Green Arrow - New 52 volume 1.

The Midas touch TPB

DC

JT Krul - Writer
Dan Jurgens - Layouts
George Perez - Finishes

Oliver Queen, aka The Green Arrow, is a direct cross between Hawkeye and Batman/Bruce Wayne. He has the Batman set up and is 'the worlds most skilled archer'. - Although I guess crime fighters should have backup skills, Queen does get close and go to the fists a bit fast for my liking.

We start with Arrow flying to Paris to take out some street thieves. On face value this seemed like a bit of a long stretch but as he is a billionaire I'm willing to let it go. After defeating the gang and getting them incarcerated another villain busts them loose. His name is Rush, and he has assembled a team of brawlers who he wants to use to take out Arrow 'live' streamed on the internet. This has the juxtaposition of the audience cheering on the villains. Arrow sends them a message as he brings them to justice.

Oliver Queen often talks to his tech guy, Jax, about building him some new arrows to use on bad guys. He also has a back-up team that talks to him and helps him fight bad guys. 

The next person to tangle with Green Arrow is Midas and Blood Rose. Both are more than they seem. On face value, they are simple villains, but there is some deeper motives behind their mayhem.

The book is well drawn and the writing is good, showing us that Queen, the man behind the very small mask, is trying to use his skills to make a difference, both with The Green Arrow and his company. It has it's flaws; some of the set up is kooky and no matter how hard Queen gets hit, he always looks chiseled and handsome in the next panel.I do like his little team. The only other problem is that Oliver Queen runs off and The Green Arrow appears a bit too frequently for no-one to guess what is going on. I'm going to recommend. I have Volume 2 and I'm looking forward to reading that.

Gotham City Sirens - Book 1 - Strange Fruit

DC

2011

Tony Bedard, Peter Calloway - Writers
Andres Quinaldo, Jeremy Haun - Pencils
Lorenzo Ruggiero, Jeremy Haun, Waldo Wong - Inks
Steve Ward, Travis Larkham, Dave Sharpe - Letters

Gotham City Sirens tells us the tales of Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, Talia al Ghul and Zatanna. If you recognise the names you will know that four are 'enemies' of Batman.

So this book had the possibility of being interesting as we might get to see villains when they are not trying to kill the Caped Crusader.

Poison Ivy finds an alien plant with which she uses to try and take over the Earth. Several times she states that she is now more plant that human and wishes to mold the world in her chloroform filled likeness. Harley Quinn and Catwoman arm themselves with defoliant 'flamethrowers' and try to stop her. Eventually Ivy has a change of heart and kills her new alien plant boyfriend with a kiss.

Zatanna shows up at the Siren's headquarters and threatens Ivy. Someone, or something, has threatened Ivy's trees. All sorts of magical shenanigans takes place and Selina (Catwoman) gets trapped underground. The other girls follow. Here again Ivy is painted and distant, alien and non-human with her drives and personality.

The book has nice art. The stories, however, don't really move forward and usually end with a simple change of heart or other left field device. I never felt attached to any of the characters and the whole book seems like an excuse to smash three lady characters together with no real reason or drive. The other drawback for me is that Ivy is a super villain with a purpose and Catwoman was a burglar. I'm not sure from this book what Harley's powers are or what she wants to do about anything.  I didn't like this (and I have another TPB to read) but you might if you really enjoy these characters. I guess they do the things that made them famous in Batman?  

Silk
Volume 1
2014

Marvel

Robbie Thompson - Writer
Stacy Lee - Artist
Ian Herring - Colour Artist

I managed to pick up these five issues cheap from Mike, who runs the 'Waiting for Doom' podcast, which is all about Doom Patrol. He was wanting to get rid of them and I was lucky enough to score.

Silk is the alter ego of Cindy Moon, who picked up her powers from the same spider as Spider-Man. After locking herself away in an bunker for ten years because *reasons* she is now dedicated to becoming a reporter and fighting crime in New York.

Issue one sees Silk fighting Dragon Claw. Still with some inexperience, Silk has to get saved by Spider-man. Their relationship isn't the best, despite the fact that they have slept together.
In a cut scene we find out that Black Cat is behind the Dragon Claw character. Cindy also finds out that her family might be still alive.

Issue two starts with some investigations into her family and some flashbacks to her life before the bunker (cleverly done in another colour tone). Silk is attacked by a rogue Hydra robot, the kind we see across the Marvel universe; Skull and tentacles.

Issue three has a long action sequence against a now boosted Dragon Claw. Silk tries to re-habilitate his evil ways and finds out his back story. This bit really reminded me of the characters we play in our own SHRP games. After the battle Silk is ambushed by Black Cat. low on webbing and adrenaline she loses the fight but escapes. Spider-man introduces her to the Fantastic Four.

Issue four has Reed Richards test Cindy for her power levels. He recommends her to visit a shrink while Johnny Storm asks her out on a date.

Issue five sees Cindy hard at work at the Daily Bugle. She gets J Jonah Jameson to help her with some leads on her family. In a cut away scene Black Cat seeds a trap for Silk with Dragon Claw's kid. Cindy teams up with Spider-Man and then the trap is sprung...

I liked the artwork for this book and feel it really matches the story and the character. The characterizations are good and the story builds nicely. I liked the twists and the way Silk interacts with Spider-man is great. I recommend this book, especially if you like the 'ordinary hero' drama books, much like Spider-Man.

I will be trying to track down all the issues I'm missing of this one.

As an aside, along with Spider-Gwen, I remember Jessica Drew as a flying Spider-Woman and Julia Carpenter as the black clad psionic web weaving Spider-Woman. A quick Google let me know there is actually a whole bunch of Spider women in the marvel universe!

Aliens Earth War

Issues 1 - 4

Dark Horse

Mark Verheiden - Writer
Sam Kieth - Artist
Jim Massara - Letterer
Monica Livingston - Colorist

1990

Aliens was a very important movie franchise for me growing up.  One of the true perfect blend of horror/sci-fi and action, the movies where some of the first we all snuck out of the video store and watched in secret without telling our parents. The comics that came out from Dark Horse in the late eighties where very 'hot'. We all wanted them and they where very collectable. It was also hard getting them as they seemed to be scooped up and hoarded.

Aliens: Earth War starts at the end of the Aliens movie. The relationship between between Ripley and Newt is strained. Ripley gets dropped back on LV-426 with remarkably similar outcomes to the movie. We learn that Earth has been over run with Aliens after someone was daft enough to take some eggs back to the home planet. Ripley works out that the Alien creatures all want to be close tot he Queen Alien, so they plan to catch one to trap all the creatures on Earth in one spot and destroy them, I'm guessing by nuking the site from orbit. Ripley wants to work alone but Newt insists on coming with her and helping. From here the book descends into standard Aliens fare.

The art is good. The plot follows the faithful lines forged by the movie franchise and never threatens to touch on anything new. The magic of the movies to me was the special effects and the way that they helped build the tension. Once the action started to unfold you were in the zone, invested and went on the ride. The weakest part of the books is the action sequences. Let's just say that I was never worried about the outcomes.

It's a qualified recommend if you are a massive fan of Aliens as the books, despite seeming to be rare and valuable years ago, are now cheap and easy to find online.

Generation - X

Issues 1 - 10

Marvel

'Created by' - Scott Lobdell (writer) and Chris Bachalo
Inks by Mark Buckingham

November 1994

This book came out towards the end of 1994 and at the time my heavy collecting phase was passing. I headed to Uni and the lure of beer and football took me away from my beloved comic books. These books where in a huge batch given to me by Adam. Of course the easy comparison to make is with Gen 13. Even the names sound similar. I will try to judge it on its own merits.

The first issue has an embossed silver shiny cover. We are introduced to the team. They are Husk (Who is the sister of Cannonball). She can shed her skin to reveal a body composed of any material she has studied underneath. M, who is a low grade super-man type. Jubilee, who is described here as a pyrokinetic, basically she launched fireworks from her hands. Chamber- who has a 'furnace' of sonic energy in his chest that has blown off his chin, making it look like his mouth is on fire. Synch - who has a rainbow aura that allows him to copy other mutants powers. Finally there is skin, who has several feet of extra epidermis. Added to the mix is Emma Frost, she formally known as the White Queen, now a redeemed hero, and finally Banshee, Sean Cassidy. Former X-Man and Interpol agent.
The first issue introduces a villain called Emplate, who feeds off Mutants. He is tracking Chamber. The young British mutant supplies him with two much power and drives him away. The team finds 'Penance' - a young mute with razor sharp talons and hair who is a lovely puce colour.

Issue 2 starts with Jubilee confronting Gateway. - He was the X-Men's teleporter while they where operating out of the Australian Outback. He is supposed to be Aborigional but over the next few issues he starts to look more and more like a munchkin.
M - whose name is Monet. I am unsure if this is where her code-name comes from?- is telling Emma and Sean about the origions of Penance. The mutant herself is resting in a medical bed.
The rest of the team are playing Scrabble. Penance escapes and the team chases her into a nearby wood.

The third issue starts with the team trying to find Penance in the woods. In turn they all get into combat. With her power set she's pretty dangerous.
There is a brief interlude with Nanny- a Villain I first read in Avengers 300, who likes to steal babies.
Gen X chases Penance until Chamber finally subdues her just by talking to her.

Issue four starts with Chamber talking to Gateway. I feel I must point out that Gateway never talks, in fact he rarely does anything.
Skin, Synch and Jubes are shopping in New York when they stumble upon a murder scene - they have to fight a large montrous muntant.
At home Husk gets drunk.

We start issue six with Emma tied up and is being taunted by a Morlock called Marrow.
- The Morlocks have a long and storied history in the pages of X-Men books.
She can't use her powers because Marrow and Hemingway (who is the large massive grey creature from previous issues) are using Leech to dampen her telepathic powers. Synch, Skin and Jubes are wandering the sewers trying to track Emma. Synch uses his aura like a blood hound. Once they get close Leech dampens their powers as well.
Husk is drunk and comes on to Chamber, starting the first love interest in the book.
Frost escapes the villains clutches by booting the crap out of Leech and then brain frying them. There is another giant grey skinned mutant who tries to blow them up.
Back at the Xavier school Husk tries to kiss Chamber, which makes him blow up their dorm rooms.

We have a transition issue. Banshee has a nightmare. The team are living with Emma and the proximity of his dreams means Emma gets inserted into them. Despite Banshee being fully dressed in his dream-scape, Emma is only in her undies. In the next few panels we see she is actually sleeping in the buff...
Chamber broods over his rather wild and alarming power set and Skin and Synch build Artie (Who they rescued from Gene Nation) and Leech a tree-house.
Finally Banshee gets a phone call from Ireland and his Castle has vanished.

The next two issues take the team from Ireland into a magical pixie land where Synch and Chamber fight with medival style weapons and Skin takes on a dragon.
We have an interlude in Hawaii with a mutant called Mondo and another Frost.
We wrap this arc up after a fight with trolls and pixies.

Issue ten starts with the team having a party. They are introduced to Mondo. During the party M finds Banshee almost dead in a fridge. The team rushes to get him medical attention. Frost reads Banshee's mind while the rest of the team walks into a trap with X-Men villain, Omega Red.

The book was one of the many X-titles from the 90's. If I remember correctly in the late 80's they spawned X-Factor. In the 90's we got 2 X-Men books, then X-Force and finally Generation X. An obvious comparison is the Gen 13 book that came out earlier in the year. Gen X has a better cast of characters, each one is ethnically different, and an interesting power set of the team. The first few issues does a good job of introducing the team but the fantasy story let's down the tone, IMO, which is why it only gets a Qualified.
Still I have up to issue 30, and I am keen to keep reading. The interplay is good and the art matches the story. Again the fan service is strong in this one, with Emma Frost acting as the conduit.

The book itself runs to issue #75 and I have a hankering over tracking them down to see how the story arc runs.

Gen 13 - Volume 1 1994

Limited Series Issues 1 - 5

Image

J Scott Campbell - Pencils
Jim Lee and Brandon Choi - Writers
Alex Garner - Inks
Chris Eliopoulos - Letters

Apparently when the first issue of this book came out it had huge publicity. I missed this and only picked it up on the off chance it was any good. Most of the other Image titles had put me off after 2 or 3 issues. Gen 13 didn't. Somehow I grabbed each copy from my LCS, which at that time was in the town of Crawley in West Sussex, England, and only later found out they where sought after...

Issue one starts with an action shot of a family on the run. The mother is gunned down and the father manages to destroy some of their pursuers with his super powers before he two takes a round in the cranium. A pretty brutal start.
We switch to college, where a bookish girl makes her way clutching text books to her chest. Her more adventurous roomate, in our first fan service shot, is off dating a fresh new fella. After she leaves a knock at the door informs our hard studying girl that she's been accepted on a government program.
We switch to Lynch and Ivana, two people running the program. They give us some background. Two Gen actives are warming up by fighting and sitting on gym equipment. The male one murders his sparring partner for being lippy. These must be the villains. We have more fan service but for the girls as well as the boys.
Caitlin, our bookish girl, actually runs into 'Grunge' who is a fellow intern at the government program. She then also meets Bobby and Roxy.
Then we have a training montage. No one questions this. Grunge and Caitlin don't appear to be Gen active so their dosage of drugs is upped. This has an immediate affect on Caitlin. She throws up and has a headache. Or she was drunk. She stumbles on Grunge and Bobby having a sneaky cigarette and they are all accosted by a guard. Caitlins powers activate and she rips through her night dress. See the above shot for the next fan service shot.

Issue two and the team is on the run. It lists them as Fairchild (Caitlin), Roxy Spalding, 'Grunge' Chang, Sarah Rainmaker and Tom Hallinan. The last two are new, or I wasn't paying attention. Each apart from Grunge manifests and uses their powers - and then there is a flashback for those of us who didn't buy issue 1. Fairchild doesn't trust Tom, who is a bit of a murdering A-Hole. She turns out to be right and Tom is actually Threshold, one of the villains. He knocks out the rest of the team. Fairchild grabs a gun and vows to free them.

Issue 3 starts with Fairchild scouting the complex holding her friends. There is a mysterious box. We suspect it contains the large grey hulk thing from the front cover of the issue. Jack Lynch shows up. he is curious as to what is going on. Fairchild, with a gun and some pouches that have shown up from somewhere, is looking for payback. Her team is captured, stripped naked and tortured by Threshold. Once in to the building, using her fists and gun as a club, she rescues a small boy. The big grey thing is 'Pitt'. He escapes his box. He is dripping with chains. After a misunderstanding, both he and Fairchild are trying to rescue the boy, Pitt and Fairchild start pounding each other.
Threshold adds torture to the list of crimes he is prepared to do for fun. He threatens to kill Grunge as he has no powers. This doesn't work so he threatens Roxy. This makes Grunge mad, activate his powers, which are 'Absorbing Man' power set. Grunge breaks free, lays out Threshold and frees the team. Pitt and Fairchild finally realise they are on the same side.

Issue four starts with Ivana and Lynch arguing. Ivana breaks the deadlock by murdering Lynch's henchmen. A massive fight breaks out between the team, as they leap in to rescue Fairchild, and the 'ops' who were holding them. Pitt frees Timmy, the boy.
Lynch reveals that he was in Team 7 with Fairchild's father - in another flashback. Bliss and Threshold were the kids from the first issue who have been brainwashed to be murdering A-Holes.

Issue five starts with our team landing in a dumpster and Grunge taking a close look at Fairchild's butt. They escaped thanks to Lynch but then have to confront Threshold again. With his extensive training he pretty much owns them solo. Lynch confronts Ivana who turns out to be a robot or a cyborg or an android and attacks him. Lynch also has hidden powers which saves him.
Threshold is monologging. Bliss shows up and vamps all over Bobby. Her powers seem to work through snogging. Rainmaker takes her out with mini lightning blasts and threatens her to take out Threshold. Lynch appears with a team of Mecha suits after escaping a 'base detonation' by Ivana. Lynch just lets Bliss and Threshold escape and Gen 13 decide that this super hero lark is the one for them.

I loved this book when it came out. Despite the cookie cutter power sets and team set-up, Gen 13 had a certain pizzaz about their stories and again, the art matched very well. Of course the book is full of 'posters', fan service and some of the hero/villain actions have to be glossed over with a wide brush. The fact that the murdering a-holes get let off scott free only to return to their murderous ways is a prime example.
With all these elements I can only give it a Qualified recommend. If you don't mind these things it's an enjoyable read, certainly to 18/19 year old me. If these things bother you I would avoid.

In the back of one of the issues the artist, J Scott Campbell, answers some questions posed by a fanzine about 'How to make a successful comic book', where he answers the questions about the style and content rather glibly. Of course eventually Image titles took a nose dive after the overall shallow style of their books couldn't maintain fan interest. Gen 13 is similar to this, not really working hard on an overall reason for the team to be supers. Of course these days Image titles tend to be very different. Good to see they could change and adapt.

Fantastic Four volume 1 - 1981

Issues 233, 234, 235, 237, 238, 239

Marvel

John Byrne - Pencils and Writing

I first started reading FF back around issue 300. After this time I started to find a whole batch of back issues from 230ish up which were written by John Byrne. At the time he was my favoured artist and I noticed he also wrote the books. Since then I have endevoured to collect a lot of his FF run. There are still a few gaps as the above issues listings testify too.

Issue 233 - We start with a man on Death Row who gives a letter to the priest. This gets handed to the Human Torch, aka: Johnny Storm. This is after a brief interlude where the Torch and the Thing are fighting. In the letter the now executed criminal asks Johnny to clear his name of things he didn't do, while confessing he has had some 'poor life choices'. The rest of the issue sees Johnny in full Private Detective mode. He follows the trail to Hammerhead, a long time Spider-Man foe. They scrap and Hammy escapes by leaping from a building. Obviously not to his death. The Torch informs the mother of her sons innocence af the crime he was executed for but she says he deserved to die anyway. Harsh!

Issue 234 - The cover at the top of the page. An odd story about a man who seemingly has the perfect life because he can alter reality but he doesn't realise it. Because of his powers when he takes a business trip to New York he gets to see the FF in action. 'Gravity Waves' are wrecking cities around earth. Reed tracks them down to space where the FF find Ego, the living planet.

Issue # 237 - There is a robot Doctor Doom inactiv3e on the roof of the Baxter Building so I assume they defeated it in the previous issue. After this the Torch is late for a date. Sue and Reed run off to do the family thing with Franklin and The Thing has a workout while his girl friend watches. These are all good human elements. Reed and Sue go horse riding in Central Park. Johnnies GF strips off... A very tall lady called spinnerette helps a batch of crooks rob a bank and get past Reed and Sue. It turns out she is an alien and is trying to obtain some silver to 're-power' her ship and leave Earth again.

Issue # 238 - Frankie Raye was not naked in front of Johnny but was in fact in a costume. Frankie is a female human torch with almost the exact same power set as Johnny. She tells the story of her father who created the original human torch during World War 2. Frankie dropped a drum of chemicals on herself, hence the powers. The second half of the issue has Reed trying to reverse Ben's powers and stop him being the Thing. He almost succeeds but ends up regressing his rock like form to his lumpy form and this time the condition is 'permanent'.

Issue # 239 - The FF get a visit from Ben's Aunt Petunia, who is in fact quite young (she's married to Ben's older Uncle) - 'By my sweet Aunt Petunia' is a phrase Ben uses a lot in the comics. She  then tells them about a town where the residents are being 'scared' to death.
There a is a quick excerpt into Attilan, the home of the Inhumans, where Crystal and Quicksilver are having a baby. They are worried because Crystal is an Inhuman and Quicksilver a mutant.
The town is built next to a burial site and is housed by some 'spirits' who are driving people away. half the town decides to leave. Wendy, the girl who seems to have made friends with the spirits, is happy and hangs out with them as the story ends.

These books are good, where the art and story mesh. Well, they are the same person in this case. Byrne does an excellent job of highlighting the human qualities in the FF. Each story is a 'small' one. What he does is build up the team for the larger story arcs that follow, while always re-enforcing the characters traits, humanity and their nobility, even if the story is slightly kooky. I don't know who came up with 'Ego the Living Planet' as a villain for heroes to combat or stop but I remember it was the Sixties when he was created...

A certain recommend. Find these in original format (the issues are still relatively cheap compared to Claremont/Byrne X-men books) or in the collected Essential format, although I think the art deserves colour. Byrnes run is issues 232 - 295.

X-Men volume 1 - 1991

Issues 1 - 5

Marvel

Chris Claremont/John Byrne - 'Plot and Scripts'

Jim Lee - Pencils and Plot

Welcome to the highest selling comic book of all time. If you look at the above image then you will see part of this 'success' is the fact that the first issue was five different covers which made up one huge beast of an image. It sold 8.1 million in pre-orders and eventually racked up just over 3 million books sold. Of course with these numbers and everybody keeping them in perfect, pristine condition you can pick up copies for very small sums today. Even I haven't bothered tracking down all the different covers.

After the success of Jim Lee teaming with Chris Claremont in Uncanny X-Men issues 270 - 275 Marvel jumped at the chance to create a new X-Men book called simply X-Men.

The story opens with the X-Men's most enduring foe, Magneto. He is on the loose and decides to call his Asteroid M base home again. The US Government detects his powers and decides to enact the Magneto Protocols. Something I never quite picked up on - What are the Protocols? The X-Men team consists of Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Iceman, Rogue, Forge, Beast, Marvel Girl, Professor X, Gambit, Psylocke, Wolverine and Angel, with Moira McTaggart and banshee hanging around in the background. Here I have my first problem with the book. How are we going to fit all of these characters into a storyline? The X-Men are in training, which Wolverine wins by 'assasinating' Professor X.
Back on Asteroid M some mutants have come to seek shelter with their Lord Magneto. The Lord himself decides to take a trip to Earth and pinch a heap of missiles from a downed submarine, which leads to confrontation with the X-Men. Despite some good licks, Mags makes off with the bombs. He declares Asteroid M to be a home for Mutants and threatens to launch the bombs at Earth if they interfere with his plans. Obviously this means their is an Earth to Space shuttle service just for mutants, or something like that.

The cover of issue 2 has an image of Magneto strangling Xavier. If doing X-Men covers you can always go to the well on this one. The issue opens with a massive stoush, Magneto deals with the X-Men and Fabian Cortez, his new right hand man, deals with Psylocke with a kiss.
S.H.I.E.L.D is discussing how they will deal with Genoshia and Nick Fury is literally dripping with guns and pouches.
Brushing off the kiss, Psylocke almost delivers the knock-out blow to Magneto, I think she wisely wears no metal when battling their arch-nemesis, but Mags wins the day and returns to Astroid M. He quickly returns to Earth to steal Professor X's house. he is mad because someone has been messing with his DNA. The perpitrator turns out to be Moira McTaggart _ This is off an old storyline where Magneto was regressed into a baby.

Issue 3 has a cover which hints at X-men vs X-Men and is labled as 'Chris Claremont's last'. - Of course he had only done three issues of the new book.
The story itself is basic, where some X-Men get knocked out on asteroid M and others fly up to their rescue. Those handy space craft again.

By Issue 4 Claremont had left his writing duties due to creative differences. The Marvel juggernaut moved on with this issue having the credit to Lee/Byrne/Orzechnowski/Rosen/Harras/De Falco.
The X-Men unwind with a game of basketball which degenerates as more and more powers get used. Moira has a bad dream and we end with Rogue and Gambit going on a date. Of course their alone time is interupted by Omega Red, who was uncovered in the first few panels.

Issue five is Pencilled and plotted by Jim Lee and Plotted and Scripted by John Byrne. The first section is highlighted by a classic fan service shot, as Psylocke is summoned to headquarters while she was swimming laps. It must be summer as she didn't require a towel or robe. Beast, Rogue, Jubilee and Gambit are trapped in the back of an ambulance after being defeated by Omega Red. Gambit frees them with a stealthily hidden playing card. You would think villains would check for that.
Wolverine is having fight of the century with Omega Red. A byword from observers says the fight lasted 17 hours. Thank goodness they sumerised it. Red is victorious and is placed on display where the Strucker Twins look on, not looking very Aryan or twin like.
The X-men split into two teams, one to find Red and Wolvie and one to help a distress call from the Hellfire Club and Emma Frost. Even the X-men guess that might be a trap. Logan escapes on his own with help from a mysterious benefactor.
The last few panels see Dazzler meet up with Longshot in Malibu and ends with Spiral gatecrashing in on them.

If you've followed this summary you will notice it's a bit scattered and all over the place. I can't help feel that the writing of the comic follows a similar pattern. Ideas are thrown up and not followed through on and the constant need for conflict means that it is delivered swiftly, not developed and resolved or forgotten at the same pace. The teams have swollen and characters and sub-plots come across the page at a frenetic pace. While the art does match the story it's also focused on the style and not the substance of the story telling.

It's a Qualified recommendation, mainly because the issues are cheap and easy to find. If you are keen on great X-Men stories there are much better ones you could spend your coins on. If your a collector then I say go for it. Prime examples of the 90's comic experience with flashy covers and lots of variants.

Suicide Squad volume 1 (I think) - 1987

DC

John Ostrander - Writer
Luke McDonnel - Pencils

I picked up the whole pile of these comics for basically postage off of eBay. Obviously not of the best quality they are still very readable. The down side to this is that I have a very random numbering so I don't have many complete stories.

Originally used in the Brave and the Bold waaay back in 1959, Suicide Squad was revived in 1987. The comic book emulates the concept of 'The Dirty Dozen' movie, a bunch of criminals doing tasks to reduce their sentence, and 'Misson: Impossible' parameters thrown in for good measure. Added to this concept was the fact that the writer could, and very often would, kill off characters while the team was on a mission.

Issue 4 is the William Hell Overture. What appears to be Hawkeye with a crossbow (Slower but more powerful???) is bringing down robbers in a rough part of the city and handing over the darker hued members to the Police.
William Hell is a front for a right wing Neo-nazi nutjob. Suicide Squad set him up for a fall with the ever so slightly racist Captain Boomerang in their midst.

Issue 6 see the squad in Russia trying to bring a defector back to the States. By this issue the mission has gone to heck and Deadshot is forced to shoot Enchantress in the head (grazing shot) to stop her wild rampage. Finally the sqaud gets the defector to the Russian Embassy via a train where we learn that she's not so keen to go to America.

Issue seven then sees them fighting The Peoples Heroes. In the 80's each main universe of heroes seemed to have a stash of villains set-up over in what was then the USSR. This one is no different with the heroes called Bolshoi, Molotov, Pravda, Hammer and Sickle. I often wonder what happened to them after the fall of the Berlin Wall? After the large donnybrook on the snowy Russian landscape the Squad escapes. Back in the States the team argues about who was at fault for the Russian shambles.

Issue 8 is a flashback type of story, with Amanda Waller, a great character, sifting over the people in her charge and her passing a very harsh judgement over the lot of them.

Rick Flag Jnr, who is a very Nick Fury like character, gets into fisticuffs with 'The Privateer' who has shown up at Squad headquarters looking like a cross between Snake Plisken and Sean Connery in Zardoz.
The Enchantress is judged as unstable. Deadshot flirts with his councilor. In a background story the Police are after Mirror Master, who is actually Captain Boomerang committing crimes in disguise.

By issue ten Nightshade, Slipknot and Bronze Tiger are listed as injured and the team Doctor, Karin Grave, has been killed. Batman breaks into Squad headquarters where he copies their files onto a floppy disc. Ah, old tech...
Batman has to fight his way past the Squad to escape and we get a mexican stand-off. He does not like the idea of the Squad and vows to shut it down at some stage. Rick Flag Jnr. states that he would rather fight alongside Bats than the rest of his team in the Squad.

Issue 12 sees the Squad taking out a cocaine ring, just to show that they are pretty flexible. The team is incognito, with Captain Boomerang stretching to play a creepy drug kingpin. Vixen succumbs to her animal side and kills the drug czar and rightly shows some remorse about it.

Issue 13 sees the Squad face down the Justice League. They are breaking into a Russian jail cell to free Nemisis, who was captured back in issue 5. The Squad has many links with the League and most of the one on one fights end with a stale-mate or a truce.

The book itself is very interesting and works because you have an eclectic bunch of A-holes and miscreants forced together to work for the government on assignments too messy for the heroes to touch. The stories are well layered and touch on all the characters and sets up lots of threads for each one. The art in the books isn't crash hot, which is both the actual pencil work and the quality of books of this era. Of course you may not like reading about villains simply doing missions to win their freedom but overall I like the way these are told.

Of course DC has now announced a movie starring the Suicide Squad so I would jump in and grab old copies of these books if this interests you before roughly August 2016, when interest will probably ramp up.

Batgirl - Trade paperback New 52 Volume 1

DC

Gail Simone - Writer
Ardan Syaf - Pencils
Vincent Cifuates - pencils and inks

Picked this up very recently and it's a book I don't normally read.

Batgirl is the daughter of Commisioner Gordon who has swiped Batman's motif because, well, if you were going to swipe anybody???

The book is full of Batgirl doing lots of Batmanesque type stuff. She crashes through windows and saves people from deranged killers. She takes down the same sort of crazy and kooky villains of Batman.

The book also weaves her personal life into the narrative and we get a glimpse to the person behind the mask.

Once we drop into the action again we get a villain planting a bomb on a Subway train and Batgirl having to save lives. Of course one of my thoughts here was 'Yay!' Gotham has a Subway. She saves some people but a second bomb goes off.

We then see some more of the extended Bat family as Barbara meets up with Nightwing, the hero formerly known as Robin. They end up fighting but even though I re-read this section, I wasn't sure why.

Further on in the story Batgirl does more saving of innocent victims in alleyways, she narrowly misses taking out a slightly more deranged vigilante before having to defeat a mind controlled Brude Wayne, who fights very well for a rich playboy billionaire...

There are many good things about this book which is why I reccomend it. It does frame Barbara's life balance well and the art is gorgeous. All the villains have a bit of back story and some motivation for their deeds. On the downside of course, the links to Bats himself hang off of every panel. Barbara is part of the extended 'Bat-family' and with no powers and a replicated motif her stories can come across as 'Batman-lite'. Then again, because she isn't the same person you could argue that her story is or could be a lot more interesting...

Tank Girl - book 1 (collection of the first four issues)

Dark Horse

Jamie Hewlett - art and plots
Alan Martin - plots and other things

How to describe Tank Girl? A story about a Neo-punk bounty hunter who lives in the Australian Outback and likes getting drunk.

Of course this is a story which is irreverent with the focus on comedy and a hero who can seemingly do what ever the hell she likes and usually survives death by luck or a huge amount of blood letting.

Each issue involves some shenanighans or another. Tank Girl tracks down a band of blood thirsty kangaroos before snogging one then shooting him. In another she is tracked down by her former commander, keen on bringing her to justice. She defeats him with giant outsized boobs. Later in the stories she is joined by Booga, her boyfriend who is a kangaroo, Jet Girl, Sub Girl and a stuffed Koala called Camp.

Tank Girl is a perfect blend of an irreverent script and artwork that matches, transporting you to a world where Paul Hogan, President of Australia, shits his pants because Tank Girl didn't get colostomy bags to him on time.  I love this book and went on to grab each story that she was drawn in.

Of course the artist went on to form the worlds first virtual band with Damon Albarn - Just showing that you never really know where life is going to take you.

The Invisibles - Counting to None

DC Vertigo

Written by Grant Morrison
Pencils by Phil Jimenez
Colours and Pencils - John Stokes

The Invisibles are a band of psychic fighters at war with the Archons, being interested in creating anarchy for Earth. The team includes King Mob, Lord Fanny,Boy, Ragged Robin and Jack Frost. Just from the names you know this isn't an ordinary comic book. It's published by Vertigo, has a 'Not for kids' label and is packed with sex and violence. 

The story is based around an artifact called 'The Hand of Glory'. The Invisibles have it and it seems a lot of other people really want to get it. It's not clear what it does although the theory that it bends space time abounds. 

The team itself is a fractured bunch, with only King Mob seeming to have any narrative drive. The other members seem to react or act as props for him. King Mob himself spends a chunk of the story astral projecting back to the 1920's in order to help a woman and another sect of Invisibles track down and set up the Hand for use. 

The story likes inserting random scenes from peripheral characters suddenly through the narrative. Some loop back and give you more information others just seem to be there. 

After activating the Hand of Glory in the 1920's King Mob comes back to the present (which is late 1990's) to find Boy has stolen the hand and has taken it to agents of the Archons. The end of the book turns into a bit of a cop out as Boy was being mind wiped and de-programmed because she had been wiped and programmed by a sect of another 'church'. In the end the Invisibles ride off into the sunset looking all cool.

The book is very existential, very melodramatic with some excellent visuals. The story borders on a depth that ultimately missed me. I like a comic book where the art matches the story. This works here. My only let down is that I felt I had been led in a long circle but for no reason. Qualified recommendation if you like deep stories that are set on many levels.

Asterix at the Olympic Games

Hodder - Dargaud

Written by - Rene Goscinny
Drawn by - Albert Uderzo

I read my first Asterix book at the age of eight or nine. The mists of time have made me forget exactly. I bought it through a book club at school and the story instantly had me enthralled.

In this volume Asterix gets invited to compete in the Olympic Games via the Romans. The druid and Obelix offer to tag along but in the end the whole Gaulish village attends.

Once in Greece Asterix and Obelix are shocked to find that they can't compete with any magic potion. Luckily Asterix works his sly wily ways and tricks the Romans into using the potion thus winning a laurel on a technicality.

There are some holes in the story and it spends a long time getting the hero to Greece. Still the art is sumptuous and it's one of these stories where the art matches the text and blends together into something gorgeous. Some of the humour is deeply pun based, which happens to be good for me as I love a good pun.

Recommended

Venus Wars

Issues 1 - 10 (1992)

Dark Horse

Writer and Penciller Yoshikazu Yushiko

I bought the first issue when it first came out then promptly couldn't or didn't get any of the others. Adam was wanting to be rid of a vast swathe of books (most of which I grabbed). In among them all was the rest of the Venus Wars issues. So after 20+ years I finally get to finish the story. In this batching I read the first ten.

 Venus has been struck by a massive icy asteroid which changed it's rotation and made it terra formable. Of course humans colonize Venus and start a war. Our story is about a bike riding lunatic who is head hunted to join the army. - There is a 'Rollerball' style bike based sport that the main character is good at because basically he is a complete nutcase)

After a 'sports' game Ken Seno rides off towards the army base with the 'Queen' of his team in hot pursuit. She is heaping abuse at him because how dare he ride off! He is also following Cute Girl who was watching him perform bike sports. They follow an Army bike to the base, which promptly explodes. Ken Seno rescues a cute girl then we have some war exposition.

In the next issue Ken Seno is doing a stack of PT. We see a new character called Maggie who is trying to track Ken down but only finds his empty apartment. The army interviews the cute girl is interviewd and she is a representative from Terra milatary. The Queen had followed the cute girl and they talk. Ken Seno is part of The Hound Bike Intercept Squad. They drive off to intercept tanks threatening to attack the edge of the city.

 Ken Seno takes out a tank with his attack bike. The queen and Cute Girl escape from the hospital in a comedy sequence. Ken Seno is finally taken out by a tank but has no time to lick his wounds and is sent out to fight again. - He finally destroys a tank - Which means I was confused on the first few panels of the book that's for sure!

Okay, I finally get another MASSIVE info dump. This one is all about the running of the war and touches on things like logistics. Our Hero Team, Ken Seno, Miranda- The Queen, and Helen the Cute, steal some gas. I presume to escape. A section of Venusian society starts and uprising and we have the second massive info dump of the issue. After this one the General of one side of the war rides in front of his army on a sort of sled.
Ken Seno is then in a training montage. he talks back to his drill sergant and then is basically beaten up.
Top brass decides to beef up The Hound unit and the 'regiment' break into the brig and free Ken Seno.

Maggie has arrived at the army camp and visits with Ken. The Hound Regiment is set up for a massive attack on a huge fleet of tanks. The unit leaves for the front and Maggie says goodbye. As they are attacking they are attacked by their Kryptonite; helicopters.

There is a massed retreat. Maggie is attacked and there is an attempted rape scene. Ken Seno saves her and shoots her attacker in the head.

This book has nice art and the pencils were done by the writer. It's in black and white (originally a manga) and then it was made into anime. It's weakness is it's story. I never really hooked into the characters and the action and info dumps break up the story too much. Ultimately the scope is huge and the story never hooks you into any part of it. Much of the dialogue is very much like an anime and also doesn't help get you into each point of view.

I'd give it a qualified recommend if you are a HUGE manga fan, you really love the artwork or some reason like that. After 20 years it wasn't worth the wait. Otherwise not recommended.

The List

This is not complete.


Marvel
Avengers vol 1, vol 2, vol 3, vol 4
Avengers Strikefile, Avengers Classic, Avengers Unplugged
Avengers West Coats
Vision and Scarlet Witch
Solo Avengers
New Avengers
Incredible Hulk
Captain America vol 1.
Mighty Thor
Iron Man
X-Men vol 1, vol 2.
Uncanny X-Men, Vol 1, vol 2
X-Force
X-Terminators
New Mutants
Clandestine
Excalibur
Classic X-Men
Generation X
X-Men 2099
New Excalibur
Exiles
Fantastic Four vs X-Men
Avengers vs X-Men
New X-Men
X-Man
Magneto
Wolverine
Cable
Spectacular Spider Man
Amazing Spider Man
Spider Man
Web of Spider Man
Spider Man 2099
Storm
Ultimate Spider Man
X-Factor
Marvel Tales Featuring Spider Man
Fantastic Four vol 1, vol 2
Silver Surfer Vol 2, vol 3
Guardians of the Galaxy vol 1, vol 2
What if?
Ghost Rider
Quasar
Daredevil
The 'Nam
Punisher
She-Hulk vol 2
Namor vol 1, vol 2
Deathlok
Alpha Flight
Groo
Uncanny Avengers
Amazing X-Men
All New X-Men
Thunderbolts
Moon Knight

DC
Superman
Man of Steel
Action Comics
Adventures of Superman
Catwoman
Batman
Detective Comics
Robin
Suicide Squad
Justice League vol 1, vol2, vol3
Justice League Europe
Doom Patrol vol 2, vol 3
Teen Titans vol 2
Tales of the Teen Titans
New Teen Titans
The Invisibles
The Filth
Tank Girl Apocolypse, The Oddessey
Watchmen
Hellblazer
Animal Man
Sandman
Superboy
Supergirl
Green Lantern

Dark Horse

The Mask
Tank Girl
Heartbreakers
Venus Wars
Star Wars
Aliens
Aliens vs Predator
Predator
Grendel Tales
Terminator
Dirty Pair
Ghost in the Shell
 Sin City
Next Men
Babe

Image

Freak Force
Gen 13
Youngblood
Cyber Force
Velvet
Shaman's Tears
Stryke Force
Pitt
Super Patriot
Tribe
Wild Cats
Shadowhawk
Brigade
Union
Deathblow
Supreme
Wildstar
Vogue
Wetworks
Black Ops
Bezerkers
New Men

Other Stuff

X-Files
Faust
Satans Six
Grimjack
Yeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Bio Booster Armour Guyver
Bloodfire
Fighting Fem
Vampirella
Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
The life and time of Tom Landry
Fatale
Tomb Raider
Lady Death
Beautiful Killer
Pridence and Caution
Dark Dominion
Warriors of Plasm
Crying Freeman

This isn't everything and I will try and update it once I get time to sit down and re-sort everything I have.

Collecting Comic Books

Although I bought a fair few comic books by the time I was 14 I didn't really start 'collecting' until I found that rare of rare beasts in 1987 - the comic book store. Here they had all the issues of The Avengers BEFORE issue 262, when I started buying it every month. Once the plethora of books was open to me I really began to collect in earnest.

Collecting enabled me to put runs of books together (which always helps) and to find all the stories that I enjoyed. The second part I started to like, which is the 'troublesome' bit, was some of my issues accelerated quickly away from their 50 - 60 pence cover price.

These days I count collecting books as separate from 'Speculation', which cruelled collecting for a while in the late 90's.

I won't touch on the Speculation and Collecting that happened in the late 90's, that might be another topic, instead I'll touch on what I do as a collector, comic book care and what I collect and why.

First up is care. The two simple tenets are bag your books and store them upright.  You can buy both Mylar bags and comic book storage boxes from the comic book store. This will keep your books in as close to the purchase condition they can be bar very heavy reading. If you have older books or valuable ones sitting in amongst the others I do suggest a backing board, also available from the comic book store, to stop them bending. Obviously, store books in the box, with the lid on. I also throw some stuff into the box to deter silver fish - Check what it is before you do this though.

What do I collect and Why? Simply I collect books I have some interest in. My range is broad and I like the medium in a lot of formats. As well as super heroes and the usual formats I will read any comic strips and have collections of various examples of these as well.

In the main I collect Super books, mostly Marvel, and mostly of all Avengers and X-Men titles. I think this is mainly because I love the team dynamics and the interplay. Of course there are some fairly eclectic lines in the mix as well.

Different things can grab me; the art, the story. Something. It's rare for me not to give a book a chance and I've ended up with some obscure stuff in my boxes.

Also I like to collect things. I think it must be genetic. My paternal Grandfather collected model cars and records, my Dad collects model cars and odd auto memorabilia; pre- 1920's petrol cans and signs. I am into comics and it looks like my son will follow suit. He currently collects Lego. Comics can be cheap, fun plus you have something to read and look at. 

These days you can get your books slabbed and sealed. Now if you are buying comics that are worth $100+ a pop, I think it's sensible to seal them away in something so they never deteriorate. You can always buy the content in another format to read. I've never done this but you never know. If I get hold of a copy of Incredible Hulk 187, maybe I will?

I think the best way to collect older books is get the issues you are after off of eBay. Of course this means your collection will be 50% book, 50% postage.Still you will be getting what you are after.

Of course there's nothing finer than finding markets or stores with back issues, or an old book shop or charity shop and having a darn good rummage. This is my favourite way to look.

In summary collect because you love to do it.

If you are just interested in the stories your Local Comic Book Store should have a huge offering of trades, collections and graphic novels in a format that is easier to keep.

And there will probably never be a time like the 90's speculation boom again.

Batman

Issues 479 - 485

DC

Writers : Alan Grant, Doug Moench. Pencils: Tom Mandrake, Jim Aparo

Batman, an icon of the genre. One of DC's two 'flagship' characters. Worlds Greatest Detective and also one of the worlds best martial artists. Has no actual super-powers and led to the great 'Can Batman fly?' debate with my son when he was three.

These Batman books are created after The Dark Knight Returns and Arkham Asylum but still find Batman in the middle of his milue, sifting through the detritus of Gotham, righting wrongs.

Each book is a story, or part one of a two part tale. The first issue has Bats investigating the kidnap and torture of a rich investment banker. The antagonist is a muscular and powerfully built woman called 'Pagan'. She captures and assaults a second banker and the back story is revealed that the bankers captured and did something nasty to her sister. Batman tracks her down and puts an end to her vigilante ways but when shown gratitude from the victim, he responds with contempt.
I note that it was okay for Batman to be a vigilantethough...

Issue 480 sees us with Tim Drake, the new Robin. He is visiting his wheelchair bound father. His mother's grave has been vandalised. Drake finds the culprits and turns the tables by spray painting them in the face.
Batman and Robin track down the whole gange of vandals and bring them to justice. It's not just homicidal maniacs who feel the wrath of Batman's foot.
So that Tim's father has a place to live, Bruce Wayne buys the mansion next door.

481 gives us a Maxie Zues story, even though Maxi himself is stuck behind bars the whole time. Maxie send 'Iris' to take a message to the boys. They reject her as just a dumb broad and she goes slightly whacky, donning a costume and arming herself with gadgets to make them pay. First she takes out a couple of the old gang then she turns her attention to Bats, who, after all, put Maxie in the slammer.
The next issue starts with Harpy fighting in Gotham Museum. She trades blows with Bats but cunningly gets away. The old gang plan on icing her, but she is eves dropping and gets the drop on them. Bats speaks to Maxie and points out he can save Iris before it's too late. There is an ultimate showndown and Bats wins but has to save Harpy's life in the process.

The next issue is a Bonnie and Clyde tale of 'Crash and Burn'. (*When we did SHRPG we went for Shock and Awesome... maybe some memories bleeding through?). The whole issue is just a Mickey and Mallory tale until the antagonists blow themselves up with their own incendiary devices, leaving them both hideously scarred.

The next is a two part story which opens with some arson on some Wayne Enterprises apartment blocks. I suppose a billionaire invests in lots of things. The arson will cause his insurance to rise and could bankrupt Bruce. As Bruce answers reports questions he also asks Vicki Vale out for dinner, so he's not that worried. The villain is Black Mask. He is setting up the False Face Society. Every gang member must wear a mask. We have a flashback about how he became Black Mask. He burned his parents to death then ran his cosmetics company into the ground with faulty waterproof make-up. After this he murdered the newly appointed Wayne Enterprises board members who Bruce had parachuted in to save the company. Black Mask then kidnaps Lucius Fox while Batman and Robin save some more Wayne buildings from arson.
Robin cracks his way into the gang in disguise (remember - they all wear masks). Black Mask is about to go A-Bomb on Lucius and Robin might blow his cover but the gangsters moll intervenes and Robin stays safe. One of the gang steps out of line, not wearing his mask. Tattoo, the biggest muscle in the gang, puts him back into his place with a quick flurry of fists. Bats goes to chat with Gordon. There is a showdown between Bats and Tattoo. Batman only just wins the fight. Black Mask escapes by diving into a lake. When they recover the corpse they discover it's the missing body of a Wayne Corp executive, not the Mask himself. 

Overall these books are very Batman, pulpy noir thrillers that dredge through the darkness of a city and show a man fighting his own war against crime. Of course, as I always say, Billionaire Bruce Wayne could do a lot more good with some scholarships and maybe schools in poor districts. But that makes a boring comic. Lots of things have been done with Batman over the years but the bulk of the books I have read of him are usually this kind of fare. Only collect these stories if you are a massive Batman fan.

Freak Force

Issues 1 - 5 (1993)

Image

Writer - Erik Larsen, Keith Giffen

Pencils - Victor Bridges

I collected these around the time they came out and my collection started at issue 12. Recently I got given a stack of books and 1 - 11 were there. Complete run! Please don't start me on that path.

Freak Force are a team of heroes, based in Chicago and they consist of Dart (the leader), Rapture, Richochet, Barbaric, Mighty Man (labled as the most powerful man in the world), Superpatriot and Horridious. Already there is a bit of a gap as only two of the team appear as 'Freaks'. The rest of the team seem like normal humans.

The team is set up and established as something of a 'heroes for Hire'. They start by being paid to take down an Eco-terrorist called Major Disaster. Dart bemoans their lack of co-ordination and they start to look for a headquarters building.

The second issue has a cover of a man with the head of a shark. Dart is having trouble hiring help to run their outfit. The villains in this issue are 'The Coven' and they hire a team of goons (which includes a very close match to my own nemesis 'Doom Squid') to kill Superpatriot. Another stoush ensues which Freak Force wins quite easily.

Onto the third which is yet another fight, which the Freak Force easily wins again. The villain in this one is in the background, developing her set-up to take down the team. She is making replicas of Freak Force. Superpatriot and Mighty Man have a chat and Mighty Man has a secret he can't divulge. The villain creates her replicas and sets themto destruct downtown Chicago. She is using Mighty Man, Richochet and 2 Barbarics. There is mass destruction as a gas main bursts and the fake Richochet is blown up along with a lot of innocent civilians. The ladies of the team confront fake Mighty Man, who holds the real Richochet hostage.

The ladies fight the fakes, with help from another Image hero who was record shopping. They finally take the powerful bad guys down as they turn into protoplasmic jelly when they take too much damage. At the end of the issue the villain behind the plot turns up and takes the receptionist/Office job at Freak Force headquarters.

The fifth issue has the team explaining that they are not evil and the city was attacked by clones. There is a random attack in the office by a villain with matter control. Mighty Man finds 'his' car stolen, arrest the perp, but then drops the car.
Superpatriot is randomly attacked by another goon squad, this time the Fantastic Force. Again, easily defeating them. It was all a set-up for Absorbing Junior who touches Mighty Man and sucks out his power. He beats Superpatriot to a pulp before Mighty Man revelas his big secret - which is in the next issue.

These issues are nicely drawn and coloured. The stories are great for leading into each other, with threads starting and finishing. Keith Giffen had a long run I liked on Justice League. With lesser heroes with no history the going is a little tougher. Although it's called Freak Force, three of the ladies are human with two being typically tall, lithe beauties, even if one is Afro-American. They both wear very hugging costumes. The big reveal is that Mighty Man is a woman with the hero powers and this adds to the narrative. There was lots of potential on this one and although enjoyable it lacks that real killer punch.

Planet of the Apes

Issues 23, 60, 77, 114, 116, 118 (1975 - 1977)

Marvel

Writers: Roy Thomas, Doug Moench Pencils: Neal Adams, Ricco Rival, John Buscema

I bought these books in a job lot from a work colleague in 1998 for 50 quid. The books had been stored flat, the spines bend and the pages aged. They are all British magazine format. Marvel decided to create books just for the UK market and chopped out stories and printed them in a wider, larger format in black and white. At the end of this run they added the 'Dracula Lives' to the book as well. In the back of each issue is other Marvel work, such as Black Panther, Man Thing and Ka-Zar.


With this in mind there isn't much to say about plot as most issues are not in sequence. The transformation from colour to black and white may have affected the art. I have nothing to compare with. Maybe I should grab some of the origional source books for comparison?

These are all nicely drawn but not collectable or noteworthy unless you are a huge Planet of the Apes fan. Even then I guess the origional books would be better.

Excalibur

Issues 100 - 110 - 1996

Marvel

Writer - Warren Ellis (100, 101, 102, 103) John Acadi + James Fielde (104), Keith Giffen (105) Ben Raab (106, 107, 108, 109, 110)
Pencils - Casey Jones, Randy Green, Rob Haynes (101) Casey Jones (102), Carlos Pachiero (103) Brian Hitch, Rob Haynes, Scott Kobbish (104), Brian Hitch (105), Andy Green, Casey Jones, Rob Haynes, Aaron Lopatis (106), Salvador Larroca (107, 108, 109, 110)

For this run the team is: Captain Britain, Meggan (his girlfriend), Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Wolfsbane, Colossus, Douglocke and Pete Wisdom.
(The first four were in the origional line-up)

And straight away you can see that these issues are a book in a state of flux.

Excalibur was created by Chris Claremont and Alan Davies and focused on a mixed team of Mutants with Captain Britain (who's sister was an X-Man) who were based in the UK.

Issue 100 starts with the team defending London from the Red Queen, who is part of the British version of the Hellfire Club. She is using the skull of team member Douglocke to open a hellish portal of demons in the centre of London (Not sure if anyone would notice that?). The team has to work together to keep it trapped while the X-Men themselves appear to take Professor Xaviers secret plans to help them defeat Onslaught (Which is the multiple issue story that's running in other books).

Excalibur return from London - Onslaught has appeared and they want to fly across to America to help but they can't because *reasons*. They watch the carnage on TV and say that they will be needed elsewhere.

Pete Wisdom, the laconic Englishman in the team, has a fry-up and a pint for breakfast. He also smokes constantly. The stereotype is strong in this one. Kitty Pryde looks on and we find out that these two are in a relationship. Maybe she likes the fried egg stains on his white shirt? Excalibur is shipping off super villains in large cages by chinook helicopter. Pryde and Wisdom have their breakfast disturbed by bullies. We end with everyone happy the X-Men survived Onslaught. Only the Avengers died. *phew!*

We open with some classic Excalibur shenanigans with a Universe seemingly full of Colossus's, Nightcrawlers's and Shadowcats. But of course it was only a dream.

Douglocke (who is a techno-organic creature made from Warlocke and Doug Ramsey aka; Cypher) is having nightmares. Pete Wisdom doesn't like him, either because Kitty had a thing with the now dead Doug or maybe he doesn't like bacon? Pete winds Douglocke up so much he chucks himself out of the window. The team discusses what to do. While the rest of the team is attacked by the Mutant liberation Front, Shadowcat checks out Doug Ramsey's grave.

Kitty finds Doug's corpse in his grave and Douglocke insists he is not Doug Ramsey. The MLF are trying to steal the Xavier Protocols (Which give his views on how to kill all of the X-Men). Kitty takes Wolfsbane and Douglocke out for pizza. Moira traps the MLF with a force field and Kitty comes to terms with Doug dying - A number of years after it happened.

Peter (Colossus) is painting and reflecting on life and in a running gag, there are more comments about Nightcrawler's brimstone 'whiff'. There is a message from the Acolytes, a team of villanous mutants who used to be aligned with Magneto, and the team travels to Australia to see them.

Meggan and Captain Britain travel the roads of London in a flying/transforming Ferrari - I don't know why it's not an Aston Martin? The rest of the team is on Muir Island re-building a Cerebro machine. Recent history tells me this will end in pain. Captain Britain broods for a while before proposing to Meggan. before she can answer she is launched through the jewelery shop window. The 'magical cyborg samurai mutant' Spiral appears. Cap is attacked by The Dragons of the Crimson Dawn.

Nightcrawler and Colossus are fencing. The Dragons fight Captain Britain. Kitty tries to woo Pete Wisdom. Wolfsbane and Shadowcat do some bonding at the hair salon. Spiral magics Captain Britain away and tricks Meggan (who was laid out for almost the whole issue) to Muir Island to get the rest of the team.

Nightcrawler is working on Cerebro. Of course, it blows up. (I thought you had to be a telepath to use it?)
Spiral appears and has a swordfight with Nightcrawler. Spiral bests him and is then taken out by Kitty. Meanwhile the Dragons have Captain Britain and are using his magical powers to open a portal of the Crimson Dawn (or something). Spiral convinces Excalibur to rescue.

A wandering monk appears as Spiral ports the team to Hong Kong. Although Cap's powers are linked to the UK, maybe they will work on bits of land that used to 'belong' to the old Empire? There is a heap of exposition from the monk. There is the big stoush, Spiral turns evil. Captain Britain closes the portal but at the cost of his powers.

These issues touch on many of the established Excalibur stuff, the team having issues, the team working out their issues, kooky end of the spectrum villains and tenuous 'British' links. The book always worked best with Claremont and Davies and I suspect is was because both are/were British. The first run of books has the team idly reflecting on Onslaught. Of course they were formed because everyone in the origional team, bar Meggan, lost someone in The Fall of the Mutants storyline. Pete Wisdom shows some promise but is reverted to British stereotypes and generic villany loses it's way. As I said at the start, a book in flux. A Qualified recommendation if you are an Excalibur fan (there is some classic Excalibur bits) - but skip and find the early Claremont/Davis  run if you want the best of this team.

Wild C.A.T.S

Issues 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 + Sourcebook

Image

Written by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi. Art by Jim Lee. Inks by Scott Williams. Lettering by Mike Heisler.

Published in 1992.

I got this book as a gift from my friend Peter, who is a writer and also the GM of the Super Hero RPG I play. Maybe more on that later. Anyway, Peter was moving into a new apartment and needed space so he offloaded 'most' of his comic books onto me. TBH I don't know if he has any left.

Before the review a little bit of comic book history. In the late 80's a plethora of hot artists and creators came through the ranks and each one worked on one of the big two's titles. The 'worked for hire' and any characters or storyline ideas they came up with were owned by the company.

"In December 1991, a group of these illustrators approached Marvel president Terry Stewart and demanded that the company give them ownership and creative control over their work. Accounts vary as to whom this group included, but it is generally accepted that Todd McFarlane and Liefeld were among its leaders. Marvel did not meet their demands.

In response, eight creators announced the founding of Image Comics: illustrators Todd McFarlane (known for his work on Spider-Man), Jim Lee (X-Men), Rob Liefeld (X-Force), Marc Silvestri (Wolverine), Erik Larsen (The Amazing Spider-Man), Jim Valentino (Guardians of the Galaxy), Whilce Portacio (Uncanny X-Men) and longtime Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont. This development was nicknamed the "X-odus", because several of the creators involved (Claremont, Liefeld, Lee, Silvestri and Portacio) were famous for their work on the X-Men franchise." - Snipped from Wikipedia.

Wild Cats (I can't be arsed typing out C.A.T.S every time) was one of Jim Lee's contributions, and was based around the war between the Kherubim and the Deamonites here on earth. The Wild Cats are a team of meta humans, sponsored by a billionaire, who are mixed Kherubim and humans (Half breeds) and are trying to protect Earth from a Deamonite invasion.

The book started out as a 4 issue limited run. It was probably huge sales that prompted it to be pushed into an ongoing series. Jim Lee had just come off a successful run on Uncanny X-Men where he illustrated some of Chris Claremont's stories and if memory serves me right, won an Eagle Award.

The story starts with the Wild Cats gang rescuing another meta from a strip club, where she is 'the best dancer', mainly due to her abilities to woo punters with her meta powers. Because we are launched right into the story the exposition is blasted across the page and we are then launched into a battle between our Wild Cats and the Deamonites, who are led by the flame headed Helspont. In what was to be a running theme in Image comics, a second team of meta-powered people show up. This turns out to be Youngblood, which was Rob Liefields first product for Image. The action now comes thick and fast into the story, with a second set of bad guys added and plots swinging across the screen at a rapid pace. The Wild Cats are laid low, but one of the team manages to crawl along in the background and shut down Helspont and the giant orb he was using to summon nasty Deamonites to Earth. Spartan, the saviour, dies but we don't have to panic as he is a robot and his conciousness is simply loaded into a fresh body and we launch into issue 5, which is the first of the now ongoing series.
This issue starts with two massive fold out pages where The Grifter and Zealot are busting into a place and murdering goons while exchanging banter. Grifter's weapon of choice is souped up pistols and Zealot uses a katana and lethal parts of her costume. The whole team arrives and spends a long time fighting a feisty red head called Misery. Warblade really doesn't like her and he launches into the auto self destructing space craft to battle to the death with Misery as the rest of the Wild Cats flee, leaving him to be the second team member to die in the first five issues.

The 'Sourcebook' for Wild Cats basically fills, or tries to fill, lots of blanks that were missing in the first five issues. We have images of the gang, Spartan, the robot with bio energy powers, The Grifter; who loves guns, Zealot; who is NOT Psylocke at all, Maul; the muscle, Warblade; who is NOT Wolverine, Voodoo; the exotic dancer mentalist, Void; a teleporter, and Lord Emp; the rich backer he may have powers. We also have the rogues and I am guessing their nefarious schemes laid out as well. The images are nice but the text is hidden by the background and hard to read. I love source books but this one is a bit ...meh.

Overall the books are very well drawn for the style they are going for and the books are very much schlocky meta-human fun. The Image Creators rode the crest of a comic book wave, which was a combination of speculation and a particular genre, and rode it for all it was worth. Wild Cats is one of these wave riding books. The Image Creators left Marvel to have creative control then they basically replicated extra teams of X-Men, with solid rip off of stuff Marvel had done for years. The first Wild Cats books are all style, beautifully drawn ladies, guns and wall to wall meta powered peoples going at it and yelling at each other. When a second team shows up, the formula is laid bare.

The Image creators left to do their own thing but seemed to have stolen the blueprints from Marvel.

I recommend these books with the qualification that you like Jim Lee's art or you love very simple action books. There was also many hundreds of thousands of copies purchased by speculators so they are still relatively cheap and easy to obtain.

Batman The Killing Joke

DC


Written by Alan Moore, Art by Brian Bolland, Colours by John Higgins, Letters by Richard Starkings

Published in 1988.

I bought this recently in a hardback Deluxe version. I first read it many years ago, borrowing a friends copy.

It was created by Brian Bolland after being asked by DC on what he would like to work on. He came up with a Joker origin story and asked Alan Moore to be the writer.

Most people know the plot. The Joke escapes Arkham. He then shoots Barbara Gordon and kidnaps Commissioner James Gordon. He rents a small theme park for the express purpose of showing Gordon the wounding and abuse he heaps on Barbara in an attempt to prove his theory that all people are 'one bad day' from going insane.
While this unfolds we see in flashback the genisis of The Joker as he goes from failed stand up comedian to psycho through poor lifestyle choices.
We finish by seeing Batman being told by Gordon to 'Do it by the book'. He hasn't fallen into The Joker's trap. Batman catches The Joker and they share a joke...

This comic is very important in the history of the art form. The story is well written and beautifully drawn. It sucks you in and stays long in the memory. I remembered huge chunks of it from over twenty two years before. Of course the injury and abuse of Barbara Gordon is one of those things in the book that sticks. This raises the most important question in Comic Books, of the superhero genre to me: Is it okay to reflect society or should comics strive to aim higher and reflect more?

I recommend on the art and the way the story is written.

Dracula Lives

Marvel

No's 15 + 23, 1975

I purchased these books in a bulk buy from a colleague when I used to work for British Airways. I bought a holdall full for fifty pounds. One book inside was worth the money on it's own and I managed to convince myself I had made masses of money. Of course I've never sold a single book so in reality I'm still fifty quid down.

These comics where Marvel's idea to sell into the British market. They took titles from the states in their 'American' format and converted them. This meant larger sizes and removing all the colour. I'm not sure as to the exact reasons why this occured. By 1978 I could buy Marvel and DC books in the newsagent in their original format. They did this with titles like Dracula, Star Wars and Planet of the Apes as well as making X-Men and Avengers stories into UK 'magazine' format.

Dracula Lives was Marvel buying into the 'Hammer Horror' market and making watered down passes at this type of content (much milder than the 1950's EC brand of horror).

Each book gives us three or four stories, from Dracula, the Werewolf and Frankenstein. All three are footnotes in the Marvel Universe canon.

No.15 has the Vampire written by Marv Wolfman and art by Gene Conlan and Ernie Chia. Dracula is poisoned by the 'Van Helsing' crew (descendents of the Origional trackers of the fanged villain). He escapes with the help of a Doctor he has munched and converted.
Werewolf by night is written by Gerry Conway with art by Mike Ploog. The Werewolf (who's real name is Jack Russel) is up against flesh melting fog and has to fight a bull headed steel golem called Dragonius.
Frankenstein is written by Gary Friedrich and the art is by John Buscema. In this story Frank accidentally frees Dracula.
The last story is a small horror short written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko. A burglar using shrinking pills gets trapped in a rats nest.

No. 25
Dracula story written by Marv Wolfman, art by Gene Conlan. Dracula is out for revenge against a motorcycle gang. In this end he hypnotises them into driving off the white clifs of Dover on their bikes.
Werewolf is written by Len Wein and art is by Mike Ploog and Jim Mooney. The Werewolf has been caught by a circus and is forced to fight lions. The whole thing is a front for a hunt for the Bloodstone. Which makes me wonder if it is 'The' Bloodstone or if theres more than 1?
Frankenstein is written by Doug Moench, art is by Val Magrich. A tanker find Frank encased in a block of ice. They thaw him out and try to use him as an act in the circus. Frank escapes to walk the streets, sort of like a homeless Captain America.

These books are fascinating looks into how the medium has changed over time. Mass churned stories which are simple tales probably aimed at boys aged between about 10 and 19. The art has lost something in the black to white conversion. I give them a Qualified recommend if you are a fan of the history of comics but suggest you look up the origonal colour American issues.

 

 

Extermination

Boom Studios. Written by Simon Spurrier and art by Jeffrey Edwards. Limited Issues 1 - 8.

These comics were a gift from my good pal Allan, aka: The TARDIS Guy. He announces 'I am getting rid of books because I either have them in Trades or I don't want them, so naturally I said 'Yo, I'll take them'.

The first batch I read was from a Studio I hadn't read and a story I didn't know. The two main characters were Nox, a 'Batmanesque' crime fighter, and Red Reaper, his villanous counterpart. Because they are trapped in a blasted dystopia, they must team up to survive giant crabby blob creatures. The story progresses as we reveal more and more. The whole planet was smashed and the roving crab-blobs are feasting on the flesh of the last remaining humans. Backgrounds are introduced in flashbacks as we learn more and more about Nox. The Red Reaper plods along laying the seeds for his arc in the 'current' time.

SPOILERS: The whole premise in this universe was set up during a fight between Nox and Absolute, a very Supermanesque character. The fight is over a woman, a very Catwomanesque villain (You can see a theme?). Nox placed Absolute in a machine that opened up the apocalypse. Nox secretly is powered, something he does not reveal until the last few issues. Of course The Red Reaper has been playing, and murdering, everyone and destroys both vowing to rule the world and re-build it.

Verdict: The art is good but the backgrounds are mainly blasted deserts. The 'villains' are just dressing that hover around and the real bad guys are your protagonists. I enjoyed this book but it certainly didn't have a wow factor or a dynamic that really hooked me. A qualified recommendation.

As a side note, from a collecting point of view, a lot of these books had 8 'Variant' covers (Which Allan failed to buy... I wonder why?), so to collect the 'set' you would have to buy 64 issues. I will touch on this aspect of collecting (I hope). 

About Tags / Labels

About Tags / Labels

This post is just an overview of the tags (or labels, as blogger likes to call them) I will be using here.  If you don't care, you can skip it :)

I'm going to use three types of tags:

Info Tag
The vast majority of posts on this blog will be comic book reviews.  On the rare occasions - like this one - where I need to post something else, the post will have an "Info" tag.  These posts will still relate to the blog, they just won't be actual reviews.

Recommendation Tags

Every comic book review will have one (and only one) of the following three tags:

Recommended: I enjoyed the book, and recommend you seek it out and read it. I will try to qualify the recommendation as to why I like it and recommend it.

Qualified Recommendation: I enjoyed the book, or I saw some element of it that makes it worth reading, but I feel the film's appeal is limited in some way; most often because I think you really need to be a fan of a certain genre or sub-genre to get into this particular story.

Not Recommended: There probably are people who will enjoy this comic, but I was not one them, and I did not see other merits to recommend it.

Alphabetical Tags

Single letter tags from A-Z.  Every review will have one or more of these tags, based on the first word of the title, ignoring "The", "A" or "An".  So The Avengers has an "A" tag.

Books with names starting with a number will be tagged based on how the number is spelled.

Again, I swiped this format from my fellow blogger at Too Many DVDs

Mission Statement

Mission Statement

I bought my first comic book in October 1978 when I was 5, for 10p. It was Star Wars, which I had just watched at the movies and was obsessed with. In the back of the book was some filler strips. Somehow I ended up getting another batch of books, Power Man and Iron Fist, The Avengers, The Atom, from the newsagent to keep me company when I was sick. 

After the Star Wars book stopped (now named Return of the Jedi) I found another copy of The Avengers in another newsagent in 1986. The artwork of John Buscema leapt out at me and a real passion had developed.

I managed to amass a rather huge collection of books since those fateful days, through weekly collecting, huge massed purchases and gifts of no longer wanted books from friends. Indeed these days I will offer old books a home instead of letting them get junked.

So now I have managed to get to the point where I need to sit down and read a few thousand books to make sure I have read them all.

So this is my mission statement: to read through my massive back catalog of comic books.

I'm going to achieve that mission by taking batches of books, or trades or collections, reading them and then posting a review of the books here.

 
I will batch books up into collections of my own devising eg: John Byrne's run on FF, The Watchemen (which I only have in a collection), Thunderbolts Trade Paperback, 

or I will just lump what I have eg: Uncanny X-Men 220 - 275 (that's a lot of books).

I will try and let you know when and how I collected the books and give you a qualified review. I may touch on collecting books and my views on that. Heck, I might even stick up a review of some of the movies, as there is one or two floating about these days.

Note: Although I have reasonable English skills I am Dyslexic. The spelling on this site seems to be American, so I have no idea about some words. Apologies in advance.

Note: My 'idea' and the format is ripped whole-sale from this guys site:

Too Many DVDs
http://toomanydvds.blogspot.com.au/

Also note he gave me a HUGE batch of books I will be reviewing.