Comic Zone: Guest Post by Will Hill (Author of Department 19)

Last week I blogged about the book festival taking place all this week at Tales On Moon Lane, Herne Hill, London. In that blog post I promised a guest piece from Will Hill, author of Department 19, my 2011 Book of the Year, and here it is. Knowing that Will is a huge comics fan I asked if he would be interested in writing something about his favourites, and boy has he delivered something very special for us. If you are free on Thursday evening at 6pm and you are London based then you really should book a seat at the event he is sharing with Marcus Sedgwick - details can be found by clicking here. Now I hand you over to Will:

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I’m a comics fan. There, I said it. I buy new comics every week, and my mum’s spare room is full of boxes of issues I bought when I was a teenager.

‘So what?’ you may well be asking. ‘Everyone is into comics these days.’ Well, you’d be half right, and you’d still be half wrong.

Comic characters have become one of THE driving forces of popular culture in the last ten years or so, fuelled by the (seemingly endless) run of big-budget Hollywood films based on them – Spider-Man, Batman, Iron Man, X-Men, Green Lantern, Superman, Fantastic Four, Thor, Daredevil, Captain America, Ghost Rider, Batman (again), Spider-Man (again) and, most notably, Marvel’s Avengers Assemble, which in three months or so has become the third highest-grossing film OF ALL TIME, behind only Titanic and Avatar. And there’s no sign of this trend coming to an end any time soon – Marvel have already announced Thor 2, Iron Man 3, Captain America 2 and The Avengers 2, DC and Warner Bros. are rebooting Superman and planning a Justice League movie and a Wonder Woman TV show, where The Walking Dead already rules the ratings. So comics are everywhere, right?

Well, as I said, yes and no. The CHARACTERS are everywhere, but the comics themselves are still a marginal art form – sales of monthly comic books have declined steadily since their high points in the mid 1990s, and the two main companies, Marvel and DC, have been on a constant mission to recruit new readers for the last ten years or so, culminating in DC restarting their entire universe and starting all their titles again with brand new issue ones.

Now, I like a lot of the films I mentioned above. But I don’t think that any of them have ever delivered the quality of storytelling that the best comic series have been able to offer. The reasons for this are what you would expect – the demands of studios and big-name stars, the need to tie in with fast food companies and toy lines, the requirement that the films be accessible to an audience that may know nothing more than the name of the main character. All of which is understandable. But is still annoying.

So – I’m going to list five of the greatest superhero comic stories ever told, and five of the best superhero titles being published today. You might not like them all, but hopefully if you give some of them a chance, you’ll find something that will make you want to keep reading. And then you can go and find the comics that you like, the ones that appeal to you – that’s the part that’s the most fun…


FIVE SUPERHERO COMICS YOU REALLY SHOULD HAVE READ

NOTE: These classic stories are all available in collected editions, from comic shops or online retailers (Book Zone note: Will very kindly took the time to provide links to these books. Clicking the images will take you to the relevant Amazon listing)


Batman: Year One (DC, 1987)

Frank Miller, one of the finest comic book writers of all time, and artist David Mazzucchelli team up to tell the parallel stories of the beginning of Bruce Wayne’s career as Batman and the arrival of a young Jim Gordon to the Gotham City Police Department. Determinedly gritty and realistic, this is one of the direct inspirations for Christopher Nolan’s series of films, and regularly acclaimed as the greatest Batman story ever told.

See also: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (DC) and Batman: The Long Halloween (DC)

X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga (Marvel, 1980)

Created by arguably the greatest team ever to work on the X-Men, Chris Claremont and John Byrne, this is the most iconic storyline from their legendary run on the characters. Jean Grey’s limitless potential power is let loose by a cosmic accident, and targeted and corrupted by villains who want it for themselves. Her transformation into the Dark Phoenix and the devastation that she wreaks across the galaxy are still as harrowing as when the books were originally published, and the ending still delivers a brutal emotional stomach punch.

See also: X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills (Marvel) and X-Men: Days Of Future Past (Marvel)

Superman: Red Son (DC, 2003)

This is perhaps the greatest ‘what if?” in the history of comics, and one of the most brilliantly simple – what if Superman had crashed to earth in the USSR instead of the American Midwest? Mark Millar explores the idea brilliantly – Superman triggers a superbeings arms race in the 1950s and the expansion of Soviet influence through the world in the 1960s and ‘70s – but never lets it get too preachy or pretentious, keeping it focused on the story in hand.

Watchmen (DC, 1986-7)

Thousands and thousands of pages of analysis have been written about Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ masterpiece that ranks as one of the most influential comics of all time. In an alternate world where costumed vigilantes have been made illegal, the former members of a costumed team investigate the death of an old colleague, and uncover a plot to bring about a global nuclear war. Of course, it’s about so much more than that – empathy, villainy, paranoia, anxiety, retirement, redundancy, and what it means to be a hero. It’s a tough, uncompromising read, but it is every bit the work of genius that everyone says it is.

Marvels (Marvel, 1994)

Alex Ross’s astonishing painted artwork (quite understandably) became the main talking point of this four-issue series, but Kurt Busiek’s story of the birth and life of the Marvel universe through the eyes of an everyman news photographer remains perhaps the greatest examination of what living in a world full of superheroes would really be like for ordinary men and women. Showing classic moments from Marvel history from a new perspective, it’s both a clever reinterpretation and a way for new readers to learn the origins of some of the most famous comic book heroes. And the art is truly amazing.

See also: Kingdom Come (DC)

FIVE CURRENT SUPERHERO COMICS YOU SHOULD TAKE A LOOK AT


NOTE: These titles have all been launched or relaunched in the last year or so – meaning they all have recent first issues that are natural jumping-on points. They’re all available digitally through either ComiXology (or their app) or the Marvel and DC apps as single issues, or as collected editions from comic shops or online retailers.

Batman (DC)

Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s run on one of the flagship DC titles is already being talked about alongside the greatest periods in Batman’s long history, and with good reason. Snyder examines the role of the Wayne family in the history of Gotham City, and conjures up a new villain to sit alongside the greats that the caped crusader has fought over his long career, while Capullo’s artwork moves the story effortlessly along. It’s truly great work.

Animal Man (DC)

Jeff Lemire is one of the best writers and artists working today, and this, his relaunch of one of the veteran DC characters, is an absolute joy. Buddy Baker can borrow the attributes of animals, and Lemire shows us a happily-married family man who fights crime when his wife lets him. But when his daughter is revealed as the harbinger of something terrible, the family go are forced to go on the run. It’s dark, bloody stuff, probably too much for younger readers, but is one of the very best of the newly relaunched DC titles.

Wonder Woman (DC)

A character that has too often been reduced to eye candy is treated with the seriousness and reverence that she deserves under the watchful eye of writer Brian Azzarello, who remakes the story of Diana, formerly an Amazonian warrior princess but now the demi-goddess daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta, into a full-blown classical horror tale. Cliff Chiang’s artwork brings to life every last god, demon and monster with simple clarity.

Wolverine and the X-Men (Marvel)

The problem with trying to read any of the X-Men books has always been the groaning weight of continuity that hangs over them, making it almost impossible to just pick an issue up and give it a try. With this in mind, Marvel relaunched the two flagship X books, starting them again at new issue ones, and splitting the huge number of characters between the two books. Wolverine and the X-Men follows Wolverine’s attempt to reopen Professor X’s school for young mutants, with surprisingly hilarious results – it’s one of the funniest comics now being published, full of adventure and action and beautiful Chris Bachalo artwork.

Note: Kieron Gillen’s work on Uncanny X-Men is also outstanding, but perhaps not as accessible as its sister title.

Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man (Marvel)

The Ultimates line of comics was a way for Marvel to strip away the continuity from their superhero universe, and tell new stories with classic characters. This title was highly controversial, as it depicts a Spider-Man who is not only NOT Peter Parker, but who is also (SHOCK! HORROR!) mixed-race – the half-Latino, half African-American Miles Morales. Apparently that still matters to some people, sadly. Thankfully, the book itself turned out to be excellent – a clever, convincing look at an ordinary New York teenager trying to juggle his normal life with the demands of being a superhero, brought beautifully to life by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli.

So there you go – go into a comic shop, pick something up and see what you make of it. Or download an issue onto your laptop, or your iPad, or your phone. Go and see where the characters that have taken over the world of pop culture actually came from, and why they’re proven to be so enduringly popular. And then when the next watered-down Hollywood adaptation is released, you can join me in telling anyone who’ll listen that it wasn’t as good as the comics…

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Huge, huge, huge thanks to Will for taking the time to write this epic guest post for us. The launch of the DC New 52 was the push I needed to start buying comics as well as collected editions, and although I have not yet tried Ultimate Comics: Spiderman, I can wholeheartedly agree with Will's other comic recommendations as I am still really enjoying every one of them. Comics are a great way to get boys excited about reading, especially when they get into a story and spend weeks looking forward to reading the next monthly issue, and these days it doesn't matter if you don't live anywhere near a comic store. As Will said, they can be enjoyed just as much on an ipad or computer screen and with superheroes now a massive part of our everyday popular culture there has never been a better time to start buying them for your kids. 

Review: Insignia by S.J. Kincaid

What if playing computer games could save the world... And what if the Government’s secret weapon was you?

Tom Raines is suddenly recruited into the US Army to train as a virtual reality Combatant to see if he is good enough to help fight World War Three. Equipped with a new computer chip in his brain, it looks like Tom might actually become somebody. But what happens when you start to question the rules?

Fast-paced and futuristic, INSIGNIA introduces snarky Tom, brutal Elliot and alluring Heather. In this first of a trilogy, Kincaid asks significant questions concerning the use of technology and the value of human life.

When I was a teenager I was the proud owner of a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and I used to spend hours playing on it, though nowhere near the amount of time that a lot of my game-loving students seem to devote to their X-Boxes or PS3s. However, at some point I grew out of it, although sitting here now I cannot remember when that was, and it was only last year when I treated myself to a PS3 that I rediscovered my love of gaming. I’m not exactly what you would call an expert on the subject, and my skills are pretty poor in comparison with the majority of game-loving students I teach, but with the quality of games available these days, and the added online element that we did not have back in the 80s, I can understand why young people, and specifically boys, read a lot less these days. I certainly read a lot less in the week following the arrival of Batman: Arkham City!

So it was with great interest that I picked up a copy of Insignia by SJ Kincaid, sent to me by the generous people at Hot Key Books, a brand new British publishing house. Hot Key’s press information included the blurb I have included at the top of this review, and although I thought it looked interesting, I certainly did not expect it to completely hook me the way that it did. Insignia is Harry Potter for gamers, with a six-pack of Top Gun thrown in for good measure, and reading it was like playing an incredibly addictive video game – once I started I just couldn’t put it down, and my wife had to literally tear it out of my hands in the end so that I could honour my promise to mow the lawn.

Insignia is set in the future, on a planet earth that is slap bang in the middle of World War III. However, this is not World War III in the way that we would imagine it to be, with governments launching nuclear missiles and other weapons of mass destruction at each other. Instead, it is a war waged by multi-national corporations, and one in which there are no human casualties at all. This war is being fought far out in the solar system, with control over valuable mining rights and rare natural resources the ultimate prizes, and where the fleets of space fighters are controlled by the minds of teenagers, from the safety of the Pentagon (in the case of those fighting for corporations allied to the US at least).

Tom Raines is a nobody, the son of a down-on-his-luck gambler, who spends his life following his father from casino to casino. The only joy Tom gets out of life is in the VR parlors that are invariably found in the casinos and hotels that his father ends up in. In these palors Tom can lose himself in the games, and for a couple of hours at least he is no longer the loser son of a loser father - he is a master gamer. It is his instinctual skill at gaming, and his mastery of tactics that brings him to the attention of a General in the US Army who is looking for someone a little different to join the elite group of teens who are fighting the war out in the solar system. Through a little persuasion, Tom finds himself enrolling to train with the best of the best, and his life his changed forever.

At this point, just because I need to get it out of my system, I am going to draw a few parallels with the Harry Potter series. I’m not saying that this is ‘the new Harry Potter’, as long-time readers of The Book Zone will know just how much it annoys me when reviewers claim this about a book, but I think the similarities between the two stories will be what make this book a huge hit with young teen readers. First up there is Tom – a boy who finds himself in a military academy surrounded by people who are already ‘in the know’ and who he sees as being much better than him because of this. All the other trainees have been selected as a result of their fantastic achievements (Mathlete of the year, winners of awards for this or that, Heavyweight Wrestling Champion, etc), whilst Tom is there because he is good at playing games. Secondly there are the characters themselves. Tom soon finds himself making friends with Vikram, who sees himself as a bit of a joker, and Wyatt, the geeky girl who just happens to be an expert on all things computer/software related. The cadets are also sorted into Divisions (like houses), there are bullies (in another Division of course) and there is a member of staff who Tom feels is out to get him. Yes, it all sounds a little familiar, but if HP had never been around then all we would be saying is that the set-up was typical of any school anywhere in the world. Yes there are similarities, but Insignia is most definitely not another cheap rip-off of Harry Potter.

One of the aspects of the Harry Potter books that made them such a huge success was the development of the various characters and the interaction between them. I guess this is why we so often see in children’s literature a character who is put in a situation where he immediately feels out-of-his-depth but is surrounded by new friends who will help him/her fit conquer his/her insecurities. This is just like real life for young people, starting new schools, having to make new friends, and so on, and therefore readers find it very easy to connect with a new character. I loved the way SJ Kincaid wrote her characters and the they interacted in the story, with the banter, pranks, dares and so on that I witness day in day out as a teacher. There are moments in this story which will have you laughing out loud, and there are moments when you might also feel tears of a very different nature start to well in your eyes.

I worked out a long time ago that when I really love a book I tend to struggle to write a concise review and I end up rambling on and on. Looking back at what I have written so far (more than 1000 words!), I would suggest that this is evidence enough regarding my love of this story. There is so much more I want to say but I feel I should bring this to a close. It has everything I think an 11+ boy or girl could ask for in a book – action, adventure, and a plot that races along like a runaway train, all anchored in the world of computer games. It also deals with themes such a friendship, personal identity, corporate greed and corruption. Despite being the first book a trilogy it also has a ‘proper’ end to it, but Insignia doesn’t need a cliffhanger ending to encourage readers to ache longingly for the sequel, the characters and the quality of the storytelling are what will have young people coming back for more. You can keep your Hunger Games, your Divergents and your Blood Read Roads, this is the dystopic future society that I have enjoyed reading about more than any others in the past year, and it will be Insignia that I will be pushing to all the kids at school come September.

Insignia is due to be published in August and my thanks go to Hot Key Books for sending me a copy to review.

Review: The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan (Kane Chronicles)

Carter and Sadie Kane, descendants of the magical House of Life, are in pretty big trouble.

Despite their bravest efforts, Apophis, the giant snake of Chaos, is still threatening to plunge the world into eternal darkness. Now the Kanes must do something no magician has ever managed - defeat Apophis himself. No pressure there then.

Battling against the forces of Chaos, their only hope is an ancient spell - but the magic has been lost for a millennia. Will they find the serpent's shadow, or will they be led to their deaths in the depths of the Underworld?

I find that last in trilogy/series books are always the hardest to review, as it is difficult to say much about the story without giving away key plot points from earlier books in the series. As I was reading The Serpent's Shadow, the final book in Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles trilogy, I was making my customary reviewer notes as I went along, but now looking at them I still can't see much that won't spoil things for readers who are yet to discover this series. I think that I am therefore going to have to resort to my occasionally used cop-out of using bullet points to highlight some of key aspects of this book.

• It has everything we have come to expect from Rick Riordan, with a story that races along and is filled with some of the best action sequences that he has written.
• It will make kids laugh out loud in places. This series is aimed at a slightly younger audience that his Percy Jackson series, and Riordan uses humour a lot more to lighten some of the darkest moments, as this is a fantasy story and not a horror story (even though some of them Egyptian gods can be pretty horrific at times). The growing relationship between the Kane siblings, who have spent most of their lives apart, has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of these books for me, and the banter between them is perfect, as is the dialogue between them and their godly friends.
• The characters. Not just Carter and Sadie, but also Walt, Zia Rashid, Bast, Anubis... I could go on and on. In this final instalment Riordan fleshes out some of his supporting cast who up until now had seemed a little two-dimensional, and shows that they are not just there to background figures, but that they too also have a key part to play if Apophis is to be prevented from bringing ultimate chaos to the world.
• In this final book Rick Riordan answers all the questions that have built in readers' minds over the earlier instalments. And let's face it, at the end of The Throne of Fire I think we had lots of questions that needed answers. In the end, the answers to some of those questions can be seen coming pages and pages before the end, but Rick Riordan also deftly throws in a handful of twists that will have young jaws hitting the ground.
• I have to mention the Egyptian gods. Again, Rick Riordan has done his research, and we are introduced to even more of the lesser-known ancient deities. I know from experience that some children have found the number of gods in these books a little confusing at times, so I would suggest that any reader who struggles with this (like I did at times) should keep a little notebook handy, with a page for each god. I notice that later this year Puffin are due to release The Kane Chronicles: Survival Guide and I imagine that this might become a very useful addition to the series.

Long time readers of The Book Zone may remember that I was less than impressed with The Red Pyramid, the first book in this trilogy as I felt that it was nowhere near as strong as his Percy Jackson books. Rick Riordan then won me over with the sequel and he has maintained this with this strong finale. Before I sign off on this review though I would like to mention that at the end of the book there are a few hints that will have Rick Riordan fans screaming OMG at the top of their voices. I'm not talking about the way he leaves things open for another series featuring Carter and Sadie Kane, but more of the way he hints that there might be some cross-over coming with another certain world he has created. On the final page of the book, narrated by Sadie, we are teased by the following: "In the meantime, there are still hotspots of evil magic and demon activity all over the world that we have to take care of. We've even got reports of unexplainable magic as close as Long Island. Probably have to check that out." And surely I'm not the only one who thinks that Anubis and Nico (from Heroes of Olympus) are just too similar for it to be a coincidence?