It Was Fun While It Lasted

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 1-5 (2004)
CrossGen Entertainment
Tony Bedard, writer
Mike Perkins and Andrew Hennessy, artists

CrossGen is where I first became aware of Tony Bedard. He had some writing and art credits on comics before then; but it was while he worked at CrossGen that I learned his name and knew that I liked what he wrote. First it was through his work on the excellent — albeit short-lived, as most CrossGen titles ended up being — work on Negation. And then later with his writing on this 1960s super-spy title.

The majority of the CrossGen titles took place on other worlds that often shared characteristics of various Earth time periods, but it is never explained within the pages of this title if it takes place on Earth in the 1960s or simply another CrossGen universe planet whereon life closely imitates the British Empire in the 1960s. The agents in this series do, however, work for MI6, lending credibility to the idea that this is, in fact, Earth.

Wherever Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is set, the top agent at this MI6 is Charles Basildon; however, Basildon is a fictitious name assigned to whichever agent happens to be the agency's top operative at the time. Should that agent be killed in action, another moves up and assumes the name and rank, making use of the ongoing reputation.

At the outset of the series, the current Basildon is a highly accomplished and skilled agent, but one with a very narcissistic personality. He accomplishes his missions but has a penchant for getting his partners killed on a disturbingly regular basis. Stephanie Shelley, a very capable young field agent just coming up in the ranks, is to be Basildon's latest partner and possibly the first female agent to assume the Basildon identity, if she lives long enough.

The art by Mike Perkins is perfectly suited to such a story. His figures and settings look realistic enough to feel like you're watching an afternoon action movie. He is quite adept at having his characters convey their emotions through various facial expressions, adding to the context of the writing. And he draws some incredible larger-than-life explosions when the action turns more heavily to the "bang bang" part of the title.

In these early issues, Basildon and Shelley are assigned to track down a mysterious figure named Lazarus Bale, someone about whom little is truly known but who seems to often be at the center of criminal goings-on. Bale turns out to be an albino with ties to an ancient civilization and has a penchant for underlings who appear to be clones of various world dictators from the past.

As bizarre as all that sounds, these issues offer some great action mixed with equal parts humor and mayhem. It's too bad this series was cut short by the demise of CrossGen, as it would have been interesting to see where Bedard and company would have taken this series.

The Few, The Proud, The Non-Powered

Human Defense Corps 1-6 (2003)
DC Comics
Ty Templeton, writer
Clement Sauve Jr., Juan Vlasco, Norm Breyfogle and Dennis Janke, artists

In most superhero epics, especially those dealing with invading aliens or some other large-scale threat, you can imagine that the world's armed forces are called upon to deal with the invading armies while the superhero in question tackles the mastermind or big villain behind everything. The idea behind this miniseries was to follow a small group of such soldiers, especially one man in particular, as they face truly bizarre threats to the populace of Earth.

The narrator for much of the series is a man named Montgomery Kelly, and he explains that he was part of a National Guard unit called upon to fight a Khund landing party during the Invasion. It was during that pitched battle that he observed that when faced with such an alien threat, understandably an overload to the senses, many otherwise good soldiers freeze up and fail to do their duty. Kelly wanted to be part of an elite force made up only of soldiers who did not freeze up in such situations, soldiers he could trust to have his back in strange, unusual circumstances.

Thus the Human Defense Corps was born — an elite force of human soldiers who could be counted on to help defend Earth from threats both large and small, but most often, extra-terrestrial in nature.

Familiar DC Universe alien threats to the human race — beings such as the Khunds, Starro, Daxamites and Durlans — all have small parts to play in this drama, along with Neron, the 1990s and early-2000s era DC version of the Devil. There is also a new race of other-dimensional vampire-like creatures who play a larger role in the events.

Wisely for a series that says its focus is on ordinary humans, no costumed heroes play even the slightest role in this miniseries. None are even seen in the flashbacks to the Invasion story line. That doesn't mean a familiar DC name doesn't play a role — albeit a small one, as Lois Lane is dispatched by the Daily Planet to get the scoop on this new military branch in the first issue.

Otherwise, this series is kind of a sci-fi updating of classic titles like Our Men At War or Sgt. Rock. It's a good done-in-six tale that was created to go further if interest warranted, but since Kelly and his unit are not seen again, at least not to my knowledge, I'm guessing initial sales on this series were not great. But especially if you enjoy humans facing off against hostile aliens, you might enjoy this read. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it held up after a decade had gone by, but re-reading it now, this series was better than I remembered.

I Remember Those ...

Star Trek Annual 2013
IDW Publishing
John Byrne, writer

John Byrne has done a number of great Star Trek projects for IDW since they acquired the license to produce comics for the franchise. This latest creation takes the original series' second pilot episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," and crafts a sequel as if it is just another episode of the original television run of "Star Trek." Rather than illustrations by Byrne or another comic artist, however, this annual makes use of still footage from the original shows with word balloons added to make a fotonovel.

In the book, a mysterious signal draws the crew of the Enterprise back to Delta Vega, a lonely planet at the edge of our galaxy where the starship lost two of its crew on an early voyage. Byrne does a good job of capturing the voices and the feel of the original science-fiction classic, so that this annual reads just like a natural epilogue to the original episode.

The idea for fotonovels is not a new one. In fact, the original run of "Star Trek" had an even dozen episodes turned into popular fotonovels in the late 1970s. I know that because I own several of them, but even if I didn't, this annual contains a brief history of the fotonovel concept by Cliff Biggers of Comic Shop News and Newsarama.

I don't know that a casual fan of the new movies will care much for this "blast from the past," but any longtime fan of the franchise will appreciate this Star Trek Annual, and I heartily recommend it!

Keeping It In The Family

Protocol: Orphans 1-2
BOOM! Studios
Michael Alan Nelson, writer
Mariano Navarro, artist

Once again, the advance solicitation information did its job and caught my eye for this series a few months ago. I'm not familiar with either creator attached to the project, but the four-issue limited series was described as a fun espionage tale in the vein of "Mission: Impossible." (I assumed they meant the ensemble-cast original television series and not the so-so Tom Cruise movies, but then I try to assume the best.)

Two issues in, I'm glad I decided to give this series a try. The action centers on a group of five -- oops, make that four -- young espionage agents and their handler. No specific ages are given, but assume the agents are the cast of a WB drama and all in the 18-24 range. They fall into the expected categories with a tech person, a natural leader who doesn't know his own potential, the fun-loving one and a shady character completing the mix.

One of the interesting hooks for this series, however, is the fact that each of these agents is an orphan, taken by this agency and trained for this work from a very early age. And the entire organizational structure of the agency these kids work for is based on a family. The orphans answer to Dad, who in turn gets their missions from the shrouded-in-secrecy grandparents. This team of orphans has inherited a Dad with a past, however, and they aren't too sure how far they can trust him after his previous team of orphans all wound up dead.

With a cast of characters like this one, the creators could easily fall into the stereotype traps, but Nelson writes each of the characters we are allowed to know as being three-dimensional people who are more than their most dominant traits. And Navarro is able to make the large cast of young, pretty people (remember, beyond the orphans, we also have bad guys and bystanders and extras) each look distinctive and recognizable from panel to panel.

I'll have to read the second half of this mini before pronouncing a final judgment on it, but so far, I'm very glad I decided to give this series a try and am looking forward to the conclusion and possibly more from this crew in the future.