Essential Werewolf by Night volume 1 - creator labels

Once more we come across a volume with many creators, so here is the usual separate post to carry the labels for some of them.

Essential Defenders volume 2 - creator labels

Yet again we have a volume with a lot of creators, so here's a separate post to carry the labels for some of them.

Essential Ghost Rider volume 2

Essential Ghost Rider volume 2 contains issues #21 to #50 of the series. Bonus material includes Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries for Ghost Rider, Doctor Druid, Doctor Strange and the Night Rider. The writing sees a succession of runs of steadily increasing lengths from Gerry Conway, Jim Shooter, Roger McKenzie and Michael Fleisher, with Don Glut contributing one script. Most of the art is by Don Perlin, with an early run by Don Heck and issues by Gil Kane, Tom Sutton, Steve Leialoha and Carmine Infantino.

The same year that this volume was released also saw the launch of the first Ghost Rider movie, in my opinion the best one (not that there's a great deal of competition for that distinction). Although some of the details of both the origin and the Ghost Rider mythology were altered, it remained faithful to the basic concepts and gave some memorable moments, including a teaming of Johnny Blaze and Carter Slade, the original Ghost Rider. So too does this volume. Indeed there's much here that informs the basic backdrop of the film.

The early issues wrap up Johnny's career as a Hollywood stuntman and then he goes out on his own, riding across the West like some latter-day wandering cowboy, moving from situation to situation without ever setting down roots or growing a new supporting cast. Most of the existing characters are left in Hollywood to carry on as before. Also fading from his life with the end of their series are the Champions, though they've generally only made cameos here. Although he can still make all manner of stunt jumps when he needs to, the stunt performances are largely ignored to the point that people wonder what's happened to him. At about the same time that in the real world Evel Knievel was appearing in his final stunt show (although he didn't actually jump in it), Johnny is challenged by Flagg Fargo for his title of stunt champion of the United States and narrowly loses. It's a steady but strong shift in the character, reinforcing his tragic loneliness.

With just four Essential volumes and a total of eighty-eight issues (excluding crossovers, post series appearances and standby fill-ins only used later on but including the initial seven issues run in Marvel Spotlight), it's tempting to see Ghost Rider as a closed saga, with a definite beginning, middle and end. On the face of it this volume may be the longest section but also the least involved, with few of the big moments in his life. However at a more subtle level there's steady development throughout the volume as the relationship between the human Johnny and his demonic side evolves, first as Johnny discovers he can now transform at will and then as the demon increasingly takes over when in skeletal form. On more than one occasion the two are detached, whether because Johnny's spirit is briefly transferred to another human's body or because a magician separates the two or because Johnny has temporary amnesia and consequently is unaware of his demonic form, who in turn finds Johnny's mind is closed to it. More and more Johnny finds he cannot control his demonic side, who often resorts to ever more vicious methods, and wishes to escape it altogether but keeps finding he cannot.

Of course it's doubtful that any sense of a closed novel was considered at the time, with the continued turnover of writers and a drift into a formula as the wandering Johnny Blaze comes across trouble in one settlement after another. However the series is successful in taking the format and offering numerous twists and turns whilst also taking a big step away from conventional superheroics. This is a saga of a man searching for peace and trying to escape the torment he carries with him but all too often finding that he can't. Often he finds people and an environment where he might settle down and find real happiness, but time and again the curse of the Ghost Rider is there. Whether it's Johnny or his new found friends, especially the succession of women he meets, there is always a realisation that the demon is just too great a barrier to happiness and so he must continue his roaming.

Before that roaming begins, we have the last few issues of Johnny's days in Hollywood and a romantic triangle with Karen Page and Roxanne as he struggles to decide between them even though neither seems to actually want a serious committed relationship. Eventually Johnny realises that it's Roxanne who he wants but by then she has accepted the advances of special effects artist Roger Cross. Meanwhile Karen only wants to be friends. Karen's presence in the early issues may have inspired the use of the Gladiator, also from Daredevil, who is now after a device held by the old Human Torch foe the Eel. When the Eel is murdered, Ghost Rider is accused and Johnny has to clear his name, eventually resorting to using hellfire to arrange a simultaneous appearance to cover up his identity. The mastermind behind the Gladiator and new foe the Water Wizard is the Enforcer, whose identity is one of the weakest intentional mysteries of all time as, apart from a brief red herring suggesting he's movie producer Charles Delazny, it becomes all too easy to spot that he's actually Delazny's son. The remaining Hollywood issues are generally inconsequential with new foe Malice being just a guy in a funny suit with laser and vibration guns, and primarily seeking attention rather than offering a substantial origin. Then there's a fight with Doctor Druid over a misunderstanding about the Ghost Rider's nature. Add in anger and frustration about what he thinks is a serious relationship between Roxanne and Cross, and Johnny now hits the road. Roxanne does try to track him down but in the process she encounters the Orb who inflicts amnesia upon her. Johnny never finds out about this and she is last seen #28 as she accepts the claims of local cowboy Brahma Bill that they are sweethearts and goes off with him. Despite occurring in Roger McKenzie's first issue, Roxanne's situation is never touched upon again in this volume and now truly all the connections have been severed, leaving Johnny as just a man on the road with his demonic side, his clothes and, depending on the issue, a metal bike.

Out on the road Johnny encounters a handful of other heroes, starting with Hawkeye and the time-displaced Two-Gun Kid, followed by an encounter with Doctor Strange in which the magician's old foe Dormammu tries to use Ghost Rider to kill Strange. In the process Johnny finds his mind transferred to Strange's whilst Dormammu controls the Ghost Rider's body. Then at the end of the volume Johnny is thrown back in time and teams up with the Wild West hero the Night Rider against his traditional foe, the Tarantula (no relation to the Spider-Man foes by that name). Neither issue #50 nor the Handbook entry explicitly mention that the Night Rider is the first character to use the name "Ghost Rider", renamed in order to distinguish him from the more famous motorcyclist. (However this new name would prove to be a rather unfortunate choice for a man dressed all in white as it's also name used for members of the Ku Klux Klan.) But there are enough indications that Carter Slade and Johnny Blaze are sufficiently similar to justify the team-up in the double-sized issue.

The limited number of guest stars in this volume may have resulted in a very limited number of options for Handbook entries to fill up the page count, though there were still the alternative options of Hawkeye and the Two-Gun Kid (although the latter didn't have an entry in the original Handbook, from which the four entries are taken, and would have had to have been lifted from the Deluxe Edition where the pro forma is slightly different). But the result is that two of the entries contain major spoilers for later volumes. The Night Rider entry is focused not upon the Wild West hero seen here but on his great great nephew seen in a later issue. (It also doesn't seem to know what an "ancestor" is, using the term to describe the later one.) But the Ghost Rider entry is worse, introducing names such as "Zarathos" and "Mephisto" some time before they turn up in the series (the back cover of the volume also uses "Zarathos" earlier than it should), as well as detailing the backstory of the demonic side of Ghost Rider and giving away what will happen in the issues that reveal much of this information.

The series continues to add a variety of new foes, but few last. There's the Manticore, an agent of the Brand corporation, rivals to Roxxon for corporate plots. Or there's "the boy who lived forever", a long-lived boy called Nathan with advanced mental powers that has enabled him to develop technology but the body and outlook of a boy, flying around in a spaceship with his own robots. The foes closest to the Western tradition come at the end, first as a company is building a dam that will destroy land sacred to Native Americans whilst some of the workers plan to loot a town and flood it. In reaction a traditional Indian spirit called the Manitou is summoned and then Johnny is flung back in time to the 19th century where he proves his true nature.

And then there are the more horror based foes. There are a pair of vampires with many bats at their command. The Bounty Hunter is another agent of the Devil, the ghost of a vicious 19th century bounty hunter who has been tasked to bring in fifty souls in exchange for his freedom. Darker still is "Death", manifest in the form of another skeleton on a motorcycle albeit without the flames. This "Death Ryder" challenges Ghost Rider to a racing and stunt duel across the desert, ultimately for Johnny's life. At another level are the various thugs and bullies Johnny meets in his travels, whether biker gangs or construction worker bullies or mobsters. Or there's a cult of death worshippers, which turns out to be a money making scam. Then there's the "Nuclear Man", an armoured and embittered scientist who has turned against nuclear power after his son-in-law was killed by an accident and his grandson was born deformed.

But as the series moves ever further from superheroics and back into horror, it often seems the real threat is the Ghost Rider, slowly asserting its own control and becoming ever more fierce, torturing foes almost for pleasure. Issue #37 is a partial homage to the origin of Robin, featuring a family of circus performers who get killed by the local mobster after the owner reneges on a debt; the sole survivor is a son who wants vengeance. But rather than taking in the boy as a sidekick, Johnny instead scares him away from summoning the Devil and, as the Ghost Rider, pursues the mobster to his death. It's a harsh reminder that Johnny is no great hero but a man burdened with a real curse. The reaction of those around him, especially the various women he meets, is mixed, with some scared off by him. Others are prepared to stay with him but Johnny is not prepared to put them at risk. There's one time when it seems he has found peace when he loses his memory and winds up as a mechanic for a female racing driver, but incurs the wrath of her foreman. Neither the amnesiac Johnny nor the Ghost Rider is able to access the other and it seems as though Johnny is at peace. However the rival foreman attacks him, restoring his true memory and forgetting his alternative life altogether. Another chance at escape comes when the magician Azaziah splits Johnny and the Ghost Rider; however the two prove unable to survive without each other, finding their energy levels much drained, and so Johnny has to perform the spell to reunify them. Later, after losing his title in the competition with Flagg Fargo, he briefly turns to drink in the hope of "keeping the demon at bay" but it doesn't have the desired effect.

Overall this volume offers more than it seems at first. Most of it may lack a supporting cast or recurring foes, but it shows a good way to handle the wandering hero who brings help to those he meets on his travels whilst at the same time balancing his curse. And the whole relationship between Johnny and the demon is steadily built up over these adventures as he steadily loses control and finds the biggest monster around is within him. The backdrop works well, making for a good latter-day western. It's easy to see where the first movie found much of its inspiration. It's just a pity the Handbook entries and back cover give away spoilers.

Essential Hulk volume 3

The Hulk reviews have been especially popular so all this month I'll be looking at further volumes.

Essential Hulk volume 3 consists of the Incredible Hulk #118-142 plus Captain Marvel #20-21 and Avengers #88. The first couple of issues are written by Stan Lee who gives way to Roy Thomas who writes everything else in the volume, with Harlan Ellison plotting the Avengers crossover. All the Incredible Hulk issues are drawn by Herb Trimpe, with the Captain Marvel issues by Gil Kane and the Avengers issue by Sal Buscema.

Of all the Essential Hulk volumes reviewed so far, this one does the best job of taking what can be a highly restrictive format and finding ways to make it work. We have the basic traditional theme of Bruce Banner wandering the country and world, changing into the Hulk when stressed, and pursued by the military but there's a good diverse mix of story types, augmented by more nuanced characterisation, particularly of Thunderbolt Ross. There are also some interesting attempts to expand the Hulk's universe with some key first appearances. And there's a concerted approach as Bruce Banner makes numerous attempts to cure himself of the Hulk once and for all with mixed results.

In the process we get brief glimpses of many of the combinations of mind and body that would appear over the years. As well as the standard Bruce/savage Hulk combination we also get a period when Bruce's mind and body have been totally suppressed by the Hulk leaving just the beastly form. Then there's a brief point when the reverse happens and Bruce has seemingly conquered the Hulk for good, though it doesn't last for long. Indeed at one point it seems that Bruce willingly reverses a cure out of desperation at seemingly losing Betty Ross to a rival, though the exact moment of restoration isn't shown leaving it open to speculation Bruce gains control of the Hulk's body at times, most notably in Jarella's world. And there's even one story when Bruce and the Hulk are separated, though it soon becomes clear they can't survive independently for long. The only obvious absentee from this line-up is the Hulk's mind in Bruce's body but the reasonably fast pace of these tales means that this is only noticeable when tallying up the various incarnations.

Just as diverse are the locations in the series, with the Hulk turning up in multiple places across the world and even elsewhere in time and space. As well as many part of the United States, from the south western deserts to California to New York and Florida, we also see Atlantis, the kingdom of Namor, Subterranea, the underground realm of Tyrannus and the Mole Man, Morvania, a poverty stricken Mediterranean country run by a dictatorship (it makes a change from some in Latin America), outer space to tackle a comet and later to battle an energy creature, inner space where the Hulk enters the sub-atomic world of Jarella, the Dark Dimension, and the Western Front of the First World War. It makes for a good mixture of adventures that put the Hulk into many different situations and show just how diverse and flexible the character can be in the right hands. This creativity can also be seen elsewhere in these issues.

This rune see the introduction of a number of new foes, although many of them haven't risen to great heights of fame, including Mistress Fara, an Atlantean trying to replace Dorma in Namor's affections, the Glob, a monster created by the spillage of toxic waste in the swamps and one who predates many other swamp beasts and/or toxic origins, Mogol, an agent of Tyrannus whom the Hulk befriends before discovering he's a robot, Raoul Stoddard, a university contemporary and rival of Bruce's who now tries to seek the fame of killing the Hulk, Draxon, the dictator of Morvania, Klaatu, an energy creature in space, Xeron the Star-Slayer, an alien sent to destroy Klaatu, Cybor, the captain of Xeron's vessel, Psyklop, an insectoid scientist, Visis, a rival for Jarella's throne, Doc Samson, a psychiatrist who tries to steal the Hulk's gamma energy and also wins Betty's hand, and a new incarnation of the Valkyrie, based on feminist socialite Samantha Parrington. There are also first encounters with several foes from other series including the Absorbing Man, Hydra and Kang the Conqueror, plus return battles with the likes of the Leader, the Abomination, Tyrannus, the Sandman, the Rhino and others.

Amongst the existing supporting characters developments are somewhat mixed, with Major Glenn Talbot being much the same as ever, loyally supporting his seniors and secretly bemoaning how the prospect of curing Bruce of the Hulk will end any chance Talbot has with Betty Ross, but he never particularly acts on this. Betty gets a bit of material as at one stage she and a seemingly cured Bruce are to wed in her family home, with Bruce believing he has the Hulk under full control. However Betty winds up being effectively jilted when the intervention of the Leader and the Rhino cause the full savage Hulk to return. Later on she is subject to horror when the Sandman is seeking a cure for a crystallisation process and forces a doctor to perform a full blood transfusion with Betty which leaves her turning into glass until she is cured by the Hulk's gamma radiation. But it's the portrayal of General Thunderbolt Ross which stands out the most. There is little of the Hulk-hating caricature he can sometimes descend to and instead he's portrayed as a determined but reasonable man who seeks to deal with the threat of the Hulk with as little collateral damage as possible. He is quite civil and sincere in his dealings with Bruce, recognising the scientist is often the best hope and also has Betty's heart, and the preparations for the aborted wedding go well. Even Jim Wilson is treated reasonably, suggesting the old general is mellowing.

The aforementioned Jim Wilson is one of a couple of interesting new supporting characters introduced here. Jim is a streetwise teenager from Los Angeles living in the burned out remains of an apartment block where his parents died, and he befriends the Hulk as a fellow outsider, rapidly taking on the Rick Jones role as Rick is now busy as the alter-ego of Captain Marvel. Jim is highly resourceful, especially when it comes to sneaking through military cordons or sabotaging the Leader's mental projection equipment to turn a weapon on its user, and there's strong potential whilst his background is sufficiently different that he doesn't come across as just Rick Jones Mk 2 with black skin. Meanwhile issue #140 sees the Hulk enter a sub-atomic world where it seems he is trapped forever but he soon finds romance with the ruler of the green-skinned people Jarella. By fighting off the monsters attacking the city the Hulk is hailed as a hero and Jarella takes him as a consort. A spell to grant him the power to understand her language has the side effect of giving Bruce's mind control over the Hulk. In the space of less than an issue it seems as though Bruce has at long last found peace and tranquillity, settling in a world where he can control his monstrous form and is respected, and Jarella makes for an interesting contrast with Betty, a strong ruler in her own right. However Bruce is soon pulled back to his own sized world, and the again savage Hulk is left with memories of Jarella, little realising the sub-atomic world exists on a particle of dust on his trousers.

The Hulk is also still part of the wider Marvel universe and has many encounters with other heroes throughout his wanderings. As well as the crossover issues with Captain Marvel and the Avengers, the Hulk's own series sees him encounter Namor, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers (here consisting of the Black Panther, the Vision, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and the second Goliath), Iron Man on his own, and the Phantom Eagle. Issue #126 begins the practice of using the series to finish off storylines from other series that had been cancelled; a role later taken on by some of the team-up titles and other books. Here we get the finale of Doctor Strange's struggle with the Undying Ones and the Nameless One, with the introduction of the Nightcrawler for good measure. The story ends with Doctor Strange retiring (temporarily as it turns out), adding to the sense of closure. Though the partnership of the Hulk and Doctor Strange would prove highly important in the long run, not least because the pair would go on to be the core of the Defenders, at the time this storyline feels something of an intruder from another series. As we've seen with some other Essential reviews, the Incredible Hulk would prove a popular choice for resolving storylines from cancelled series. Meanwhile the epilogue to another partnership comes in the crossover with Captain Marvel as Rick's new ally battles the old one. The Avengers crossover is more spurious, merely serving as a means to project the Hulk into Jarella's world but not really justifying itself - any distraction could have caused the Hulk to shrink far more than expected and the Avengers are teleported away with no memory of their recent battle so it doesn't seem likely that the crossover was of much significance to that series either.

The crossover is, however, plotted by Harlan Ellison, one of the earliest cases I'm aware of where comics recruited a big name writer from outside the medium. This is also a very early example of creator promotion both Avengers #88 and Incredible Hulk #140 bill Ellison's involvement on the cover. However the former issue has the credit as "Story by Harlan Ellison (That means he conceived the plot!)" and "Adaptation by Roy Thomas (That means he wrote the dialogue!)". I doubt there was a strong need to educate readers about how the writing credits on comics are broken down so was this perhaps trying to reconcile a more traditional screen credit with the comic format or was this perhaps trying to paper over disputes that might have arisen if a big name writer had failed to write something appropriate for the series brief? I'm not aware of the circumstances of the story's creation but Ellison has had some other high profile disagreements over the years. Whatever the reasoning the result is another injection of ideas into the series. The main regular writer, Roy Thomas, also comes up with a lot of good ones and seems to have got a strong grasp on how to handle both Bruce and the Hulk to maximum effect. Stan Lee's final few regular issues come at the start of the volume but they're fairly mundane, featuring repeat clashes with Namor and Maximus. They're not the best note to go out on, but often long runs limp to the end. Meanwhile Herb Trimpe's art is amazing. This volume covers much of the first half of his lengthy run on the series and of the three volumes so far he's been easily the best artist on the series. He may be the definitive Hulk artist of all time - his main rivals' work is yet to come - and is certainly an obvious contender for such an accolade.

Given the combination of two strong talents for such an extended run, the result is that the Hulk is finally getting an extended classic run. It's often been asserted that the Hulk was never regularly interesting before Peter David came along and did things completely differently from how they'd been handled before (and that didn't start until issue #331) but in the case against that charge this volume is easily Exhibit A. The issues in this run don't have any obvious stinkers but instead display a strong level of dynamic imagination vividly brought to life. This is the classic way to do the Hulk properly.

Essential Captain America volume 3

In addition to continuing our Captain America month, today sees the return to UK screens of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. So here's a volume with, amongst other things, some appearances of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Essential Captain America volume 3 is made up of issues #127-156, with the book's title becoming Captain America and the Falcon from #134 onwards. Additionally it contains the covers from the all-reprint annuals #1 & #2. The writing covers the end of Stan Lee's run, brief runs by Gary Friedrich and Gerry Conway, and then the start of Steve Englehart's. The art is a mixture of runs by Gene Colan, John Romita and Sal Buscema, with individual issues contributed to by Gray Morrow and Gil Kane.

This volume continues the search for a clear identity and direction for both the character and series, with a mixture of science-fiction spy drama, down to earth tales from the road, gritty urban crime and some bizarre out of this universe moments all presented as a succession of authors grapple with the problem. However, solutions slowly present themselves. The first issue in this volume sees a blow to the status quo as Cap falls out with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury after they question his loyalty and put him through a fierce test to smoke out a traitor in the ranks. S.H.I.E.L.D. may nowadays be portrayed as a ruthless organisation who will suspect anyone easily, but at the time its portrayal in earlier issues was as a cosier, friendlier organisation. Such an abrupt shift in presentation is jarring, even though it serves a purpose in cutting down on Cap's ties to allow him to go on the open road. The next few issues see Cap climb on the bandwagon of going out on the road to find one's self, taking off on a motorbike into the country at large. Although it doesn't last long, it does allow the opportunity to take him away from the various trappings around him and drill down into the character as he sees the country at large and faces up to the fact that not everything is black and white. At one stage he tries to ditch his costumed identity but he soon finds himself drawn back to it. "Looks like I can no more shed my shield-slinging other self than Nixon can shed ol' Spiro!" declares Cap in issue #129. (Clearly he didn't foresee events of the next few years when Spiro Agnew would prove rather easier to lose than the average Vice President.)

"Here's where I oughta step in and make like a swingin' hero! But how do I know whose side to take?" thinks Cap as he watches a student riot in issue #130. The famous Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 was only five months old at this stage, and indeed may not have been the first to highlight this point, but the idea was clearly taking root that heroes can't always simply swoop into a tense situation and put things to right by vanquishing one side. Later in the same issue Cap goes on television to talk about law and order, but instead he steers a middle line against both violence and aloof establishments that drive people to desperate measures. Here we see the first clear repositioning of Cap as loyal to the concepts underlying his country rather than to the authorities of the day. It may at this stage seem to be a subtle splitting of the hair but it helps to move the character away from an authoritarian, establishment line that would likely have doomed him to cancellation as the 1970s wore on.

And then we get multiple attempts to provide Cap with a partner. A two-part story during this road stage sees the seeming return of Bucky, but it feels badly disjointed. The first part sees Baron Strucker searching the gyms of San Francisco for suitable bait to trap Cap and coming across an amnesiac young man who looks exactly like Bucky. Strucker is soon defeated and Cap is left apparently reunited with his partner. However the next issue reveals that this is in fact a robot duplicate made by Doctor Doom as part of a challenge set by Modok and A.I.M., with Strucker having been manipulated by Modok. Unfortunately Doom has made the robot too well so that it perfectly duplicates Bucky's outlook and thus it cannot bring itself to kill Cap. Although the elements of the plots are actually quite good when considered on their own, give or take Doctor Doom so easily performing a task for others just because his skill has been deliberately questioned, the way Strucker is suddenly revealed to have been unknowingly guided by thoughts implanted by Modok feels like a fast U-turn. The fact that it comes so close to Cap acquiring a regular partner - notably an equal rather than a mere sidekick - suggests that originally the intention was to bring back the real (and original) Bucky before someone decided that this wouldn't be such a great move and so retconned him out this way, then went down the Falcon route.

The Falcon had already been introduced in the previous volume but he returns in #133 where he and Cap realise they have a lot in common, both being lone heroes but they soon come to work together. The pairing may seem surprising, with Cap traditionally focused on national or global threats and the Falcon operating against urban crime in Harlem, but there's a strong bond between the two that sees each drawn into the other's world, helped somewhat by Cap also gaining a day time job in his alter ego of Steve Rogers. Initially asked to go under cover as a police officer to investigate disappearances in Harlem, Steve opts to maintain the role, finding a purpose for himself away from the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. However there are signs that he can't maintain the job forever, often having to call in sick or go away because of his work as Cap, ad by the end of the volume his sergeant and patrol car partner are secretly investigating him. Still it allows Steve a chance to evolve away from the mask.

Meanwhile the Falcon finds himself caught between multiple roles. As Sam Wilson, his day job is a social worker in Harlem but he finds himself often denigrated for working with whites and being "an Uncle Tom". Even a woman he is attracted to attacks him for this. At the same time his relationship with Cap has its ups and downs and the two briefly split but soon find they need each other the more. The Falcon is loyal and dependable but absolutely not a subordinate sidekick, and the two make for a good odd couple many years before the teaming of Power Man and Iron Fist.

Although Cap initially breaks with S.H.I.E.L.D., the organisation doesn't disappear and he soon finds himself working with them again and again, though Nick Fury is angry about Cap's refusal to become a full time S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and at one stage issues an order revoking Cap's S.H.I.E.L.D. clearance and banning any agent from having contact with him. Fortunately for Sharon Carter this doesn't last and she and Steve soon resume and develop their relationship. Meanwhile S.H.I.E.L.D. demonstrates what passes for its equal opportunities policy when it presents "Femme Force One", with Sharon yelling "Right on, sisters!" and "If this doesn't make you believe in the women's lib movement... I don't know what will!" Cap quietly just says he believes in Femme Force "and let it slide at that!" It's not the most liberated presentation of women and the unit is not helped by a rather catty relationship between Sharon and her deputy, Val de Fontaine, due to the latter's flirting with Cap, apparently in reaction to Nick Fury's relations with another woman. The whole mess climaxes when Fury turns up at Steve's apartment to have it out with him, until Val shows up to explain her actions. The whole storyline feels awkward, forcing several people to act out of character to make it work, and it's unsurprising that it's swept aside so easily in the first issue by a new writer.

There's an attempt to develop a supporting cast away from S.H.I.E.L.D. with a couple of significant characters introduced, each a part of the down to earth urban environment both heroes are now based in. Leila is a strong minded woman from Harlem who looks down on Sam for supposedly selling out, but he is nevertheless strongly attracted to her. Sergeant Muldoon is Steve's immediate superior as a police officer. A hardliner who reminds Steve of his wartime superior Sergeant Duffy, Muldoon is subsequently suspended for bribery and corruption but then embarks upon a private investigation of Steve's affairs.

As on a number of titles, Stan Lee departs on a cliffhanger, here midway through a saga involving the Grey Gargoyle and S.H.I.E.L.D. Lee's final page shows the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier destroyed and the Gargoyle about to seize the most dangerous substance on Earth. A replacement helicarrier is soon deployed and the Gargoyle defeated, but it's a telling sign of how series were often written on the hoof as though it were a game of Consequences.

If there's one area where the series continues to be particularly deficient, it's in the villains. Only two new foes of any substance are introduced in these pages. One is Stone-Face, a Harlem crimelord, and the other is the Monster Ape, a scientist who becomes a giant primate. There are a few imports from other series in the form of encounters with first the Mole Man and later the Grey Gargoyle and the Kingpin, then the Scorpion and Mr Hyde in tandem. Meanwhile of Captain America's more established foes, the Red Skull shows up here on no less than three separate occasions whilst Batroc appears twice, the first time with "Batroc's Brigade" made up of Whirlwind and the Porcupine, the second time with a Brigade made up of ordinary thugs. Baron von Strucker, Modok and AIM also all appear again, albeit in just one storyline. And then there's Hydra, with the Supreme Hydra on this occasion revealed to be the son of the Kingpin, actually serving as a subordinate to reclusive Las Vegas millionaire "Harold Howard" who is in fact the Kingpin himself, who in turn doesn't realise it's his son under the mask, but both are in fact being manipulated by the real mastermind, the Red Skull, who unleashes yet another sleeper robot to attack the US. Isn't this all a wee bit excessive? Or there's the case of Batroc's second appearance in this volume when he's again accompanied by his Brigade, who are kidnapping on behalf of an unseen contractor who seemingly turns out to be the Stranger but is in fact the being Jakar, the sole survivor from another universe, impersonating the Stranger. I suspect the original plan was to use the actual Stranger until there was an editorial intervention, and the result is the rapid creation of a lookalike character to cover the usage.

Whatever the intention, the Jakar story sees the series at a low, entering a science fiction world in which the villain is trying to repopulate his world and has hired Batroc to kidnap people for it. The two just jar heavily, even more if Jakar was actually meant to be the Stranger, and the whole thing feels like a storyline more at home in the Fantastic Four or Thor. The earlier storyline with Hydra, the Kingpin and the Red Skull also feels out of place, with the setting of Las Vegas and a villain having kidnapped a Howard Hughes type reclusive millionaire and using his business empire for criminal schemes showing the influence of the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever a little too much.

The last four issues see the arrival of Steve Englehart as writer and almost immediately the series makes a bold step forward, starting to explore more deeply the role of Captain America amidst competing visions of patriotism. Englehart's first storyline explains the Captain America stories published in the 1950s, revealing that the Captain America and Bucky (and, in passing, also the Red Skull) seen in them were all replacements. With Roy Thomas as the editor, it's easy to see where the idea came from. But instead of a straightforward exercise in retroactive continuity, we get something that works on a whole different level as we get a solid contrast between differing visions of patriotism and the eras the Captain Americas are drawn from. For the 1950s Captain America embodies fanatical super-patriotism that denounces disagreement as Communism and treachery, and dismisses blacks and others as not being "pure-blooded Americans". Together with an equally fanatical and vicious Bucky by his side, the result is a strong clash of ideologies between the original Captain America, with his Roosevelt-Kennedy liberal patriotism, and the 1950s Captain America, awash with McCarthyism. When originally published in the early 1970s the President of the United States was Richard Nixon, who had built his national reputation as an anti-Communist two decades earlier. Was this story also an early subtle jab at Nixon? The 1950s Cap and Bucky have been brought out of suspended animation by men upset by Nixon's to China (now there's a challenge and a half for those who try to update the Marvel timeline!) but for many these actions did not negate his earlier role. At a more personal level the original Captain America is left shaken by the possibility that he too could have easily gone down the route of "super-patriotism, madness, and mayhem" but for having received the vita-ray treatment which his successor did not get. Equally chilling is the fact that his 1950s counterpart was a fan and historian who took his worship of his subject all the way to having plastic and vocal cord surgery to completely resemble the original. The very term "fan" is short for "fanatic" and often fanatics can do the most terrible things in the name of their idols, with the idols having no say in the matter.

It's fitting that it's an issue (#155) from this final story which provides the cover, as it's here that the series gives every indication of stepping up a pace. Most of the earlier adventures are so so with some dips as the series takes an awkward turn or two, but the Falcon has proved a successful new element who has shaken up the series for the better. Things are encouraging for the next volume.

Essential Captain Marvel volume 1

Essential Captain Marvel volume 1 contains the Captain Marvel strips from Marvel Super-Heroes #12-13 then Captain Marvel #1-21 and a bonus story from the comedy series Not Brand Echh #9. Marvel Super-Heroes was an anthology series, previously entitled Fantasy Masterpieces, which variously combined try-out new material with reprints from the Golden Age; later it would carry reprints of more recent material including a long run reprinting the Incredible Hulk. Stan Lee writes the first Marvel Super-Heroes and is then followed by Roy Thomas who writes up until issue #4 of the titled series and again from #17 and also the Not Brand Echh story. Arnold Drake and Gary Friedrich write most of the intervening issues, with one other by Archie Goodwin. Gene Colan draws as far as issue #4 and also the Not Brand Echh story, then the others are drawn by Don Heck, Dick Ayers, Frank Springer, Tom Sutton, Gil Kane and John Buscema.

Captain Marvel was not only one of the last Marvel Silver Age superhero features to get an Essential volume, but was also the last one to be created in that era. After the initial burst of creativity that produced everyone from the Fantastic Four to Daredevil, there was then a period in which the emphasis was on consolidation rather than expansion, giving pre-existing characters their own strips, and the debuts seemed to be done with. Then in 1967 came this new feature. Was he the product of a late surge of creativity that led to Stan Lee and his artists to come up with just one more character? Or did he serve some ulterior purpose?

Even without consulting wider comic histories it seems clear it was the ulterior purpose and it shows. Captain Marvel appears to be the first in a long line of Marvel characters created for the purpose of securing intellectual property rights. Often such characters get rushed into print before the idea has been thoroughly thought through, resulting in some rather confusing early years as the premise, powers and/or backstory get revised in order to work better, and eventually the character is given up with the codename transferred to a new hero, often one with no connection at all to the original. Unfortunately this pattern is all too clear with Captain Marvel. Over the course of this single volume we get a series that starts off as a tale of an alien military spy yet by the end he's become a cosmic powered hero fused with a human being. The series got its first cancellation during the course of this volume yet it was revived barely six months later as a bimonthly. The last regular issue in the volume ends with a note explaining this has been a try-out and "Now, his fate is in your hands -- you, the reader! We'll be waiting for your verdict!" But these two issues were just a try-out and the series did not continue for another two years. It's hard to disguise that the series had not been terribly successful and yet Marvel kept on trying to keep the name "Captain Marvel" on the newsstands.

The real purpose was clearly down to the "use it or lose it" requirements of trademark law that mean a company can't simply hold onto a name to prevent competitors from using it; they must regularly actively exploit the trademark. Exactly how frequently can vary, as can the precise means by which the mark is used, but one consequence is a particular code name can appear on the shelves repeatedly and for multiple characters simply because of the risk of otherwise losing it. This is why names like "Spider-Woman" have been used so many times and also why some of the various "Captain Marvel"s have no connection to each other whatsoever. The name "Captain Marvel" had been used before; first for a highly successful character published by Fawcett Comics in the 1940s & 1950s until DC brought a copyright suit, and then the name had been briefly used by M. F. Enterprises for a short-lived hero. Clearly the risk of rivals being able to publish comics with "Marvel" in the title was too great and so Marvel were clearly moving to tie up the trademark before yet another company printed a comic called "Captain Marvel". Indeed when the Marvel series was revived again in 1972 from issue #22, it came just a few months before DC revived the Fawcett Captain Marvel (since DC could hardly breach its own copyright). Had Marvel foreseen its rival's move and rushed to reinforce its mark? It just served to reinforce the pattern as a whole succession of Captain Marvels would be wheeled out over the years. (DC revived the Fawcett character but because Marvel had already got to the trademark, DC have been unable to sell their version under the logo of "Captain Marvel" - although this doesn't affect what the character is called inside the strip - leading to the use of alternatives such as "Shazam".) But in the process Marvel forget to create a particular exciting scenario and series, and eventually had to change just about everything other than the lead character's name.

The series starts by tapping into the contemporary fads of spies and space science fiction. We see Mar-Vell, a captain in the Kree armed forces, sent on a mission to Earth, though the precise details of his mission vary between revenge for earlier defeats and spying upon the world to determine the threat level. The original given mission is ridiculous for one man, even one as skilled as Mar-Vell, so it's no surprise that it gets changed early on under a different writer. However the new mission becomes equally silly because a Kree scout ship is hiding in orbit and observing Mar-Vell all the time - so why not just cut out the middle man and do the spying from orbit without the risk of arousing suspicions on Earth? A lot of the problem is that the real reason for sending Mar-Vell onto the planet is the jealousy of his superior, Colonel Yon-Rogg, for Mar-Vell's relationship with medic Una. Yon-Rogg belongs to a line of suitors who believe that simply disposing of a rival without even concealing their involvement or hatred will result in a woman falling into their arms. I don't have the real life statistics to hand to check just how many men have succeeded with this method of courting, but I suspect it's very few if that.

There's an attempt to make this a science-fiction romantic story with the regular complications of Yon-Rogg trying to get Mar-Vell either killed on his mission or executed as a traitor, but it rapidly becomes tiresome, even when an additional angle is added to the triangle in the form of human Carol Danvers (later Ms. Marvel then Binary then Warbird then Ms. Marvel again then yet another Captain Marvel - have I missed any out?). It's trying to give a sense of purpose and tragedy to the story but we don't see a great deal of Una and what we do see just doesn't make her a compelling character but instead a weeping wet blanket. It's hard to grasp just what Mar-Vell and Yon-Rogg see in her to the point that the Colonel is prepared to destroy one of his best officers in pursuit of her. The result is that the core motivation for the hatred between Mar-Vell and Yon-Rogg just doesn't convince and so we're left with an endless succession of adventures as Mar-Vell settles on Earth, assuming the guise of the dead Dr Walter Lawson, and finds himself torn between his orders and his realisation of the value of the planet. As a result he comes to the protection of humans multiple times, under the "Americanized" form of his name, Captain Marvel, and equally regularly has to justify his conduct as Yon-Rogg tries to get him prosecuted.

The idea of the noble enemy who comes to a society with orders to destroy it yet rebels when they discovers what the inhabitants are like had been done before with the Silver Surfer and no doubt with many earlier ones, but often it isn't too obvious just what they see in the society or how it is they always seem to meet the best examples. Here Mar-Vell spends most of his time around a missile base in Florida or at a nearby motel with a suspicious night clerk, interacting with a limited number of base personnel and townsfolk, and getting caught up in protecting humans from various alien incursions. At the base the main characters are the base commander General Bridges and the security chief Carol Danvers. Carol is presented as a clear potential romantic interest from the outset and we soon get the all too familiar scenario whereby she falls for the hero but is hostile to his secret identity. Eventually she and Mar-Vell share a kiss, to the delight of the watching Yon-Rogg and the horror of Una, but nothing really comes of it and Carol disappears when the series overhauls itself.

Mar-Vell battles a number of menaces ranging from a Kree sentry to the Super Skrull. The latter is, I think, the first time a Kree and a Skrull had faced off in a Marvel comic though we learn they've been enemies for centuries. Other existing Marvel foes include Quasimodo the living computer. There are new threats such as the Metazoid, a mutated being created by the Communists, or Solam, a solar energy creature drawn to Earth by accident, the Aakons, another alien race, the Organization, a criminal outfit, the Cybrex, a robot built by the real Walter Lawson, the Man-Slayer, a robot created by Communists and the Puppet Master (in a crossover with the Avengers and th Sub-Mariner, however only the Captain Marvel issue is included here). There are also the inevitable clashes with other heroes such as Namor the Sub-Mariner, Iron Man and, later on, the Hulk, though the Captain America depicted on the volume's cover (reused from issue #17) is in fact an illusion generated by Mar-Vell to draw Rick Jones in.

From issue #11 onwards the series starts to transform itself into something different and steadily ditches a lot of the baggage. Una is casually killed off by a stray shot in battle with the Aakons, and Mar-Vell boards a rocket which gets thrown into deep space where he meets an all-powerful being who gives him enhanced powers, including flight, casting illusions and teleportation. Subsequently we learn that Mar-Vell has long been manipulate by the Kree ministers Ronan the Accuser and Zarek as part of a planned coup against the Supreme Intelligence. Zarek is motivated by concerns about the Kree racial stock but fortunately for a black and white reprint this is about the only moment that touches upon the racial tensions within the Kree Empire whereby blue-skinned Kree have come to see themselves as the original pure stock and are hostile towards pink-skinned Kree such as Mar-Vell, seeing them as the result of mixing with lesser races. As a reward the Supreme Intelligence gives Mar-Vell yet further powers and a new costume, his most familiar one, but the hero is now cut off from the Kree. He is soon trapped in the Negative Zone and the only escape, however temporary, is through bonding with another being and regularly trading places with them. And so Rick Jones is lured into a cave in the desert.

When introduced in issue #17, Rick Jones seems several years younger than he's normally portrayed, looking almost like a child. Was this just an error by Gil Kane or was it a deliberate homage to Billy Batson, the original Fawcett Captain Marvel? There are other elements to his introduction that feel like a retread of how Billy was introduced to Shazam, and indeed in the pre-Crisis Fawcett & DC stories Captain Marvel and Billy were treated as separate personalities. But whatever the motivation, the result is that Captain Marvel now shares his existence with a mortal. After a final tidy-up with a showdown in which Yon-Rogg is killed and Carol saved, the series now embarks fully in its new direction.

However the last few issues are just strange. In one Rick finds himself caught up in a strange sociological experiment run by a scientist who uses a luxury block of flats as a giant laboratory. Then in the revived try-out Mar-Vell clashes with both the Hulk and the Rat Pack, a bunch of hi-tech looters. By the end of the series everything has changed beyond recognition and it's no longer clear at all just what it's all about.

Captain Marvel is a series that's quite well drawn and the individual issues flow quickly without any obvious stinkers. But the overall direction of the series is a total mess and the result is a rather meandering flow. The Not Brand Echh story included here plays on the fact that "Captain Marvin" can't remember what his mission is. Whether by accident or design it winds up parodying the series in more ways than one as it really doesn't know what its purpose is for. This was one of the earliest series whose sole reason for existing was legal rather than creative and its artificialness is all too easy to see.

Essential Classic X-Men volume 3 - creator labels

Yet again we have a volume with a lot of creators, so here's a separate post to carry the labels for some of them.

Essential Daredevil volume 6 - creator labels

Yet again we have a volume with a lot of creators, so here's a separate post to carry the labels for some of them.

Essential Captain America volume 1

It's Thanksgiving Day in the United States so it's time for a look at the most American of heroes...

Essential Captain America volume 1 contains the Captain America strips from Tales of Suspense (the anthology series which also featured Iron Man) #59-99 and then, following the 1968 expansion of the Marvel line, the series became a solo Captain America, with issues #100-102 included here. All but thirteen issues are drawn by Cap's co-creator Jack Kirby who provides layouts on another three, with finishes by George Tuska, Dick Ayers and John Romita. Tuska and Romita also draw a few issues as do Jack Sparling and Gil Kane. As a bonus is a story from the 1940s Captain America Comics drawn by Joe Simon, Cap's other co-creator. Everything is written by Stan Lee, bar one issue by Roy Thomas.

Looking back it's astonishing how long it took to revive Captain America in the Silver Age. A new version of the Human Torch was present from Fantastic Four #1 and the original Namor the Sub-Mariner was revived as early as Fantastic Four #4, but Captain America took longer to appear and was first given a try-out via an impostor in the Human Torch's strip in Strange Tales. Eventually he was resurrected in Avengers #4 but as a team member and it took several more months before he finally got a solo strip. By this point all the big name early Silver Age Marvel titles and characters had appeared, and so the Captain America strip comes from Marvel's second phase of the Age when the main burst of creation had now passed and the focus was upon consolidation and giving deserving existing characters their own strips. Captain America's came just a few months after the Hulk's strip had been restored, whilst some months later the Sub-Mariner would also swim forth in solo tales.

The early stories in this volume suggest part of the reason for this hesitation was down to Kirby and Lee simply not knowing what to do with the character. We get an initial four strips in which little is developed and instead there are three tales of Captain America simply fighting large numbers of foes and one where he goes to Vietnam (long before the US's presence there became controversial back home) and confronts an ex-Sumo wrestler turned general. The whole thing is still heavily tied into the Avengers with the first story starting at Avengers Mansion whilst the already established Jarvis and Rick Jones are the only supporting characters and Baron Zemo the only significant foe appearing.

Issue #63 sees a serious change of pace by retelling Captain America's origin, followed by further adventures from his war years. At the time war comics were still part of the landscape and as well as tapping into that vein this approach also allowed readers to see Cap's early years at a time when the originals would have been hard to access. Issue #65 even declares "we wrote it in the style of the 1940's because so many of you have wondered how these stories were written years ago". I'm not convinced the tale printed actually answers such curiosity and anyway at this point (early 1965) most of the glimpses of the Marvel Bullpen given in other comics had focused upon writers and artists brainstorming ideas rather than the nuts and bolts of whether the dialogue was written at the same time as the plot or after the pictures had been drawn. However it helps reinforce the nostalgic approach to this part of the series.

The sequence itself establishes some details, most obviously restating Cap's origin albeit in a condensed form, and then showing the importance of Bucky. Also revived in these strips is Sergeant Duffy, who routinely puts Private Steve Rogers through his paces at the army camp, little realising he's ordering Captain America around. There are a few other appearances of Golden Age characters, most notably both of the 1940s Red Skulls, with the precise relationship between the two restated, perhaps to see off any confusion if some of the original stories were to be reprinted. Issue #64 features an American female spy identified only as "Agent 13", but it's not clear if this was meant to be a deliberately unnamed Betsy Ross (to prevent confusion with the character in the Incredible Hulk strips), later the Golden Girl, from the Golden Age stories, or instead to be a new character, later expanded a little as Cap's wartime romance and the sister of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s modern day Agent 13, or if she's a completely one-off character and it's just a coincidence the code name was reused. I suspect she was most likely intended to be a new character to take the place of Betsy Ross in the modern telling of Captain America's war years - at this stage Marvel wasn't following exact continuity with its pre-1960s superhero titles (Captain America having been out of action since the end of the war being the most obvious example) and in as far as the point was actually considered this was a soft reboot of the character rather than retellings and new tales slotted around two decades-old comics that next to none of the 1960s readership were likely to have seen. However she isn't seen again in this run of war stories.

Otherwise the stories are broadly true to the spirit of the earlier tales, with Captain America and Bucky taking on a mixture of saboteurs at home, including a new take on the first ever appearance of the Red Skull, attempts to steal weapons and assassinate key officers, and taking on a scientist who has developed special weapons. This last one is probably the least likely to have appeared at the time as it focuses upon Nazi spies and traitors in the United Kingdom seeking to use rockets to destroy London, technology that came late in the war and probably wouldn't have been the focus of fiction at the time. The stories also give us the origin of the true Red Skull, setting him up for the future. Overall these tales are okay but beyond establishing some key points about Cap's past - something that later issues will do even better whilst staying in the present day - they don't really add much. It just reinforces the idea that Kirby and Lee just didn't know what to do with the hero. He served a strong role in the Avengers, to the point he was fast being recognised as the definitive member, but on his own he seemed an anachronism. Perhaps this is why in the strip itself in the present day we would often see Steve Rogers feeling the weight of the years and the curse of being a man out of his time. The gap between 1945 and the mid-1960s may not seem much from today's perspective, but a lot can change in twenty years. On the same scale, today is about the same distance from the end of the Cold War, the first Gulf War and major leaps in technology. There may have been a connected network of computers and portable telephones then, but nothing like the modern internet and the mass use of mobiles and smartphones of today. The number of channels available on the average television set has exploded. Global terrorism has soared as the great concern in world affairs. Fashions have changed a lot. Political ideas have risen and fallen. A person from the early 1990s who awakened today would find many things different and strange.

One thing that doesn't change so much is the concept of patriotism and loyalty to the flag. In many subsequent eras writers on Captain America would delve into the nature of this, at times exploring just what the flag and "America" actually symbolise, how Captain America could be loyal to the country yet opposed to the actions of the government of the day, just what his own vision of the American Dream is and how it squares with alternative visions, and the darker side of America. But here there's very little of that. One issue sees Captain America on a mission in Vietnam but it's the only time he goes there and there's not much overt propagandising in the story. Nor is there in another issue when Cap goes to a Far East Communist country to rescue an agent working under cover - it could be any hostile power for all the difference it makes. The retelling of the origin does state that Cap is "A new defender, born in an hour of need -- destined to be a living symbol of the glory that is America!" but that's about the fullest extent of it. Captain America may have a patriotic name and a costume based on the flag but here there's no actual development beyond this and he's just a big name superhero from the Second World War revived in the present day.

In the present day Cap frequently can't escape the shadow of the war. The return to the present kicks off with a multi-part story in which a giant robot built by the Red Skull and stored in three parts, called "Sleepers", emerges from hibernation after twenty years and tries to destroy the world. Later on the Red Skull is revived in the present day in issue #79 and over the next twenty-four issues he appears in no less than three multi-part stories. It's even more noticeable when bearing in mind that the half-length format of the strip until #99 means that this is the equivalent of just thirteen and a half full-length issues. Other foes include Batroc the Leaper, a French fighter with zees outrageous accent. Maybe he was a rare example of the influence of world politics at a time when the Americans (and many, many others) found de Gaulle to be a right pain. Cap also takes on a number of shadowy organisations, most of them already seen in the Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. strip over in Strange Tales. Amongst them are new group "Them", the nucleus of the existing A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics), who develop the Super Adaptoid. Meanwhile the wider A.I.M. creates the Cosmic Cube, which the Red Skull steals to gain incredible power, though he doesn't use much of it before he is defeated and the Cube lost. Later on A.I.M. appear again, led by their own creation, the genetically advanced Modok. Then there's the terrorist group Hydra. A trip to Wakanda and team-up with the Black Panther sees Cap at first think he's up against a resurrected Baron Zemo, but it turns out to be Zemo's ex-pilot taking on the mantle. Other one-off foes include the Swordsman and Power Man, both from the Avengers, who are both briefly used by the Skull, plus various assorted thugs or the Sniper, a top marksman.

At times the series seems to forget that Cap has spent most of the time since the war trapped in an iceberg, as we find him looking over old items such as the Red Skull's list of locations of the Sleepers, or old photographs including the mysterious woman who worked with the French Resistance who he fell for during the war. He wonders why she never tracked him down afterwards, as though he was around all the time to be found. He eventually finds a woman who resembles her, but she's too young to be the same woman. In fact, although Cap doesn't discover this on panel, she is his wartime sweetheart's younger sister (a point that has had to be retconned in recent years as the war grows ever further distant in time). "Agent 13" is never actually given a name in the series even though she already knows Cap's real one. The two find themselves drawn to each other without realising it and at one point Steve actually proposes to her, but she declines because of her duty to S.H.I.E.L.D. This leads to Steve briefly retiring as Cap, and actually admitting his identity to the world in the process, but he comes back after a succession of copycats come to grief. He and Agent 13 continue together and it's clear her skills make her a good partner for him.

On two occasions Cap faces foes who want to steal his shield to make use of the transistors Iron Man installed in it back in the pages of Avengers. The first time is in issue #62, not long after Cap has realised what a mistake this is and removed them, but issue #87 sees a similar plot years later, albeit from a fill-in writer, Roy Thomas. Perhaps this is a early example of a fill-in story being held in reserve for so long that by the time it was needed it was out of date?

Overall I felt this volume shows a series that's really treading water more than anything else. There's very little attempt to develop much, whether a civilian life for Steve Rogers or a substantial Rogues' Gallery. At times his connections to either the Avengers or Nick Fury provide him with some support and directions towards adventures, but there's not much that really gives the series its unique flavour. Nearly a fifth of the volume is taken up with wartime adventures, and many other issues also draw on those days, most obviously the encounters with the Red Skull and both the real and fake Baron Zemo. This limits somewhat the effect of showing the effects upon Cap of being a man out of time and adapting to life in this strange new world. Instead we have the "Living Legend of World War II" all too often trapped by other legends of World War II. Only Agent 13 represents any real sign of development for the future. Other strips in the anthology titles had managed to develop a lot within the confines of just ten to twelve pages a month so it's not as if the available length is an excuse. There just seems to be a lack of bold imagination and too great a willingness to wallow in the memory of the Golden Age.

Essential Warlock volume 1 - creator labels

Once again we have a volume with a lot of creators, so here's a separate post to carry the labels for some of them.

Essential Black Panther volume 1

Essential Black Panther volume 1 contains Jungle Action #6-22 & #24 (plus the covers of the reprint issues #5 & #23 which reprinted Avengers #62 and Daredevil #69 respectively) and Black Panther #1-10. The Jungle Action stories are written by Don McGregor and drawn mainly by Rich Buckler and Billy Graham, with Gil Kane and Keith Pollard each contributing one issue. The Black Panther issues are all written and drawn by Jack Kirby. Bonus material includes some original layouts, pencils and full art from the series plus some of McGregor's note covered envelopes that held his papers on the series and even a letter from him to a young fan by the name of Ralph Macchio.

Jungle Action was the second series by that name. The original had been a mid 1950s title about white adventurers in the jungle. The 1970s series began life reprinting some of those adventures and stories from Lorna, the Jungle Girl, another 1950s series, before opting to give the Black Panther a headline series. Such was McGregor's dismay with the nature of the reprinted material that he created extra features to keep them out, such as a map of Wakanda or even Jack Kirby's original sketch for T'Challa when he was to be the "Coal Tiger". There were also some reprints of previous artwork featuring the Black Panther, though they're not included here, with the result that the title was fully focused on T'Challa, the Black Panther and King of the African country of Wakanda.

And what a series was launched. The first thirteen issues carry an epic saga entitled "Panther's Rage" that could almost have been written for a collected edition. Some of the other attempts at sagas from this era tended to get bogged down by the need for each part to also be an issue of an ongoing series, and early cancellation frequently led to unsatisfactory resolutions in other places, but here we get a complete story now collected together and it holds up remarkably well in this format. It's even more impressive to see the story made it out completely when one considers it took over two years to tell the story in a mostly bimonthly series that skipped a release between issues #8 & #9. But I am surprised to see it doesn't seem to have had any reprints before the Masterworks in 2010 and then this volume from a couple of years later, and none standing alone.

"Panther's Rage" is a tale about a young king facing a concerted revolution led by an ambitious and embittered rival. Hero kings have been the stars of stories since The Epic of Gilgamesh and it's surprising just how many possibilities there are - far more than just tales of threats to the kingdom from either invasion or an attempted take-over. But even those themes can work anew when handled in the right way. The 1970s was a turbulent time in Africa with the euphoria of decolonisation having passed and many countries found themselves struggling with major social and economic problems with resulting political turbulence. And here we have a partial reflection of that.

T'Challa has returned home to a kingdom which, going by the map that appears twice, seems to be about as small as Liechtenstein. We don't learn too much about the country's history or location, though the map gives it an Atlantic coast thus placing it in west Africa. It doesn't appear to be a recently decolonised country and so it has presumably maintained its independence. However it now experiences a culture clash as the Wakandians' traditional way of life meets the technology and western customs that have come along with its new young king. The result is described as "a super-scientific Disneyland in the African jungle" but it isn't all paradise. Bizarrely the kingdom also contains some very rare wildlife including surviving dinosaurs. But despite the multiple influences upon it, Wakanda is portrayed well and its people are treated with a strong degree of respect, with no primitive savages, just different cultural experiences. This is shown most vividly in a brief scene when the village Karota steps inside a hospital and has no understanding of injections, thinking she has been stabbed, and finds the language of the doctor incomprehensible when he talks about nutrition and vitamins. Ignorance is not stupidity, just a lack of knowledge and experience, and new things don't always mean progress.

At the heart of the story is the villain Erik Killmonger, born N'Jadaka by which moniker a village has been named after him. Yet Killmonger is used rather sparingly, fighting directly with the Black Panther in the first couple of chapters but then taking a slight backseat and working through his agents before the direct confrontation in the climax. It's a bold move but the result is that the key villain isn't overused. Killmonger comes with a backstory that is primarily focused upon his personal objections to T'Challa. There isn't a great exploration of the ideological underpinning of Killmonger's revolt, with a large part of his anger stemming from having been exiled after a previous invasion by Klaw. However there is a sense of the culture clash behind some of the opposition to T'Challa, with even his own supporters and courtiers expressing some reservations about and hostility towards symbols of this influence, most obviously his American born girlfriend Monica Lynne. Killmonger focuses upon these, and at one point arranges for Monica to be framed with murder charges, though T'Challa gets her cleared.

Killmonger has a wide variety of henchmen, with several chapters devoted to their individual struggles with the Black Panther. They include the likes of Venomm, a master of snakes, Malice, a court handmaiden and assassin who seeks to frame Monica, Baron Macabre, who can raise the dead as zombies, King Cadaver, a mutated being who fights by distorting perceptions, Lord Karnaj, a more technological foe who fights with sonic disrupters, Sombre, a mystical being who dwells in the mountains and who can control fierce animals, and Salamander K'Ruel, an archer whose blistered body can generate thorns. There are also more general foot soldiers, with commentary by Tayete and Kazibe. T'Challa also clashes with a variety of wild animals such as Preyy, Killmonger's leopard, the White Gorilla, giant crocodiles, giant serpents, pterodactyls, and tyrannosaurus rexes. In the epilogue to the saga, the Black Panther encounters Madame Slay, who lives among and commands leopards, and her silent henchman, imaginatively named Mute. All in all it's quite a diverse set of foes that enhance and enliven the saga.

So too do the various supporting cast members. By far the most prominent is Monica Lynne, the woman T'Challa met in the United States and brought home. She is the source of much tension in the court but the Black Panther remains devoted to her, including clearing her of framed murder charges, and there are some particularly tender scenes between them. T'Challa's court is also present, with the most prominent being W'Kabi, the Security Chief, and Taku, T'Challa's Chief Advisor. W'Kabi is developed somewhat over the stories as we see his marital troubles, and he also badly wounded with the result that his right arm is replaced with a bionic limb, one of the few points where the series shows its age.

"Panther's Rage" is a well-constructed story but it's also surprisingly violent for its era. T'Challa regularly staggers from fights with his costume torn and his body bleeding, rather than the spotless look superheroes had often had up until now. There’s a high body count in many of the fights and the artwork isn't afraid to show it, including some of the covers such as issue #10's which is reused as the volume's cover. Very often the biggest developments in comics are made in obscure series starring less well-known characters, and here is almost the definitive example of a hidden classic.

The saga is followed by "The Panther vs. the Klan!" (a title that seems to run through just about every combination of abbreviation and punctuation in its short run) in which T'Challa and Monica are in Georgia in the States, investigating the death of Monica's sister Angela with the help of local reporter Kevin Trublood. It appears that the Ku Klux Klan are responsible but the revelation that one of the hooded attackers is black shows the involvement of another sinister organisation, the Dragon's Circle. Whilst meeting with Monica's parents Lloyde and Jessica, T'Challa has several encounters with what appear to be the Klan, including a fight with the mysterious Wind Eagle, and is badly burnt on a cross. However the saga doesn't get very far with signs of artistic problems including a fill-in reprint in issue #23 and issue #22 being slightly diverted as Jessica recounts the story of what happened to her grandfather's cousin Caleb in the early years after the Civil War when the Klan was establishing itself and support facilities for ex-slaves were really concerned about securing their votes. As the tale is told Monica starts to imagine a version in which T'Challa was present and saved the day; a sign of how much mythology is generated from true stories.

It's surprising to see a head of state seemingly abandon his kingdom, even if he is investigating his girlfriend's family, so soon after the recent revolution in Wakanda. And T'Challa moves about Georgia like a private person, even if he is wearing his costume, rather than as a head of state with all the resultant security. The story as a whole seems to have some good ideas behind it but it's very slow to get going and when pace does pick up it's suddenly abandoned as Jungle Action was cancelled in favour of an ongoing Black Panther title written and drawn by Jack Kirby.

This was the start of the second year of Kirby's 1970s return to Marvel after just over five years over at DC. On both occasions his arrival was trumpeted by the companies, even putting his name on the cover, recognising he was one of the earliest star creators with an acknowledged fan following that transcended individual titles. Kirby was now doing his own writing, a practice he'd followed on many of his 1940s & 1950s strips but then stopped for virtually all his Silver Age Marvel work before doing it almost exclusively since just before his 1970 move to DC. Marvel in this period also had a practice of the "Writer/Editor" with a single individual filling both key roles on a series. Although Archie Goodwin is credited on all ten issues as "Consulting Editor", "Overseen by", "Glimpsed by" and various more exotic credits, this was a time when his position was evolving into the "Editor-in-Chief" role that would be fully formalised around Jim Shooter in the next few years, and many individual books were left to the own devices of established writers. This could restrict the amount of overview such a creator might otherwise have been subjected to. And there's a long history of star name creators who move back and forth between companies such that they often have a latter day return. And it's a sad truth that many have been unable to reclaim their past glory years. Either their best work was in a collaboration that at last one member won't return to, or their style is no longer in tune with modern tastes, or modern editorial conditions make it impossible for them to work under the same conditions or for the same goals as before, or they may just not be able to recapture their past glories. The list of once great names producing lesser work in later years is sadly quite long and the reaction to the recall of a past star can be quite harsh. Sadly what we get here is very much a change for the worst.

Often when a series changes writer the new one rapidly phases out elements of what has come before and wraps up ongoing storylines in a way not intended by their initiator. But here Kirby just ignores everything completely and starts afresh. Even the Black Panther's status appears to have altered before someone seems to have pointed it out. T'Challa has suddenly become the "son of the king" and the "Prince of Wakanda". In story terms it probably makes more sense for the hero to be a crown prince who can go out into the wider world rather than a ruler who should be looking after the kingdom (although later in the series he's stated to be the ruler albeit through a regent), but in continuity terms it feels like Kirby hadn't even being paying attention to what had come before. The concept of an explicit continuity reboot was extremely rare at the time but in other ways the approach feels rather like something that came decades later in comics. A previous big name artist had left the company to go and create, both writing and drawing, a new world of characters at another company, and now returns to the first company taking over an existing series but in the process it's restarted from #1 and existing continuity is ignored with even some of the basic details of the characters changed, and the reaction is muted with the once all conquering artist coming in for huge levels of criticism? Yes it feels rather like the Heroes Reborn of its day.

No one can deny the greatness of Kirby's contribution to the foundations of the Marvel universe. But his latter-day work presented here feels awkward and stilted, and very much out of line with the prevailing trends of the day. Even the artwork feels off - particularly the Black Panther himself whose appearance in black and white is let down by the heavy use of ink blobs on his costume to stimulate its dark appearance (although this may be the fault of Mike Royer's inks rather than Kirby's pencils). And when compared to what they replace, the storylines just don't feel spectacular. T'Challa is caught up in the quests of a group called the Collectors who seek rare artefacts. Allied with one of them called Mister Little, T'Challa gets caught in conflict with another Princess Zanda in the search for brass frogs that work as time machines, or immortality granting water, with the searches taking in King Solomon's tomb and a group of immortal Samurai in a hidden mountain lair and struggles with various strange beings such as a man from the far future or a Yeti. Meanwhile back in Wakanda (which, in another alteration to what had come before, now appears to be about three hundred miles due south of somewhere in Sudan - then including what is now South Sudan) T'Challa's half-brother Jakarra leads a brief military coup before exposing himself to the country's mound of Vibranium and mutates into a monster that spreads disease and nearly explodes the Vibranium. Whilst T'Challa seeks to make his way home, with a Mafia boss and the filming of a science fiction movie in the desert both delaying his journey, several of his cousins are summoned and despite having all taken non-fighting lifestyles as members of the Panther Clan they do what they can to delay the monster until T'Challa makes it home to defend his kingdom. It may sound an exciting chain of events but there's no convincing reason for T'Challa to have left in the first place to get tied up with the Collectors and the execution feels rather flat.

It's a curse of the Essential format that the bad is regularly automatically caught alongside the fantastic. Here that's especially true. Jack Kirby may have co-created the Black Panther and was on of the greatest giants of Marvel but this piece of his later 1970s work shows that even the biggest names produce less than stellar work and that when they replace spectacular other creators the result isn't always an improvement. However Kirby's dialogue, whilst not spectacular, doesn't feel as awkward and stilted as critics often claim. But overall the end of the volume is a sheer disappointment. Don McGregor may have had a slow start on "The Panther vs. the Klan!" but it could have gone somewhere and it was real insult to simply ignore both the storyline and all of the characters he had built up. Kirby's Black Panther work might as well be from an alternate reality, such is the difference between the two.

However this volume as a whole is more than worth it for the McGregor issues which are amazing and deserved to be more widely seen.

Essential Iron Fist volume 1

Essential Iron Fist volume 1 contains the character's initial strip in the tryout series Marvel Premiere #15-25, then the complete run of his original solo title, Iron Fist #1-15. Following the ending of the series the storylines were wrapped up in Marvel Team-Up #63-64, and then the character was next seen in Power Man #48-49 before issue #50 saw the two fused together as Power Man and Iron Fist. In addition it includes Iron Fist's entry from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. The first Marvel Premiere issue is written by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane. Subsequent writers include Len Wein, Doug Moench and Tony Isabella, whilst other artists include Larry Hama, Neal Adams, Arvell Jones and Pat Broderick. The final issue of the Marvel Premiere run is the first ever work by the team of writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne, even before their run on Marvel Team-Up let alone their work together on the X-Men, and they produce every subsequent issue in the volume.

Marvel Premiere was one of the many try-out series; other issues would carry variously a revived Doctor Strange, Warlock and a whole variety of other characters. (In its last issues the series brought Doctor Who to Marvel US, and there was even one issue starring Alice Cooper.) Marvel have long created series to ride the latest bandwagon and in the mid-1970s the big thing was martial arts, especially kung fu, and the exotic cultures surrounding them. So it's unsurprising to see Marvel made multiple attempts to cash in on the wave. Shang-Chi the Master of Kung Fu was perhaps the most obvious, though his series was somewhat surprisingly combined with elements of the Fu Manchu novels (which means that copyright problems now make it difficult to produce an Essential Master of Kung Fu) but Iron Fist proved to have lasting power. His own strip only lasted three years, including an extended run in a try-out title, but as the end of this volume shows it's always possible to keep a good character going beyond a fad if some effort and imagination are applied.

The strip kicks off with the origin upfront and it's pretty dark but also leaves open multiple possibilities for future stories. We see Wendell Rand searching in the Himalayas for a lost civilisation called K'un-Lun, accompanied by his wife Heather, their son Daniel and Wendell's business partner Harold Meachum. Suddenly there's an accident and Meachum takes advantage to send Wendell to his death. Heather spurns the offer of help and flees with Daniel. They flee and find K'un-Lun but are attacked by wolves as they reach the bridge; Heather sacrifices herself to allow Daniel to get across. He is brought up within K'un-Lun, learning martial arts. Eventually he is skilled enough to receive the power to channel his concentration and make his fist as strong as iron.

K'un-Lun is another of a well-worn type - the lost advanced civilisation located in the Himalayas. It comes with a twist that it can only be accessed from the outside world at certain fixed intervals, like Brigadoon, coming into phase once every ten years. With this in mind I note that the series seems to take place over a much longer scale than most short-lived Marvels, with references to many months passing during or between incidents. Was this perhaps an attempt to get to the next ten year point soon and so allow for a return to K'un-Lun? It would have been incredible advance planning - and yes the writer is Chris Claremont who went on to do a long of this long haul stuff in his decade and a half run on the X-Men but this is contemporary to his earliest years and I'd be very surprised if he had such long term plans lined up at this stage. In any case the series ended about seven years too early to bring back K'un-Lun on the regular schedule in publication time. Iron Fist leaves K'un-Lun in search of vengeance but there are various flashbacks to his time there which establish additional features and conflicts, such as Wendell being originally from the civilisation and indeed the next ruler by heredity, but his brother Yü-Ti now rules and is silent when accused of knowing that Wendell's family was coming that day but acted slowly with the result that Heather died needlessly. However there's no return to K'un-Lun within these pages.

The first eight issues see Iron Fist head out into the real world to seek vengeance on Harold Meachum. Meachum has bee waiting in fear and puts out a bounty that is followed up on by Scythe, a mercenary armed with his namesake tool, and then when Iron Fist reaches the Meachum building he encounters Triple-Iron, a fighter in an exo-suit who has been trapped in a room for many years by Meachum. Iron Fist eventually realises how meaningless it would be to kill a fearful, broken and disabled man and leaves, but then Meachum is slain by a mysterious ninja. The saga then gets drawn out as it takes in a struggle to secure a magical book with disputed contents, the Cult of Kara-Kai and their leaders, the living Goddesses, Meachum's vengeance seeking brother Ward, Batroc the Leaper, Professor Lee Wing, his daughter Colleen and her detective partner Misty Knight. It's a rollercoaster of a saga, made even more convoluted by having no less than four different writers, but the result is easy to follow, if a little overcomplicated.

Once Claremont takes over the writing the villains become more mixed. First off Iron Fist clashes with Warhawk, a superpowered Vietnam veteran who thinks he's still fighting the war on the streets of New York. Later on there's Scimitar, another mercenary named after the weapon he uses. In another realm and flashback are the H'ylthri, a race of moving plant people who were driven from their original home when K'un-Lun was originally settled, whilst one of the longer running storylines involves the sorcerer Master Khan and the various henchmen he deploys in the process such as the swordsman Khumbala Bey. Back on the streets of New York there's yet another attempt by a crimelord to seize control of the underworld, this one is Chaka Khan, head of the Golden Tigers. Elsewhere there's a clash with elements of the IRA, seeking to punish ex-bomber Alan Cavenaugh for deserting the cause. And the penultimate issue introduces by far the best known foe, Sabretooth. Yes, Wolverine's archenemy debuted in the pages of Iron Fist. Meanwhile the series makes use of some foes from other series as well. From an old Marvel Team-Up comes the Monstroid, whilst from Marvel Two-in-One comes Radion the Atomic Man, initially posing under the identity of "Ravager". Out of the pages of Daredevil steps Angar the Screamer. Amongst the more familiar are the Wrecking Crew - the Wrecker, Thunderball, Piledriver and Bulldozer - who I discover actually mostly debuted in the Defenders rather than Thor. From the Hulk's strip in Tales to Astonish comes the Boomerang, now hired by the IRA.

The last few issues also set up a couple of plotlines with villains that would ultimately have to be resolved in other series; fortunately those issues are included here. One of them involves Davos the Steel Serpent, son of Lei-Kung the Thunderer who trained Daniel and others in K'un-Lun. Davos expected to one day secure the power of the iron fist himself but was beaten by Wendell Rand and then expelled from the city after a partially successful attempt to obtain the dragon's power anyway. He now seeks to take the iron fist from Daniel. This storyline is mostly covered in the pages of Marvel Team-Up. Meanwhile the Bushmaster, a crimelord Misty Knight has been working undercover to bring down, is seeking to be transformed the same way as Luke Cage, Power Man and he turns up in the latter's title where he forces Power Man into a kidnap attempt on Misty. However the tables are turned. The story also features two of Power Man's old foes Shades and Comanche; the final issue in the volume is the first of Power Man and Iron Fist and sees a party attacked by two more, Stiletto and Discus.

Being a part of the Marvel universe it's inevitable that there are various guest appearances by other heroes, but amazingly they don't start until Iron Fist gets his own headlined title after eleven issues of Marvel Premiere. The visits start with Iron Man and later on Iron Fist fights then teams up with Captain America. Misty Knight is sharing an apartment with none other than Jean Grey and so this leads to a clash over a misunderstanding with the X-Men in the final issue. This X-Men appearance is the first time John Byrne drew them, three months before he joined Claremont over on their own title - was this a test piece to see how he handled them? Wolverine is wearing the costume he temporarily took off Fang of the Starjammers over in the X-Men, yet there it was just a temporary replacement after his regular costume was destroyed, not a permanent new appearance. Was the latter at on stage the plan? Once his own series was cancelled Iron Fist ended up on the guest appearance circuit but fortunately his storylines were wrapped up without too many extra characters; just Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up and Power Man in his own title.

In the meantime he also has a surprisingly well developed supporting cast. At its core is the detective agency Nightwing Restorations, Ltd, consisting of Colleen Wing and Misty Knight. Later in Marvel Team-Up #64 they are billed as the "Daughters of the Dragon" but in the meantime they provide a strong mixture of physical support, potential romantic interest and differences of opinion to round out Iron Fist's world. The two are an odd mix - Colleen is the daughter of a professor of Oriental Studies and has been trained in the arts of the samurai whilst Misty is an ex-police officer who lost her right arm when dealing with a terrorist's bomb and now has a superstrong bionic replacement - but they work well both together and with Iron Fist. The pair also have elements that suggest the later partnership between Iron Fist and Power Man - indeed it's here, rather than in the pages of Essential Luke Cage, Power Man, that one can find the natural build-up to that pairing. At first it seems Colleen will fall into the girlfriend role, especially as one storyline sees her captured and later engage in a mind meld with Iron Fist, but later on it seems clear that he and Misty have strong feelings for each other. It was a bold move for the era but it's an encouraging one. Their relationship isn't without its problems such as when they fall out over whether or not to help ex-IRA bomber Alan Cavenaugh when he's pursued by his old comrades seeking to punish his desertion. Further strain is added when Misty is absent for quite a while as she infiltrates the Bushmaster's world. However Iron Fist and Misty eventually realise what they mean to each other and reconcile. The other supporting cast members are less developed but still offer plenty of story potential; they include Joy Meachum, daughter of Harold and now Danny's co-owner of the business, Rafael Scarfe, Misty's former police partner still working for the force, and lawyer Jeryn Hogarth. With such a good mixture there is plenty of material that could allow the series to carry on even though the martial arts craze was dying down by the later 1970s.

The writing on the series is quite good, with the rotation of writers at the start failing to inflict lasting damage and instead the series manages to grow organically, with Claremont taking the elements and successfully building upon them. However one thing I did find irritating was the heavy use of the second person in narration as though the writer - and they are all guilty of this - is directly addressing Iron Fist. It's a technique that never really works for me. Otherwise there's a wise limited use of actual martial arts terms - a few individual scenes may namecheck the moves being used but it is used sparingly so the series doesn't turn into a manual of moves. The art is also quite good, especially when Byrne arrives and gives long-term visual continuity.

The last few issues in this volume see Iron Fist team up with Power Man to the point that they become joint stars in a single title. When reading Essential Luke Cage, Power Man volume 2 I didn't spot a clear sign of the direction things would take from issue #50 onwards. However here it's easier to see the teaming as more natural - it's foreshadowed by Misty and Colleen's pairing and also the adventure that brings them together is a continuation of plotlines begun in Iron Fist, even if it does also bring closure to Power Man's criminal status. Issue #50 sees the team take a step further as the two battle attackers at a party and then Power Man agrees to take up a job offer, bolding well for the future.

Overall this is a surprising gem. It may have been created just to capitalise on a culture trend at the time but then the same could be said of many other series. Here a strong multi-faceted character was created with a backstory containing multiple potentials for further tales and when combined with good talent the results are wonders. It's amazing to realise that this was the first ever collaboration between Chris Claremont and John Byrne but the two of them take to each other like a duck to water and produce a strong dynamic that sustains the series and carries it forward. It's a pity that it didn't last but as this volume shows the character could continue even if the series couldn't.