I like these two pre-Code horror stories for various reasons. The first, “Was He Dead?” from Avon’s Eerie #3 (1951), is a murdered-spouse-returns-from-the-dead story. In a few days I will show a Graham Ingels story where I will expound further on this theme, but for now suffice it to say this is a not-untypical example of that type of horror comic story, with nice yet derivative art by Moe Marcus and Rocke Mastroserio. It’s derivative in that some panels are borrowed from the style of Johnny Craig and Craig’s dripping sweat, as well as some inking inspired by Wallace Wood. A big plus is it’s got a bikini-clad babe!

“The Walking Dead” appeared in Web of Evil #12 (1954), and the artist is unidentified. You’ll recognize immediately that it is a zombie story with a borrowed twist: the zombie is a giant because the story is inspired by King Kong. That classic movie was re-released to theaters in 1952 and was a big box office success all over again, so it was aped (ho-ho) by several comic book scripters. (See the link below today’s two stories.)

















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More on the 1952 King Kong re-release in this posting from nearly two years ago:


If there's a series that lends itself to "binge reading," it's JT Krul and Freddie Williams's Captain Atom. In the first volume I liked their new Nathaniel Adam but found the book directionless; the second volume, however, Captain Atom Vol. 2: Genesis, not only tops the original in weird science, but also applies a significant amount of direction to the seemingly disparate elements of the first, redeeming the series as a whole.

This is a book that doesn't work if you just read one issue or one trade, but that works immeasurably well once you've let a dozen issues go past (I feel similarly about Matt Kindt's Mind MGMT). More's the pity that there was no way to read it like this from the outset; here's a cancelled book that left me hungry to know what happened next.

[Review contains spoilers]

Genesis is a head-trip of a book, one that takes the title character into the far future, then wraps around back to the very first issue, before actually changing the events of the first volume and then proceeding to tell a story within the revised reality. Again, Krul's characterization of the Dr. Manhattan-eqsue Captain Atom (itself a temporal example of the original influencing the new, influencing the original) is the best part of this book; Krul proves how well he knows his character in that he can untangle the threads of what motivated Captain Atom at each moment, alter it, and then proceed to tell a story about the same character even with a slightly revised outlook.

Much of what I liked here is the same as what I liked about the first New 52 volume of Flash -- Krul isn't afraid to be brainy, and to tell a complicated science-fiction tale with twists and loops in it. This isn't just a time-travel story where the character is stranded in the future for a while (though it has that, too), but one again that deals with causality and alternate realities, the kind of science-fiction one sooner sees in novels than in comics.

Significant credit, however, has to go to Krul's collaborator Freddie Williams. What really makes Genesis are the character designs of the future Captain Atoms who enlist our own to prevent the destruction of Earth -- weird alternate versions, many influenced by religious symbolism, with not just a little of Dr. Manhattan in there again as well. On top of the wild two-page spreads Williams offers, the panels that bleed and blend into one another, and the targeted coloring that sets Captain Atom apart from the other characters, Williams's future Atom designs are different from how many artists usually depict the future -- no heavily armored, tricked-out costumes -- and I thought this demonstrated a lot of imagination.

Krul's final Captain Atom volume includes the four-part time travel story, and then a two-part story set in the "new reality," plus the Zero Month issue. The two main parts work especially well together, as the time travel story is understandably cosmic, and then the finale is more relaxed, of sorts, with a human Nathaniel Adam and some good sci-fi horror. Even here, however, Krul plays with perspective, questioning what is and isn't real -- is the human Nathaniel Adam that the reader follows really "there," or is he part of the same wish fulfillment that brings one character's mother back from the dead? There's an Alice in Wonderland element here, in which the reader isn't sure if they're part of the dreamer or the dream.

Things unravel fast for Atom in the end; it's only about the span of two pages in which he realizes that, whereas he thought he had a new lease on life as Nathaniel Adam, Atom must instead completely separate himself from humanity for their safety (at least until Firestorm Vol. 3). Undoubtedly some of this swiftness comes from the cancellation of the book and the truncating of whatever stories Krul might've had planned.

I'd like to think that if the book hadn't ended, we might've seen more of the human Nathaniel, separate from or working with or against Captain Atom; many times, especially toward the end of the pre-Flashpoint universe, Captain Atom and his human self were inseparable, and so it's interesting to get this new perspective and see an aspect of Atom not recently explored. I also continue to appreciate that Krul's "Captain" Atom is not a military cliche, but rather he makes his own decisions while still respecting his former service.

The Zero Month issue, something like the Voodoo issue and others, doesn't necessarily tell us more about Captain Atom than we knew before, though it's a nice one-off tale with an ending more hopeful than the ending of the regular series. The Dr. Manhattan vibe is strong here, too, especially in Adam's reformation as Atom some weeks after his accident. The character that Krul creates -- both here and throughout the book -- is something like "Dr. Manhattan with a heart"; the New 52 Captain Atom is largely more powerful, more godlike, than the pre-Flashpoint Atom ever was, but neither is he as aloof as Alan Moore's Manhattan. Whereas Manhattan's story must necessarily be about the people around him, with the added emotionalism Krul can preserve Atom as the star of his own story and at the same time imbue him with some of the wonder that previous versions of Captain Atom lacked.

My recommendation remains that if you're curious about JT Krul and Freddie Williams's Captain Atom, sit down with both trades or load up all the issues on your device and read them as if they were one. The first volume is a good-looking, enjoyable book, but Captain Atom Vol. 2: Genesis is the real star of the show, enhancing the first volume and distinguishing itself at the same time. I'd be happy to see Krul and Williams get another shot at Captain Atom in the future.

[Includes original covers, cover sketches by Mike Choi and Freddie Williams, character sketches by Freddie Williams]

More reviews next week!

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at Hell Yeah '80s Marvel!]

There are a variety of projects featuring team-ups between Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, from the very first issue of What If? back in the 1960s to the Silver Rage mini-series, to say nothing of Spidey’s Future Foundation tenure. Christos Gage and Mario Alberti’s Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four stands out as an interlocking companion piece to Spider-Man and the Human Torch. You might recognize the names and art style; this mini-series functions as a sequel of sorts to the enjoyable X-Men and Spider-Man.

Most of Spider-Man and the Human Torch covered the early years of Spider-Man with a small jump to the 1980s and a huge jump to the 2000s. The first issue of Spidey/Four takes place between issues one and two of Spidey/Torch while Peter is still in college. This issue also focuses on Spidey’s relationship with the Human Torch and features Doctor Doom in the villain role. It feels like a Spidey/Torch rehash at first, but it quickly goes in a much different direction. By this time, Spidey and the Torch were friends, but the Fantastic Four were a little more skeptical. This issue allows Spidey to build bonds with Reed, Sue, and Ben while working around a zany mind-switching plot.

The second issue is where the book really begins to shine, taking place in the period when the Venom symbiote was separated from Peter but contained at the Baxter Building. This places the action after issue four of Spidey/Torch and spreads out the action of the two books so that the timeline isn’t all bunched together. Set during the John Byrne run on Fantastic Four, it features Franklin in a key role and She-Hulk doing much more than she did in Spidey/Torch. Venom ends up possessing Reed in an attempt to once again rejoin Peter. It’s worth noting that in Byrne’s F4 run, Sue ended up insisting that she, Reed, and Franklin move out to Connecticut to get out of the way of dangerous supervillains. This could easily be one of the events that fueled this decision.

Because Gage was given the mandate to use the whole Fantastic Four as main characters, he ended up using one issue apiece to define Peter’s relationships with them. Featuring the Human Torch as the major supporting character in the first issue helped ease the readers into the story and served more to introduce the teamwork of the F4. Issue two examines Reed’s relationship with Peter; as a proud science geek, Peter has always been a fan of Reed, having become his lab assistant for a time during Spidey/Torch. This issue confirms Reed’s mutual admiration for Peter’s intelligence and willpower, seeing him as a son of sorts. Issue three discusses Peter’s crush on Sue and the sisterly relationship they eventually develop. Issue four is technically about the Thing but mainly serves to close out the series. It’s not a major loss, though, as Spider-Man and the Thing have crossed over more than enough times; they were in the Avengers together close to when this series was published.

Issue three is also where Gage goes a little crazy continuity-wise. You’ll notice on the cover that Spider-Man is joined by the Grey Hulk, Wolverine and Ghost Rider; this is the team known as the New Fantastic Four. They were put together by Walt Simonson and Art Adams as a spoof of Marvel’s marketing gimmicks. The original story is a piece of chaotic brilliance, featuring Skrulls and the Mole Man in addition to the aforementioned guest stars (plus the Punisher in a helicopter fly-by cameo). To put it in one sentence, Skrull princess De'Lila with love-based mind control powers faked the deaths of the old Fantastic Four and assembled the New F4 to find a robot who would bond like a child with whomever awakened it. Simonson ended the story with the robot seeing one of the Mole Man’s monsters as its mother and all involved trying to walk away and forget it ever happened.

Gage sets the third issue of Spidey/F4 during this time, revealing that the Mole Man refused to just let everyone leave. De’Lila takes this opportunity to mess with the minds of the heroes and make some of them jealous of the others so that she can escape. To Gage’s credit, he keeps up the madcap tone of the original story and puts together a better ending than the original provided.

Issue four is comparatively simple, set in the modern day and featuring a villain who had appeared at the end of the previous issues to steal bits of technology. This is revealed to be Kristoff Vernard, the adopted son of Doctor Doom and a previous ward of the F4. He tries to recruit his old friends on a crusade to take down Doom, but they refuse, citing previous experience and noting that Kristoff’s rage would only make things worse. It ends with juxtaposing Spider-Man with Kristoff, noting how one skilled young man became a valued ally while another became a power-mad vigilante. This story also fixes a plot hole in, of all things, an arc of Mighty Avengers wherein Doom had a bunch of symbiotes, explaining that this was the work of Kristoff taking samples of Venom.

Spider-Man/Fantastic Four ends on a heartwarming note, much like Spidey/Torch, although it’s not quite as good since MJ and Aunt May aren’t there to fully carry the family theme. Alberti’s artwork is perhaps a bit too dark for this kind of story; Templeton would have been too cartoony to return, but Marcos Martin or Paolo Rivera would have been perfect. The trade includes a two-parter from the 1970s featuring Spidey and the F4 teaming up against the Frightful Four. I can’t help but wonder if it would have been better to reprint parts of the “New Fantastic Four” story instead to help with the context of issue three. Nevertheless, this is another great look into some unexplored corners of Marvel’s past.

Next week, it’s an Avengers review as Infinity approaches.
 Casting about for new ideas to fit into the post-Comics Code era, ME Comics came up with superheroes The Avenger and Strongman. Neither of them made it past four issues, but they were an interesting experiment to see if new long underwear characters (beyond the lone remaining, still popular heroes like DC’s Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman) could still be viable despite having been a near-dead comic book genre for several years.

It would take just a few months longer until DC reintroduced the Flash and superheroes began their climb back into comic book supremacy, but before then ME’s contributions to the genre came and went.

These two stories are from The Avenger #1 (1955), drawn by Dick Ayers, with scripts attributed to Paul S. Newman. Last May I showed stories one and four from the issue (including the origin story), and these are stories two and three. So if you want to read those others first you should go to the link below and click on the thumbnail of the cover to see them.















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 Click on the thumbnail to see the other two stories mentioned above:


When I read the first volume of Michael Green and Mike Johnson's New 52 Supergirl, I was impressed with the balance the two struck between an edgier Supergirl suitable for modern audiences and still creating a likable character that authentically evokes Supergirl in her many incarnations. Supergirl Vol. 2: Girl in the World toes this line even better, preserving Supergirl's alien-neess while at the same time giving her a darling supporting cast and some human interaction. Plotting here could still use some work, but fans of Sterling Gates's recent stellar run on Supergirl should find themselves comfortable here, too.

[Review contains spoilers]

The first volume of this book mainly involved Supergirl being Supergirl -- fighting government soldiers, fighting Superman, fighting alien conquerors. As such, the dynamic of the book instantly changes when Supergirl meets "Irish punk rocker" Siobhan Smythe, who speaks Kryptonian by dint of magical powers and becomes Supergirl's guide to Earth. This Kara Zor-El doesn't have a secret identity per se, but Siobhan gets her into "people clothes," out to a music club, and eventually on a date. Green and Johnson's use of Siobhan is inspired -- one step removed in that she can't understand most people and most people can't understand her, but she can understand Siobhan, and it humanizes this most alien of Supergirls without lessening her aloofness.

Indeed, in the book's fourth chapter, when Kara goofs around with Siobhan and goes on a date with Siobhan's brother Tom -- ending with Kara believing she's a danger to her friends and bidding them a tearful good-bye -- the book really begins to feel like a Supergirl story, like something from Gates or Peter David's runs. The story, a kind of done-in-one bridge between the Siobhan storyline and the next, is even a little bit saccharine-y, as Supergirl stories sometimes are; the stories in the first volume of Supergirl were very action-oriented, so it's auspicious to see the book take on a more emotional, teen romance vibe, if only for a moment. Again, the result is a Supergirl book that's new but also seems familiar.

Long-time readers will recognize Siobhan right off as Superman foe Silver Banshee. More kudos to Green and Jonhson for using a familiar character in a new way, rather than creating a new character that might not have as much resonance or staying power. In this new reality, Kara and the Silver Banshee are friends, teamed up against Siobhan's father, the Black Banshee. I like Kara and Siobhan's friendship (and Siobhan's excitement about Kara's powers is contagious, much like Bunker's optimism over in Teen Titans), though I wonder if Green and Johnson aren't just biding their time for a Smallville-esque turn in which Supergirl and Silver Banshee, originally friends, might one day become enemies (again).

Green and Johnson present Supergirl's power set as slightly different than Superman's due to her having circled Earth's sun for a while in her rocket ship. I appreciated that this makes Supergirl not just a carbon copy of Superman (and as a matter of fact, the book strongly suggests Supergirl might be the more powerful of the two). We find in the book that Supergirl has an increased ability to channel the energy in her body, creating mild force fields and energy blasts. There's a hint this Supergirl even glows a little bit, and while the association is a bit of a stretch, I couldn't help but hope this was a little nod to the powers of the "Angel Supergirl" over in David's Supergirl series.

Series artist Mahmud Asrar offers near flawless art here, often inking his own work and with watercolor-esque colors by Dave McCaig and Paul Mounts. George Perez contributes one issue and it's a treat to see him drawing Supergirl; also Perez draws some genuinely-scary banshee-twisted faces at the end of his issue.

While I like Green and Johnson's presentation of Supergirl in general, I think the series still struggles in page-to-page storytelling. Almost every superhero battle in both volumes of this book have stemmed from some villain coming up and attacking Supergirl; this is not yet a series then lends itself to Supergirl patrolling a city fighting crime, but there's a bit of repetitive structure in Kara minding her own business when suddenly a villain attacks. Moreover the writers can't quite shake the common superhero comics tropes like a fight scene in every issue whether it needs it or not; the sea creatures that just happen to attack Supergirl on the way to her underground fortress are an especially egregious example.

I also wasn't crazy about the nuts and bolts of the Black Banshee conflict. There's precedent for this kind of story where a young Superman or Supergirl discovers their vulnerability to magic against a supernatural foe, but I thought the story jumped the shark a bit when Supergirl enters a mystic realm and fights a Black Banshee dragon using swords and armor. I did, however, like that even despite this somewhat esoteric story of magic and ancient curses, the writers tied Siobhan and her brother's own isolation and "stranger in a strange land" aesthetic into Supergirl's own.

There's a variety of mysteries inherent in Michael Green and Mike Johnson's Supergirl series, and I liked that with the Zero Month issue that ends this book, they illuminated one (who killed Kara's father) while raising another (what's Superboy doing on ancient Krypton). I know Green and Johnson's time on Supergirl is limited -- just another collection or so -- but I hope they get a chance to answer more of these questions (and pose new ones) before their run ends. If I was on the fence about the New 52 Supergirl before, Supergirl Vol. 2: Girl in the World has assuaged those doubts, and I'd glad to see Supergirl get a good foundation in this new universe.

[Includes original covers; layouts, sketches, and character designs by Mahmud Asrar]

Captain Atom coming up next time.
A week ago I showed the Jack Cole story, “Murder, Morphine and Me” from True Crime #2. It featured the “injury to the eye motif” panel in Fredric Wertham’s anti-comics screed, Seduction of the Innocent. A week later I’m showing you more Jack Cole, and one other injury to the eye panel.

Above is the cover of Police Comics #24, which is yet another example. Kids saw this sort of thing every time they saw a Three Stooges film short. Did Jack Cole have a thing about attacking eyeballs? I don’t know, but if you know of any similar panels in other stories of his let me know.

Eyeball attacks notwithstanding, this is a totally screwball story, which has to be read to be appreciated. You know you’re in the middle of something bizarre when you see a panel where the top of a man’s head is blown off and on the ground nearby lies a waiting brain.

From Police Comics #11 (1942):










Not only does Pat Ryan get his day in court against the lying and scheming Tony Sandhurst (husband of Pat's love, Normandie), but gets some justice in the bargain.

I will be ending my postings of Terry and the Pirates with the next issue, which I'll show in late February. After closing out Terry’s boyhood adventures, Harvey began reprinting the stories of Terry during World War II.

This episode is from Terry and the Pirates #8 (1948):





































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More Terry. Just click the cover thumbnails.