Rescuing Strays – Grant Morrison’s Action Comics Vol Three

by Jack Meldrum

Volume Three: At The End of Days

Okay.

I need a minute. Let me just compose myself.

Volume Three of Morrison's Action Comics run is a transcendent and almost flawless piece of comics. And I love it. It makes the previous two volumes better by virtue of their leading into it. It feels like a magic spell, some sort of occult incantation designed to transform the mind and reshape the soul.

It being Morrison, it might be just that.

End of Days opens on one of the best single issues I've ever read  - a story about a boy and his dog, and ghosts, and Halloween. It features the wickedly cool Dr. Xa-Du, a Kryptonian scientist with the ethical integrity of wet string, who makes himself real outside the Phantom Zone with pure willpower. He's another living idea, of course, just like so many of the foes we meet in Action. The story itself is a tear-jerkingly sweet little tale, a critical interlude in the mind-bending space opera we're stepping into. Xa-Du is poached by the Little Man for his Anti-Superman Army and Krypto joins the Superman cast and I cried and cried when the little dog gets carried to the sun by his loving master.

It just amps up from there. In the mind of the five-dimensional Ms. Nyxly, we see Superman save astronauts on Mars and we meet the Little Man for real, as the legitimately terrifying, 5D satanic monster Vyndyktvx. The Little Man really is the devil.

After that, it's nothing but flawless, pitch-perfect comics. Soaring, sweeping emotion. Meta-fictional madness. A tight, dense, mythical story where Superman, in the end, fights his own extradimensional doppelganger, Superdoom – himself just another tool of the cackling Vyndyktvx. We meet our Mxzptlk, a charmingly corny old bloke, and we see everything Morrison put into play in the past two volumes collide in a cross-time war against the sun-god.

Vyndyktvx is one of Morrison's finest creations, a master plotter without a conscience, hamstrung by his own addiction to complexity. He appears, in fleeting, as a heinous tentacled beast, and more often as a many-faced, multi-armed thing. He's truly incredible. Employed as the power behind every plot in the run, Vyndyktvx crosses time and space to stack the deck against his self-declared nemesis, and Morrison and his cabal of artists make him... unfathomable.

Constantly, this last volume reminds us of what Morrison has said since issue one: that Superman has power as an idea, a concept, a myth. In the end, the very end, that's all that matters – the vast, cross-time madness of Vyndyktvx's scheme, a scheme we met as far back as that first page, that we first saw in those crazy encounters with the Legion of Superheroes, collapses with nothing more than one word (not that I'm telling you what it is), because we believed in Superman. He stops doomsday, banishes the devil.

Grant Morrison is one of the best comics writers who ever lived. He's not the best, but he's my favourite, and this run manifests his everything. This is a story about stories, one where the sanctity of ideals is what wins the day. One where dimensions bend at the whims of a monster but where it's us, in ourselves, inspired by one man, who can change everything.

It's a wild, deranged, hyper-intelligent drug trip of a story, a life-changing exploration of everything Superman was and is. It dives deep into the power of the written and spoken word, the unbreakable power of the human soul, the potency of belief and faith. It's everything I ever wanted in a comic. Everything I ever wanted from Superman. And I want you all to read it. To join in, to be there at the end of days, to add your name to the moment where we banish the devil, together with a boy and his dog.

Jack Meldrum has no words. Murdlem Kcaj believes in Superman.

Cheltenham Drink & Draw - June 2014: And the winner is...

by Rae

This month saw the first ever Cheltenham Drink & Draw! On the night, we had so many amazing pictures being drawn that we held a little competition. Anyone who wanted to was invited to lend us their images to be posted online and voted on. The time to vote has now run out, and it's time to announce the image which achieved the most votes!

Here's the winning entry:

Congratulations to the winner, Michelle Harvey! Michelle wins a set of three great comics selected by Ben. You can check out more of her work on her Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter feeds, plus she has shiny items for sale on her Redbubble page.

Thank you to everyone who participated, we had an amazing collection of artwork to show off. If you submitted your piece to us, you may now come and collect it, either from Proud Lion or at the next Drink & Draw.

Oh yes, the next Drink & Draw! Have you all seen that the theme for Tuesday, July 1st, is Lego? Click here to read more about it! See you next week at Boston Tea Party!

Rae is contemplating buying more Lego...

New Beginnings - Outcast #1

by Matt Puddy

Riding high on the renowned comic and the subsequent smash hit TV show, The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman is releasing a new comic this week. This is in addition to the currently running Invincible and Thief of Thieves (and forgotten gems like Super Dinosaur and Haunt), making Outcast yet another string to his very diverse bow.

This first issue is a scene setter, laying groundwork for the series, but most importantly it introduces us to Kyle. Now a complete shell of a man trying to live on the outskirts of the real world, Kyle is trying to escape from his own past which has been plastered with tragedy at his own hands, fighting demonic possession of first his mother and then his wife. The only problem is that he doesn’t really know what he is running from and the ideas he has of what it could be he doesn’t believe... at first.

Dragged back into civilisation against his will by his sister-in-law leads to a chance encounter with the Reverend who “helped” with his mother. This time, Kyle’s assistance is requested with a young boy who is apparently possessed. Firm in the belief that it was Kyle himself who was critical in the exorcism of his mother, the Reverend pleads with him to help and eventually he caves in, partially through morbid curiosity but mostly driven to help. To understand.

What Kyle finds though confirms his fears; there is something inside young Joshua, something dark and evil. Worse still it recognises Kyle. The demon and its brethren have been looking for someone like him. An outcast. Releasing the boy from the demon's grip using his own blood – which burns on contact – only creates more answers that need to be found on top of the already growing pile of questions. 

What is Kyle? Why is he like this? And what is the force that is pursuing him to the detriment of those around him? Issue #2 and onwards will find all of this out.

In the open letter that forms the afterword to this first issue, Kirkman explains that this comic is going to be one of exploration into the accounts and possibilities of possession, albeit without too much of a religious angle on it and this issue has certainly opened the door for that.

For the series he has teamed up with Paul Azaceta, who has a wide artistic CV covering Marvel, Boom! Studios and Dark Horses comics to name a couple of big publishers. He has quite a heavy style, but uses shapes and shadows to create a sinister backdrop to the whole story. Elizabeth Breitweiser's colouring can at times be almost a little too heavy though, as you have to really pay attention to a couple of frames to take it all and not miss any points – one of which I feel will become quite important in issues to come.

This is a new comic taking an old concept and adding a new twist. What I did also like was that there is already a feeling of longevity to it. It’s a series that almost feels like it has gravitas from the first issue. A worthwhile one to follow if you want to step away from the realms of superheroes and into something sinister. One that is almost possible in a village near you...

Matt Puddy walks off into the mist humming Tubular Bells.

New Beginnings - The Wicked and The Divine #1

by Matt Puddy

On a reasonably regular occurrence the old adage of 'never judge a book by its cover' certainly comes into its own. For me, this week's review is one of those weeks.

The Wicked and The Divine gives absolutely nothing away with its cover. A female figure staring straight ahead with an almost Warhol-esque colouring to it. So far I’m drawing a blank on what it could be.

From the cover I can take some solace in that I know it’s a collaboration between Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. I’ve really liked Gillen’s work on Iron Man and how he built it up, so there’s promise there. Equally McKelvie’s artwork is akin to the styles I prefer to see, so all looking positive.

So what’s it all about? Opening at the close of 1923, a shadowy gathering of individuals and skulls are preparing to part ways. For one of them the road continues, but for everyone else their fate is sealed in a large explosion. Resuming at the dawn of 2014 we are given a hint at what this could all be about with the name dropping of another Shinto godess, Amaterasu, and shortly after Luci(fer). This is all about gods and goddesses walking amongst us.

Taking the form of teenagers, we meet several deities from different cultures all interacting with human society. They’re very restrained though and miracles are kept to a minimum, but because of this there has bred a large degree of scepticism. It’s only the pivotal moment of the scene that changes this and sets up what I believe to be a central moment for the series. When two snipers try to kill the occupants of the room they are in, Lucifer - with the snap of her fingers - makes their heads explode.

This leads to a court case that  creates a surreal situation. The court is asked to find Luci guilty, but with no weapon and only the snap of her fingers presumed as the cause, what could really be done? It’s only when the judge's head somehow also spreads itself all over the courtroom that things go awry for a multitude of reasons. The obvious one is that Luci says she didn’t do it, but it does point an exceedingly large amount of guilt on her. The bigger question is if it wasn’t her, then who did it? There is dissent amongst the godly ranks.

I want to say that this is a completely original idea, but regardless of how impressed with the story I was, I always had a nagging memory of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods in my head which has a similar 'they walk among us' theme. That said this is still a great idea - although we are not alone they aren’t omnipotent and fall foul of human emotions, as well as the restrictions inherent in possessing a human body, for though they are immortal, they are not invincible. They are also fallible giving a different side to them as well. Even the personalities of the individual gods, born from their respective mythologies, come through to add to their appearance and demeanour, which I liked.

The artwork plays a large part in expressing these characters. This isn’t a cluttered or heavy comic to read, thanks to McKelvie’s strong, clean pencils. I did have to chuckle when Sakhmet, a highly animalistic and sexual god from Egyptian mythology, looked a lot like Rihanna...

Matt Wilsons' colouring is light meaning although it has a simplistic look to it the comic is actually full of information for the reader to absorb.

On the whole I found this a very interesting little comic to add to the Image stable and one I would be interested to see where it goes and how it develops as it runs the risk of slipping into precarious territory. I feel there is a lot more to see and have develop and if Gillen’s current run is anything to go by there will be good things to come.

Matt Puddy is a rock and roll legend in these parts.