It’s hard to shake the impression that at some point last year, Brian Bendis broke a mirror. One instance of parallel plotting by writers who seed their stories far in advance might be dismissed as unfortunate, but with the arrival of Necrosha, there definitely seems to be a curse at work here. After both Bruce Wayne and Steve Rogers were catapulted back through time by their apparent deaths, the similarities between Blackest Night and Chris Yost & Craig Kyle’s X-Force epic means that we now have two major event comics satirising the comics staple of restoring dead characters to life. Thankfully, the storytelling here is strong enough to justify the duplication, even if this opening chapter is a slightly murkier brew than expected.

Artistic delays on the regular X-Force ongoing means that this one-shot opening chapter follows on directly from this week’s conclusion of ‘Not Forgotten’, with the undead making their long-trailed assault on Utopia. Meanwhile, Archangel and Warpath go in search of their book’s forgotten plot thread and Selene indulges in a considerable amount of exposition.  Returning X-Force artist Clayton Crain brings his usual combination of strengths and weaknesses to the book, with an overly dark atmosphere more than compensated for by his truly spectacular splash pages- the cliffhanger scene is a particular highlight. This opening chapter’s greatest success is in the portrayal of the main villain, and the creative team make a very good fist of building up a half-forgotten X-enemy into a significant threat. The writers obviously have a considerable amount of ground to cover here, having to cater for new readers at the same time as keeping the attention of those who have followed the story’s build-up. It’s possibly this challenge that leads to the slightly fragmented feel the book possesses, with many strands being juggled. In contrast to the unremittingly focussed X-Force #20, Necrosha feels a little scattershot at times, with almost too much happening to take in. Hopefully the story will streamline itself as the threads spun out to New Mutants and Legacy go their separate ways.

Speaking of which, the book is bulked-up by two short stories from Zeb Wells and Mike Carey, designed to act as preludes to their tie-ins. You can understand Kyle & Yost’s desire to keep hold of all the threads in the first of their two parting shots to X-Force, given the line-wide nature of the Second Coming crossover. The move, however, undeniably weakens these spin-off tales, leaving them entirely dependant on the reader’s affection for the figures featured. As someone who has read little of the original New Mutants series, I found the vinaigrette featuring the Joss Whedon-created Blindfold more compelling than Doug Ramsey’s return from the dead.

Of all the Dark Reign – The List specials I’ve bought in the name of providing a service to our readers, this one ranks around the middle.  Well, towards the top really, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a Simpsons reference. By now, you don’t need me to tell you that this has almost nothing to do with Dark Reign. Contrary to the title, it also doesn’t really feature Wolverine all that much. In fact, as near as I can tell the whole thing turns out to be a prelude to the forthcoming Deathlok series, of all things.

So with that in mind, why am I so upbeat about it? The answer is simple: it’s hilarious.

The issue’s cast consists of Wolverine, Fantomex and Marvel Boy, who infiltrate the Weapon Plus development facility, The World, and Norman Osborn, who spends his time shouting at a wall of monitors. Wolverine himself is sidelined at a fairly early point, leaving Fantomex, in full snooty Frenchman mode, and Marvel Boy to have a fight with the sentient brain that controls The World while at the same time protecting it from Osborn’s agents.

Aaron has won me over to his version of Wolverine before, but with this issue, he also convinces me that he does a very passable version of Fantomex. Indeed, with Marvel Boy in the cast, the whole thing comes across somewhere between a Grant Morrison homage and a Grant Morrison parody, but it’s easy to see that Aaron is doing that deliberately (Marvel Boy being forced to kiss the giant, amoeba-esque organism housing The World’s brain sticks out as an example of that.)

Esad Ribic provides the artwork, and although I’m not a specific fan, I can’t deny that it works rather well. Ribic has the ability to put the fantastic elements alongside the more realistic ones and have them appear as if they can credibly exist within the same universe. Colourist Matthew Wilson brings particular flair to the pages too, however, and his contribution should not be ignored.

The book is rounded out with a rather less impressive bonus strip, some guidebook pages and some pencil/ink comparisons, all of which make the price tag a little more bearable. It’s fair to say this isn’t an essential purchase for anyone following Dark Reign or Wolverine, which makes it more than a little misleading, but as a comic, there’s plenty to enjoy, and for all the whining about how “The List” has been a real disappointment in terms of continuity, it’d be much easier to accept the situation if the comics were all this good.

Comics like their anniversary issues. Hardly surprising, since by their very nature as periodicals, they can enjoy plenty of them – whether it’s a literal anniversary of a publication date/year, or simply a landmark issue number, there are enough comics being published nowadays that date back a sufficient period that if publishers were so inclined they could probably find something to celebrate every single shipping week.

And yet in recent years, DC in particular seem to have celebrated these occasions with a bit less fanfare. Marvel, at least, tend to pull out something when a title such as Amazing Spider-Man hits a new century (usually an anthology issue of some kind), but DC’s issue landmarks – while they might get slightly oversized issues – tend to go almost unheralded, while they seem to almost entirely ignore their decade-based anniversaries nowadays. Back in 1984, however, it seemed that such issues were a bit more of a big deal – and so this 1984 comic (also, give or take a few months, 45 years after issue #1 of the title) was the cue for a general celebration of the Superman mythos.

It’s an anthology of sorts, although what’s not immediately apparent is that (with the exception of Steranko’s closing pages) it’s all written by one person – Elliott S! Maggin. Maggin takes us on a journey through a myriad imaginary futures, looking at the legend of Superman passing through the ages; and tailors his stories sufficiently to his artists that each vignette has a distinct style and tone all of its own. Some are more successful than others – but the shared motifs are the twin examinations of the power of myth, and also that of the iconography of Superman and of heroism in general. A downbeat yet slightly uplifting story of rebellion in a fascist future society is the best example of the latter, while another highlight is the somewhat meta Frank Miller-drawn tale of archaeologists finding a video – fallen through interdimensional cracks all the way from Earth Prime – of the George Reeves TV series and using it to discover Superman’s secret identity.

What really makes this such a draw, though – and indeed, one of the absolute prides of my comic collection, quite aside from the fact that it’s one of the earliest comics I remember reading – is the array of artistic talent brought in to draw Maggin’s stories. The loose theme for the issue is the hiring of artists not previously known for having drawn the character – and while the art for the stories themselves is of varying quality, it’s in a succession of pinups that we’re given an unprecedented and stunning roster of talent – most notably Brian Bolland, Berni Wrightson, Bill Sienkiewicz, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko (drawing Superman for, I believe, the only time ever), Moebius (!) and Will Eisner (!!!). It’s also amusing seeing John Byrne draw the character in his style of the time, just a couple of years before taking over the book and (in a very different manner) defining his look for the next couple of decades.

It really is a wonderful gallery of pieces that each perfectly encapsulate and celebrate the character (if I were choosing favourites, I’d go for Sienkiewicz, Wrightson and Bolland’s), and as fun as Maggin’s stories are, it’s these that make this issue such a classic. Perhaps it’s just that the mid-80s were a fortuitous time for comics featuring names that were in the process of becoming legends, while still being able to call upon those that had shaped the medium in its defining decades; but this time-capsule of a piece feels like a genuine one-of-a-kind.

Okay, this time I’m not going to complain that this The List book is actually nothing to do with the Dark Reign meta-arc and instead focus on it for what it is: a one-shot that has a lasting impact on the parent title’s continuity, presumably as a marketing device to draw people into the series’ ongoing plot threads. In that sense, it’s still a bit of a failure.

This issue, Osborn gets to “Neutralising Bruce Banner” on his list of things to do. The Hulk, of course, is already neutralised, so Osborn goes to great lengths to explain why Banner needs to be taken out of the equation too. Apparently, it’s because he’s the fourth smartest person on the planet, though why that’s a good enough reason to go after Banner and not, for example, Reed Richards, isn’t particularly clear.

The plot has the unlikely pairing of Moonstone and Victoria Hand going after Skaar and Banner. Moonstone makes sense, because she’s an old Hulk villain, but much like Osborn, Ms. Hand is so over-exposed, one wonders how she’s got the time for field operations. Still, it leads to some enjoyable battles-of-wits between her and Banner, while Moonstone deals with Skaar. Pak has always understood the need for a psychological dimension to the Hulk, so it’s good to see that continue here, as the fights are resolved not by punching, but by smarts.

The payoff to the issue – Banner being partially re-irradiated – is either a major part of the ongoing arc of Incredible Hulk, or a ridiculously weak cop-out, depending on how it’s followed up. The idea is that being irradiated by Osborn’s plan has will mean that Banner becomes the Hulk much sooner than he would’ve. Of course, since we had no time frame on that anyway, it’s hard to see how this’ll have any consequences. I’m giving Pak the benefit of the doubt, but I’d be lying if I said I was wholly convinced.

Whether this one-shot becomes anything more than a throwaway piece of continuity will ultimately rely on Pak himself. As a story itself, it’s fairly enjoyable, but not enough to make it worth buying if you’re not already reading Incredible Hulk – and for a one-shot that’s supposed to appeal to people who aren’t, that’s not a good thing.

Elephantmen is often the very definition of a slow-burner, but the book seems to be suffering a little from a lack of focus at the moment. The disagreement between the cover and the title page as to which instalment of the story is contained doesn’t bode well, and the new instinctive appeal of the anthropomorphised section of the cast can’t quite compensate for his creator’s apparently wandering attention.

This issue consists of two parallel conversations, as the Hip Flask begins to suspect that there’s more to his colleague’s apparent return to drink than meets the eye, while Vanity’s attention is gradually drawn to the full extent of Obadah Horn’s empire. It’s the sort of gradual progression that is perfectly suited to a detective-themed series, but a well-plotted issue is partially undone by some mundane execution. Although the main draw of the series is Starking’s scripts, slowly adding new elements coherently into the world that Elephantmen and its parent series have knitted together, this issue seems little under-written in places. The jumps away from Vanity and Simm throughout the issue come at the right points in the story, but still damage the flow of the conversation, and leave the cliff-hanger looking like something of a stretch in story terms. Even granted that the moment in question is supposed to be unexpected, it feels more dictated by the book’s page count than the natural result of the events chronicled.

It’s the little things that grate, such as the way Vanity’s dialogue refers to a pillow case, while she’s drawn displaying a pyjamas holder. Andre Szymanowicz’s art isn’t without its strengths, chiefly his commendable ability to convey expressions, but they don’t quite compensate for some absurdly exaggerated anatomy drawing for the book’s female characters. Elephantmen remains a likeable proposition, but it’s rather difficult to love.

This week: Capsule reviews of Beasts of Burden #2, Dark Avengers #10, Hellblazer #260, Invincible Iron Man #19 and Justice League of America #38! (continue reading…)