Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!
CHARLEY’S WAR: RETURN TO THE FRONT is the fifth collection of a revered British comic strip of the 1980s. As such, it’s a little difficult to get into if you have no previous involvement with its cast of characters. In three- to four-page bursts, the strip follows young soldier Charley Bourne and his fellow fighters during World War I, as the boys fall victim to snipers and grenades. Outside of the trenches, they fight other battles, like saving a widow from being scammed by so-called spiritualists. Joe Colquhoun’s art recalls the great E.C. war comics of a couple decades earlier, and Pat Mills’ scripts are serious and somber — in other words, a strip too high-minded for American funny pages. A couple of essays — on both the war and Charley’s depiction of it — bookend this handsome hardcover.
Turns out, there are a lot of people you wouldn’t like when they get angry, and Marvel has rounded them up for the HULK FAMILY: GREEN GENES one-shot. It begins with an original Hulk and She-Hulk team-up that takes place in a Las Vegas casino infiltrated by menacing mutants, followed by three shorter stories starring Skaar, Son of Hulk; Daughter of Hulk; and Scorpion, another presumed daughter of Hulk. Those first two take place in the fantasy world of WORLD WAR HULK, while the latter is in the present and — with her busting up S.H.I.E.L.D. agents left and right to get at her dad — is the best of the trio. Concluding the mag is a reprint of Stan Lee’s THE SAVAGE SHE-HULK #1 from 1980. There’s enough here in this oversized issue to justify the $4.99 cover price.
Devil’s Due Publishing continues issuing new stories of Michael Myers’ bloody reign in Haddonfield, Ill. (why does anyone still live there?), in HALLOWEEN: 30 YEARS OF TERROR, a one-off anthology containing five stories written by Stefan Hutchinson, and all are in continuity of the franchise. For example, “Trick or Treat” shows what happened when Tommy Doyle was sent by Laurie Strode to the Mackenzie house to call the police, while “Tommy and the Boogeymen” finds the boy all grown up. Dr. Loomis is the focus of “Repetition Compulsion,” and Laurie of “Visiting Hours.” Myers himself takes center stage for “P.O.V.,” a wordless piece in which artist Jim Daly puts you behind the mask as Michael stalks his latest prey at a beauty pageant.
Take a cue from Spider-Man, comicdom’s favorite mutants get their own bimonthly periodical, starting with Marvel’s WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN MAGAZINE #1. Like Spidey’s, it’s largely comprised of reprints of recent all-ages material. The first story pairs Wolverine with new recruit Kitty Pryde, while the last follows Iceman and other new students at Professor Xavier’s school as they tackle an alien threat. Sprinkled throughout is a comical excerpt from MINI MARVELS and a two-part Hulk story from 1974 that marks the first appearance of Wolverine — “the world’s first and greatest Canadian superhero!” — as the pair battles a Wendigo. Fun stuff; I only wish I hadn’t already read half of it elsewhere. —Rod Lott
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