Catwoman: The Life and Times of a Feline Fatale, Suzan Colon and Adam West

Learn how to crack a whip with feline ferocity! Uncover the secrets of the all-leather wardrobe! Study the sizzling one-liners that keep Batman aching for more! Chock-full of insightful feline fatale tips, this illustrated tell-all delivers the searing details of Catwoman's kitschy career. Sleek and sexy, the greatest cat burglar of all time sank her claws into the Caped Crusader back in 1940 and hasn't let go since. Part homage, part how-to, this handsome treatise divulges Catwoman's stellar techniques at everything from scaling walls to tickling a gentleman's fancy without mercy. With a brief history of her many incarnations over the years, loads of terrific vintage illustrations, sections on fashion and romance, and personal tips on getting ahead, this spunky vinyl-covered volume will attract both new fans of the slinky girl kitty and time-tested aficionados. It's the purr-fect ode to The Feline Felon, The Mistress of Malevolence, The Princess of Plunder, a.k.a. Catwoman.


First off. Don't be fooled by Adam West's name being down as a co-author. He writes an introduction only (which frankly, is probably for the best).

This is a slight book, a combination of picture gallery, character history and behind the scenes look at the costumes, gadgets and persona of one of the two most famous characters in Batman's rogues gallery. It's lovely to look at, but there's little in the way of actual content and having been published ten years ago it doesn't contain any information about Catwoman in either her own film or The Dark Knight Rises (or for that matter in the New 52).

It does however contain references to Catwoman's 'catmobile', 'catarangs' and a time when she turned Superman into a Supercat and fought Lois Lane. So save your money on this and track that issue down, because it looks amazing!

Also Try:
Bill Willingham, Batman: War Drums
Kelly Sue DeConnick, Captain Marvel
Frank Miller, Batman: Year One
Ed Brubaker, Catwoman: Dark End of the Street

Siege: New Avengers, Brian Michael Bendis

"Steve Rogers makes his triumphant return to the Avengers, but is he too late? When the gods fall, what chance does a Super Soldier stand? Also, the ladies of the Avengers ban together to save the team. Plus, Ronin breaks into Avengers Tower to assassinate Osborn! This volume also includes the NEW AVENGERS conclusion by superstar Bryan Hitch."











The polar opposite of Heroes for Hire in so many ways, New Avengers is how to turn less well known characters into prime-time A-listers. From the very start of Brian Michael Bendis' run the Avengers franchise moved away from the big hitters (no Thor and Hulk for any of the run, Iron Man forming the Mighty Avengers and Captain America dying after Civil War) in favour of a mix of mass-media popular characters (Wolverine! Spider-Man!) and fan favourites (Jewell! Hawkeye! Luke Cage!). It gave the smaller characters a chance to shine, and built an Avengers team around the idea that alongside punching out a skeleton Nazi, genocide Robots or warring Alien races you can also stop drugs dealers and prison riots.

It's incredibly successful, especially for a book that mostly involved the street level heroes of the Marvel Universe sitting around and talking, or running away from fights with low grade villains (as great as Luke Cage vs Purple Man always is). The entirety of the run counts amongst my favourite series of all time. I've spoken in the past (on 'The Cape and The Cowl' over at http://www.impossiblepodcasts.com/) about how the Luke Cage centric issue from Civil War run is probably my favourite moment in comics.

I really love this series, you guys.

But unfortunately, this is the point where Bendis is starting to tread water.

To give you some context, in the last book Luke Cage was captured by the Hood's gang (after the authorities, led by Norman Osborne helped depower the New Avengers). He was rescued by his friends and teammates audaciously rushing into the heart of the Dark Avengers complex to save him.

This book starts with Hawkeye being captured by Norman Osborne, only to be rescued by the team straight away. It's less audacious, a lot easier and make a mockery of the urgency of the previous rescue mission. Then the Hood's gang are powered up, and go hunting for the heroes.

Just looking at those two books, both feature the New Avengers fighting the same enemies, in the same basic scenarios (way out of their power league) and in both cases having to rescue a captured team mate, again from the same enemy,

It's the same plot. By this point we've had a good 12 issues of the Hood and Osborne plotting how to take down the New Avengers, and with the relaunch imminent it feels like the series was padded out with a few Siege tie ins until they could start afresh.

As ever the best parts are the bits where the team simply hangs out. Spider-Man and Spider-Woman bounce off one another well, whilst the reaction to the return of Steve Rogers is pretty heartwarming. Best part though? Well, that's probably Hawkeye launching a one man assault on the Dark Avengers, in New Avengers: The List, a one shot put out just before Siege and included here for comepletionists sake.

Which really tells you all you need to know about where this book has got to.

Also Try:
Brian Michael Bendis, Civil War: New Avengers
Brian Michael Benids, Avengers Disassembled
Brian Michael Bendis, All New X-Men
Brian Michael Bendis, Ultimate Spider-Man

Heroes for Hire: Control, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning

In the aftermath of SHADOWLAND, Marvel's greatest street heroes - Punisher, Moon Knight, Shroud, Elektra, Paladin, Silver Sable, Ghost Rider, Iron Fist, Falcon, Misty Knight and more - leap into one all-new adventure! Who has brought together these dangerous loners into one fighting force? How is this network different from all other teams? Who is their first target, and what mysteries await them? Discover the answers and enter the action on Marvel's mean streets - courtesy of fan-favorite writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (THE THANOS IMPERATIVE, PUNISHER: YEAR ONE), and artist Brad Walker (GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY)! Collecting HEROES FOR HIRE (2011) #1-5 and material from X-MEN: CURSE OF THE MUTANTS SPOTLIGHT.

Heroes for Hire is a title that really should get more love from me than it does. I've really enjoyed the few issues I have picked up (mainly for its spotlighting of third or fourth tier heroes like Misty Knight and Paladin) but, much like Defenders, it's never quite grabbed me enough to make it an instant buy.

Still, Abnett and Lanning have spent the last decade knocking Marvel's cosmic books out of the park (the upcoming Guardian's of the Galaxy film will be happening 100% because of their stories), so their name attached to a run on Heroes for Hire was enough for me to part with my money for the book, albeit with pretty low expectations going in.

I was pretty pleasantly surprised with it overall. The feel is very much in the Defenders realm of low profile capes kicking butt, but the weekly introduction of a different character for each situation (Elektra to take out high end drug dealers, Ghost Rider to break up occult gun-running, Moon Knight to prevent people smuggling) and the 'Control' sections with Misty Knight give it a real 'Global Frequency' style feel, which works remarkably well.

The stand out star of this is Moon Knight, a character based on Batman, who really lives up to his fan status as a heavier hitter than he's given credit. His page time is the highlight of these pages, especially under Brad Walker, the first artist on the book.

Whilst most of the page layouts are fairly pedestrian, Walker seems to light up when given the chance to break free. Marc Spector's mental troubles lend themselves well to the more chaotic pages here; his introduction, leaping through the page, is the first moment when the book finds its feet after a chase sequence involving Falcon and Black Widow that sorely lacked dynamism. His showdown with a raptor later in is a wondeful example of page economy (single splash page, two follow up panels of outcome, and voice over text boxes to tell the story).

Better for it's inclusion of multiple characters, this is still, ultimately Misty's tale, and it's one which brings in original hero for hire Iron Fist by the end. It doesn't seem to have lasted long (Heroes for Hire never does), but it's worth reading if you can find it, at least until Moon Knight gets his own ongoing.

Also Try:

Keith Giffen, Defenders: Indefesible

Gail Simone, Birds of Prey

Warren Ellis, Global Frequency

Grant Morrison, Batman, Inc

Mars Attacks!, The Topps Company

Mars Attacks is a series of science fiction trading cards produced by Topps in 1962, depicting the gruesome invasion of Earth by Martians. The story unfolds over the course of the 55 card series, showing futuristic battle scenes with Martians, and their cruel, often bizarre methods of attack and torture. The series culminates with a human insurrection and the destruction of Mars. The short lived series retained it's devoted following and quickly became a collectors item and remains hugely popular and influential today. Tim Burton's 1996 movie adaptation of the story brought Mars Attacks back to the forefront of pop culture and the upcoming 50th anniversary in 2012 will do the same, introducing the story to a new generation of fans. Includes rare and never before seen material (sketches, concept art, test market materials), as well as an introduction by the series' creator, Len Brown, and an afterword by Zina Saunders, daughter of the original artist.

Like anyone with a vaguely geeky side, I love to collect stuff. As soon as there's more than one in a series, or multiple lines, I like to have them all. There's an element of completionist in anyone who's obsessive about their passions, whether that be Pokemon Cards (had every S1 card but Rapidash) or the Animorphs books (still missing much of the final set, but always looking).

For any child growing up in the UK, the first thing they will collect seriously are Panini stickers. These were the currency of the 90's playground. Before Pogs and Tazos, before YoYos and finger skateboards, stickers were the prized possession, with spares to be swapped, sold or bartered for those you still needed.

I have fond memories of the trip to the local corner shop to pick up pack of 6 Jurassic Park or football stickers (and then inevitably get 5 out of 6 I already own, made up for by a new shiny).

I am so grateful that we didn't have the American style 'cards' system that seems to have crept in since the big sticker companies folded. If we had, I suspect I would be living in a room filled with cards.

Instead, I live in a room filled with books, so the Mars Attacks! volume from Topps is the perfect purchase - collecting all of the initial 60's run of Mars Attacks cards, plus reproductions of the 1994 designs, and the 'lost' images that were never released.

Part art book, part oral history of the genesis and critical derision that greeted the cards, part record of a cult success that spawned comics books, action figures and a Tim Burton film, this is a great way of collecting an incredible collection cheaply.

The cultural history implicit in its pages is fascinating - the remaining first drafts of the cards show just how much had to be changed before they were released. Incredibly, the majority of the redesigns were less about the (incredibly rendered) gory violence, and more about the perceived immorality of scantily clad women. Scenes where people are decapitated by giant insects were altered to cover women's shoulders, whilst a burning dog, or spouts of blood escape censure (at least at first).

Also Try:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31558613@N00/sets/72157625601126001/ - Complete set of Mars Attacks! Cards on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nerdcoreblog/sets/72157622577125417/ - Complete set of Dinosaurs Attack! Cards on Flickr

Last Planet Standing, Tom DeFalco

"For centuries beyond reckoning, Galactus has consumed entire worlds to satiate his never-ending quest for sustenance, but now he has a new plan - one that may threaten the very existence of the entire Universe! Featuring Thor, the Warriors Three, the Avengers, Spider-Girl, the Fantastic Five and the Shi'ar Imperial Guard! Collects Last Planet Standing #1-5"















I picked this up on the strength of the title alone, assuming that this would be a comic about different worlds fighting for their survival (the cover, showing what I assumed were alternate versions of Marvel Characters helped). Alas, it isn't. Instead it's a fairly run of the mill 'Future of the Marvel Universe' book, specifically set on whichever world has Spider-Girl in it.

I know some of the background here (mainly that it's the children of initial Avengers and the Fantastic 4) but lots left me totally in the dark - where were the X-Men, why hadn't any of the F4 retired if all the Avengers had, how much can the Invisible Woman's power levels fluctuate over the course of a single comic.

There's some nice bits in here, the art by Pat Olliffe is lovely, and it serves as a short story arc, but there's nothing in here that would make me want to come back to this universe and find out more about the characters contained within.