Warrior Women #1

[Jun 1982]. Cover price 40p.
52 pages. B&W contents.
Marvel Comics Ltd.

Edited by Alan McKenzie.

Cover by Paul Neary.

Contents:

 2 Warrior Women Bonus Pin-Up Poster Photographs of Caroline Munro in At the Earth's Core, Magda Konopka, Victoria Vetri & Imogen Hassall in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Victoria Vetri in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, and Dana Gillespie in The People That Time Forgot, text by Alan McKenzie(?).

Note: Continues on inside rear cover.

 3 Warrior Women Contents / Credits / Indicia

 4 Shanna the She-Devil The Wrath of Raga-Shah! w: Steve Gerber; a: Tony DeZuniga, lettering by Jim Novak.

r: Rampaging Hulk (Marvel Comics) #09 (Jun 1978).

22 Shanna the She-Devil - a Portfolio by Tony De Zuniga text by Anthony Kraft.

r: Rampaging Hulk (Marvel Comics) #09 (Jun 1978).

27 In Every Issue of Rampage Magazine (half page) in-house advertisement. / From Out of the Depths of the Hyborian Age (half page) in-house advertisement for The Savage Sword of Conan.

28 Fury of the Femizons w: Stan Lee; a: John Romita, lettering by Sam Rosen.

r: Savage Tales (Marvel Comics) #01 (May 1971).

38 Warrior Women of the Movies Raquel Welch photograph pin-up.

39 Warrior Women of the Movies photographs of Lynda Carter in Wonder Woman (uncredited) and Shih Szu in Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, text by Alan McKenzie (?).

40 Warrior Women of the Movies photographs of Jane Fonda in Barbarella, Julie Ege in Creatures the World Forgot, and Dana Gillespie in The People That Time Forgot.

41 Warrior Women of the Movies photographs of Jane Seymour in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, Ursula Andress in She, and Barbera Carrera in The Island of Doctor Moreau.

42 Warrior Women of the Movies photographs of Caroline Munro in At the Earth's Core and Jane Fonda in Barbarella.

43 Starburst in-house advertisement.

44 A Tale of the Hyborian Age The Woman from Khitai w: Don Glut; p: Gary Brodsky, i: Tony DeZuniga.

r: The Savage Sword of Conan (Marvel Comics) #49 (Feb 1980).

52 The Marvel Summer Specials Are Here! in-house advertisement for Western Gunfighters, Captain Britain, Warrior Women and Young Romance specials.

Warrior Women poses a problematic title in Marvel UK's history. Addressed at face value it is an open celebration of T&A, yet can (with ample justification) be framed as a celebration of strong female characters. As the title never led anywhere, nor influenced the direction of other titles, it has to be taken at face value. Some degree of lenience must be given in addressing its portrayal of women - this was released when Benny Hill was a major television draw, so some areas (if not getting a pass) can at least be understood.

Paul Neary's cover isn't bad, but emphasizes Shanna's assets in a manner which probably split the audience for this issue - I can't be alone in wondering what a random stripper is doing gracing the cover of a Marvel title. Her appearance inside the issue, taken from the magazine-format line of comics, answers at least one question: this title doesn't exist to highlight strong, intelligent women capable of kicking ass - this is strictly cheesecake territory, with no attempt to disguise the fact.

The jungle is more than a place -- it;s a psychology, predicated on the principle that only the strong survive. Thus, there are asphalt jungles, blackboard jungles, corporate jungles... Which no civilized human being can tolerate for long. Not even Shanna the She-Devil!.

After two years roaming the plains of Dahomey and the steamy rain forests of India... After two years in pursuit of the Raga-Shah, high priest of the murder cult of Kali... Shanna O'Hara has come home, to the serene predictability of San Pedro, California, south of Los Angeles. It was that, or allow her rage to consume her sanity.

Staying in a small cottage, Shanna has been tending her garden, taking refresher courses in veterinary medicine, and seeing a psychiatrist for her anxiety issues. Pushing down her fears and coping with boredom, Shanna embraces the dangers to be found in her private recreation of the jungle, replete with a deadly python she has named Ananta after the multi-headed Hindu serpent of eternity. Ananta obliges her, and the two engage in mock combat.

Which feels, somehow, more than mere combat training, which she recognises to a degree.

Having satisfied herself for a while, Shanna heads out to the home of Madeline Wickes, from where they have arranged to visit the Taj Mahal Mall. While walking through the mall, Shanna encounters the high priest of the Cult of Kali, Raga-Shah. Attempting to obtain her vengeance on him, for the murder of Central Park Zoo's leopards in 1972, she is restrained by the mall's security - and informed that Raga-Shah owns the mall. Shanna tells her psychiatrist of the incident, but finds skepticism in her words.

Exiting the building, Shanna runs into Raga-Shah's assassins, who didn't expect her to be done for another half hour. Taking the fight out into the open streets, Shanna is soon incapacitated by a drugged blade plunged into her shoulder. When she finally awakes, Shanna finds herself on an alter upon which Raga-Shah intends to make her a sacrifice to Kali. As the priest expands on his motivations, Shanna attempts to free herself - unable to break free, and unwilling to scream for assistance, she contemplates her fate.

Finally shattering the bonds which hold her, Shanna takes on the amassed force of the cult members. When only Raga-Shah remains standing, Shanna informs him that his fate has already been decided.

Despite a small mountain of problematic elements, which would take far too much space to cover in detail, this isn't an awful story. The presentation of Shanna in highly-sexualised poses is uncomfortable, but no more fetishistic than contorted, overly-muscled images of Spider-Man. What stands out, amid everything else, is the sense that Shanna is somehow not in control of events until the final, decisive battle turns in her favour. Without having a definite agenda, aside from seeking the death of Raga-Shah, she is left to react to the world around her.

Shanna's relationship with her snake is eyebrow-raising, in all the wrong ways, and Raga-Shah choosing to cut her leg with a knife is slightly too on-the-nose. The story almost demands an intense discussion. It is, nevertheless, a bold story, with some interesting angles to its worldview - accepting that Shanna is suffering from her adventures, and seeking help for her psychological issues, makes for a very different narrative than is usually seen in Marvel strips. The flashback (for once) actually has a purpose, and the art...

DeZuniga is a master of picking moments out of the script, though he overdoes the "gentleman's magazine" poses. Switching between a more standard style and rough, realistic images, he evokes the world which Shanna inhabits beautifully. The lettering, however, is atrocious in places - largely working in sync with the art, it sometimes obscures where it should be invisible. When lettering is really noticed, as here, it is rarely for good reasons.

The (brief) portfolio of Shanna sketches has the air of Comics Interview about it, though the larger pages allow for more detail than similar material. It does highlight a couple of artistic choices which don't quite gel for me - Shanna's upper arms aren't as developed as I might have expected, and her shoes don't look particularly effective for a jungle-based character. Given that her costume is basically a fur swimsuit, perhaps functionality isn't quite as important for Shanna...

The Fury of the Femizons is, even by Stan Lee standards, a hokey and cartoonish tale of a future American society ruled by women, where all are birthed by sperm vials rather than traditional means. To add to the mix, it is a society ruled over by a queen. Princess Lyra bests another woman in combat, earning herself a male slave to do with as she pleases - yet he is more than another slave, and has arranged to be taken as Lyra's slave in order to get his hands on brain tapes, forbidden technology which reveals the entire history of the human race. Men outside the city have reverted to bestial forms, crafting axes with which to attack the women of the cities.

Overwhelmed by its flimsy basis, the story never feels remotely real, and the characters are given roles to perform rather than personalities which drive their actions - at least Romita is on strong form, even if he does take more than a smidgeon of costume inspiration from Thor comics. It is precisely the kind of story which shouldn't have found a home here, and explains (in some small way) why there was never a regular Warrior Women series.

There are, in addition to the inside covers, five pages containing (monochrome, naturally) photographs of women culled from various and sundry feature films of (questionable) note, the introduction of which is further migraine-inducing icing on the cake:

As a special added bonus we've gathered together a selection of photos of the lovely actresses who had achieved fame by playing barbarous, savage or warrior women in the field of fantasy cinema. And if, after perusing this feature, you'd like to see more of this type of article, why not latch on to our sister publication, Starburst, which focuses on the world of tv, cinema science fantasy.

"Lovely ladies"? "Peruse"? This isn't a top-shelf magazine, and I would rather read the opinions of the ladies in question than have (some extremely) scantily clad photographs filling the pages of a comic magazine. The terminology aside, black and white photographs only work to their full advantage when printed on high quality paper, and this is far from such a publication - a horrid blob of ink marring Jane Seymour's face on my copy attests to the lack of care in bringing together the issue. And I don't remember Starburst routinely running photographs of women solely for their perceived attractiveness, though, on occasion, there were features of this kind.

It needs to be noted that the lack of imagination in selecting strong female characters is a hindrance to the feature's effectiveness. Nowhere is Ika from the recent Quest for Fire seen, nor mention made of real-life heroines such as Mariya Oktyabrskaya, or the role of women in the military in general. I would have expected at least passing mention of Joan of Arc, given the title of the magazine, for which enough material exists to run a monthly feature indefinitely without duplication of facts.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko's spirit weeps at the contents of this issue.

Because Marvel had an obsession with the world of Conan, there is (depressingly) yet another Hyborian outing here, though opening with a scene apparently set in a harem does not inspire confidence in whatever meagre remnants of the main objective of the title remains. The focus on female characters physical attributes throughout (albeit beautifully rendered depictions) brings me to the conclusion that a female readership was far from the concern of Alan McKenzie (or Marvel at large) when this was being compiled.

But wait... Before everyone agrees that this is a relic of a bygone age, writing off the notion of a title focused on women warriors as a horrid notion which ought to be consigned to history, there is some seed of genius here - a notion which even Titan's Xena - Warrior Princess magazine didn't exploit to any degree. By bringing together a translation of Yū Koyama's Azumi, features on films such as Kill Bill or The Professional, as well as some historical information, this might actually have a place in modern publishing.

There are no bad ideas, only poor implementations of ideas.

A rather undistinguished title, with problematic content, though highlighting an (overall) underdeveloped area which (specifically) British comics had thus far largely neglected, this ought to be better remembered - if only to avoid the obvious pitfalls, and serve as a guide to future endeavours in the same vein. And no, neither Vampirella nor Xena's appearances in British publications makes up for this.

Castle of Horror #1

1978. Cover price 35p.
68 pages. B&W contents.
Portman Distribution Ltd.

We Take You Into Nightmare Worlds of the Living Dead
The most shocking terror tales you've ever read

Edited by Alan McKenzie.

Painted cover by Jose Antonio Domingo.
r: The Haunt of Horror (Cadence Comics Publications) #03 (Sep 1974).

Contents:

 2 Castle of Horror Introductory text by Alan McKenzie (? uncredited). / Contents / Indicia.

 3 Morbius the Living Vampire pin-up; a: (uncredited).

r: ?

 4 Morbius the Living Vampire A Taste of Crimson Life, part one: Fast of Blood w: Doug Moench; a: Sonny Trinidad.

15 Morbius the Living Vampire A Taste of Crimson Life, part two: Temptation w: Doug Moench; a: Sonny Trinidad.

23 Morbius the Living Vampire A Taste of Crimson Life, part three: Feast of Blood w: Doug Moench; a: Sonny Trinidad.

r: Vampire Tales (Marvel Monster Group) #10 (Apr 1975).

29 The Rats! w: Gerry Conway; a: Ralph Reese.

r: The Haunt of Horror (Cadence Comics Publications) #01 (May 1974)

37 Blindspot! w: Gerry Conway; a: Virgilio Redondo & Alfredo Alcala.

r: Vampire Tales (Marvel Monster Group) #10 (Apr 1975).

46 A House of Pleasure the House of Death w: Doug Moench; a: Mike Vosburg & Howard Nostrand.

r: Vampire Tales (Marvel Monster Group) #10 (Apr 1975).

56 Lilith, Daughter of Dracula pin-up; illustrated by Pablo Marcos.

r: Vampire Tales (Marvel Monster Group) #06 (Aug 1974).

57 Lilith, Daughter of Dracula UNTITLED w: Steve Gerber, from a script by Marv Wolfman; a: Bob Brown & Tom Palmer.

r: Vampire Tales (Marvel Monster Group) #06 (Aug 1974).

67 Get Your Teeth into the Next Issue preview.

68 On Sale Now in-house advertisement for Tales of Terror.

A remarkably effective cover promises much for the daring reader, using a visual language more common to European film posters than British comics. A group of walking dead slowly advancing upon a woman in a torn dress speaks to a more mature, more dangerous, branch of horror. It may not accurately represent anything within Castle of Horror's first issue, but it is a cover which has always appealed. Amando de Ossorio would have loved this image - its that good.

But we can't look at this title without addressing the major flaw. This is a collection of Marvel horror strips, so holding out hopes for boundary-pushing, violent mayhem is going to result in rather disappointed readers. It is a surprise that material collected from various Marvel magazines is so good, although (as is to be expected) nowhere near as tantalising as promised by first impressions.

Michael Morbius. You had the world at your feet. Winner of the Nobel Prize. Loved by the beautiful Martine despite your physical hideousness. But you didn't have your health. A rare disease of the blood was gnawing at your life. Your precious life. In desperation you dabbled in forbidden research to stave off your illness. The ghastly pallor of your features and your craving for blood was the result of experimenting with vampire bats and electric shocks. You have your life but it cost you your soul. You are forever...

Morbius, the Living Vampire

Nikos Michaels arrives in Painesville, Penn., population 93, at the home of Alicia Twain in order to rent a room. Alcia is only renting her room due to her husband's death in a mining disaster, and has been struggling to meet the mortgage on her home. His insistence on keeping his face covered, and not merely against rain which has fallen upon the town for three days, arouses suspicion that he is a fugitive from legal difficulties, but Nikos' request for seclusion and privacy wards off Alicia's inquiries.

Once alone in the room, Nikos removes his face covering to reveal the visage of Morbius, wracked with pain from the lack of blood. His anguished cries startle Alicia, and she ascends the stairs to check on her guest, who is desperately struggling to control his blood-lust, determined that no more innocent lives shall be taken in order to sustain his hunger. Morbius decided to take the room so that he could search for a cure to his condition, and his privacy is utmost. Unaware of her guest's true nature, but needing money his stay will generate, she leaves him alone.

As hunger pangs wrack his body once more, Morbius smashes carefully mounted scientific apparatus in frustration. Hearing the noise above, Alicia grows concerned about the welfare of her guest, but upon entering his room Morbius throws the carcass of a rat at her. Leaping through a window to escape her gaze - to prevent himself feasting on her blood - he glides off to seek solace elsewhere. Alicia searches his room for answers, discovering a journal of work notes in the name of Michael Morbius.

In the town, ravaged by hunger and soaked by rain, Morbius happens upon a copper ore miner who is heading to a bar - before he can feed, his conscience reasserts, and he wanders off dejected. Abe Whittaker, unaware of his near miss, informs his colleagues that Alicia has met her mortgage payment, meaning the bank can't foreclose on her property, as Morbius walks on, through rain, forest, and delirium alike. Heading instinctively back to Alicia's house, he is surprised to discover Alicia awaiting his return, and aware of his identity.

Abe rouses the other miners with the fact that Alicia is sitting atop the richest lode of copper in the state, and, with every other source within sixty miles mined out, they have no choice but to obtain her property one way or another. Alicia tends to Morbius, helping him through the worst of his withdrawal symptoms short of offering her blood. The miners arrive as she is descending the stairs, rocks shattering windows and covering her in shard of glass - enraged, she confronts them, only to be struck down by Abe's pick-axe.

Finding Alicia's corpse, Morbius is devastated at the pointlessness of her murder, and - no longer able to control the urge - laps at her spilled blood. Launching himself from the cliff, he streaks towards the town. Seeing those he holds responsible, he strikes. As they recover their senses, the miners, led by Abe, amass to take down the maniac in their midst. Grabbing the murderer, Morbius raises Abe's corpse aloft and feasts on his blood. Only when all responsible are dead at his feet does the living vampire pause.

This is some of the best artwork to feature Morbius, his wide, blank eyes showcasing the pain and conflict perfectly, Sonny Trinidad creates a great amount of tension in even the most innocuous of panels. This is an amazing little tale, perfectly paced by Doug Moench, owing as much to westerns as horror in its setting and cast of characters. Squint a little and you might discern spaghetti westerns buried in the mix of influences.

The one drawback to hailing this as a classic horror story is, even with a greater flexibility through the magazine format, this persists in depicting the ridiculous superhero-type costume through the main sequence. This is the artistic equivalent of having Sherlock Holmes' deerstalker and pipe present irrespective of the narrative and setting. While there is a lot to love about both story and art, the lingering influence of Marvel's mainstream comics hangs around like a bad smell.

Johnny attempts to stop his landlord throwing a beer bottle at a rat, successfully preventing Mr. Krespi from killing it. Johnny tells him that life is more important than anything, and the enraged man dismisses Johnny as not being worth beating up. Keeping to an organic lifestyle, Johnny refuses to take public transport, and maintains a vegetarian diet, much to the consternation of his neighbours, and is horrified when Chrissy kills a roach in their apartment. Lashing out at her, he is immediately regretful of his action.

Chrissy leaves, calling him crazy, and walks to calm herself down - when she encounters a group of rats on the street. Johnny runs downstairs at her scream, but is kept from exiting the building by those taking sanctuary from the rats. He manages to get out to the street, discovering Chrissy's bones among the swell of rats, just before the rats swarm him.

There must have been something in the air during the seventies. The Rats! appeared in the US in April 1974, the same year as James Herbert's novel of the same name, and just short of three years after Willard's premiere. This was right around the time The Muppet Show was broadcast, with Rizzo the Rat often highlighted - in fact, so visible were rats in popular culture throughout this period that it is astonishing to see how deeply the iconography has embedded itself into comics, film, television, novels, and other media.

It is a shame that more isn't made of these flesh-stripping little monsters - furry piranha on four legs. While I could do without more of the rather flat and one-note Johnny, there's a lot of mileage in the critters which take the title, as their appearance here is merely to act in service of the plot. Very attractive art doesn't hurt, and this is easy on the eye. Ralph Reese delivers a lot more than the script really deserves, providing The Rats! with a solid and creepy setting.

Blindspot! starts with a blind beggar walking along a street, wearing a sign around his neck reading "there, but for the grace of god, go I. Than you for your help." It is a bit heavy handed, and - as he is led by his guide dog, Dutch, into a sidestreet - encounters Sweeney, a vampire. How do we know he's a vampire? He states outright "I ain't got use for money. Not any more. Not since I became a vampire!"

Despite a modern vernacular, this is as close to stereotype as is possible to get, with protruding fangs and slicked-back hair. Killing Dutch with a swpe of his hand, Sweeney then feeds on the dog's master. A girl, having witnessed this, screams, alerting a police officer who arrives on the scene and commands the vampire to stop. Firing at Sweeney, he is astonished to find his weapon has no effect, but before he succumbs to the strength of his undead assailant a group of citizens step in to assist him.

Desperate to escape, Sweeney turns into a bat and takes flight.

Vampires changing into bats ought to be a thing of the past. After Carry on Screaming and Dracula: Dead and Loving It the effect has been successfully ridiculed to the point where usage elicits a smirk rather than solemnity. The change in size is too great to be taken seriously, which undermines the threat this would-be Dracula poses, and it is difficult to approach Blindspot! with sufficient seriousness to accept that scene and move on.

Safely in his dwelling, the vampire recollects the circumstances which led him to his current unlife, but his reminiscence is interrupted when the police officer turns up at his door. Fleeing once more, out into the early morning, Sweeney uses the blind man's glasses and cane to slip into the masses on the streets, but the lenses of the glasses are too dark for him to know that the sun has begun to rise.

An extremely effective final panel, along with some clever twisting of genre standards, doesn't excuse clunky lines of dialogue, the bat sequence, or the poor use of flashback. This is a story which desperately tries to prove how modern it is, but is crippled by various trends which are ubiquitous to Marvel's titles. There is a great idea at the heart of the story, but its execution is flawed. Once again the artwork is stellar, proving that with great scripts this could have been an amazing work.

Zarathon - sullen and dour of face and mien. Not a particularly large man... Indeed, little more than a youth... But grimly determined, and sufficiently prepared to obtain the answers he seeks...

Seeking knowledge of the House of Denied Pleasures, Zarathon asks the Sareena, barmaid of The Broken Mast, what she knows. It is said that nobody ever leaves the house, and within its walls are undreamed of pleasures. Dissatisfied with her answers, he travels to the building in question, just beyond the seaside town of Krindrel. Climbing to a window and entering surreptitiously, Zarathon encounters two beautiful women who he soon realises are vampires.

Managing to destroy them, Zarathon journeys throughout the building, discovering more of their kind. Deep into the bowels of the house, in a locked cell, he discovers King Jarand - his father. Learning that the women feed on travelers, and the house in turn feeds on them. As the vampires arrive to challenge the intruder, Zarathon finds himself in a battle for his life.

While not, by any stretch of the imagination, an original idea, there are enough twists to overdone tropes which keep this from being entirely redundant. The plot could, perhaps, have been slightly tighter, but it is an entertaining and rather amusing break from heavier stories. A few blatant spelling mistakes (preditors?) mar an otherwise average tale.

In a ground-floor apartment in Greenwich Village, Martin Gold discovers the body of his murdered wife. Arrested for the crime, he is taken into custody, though released the next day after two further axe murders in the Village. Wandering the streets, he finds himself at a bookshop where he meets Angel O'Hara, to whom he tells the events which led him there. She asks to go home with him, Mary-Jean's killer returns, axe in hand, as Angel is in the shower, but before his eyes she transforms into Lilith.

Questioning him, Lilith learns his past, and ends his life so that he does not kill again. Lilith, Daughter of Dracula isn't a favourite character of mine, not least due to the awful costume she is lumbered with, but this serves as a rather concise introduction without most of the baggage from her appearances in long-running series. The art is satisfactory, yet there is a sense that the story is rushed - Martin barely grieves for his dead lover before shacking up with Angel / Lilith, and the return of the killer isn't explained.

Not a bad collection, all told, but one which relies far too much on Marvel's mainstream characters.

Captain Britain Vol.2 #1

Jan 1985. Cover price 50p.
36 pages. B&W contents.
Marvel Comics Ltd.

Edited by Ian Rimmer.

Cover by Alan Davis.

Contents:

.2 Classifieds

.3 UNTITLED (quarter page) editorial by Ian Rimmer. / Captain Britain illustration from strip, a: Alan Davis. / Freefall Warriors illustration from strip, p: Jerry Paris, i: Steve Parkhouse. / Indicia

.4 Captain Britain Myth, Memory and Legend w: Jamie Delano; a: Alan Davis, lettering by Steve Craddock. Edited by Chris Gill.

16 Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer UNTITLED [23 Charges of Murder, Pillage, Piracy, Massacre, and Other Crimes] w: Steve Moore; a: Steve Dillon.

r: Doctor Who Weekly (Marvel Comics Ltd.) #17 (06 Feb 1980).

20 The Mysterious Night-Raven UNTITLED [] w: Steve Parkhouse; David Lloyd.

r: Hulk Comic (Marvel Comics Ltd.) #01 (07 Mar 1979).

23 Paragon of Painthorpe Street, part one, text story by Steve Alan; illustrated by Jeff Anderson.

27 Freefall Warriors Freefall Warriors Introduction to characters.

28 Freefall Warriors Warworld w: Steve Parkhouse; p: Jerry Paris, i: Steve Parkhouse. Edited by Alan McKenzie.

36 Spidey Watches advertisement.

Proudly boasting an Eagle Award Winner stamp, despite it appearing to be clumsily added. Alan Davis' cover illustration is perfect for the relaunch of the series, perfectly capturing the character's nature in a fourth wall-breaking pose. The choice of red text is interesting and eye-catching, adding to the appeal of the issue - an extremely restrained cover, considering several text-heavy examples published by Marvel over the previous decade.

Ian Rimmer's introduction tempts fate in a manner which would prove prophetic:

There are two ways we'll get to know your views if you are unhappy with anything... you can write to us via the Captain Britain Communications page, or you can stop buying the title.

Not that we want to remind him of those words.

Chief Inspector Dai Thomas gives a slide-show to his superiors where he outlines his theory that Brian Braddock and Captain Britain are the same person. Lining up corresponding dates and locations, Dai attempts to make clear that the presence of superheroes is a threat to civilians. Dai requests authority to investigate Braddock, as innocent lives are in danger as long as he operated unchecked, but is told to refrain from taking action. Brian, meanwhile, is relaxing in Braddock Manor with his sister, but admits that he enjoys the thrill of being Captain Britain. As they talk, someone watches from outside.

A remarkably low-key way to begin the series, yet very effective. The use of jigsaw puzzle-shaped panels is the kind of visually attractive trick which elevates what is usually drab flashbacks into something which retains interest throughout - the slide-show presentation is also handled meticulously, as befits such an impressive creative team.

Abslom Daak isn't a perfect fit for the title, but his strip is well worth seeing again, as is Night-Raven. It is a shame that such a reliance on reprints is affecting the title from the start, but when reprints are this good it doesn't really matter. Paragon of Painthorpe Street is a welcome change of pace - a text story about forty-eight year old Redmond Jonah Pringle, a rather mundane man who dreams about superheroics - reminiscent the stories in John Varley's Superheroes anthology, it doesn't tie in to the main strip in any way, but is still entertaining.

Free-fall Warriors, created by Steve Parkhouse and Dave Gibbons, is an odd bunch.

Cool Breeze
The latest development in bio-engineering from the laboratories of Intra-Venus Inc. But unknown to the executives of that company, an extra factor had been built into this android's genetic code - the "soul" factor!

Big Cat
The Free-Fall Warriors' maximum leader. Originally a mercenary flier, leader of the Hellcats Flight - he's capricious, vicious and vindictive. One quality sets him apart from his human counterparts... He can see in the dark!

Machine Head
Originally human, massive implants transformed this operational high flier into one of the most devastating weapons in the Intra-Venus armoury - a Dive Fighter of Warworld!

Bruce
Product of the surgeon-sculptors of Rubicon, this shark-faced weirdo started life as a "sub-spacer," cruising the lower strata of sub-space and pouncing on victims as they passed. In short, a pirate. Once wrecked on the planet Mahmoud and raised to deity status by stunned aborigines, he had bestowed upon him the gift (or curse) of invulnerability in battle. Seems to have held good so far.

We don't actually see them in action - save for Big Cat's piloting skills - so it is far too early to say whether I like this or not. Far too short, though with some beautiful artwork, it's the type of story which 2000 A.D. could have easily accommodated. Does it add to the overall quality of the issue? I'm going to be optimistic - on the strength of all the ideas floating around, along with the quality of art, the strip shows a lot of promise.