Star Brand Classic volume 1

Star Brand Classic volume 1 reprints issues #1 to #7 of the series. The series is written by Jim Shooter with one plot scripted by Roy Thomas. All but one issue is drawn by John Romita Jr, the exception is by Alex Saviuk.

This may seem a stable line-up compared to some New Universe titles but as the other two Classic volumes go up to issue #9 then in the interests of comparison it's worth noting that Star Brand's next two issues were both written by Cary Bates and one was drawn by Arvell Jones and the other by Keith Giffen.

Being written by the Editor-in-Chief and originator of the New Universe, it's natural to expect this series to be the flagship of the line and a template for how to do it right. But instead this is a series that fails to conform to the model of the ordinary universe until one single event unleashes changes upon everything. Instead we get a series that's more of an alternate take on the Green Lantern origin with a twist. Earth may be depicted as "the world outside your window" until a change happens but that's not true of the wider universe and we get a series based upon an encounter with aliens and all the consequences that flows from that. We also get a protagonist who is very different from the usual types encountered in Marvel comics. For all that was revolutionary about the Marvel Silver Age heroes, they ultimately conformed to the traditions of superhero ethics. They might have doubts and insecurities but ultimately they could always be relied on to do the right thing and a big fuss was made whenever they temporarily lapsed. Outside of the costume they were generally respectable people as well.

Star Brand is a very different take on it all. The lead character, Ken Connell (note that "Star Brand" is the object that gives him power, not a superhero code name) is not the most likeable of men. Most notably he's in two relationships at once, with one girlfriend kept ignorant of the other, and he's willing to cheat on them both, doing so with a woman found on a distant beach and even contemplating bedding a seventeen years old babysitter, though not going through with it. Otherwise he's an ordinary person whose career has seemingly stalled as a car mechanic in a large garage and whose hobbies include motorcycling.

The series does its best to present a more realistic approach to an everyday guy suddenly getting powers. He doesn't immediately rush out to stop crime and save lives. Indeed on one occasion he decides not to go and save four men from a collapsed building, in part because he can't get the time off work. When he does venture out he's concerned about concealing his identity and this makes him cautious. There's a moment when he tracks down terrorist students but instead of attacking them he simply breaks open their car boot full of weapons and then calls the police. In another he goes to save a boy trapped down a well but fear of recognition makes him take a long distance route of digging a tunnel and in the meantime the boy is rescued by Jenny Swanson in her robot suit from Spitfire and the Troubleshooters.

More generally this is a world where powers have consequences and special abilities don't come automatically. Ken may be able to lift a sofa when testing his strength, but it damages the roof in the process. When dealing with terrorists he finds a gun, but hasn't a clue how to use it effectively. Ken may be able to fly at great speed and even into space but he hasn't a clue how to know which way to go and has to resort to following coastlines, rivers and roads before taking maps with him. Disappearing from day to day activities gets him in trouble both at work and with one of his girlfriends. His flight gets noticed and his face recognised by terrorists, whilst it's only after the event that he realises he's left his fingerprints all over a gun and can be potentially traced. He contemplates revealing himself to the government but is then told he would be treated as a threat, experimented upon and disposed of. And the Star Brand itself comes in the form of a transferable tattoo but finding a place to hide it isn't easy.

The supporting cast are a mixed bunch. Most prominent are Ken's girlfriends. At one point he proposes to Barb and moves in with her and her two children, Laurie and Bobby. However they're put at danger by the alien who originally gave Ken the Star Brand, though the relationship ultimately crashes when Barb finds out about Debbie. Whereas Barb is slightly older than Ken and a working woman, Debbie seems younger and less with it. She is nicknamed "Duck" and often says "Quack" when the nickname is used. Ken uses her as both an emotional crutch and a confidante, yet she sticks by him no matter what and cannot bear the thought of their relationship stopping. The other cast members are less developed, such as Myron Feldman, a psychiatrist and Ken's friend who starts billing him for their time together, or various work colleagues such as his foreman, John Eberhardt.

This series doesn't go down the route of conventional bigger than life villains with the exception of the mysterious "Old Man" who gives Ken the Star Brand in the first place. His name is unpronounceable and we have only his word for his motives, which seem to be to recruit a young, malleable person to take part in a distant interstellar war. Otherwise the most recurrent foes are Libyan terrorists, reflecting the obsessions of a lot of 1980s fiction, with Ken even flying to Libya and destroying a military base. Beyond this Ken deals with minor annoyances, some with more success than others.

Although the writer and artist are generally consistent, there are signs of errors and laziness creeping in. Some names, particularly Kath, get used more than once whilst both the art and colouring can be a little inconsistent making it difficult to keep track of which minor character is which. Scenes at the end of issue #3 are meant to take place after dark bit are coloured as though it's broad daylight. The start of the same issue implies that it's the morning after issue #1, overlooking issue #2 in the meantime. It's hard to escape the idea that this series was almost thrown together to get it out without much care, which is shocking for the flagship book of such a major launch.

Overall Star Brand is very different type of series from a typical Marvel book, which means it meets at least one set of expectations. But it stops short of some of the hype, retaining the alien races that the New Universe was supposedly going to do without. It's also still feeling its way a lot of the time, trying to figure out just how much time should be spent on Ken's day to day life as opposed to his powers, and it doesn't always get the balance right. This is very much a concept in the experimental stage and it would have been better to have tried the idea out as a low key one-off series to refine it first, rather than such a high profile launch of a whole line. This is not a bad book in itself but it doesn't live up to the contemporary hype.

The New Universe

It began at 04:22 US Eastern Standard Time on July 22nd 1986.

(That's 09:22 GMT or 10:22 British Summer Time.)

In 1986 Marvel boldly announced its newest line of titles. They would take place in a continuity of their own, entitled the "New Universe". It would be a very different world from the regular Marvel universe. It would be a world full of ordinary people who reacted in ordinary ways - "the world outside your window" - with a single injection of powers known as the "White Event". It would be a universe designed from the start with clear direction. It was hyped as the next big thing in comics. For readers in 1986 it would be as amazing as the arrival of the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, the Amazing Spider-Man, the Mighty Thor, the Invincible Iron Man, Dr Strange, the X-Men and Daredevil but this time it was all coming at once. Jim Shooter was proudly at the helm, driving the creation as though he was the Stan Lee of the age.

There was no end of hype. One of the best examples comes from a British reprint, as detailed by Stuart over at the Solar Pool:

If Target: 2006 is the best remembered of all the British [Transformers] stories, then Part 8 is by far and away the best remembered instalment.
...
As you'd expect with such a big important well remembered issue there could be nothing else for the Transformation [intro page] to talk about but... Marvel's New Universe. Yes, there's clearly been some arm twisting on behalf of Marvel US in order for their Big New Idea of 1986 to get a lot of attention.

It seemed set to be the biggest thing in comics in many readers' lifetimes. It was the chance to be there at the start and follow the amazement from the very first issues.

Only things didn't quite work out that way. The New Universe didn't catch fire and instead stumbled through a few years before being quietly abandoned. In subsequent years there's been the occasional revisit to one aspect or another but nothing ever as prominent as the original.

Three of the series - Star Brand, D.P.7 and Psi-Force - have each had their earliest issues collected in a single Classic tradepaperback. Today I'll be reviewing all three in one batch to see how the designed universe held up before a final post speculating as to where the line went wrong.

Alan Kupperberg 1953-2015

I missed the news that Alan Kupperberg passed away a few days, at far too young an age.

He did work for both Marvel and DC as well as other companies, variously writing, drawing and lettering on series I've covered here such as Marvel Two-in-One and Doctor Strange.

Cancer sucks.


Photo © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons

Omitted material: Marvel Two-in-One 99

Left out of Essential Marvel Two-in-One volume 4 is issue #99, which features a team-up with the licensed character Rom (previously seen in Power Man and Iron Fist #73 so I won't describe him again here). The issue is written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Bob Hall.

This is a relatively straightforward action piece in which Rom crashes on the roof of the Baxter Building after an initial fight with a coven of Dire Wraith witches who have animated the armour of his deceased fellow Space Knight Firefall. Ben already knows Rom from adventures in the latter's own title and the two set off to deal with the Coven. During the fight Ben is bewitched by the Wraiths, forcing Rom to deploy his neutraliser weapon which dispatches all the Wraiths and also turns Ben human again. To Rom's surprise, Ben is upset at regaining his "humanity" - this is because Ben fears Alicia is drawn to the Thing not the man and is scared of losing her. Then the effects of the neutraliser wear off, restoring Ben to his Thing form.

This issue is somewhat slight due to telling two extended action sequences, one in flashback, but does show the problems with telling Rom stories because he comes with a powerful weapon that can permanently dispatch his foes and only his foes with ease. (And as the weapon came with the toy it can't be simply abandoned.) But it's also surprising to see yet another temporary cure for Ben and what I think is the first time he directly acknowledges the possibility that he really prefers being the Thing because of Alicia and implicitly this may be why no cure has ever lasted. It puts the final issue of the series into greater perspective and so is more key than it first seems, even though the main issue is nothing to write home about.

Essential Marvel Two-in-One volume 4

Essential Marvel Two-in-One volume 4 contains issues #78 to #98 & #100 and annuals #6 & #7. (Issue #99 is a team-up with the licensed character Rom and thus unavailable here.) The writing is mainly by Tom DeFalco with some by David Michelinie, David Anthony Kraft and Jan Strnad with the final issue by John Byrne. One annual is by Doug Moench, the other by DeFalco. Most of the art is by Ron Wilson bar a few issues by Alan Kupperberg.

As this is a team-up title, here's the usual list of the titled guest stars in each issue:

78. Wonder Man
Annual 6. American Eagle
79. Blue Diamond
80. Ghost Rider
81. Sub-Mariner
82. Captain America
83. Sasquatch
84. Alpha Flight
85. Spider-Woman
86. Sandman plus a back-up with the Impossible Man
87. Ant-Man
88. She-Hulk
89. The Human Torch
90. Spider-Man
91. [None billed but this issue supplies the volume's cover so have a guess]
92. Jocasta
93. Machine Man
94. Power Man and Iron Fist
95. The Living Mummy
Annual 7. [None billed]
96. [None billed]
97. Iron Man
98. [None billed]
100. Ben Grimm

Note the increasing number of issues not promoting a second star towards the end of the series; a sign of where things would eventually go. These stars are once again taken mostly from the more obscure side of the Marvel universe but with some exceptions and some attempts to build up their profiles.

This period of the title sees an initial drift back to the book's roots as a team-up title first and a Thing series second. There are a few times when the book gets used to either wrap up left-over matters from another series or else make significant changes to one of the guest stars. An example of the former comes in issues #92 & #93 which serve as a two-part tale that seems to be more about giving Machine Man one great final adventure following the cancellation of his own title (whose last issues were written by DeFalco) than about advancing the events in the Thing's life. It brings Machine Man into conflict with Ultron and introduces him to Jocasta for the first time, forming the basis on which DeFalco would later build the brilliant Machine Man limited series set in 2020 and often reprinted (including twice in the UK in the back-up pages in Transformers). In all this the Thing feels a bit like a spare part, at times relegated to a hypnotised state as a mindless minion of Ultron whilst the focus is upon Machine Man and some of his supporting cast such as mechanic "Gears" Garvin and psychologist Peter Spaulding, or upon Jocasta as she seeks to find a purpose in the world and make friends, both human and mechanical. It's a good tale but it's also one of the last examples of how team-up books could often get conscripted into sorting out things when a regular series bit the dust.

A rather odder development comes with the appearance of Spider-Woman in the final part of the volume's only real epic. A succession of issues see the Thing and Namor the Sub-Mariner then Captain America and Giant-Man (Bill Foster) battling Modok and Aim, with the Thing being infected by an experimental virus but a cure being obtained. Meanwhile Giant-Man is slowly dying of radiation poisoning but declines his one chance of a cure in favour of saving Ben's life. Ben in turn goes searching for the one expert on radiation who may be able to cure Bill - Walter Langkowski aka Sasquatch of Alpha Flight. The search leads to the Canadian wilderness and a battle with the spirit Ranark in which the rest of Alpha Flight get drawn in as the battle rages across much of Canada. But it's too late for Langkowski's treatment to have an effect and so Bill heads for Los Angeles to tie up his affairs with the Thing in tow, where they join with Spider-Woman in battling a new Atom Smasher who replaced the foe who gave Bill the poisoning in the first place. Salvation ultimately comes for Bill but at the cost of Spider-Woman's special immune system that makes her invulnerable to poisons, drugs and gases. It's a nice moment to see one hero sacrifice part of their powers to help another but it's very odd to remove a key power of a hero with their own title in what is, from their series's perspective, a throwaway guest appearance. Spider-Woman's series was still going at this time, having reached issue #42, and that should have been the place for this to take place in. But instead the issue has been treated as such a throwaway that it's not even included in Essential Spider-Woman volume 2. A development that does make more sense here is that of the Blue Diamond, as the Second World War hero, who has been little seen in the present day, gets a radical makeover at the hands of Shanga the Star-Dancer, and the two head off together.

Both the annuals see new characters introduced but one tale has more of an impact than the other. The first annual included here sees the debut of the American Eagle, a rather minor and somewhat stereotyped hero in an adventure that also sees Ka-Zar and Wyatt Wingfoot caught up in a battle with Klaw. The last annual is more spectacular, with no specific guest star billed but instead the Thing is one of many strong heroes kidnapped for an intergalactic boxing match with the Champion of the Universe, an Elder devoted to physical fights. Doc Samson and Namor the Sub-Mariner both drop out in training whilst Thor is disqualified and the Hulk is dismissed when he reverts to his mindless savage form. Then in succession Sasquatch, Colossus and Wonder Man fail leaving it down to the Thing to try to achieve what no other being has ever done - last more than two rounds in the ring with Champion. It's a tough battle with just about all the Marvel heroes watching. It leads to a fun follow-up in the regular series as Ben lies injured in hospital with a horror of a nurse who blocks most visitors whilst outside many old foes decide to take advantage of the situation and attack a vulnerable Thing yet the other heroes stand in their way and eventually both sides resort to uniting their forces. This may be one of the earliest times all the Marvel heroes got together to battle a veritable legion of villains and yet little is made of it as it's mostly played for laughs. But whilst the battle is raging there's a strong serious and moving moment inside the hospital as one old foe finds his way to Ben's room.

Between issues #86 & #96 the Sandman is taken forward light years. Having only just escaped from his last mess when he accidentally merged with Hydro-Man into a giant mud monster, the Sandman is now reassessing his life, starting with a drink in a bar where he declines to fight when the Thing turns up. Instead they just sit and talk, realising how they have much in common, and we learn a lot about the Sandman's life before the explosion that gave him his powers. It's a very sympathetic look at a villain who is given a second chance and his freedom by the Thing and doesn't disappoint - when he shows up at the hospital it's to deliver cigars and beer. The nurse might not approve but these issues have done much to make the Sandman a more sympathetic and human character and show there is a chance of redemption. The character has had quite a mixed handling over the years but it's here that he stepped up and it also reflects well on Ben in his handling of the situation.

There aren't too many other recurring villains or themes throughout the volume with most issues being a done-in-one conventional team-up. A few exceptions pop up, starting with a team-up with Wonder Man on the set of a rather dire television series called "Monster Man!", based on the Thing's exploits but sufficiently changed for legal reasons. The show is being manipulated by Xemnu the Titan, with the producer Ted Silverberg left searching for new material to rip off. He shows up again when he seeks revenge on the Thing with a dire monster movie but things get out of hand when the dinosaur special effects prove more realistic than anyone realised, forcing the Thing and Iron Man to clean up with Tony Stark using his business interests to mop up the aftermath. Otherwise it's a run of one-off tales including a confrontation with the Ghost Rider who has now become a separate personality from Johnny Blaze and is getting out of control. Easier to control is the Impossible Man who has now reproduce, forcing Ben to find ways to keep the whole Impossible Family entertained whilst he finds a new home planet for them.

There's a visit to a world in a micro universe where Ben has been taken to champion the ruler Pearla against Zorak of the Lizard People and only Ant-Man, now a role fulfilled by Scott Lang can save him. Back at normal size Ben gets hired to protect Los Angeles from a terrorist called Negator - and also fend off the advances and demands of the She-Hulk in her most flirtatious mood yet. David Anthony Kraft enjoys revisiting another aspect of She-Hulk's first series when he pits the Thing and the Torch against the cultist the Word and his daughter Ultima. There's also a battle with Sardeth the Sorcerer at a mediaeval recreation fair, with Spider-Man showing up to help and irritate the Thing. Elsewhere Ben gets caught up in some chaos as a rich eccentric inventor goes on the run with the Thing trying to help him but Power Man and Iron Fist have been hired to recover him for a company. Ben also finds himself visiting Egypt twice, including an encounter with the Living Mummy in which they battle the ancient High Priest Nephrus - who has transformed Alicia into his bride.

The last couple of issues in the volume veer away from the traditional approach of the series, with an issue that's more of a solo story in which Ben and Franklin Richards meet a video game inventor and get transported to a dimension where the elements of the video game come to life. The Tron influence is all too clear but fortunately the art doesn't try to accurately depict the world - there's nothing that dates faster than computing. The final issue sees Ben return to what he thought was an divergent timeline created by his attempts to cure himself of being the Thing at an earlier stage in his life but finds instead it's a pre-existing alternate timeline which has collapsed into a dystopia ruled by the Red Skull and it's down to Ben and his counter-part to save the day.

The final story addresses a minor subplot about whether or not Ben is better off being the Thing or not, with an earlier issue seeing Reed Richards privately speculate that the reason successive cures have always been unsuccessful is because Ben is secretly scared Alicia prefers him as the Thing and would reject him in human form. The visit to the alternate world has an effect and the last page show Ben deciding overall if he could pick between human and Thing form he'd pick the Thing. His relationship with Alicia remains much the same throughout the volume, with a brief period where she moves into the Baxter Building to be safer - only to find that with all the madness in there it's anything but safe.

This volume concludes the whole series as it was replaced after this by a solo Thing title, suggesting it was felt the team-up format had had its day. As this was the first of Marvel and DC's four main team-up titles to end it's arguable that it was killed too soon but it's certainly the case that much of this volume is more conventional team-up than the adventures of the Thing and an ever changing set of guest stars, insofar as the distinction was made. This volume maintains the general fun of two heroes working together that team-up titles always bring but it's not as strong or as coherent as some earlier periods. Still overall it offers lots of good individual adventures and makes for a strong collection.

Essential Avengers volume 8

Essential Avengers volume 8 contains issues #164 to #184 and Annuals #7 & #8 plus Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2. The writing on the regular series is mainly by Jim Shooter then David Michelinie, with individual issues solely or co-written by Marv Wolfman, Bill Mantlo, Steve Gerber and Tom DeFalco. The art sees runs by John Byrne, George Pérez and Dave Wenzel with individual issues by Sal Buscema, Carmine Infantino and Jim Mooney. The second annual is written by Roger Slifer and drawn by Pérez whilst both the first annual and the Marvel Two-in-One annual are written & drawn by Jim Starlin. With a lot of creators there's inevitably a separate post for some of the labels.

The late 1970s saw a big science fiction resurgence and its effects are felt here with two of the best-known Avengers stories of all. "The Korvac Saga", a name that like so many does not actually appear on the original issues, runs across eleven issues (including a fill-in that manages to insert itself into a decent interlude in the narrative rather than having to be placed some time earlier) and sets out to build its mysteries and menaces slowly. Early on we get a minor incident with the Porcupine attacking a fashion show but the real curiosity is a strange man in the audience who abducts one of the models, Carina. Meanwhile the Guardians of the Galaxy are on Earth in the present day both to protect Vance Astro's younger self and to locate their old foe Korvac, who has now taken on humanoid form as "Michael", a being with great powers living unobtrusively in suburban New York. An early investigation by Starhawk ends in failure as Michael wipes his memory of the incident and makes the Guardian unable to perceive him. Elsewhere the Avengers face trouble of a very different sort in the form of special agent Henry Peter Gyrich from the National Security Council. Gyrich rapidly establishes himself as a recurrent arsehole, pouring scorn on the Avengers' security measures and eventually has them stripped of their security clearance privileges, denying them access to equipment, help from agencies or even data files and making them rely on their wits and friendships. He adds to the tension in a team already under strain as Iron Man's leadership and time commitment gets constantly questioned by Captain America and others. Gyrich's questions also delve into some of the conventions of superhero comics that don't stand up in real life, such as how heroes can verify their identity, making for some further problems.

There's then the fill-in interlude (usually excluded from collections of this storyline but the Essentials have a completist philosophy) in which the Avengers act to formula in dealing with the multiple bombs planted around the world by a dying competitor of Tony Stark's, Jason Beere who wants to take the world with him. Ironically Beere ends up living much longer than planned as the Eternity Man. The Korvac Saga then resumes but in an unobtrusive manner in the background with the main attention given over to Ultron's robotic bride, now named "Jocasta" in reflection of her being based on the Wasp's brain patterns and thus part of Ultron's Oedipus complex. However Jocasta turns on Ultron because her feelings for him, wishing to end his evil and foreshadowing a key point in the ultimate battle. Meanwhile various Avengers are suddenly vanishing, even little used ones like the Two-Gun Kid. Whatever the intention in bringing the character to the 20th century he has been woefully underused, in part because of changing writers, and it's not surprising that he is ultimately sent back to his own time. The Avengers' ranks are slowly depleted as more and more of their numbers disappear, leaving the remaining ones and various returning members and allies to deal with other menaces such as the Atlantean Tyrak or the continued interventions of Gyrich. The kidnapper turns out to be the Collector and the Avengers are forced to use the Guardians' technology in order to reach his ship, only to discover that Carina is his daughter who has betrayed him and Korvac is even more powerful than any of them realised.

We then head towards the climax of the saga as the Avengers try to track down their foe without any of their usual resources or vehicles thanks to Gyrich's harsh approach to force them to adopt tighter security measures. The later scene of the Avengers having to commandeer a bus to transport them to the suburbs is a good exposure of how Gyrich's actions undermine their efforts to save the universe, as is having to rely on information from Hank's ants. When they do finally reach the suburban house, horrifying the neighbours in the process, they find Michael seeking to occupy an ordinary existence until Starhawk claims there is no-one there, exposing Michael's power. The final showdown comes as Korvac reveals his full power and panics as he now expects the universe's cosmic entities to attack him. In a brutal battle Avenger after Avenger is killed, until Korvac is briefly on the defensive and reliant on Carina's support - but it does not come and so once again a powerful foe is brought down by the complex attitude of his partner. But then it's revealed the Avengers have been revived by his power, making this one of the earliest examples of a story where hero after hero is killed in battle with an all powerful entity only to be restored to life. It's a cliché that's now been overdone but this may be where it all started. Overall the saga has some strong moments but never establishes too clearly the wider looming cosmic war that Korvac wished to avoid. Still it's easy to see why the story is so well known and often reprinted.

But even better known and more often reprinted than the Korvac Saga or anything else in this volume are Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2, containing an epic battle with Thanos which served to resolve the saga of Warlock. With Jim Starlin at the helm it becomes clear just where his priorities were with the Avengers themselves largely serving as supporting fodder whilst Captain Marvel seems to only be around for the sake of seeing off one of his greatest foes and the Thing mainly serves to supply transport to bring Spider-Man to the action and a second annual in which to conclude the saga. Otherwise we have a strong saga that carefully builds up both the villain and the threat in order to show how desperate the odds are, with Warlock bringing together the Avengers and Captain Marvel to deal with Thanos's great armada. But it's Warlock and Spider-Man who are the main focus and the story doesn't even stop to explain the appearance of a second Warlock from the past who shows up to finish off his own future self. Iron Man may be responsible for the destruction of Thanos's great weapon and the Avengers as a whole get some good fight scenes but the follow-up in Marvel Two-in-One focuses upon Spider-Man as a person with a great destiny to bring Warlock back for one final mission. Having now read this tale from the perspectives of all four of the titled individuals or groups it has appeared under, it becomes clear this is much more of a great Warlock and Spider-Man tale than it is an Avengers or Thing story. Annuals are odd beasts that often stand outside the regular flow of a series and the number of places to conclude the saga was limited in 1977 but that doesn't take away the problem.

Annual #8 is rather more typical of the regular issues at the rear end of the volume; a rather dull battle against a somewhat unmemorable old foe. In this case Doctor Spectrum of the Squadron Sinister reincarnates through possessing a succession of Avengers' bodies, with his colleagues Hyperion and the Whizzer briefly showing up as well as a guest appearance by Thundra from the pages of Fantastic Four. It's all just one inconsequential battle after another. The volume's opening saga sees Count Nefaria assemble the Lethal Legion consisting of Whirlwind, the Living Laser and the villainous Power Man who has not yet obtained a new code name despite the existence of the Hero for Hire. The villains all get a power boost but it soon turns out that Nefaria has his own objectives.

The rear of the volume gets somewhat bitty, not helped by a few months between regular writers. There's an odd solo tale of the Beast in which he is manipulated by a strange foe called the Manipulator who has both mental powers and cunning. The whole thing appears to be a sting operation but it's not entirely clear. Following this comes a tale involving the genetically modified lifeform Bloodhawk, a part human part avian being, along with the new foes the Stinger and the Monolith. Bloodhawk at first seems set to become a new member of the team but it is not to be. He's not the most imaginative of members either, feeling too much like a Hawkman clone, and in any case the Avengers have at this stage a rather large roster as shown on the volume's cover (taken from issue #181 which is also the first ever appearance of Scott Lang in a small supporting role but he doesn't become Ant-Man until much later).

The team is dramatically cut down as Gyrich demands a much smaller active membership in order to have their security clearance restored. The team is pruned down to Iron Man, Captain America, the Wasp, the Scarlet Witch, the Vision, the Beast and, most controversially, the Falcon. Gyrich insists on diversity but with the Black Panther returning to Wakanda this results in a new untested member being suddenly added to a small squad, to a lot of muted doubt and criticism. The Falcon himself isn't too happy with this and starts calling himself "the Token" and briefly adopts a very stereotyped accent around Gyrich. Also unhappy is Hawkeye at being dropped in favour of a new member and it becomes clear that the debate on affirmative action is going to be fought out in issues to come. In the meantime the cut-down of the team is a little staggered with Hawkeye hanging around for a final mission and Ms. Marvel becoming an almost immediate substitute when the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver briefly depart for Europe. This comes after a strange attack by an old gypsy called Django Maximoff who identifies Wanda and Pietro as his children "Ana" and "Mataéo" and captures their spirits to put in little dolls. Regarding him as a mistaken but well meaning old man they forgive him but are curious and head off to investigate his claims in more detail whilst the rest of the team battle the Absorbing Man.

This volume shows the series in a generally strong position though as is often the case with this title a change of writer can result in a period where it struggles to find direction, clear membership and a regular scribe. There's a strong sense of ambition and epic to the Korvac Saga which seeks to put the team through the ultimate challenge, and it's appropriate to have so many members present for such a landmark event. It's also showing a determination to get beyond menaces being defeated by sheer force of numbers and strategy and to get into more personal drama. This saga stands up well though the rest of the volume is either more run of the mill or an annual epic that has rather wandered into the series. The addition of Gyrich does, however, make for some good interesting challenges for the team and also helping to streamline it. It's a mixed volume but holds out well for the future.

Essential Avengers volume 8 - creator labels

Another volume with lots of creators so here's a post for some of the labels.

Omitted material: Marvel Team-Up 112

It’s time for yet another side step to take an issue featuring guest stars whom Marvel no longer holds the rights for. Today it's the turn of Marvel Team-Up #112 which follows directly on from issue #111, which has been reprinted in Essential Defenders volume 5. It features a team-up between Spider-Man and King Kull, another character from the works of Robert E. Howard. The issue is by the-then regular team of writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Herb Trimpe.

The previous issue saw Spider-Man learn that one of the many races who once inhabited Earth were the Spider-People, whom Spidey's physiognomy resembles, enemies of the Serpent Race. Spider-Man was bitten by one of the Serpent Race and is facing dire consequences...

Spider-Man is facing death from the Serpent Race's venom, which is fatal to the Spider-People and those who resemble them. Unfortunately there is no knowledge of a cure in the present day, but in the distant past the Serpent Race was vanquished by King Kull, ruler of Valusia, whose scholars studied their enemy's tricks, so Dr. Strange sends Spider-Man's astral form backwards in time to Kull's age. Spidey can only interact with others by possessing their bodies, a bit like DC's Deadman except that Spider-Man brings his wall crawling powers with him. He saves Kull's life from an assassination and in return a grateful Kull sets out to obtain the cure from an evil shaman called Ju-Lak. This set-up takes up the first half of the issue and the remainder sees Kull lead his forces to battle with Ju-Lak's tribe, with Spider-Man fighting as well. Eventually they are all captured and Ju-Lak challenges Kull to a duel - but as Kull has the aid of a tiger spirit, Ju-Lak forces Spidey's spirit to aid him. But at the crucial moment Spidey restrains Ju-Lak, allowing Kull to triumph. The cure is obtained and Spidey drinks it via Kull's body. Then Spidey's spirit returns to the present day where he wakes up cured but has no memory of his journey to the past, as Dr. Strange wants to protect his sanity.

This is an issue where a lot happens, primarily because of the extended journey needed to bring the two heroes together. I'm not quite sure how an astral spirit is able to carry the physical cure back through time and surely the formula for the cure would be more useful in case it's needed again? Kull is not a character I'm familiar with but he seems a very straightforward character to write, the epitome of a noble leader who leads from the front and will take any risk to reward those who aid him - a characterisation that can be found in many an era but not one to get especially excited about. This is very much a small-scale encounter between the two heroes rather than any wider exploration of the ancient history of the Marvel Universe, in particular a further look at any connections between Spider-Man and the Spider-People. Perhaps that's for the best as it avoids exploring the possibility that there's rather more to Spider-Man's origin than the seemingly accidental encounter with a radioactive spider, and that's something that would need more space for exploration than an issue of Mavel Team-Up. Instead the focus is on action and rewards. And once again the story ends with Spider-Man having lost his memory of the events, thus bringing the tale close to a reset switch. All that said the dialogue and art are both good for their era and overall the issue manages to pack in a lot. It may have its holes and feel more like a Defenders style story than a Spider-Man one, but that's the beauty of Team-Up and it's an above average effort.

Essential Defenders volume 5

Essential Defenders volume 5 consists of issues #92 to #106 plus Marvel Team-Up #101, #111 & #116 and Captain America #268. Absolutely everything is written by J.M. DeMatteis bar one back-up story in Marvel Team-Up by Mike W. Barr and all the Defenders issues are drawn by Don Perlin. The Marvel Team-Up issues are drawn by Jerry Bingham, Steve Ditko and Herb Trimpe whilst the Captain America issue is drawn by Mike Zeck.

This is one of the thinnest of all the Essential volumes and by some way the shortest of the seven Defenders releases, making it all the more noticeable that it only carries fifteen issues of the regular series (even though one of them is double-sized). Half the additional issues are frankly non-essential, with Marvel Team-Up #112 seeing Spider-Man join with Devil-Slayer to battle the Serpent Men and recover an artefact from the temple of the Spider-People, whilst the rest of the Defenders are held captive. It's all rather convoluted and has no bearing on the regular series; worse still it ends on a cliffhanger that is unresolved here (or for that matter in Essential Marvel Team-Up both because that part of the line hasn't got this far yet and also because issue #112 features King Kull, a licensed character whose adventures are now restricted by rights issues). Issue #116 is a Spider-Man team-up with Valkyrie that's a follow-up both to a previous team-up with Thor and also to some revelations in then recent issues of Thor's own title that showed Valkyrie and he to have had a past together which they have now forgotten. Whilst it's hard to dispute the strong Defenders nature of either issue, especially as they're written by the same writer as the regular series, they are simply not necessary for following the ongoing storylines and feel as though they were only included here to make up the page count.

The same cannot be said of the other two extra issues included here. The Captain America issue is the first half of a two-part crossover that serves as a memorable climax to the volume and so is best discussed later. But Marvel Team-Up #101 opens the volume and quickly sets a theme that will recur throughout it. It features Spider-Man teaming up with Nighthawk as the latter comes under attack from a robot modelled on his university girlfriend Mindy, leading him to discover she is still alive. This causes the start of a long crisis of confidence for Kyle that is depicted throughout this volume as he comes to doubt himself and his successes, despite at one point literally saving the universe through the power of argument. A temporary paralysis during the daytime adds to his problems and the result is that he drifts away from the Defenders in the hope of either discovering a cure or coming to terms with his disability, finding himself and helping Mindy overcome both her mental health problems and her very mixed feelings about him. Over the course of the volume Kyle drifts in and out of the Defenders' orbit, showing how integral he has become to the group and how one can never truly leave one's friends no matter how oppressive one's own demons are.

Indeed demons are a recurring theme throughout this volume, both without and within, and it's not only Nighthawk who has to face up to them. Over the course of these issues Hellcat, Daimon Hellstrom the Son of Satan, Devil-Slayer and new character Gargoyle all have to confront one aspect of their past or another. Patsy faces up to her hatred of her mother only to be confronted with further revelations that suggest her paternity is not what she was previously led to believe and gets transformed more than once into a more literal Hellcat. Worse comes when she and Daimon Hellstrom are increasingly admitting their feelings for each other only for Satan to claim her as his daughter, making such a relationship incestuous if the claim is true - and its veracity is not settled within this volume. Daimon has to face down his father in final confrontation but in doing so discovers that despite everything his father cares for him and cannot destroy him. Giving in to his darker nature, Daimon embraces his heritage and departs for Hell. Left on Earth, Patsy rejects all dark magic, symbolically folding her Shadow Cloak in upon itself until it disappears. Daimon spends several issues trying to purge his humanity through various torments before he can be accepted into Hell but ultimately is unable to slay an innocent child and so rejects his father, who nevertheless accepts this as part of necessary balance.

The main new Defenders in the volume are Gargoyle and the Beast, with Daimon Hellstrom the Son of Satan and Devil-Slayer also returning for an extended time. Gargoyle comes with a tragic backstory, as Isaac Christians is the last of the line that founded the small town of Christianboro. As Mayor he watched the town in a seemingly permanent downward spiral and turned to black magic to save it, entering into an alliance with the demon Avarrish only to wind betrayed and trapped in the body of a gargoyle. There's a strong element of tragedy to his tale as he seeks to come to terms with both his new body and his past, whilst also slowly earning the respect of his fellow Defenders. A touching moment comes in a hospital visit when a child pulls away his disguise and accepts his appearance. Christianboro is ultimately bedevilled by Null the Living Darkness, a creature that has been manipulating the ghosts in the town. Gargoyle saves it, nearly at the cost of his own life but he is healed by the forgiveness of his family's spirits.

Devil-Slayer also arrives with backstory aplenty, starting with his ex wife's turning to a faith healer in Israel called the Messiah who has been tricked by demons from the Six-Fingered Hand. Devil-Slayer's past also comes back in another way as we learn how he came home from Vietnam only for his life to descend into ruins and he ended up a mob assassin. However his attempt to kill a reporter, Ira Fate, instead only got Fate's wife and child and now Fate wants revenge, with help from demons. In the showdown Devil-Slayer is about to take revenge for the kidnap of his own wife until he's reminded of his own responsibility for the chain of events. The Beast also shows up at the end of the volume, briefly bringing along Wonder Man when extra help is needed. Initially the Beast seeks help to restore his old girlfriend Vera Cantor from poisoning and the destruction of the Resurrection Stone, with Mr Fantastic also lending a hand to face the Giver of Life who resides within the remains of the Stone. After this, the Beast decides to hang around, finding the atmosphere of the Defenders to be the most pleasant of any of the groups he has been a part of. There are also brief returns by various past Defenders, most notably Namor the Sub-Mariner with the Silver Surfer also showing up in time for the issue #100 celebrations.

There's less of the out and out wackiness of early periods of the title but the group still finds itself caught up in many fantastical situations, starting with an adventure in which Eternity has temporarily given three parts of himself mortal existence to better understand life but now the parts are refusing to be reabsorbed despite their prolonged absence meaning the destruction of the universe. It's a tale that combines both a very traditional formula of splitting a group in three to deal with individual parts of the problem and then reunite them for the showdown with a pretty fantastical situation that is ultimately resolved by words not action. Nebulon returns in an attempt to conquer the world via a disguise to seduce Namor and use the armies of Atlantis but the ruse is soon exposed.

The major storyline involves the "Six-Fingered Hand" but instead of a literal giant hand with six fingers, it is in fact the name of a coalition of demons named Avarrish, Fashima, Hyppokri, Puishannt, Unnthinnk and Maya. Over successive issues, they put the Defenders through the wringer with a series of battles including one to restore Dracula's control of his kingdom in Transylvania. Another sees them take on Asmodeus Jones, a satanic heavy metal musician who has Johnny Blaze the Ghost Rider amongst his support crew. The Man-Thing also shows up when possessed by Unnthinnk in Citrusville as a prelude to the transformation of the whole Earth into Hell. Maya is soon revealed as being actually Mephisto, working with Satan, Thog and Satannish. This is, I think, the first time Marvel made a concerted effort to sort out the various characters who are all based on the Devil but appear under wildly different names and in varying forms, making any semblance of continuity impossible to follow. Here we have the revelation that the various demons are all separate manifestations of Satan, thus allowing each to exist separately though it leaves open the problem that particular stories and characters haven't always been clear just which manifestation appeared. The battle with the demons occupies the double-sized issue #100, with former Defenders the Hulk, Namor and the Silver Surfer all brought in to up the excitement and add to the anniversary feel.

The last main storyline revolves around Nighthawk, or rather Kyle as he appears mainly out of costume, and the mysterious agency called the Central Information Bureau that has captured Mindy and others to harness their latent psychic powers. The sinister head of the agency, August Masters, takes steps to manipulate Kyle's life by both ending the long-running government investigations but also preventing any meaningful action being taken in time against the C.I.B. The climax comes in a crossover with Captain America as most of the Defenders and Cap get captured with Masters revealing himself as a rogue "patriot" seeking to start a new world war by using the psychics to attack the Soviet Union. With the aid of Daredevil the remaining Defenders come to rescue the others but the C.I.B. base's self-destruct sequence has been activated and Kyle winds up using the psychic powers to save his fellow heroes but at the cost of his own life. The final page showing the other heroes alive but realising Kyle is not makes for a truly sad ending to the volume but a point of final redemption for Kyle.

This volume encompasses a fairly dark period for the Defenders with a clear emphasis on character building and demon confrontation over and above the out and out bizarre and wacky situations that have been more prevalent in earlier years. But it shows a strong grasp of the main characters whilst at the same time effortlessly absorbing the likes of Gargoyle or Devil-Slayer to make them feel completely at home in the title. Although some of the group members are not given the strongest of attention here, making the Marvel Team-Up issue's throwaway references to Valkyrie and Thor's shared past frustrating as they're not explored here, each of Nighthawk, Hellcat, Daimon Hellstorm the Son of Satan, Devil-Slayer and Gargoyle gets a strong character arc that explores what makes them tick, shows them confronting their past and/or their heritage and making each of them a much stronger character as a result. The situations and threats function well to advance these developments, making for a very strong and coherent volume. It's just a pity it's padded out by two Marvel Team-Up issues that are at best unnecessary and at worst irritatingly for what they leave out. Otherwise, this is one of the best periods for the Defenders.

Deathlok the Demolisher: Origins

Another look at a series that is not touched by the Essentials.

Deathlok the Demolisher: Origins is a Panini pocketbook that reprints Astonishing Tales #25 to #28 & #30 to #35. The writing credits vary a bit but are mainly Rich Buckler with Doug Moench or Bill Mantlo scripting and/or co-plotting at times. The art on all issues is mainly by Buckler with additional contributions variously by Keith Pollard, Arvell Jones, Bob McLeod and "the whole blame Bullpen". Bonus material includes a two-page humour strip from issue #25 that was George Pérez's first published pencil work and various pencils and a 1976 watercolour by Buckler.

This is a strip with an interesting combination of themes that were prevalent back in the mid 1970s. There's a dystopian future in which familiar cities have become rundown hellholes whilst war has driven the military into an ever more powerful position. There are cyborgs as humans are reconstructed to be part machine and even more effective warriors than before. And there's the zombie fad adapted into science fiction with the lead character being a reanimated corpse.

Often an era's general cultural outlook is best reflected in the prevalent visions of the future. When the future is portrayed as a bold, pioneering vision of harmony it usually reflects on a present that may have big problems in the here and now but is confident of solving them. But there are times when such optimism is in rather short supply. The 1970s was a decade of cynicism in which many of the previous confidences had been dramatically shaken. It's unsurprising to find this future set strip takes place in such a grim and pessimistic environment. What is a shock though is the time. It's set in 1990, suggesting that nobody expected it to be still be read by that year or beyond. No doubt the pessimism about the future extended to the US comic industry, though 1990 would see it not only still going and in strong health at that, but also launching a new Deathlok series.

The fusion of cyborg and zombie produces a lead character with some unique characteristics. A dead soldier whose corpse has been kept in storage for five years, Luther Manning finds himself unexpectedly sentient again in a form that's part decayed corpse, part cybernetic addition. With a built in computer that he often converses with in private, Deathlok is set on a search to recover his humanity and seek revenge on Simon Ryker, the major who has yanked him from a noble death and brought him into this living hell as part of a wider scheme. Ryker is the main villain throughout the book though we also see the rise of his rival Hellinger amidst a wider development of cyborgs, military attacks on Deathlok and the cannibals who roam the streets of New York. Deathlok has some good character moments, especially when he turns up at his old home only for his wife and child to recoil in horror. Later he finds out that his best friend has married his wife.

But whilst the series may have some good concepts, the whole thing is let down by bad pacing. It suffers from "decompression" decades before the term was coined, with a rather simple storyline of Deathlok going rogue and seeking revenge on Ryker who in turn tries to neutralise him. This drags out over ten issues and although the individual chapters may generally hold up well the overall storyline feels excessive and somewhat dull. The series suffers a reprint fill-in, a truncated issue and an issue drawn by multiple hands, all signs of a series suffering troubles. Being very much an artist's pet project one might expect it to be all flashy art at the expense of plot but instead it's more character moments and smaller incidents that drag the whole thing out. The art is, however, quite good and does an especially effective job at portraying horror through reaction shots rather than showing it on panel. This is also notably a series without any interaction with the rest of the Marvel universe, instead taking place in its own time and thus a greater degree of creative freedom than was normally available in this era.

This edition lacks the final issue of Astonishing Tales but promises another Deathlok book is coming soon. It has yet to appear on Panini's schedules leaving the series on a slight cliffhanger though the main story of the struggle with Simon Ryker is completed here. Overall this edition shows a series that's very strong on ideas and individual moments but rather weak when collected together as a whole.