It's Cold. So Cold. But A Great Read, Too.

WinterWorld trade (2011)
IDW Publishing
Chuck Dixon, writer
Jorge Zaffino, artist

I missed this story when it was originally serialized in 1988 by Eclipse Comics. I didn't even know it existed. But the story of the two main characters in this trade — Scully and Wynn — is being continued in a new series published by IDW and again written by series creator Chuck Dixon. Actually, I don't know for certain if their story is being continued or rebooted, as often happens in comics. But just in case it is the former, I wanted to catch up by first reading the initial adventure.

The first time I heard of WinterWorld was in the solicitations for the new version several months ago. The two characters exist in the far future when much of the planet is covered in snow and ice and every day is a struggle to survive. The descriptive copy made me curious about the series, largely because it reminded me of a great novel I had just recently read — Gordon R. Dickson's Wolf and Iron.

The Wolf and Iron novel takes place in an equally bleak future, this time caused by economic collapse and the subsequent fall of civilization. One man is trying to make his way across what used to be the United States never knowing if each new settlement will bring trade or death in the new lawless, violent reality.
In WinterWorld, the exact date and cause of the condition of the world is not disclosed. But much like an amalgamation of a couple characters from Wolf and Iron, lead character Scully is a trader making his way across the frozen landscape in a modified tractor. Using goods and equipment found in long abandoned shopping malls buried under the snow, Scully visits settlement after settlement, trading and making a life for himself and his companion, a badger named RahRah.

That is, until he comes upon the settlement where Wynn is being held. The backwards residents treat the young girl like property, but even that isn't enough to make Scully stick his neck out until the denizens of this settlement try to rob him. Wynn helps Scully and RahRah escape, which in turn leads them to take her in and care for her, even after slavers capture the pair.

In addition to the original three-issue WinterWorld series, this trade also collects a previously unpublished sequel titled WinterSea, continuing the adventures of Scully and Wynn.

Chuck Dixon provides a seat-of-the-pants adventure tale pitting two people against the worst their world and its inhabitants can throw at them. Jorge Zaffino's black and white art provides the perfect gritty visuals to bring Dixon's characters to life. I'm curious to see if the new version of the title lives up to this first collection despite there being a new art team working with Dixon to bring the current series to life.

Does This Story Ever End?

A Distant Soil
Image Comics
Colleen Doran, writer and artist

As my monthly buying has slowed recently, I've been making an effort to hunt down more things I've made notes about in the past — things I wanted to try at some point, most often books I'd heard good things about, but that I didn't have time or money to pursue at the time. One such title was A Distant Soil created, written and illustrated by Colleen Doran.

Doran is known primarily as an artist who has worked with writers such as Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Peter David, Joe R. Lansdale and Keith Giffen. I personally have seen her work in books like Wonder Woman: The Once and Future Story, Teen Titans Spotlight, Star Trek and Valor from DC Comics and Marvel Icon's The Book of Lost Souls written by J. Michael Straczynski. She is also a writer, but I haven't read anything else penned by her at this point.

I don't recall now — and wasn't in the habit of writing down — where it was that I heard or read about A Distant Soil. Most likely, it was from an episode of Word Balloon or from a column written by Andrew "Captain Comics" Smith. I tend to think it was the latter as I don't recall a Word Balloon episode featuring Doran, but I might be wrong. Anyway, one note I did write down is "similar to Aquaman." Having now read the majority of A Distant Soil, that comparison puzzles me unless it maybe refers more to similarities with Peter David's The Atlantis Chronicles — a title I own but have not yet read. Once I read Atlantis Chronicles, I'll know if maybe that was the comparison made and my note was only slightly in error, or if the two series are nothing alike and my note was just an example of who knows what.

But getting back to A Distant Soil, I recently decided it was time to finally check this series out. I purchased the three trades I found at a good price, and once they arrived in the mail, I sat down to read them and see just what this series was about. It was not what I expected, but it was good.

The Volume 1 trade, titled The Gathering, collects the first 12 issues of the Aria Press version of the series. It serves to do just that, gather and introduce readers to the majority of the large cast of characters that make up this sprawling sci-fi/fantasy epic.

First, we are introduced to Jason and Liana Scott, 17 and 15 years old, respectively. The teens have spent most of their lives since being orphaned at a young age living in a mental institution. There's nothing wrong with the youths. Both possess paranormal abilities that the authorities can't explain, including a shared telepathic rapport with each other, and so their young lives have been filled with experiments, poking, prodding and confinement.

In the latest of a series of escape attempts, Jason and Liana run into a street gang and a gruff but compassionate cop. The cop, Tony Minetti, and the leader of the street gang, Brent Donewitz, have an uneasy friendship, and the two agree to help the Scott teens lay low for a while. And that's when the aliens show up.

It turns out that Jason and Liana have their unique abilities because their father was secretly an alien fleeing his home planet, Ovanan. A huge Ovanan warship, the Siovansin, has come to hunt down the teens on behalf of the Hierarchy, the rulers of Ovanan and its vast empire of worlds. Of course, there is also a contingent of the aliens onboard the Siovansin who are sympathetic to Jason and Liana's plight and who hope to enlist their aid in overthrowing the sadistic Hierarchy.

What isn't quite so expected is that even the resistance movement onboard the Ovanan warship is splintered into different factions, sometimes to the point that they get in each other's way. Minetti and Brent help Liana escape with two of the sympathetic aliens, Rieken and D'Mer, while Jason is captured by the Hierarchy minions.

The Hierarchy tries to use Jason to find Liana, and in the process, they seem to kill the teenager. However, he is not beyond the healing abilities of Ovanan science. While in the care of the Siovansin medical staff, Jason's body is captured by one faction of the resistance. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Rieken and D'Mer recruit Liana, Minetti, Brent and nine others to their faction of the resistance and attempt to sneak back aboard the Siovansin.

That is a very nutshell synopsis of the first trade and its cast of dozens of characters. The narrative — which text pieces in the volume explain Doran created while still a child herself — is very complex, but still engaging. Doran's artwork, presented here in black-and-white only, is detailed and quite pretty to look at. I stumbled over some of the characters' appearances in these early scenes because so much of the clothing worn by the humans is very dated to some of the most outrageous '80s styles. That took me right out of the story on a number of occasions, and I thought about giving up on the story a number of times early on simply because the costuming was so jarring to me. But otherwise, I have no complaints about the art, and subsequent volumes take place mostly aboard the Siovansin, where even the humans are wearing Ovanan clothing to blend in, so that problem is eliminated.

One other thing that gave me pause in this first volume was an advertisement in the back of the book soliciting the five trades that collect the complete A Distant Soil saga. Up until this point, I'd believed I had the entire story in the three trades I'd already bought. I tried to do some more research into the series and learned that the first A Distant Soil comics were published by WaRP Graphics and the series lasted for only nine issues. Creative control and rights issues led to a split between WaRP and Doran, who tried to start over with another publisher only to have problems there as well. She finally started over a third time, self-publishing under Aria Press and combining some old and new story elements. Then in 1996, the story continued at Image, the publisher also responsible for the trade collections.

The second and third trade volumes — The Ascendant and The Aria, respectively — advance the story with all characters aboard the Siovansin. The resistance faction holding Jason revives the young man and sets him up to assassinate the god-like figurehead of the Hierarchy in exchange for information about his father. Rieken and D'Mer continue to plot with their human and Ovanan allies to overthrow the Hierarchy from within, relying heavily on Liana's help. Some characters are slain along the way and many, many more are introduced.

I managed to track down a copy of the fourth trade collection with the help of my local librarian. That volume, Coda, sees one faction of the resistance discovered and wiped out and the stakes for Liana, Jason and the others raised to impossible levels as the entire planet Earth comes under threat.

There are a few parts of Doran's narrative that feel overly lengthy, but again, the overall story is an engaging one that I would like to finish. The art only gets better and more stunning with each issue. The only problem at this point is I can't seem to find that fifth and final trade collection, Requiem, available anywhere I search. I'm not even sure the fifth volume has ever been published. In fact, I am not even certain if Doran has completed the series in single issue form at this point. Do any of my readers know any more about this series, whether or not it has been completed, and if so, where I might get my hands on the final volume of the story? Leave me a note in the comments if you can help shed some light.

History Really Does Repeat Itself

Essential Captain America Vol. 4 (collecting Captain America Nos. 157-186)
Marvel Comics
Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, Roy Thomas, Tony Isabella, Mike Friedrich and John Warner, writers
Sal Buscema, John Verpoorten, Frank McLaughlin, Alan Weiss, Frank Giacoia, John Tartaglione, George Roussos, Vinnie Colletta, Frank Robbins, Tom Orzechowski, Herb Trimpe and Mike Esposito, artists

These massive, black-and-white collected volumes — Marvel's Essentials line and DC's Showcase editions — can be a great way to experience classic stories at a reasonable price. Or they can be a bit cumbersome to get through if you don't really have an appreciation for the character, group or time period being presented.

This volume is one of the good ones. Despite the abundance of names listed above, the vast majority of this volume is the brainchild of writer Steve Englehart and artist Sal Buscema, and that helps this volume maintain a unified voice throughout. The books reprinted here come from the mid-1970s when the title featured both Captain America and the Falcon on the cover and the real-life America was in turmoil. The creators used those turbulent times as a backdrop for an identity crisis of sorts for Captain America himself.

This series of issues brings Cap and Falcon into confrontation with a villain named the Cowled Commander and then a new version of the Serpent Society. The heroes quickly thwart the villains' plans only to have one of the Serpent Society hatch a new plan to drive a wedge between the pair and discredit Captain America in the eyes of the public. That latest plot unfolds over several issues leading into a battle with a new group named the Secret Empire, which in turn leads to yet another incarnation of the Serpent Society.

Captain America and the Falcon aren't the only heroes in these pages. Various members of the Avengers make a number of appearances, along with Nick Fury and various agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., both named and unnamed. The Black Panther and the X-Men also show up for several issues each. And a number of villains, both old and new, also make appearances at various times forcing our heroes to keep on their toes. These nefarious figures include names like the Porcupine, Madame Hydra, Yellow Claw, the Tumbler, the Eel, the Viper, Stoneface, Lucifer and, of course, the Red Skull.

The stories collected in this volume are some really great reads, but it surprised me, reading through a number of these issues for the first time, how many modern ideas began here and how many themes explored in these pages have also been explored in more recent Cap stories. For instance, issue No. 170 is where the Falcon first gets his Wakandan-engineered wings. Before that issue, he used a rope to swing around the rooftops like other non-flying heroes. And while this earliest version of his wings merely helped him glide, they look quite similar to the modern pair he wore right up until he assumed the role of Captain America in the most recent Marvel Comics issues.

Cap's girlfriend in these pages is former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter, the same as in current Cap comics, although her back story has undergone some revisions over the years. But Cap's former World War II-era love interest, Peggy Carter, is re-introduced in these stories and becomes a current agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., somewhat mirroring events from the modern "Captain America" films and the "Agent Carter" television series.

The conclusion of the confrontation with the Secret Empire — particularly the revelation of the leader of the terrorist organization — leaves Cap shaken in conviction and spirit. This is when Cap first decides to stop being Captain America and creates the identity of Nomad, the man without a country. The Nomad identity would return in several story lines since this time, but also, during this period when Steve Rogers is Nomad and there is no Captain America, a number of others try their hands at wielding the famous shield in his absence. The fates of these folks who try to be the new Captain America are quite different from any of those following the death of Captain America in Ed Brubaker's Cap run from a few years ago or of the Falcon assuming the mantle in the most recent comics, but there are also similarities.

These are really some great stories and some very key issues in the history of Captain America. Much of the credit for that goes to writer Steve Englehart, again the writer or co-writer on almost all of the stories from this era of the character. That single narrative voice allows the various story lines to weave in and out of each other and interconnect in a way that multiple writers would find harder to pull off. This book alone represents two-and-a-half years worth of Captain America comics at the end of Englehart's run on the title; he also wrote several of the previous issues, collected in Essential Captain America Vol. 3.

On a side note, one of the fill-in issues collected in this volume, No. 168, is a nice little diversion co-written by Roy Thomas and Tony Isabella titled "... And a Phoenix Shall Arise." This story, minus a few references to then-current continuity that dated the story, was turned into a Captain America Power Records book and record set, a copy of which I still own. If you aren't already familiar with Power Records, you should check out Rob Kelly's excellent Power Records blog (http://powerrecord.blogspot.com/) for more on these great little sets.

Switching to the art side of things, Sal Buscema lends his considerable talents to giving the look of these stories the same cohesiveness Englehart's writing does on the story side. Buscema had several different inkers on the issues included here, but the consistency in the pencils gives all of the characters distinctive looks throughout. Buscema's Cap is a strong, muscled defender of the American ideals and the quintessential silver age heroic ideal.


The drawback to that consistency shows up to horrible effect in four of the last five issues collected in this volume when penciller Frank Robbins takes on the art chores. I don't mean to attack the man's skill; I am no artist myself, so I have little room to criticize. More importantly, I have seen some absolutely gorgeous Frank Robbins art in some other titles. But his work in these issues of Captain America looks very rough throughout and downright awkward in a number of action panels. I've included a couple of the worst panels. The one on the left shows Steve Rogers in his Nomad guise traveling across the rooftops in a very strange pose, and the right one shows one of the Captain America wannabes traveling in the same manner with the Falcon. Neither image makes the subject look very comfortable, natural or heroic. These images are not typical of Frank Robbins' art in other venues, but his art on these final issues is the only downside I see in an otherwise great Captain America collection!

We Need More Fun Comics

Amazing X-Men: The Quest For Nightcrawler tpb
Marvel Comics
Jason Aaron, writer
Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines and Cameron Stewart, artists

I've talked previously about how much I like Nightcrawler and how he should be a fun, light-hearted character most of the time, at least if he's going to be portrayed correctly. I've also previously mentioned that I am not a regular follower of the various X-Men titles. I've read some of the bigger stories, and I've dabbled with the various titles and characters from time to time, but I typically am not an X-reader. For instance, I know that Nightcrawler was killed off some time ago in the X-books, but I don't know exactly when or how.

Enter the news of about a year ago that Nightcrawler was going to be coming back from the dead  — not a terribly unusual event for a comic book superhero — and I was happy to mark down a note to myself to watch for his latest solo title, hope for the best and try it when it came out. This is the story arc — presented in Amazing X-Men, not a Nightcrawler solo title — that brings the blue, furry mutant back to the land of the living. And it is an epic battle pitting a horde of demons against the combined forces of not only both heaven and hell but also purgatory! You can't get much more epic than that. And you wouldn't think a story could get much more grim than that, either.

But Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness remembered that comic books can be fun. They don't have to be grim and gritty all the time. On top of that, they remembered that Nightcrawler, the focus of this particular little story can — and SHOULD — also be fun! So they made this epic, life-or-death, playing for all the marbles, grand battle not only epic, but also fun!

The story begins with Nightcrawler in heaven, but not exactly enjoying his time there. Rather, he is daydreaming about his many adventures with his fellow mutants in all of the various teams he's fought alongside, as well as his many solo escapades. Another of heaven's inhabitants comes across Nightcrawler and chastises him playfully for not enjoying his — well, heavenly — surroundings more when along comes the aforementioned horde of demons. And who is leading this brazen attack on both heaven and hell? None other than Nightcrawler's own father, the demon Azazel.

Nightcrawler knows he can not hope to defeat such overwhelming forces on his own, and so he summons aid from his former teammates still among the living. Thus various members of this latest incarnation of the X-Men find themselves suddenly in hell, while some are transported to heaven, and still more materialize in purgatory with no explanation whatsoever. Having thus imperiled his friends' very souls, Nightcrawler must gather the various mutants together and lead them in an effort to defeat his father's latest plans for conquest.

What results is a well-drawn, expertly written romp that was FUN to read. In fact, the only weak spot in this trade is the inclusion of the sixth issue, also written by Aaron, but this time illustrated by Cameron Stewart. The change in art style for this epilogue chapter is drastic enough to be a tad off-putting. Add in that the main adventure is over, and this is merely an aftermath type of tale, and I feel that the trade would have been much better without it. It just feels tacked on and serves only to weaken the strong ending of the fifth issue.

Having said that, the rest of this trade was so good and does in fact bring Nightcrawler back to the land of the living, that I only hope the creative team on his latest ongoing solo title — Chris Claremont and Todd Nauck — follows that same formula: Don't forget to make it FUN!