Review Category: Comic Books

Other things happen in the pages of this, the thirty-sixth edition of The Complete Case Files, but the main event? Judge Dredd fights aliens. And not just any old aliens; the Xenomorphs of Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise. No stranger to a comic book crossover, the Xenomorphs have previously battled Batman, Superman, Green Lanterns, and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the past. But when it comes to Dredd, the lawman’s crossover adventures are generally canon, making John Wagner, Andy Diggle, and Henry Flint’s Incubus feel just a little bit more special. And here it is, the jewel of The Complete Case Files 36.

One almost feels bad for the other stories lumped in with this collection, overshadowed by what might be one of Dredd’s best crossovers this side of a Batman beat ‘em up. As one might expect in the lead-up to such an epic, they’re a relatively slight lot, but beautifully illustrated and written. Remember that one time Dredd turned into a werewolf? John Wagner certainly does, and delivers an entertaining sequel in Out of the Undercity, illustrated by Carl Critchlow. As if Xenomorphs and Werewolves weren’t enough, there’s the usual colourful line-up of crazies, kooks, and creeps we’ve come to expect from 2000 AD by now.

Even without Incubus, this is a great line-up of Dredd stories, featuring a tremendous roster of talent on the pens and inks. Utilizing the likes of Ian Gibson, Siku, P.J. Holden, Mike McMahon, Henry Flint and… of course, the late, great Carlos Ezquerra, it’s a real who’s who of early noughties Dredd artists. Don’t expect much variety in writers though. Aside from a handful of strips from Gordon Rennie and an assist by Andy Diggle on Incubus, this is John Wagner’s show. And what a show it is. They put up a hell of a fight, but the Xenomorphs never stood a chance.

Release Date: Feb 4th

Essential Judge Dredd doesn’t get much more essential than The Apocalypse War, the essential Judge Dredd story which essentially started it all. Big, world-changing stories had come before in the shape of The Cursed Earth and The Day the Law Died, but The Apocalypse War forever raised the stakes for Dredd and Mega City One. Its impact can still be felt today, as can the ramifications of Dredd’s actions in bringing the war to an end.

The second book in the Essential Judge Dredd collection compiles the complete storyline, starting with the unassuming Block War with which it begins. Events spiral from citizens fighting in the street to all-out-war between Mega City One and the Soviet Judges of Russia. With the Judges distracted by rioting citizens, the East Meg launches a surprise attack, nuking Mega City One. Widely regarded as the greatest storyline in the character’s history, The Apocalypse War has it all – biting satire, thrilling action, grisly violence, and Dredd at his moral grey-est. Apocalyptic warfare is promised and that’s exactly what John Wagner, Alan Grant, and Carlos Ezquerra deliver. The comic strip is transformed into a gritty war epic, demolishing entire districts of the Big Meg and cruelly obliterating over 150 million citizens. All this, in full colour, allowing the iconic artwork to take centre stage. Charlie Kirchoff’s colours are no mere paint-by-numbers, breathing a whole new life into the story, making Apocalypse War look better than ever. And it wasn’t to be sniffed at before either – featuring the terrific artwork of Ezquerra, Brian Bolland, Ron Smith, Mike McMahon, and Steve Dillon, this has always been one of 2000AD’s most impressively illustrated books.

40 years later, and The Apocalypse War is still the mega-epic by which all other mega-epics are judged. The story has lost none of its thrill-power with time, and hits just as hard now as it ever did. Simply put, it’s the Judge Dredd mega-epic.

FORMAT: TRADE PAPERBACK | RELEASE DATE: JAN 26TH

The adventures of the rogue archaeologist continue in the second volume of Doctor Aphra, taking us into the post-The Empire Strikes Back era and delivering all the action and audaciousness we expect from the galaxy’s cheekiest tomb raider….errr, we mean professional acquirer of antiquities.

This time around we’re introduced to a new team of cohorts to accompany Aphra on her adventures as she heads to find the legendary Rings of Vaale, but this is Doctor Aphra and in her world, nothing is ever easy. Ronan Tagge, the wealthy beyond reason scion of the Tagge family also wants the Rings, but not to own them. His jam is quite the opposite, as he relishes being the last person to hold valuable antiques before destroying them. Throw in your usually Aphra-esque twists, turns, betrayals, and moments of good fortune and what you have is a trade paperback that covers every angle and hurls us into an area of the Star Wars galaxy that absolutely deserves deeper investigation.

With new Star Wars titles being added with alarming regularity, there’s a risk that fans either tap out on certain titles or, as has been the case in other universes when there are too many titles (Superman, Batman, X-Men, Spider-Man etc), tap out entirely. Aphra might not be the title you’d chose to ‘save’, but for engaging fun and some great artwork you’d be hard-pressed to find a better read.

FORMAT: SINGLE ISSUE | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The new era of the Star Wars saga has launched with aplomb as novels Light of the Jedi and A Test of Courage land, along with Marvel Comic’s first issue of The High Republic from prolific author Cavan Scott and artist Ario Anindito. Set 200 years before the events of The Phantom Menace we waste no time in swinging into the galaxy of the time, to Shuraden on the edge of the Republic frontier where we find Trandoshan Jedi Master Sskeer and his Padawan Keeve Trennis sparring, as she learns she’s working through her Jedi trials.

Tasked with retrieving a pendant from the top of some ancient peaks, Keeve struggles, as a hoard of alien creatures swing in, as we head to the fabled Starlight Beacon where we meet Avar Kriss, one of the most venerated Jedi Knights of her age as she is given the rank of marshall (an increasingly common occurrence in Star Wars the past few months) of the Starlight Beacon station. We meet the familiar – Yoda, walking a different path away from the council on his own starship, the Star Hopper – and the new in Master Maru, organising the dedication ceremony of the station.

There’s a snappy humour that is very welcome if used judiciously, a promise of a new era set against the backdrop of familiar worlds and characters we’re sure to learn plenty about through books and comics over the years. Issue 2 can’t come quick enough.

FORMAT: HARDCOVER, DIGITAL | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

What makes Alien the classic it is? Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley – one of the greatest kick-ass characters in all of sci-fi? H.R. Giger’s incredible creatures? Ridley Scott’s direction? The believable, relatable characters (brought to life by one of the best ensemble casts in either horror or sci-fi history)? In truth, it’s probably a combination of these elements meshing together to create something far greater than the sum of its parts.

But it could have been very, very different, and Alien: The Original Screenplay gives us a fascinating look at what might have been had the stars had not aligned the way they did.

The original screenplay, by Dan O’Bannon was missing many of the elements would that go on to make it a classic. There’s no Ripley, no Nostromo (instead we have the less-inspired Snark), no Dallas, Parker or any of the others, and the film’s minimalist script is even more bare-bones here. Add to that, the version presented here is pre either Scott or Giger’s involvement, and we have a very different version of a classic.

Gone are Giger’s grotesque other-worldly, phallic designs – and Scott’s beautiful capturing of them. Instead, we’re presented with different, earlier versions of the alien’s various incarnations, the space jockey and his derelict ship, as well as the characters and the world they inhabit. They’re equally elaborate, more colourful, but less awe-inspiring (and definitely less perverse) that Giger’s timeless designs.

Likewise, the familiar characters are replaced with a new set. And without great actors to breathe life into them, O’Bannon’s lightly sketched characters (which he deliberately left vague, so they could be tailored to the actors cast in the roles) feel lightweight and interchangeable, meaning when they’re inevitably dispatched in a variety of grisly ways, we feel nothing for them.

The story meanwhile will be at once familiar and strangely different to the one fans are familiar with, retracing many of the same story beats. Distress calls, derelict (non-fallopian tube-shaped) ships, rudely-interrupted meals, cats, flamethrowers and airlocks are all present and correct, as are the alien pyramid omitted – probably wisely – from the movie, and the cocooned crew members (another sensible omission, but you can see it in Scott’s director’s cut if you’re curious).

What’s noticeably absent are the additional threats the movie presents, leaving the alien as the sole source of terror. There are no androids, no ominous employer willing to sacrifice the crew for profit, no sinister computer, and the tensions between the crew are largely absent. And while it leaves for a more focussed script, the singular threat lessens the feeling of dread. In the movie, the crew are in an impossible situation – in a self-contained environment where everything is trying to kill them, from the xenomorph to one of their crew – the physical embodiment of their soleless employer.

It’s a far-lesser version of Alien than we’re used to, but far from devoid of merit. It’s still a great story, beautifully adapted by author Christano Seixas and artist Guilherme Balbi, as well as an indication of the sometimes-torturous process that a film can go through or the journey from script to screen. It’s a fascinating look at a what-might-have-been version of Alien, but ultimately, you feel the changes Ridley Scott made were very much for the best.

FORMAT: TRADE PAPERBACK  | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Fairy Tales can easily be described as the original fantasy stories.  There’s something about these tales that is so primal and so straight forward that we keep re-telling them again and again. Partially this is because they’re all about some element of the human experience, but it’s also due to the lure of the fantastic. It’s easier to cope with the real world with a little bit a sweet fantasy to taste.

Which brings us to Trung Le Nguyen’s amazing graphic novel, The Magic Fish.  This is the story of Tiế n, a young lad who is still trying to figure out the world. His parents are Vietnamese refugees, and in order to help them improve their English (and for him to keep practicing his Vietnamese) they read fairy tales out to each other.

These tales form the framework (and extended metaphor) for Tiế n’s own struggles. The tales are, broadly, re-mixes of both Cinderella, Blue Beard and The Little Mermaid.  There’s Vietnamese folk lore thrown in for good measure and they’re gorgeous stories.  Our protagonist’s main worry is that though he knows he’s gay, he’s not entirely sure how his parents will respond. And he literally doesn’t have the words to tell them; his Vietnamese isn’t that good.

The art is lovely; a gentle balance between cartoonish innocence and brutal fairy-tale. The costume designs are especially brilliant and the visual storytelling is pretty much perfect. This is a story about finding your place in the world, about immigration and about accepting yourself and others. It’s suitable for pretty much everyone and is rather special. Recommended.

FORMAT: TRADE PAPERBACK (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 5^th

Superman’s origin story keeps getting revisited because for such a simple idea, it’s one that is full of potential. Over the decades, the planet Krypton has developed its own lore and drama but the essential message has remained the same;  hubris can doom anyone, even the wisest.

The House Of El – The Shadow Threat is a graphic novel set during the last days of Krypton. We follow the lives of two of Krypton’s finest. Zahn is destined for greatness, genetically engineered to be a great leader.  Sera is also modified, but to be a fearless and brave soldier. Krypton is a society where everyone is assumed to know their place and because everyone is adapted. With a planet-wide environmental disaster looming, most people are ignoring it because if it was a problem, the right people would have fixed it by now.

As a metaphor for real-world issues, The House of El is pretty unsubtle but that is the point. This is more a story of plucky young people fighting against the status quo than anything deeper or more involved. The characters are interesting and fun. Though the story is filled with the usual sorts of clichés you’d expect from Young Adult apocalyptic sci-fi, this just adds to the fun. Of course, the main characters are going to doubt themselves.  They absolutely have to deal with the sorts of emotional trauma young people have to deal with whilst also trying to save the world; it’s that sort of book.

Eric Zawadzki’s art is solid throughout. He makes Krypton look like a doomed art deco wonderland, and attention is given not only to the various details that make each of the Kryptonian Houses distinct but also the visual legacy of Superman as a whole. It’s a visual treat and complements Claudia Gray’s solid and accessible writing style perfectly.

Overall, this a fun addition to the Superman canon, though it is unlikely to change the world, especially not Krypton.

FORMAT: HARDCOVER | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Adventureman is a cult pulp hero, square-jawed, blond-haired, well-muscled, big-hearted, and almost entirely irrelevant to the plot. Well for these first four collected issues at least. Instead, this is the story of ordinary bookshop owning, hearing-impaired, half-Jewish ex-cop everywoman Claire. To call Claire a Mary Sue would be unfair, sexist, and frustratingly accurate.

This comic is a story about story, about how legends interact with themselves. At least we think it is. By issue four it still isn’t quite clear where the plot is going. And this isn’t to say that Adventureman is slow-moving. In fact, quite the opposite. Issue one chucks so much plot at you, from both the past and the present, that it’s hard (and fruitless) to keep up. I counted the introduction of no less than 31 characters by page 34 (some who don’t appear again by issue four).

The frustrating thing is how much most of the backstory can be told in shorthand. Square-jawed hero of the early 20th century? Got it? Gang of eccentric fellow heroes? Logged. Bookstore owner obsessed with genre who is drawn into the mystery of whether Adventureman and co were real. What else?

To its credit, the art is incredible. Characters are very standard comics but lovingly thought out, with excellent distinctive quirks, but the stand-out is the backgrounds, rich with detail and an impressive sense of sweep in big action scenes or breathtaking landscapes.

As such, it’s disappointing that the storytelling doesn’t take a lead from the art. We get the sense that there are some great ideas in here, but the story is swamped by sheer weight of stuff, the broad sweep being crowded out by the detail in a story we possibly kind of already know.