Now Read This!

July 23, 2012July 22, 2012

Shazam! Archives volume 3

By Bill Parker, Rod Reed, C.C. Beck, George Tuska, Pete Costanza, Mac Raboy & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 01-56389-832-2

One of the most venerated and beloved characters of America’s Golden Age of comics, Captain Marvel was created in 1940 as part of a wave of opportunistic creativity which followed the stunning success of Superman in 1938.

Although there were many similarities in the early years, the Fawcett champion quickly moved squarely into the area of light entertainment and even straight comedy, whilst as the years passed the Man of Steel increasingly left whimsy behind in favour of action, drama and suspense.

Homeless orphan and good kid Billy Batson was selected by an ancient wizard to be given the powers of six gods and heroes to battle injustice. He transforms from scrawny precocious kid to brawny (adult) hero Captain Marvel by speaking aloud the wizard’s acronymic name – invoking the powers of legendary patrons Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury.

Publishing house Fawcett had first gained prominence through an immensely well-received light entertainment magazine for WWI veterans named Captain Billy’s Whiz-Bang, before branching out into books and general interest magazines. Their most successful publication – at least until the Good Captain hit his stride – was the ubiquitous boy’s building bible Mechanix Illustrated and, as the decade unfolded, the scientific and engineering discipline and can-do demeanour underpinning MI suffused and informed both the art and plots of the Marvel Family titles.

Captain Marvel was the brainchild of writer/editor Bill Parker and brilliant young illustrator Charles Clarence Beck who, with his assistant Pete Costanza, handled most of the art on the series throughout its stellar run. At first the full-grown hero was a serious, bluff and rather characterless powerhouse whilst junior alter ego Billy was the true star: a Horatio Alger archetype of impoverished, bold, self-reliant and resourceful youth overcoming impossible odds by pluck, grit and sheer determinationâ€¦

After homeless orphan newsboy Billy was granted access to the power of legendary gods and heroes he won a job as a roaming radio reporter for Amalgamated Broadcasting and first defeated the demonic Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana, setting a pattern that would captivate readers for the next 14 yearsâ€¦

At the height of his popularity Captain Marvel outsold Superman and was even published twice-monthly, but as the Furious Forties closed tastes changed, sales slowed and Fawcett saw the way the wind was blowing. They settled an infamous long-running copyright infringement case begun by National Comics in 1940 and the Big Red Cheese vanished – as did so many superheroes – becoming little more than a fond memory for older fansâ€¦

This third magnificent deluxe full-colour hardback compendium re-presents a strip from anthology compendium America’s Greatest Comics, the second and third issues of Captain Marvel Adventures, his exploits from the fortnightly Whiz Comics #21-24 and also happily includes a selection of stunning covers from the plethora of extra and reprint editions generated by the Good Captain’s overnight success.

Although there was increasing talk of inevitable war amongst the American public; all these tales – spanning March to November 1941 – were created long before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and consequently have their share of thinly-veiled saboteur and spy sagas which permeated the genre until official Hostilities were finally established. Of more interest perhaps is that at this period the stories – many of them still sadly uncredited – still largely portray Marvel as a grimly heroic figure not averse to slaughtering the truly irredeemable villain and losing no sleep over itâ€¦

Following a nostalgic and highly educational Foreword by movie producer, author, historian and fan Michael Uslan, the wonderment commences with the magnificent Mac Raboy cover to America’s Greatest Comics #1 and the C.C. Beck illustrated thriller ‘Ghost of the Deep’ which led off that issue.

The merits of the ongoing court-case notwithstanding, Fawcett undeniably took many of their publishing cues from the examples of Superman and Batman. Following on from a brace of Premium editions celebrating the New York World’s Fair, National Comics had released World’s Finest Comics; a huge, quarterly card-cover anthology featuring a host of their comicbook mainstays in new adventures, and early in 1941, Fawcett produced a 100-page bumper comic dedicated to their own dashing new hero and the other mystery-men in their stable: Spy Smasher, Bulletman, Minute Man and Mr. Scarlet & Pinky and others.

‘Ghost of the Deep’ was an extra-long saga and canny mystery wherein a hooded mastermind used purloined technology to wage a campaign of terror against American Naval interests on both coasts before Billy and the Captain scotched his plans in a tale very much the template for the character’s futureâ€¦

Meanwhile in Captain Marvel Adventures #2 (Summer 1941) the hero was still undergoing some on-the-job cosmetic refinements. In those formative years as the World’s Mightiest Mortal catapulted to the first rank of superhero superstars, there was actually a scramble to fill pages and just as CMA #1 had been farmed out to up-and-coming whiz-kids Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, the next two issues were rapidly compiled by mostly anonymous scripters and another rising star who drew the issues in a hurry, working from Beck and Parker’s style guides.

Young George Tuska added a raw, lean humanist vivacity to the tales beginning with ‘World of the Microscope’ wherein Sivana returned and dosed Billy and erstwhile ally Queen Beautia with a shrinking solution and left them at the mercy of bacterial monsters until Captain Marvel turned the tiny tables on him, after which a deadly stampede of giant spider robots presaged an ‘Invasion from Mars’, until the Big Red Cheese taught our planetary neighbours a lasting lesson in getting along.

DC/National Periodical Publications had filed suit against Fawcett for copyright infringement as soon as Whiz Comics #2 hit the stands and the companies slugged it out in court until 1953 when, with the sales of superhero comics decimated by changing tastes, Captain Marvel’s publishers decided to capitulate.

As a result most merchandising outfits steered well clear of Fawcett, compelling the publisher to generate toys, games, premiums and promotions themselves. The only notable exception was the blockbusting Adventures of Captain Marvel Movie Serial from Republic Pictures. Consequentially Fawcett used their magazines comicbooks to promote the films and practically invented Product Placement to plug their in-house merchandise.

‘The Curse of the Scorpion’ was an uncredited text feature which recapped the first episode of the movie serial and urged readers to follow the saga at their local cinemas after which the strip thrills resumed with Tuska’s ‘The Pirate’s Treasure’ (written by Rod Reed) as Billy investigated the murder of an old sailor and was press-ganged onto a modern-day buccaneer’s boat. Before long the radio reporter and his mighty avatar were embroiled in a war between rival South Seas rogues and the issue rousingly concluded with the Reed & Tuska saga of ‘The Arson Fiend’, a murderous supernatural firebug who acted out the frustrations of his ineffectual fire-insurance salesman alter egoâ€¦

Captain Marvel Adventures #2 (Fall 1941) opened with ‘The Menace of Muscles McGinnis’ wherein the toughest gangster in town tried to take over Billy’s radio station and literally had the wickedness beaten out of him by the unbeatable Crimson Crime-crusher, after which he was again targeted by the World’s Maddest Scientist who wanted to conquer the USA with ‘Sivana’s Paralyzing Gas’â€¦

‘The Terror of the Goptas’ saw an ancient cult attack tall buildings and their architects, but although the devotees were acting to defend their cloud-living gods their new leader had far more mundane motivesâ€¦ The issue ended with another Sivana scheme as the Devil Doctor devised a synthetic zombie powered by the life-force of 1000 animals but little dreamed that ‘The Beast-Ruler’ might have his own agenda, such as uniting all of nature to eradicate humanityâ€¦

Whiz Comics #21 (September 5^th 1941) featured ‘The Vengeful Four’ (illustrated by Beck) and saw Sivana gather three other villains to attack the hero in his youthful identity. What luck then that three other kids named Billy Batson were in town and that the magic of Shazam apparently extended to themâ€¦

Fat Billy, Tall Billy and Hill Billy took to trouncing thugs in a trice and, as the Three Lieutenant Marvels, would become frequent guest stars in years to comeâ€¦

Written and illustrated by Beck, #22’s ‘The Temple of Itzalotahui’ was a turning point for the series. Tying into and deriving from the continuity of the movie serial, Billy gained an assistant in the form of Whitey Murphy, who was a co-star in the film iteration, but the real sea-change was the shift to light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek adventure as the lads travelled to Central America to search for a third cast member and found ancient Mayans and modern resource raidersâ€¦

Whiz #23 began a two-part thriller that again derived from product placement. ‘The Bal Masque’ found Billy and Whitey travelling to Washington DC to safeguard an Ambassador and his daughter at a grand soiree. The diplomats were unwitting couriers for a new defence code and when ruthless German agents struck Captain Marvel was drawn into a twisted web of cross and double-cross which culminated in a blistering sea battle in ‘The Secret of the Ring’ (24^th November 28^th 1941, by Beck & Costanza)â€¦

With the code lost the Solomon-inspired Marvel swiftly devised a new cipher, and from that issue onwards, readers could decode secret messages in every storyâ€¦ as long as they were fully paid-up members of the new Captain Marvel Fan Clubâ€¦

This nostalgic delight concludes not only with pages of biographical details on all the creators but also a brace of covers from two unique reprint compilations rushed out to satisfy the voracious demands of the hero’s burgeoning readership. Captain Marvel Thrill Book sports a stunning piece of Beck brilliance whilst Xmas Comics #1 by Raboy is a slice of pure comicbook mythology every art lover dreams of possessing.

DC eventually acquired the Fawcett properties and characters and in 1973 revived the Captain for a new generation to see if his unique charm would work another sales miracle during one of comics’ periodic downturns.

Re-titled Shazam! due to the incontestable power of lawyers and copyright convention, the revived heroic ideal enjoyed mixed success before being subsumed into the company’s vast stable of charactersâ€¦

Nevertheless Captain Marvel is a true icon of American comic history and a brilliantly conceived superhero for all ages. These magical tales again show why The Big Red Cheese was such an icon of the industry and proves that these timeless, sublime comic masterpieces are an ideal introduction to the world of superhero fiction: tales that will appeal to readers of any age and temperamentâ€¦
Â© 1941, 2002 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

July 22, 2012July 22, 2012

Wolverine and the X-Men: Regenesis

By Jason Aaron, Chris Bachalo, Duncan Rouleau, Matteo Scalera, Nick Bradshaw & others (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-513-0

Radical revision – or at least the appearance of such – is a cornerstone of modern comics. There must be a constant changing of the guard, a shifting of scene and milieu and, in latter times, a regular diet of death, resurrection and rebirth. However, with such regular re-fitting, even getting back to basics can be just as new and fresh as completely starting overâ€¦

A case in point is this wonderfully fun and frolicsome return to the old days, set immediately after the catastrophic events of X-Men Schism.

What You’ll Need To Knowâ€¦

When the world’s mutant population was reduced to a couple of hundred desperate souls, most of them banded together in self-imposed exile on Utopia Island in San Francisco Bay, in a defensive enclave led and defended by the X-Men. Although generally welcomed by most of the easygoing residents of the city, tensions were high and leader Cyclops ran the colony in an increasingly draconian and military manner.

His relationship with war-weary second-in-command Wolverine was slowly, inexorably deteriorating as they squabbled over the methods and ideology of the X-nation, each interpreting the idealistic, Cooperative Co-existence dream of Professor Charles Xavier in increasingly different waysâ€¦

Matters came to head after Logan refused to train the latest batch of mutant children as warriors, concerned that they were being cheated of their childhoods. Then 16-year old anarchist telepath Quentin Quire – who called himself Kid Omega – provoked a terrified armed response from humanity by disrupting an arms-limitation conference intended to convince Homo Sapiens to abandon their â€œdefensiveâ€ anti-mutant weapons – giant robotic Sentinels. All hell broke looseâ€¦

With the world once again panicked into insanity and individual nations declaring war on Homo Superior, the assembled mutants and assorted superheroes are kept busy saving humans from their own bellicose paranoid folly, allowing a bunch of very human, sociopathic rich kids to make a lethal power-play against their own parents.

The greedy, remorseless, ambitious and impatient scions of munitions millionaires, human traffickers and deranged scientists had waited too long for what they considered theirs and, after murdering their adult guardians, took over the Hellfire Club to initiate a bold scheme of ruling the Earth before they hit pubertyâ€¦

Their cynical, vicious plan involved using the threat of mutants to stampede humans into buying the Club’s new, outrageously expensive Super-Sentinels, profiting from death and terror as the wisely wealthy always hadâ€¦

In a devastating, if brief, war the embattled Utopians become the unwitting target of increasingly bloody attacks and Cyclops and Wolverine catastrophically clashed over the role of the super-powered children in their care, and although Utopia was ultimately saved in the nick of time, the policy-split led to a sundering of the Mutants as Wolverine took many of the youngest kids and some of Cyclops’ oldest, but most disappointed and disaffected, friends to a place where they could attempt to rekindle Xavier’s first endeavour – a school where mutants could live relatively normal livesâ€¦

The separation hopefully left Utopia Island as the highly visible fortress against and target for human aggression; populated by warriors and militaristic genocide-survivors ready to take the Race – or perhaps more correctly, Species – War to the oppressors, with the kids allowed to grow up in peace and safetyâ€¦

Of course it didn’t work out that wayâ€¦

Following on from the epochal events of X-Men Schism, this utterly engrossing tome (collecting Wolverine and the X-Men #1-7, from 2011) returns to the far lighter, fun-laced thrills of the 1960s Merry Mutants and opens with a 3-part epic in ‘Welcome to the X-Menâ€¦ Now Die!’

Reluctant and decidedly unsure headmaster Wolverine is getting a much needed pep-talk from Professor X as the new Jean Grey School for Higher Learning opens on the site of the old X-Mansionâ€¦

Nervously occupying a daily evolving super-scientific facility, the faculty staff includes the Beast, Iceman, Kitty Pryde, Husk, Cyclops’ telepathic daughter Rachel Grey and other former X-Men, whilst the ever-growing student population comprises a number of earthly mutants old and new and even selected aliens such as a gentle and compassionate Brood and the obnoxious, troublesome, belligerent spoiled-brat heir to the star-spanning Shi’ar.

Admittedly Lord Kubark was only grudgingly accepted in return for past favours and cutting-edge alien techâ€¦

Even as Chief administrator Kitty desperately attempts to convince the local School Board Inspectors that the institution poses no threat to the community or kids, the first crisis erupts as Kade Kilgore, Black King of the pre-pubescent Hellfire Club, launches an attack on the school, which he considers a personal affront to his plans.

Launching an attack by his lab-grown army of Frankenstein’s Monsters, Kade mischievously transforms the inspectors into ravening horrors. With the very land under the establishment turned into a colossal monster determined to eradicate everything above it, things look bleak until Iceman leads the other teachers in a spirited counterattack.

Quire is deemed an â€œOmega-level threatâ€ by the Avengers, so Wolverine’s plans to turn him into a socialised asset are being closely scrutinised by Captain America, but when Rachel – with the unsuspected aid of Kid Omega – divines that the tectonic assault is being perpetrated by a cloned and brainwashed seed of Krakoa the Living Island (see Marvel Masterworks volume 11) the tide begins to turnâ€¦

With a little deft psychic surgery by the arrogant anarchist – for reasons even he can’t really explain – the all-terrain terror becomes the latest addition to the student body and repulses the other attacks after which Wolverine and cameo-star Matt â€œDaredevilâ€ Murdock retaliate in a way little Kade least expectsâ€¦

In a tale delightfully depicted by Nick Bradshaw and with the scene firmly set, the tone switches to raucous, action-packed hilarity as the long-suffering faculty come to grips with the unique daily challenges presented by their charges. The cyborg assassin and guest lecturer Deathlok foreshadows horrors to come when he demonstrates his Tachyon vision on the class. Broodling Broo, Shi’ar Student Prince Kid Gladiator and particularly Genesis (a boyish clone of arch-horror Apocalypse) hear predictions that give everyone cause for concernâ€¦

Meanwhile, another First-Class X-Man returns to the fold; but Warren Worthington is not the Angel of old and gives old friends Iceman and the Beast extreme cause for concernâ€¦

Of course the one with most cause for concern is celibate headmistress Kitty Pryde who went to bed with a headache and woke up eight months pregnantâ€¦

Trouble is mounting and the school is close to bankruptcy. Desperate for funds, Wolverine takes Kid Omega to an alien gambling station in a dubious ploy to win billions through Quire’s psionic abilities, whilst at the school the Beast diagnoses the true cause of Kitty’s condition. Somehow she’s been infected by a horde of microscopic Brood (the real, ghastly, voracious body-stealing, egg-implanting cosmic horror kind utterly unlike the erudite, genteel freak Broo), and after the headstrong Kid Gladiator invades her body via shrinking technology, the Beast has no choice but to follow, leading a determined team of students on a Fantastic Voyage into the Headmistress’ bloodstreamâ€¦

Meanwhile, in space a deadly alien hunter who uses Brood as hunting dogs is hurtling towards Earth and the Schoolâ€¦

On Planet Sin, Wolverine and Quentin are making millions but have underestimated the casino owners’ ingenuity and determination to discourage cheating, whilst within Kitty’s circulatory system, the mutants’ school field trip is slowly eradicating the micro-Brood infestation. However, when full-sized Brood-warriors invade the School, young Broo and Kitty are forced into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse simply to survive before Ã¼ber-alien Xanto Starblood reveals himself as the cause of all their woesâ€¦

An Extreme Xeno-Zoolologist, Starblood’s entire universe-view is offended by the existence of a benign Broodling and he’s taken drastic measures to correct the Cosmos’ mistake, but even as the micro-students finish cleaning up Kitty’s small parasite problem Broo, pushed to far, suddenly proves to the alien academic that he’s not that far removed from his mercilessly marauding forebearsâ€¦

And in deep space, Quire pilots the ship back from Planet Sin. He and Wolverine have escaped the Gambler’s wrathâ€¦ but hardly intactâ€¦

Fast, furious, funny and fulfilling, the whole splendid affair was scripted by the wickedly sharp Jason Aaron, illustrated by Chris Bachalo, Duncan Rouleau, Matteo Scalera and Nick Bradshaw with additional inking from Jaime Mendoza, Tim Townsend, Al Vey, Mark Irwin, Victor Olazaba, Walden Wong, Norman Lee, Jay Leisten & Cam Smith. As always there’s a glorious gallery of covers and variants from the likes of Bachalo, Townsend, Bradshaw, Frank Cho, Ed McGuinness and Mark Brooks.

If you crave full-on, uncomplicated yet witty and rewarding Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction this is another near-perfect one-stop shop for your edification and delectation.

July 21, 2012July 20, 2012

Superman’s First Flight

By Michael Jan Friedman & Dean Motter (Scholastic)
ISBN: 978-0-43909-550-1

We parochial and possessive comics fans too often regard our purest and most powerful icons in purely graphic narrative terms, but characters such as Batman, Spider-Man, the X-Men and Superman long ago outgrew their four-colour origins and are now fully mythologized modern media creatures instantly familiar in mass markets, platforms and age ranges.

Another captivating case in point is this beguilingly enthralling retelling of the Man of Steel’s formative journey to self-discovery retold for the very young as part of the Hello Reader early-learning program devised by Children’s publisher Scholastic.

Categorised as Level 3 (school years 1 and 2, with Level 2 being kindergarten and 1 as pre-schoolers) the story crosses that crucial divide wherein parents still read to their kids, but the little tykes are also beginning that wonderful, magical journey into literacy by themselvesâ€¦

This clever, sensitive and age-appropriate retelling by Michael Jan Friedman encapsulates and addresses every maturing child’s growing feelings of potential alienation, sense of growth, self-discovery and independence by focussing on High School kid Clark Kent on the day that the solitary teen discovered why he had always felt somehow different from his classmates.

When Clark suddenly, impossibly, heard and saw a car crash from miles away, without thinking he found himself running and jumping over buildings. Arriving on the scene he tore metal doors off burning cars and outraced an explosion to save a trapped driverâ€¦

Terrified that he might be a monster he confided in his parents, who promptly shared a secret they’d been harbouring all Clark’s life. In the barn they showed the lad a tiny one-man spaceship which had crashed to Earth years ago, carrying an alien babyâ€¦

As Clark approached the capsule a hologram activated and the boy saw his birth-parents Jor-El and Lara who explained why he could perform feats no one else couldâ€¦

Shocked and distraught, Clark ran away as fast as he could and before he knew it was flying high above the world. The glorious shock at last made him realise that different didn’t mean badâ€¦

And soon the world was daily made better by a visitor from afar known as Supermanâ€¦

This enthralling little adventure is a cleverly weighed introduction into the Man of Tomorrow’s past, magnificently complemented by 31 painted illustrations by gifted design guru and illustrator Dean Motter that will amaze kids and astound even their jaded, seen-it-all-before elders.

No Supermaniac could consider their collection complete without a copy of this wonderful little gem and Superman’s First Flight is the ideal introduction for youngsters to their – surely – life-long love affair with readingâ€¦
Â© 2000 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All Rights Reserved.

July 20, 2012July 20, 2012

Batman’s Dark Secret

By Kelley Puckett & Jon J Muth (Cartwheel Books/Scholastic)
ISBN: 978-0-43909-551-8

We insular and possessive comics fans tend to think of our greatest assets in purely graphic narrative terms, but characters such as Superman, Spider-Man and Batman have long-since grown beyond their origins and are now fully mythologised modern media creatures instantly familiar in mass markets, platforms and age ranges.

A case in point is this beguilingly enthralling retelling of Batman’s origin intended for the very young as part of the Hello Reader early-learning program devised by Children’s publisher Scholastic.

Categorised as Level 3 (school years 1 and 2, with Level 2 being kindergarten and 1 as pre-school) the story crosses that crucial divide wherein parents still read to their kids, but the little tykes are also beginning that wonderful, magical journey into literacy by themselvesâ€¦

This clever, sensitive and age-appropriate retelling by Kelly Puckett follows young Bruce Wayne as he enjoys a movie-night revival of the swashbuckling film Zorro and the life-altering encounter and tragic fate of his parents in that dank, enclosed, lightless alley behind the cinema. The loss and trauma led to the orphan becoming solitary, sad and afraid of the dark despite every effort of butler-turned-guardian Alfred until an unhappy accident turned the boy’s life around foreverâ€¦

One day Bruce stayed out in the rolling grounds of Wayne Manor far too late until he suddenly realised that the sun was setting. Racing back to the bright, luminescent safety of the big house he abruptly fell through a weak patch of ground into a huge cave beneath the mansion and found himself in utter blackness.

Fighting blind panic he brushed past many tiny bats, but they didn’t scare him. However when a giant, red-eyed, leather-winged monster started towards him Bruce swung wildly at it and realised that the big bat was actually afraid of him. Something changed in him then and fear left his heart foreverâ€¦

He knew that he could fight wicked things with fear and the dark as his weaponsâ€¦

This enthralling little adventure is a perfectly balanced and well-gauged baptism into Batman’s world, magnificently complemented by thirty stunning painted illustrations by master of mood and mystery Jon J. Muth that will delight kids and astound even their jaded, seen-it-all-before elders.

No Batfan should consider their collection complete without a copy of this wonderful little gem and Batman’s Dark Secret is the ideal introduction for youngsters to their – hopefully – life-long love affair with readingâ€¦
Â© 1999 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All Rights Reserved.

July 19, 2012July 18, 2012

More Brilliant Advice

By Annie Lawson (Deirdre McDonald/Bellew Publishing)
ISBN: 978-0-94779-224-4

British cartooning has been magnificently serviced over the centuries by masters of form, line, wash and most importantly clever ideas repeatedly tickling our funny bones whilst poking our pomposities and fascinations. However one glaring imbalance in that dishonourable tradition has only been comparatively recently addressed – the relative paucity of women gagstersâ€¦

Annie Lawson is a jobbing illustrator, animator and textiles designer/facilitator (specialising in rug-making): a sublimely inspired and dedicated creator who happily inhabits the fine-arty, wryly clever, socially aware end of the makes-you-laugh market. Since 1981 she has worked as a freelance cartoonist for Honey, The Guardian, The Observer, City Limits and others. As well as being the uniquely stylish in-house cartoonist for the ethical beauty products chain Lush and featuring heavily in their free newspaper Lush Times, she has also been the star of many gallery exhibitions and has multiple book compilations to her name.

Here her startlingly economical, pared-down and deceptively simplified strips explored what it meant to be a young intellectual feminist looking for love – or often merely a straight answer – in the eternal questing dance between men and women, mothers and daughters, BFFs, food, booze and fashions, as well as the more baffling, frustrating and intolerable aspects of less crucial aspects of modern living.

More Brilliant Advice was released in 1989, the sequel to an earlier incisive and uncompromising collection and, as well as exploring man-hunting, party etiquette, gender cues, partnership insecurities, clubbing, middle-class cash-poverty, shameful guilty pleasures, masculine weaknesses and squeamishness, also continually self-dissects and reappraises the role of the nominal self-loathing singleton dubbed ‘the Wet Lettuce’.

With frenetic energy and a scathing eye – jaundiced far too young – topics such as ‘I’ve Got to Find a way to Make a Living’, ‘Clubbing It’, ‘If You Find to your Horror that your Children are either Selfish or Raving Madâ€¦’, ‘Drunkennessâ€¦ a Bane?’, ‘Perfect Logic’, ‘My Overdraft’, ‘Irritating Foibles’ ‘Assertiveness Training’ and other perennial pithy imponderables are tackled in both abrasive, energised stick figure strips and a multitude of gloriously lavish colour pastel and paint full-pages.

Since the glass studio-door was finally shattered, many women have reenergised the field and this selection comprises a nice slice of a lesser known but still-pithily opinionated pen-smith and brush-monger whose contributions have been forgotten for far too long.

Happily still available from numerous online sources, More Bad Advice is certainly something you should take heed ofâ€¦
Â© 1989 Annie Lawson. All rights reserved.

July 18, 2012July 17, 2012

Batman and the Outsiders: The Snare

By Chuck Dixon, Carlos Rodriguez, Julian Lopez, Ryan Benjamin, Bit & Saleem Crawford (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-136-6

Following the forcible dissolution of Nightwing’s covert and pre-emptive strike force, Batman resumed leadership of the Outsiders and, after a daunting series of on-going auditions, settled on a core squad comprising Metamorpho, Grace, Katana, Geo-Force, Batgirl and Green Arrow, keeping mass-moving powerhouse Thunder on a short probationary leash and with standby options on a number of othersâ€¦

This second slim tome collects issues #6-10 of the return run of the Dark Knight’s covert operatives – the first occurring during the 1980s and as yet only partially re-presented in Showcase Presents Batman and the Outsiders volume 1. This epic middle section of a triptych of books (the last still forthcoming) deals with an epic struggle against a terrifying extraterrestrial plot which threatened to engulf the Earthâ€¦

Written throughout by Chuck Dixon, the action starts with ‘Ghost Star’ – illustrated by Carlos Rodriguez & Bit – as elemental changeling Rex Mason drifts helplessly in space, trapped aboard a space shuttle commandeered by the employees of mystery plutocrat Mr. Jardine.

Orbiting the far side of the Moon, Metamorpho observes a titanic alien structure under construction. When the marooned hero finally contacts Earth, Batman, who had assumed his agent had burned up in the ship’s launch, immediately sets a rescue-plan in motion. Worryingly, it involves stealing a rocket from a top-secret and ultra-secure Chinese military baseâ€¦

Meanwhile Rex has infiltrated the mystery construct and discovered it to be manned by possessed human astronauts all working like soulless drones to complete the cosmic conundrumâ€¦

And on Earth, Outsiders Green Arrow, Grace and Katana are captured by Chinese metahuman guards Dragonfire, Angry Wizard and Barefoot Tiger. A massive international incident seems inevitable but the general in charge seems to prefer a quieter, far more final solutionâ€¦

In ‘The Snare’ Batman allows his new boffin Salah Miandad access to the Batcave supercomputers to defeat the Chinese electronic security measures as, half a world away, Batgirl attempts to free the captives from their brutal interrogators and Geo-Force seeks assistance from the US Pacific Fleet.

Beyond the Moon, Metamorpho is running for his life from the mindless construction slaves only to be ejected from the bizarre artefact into hard vacuumâ€¦

The rescue of Rex’s rescuers gets underway when the Dark Knight brings in old Outsiders team-leader Nightwing, but before he can begin, Batgirl is forced to very publicly save her comrades from a firing squad in ‘The Hard Way’ (pencilled by Julian Lopez). Out in space Rex manages to find sanctuary on the space-shuttle he’d previously vacated and discovers the purpose of the mystery device when it unleashes a devastating particle beam at the Lunar surface, shattering the crust and vaporising untold tons of dust, rock and lunar iceâ€¦

In Inner Mongolia things look bleak for Batman’s overmatched and outgunned operatives until Nightwing and Thunder appear, teleported in by the reconfigured and repurposed Observational Metahuman Activity Construct – now dubbed Remac.

The former Omac – originally designed to nullify metahumans – is under the telemetric control of Salah (still safely closeted away in the Batcave) and together they make short work of the Chinese super-squad, leaving Nightwing and Thunder free to help the already-liberated Outsiders trash the conventional military forces on the base before beaming back to Gotham Cityâ€¦

By the time ‘The Uninvited’ begins, Metamorpho has returned to Earth and been arrested by the Europeans for hijacking their space-shot – although he quickly escapes in his own uniquely embarrassing manner – whilst Outsiders science officer Francine Langstrom has been piecing together the informational snippets Mason had gleaned whilst aboard the astral weaponâ€¦

For months Jardine has been covertly co-opting astronauts from many nations, using them to build his honking giant space-gun; returning them to earth with their memories erased. His goal, now apparently realised, was to vaporise moon ice and store it beneath the satellite’s surface. Luna now has an underground sea at its coreâ€¦ but why?

To answer that question Batman determines to probe the subconscious of the unwitting astronauts and calls on the particular talents of Lia Briggs: once the psionic Outsider Looker and now an even more formidable telepath, thanks to her death and resurrection as a Vampire Queenâ€¦

Her mental probing almost costs Lia’s undead life but she discovers that the abductees’ minds were temporarily switched with those of incomprehensibly alien mentalities with dark designs upon our world. She also finds a connection to a rave-bondage club in old Gothamâ€¦

This tome concludes with ‘Monsters’ (illustrated by Ryan Benjamin & Saleem Crawford) as a raid on the club reveals a ghastly form of Russian Roulette where thrill-seeking kids pay to be attacked by a monstrous alien parasite. For most it is instant death, but a very lucky few find the fatal bite activates their latent metahuman powersâ€¦

However the gullible super-stooges have no idea just what their benefactor’s true agenda actually is and, even as Batman and his team pursue the creature, back at base, Francine and her newly-returned husband Kirk (Man-Bat) Langstrom can only watch in horror as Salah’s consciousness is absorbed into and trapped within Remacâ€¦

To Be Concludedâ€¦ One day, I hope.

Fast, furious, cynically clever, beautifully illustrated and utterly compelling, this is another old-fashioned rollercoaster romp that fulfils every dyed-in-the-spandex Fights ‘n’ Tights fan’s fevered dreams and art-lovers will also adore the gallery of superbly evocative covers by Doug Braithwaite, J. Calafiore, Mark McKenna & Brian Reber.

Straight-shooting rough and tumble comicbook clamour at its very bestâ€¦
Â© 2007, 2008, DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

July 17, 2012July 16, 2012

Superman: the Action Comics Archives volume 4

By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Don Cameron, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Sam Citron, Ira Yarbrough, Jack Burnley & Stan Kaye (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-710-5

Without doubt the creation of Superman and his unprecedented adoption by a desperate and joy-starved generation quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form.

Within three years of his 1938 debut the intoxicating blend of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment which hallmarked the early exploits of the Man of Tomorrow had grown to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy and even whimsical comedy, but once the war in Europe and the East snared America’s consciousness, combat themes and patriotic imagery dominated most comicbook covers if not interiors.

In comic book terms at least Superman was master of the world, and had already utterly changed the shape of the fledgling industry. There was the popular newspaper strip, a thrice-weekly radio serial, games, toys, foreign and overseas syndication and the Fleischer studio’s astounding animated cartoons.

Thankfully the quality of the source material was increasing with every four-colour release and the energy and enthusiasm of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had informed and infected the burgeoning studio that grew around them to cope with the relentless demand.

Superman was definitely every kid’s hero, as confirmed in this classic compendium, and the raw, untutored yet captivating episodes reprinted here had also been completely embraced by the wider public, as comicbooks became a vital tonic for the troops and all the ones they had left behindâ€¦

Due to the exigencies of periodical publishing, although the terrific tales collected in this fourth hardback tome putatively take the Man of Steel to January 1944, since cover-dates described return-by, not on-sale dates they were all prepared well in advance, and real-world events and reactions took a little time to filter through to the furious four-colour pages, so many of the stories have a tinge of uncertainty and foreboding that was swiftly fading from the minds of the public as the far more immediate movie-newsreels showed an inexorable turning of the tide in the Allies’ favourâ€¦

Nevertheless since invaders, spies and saboteurs had long been a tried-and-true part of the narrative currency of the times, patriotic covers – which had been appearing on many comicbooks since the end of 1940 – piled on the galvanising pressure and resulted here in some of the most striking imagery in Superman’s entire history.

Spanning October 1942 to January 1944, this fourth delicious deluxe hardcover collection of the Man of Tomorrow’s exploits reprints the lead strip from issues #53-68 of totemic, groundbreaking anthology Action Comics, following the never-ending battle for Truth, Justice and the American Way to a point where War’s end was perhaps in sight and readers could begin considering a life without potential invasion and subjugation, seen here by an almost imperceptible shift from a war footing to stories of home-grown domestic dooms and even some whimsically fun moments…

Co-creator Jerry Siegel was finally called up in 1943 and his prodigious scripting output was somewhat curtailed, necessitating more and more contributions from the ingenious and multi-faceted Don Cameron and with Shuster â€“ increasingly debilitated by failing eyesight and tied up in producing the newspaper strip, the trusty, ever-changing stalwarts of the Superman Studio were drawing most of the comicbook output at this time. Following a fulsome Foreword from publisher and long-time fan Bill Schelly the wonderment commences with Action Comics #53 and Siegel & John Sikela’s fantastic thriller ‘The Man Who put Out the Sun!’ wherein bird-themed menace Night-Owl uses â€œblack lightâ€ technology and ruthless gangsters to plunder at will until the Man of Steel takes charge. In #54 ‘The Pirate of Pleasure Island!’ followed the foredoomed career of upstanding citizen Stanley Finchcomb, a seemingly civilised descendent of ruthless buccaneers, who succumbed to madness and became a ruthless marine marauder. Or perhaps he truly was possessed by the merciless spirit of his ancestor Captain Ironfist in this enchanting supernatural thriller by Siegel & Sikelaâ€¦

Ed Dobrotka stepped in to ink the whimsical Li’l Abner spoof ‘A Goof named Tiny Rufe’ as the desperate cartoonist Slapstick Sam began to plagiarise – and ruin – the simple lives of a couple of naÃ¯ve hillbillies until Superman interceded, whilst ‘Design for Doom!’ in Action #56, by Siegel & Sikela, pitted the Man of Tomorrow against a deranged architect who created global, city-wrecking catastrophes simply to prove the superiority of his own creations.

Superman was pitifully short on returning villains in the early days so #57’s return of the Prankster as ‘Crime’s Comedy King’ made a welcome addition to the Rogues Gallery, especially as the Macabre Madcap seemed to have turned over a new philanthropic leaf. Of course there was malevolence and a big con at the heart of his transformation, after which the Action Ace stepped into Batman territory for #58’s gruesome drama ‘The Face of Adonis!’ (illustrated by Sam Citron & the Superman Studio) which saw a rogue plastic surgeon transform an aging movie star into a grisly grotesque, holding his face hostage and turning the celluloid hero into his personal thief. Even Superman could not prevent this dark drama from ending in tragedyâ€¦

Sheer fanciful fantasy featured in 59#s ‘Cinderella – a la Superman’ (Sikela) as in an early experiment in continuity-busting, Clark Kent had to babysit Lois’ niece Susie Tomkins and dreamed his heroic alter ego into becoming the Fairy Godmother in a witty and imaginative re-enactment of the classic tale. Susie would return over and again as a pestiferous foil for both Clark and Supermanâ€¦

A different kind of prototype Imaginary Tale was seen in #60 with ‘Lois Lane – Superwoman!’ wherein the hospitalised and concussed go-getter dreamed that she developed abilities equal to the Metropolis Marvel’s after a blood transfusion from the Man of Steel. Despite proving her worth over and again as a costumed crusader, in the end Lois fell into clichÃ© by cornering Superman and demanding they marryâ€¦

Siegel & Sikela ended their Action Comics partnership in #61 with ‘The Man they Wouldn’t Believe!’ as Lois seemingly fell for a flamboyant playboy and Clark was panicked into revealing his secret identity in a vain attempt to win her back. Typically she refused to believe him and every effort Kent made to prove his Kryptonian mettle ended in humiliating disaster. How fortunate, since Lois was playing a part to expose a ruthless criminalâ€¦

Don Cameron took over as scripter with #62, kicking off a fine run with the utopian future shocker ‘There’ll Always be a Superman!’ (with art by Dobrotka) as an aged sage in 2143AD regaled his grandchildren with tales of how the ancient Man of Tomorrow polished off Nazis who had enslaved their ancestor as part of a plan to build U-Boat bases under America – an old sea yarn confirmed by the storyteller’s other houseguest, Superman himselfâ€¦

Shifting gears to nail-biting suspense, Action #63 revealed ‘When Stars Collide!’ (Cameron & Ira Yarbrough), the cosmic calamity that caused Superman to lose his memory and fall under the sway of devious and manipulative crooks. As if that wasn’t enough, the debris from the stellar smash was falling inexorably to Earth and the only man who could save us had no idea what to do until Lois shook his wits clearâ€¦

Another returning villain debuted in #64 in the Dobrotka- illustrated classic ‘The Terrible Toyman’, wherein an elderly inventor of children’s novelties and knick-knacks began a spectacular spree of high-profile and potentially murderous robberies, with Lois as his unwilling muse and accessory after which ‘The Million-Dollar Marathon!’ purloined the venerable plot of George Barr McCutcheon’s 1902 novel Brewster’s Millions (and filmed four times – 1915, 1921, 1926 & 1935 – before Action Comics #65 made it the subject of the October 1943 issue) to show Superman helping a poor doctor spend $1,000,000 in twenty-four hours to inherit twice that amount for a children’s hospital. Trying to queer the deal was the poor medic’s rascally cousin and a pack of very violent thugsâ€¦

Heartstrings were further tugged in #66 when an elderly blind millionaire was reunited with his long-lost grandson in ‘The Boy who Came Back!’ Even after Superman reluctantly exposed the cruel scam there was still a shocking (and still surprising today) twist in the tale, whilst ‘Make Way for Fate!’ (#67 and illustrated by Citron) saw the Man of Steel turn back time and reunite stubborn lovers separated for decades as part of a larger plan to build a new Officer Training School in Metropolisâ€¦

This spectacular collection closes with ‘Superman Meets Susie!’ (Yarbrough & Stan Kaye) as little Miss Tomkins returned as a teller of huge fibs, which the Man of Tomorrow undertook to make real, all in an attempt to teach Lois a little patience. However the incorrigible brat goes too far when she starts reporting her fantasies to the papers and crooks take advantageâ€¦

The main bulk of the stunning covers in this collection were by Jack Burnley and almost exclusively war-themed (excluding The Prankster on #57) until the Toyman’s launch in #64, after which the overseas struggle quickly gave way to scenes of homeland crime and fantastic adventure, with artists John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka & Stan Kaye generally taking that lead spot.

These Golden Age tales offer irresistible and priceless enjoyment at an absurdly affordable price and this superbly robust and colourful format has inestimably advanced the prestige and social standing of the medium itself as well as preserving a vital part of American popular culture.

Still some of the very best Fights ‘n’ Tights any fan could ever find, these tales belong on your bookshelf in a prideful place you can easily reach for over and over again.
Â© 1942, 1943, 1944, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

July 16, 2012July 14, 2012

Captain America: Two Americas

By Ed Brubaker, Luke Ross, Butch Guice, Rick Magyar, Dean White & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4511-0

The Star Spangled Avenger was created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby at the end of 1940 and launched in his own title (Captain America Comics, #1 cover-dated March 1941) with overwhelming success. He was the absolute and undisputed star of Timely (now Marvel) Comics’ â€œBig Threeâ€ – the other two being the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner. He was also among the very first to fade at the end of the Golden Age.

When the Korean War and Communist aggression dominated the American psyche in the early 1950s he was briefly revived – with the Torch and Sub-Mariner – in 1953 before sinking once more into obscurity until a resurgent Marvel Comics once more brought him back in Avengers #4.

It was March 1964 and the Vietnam conflict was just beginning to pervade the minds of the American publicâ€¦

This time he stuck around. Whilst perpetually agonising over the death of his young sidekick (James Buchanan Barnes AKA Bucky) in the final days of the war, the resurrected Steve Rogers first stole the show in the Avengers, then promptly graduated to his own series and title as well. He waxed and waned through the most turbulent period of social change in US history, but always struggled to find an ideological niche and stable footing in the modern world.

Eventually, whilst another morally suspect war raged in the real world, during the Marvel event known as Civil War he became an anti-government rebel and was assassinated on the steps of a Federal Courthouse.

Over the course of three volumes he was replaced by that always assumed-dead sidekick. In fact Bucky had been captured by the Soviets and turned into their own super-agent, The Winter Soldier.

Once rescued from his unwanted spy-role the artificially youthful and part-cyborg Barnes reluctantly stepped into his mentor’s big crimson bootsâ€¦

This politically-charged thriller written by Ed Brubaker collects the one-shot Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield? and issues #602-605 of the monthly comicbook, set squarely in the immediate aftermath of the original Star-Spangled Avenger’s return from the dead (details of which can be found in Captain America Reborn)â€¦

The rabble-rousing tale of ideology and patriotism begins with that one-shot (illustrated by Luke Ross and Butch Guice), as the former Winter Soldier ponders his future in the wake of the â€œrealâ€ Captain America’s resurrection and considers returning the role and unique Star-emblazoned disc to its rightful owner.

Meanwhile Steve Rogers, fresh from a timeless suspension where he perpetually relived his life over and again, combats the haunting memories by taking to the snow-bound streets where he encounters his replacement and super-spy Black Widow battling the ferociously brutal Mr. Hyde.

Content to merely observe his old partner at first, he is soon invited to join the fray and, after the dust settles, the comrades-in-arms come to an understanding. Bucky Barnes will stay as the one and only Sentinel of Liberty: the President of the USA has a far more strategic role in mind for his mentor Steven Rogersâ€¦

One that will have to wait for another tale as this tome jumps directly to the eponymous ‘Two Americas’ (with art by Ross, Guice & Rick Magyar) and picks up the trail of the deranged duplicate who briefly played Captain America in the 1950s whilst the original languished in icy hibernation in the arctic.

William Burnside was a student from Boise, Idaho, obsessed with Captain America. The lad had ferreted out the hero’s true name, rediscovered most of the super-soldier serum which had created the Star-Spangled Avenger and even had his name and features changed to perfectly mimic the Missing-In-Action Steve Rogers.

Volunteering his services to the FBI, then conducting a nationwide war on spies, subversives and suspected commies, Burnside and impressionable youngster Jack Monroe briefly became Captain America and Bucky; crushing every perceived threat to the nation.

Sadly it soon became apparent that their definition of such included not just criminals but also non-whites, independent women and anybody who disagreed with the governmentâ€¦

After a few short months the reactionary patriot had to be forcibly â€œretiredâ€ as the super-soldier serum he and Monroe used turned them into super-strong, raving, racist paranoids.

Years later when the fascistic facsimiles escaped their suspended animation in Federal prison they attacked the real Sentinel of Liberty only to be defeated by Cap, his partner Sam Wilson (AKA the Falcon) and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter. Although Monroe was eventually cured, Burnside’s psychosis was too deeply rooted and he returned many times to tangle with the man he felt had betrayed the real Americaâ€¦

Used most recently as a pawn of the Red Skull, malign psychologist Dr. Faustus and genetic trickster Arnim Zola in a plot to plant a Nazi stooge in the Oval Office, the dark Captain America had escaped and fled to the nation’s heartland.

When police in Idaho raided a den of reactionary separatist fanatics the Watchdogs, they were slaughtered by the delusional Sentinel of Liberty who had aligned himself with them in a crazed bid to take back the nation for right-thinking ordinary people like himself.

Alerted by rogue agent Nick Fury, Barnes and the Falcon head for the economically depressed Midwest where the crumbling economy and lack of prospects has driven hard-pressed hardworking folk into the open arms of the seditionists.

Intending to infiltrate the movement now led by the faux Captain America, things go badly wrong when Burnside recognises Barnes from his college researchesâ€¦

Intent on starting a second American Revolution, the crazed patriot ambushes the newest Cap and the Falcon and, whilst planning to set off the biggest bomb in history against the Hoover Dam, demands that Barnes returns to his first and proper heroic identity to become the Bucky to Burnside’s one-and-only Captain Americaâ€¦

Determined to convince the equally time-lost Winter Soldier that modern America must be destroyed and the Good Old Days restored, Burnside is still savvy enough to use the hostage Falcon to achieve his ends, but far too prejudiced to accept that a mere black man – a flunky sidekick – could be competent enough to foil his plansâ€¦

Imprisoned on a train packed with explosives, Sam busts free and trashes his Watchdog jailers and with the aid of a simple working Joe (yes, a proper â€œordinary Americanâ€) diverts the runaway bomb, whilst Burnside and his fanatics invade Hoover Dam with an even more devastating device, ready to send a message that will spell the end of the country and signal the return of the madman’s cherished if illusory idealised America.

However when Bucky overhears that the Falcon is safe he immediately lashes out, tackling the old world warrior head-on and stopping the insane incursion with ruthless efficiencyâ€¦

This thoroughly readable and exceedingly pretty collection also includes a cover and variant gallery from Gerald Parel, Alan Davis, Mark Farmer and Javier Rodriguez for art lovers.

A fascinating examination of political idealism and the mutability of patriotism, this sharp and scary saga avoids the usual trap of depending too much upon a working knowledge of Marvel continuity and provides in situ what little back-story new readers might need, fairly thundering along to its climactic conclusion, providing thrills, spills and chills in full measure for all fans of Fights ‘n’ Tights action.
Â© 2009, 2010 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.

July 15, 2012July 13, 2012

Showcase Presents the Doom Patrol Volume 1

By Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani, Bob Brown & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-218-9

1963 was the year when cautious comicbook publishers finally realised that superheroes were back in a big way and began reviving or creating a host of costumed characters to battle outrageous menaces and dastardly villains.

Thus it was that at National Comics venerable anthology-mystery title My Greatest Adventure dipped its toe in the waters with a radical take on the fad and introduced a startling squad of champions with their thematic roots still firmly planted in the B-movie monster films of the era that subtly informed the parent comic.

No traditional team of masked adventurers, the cast comprised a robot, a mummy and an occasional 50-foot woman, who joined forces with and were guided by a brusque, domineering, crippled mad scientist to fight injustice in a whole new wayâ€¦

Covering June 1963 to February 1966, this first quirky monochrome compilation collects the Fabulous Freaks’ earliest exploits from My Greatest Adventure #80-85 and thereafter, issues #86-101 of the renamed title once overwhelming reader response compelled editor Murray Boltinoff to change it to the Doom Patrol.

The dramas were especially enhanced by the drawing skills of Italian cartoonist and classicist artist Giordano Bruno Premiani whose highly detailed, subtly humanistic illustration made even the strangest situation dauntingly authentic and grittily believable as with the premier tale ‘The Doom Patrol’ scripted by Arnold Drake and Bob Haney, which saw a mysterious wheelchair bound scientist summon three outcasts to his home promising to change their miserable lives forever.

Competitive car racer Cliff Steele had died in a horrific pile up, but his undamaged brain had been transplanted into a fantastic mechanical body. Test pilot Larry Trainor had been trapped in an experimental stratospheric plane and become permanently radioactive, with the dubious benefit of gaining a semi-sentient energy avatar which could escape his body to perform incredible stunts for up to a minute at a time.

To pass safely amongst men Trainor had to constantly wrap himself in special radiation-proof bandages.

Ex-movie star Rita Farr had been exposed to mysterious gases which gave her the unpredictable and, at first, uncontrolled ability to shrink or grow to incredible sizes.

These outcasts were brought together by brilliant but enigmatic Renaissance Man The Chief, who sought to mould the solitary misfits into a force for good and quickly proved his point when a mad bomber attempted to blow up the city docks. The wheelchair bound savant directed the trio of strangers in defusing it and no sooner had the freaks realised their true worth than they were on their first missionâ€¦

In the second chapter ‘The Challenge of the Timeless Commander’ an incredibly ancient menace tried to capture a fallen alien ship, intent on turning its extraterrestrial secrets into weapons of world conquest, culminating in ‘The Deadly Duel with General Immortus’ which saw the Doom Patrol dedicate their lives to saving humanity from all threats.

My Greatest Adventure #81, solely scripted by Drake, featured ‘The Nightmare Maker’ combining everyday disaster response – saving a damaged submarine – with a nationwide plague of monsters. Stuck at base, The Chief monitored missions by means of a TV camera attached to Robotman’s chest, and quickly deduced the uncanny secret of the beasts and their war criminal creator Josef Kreutz.

A clever espionage ploy outed the Chief – or at least his image, if not name – in #82’s ‘Three Against the Earth!’, leading the team to believe Rita a traitor. When the cabal of millionaires behind the scheme were revealed as an alien advance guard who assumed the wheelchair-bound leader to be a rival invader, the inevitable showdown nearly cost Cliff what remained of his lifeâ€¦

‘The Night Negative Man Went Berserk!’ in #83 spotlighted the living mummy when a radio astronomy experiment interrupted the Negative Man’s return to Larry Trainor’s body, pitching the pilot into a coma and sending the ebony energy creature on a global spree of destruction. Calamity piled upon calamity when crooks stole the military equipment constructed to destroy it and only desperate improvisation by Cliff and Rita allowed avatar and host to reuniteâ€¦

Issue #84 saw ‘The Return of General Immortus’ as ancient Babylonian artefacts led the team to the eternal malefactor, only to have the wily warrior turn the tables and take control of Robotman. Even though his comrades saved him Immortus escaped with the greatest treasures of all timeâ€¦

My Greatest Adventure #85 was the last issue and featured ‘The Furies from 4,000 Miles Below’, monstrous subterranean horrors fuelled by nuclear forces. Despite having tricked Elasti-Girl into resuming her Hollywood career, the paternalistic heroes were pretty grateful when she turned up to save them all from radioactive incinerationâ€¦

An unqualified success, the comicbook transformed into The Doom Patrol with #86 and celebrated by introducing ‘The Brotherhood of Evil’, an assemblage of international criminals and terrorists led by French genius-in-a-jar The Brain and his greatest creation, a super-intelligent talking gorilla dubbed Monsieur Mallah. The diametrically opposed teams first crossed swords after brotherhood applicant Mr. Morden stole Rog, a giant robot the Chief intended for the US militaryâ€¦

DP #87 revealed ‘The Terrible Secret of Negative Man’ when Brotherhood femme fatale Madame Rouge tried to seduce Larry. When the Brain’s unstoppable mechanical army invaded the city, Trainor was forced to remove his bandages and allow his lethal radiations to disrupt their transmissionsâ€¦

An occasional series of short solo adventures kicked off in this issue with ‘Robotman Fights Alone’, wherein Cliff was dispatched to a Pacific island in search of an escaped killer, only to walk into a devastating series of WWII Japanese booby-trapsâ€¦

All the mysteries surrounding the team’s leader were finally revealed in issue #88 with ‘The Incredible Origin of the Chief’, a blistering drama which told how brilliant but impoverished student Niles Caulder received unlimited funding from an anonymous patron interested in his researches on extending life. Curiosity drove Caulder to track down his benefactor and he was horrified to discover the money came from the head of a criminal syndicate who claimed to be eons oldâ€¦

Immortus had long ago consumed a potion which extended his life and wanted the student to recreate it now that the years were finally catching up. To insure Caulder’s full cooperation, the General had a bomb inserted in the researcher’s chest and powered by his heartbeat â€¦

Building a robot surgeon, Caulder tricked Immortus into shooting him, determined to thwart the monster at all costs. Once clinically dead, his Ra-2 doctor removed the now-inert explosive and revived the bold scientist, but tragically the robot had been too slow and Caulder lost the use of his legsâ€¦

Undaunted, the Man Who Lived Twice then destroyed all his research and went into hiding for years, with Immortus unaware that Caulder had actually succeeded in the task which had stymied history’s greatest doctors and biologistsâ€¦

Now, under the alias of super-thief The Baron, Immortus had captured the Doom Patrol and demanded a final confrontation with the Chief. Luckily the wheelchair-locked inventor was not only a biologist and robotics genius but also adept at building concealed weaponsâ€¦

In #89 the team tackled a duplicitous scientist who had devised a means to transform himself into ‘The Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Menace’ and ‘The Private War of Elasti-Girl’ saw the Maid of Many Sizes use unsuspected detective skills to track down a missing soldier and reunite him with his adopted son before ‘The Enemy within the Doom Patrol’ saw shape-shifting Madame Rouge infiltrate the team and almost turn them against each other.

Issue #91 introduced multi-millionaire Steve Dayton who created a superhero persona solely to woo and wed Rita Farr. With such ambiguous motivations ‘Mento – the Man who Split the Doom Patrol’ was a radical character for the times, but at least his psycho-kinetic helmet proved a big help in defeating the plastic robots of grotesque alien invader Garguaxâ€¦

DP #92 found the team confronted by a temporal terror in ‘The Sinister Secret of Dr. Tyme’ with the abrasive Mento again saving the day whilst ‘Showdown on Nightmare Road’ in #93 saw The Brain’s latest monstrous scheme result in the evil genius being planted inside Robotman’s skull and poor Cliff transplanted into a horrific beast, until the Chief out-played the French Fiend at his own gameâ€¦

Bob Brown stepped in to illustrate #94’s lead feature ‘The Nightmare Fighters’ with an eastern mystic’s uncanny abilities swiftly debunked by solid American science but Premiani was around to render the solo-feature ‘The Chief â€œStandsâ€ Alone’ wherein Caulder eschewed his deputies’ aid to bring down bird-themed villain The Claw with a mixture of wit, nerve and weaponised wheelchair.

When The Chief attempted to cure Rita and Larry in DP #95 it resulted in switched powers and the ‘Menace of the Turnabout Heroes’, so naturally that would be the very moment the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man would pick for a return bout, whilst in #96, on ‘The Day the World Went Mad!’, the Patrol’s frantic investigations revealed that the global wave of insanity was caused by a deadly alliance of the Brotherhood, Garguax and Immortus, which they were helpless to counteractâ€¦

In issue #97 that sinister syndicate attacked Earth by transforming innocent citizens into crystal, spectacularly resulting in ‘The War against the Mind Slaves’, the return of Mento and a stunning showdown on the moon, after which #98 saw both ‘The Death of the Doom Patrol’ – a grievous over-exaggeration on behalf of transmutational foe Mr. 103, who was actually compelled to save Caulder from radiation poisoning – and the Brown-drawn solo-thriller ’60 Sinister Seconds’ in which Negative Man had to find and make safe four atomic bombs in different countries within as minuteâ€¦

Brown also handled both tales in Doom Patrol #99, starting with an old-fashioned battle against a deranged entomologist whose mechanical insects delivered ‘The Deadly Sting of the Bug Man’ and proceeding to the groundbreaking first appearance of shape-shifting juvenile delinquent ‘The Beast-Boy’ who burgled than saved the team with his incredible ability to become any animal he could imagine.

A vast extended storyline began with #100 and ‘The Fantastic Origin of Beast-Boy’ (illustrated by Premiani) wherein the obnoxious kid was revealed as orphan Gar Logan, a boy being slowly swindled out of his inheritance by his ruthless guardian Nicholas Galtry.

The conniving accountant had even leased his emerald-hued charge to scientist Dr. Weir for assorted experiments, but when the Patrol later tackled rampaging dinosaurs, the trail led to Gar who at last explained his uncanny powers.

Whilst in Africa as a toddler Logan had contracted a rare disease and his scientist father tried an experimental cure which left him the colour of cabbage but with the ability to change shape at will.

Now it appeared that Weir has used the lad’s altered biology to unlock the secrets of evolutionâ€¦ or had he?

Despite foiling the scheme the team have no choice but to return the boy to his guardian, but Rita is not prepared to leave the matter unresolvedâ€¦ The anniversary issue also saw the start of an extended multi-part thriller exploring Cliff’s early days after his accident and subsequent resurrection beginning with ‘Robotmanâ€¦ Wanted Dead or Alive’. Following Caulder’s implantation of Cliff’s brain into the mechanical body the shock drove the patient crazy and Steele went on a city wide rampageâ€¦

This first fantastic collection concludes with Doom Patrol #101 and the riotous romp ‘I, Kranus, Robot Emperor!’ wherein an apparently alien mechanoid had a far more terrestrial and terrifying origin, but the real meat came from the subtle war between Galtry and the Chief for possession of Beast Boy.

The tale ended on a pensive cliffhanger as the Patrol then dashed off to rescue fellow adventurers the Challengers of the Unknown â€“ a tale for the next volume, I’m afraidâ€¦

There was still however the second instalment of the Robotman saga, saw the occasionally ration, if paranoid Cliff Steele hunted by the authorities and befriended by crippled, homeless derelicts in ‘The Lonely Giant’â€¦

Although as kids we all happily suspended disbelief and bought into the fanciful antics of the myriad masked heroes available, somehow the exploits of the Doom Patrol – and their surprisingly synchronistic Marvel counterparts the X-Men (freaks and outcasts, wheelchair bound geniuses, both debuting in the summer of 1963) always seemed just a bit more â€œrealâ€ than the usual caped and costumed crowd.

With the edge of time and experience on my side it’s obvious just how incredibly mature Drake and Premiani’s take on superheroes actually was and these superbly engaging, frantically fun and breathtakingly beautiful tales should rightfully rank amongst the finest Fights ‘n’ Tights tales ever told.
Â© 1963, 1964, 1965, 2009 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

July 14, 2012July 13, 2012

Hellboy Junior

By Mike Mignola, Bill Wray, Stephen DeStefano, Dave Cooper, Hilary Barta, Pat McEown, Glenn Barr, Kevin Nowlan, Dave Stewart & John Costanza (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1569719886

Although probably best known for revitalising the sub-genre of horror-heroes via his superb Hellboy and B.P.R.D. tales, creator Mike Mignola conceals a dark and largely unsuspected secret: he has a very dry, outlandish and wicked sense of humourâ€¦

Since 1997, whenever nobody was looking, he and co-conspirator Bill Wray have concocted outrageous, uproarious and vulgarly hilarious spoof tales which might – but probably weren’t – untold yarns of the scarlet scallywag’s formative days in hell before being drawn to earth and reared as a champion of humanity against the Things of the Outer Darknessâ€¦

Moreover, they convinced those gullible fools at Dark Horse Comics to publish them, first in the Hellboy Junior Halloween Special and again in an eponymous 2-issue miniseries in 1999 which also included many scurrilous and hilarious spoofs, pastiches and pokes at a host of family-friendly favourites from parental favourite Harvey Comics: beloved icons such as Casper, Wendy the Good Little Witch, Stumbo the Giant, Baby Huey and Hot Stuff, the Little Devil…

With most of the material scripted by Wray, this appallingly rude, crude and unmissable compilation bolts all the material together and even springs for an all new feature, but begins with Bill & Mike’s painfully cruel ‘The Creation of Hellboy Jr.: a Short Origin Story’ before tucking into ‘Maggots, Maggots, Everywhere!’, an all-Wray buffet of gastric ghastliness wherein the stone-fisted imp, fed up with his meagre ration of icky bug-babies, goes looking for something better to eat. Perhaps he shouldn’t have taken restaurant advice from that sneaky Adolf Hitler, whose rancid soul Junior should have been tormenting anywayâ€¦

After that epic-monster-infested odyssey, Mignola illustrates a mordant and wry adaptation of a German folk tale in ‘The Devil Don’t Smoke’ before Stephen DeStefano outrageously illustrates the agonisingly hilarious ‘Huge Retarded Duck’ and Hilary Barta lends his stylish faux-Wally Wood pastichery to ‘The Ginger Beef Boy’, wherein a frustrated transvestite creates the son he yearned for from the ingredients of a Chinese mealâ€¦

Following a stunning pin-up by Kevin Nowlan, Dave Cooper draws ‘Hellboy Jr.’s Magical Mushroom Trip’ wherein the ever-hungry imp and his pet ant disastrously attempt to grow their own edible fungus only to end up in deep shiitake when their psychotropic crop brings them into conflict with the big boss. Fans of evil dictators might welcome the guest appearance by Idi Aminâ€¦

Implausibly based on a true story, Wray & Mignolas’s ‘Squid of Man’ details the Grim Reaper’s wager with a mad scientist endeavouring to birth a new Atlantean race from the freshly dead remnants of cephalopods, arthropods, crustaceans, fine twine and lightning, whilst ‘The Wolvertons’ details the life and loves of an Alaskan lumberjack, his multi-tentacular alien wife and their extraordinarily hybrid kids Brad and Tiffany. Wray and Pat McEown spared no effort in their passionate tribute to Basil Wolverton, cartoon king of the Grotesque, so read this story before eatingâ€¦

Back in Hell, Jr. regretfully experienced ‘The House of Candy Pain’ (Wray, Barta, John Costanza & Dave Stewart), when he and fellow imp Donnie fled to Storyland and the Forbidden Forest of Festible Dwellings. They should have stuck with the shack made from steaks or Tofu Terrace, but no, they had to enter the Gingerbread Houseâ€¦

Following a Barta bonus pin-up, Wray does it all for the tragic tale of ‘Sparky Bear’; a cub torn from his natural environment and raised by humans as a fire-prevention spokesperson, whilst the Cooper-limned parable of ‘Somnambo the Sleeping Giant’ proves that even if your village is overrun with demons, sometimes the cure is worse than the affliction, an idea echoed in the tale of ‘Wheezy, the Sick Little Witch’ (art by DeStefano) a poorly tyke whose cute li’l animal friends could neither cure nor survive contact withâ€¦

After surviving a nasty fast-food experience in ‘Hitler’ and a mock ad for your very own Spear of Destiny, the all-new ‘Hellboy Jr. vs Hitler’ (Wray & Stewart) depicts how a the little devil couldn’t even escort the Fallen FÃ¼hrer to the depths of Lower Hell without screwing up and giving the mono-testicular reprobate another chance to resurrect his Reich and, after a painted Wray Halloween scene and saucy Hell’s hot-tub pin-up from Glenn Barr, the mirthful madness concludes with Mignola & Stewart’s ‘Hellboy Jr. Gets a Car’ wherein the Hadean Half-pint takes an illicit test drive in a roadster meant for a Duke of Hell. It does not end wellâ€¦

This Chymeric chronicle also includes a ‘Hellboy Junior Sketchbook’ with working drawings, colour roughs and layouts by Wray, McEown & DeStefano, to top off a wildly exuberant burst of tongue-in-cheek, sardonic and surreal adult fun which is a jovially jocund and gut-bustingly gross gas for every lover of off-the-wall, near-the-knuckle fun.
Hellboy Jr. â„¢ and Â© Mike Mignola. All individual strips, art & stories Â© 1997, 1999, 2003 their individual creator or holder. All rights reserved.

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