Never Again!

The face of the world-weary soldier on the cover of the debut issue of Never Again says more almost than the stories inside. Ross Andru and his longtime associate Mike Esposito crafted a masterpiece of mood with this image worth well more than a thousand words. Each issue features two stories, each story narrated by the ghostly WWI-era "Unknown Soldier".

The first issue has a tale called "The Beginning of the End" about Indian wars in the United States and the attempt by Chief Joseph and his tribe's to escape into Canada and the U.S. Cavalry's efforts to capture them before that happened. The second story titled "Battle of the Bows!" reaches back to the One Hundred Years War and follows two lowly archers as they try to make sense of the larger strategy which will hopefully end the fighting at long last. Both stories are drawn by Bob Forgione.

Forgione is also the artist of both stories in the second issue. The first is titled "Career Man" and focuses on a stalwart sailor who has been serving since WWI and now finds himself on the edge of a new conflict of sorts in the Cold War of the late 50's. It's a pretty compelling tale of how life and war just seems to tumble along. The second tale is titled "Two Men in the Sky" and gives alternate perspectives of two WWI flyers -- one an American and the other German. It's an interesting way to show that war is something that happens to most people, that they are swept up in it.

Both issues are pretty good. The first one is numbered one and weirdly is numbered eight. That makes no sense but it is a Charlton comic.  Never Again was an unusual comic, not unique, but different.

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Nifty Presents - Anti-War Comics!

The Unknown Anti-War Comics is a tome I wanted the moment I saw it. The books that come Craig Yoe's operation can vary in quality, but this looked to be one that offered a wide range of material. I was a bit disappointed in that we have basically two types of stories here -- classic war yarns and vintage sci-fi stories. I don't object either and I don't object to seeing them together I just expected a bit more variation.

That said, what do get are two issues of a weird little book called Never Again, which is spot on with the theme of the collection. The comic just had two issues, with work by Ross Andru among others -- the offbeat thing is the two issues are numbered one and eight. These are Charlton comics, so numbering is always eccentric to say the least.

The majority of the collection is old-fashioned sci-fi tales and pretty good ones too, the kind with lots of ready space travel and twisty endings. It's neat to see a collection with so much of Bill Molno's work in it, as he's often seen as a hack and most of the time gets no mention when his stuff is reprinted. Other Charlton mainstays like "Nicholas Alascia" (two guys -- Charles Nicholas and Vince Alascia), Sal Trapani, and Dick Giordano are represented.

The collection closes with what might be Charlton's most famous single story -- "Children of Doom" by Denny O'Neil and Pat Boyette. It's a weird and wack view of a war-torn future, one  in which mankind is not necessarily the winner. This is a fun collection, but maybe a western or a romance thrown in to make the collection feel a bit more well-rounded.

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Marvel Super-Heroes - Voodoo Spider-Man!

Marvel Super-Heroes #14 offers up not a new hero nor gives an existing character space to develop, but rather delivers one of Marvel's most successful characters in a story which was done apparently as a fill-in. Stan Lee and Ross Andru with the magnificent help of Bill Everett on inks give us a story in which Spidey fights a villain he never ever meets. The Sorcerer has vast mental powers based on years of study with mystics around the world and he also seems to be pretty handy in the laboratory since he has his very own "Synthetic Man" (also dubbed a "Hollow Man" at one point). To test his own powers and to announce his villainy to the world he uses a Voodoo doll to give Spider-Man (and consequently Peter Parker) powerful headaches and ultimately uses his control to make Peter catch a flight and come the New Orleans which is of course celebrating Mardi Gras. There Spidey encounters the Synthetic Man who he fights with limited effectiveness. The Sorcerer had sent a package to NYC addressed to Spider-Man and his hope was that the authorities would get the package and learn of their new super-villain. But the package is deemed undeliverable and is returned. When the postman rings the doorbell (and I'm sure he rings twice..they always do) it creates a short in the system which controls the Synthetic Man and which is attached to the Sorcerer's nogging and seemingly kills him ending the threat as the Synthetic Man walks into the Gulf and disappears. Spidey heads home without any clue what has happened.

This is a fun story, light and breezy and seeing Spidey handled by Ross Andru is a treat since he's almost my favorite Spidey artist after Ditko. I loved Bill Everett's inks and only wish he'd done more. The story by Stan is just okay, but that's okay. I don't know if there were any repercussions from this story, such as the Sorcercer didn't really die or the Synthetic Man was found or something. Seems like a nifty story there maybe. This story came at a time when Spidey was dominating Marvel with his new thirty-five cent magazine hitting the stands at this same time. Decent stuff!

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