve the proper frame of artistic angst and squalor) and in return he was to conceive increasingly outrÃ© and wild adventure tales. The same deal applied for every creative automaton in the system: Filmmakers, photographers, artists, whateverâ€¦

His ultimate failure and tragic martyrdom allowed and compelled his human lover Sapphira to recycle his failed ideas into a global bestseller entitled Humans (An Arrangement of Minor Defects).

On its release – the first human work of fiction for over a century – the volume became the best-selling book of all time, but in the aftermath of publication an ideological schism triggered a violent change in Android government and philosophy leading to a pogrom against everything non-factualâ€¦

Eleven years later, with society in crisis and the mythoclasts in charge, Fiction is deemed filth and all creativity is consecrated to Fact. The mighty Pravda and his Proseologist assumed control of the Vatican and began excising everything non-verifiable – mood, tone, poesy, flights of fancy – from the world’s literature.

But even that is not enough. Thus, androids Heisenberg and Tractatus are ordered to conduct arch-imagineer Sapphira – and a select band of equally unwilling and iconic characters – on a succession of journeys through time to re-enact her book’s greatest feats and feasts of fictive excess, rendering them factual in every respectâ€¦

Sadly, whilst stage-managing great moments of love, death, spectacle, science fantasy and comedy to prove the fanciful concrete and validatable, the sheer corrupting power of imagination and the forces needed to make creativity and inspiration real have an implacably metamorphic effect of the agents of change and they begin using millennia of time travel to reshape the mission to their own twisted ever-shifting agendasâ€¦

Featuring old An Android Awakes favourites such as The Great Explorer Umberto Amunsden, The Locust Wife and The Amazing Arctic Sinking Man and introducing us to the almighty Digitised Treasury and the Real Jesus, this mind-bending Scientific Romance from Mike French offers a challenging odyssey through the theocracy of thought and depicts a trenchant guerrilla war between What Is, What Might and What Should beâ€¦

Devotees of Michael Moorcock, Brian Aldiss, J. G. Ballard, Thomas M. Disch and other heavyweights of the last century’s SF New Wave movement will love this challenging stand-out return to Big Idea, Deep Thought emotionally expressive speculative fiction, as will any reader hungry to have heart and mind expandedâ€¦
Text and artwork Â© Mike French 2018. Cover artwork Â© Tony Allcock 2018. All rights reserved.

March 1, 2018February 25, 2018

Fantastic Four Marvel Masterworks volume 8

By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-6294-0 (PB)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â : 978-0-7851-1694-3 (HB)

The monolith of Marvel truly began with the adventures of a small super-team who were as much squabbling family as coolly capable costumed champions. Everything the company produces now comes due to the quirky quartet and the groundbreaking, inspired efforts of Stan Lee and Jack Kirbyâ€¦

This full-colour compendium – also available in hardcover, trade paperback and digital editions – collects Fantastic Four #72-81 plus the epic Fantastic Four Annual #6: spanning March – December 1968 with Stan & Jack outdoing themselves with every successive issue to cement their reputation as the greatest team in comicsâ€¦

What You Should Already Know: maverick scientist Reed Richards, his fiancÃ© Sue Storm, their close friend Ben Grimm – with Sue’s teenaged tag-along little brother – miraculously survived an ill-starred private space-shot after Cosmic rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding and mutated them all.

Richards’ body became elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible and project forcefields, Johnny Storm could turn into living flame and tragic Ben devolved into a shambling, rocky freak. The they agreed to use their abilities to benefit mankind and thus was born The Fantastic Four.

Following another effusive Introduction from Lee the drama opens with the team in crisis. With a baby due Reed and Sue had resigned, leaving The Thing, Johnny and his Inhuman girlfriend Crystal to hold the fort just as cosmic calamity came calling.

In ‘Where Soars the Silver Surfer!’ the sky-born wanderer imprisoned on Earth by the world-devouring Galactus went cage-crazy and attacked humanity, forcing Reed’s return, after which FF #73 presented a classic crossover and the conclusion to a long-running Daredevil story wherein the sightless crusader is ousted from his own body by Iron Tyrant Doctor Doom.

Warning the FF of imminent attack, the Man without Fear then subsequently defeats Doom on his own but neglects to tell the heroes of his victoryâ€¦

Outmatched and unable to convince them any other way, DD enlists currently de-powered Mighty Thor and the ever-eager Spider-Man in to solve the problem Marvel style – with a spectacular pointless and utterly riveting punch-up – in ‘The Flames of Battleâ€¦’â€¦

The Surfer was back in #74 ‘When Calls Galactus’ as the planet-eater returns to Terran skies demanding that his one-time herald once more become his food-finding slave. However, despite his increasingly violent and world-shaking probing and the FF’s holding action against the ravenous invader’s robotic Punisher, Galactus cannot locate his target.

That’s because the Surfer has already – and utterly obliviously – departed for ‘World Within Worlds!’, forcing Reed, Ben and Johnny to follow to save humanity from cosmic consumption. When the pioneering micronauts are subsequently attacked by sadistic alien Psycho Man our heroes are ‘Stranded in Sub-Atomica!’

As they struggle to survive, Galactus applies ever-more pressure in ‘Shall Earth Endure?’ until the now-fully-apprised Surfer turns himself in to save Earth by finding the great Devourer an alternative snack.

His reward is to be summarily returned to his captivity here as soon as ungrateful Galactus finishes feeding (just in time to begin his own landmark series – but that’s the subject of another review, another timeâ€¦)

Meanwhile, after trashing Psycho Man and getting home, Reed and the gang risk another attempt to cure Ben Grimm in FF #78. The procedure goes tragically awry in ‘The Thing No More!’, due to inopportune interference from old foe The Wizard before, in #79, the now human Ben chooses to return to his rocky state to save his friends from the bludgeoning Android Man and possibly remain ‘A Monster Forever?’.

A brief change of pace then takes the team to the Tribal Lands of old friend Wyatt Wingfoot to solve an eerie mystery and save the Indian oil fields from deadly subversion ‘Where Treads the Living Totem!‘ before the sixth Annual features – at long last – the birth of Reed and Sue’s baby (known to us now as Franklin Richards).

Unfortunately, the happy event almost never happens since the transformative cosmic rays which gave the team their powers have affected the pregnancyâ€¦

Desperate for a miracle cure, Reed, Ben and Johnny scour the antimatter Negative Zone and are confronted by a monstrous creature named Annihilus whose power is the only thing that can prevent the death of Sue and her unborn child. ‘Let There Beâ€¦ Life!’ is a groundbreaking 48-page epic that is as stunning to read now as it ever was, passionate, thrilling and mind-boggling in its visual intensity.

With Sue a new mother faithful Crystal then elects herself the first new official member of the Fantastic Four and promptly shows her mettle by pulverizing the incorrigible glutton-for-punishment Wizard in #81’s all-action romp ‘Enterâ€¦ the Exquisite Elemental!’ to conclude this superb chronological catalogue of fabulously compelling Fights ‘n’ Tights tales.

Did I say concludes? Not quite as this book still finds room for a selection of astounding original art pencil pages of Kirby to further dazzle the senses.

Perfect comics, perfectly packaged. What are you waiting for?
Â© 1968, 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 28, 2018February 27, 2018

Showcase Presents Men of War

By David Michelinie, Robert Kanigher, Roger McKenzie, Jack C. Harris, Cary Burkett, Paul Kupperberg, Ed Davis, Dick Ayers, Jerry Grandenetti, Howard Chaykin, Arvell Jones, Larry Hama, & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4388-3

In America after the demise of EC Comics in the mid-1950’s and prior to the game-changing Blazing Combat, the only certain place to find controversial, challenging and entertaining American war comics was DC.

In fact, even whilst Archie Goodwin’s stunning but tragically mis-marketed quartet of classics were waking up a generation, the home of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman was a veritable cornucopia of gritty, intriguing and beautifully illustrated battle tales presenting combat on a variety of fronts and from many differing points of view.

Whilst the Vietnam War escalated, 1960s America increasingly endured a Home Front death-struggle pitting deeply-ingrained Establishment social attitudes against a youth-oriented generation with a radical new sensibility. In response DC’s (or rather National Periodical Publishing, as it then was) military-themed comicbooks became even more bold and innovativeâ€¦

That stellar and challenging creative period came to an end as all strip trends do, but a few of the more impressive and popular features (Sgt. Rock, Haunted Tank, The Losers) survived well into the second superhero revival. One of the most engaging wartime wonders was a notional espionage thriller starring a faceless, nameless hero perpetually in the right place at the right time, ready, willing and so very able to turn the tide one battle at a timeâ€¦

Currently English-reading fans of war stories are grievously underserved in both print and digital formats, but this magnificent monochrome reprint compendium is still readily available online. It collects the entire contents of Men of War: an all-new new anthology comicbook which debuted in August 1977 and ran 26 issues until March 1980.

Although offering the usual a variety of alternating back-up strips, Men of War controversially starred and cover-featured Gravedigger, a black American GI in WWII fighting prejudice, segregationist policies and blinkered authority as much as Fascist aggression.

The series was originated by scripter David Michelinie with art on the first episode by Ed Davis & Romeo Tanghal as MoW #1 introduced ‘Codename: Gravedigger’: grumbling US soldier Sergeant Ulysses Hazard in France and under fire in the Summer of 1942.

Of course, he had a lot to complain about. Being a negro, Hazard was not permitted to fight beside white enlisted men and could only be assigned to catering services or the Graves Registration team, marking and recovering the fallen.

A hard pill to swallow for a tough-minded ghetto kid who overcame polio, privation, bigots and bullies, and – through sheer determination – turned his body into a physically perfect human weapon.

When he single-handedly saves a French family from a gang of brutal Germans, white soldiers led by Lieutenant Gage claim the credit. The next day Hazard again displays his military superiority by saving the entire unit from a strafing attack, only to be told once more black men can’t fight.

When Ulysses realises he was saving racists whilst his best pal Andy died in the raid, Hazard fixes upon a desperate planâ€¦

Arvell Jones & Tanghal illustrate the next chapter in #2 as Hazard goes AWOL: sneaking back into America to fight ‘The Five-Walled War!’. Breaking into the newly-constructed Pentagon, the outraged warrior battles his way past an army of troops to confront the astounded Undersecretary of War.

A shrewd and ruthless opportunist, the politico sees a chance to create a different kind of soldier and maybe even buy black votes in the next election cycle. Decreeing Hazard a top secret, one-man strike-force and personal suicide squad, with typical unforced irony the demagogue designates his new, extremely expendable toy ‘Codename: Gravedigger’â€¦

Issue #3 finds newly-promoted Captain Hazard back in France within days; rescuing Gage and the soldiers who took credit for his actions. Even after they try to arrest him for desertion, Hazard pushes on with his first mission: ‘The Suicide Stratagem’ demanding he invade a mountain-top fortress to clear out a nest of Nazis holding up the entire war effort. No sooner has he done so than Gage and crew burst in to wipe out the survivorsâ€¦ especially any black soldiers who might get in the wayâ€¦

Evergreen WWI anti-war feature Enemy Ace copped the first tranche of back-up slots for issues #1-3. Executed by Robert Kanigher, Ed Davis & Juan Ortiz, opening chapter ‘Death is a Wild Beast!’ has conflicted, honourable fighter pilot Hans Von Hammer downing a devil-themed British pilot who accomplishes a miraculous ‘Return from Hell!’ in the second instalment before experiencing ‘The Three Faces of Death’ in the final instalment.

As ever, the real meat of the macabre missions is the toll on the minds and bodies of the merely mortal fliers who die while Von Hammer lives on in guilty anguishâ€¦

The next triptych of back-ups (in #4-6) introduced New York Courier reporter Wayne Clifford, arriving in London in June 1940 to cover the â€œEuropean Warâ€ for the still-neutral folks back home.

Crafted by Cary Burkett & Jerry Grandenetti ‘Dateline: Frontline’ focuses on the stories behind the war as neophyte Clifford is taken under the wing of veteran wordsmith Ed Barnes and learns some hard truths about propaganda, integrity and necessity after he tries to send back his account of a friendly-fire incidentâ€¦

More gritty revelations add to the innocent’s education during an air raid spent with hard-pressed Londoners in a tube station in ‘Dateline: Frontline: Human Interest Story’ whilst #7 found the plucky news-hawk at ground zero on top of an unexploded bomb in ‘Dateline: Frontline Countdown!’

In Men of War #4 Dick Ayers took over as penciler as Gravedigger’s ‘Trial by Fire’ explosively ends with the pariah destroying the mountaintop Nazi base and saving Gage’s unit, only to be reviled and attacked by the man he humiliatingly saved, after which #5 welcomed Roger McKenzie as new writer.

Here Gravedigger enters the ‘Valley of the Shadow’ in an Alpine village turned impregnable German stronghold. His mission is to start an avalanche and eradicate the Nazi artillery nest but no one warned him of the captive populace held in the churchâ€¦

MoW #6 then offers ‘A Choice of Deaths’ (McKenzie, Ayers & Tanghal) as the loner’s daring raid on a prison to free hostages is almost thwarted by the internees’ reluctance to leave behind certain works of artâ€¦

Men of War #7 featured Gravedigger’s first full-length exploit. ‘Milkrun’ sees the one-man army ordered to England for further intensive training at the hands of British expert Major Birch, but the journey back with mild-mannered clerk-turned-jeep driver Boston proves to be one of the most eventful rides Hazard has ever takenâ€¦

‘Death-Stroke’ leads in #8, as the American’s intensive training includes a potent degree of brainwashing. Unknow to anybody, Birch has been replaced by a Nazi agent who primes Ulysses to murder Winston Churchillâ€¦

Another Enemy Ace triptych began in the back of #8 and ‘Silent Skyâ€¦ Screaming Death!!’ (illustrated by Larry Hama & Bob Smith) details a trenchant tale of a family at war. Howard Chaykin took over the illustration as a regulation clash in the sky resulted in attack by vengeful siblings and the return of Von Hammer’s father in ‘Brother Killers!’ (#9), revealing aspects of the German Ace’s own childhood and culminating in a fateful and final ‘Duel at Dawn!’ in #10.

MoW #9’s ‘Gravedigger – R.I.P.’ exposed layer upon layer of deceit and deception. Thanks to a tip-off by investigative reporter Wayne Clifford, Hazard’s assassination attempt is foiled by the Allies’ own master-of-disguise super-agent (no prizes for guessing who) and the brainwashed killer is captured and de-programmed. His death then faked, Hazard clandestinely heads to Berlin to rescue the real Birchâ€¦

This issue included extra feature ‘Dateline: Frontline: Bathtub Blues’ by Burkett & Grandenetti. Now stationed in North Africa, Clifford is attached to the British Army and sees for himself the nauseating difference between a braggart and a heroâ€¦

Men of War #10 opened with a ‘Crossroads’ reached by Codename: Gravedigger when he is shot down miles short of his Berlin destination and meets a fugitive Jewish family torn apart less by the war than the hatred and horrors that sparked itâ€¦

Supplementing the Enemy Ace back-up cited above is another stark and moving Wayne Clifford yarn by Burkett & Grandenetti. ‘Dateline: Frontline: Glory Soldier’ sees the writer caught in the bloody orbit of a gung-ho suicidal British corporalâ€¦

In #11 Hazard and his new Jewish comrades invade top secret death camp ‘Berkstaten’ and discovering to his shock and relief that not all Germans are monsters, whilst ‘Dateline: Frontline: Funeral Pyre’ sees Wayne lose his journalistic distance and impartiality after rescuing a baby and being captured by Arab raiders who consider both Germans and British as ruthless invadersâ€¦

Jack C. Harris took over writing the lead feature in MoW #12 as ‘Where is Gravedigger?’ sees the black soldier and his youthful Jewish allies finally enter Germany’s capital, even with the entire German army hunting for them. Unfortunately for the hunters, the one place they neglect to check is the torture chamber holding Major Birchâ€¦

Kanigher & Chaykin began another doleful, doom-laden Enemy Ace drama in the same issue. ‘Banner of Blood!’ sees the troubled Rittmeister striving to retrieve the Von Hammer family standard from a cunning French air ace who is the latest scion of an ancestral foe.

The tale continued in #13 as Von Hammer’s face-to-face confrontation with ‘The Last Baron!‘ leads to the final clash in a centuries-long vendetta with the Comtes de Burgundy ending forever in one last honourable ‘Duel!’â€¦

‘Project Gravediggerâ€¦Plus One’ was the blockbusting main attraction in #13 as Hazard and Birch blaze and blast their way out of Berlin and back to Britain, where a confrontation with original sponsor the US Undersecretary of War leads to the black warrior taking on a new and freer role in his own affairs.

In Germany, however, outraged bigot and madman Joseph Goebbels takes personal charge of punishing the â€œsubhuman inferiorâ€ who has shamed the entire Reichâ€¦

Despatched to Egypt in #14, Hazard faces ‘The Swirling Sounds of Death’ when the interception of a crucial Nazi courier is briefly derailed after Gravedigger is captured by Arab bandits. By the time he resumes stalking his target, Ulysses rules the Tuaregs but leads them into disastrously battle with British tanks before being himself taken by his elusive enemy Eric Von King – ‘The Man with the Opened Eye’â€¦

Rounding out the issue are a brace of short combat yarns: underwater demolitions thriller ‘Wolf Pack’ by Bill Kelley, Hama & Jack Abel and American Civil War vignette ‘The Sentry’ by artist Bill Payne and an unknown writer.

A minor visual overhaul for Gravedigger comes with #16’s book-length thriller ‘Hide and Seek the Spy’ as Von King uses Hazard as a human shield during a Panzer assault on the British lines. Although the lone wolf escapes, he will forever bear the scars of his close shave. Worst of all, the slippery courier again eludes him with the critical plans known as Defense Packet 6â€¦

Never quitting, Hazard and an elite commando team continue their pursuit in MoW #17 reaching the Nile where a German mini U-boat turns the majestic waterway into ‘The River of Death’. Meanwhile in Germany, Goebbels’ top scientists edge closer to completing the perfect antidote to the Gravedigger’s perpetual interferenceâ€¦

In the back of the issue Paul Kupperberg & Grandenetti introduced a new historical star as ‘Rosa: The Castle Rhinehart Affair Part One’ depicts a 19^th century secret agent and international man of mystery tasked in 1870 with ending the Franco-Prussian War by assassinating Bismarck’s top advisorâ€¦

The fraught and frantic mission in a strategically vital Schloss concludes in ‘Rosa: The Castle Rhinehart Affair Part Two’ with the master-spy completing his task and consequently uncovering top-level double-dealing amongst his own superiors. A creature of implacable moral fortitude, Rosa has his own cure for treacheryâ€¦

Gravedigger’s apparent failure is rewarded with another suicidal solo mission in MoW #18 as ‘The Amiens Assault’ covertly returns him to France to extract atomic scientist Monsieur Noir; another doomed mission that gets a miraculous helping hand from French Resistance fighters and ‘An Angel Named Marie’ in #19.

Issues #19-20 (August and September 1979) also featured another Kanigher/Chaykin Enemy Ace back-up tale of nobly idiotic honour and wasted young lives as Von Hammer makes ‘A Promise to the Dying’ and seeks to restore a contentious souvenir to its rightful owner in ‘Death Must Wait!’

For Ulysses Hazard #20 meant a short trip to Sicily to find and destroy a munitions dump reinforcing German forces battling General Patton’s advance in ‘Cry: Jericho’â€¦

Men of War #21 provided a novel change of pace and locale as ‘Home – Is Where the Hell Is’ takes Hazard back to America after his mother is taken ill. Even a one-man army despised and reviled by his superiors is eligible for compassionate leave, but nobody realises the entire scheme has been concocted by Goebbels using surgically created doppelgangers to eliminate the black super soldierâ€¦

Taking up the rear, the most harrowing phase of Wayne Clifford’s career begins when Burkett & Grandenetti point his nose for news towards the Eastern Front in ‘Dateline: Frontline: Mother Russia’.

Barely surviving passage on a convoy ship and limping into a battered port, the journalist realises the true import of his next story only after meeting starving Russian childrenâ€¦

Ambushed in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Gravedigger opens issue #22 by killing his assailants, sinking a Nazi U-boat and causing a ‘Blackout on the Boardwalk’, after which ‘Dateline: Frontline: Scorched Earth, Crimson Snow’ further explores the Eastern hell as Clifford experiences first hand and up close the siege of Moscowâ€¦

Gravedigger’s ‘Mission: Six Feet Under!’ sees him plying his old trade with the Graves Registration unit during a highly suspicious trade of bodies with the Germans. It doesn’t take him long to determine that the American cadavers he’s retrieving have been gimmicked with the vilest form of biological weapon and respond accordinglyâ€¦

Burkett & Grandenetti then record that ‘Dateline: Frontline: A Quiet Day in Leningrad’ is anything butâ€¦

MoW #24 starts a 2-part tale of ‘The Presidential Peril’ as Hazard is detailed to safeguard Franklin Delano Roosevelt on a trip to England that has all manner of Nazi spy and maniac crawling out of the woodworkâ€¦

‘Rosa: The Ambassador’s Son Affair Part One’ (Kupperberg & Grandenetti and concluding in the next issue) finds the master of intrigue sharing his (possible) origins with an imperilled junior dignitary in Mexico circa 1867 before #25 sees Gravedigger ‘Save the President’ through a phenomenal display of ingenuity and martial prowess only to be rewarded with an even more impossible missionâ€¦

Men of War was cancelled with #26 but went out in a blaze of glory as ‘Night on Nickname Hill’ (Harris, Ayers & Tanghal) sees Hazard despatched to Tunis in March 1943 to link up with Sgt Rock and lead Easy Company against a fortified artillery position: a critical battle that would determine the outcome of the Allies’ campaign in Africaâ€¦

With stunning covers by Joe Kubert, Ed Davis and George Evans, this mighty black-&-white treasure trove of combat classics is a type and style of storytelling we’re all the poorer without. Hopefully publishers will wise up soon and begin restoring their like to the wide variety of genre sagas currently available in graphic collections.
Â© 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 2014 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

February 27, 2018February 26, 2018

Black Panther: Marvel Masterworks volume 2

By Jack Kirby, Ed Hannigan, Jim Shooter, Chris Claremont, Jerry Bingham, John Byrne & various (Marvel Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0020-5 (HB)

Acclaimed as the first black superhero in American comics – and one of the first to carry his own series – the Black Panther‘s popularity and fortunes have waxed and waned since his debut.

The Black Panthers rule over a fantastic African paradise which isolated itself from the rest of the world millennia ago. Blessed with unimaginable resources – both natural and not so much – the nation of Wakanda developed uninterrupted into the most technologically advanced human nation on Earth, utterly unmolested by rapacious European imperialism.

The country has also never been conquered and the primary reason is an unbroken line of divinely-sponsored warrior kings who safeguard united tribes. The other is a certain miraculous super-mineral found nowhere else on Earthâ€¦

In contemporary times that chieftain is T’Challa: an unbeatable, super-smart, feline-empowered strategic genius who divides his time between ruling at home and serving abroad in superhero teams such as The Avengers, Fantastic Force, The Illuminati and The Ultimates beside costumed champions such as Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Captain Marvel, Thor and Captain Americaâ€¦

This stunning hardback collection – also available in eBook and digital formats – gathers the stories from Black Panther volume 1 #1-15 (January 1977 to May 1979) which initially disappointed a legion of fans who were expecting a conclusion or continuance to the long-lauded Don MacGregor epic ‘The Panther Versus The Klan’.

That convoluted yarn had been abruptly cancelled the previous year, but happily this tome also includes the contents of Marvel Premiere #51-53 (December 1979-April 1980) which eventually provided an ending to the Klan clash and an acceptable in-universe explanation as to why wise and noble T’Challa abruptly dropped his hunt for answers and abandoned his adored beloved Monica Lynneâ€¦

There’s even a little extra bonus yarn originally seen in Marvel Team-Up #100â€¦

Jack Kirby’s return to Marvel in the mid 1970’s was much hyped at the time but swiftly proved to be controversial. His new creations (The Eternals, Devil Dinosaur, 2001, Machine Man) found friends rapidly, but his tenure on established earlier creations Captain America and Black Panther divided the fan base.

Kirby was never slavishly wedded to tight continuity and preferred, in many ways, to treat his stints on titles as another â€œDay Oneâ€. His commitment was to wholesome eye-popping adventure, breakneck action and breathless wonderment. Combined with his absolute mastery of the comic page and unceasing quest for the Next Big Thrill that makes for a captivating read, but will never satisfy those readers fully committed to the minutia of the Marvel Universe.

Beginning with Black Panther #1, what they got was a rollercoaster ride of classic Kirby concept-overload as the Hereditary King of a high-tech Lost Kingdom gallantly pursued fabulous time machines, fought future men and secret samurai clans, thwarted the plots of super-rich artefact stealers and foiled schemes to nuke his hidden homeland, usurp his rule and even consume his faithful subjectsâ€¦

Further discussion of that comicbook culture shock can be found in the Introduction by Christopher Priest – who took everything that had gone before and made the Panther his own after reviving the character in 1999 as part of the company’s mature-oriented Marvel Knights imprintâ€¦

However, this feline funfest is mostly about frantic action and begins at full pelt with a re-introductory romp that spotlights diminutive treasure hunter Abner Little. This devious gentleman entices T’Challa into a search for ‘King Solomon’s Frog!’ after introducing himself as a friend and colleague of the Panther’s grandfather Azzari the Wiseâ€¦

Soon the mismatched pair are in hot pursuit of an artefact that sows death and destruction in its wake. The ancient brass amphibian has the ability to open time-portals, bringing lethal threats from other eras, but its real capacity for catastrophe comes from Little’s rival Collectors, who bring astounding ordnance and unsurpassed riches into play in their own efforts to possess the mystic time-machine.

Most ruthless and relentless is Queen Zanda of Narobia, who expertly ambushes the questers with a highly-skilled mercenary taskforce before accidentally triggering the frog into shanghaiing a hyper-evolved walking WMD from his own far-distant eraâ€¦

Reluctantly uniting to sedate ‘The Six-Million Year Man’, T’Challa, Little and Zanda then race to uncover King Solomon’s tomb where a twin of the Brass Frog rests. This particular item possesses the most welcome function of returning objects and creatures to their point of originâ€¦

Their ‘Race Against Time’ is exacerbated as the groggy future-man revives just as the searchers locate the tomb, unleashing psionic hell and awakening King Solomon’s formidable funereal guardian Ogar. Thankfully, teamwork saves the day and the newly-found other frog restores order, if not sanityâ€¦

Tragically for the tomb-raiders, the time to determine if they are ‘Friends or Foes’ swiftly passes because the calamitous clashes have destabilised the long-lost treasury trove. With mighty explosions wracking the site, it is all T’Challa can do to drag his artefact-lusting companions to safety before Armageddon occursâ€¦

Unfortunately for the Panther, he has proved his worth and – with Wakanda still a nuclear target – ultimate ineffectuality. When the assembled Collectors – Zanda, Count Zorba, Colonel Pigman and withered coffin-dodger Silas Mourner – see the warrior king in battle they determine he must win for them the ultimate prizeâ€¦

The ‘Quest for the Sacred Water-Skin!!’ begins as T’Challa and equally-reluctant Abner Little set off to find a fabled hidden land where a sect of Samurai warriors have dwelt for centuries, sustained by honour, their martial arts and a literal fountain of youth.

Overcoming monsters and warriors, T’Challa establishes a bond of honour with the last proponents of Bushido, but sadly his venal companion upsets the applecart by secretly stealing ‘A Cup of Youth’â€¦

Meanwhile in Wakanda, internal trouble flares when the Panther’s half-brother General Jakarra makes a power-grab, bolstered by a sacrilegious utilisation of raw vibraniumâ€¦

Black Panther #7 sees the hero and his scurrilous sidekick escape the Samurai city even as ‘Drums!’ sound across Wakanda and the incredible secret origin of the Panther Cult and Vibranium Mound are revealed.

When the awesome sky metal first crashed to Earth in primordial times it transformed many men into monsters. Thankfully mighty chief Bashenga – taking the black cat as his totem – created a force to destroy the creatures and police the metal: preventing alien infection from spreading and forever after shielding his people through a line of dedicated defenders.

As the latest king heads for a final confrontation with the Collectors, T’Challa has no way of knowing his regent N’Gassi has been captured or that Jakarra has gained deadly power through exposure to the gene-warping force of raw Vibraniumâ€¦

Having battled his way free, T’Challa heads for home. His people, however, are already suffering the increasingly crazed depredations of a Jakarra no longer even remotely human.

Further delayed by a mercy mission – plucking dying men from the sea – the king bemoans his absence whilst half a world away, N’Gassi takes a desperate gamble and â€œrequestsâ€ that the sedentary royal cousins – Ishanta, Joshua Itobo, Khanata and Zuni – step up and lead the fight against Jakarra. But are they Panthers or Pussycats?’

Surprising everybody with a show of solidarity and unconventional tactics, the ‘Black Musketeers’ manage to contain the monstrous usurper until T’Challa returns, but his arrival coincides with the loss of Jakarra’s last vestige of humanity. Now a shambling beast resolved that ‘This World Shall Die!’ in an Earth-shattering detonation, the horrific abomination is barely defeated inside the Mound by a true Black Panther who does not escape the mineral’s mutagenic propertiesâ€¦

Issue #11 finds T’Challa recovering from his struggle against Jakarra and plagued by eerie recurring dreams of future battles. As citizens begin vanishing all over Wakanda – including Prince Khanata – the medical team reaches the conclusion that the king has developed some form of Extra-Sensory Perception.

This new gift – or perhaps curse? – leads the Panther to the abductors’ HQ where phantasmal madman ‘Kiber the Cruel’ is converting stolen humans to energy and consuming themâ€¦

Following ‘The Kiber Clue’, T’Challa strives mightily to save his kinsman and subjects, but arrives too late for anything but vengeanceâ€¦

As Jim Shooter, Ed Hannigan, Jerry Bingham & Gene Day take over from the abruptly departed Kirby, the saga swiftly wraps up with the true nature of Kiber grotesquely exposed and the Panther’s judgement delivered in #13’s ‘What isâ€¦ and What Should Never Be’â€¦

With Hannigan scripting, the Black Panther resoundingly re-entered the mainstream Marvel universe in ‘The Beasts in the Jungle!’ (#14 March 1979); opening Wakanda’s first Embassy in New York City, applying to the United Nations and rejoining his former allies in the Avengers.

Soon smothered in red tape and diplomatic hurdles, T’Challa welcomes working with his superhero guests but is quickly embroiled in a deadly scheme by old enemy Klaw, the Master of Sound, and blithely unaware that other relationships are about to be renewedâ€¦

After the resurgent villain battles the World’s Mightiest Heroes to a standstill, T’Challa manages to inflict the ‘Revenge of The Black Panther!’ in the final issue (May 1979), yet leaves everything on a cliffhanging note as Monic Lynne breaks into the Wakandan Embassyâ€¦

After years in limbo, Don McGregor’s Klan storyline was revisited and concluded when try-out title Marvel Premiere declared â€œThe Return of the Black Pantherâ€ with issue #51 (December 1979).

Opening minutes after Black Panther #15 ended, ‘The Killing of Windeagle!’ sees T’Challa arriving back at the Embassy only to be attacked by an unknown flying warrior who claims to be an old foe. After subduing the assailant, the King experiences even more turmoil as Monica Lynne and Georgia journalist Kevin Trublood accost him. Although his staff all seem familiar with the woman, T’Challa has no memory of herâ€¦

Granting an audience with the couple, the Panther hears how Monica’s sister Angela was murdered, and how the death seemed to involve both the Ku Klux Klan and rival offshoot the Dragon’s Circle. As he listens, T’Challa hears that for a time he was one of those murder investigators, but his mind is clouded and he recalls none of itâ€¦

Suddenly Windeagle attacks again but as the Panther fights back his opponent is assassinated by a sniperâ€¦

Working with the police, T’Challa uncovers the sordid history of a petty gangster who somehow became a flying fury and establishes links to yet another organisation: The Spiritual Light Society. At every turn events seem to be pushing him towards one inescapable conclusion: Monica’s ridiculous story is true and someone has tampered with his mind and memoryâ€¦

When they are ambushed again by armed thugs – later identified as Klansmen – their spirited resistance is supplemented by more sniper fire and the Panther’s ‘Journey Through the Past!’ impels him to invade a Klan gathering. This conclave is subsequently violently disrupted by a costumed maniac dubbed the Soul Stranglerâ€¦

Despite not remembering, the Panther believes he has deduced the nature of the civil war between the KKK and Dragon’s circle, and more importantly, who killed Angela. With resignation and trepidation, T’Challa, Kevin and Monica head for a showdown in the Deep Southâ€¦

Inked by Alan Gordon, Marvel Premiere #53 (April 1980) delivered ‘The Ending, In Anger!’ as T’Challa visits Monica’s family home and the dam in his memory finally shatters. Acting with clarity at last, the Black Panther tracks down the villains who captured and brainwashed him during his previous visit, exposes a tawdry truth behind all the death and intimidation and brings a kind of closure to all the innocents touched by the tragedyâ€¦

With the major story-arcs at last concluded it was back to relative obscurity and bit-parts for the Panther, with the exception of a short tale that would have huge repercussions on the hero’s life in the future.

‘Cryâ€¦ Vengeance!’ by Chris Claremont, John Byrne & Bob McLeod first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #100 (December 1980) and saw African X-Man Storm targeted by assassins. Easily defeating her attackers, she learned they were hired by Boer hardman Andreas de Ruyterâ€¦

This sent her mind winging back to her trek across Africa as teenager: an arduous trek made easier after she linked up with a young boy on his own rite of passage ritual. His name was T’Challa and she learned that he was a prince only after South African mercenaries led by de Ruyter tried to kidnap the boy for political advantage.

After driving the thugs off, the youngsters spent a brief but idyllic time together before their paths diverged and duty pulled them apart.

After decades apart, with the villain back seeking vengeance, Ororo reunited with the boy the world now knew as the Black Panther to end the maniac’s threat foreverâ€¦

This collection is also augmented by Kirby Editorial pages, house ads, a potted history of the Black Panther from #14, the Rich Buckler & McLeod cover to the never-released BP #16 and unused Bingham pencil pages.

An explosive rocket ride of thrills, spills, chills and too-long delayed gratification, these long-lost classics confirm the Black Panther as one of the most complex and versatile characters in comics and simply scream â€œRead me! Read me!â€ So you should and you mustâ€¦
Â© 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 2001, 2016 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 26, 2018February 25, 2018

Green Lantern Sector 2814 volume 2

By Len Wein, Paul Kupperberg, Steven Englehart, Dave Gibbons, Bill Willingham, Joe Staton, Bruce Patterson, Mark Farmer, Rich Rankin & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4078-3

When mortally wounded alien cop Abin Sur crashed on Earth he commanded his power ring – a device which could materialise thoughts – to seek out a replacement officer, honest and without fear. Scanning the planet, it selected brash young test pilot Hal Jordan in nearby Coast City, California and brought him to the crash-site. The dying alien bequeathed his ring, the lantern-shaped Battery of Power and his professional vocation to the astonished Earthman.

Over many traumatic years, Jordan grew into one of the greatest members of a serried band of law-enforcers. The Green Lantern Corps protected the cosmos from evil and disaster for billions of years, policing vast numbers of sentient beings under the severe but benevolent auspices of immortal super-beings who consider themselves the Guardians of the Universe.

These undying patrons of Order were one of the first races to evolve and dwelt in sublime, emotionless security and tranquillity on the world of Oa at the very centre of creation.

Green Lanterns are chosen for their capacity to overcome fear and are equipped with a ring that creates solid constructs out of emerald light. The miracle weapon is fuelled by the strength of the user’s willpower, making it one of the mightiest tools imaginable.

For eons, a single individual from each of the 3600 sectors of known space was selected to patrol his, her or its own beat, but being cautious and meticulous masters, the Guardians laid contingency plans as appointing designated reserve officers.

Jordan’s substitute was a nice quiet (white) PE teacher named Guy Gardner, but when he was critically injured the Oans’ fallback option was a little worrying to staid, by-the-book Hal.

In Green Lantern/Green Arrow #87 (December 1971/January 1972) ‘Beware My Power!’ introduced a bold new character to the DCU. John Stewart was an unemployed architect and full-time radical activist: an angry black man always spoiling for a fight and prepared to take guff from no-one.

Jordan was convinced the Guardians had grievously erred when selecting rash, impetuous Stewart as Sector 2814’s official Green Lantern stand-in, but after seeing how his proposed pinch-hitter handled a white supremacist US presidential candidate trying to foment a race war, the Emerald Gladiator was delighted to change his tuneâ€¦

As time progressed Stewart popped up occasionally even as the Guardians’ motives and ineffability increasingly came into question by many of their once-devoted operatives and peacekeepers. All too frequently, the grunts began seeing their formerly infallible little blue gods exposed as venal, ruthless, doctrinaire and even capriciousâ€¦

As his repute grew, headstrong Hal enjoyed an extremely tempestuous relationship with his bosses which eventually resulted in them accusing him of neglecting his space sector – 2814 – to concentrate on Earth’s problems and criminals.

When he couldn’t reconcile his love for Carol Ferris and duty to the Corps, Hal Jordan quitâ€¦

This second stellar Fight’s ‘n’ Tights trade paperback compilation – also available in eBook editions – gathers Green Lantern #182-183 and 185-193, covering November 1984 through October 1985: a period of radical change and increasing cosmic calamity as the DCU counted inexorably down to a reality-altering Crisis on Infinite Earthsâ€¦

Len Wein, Dave Gibbons & Mark Farmer continued their groundbreaking reshaping of the legend as ‘It’s a Dirty Job, Butâ€¦!’ saw the now merely mortal Jordan second-guessing his decision as he revisits Abin Sur’s remote resting place. Meanwhile, across the universe, the Guardians moved swiftly, promoting Stewart to the prime position in his sector. At the time the architect was working on rebuilding the shattered Ferris Aircraft complex and had no idea that Hal Jordan was the alter ego of his abruptly â€œretiredâ€ predecessor, nor that GL Jordan’s old enemy Major Disaster was back and looking for a fightâ€¦

Further complicating matters, Dr. Bruce Gordon – currently building a solar engine for Ferris – was being stalked and harassed by his own inner demon made manifest. Before Green Lantern had helped cure him, Gordon was the unwilling host of a demonic hate-filled energy spirit called Eclipso. Now the monster was apparently back and trying to steal the almost-completed solar engineâ€¦

When Major Disaster furiously threatens to destroy a massive hydroelectric dam and flood the entire state, the Emerald Gladiator he stridently demands a rematch with is not the one who turns upâ€¦

Refusing to accept any substitute the madman triggers a ‘Day of Disaster’ and learns to his sorrow that the masked black man is every inch as competent and formidable as his despised archfoe.

Green Lantern #184 reprinted the origin of Guy Gardner from #59 in 1968 and has been omitted from this collection but Wein & Gibbons (inking himself again) return for #185 as ‘In Blackest Dayâ€¦!’ sees the new ringbearer for Sector 2814 fully acclimate to his responsibilities. An overnight celebrity and media sensation, Stewart is courted by TV reporter Tawny Young but earns her enmity after refusing to divulge the circumstances of his origin and promotion.

On a more mundane level, Hal still frets about his decision and loss of power, even as his romance with Carol hits a new snag. Unknown to either of them she has acquired a super-powered stalker determined to protect her from anything he perceives as a threatâ€¦

With Eclipso still secretly badgering Gordon, Hal prepares to test-fly the prototype Ferris solar jet, but is ambushed by his old pal and mentor Rich Davis.

The medically-disqualified pilot wants one last flight of glory and takes Hal’s place, only to become a hostage when Eclipso snatches the jet out of the sky in his fantastic landscape-rending moon satelliteâ€¦

‘In Brightest Nightâ€¦!’ Wein & Gibbons (with plotting input from Paul Kupperberg) sees the new GL rush to the rescue as Hal can only look on helplessly, but when Carol’s mystery suitor The Predator also boars the moon globe the situation flares beyond control and results in victory at a terrible priceâ€¦

Kupperberg, Bill Willingham & Rich Rankin then provide a rapid fill-in for #187 (April 1985) as ‘A Day in His Lifeâ€¦’ finds Carol confronted by the Predator who declares his amorous intentions by beating up her current boyfriend Hal even as John Stewart tackles his first space catastrophe and narrowly escapes destroying the malfunctioning space shuttle he was trying to saveâ€¦

Thankfully, the all-wise Guardians have anticipated teething troubles and despatched veteran GL Katma Tui be his training officerâ€¦

The next issue heralded a changing of the guard as writer Steve Englehart and illustrators Joe Staton & Bruce Patterson signed on with ‘Decent Exposure’ wherein Tawny Young outs John Stewart on national TV, and he – after some early frustration – decides â€œso what?â€

With the Predator proving to be far more than a mere abusive, controlling maniac, Hal swears revenge even as European ultra-nationalist Sonar returns to destroy the new Green Lantern to prove the superiority of his postage -stamp principality Modoraâ€¦

After Stewart proves his worth with a uniquely elegant solution to the villain’s sound weapons, ‘Echoes!’ sees Sonar bounce back: escaping from custody with enhanced allies Blindside and Throttle, despite the assistance of Katma Tui. Hal and Carol’s search for Predator lead them to a much-delayed visit with practically-braindead shut-in Guy Gardner, inadvertently starting those long-dormant cogs clicking againâ€¦

After Stewart at last apprehends his fugitives a new crisis has struck. ‘Time Out of Mind!’ starts with Tawny Young re-entering the picture, touting years-old video-tape interviews she carried out with Green Arrow, Black Canary, the previous GL, Carol Ferris and Stewart himself. Disturbingly, nobody on Earth remembers the meetings and if the journalist hadn’t been raiding the archives never wouldâ€¦

As she shows the tapes to the astounded superheroes, Predator nonchalantly ambles in to steal the tapes and is stunned to realise that the gimmick he’s used to make everyone unable to see him doesn’t work on alien Katmaâ€¦

Back-up tale ‘Mind Out of Time!’ then focuses on Hal’s hunt for Predator and furious confrontation in a theatre in front of a bizarre alien musical organ. That preliminary bout becomes the main event in GL #191 as ‘Macho!’ finds John and Katma off-earth and working with Dalor of Timron – Green Lantern of neighbouring Sector 2813 – whilst Jordan’s final confrontation with Predator reveals an uncanny, impossible connection to Carol which revives her own darkest secretâ€¦

Green Lantern #192 sees the separate storylines converging in ‘First Star I See Tonight!’ as the space-borne Emerald officers tackle the immortal amazon warriors of Zamaron even as on Earth, Carol reverts to sometime-alter ego Star Sapphire: now finally purged of the annoying, pitiful humanity that held her back from operating as the dominating tyrant and chosen queen of those self-same Zamaronsâ€¦

Utterly dominating powerless Hal, she reveals the decades long machinations that have led to this moment of terrible triumph before teleporting home where three furious Green Lanterns are waitingâ€¦

This volume concludes with the return of another Hal villain in ‘Dead Ringer’, but where Jordan defeated the tragic alien Replikon through brute force and guile, Stewart proves his worth through innovation and compassion: building a solution which makes friend out of foe and rights a grave cosmic injusticeâ€¦

At the time, many fans and critics felt that the substitution of Hal Jordan with John Stewart was little more than a PC stunt, but time and the quality of the stories has proved the decision to be brilliant one. It certainly offered a cruelly under-served portion of the readership another solid role model but as time progressed and the different personalities and approaches coalesced, the move led to an expansion and re-evaluation the nature of being a DC hero.

And the best was still to comeâ€¦
Â© 1984, 1985, 2013 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

February 25, 2018February 22, 2018

The Boondocks: Fresh for ’01â€¦ You Suckas!

By Aaron McGruder (Andrews McMeel)
ISBN: 978-0-7407-1395-8

Unlike editorial cartooning, newspaper comic strips generally prosper by avoiding controversy. Other than a few notable exceptions – such as the mighty Doonesbury – daily and Sunday gag continuities aim to keep their readers amused, complacent and mostly uncomplaining.

Such was not the case with Aaron McGruder’s brilliant and much missed The Boondocks.

The strip ran from February 8^th 1996 and ended – despite promises of a swift return – with the February 28^th 2006 instalment. You might have seen the adapted and animated version on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim a few years agoâ€¦

The feature was created for pioneer online music website Hitlist.com and quickly began a print incarnation in Hip-Hop magazine The Source. On 3^rd December, the strip started appearing in national periodical The Diamondback before, following an editorial bust-up, McGruder pulled the strip in March 1997.

Nevertheless, it thrived after it was picked up by the Universal Press Syndicate. Re-launched nationally, The Boondocks had over 300 client subscribers, reaching – and regularly offending – millions of readers every day. Such was the content and set-up that the strip was constantly dropped by editors, and complaints from readers were pretty much perpetual.

What could possibly make a cartoon continuity such a lightning rod yet still have publishers so eager to keep it amongst their ever-dwindling stable of strip stars?

The Boondocks was always fast, funny, thought-provoking, funny, ferociously socially aware and perfectly honed for a modern black readership.

And it was Funny. Very, very Funny.

Most amazingly, after all these years, it still is, even though – not so shockingly – the social ills regularly highlighted in its panels remain undiminished to bedevil the Land of the Free and Home of the Braveâ€¦

The series never sugar-coated anything – except intemperate language – whilst bringing contemporary issues of race to the table every day. This was a strip many African American readers always wanted to readâ€¦ even if they didn’t necessarily agree with what was being said and seenâ€¦

The narrative premise is deceptively, deliciously sitcom-simple, yet conceals a potent surprise in its delivery. Huey Freeman is an incredibly smart, well-informed black youngster who spent his formative years on Chicago’s South Side, immersed in black history, the philosophy of power, radical and alternative politics and most importantly The Streets.

His little brother Riley is mired in Hip-Hop and the trappings of Gangsta Rap. Yet suddenly one day they are both uprooted and whisked out of their comfort zone as their grandfather Robert assumes custody of them and moves the entire family to the whiter-than-white suburb of Woodcrest in semi-rural Maryland.

It’s mutual culture shock of epic proportions on all sidesâ€¦

Huey (proudly boasting that he’s named for Black Panther co-founder Dr Huey Percy Newton) perpetually expounds his strident brand of radical rhetoric and pointedly calls out hypocrisy from the well-meaning but inherently patronising all-Caucasian township, but also finds equal amounts of hilarious disgust and venomous opprobrium for those overbearing, overhyped aspects of modern Black Culture our young rebel deems stupid, demeaning or self-servingâ€¦

Riley mostly likes scaring the oh-so-polite white folks and dreaming of the days he’s gonna have fast cars and shiny gunsâ€¦

The Norman Rockwell picture-postcard setup really freaks them out: the air is clean, there are no tagged walls or take-out stores and old white people keep coming up to say helloâ€¦

The first recognizable semblance of normality occurs after another new family moves in next door. Thomas and Sarah Dubois are dyed-in-the-wool woolly liberals: yuppies, lawyers and Woodcrest’s first interracial couple.

Moreover, – and although she doesn’t understand any of the stuff Huey taunts her with – their daughter Jazmine is the suburb’s third black childâ€¦ like, everâ€¦

Even though Jazmine never thought of herself as any colour, Huey is determined to raise her consciousnessâ€¦ when he’s not taking her establishment-conditioned black dad to task on what colour his soul actually isâ€¦

Huey’s far less keen on the stalker-like attentions of Cindy McPhearson: a girl from school who has fallen under the mesmerising spell of network TV’s version of Black Culture. She wants to meet – or actually be – Snoop Doggy Dogg. Cindy hasn’t heard the term â€œWiggaâ€ yet and Huey ain’t doing nothing but avoiding her: a tricky proposition since she sits behind him in class asking ever-dumber questions.

The boys’ enrolment at Edgar J. Hoover Elementary School caused many sleepless nights for Principal Williams but he cleverly borrowed a few videos (Menace II Society; Shaft’s Big Score) to get him up to speed on the special needs of â€œinner city ghetto youthâ€ and is now assured that his terrified teachers can handle any possible hurdles the vast variance in backgrounds might causeâ€¦

In this second monochrome paperback (or eBook) collection, the class, race and generational conflict resumes with Huey and Grandpa squaring off over beloved cultural icons such as Otis Redding against Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, before a new school year and an imminent Presidential Election throw a whole new swathe of injustices and potential disaster in Huey’s faceâ€¦

However, the media’s dumbing-down of all important issues, the cultural atrocities playing on the radio from Woodcrest’s â€œonly black stationâ€ or the excruciating embarrassment of poor Mr. Petto negotiating the hurdles of trying to teach Black History Month classes are as nothing compared to Cindy’s latest obsession: dreary, corporate music sell-out Sean Puffy Puff Daddy Combsâ€¦

Huey’s trenchant, non-stop spleen and ire eventually find suitable outlet after he creates his own newspaper – The Free Huey World Report – but just as the saccharine oppression seems most potent: when Huey and Riley have apparently assimilated as much as they’re ever going to in whiter-than-white Woodcrest, another black kid transfers to the school and tips the balance of power again.

Michael Caesar is from Brooklyn and brings his own unique attitudes to the ever-destabilised status quo and is more than happy to spend some time working to bring about The Revolutionâ€¦

Peppered with hilarious and outrageous commentary on the many forgettable candidates in the 2000 election (anybody remember Alan Keyes or Ralph Nader?), highlights here include Huey agreeing to teach clueless Thomas Dubois to access in his inner blackness, Riley’s constant applications to join the NRA (because they can probably get him guns) and Huey exposing subliminal messages in candidate George W. Bush’s campaign adsâ€¦

And then Grandpa Robert sells out: beginning a part-time job with the Census Bureau, taking names and spying on the people as an agent of the counter-revolutionary, pro-establishment forces of oppressionâ€¦

Don’t go away with the misapprehension that The Boondocks is a declamatory polemical diatribe, drowning in its own message. First and foremost, this is a strip about kids growing up, just like Bloom County or Calvin and Hobbes. Some of the most memorable riffs come from the boys’ reactions to the ongoing travesties of the revived Star Wars franchise or black actors in superhero movies; Cindy’s wholehearted adoption of television advertising tropes and sacrosanct cultural touchstone â€œThe Bluesâ€ and Huey’s procrastinating war with himself over mowing the lawnâ€¦

Bonkers, hilariously sharp, charmingly addictive and still with a vast amount to say, The Boondocks is a strip you need to see if you cherish speaking Wit as well as Truth to Powerâ€¦
The Boondocks Â© 2001 by Universal Press Syndicate. All rights reserved.

February 24, 2018February 23, 2018

Black Lightning volume 1

By Tony Isabella, Denny O’Neil, Trevor Von Eeden, Mike Netzer, Frank Springer, Vince Colletta & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6071-2

As a pale, sickly kid growing up in a uniformly and unrelentingly white area of the Home Counties in the 1960s, I got almost all my early experience of black people from television and films (for which I’m most profoundly sorry) – and, of course, comics – for which I’m not.

Almost completely unaware of the struggle for racial equality in my formative years, the incredible consciousness-raising explosion of Black Power after the 1968 Olympic Games somewhat politicised me and gripped my unassailable sense of fairness.

However, in my village and school, even though some comics companies had by this time made tentative efforts to address what were national and socio-political iniquities, issues of race and ethnicity took a long time to filter through to the still-impressionable young minds avidly absorbing knowledge and attitudes via four colour pages that couldn’t even approximate the skin tones of African-Americans.

As the struggle progressed, on television and in comics breakthroughs were small, incremental and too often reduced to a cold-war of daringly liberal â€œfirsts.â€

Excluding a few returning characters in Jungle-themed comicbooks of the 1940s and 1950s, War comics truly opened the door in the early 1960s, with Robert Kanigher & Joe Kubert creating negro boxer Jackie Johnson as a stalwart member of Sgt. Rock‘s easy company in Our Army at War #113 (December 1961).

Marvel followed suit with a black member of Sgt. Fury’s Howling Commandos team (Gabe Jones who debuted in #1, May 1963, but was accidentally re-coloured Caucasian at the printers: hard-working artisans who clearly didn’t realise his ethnicity), but pulled ahead in the diversity stakes after introducing Americas’ first negro superheroes Black Panther (Fantastic Four #52, July 1966) and the Falcon (Captain America #117, September 1969).

The honour of being the country’s first black hero to carry in his own title came via a little-remembered (or regarded) title from Dell Comics.

Created by artist Tony Tallarico & scripter D.J. Arneson, Lobo was a gunslinger and vigilante in the wild west who sought out injustice just like any cowboy hero would. He first appeared in December 1965 with his second and final issue cover-dated October 1966…

Arguably a greater breakthrough was Marvel’s Joe Robertson; City Editor of the Daily Bugle and a smart, brave, competent and magnificently ordinary mortal distinguished by his sterling character, not a costume or skin tone. He debuted in Amazing Spider-Man # 51 (August 1967), proving in every panel that the world wouldn’t end if black folk and white folk worked and ate togetherâ€¦

This big change slowly grew out of raised social awareness during a terrible time in American history – although Britain had nothing to be smug about either. Race riots had started early in the Sixties and left simmering scars that only comedians and openly racist politicians dared to talk about.

Shows such Till Death Us Do Part and Love Thy Neighbour made subtly telling headway but still raise a shudder whenever I see clips todayâ€¦

Slowly, more positive ethnic characters appeared, with DC finally getting a black-skinned hero in John Stewart (Green Lantern #87, December 1971/January 1972), although his designation as a â€œreplacementâ€ Green Lantern might be construed as more conciliatory and insulting than revolutionary.

Jack Kirby had introduced teen New God Vykin the Black in Forever People #1 (March 1971) and created ghetto kid Shilo Norman as the hero’s apprentice (and eventual successor) in Mister Miracle ##15 (August, 1973) but DC’s first superhero to have his own solo title was Black Lightning, who didn’t debut until 1977â€¦

Now with the urban avenger the star of his own television series, those early groundbreaking adventures have been gathered into an astoundingly accessible, no-nonsense trade paperback and eBook collection (comprising Black Lightning #1-11, plus material from Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #1 and World’s Finest Comics #260, cumulatively spanning April 1977 to January 1980) that dashes into action following a forthright and informative Introduction by series and character originator Tony Isabella.

It all begins as ‘Black Lightning’ (illustrated by neophyte penciller Trevor Von Eeden & veteran inker Frank Springer) sees former Olympic decathlete Jefferson Pierce return to the streets of Suicide Slum, Metropolis to teach at inner city Garfield High School.

Pierce is determined to make a difference to the troubled kids he used to be numbered amongst, but when the educator interrupts a drug buy on school grounds and sends the dealer packing, the door is opened to vengeance and tragedy.

When the mob – an organised syndicate dubbed The 100 – come seeking retaliation, one of Pierce’s students pays the ultimate price and the teacher realises he needs the shield of anonymity if he is to win justice and safety for his beleaguered home and chargesâ€¦

Happily, tailor Peter Gambi – who took Jefferson and his mother in after the elder Pierce was murdered – has some useful ideas and inexplicable access to some pretty far-out technologyâ€¦

Soon, equipped with a strength-&-speed enhancing forcefield belt and costume, with mask and wig that completely change his appearance, a fierce new vigilante stalks the streets of Metropolisâ€¦

The local chapter of The 100 is run by a monstrous and cunning freak called Tobias Whale and once Black Lightning’s harrying of his soldiers starts to bite into profits and give the downtrodden populace a glimmer of hope, the sinister strategist starts laying traps, culminating in hiring a lethal super-assassin who previously battled Green Arrow and the Justice League of America.

When the killer pounces, Pierce is forced into an uneasy alliance with mystery woman Talia Al Ghul, but their alliance ends as soon as the bodies start piling up all over the school gym in ‘Merlyn Means Murder’â€¦

As Vince Colletta assumes the inker’s role, Black Lightning’s continued war against The 100 forces â€œthe Whaleâ€ to fight smart, and Metro Police – led by doughty Inspector William Henderson – begin pursuing the mysterious vigilante as vigorously aa any gangster or felon. Taking seedy stoolie Two Bits Tanner into his confidence, Pierce savagely works his way up the criminal chain of command. He eventually confronts Tobias in his inner sanctum only to find ‘Every Hand Against Him’ as someone the police pounce. Has someone he trusts betrayed him?

A more palatable answer seems apparent in #4 as suspicion falls on Tanner’s source, Daily Planet journalist Jimmy Olsen. When the outraged Pierce tries to force a confession from the baffled cub reporter, they are attacked by the 100’s latest super heavy in ‘Beware the Cyclotronic Man’.

Although they combine to fight off the atomic villain Jimmy is hurt and Black Lightning is suddenly confronted by the kid’s enraged and late-arriving best pal, who jumps to the wrong conclusion and quickly proves ‘Nobody Beats a Superman!’

In fact, had Cyclotron not switched attention to the true target the Whale wanted him to kill, everybody might have died, but the heroes’ misunderstandings are all forgotten when Lightning saves the Man of Tomorrow from a nuclear meltdown, beats the bad guys and uncovers a mole in the police forceâ€¦

His patience exhausted and under pressure from his own bosses, the Whale declares open season and offers an astounding bounty on Black Lightning. When deeply conflicted manhunter Syonide (and his hilarious Marvel-baiting in-joke kung fu assistants) stalk the Saviour of Suicide Slum, their first move is to shadow and learn everything about their quarry.

Before long Gambi is abducted and Jefferson’s secret finally exposed in ‘One Man’s Poison’â€¦

Afflicted with a bizarre sense of honour, Syonide hands over a helpless Black Lightning to the Whale in #7: ‘The Conscience of the Killer’ compelling him to shelter the captive tailor from the 100’s vengeance and voluntarily pay the ultimate price when ordered to kill the seemingly-helpless masked hero.

Tragically, even as Black Lightning undergoes a miraculous transformation and takes out the gathered crooks and villains, he loses another innocent to the new violent life he has embracedâ€¦

With the power of the 100 apparently broken and Tobias Whale in custody, the fight seems over until the gigantic gangster breaks free and takes hostages from Police HQ. Determined to end the vendetta Black Lightning tracks him down for one last duel and in the ‘Deadly Aftermath’ finds purpose to carry on his alternate lifestyleâ€¦

Now considering himself more hero than avengers, Pierce experiences ‘Fear and Loathing at Garfield High’ when the school is invaded by a maniac terrorist operating an army of robotic killers after which a circus trip exposes ‘The Other Black Lightning’. Unfortunately, although the well-meaning admirer is a mostly-harmless copycat, a gang of jewel thieves and former Flash foe The Trickster provide plenty of genuine danger and menace before the big top sawdust settlesâ€¦

Comicbooks were experiencing another general sales downturn at this time just as Denny O’Neil took over the scripting, Black Lightning was cancelled with the 11^th (October 1978) issue.

‘All They Will Call You Will Beâ€¦ Deportee!’ offered promise of a new direction as the urban avenger exposed an insidious people trafficking ring luring South American refugees into slave jobs at a fast food chain, but for most readers that was the last sight of the hero for some time.

So abrupt was the cancellation, that for legal reasons and to secure copyrights, DC had to put out a black-&-white ashcan anthology entitled Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, printing completed but unpublished stories of Claw the Unconquered, The Deserter, the Green Team, Madame Xanadu, Firestorm and others, including Black Lightning #12.

The wider world got to see that last adventure – ‘Lure of the Magnetic Menace’ by O’Neil, Mike Nasser (nee Netzer) & Colletta – a year later when the January 1980 cover-dated World’s Finest Comics #260 ran the story as a prelude to a series of new BL back-up adventures.

This edgy yarn details how the electrifying hero is attacked by costumed crazy Doctor Polaris after Jefferson Pierce investigates a possible case of child neglect and abuse involving one of his more troubled studentsâ€¦

Wrapping up this initial outing is a copious selection of working drawings from the ‘Black Lightning Sketchbook’ by Von Eeden and Mike Netzer’s unfinished cover for never-seen issue #13.

Although closely interlinked to then-current DC continuity, these fast-paced Fights ‘n’ Tights thrillers are so skilfully constructed that even the freshest neophyte will be able to settle in for the ride without any confusion and enjoy a self-contained rollicking rollercoaster of terrifically traditional superhero shenanigans.

February 23, 2018February 22, 2018

Luke Cage, Power Man Marvel Masterworks volume 2

By Len Wein, Tony Isabella, Don McGregor, Bill Mantlo, Georges PÃ©rez, Steve Englehart, George Tuska, Ron Wilson, Rich Buckler, Arvell Jones, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0343-5

As is so often the case, it takes a few a bold creative types and radically changing economics to really promote lasting change. In America, with declining comics sales at a time of enhanced social awareness and rising Black Consciousness, cash – if not cashing in – was probably the trigger for â€œthe Next Stepâ€ in the evolution of superheroes.

In the opening years of the 1970s, contemporary â€œBlacksploitationâ€ cinema and novels had fired up commercial interests throughout the USA and in that atmosphere of outlandish dialogue, daft outfits and barely concealed – but completely justified – outrage, an angry black man with a shady past and apparently dubious morals debuted as Luke Cage, Hero for Hire in the summer of 1972.

A year later the Black Panther finally got his own series in Jungle Action #5 and Blade: Vampire Hunter debuted in Tomb of Dracula #10.

Cage’s origin was typically bombastic: Lucas, a hard-case inmate at brutal Seagate Prison always claimed to have been framed and his inflexible, uncompromising attitude made mortal enemies of the racist guards Rackham and Quirt whilst not exactly endearing him to the rest of the prison population – such as out-&-out bad-guys Shades and Comancheâ€¦

The premiere issue was written by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by George Tuska & Billy Graham (with some initial assistance from Roy Thomas and John Romita) detailing how a new warden promised to reform the hell-hole into a proper, legal penal institution.

New prison doctor Noah Burstein then convinced Lucas to participate in a radical experiment in exchange for a parole hearing, having heard the desperate con’s tale of woeâ€¦

Lucas had grown up in Harlem, a tough kid who’d managed to stay honest even when his best friend Willis Stryker had not. They remained friends even though they walked different paths – at least until a woman came between them. To get rid of his romantic rival, Stryker planted drugs and had Lucas shipped off to jail.

While he was there his girl Reva – who had never given up on him- was killed when she got in the way of bullets meant for Strykerâ€¦

With nothing left to lose Lucas underwent Burstein’s process – an experiment in cell-regeneration – but Rackham sabotaged it, hoping to kill the con before he could expose the guard’s illegal treatment of convicts. It all went haywire and something incredible happened. Lucas, now incredibly strong and pain-resistant, punched his way out of the lab and the through the prison walls, only to be killed in hail of gunfire. His body plunged over a cliff and was never recoveredâ€¦

Months later, a vagrant prowling the streets of New York City stumbled into a robbery. Almost casually downing the felon, he accepted a cash reward from the grateful victim, prompting a bright idea…

Super-strong, bullet-proof, street-wise and honest, Lucas would hide in plain sight while planning his revenge on Stryker. Since his only skill was fighting, he became a private paladin – A Hero For Hireâ€¦

This second sturdy hardback (or eBook) volume collects #17-31 of Cage’s adventures – Luke Cage, Power Man – spanning February 1974-May 1976 of the breakthrough series and begins with fond and informative Introduction ‘Always Forward’ from series scripter Tony Isabella.

Whilst making allowances for the colourful, often ludicrous dialogue necessitated by the Comics Code’s sanitising of â€œstreet-talking Jiveâ€ this was probably the edgiest series of Marvel’s early years, but even so, after a few years the tense action and peripheral interactions with the greater Marvel Universe led to a minor rethink and the title was altered, if not the basic premiseâ€¦

The private detective motif proved a brilliant stratagem in generating stories for a character perceived as a reluctant champion at best and outright anti-hero by nature. It allowed Cage to maintain an outsider’s edginess but also meant that adventure literally walked through his shabby door every issue.

Cage had set up an office over a movie house on 42^nd Street and met a young man who would become his greatest friend: D.W. Griffith – nerd, film freak and plucky white sidekick. Noah Burstein resurfaced, running a rehab clinic on the dirty, deadly streets around Times Square, aided by a beautiful woman Dr. Claire Temple. Soon she too was an integral part of Luke’s new lifeâ€¦

Following a calamitous clash with many of his oldest enemies, most old business was settled and a partial re-branding of America’s premier black crusader began in issue #17. The mercenary aspect was downplayed (at least on covers) as Luke Cage, Power Man – by Len Wein, George Tuska & Billy Graham – got another new start during a tumultuous team-up in ‘Rich Man: Iron Manâ€¦ Power Man: Thief!’

Here the still â€œFor Hireâ€ hero is commissioned to test Tony Stark‘s security by stealing his latest invention. Sadly, neither Stark nor his alter ego Iron Man know anything about it and the result is another classic hero-on-hero duelâ€¦

Vince Colletta joined the team as inker for #18’s ‘Havoc on the High Iron!’ as Cage takes on a murderous high-tech Steeplejack before the next two issues offered the still-wanted fugitive hero a tantalising chance to clear his name.

‘Call Himâ€¦ Cottonmouth!’ introduced a crimelord with inside information of the frame-up perpetrated by Willis Stryker in issue #1. Tragically, that hope of a new clean life is snatched away after all Cage’s explosive, two-fisted efforts in the Isabella scripted follow-up ‘How Like a Serpent’s Toothâ€¦’

Isabella, Wein, Ron Wilson & Colletta collaborated on ‘The Killer with My Name!’ which sees Cage attacked by old Avengers villain Power Man who understandably wanted his nom de guerre back, but who changed his mind after waking up from the resultant bombastic battle that ensuedâ€¦

Psychotic archenemy Stiletto returned with his equally high-tech balmy brother Discus in ‘The Broadway Mayhem of 1974’ (Isabella, Wilson & Colletta), subsequently revealing a startling connection to Cage’s originsâ€¦

All this constant carnage and non-stop tension had sent sometime romantic interest Claire Temple scurrying for points distant, and finally in LCPM #23 Cage and D.W. went looking for her, promptly fetching up in a fascistic planned-community run by old foe and deranged military terrorist Gideon Mace.

‘Welcome to Security City’ (inked by Dave Hunt) fed directly into a two-part premier for another African American superhero as Cage and D.W. tracked Claire to the Ringmaster’s Circus of Crime in #24’s ‘Among Us Walksâ€¦ a Black Goliath! (Isabella, Tuska & Hunt)â€¦

Bill Foster was a highly educated black supporting character; a biochemist working with Henry Pym (the scientist-superhero known as Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath and/or Yellowjacket over the decades of his costumed career). Foster first appeared in Avengers #32 (September 1966), before fading from view when Pym eventually regained his size-changing abilities…

Carrying on his own researches in size-shifting, Foster was now trapped as a giant, unable to shrink to normal size, and Cage discovered he was also Claire’s former husband. When the experiments trapped him at fifteen feet tall, she had rushed back to Bill’s colossal side to help find a cure.

After Luke turned up, passions were stoked, resulting in another classic heroes-clash moment until the mesmeric Ringmaster hypnotised all the combatants, intent on using their strength to feather his own three-ring nest. ‘Crime and Circuses’ (by Isabella, Bill Mantlo, Wilson & Fred Kida) saw the heroes helpless until Claire came to the rescue, before making her choice and returning to New York with Luke.

Foster soon thereafter gravitated to his own short-run series, becoming Marvel’s fourth African American costumed hero under the heavy-handed and rather obvious sobriquet Black Goliathâ€¦

The timely spoofing of a popular ’70’s TV show provided the theme for ‘Night Shocker!‘ (by Steve Englehart, Tuska & Colletta) when Cage stalked an apparent vampire attacking 42^nd Street patrons, after which a touching human drama finds Cage forced to subdue a tragically simple-minded but super-powered wrestler in ‘Just a Guy Named â€œXâ€!’ (by Mantlo, George PÃ©rez & Al McWilliams, all paying tribute to the Steve Ditko classic from Amazing Spider-Man #38).

A new level of sophistication, social commentary and bizarre villainy began in issue 28 after Don McGregor came aboard to craft a run of macabre crime sagas, opening when Cage meets ‘The Man Who Killed Jiminy Cricket!‘ (illustrated by George Tuska & Vince Colletta).

Hired by a chemical company to stop industrial espionage, Luke fails to prevent the murder of his prime suspect and is somehow defeated by deadly weirdo Cockroach Hamilton (and his beloved shotgun â€œJoshâ€) Left for dead in one of the most outrÃ© cliffhanger situations ever seen, Cage took two issues to escape as the next issue featured a â€œdeadline-doomâ€ busting fill-in taleâ€¦

Produced by Mantlo, Tuska & Colletta Luke Cage, Power Man #29 claimed ‘No One Laughs at Mr. Fish‘ (although the temptation is rather overwhelming) as Cage fights a fin-faced mutated mobster robbing shipping trucks for organised crime analogue The Maggia after which the story already in progress resumes in issue #30 with ‘Look What They’ve Done to Our Lives, Ma!‘ (by McGregor, Rich Buckler, Arvell Jones & Keith Pollard).

Escaping at last from a deadly deathtrap, Cage hunts down Hamilton, and confronts his erudite, sardonic, steel-fanged boss Piranha Jones just after they succeed in stealing a leaking canister of deadly nerve gasâ€¦

The dread drama then concludes in ‘Over the Years They Murdered the Stars!’ (Sal Buscema & the legion of deadline busting Crusty Bunkers) as Cage saves his city at the risk of his life before serving just deserts to the eerie evildoersâ€¦

Adding extra value to this sterling selection are the cover of reprint one-shot Giant-Size Power Man from 1976; a House ad from 1974 and Dave Cockrum & John Romita’s Cage entry from the 1975 Mighty Marvel Calendar (March, in case you were wondering). Also on view are original cover art by Gil Kane & Mike Esposito (#20 and #24).

Arguably a little dated now (me, Genndy Tartakovsky and others in the know prefer the term â€œretroâ€), these tales were nonetheless instrumental in breaking down one more barrier in the complacent, intolerant, WASP-flavoured American comics landscape and their power if not their initial impact remains undiminished to this day. These are tales well worth your time and money.
Â© 1974, 1975, 1976, 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 22, 2018February 21, 2018

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur volume 1: BFF

By Brandon Montclare, Amy Reeder, Natacha Bustos, Tamra Bonvillain & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0005-2

The Marvel Universe is absolutely stuffed with astounding young geniuses but Lunella Lafayette is probably the most memorable you’ll ever meet. Very young, very gifted and black, she lives with her parents on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and attends Public School 20 Anna Silver on Essex Street.

Thanks to her obsessive interest in astronomy and alien races the other kids mockingly call her â€œMoon Girlâ€ whilst the brilliant, bored 4^th grader’s teachers universally despair because she already knows so much more than they doâ€¦

It’s a hassle, but Lunella has bigger problems. Time is running out and all her numerous applications to specialist schools such as the Fantastic Four‘s Future Foundation have gone unanswered.

Lunella has deduced that she carries dormant Inhuman genes, and the constantly moving mutagenic Terrigen Cloud recently released into Earth’s atmosphere (See the Infinity and Inhumanity events) could transform her into a monster at any windswept momentâ€¦

Thanks to her researches, Lunella is an expert in advanced and extraterrestrial technology and her quest for a cure or Terrigen deterrence procedure finds her perpetually sneaking out after bedtime to hunt down gadgets and detritus left behind after the frequent superhero clashes around townâ€¦

That impetus reaches its hope-filled climax when her handmade detectors locate a discarded Kree Omni-Wave Projector in opening chapter ‘Repeat After Me’â€¦

At some unspecified time in Earth’s prehistory, various emergent species of hominids eked out a perilous existence beside the last of the great lizards and other primordial giants. Here a wide-eyed innocent of the timid but clever Small Folk saved a baby tyrannosaur from ruthless humanoid hunters dubbed the Killer Folk.

They had already slaughtered its mother and siblings with cunning snares and were torturing the little lizard with blazing firebrands which turn its scorched hide a livid, blazing red when Moon Boy intervenedâ€¦

Under the roaring light of a blazing volcano boy and beast bonded; becoming inseparable companions. It soon became apparent the scarlet saurian was no ordinary reptile. Blessed with uncanny intelligence and unmatchable ferocity, Devil became an equal partner in a relationship never before seen in the world.

That did not, however, prevent the duo becoming targets for ruthless Killer Folk leader Thorn-Teeth who slaughters and sacrifice beasts and Small Folk to the mystic â€œNightstoneâ€. A more advanced observer might remark on how much it resembles a Kree Omni-Wave Projectorâ€¦

When Moon-Boy steals the dread talisman he is savagely beaten near to death even as – in a gym class on Essex Street – Coach Hrbek confiscates and accidentally activates a fancy doodad Lunella’s been playing with instead of paying attention.

Lights flash, time shreds and universes collide. A hole opens in space and a pack of bizarre monkey men shamble into modern New York. Arriving too late in the antediluvian valley, Devil Dinosaur thunders straight through the portal, intent on avenging his dying comradeâ€¦

Arriving in an impossibly confusing new world, Devil reacts in panic but, after causing chaos and carnage, the bombastic beast sniffs little Lunella and snatches her upâ€¦

A mad chase ensues in ‘Old Dogs and New Tricks’ as the confused Devil rampages through Manhattan with the outraged Lunella unable to escape or control the ferocious thunder lizard. Meanwhile, the Killer Folk begin quickly adapting to their new environment. Hiding out and observing everything occurring in the Yancy Street Subway Station, they soon prove the old adage about primitive not meaning stupid, and within days have grasped the fundamentals of English and concepts such as money, clothes, street gangs and protection racketsâ€¦

Thorn-Teeth also remembers that when they arrived, one of the hairless Small Folk was holding his Nightstoneâ€¦

In ‘Out of the Frying Panâ€¦’ Moon Girl is having little luck ditching the overly-attentive, attention-drawing Titian T-Rex. Tragically, when she finally does the Killer Folk instantly abduct her and the Omni-Waveâ€¦

Their triumph is short-lived as the lizard’s superior sense of smell summons Devil to the rescue, but in the resulting melee the precious device is lost. Growing grudgingly fond of the colossal critter, Lunella then hides Devil in her super-secret lab underneath PS 20, but when a spot of student arson sets the school ablaze, her hideaway is exposed as Devil bursts up through the ground to rescue kids trapped on an upper floorâ€¦

The fracas also unfortunately attracts the kind of super hero response Lunella has been dreading. ‘Hulk + Devil Dinosaur = â€œNuff Saidâ€’ sees smug, teenaged Gamma-powered Avenger Amadeus Cho butt in with his bulging muscles and inability to listen to reasonâ€¦

Poor Devil is no match for the Totally Awesome Hulk, forcing Moon Girl to intervene with a few of her own inventions even as, across town, the Killer Folk – proudly carrying the Nightstone – despatch the last obstacle to their supremacy in the Yancy Street criminal underworldâ€¦

The Battle of PS 20 reaches its inevitable conclusion and Cho confiscates Devil Dinosaur, leaving Lunella thoroughly grounded and (apparently) behaving like a normal little girl in ‘Know How’. Of course, it’s all a trick and as soon as everybody is lulled into complacency Moon Girl kits herself out with more devious gadgets and busts Devil out from the Top Secret Wing of the Natural History Museum.

She’s on a tight deadline now: her weather-monitoring gear confirms that the Terrigen Cloud is rolling back towards New Yorkâ€¦

The spectacular jailbreak results in a ‘Eureka!’ moment, coinciding with the Killer Folk consolidating their grip on the streets and using the Omni-Wave to capture Moon Girl. It also results in Lunella’s mum discovering who broke a dinosaur out of jail and furiously heading to the school for a reckoning with her wayward childâ€¦

The final conflict sees out little warrior finally victorious over the Killer Folk, but too late. As Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur roar in triumph on the rooftops, Lunella realises she is trapped outside as the Terrigen cloud descends. Her time and opportunity to create a cure has come and goneâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

Collecting Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1-6 from January to June 2016, this compelling and immensely entertaining romp is crafted by writers Brandon Montclare & Amy Reeder, with art from Natacha Bustos, colours by Tamra Bonvillain and letters from Travis Lanham. With a cover and variants gallery by Trevor Von Eeden, Pascal Campton, Paul Pope, Jeffrey Veregge and Pia Guerra, this addictively engaging trade paperback (also available in eBook formats) affords non-stop fun: a wonderful all-ages Marvel saga that is fresh, thrilling, moving and hilariously funny.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: BFF is just the kind of tale to lure youngsters into the comics habit and is the perfect tool to seduce jaded older fans back into the fold.
Â© 2016 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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