Pencils by Edwin Huang

Colours by Misty Coats & Ross A. Campbell

Colour Flatting by Ludwig Olimba

Letters by Marshall Dillon

£2.50

So the issue numbering thing first off. Skullkickers has been around for a while and a little while ago started a running joke. Each issue would be an issue 1, with a slightly different name each time. The end result of this has been a never ending stream of creatively parodic titles and a noticeable increase in orders.

That last is particularly good news because Skullkickers deserves much more success. This story, ‘Eighty Eyes on an Evil Island’ follows heroes Rex and Kusia as they battle across a danger-filled island to defeat an Elder evil called Thool. Thool is an old employer of Rex’s, Rex is a bruiser who wants to deal with that particular part of his past and Kusia is an Elvish assassin with a talking ruby-coloured cutlass. Oh and there’s a dwarf, who’s sort-of dead and a tribe of 800-pound gorillas who Rex has successfully joined and traps and huge bugs and…

This is a really fun book. Not just because it’s delightfully pulpy either. Every single page is crammed full of joy not just a the story but at the story being a comic. There’s a narrator, a technique I’ve not seen used since the last but one Heroes for Hire do over, who’s as excited at the plot as the characters and a map of the island a few pages in crammed full of cheerfully snarky notes.  A Bloodthirsty Rain Weevil attack is annotated with a factoid about the creatures and a gag about their different spelling of the word ‘SKREEEEE!’ and the sound effects are charmingly literal. ‘Thunderclap’, ‘Ridiculous Torrential Downpour’ and ‘Reveal’ all get used to wonderful effect and they’re just one of the narrative tricks on display here. This is the only book I’ve ever seen that could discuss how being in a comic means you can hear everyone in the middle of a pitched battle, or use alliteration to show the passage of time. An overly polite verbose death trap is another highlight, as is a clean freak Goo Elemental who views the characters as ‘sweaty, filthy bags of meat and blood!’.  Page after page, the book finds new ways to tell a fast paced, exciting story at the same time as gleefully refusing to take itself seriously.

That exuberance is wrapped up in the entire creative team’s work. Edwin Huang’s work has the same brawny energy as Ed Mcguiness’ but with far more dynamism whilst the inks by Huang & Kevin Raganit help define and ground both the art and the script. Misty Coats’ colour work is also hugely impressive, giving the island a vibrant, vivid feel without ever seeming garish. Finally, Marshall Dillon turns in the best lettering I’ve seen in years, not only matching the energy of the rest of the book but landing joke after joke with incredible ease and precision.

Skullkickers is the most fun I’ve had reading fantasy in ages. It’s completely enthusiastic, cheerfully silly and constant, relentless fun. This may be the fourth part of a story but it’s so accessible and so entertaining, it’s led to me going back and picking up the previous issues. I suspect you’ll do the same. And hey, if it helps, think of it as an 800 pound gorilla made entirely out of fun. You wouldn’t want to say no to that, would you?

Alasdair Stuart

Issue 1

Written by Jason Ciaramelia

Adapted from the novella ‘Thumbprint’ by Joe Hil

Art by Vic Malhotra

Published by IDW

£2.85

Mallory Grennan is home from the war, at least physically. Arriving in New York just in time to bury her father, Mallory tries to leave Abu Ghraib and what she did there behind. She moves into her father’s old house, gets her old job at the Milky War bar back and tries to move on. Her life is numb, punctuated by conversations with her father’s old war buddies and fighting off the advances ofd John Petty, the other, married staff member. Then she gets the first letter. A thumbprint, nothing more, and it seems familiar. Someone is stalking her and that suits Mallory just fine, because she’s suppressed the aggression long enough and now, at last, she has a chance to really cut loose.

Joe Hill’s pared down, brutal prose is a perfect choice for a comic adaptation and Jason Ciaramelia’s script effortlessly transitions the story across. Mallory’s numb, angry, guilt-ridden existence runs through every panel and he cleverly uses dialogue volume to show how she’s changed. Mallory’s most talkative in the flashbacks to her work as an interrogator. She delivers her threats to terrified prisoners in a monotone, unconsciously moving her gun from their groin to their head and back again. She barely even makes eye contact, just goes through motions of threat, even as she does horrific things to these me. She smiles, genuinely, once in the entire book and it’s when a prisoner’s story seems to collapse. It’s a chilling moment and, as the book goes on, it’s put in context. Mallory is constantly three steps distant emotionally. The torture gave her a chance to come forward, to engage, but it’s only when she’s threatened, not threatening, that she’s truly present. It’s not quite ‘I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one’ but it’s close and a neat reversal of the usual damsel in distress.

A book like this, with the focus so laser tight on a single character5 lives and dies through nuance and character and it’s here that Vic Malhotra’s art excels. The sequence where Mallory receives the first thumbprint letter starts with her opening it, then a panel showing her glancing off to one side. Then, she’s running, low and fast, and we follow her into the house up the stairs to a gun. Then she’s out on the first floor, armed and with binoculars. The spread finishes with her staring straight out of the page at you, binoculars in one hand, gun out of sight but in the other. She moves from confused to scared to trained responses in three panels and that tells you more about her training, her experience and her emotions than any line of dialogue ever could. She’s clearly scared, clearly angry and clearly refusing to face either, giving us a good idea of where the book’s heading for. Mallory’s long dark night of the soul is going to be delivered to her one thumbprint at a time and by the end of the book she’s wearing the trappings of her army career; water bottle, gun, t-shirt like totems of protection. They won’t work, and that realization is going to be the crux of the book and the horror at its center.

Malhotra’s art is amazing throughout, combining a realistic sense of character and motion with an unflinching gaze. The Abu Ghraib scene are all in half light, greys and purples whilst the American scenes are drenched in yellow light, Fall in New York mixing with the yellow sodium light of the bar. Each scene feels tense or tried or run down, matching Mallory’s emotional state and giving the whole book a constant air of tension. It’s incredibly atmospheric and meshes with the script perfectly. His character work looks a lot like the incomparable Sean Philips’ work and they share an ability to make resolutely normal looking people grab your attention on the page. It’s excellent, possibly award-worthy work and contributes a huge amount to the book’s atmosphere.

  Thumbprint is a smart, cold, needlepoint detailed piece of horror. As the first issues finishes you’ll have as little idea about who’s behind the messages as Mallory and you’ll want to find out just as badly. The next thumbprint, and the next issue, will both come. But, when it’s this good, the true horror may be in having to wait.

Alasdair Stuart

‘Whatever Gets You Through The Night’

Script by Gerard Way & Shaun Simon

Art by Becky Cloonan

Colours by Dan Jackson

Letters by Nate Piekos of Flambot

Cover by Becky Cloonan

Published by Dark Horse

£2.85

A young girl and her cat unzip their body bag in the middle of the Californian desert and start walking. She meets a group of people who recognize her for who she really is and together they try and save a pair of students from being turned into Draculoids, masked, gun-toting lunatics in the service of Battery City. Meanwhile, an artificial prostitute ventures out to buy a battery pack for her lover and at The Nest, the party that never ends is about to be crashed.

Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance, has been learning his way around comics for several years now, with his highly regarded Umbrella Academy title one of the best comic debuts I’ve ever seen. This is a different kind of project though, the sequel to the album it shares a name with and the final act of The Girl’s story, seen previously in two videos.

Fans of the album are going to be in post-apocalyptic Californian heaven. The comic is absolutely in keeping with its style and reads like the continuation of the story begun there. The Girl, relics from the Killjoys, DJ Doctor Death Defying and Battery City all make appearances and there’s the same faded, punky grandeur to the plot. It’s added to by the fact that time has passed and The Girl is now, largely, alone. She and her cat are taken in by the Ultra V’s, fans of the Killjoys and sees them try and emulate their idols and fail. Or succeed, if glorious death was one of the things they were emulating. She starts the issue alone and she ends it alone, aside of course, from the Cat and there’s a fragile, feverish air to the book as a result. This is a world where life is cheap and death is a fashion statement and it’s cold in a way very few other series ever manage. It’s a broken world and it’s going to get broken again and the Girl will be right in the middle of it when it does.

Way and Simon’s script balances that increasing sense of fabulous dread with moments of truly beautiful visual invention. For example, whilst the Draculoids start off as an Allred-ian absurdity,  by the time you see what they see they’ve become tragic as well as horrifying. This is fiercely clever, inventive writing that touches on everything from Battle of the Planets to the work of Grant Morrison (And yes he makes a guest appearance of sorts too) to create a story that’s truly unique.

Becky Cloonan is an artist who can genuinely do no wrong and here she turns in some of her best work to date. Her character work is pitch perfect, especially on The Girl and the contrast between the clean, cold lines of the city and the slightly frantic, stylised character work of the desert is really well handled. Dan Jackson’s colours are as impressive, painting each location with a distinctive palette and using subtle shifts in colour to lead your eye around the page. Nate Piekos’ lettering keeps pace with it without missing a beat and he nails not only the unique rhythm of Doctor Death’s speech pattern but the constant captions with subtlety and style.

Fans would have bought this regardless of quality but Way already has a reputation as a writer who doesn’t short-change his audience. This is a searingly confident opening issue in what looks to be both a capstone to My Chemical Romance and the next stage in Way’s career. Make some noise. It deserves it.

Written by Brian Michael Bendis

Pencils (Present) by Brandon Peterson

Art (Present) by Brandon Peterson

Colour Art (Past) by Paul Mounts

Pencils by Carlos Pacheco

Inks by Roger Bonet

Colour art by Jose Villarubia

Lettering by VC’s Cory Petit

Cover by Carlos Pacheco & Jose Villarubia

£2.85 (£1.99 with SuperCard Go!)

The first six pages of this issue gave me the fear. They’re near-silent, splash heavy and deal with the aftermath of the Morgana Le Fey/Lokibot assault from the last couple of issues. What terrified me was they gave every impression of yet more of the glacial, decompressed pacing that’s frustrated me since the book began. Even worse, this is the penultimate issue of the series. With two parts to go, grandstanding, especially in a present we met two issues ago, feels suspiciously like filler.

Then, two things happen and the first is so subtle I missed it on the first read through. Wolverine, of course, survives the devastation but has all the flesh from his left knee down burnt off. He screams in pain and…then its five days later and, it’s implied, he’s only just healed. There have been rumours for a while now that his travels through time will have a serious effect on him and this may be the first indication of that. It’s a tiny, arguably too subtle, beat but it’s an interesting one nonetheless.

What follows is better, with what’s left of Tony Stark dropping two bombshells in quick succession. The first is that he’s figured out that it’s not just the murder of Hank Pym that’s caused this hideous present but damage to time itself, caused every time people travel through it. The second is that Tony, who let’s face it has had nothing to do for five days but slowly bleed to death, has figured out that time is an organism, one connected to every living thing. Too much travel through it, too many wounds inflicted and time will die. He begs Wolverine not to go back and correct his mistake, again, but of course it has no effect. This feels like a vitally important scene not just for the rest of the series but the Marvel universe as a whole. Something fundamental may be about to change and the only person that’s worked it out is the dying remains of Tony Stark in a dystopian, walled off timeline. It’s a really gutsy plot, throwing this in right at the end of the story and only time will tell whether this really is as important as it seems to be.

Then, of course, we’re back in the past, at the Wolverine/Pym fight. The sight of James Logan debating temporal theory with himself is entertaining all by itself (And who is Charlene Baumgartner? And where was Logan in 1928?) but what makes this scene is the contrasting rhythms of the three characters in it. The two Logans are dutiful, solemn, stolid figures who realize they’ve screwed up so badly they may not be able to fix it. In contrast, Pym is, as ever, obsessed with the idea of Ultron. One of the most brilliant minds of the Marvel universe, he’s completely unfettered by moral concerns whilst still remaining tremendously idealistic. He’s Robert Oppenheimer, a man entranced by his own idea without any of Reed Richards’ morality or Tony Stark’s exuberance.

It’s the burden that he’s put under here, and the effect it has on established continuity that’s fascinating. The idea of Pym knowing about these events for years is horrifying and provides context for his decades of erratic behaviour. Bendis provides context but not justification, a vital choice given Pym’s history of domestic abuse.  Instead he shows us a brilliant, brittle, amoral man who craves recognition being given the most important job in history to do, knowing full well that he’ll never be recognized for it. That’s a heroic weight to bear for anybody. It also changes the tone of the final issue completely, with the big question no longer ‘Can the future be saved?’ but ‘Will Pym hold it together enough to save it?’

With that cloud hanging over them, Logan & Logan (Surely the name of the most violent solicitor’s firm in history) and Sue Richards return to the Savage Land where, one last time, Wolverine does what needs to be done. For all its weird pacing and empty spectacle, Age of Ultron has excelled at quiet little moments between two characters and this is one of the best. The Wolverine who saw the Starkguard future’s simple reason for wanting to be the one who dies (‘We don’t wanna live with it.’) is only topped by the surviving Wolverine’s pragmatic, flat ‘This is going to haunt me.’ Again, Bendis takes a character where every single wrinkle looked to have been exploited years ago and finds something new. Wolverine’s mistake is so vast it may not be correctable and even if it is, the memory of murdering his other self will be with him for the rest of his life. Nothing’s easy, nothing’s certain but it has to be done anyway.

The book closes with a return to the left-handed splash pages of earlier issues. It’s a neat, pulpy image but it’s not an emotional climax. That comes in the final scene between the two Wolverines and the quiet admission of just how bad things have got and it’s that that will stay with you all the way to the final issue.

Age of Ultron has shifted gear and focus so many times in nine issues it’s difficult not to feel dizzy. The pace has never been consistent, the book’s profound love of dialogue-free splash pages got old back in act one and at times the gears have audibly creaked. That being said, the final issue looks set to be much more interesting than it initially appeared to be. The Age of Ultron is drawing to a close, and, thankfully, it looks like it might finish as strongly as it began.

Issue 1

Written and co-created by Mark Millar

Pencilled and co-created by John Romita Jr

Inks and washes by Tom Palmer

Colours by Dean White

Letters by Chris Eliopoulos

Published by Marvel

£2.20

In the blood-soaked aftermath of Kick-Ass 2, Hit Girl is in prison, Kick-Ass is suddenly one of the senior heroes left standing and there are no villains left to fight. The other heroes are getting bored, Dave and his friend Todd are working a dead end job in between patrols and a hero called the Juicer has moved into Hit Girl’s secret headquarters until he can ‘get back on his feet’. Batman never had these problems…

Mark Millar’s work regularly gets accused of having a cruel streak and there are times where that’s true. He’s got a creative eye for horrific violence, emotional and physical, in a way very few other creators have and that can sometimes make his work seem cruel, distant and cold. It’s a surprise then that, whilst Kick-Ass 3 definitely has that cruel streak, here it’s put to use in a far subtler way than you might think. Namely, exploring just how assholeish the superhero community is.

The answer, by the way, is a lot.

This is the most realistic superhero comic you’ll read this month, not because of the painful fragility of the characters but because of how un self-aware they are. For example,  Dave has bought into the heroic myth so completely that he has Todd take photos of him brooding in a long coat at graveside. It’s an amazing page with the conversation between the two boys at absolute odds with the imagery. Todd is openly envious of Dave’s tragic hero origin and Dave is so enamoured with the freedom it gives him that he experiments with poses to see which looks coolest. In other words, he’s a boy, at his father’s grave, working out how to look cool. It’s an amazing, self-aware piece of writing about boys who have no idea who they are, just who they think they should be. The fact it’s followed by a montage showing their graduation, Marty leaving to study medicine and Dave and Todd working two jobs only drives the point home. They have nothing, so they live inside a comforting fantasy because it’s more attractive. That’s not so much cruel as utterly dark in a grounded, realistic way.

That realism continues through the rest of the book. One of the other stand out scenes involving Kick-Ass making his dramatic entrance at a pool hall where he and Ass-Kicker (Todd’s sidekick name, of course) have made so many dramatic entrances that the patrons are just annoyed they’re getting in the way of the games. Still another sees Kick-Ass fail to persuade the Juicer, a slacker superhero who’s moved into Hit Girl’s HQ to move out. The Juicer’s doing the same thing Dave is, hiding inside the comforting four-colour lie of his superhero identity so he doesn’t have to face the world. The only difference is, he’s embraced that safety wholesale whilst Dave is still, at least nominally, patrolling. Despite this, Dave has much more in common with the Juicer than he may want to admit. They’re both hiding, both deluding themselves and neither will be able to do so for long.

The book never misses an opportunity to point out the fragility and absurdity of the characters’ choices and the opening scene arguably demonstrates that best. Hit Girl has left strict instructions on how to break her out and the opening scenes find every hero in town getting ready to bust her out. They sneak up to the prison, realize how tall the wall is and the guards are coming and…run. All Mindy’s plans evaporate because everyone else is too cowardly to risk their lives for her, instead deciding to come back when they’ve had more ‘training’. They’re playing at heroes again, and, just like it’s done before, that’s going to cost them, probably in blood.

This is one of the strongest opening issues I’ve seen Millar write, and John Romita Jr is similarly at the top of his game. The failed prison break and graveyard scenes are beautifully atmospheric and Romita Jr’s character design excels at showing how normal and fragile the characters are. Tom Palmer and Dean White’s inks and colours are similarly impressive, using shadow and light to emphasize the normality of the characters and the absurdity of their actions. Chris Eliopoulos’ lettering perfectly communicates the rhythm of the dialogue and the end result is a really tight, strong opening issue. There is no way on Earth that Hit-Girl is going to stay locked up, and similarly no way this is going to end particularly well for Dave. What is certain is that Millar has rarely been on better form than he is here. Kick-Ass’ final act could be its best. Based on this issue, it’s certainly going to be its darkest.

Alasdair Stuart

‘The Leap’

Written by Scott Snyder

Pencils by Jim Lee

Inks by Scott Williams

Colours by Alex Sinclair

Letters by Sal Cipriano

Cover by Jim Lee, Scott Williams & Alex Sinclair

‘Epilogue’

Written by Scott Snyder

Art by Dustin Nguyen

Inks by Scott Williams

Colours by John Kalisz

Letters by Sal Cipriano

Superman’s an impossible character to get right for everyone. He’s been around so long, is so powerful and has so much history that what pleases one person will irritate someone else. After all, for some people Superman is the social justice superhero of his origins and the early section of Grant Morrison’s run on the title. For others he’s the mullet-haired, perennially torn-caped hero of the Doomsday era. For others still he’s the self-aware, wry figure of Alan Moore’s Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow? Which is both the cruellest parody and most affectionate portrayal of the character ever written, depending on your perspective. Regardless, the truth is both simple and familiar; with great power comes great responsibility, for the creative team far more than the character. Get it wrong and you have no tension and a big blue lump as your main character. Get it right and you do so in the sure knowledge you’ll still make some people unhappy. Take a look at the early Man of Steel reviews to see just that.

Superman Unchained knocks it out of the park and does so effortlessly. I’ve not read a first issue featuring an iconic character this fun since the Batman relaunch at the start of the New 52. Unsurprisingly, they share a writer. Scott Snyder brings the same elemental, instinctive understanding of character to Superman and the result is instantly accessible. Opening with him frantically trying to stop a self-aware, nuclear powered space station that’s been thrown at the Earth, Snyder shows us the superhero, the scientist’s son, the farm boy and the journalist all in the space of a few pages. It would be so easy to have Superman save the day the way he has done so many times in the movies, by throwing, lifting or punching things. Instead, Snyder shows us him trying to reassure the space station’s terrified crew, constantly revising his plan as it plummets to Earth and using a combination of his powers and his knowledge to save the day. Superman’s clever, and so many writers forget that. Snyder puts it front and centre and never takes his eye off it.

His journalistic career is similarly well served, and there’s an especially nice moment when he gets a tip, as Clark, about something he’s just done as Superman. Snyder builds on Clark’s departure from The Daily Planet and uses it to give both Jimmy and Lois some of their best scenes in years. Lois is, of course, effortlessly shifting the Planet’s layout around without Perry’s consent and, of course, rings Clark to bust his chops about something he missed. There’s a spark and snap to their relationship that hasn’t been there since JLA: New Maps of Hell that’s just a joy to read. The friendly rivalry between the two is at its best when they realize they make each other better reporters and that’s exactly what you get here.  Likewise Jimmy manages to be both the comic relief and have agency and Snyder does great work setting him up as the barely unofficial back channel between the two. Plus the corn bagel joke, as a bagel devotee and baker, is both great and frankly inspiring…

Lex Luthor isn’t forgotten either, and Snyder sets up a plot with Luthor which is simultaneously subversive and comfortingly familiar. Moved to Supermax security, he’s also consulting on how to rebuild Metropolis and has one idea in particular involving a vast solar tower shaped like a tree. Not only is this a poke in the eye for a superhero defined by his relationship with the Sun, it’s a neat callback to one of Smallville’s most ambitious season plots. It’s a nice touch, and clearly trailing the next big story without doing so overtly.

All of this is old ground, the sort of thing you need to cover and make your own when you’re writing Superman and Snyder does just that. You hit those marks and you have a book that’s all but certain to be good. To be great, you need to bring something else to the table and that’s where Snyder excels. The bookend scenes, one in 1945 and one in the present day not only give you an idea of where the book’s going they leave you with a raft of question about what it’s going to find there. It’s dark without being needlessly so, complex without being impenetrable. It’s a new idea, introduced with tremendous success to a decades-old franchise. And it’s all but certain to bring you back for issue 2.

The art team on the book are every best as impressive as Snyder. Jim Lee is one of the all-time greats and his work here is far cleaner and grounded than when I first saw his art at the height of ‘90s excess. Like Snyder he focuses on character and like Snyder he knocks it out of the park. Even the ridiculous four-page fold out splash works very well, showing us the scale of Superman’s problem on one side and him struggling to deal with it on the other. Scott Williams’ inks and Alex Sinclair’s colours are also cleverly handled and give the book a sense of place many lack. The sunbeams dance across the window of Clark’s apartment, Lois and Perry discuss editorial policy bathed in the blue light of the virtual layout room and the closing scene is soaked in deep sea blues and greens. The book’s other art team are just as impressive, Dustin Nguyen on art and John Kalisz on colour joining Sinclair on inks once again. This book end ties in strongly to the opening scene but also gives you a welcome insight into Perry, and, in turn, the old school journalism he’s teaching Jimmy, Lois and the others. It’s a subtle, human moment that closes a book full of both them and action and ensures it closes on a definite high note.

Superman Unchained is exactly the book DC needed to put out this week. It’s fast paced, massive scaled, human and exciting. Superman may be an impossible character to get right for everyone, but Snyder, Lee and co are going to make a lot of people very happy with this book. I’m one of them.

Alasdair Stuart

Written by Scott Snyder

Art by Sean Murphy

Colour by Matt Hollingsworth

Letters by Jared K. Fletcher

Cover by Sean Murphy & Jordie Bellaire

Published by DC

£2.20

Buckle up. From 200 years in the future to 10,000 years in the past The Wake sprints along and insists you keep up with it. Opening with a relic hunter and her dolphin partner getting more than they wanted in a flooded city, it cuts back to the present (ish, there are subtle hints this is the very near future) and Doctor Lee Archer. A Cetologist working in Gig Harbour in Washington, she’s approached by DHS Agent Astor Cruz to assist in identifying an extremely unusual recording. It sounds like whale song but more nuanced and complex and Archer, struggling with the custody rights for her son and the minimal funding she’s on, jumps at the chance to work on it. Only neither of them are telling the other the full truth…

Base camp for the mission, on Alaska’s south slope, becomes Lee’s first meeting with her team and getting an idea of the scale of the operation, the implications of it and exactly how awkward it is for Lee to be in the same room as her old boss. The closing pages hit you with not one but three killer surprises and then you’re out of the issue and watching it speed off into the distance.

Scott Snyder may be best known for his work on Batman right now but his horror writing is arguably better. I’ve talked about Severed here before, and his American Vampire run has also garnered huge amounts of praise. The Wake is as good, mixing the sort of high-concept airport thriller pitch that always starts with ‘A maverick team of scientists’ and finishes with me exploding with excitement with moments of real, queasy horror. There are only three disturbing moments in this issue but each one hits like a right cross, shaking you and Lee out of the comforting lie of the present and showing what lies behind it. Something is very wrong at base camp, something is very wrong in Lee’s past and the two look set to collide across nine more issues of flat out, full on modern Lovecraftian horror.

Sean Murphy’s work is every bit the equal of Snyder’s script. His characters are realistic and, crucially, feel genuinely fragile and his location work is superb. The focus of the art shifts constantly and Murphy makes everything work, from the Roland Emmerich nightmare of the first few pages to the terrified caveman of the last.  Matt Hollingsworth’s colours mesh with it beautifully, especially in the transition from the pink sunset over Alaska to the cold, nautical blue of basecamp. Special mention has to go to Murphy and Hollingsworth’s work on the penultimate page, where colour and inks combine to give the book its definitive moment of queasy horror. Jared K Fletcher’s lettering is equally vital, taking in everything from normal dialogue to the eerie, keening song Lee is hired to investigate with ease.

The Wake is Snyder at his best, a vastly ambitious but still completely accessible piece of character driven horror. In a period where people are rightly worried about the slow death of the Vertigo imprint, this is a much needed demonstration of just how vital it still is. If you’re a fan of science fiction, horror, HP Lovecraft or Michael Crichton-style technothrillers then this is most definitely for you.

Alasdair Stuart

Written by Jeff Parker (“Violent Minds”), Jeff Lemire (“Fortress) and Justin Jordan (“Bizarro’s Worst Day”)

Art by Chris Samnee (“Violent Minds”), Jeff Lemire (“Fortress”), Riley Rossmo (“Bizarro’s Worst Day”)

Colours by Matthew Wilson (“Violent Minds”),  Jeff Lemire and Jose Villarubia (“Fortress”)

Letters by Wes Abbott

Cover by Bryan Hitch and David Baron

Issue 1

£2.85

DC absolutely excel at digital comics. It’s the one area where they seem able to move as fast as their successful characters, with the Arrow digital title in particular doing a good job of not only complimenting the show but working as a separate entity. They’ve also shown a remarkable willingness to try new perspectives, as shown by the highly regarded Injustice title and Smallville Season 11 where Bryan Q. Miller is turning in both a welcome continuation of the show and some genuinely great stories. It’s not a perfect line, still holding a little too close to established characters for me but it’s a major success story for a company that’s been perceived as struggling to keep up with Marvel on the new media front for a while now. They’re also, very smartly, releasing regular collected editions of the short digital stories as monthly comics and that brings us to Adventures of Superman.

There are three stories collected here, and they all offer a very welcome, and different, take on the Man of Steel. Jeff Parker’s “Violent Minds” is initially a straight up and down piece of superhero fiction. There’s a metahuman loose in the city and Superman tries to reason with him even as the man becomes more and more unstable. However, it’s actually a neat summation of both the conflict, and differences, between Superman and Lex Luthor. One claims to speak for humanity but sacrifices the individual for his version of the ‘greater good’ whilst the other risks everything to try and save everyone even though some people can’t be saved. It’s elegant storytelling and Chris Samnee’s burly art is the perfect medium for it. Two panels in the final pages, one of Superman holding someone as they fall and one of him searching the wreckage are perfect snapshots of the character; strength and compassion, power and control, all combined. Matthew Wilson’s colours are also superb, working with Samnee’s lines and Parker’s script and all, always, serving the character.

“Fortress” almost doesn’t feature Superman even though he’s on every page. Jeff Lemire’s story follows two boys as they play out Clark fighting Superman robots, or Brainiac, or Lex Luthor all changing on a whim. I love Lemire’s art style and he’s cranked it up here in a way I’ve not seen since the beautiful Lost Dogs. Whilst it may be a hard sell for some readers, the energetic art and sweet-natured parody of Superman’s more eccentric rogue’s gallery makes this a real charmer. The ever reliable Jose Villarubia assists on art to great effect and Wes Abbott, who letters the whole issue, excels himself here, capturing the fluid enthusiasm of the boys’ speech. Again, this story finishes on a perfect image of Superman too, sitting on a barn roof with a windmill in the background. Ever the Farm Boy, especially when he’s on duty.

The final story, “Bizarro’s Worst Day” manages to not only do something interesting with Bizarro but give him a purpose. The story is the usual fight between him and Superman but writer Justin Jordan remembers that Clark is a scientist as well as a superhuman and uses that to solve two problems instead of one. It’s a sweet natured piece that, forlorn hope as it is, could really do with being adopted by the core books. It’s also illustrated with wonderful, burly aplomb by Riley Rossmo who draws Superman as a square-jawed tank of a man. Rossmo’s a great artist and his work is the standout here, even considering the quality of the other artists. Abbott again excels himself on lettering.

Adventures of Superman is a perfect sampler for people wanting to get into the character before, or after, Man of Steel. It’s sweet-natured, fun, packed with different takes on the character and full of some of the best writers and artists working today. Whether you read it digitally or in print, this is one of the best Superman titles out there.

Alasdair Stuart

“The Hour of the Dragon”

Written by Timothy Truman

Art by Tomas Giorello

Colour Art by Jose Villarubia

Letters by Richard Starkings & Comiccraft

Cover by Gerald Parel

£2.50

Published by Dark Horse

The worst thing to happen to Conan in his long, storied life is victory. The Cimmerian barbarian (And there’s a ring name if ever I heard one. In fact, why is there not a middle European wrestler called the Berbarian Barbarian? Anyway) becomes a king, gets old and that’s when his troubles really start. The man who ran headlong at death, lives, and finds himself in the one battle he can’t win; politics, a literal game of thrones. Alone, embittered and beset by a thousand tiny cuts of implication and cruelty, Conan does the one thing he can still do; tell his stories.

Timothy Truman is as much a veteran as Conan and it shows from the first panel. The old king, still vital and dangerous, is grieving over his dead wife, Zenobia when the scribe is sent to hear the story about Conan’s first meeting with her. Of course it’s another cruel jab at the old barbarian and of course he sees it but the only thing Conan knows how to do is stand and fight and that’s exactly what he does. He tells the story, faces the grief and pain at losing Zenobia square in the eye and dares it to make a move.

What you get as a result is a vintage piece of Conan that takes in a mystical stone, a mummy, an outcast sorcerer obsessed with the dark arts and Conan being completely outmanouvered, which is just where he likes to be. Truman’s script combines maniacal pace with monarchical politics to tremendous effect and sets up not only the troubles of old Conan but the men ranged against his younger self very well. There’s an interesting class dynamic at work here too, with Conan an outcast king amongst many of his neighbours as much for his status as a barbarian  as his actions. In their view he shouldn’t be king and they come at him not through subtlety and deception rather than straight up combat. This was never going to be a fair fight, so they make sure it’s unfair in their direction. It’s a nice move and uses tactics to illuminate character in a way that never seems like exposition.

It also opens the door to a couple of moments of barbarian badassery (What is it with me and alliteration today?) that will make long-term fans very happy. We get a variation on the El Cid manouvere and a cliffhanger, an honest to God cliffhanger that comes complete with near certain death and growled Cimmerian dialogue. It’s pulpy and over the top and magnificent and I want to stuff the next part into my brain right now, thank you.

Giorello’s art is every bit as brawny as Truman’s script and runs headlong at the countless wonderful design opportunities Conan’s world offers. A full page splash of the brooding old king, carrying a magnificently ornate torch, standing over Zenobia’s grave is an early highlight as is the closing battle but its Giorello’s atmosphere that’s the real star. Aided by the lush, vibrant colours of Jose Villarubia, it creates a world rich with both life and dreadful, bloody death. Kings are the single point of colour at the head of their armies, corpses litter the pages in a way that Bernie Wrightson would be proud of and Conan himself is a massive, scarred figure, often half in shadow but never less than imposing. This is as perfect a combination of artists and writer as you’re likely to get and it’s a pleasure to read. Starkings & Comicraft’s lettering rounds it off perfectly, not only conveying the different speech pattern of the characters but making it serve the dramatic beats of the story.

Dark Horse’s Conan series has been consistently excellent and this is no exception. An excellent jumping on point and a fantastic, full-blooded piece of fantasy, it’s a great book. The worst thing to happen to Conan in his long, storied life may be victory but this is one of the best.

“The Hour of the Dragon”

Written by Timothy Truman

Art by Tomas Giorello

Colour Art by Jose Villarubia

Letters by Richard Starkings & Comiccraft

Cover by Gerald Parel

£2.50

Published by Dark Horse

The worst thing to happen to Conan in his long, storied life is victory. The Cimmerian barbarian (And there’s a ring name if ever I heard one. In fact, why is there not a middle European wrestler called the Berbarian Barbarian? Anyway) becomes a king, gets old and that’s when his troubles really start. The man who ran headlong at death, lives, and finds himself in the one battle he can’t win; politics, a literal game of thrones. Alone, embittered and beset by a thousand tiny cuts of implication and cruelty, Conan does the one thing he can still do; tell his stories.

Timothy Truman is as much a veteran as Conan and it shows from the first panel. The old king, still vital and dangerous, is grieving over his dead wife, Zenobia when the scribe is sent to hear the story about Conan’s first meeting with her. Of course it’s another cruel jab at the old barbarian and of course he sees it but the only thing Conan knows how to do is stand and fight and that’s exactly what he does. He tells the story, faces the grief and pain at losing Zenobia square in the eye and dares it to make a move.

What you get as a result is a vintage piece of Conan that takes in a mystical stone, a mummy, an outcast sorcerer obsessed with the dark arts and Conan being completely outmanouvered, which is just where he likes to be. Truman’s script combines maniacal pace with monarchical politics to tremendous effect and sets up not only the troubles of old Conan but the men ranged against his younger self very well. There’s an interesting class dynamic at work here too, with Conan an outcast king amongst many of his neighbours as much for his status as a barbarian  as his actions. In their view he shouldn’t be king and they come at him not through subtlety and deception rather than straight up combat. This was never going to be a fair fight, so they make sure it’s unfair in their direction. It’s a nice move and uses tactics to illuminate character in a way that never seems like exposition.

It also opens the door to a couple of moments of barbarian badassery (What is it with me and alliteration today?) that will make long-term fans very happy. We get a variation on the El Cid manouvere and a cliffhanger, an honest to God cliffhanger that comes complete with near certain death and growled Cimmerian dialogue. It’s pulpy and over the top and magnificent and I want to stuff the next part into my brain right now, thank you.

Giorello’s art is every bit as brawny as Truman’s script and runs headlong at the countless wonderful design opportunities Conan’s world offers. A full page splash of the brooding old king, carrying a magnificently ornate torch, standing over Zenobia’s grave is an early highlight as is the closing battle but its Giorello’s atmosphere that’s the real star. Aided by the lush, vibrant colours of Jose Villarubia, it creates a world rich with both life and dreadful, bloody death. Kings are the single point of colour at the head of their armies, corpses litter the pages in a way that Bernie Wrightson would be proud of and Conan himself is a massive, scarred figure, often half in shadow but never less than imposing. This is as perfect a combination of artists and writer as you’re likely to get and it’s a pleasure to read. Starkings & Comicraft’s lettering rounds it off perfectly, not only conveying the different speech pattern of the characters but making it serve the dramatic beats of the story.

Dark Horse’s Conan series has been consistently excellent and this is no exception. An excellent jumping on point and a fantastic, full-blooded piece of fantasy, it’s a great book. The worst thing to happen to Conan in his long, storied life may be victory but this is one of the best.