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Doctor Doom: The Book of Doom Omnibus


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Larry Lieber, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Denny O’Neil, Chris Claremont, David Michelinie, John Byrne, Jim Shooter, Roger Stern, Walter Simonson, Mark Waid, Dwayne McDuffie& Ed Brubaker, Bob Layton, Tom DeFalco, Christopher Priest, Wally Wood, Gene Colan, Mike Sekowsky, Keith Giffen, Bob Hall, Frank Miller, Dave Cockrum, John Romita Jr., Mike Zeck, Mike Mignola, Mike Wieringo, Casey Jones & Pablo Raimondi, Frank Giacoia, George Tuska, John Buscema, Arthur Adams & Paolo Rivera, & many & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-3420-0 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: One of Marvel’s Mightiest… 10/10

As a rule I’ve traditionally steered clear of reviewing the assorted Omnibus editions out there. For the longest time we felt that they were a bit elitist: phenomenally expensive and frequently only available in physical formats. The print version of this hardback book is 1336 pages and weighs 3.5 kilos – over 7½ pounds! – so if you’re old, infirm or have simply never developed any muscles because you’ve frittered away your life READING COMICS, that’s a big downside…

That’s all starting to change now, so here’s a review of the digital version – which is only as unwieldy as your preferred electronic reader of choice and cost me far less because of a discount sale…

Once upon a time, you hadn’t really made it as a Marvel superhero – or villain – until you’d clashed with Doctor Doom. Victor Von Doom is a troubled genius who escaped the oppression heaped on his Romani people via an ultimately catastrophic scholarship to America. Whilst there he succumbed to an intense rivalry with young Reed Richards, even then perhaps the most brilliant man alive.

The arrogant student performed unsanctioned experiments which went wrong and marred his perfect features, leading him down a path of super-science and sinister sorcery and fuelled his overwhelming hunger for ultimate power and total control. From the ashes of his failure, Von Doom rebuilt his life, returned to seize control of his Balkan homeland and become a danger to the world and the multiverse.

This truly king-sized and epically imperious compendium was released to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Lord of Latveria, who debuted in Fantastic Four #5 April 1962. It gathers many of his greatest battles and other landmark moments of triumph and tragedy, and opens with a contextualising Introduction from Ralph Macchio before reprising the contents of Fantastic Four #5, 6, 39-40, 246-247, 258-260, 350, 352, 500; Amazing Spider-Man #5 & Annual #20; Marvel Super-Heroes #20; Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1-2 & Super-Villain Team-Up #13-14: Champions #16; Uncanny X-Men #145-147; Iron Man #149-150; Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #10-12; Marvel Graphic Novel Emperor Doom; Marvel Graphic Novel Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment; Fantastic Four (volume 2) #67-70; Fantastic Four Special (2005) #1 and Books of Doom #1-6, as well as material from Fantastic Four #236, 358 & Annual 2; Astonishing Tales #1-3, 6-8 and Marvel Double-Shot #2 collectively spanning July 1962-June 2006.

The drama begins as it must with that debut in Fantastic Four #5. At that time, aliens and especially monsters played a major part in earlier Marvel’s output. However, after a tentative start, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s recreation of super-heroes embraced the unique basics of the idiom: taking a full bite out of the Fights ‘n’ Tights apple by introducing the first full-blown, unrepentant super-villain to their budding Marvel Universe.

Admittedly the Mole Man had appeared in #1, but that tragic little gargoyle, for all his plans of world conquest, wouldn’t truly acquire the persona of a costumed foe until his more refined second appearance in FF #22.

‘Prisoners of Doctor Doom’ (inked by the sublimely slick and perfectly polished Joe Sinnott) had it all. An attack by a mysterious enemy from Mr. Fantastic’s past; super-science, magic, lost treasure, time-travel, even pirates. Ha-Haar, me ‘earties!

The tale is sheer comics magic and the creators knew they were on to a winner, as the deadly Doctor returned in the very next issue, teaming with the recently revived and recalcitrantly reluctant Sub-Mariner to attack our heroes as ‘The Deadly Duo!’ in the first Super-Villain Team-Up of the Marvel Age…

Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner was the second super-star of the Timely Age of Comics – but only because he followed the cover-featured Human Torch in the running order of Marvel Mystery Comics #1 in 1939. He has had, however, the most impressive longevity of the company’s original “Big Three” – Torch, Subby and Captain America. The Marine Marvel was revived in 1962 in Fantastic Four #4; once again a conflicted noble villain, prominent in the company’s pantheon ever since.

Inked by Dick Ayers, FF #6 also introduced the concept of antiheroes as Namor was promptly betrayed by Doom and ended up saving the heroes from death in space: creating a truly complex dynamic with his fellow rogue monarch and the FF. The Master of Latveria’s inevitably betrayal colours the relationship of both kingly characters to this day…

Doom was frequent threat to the Fantastic Four, and was the first foe to break another unspoken rule by going after other heroes in the cohesive shared universe Lee & Kirby were building.

Cover dated October 1963, Amazing Spider-Man #5 found the webspinner ‘Marked for Destruction by Dr. Doom!’ – not so much winning as surviving his battle against the deadliest man on Earth. In this titanic comedy of errors the villain again sought super-powered pawns for his war against humanity, but seriously underestimated his juvenile opponent…

The one-dimensional evil genius was recast as a tragic figure forever shackled by his flaws thanks to the primary contents of Fantastic Four Annual #2 (September 1964) where Chic Stone inked ‘The Fantastic Origin of Doctor Doom!’

A short (12 page) scene-setter, it momentously detailed how brilliant “gypsy” youth Victor Von Doom remade himself into the most dangerous man in creation: ruthlessly overcoming obstacles such as ethnic oppression, crushing poverty and the shocking stigma of being the son of a sorceress. That past informed the present as the ultimate villain again attacks old friend Reed Richards and is left falsely believing he has achieved ‘The Final Victory of Dr. Doom!’ through guile, subterfuge and mind-control, but he has in fact suffered his most ignominious defeat. This clash also introduced a long-running plot thread connecting the Monstrous Monarch to time-travelling tyrant Rama Tut/Kang the Conqueror…

Jumping forward to the summer of 1965 FF #39 (cover-dated June, with Frank Giacoia – as Frank Ray – inking) saw the team stripped of their powers and targeted by an enraged Doctor Doom in ‘A Blind Man Shall Lead Them!’ wherein sightless vigilante Daredevil stepped up and provided their only hope of staying alive.

The tale concluded in #40’s ‘The Battle of the Baxter Building’ with Vince Colletta inking a bombastic battle revealing the undeniable power, overwhelming pathos and indomitable heroism of the brutish Thing as – cruelly restored to his monstrous mutated form – he hands Doom the most humiliating defeat of his life…

Experimental try-out title Marvel Super-Heroes #20 (May 1969) awarded the villain his first full-length solo shot in ‘This Man… This Demon!’ Written by Larry Lieber & Roy Thomas, and illustrated by Lieber, Giacoia & Colletta, it restated Doom’s origins and revealed a youthful dalliance with an innocent Romani maid named Valeria. In the now, that failed relationship was exploited by demon alchemist Diablo who claimed to need an ally and partner but truly sought a slave. Doom dealt with the charlatan in typically effective style…

The metal-shod maniac profited from Marvel’s first big expansion and won his own solo-series (Astonishing Tales #1-8). It began with ‘Unto You is Born… the Doomsman!’ (July-August 1970) wherein Thomas & Wally Wood depicted the master manipulator’s daily struggle to maintain iron control over the Ruritanian kingdom of Latveria: building a super-robot to crush an incipient rebellion led by ousted Crown Prince Rudolfo and his mysterious sponsor.

However, the use of Victor von Doom’s lost love had the desired effect and the rebels almost succeeded in driving the tyrant from Doom Castle. In the attendant chaos the Doomsman device wandered away…

AT #2 declared ‘Revolution!’, proving Doom was not the only master of mechanoids as Rudolfo and the enigmatic Faceless One used the lost Doomsman to wreak havoc throughout Latveria, before the final assault in ‘Doom Must Die!’ (scripted by Lieber) saw all the tyrant’s enemies vanquished and the Monarch of Menace once more firmly in control…

Astonishing Tales #6 (June 1971, by Lieber, George Tuska & Mike Esposito) saw the Lord of Latveria invade African nation Wakanda in ‘The Tentacles of the Tyrant!’, resolved to seize its Vibranium, only to fall to the furious tenacity of its king and defender T’Challa the Black Panther in ‘…And If I be Called Traitor!’ (Gerry Conway, Gene Colan & Frank Giacoia).

A major plot and character strand was added for his final solo story in AT #8 (October 1971). ‘…Though Some Call it Magic!’ is a minor landmark entitled wherein Conway, Colan & Tom Palmer revealed the Devil Doctor’s darkest secret. On one night every year the ultimate villain duelled the rulers of Hell in the vain hope of liberating his mother’s soul. She had been a sorceress, and now burned in the inferno for the unholy powers she used in life, powers which her son also possesses.

Victor battled to free her from eternal torment and always failed: a tragic trial which punished both the living and the dead…

With this tormented tale even more depth and drama were added to the greatest villain in the Marvel universe. His residency ended without warning; Doom resumed his status as the MU’s premier antagonist until Giant-Sized Super-Villain Team-Up #1 (cover-dated March 1975): again bathing the Iron Dictator in a starring spotlight beside aggrieved acquaintance The Sub-Mariner. The special and its sequel led to significant series Super-Villain Team-Up and major crossovers in The Avengers and The Champions.

Giant-Sized Super-Villain Team-Up #1 detailed how Doom and Namor grudgingly reunited, in a framing sequence by Thomas, John Buscema & Sinnott interlaced with reprints of previous meetings.

In the intervening years since FF #6, Sub-Mariner had won and lost his own series, despite some very radical and attention-grabbing stunts. At the close, surface dwellers dumped nerve-gas into the sea, accidently but catastrophically altering Namor’s hybrid body, forcing him to wear a hydrating-suit to breathe. The same toxin had plunged the entire nation of Atlantis into a perpetual coma…

Here, in ‘Encounter at Land’s End!’, Prince Namor – alone and pushed to the brink of desperation – rescues Doom from a deadly plunge to Earth after the Iron Dictator’s latest defeat (at the hands of the FF and Silver Surfer) in an impressive and effective framing sequence bracketing two classic reprint tales (the aforementioned ‘This Man… This Demon!’ and ‘In the Darkness Dwells Doom!’ from Sub-Mariner #20 – and not included in this already too-heavy tome).

Sub-Mariner is in dire need of scientific wizardry to cure his sleeping kin and prepared to offer an alliance against mankind to get it. Initially refused and rebuked by Doom, Namor refuses to back down…

Following Thomas’ editorial ‘The Road to Land’s End’, Giant-Sized Super-Villain Team-Up #2 sees Doom reconsider the partnership deal in ‘To Bestride the World!’ (June 1975, by Thomas, Mike Sekowsky & Sam Grainger) after his own vast robot army rebels. The crisis is caused by the tyrant’s long-lost Doomsman droid – in its new guise of Andro – who returns and co-opts the mechanoids for a war against all organic life. As a result of the blistering battle and extensive carnage-wreaking, Namor and Doom triumph together and part as uneasy allies, only to regroup in the pages of Super-Villain Team-Up #1 (beginning August 1975) in a chaotic ongoing series…

SVTU #13 (August 1977) ended the sleeping Atlantis storyline as Doom finally fulfilled his oath, and resurrected the comatose mer-people, but only after a blistering sub-sea battle between Namor, amphibian arch-nemesis Krang and a Brobdingnagian sea beast in ‘When Walks the Warlord!’ courtesy of Bill Mantlo, Keith Giffen & Don Perlin).

With Atlantis and Namor restored, a new era began in Super-Villain Team-Up #14 (October 1977). ‘A World for the Winning!’, by Mantlo, Bob Hall, Perlin & Duffy Vohland found mutant villain Magneto tricked into a duel with Doom who was at that moment de facto master of the world after since seeding the planet’s atmosphere with mind-control gas. Ever the sportsman, the Lord of Latveria released Magneto from mental control, allowing him to liberate one other thrall and challenging them both to save the world from his ultimate dominance…

It was SVTU’s last issue and the story concluded in The Champions #16 (November 1977) as the Master of Magnetism and The Beast overcame all odds to save the day in ‘A World Lost!’ (Mantlo, Hall & Mike Esposito).

Despite appearing seemingly everywhere we pick up Doom three years later as Amazing Spider-Man Annual #14 (1980) sees Frank Miller & Tom Palmer perfectly recapture the moody mastery of Steve Ditko’s peak periods. That year’s summer offering was a frantic magical mystery masterpiece scripted by Denny O’Neil wherein Doctor Doom and extra-dimensional dark god Dread Dormammu attempt to unmake Reality by invoking the Arcane Armageddon of “The Bend Sinister”.

‘The Book of the Vishanti’ reveals how an unsuspecting dupe captures Doctor Strange for the malevolent allies, almost unleashing cosmic hell with only the wondrous wallcrawler left to literally save the world: a thrilling confection of magic and mayhem that deeply references and reverences the glory days of Ditko, by channelling the legendary first team-up of webspinner and wizard from Spidey’s second annual.

Gathering Uncanny X-Men #145-147 – spanning May to July 1981 – Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum & Joe Rubinstein oversaw an extended clash of cultures with ‘Kidnapped!’ finding the mutant outcasts targeted by Doom. The assault was triggered through the machinations of deranged assassin Arcade, with half of the team – Storm, Colossus, Angel, Wolverine and Nightcrawler – invading the Diabolical Dictator’s castle whilst a substitute-squad consisting of Iceman, Polaris, Banshee and Havoc despatched to the latter maniac’s mechanised ‘Murderworld!’ to rescue innocent family and friends kidnapped as a preliminary to the plot…

Sadly, in the interim Doom triumphs over the invaders to his castle, but his act of entrapping claustrophobe Ororo backfires, triggering a ‘Rogue Storm!’ that threatens to erase the USA from the globe…

August and September 1981 heralded Iron Man #149-150, wherein David Michelinie, John Romita Jr. & Bob Layton crafted a time-travelling clash with Marvel’s deadliest villain. In ‘Doomquest!’ and ‘Knightmare’ the Armoured Avenger and Demon Doctor are trapped in the days of King Arthur and must unite to rebuild themselves and their tech as well as defeat evil Morgana Le Fey before they can return to their home time!

After achieving superstar status on The X-Men, writer/artist John Byrne moved on to carve out a one-man renaissance of the Fantastic Four, beginning with #232. He achieved his dream of relatively complete autonomy when assigned all the creative chores on Marvel’s flagship book and hit an early peak in #236’s ‘Terror in a Tiny Town’ (cover-dated November 1981).

His fifth issue was a 40-page epic crafted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the team: reprising the classic origin and crafting a classic confrontation with both Doctor Doom and Puppet Master. It remains one of the very best non-Kirby tales of the entire canon.

The Lord of Latveria returned in a thematic sequel in Fantastic Four #246 & 247 (cover-dated September & October 1982) as ‘Too Many Dooms’ saw the Iron Tyrant escape incarceration to launch a retaliatory strike against all his enemies and reclaim his shattered but free kingdom in concluding chapter ‘This Land is Mine!’

Another extended Doom saga appeared in FF #258-260 (September – November 1983) beginning with ‘Interlude’ as the newly reinstalled ruler schools and programs his appointed heir Kristoff in statecraft and dominance whilst preparing his next strike against his American enemies. Recruiting cosmic marauder Terrax the Tamer, he launches that attack in ‘Choices’, only to apparently perish when the Silver Surfer joins the escalating battle ‘When Titans Clash!’

Regarded as dead and replaced by Kristoff as a legacy tyrant, Victor Von Doom became the star of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars: kickstarting the seemingly insatiable modern passion for vast, braided mega-crossover publishing events, which came about because of an impending action figures licensing deal with toy monolith Mattel.

Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, a great advocate of tales accessible to new, younger readers as well as the dedicated fan-base, apparently concocted the rather simplistic but engaging saga starring the House of Ideas’ top characters: building his tale around a torrent of unsolicited, inspirational mail from readers, all begging for one huge dust-up between all the heroes and villains…

The 12-issue Limited Series launched with a May 1984 cover-date and closed (April 1985) with a double-sized blockbusting battle that left many characters changed forever – or at least as “Forever” as comics get…

The premise was that all-powerful force The Beyonder abducted many Earth heroes and villains – and Galactus – in a quest to understand the emotion of desire. The enigmatic, almighty entity dumped the abducted on a purpose-built Battleworld created from and populated with fragments of other planets as a vast arena in which to prove which was better: “self-gratification or sacrifice”…

As crafted by Shooter, Mike Zeck & John Beatty, it saw Avengers, X-Men, FF, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Doom, Molecule Man, Ultron, Dr. Octopus, the Lizard, Enchantress, Absorbing Man, Kang the Conqueror, Wrecking Crew and Galactus teleported into the deep unknown…

After Doom fails to convince his fellow villains of the underlying threat, he tries to join the heroes before in exasperation, taking charge for himself…

Represented here by Secret Wars #10-12 (February-April 1985), ‘Death to the Beyonder!’ sees Doom makes his move, using a hastily constructed device to absorb all the omnipotent instigator’s power, using the stolen energies to rebuild himself and declare the Secret War over with Doom the sole victor…

In ‘…And Dust to Dust!’, he exults in the joys of becoming omnipotent, but the troubled new god finds it hard to hang on to lust for conquest, or even personal ambition after achieving all-consuming divinity, and his benign acts and vapid indolence betray a certain lack of drive and ambition…

With heroes and villains nervously awaiting the new supreme one’s next move, events take a subtly disturbing turn as a strange energy wisp begins to possess a succession of heroes, making its way ever closer to the Doom Deity…

The other heroes remain deep in conference, debating their response to the self-proclaimed but apparently benevolent saviour of the universe. At the moment they finally decide to oppose him they are all vaporised by a bolt of energy…

Of course it doesn’t end there as the resurgent Beyonder battles through heroic and villainous proxies to reclaim his purloined power and put everything to rights – sort of – in blockbusting finale ‘…Nothing to Fear!…’

Returned to mortal life, he appears here next as Emperor Doom (1987): an all-original graphic novel conceived by Mark Gruenwald, Michelinie and Shooter, scripted by Michelinie and illustrated by Bob Hall with additional inking by Keith Williams.

The plot itself is delightfully sly and simple: for once eschewing rash attacks against assembled superheroes, deadly dictator Doom has devised a scheme to dominate humanity through subtler means. Inviting Sub-Mariner to act as his agent, the master villain uses the sub-sea anti-hero to neutralise mechanical heroes and rivals prior to using a pheromone-based bio-weapon to make all organic beings utterly compliant to his will. Naturally, Doom then betrays his aquatic ally…

Meanwhile, energy being Wonder Man is undergoing a month-long isolation experiment to determine the nature of his abilities. When he exits the chamber, he discovers the entire planet has willingly, joyously accepted Doom as their natural and beloved ruler. Alone and desperate, the last Avenger must devise a method of saving the world from its contented subjugation…

Of course there’s another side to this story. Doom, ultimately utterly successful, has turned the planet into an orderly, antiseptic paradise: no war, no want, no sickness and no conflict, just happy productive citizens doing what they’re told. In this totalitarian triumph, all trains run on time and nobody is discontented. All Doom has to do is accept heartfelt cheers and do the daily paperwork.

Sadly, with the entire world an idealised clone of Switzerland, the Iron Despot is bored out of his mind…

So it’s with mixed emotion that Doom realises Wonder Man and a select band of newly liberated Avengers are coming for him, determined to free the world or die…

Tense and compelling this intriguingly low-key tale abandoned traditional all-out action for a far more reasoned and sinisterly realistic solution – disappointing and baffling a large number of fans at the time – but the clever premise and solution, understated illustration and wickedly tongue-in-cheek attitude remove this yarn from the ordinary Fights ‘n’ Tights milieu and elevate it to one of the most chillingly mature Avengers epics ever produced.

It’s followed by another OGN: Triumph and Torment by Roger Stern, Michael Mignola & Mark Badger.

This occult odd couple concoction is one of the very best Marvel Universe yarns; a powerful tale contrasting the origins of the two doctors to produce effective motivations for and deeper insights into both characters.

Stephen Strange was America’s greatest surgeon, a vain and arrogant man who cared nothing for the sick, except as a means to wealth and glory. When a drunken car-crash ended his career, Strange hit the skids until an overheard barroom tall tale led him to Tibet, an ancient magician, and eventual enlightenment through daily redemption. He battles otherworldly evil as Sorcerer Supreme and Master of the Mystic arts.

When a magical call goes out to all the World’s adepts, offering a granted wish to the victor in a contest of sorcery, both Doom and Strange are among those gathered. After mystic combat reduces the assemblage to the two doctors, Doom’s granted wish is to rescue his mother’s soul from Hell…

A classic quest saga, Triumph & Torment saw the twinned mages storming the Underworld in a mission of vain hope and warped mercy, battling the hordes of Mephisto and their own natures in a mesmerizing epic of power and pathos.

Stern was at his absolute writing peak here and the unlikely art team of Mignola and Badger defy any superlatives I could use. The art is simply magical, especially the mesmerising colouring, also courtesy of Mr Badger. It’s augmented here by Macchio’s Afterword to the original release.

Writer/artist Walt Simonson and inker Allen Milgrom then end years of confusion in ‘The More Things Change…! (Or… It’s the Real Thing…’ (Fantastic Four #350, cover-dated March 1991) as Doom, Kristoff and countless rogue Doombots all battle to decide who’s the real deal: a conflict mirrored by two overlapping iterations of the FF also deciding – far less lethally – who will stay in the official line up. With treachery and betrayal everywhere, the tale concludes in Fantastic Four #352 (May 1991) as ‘No Time Like the Present! (Or… It Ain’t Funny How Time Slips Away!’ sees both clashes coincide as time itself is sundered and the bureaucratic myrmidons of the Time Variance Authority step in…

Some crucial clarity into all that chaos comes in Fantastic Four #358 (November 1991) as Tom DeFalco & Arthur Adams provide ‘The Official Story’ (A Tale of Doom!)’ to reset reality and usher in a less confused cosmos…

A beautifully painted vignette from Marvel Double Shot #2 (February 2003 by Christopher Priest & Paolo Rivera), ‘Masks’ is a character piece revealing how a psychological assassin almost ends the tyranny of Doom before Fantastic Four (volume 3) #67-70 & (volume 1) #500 – cumulatively spanning May-September 2003 – sees the villain reinvent himself and almost win his eternal war against Reed Richards. This saga concluded the FF’s third volume before the series reverted to its original numbering with #500: capping a spectacular run by writer Mark Waid and illustrator Mike Wieringo, gloriously celebrating their “back-to-basics” approach which utterly rejuvenated the venerable property in 2003.

Key to that revival was a reassessment and reappraisal of their greatest foe as seen in ‘Under her Skin’ (#67, inked by Karl Kesel) wherein Doom abandons his technological gifts and inclinations, rejecting them for overwhelming sorcerous might to humiliate and destroy his greatest rival. All he must do is sacrifice his greatest love and only hope of redemption…

This terrifying glimpse into Doom’s past and shocking character study in obsession was but prologue to 4-part epic ‘Unthinkable’ which opened one month later. Waid’s greatest gift is his ability to embed hilarious moments of comedy into tales of shattering terror and poignant drama, and it’s never better displayed than here when Marvel’s First Family suddenly find their daily antics and explorations ripped from them.

The method is straightforward enough: Doom attacks them through their children, using baby Valeria as a medium for eldritch exploitation and sending firstborn Franklin Richards to Hell as part payment to the demons to whom the debased doctor has sold the last dregs of his soul…

A supreme technologist, Richards had never truly accepted the concept of magic, but with Mystic Master Stephen Strange oddly unwilling to help, the reeling and powerless Mr. Fantastic nonetheless leads his team to Latveria for a showdown, still unable to grasp just how much his arch-foe has changed.

Invading the sovereign – if rogue – nation, the team fight the greatest battle of their lives and lose anyway. The normally quicksilver mind of Richards seems unable to deal with his new reality and the FF are locked away in prisons specifically and sadistically designed to torment them. As a sign of his utter disdain, Doom locks his broken rival in a colossal library of grimoires and mystic manuscripts, knowing the defeated, dogmatic scientist can never make use of what is there. Big mistake…

Before attacking the FF, Doom had ensorcelled Dr. Strange, but greatly underestimated the Sorcerer Supreme. Struggling to free himself, the mage established contact with Richards and began teaching the unbelieving ultra-rationalist the basics of magic…

By the time Doom discovers his danger, Reed has freed his comrades and daughter. In the catastrophic battle which ensues, the Iron Dictator replaces Franklin as the hostage of Hell, but not before, in one final act of malice, maiming Reed with searing mystic retaliation: melting half his face by means neither magic nor medicine can mend…

Although victorious, the Fantastic Four are far from winners. Doom’s assault upon the family has scarred them all, but none more so than Franklin, whose time in Hell left him deeply traumatised and near-catatonic.

Dwayne McDuffie, Casey Jones & Vince Russell then deliver a restrained psycho-drama in ‘My Dinner with Doom’ (Fantastic Four Special, February 2006). Here the rivals intellectually sparr: testing each other’s defences as the Latverian simultaneously seeks to wipe out all his lesser enemies.

The story portion of this book concludes as Ed Brubaker, Pablo Raimondi, Mark Farmer, Drew Hennessy & Robin Riggs revisit, in-fill, expand and apply mature modern nuance to Doom’s origins and life in Books of Doom #1-6 (January-June 2006) detailing again how a hounded boy became a wounded exile who overcame all obstacles – physical, emotional and ethical – to become supreme ruler of Latveria and menace to all mankind…

The comic classics are supplemented by a gallery of covers by Kirby – with Sinnott, Ayers, Wood & Giacoia; Ditko, Lieber, Colletta; Marie Severin, Bill Everett. John Buscema, John Verpoorten, Esposito, John Romita Sr., Herb Trimpe; Ron Wilson, Gil Kane, Giffen, Byrne, Terry Austin, Miller, Cockrum, John Romita Jr., Simonson, Zeck, Hall, Williams, Mignola, Paul Ryan, Joe Jusko, Wieringo, Kesel, Rivera and Leinil Francis Yu with even more to adore.

The graphic grimoire continues with a section of Doom pinups from Fantastic Four Annual #1 (1963, by Kirby), Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1(1964, by Ditko), Marvelmania Poster (1970, by Kirby) and Quotations from Chairman Doom 1984 (F.O.O.M. #4 Winter 1973, by Robert Cosgrove Kirby); Doom’s entry from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition (1985, by Gruenwald, Peter Sanderson, Byrne & Kirby), spoof ads from Marvel 1989: The Year in Review (by Mignola, Gregory Wright) plus a Marvel Masterwork Pin-up by Ron Frenz & Sinnott from Fantastic Four #358.

Dedicated art lovers can luxuriate in layouts, design sketches and unused art from Wieringo and the covers to The Villainy of Doctor Doom TPB (1999 by Kirby, Klaus Janson & Marie Javins) – plus Tom Brevoort’s Introduction to that tome – and earlier Doom depictions revisited in this big book.

These include covers to Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four vol. 4 (Kirby & Dean White) and Fantastic Four Annual #7 (1969, Kirby & Sinnott); Spider-Man Classics #6 (Frenz & Austin, September 1993); Spider-Man Collectible Series #11 (Frenz & Milgrom, October 2006); X-Men Classic #49 & 51 (Steve Lightle, July & September 1990); Iron Man vs. Doctor Doom (Julie Bell, 1994); Greatest Villains of the Fantastic Four TPB (Vince Evans 1995), variant covers to Emperor Doom and Triumph and Torment, Fantastic Four #500 Directors Cut (2003 by Wieringo, Kesel & Richard Isanove.

Sheer comic enchantment, this a book no lover of the fantastic fiction can afford to ignore -just as long as they eat plenty of Spinach…
© 2022 MARVEL

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The Phantom Sundays Archive volume 1 – Full-Size Newspaper Strips: 1939-1942


By Lee Falk & Ray Moore: introduction by Daniel Herman (Hermes Press)
ISBN: ?978-1-61345-081-9 (HB/Digital edition), ?978-1-61345-091-8 (Limited Edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Landmark and Lovely Comics Adventure… 9/10

Born Leon Harrison Gross, Lee Falk created the Jungle Avenger at the request of his King Features Syndicate employers who were already making history, public headway and loads of money with his first strip sensation Mandrake the Magician. Although technically not the first ever costumed champion in comics, The Phantom became the prototype paladin to wear a skin-tight body-stocking and the first to have a mask with opaque eye-slits…

The Ghost Who Walks debuted on February 17th 1936 in an extended sequence pitting him against an ancient global confederation of pirates. Falk wrote and drew the daily strip for the first two weeks before handing over illustration to artist Ray Moore. The spectacular and hugely influential Sunday feature gathered here began in May 1939.

For such a long-lived, influential series, in terms of compendia or graphic collections, The Phantom has been quite poorly served in the English language market (except in the Antipodes, where he has always been accorded the status of a pop culture god).

Numerous companies have sought to collect strips from one of the longest continually running adventure serials in publishing history, but in no systematic or chronological order and never with any sustained success. That began to be rectified when archival specialists Hermes Press began offering curated collections…

This particular edition is a lovely and large landscape hardback (but also available in digital formats), displaying a complete full colour Sunday per page. Released in May 2015, it was printed on matt paper to mimic the original newsprint experience: 160 pages measuring 310 x 430 mm, and also in a Special Limited Edition of 1000 copies, should you require your reading matter to double as an antiquarian artefact…

It’s still readily available in digital form and – stuffed with sumptuous visual goodies like movie posters, comics covers and original art – Daniel Herman’s ‘Introduction: The Phantom’s First Foray into Color’ – tells all you need to know about the character, his creators, and predecessor/co-star before the vintage magic begins…

It opens with a recapped origin: showing how 400 years previously, a British sailor survived an attack by pirates, and – washing ashore on the African coast – swore on the skull of his father’s murderer to dedicate his life and that of his descendants to destroying all pirates and criminals. The Phantom fights crime and injustice from a base deep in the jungles of Bengali, and throughout Africa and Asia is known as the “Ghost Who Walks”…

His unchanging appearance and unswerving war against injustice led to his being considered an immortal avenger by the uneducated, credulous and wicked. Down the decades, one champion after another has fought and died in an unbroken family line, with the latest wearer of the mask indistinguishable from the first and proudly continuing the never-ending battle.

‘The League of Lost Men’ spanned May 28th to October 15th 1939, detailing how a gang of white thugs led by untutored brute Twitchy began teaching rural tribes the concept of the “protection racket”. With villagers killed and entire communities aflame, the Ghost took action just as white entomologist Professor Thrush and his beautiful, dutiful daughter Helen stumbled into the army of criminals whilst searching for skull-emblazoned Death’s Head moths…

With the scientists as hostages, the Phantom was reduced to playing a waiting game, but detective work revealed his enemies comprised hundreds of convicts escaped from a foundered prison ship. Gravely outnumbered, our hero and lupine assistant Devil (that’s a wolf. Yes, in Africa. Just go with it…) employ psychological warfare, using those skull moths and combat skills in a war of attrition bringing the legion to doom or reincarceration…

International espionage and environmental terrorism informed ‘The Precious Cargo of Colonel Winn’ (October 15th 1939 March 10th 1940) as the Phantom fails to save an aging British agent and takes over his identity and mission: delivering a crucial coded message to India. As a consequence he soundly scuppers a scheme to blow up a major dam, drown hundreds of people and kill millions more through thirst…

Every saga featured powerful, capable and remarkably attractive women as both heroes and villains, but Falk & Moore went a step further with ‘The Fire Goddess’ (March 17th – July 21st 1940). Restored to Africa, the hero faced mass uprisings and the end of “The Phantom’s Peace” when the Mesabi people took up their belligerent old religion. Some diligent investigation uncovered another get-rich-quick scheme by white crooks and an elderly Mesabi seer who jointly conned and compelled a beautiful red-haired nightclub dancer into being their personal war deity.

Once the Ghost finally liberated Manna Day from her captors and inflicted his brand of justice, he assumed he’d seen the last of her but she was back immediately as ‘The Beachcomber’ (July 28th – December 29th 1940) found her rescuing deranged hobo Whitey, slowly expiring on an African shoreline.

Befriending the degenerate, she uncovered a horrific tale of injustice as her fellow American revealed how he was a fugitive: perfectly framed for murder by his own lawyer. Manna decided it was a case for her masked friend…

After dragging Whitey across the continent to the fabled Skull Cave, she convinced the hero to head for the USA where “Kit Walker” made them extremely conspicuous in New York, drawing the attention of a slick murder-for-hire mob, assassinating powerful people and duping innocents into carrying the can – just as they had with Whitey…

Infiltrating the group, Walker uses his new position to save an honest Judge before deftly dismantling the killer corporation.

Heading home, he was barely out of the judge’s house before the next escapade began as he overheard plans of ‘The Saboteurs’ (January 5th February 23rd 1941) at a railway station. With Devil beside him, The Ghost Who Walks tumbled into an escalating sequence of stunning action set-pieces involving trains, planes, automobiles – even oil pipelines and roller coasters! – as he wiped out the seditious enemy agents.

The remainder of this initial outing features movie-length extravaganza ‘The Return of the Sky Band’ (running March 2nd 1941 to February 22nd 1942). The first clash had been The Phantom’s second published case (originally published in black-&-white Daily form from 9th November 1936 to April 10th 1937): pitting the Grim Ghost against merciless aviators plundering passenger planes and cargo flights.

His crusade against cloud bandits ruthlessly raiding passenger planes and airships throughout the orient only shattered the gang – comprised solely of women – after his manly charms inadvertently drove a fatal wedge between deranged and deadly commander The Baroness and her ambitious second in command Sala…

Now as the hero reaches home, news comes of more air piracy and The Phantom volunteers his services to an embattled air clipper company. All too soon, he’s matching wits with Sala again, hunting the new Sky Band’s secret island base. And once again he ends up in jail accused of masterminding their crimes…

However, before he can escape police custody, the air pirates make a fatal error, allying with an enemy power. Very soon the women learn that they are far from the apex predators they consider themselves. When the Phantom escapes, he’s not sure if he’s shutting them down or saving them.

Sala’s deputy Margo has no doubts or qualms though, delivering their potential saviour to the enemy military, only to have the Ghost Who Walks wreak awful vengeance on their sailors as they flee in a submarine…

However, even with a secret invasion foiled and Sala and Margo arrested, the danger is not over, and their attempts to get away leads to a horrific act of sabotage as the enemy submariners also break free…

Only another unlikely alliance saves the day, and sees a return to relative stability in a world teetering on the edge of another global war…

To Be Continued…

Taken from America’s immediate pre-war period, these brief encounters are uncomplicated fare, full of lost kingdoms and savage tribes, very bad guys and fallen but still redeemable dames; but thrilling yet reassuring entertainment for all that. Finally rediscovered, these lost treasures are especially rewarding as the material is still fresh, entertaining and addictively compelling.

But, even if it were only of historical value (or just printed for Australians – who have long been manic devotees of the implacable champion) surely the Ghost Who Walks is worthy of a little of your time?
The Phantom® © 1939-1942 and 2015 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings, Inc.; reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. Introduction © 2015 Daniel Herman.

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Marzi volume 1: Little Carp


By Marzena Sowa & Sylvain Savoia, translated by Anjali Singh/Mediatoon Licensing (Europe Comics)
No ISBN: digital edition only ASIN: B07417JCN3

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Lyrical, Lovely, Laughter-Laced and Laudable… 10/10

It’s getting close to everyone’s most anticipated and ultimately disappointing festival time, and this year more than any other, the lead-up has been peppered with misery, anxiety, actual tragedy and terror. However, whatever your spiritual or official seasonal leanings – and None at All now officially counts as a denomination in the UK – the season for miracles and wonders always sparks our communal hope for something different and better so I’ve unearthed this lost delight to foster a little hope and joy…

As you’re surely aware by now, our Continental cousins are exceeding adept at exploring humanity’s softer and more introspective sides through the medium of comics, and this first tome in a sequence detailing the life of a little Polish girl growing up in an era of huge social change is a masterclass in emotive, evocative, vibrantly funny and ruthlessly sensitive storytelling to delight our senses by quietly affirming that people everywhere are basically the same…

Originally released in France in 2005 as Marzi, tome 1. Petite carpe this enthralling and charming episodic collation was the first of seven cartoon memoires by writer Marzena Sowa and her work/life partner Sylvain Savoia. They had met when she came to Paris from Poland as an exchange student, and he – a successful cartoonist and graphic novelist – soon realised the potential of her anecdotes as she spoke of growing up in a Soviet satellite nation at the tail end of the Cold War…

Their published collaborations were a hit in Europe and the story was first translated into English in 2011 for DC/Vertigo. At that time, media hype concentrated on the political aspects of her background, but if you can when reading this version, try to ignore that, just as the creators do.

It’s a shaping element and plot point, like boarding at Hogwarts or growing up in the Teen Titans, but never what the stories are about. This a tale of childhood and taking happiness wherever you find it, not a kids adventure like Emil and the Detectives or a historical horror story like The Diary of Anne Frank…

Marzna Sowa was born in Stalowa Wola, Podkarpackia, Poland on April 8th 1979. She grew up mostly ordinary like all her friends and family, but after achieving maturity during some of the most eventful years of the 20th century, in 2001 changed her life path. She left the Jagiellonian University of Krakow for the University of Bordeaux to complete studies in Literature.

On meeting Sylvain Savoia, mutual attraction became a working partnership and the first autobiographical Marzi volume came in 2005. The last to date was released in 2017. Her other award-winning tales include N’embrassez pas qui voulez, (Don’t Kiss Who You Want, 2013, art by Sandrine Revel) and Tej nocy dzika paprotka, (with Berenika Kolomycka).

After further schooling to become a videographer, Sowa has moved into Cinema, writing screenplays and directing documentaries while continuing to script comics such as La Grande Métamorphose de Théo (2022, with Geoffrey Delinte) and La Petite Évasion (2022, with Dorothée de Monfreid).

Her first collaborator Sylvain Savoia was born in 1969 in Reims and initially studied at the Saint Luc Institute in Brussels. In 1993 he co-founded art workshop 510TTC and crafted his first comics – Reflets Perdus – from a script by Jean-David Morvan, before beginning their extended series Nomad. Later successes included Al’Togoat (2003), Les Esclaves oubliés de Tromelin and Henri Cartier-Bresson, Allemagne 1945, supplemented by poster making, advertising art and training manual illustration and design.

Since 2018 he has helmed educational series Le Fil de l’Histoire raconté par Ariane & Nino, and enjoyed further success with Sowa in Les esclaves oubliés de Tromelin and Petit Pays. In 2020 he was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.

It begins as Christmas looms. ‘Communism doesn’t kill your appetite’ introduces 7-year-old Marzi, who’s nervously gearing up for the big day. It’s not about presents, but the fact that very soon every flat in the apartment block everybody she knows live in will have a fish in the bath. There are always shortages and long queues at the housing estate store, but somehow the market always has a carp for every customer to make the season traditional and perfect…

Marzi is smart and observant but perhaps thinks too much. She’s also – to her excitably loud and frequently angry mum’s consternation – a very picky eater, only barely aware of the effort her dad must make to get the fish. Of course the daughter is grateful, but also deeply concerned about once again sharing their toilet/bathroom with the creature until they eat her…

The situation sparks deep thoughts about eating animals. Marzi is luckier than most of her friends as her Aunt Niusia lives on a farm and the family always have access to extra food. However, the child’s visits are always fraught with unnoticed pragmatic brutality. Marzi has met cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens, cats, dogs and other creatures and fully understands why mum says you shouldn’t give animals names, but it doesn’t stop her trying to form a bond with the fish in the bath…

We learn more of her life on ‘The Social Landing’ where Marzi and the other kids in the block congregate. State controlled housing is short on amenities and variety (there are only two kinds of apartment available – small or bigger) and no play facilities, so the kids cluster around the elevator on her floor (the fifth) and play games vertically. Their favourite is messing with the lift buttons so that the carriage stops at every floor and they also like ringing doorbells and running away. Marzi is great at the latter but hampered in the former as she’s afraid of using the grim grey box and will always use the stairs if she can…

She has a strong bond with Andrzej, Magda, both Anias and especially feisty Monika, who always leads at everything, like that time Ania (1) and Andrzej’s mother pierced all their ears (except Andrzej and baby Magda!) and Monika’s mum gave them all their first earrings…

‘A carpet for life’ charmingly reveals the Poles’ utter obsession with ornate rugs and floor coverings and ‘Sun in winter’ details queuing culture and the Kupon (coupon system) dictating the dissemination of goods and foodstuffs, as seen through the eyes of the child stamping her freezing feet beside dad in the never-decreasing line for oranges: offering insights into what Marzi will and won’t eat and what her formidable mother will do to ensure fair shares for all…

Although she’s still young, Marzi spends a goodly part of her day ‘At School’. The cooks there understand her and the hot breakfasts are far more palatable. There are games and books and singing too and only thing she doesn’t like is how the little kids drool all over the toys…

It was always cold in the Soviet Union, and ‘Skowierszyn’ shares the joys of snow and sledding and visiting grandma who gets fashion magazines from cousin Janusz who works abroad. These are supposedly for Niusia – who is also a skilled seamstress – but become a beautiful inspiration for Marzi to stretch her mind and clothe her adored plastic doll…

More queuing – meat this time – is highlighted on ‘The Night of Waiting’ with dad and Uncle Zdzich making military style preparations to ensure success, after which Marzi develops deep shame and some potentially lifelong hang-ups when ordered to join the party to secure toilet paper in ‘Some poetry in rolls’…

Although dictatorial by diktat and “Communist” by command, Poland remained devoutly Catholic under Russian rule and we jump to the second most important event in the religious calendar for ‘A very wet Easter’ as Marzi and her folks head to rural Kamien to enjoy the festival with mum’s family. A hardworking, hard-drinking farming family dad cannot keep up with, their freer attitudes and lifestyle are a revelation to the child – as are the rather scary religious rituals they enjoy – but not as much as Marzi’s miraculous brush with death and subsequent notoriety after falling into a still frozen and exceedingly deep pond…

Dad works with Zdzich in the Huta Stalowa Wola, the city’s only factory, and that has its own perks, as seen in ‘All for one’ when every worker simultaneously takes the opportunity to buy a new fridge from the consignment just delivered, before his attempts at home entertainment give way to national fervour in ‘Our hero, the Pope!’ as Polish Pontiff John-Paul II makes his landmark visit. Of course the captivated adults never expected Marzi and her gang to recreate the event in their own inimitable irreverent manner, combining pomp and circumstance with a new block game involving the garbage chutes…

Although perhaps understandable, in the past many western observers have over-concentrated on the totalitarian regime (which is all but absent in this volume) and placed too heavy an emphasis on Soviet-spawned shortages, to the detriment of the real message here – that kids live in their own world and always try make the best of what they have.

Just imagine what British kids now will be writing about in 20 years when recalling their so-privileged childhoods of unnecessary privation, cold, and hunger in the soon-to-be nostalgia-ridden years of 2021 to 2024…

A skilfully shaped and gloriously enthralling paean to growing up in interesting times (and aren’t they all?), Little Carp is a celebration of independent thought: blending pranks in lifts and staircases, new fun with familial strangers and with doing the tedious stuff adults tell you to. Making fun where you can as your awareness deepens and a mature world is built by ever-expanding experience, and how we all grow up to be our parent in unbalanced doses of imitation and utter rejection…

The more observant amongst you might have noticed that my extended family is Polish and I have some actual experience of life under the Soviets back then. My many, many cousins experienced lives very like Marzi’s and endured the mixed Christmas delights of a big fish sharing your house before being reluctantly consumed, as well as all the other different but similar minor moments of growing up. If pushed, they might talk of shortages and restrictions, but they’d far rather discuss music or movies or football. And sex. They always want to know who’s doing who, but maybe that’s just my lot…

Everything else was just dull grown up stuff: boring, inescapable but sometimes delayable and just the way things were.

Marzi is definitely about independence and freedom, but it’s personal not national and inherently hopeful: the tale of a fish out of water learning to swim her own way. If you want polemical condemnation and supportive sympathy for your own prejudices, look somewhere else. Better yet, stick around and see how a delightful and unique individual lived her own best life…
© 2017 – DUPUIS – SOWA & SAVOIA. All rights reserved.

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Algorithmic Reality


By Damian Bradfield & David Sánchez (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-306-6 (PB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-307-3

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: You Better Watch Out, You Better Take Care… 9/10

In the modern world we are constantly watching and perpetually watched. We are society but society follows us everywhere even as it isolates us, and we cannot escape or avoid it. Are we unconscious or willing subjects of voyeuristic scrutiny or complacent participants in an increasingly intrusive overwatch culture that we really want but may not need?

This compelling graphic clarion cry wryly questions if that’s the randomly evolving progress of a wild system or somehow the gameplan of more sinister forces. Is unified technology, with all its benefits and instant gratifications the servant and builder of a truly integrated uniform and global society or just the newest means of a certain sort of predator (let’s call them “Tech-Barons”) making us all both cash cow and component consumer in a perpetually self-sustaining closed system – an internet battery farm where us chickens are both consumer AND product?

It’s clear that for many of us, our digital tools are now inescapable, essential, inimical and ultimately faithless and disloyal…

Comics are a nigh-universal, extremely powerful media that lend themselves to a host of topics and genres, but the area where it has always shone brightest is in its chimeric capacity for conveying complex arguments in a clear and compelling manner. Although daubing marks on a surface is possibly our oldest art form, the potential to ask questions, make stories and concisely communicate via that primal process remains infinitely adaptable to modern mores and as powerful as it ever was in exploring the unchanging basics of the human condition.

Narrative plus image – and the interactions such conjunctions can embrace – underpin all of our communal existence and form the primary source for how we view our distant forbears; especially as if employed by incisive, sensitive, uncompromising agents and interlocutors…

Here UK author, eminent digital pioneer, “tech exec” and lifelong comics fan Damien Bradfield posits in pictorial form some crucial and chilling questions about how and by whom, for what purpose and to what ends digital technologies have become such an inescapable and imperative force.

Casting a nervous yet knowing eye on the inept antisocial elites – Super-Rich mavericks spawned by manipulating Big Tech – Bradfield conjures up – via mordant, if not trenchant -incisiveness a sequence of ironically dystopian scenarios made chillingly clear and pervasively memorable by Spanish illustrator David Sánchez González.

Co-Founder of WeTransfer and its Chief Creative & Sustainability Officer, Damien Bradfield is also its Chief Strategy Officer, having created digital platform WePresent, co-founded digital design studio Present Plus, and formed illustration platform Kuvva. He owned an art gallery in Amsterdam and prior to all that worked for all the top advertising companies and Stella McCartney.

In 2019 he wrote The Trust Manifesto: What you Need to do to Create a Better Internet (discussing online privacy, trust and Big Data) and began by scoring a degree from the London School of Economics and Politics. You can regularly hear him on the Influence podcast…

Shaping thought and controlling information is also a deep concern for artist, designer and illustrator Sánchez: a solidly refined, intellectual draughtsman expert in restrained and understated imagery strongly influenced by Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes and Hergé. Among his most impressive and disturbing publications are Tú me has matado, No cambies nunca, La Muerte en los ojos and his illustrations for Robert Desnos’ El Destripador.

In Algorithmic Reality they combine to unleash sedately ironic speculations on where we are as a planet and where we’re going as a species in a range of wildly enchanting modern fables exploring our relationship with commerce, with particular emphasis on Short-termism, privacy, social media herd mentality, the tyranny of choice and information control. After all, isn’t Data the new fossil fuel: precious, invaluable, easily used, but so very dangerous when – not if – overexploited and misused?

Everyday tasks, major achievements, personal breakthrough and moments without merit jostle beside strange days and minor miracles in this tome, beginning with ‘Shoes’ as a visit to a store results in a sales assistant refusing to accept no sale as an outcome and doggedly stalking the failed purchaser, with confrontational encounters in the park, other stores and further inducements. By exploring how we’d react if a human vendor in the offline world behaved the same way as internet sales tools and bots do, the creators make a chilling point about pester power and the wisdom of making that first enquiry…

A search for ‘Insurance’ makes an equally distressing point about why a single simple sales transaction demands the surrender of so much apparently “necessary” extraneous personal detail just to secure a cheaper tariff after which ‘Shopping’ sees a one-off, first time buyer stumble into a sales emporium entirely patronised by shopping zombies programmed by repeated use of the system to make their needs accommodate the company’s demands…

A manifested nightmare for all collectors, ‘The Hoarder’ charts the inescapable downfall of an outlier and avowed social pervert who clings to physical objects rather than embracing digital experiences. His reluctance to abandon physical currency, books, vinyl records, polaroid photos and human interactions inevitably lead to Byron’s incarceration for “Data Avoidance” and “Health and Safety violations”…

Closing this packet of prophecy is ‘California Boomtowns Tour’, as an experience tourist takes the bus for a quick round up of all the Golden States’ boom-&-bust fads: accessing in person and a strictly curated abbreviated manner the desolate but so-picturesque remnants of gold mining, oil-drilling, Hollywood and pop music celebrity, computing and the property speculation that destroyed Silicon Valley, ending on the terrifying prospect of offworld expansion for the Next Big Things…

Being told that your personal electronics actually own you and incessantly work to make you targeted, monetizable fodder for attention-seeking, plutocratic weirdoes and faceless corporations is not new information, but seeing how masking that message works has never been more entertainingly handled than here. Bradfield and Sánchez deftly fudge and blur the line between offline and digital worlds: asking that readers look and think again.

Re-examining with wit and deadpan humour the addictive power of social media, enhanced and weaponised conformity, clandestine invasion of privacy and the appalling harmful potential of illicitly harvested, misused persona data, Algorithmic Reality demonstrates that there’s a such a thing as too much connectivity, and a little personal space is no bad thing…
Text and illustrations © 2021, 2022 Damian Bradfield and David Sánchez. All rights reserved. © 2022 NBM for the English translation.

Algorithmic Reality is scheduled for release on December 13th 2022 and is available for pre-order now. For more information and other great reads see http://www.nbmpub.com/. Most NBM books are available in digital formats…

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Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection volume 8: Man-Wolf at Midnight 1973-1975


By Gerry Conway Ross Andru, Gil Kane, John Romita, Paul Reinman & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-3350-0 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Astounding Arachnid Amazement… 9/10

Amazing Spider-Man was a comic book that matured with – or perhaps just slightly ahead of – its fan-base. This epic compendium of chronological webspinning wonderment sees the World’s Most Misunderstood Hero facing even greater and evermore complex challenges as he slowly recovers from the trauma of losing his true love and greatest enemy in the same horrific debacle…

Once original co-creator Stan Lee replaced himself with young author Gerry Conway, the scripts acquired a more contemporary tone (which of course often feels quite outdated from here in the 21st century): purportedly more in tune with the times whilst the emphatic use of soap opera subplots kept older readers glued to the series even when the bombastic battle sequences didn’t.

Moreover, as a sign of those times, a hint of cynical surrealism also began creeping in…

Thematically, there’s a decline in old-fashioned gangsterism and a growing dependence on outlandish villains. The long-established balance of costumed super-antagonists with thugs, hoods and mob-bosses was gradually tipping and a global resurgence in supernatural stories resulted in more monsters and uncanny happenings…

Nevertheless, the wallcrawler was still indisputably mainstream comics’ voice of youth and defined being a teen for readers of the 1970s: facing incredible hardships, fantastic foes and the most pedestrian and debilitating of frustrations.

For newcomers – or those just visiting thanks to the latest Spider-Man movies: Smart-but-alienated Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider during a school trip. Discovering strange superhuman abilities which he augmented with his own natural chemistry, physics and engineering genius, the kid did what any lonely, geeky nerd would do with such newfound prowess: he tried to cash in for girls, fame and money.

Making a costume to hide his identity in case he made a fool of himself, Parker became a minor media celebrity – and a criminally vainglorious one. To his eternal regret, when a thief fled past him one night he didn’t lift a finger to stop him, only to find when he returned home that his guardian uncle Ben Parker had been murdered.

Crazed and vengeful, Peter hunted the assailant who’d made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known. He discovered to his horror that it was the self-same felon he had neglected to stop. His irresponsibility had resulted in the death of the man who raised him, and the traumatised boy swore to forevermore use his powers to help others.

Since that night, the Wondrous Wallcrawler tirelessly battled miscreants, monsters and madmen, with a fickle, ungrateful public usually baying for his blood even as he perpetually saves them.

Now the high school nerd has grown up and gone to college. Because of his guilt-fuelled double-life he struggles there too – even developing a stress ulcer – but finds abiding love with cop’s daughter Gwen Stacy… until she is murdered by the Green Goblin. Now Parker must pick up the pieces of his life…

This stunning compilation reprints Amazing Spider-Man #124-142 and Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1: collectively covering cover-dates September 1973 to March 1975, affirming an era of astounding introspective drama and captivating creativity.

As previously stated, at this time horror was on the rise and the trend permeated all aspects of Marvel continuity. In #124, J. Jonah Jameson’s astronaut son John was revealed to have picked up a strange gem during a unofficial moonwalk which later transformed him into a lupine beast bearing ‘The Mark of the Man-Wolf!’ by Conway, Gil Kane & John Romita.

Deranged and deadly, the hairy horror stalks his own fiancée Kristine Saunders as well as his scandal-obsessed, newspaper-publisher father, with a gravely-traumatised, fighting-mad Spider-Man reacting in a far more brutal manner than ever before…

The conclusion marked the official debut of the title’s next star penciller as Ross Andru joined Conway and Romita to delineate the end of the Man-Wolf saga in ‘Wolfhunt!’: offering a particularly grisly cure for the ethereally-altered astronaut…

In #126, a new subplot bloomed as a marketing firm hires the astounded and unbelieving arachnid to build a “Spider-Mobile” (thanks to a budding toy-merchandising deal Marvel was then negotiating) whilst an old and extremely inept enemy returns as ‘The Kangaroo Bounces Back!’ (drawn by Andru and inked by Jim Mooney).

Short of cash and desperate, Spidey ropes in best frenemy Johnny (Human Torch) Storm to help assemble the anticipated automobile, but is totally unprepared for his Australian attacker since bouncing bounder has endured a rapid and ultimately unwelcome power upgrade from a rogue – and extremely deranged – doctor named Jonas Harrow…

Meanwhile, in the apartment Peter still shares with Harry Osborn (son of the Green Goblin), his flatmate finally succumbs to the mental illness that has been sucking him down since the death of dear old Dad…

Peter’s frivolous party-loving friend Mary Jane Watson comes under the spotlight in #127 as ‘The Dark Wings of Death!’ – inked by Frank Giacoia & Dave Hunt – finds her targeted by a strangely familiar monster who believes she witnessed his last kill. The mystery concludes in ‘The Vulture Hangs High!’ wherein an incredible truth about the avian atavist is revealed. Moreover, portents of future catastrophe manifest as Parker’s biology tutor Professor Miles Warren warns that the scholarship student’s grades are slipping and his position is far from secure…

Conway, Andru, Giacoia & Hunt crafted a true landmark in comics history in Amazing Spider-Man #129 with ‘The Punisher Strikes Twice!’: introducing not only the renegade gunslinger but also nefarious manic mastermind The Jackal.

Although one of the industry’s biggest hits from the late 1980s onwards, compulsive vengeance-taker Frank Castle was always an unlikely and uncomfortable star for comic books. His methods are always excessively violent and usually permanent. It’s intriguing to note that unlike most heroes who debuted as villains (Black Widow, Hawkeye and Wolverine immediately come to mind) The Punisher actually became more immoral, anti-social and murderous, not less: the buying public simply shifted its communal perspective as the Punisher never toned down or cleaned up his act…

He was created by Conway, Romita Sr. and Andru; an understandably sanitised and muted response to popular prose anti-heroes like Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan: the Executioner: the cutting edge of a bloody tide of fictive Viet Nam vets who all turned their training and talents to wiping out organised crime in the early 1970s.

In this short, sharp shocker the man with the skull on his chest is duped by his manipulative partner into hunting Spider-Man. Still a suspect in the death of Norman Osborn, the hero is easy to frame for the murder of the Punisher’s personal armourer and gunmaker…

A long-running mystery over Aunt May’s connection to Doctor Otto Octavius is at last addressed in #130 as ‘Betrayed!’ finds up-&-coming gang boss Hammerhead prodded and provoked by the Jackal, just as arch-rival Doctor Octopus resurfaces.

Distracted by his now-completed Spider-Mobile, the webslinger is slow to react …until he finally discovers why May Parker is so important to the villain, but by then she’s in the process of becoming Mrs. Otto Octavius…

Spider-Man is just about to bust up the wedding in ‘My Uncle… My Enemy?’ when Hammerhead beats him to it. As the three-way war escalates, the truth comes out. May has inexplicably inherited a desolate Canadian island which just happens to be teeming with uranium deposit, and its own Fast Breeder Atomic Reactor, which both Ock and Hammerhead want to secure as the means to becoming an independent nuclear power. When the rival rogues furiously clash, it’s all Peter can do to get May out before the entire place becomes an atomic inferno…

Illustrated by John Romita Sr., Paul Reinman & Tony Mortellaro, fresh moody mystery welcomes the weary Spider-Man back to New York after saving Aunt May from becoming a collateral casualty of atomic armageddon as he stumbles into ‘The Master Plan of the Molten Man!’ It begins when old school flame Liz Allen resurfaces needing help. Peter has no idea she is secretly trying to help her criminal stepbrother…

As a super-strong metal-skinned bandit Mark Raxton was only a minor inconvenience to the wallcrawler, but now his chemically induced condition has worsened and he is swiftly turning into an incandescent human fireball. However, by the time ‘The Molten Man Breaks Out!’ in #133 – illustrated by new regular creative team Andru and inkers Giacoia & Hunt – there’s nothing the hero can do but fight until one of them is dead…

Slightly adrift of publishing chronology, next comes a classic monster action yarn from Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1. With the monster boom in full swing, Marvel during this period flooded newsstands with horror-themed heroes and antiheroes and cannily teamed two of the Amazing Arachnid’s eeriest enemies in a double-length epic as ‘Man-Wolf at Midnight!’ – by Conway, Kane & Mike Esposito – finds John Jameson again gripped by murderous moon-madness. This time, however, the tormented former astronaut has been enthralled by Living Vampire Morbius and used to help that bloodsucker secure a possible cure for his own appalling condition in ‘When Strikes the Vampire!’

That dynamic dust-up led directly into a flurry of over-sized Giant-Size Spider-Man editions, but as none of them are included in this volume we return to Amazing Spider-Man #134 (July 1974) wherein the webspinner again crosses paths with The Punisher after a South American bandit – trained to be his oppressive regime’s Captain America before going freelance – attempts to pirate, pillage and ransom a Manhattan tour boat in ‘Danger is a Man Named… Tarantula!’ (Conway, Andru, Giacoia & Hunt).

Once again unwilling allies, the ethically-estranged duo dutifully dismantle the villain’s larcenous schemes leading to a ‘Shoot-Out in Central Park!’ but the real danger is building elsewhere as Parker’s roommate Harry Osborn accepts at last the infamous inheritance of his devilish, recently departed dad…

The compelling, long-brewing clash of former friends kicks off with completely crazy Harry attempting to blow up Peter and Mary Jane in ‘The Green Goblin Lives Again!’…

Privy to his best friend’s secrets, the maniac then targets all Parker’s loved ones, precipitating a desperate, deadly duel as ‘The Green Goblin Strikes!’ resulting in doom, destruction, shocking revelations and another tragedy for Peter to feel forever responsible for…

‘Madness Means… the Mindworm!’ finds a still-reeling Parker evicted from his apartment and relocating downmarket to Queens, just in time to encounter a macabre psychic parasite feeding off the denizens of the district.

Issue #139 then introduces a bludgeoning brute with a grudge against J. Jonah Jameson on the ‘Day of the Grizzly!’ When Spidey intervenes, he is soundly thrashed and handed over to the costumed crazy’s silent partner the Jackal who melodramatically reveals he knows the hero’s true identity…

Even though Peter escapes his diabolical trap in ‘And One Will Fall!’ the major maniac flees and remains at large…

A long-running comedy thread ends as the ridiculous Spider-Mobile ends up in the river, but the wallcrawler barely has time to care as an apparently dead enemy returns in #141’s ‘The Man’s Name Appears to be… Mysterio!’ Despite aggressively escalating psychological assaults and our hero questioning his own sanity, the mystery is smartly resolved in ‘Dead Man’s Bluff!’, wrapping up this transitional period in the life of Peter Parker and setting the scene for another shocking epic, life-changing encounter next time…

These narrative delights are supplemented by Romita’s cover, frontispiece, contents page and back cover from the 1974 debut tabloid edition Marvel Treasury Edition #1: The Spectacular Spider-Man as well as a faux Daily Bugle feature by Conway & Marie Severin; plus House ads; Kane page and cover layouts; the original Punisher design sketch by Romita and original art covers and interior pages by Kane, Romita &Andru.

Also on show are the Romita-rendered entry from Mighty Marvel Calendar for 1975, and a text & photo feature on the first live action Spider-Man film.

Blending cultural veracity with superb art, and making a dramatic virtue of the awkwardness, confusion and imputed powerlessness most of the readership experienced daily always resulted in an irresistibly intoxicating read, especially when delivered in addictive soap-styled instalments, but none of that would be relevant if Spider-Man’s stories weren’t so compellingly entertaining.

This action-packed collection relives many momentous periods in the wallcrawler’s astounding life and is one every Fights ‘n’ Tights fanatic must see…
© 2022 MARVEL.

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Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes Book One


By Keith Giffen, John Rogers, Cully Hamner, Duncan Rouleau, Rafael Albuquerque, Cynthia Martin, Kevin West, Phil Moy, Jack Purcell, Casey Jones & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77951-506-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: All Action Superhero fun and Thrills… 9/10

As the most recent incarnation of the venerable Blue Beetle brand makes the jump from comic book limbo and kids’ animation reruns into live action movie madness, here’s a recent re-release of the first dozen of the superb 36-issue run that began in 2006: one of the most light-hearted and compelling iterations of the Golden Age stalwart and still a pure joy to behold…

The Blue Beetle first appeared in Mystery Men Comics #1, published by Fox Comics and cover-dated August 1939. The eponymous lead character was created by Charles Nicholas (AKA Charles Wojtkowski): a pulp-styled mystery man who was a born nomad. Over the years and crafted by a Who’s Who of extremely talented creators, he was also inexplicably popular and hard to kill: surviving the failure of numerous publishers before ending up as a Charlton Comics property in the mid-1950s.

After releasing a few issues sporadically, the company eventually shelved him until the superhero revival of the early 1960s when young Roy Thomas revised and revived the character for a 10-issue run (June 1964, February 1966) reinventing cop/adventurer Dan Garrett as an archaeologist, educator and scientist who gained super-powers whenever he activated a magic scarab with the trigger phrase “Kaji Da!”

Later that year, Steve Ditko (with scripter Gary Friedrich) utterly recreated the Blue Beetle. Ted Kord was an earnest and brilliant young researcher who had been a student and friend of Professor Garrett. When his mentor seemingly died in action, Kord trained himself to replace him: a purely human inventor/combat acrobat, bolstered by ingenious technology. This latter version joined DC’s pantheon during Crisis on Infinite Earths, earning his own series and a quirky immortality partnering with Booster Gold in Justice League International and beyond…

Collecting Blue Beetle (volume 7) #1-12 spanning May 2006 – April 2007, this saga follows the hallowed formula of a teenager suddenly gifted with great powers, and reveals how some heroes are remade, not born…

At the height of the Infinite Crisis (Link please, June 18 2008), El Paso high-schooler Jaime Reyes found a strange blue jewel shaped like a bug. That night, as he slept, it attached itself to his back, transforming him into a bizarre insectoid warrior. Almost immediately, he was swept up in the chaos, joining Batman and other heroes in a climactic space battle.

As this series opens on ‘Blue Monday’ (written by Keith Giffen & John Rogers and limned by Cully Hamner), he’s come home to El Paso, Texas; terrified for staying out late on a school night, and is suddenly attacked by Green Lantern Guy Gardner. The situation rapidly escalates as his sentient bug armour reacts instinctively and manically to the emerald energy of the foe…

As the fight builds in intensity, by way of flashbacks we see Jaime’s life before everything changed: meeting best buds and fellow high school inmates Paco and Brenda – who were with him when he found the scarab that messed up his life – and bratty little sister Milagro as well as his wonderfully cool parents…

The battle ends as soon as Gardner realises he’s fighting a child, but as when he flies off, the Lantern drops a shocking bombshell: whatever is empowering the kid and manifesting his talking, weapons-infested bug suit, it ISN’T magic…

The mystery intensifies in ‘Can’t Go Home Again’ as more recovered memories detail early clashes with local super-gangbangers The Posse and hint at big changes in Jaime. In the present, Reyes is slowly making his way back to his house, terrified over how his folks will react to his disappearance last night. It’s far worse than he could have imagined and a real shock when he discovers that he’s actually been missing for a year…

Illustrated by Cynthia Martin & Philip Moy ‘The Past is Another Country’ sees Jaime demonstrate his new powers to his gobsmacked family, only to be (initially) rejected and abandoned. Whilst the Reyes clans come to terms with their “dead” son resurrected as a bug monster, the stunned lad road tests his new powers and tracks down his old friends.

A lot has changed: Paco is now part of the Posse and those outcast teens are locked in a deadly war with the minions of local organised crime-boss La Dama… who just happens to be Brenda’s legal guardian Tia Amparo…

Cully Hamner returns in #4 as Giffen & Rogers detail how Jaime starts looking into previous Blue Beetles and owners of the scarab and becomes a ‘Person of Interest’ to cyber-hero Oracle/Barbara Gordon who tests him with a view to making him one of her Birds of Prey. That doesn’t end well and presages far worse as militaristic mystery man The Peacemaker hits town on the down-low, secretly seeking old comrade and associate “Blue”…

Delivered in two parts over #5 and 6, ‘Secrets’ is illustrated by Duncan Rouleau, Martin, Kevin West, Moy & Jack Purcell. It reveals how The Phantom Stranger arrives, also hoping to clear up the mystery of this new Blue Beetle. Seeking to ascertain the teen’s place in the hierarchy of “the New Age of Magic” is something many factions are working on, from The Posse to La Dama’s pet goon the Diviner. Chaos reigns as all the investigators converge and clash when a baby of great power is stolen and Jaime at last learns that sometimes you just have to step up and do the right thing…

Following a brutal confrontation with plenty of shocking revelations ‘Secrets Pt 1 of 2’ sees a sharp redefinition of allegiances and anew status quo that almost immediately founders when Peacemaker reveals what nobody seemed able to discern – the true nature of Jaime’s scarab…

John Rogers is sole scripter for BB #7 as ‘Brother’s Keeper’ offers a guest-star packed recap of Reyes’ career to date: filling in many blanks since the night the new Beetle helped save the world. Illustrated by Hamner & Casey Jones and with Giffen back on board, ‘Road Trip’ sees Jaime, Brenda and Peacemaker go looking for even more answers: beginning by consulting young cyber-geek Dan Garrett – a self-proclaimed expert on all previous Blue Beetles.

As the original hero’s granddaughter she also has a fair claim to being the rightful owner of the gem, but a potential squabble and their research is interrupted by the return of a monstrous hunchbacked maniac determined to destroy the “demonic” new hero.

Following that Roleau renders ‘Inside Man’, telling why Peacemaker has so-unwillingly involved himself in Jaime’s life just as Brenda finds herself in a world of trouble…

Living with her aunt – the magic-wielding, arch crime boss of El Paso – in a felonious clearing house for stolen super-technology and magical artifacts, it was only a matter of time before Brenda stumbled upon something really dangerous. Whisked to an far-distant world in ‘Should’ve Taken that Left Turn at Albuquerque…’ (with art from Hamner and Rafael Albuquerque!), her disappearance forces an uneasy truce between Jaime and La Dama so that the Beetle can rescue Brenda, consequently encountering a selection of New Gods and hungry aliens before successfully bringing her back in ‘The Guns of Forever’ (by Rogers & Albuquerque, and we end on a thematic cliffhanger with ‘Meet the New Boss’ as Beetle and Peacemaker investigate cattle mutilations, battle a giant bug monster and meet its owner – an extraterrestrial envoy from extragalactic trading empire The Reach. He also claims to be the creator of the scarab…

With a gallery of variant covers, sketches and character designs by Hamner, this is a welcome return for a great series: one of precious few comic books to combine action and adventure, with comedy and suspense perfectly leavened with fun and wit. Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes offers an innovative and wryly engaging saga impossible to resist, especially with the artistic endeavours of Hamner, Martin, Albuquerque, Rouleau and Jones making each page a visual treat. Even 17 years on, Blue Beetle remains a fresh and delightful joy, so why not bug out and Go Read This!
© 2006, 2007, 2022 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Pete & Pickles


By Berkeley Breathed (Philomel Books/Penguin Young Readers Group)
ISBN: 978-0-399250-82-8 (HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Because it Ain’t Seasonal Without Cartoon Critters… 10/10

Throughout the 1980s and for half of the 1990s, Berke Breathed dominated the newspaper strip scene with agonisingly funny, edgy-yet-surreal political fantasy Bloom County and, latterly, Sunday-only spin-off Outland. They are all available digitally – so don’t wait for my reviews, just get them now!

At the top of his game and swamped with awards like Pulitzers, Breathed retired to concentrate on books for kids, crafting whimsical wonders like Red Ranger Came Calling, Mars Needs Moms! and Flawed Dogs: The Year End Leftovers at the Piddleton “Last-Chance” Dog Pound (and sequel Flawed Dogs: The Shocking Raid on Westminster), which all rank among the best America has ever produced.

Get them too.

Breathed’s first foray into the field was 1991’s A Wish for Wings That Work: a Christmas parable featuring his signature character, and the most charmingly human one. Between 2003 and 2008, Breathed revived Opus as a Sunday strip, before eventually capitulating to his career-long antipathy for the manic deadline pressures of newspaper production and often-insane, convoluted contradictions of editorial censorship.

It seemed his ludicrous yet appealing cast of misfits – all skilled and deadly exponents of irony and common sense residing in the heartland of American conservatism – were gone for good, until the internet provided a platform for Breathed to resume his role as a gadfly commentator on his own terms.

Since 2015, Bloom County has mocked, exposed and shamed capitalism, celebrities, consumerism, popular culture, politicians, religious leaders and people who act like idiots. Donald Trump figures prominently and often, but that might just be coincidence…

These later efforts, unconstrained by syndicate pressures to not offend advertisers, are also available as book collections. You’ll want those too, and be delighted to learn that all Breathed’s Bloom County work is also available in digital formats – fully annotated to address the history gap, if you didn’t live through events such as Iran-Gate, Live-Aid, Star Wars (both cinematic and military versions), assorted cults, televangelists experiencing less than divine retribution and sundry other tea-cup storms that contributed to all us Baby Boomers beings so obnoxious, rude and defensive…

Not quite as renowned, but every inch as crucial to your enjoyment, is the lost gem on display today: a paean to the power of friendship, all wrapped up in a children’s book about an odd couple thrown together by fate and necessity. And outré noses…

As previously stated, after the all-too-brief, glittering outing as a syndicated strip cartoonist and socio-political commentator (so often the very same hallowed function) Breathed left strips to create children’s picture books.

He lost none of his perception, wit or imagination, and actually got better as an artist. Even so, he never quite abandoned his entrancing cast of characters and always maintained the gently excoriating, crusading passion and inherent bittersweet invective which underscored those earlier narratives.

Moreover, he couldn’t ignore that morally uplifting component of his work that so upset hypocrites, liars, greedy people and others who let us all down while carping on about being unfairly judged and how we don’t really understand complex issues. Trust me, we – and Breathed – understand perfectly…

This crushingly captivating cartoon catechism ruminates on the cost and worth of comradely fraternity.

Pete is a pig: practical, predictable and not in any way a perturbation to normal pedestrian life. He was a pig who didn’t like fuss or surprises and lived alone until the night of the big storm. Aroused from his usual rain-induced nightmare of drowning, Pete gradually became aware that something had broken into his otherwise empty but extremely secure house…

Suddenly accosted, he is all but smothered in the capacious and so strong snoot of escaped circus elephant Pickles, who begs him to shelter her. Of course, pragmatic Pete happily hands her over the moment the clowns hunting her turn up, but can’t forget how she’d smiled at him whilst being dragged away or that she’s left him a posy of dandelions…

The event utterly disrupts his equilibrium and – despite himself – Pete eventually attends the circus. What he sees moves him so greatly that he abandons everything he ever believed and breaks her out.

Hiding her in his house, he soon finds his staid, stolid and secure life shattered by odd adventures and intoxicating fantasies, but no matter how nice it feels, it’s far more than his practical nature can abide. However, the subsequent confrontation jumps quickly from angry words to life-threatening peril when the plumbing breaks and they’re both trapped in a rapidly-filling watery deathtrap…

Combining the potent desolate imagery of Grant Wood’s American Gothic with the paintings of Edward Hopper: channelling the hidden comedic potential of the isolated rural heartland with manic, surreal whimsy in hyper-real fully rendered paintings acting in concert with powerfully simplified line drawings, Pete & Pickles explores loneliness, reticence, compromise and the hunger for companionship in a charming but potent fable. This astounding yarn was inspired by the drawing and razor-sharp perspicacity of Breathed’s (then 5-year-old) daughter Sophie, and can teach us all a thing or two about understanding ourselves and just getting along…

This is a book to trigger personal reflection, audit consciences and promote more honest behaviour, but it will make grown citizens howl and children sit up and pay attention. It’s also wickedly funny and deliciously sad. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll think hard about what you want and who you’d like to share it with…
© 2008 Berkeley Breathed. All rights reserved.

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Billy’s Boots Book 1: The Legacy of ‘Dead-shot’ Keen


By Fred Baker, Colin Page, Mike Western, Bill Lacey, Tom Kerr & various (Rebellion Studios)
ISBN: 978-1-78108-671-1 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Classic Comics Fun and Games… 9/10

British kids have always been utterly besotted with sports and comics have continually fed and fuelled their addiction. Even in the days when children’s only exclusive “entertainment” was primarily prose “Story Papers”, tales of playing field rivals, earnest competition, glorious accomplishments, fair play and sporting prodigies dominated. As comic strips took tight hold of kid’s lives during WWII and after, generations of boys grew up wanting to be Wilson, Alf Tupper, His Sporting Lordship, Skid Solo or Roy of the Rovers.

As the 1950s unfolded, football became the undisputed leader of sporting strips: a peculiarly wide field that had found room for speedway, cricket, motor racing, rugby, boxing, wrestling, athletics and fishing among many, many others. In September 1954, Amalgamated Press launched a companion comic to anthological market leader Lion. Edited by Derek Birnage – until 1963, when Barrie Tomlinson took over – Tiger – The Sport and Adventure Picture Story Weekly was cover-dated 11th September and out in time for the new football season. Primarily sports-themed for its entire run (1573 issues until 1985) it merged with or absorbed Champion (1955), Comet (1959), Hurricane (1965), Jag (1969), Scorcher (1974) and Speed (1980) before itself being subsumed by the relaunched Eagle in April 1985.

Among its most memorable treasures was Skid Solo, Johnny Cougar, Rod and Line, Hot Shot Hamish, Nipper, Football Family Robinson, Billy’s Boots and Roy of the Rovers…

As the 1960s segued into a new decade, across the United Kingdom, football was king in comics: everything from straight sporting drama strips to wild comedies with strange teams and odd motivations, and even supernaturally-tinged strips like Raven on the Wing…

Shoot launched in 1969, a junior, comics-heavy version of adult magazine Goal (which it eventually absorbed!) and Striker in January 1970. Its lead strip would graduate to The Sun newspaper.

Scorcher also kicked off on January 10th 1970, with an all football roster of photo-features sports journalism dedicated to the beautiful game and strips including Kangaroo Kid, Royal’s Rangers, Bobby of the Blues, Sub (He’s always on the sidelines!), Paxton’s Powerhouse, Lags Eleven, Jack of United, Jimmy of City, Hotshot Hamish and Nipper, but the breakout feature proved to be a dramatic reimagining of a comedy strip from Tiger: Billy’s Boots…

Scorcher became Scorcher and Score after 77 issues (merging with Score ‘n’ Roar in early July 1971) and finally called “time” with the October 5th 1974 issue – a further 171 outings. Its favourite features were ultimately absorbed into Tiger in 1980, but Annuals and Summer Specials continued to appear until 1984.

The stories here originally played in Scorcher from 10th January 1970 to 9th January 1970. The strip had taken its name from a comedic feature by Frank Purcell that ran in Tiger from 1961-1963. For a fresh new era, it was overhauled by 50-year veteran scripter Fred Baker (Martin’s Marvellous Mini, Skid Kids, Tommy’s Troubles, Hot-Shot Hamish, and much more in titles including Tiger, Buster, Chips, Radio Fun, Film Fun, Valentine and Roy of the Rovers).

He wrote the feature for most of its first 20 years run which was initially illuminated – in this volume at least – by Colin Page (Adam Eterno, Paddy Payne), Bill Lacey (Rick Random, Super Detective Library, Cowboy Comics Library, Mickey Mouse Weekly, Mytek the Mighty, Rat Pack), Mike Western (Lucky Logan, Biggles, No Hiding Place, The Wild Wonders, The Leopard from Lime Street, Darkie’s Mob, HMS Nightshade, Roy of the Rovers) and Tom Kerr (Little Lew, Fay, Monty Carstairs, Kip Kerrigan, Kelly’s Eye, Captain Hurricane, The Steel Claw, Charlie Peace, Kraken, Black Axe, Boy Bandit, Tara King/The Avengers, Peter the Cat, Clarks Commandos et al).

Billy’s Boots was initially rendered in 2-page, full colour instalments and survived Scorcher’s merger with Tiger in 1974, and amalgamation with Eagle in 1985. A year later Billy migrated to Roy of The Rovers magazine offering new adventures until 1990. Even then, the lad kept kicking, appearing in reprints, Annuals and Best of Roy of the Rovers Monthly, Striker and Total Football magazine into the 21st century.

He’s also an international star, having been translated into Finnish, Swedish, Icelandic, Dutch, Bengali, Turkish and more…

In October 1971, John Gillatt took over the art for a 16-year run which truly defined the strip in readers’ eyes and minds, but that’s a treat for another volume…

Here however, in interlinked serials we meet 12-year-old Billy Dane who is an avid – but rubbish – footballer. His earnest desire is simply to play the game but he’s so bad nobody will let him join even a playground kickabout…

An orphan living with his grandmother, Billy’s life changes forever when he dutifully cleans out her attic and finds a battered old pair of football boots. They were a souvenir his grandad had picked up, and had been used by sporting legend Charles “Dead-Shot” Keene. When Billy wistfully dons them and starts mucking about in the backyard, something miraculous occurs.

Suddenly, he can kick with the force and accuracy of an adult professional and later testing shows that the fabulous footwear sends him subconscious messages, enabling to read a field and almost predict the best place to be in any game situation…

Now bursting with confidence and hungry to play, he rapidly moves from friendly games to school caps, county matches and even international fixtures, with a heaping helping of drama accruing from his eagerness frequently leading him to play for rivals and opposing teams…sometimes on the same day…

Further confusions and concerns arise as he researches the life of Dead-Shot and realises that he’s often reliving actual events that affected the star and shaped his astounding career. The phenomenon doesn’t let up even after Billy finally meets and befriends his idol…

Of course, as this is a drama the most challenging problem Billy constantly faces is losing, mislaying, being deprived of and recovering the ratty, tatty, far-out-of-fashion old boots: prompting many manic moments where the plucky kid must humiliatingly go on without the miracle-making fantastic footwear, but always the lad perseveres and overcomes…

It’s also not as if he doesn’t have other problems too. At one stage he’s forced to move across the country, leaving all his friends: encountering school bullies, and teachers and trainers who think he’s troubled…

After its initial set-up the nature of the stories become rather formulaic, with Billy always seeking to be the best he could: trying to wean himself off ghostly footgear and develop innate natural skills. This was usually a huge disappointment as he always failed unless he was wearing the boots of his hero. Thankfully, the astounding illustration always makes the stories feel fresh and the ongoing mystery of how and why the boots work keeps the tension up…

Such narrative repetition was not deemed a problem at the time, since editors held the firm conviction that readers had a definite shelf-life and would quickly move on to better things… like Chaucer, Len Deighton, or the back pages of The Sun or Daily Mirror…

This astoundingly absorbing classic is another perfect example of purely British comics sensibilities: passionate, idealistic and desperately earnest as it follows the path of a working class hero navigating a treacherous path to glory or dismal defeat. This is a welcome reintroduction: inspirational, warm, beautifully rendered and absolutely unforgettable. Another treasure-trove from Rebellion’s ever-expanding Treasury of British Comics, this tale span generations and demands to be in every family bookcase.
© 1970, 1971, & 2020 Rebellion Publishing IP Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

A thankful tip of the fact hat to footy publications site Soccerbilia – for some of the background recycled here.

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Moomin volume 6: The Complete Lars Jansson Comic Strip


By Lars Jansson (Drawn & Quarterly)
ISBN: 978-1-77046-042-3 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-77046-553-4

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Enchanting Entertainment… 9/10

Tove Jansson was one of the greatest literary innovators and narrative pioneers of the 20th century: equally adept at shaping words and images to create worlds of wonder. She was especially expressive with basic components like pen and ink, manipulating slim economical lines and patterns to realise sublime realms of fascination, whilst her dexterity made simple forms into incredibly expressive and potent symbols and as this collection shows, so was her brother…

Tove Marika Jansson was born into an artistic, intellectual and rather bohemian Swedish family in Helsinki, Finland on August 9th 1914. Father Viktor was a sculptor and mother Signe Hammarsten-Jansson a successful illustrator, graphic designer and commercial artist. Tove’s brothers Lars – AKA “Lasse” – and Per Olov became – respectively – an author/cartoonist and art photographer. The family and its close intellectual, eccentric circle of friends seems to have been cast rather than born, with a witty play or challenging sitcom as the piece they were all destined to inhabit.

After extensive and intensive study (from 1930-1938 at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, the Graphic School of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and L’Ecole d’Adrien Holy and L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris), Tove became a successful exhibiting artist through the troubled period of the Second World War.

Brilliantly creative across many fields, she published the first fantastic Moomins adventure in 1945. Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (The Little Trolls and the Great Flood or latterly and more euphoniously The Moomins and the Great Flood) was a whimsical epic of gentle, inclusive, accepting, understanding, bohemian misfit trolls and their strange friends…

A youthful over-achiever, from 1930-1953 Tove had worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for the Swedish satirical magazine Garm: achieving some measure of notoriety with an infamous political sketch of Hitler in nappies that lampooned the Appeasement policies of European leaders in the build-up to WWII. She was also an in-demand illustrator for many magazines and children’s books, and had started selling comic strips as early as 1929.

Moomintroll was her signature character. Literally.

The lumpy, gently adventurous big-eyed romantic goof began life as a spindly sigil next to her name in her political works. She called him “Snork” and claimed she had designed him in a fit of pique as a child – the ugliest thing a precocious little girl could imagine – as a response to losing an argument with her brother about Immanuel Kant.

The term “Moomin” came from her maternal uncle Einar Hammarsten who attempted to stop her pilfering food when she visited, warning her that a Moomintroll guarded the kitchen, creeping up on trespassers and breathing cold air down their necks. Snork/Moomin filled out, became timidly nicer – if a little clingy and insecure – acting as a placid therapy-tool to counteract the grimness of the post-war world.

The Moomins and the Great Flood didn’t make much of an initial impact but Jansson persisted, probably as much for her own edification as any other reason, and in 1946 second book Kometjakten (Comet in Moominland) was published. Many commentators have reckoned the terrifying tale a skilfully compelling allegory of Nuclear Armageddon. You should read it now… while you still can…

When it and third illustrated novel Trollkarlens hatt (1948, Finn Family Moomintroll or occasionally The Happy Moomins) were translated into English in 1952 to great acclaim, it prompted British publishing giant Associated Press to commission a newspaper strip about her seductively sweet and sensibly surreal creations.

Jansson had no misgivings or prejudices about strip cartoons and had already adapted Comet in Moominland for Swedish/Finnish paper Ny Tid. Mumintrollet och jordens undergäng – Moomintrolls and the End of the World – was a popular feature so Jansson readily accepted the chance to extend her eclectic family across the world. In 1953, The London Evening News began the first of 21 Moomin strip sagas which promptly captivated readers of all ages. Jansson’s involvement in the cartoon feature ended in 1959, a casualty of its own success and a punishing publication schedule. So great was the strain that towards the end she recruited brother Lars to help. He took over, continuing the feature until its end in 1975. His tenure as sole creator officially starts here…

Liberated from the strip’s pressures, Tove returned to painting, writing and other creative pursuits: generating plays, murals, public art, stage designs, costumes for dramas and ballets, a Moomin opera and 9 more Moomin-related picture-books and novels, as well as 13 books and short-story collections strictly for grown-ups.

Tove Jansson died on June 27th 2001. Her awards are too numerous to mention, but just think: how many modern artists get their faces on the national currency?

Lars Fredrik Jansson (October 8th 1926 – July 31st 2000) was just as amazing as his sister. Born into that astounding clan twelve years after Tove, at 16 he started writing – and selling – his novels (nine in total). He also taught himself English because there weren’t enough Swedish-language translations of books available for his voracious reading appetite.

In 1956, he began co-scripting the Moomin newspaper strip at his sister’s request: injecting his own brand of witty whimsicality to ‘Moomin Goes Wild West’. He had been Tove’s translator from the start, seamlessly converting her Swedish text into English. When her contract with The London Evening News expired in 1959, Lars Jansson officially took over the feature, having spent the interim period learning to draw and perfectly mimic his sister’s cartooning style. He had done so in secret, with the assistance and tutelage of their mother Signe Hammarsten-Jansson, and from 1961 to the strip’s end in 1974 was sole steersman of the newspaper iteration of trollish tails.

Lasse was also a man of many parts: his other careers including writer, translator, aerial photographer and professional gold miner. He was the basis and model for cool kid Snufkin…

Lars’ Moomins was subtly sharper than his sister’s version and he was far more in tune with the quirky British sense of humour, but his whimsy and wry sense of wonder was every bit as compelling. In 1990, long after the original series, he began a new career, working with Dennis Livson (designer of Finland’s acclaimed theme park Moomin World) as producers of Japanese anime series The Moomins and – in 1993 with daughter Sophia Jansson – on new Moomin strips…

Moomintrolls are easy-going free spirits: modern bohemians untroubled by hidebound domestic mores and most societal pressures. Moominmama is warm, kindly tolerant and capable but perhaps overly concerned with propriety and appearances whilst devoted husband Moominpappa spends most of his time trying to rekindle his adventurous youth or dreaming of fantastic journeys.

Their son Moomin is a meek, dreamy boy with confusing ambitions. He adores their permanent houseguest the Snorkmaiden – although that impressionable, flighty gamin prefers to play things slowly whilst waiting for somebody potentially better…

The 6th oversized (310 x 221 mm) monochrome hardback compilation gathers serial strip sagas #22-25 and is a particular favourite, and opens with Lars firmly in charge and puckishly re-exploring human frailties and foibles via a beloved old plot after a seaside excursion with the Snorkmaiden unearths ‘Moomin’s Lamp’…

Of course, the ancient artefact comes with its own rather lazy and inept genie, and when the glamour-crazed Snorkmaiden foolishly wishes for a diamond diadem despite her beau’s best advice, it triggers a bold theft and a great deal of difficulties with the local constabulary…

Soon, fugitives from the law and justice – definitely two different things here – the young malefactors have compromised the honour of overprotective Moominpapa and gone off to hide in the leafy wooded “Badlands” of Moomin Valley, enduring privation on the run until scurrilous reprobate Stinky “nobly” takes the offending lamp off their hands…

The perils of unrelenting progress and growth then manifest in ‘Moomin and the Railway’ when a bunch of burly but affable and unflappable workmen begin laying railroad tracks through the unspoiled beauty of Moomin Valley. Enraged and outraged, our young hero begins a campaign of resistance that includes persuasion, intimidation and even sabotage. Sadly, many of his initial allies turn at the prospect of increased ease, newfound affluence and plain old indifference, before incorrigible rebel Snufkin takes a hand and salvation suddenly comes in a strange form with the valley saved yet changed forever…

Contemporary Cold War concerns are then lampooned when the patriarch meets up with old school chum in ‘Moominpapa and the Spies’. Lost in a nostalgic haze with old crony Wimsy and hankering to recapture the wild and free, glory days of youth, the happy fantasist embarks on a misguided spree bound to disappoint and stumbles into an actual spy plot involving the worst operatives in the world. Ultimately Moominpapa is shanghaied and lost at sea before regaining his equilibrium and heading home again…

The weird wonderments conclude for now with another wry retort to fads and fashions as ‘Moomin and the Circus’ sees the Finn Family of trolls forced into vegetarianism when animal conservation captivates the entire valley. When Moominpapa is – most reluctantly – elected leader of the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, he resolves to lead by example, and his edicts quickly show up the hypocrisy of the fashion-conscious elite who pressganged him. Everybody gets an even more urgent chance to rethink their priorities and intentions after the SPCA forces the closure of a travelling show and then has to deal with the consequences: homing the Lions, horses, elephant, ostrich, monkeys, parrots, and sea-lions who were only really happy in show biz…

This compilation closes with ‘Lars Jansson: Roll Up Your Sleeves and Get to Work’ by family biographer Juhani Tolvanen, extolling his many worthy attributes…

These are truly magical tales for the young, laced with the devastating observation and razor-sharp mature wit which enhances and elevates only the greatest kids’ stories into classics of literature. These volumes – both Tove and Lars’ – are an international treasure trove no fan of the medium – or carbon-based lifeform with even a hint of heart and soul – can afford to be without.
© 2011 Solo/Bulls. “Lars Jansson: Roll Up Your Sleeves and Get to Work” © 2011 Juhani Tolvanen. All rights reserved.

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Avengers Epic Collection volume 8: Kang War 1974-1976


By Steve Englehart, Roy Thomas, Tony Isabella, Sal Buscema, Dave Cockrum, George Tuska, Don Heck, George Pérez, Keith Pollard, Joe Staton & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-3352-4 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Amazement Assembled!… 9/10

One of the most momentous events in comics (and now, film) history came in the middle of 1963 when a disparate gang of heroic individuals 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 intervening decades the roster has never stopped changing, and now almost every character in the Marvel multiverse has at some time numbered amongst their colourful ranks…

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, directing the World’s Mightiest Heroes through adventures ranging from sublimely poetic to staggeringly epic. He then handed over the scripting to a young writer who carried the team to even greater heights…

This stunning compilation assembles Avengers #129-149 and Avengers  Giant-Size #2-4: collectively covering November 1974 to July 1976, to conclude an era of cosmic catastrophe and cataclysmically captivating creativity.

The Avengers have always proved that putting all one’s star eggs in a single basket pays off big-time: even when all Marvel’s classic all-stars such as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man were absent, it merely allowed the team’s lesser lights to shine more brightly. Of course, as in this volume, the founding stars were regularly featured due to the rotating, open door policy which meant that every issue included somebody’s fave-rave. The boldly grand-scaled stories and artwork are no hindrance either.

It all begins as Englehart explores the outer limits of Marvel history and cosmic geography to construct an epic revelation of universal structure, the true beginnings of Marvel time and the formative years of some of the most intriguing characters in comics…

The drama opens with Avengers #129 and ‘Bid Tomorrow Goodbye!’ (illustrated by Sal Buscema & Joe Staton) as Kang the Conqueror abruptly appears, determined to possess the legendary female figure he calls “the Celestial Madonna.”

Apparently, this anonymous being will birth the saviour of the universe, but since no records survive disclosing which of the three women in Avengers Mansion at that crucial moment – mutant sorcery student Scarlet Witch, martial artist Mantis and aged witch Agatha Harkness – she actually is, the time-reaver is resolved to capture all three and forcibly make himself the inevitable father of the child…

This time, not even the assembled Avengers can stop him and, after crushing and enslaving them, Kang makes off with his hostages, leaving only the recently-injured and swiftly declining Swordsman free to contest him…

The tale continues in Giant-Size Avengers #2, with ‘A Blast from the Past!’ (limned by Dave Cockrum) as reluctant returnee Hawkeye rushes to the fallen team’s rescue, uniting with old adversary/mentor Swordsman and enigmatic entity Rama-Tut – who eventually reveals himself as Kang’s reformed future self…

Against all odds, the merely mortal heroes manage to liberate the enslaved Avengers and rout the unrepentant Kang – but only at the cost of Swordsman’s life…

Avengers #130 posed ‘The Reality Problem!’ (with art from Sal B & Staton), depicting how heartbroken and much-chastened Mantis joins the team in Vietnam to investigate her mysteriously clouded past, only to be drawn into pointless combat with Soviet/Chinese Communist exiles and former Avenger foes Titanium Man, Radioactive Man and Crimson Dynamo …thanks to the devious manipulations of petty sneak thief The Slasher…

Brief but heated battle concluded, the origin trail leads to ‘A Quiet Half-Hour in Saigon!’ during which the American adventurers are again attacked by Kang, who traps them in Limbo and unleashes against them a macabre Legion of the Unliving comprising mind-controlled, currently “dead” heroes plucked from the corridors of history…

With yet another chronal villain Immortus added to the mix, ‘Kang War II’ sees resurrected heroes and villains Wonder Man, 1940’s android Human Torch, the Monster of Frankenstein, martial arts assassin Midnight, the actually spectral Flying Dutchman and the first Baron Zemo decimate the team. Moreover, the trauma and tragedy are further exacerbated as Mantis keeps seeing the ghost of her dead lover…

This absorbing thriller by Englehart, Roy Thomas, Sal Buscema & Staton segues inexorably into Giant-Size Avengers #3’s ‘…What Time Hath Put Asunder!’ Illustrated by Cockrum & Joe Giella, it sees Earth’s Mightiest Heroes pulling victory from the ashes of defeat and receiving a unique gift from one of the assembled Masters of Time…

Avengers #133 voyages to ‘Yesterday and Beyond…’ (by Englehart, Sal B & Staton) as the shocked heroes accompany Mantis to the beginnings of recorded Galactic history to unravel of her true past, whilst The Vision is separately dispatched to glimpse his own obscure and complex origins: a double quest encompassing both the Kree and Skrull empires, the previously defeated monstrous Star-Stalker, long-deceased Priests of Pama, Thanos and telepathic Titan Moondragon, as well as a goodly portion of classic superhero history in ‘The Times That Bind!’ before #135 reveals how ‘The Torch is Passed!’ (limned by George Tuska & Frank Chiaramonte), before bringing all the disparate elements together in Giant-Size Avengers #4.

‘…Let All Men Bring Together’ (art by Don Heck & John Tartaglione) brings a satisfactory conclusion to the long-standing. pitfall-plagued romance between the Scarlet Witch and Vision and details another, far more cosmic union with a brace of weddings and the ultimate ascension of the Celestial Madonna – despite demonic extra-dimensional despot Dormammu attempting to despoil the matrimonial celebrations…

A new era was supposed to begin in Avengers #136 but a deadline was missed and instead ‘Iron Man: DOA!’ by Englehart, Tom Sutton & Mike Ploog was reprinted from Amazing Adventures #12, wherein the newly-mutated and furry Hank McCoy AKA The Beast had attacked the Armoured Avenger whilst mind-controlled by evil mutants. You can find the story here.

This book, however, only offers the spiffy cover by Gil Kane, Joe Sinnott & John Romita, before normal service resumed with the Assemblers addressing their staffing issues by declaring ‘We Do Seek Out New Avengers!!’

Illustrated by Tuska & Vince Colletta, #137 depicted an eclectic mix of applicants – including Moondragon, Yellowjacket and The Wasp and an athletic, enigmatic guy bundled up in a raincoat…

No sooner have introductions begun than a cosmic villain attacks, hunting the honeymooning Scarlet Witch and Vision, but at far from his expected level of puissance. Easily escaping imminent doom, our heroes smell a rat – but sadly, not before the Wasp is gravely injured, resulting in a blazing battle with a ‘Stranger in a Strange Man!’ who proves to be far from what he claims…

After all the intergalactic, hyper-cosmic extravaganzas and extended epic antics, Avengers #139’s ‘Prescription: Violence!’ and #140’s ‘A Journey to the Center of the Ant’ resort to mayhem on a comfortingly down-to-Earth scale as malevolent foe Whirlwind tries to murder the bed-ridden Wasp, even as her devoted defender and husband Hank Pym/Yellowjacket succumbs to a growing affliction which dooms him to exponentially expand to his death… but only until a refreshed, returned Vision and bludgeoning Beast save the day in an extraordinary riff on classic Avengers history (which you can see in Avengers #93, if you want to)…

A new Englehart saga starts in #141 which also welcomed George Pérez & Colletta as new art team. ‘The Phantom Empire!’ heralded another complex, multi-layered epic combining superheroic Sturm und Drang with searing – for 1975, at least – political commentary. It all starts when Beast is ambushed by mercenaries from corporate behemoth Roxxon Oil.

He’s saved by ex-Avenger Captain America who had been investigating the company on a related case and – after comparing notes – realises something very big and very bad is going on…

Linking up with Thor, Iron Man, trainee Moondragon and the newly-returned newlyweds Vision and Scarlet Witch, they learn of another crisis after Hawkeye goes missing: probably captured by time-tyrant Kang…

Just as the Assemblage are splitting into teams, former child model Patsy Walker-Baxter (star of a bunch of Marvel’s girls’ market titles such as Patsy Walker and Patsy & Hedy) bursts in, threatening to expose Beast’s secret identity…

When he had first further mutated, McCoy had attempted to mask his anthropoid form, with Patsy helping in return for his promise to make her a superhero. Now she resurfaces, prepared to blackmail him into honouring his pledge. She is dragged along as one squad (Cap, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch and Vision) join Beast in returning to his old lab at Brand/Roxxon …where they are ambushed by alternate-Earth heroes The Squadron Supreme…

Meanwhile, Moondragon and Thor co-opt sometime ally Immortus and follow Hawkeye back to 1873. Bushwhacked, they are soon battling Kang beside a coterie of cowboy legends (Kid Colt, Night Rider, Ringo Kid, Rawhide Kid and Two-Gun Kid) in ‘Go West, Young Gods!’, even as the present-day team learn their perilous plight involves a threat to two different dimensions…

Roxxon have joined with the corporations that rule the Squadron Supreme’s parallel-Earth America – thanks to the malignly mesmeric Serpent Crown of Set. Inked by Sam Grainger, Avengers #143 sees the Wild West showdown culminate with the apparent death of a deity in ‘Right Between the Eons!’

Elsewhen, the 20th century heroes have commenced a counterattack in the esoteric weaponry factory at Brand, and – whilst running rampant – liberate from a storeroom a technologically-advanced, ability-enhancing uniform originally belonging to short-lived adventurer The Cat. When Patsy dons it, the hero-groupie neophyte dubs herself Hellcat in ‘Claws!’ (Mike Esposito inks)…

Soon after, the Avengers are cornered by the Squadron and as battle resumes, Roxxon president Hugh Jones plays his trump card and transports all combatants to the other Earth…

The dreaded deadline doom hit just at this crucial juncture and issues #145-146 were taken up with a 2-part fill-in by Tony Isabella, Heck & Tartaglione, with additional pencils by Keith Pollard for the concluding chapter.

‘The Taking of the Avengers!’ reveals how a criminal combine takes out a colossal contract on the team, but even though ‘The Assassin Never Fails!’ the killer is thwarted and Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Beast, Vision and Scarlet Witch, Wasp, Yellowjacket and The Falcon are all safely returned to their various cases, untroubled by the vagaries of continuity or chronology… which makes this rather impressive yarn such an annoyance in this specific instance…

Trans-dimensional traumas resume in Avengers #147, describing a ‘Crisis on Other-Earth!’ courtesy of Englehart, Pérez & Colletta). With the corporate takeover of other-America revealed to have been facilitated by use of the serpent crown, the Scarlet Witch takes possession of the sinister helm as her teammates try desperately to keep the overwhelming Squadron Supreme from reclaiming it.

On our Earth, Hawkeye brings Two-Gun Kid to the modern world, but chooses to go walkabout rather than rejoin his comrades, even as Thor and Moondragon start searching for their missing colleagues…

‘20,000 Leagues Under Justice!’ (Grainger inks) begins the final showdown with the Avengers’ victory over a wiser and repentant Squadron Supreme, and as the heroes return to their home dimension ‘The Gods and the Gang!’ reunites them with Moondragon and the Thunder God in time to clean up Brand/Roxxon. However, the Corporate cabal has one nasty trick left to play: a colossal, biologically augmented Atlantean dubbed Orka, the Human Killer Whale!’ He’s not enough to save them…

Supplementing the circumstances above described is the cover to all-reprint Giant-Size Avengers #5 (by John Buscema & George Roussos) and contemporaneous features from Marvel’s FOOM magazine #12 which spotlighted the romance and weddings with a Vision cover by John B & P. Craig Russell, back cover image by Paty (Cockrum) & Al Milgrom; an overview of the awesome android in ‘Visions’ and ‘Vision, This is Your Life!’ and David Anthony Kraft’s ‘The Scarlet Witch: Meditations on a Ms.’ – all including early art contributions from John Byrne, Paty, Dave Wenzel – plus an extended family pin-up.

Also on view are a Charley Parker spoof strip starring ‘The Visage’, extended interviews ‘Steve Englehart Speaks!: Journey to the center of a Vision’ and ‘Roy Thomas Speaks!: Journey to the center of a Vision’.

The next issue would see a drastic changing of the guard, but this epic tome concludes with even more extras including the covers – by Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia – and Frontispiece contents page of tabloid Marvel Treasury Edition #7; a wealth of rousing house ads; Neal Adams’ painted cover for Marvel Index #3, its back cover by Franc Reyes and Frontispiece by Peter Iro; the pre-corrections cover to Giant-Size Avengers #2 plus pages of original art by Sal Buscema, Staton, Tuska & Chiaramonte.

Roy Thomas and Steve Englehart were at the forefront of Marvel’s second generation of story-makers, brilliantly building on and consolidating the compelling creation of Lee, Kirby & Ditko: spearheading and constructing a logical, fully functioning miracle-machine of places and events that so many others were inspired by and could add to. Between them they also showed how much more graphic narratives could be, and these terrific tales are perfect examples of superhero sagas done just right.

This type of timeless heroic adventure set the tone for fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights dramas for decades to come and can still boggle the mind and take the breath away, even here in the sleek, cool and permanently perilous 21st century…

No lovers of Costumed Dramas can afford to ignore this superbly bombastic book and fans who think themselves above superhero stories might also be pleasantly surprised…
© 2022 MARVEL.