Before Watchmen: Ozymandias 6 = ★★★★★
Last issue of this mini-series. This has been - for me - the best of the Before Watchmen titles - though has largely been overshadowed by the Darywn Cooke titles. This issue gets to the point right before Watchmen when Ozymandias is preparing his plan to save the world and the Comedian stumbles across the secret island. The tone of this series has been absolutely spot-on: Len Wein captures the sense of ennui that imbues the character and this has been visualised by Jae Lee's stunning artwork (particularly the circular panelling that gives a gun-sight effect in this closing issue). It's tremendously good and well-worth picking up when released as a trade in the next couple of months.

Batgirl 18 = ★★★✩✩
The robin on the covers of the Bat-books this month is way too much. Too much sentimentality. Barbara fights Firebug while her insane brother is arranging to kill her. This is the first issue of the run not written by Gail Simone and I have to admit I don't notice any tonal difference. Batgirl's always a solid read.

Batman 18 = ★★★★★
Synder's character Harper is the focus of this issue (no... not the next Robin?) and it's a great way of viewing Batman's response to the death of Damian. Greg Cupullo doesn't draw this issue - instead, Andy Kubert does a terrific job and is supported by Alex Maleev (always a stunning artist). It's a great issue full of Batman is "All-star" mode and doing his nut on Gotham petty criminals. There's a great scene with genetically mutated dogs.

Saucer Country 13 = ★★★✩✩
I have to admit that I've really lost track of what's happening and who everyone is in this comic. It's probably the sort of thing that's best read in trade rather than ongoing monthly: the plot is far too twisty. The presidential elections are nearly over and it's starting to really look like the whole UFO/alien abductions are in fact a plot to prevent the election of the first hispanic president. I'm not sure. Probably a re-reading once the series is over in a month or so.

Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror 2 = ★★★★✩
I was a bit dismissive of the first issue of this Rocketeer mini-series: I'm not taken by J Bone's cartoony art and, consequently, I ended up skimming the issue. Paying more attention to Roger Langridge's plot in the second issue, I realised that it's actually a great pulp-y romp.What's more, I'd missed the so-obvious-it-punched-me-in-the-face appearances of (who I think are) Nick and Nora Charles, the detectives from The Thin Man and (who I know are meant to be) Ham and and Monk from Doc Savage.

Age of Ultron 2 = ★★★★✩
Not sure if this issue moved the narrative on much. Things are truly screwed for humanity under the reign of Ultron: the place is an utter mess and the superheroes are feeling sorry for themselves. Spider-man recounts what happened (before issue 1) but it doesn't add much and Cap comes up with a plan. Oh - and Moon Knight makes an appearance. Bryan Hitch's depictions of devastated New York are brilliantly apocalyptic. I'm enjoying this a great deal. (Where, though, is the foil cover? Or trading card?)

Thor: God of Thunder 6 = ★★★★✩
Time off for Thor and Esad Ribic as Butch Guice pencils this issue. This is an origin story for Gorr, the god-killer, from his desperate childhood on a desert planet to his commencement of a quest to destroy all the gods of the universe. It's well plotted and drawn. My only reservation is that I don't like this type of villain background reveals - it "humanises" a villain and, often, justifies their actions.

Uncanny X-men 3 = ★★★✩✩
Scott Summer's X-men face off The Avengers and he assumes the role of a modern day Professor X at the end. Bachalo continues to make it look dynamic (much in the Amazing/Superior Spider-man style) - though there's a few too many small panels with open-mouthed heads for my liking. I still don't like the new costumes (especially the one that makes Magneto look like a cylon) and the silly humour doesn't work for me. But, still, it still has potential as a title.

Wolverine 1 = ★★★★✩
I wouldn't ordinarily pick up a Wolverine comic, but with Cornell and Davis producing this, I thought I'd take a look and see what was happening. Both creators are - for me - slightly off-beat (I a great way): Cornell able to show a character like Logan from a slightly different perspective (here we get him in a variety of role: shopper, victim, Avenger) and Davis loves to use odd viewpoints in his panels. It felt like reading an old Claremont X-men issue from the 80s more than anything. Logan surely looked beefed up.

SCORING 
✩✩✩✩✩ = Awful.
★✩✩✩✩ = Poor.
★★✩✩✩ = Average.
★★★✩✩ = Good.
★★★★✩ = Very good.
★★★★★ = Excellent.

1970s Counter-Earth even had its own letters page in The Power of... Warlock.  It's a shame that the comic companies nowadays rarely reprint letters in trades and collections as the early Warlock letters are everything you'd expect from a 70s silver age comic: a mix of sycophantic adoration of the title, its creators and characters or weirdly serious theological complaints. It's an age when comics as spelled with an X. Knowing Marvel's predilection for writing letters in-house, I wouldn't be surprised if the earnest religious correspondence was created in an attempt to stir up a controversy to drive up sales.

Many letters from the first run (only 8 bi-monthly issues) of The Power of... Warlock gush strong praise for the title, such as Steven Oelrich's from Colorado Springs (and, as much as I'm enjoying Warlock, I wouldn't say that the first run was as momentous as he suggests):


A Cleveland correspondent, Walter Loepp, saw Warlock as entertaining - though not full of childish gimmicks and devices - plus satisfying intellectual cravings:


Many letters dealt with the religious aspects of the comic, feeling that Marvel had "gone too far" in presenting the High Evolutionary, the character who creates Counter-Earth in a matter of hours, as a quasi-deity and having Warlock cast into the Christ-like role of a saviour:



Keeping the "Warlock world" separate from the rest of the Marvel Universe may have been part of the ever-present debate at Marvel around this time about whether or not to re-boot the characters. Having a world without super-heroes would enable a who series of origin stories and re-tellings (much in the way the Ultimate series has done recently).

In issue 8, readers would have found this notice:


Without sales figures it's hard to say how popular or successful The Power of... Warlock actually was. From today's perspective it was clear "what went wrong": the initial issues had formulaic, dull stories involving silly animal men. Friedrich's plots made the comic more engaging (certainly when Dr Doom and The Brute were introduced) but I guess it was too late by then. Something did change, though....

Him, the character first introduced in the pages of Fantastic Four, gets rebooted into Adam Warlock in the early 1970s. At the time Roy Thomas, who was editor-in-chief at Marvel wanted to produce a Jesus in space-type superhero comic (he'd been listening to the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack). Warlock is placed on Counter Earth, another Earth found on the opposite side of the sun. It enabled the character to be within the regular Marvel universe - but isolated from the existing characters and continuities initially. Warlock features in two issues of Marvel Premiere before being given his own ongoing title. 

The Sheer, Awful Agony: Marvel Premier Featuring The Power of Warlock #1

Subtitled "Tomorrow's hero today!" it's a couple more years until Him returns - this time written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Gil Kane in the 27-page Marvel Premier #1. It's a creation myth: a god-like creator, a perfect world corrupted by an adversary and the creator's son who falls to Earth, sacrificing himself for humanity. Thomas introduces Counter Earth, the doppleganger of Earth that enables Warlock to be separated from (what we'd now call the 616 Marvel) Earth with its communities of super-heroes. In a later comic it is further placed out of synchronicity with Earth to prevent any cross-overs occurring.

On an artificial planetoid near Mars, a robot-like character, the High Evolutionary, records his electronic journals. He recounts how, in Thor 134-135, he'd created the Man-Beast, a wolf-like creature of hatred who was defeated by Thor and sent into exile in the Dromisana Galaxy. He then recounts an encounter with the Hulk, in Tales to Astonish 94-96, where the High Evolutionary transformed himself into The Ultimate ("the be-all and end-all of all human evolution") who became one with the cosmos before returning to his metal shell after almost going insane. One of the High Evolutionary's crew, Sir Raam (a man with a ram's head!), has discovered Him's cocoon floating in space. The High Evolutionary communicates with Him (via some sort of video screen) and declares that "The one within is like the ultimate ultra-human New-Man I always desired to create". Him recounts his past to the High Evolutionary (and, this time, remembers to include the  FF).

The High Evolutionary prepares Project Alpha, an attempt to transform a piece of rock from Earth into a mirror image of the planet but seeks to prevent humans on the planet from acquiring the quality of aggression. High Evolutionary names the planet Counter Earth which is located on the far side of the sun so it's not visible from Earth. As Counter Earth and its population is created a wolf-headed character appears called the Man-Beast who boards the High Evolutionary's craft and kills poor old Sir Raam. The Man-Beast takes his revenge on the High Evolutionary but introducing aggression and murder into humans on Counter Earth. At this point Him decides to emerge from his cocoon - all dressed in a superhero costume with Shazaam symbol across his chest and an upside-down CND logo as a belt buckle.

Although Counter Earth has been corrupted by Man-Beast (who flees to the planet) the logical thing would be to destroy the project - which is exactly what the High Evolutionary intends. He is stopped, however, by Him who offers to serve humanity and nurturing the spark of goodness in them. Transported to Counter Earth and given an emerald gem, the High Evolutionary declares - for no apparent reason - "For uncanny your sacred mission - - unearthly your weirdling powers - - and, beholding them - - Men shall call you Warlock!"

Despite the hokey plot there's lots to admire in this issue - particularly Gil Kane's art. There's a couple of wonderful splash pages: Him scrapping with Thor and the High Evolutionary creating Counter Earth. The robot-like design of the High Evolutionary is great, too.

"He's -- flying! No -- he's not!": Marvel Premier featuring The Power of Warlock #2

Animal Man 18 = ★★★★✩
Like Swamp Thing, this issue ends the Rotworld crossover and returns Buddy Baker to his family. It's a tearjerker, though - because of Robin's death over in Batman Inc. - not as impactful as it could be. Also, there's an odd moment where the rot-creatures are healed to reveal men in suits who talk about an Ascension Chamber and something called Taproot. A mystery.
All-new X-Men 8 = ★★★★✩
Both Angels up against Hydra. The Avengers turn up and want to know what's happening and Jean Grey does something... well, not good at all. I'm not sure how the hell this is all going to be resolved - but it's thoroughly engaging. Marquez draws the hell out of this & it stays just on the right side of cartoony. Not sure what I think of Jean Grey's hair at the end though.
Age of Ultron 1 = ★★★★★
A foil cover with Ultron jumping at the reader from the defeated bodies of the Avengers. I know it's incredibly sad - but I love these Marvel "event" comics. AU is epic. Brian Hitch brings wide-screen Ultimates-level visuals to Bendis' apocalyptic plot. The story starts right in the middle of the action after Ultron has taken over New York and the Avengers have gone into hiding. Spider-man is drugged and held hostage by a couple of minor villains and no one has a plan to fight back. The final page emphasises the tone of this comic. (And you thought that AvX was a real downer!)

Avengers 7 = ★★★★★
Hickman has jacked up this title after the very strange first few issues. Like AU, it's an epic story. Without spoiling anything - we're seeing the return of elements of New Universal (should have seen that coming when the Whiteout Event was dropped at the end of the last issue). Got to say that Dustin Weaver draws this issue amazingly. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this. Some great misdirection before the big reveal plus it's the first time I thought movie-Cap actually looked cool.

Green Lantern 18 = ★★★★✩
New Green Lantern, Baz, is trapped in a dead zone with Hal, Sinestro and a host of other dead Lanterns. While I've been reading GL for ages, I haven't followed what's actually happening in the Wrath of the First Lantern arc - but now understand who Volthoom is and what's going on. This issue looks great: the bleak black panels filled with ghostly characters. Final panel is such a tease...
Before Watchmen: Rorschach 4 = ★★✩✩✩
My least favourite of the Before Watchmen mini-series. Rorschach seemed to spend a lot of time being beaten up. The bad guys don't even get busted by Rorschach: one gets killed by a mob and the other by a passing tiger (no, I don't get it either). I know this was supposed to be an early Rorschach adventure...
Swamp Thing 18 = ★★★★✩
Fitting end to the Rotworld saga (and, I believe, Scott Snyder's run on the comic). It all ends bittersweetly. Like the design of the decay avatar.
Hypernaturals 9 = ★★★★✩
This is another comic I absolutely love. It's everything I'd want in an issue of Legion of Super-heroes. Got to say that I thought the first six pages by Andres Guinaldo were my favourite and I'd certainly like to see him doing more of the art. By the end of this issue the Hypernaturals team are reunited and it certainly looks like the closing stages of this story arc has begun.
Superior Spider-man 5 = ★★★✩✩
While all the attention is on the Avengers and X-men, big things are happening in Spidey's world. Doc Ock is still inhabiting Peter Parker's mind and doing a pretty good job of it, too. He does cross a line in this issue (which is largely spoilt by the cover). I have to say that Guiseppe Camuncoli's drawing continues to be brilliant (especially when he draws Spidey in action). I guess that I didn't enjoy the story as much as I usually enjoy Dan Slott's writing - but it's still a comic well worth picking up.




SCORING

✩✩✩✩✩ = Awful.
★✩✩✩✩ = Poor.
★★✩✩✩ = Average.
★★★✩✩ = Good.
★★★★✩ = Very good.
★★★★★ = Excellent.

A starting point for following Warlock is Marvel's Essential Warlock collection. It's a black and white reprinting of the initial run of the 1970s comic. Unfortunately it doesn't include the two issues of Fantastic Four that presented the origin of Him (proto-Warlock) and two follow-up issue of Thor. Apart from that it's a pretty comprehensive tome, weighing in at nearly 600 pages. It includes:

• Marvel Premiere 1-2
• Warlock 1-8
• Incredible Hulk 176-178
• Strange Tales 178-181
• Warlock 9-15
• Marvel Team-up 55
• Avengers Annual 7
• Marvel Two-in-One Annual 2

Saga 10 = ★★★★★
Magnificent issue: Izabel, the pink ghost, is found and the family (plus The Will) encounter a planet-sized timesuck  ("astrologic super predator"). There's a great effect where the timesuck (and, earlier, creatures called the midwives) fires black inky stuff from its eyes that is really creepy.
Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror 1 = ★★★✩✩
Being a MASSIVE Rocketeer fan, I can't help but enjoy any new Cliff Secord stories. I found this a hard read, though. J Bone's cartoonish art doesn't seem to fit the tone of the pulpy 1940s adventure Langridge has written. The Lovecraftian element to the story is certainly welcome in the universe of The Rocketeer (last time it was dinosaurs).
Aquaman 17 = ★★★★✩
A solid, enjoyable issue. Arthur has returned to the sea and works at being the king over the Atlanteans (who barely trust him) and supporting anti-whaling activists (who barely trust him). Paul Pelletier draws amazingly and I think he has to be my favourite artist on this title so far. There's a fantastic double splash page where Aquaman stands at the bottom of the ocean and promises the teeming sea life that he won't let them down again. I'm looking forward to some sea-based Aquaman adventures so I'm hoping this is what Geoff Johns has planned.

Batman Inc 8 = ★★★★★
I've been on the verge of dropping this comic for months (the idea of "Incorporated" doesn't work for me - I'm no fan of the Neal Adams' Batman) - but glad I didn't as this issue really is great. Leviathan have struck at the Batman Family and Robin (Damian) joins the fight in a team-up with Nightwing. The ending has been incredibly spoiled this week - though the cover probably gave a clue about what was going to happen. It's brilliantly camp in places.
Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan 4 = ★★★★★
As much as Minutemen was a great retelling of an aspect of the Watchmen universe, my favourite has been this Dr Manhattan storyline. It's captured the abstracted voice of Manhattan impressively. There are some great touches in this final issue of the mini-series: the British Museum scene from the most recent Ozymandias is shown from Manhattan's viewpoint. There's also a fantastic sequence where the symmetry between Manhattan and Ozymandias is visually depicted and, for a series of pages, the comic has to be turned upside down (during which the narrative voice switches to Ozymandias). The issue ends on a cosmic note. I can't over-emphasise how stunning Adam Hughes art is.

The Flash 17 = ★★★✩✩
Barry takes on Grodd in the (anti)climax of the gorilla war. This issue ends the story arc that seems to have taken ages to resolve. And not before time, too. I'm loving Manapaul's art (especially the colouring) - but isn't The Flash looking a bit chunky? Do I detect some longings for Iris even while Barry's holding Patty? This title either needs a kick-ass or weird "classic" silver age-type story rather than what I feel is a rather bland storyline.

Justice League Dark 17 = ★★★✩✩
JLD are in some other dimension where the rules of magic are subverted and a technocracy rule. This is one of those issues where the heroes escape interrogation just as a battle's about to commence. There's a great Frankenstein moment when he breaks his shackles and declares "Nothing is impossible!" and Constantine is given some cryptic predictions. Have to say that I'm going to drop this title unless it actually gets "dark". It could be a fantastic supernatural/horror comic mixed with superheroes. At best it's fantasy-lite.

FF 4 = ★★★✩✩
I just gape at the Allreds' poppy art and enjoy whatever storyline Fraction is dealing. The main storyline, involving an aged Jonny Storm returning from wherever the Fantastic Four are (I'm not reading the other FF comic) and wanting to kill Dr Doom, is a minor part of this issue. Instead, the focus is the way that the love-struck moloids try to ruin She-Hulk's big date with Wyatt Wingfoot. There's some mischief by Medusa. But who cares? It looks amazing.

Guardians of the Galaxy 0.1 = ★★★★★
Origin story. In some respects I thought I'd read this in last week's Nova #1: disbelieving boy, issues at school, arrival of aliens. Still, it's a great read and, at the end of the comic, where Star-Lord is talking with Tony Stark and you get to see Star-Lord's crew, it is awesome. Threre's something big-budget and epic about this comic. Really impressive art by Steve McNiven.
Uncanny Avengers 4 = ★★★★✩
Conclusion of the fight between the "Unity" Avengers team and Red Skull and his S-men. There's a great scene where Red Skull tries to convince Cap that the America he's fighting for is a capitalist wasteland and very different from the forties image Cap has in his head. I like the colouring on this book a great deal (Laura Martin and Larry Molinar). There's a sudden change of gear in the last two pages following a "Three months from now" caption: the (presumably) corpse of Xavier plus Onslaught appear.




SCORING

✩✩✩✩✩ = Awful.
★✩✩✩✩ = Poor.
★★✩✩✩ = Average.
★★★✩✩ = Good.
★★★★✩ = Very good.
★★★★★ = Excellent.

Forget the Avengers! Dispense with the Uncanny X-men! Sling Spider-man! The real gems in comics are often the odd, unsettling treasures that have a weird culty following, seem written by heavy-handed hitters and make very little sense at all (though LSD and a dog-earred seventies copy of Chariots of the Gods could help). One of these gems is Adam Warlock, a character I can remember trying to read in the 1970s as a child. Then, I loathed every aspect of Warlock: the unsettling art, the unintelligible cosmic stories and the fact that - despite his tremendous powers - Warlock just seemed such a moron who fought the lamest villains. Worst of all I just hated what he looked like: thoroughly artificial, blond haired, an orange plastic skin, the most awful costume ever and had a tiny jewel stuck in the middle of his head that seemed to fire some sort of laser beam. 

It wasn't helped by the fact that I only read the comic intermittantly whenever it was on a newsagent's shelf -  so I really had no clue about back-story or even what was even going on in the issue in my hands. It was confusingly weird and repulsive (I had similar feelings about DC's Jonah Hex's flap of mouth flesh!). Sean Howe in his fantastic Marvel Comics: Tge Untold Story, describes these type of seventies comics as "mind-fryings"

Decades later, Adam Warlock is one of the few comic book characters that I haven't tried reading again. So, armed with all the reprints I can find, I'm going to make a stab at reading as much of the seventies Warlock as I can over the couple of months. I'm hoping I'll push through the pain and enjoy these stories. Then again...

Warlock's adventures begin before he's actually Warlock and certainly before writer Roy Thomas transformed him into a messianic superhero, a sort of cosmic Jesus Christ in spandex. In the few issues before he becomes Warlock, "Him" spends so much time in a cocoon that you expect him to emerge as mothman or at least something Dr Who-exotic. But, no, he starts his comic book life as an orange skinned artificial man who has powers to summon ensnaring tendrils, the ability to travel via "solar vortex" and a "mind shield" that can protect him even from Thor's mighty hammer. The DK Marvel Chronlogy has this entry for Warlock in August 1967 (the same month that Electro assembled the Emissaries of Evil to fight Daredevil):

Concussion beams? Absorbing souls? Retreating into a Soul Gem in the middle of his own forehead? Oh dear...

Beehives & Him: Fantastic Four #66

Him & Her & a Couple of Norse Gods: Thor #165

It's a couple of years before pro to-Warlock would return to a Stan Lee written Marvel comic. Thor, Balder and Sif happen to encounter "Him" in an Advanced Science Research Center". Him finds himself inexplicably re-born on Earth once more out of a cocoon - which looks more like an Egyptian mummy rising from a sarcophagus. When Thor encounters Him, he explains bombastically:

"I am less than human - - and far, far more than Man! I was created by those who sought to father a new all-powerfull race - - But they were evil and I destroyed them. Now, only I remain - - I who have no name. I who musy be known only as - - Him!"

The story of Him's origin is slightly retconned omitting any mention of Alicia or the Fantastic Four (though it could be argued he wasn't really aware of them at the time). Him tells Thor that he sought a destiny among the stars (which seems to have turned his underpants red) before being caught in a deadly "space trap" of colliding meteors and formed a cocoon around himself for protection.

At this point the reader is told what happened next which is slightly jarring ("Note: the preceding was just to show you that we know how Him git back to Earth, even if our little cast of characters does not!"): the Watcher is shown to be the creator of the space trap, which is an experiment to study stray meteors, and uses something that looks like a hand-held cosmic catapult to send Him back to Earth. Him turns out to be quite an unpleasant character who refuses to listen to Thor - stating "I am Him! I am law and truth unto myself!" For some reason he immediately decides that Sif will be his mate - which angers Thor. Sif realises that Him is like a child - but that doesn't stop him carrying her off in a solar vortex to a distant dimension.

Thor and Balder follow but are ambushed by a character called Haag which enables Him to completely run off with Sif. Thor has a complete tantrum and swears vengeance.

Crush Him Fore'er: Thor #166

In the concluding issue of Thor, the Norse god succumbs to the  berserker rage (a crime in Asgard) and spends the issue fighting Him. Once more, proto-Warlock uses tendrils to ensnare Balder so that he doesn't have to fight him. Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, simply bounces off Him without a scratch. Him doesn't comprehend why Thor is angry and places Sif in a bubble he calls "aero-space" while they scrap. He explains that it is his "mind shield" that protects him from Thor's attacks. Eventually, Thor beats Him and the orange-skinned super-being decides to cheat and use his "deadly mind power" to throw boulders at Thor. Despite this, Thor reaches Him and beats him up so that Him hides within his cocoon form. Thor hurls the cocoon into space while declaring:

"Now shielded from all harm, he floats out beyond the stars... There to drift for an hour... or an age... Till the cocoon doth open once again!"