We can’t hope to compete with the amount of news coming out of NYCC, so instead, we’re focusing on the one thing we can deliver. Our opinion! Comics-inspired computer games (Iron Man, Mortal Kombat Vs. DC) and movies (30 Days of Night, The Spirit) are the focus of this column, though there’s always time to wonder what Grant Morrison is up to in the pages of Batman as well… Continue reading »

Bob Layton’s run on Iron Man is one of those era-defining ones that happened before my time. You hear this sort of thing mentioned all the time - Mark Gruenwald on Cap, Peter David on the Hulk, that sort of thing. In fact, these kind of runs are so era-defining that when you look back on them, they seem almost… outdated. Iron Man’s alcoholism is firmly ingrained in the character now, for instance, but once upon a time, someone had to actually write that story. It piques your curiosity as a fan - but no Iron Man story interested me enough to go back and read it, until Iron Man: Doomquest.

Clearly released as a companion to both the Iron Man film and Bendis’ recent homage to the story in Mighty Avengers, Doomquest collects four issues of Iron Man in which he travels through time with Doctor Doom. That’s more pages than it sounds, by the way, because two of the issues are double-sized.

The initial story, from Iron Man #149 and #150, sees the two sent back in time by one of Doom’s rebellious servants during a fight in castle Doom. Something about the idea of Doom and Iron Man in Camelot has intrigued me ever since I first found out about it. Certainly, the idea of Tony Stark, man of science, thrust into a world of magic is an appealing idea - as is pitting Doom against Stark, two sides of the same (armoured) coin. The result is something brilliant, even by today’s standards. Layton’s writing contains some great moments of humour, drama and adventure - I laughed every time Doom addressed Iron Man, who he believes to be Stark’s bodyguard, as “lackey”. The solution, where Doom and Iron Man team up is a brilliant moment that shows just how pragmatic Doom and Iron Man can be. Romita’s artwork is almost unrecognisable compared to his modern style, but nonetheless, the greatness is still there, if slightly less developed.

The second half of the collection contains the sequel to that story, originally from Iron Man #249 and #250, in which the two again travel in time, this time to the future, where they meet Merlin and a reborn King Arthur, and have to save the world from their own futures - the evil, armoured offpring of Stark’s bloodline, and the still-living, mostly cybernetic Doom. Again, it’s fantastic. A classic story that’s held up well by modern standards.

The issues are collected in Marvel’s excellent premiere hardback format. They have some classy-looking covers that make me want to buy them all, but I’ve managed to hold out until now. The collection could do with a little extra material - the Camelot issues end with Lady Morgana escaping, and no resolution to that plot, so if possible it would’ve been nice to see that thread followed up somehow.

As a comics fan you dream of witnessing character-defining stories like this as they happen, but in lieu of that, why not go and read the ones that already exist? Doomquest might be old, but it’s barely showing its age. It’s a fun story, and a genuinely deserved classic.

Okay, we’ve gone on about it enough. Time for that one last push to make you read Ultimate Human.

Ellis is the kind of writer who’s very polarising. There’s a lot of personality about him, and he’s undoubtedly often more interested in hanging a story off his futurist concepts than the other way around. That said, this seems to be the best way to deal with his quirks - give him a series that’s free to play them out.

In Ultimate Human, Ellis brings together the ultimate technological and biological expressions of humanity - Tony Stark as Iron Man, and Bruce Banner as the Hulk - and allows them to bounce off one another in a spectacular fashion. The examination of how the Hulk’s biology adapts to hostile environments is particularly entertaining, and something that fits into the Ultimate universe beautifully.

Even as Bruce and Tony appear to have finally found a cure for the Hulk, the Ultimate Leader hatches a plan and attacks their base. Or rather, he gets someone else to, he largely sits around ranting. It’s a typically Ellis take on the character, but certainly an entertaining one. Presumably, the next two issues will follow the usual path of Hulk “cures” and it’ll fail just in time for Banner to save everyone and thunder off into the distance.

That said - we can’t be sure. There is absolutely no doubt that this is the true sequel to The Ultimates - it’s the only place where the characters and themes are preserved. More importantly, it’s a story that you can only really tell in the Ultimate universe, which is still young enough that Banner and Stark can realistically be attempting this for the first time, and we genuinely can’t be sure of their success or failure.

Cary Nord brings to the table some great comedic timing and a flair for action, proving with this series that he’s more than ready to become the next superstar artist - his work is starting to shows all the good elements of the Kubert brothers who were also helping to define the Ultimate universe shortly before they were snapped up by DC, so let’s hope Marvel have the good sense to keep him around. With Ultimates 3 dying on it’s arse, the whole imprint needs to make sure it clings to anything good that comes along - Ultimate Human would be a good start.

In this week’s column, there’s an update on speculation about Pixie’s status in the post-Messiah Complex X-Men, some stuff about the new Invincible Iron Man ongoing, and speculation about what Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan might be up to… Continue reading »

The Ultimate universe is in such a state at the moment that it’s quite suprising to see a series like Ultimate Human come out – given that it actually fits in much better with the original Bendis/Millar era than it does the current Dark Days Of Loeb, and almost washes the nasty taste of Ultimates 3 out of the mouth. Almost.

After all, while the Ultimate line wasn’t exactly supposed to be “superheroes in the real world” in a Watchmen sense, there was certainly a movie-esque, let’s-attempt-to-justify-the-superhero- weirdness-with-actual-theoretical-science feel to the original triad of Spider-Man, X-Men and The Ultimates that has sadly been lost amid crossovers with Supreme Power and zombie universes. Warren Ellis later brought quite a lot of it to his run on Ultimate Fantastic Four – a title to which he was far better suited than he’d probably care to admit – as well, and he does exactly the same here. So we finally get to see a Banner/Hulk transformation happen (instead of conveniently cutting away), and we get lots of trademark Ellis technobabble making it all sound as if it might actually be possible, kinda.

A dichotomy that The Ultimates has never really examined in any great deal is thrown up here – Banner and Stark as two geniuses at completely opposing ends of the superhero game – and this should hopefully give a bit of dimension to the eventual slugfest between the two characters that the series is being pushed as. In the meantime, though, there’s not a great deal of action in issue #1, but it builds nicely, and throws in a secondary plot layer involving Ultimate versions of the Leader and Pete Wisdom (er – as the same character). Cary Nord’s art comes off quite like a painted version of Stuart Immonen, but for someone new to Ultimate he does a good job – even if his Bruce Banner is a little inconsistent with and without glasses.

The last Ultimate miniseries to start this promisingly was the ill-fated Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk, a book that shares a lot in common with Ultimate Human – both stories that expand upon Banner’s character and nature, and which feel like they could be actual issues of The Ultimates rather than a spinoff series. Where they differ, though, is that Ellis’ story should at least see it through to the finish – and for an imprint so badly in need of a shot in the arm, that can be no bad thing. It’s not going to rescue the whole mess, not by a long shot, but at least it’s a reminder that good stories can still be told within this framework.