Looking back at that story arc, though, I’m less than impressed. While the idea of a remorseless serial killer bonding with an equally deranged alien symbiote is a good one, the delivery was off. Instead of something genuinely chilling we got a two-dimensional, almost cartoonish character who was often more tiresome than terrifying.

But I always thought the potential was there, and writer Zeb Wells is proving me right with his current Carnage USA mini-series from Marvel. Today we’re going to look at the first two issues. All you need to know comes right after these ads.

Carnage USA Issue 1

The concept of the story is this: Cletus Cassidy wants to take over the world, and he’s starting in a small town in Colorado, USA.

And that, so far, is it. It sounds like a hokey idea on paper, but Wells is really nailing the execution of it, and the series is already turning into one of the best Marvel stories I’ve read in years.

Things start slowly as we are introduced to some of the residents of the sleepy town of Doverton. We see kids playing, pensioners sitting on their porch, even the town drunk being half-carried home by friendly townsfolk. And then Cletus Cassidy turns up and what happens next is out and out… well, Carnage.

And what a Carnage he is. Cletus doesn’t come over in the “ooh, I’m mad, me!” way he has in many of his other appearances. He is portrayed here as cruel and sadistic. There is a real undercurrent of danger in everything he says and does, so that even when he is behaving “normally” we never know what he’s going to do next.

As the town falls to Cassidy and his ‘other’, the US Government starts to take notice. The Avengers are sent in to bring Carnage down, and in one of the few weak points of the story they get their asses handed to them in about five seconds flat.

Seriously, I suspect my grandmother could’ve done more to stop Carnage than Cap, Wolverine and the rest of them did, and my grandmother has been dead for 18 years. Their shocking performance was enough to pull me out of the story for a second, but it’s the only foot Wells puts wrong in the opening issue, and without giving too much away it does make for a fantastic big splash panel in the final pages.

Spider-Man himself manages to escape in issue two, thanks to the intervention of some of the surviving townsfolk. How this will play out remains to be seen, because much of the second issue is devoted to the five new symbiote characters that are introduced. Yes, more symbiotes. You’d think the idea had been stretched far enough, but apparently Wells disagrees. I’m going to trust him for now and see how it goes, but none of them really do much for me on the basis of this issue.

Fortunately, we’re treated to some more scenes with Cassidy being proper sinister. He is using his ‘other’ to work the townspeople like puppets, and the sight of him clutching the baby of a woman he has deemed his ‘wife’ as she kneels on the floor begging for her child’s life reveals just how dark a tale this is shaping up to be.

The artist, Clayton Crain, is on top form here. I’m a huge fan of his hyper-realistic style which reminds me in many ways of the work of Alex Ross. The way he paints Carnage himself is particularly revolting. Never before has a symbiote looked so gloopy and alive, and Crain’s artwork takes an already strong story and just lifts it to a whole new level.

Critics of Crain’s style say his panels are often too dark and muddy, and that occasionally happens here. But this is the type of story that needs “dark and muddy”. It’s the Spider-Man equivalent of the Brad Pitt movie, Se7en, and Cletus Cassidy is shaping up to be every bit as psychotic as Kevin Spacey’s John Doe character in that movie.

I read both of these issues in digital format, and Crain’s artwork impressed me so much that I’m going to seek them out in print just so I can flip through the pages and absorb the images any time I like.

As much a horror story as a superhero tale, Carnage USA is shaping up to be something really special. Whether the slew of new symbiotes will drag it down in future issues remains to be seen, but for now I’m hooked in for the ride.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

You can pre-order the hardback collected edition of Carnage USA from Amazon now. Doing so helps support ThePhantomZone.

If you don’t know about the Clone Saga then I’m not going to be the one to inflict it upon you. Suffice to say it was one of the worst, most convoluted Spider-Man stories in the character’s history, and that your life is all the better for not having read it.

There wasn’t much good that came from the Clone Saga, but there were a few potentially interesting characters contained in its apparently endless pages. One such character was Kaine – a deformed clone of Peter Parker who was twisted in both body and mind. He was one of the villains of the story, although his motivations and loyalties shifted with virtually every issue.

Anyway, fast forward 15 years or so and Kaine popped up in the pages of the recent Spider Island story arc. Without giving too much away, Kaine was presented with the opportunity to sort his act out, and the damage to his body was repaired. Fast forward another couple of months and Kaine is now the star of his very own series, Scarlet Spider. But is it any good? On the basis of this first issue it’s looking promising.

Kaine is a man on the run. Haunted by the memories of his past life as a proper wrong ‘un, he is attempting to flee the US and set himself up in a beach hut in Mexico. He plans to get money by beating the crap out of some low level criminals and stealing their loot, which he does in impressive style in this issue’s opening pages.

Things turn sour for poor Kaine, though, when he discovers a big metal crate full of dead folks who were being illegally smuggled into the country against their will. Down there among the flies and the rotting flesh he finds one survivor, and despite his better judgement he brings her to the closest hospital.

That, as far as Kaine is concerned, is the end of his involvement, but events of the story soon begin to drag him back in. He wants to run, to be able to forget his past and live a normal life, but the old Parker (clone) luck seems determined to get in the way.

What makes this such a promising issue is the character of Kaine himself. The tagline on the front cover reads “All of the power. None of the responsibility” and that sums the concept up perfectly. Kaine is Spider-Man, but without the love of Aunt May to guide him, or the tragic death of Uncle Ben to set him on the path to hero-dom.

This is not a tale of a Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Hero, it’s the story of a man torn between protecting himself and making amends for his past wrongdoings. Kaine’s moral compass is still spinning at the end of this first issue so it is unclear whether he’ll become a hero or a villain, or something else entirely. Because this is Marvel, it’s almost certain to be the former, but the path Kaine takes to get there could make for an interesting journey.

This is a strong first issue by writer Christopher Yost (X-Men, Batman) and the artwork by Ryan Stegman compliments it perfectly. I can’t wait until February to find out what these guys can do with issue 2.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

So what brings you to London?

Ostensibly I’m over here for the paperback release of Horns. The truth is that I come from old Maine stock and we don’t believe in vacations. You’re supposed to work from sun-up to sundown, and if you want to study your Bible by candlelight for a little while before bed that’s OK, and any sign of overt happiness is frowned upon because it usually means something’s not getting done. So I don’t really know how to take a vacation, so what I did was arrange this, but spread a thin crust of work over the surface so it seems like I’m actually here for a purpose. I did some media for Horns yesterday and I’m doing some press today and a reading tonight, and then I’m kinda goofing off for a few days with some friends I know here. I’m trying to work out how much time I’d have to spend in here before I could call someone a ‘bloke’ without getting a roll of the eyes. It’s just a great word to say. It feels good in your mouth.

The other thing is… I don’t know what it is about London, but I come here once or twice a year for about a week, and I walk around, and by the time I go home I’ve got about ten new story ideas. It’s a terrific place for me in terms of energy. Ideas aren’t everything – they’re not even the most important part of writing – but it’s still nice to have bunch of them in your back pocket.

So what is the most important part of writing?

Um, I think it’s having a certain level of cognitive dissonance between the work you put in and the result you get. You need to be able to sit there for six hours a day, and at the end of the day be able to walk away and let it go. You have to have a kind of blissful acceptance that you might spend two months writing a hundred pages and then throw the whole thing away in a single day. In the book I’m working on now – which is coming together great; I’m going to read some of it tonight at Waterstone’s – there’s this one part that’s about 180 pages long, about the bad guy. And I re-wrote it about three times and thought about it very carefully, and I think it’s a really good piece of work, and I decided about a month ago to slash the whole thing. I decided I’d written it for me. I was trying to find that bad guy’s voice and how he talks to people and why he’s the way he is, and I had to write it over and over again before I understood him. But in terms of actual story I think it’s better not to have so much of him right in your face, because it’s like seeing Jaws when he was a baby, eating fish. Less is more. It’s like, you want to be careful not to make the Hannibal Lecter mistake, where he was at his absolute most frightening in red Dragon where you only had him for about fifteen pages, and then in Silence of the Lambs he was almost as scary and just as great, and he’s still only in about 45 pages… It’s when you had a whole book about him… What, mommy didn’t love him and daddy didn’t understand and that’s why he’s bad? Suddenly he’s not frightening anymore – he’s just this loser!

Hemingway always said you have to kill your darlings. I don’t know if you always have to kill them, but I do think this has happened in every single piece of work I’ve ever done that was longer than like 20 pages, where I had this one scene I couldn’t wait to write and that I felt was the emotional heart of the book, and I would write the first draft and that scene would be in and I’d love it, and then at some point in the third or fourth draft I’d realise it’s the one scene in the book that doesn’t really matter; it’s the one scene totally holding the book back because it became something else. I don’t know if a lot of writers obsess over ‘The Concept’. I’m a firm believer that it’s important to have that nice fat hook: to have that concept that people can really get excited about. But by the time you’re finished, what you have is usually very different from what you initially imagined.

What’s your work routine?

I don’t religiously do six hours a day, but I set myself goals. With this draft – it sounds like I’m making processed meat – but I will process ten pages a day. If I get them done in two hours, great. If it takes me six hours, OK. If it takes me eight I’ll do it, but I try not to work that long because I think there tends to be a fall-off. I do work on the weekends though. Maybe not six hours, but I don’t like to let something go because then I’ll waste a day trying to get back up to speed. The other thing is, if I haven’t worked at all I feel restless and kind of out of sorts, and I’m grumpy with people, so I don’t feel centred and like myself until I’ve got my work out of the way.

Horns’ protagonist Ig is very vividly realised; is there a lot of you in him?

I think a lot of people when they hear ‘write what you know’ think that they’d better make their main character themselves, and I’ve always tried to avoid that. My main characters tend to be different from me. Judas from Heart Shaped Box was radically different from me: I was just like, what would it be like to be a heavy metal musician who’s had a thirty-year career? And Ig from Horns is also very different, although we have some similarities: there has to be something to grab on to. I come from a well-off family; my dad is a well-known guy the same as Ig’s dad; Ig’s family are musicians where mine are writers… So there’s some overlap. But Ig has a passion for books about building houses out of recycled materials, he’s big into volunteerism and he’s very devout and goes to church. I’m not very religious, and if I did have a religion I’d probably worship the same snake god that Alan Moore worships. It’s worked out pretty good for him. I think I aspire to do good, but for the most part I’m pretty happy to download movies and use my free time in the most selfish way possible. And Ig is braver. He does stuff like the courageous naked ride down the hill. I never would have done anything like that. I’d have been too worried about scraping my knees.

How far along is the movie adaptation of Horns?

Shia LaBeouf is going to play Ig in the film, and Keith Bunin who’s written a number of episodes of In Treatment is doing the script, and it’s ploughing forward so we’ll see what happens. I think Shia’s a great lead for the part. He can kind of play that kind of innocent Jimmy Stewart sweetness, but I also think it’d be really fun to see him with the shaved head and the horns walking around in a blue dress. I’ll be as involved as they want me to be, and I won’t be underfoot if they don’t want me underfoot. I’ve done my version of the story, and I’ve talked to them about ideas – I had a couple of suggestions that I thought might streamline a film. But at the end of the day I’ve done my version and the movie has to be something different. Films fail either when they treat the source material as if it doesn’t matter, or when they become too reverential to the source material. You want to find a middle path where a film can breathe and be its own deal.

I’m not sure it’s as unusual as it used to be for an actor to be attached at such an early stage of development. Shia read the book and was excited about it and thought it was a part he could play and that people haven’t seen him do. I think he wants to make that transformation. Maybe it’s even a metaphor for his whole professional outlook: he’s played so many clean-cut nice guys that he wants people to see that he can be the demon if he has to be. I think a lot of actors – especially actors who can open films – have started to do this: getting excited about about something and looking at how they can put a package together.

What happened to Locke and Key? The TV series seemed like a sure thing.

I’m not sure anything’s a sure thing. Launching a TV show is probably the hardest act in the entertainment business. In the case of Locke & Key we came up with a pilot, which Mark Romanek directed, Josh Friedman who was the showrunner on Sarah Connor did a great script, they pulled together a terrific cast, and they made something really scary and emotionally intense. BUT, Fox has three slots for new dramas, they had eight pilots, and they picked the three they wanted. But I’m not sure… I feel fairly certain that the pilot will see the light of day at some point, and I’m not certain that we’re done as a TV show. Locke & Key as a comic book has a lot of the same elements that you see in shows like Dexter and Breaking Bad and Walking Dead and Battlestar Galactica: dark, fantastic, with a grim edge… And the thing all those shows have in common was that they were on cable. So I think it’s possible that we may find someone at SyFy or AMC or TNT who’d like to give the show a shot. And if that happens I think we’d be very lucky, in that it would be a case of the show finding a more natural home than one of the big networks. It’s very difficult to imagine Walking Dead on CBS, so we’ll see. I think we have a good shot. I think there’s room for the pilot to be a theatrical film of some kind, although you’d probably have to throw a few more million dollars at it and add half an hour. But I also think it’s possible that a cable channel will throw another $5m and another half hour at it and make it a two-hour pilot. I’ll say this: we’ve had interest from some cable channels, and one cable channel has been MORE than interested… That gives me hope, but until someone actually buys twelve episodes, we don’t have a show.

And is Heart Shaped Box still happening as film? Wasn’t Neil Jordan attached to direct at one point?

That’s one of these movie stories where it’s in terminal development. Neil Jordan hasn’t been on it in a long time but I still keep seeing reported on a regular basis that he’s doing it. The book came out a while ago, and he wanted to do it, but they didn’t have a script that they liked and then there was the writer’s strike, and Neil just decided to go back to Ireland and make something different. So that’s what he did, and his attachment with the picture ceased. Some other names have been involved. If Heart Shaped Box suddenly goes into development it’ll be because an actor says they would like to play Judas Coyne. Then we might see a team come together around it. But it’s stalled at the moment. I have a short story called Twittering the Circus of the Dead, and that’s actually further along than Heart Shaped Box because there’s so much energy behind it. It has a director, and Manderlay wants to produce, and they’ve got a plan and all the pieces are flying together.

It’s interesting – I’ve now seen two sides of the business. There’s Heart Shaped Box, where there’s this spinning of wheels and this development process that continues and continues and continues. But when something does happen, it’s with such suddenness, it’s almost like everyone’s like racing behind going ‘Agh! We’ve gotta get this done!’ With Locke & Key it was amazing how all the elements collapsed together in just a few months and suddenly they were filming the pilot in Pittsburgh. It was such a remarkable difference from the way Heart Shaped Box has staggered along. So if something does happen with Heart Shaped Box it’ll happen all of a sudden!

A director named Todd Lincoln is behind Twittering the Circus of the Dead. You won’t have heard of him. He’s something of an up-and-coming it-director. He’s done a lot of short films that are kind of upsetting and weird, and he’s directed his first feature [The Apparition] which is a horror film coming out in early 2012, and this is going to be his follow-up project. He’s exciting. He’s kind of like if Wes Anderson wanted to make horror films. He’s a really cool guy!

Are you wary of films of your work, given your father’s experiences?

No, not at all! I think my dad has had nothing but good experiences! Because even the bad films are great. Horror fiction, fantasy, science fiction to a degree, the only thing that’s better than a good movie is a really bad movie. I love a great scary film, but I’ve also seen awful things that I’ve really loved. Like, what’s a good one, Howling 2! That’s such a gas. They show the shot where Sybil Danning takes her blouse off 32 times in that film. I counted. Actually it’s not a blouse, it’s like a leather bustier.

You know what’s a great, hysterical film? Children of the Corn. ‘Outlanderrrrrrr! We have your wooooooman!’ Who doesn’t love that? So yeah, you always hope you’re going to have a great film, but I’m sure if someone takes one of the books or one of the stories and makes something horrible, I’ll still probably love it.

Horns is out now in paperback from Gollancz.

Cover Art for Issue #1

I was new to Animal Man, one of the new 52, so my initial enthusiasm for it was based upon the very brief explanation about what he could do – mimic the ability or trait of any animal. Could it get any cooler? Well, yes. The artwork is also fantastic. It was the first main attraction for me, what drew me to find out more.

Again, DC Comics made the mistake of assuming all readers of the new 52 would know anything about the older comics. Thankfully, when it comes to Animal Man, this presumption mainly assumes you know: who he is; what he can do; who is family are; and what he aims to do. Lots of new ideas, it seems, have spawned these comics.

Issue #1 served as a good intro to what he was capable of. While some of the reboots (like Justice League) take up a new story, this picks up years after his crime fighting days. Animal Man is no more; Bud is a Family Man, now! But that’s not to say he won’t go rushing in to help sort out a critical situation, allowing writer Jeff Lemire to showcase Animal Man’s favourite cocktail of animal abilities, and briefly explain how he uses his abilities.

We’re also given a sense of what’s to come, and it’s not just unpleasant, it’s downright freaky. I’ll leave the spoilers to a minimum. Issue #1 is still available in some shops! (I know this for a fact, because my local shop got it back in when issue #2 came out!) When we reach the end of the comic – the best end to a first issue I’ve seen so far – we (or at least I) have a million questions as to what’s going on, but no complaints about it in terms of canon. Yes, I’m new to the comics, but the ending seems right! (Unlike the childishness of the Justice League in their issue #1.)

Cover Art for Issue #2

Issue #2 brings us further into the madness of Animal Man’s latest problem, and Lemire doesn’t disappoint! With the fantastic art of Travel Foreman to pull into into the insanity and some very strange goings-on, this only further proves that Animal Man is one of DC Comics’ strongest series of comics! It looks great, it has a brilliant atmosphere you don’t get in everything DC, and the story seems to be going somewhere.

Of course, I did have a problem with issue #2: it was too short. And I don’t mean that in a fanboy “I want to read more” kind of way. The comic was split between Animal Man and a short Batman story, so while the actual comic is the same length, the story in issue #2 was shorter than in issue #1. The dozen adverts in the DC Comics I can understand, but that was just cruel!

Only time will tell if DC Comics will make that mistake again. For my part, I wait in anticipation to see what happens in issue #3 of Animal Man, out November 2nd.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Justice League #1

A little more tongue-and-cheek than I expected, JL #1 features four of the seven great heroes of DC comics and some childish rivalries between them! With arrogance only found in DC’s almost-flawless superheroes there comes a pomposity that only those with powers can be heroes. That immediately makes Batman the underdog in this first issue, even if his humanity and wish for justice stretches beyond the capabilities of his superpowered companions. We’re also given a great look at the pre-hero state of Cyborg, reminding us of DC’s ability to make a brute like him have a softer and more gentle side.

My major issue with JL #1 is, first and foremost, that the heroes don’t seem like a team. Yes, the story is only beginning, and yes the seeds that will grow into unifying them have been sown, but the rivalries between the superpowers of the world seem to out-weigh the potential for them to work together. I was a little but disappointed in the Green Lantern and Superman in this comic, and if it weren’t for Batman this would have been a failure. The humanity in this first issue saved it, in my eyes.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Action Comics #1

Bringing back Superman again so early was DC’s smartest move, though this time he’s seeing some changes. Gone are the red trunks, and even some of his abilities. This comic feels a little like the Smallville TV series, where small-town Clark Kent has not yet managed to fly; Hulk-like super-jumps seem to be his way of getting over buildings, instead of simply running at high speed around them! In the case of AC #1, however, he’s a journalist out on his own in the big bad world and not a farm boy. He’s more tenacious than ever, standing up for truth and justice even if it means putting himself out in the city and in harm’s way. Yes, he’s bullet-proof, but he’s not entirely indestructible.

Reeling in Superman’s powers was probably the best way for them to begin this series. While he’s still super strong, super fast and shoots fire from his eyes, his weakness isn’t strictly limited to other superpowered beings and Kryptonite. Superman is new and fresh and the comic was more exciting than JL #1. The Man of Steel was far more entertaining, and while it’s a struggle to see any depth to him, he’s certainly a much better character on his own, so far.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Static Shock #1

I’ve been a fan of Static since the cartoon a few years ago; young, snappy and adventurous, he was the sort of hero people could relate to, and he pulled off the cool-but-smart teen brilliantly. Getting under way in New York City, Static’s first adventure is filled with uber-geeky science talk and lots of electricity! There are definitely sparks in the air as he begins his new life.

Of all the comics so far, this has been the one I most enjoyed. Not only does the comic feature a single character – which seems to be DC’s strong point at this stage in the game – it also gives us a taste of all the villains we might encounter. I’ve seen some fan favourites in one image, but I’ll let you read the comic to see who they are. Their presence, and the chance of real danger, has made this one a better comic than JL #1 by far. What it’s lacking is plot – yes, we know who Static’s enemies are and we know they want him gone, but where is he going in all of this? Virgil Hawkins is trying to settle in his new school, but Static is just doing what he always does: he’s fighting crime. Maybe the final scene of the comic might stir things up a bit, but for now the series doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere. They keep some points for suspense, though!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Green Arrow #1

Again, a little more fun with a solo hero. We’ve also got a look at some of the villains Green Arrow is likely to face, and who may spill over into the other comics. Being the Robin Hood of the DC universe, he’s a more adventurous than a lot of the others. Like Batman, he doesn’t rely on superpowers to take out his opponents. The biggest problem I have with this, though, is the lack of explanations behind so much of what happens. The comic assumes knowledge of Oliver Queen and Queen Industries, of the Green Arrow and Q-Core. Even after reading this issue, I can only assume Q-Core is a weapons manufacturing part of Queen Industries, but even that is under speculation.

What this lacked in explanation, however, it made up for in plot. None of the comics so far have given any indication as to what might happen next, with the exception of Static Shock #1. Even JL #1 raised a lot of questions, and that was the DC headliner! Keeping a story going has earned GA #1 some bonus points as far as I’m concerned!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Justice League International #1

Not to be confused the regular Justice League, this comic gives us a look at some of DC’s lesser known superheroes: Booster Gold takes the stage, supported by a cast of characters from around the world, including a second Green Lantern. Hal Jordan’s off with the big leagues, while Guy Gardner takes a spot on the International team. This is the comic’s first downfall, I think. People who know about the Green Lantern Corps – or who think they know after the film this summer – assume there is only one human Green Lantern. That’s the general consensus of the DC universe, that only one exists at a time. That’s what we’re led to believe. If things have changed, they haven’t done a good enough job justifying the presence of Hal and Guy. They’re starting over, and that means telling people about things that they should know.

Beyond that, the comic was fun. A lot of fun. The team works better on the page than the original Justice League did in their first issue. For a start, they’re actually a team! There are clear disagreements, some humour, and some big personalities, and in this case it all works. It doesn’t make for a better comic than the others, however, but it was certainly a better piece of work than JL #1!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The biggest problem with these comics, that I’ve pointed out a couple of times, is that the writers assume prior knowledge of the pre-reboot DC Universe, and all the changes that have happened with characters over the years. We’re supposed to know that Booster Gold is from the future, that Superman couldn’t always fly and we’re supposed to know that Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner are both Green Lanterns in this sector of space. With well over half the comics still to come out, DC will have a hard time bringing in new readers if every issue raises important questions that only back-issues can tell us about – when you put a big 1 on the cover, readers expect a beginning to the story, not something that picks up deep into the mythology of an established universe of heroes and villains.

Guess who has one and is making a bee-line for X-Men HQ?

The Juggernaut, bitch.

Gillen pleasantly surprised me with how he has used the Juggernaut as the primary antagonist of the piece. I’m used to Juggy being an explosive, if dim, powerhouse. The kind of character that shows up and does his damage. Wham-bam-thank-you-corpse style.

However, in Uncanny #540-542, the Juggernaut has steadily crossed the country, one unyielding step after another. The X-Men try everything they can think of to slow him and nothing is working; Juggy barely reacts to even the most ingenious of power-combos. This is a Juggernaut that is truly unstoppable. What Gillen has done here is a master-stroke. With Gillen’s skilled pen, The Juggernaut is imbued with the same terrifying, deliberate pace that make zombies so pant-wettingly horrific – no rushing. It doesn’t matter if the attempt to flee is made; he’ll catch up eventually. Inch by measured inch. It’s a beautiful direction to take the bulky brute, and it really gives me the creeps.

The beauty continues when you realise that, not only is this an unstoppable harbinger of destruction, but it is a destructive force that is amassing popular support from the general sapien public. The unrelenting force is calling for the elimination of either the population of San Francisco or mutant-kind. He’s not fussy, but he’s got swathes of followers. It sets up a paranoia fuelled political arena as each side expect the worst.

If you’re interested in using comic to draw parallels with real world issues, X-Men books have always been a great vehicle for social commentary, if sometimes bordering on the ham-fisted. Gillen takes full advantage of X-Men in that regard while remembering to tell an entertaining story. A story that draws from the religious political right-wing and sets it against the liberal setting of San Francisco. Even if you don’t read that much into it, the well crafted book does its job on both levels.

While most of the X-Men fail to impede Juggernaut’s progress one bit, Colossus has quite the adventure. I won’t spoil anything but… boy, is it a game changer.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Harry Potter never had a comic, but if it did it would be something like The Unwritten, from Mike Carey and Peter Gross. The series follows Thomas Taylor, son of a world famous author whose books about Tommy Taylor, a boy wizard, have outsold Harry Potter. The author, however, has gone missing, and lots of people are less than happy with Thomas continuing to make a living as the man who was once the boy behind the books. Unable to settle, feeling completely out of place, Thomas then has to deal with accusations that he’s a fraud, while finding himself dealing with an elitist literary group the likes of which we’ve never seen: the sort that send vampires after you.

I bought the comic on a whim. It had a promising cover and blurb, it wasn’t too expensive and I have a taste for the weird and unconventional. We get a couple of stories in the one comic: the fantasy boy Tommy and the real life man Thomas, and the trouble they both find themselves in. This isn’t a comic for children, despite the boy wizard: there’s violence and intrigue beyond the Harry Potter books, and a plot swimming with interesting developments and surreal experiences.

The art is a joy to look at, too. It’s easy to see why so many people have picked it up before. It adds to the genius that is The Unwritten, beginning with this first volume Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity. It’s not the most unique idea in the world, in its most basic form, but it expands beyond what readers suspect.

To add to the story of Thomas, the comic concludes with a short graphic story about the world-famous Rudyard Kipling. Both fun to read and a huge contribution to the mythology behind the main plot, this story is an added extra that shouldn’t be skipped.

Overall, a brilliant start to the series, and one worth watching!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Appearing in Superman #423 and Action Comics #583, in some ways it was the final Superman story, but only because the character was rebooted into the Modern Age in Superman #424.

As such, the story stands as the last true Silver/Bronze Age Superman tale, and Moore uses it to show us how the life and career of the Man of Steel might one day come to an end.

The whole story is told from the viewpoint of a middle-aged Lois Lane. Long-retired, married to some bearded lummox, and with a bouncing baby on her knee, Lois is being interviewed by a cub reporter from The Daily Planet for an article on the final days of Superman.

We discover that things went pretty quiet for a while. Most of Superman’s major foes were defeated, missing or cast into The Phantom Zone. Without supervillain faces to punch, Supes spent most of his time helping the government with missions in space, repairing their shuttles for them like some glorified, tights-wearing handyman.

But then Bizarro turns up and goes on a killing rampage, and things start to go wrong for Superman.

For starters, a box full of teeny tiny Supermen figures turn up at the Planet offices and proceed to blast the Hell out of everything with their heat vision. They deliberately target bumbling old Clark Kent and burn his suit off, revealing the Superman costume beneath. Suddenly everyone knows that Clark Kent is Superman, and things will never be the same again.

"And don't come back."

Now, say what you like, those mini-Supermen were frickin’ adorable. Yes, they might have been taking delight in burning journalists alive, but you can’t stay mad at them, they’re just too damn cute. Besides, who hasn’t wanted to burn a journalist alive at some point?

Things take a turn for the darker when Superman discovers that the Toyman and the Prankster are responsible for the little flying darlings. You see, they’ve sent another box, too. A larger box. A box in which Superman finds (SPOILER! Highlight to read): the mutilated body of his childhood best friend, Pete Ross!

It all goes from bad to worse, and Superman is forced to take the people he cares about to the Fortress of Solitude when he realises his old enemies are amassing against him, and that everyone connected to Clark Kent is in danger. Once the heroes are inside the fortress, Brainiac traps it inside a force field bubble and mounts an attack, aided by the Kryptonite Man.

From here the story almost fades into the background, as almost the entire back catalogue of Superman characters parade through the fortress. Jimmy Olsen is there, along with Perry White and his estranged wife, Alice. Krypto the Superdog puts in an appearance, and Lois Lane, Lana Lang and Lex Luthor are all on hand to provide all the alliteration anyone could ask for.

As the story progresses, we realise that Superman has begun to accept that he is going to die. It doesn’t help when the Legion of Superheroes travel back in time from the 31st Century to give Kal-El a golden trophy commemorating his life. When Supes asks them why they’ve picked that particular day to come back and give him the statue they cough quietly and mutter “no reason”, before returning to the future, openly crying.

This pretty much confirms Superman’s suspicions that he’s right up Shit Creek, and sets us up for the final showdown.

What I want to know though, is why don’t the Legion of Superheroes just stick around and lend him a hand? What’s that you say? Superheroes can’t interfere with events of the past for fear of disrupting the timeline? Yeah, right…

Damn that Nazi and his spring-loaded hat!

Anyway, they don’t stick around to help, but Superman’s friends do, and it is in these scenes where the story shines. For all his power, Superman is helpless against the villains’ assault, and helpless to prevent those he cares about putting themselves in danger to protect him.

Moore has given us a Superman whose greatest power is not his ability to fly or burn the face off muggers just by staring at them. The greatest power this Superman has is his humanity. Here is a Superman who cares as much about Perry and Alice’s marital problems as he does for his own about-to-be-murdered-in-his-own-house predicament. Here is a Superman who is surrounded by people willing to sacrifice their own lives for his. Here is a Superman who is not afraid to weep openly about the fact he’s almost certainly going to die.

For all its Silver Age hokiness, this is actually quite a bleak story which is almost moving in parts. It crackles along with some great dialogue – I particularly loved Lois summing up the events leading up to Bizarro’s death: “That strange, backwards creature had suddenly launched himself on a rampage of genocide, homicide, and finally suicide.”

Oh, that Lois. She always did call a spade a spade.

There are plenty of other highlights in the story, including a cameo by Batman in which the World’s Greatest Detective attempts to get through an alien force field by hitting it repeatedly with a plank of wood, but you never quite feel that the story is anything other than a frame on which to hang all the little references to Superman’s past, many of which only dedicated fans will pick up on.

Although essentially a “What if?” type story, and unlikely to be considered part of Superman canon, it still manages to feel like an apt ending for the Man of Steel’s adventures, and should be considered an essential read for fans of the character.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Want to read the story yourself? Buy the collected edition on Amazon now.

Poster for Captain America

Superhero fans, the time has come: Captain America: The First Avengerhas hit the cinemas. It’s title tells us two things to get excited about before we even enter the cinema – firstly, Captain America has a new film on the big screen and secondly, he’s only the first of the Avengers.

If you know anything about Marvel, you know this is a big deal. The Avengers are the superhero team to combat the Justice League of America, DC’s team that features the likes of Superman, Batman and the Green Arrow. The Avengers film has been in the minds of films fans for years, since it was first mentioned in the post-credits scene of Iron Man in 2008.

Since then, Marvel have been adding scenes that link each film to the next until finally we reach Captain America back in the 1940s in the live-action film directed by Joe Johnston (Jumanji and Jurassic Park III)

The Captain has been one of Marvel’s most celebrated heroes over the years. He’s the hero that America needed during World War Two, the symbol of honesty, justice and strength. When we meet him in the film, he’s five-two and ninety-eight pounds. This was the first big appeal the film had for the main-stream audience: how do you turn a man that size into Captain America? Here’s the secret of how they brought lead actor Chris Evans from scrawny to brawny:

Simple, right? The magic is in how real it all looks. The naked eye can’t tell the difference between Evans and his miniature counterpart. The head just belongs there! Add to that the fantastic CGI used in explosions and all that special weaponry and you see the reason why it’s such a big hit in the aesthetics department. Our brains know the technology can’t exist, but our eyes are convinced that it must. Top marks for that, Johnston!

The magic of this film doesn’t end with the CGI. Immediately the hero of the tale, young Steve Rogers, is likeable, and almost pitiable. His determination to fight in the same division as his father, made impossible by all the health risks, is matched by the genius of one scientist with a big dream. And military funding. That part always helps.

The Red Skull

The end result is that Captain America becomes a combination of the classic American war film and the superhero genre that’s become so popular in the last few years. With the right mix of action and humour, loveable protagonists, a despicable villain – the Red Skull – and scenes full of adventure and excitement, it’s not to be missed. It’s almost impossible to fault it, especially given all the people who went to see it and loved it despite not being comic book fans. It’s easily the best superhero adaptation to hit the screen over the past few years, since Marvel gave the genre a reboot with X-Men in 2000.

Of course, if you want the full experience of Captain America, waiting until after the credits is a good idea. It’s here that we get the first glance at The Avengers. You might notice a certain someone is missing – the recasting of the Hulk may be the last surprise Marvel want to put on screen. Or it could be that the green menace has a much too dangerous role to play in the film that they’re just not ready for us to see yet.

Quick recap on some of the facts:
Director: Joe Johnston
Age Certificate: US – PG-13, UK – 12a, Ireland – PG
Release Dates: US – July 22^nd, UK and Ireland – July 29th

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Watch a trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger below.