Movies to watch in 2016: Updated with what I've watched so far and thoughts.

Batman vs Superman - Not holding out too much hope. I didn't really like Man of Steel and this looks like it's in the same mold. - Was strange and confusing with moments of great dumb. Some of the action sequences and perfomances were good though. Not a complete disapointment but close.

Captain America: Civil War - Yes. 100% stoked for this. Looks great. - Was great. IMO the best MU Movie so far. Another great chapter in this franchise.

Ghostbusters - Why yes, I do think I will call. - Booking tickets for this weekend.

Hail! Ceaser - Cohen brothers latest offering in the comedy mold. - Was pretty funny with some excellent sequences. Overall slight disapointment as the finish of the movie was flat.

Dad's Army - For pure nostalgia reasons. - Did not get to see this. Was it even released in Australia???

Deadpool - Even though I'm not a big fan of the comic book. - Awesome. Exactly what is said on the tin and Ryan Reynolds was fantastic.

Doctor Strange - Yes, I am a sucker for Marvel CU movies. - Not out yet.

Free State of Jones - Mathew McConaughey in a Civil War drama about a white man that marries a slave. - Not out yet.

Hateful Eight - Released in Australia in 2016. - Violent, bloddy and well done. Again the finish was a bit flat for me but overall enjoyed.

Star Trek Beyond - I actually missed the last one... Still haven't seen it. - Waiting...

Suicide Squad - Out soon.

Kung Fu Panda 3 - Excellent Sequel to the previous movies. Fun and enjoyable.

X-Men Apocalypse - You had me at Psylocke - Overall I enjoyed it but it was a close run thing. A few 'What the Dumb' moments. Some excellent sequences. And, of course, Psylocke was woefully underused and no English accent.

Rougue One - Which is due out at the end of December, which is Star Wars time.- Waiting.

Movies to watch in 2016:

Batman vs Superman - Not holding out too much hope. I didn't really like Man of Steel and this looks like it's in the same mold.

Captain America: Civil War - Yes. 100% stoked for this. Looks great.

Ghostbusters - Why yes, I do think I will call.

Hail! Ceaser - Cohen brothers latest offering in the comedy mold.

Dad's Army - For pure nostalgia reasons.

Deadpool - Even though I'm not a big fan of the comic book.

Doctor Strange - Yes, I am a sucker for Marvel CU movies.

Free State of Jones - Mathew McConaughey in a Civil War drama about a white man that marries a slave.

Hateful Eight - Released in Australia in 2016.

Star trek Beyond - I actually missed the last one... Still haven't seen it.

Suicide Squad -

Kung Fu Panda 3 -

X-Men Apocalypse - You had me at Psylocke

Rougue One - Which is due out at the end of December, which is Star Wars time.

Crisis on Infinite Earths

DC

Writer : Marv Wolfman

Artist : George Perez

Inks: Dick Giordano, Mike De Carlo, Jerry ordway,
Colours: Anthony Tolkin, Tom Ziuho, Carl Galberd
 Letters: John Costanza
Reconstruction: Tom McCraw


I picked this up as a collected TPB in a massive job lot of DC and other random stuff from a friend who wanted to clear space in their house for normal human possessions.

There is an introduction from the writer, Marv Wolfman, who explains that he thought it would be really cool to have all the DC characters from all the different DC Universes meeting up to fight off one giant threat to the 'Multiverse' - The idea that there are many different Universes all sat next to each other where slightly different realities play out. DC used the idea to try and squash much of their characters backstories together, trim up characters and explain where other properties had come from. -DC had purchased other properties from other companies over the years and then created comic books for each one.

The story was run over 12 issues from 1985 through to 1986.

The story starts with a massive white void consuming a whole Universe, throwing all the people in it out of reality. The Monitor, a being who sits outside of reality, is murdered by Harbinger, his assistant. In his dying throes he launches the last five parallel Earths into Limbo. Here the Anti-Monitor, the villain behind the destruction of the different universes, can not destroy them. Instead he sets about conquoring them through the use of Earth villain - The Psycho Pirate. This triggers a massive war between the heroes and eventually the villains of the five Earths to try and stop the Anti-Monitor. There is much convuluted story telling as we weave different Supermen and throw other characters from other realities all in together to fight the common enemy.

I mainly grew up reading Marvel titles, although I had gotten a hold of different DC titles over the las forty years. In 1978 I bought a copy of The Atom and The Avengers and my comic book buying habits could easily have shifted the other way. My main problem in reading this story was getting attached to any of the characters. Also much of the action takes place 'outside of reality'. When the big bad releases his awesome powers of destruction it is a huge white light that devours reality. This does not allow me to feel too much attachment to the characters undergoing destruction.

I won't spoil the ending but the continuation of DC comic books since 1986 can tell you the outcome.

I can see why DC ran this story. It was a good idea to clean up their continuity and try and make their characters backstories match up a bit better. Overall it was a success simply because DC sold more comic books after the story than before. Reading it all these years later it is hard to connect, especially knowing that a lot of the characters they killed off eventually came back. Added to this they have run very similar stories, even using the same 'Crisis' theme. Still it is a recommend because of the history of the work.

Edit: Also found out after writing this that DC had run 'Crisis' stories before this one. I guess they kind of like that word.

Captain America Winter Soldier

Writer : Ed Brubaker
Artist : Steve Epting

I picked up a whole stack of graphic novels and collections at the Lifeline Bookfest. I meant to go in and get one or two but came home with twelve.

Of course I had heard of the story line. After all Marvel made a small movie about it you might of heard of.

I'm not giving anything away to say that Bucky Barnes is postulated to be the mysterious killer used by the Soviets during the Cold War. The evidence is presented to Cap, who at first won't believe it. Livov, Bucky's Soviet handler, has discovered the cosmic cube.

Most of the story is the chase and pursuit of Bucky and the Cosmic Cube. All the while this is happening Cap is agonising over the betrayal of his friend.

The ending is a bit deus ex machina and to avoid a spoiler I won't reveal it. One case where in my opinion the movie ending was better than the book.

The artwork is gorgeous and the story does grip still the whole piece did leave me feeling a little flat at the end. Still it was a good read and enjoyable throughout.

I recommend this book. I also recommend Brubaker and Epting stories they have worked on together with Image comics. I currently read Velvet which is amazing.

Uncanny X-Men

Uncanny X-Men : 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228
Annual : 10, 11
Fantastic Four vs X-Men: 1, 2, 3, 4


Writer: Chris Claremont
Artists: Barry Windsor-Smith, Alan Davis, Jackson Guice, Marc Silvestri, Art Adams, Jon Bogdanove

All of these were collected in Essential X-Men volume 7.

I managed to pick this up on sale at my local comic book store (Comics Ect. in Elizabeth Street). It was sat on a shelf by the counter on special. I do have a lot of the issues in my collection seperately.

Uncanny X-Men 217 holds a special place in my heart as it was the first ever issue of Uncanny X-men I ever read. These stories lead up to the fall of the mutants story line, where the X-Men 'die'. 

We start these books with a trip to the Mojoverse. Just some background: Mojo is a large slug like creature that runs his own TV channel in an alternate dimension. He uses his shenanighans to shrink the X-Men back into babies. Of course the X-Men get out of this scrape and gain the addition of Longshot, who is not actually a mutant but a cloned creature created by Mojo. He is always included as an X-men but I feel his membership should only be honourary.

The X-Men tangle with Malice. She has an incorporal form and can posses other people by inhabiting a body. This is shown by a small choker appearing on the victims neck.

Dazzler, an actual mutant and budding rock star, takes on Juggernaught. This is one of the X-Men's toughest foes and poor Dazzler gets owned. Luckily Jugs is a big fan and does not murder the crap out of Alison. This was my first issue and was a great introduction to the book.

In this story Storm has lost her powers due to her partner/lover Forge. Yes, these things happen if you're an X-Men. She tangles with three veteran mutants and manages to get up despite the lack of weather based abilities.

We have a brief sojurn into FF vs X-Men where Doom and Richards argue over how to save Kitty Pryde, who received injuries in the Mutant Massacre (which happened just before these issues). Eventually they decide to stop being whiny bitches and save the poor girls life.

The stories build to the Fall of the Mutants. The Trickster faces off against Roma, the guardian of the gates of reality. If he wins, well, bad shit is going to go down. As his pawns he uses the Second Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, who get re-named Freedom Force and are given a government mandate to be dicks. Of course the outcome is the peak of the story so instead of spoiling I'll go to my review  of the books.

As you may know Chris Claremont wrote the books for many years (1975 - 1990 off the top of my head). He writes the books really well, getting into the head of each character and giving each of them their own goals and purpose. There is a big weave as relationships develop and the team builds and sinks. The artists change but they all match the story quite well. Claremont also stacks the roster with female characters. As a fourteen year old reader it was really easy to get into the books and the characters hooked me. The stories stand up to re-reading and I have a thirst to get the books before this one and read the ones after, which is what every good comic book should do. I recommend these stories, which you can pick up more easily in a collection than the old classic issues, which can get pricey.

Movies for the Year

As well as reading comic books a lot I also watch a lot of movies. I usually try to go once a week. My tally for the year is twenty, so I failed completely there. Over once a month is good I suppose.

I will rate the movies out of five. Just so you know I always judge the movie on the context on which it is made. So while 'Creed' isn't the greatest slice of film making ever made it is a fantastic boxing movie.

I have tried to list them in the rough date order in which I saw them.

Ex Machina - 4/5. Domhall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac fight over a replica android. Beautifully shot and well acted, it was taught and delivered. I really liked this movie.

Mr. Holmes - 4/5. Ian McClellan is a very old (90+) Sherlock Holmes trying to write his memoirs and also bond with his house keepers son. Really well done.

Avengers: Age of Ultron - 4/5. The Avengers have to tackle a new menace, one that has come from an unlikely source. Well shot, packed with gags, great action sequences. They really did another great job on this one. Enjoyed it from start to finish.

Pitch Perfect 2 - 4/5. The Bellas are at the top of their game when it all goes wrong. Can they climb back up? Funny from start to finish and warm without getting schmaltzy PP2 was another fantastic movie I really loved.

Mad Max: Fury Road - 4/5. Adrenaline filled orgasm of dust and blood. Really loved this movie.

Spy - 3/5. Melissa McCarthy takes over from Jude Law in the spy business. Solid comedy throughout. Very enjoyable.

Sicario - 5/5. Taught thriller about America's response in the 'Drug Wars'. Gripping, edge of your seat violence. Never fails to make you feel in danger. My movie of the year.

Aloha - 2/5. Bradley Cooper is a milatary contractor with a mixed past trying to move forward in his life. Although this has some good point, overall this one left me flat and wondering what the point was?

San Andreas - 2/5. Dwayne Johnson is a rescue pilot in San Fransisco determined to save his family in the face of the greatest earthquake to hit the world. Large, noisy with seeming never ending waves of disaster. The film grew ever more cheesy as it went on.

It Follows - 4/5. Horror movie about a presence that tracks and kills young people. Shot around Detroit it's worth watching for the cinematography. I get lost in a lot of horror but this one worked. Worth a watch.

Jurassic World - 2.5/5. Chris Pratt warns against making super dinosaurs but nobody listens. Pratt is great and the action sequences are good too but overall I had to throw my brain out of the window to like it.

Minions 2.5/5 - Kevin, Stuart and Bob help their clan by seeking a new villain for them to work for. Family fun but without Gru, the jokes dragged for me and there was no centre to the film. Still it was fun in a lot of places.

Southpaw - 3/5. Jake Gyllenhaal is a boxer who loses his wife and his title. He fights to get one back. Good in a lot of sections there is a huge plot point that annoyed me for the rest of the film. The boxing was good but, without spoiling the film, the title is wrong. Worth watching for Forest Whitaker's turn.

Terminator: Genisys - 3/5. Emilia Clarke takes over as Sarah Conner and is helped by origional Terminator Arnold trying to defeat Skynet. Although this wasn't warmly recived it hit a lot of high points for me. Enjoyed it from start to finish.

Ant-Man - 4/5. Paul Rudd tries to rob Michael Douglas and end up becoming the titular hero. Yhis one hit my sweet spot and while not massive enough to be the best SH movie, it's my favourite of the year. Warm and heroic. Glad to hear Ant-Man will be in Civil War.

Fantastic Four - 1/5. Miles Teller leads his friends to become a super team after gaining mysterious powers. This started okay then changed movies 2/3 of the way through. Ended as a disaster. I hope Fox give up the FF license and let someone else try to make a movie with them.

Black Mass - 4/5. Johnny Depp with a wonderful turn as James 'Whitey' Bulger. Crime and corruption in Boston. Gripped me from start to finish, even though I knew the story pretty well.

Spectre - 3/5. Daniel Craig has his fourth outing as Bond in this follow on from Skyfall. Enjoyable through a lot of the film it does drop the ball on a few things. It seemed a logical end point for Craig as Bond but the word on the street is there will be a fifth follow up.

Creed - 4/5. Michael B Jordan is Adonis, Apollo Creed's illegitimate son. He teams with Sly's Rocky to become a pro boxer. Really enjoyed this. Avoided many of the traps of later Rocky movies and Sly was really good. maybe as good as the original.

Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens - 4/5. I finished the year with the most anticipated film. Disney's take on Star Wars. They included the original cast well and the new characters . The new guys are wonderful and made the movie for me. The plot is a re-hash of Episode 4 and I didn't like the 'Big Bad', which stopped it being perfect. Still, I've been 4 times already and I'm making plans for number five. So excited for the next movie.


 So best of the bunch was Sicario. Favourites were Ant-Man and Star Wars. It Follows was a left field choice worth checking out.

That's 2015 wrapped up. I'll try and run through what I'm looking forwards too in 2016.

Planned Reading for the Year

This isn't much of a plan and it's subject to change at a moments notice.

I am planning to get some supplies, dividers, short boxes and new long boxes, and do a big sort through on Australia Day.

(Which is on 26th January and celebrates Australian Federation in 1901 if you're interested)

Then I will lay out my planned reading for the year. I have a stack of TPB to read:

I have the following issues I'd like to get too:

X-Men volume 3 - I have the first few issues then a huge hole before I have the last few in the series. Not sure whether to finish collecting or read some of them first.

Avengers volume 1 - Which was the first book I started collecting waaay back in 1987. The obvious thing was to start with these issues.

I'll be looking to add to this list because right now it's a bit shit really. 

Reading List for 2016 - Current Books.

A Force

All new all different Avengers

All new X-men

Daredevil

Extraordinary x-men

Gotham Academy

Groo (Limited series)

He-Man

The Kitchen (Limited Series)

Low

New Avengers

Silk

Squadron Supreme

Uncanny Avengers

Uncanny X-men

Velvet

I also pick-up Rat Queens, Black Magick and Ringside, although I haven't placed them on my order as yet. I've also found New Wolverine isn't on my list either, which I need to rectify.

I dropped:

Amazing spider-man

Ultimates 

As I wasn't enjoying them.  

Final Crisis

DC




Writer/Scripts    Grant Morrison
Artist    J. G. Jones , Marco Rudy
Penciller    Carlos Pacheco, Doug Mahnke
Inker    Jesus Merino , Christian Alamy ,Tom Nguyen ,Drew Gerasi ,Norm Rapmund ,Rodney Ramos
Walden Wong , Doug Mahnke
Letterer    Rob Leigh , Travis Lanham , Rob Clark
Colorist    Alex Sinclair, Pete Pantazis , Tony Aviña



I started this book 3 times before finally using a bookmark and tracking where I was. We start the book with Metron giving Cro-Mangon man fire before vaulting forwards to today. In the present a hero collapses in a smoking pile. Orion has been murdered and Green Lantern has to find out who the killer is.

After this start I was expecting a detailed murder investigation type book but I should have probably read Crisis on Infinite Earths story first to get an idea of what to expect in one of these multi-verse type stories. Basically as each sub-plot unfolds we are led into a series of realities, time-lines, Universes and alternate takes on the DC characters. 

Lots of plots and lots of focus points made this a hard story to follow for me. Plus I always had the sense that the multi-verse story line meant that who ever was killed would simply be resurrected at the end of the story.

There are some high points and the art is always beautiful but overall I never really connected with this story.

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.