Author Archives: theculture

Superman/Shazam: First Thunder (2006)

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Quote:
“My name’s Billy Batson. But maybe it’s too dangerous to be Billy Batson anymore …”

“Who did this to you?”

 

This book features the first meeting of Superman and Captain Marvel and collects isues 1 – 4 of the First Thunder mini-series. I wouldn’t normally buy a Superman book but I bought this one because it was written by Judd Winick whose work on Blood + Water and Under the Hood I really liked. The art was by an unknown to me – Joshua Middleton.

A gang who has been stealing European artifacts from museums across the country make a successful hit on a museum in Metropolis. When they turn up in Fawcett City, Superman is there to lend a hand to Captain Marvel but they fail to stop the raid or apprehend the gang. Fawcett City’s equivalent of Lex Luther, Dr.Thaddeus Sivana, has hired the gang to raise a demonic version of Captain Marvel to destroy a promising solar energy project. Meanwhile he has swallowed his pride and turned to Lex Luthor for help in hunting down Captain Marvel and his weaknesses so that he can eliminate him.

This book is set mere months after Billy Batson has been given the power of Shazam and marks the first meeting between Captain Marvel and Superman. It starts off as a piece of typical superhero nonsense with Captain Marvel pleased and overawed to be meeting and beating up bad guys with the legend that is Superman. However, the book takes a darker twist towards the end when Silvana’s attempt to assassinate Billy leaves his best friend fighting for his life. Winick takes us from the light to the dark with a great story about the loss of innocence and a boy alone forced to grow up too fast. I’m not a big Superman fan but Winick does a good job of making me want to read more. The only weak point in the story is after the raiders escape from the Fawcett City museum by conjuring up a couple of demons that the heroes have to deal with. After defeating the demons they go off for a chat on Mount Everest rather than trying to hunt down the criminals which didn’t seem right. The art by Middleton is great and in that modern clean style reminiscent of Frank Quitely’s work. I will definitely look out for more from him as well as Winick.

Wolverine: Logan (2009)

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Quote:
That broad of yours. She … she once told me you were the only man on this island with … with an ounce of mercy. Whatever happened to that guy?

 

This book collects issues 1-3 of Wolverine: Logan by writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Eduardo Risso. I know Vaughan primarily from his excellent work on Y: The Last Man and I have also read a couple of volumes of Ex Machina. Risso is rapidly becoming one of my favourite artists for work on 100 Bullets, Vampire Boy and currently Spaceman.

Wolverine journeys to Japan with his memories newly restored to him. While there he has to confront the ghosts of his past from 1945 as well those that linger in the present. In the 1945 story line, Logan wakes up in a cell with an American named Warren in a Japanese PoW camp. Together they escape but soon part ways over a disagreement over whether or not to kill a civilian woman they come across. Warren returns to kill Logan and the woman and is found to have similar abilities to Logan in that he seemingly cannot be killed. But before Logan can exact vengeance for the death of his lover, the Americans arrive to bomb the nearby city.

This is a great book but with one slight qualm. I am a bit uneasy that the background of this book is the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. While there is nothing particularly distasteful in the story it only seems to added to, firstly, show that Wolverine can survive a nuclear explosion and, secondly, to create a powered opponent for him to smack down in the present at the end of the book. It is this second aspect that is particularly shabby to me as the character, Warren, while not portrayed in the best light in the 1945 sequence is just as much a product of his circumstances and nature as Wolverine himself. Maybe if they had more space to examine Warren and Logan as two sides of the same coin then maybe I would have had accepted it more.

Risso’s art is great again. The book contains some unused pages in black and white that are even better. He is an artist whose style is well suited to balck and white only – you can see (and buy) most of the pages from this book in black and white on his web site – including some that don’t seem to be in the collected volume. Having said that some of the coloured pages are superb – especially in the third chapter. Well worth the admission price.

Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse Volume 1 (2009)

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[ Listening to Off the Ball Currently: Listening to Off the Ball ]

Quote:
Hmmm … Why is it always in the bloody sewers?

 

This book collects issues 0 – 4 of Wormwood: Gentlemen Corpse by writer/artist Ben Templesmith. I am a fan of Templesmith’s art from his 30 Days of Night books but I think this is my first exposure to him as a writer as well.

Wormwood is a trans-dimensional worm who inhabits, and animates, a corpse – usually visible in the corpse’s right eye socket. He is a paranormal investigator along with his non-drinking buddy, and robot, Pendulum and hired gun, and ex-lap dancer, Phoebe. When he gets a visit from ghost cop, Trotsky, Wormwood finds himself invovled in a case invovling erectile dysfunction pills causing the rapid and violent births of tentacle-faced demons.

I thought that this was a great book full of humour and bizarre situations. How these characters come to exist and function in the world is not really explained but if you are willing to accept the set up then this is a fun read. The art from Templesmith is great as ever. I love his style with minimalist backgrounds and beautiful colouring – horror books never looked so pretty before. I look forward to reading more adventures of Wormwood and some of Templesmith’s other solo works.

Young Death: Boyhood of a Superfiend (1992)

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Quote:
Yessss, I too wasss a boy oncce – though of courssse I wasss far from normal, even then …

 

This book collects the twelve part story from the first volume of the Judge Dredd Megazine, the anthology comic from 2000AD set in the Judge Dredd universe. The story was written by Judge Dredd creator John Wagner. The art was the first introduction of Peter Doherty to a wide audience. Doherty has continued to illustrate stories in 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine but does not seem to have done much beyond this.

Set after the Necropolis story line in 2000AD, this story explores the early life of Judge Death as recounted to an unfortunate Mega-City journalist. Young Sidney is a sociopath in the making whose world view is reinforced by his father – a sadistic, psychopathic dentist. On turning his father over to the judges for a series of murders, Sidney joins the judges and refines his world view in which crime is committed by the living and so the living should be punished. Upon graduating he discovers two death cultists who help him complete his vision by removing the paradox of his continued living while sentencing others to death for the same “crime”.

I love Judge Death stories for two reasons. First of all they tend to feature an appearance of psi-Judge Anderson who I adore. Secondly he is, in many ways, the ultimate villain for Judge Dredd in the same way that the Joker is for Batman. I think that there are many similarities between the Joker and Judge Death: the fixed rictus grin; the disregard for human life; the dark humour associated with the characters. The humour in this story ranges from the lightly comical, in the shape of Death’s extremely short-sighted landlady, Mrs Gunderson, to the extremely black exploration of Sidney’s childhood environment. Although this a very good story, I have never been convinced that it was really necessary. I am happy to accept the Dark Judges for what they are and the detailing of an origin does little for my perception of the character – it is hard to imagine ever feeling sympathy for any of the Dark Judges and the choices they made. However, it is still a classic story that is worth reading if you like your humour on the black side and for the art of Peter Doherty.

Ursula (2004)

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Quote:
“And how does a love story end?”

“It doesn’t.”

 

This one was written and drawn by Brazilian brothers Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá. They created the hit mini-series Daytripper for Vertigo recently and Bá is also known for The Umbrella Academy on Dark Horse and they have both worked on the Image comic Casanova with writer Matt Fraction.

Ursula is a beautiful, short meditation on love, the power of a child’s imagination and the fulfilment of dreams come true coupled with some great black and white artwork.

Catwoman: When in Rome (2005)

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Quote:
You can keep asking questions. As long as you understand you may not like the answers.

 

This book collects the six issue mini-series of the same name and tells the story of the investigations of Catwoman when she disappeared from Gotham as mentioned in The Long Halloween. The book is by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale the creative team behind DC’s The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Superman for all Seasons and Marvel’s colour series: Daredevil: Yellow, Spider-man: Blue, Hulk: Gray and a book that sadly looks like it won’t be coming out now Captain America: White.

The story finds Catwoman in Rome looking for evidence to prove whether or not her father is Gotham crime boss Carmine Falcone. Accompanied by Edward Nigma and a mafia hitman minder, Christopher “The Blond” Castillo, she soon finds herself having to steal the Mafia equivalent of the one ring from the Vatican. In her travels echoes of Gotham travel with her as a mafia boss is murdered with the Joker’s poison; she finds herself under attack from Mr Freeze’s gun and the villainess Cheetah who seems to have followed her from Gotham. And what is the meaning of the strange dreams she has of Batman that haunt her throughout the trip.

The partnership of Loeb and Sale has produced some great series, as listed above. This one is a reasonable effort but I think it suffers from being an afterthought to a subplot in The Long Halloween. If I had re-read The Long Halloween before reading this one then I might have felt differently but I don’t think there is enough plot of substance here for a casual reader, or even a fan of Catwoman herself, who had not read the previous series. If you are a fan of Sale’s art then it is worth having a look for that reason – there are some very nice examples including the wonderful covers (based on the work of René Gruau) to the original mini-series.

Vampire Boy (2010)

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Quote:
Sure, I can’t die but I don’t have a life either.

 

This book collects the four volumes of Vampire Boy into English for the first time. It is one of a number of collaborations between the Argentinean creators – writer Carlos Trillo, who died earlier this year, and artist Eduardo Risso. This is a fairly early work for Risso from the early nineties and features some wonderful black & white art.

The nameless vampire boy of the book’s title is one of two survivors of a mysterious disease that swept through a company of travellers in ancient Egypt that left his father, the pharaoh Khufu, and the remainder of his party dead in the desert. The other survivor is a priestess named Ahmasi, a favourite consort of Khufu until the boy points out her indiscretions with others in the court. So starts a cycle of hatred and violence between the pair that endures throughout the centuries. Though they try neither can kill the other by conventional means as the sun restores them to health and vitality. The story opens with the boy being revived when a construction site opens a shaft of light to his hidden body. Ahmasi soon discovers that the boy is back in circulation and begins a blood soaked quest to track him down and kill him once and for all.

The book comes in at nearly 500 pages and while that gives us lots of lovely Risso art work to look at, it does mean that the story does drag slightly at times. But mostly it is great as we come to sympathise with the nameless boy and his heartbreaking existence. Unusually for a vampire tale, the sun, as previously mentioned, regenerates the vampires and while they can feed on blood the boy tends not to and can survive on normal food – but has to eat an awful lot of it. The book has a wide ranging canvas taking us from modern New York to New Orleans and London as well as flashbacks throughout history as the nature of the relationship between the boy and Ahmasi is explored. The boy comes across as a tired gentle soul who makes friends easily but not usually for long as Ahmasi will stop at nothing to reach him.

As I said previously, Risso’s art is great and the use of shade and silhouette reminds me of the work of Frank Miller on Sin City round about the same time. There is a noirish element to the story too as Ahmasi works as a prostitute, is followed around by a lovestruck detective who she uses to track down the boy and generally seems to attract the seedier side of life. A welcome change of pace from the costumed antics of the American superheroes.

The Green Woman (2010)

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Quote:
I’ve been a good servant. But haven’t I done enough? Haven’t I?

 

This book is an original graphic novel from Vertigo comics and was written by the veteran horror novelist Peter Straub with Michael Easton who is the writer of the Soul Stealer trilogy. The painted art is from illustrator JohnBolton whose work I know from other Vertigo books such as The Furies, God Save the Queen and Menz Insana.

Fielding Bandolier is a man who has had many identities but who has always walked with Death but is now tired and haunted by his victims. Bob Steele is a cop tormented by a string of serial killings across the country. His quest will lead him to a final confrontation with Bandolier by way of the relics from a cursed ship – the timbers of which have found their way into two pubs – one in Ireland, The Black Galleon, and one in the USA, The Green Woman.

This book features characters from Straub’s Blue Rose trilogy of books – Koko, Mystery and The Throat. I have to admit that I have come to this book without any previous knowledge of these books, or of any of Straub’s previous books as I have not read any. The story was OK but I was left wondering if I would have gotten more out of it if I had read the novels first – it definitely benefits from an immediate re-read and reading in one sitting. The main reason that I bought this book was for the fantastic painted artwork by John Bolton and this did not disappoint in the slightest. The book features some trademark Bolton gorgeous ladies as well as the likeness of Scottish actor Peter Capaldi as Fielding Bandolier.

Thor (2010) – Part 2

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This is the second part of the round up that I am doing of the first issues of the recent avalanche of Thor titles published by Marvel. Like the first, this part consists of comics that feature Thor as the main character.

Thor The Mighty Avenger (cover date: September 2010)

The creative team on this comic is writer Roger Langridge and artist Chris Samnee. I don’t know the writer but Chris Samnee drew the recent Serenity book, The Shepherd’s Tale. Unfortunately I am not a big fan of Samnee’s art – it is too cartoony and unfinished looking for me. The story is fairly inconsequential – it is told from the point of view of Jane Foster who works at a war memorial museum. One day there is a disturbance and a man, Thor, is thrown out after trying to break a display case. Later on, after a meal with her ex-boyfriend, Jane comes across the man as he takes part in a bar brawl with a character called Hyde. Thor is left weakened and Jane takes him to the museum where his wish is to hold one of the artefacts which he smashes to reveal Mjolnir. This book is far too light for me. It looks and feels like a teen romance title and bears no resemblance to the usual incarnation of Thor. I would only read further if I had it on loan from somewhere. Apparently the paying public think so too as the title is due to be cancelled with issue 8.

Ultimate Thor (cover date: December 2010)

Marvel’s Ultimate universe is an alternative reality to the main Marvel line of comics that allows creators some freedom in re-imagining the characters. I have read a number of books set in this universe and they have been mostly fantastic. So my hopes were high coming to this title. Again the creative team is new to me (I must get out more or read more Marvel titles) – the writer is Jonathon Hickman and the artist is Carlos Pacheco. The story opens with a teaser scene of German Nazi soldiers and frost giants assaulting a ravished Asgard – can it get better than this? Next we have Thor incarcerated and under study as the failed attempt at a European super soldier. James Bradock calls in psychiatrist Donald Blake to evaluate the patient in a scene that deliciously points up some of the differences between Ultimate Thor and classic Thor. Next we eavesdrop on the machinations of Baron Zemo , in 1939 Germany, as he plans to lead an assault on Asgard. Then there is a sequence with Thor, Loki and Baldur in Asgard in a skirmish with some frost giants – with some of the nicest art in the comic. Finally we are left with Baron Zemo as he activates a portal to the seven realms and is about to begin his assault. This is a long overdue solo book for one of my favourite characters from the Ultimates (and the Marvel universe). A great opening issue with a number of plot lines that have to be brought together. It will be interesting to see where it leads – a must buy when it appears in TPB.

Astonishing Thor 1 (cover date: January 2011)

The final comic I am going to look at in this post is Astonishing Thor by Robert Rodi and Mike Choi. Rodi has written a couple of Vertigo titles but I don’t think I have read them. Choi has worked on some X titles for Marvel including Divided We Stand that I read in September. Sadly the story is anything but astonishing. While battling against some freak weather conditions, Thor is called to the remnants of a destroyed Asgard by Heimdall. Heimdall tells him of an appearance of a strange craft in the Solar System that is the probable causes of the disturbances and threatens the future of the planet. Thor sets off to investigate to find Ego the living planet and the Stranger. There is not a lot going on in this issue to get me excited. The art is nice but Thor looks very young. The story is just OK – there is not enough going on or dramatic tension to make me want to read any further. Another to borrow sometime but no loss if I don’t.