June 20, 2015 by jerrymcmullen - 1 Comment

Essential Power Man and Iron Fist Vol. 2

First Published: April 2009

Contents: Power Man and Iron Fist #76 (December 1981) to #100 (December 1983); and Daredevil #178 (January 1982)

Key Creator Credits: Jo Duffy, Kerry Gammill, Dennis Cowan, Denny O’Neil, Kurt Busiek, Ernie Chan, and others

Key First Appearances: Eel, Chemistro

Story Continues From: Essential Power Man & Iron Fist Vol. 1

Overview: With apologies to Tony Kornheiser, the Heroes for Hire are back for more cash. The bills don’t pay themselves, so Luke Cage and Danny Rand make their services available to clients of all types. Unfortunately, a lot of the times, they end up doing pro bono work, as is the nature of most superheroes.

One client that can afford to pay the Heroes for Hire is the law firm of Nelson & Murdock. This collection kicks off with a crossover with Daredevil during the Frank Miller era. Matt Murdock has a client with papers connecting a mayoral candidate with the Kingpin. So Murdock arranges to have Daredevil protect the client. But Matt’s partner, Foggy Nelson, is worried about Matt’s safety. So Foggy retains the Heroes for Hire to protect his law partner. You can probably imagine what happens next? A lot of confusion, the heroes fight, and the Kingpin gets away.

The rest of the book remains a self-contained storyline. The issues are generally one-and-done tales, but there is an underlying story that slowly builds up to a climax with issue #100. While some references are made to other events in the Marvel Universe, the world of Luke Cage and Danny Rand does not cross over with a lot of other heroes. Fortunately, the cast of supporting characters help round out the stories, so you don’t need a lot of other heroes to keep the story moving.

What makes this Essential?: Is this truly essential? Probably not. But it is a solid read focusing on a core group of characters. With the exception of the Daredevil crossover at the start of the book, this collection does not cross over with other titles in the Marvel Universe. You don’t need to read a dozen other titles to understand what is going on with the characters.

One highlight to take away from this book is that it features the Marvel debut of Kurt Busiek as a writer. Busiek has become one of the best comic book storytellers of our generation. With titles like Marvels, Kingdom Come, and Astro City on his resume, he is a master of the superhero story. And it all started in the pages of Power Man & Iron Fist. Let’s be honest, it’s not his best work. But to his credit, Busiek did his research and knew these heroes. He brought back characters from Power Man and Iron Fist’s past when they were solo features in their own books.

Footnotes: Sadly, Marvel canceled the Essential line before a third volume could be released for this line. Power Man and Iron Fist finished with issue #125, which means that volume 3 could have contained the final 25 issues, plus any crossovers.

If you like this volume, try: the Thunderbolts from Marvel Comics. Launched following the events of Onslaught, which saw the Fantastic Four and the Avengers disappear from Earth, there was a need for a new superhero team to protect the people. Enter the Thunderbolts, a new team of heroes led by Citizen V. But the Thunderbolts have a secret – they are actually the Masters of Evil posing as heroes: Citizen V is Baron Zemo, Meteorite is Moonstone, Atlas is Goliath, Mach-1 is Beetle, Techno is Fixer, and Songbird is Screaming Mimi. Their secret was revealed at the end of issue #1, and it came as a complete shock to everyone at the time. The series was created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley, and the two worked on the title for the first three years of its run. The early issues have been collected in three Thunderbolts Classic trade paperbacks, which were released in 2011 and 2012.

January 22, 2014 by jerrymcmullen - 1 Comment

Showcase Presents SHAZAM! Vol. 1

First Published: December 2006

Contents: SHAZAM! #1 (February 1973) to #33 (February 1978)

Key Creator Credits: C.C. Beck, Denny O’Neil, Elliot Maggin, Kurt Schaffenberger, E. Nelson Bridwell, and Bob Oksner

Overview: Newsboy Billy Batson is led down an abandoned subway tunnel, where he encounters the ancient Egyptian wizard known as Shazam. Shazam is looking for a new successor to protect the earth, and has chosen Billy Batson for this role. When Billy speaks the name “Shazam”, a bolt of lightning strikes down and he is transformed into Captain Marvel, the world’s mightiest mortal.

As shown in nearly every Captain Marvel story, the hero gets his powers and abilities from six mighty heroes:
Solomon gives him Wisdom
Hercules gives him Strength
Atlas gives him Stamina
Zeus gives him Power
Achilles gives him Courage, and
Mercury gives him Speed

As our story begins, Captain Marvel, as well as his friends, family, and even foes, have been caught in a time bubble for twenty years. Returning to Earth in 1973, they all quickly integrate themselves into the new world, albeit in slightly different roles. For example, we see teenage Billy Batson give up hawking newspapers on the street corner to become a TV news anchor. All of the familiar faces from the Fawcett Comics run make a return in this volume. The full Marvel Family re-assembles: Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr, Uncle Marvel and even Mr. Tawky Tawny. Captain Marvel’s rogues gallery, which rivals that of Batman or the Flash, returns in full wickedness: Dr. Sivana, Black Adam, Mr. Mind, and the dreaded Monster Society of Evil!

Towards the end of the book, the storyline changes to match the events of the Saturday morning TV show and to bring the characters more into the DC Universe proper. Dudley H. Dudley gives up his Uncle Marvel identity to drive Billy Batson across the U.S.A. in a motor home, so that Billy can file news stories from around the country, and Captain Marvel can be in new locations to stop evil.

Superman v. Captain Marvel: Captain Marvel was originally created in the early 1940s by Fawcett Comics, and quickly became one of the most popular characters on the newsstands. National Periodicals (DC Comics) felt that there were too many similarities between their character Superman and Fawcett’s character, so the two companies went to court to decide the matter. This was a prolonged fight across many courts, but the final ruling in the early 1950s was that Fawcett was violating the copyrights of the printed material. A final settlement was made out of court, and Fawcett agreed to pay National $400,000 and would cease publication of the Captain Marvel comics. (At this time, in the early 1950s, super-hero comics were in a sales decline, so it made financial sense to agree to that decision.) These characters would not be seen or used for two decades.

In a strange turn of events, in the early 1970s, DC Comics licensed the rights for Captain Marvel and friends from Fawcett Comics to produce these comics collected in this Showcase. Finally, DC Comics bought the rights to all of the Marvel family of characters outright from Fawcett in 1980.

Captain Marvel v. Captain Marvel: So while the Fawcett Captain Marvel was in settlement hibernation, Marvel Comics took off in the early 1960s. As their universe expanded, one of the new characters introduced was the Kree soldier known as Captain Mar-Vell. He quickly got his own title under the banner “Captain Marvel” (See my review for Essential Captain Marvel Vol. 1). Fawcett Comics had led their trademarks slip on their characters, and Marvel Comics was able to get the rights, and have held onto those rights ever since. As a result, any Fawcett/DC comic cannot use the title “Captain Marvel” on the comic, which has led DC to begin using the magical word of “SHAZAM” as the title of the books featuring their Captain Marvel.

Why should these stories be Showcased?: Well, I really want to give this book two thumbs up and advise anyone and everyone to get a copy, but I can’t. These are so-so stories, done in a way to mimic the Captain Marvel stories of the 1940s. If that is what you like, then go track down the DC Archive editions that reprint those 1940s books.

Footnotes: Issues #8, and #21 to #24 contained reprint material from older stories. The only new material in those issues were the covers, which are included in this Showcase volume.

This collection ends with issue #33, but the series ran for two more issues. Beginning with #34, the stories took a more realistic approach to the stories, to integrate it more into the DC Universe proper. The art went away from the animated style of C.C. Beck. After this title ended, the Captain Marvel storyline continued as a feature in World’s Finest Comics and in Adventure Comics.

If you like this volume, try: Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil from 2007. This is available as both a hardcover and as a trade paperback. Written and drawn by Jeff Smith (BONE), this was a fresh take on the classic storyline. Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel unite to stop the powerful Dr. Sivana and his evil allies from taking over the world. This book is a much better homage to the 1940s work of Otto Binder and C.C. Beck than the 1970s series collected in this Showcase.

January 15, 2014 by jerrymcmullen - 2 Comments

Essential Doctor Strange Vol. 1

First Published: January 2002

Contents: Doctor Strange stories from Strange Tales #110 (July 1963) to #111 (August 1963) and #114 (November 1963) to #168 (May 1968)

Key Creator Credits: Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Roy Thomas, Denny O’Neil, Bill Everett, Marie Severin, Dan Adkins, Herb Trimpe, and Jim Lawrence

Key First Appearances: Dr. Stephen Strange, Ancient One, Wong, Nightmare, Baron Mordo, Victoria Bentley, Clea, Dormammu, G’uranthic Guardian, Mindless Ones, Eternity, Kaluu, Umar, Living Tribunal, Yandroth

Story Continues In: Essential Doctor Strange Vol. 2

Overview: Doctor Stephen Strange was a brilliant surgeon, whose skills in the operating room were only surpassed by his greed and ego. After a horrendous car accident, Strange finds that the nerve damage he suffered no longer give him the motor skills to perform surgeries. Strange burns through his fortune, traveling the world looking for a cure. One name keeps coming up in his search – that of the Ancient One. Tracking him down, the Ancient One is unable to heal Strange’s body, but does offer to train him in the ways of the mystic arts. Strange stops the Ancient One’s assistant, Baron Mordo, from stealing the power from his master, and he realizes that maybe he has a new calling in life. So begins the adventures of Doctor Strange, master of the mystic arts.

Stan Lee and Steve Ditko place the building blocks that will dominate Marvel’s mystical world. Besides Baron Mordo, Doctor Strange battles a cadre of mystical beings intent on defeating Strange so that they could take over the earth, such as Nightmare and Dormammu. With his faithful servant Wong, and the romantic interests of Victoria Bentley, a normal human with passing skills in magic, and Clea, a sorceress from another dimension, Doctor Strange is prepared to defend Earth from any threat, magical or otherwise.

What makes this Essential?: Doctor Strange has been one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics from the earliest days. Lee and Ditko were more than creators; they were architects, building the framework that would become the Marvel Universe. Any work by Ditko in this era is worthy of being collected as an Essential. Like many stories from this era, the plot points may not stand up, but they are still worth a read.

Footnotes: Doctor Strange was just one of the tenants in Strange Tales during the 1960s. Initially, Doctor Strange shared the book with the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four. In 1965, the Human Torch feature was replaced by Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

If you like this volume, try: Marvel Visionaries: Steve Ditko. Nearly any comic book fan could tell you that Steve Ditko was the co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. A comic aficionado could tell you that Ditko left Marvel Comics in 1966, and split time between Charlton and DC Comics, with memorable creations like The Question, the Creeper, and Shade the Changing Man. It would take a die-hard Ditko fan, or a reading of this Visionaries volume, to know that Ditko returned to Marvel in the 1980s, with runs on The Incredible Hulk and ROM, and co-creating modern characters like Speedball and Squirrel Girl. For years, Ditko has declined interview requests, preferring to let his work speak for itself. Consider this a brilliant interview reviewing the many highlights of Ditko’s many years at Marvel Comics.