Chewbacca #1 - Marvel Comics

CHEWBACCA No. 1, December 2015

Despite the proven pedigree of this mini-series’ creative team, Issue One of “Chewbacca” is sadly a very potent example of just how badly things can go when a title is presumably published simply to ‘cash-in’ on the popularity of a motion picture’s imminent theatrical release. For whilst Gerry Duggan’s narrative does somewhat focus upon the exploits of the two-hundred year-old wookie, and thus provides a little insight into what the “warrior son of the planet Kashyyyk” got up to after ‘destroying the Death Star’ “with some help from his trusty sidekick Han.” It does so by rather lazily ‘parachuting’ the Millennium Falcon’s co-pilot into one of the most contrived and unfollowable storylines devised this side of “the Battle of Yavin”.

Indeed the New Yorker would appear to have completely ignored the necessity of providing “Chewie” with any sound rationale as to why the titular character would be stranded on the planet Andelm-4, and instead unconvincingly explains that Solo’s companion left his friends to embark “on a very important and personal secret mission” and that his “loaner spacecraft” was a “hunk of junk.” Although considering that the hairy protagonist’s dialogue is limited to the odd “Grrr”, “Hrraa” and “Hrrraarrrarghhr”, such an indolent storytelling technique is probably understandable.

Just as indecipherable as Chewbacca’s grunts and roars however, is Duggan’s bizarre plot involving the adolescent Zarro, local “crook” Jaum, a mine full of Andelm Beetles and a secret deal with the Empire for “high quality Dedlanite in high quantities.” Just how the crime boss “changed the deal” so the “skate-punk tomboy” can’t pay him isn’t entirely clear, nor how Arrax is expected to clear his family’s debt by ‘harvesting’ the valuable “chemicals in the larva.” All that is certain is that the wookie’s dilemma of being shipwrecked on the planet due to his inability to afford a “flight stabilizer in such good condition” is worryingly far too similar to the scenario used within the 1999 film “The Phantom Menace”.

Perhaps this twenty-one page periodical’s biggest disappointment though is Phil Noto’s quite unexceptional artwork. Revered for his work on “Marvel Worldwide” variant cover illustrations, the former “Disney” animator’s drawings of Chewbacca are very-well realised, even if they do make the hairy smuggler appear a little too soft and cuddly. But for some reason the American artist’s unique-looking style doesn’t appear quite so pleasing to the eye when it involves Arrax, Zarro and Jaum, and that’s despite some of the panels utilising some impressive blur/fade effects to generate the illusion of distance and speed.

The regular cover art of "CHEWBACCA" No. 1 by Phil Noto

Planet Hulk #2 - Marvel Comics

PLANET HULK No. 2, August 2015

Set within the Battleworld barony of Greenland, Sam Humphries’ script for Issue Two of “Planet Hulk” seems to be far more concerned with subjecting its 47,944 strong audience to overly long speeches about survival and friendship, than exploring the deadly flora and fauna of this patchwork kingdom, and as a result proves to be something of a dissatisfying experience. In fact, apart from a frivolous four-page long flashback depicting Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes’ already evidentl close relationship, nothing of much consequence occurs to the Sentinel of Liberty, Doc Green or Devil Dinosaur for two-thirds of the comic… Except perhaps it’s made clear that the axe-wielding warrior and his green-skinned guide “to the Mud kingdom” won’t be getting along with one another all that well; “Tell your beast to back off. Or you’ll be Hulk gruel before Sundown.”

Fortunately however once the ‘travelling companions’ do begin their quest to assassinate the Red King and enter an “infernal jungle”, the Maryland-born writer finally starts to inject this decidedly lack-lustre narrative with some much needed action by having “Lord Rex” tangle with both the killer-plant “Doomicus Hulkicus Carnvoirae", and some gigantic Bull Hulks within short succession. Admittedly such absurdly named creatures do momentarily break any spell with which Humphries’ work held the reader. But their inclusion, and Captain America’s eventual ‘escape’ from the stampeding behemoths courtesy of a fast-flowing waterfall, genuinely brings this particular periodical to a pulse-pounding conclusion.

Sadly just as inconsistent as the plot to “The Path” is Marc Laming’s contribution to this publication. The “Kings Watch” artist’s pencilling is actually extremely engaging, with his interpretation of Devil Dinosaur looking every bit the lean mean killing machine many fans of Jack Kirby’s creation imagined the Tyrannosaurus Rex to be. Indeed the freelancer’s reimaging of the Incredible Hulk as the “soldier of fortune” Doc Green is also extremely well rendered, and there’s certainly plenty of dynamic energy packed into this comic’s proceedings once the fighting finally begins.

What this title does lack however is any proper pacing to the narrative. For whilst the British illustrator’s artwork is first-rate, a quarter of the book actually consists of little more than splash-pages. Something which arguably smacks of Laming dishearteningly mismanaging the flow of the story…

The variant cover art of "PLANET HULK" No. 2 by Yildiray Cinar

Skull The Slayer #4 - Marvel Comics

SKULL THE SLAYER No. 4, March 1976

Having firmly established the premise behind this time-travelling mid-Seventies title by authoring the narrative of its opening three issues, Editor Marv Wolfman somewhat disconcertingly hands over the writing reigns for “Time Out Of Mind” to Steve Englehart and was doubtless then mortified to see not only the sudden rather arbitrary and contrived demise of James Patrick Scully’s entire supporting cast. But additionally the twisting of the titular character’s already rather prickly personality into that of a completely cold-hearted self-centred survivor. A man who seemingly would rather run and sacrifice Ann Reynolds to a grisly death at the hands of their Ancient Egyptian pursuers than fight at Raymond Corey’s side in order to try and rescue her; “The game today is kill or be killed. Nothing else!”

Indeed having spent some considerable time siding with the Vietnam veteran during his numerous altercations with the contentiously prejudicial doctor, this particular seventeen-page periodical swiftly spins the reader’s allegiance on its head and worryingly shows the superhero to be nothing more than a ‘combat trained killer’ who “doesn’t feel a thing!” Certainly it is hard to forgive the scorpion belt-wearing adventurer for turning his back upon the injured blonde-haired secretary, whether “there’s nothing we can do for her” or not. Whilst the bitter remorse Skull the Slayer later feels as he watches his companions fall beneath the blades of master Slitherogue’s robots does little to erase his earlier contemptuous belief that the scientist didn’t remain behind to “die protecting her… like a man!” But rather because Corey watched “too much television.”

Equally as galling is Englehart’s abrupt introduction of Merlin and the Black Knight into what had, up until this edition, been a thoroughly enthralling tale of Prehistoric civilizations and monsters. This “robotic nightmare of King Arthur’s Time” badly jars with the series’ former direction and also rather belittles the tragic grisly deaths which occurred just a few panels earlier. In fact it is hard to imagine a more perplexing, less engaging turn of events, than the “modern day man” being miraculously confronted with the two fairly standard stereotypical medieval depictions. Truly the “far-reaching House of Ideas” were right to label this magazine’s contents as being concerned with “a world of time gone mad” on its front cover.

Arguably Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito’s artwork for such a “Peril Of The Pyramids” is just as inconsistent as the American author’s script. For whilst Scully’s battle with the Ancient Egyptian warriors imprisoning Doctor Corey is full of “Bam!” and “Tok!”, as is the hero’s subsequent fist-fight with Merlin’s armoured guardian, the Brooklyn-born illustrator’s handling of anything more sedentary in pace, such as the numerous close-ups of the Slayer’s face, is far less successful.

Author: Steve Englehart, and Artists: Sal Buscema & Mike Esposito

Uber #14 - Avatar Press

UBER No. 14, May 2014

Containing both an arguably much-anticipated confrontation between the catalyst-enhanced German powerhouses Siegmund and Siegfried, as well as the first appearance of the grotesquely misshapen creature known as Battleship Zero, Issue Fourteen of “Uber” undoubtedly provides its readers with plenty of pulse-pounding action and suspense. But whilst such scenes depict the sort of graphic violence, bodily mutilation and colourful language the series’ fans have come to expect from “Avatar Press”, Kieron Gillen’s script rather annoyingly actually fails to bring any sort of resolution to these proceedings. Indeed the twenty-two page periodical undoubtedly raises more questions than it answers by having the Fuhrer, depicted as being quite clearly dead at the start of the comic, seemingly alive and well by the end of the book as he abruptly appears and starts rejoicing at the celebratory “news from the North Sea” of “a historic victory!”

Such a trifling irritation however shouldn’t have stopped the vast majority of this magazine’s 7,493 buyers from enjoying what is otherwise a triumph in creepy, suspenseful and horrifyingly good storytelling. For even before General Sankt begins to wind his way down a series of underground tunnels with the intention of trying to “activate another Battleship”, it is clear that something unnatural, inhuman and “[un]dissolved” lurks within the dark shadows; a creature so hideously malformed that its movement has caused huge troughs to be gouged out of the cavern’s rocky surface.

Presented with far less build-up, though just as dramatically tense, is the British writer’s clash of the Teutonic titans Werner and Markus. Stood toe-to-toe, their halo-effects crackling and the enraged Siegfried bristling at the thought that his fellow ‘super-soldier’ had purposely lied to him about Hitler’s death, it really is hard to see precisely which way the battle between the two juggernauts is going to go. Sadly though, despite the one-armed Siegmund managing to catch his opponent off-guard with a deft punch, the matter is disappointingly and abruptly brought to an end by Herr Goebbels before either man can do the other any real harm.

All of this excitement is wonderfully illustrated by Gabriel Andrade, whose terrifyingly warped rendering of Battleship Zero is as grisly and abhorrent as the monster’s disfigurement is alarming. In fact it’s hard to find any fault with the Brazilian’s pencilling, except perhaps the artist’s concluding splash-page which somehow seems to portray the triumphant Third Reich Fuhrer as a diminutive, almost child-like figure.

The variant cover art of "UBER" No. 14 by Gabriel Andrade

Journey To Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Shattered Empire #2 - Marvel Comics

JOURNEY TO STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS - SHATTERED EMPIRE No. 2, December 2015

Whilst undoubtedly an enjoyable and entertaining experience, Issue Two of “Journey To Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Shattered Empire” sadly seems to fall victim to the trap so many ‘official’ motion picture tie-in-titles experience by having its characters insufferably revisit the same familiar locations featured within the movies. Admittedly such an obvious ‘hook’ as Princess Leia leading a “diplomatic mission” to Naboo doubtless helped this magazine become the Eighth best-selling comic book of October 2015. But with the entirety of George Lucas’ “galaxy far, far away” to explore, it is arguable that some readers, especially those disillusioned by the ‘Clone Wars’ film trilogy, would have preferred the storyline to have occurred upon a planet which hasn’t already been so overly-exposed within the many Star Wars storytelling mediums.

Fortunately any such disillusionment with Greg Rucka’s script doesn’t manifest itself until a good two-thirds of the way through the comic. By which time the San Francisco-born writer has already enticed any semi-reluctant bibliophiles into ‘sticking with the title’ as a result of his marvellously enthralling demonstration as to how the Emperor manages to uphold his “legacy of darkness” over the “scattered Imperial forces” despite “Rebel propaganda” suggesting Palpatine is actually dead. Captain Duvat’s encounter with one such sinisterly-garbed ‘faceless’ Messenger, complete with mandatory blood verification, is chillingly written, and, along with Lerr’s sadistic grin as he orders his Star Destroyer to “scour” Naboo, gives a rare glimpse as to the unnerving fanaticism some of the Sith Master’s minions maintain for their evil-hearted ruler.

Equally as engrossing, and far more action-packed, is the three-time Eisner Award-Winner’s depiction of the Rebellion’s battle inside Cawa City on Sterdic IV, as Tie-fighters buzz across the futuristic metropolis’ skyline and a formidable AT-AT walker thunders down its main throughway. Indeed, this sequence, set “seventeen days after the Battle of Endor”, genuinely seems to capture a real sense of claustrophobic low-level combat with it fast-paced panels portraying Green Group’s A-Wings taking on the Imperial Navy in a series of dog-fights amidst the overcrowded settlement’s cramped streets.

Somewhat disconcerting however has to be the inconsistent quality of this comic’s pencilling. Something which can’t have come as a surprise to “Marvel Worldwide” considering that they employed Angel Unzueta and Emilio Laiso as “extra hands to round out this issue.” Lead illustrator Marco Checchetto’s drawings are quite simply breathtakingly good, with his double-splash of stormtroopers blasting away on Sterdic IV beneath the legs of the aforementioned AT-AT being the highlight of the book. Sadly though the Italian’s enviable artwork inevitably means his colleagues’ pictures appear unfairly poor by comparison, especially those depicting a rather ruddy-nosed Leia Organa.

The variant cover art of "JOURNEY TO STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS - SHATTERED EMPIRE" No. 2 by Julian Totino Tedesco

Marvel Zombies #4 - Marvel Comics

MARVEL ZOMBIES No. 4, December 2015

Described by “Marvel Worldwide” as containing an Elsa Bloodstone who is both “out of bullets and out of hope”, it’s hard, having read this concluding instalment to the “Secret Wars” mini-series, not to also feel that the Monster Hunter is additionally out of narrative as well. For whilst Issue Four of “Marvel Zombies” does ultimately determine the fate of the Shield (wall) Commander and “the child she swore to protect to salvation”, it only does so after a laboriously long conversation between the storyline’s primary protagonist and this Battleworld’s “different version” of her father.

Indeed for almost half the length of this twenty-page periodical the “Dupe effect” dad does little but batter and bicker with his “quick-witted” daughter as the “zombified version of Ulysses explains just how he has “pried” the Bloodstones from the corpses of “every duplicate of my line.” Admittedly parts of this 'monologue' are surprisingly dramatic, such as when Elsa matter-of-factly beheads her baleful parent for suggesting they form a “team-up” against a fast-approaching “full horde deployment” of “Rotters”, or her skeletal adversary bites off her hand when the soldier attempts to snatch back “the childhood you stole from me.”

But in the main Simon Spurrier’s flashback scenes depicting the various members of the “House of Bloodstone” wandering to their deaths having simply followed “this… funny feeling”, or worse, the “coiffured” killer taking his overly inquisitive wife Elise “down in the cellar” to “see what your daughter’s been learning” are sadly seemingly included to do little more than pad the comic out; “Monsters fiends oh no God he let it lay eggs in my brain… they ate my mind ohhhh help me help us help usss.”

Even Kev Walker’s usually bold strongly-defined artwork appears to occasionally suffer throughout this book, as several of the British illustrator’s panels contain some worryingly inconsistent, almost rushed sketches of the comic’s central character and the undead, increasingly hungry Mystique. The former “2000 A.D.” penciller’s pacing is equally as capricious at times as well, especially towards the end of the story when suddenly almost every sheet contains just two or three pictures for seemingly no obvious reason other than they need to be quickly filled with something…

Writer: Simon Spurrier, Artist: Kev Walker, and Color Artists: Guru-eFX

West Coast Avengers #2 - Marvel Comics

WEST COAST AVENGERS No. 2, October 1984

Featuring the debut of Roger Stern and Bob Hall’s creation The Blank, Issue Two of “West Coast Avengers” disappointingly pits the ‘fledgling’ super-group’s rather formidable roster up against one of the New York publisher’s most uninspiring and frankly third-rate villains ever. Indeed, if the “unemployed drifter” hadn’t conveniently encountered a Stark International Research scientist whilst waiting for a bus and subsequently stolen the inventor’s force field generator, then the Wackos really would spend the entire length of this comic book battling nothing more than an ordinary, powerless, criminally-minded “disgruntled” nobody.

Presumably however, such a forgettable foe was actually devised in order to allow the American author to spend a considerable portion of this twenty-three page periodical concentrating upon the doubts and fears of this “expansion of the main Avengers team”. Something the Noblesville-born novelist does to a disconcerting depth as practically every single one of the super-heroes featured within the narrative inwardly demonstrates some considerable team angst; “I’m not anywhere near being in his league… Why did I let Hawkeye talk me into joining his new Avengers team?”

Foremost of these doubting Thomas’ is arguably Wonder Man, the son of a rich industrialist who is clearly not half as confident with his “personal performance” as his self-assured Simon ‘stunt man’ Williams alter ego would suggest. In fact having demonstrated his inability to “handle one gimmicky bank robber by myself” the angry “ionic” powerhouse becomes worryingly obsessed with “nabbing” the Blank by himself just to prove ‘what good he is to the Avengers’.

Equally as image-driven, and quite possibly power-mad as well, is Jim Rhodes’ Iron Man. Concerned that Hawkeye’s gruelling daily workout showed him up and that he may be trading “on another man’s rep” since replacing Tony Stark “inside this metal suit”, the armoured “amateur” admits to revelling in the power bestowed upon him because it “felt good… read good!”

Fortunately this magazine does feature some incredibly lively action-packed artwork by Bob Hall. Admittedly the one-time “Charlton Comics” inker isn’t as consistent with his illustrations as some readers may have hoped for, particularly when sketching the Blank’s origin flashback. But the former “Marvel Comics” editor’s drawings of Iron Man, Tigra, Mockingbird and Hawkeye during the Wackos ‘mock’ battle against “Shellhead” prove to be an incredibly dynamically-charged way to start an otherwise rather run-of-the-mill story.

Writer: Roger Stern, Penciler: Bob Hall, and Inker: Brett Breeding