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I recently watched Ultimate Avengers 2 with my son
Chandler.   We had a good time with the first direct-to-dvd movie, and we had a good time with the second.   The material is easy and fun to absorb, plenty of fights, lots of super-hero action, and the “blooper” reel on Ultimate Avengers 2 was hilarious.

But it reminded me of the comic book series by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch that started it all.   I bought the monthly (that was a joke for the comic buyers among you, because the series didn’t come out monthly, but that was only because Bryan Hitch was knocking himself out on the art) series and then picked up the hardcover edition because I really loved the story.   I thought, since the DVDs came out, that I might point readers to the original source material, and give a review of the hardcover.

In the beginning, there was a global altercation that became known as World War II, an altercation that plunged sons into a similar bloody chaos that had enveloped their fathers only twenty years ago.  During this second World War, though, a choice was made to create a new hero and wrap him in the red, white and blue of the flag of the United States-a living, breathing, battling embodiment of strong-willed freedom.

They named him Captain America, and he was every bit the symbol that those far-thinking men had hoped he would be.  Only one day they lost him.  The loss came as they had thought it would, in the heat of battle, warring against impossible odds for the highest stakes imaginable.  Even in tragedy, Captain America still succeeded. Years later, with the future of the world in question and stakes rising around the globe, another decision has been put into play regarding the invention of not one, but several super-powered beings-and all of these heroes would come together under the close-knit supervision of General Nicholas Fury, the one-eyed leader of S.H.I.E.L.D who was known for kicking butt and taking names later. 

Fury has talked the American government into reactivating the Super-Soldier program that created Captain America.  Unfortunately, under its first incarnation, Dr.  Bruce Banner created a rampaging entity that came to be known as the Hulk and all but got the program cancelled. Banner takes the number two spot on the new program, and the lead designer role goes to Dr.  Henry Pym, who has already begun experimenting with communication with ants and size-changing powers, calling himself first Ant-Man then Giant-Man.  His lovely wife Jan, hiding dark secrets of her own, is the Wasp.  Tony Stark, known throughout the world also as Iron Man, has also agreed to join the team for reasons of his own.

Even as the new Super-Soldier program goes on-line, Captain America turns up in suspended animation, a combination of the freezing waters of the North Atlantic Ocean and the super-soldier drug in his system.  At the same time, General Fury opens negotiations with Thor, a self-proclaimed deity, environmental activist, and New Age guru, resides in Norway but has powers over the weather that no one can explain.

A considerable amount of political jockeying has to take place before the team of super-powered individuals begin to assemble-and that cohesion also takes the reappearance of the Hulk, bigger and badder than ever, and way past control.  If Fury’s Ultimates aren’t careful, they could only be singing the opening stanza of their swan song. Mark Millar, author of The Ultimates, has also written The Authority, Ultimate X-Men, The Flash, Superman Adventures, Vampirella, and The Column for Comic Book Resources.  Bryan Hitch has drawn for JLA, The Authority, Martian Manhunter, and WildCATS.

Their effort was subjected, unfairly I think, to comparison with Alan Moore’s The Watchmen, which has its own history with the Charlton Comics heroes.  I believe Millar and Hitch created a post-9/11 feel to comics by blending superheroes, politics, and the military.   This book isn’t for everyone, and definitely not for the younger set that enjoyed the Ultimate Avengers dvds.   Not until those kiddos are a little older.   Then they’ll love it.

Anyone who has read comics, especially Marvel Comics, is familiar with the genesis material for this Ultimate Marvel series.  The original Avengers (Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, Ant-Man, and the Wondrous Wasp) gathered to defeat the menace of Thor’s evil half-brother Loki in the 1960s.

Comic books have never been the same since.  The Ultimates is clearly a 21st century relaunch on that comic.  Mark Millar brings darkness and a razor-edged thrill to the series.  All of the characters have been made over in his or her own image, but with new oddities and twists that increase long-time readers’ interest with a new look at favorite heroes, and offer an organic history of very real characters for the uninitiated.

In some ways, the flow of the story seems very familiar: the Hulk is a rampaging monster trapped inside weak Bruce Banner, Captain America is rescued from a frozen wasteland after being preserved in suspended animation, Hank and Janet Pym are married, Thor was an emergency medical technician till something changed him into a Norse god (or revealed that aspect of himself), and Tony Stark/Iron Man is a rich playboy.

But the spins that Millar brings to the characters and to the stories are unique and the stuff from which successful series spring from and run for years.  Bryan Hitch’s artwork is jaw-droppingly beautiful, panels and splash pages of action and character interplay that seizes the eye and just won’t let go.  Even after a reader has finished the graphic novel, he or she will probably find himself or herself wandering back through the pages just admiring the art.

The decision to set the first issue (first arc of the tale for those of you who are reading the hardback) back during World War II was dead-on.  Seeing Captain America in action, especially dressed in Hitch’s take on the familiar red, white and blue uniform (complete with pistol, ammo belt, and helmet) draws the reader into the story with the urgency of an all-or-nothing mission in the final days of the war.  The final couple pages showcasing Tony Stark atop a snow-covered mountain peak, knowing he is Iron Man, whets the appetite for the next issue.

Each of the issues of the monthly comic gathered in this graphic novel lends itself to the next, building on the action and sharp character byplay of the previous issue.  The Ultimates is recommended to regular Avengers fans and to anyone who is only now discovering the breathtaking world of the graphic novel.  Readers that have learned to enjoy the graphic novel medium can’t afford to pass up on a book that is definitely going to be an award contender.

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Midnight For Charlie Bone is the first book in a five-book (thus far) series.  Originally it was touted as being only a five-book series, but evidently success has broadened the tale.

The story is about nine-year-old Charlie Bone, who turns out to be one of the descendants of the Red King, a mysterious personage who had amazing powers.  When the Red King’s wife died, he left his kingdom and his ten children.  As it happens, five of the children used their powers for good, and five used their powers for selfish reasons.  This set up the continuing war that’s been playing out for generations.

Charlie at first discovers that he has a weird power:  he can hear people thinking and talking in photographs.  He was planning to make a birthday card for his best friend, Benjamin, and ended up with the picture of a man and a baby instead.  Listening to the picture, puzzled by this strange ability, he learns that the baby was stolen away and remains lost to this day.

Charlie follows up on the hints provided by the picture to undertake the mystery of the missing little girl.  His travels take him to Ingeldew’s Bookshop, where Miss Ingledew is despondent over her missing niece.  Charlie knows that the niece must be the same one in the picture he saw.

Miss Ingledew also gives Charlie a robotic dog that her brother-in-law, Mr. Tolly, gave her.  There’s also a mysterious silver box (that doesn’t get opened for 200 pages and drives readers absolutely crazy!) that promises more mysteries to come.

Back home, Charlie talks to Benjamin and his dog Runner Bean, then delivers his gifts and his mysterious package.  Charlie’s Grandma Bone was a Yewbeam, and her sisters (a truly obnoxious trio of busybodies with incalcuable mean streaks) and that heritage marks Charlie.  Once they discover Charlie can hear pictures, they decide to send him to Bloor’s Academy.  Charlie and his mother have no choice because the aunts are providing for them.

In the academy, the mystery deepens.  Charlie runs afoul of Manfred Bloor, who has the power to hypnotize, but he finds a great friend in Fidelio and discovers there are other Endowed children.  He also finds out that Endowed children are part of the Red King’s extended family.

Many readers have compared the series to the Harry Potter books.  There is a lot to compare (school, creepy adults, magical powers), but there is a lot of difference as well.  The Charlie Bone series appears written on a simpler, easier to grasp level.

However, there are some jarring instances when the point of view shifts too abruptly, from one sentence to the next without a scene break between.  This causes some processing delays as the reader takes a moment to realize that the scene has shifted.

There are some great villains and some charming heroes.  Charlie’s Uncle Paton really comes through in the end when the chips are down and Charlie doesn’t know what to do.

I read the book to my eight-year-old over the past week.  He, and I, found Midnight For Charlie Bone to be fun, adventuous, and mysterious.  The kind of book we really go for when we want to relax.  However, I found myself reading longer and longer as my son wanted to know more and more of the mystery.  So be prepared to hang onto the reading experience for quite some time as you become enthralled with the story.

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I’m a sucker for superheroes.  I always have been, and I always will be.  I grew up in the early 1960s and watched all the greats of what has become known as the Silver Age of comics come onto the scene.  I had the first issues of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man’s appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15, the first issues of the Hulk and the Avengers.  I had ‘em all.

(And if I could have hung onto them, I could be putting my kids through college easily now.  Nah.  I’d have kept the comics.)

When Batman came on television in 1964, I was hooked.  I always swiped one of my mom’s towels and hung out in the backyard looking for evildoers.  I imagined them everywhere.

Now I’m glad I have an eight-year-old son who’s as fond of comics heroes as I am.  We’ve watched all the cartoon incarnations of Batman, Superman, and the Teen Titans.  We’re looking forward to the Legion of Superheroes.  Last year when Sky High came out in theaters, we were there the opening night.  Likewise for The Incredibles.

So when Shane Berryhill put out his new book, Chance Fortune and the Outlaws, the first in what is definitely going to be a series, I knew I had to get it and read it.  I did, and it was everything Sky High was, with the homage to all the comics greats I’d grown up with.

In Chance Fortune and the Outlaws, Josh Blevins had wanted to be a superhero all his life. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have superhero parents he could inherit his powers from, wasn’t the offspring of a god, hadn’t fallen into a vat of strange chemicals, hadn’t been born a mutant, hadn’t found a mystical object that gave him incredible powers, etc.

But what he had (like Batman, my personal favorite) was the heart and desire to become a hero. In the opening chapter in the book, Josh tracks down Captain Fearless, an old adventurer from the golden age of heroes, who hadn’t had any superpowers either and gets the good captain to train him.

Even with all that training, Josh’s heart is broken when he isn’t admitted into superhero school. Ultimately, with the aid of Captain Fearless, Josh changes his name to Chance Fortune and claims his superpower is BEING EXTRA LUCKY and gets into the school.

While in his classes, he meets Space Cadet and Shocker, then later gets teamed with Psy-Chick, Gothika, Iron Maiden and Private Justice (who have mutant technology powers, mental powers, magic powers, is a goddess, and can stretch like a rubberband).

But just getting through the day as an average person masquerading as someone with superpowers isn’t hard enough.  No.  His life has to become even more complicated.  Chance Fortune also runs afoul of Superion and the Invincibles, the school’s toughest team to beat.Josh – or, rather, Chance – has to figure out how to bring his team together and deal with school at the same time.  Things are made even more difficult because Iron Maiden is the daughter of a goddess and is assigned to team leader, a spot Chance is more suited for.

The book is an homage to every superhero in comics. The school buildings are named after giants in the field: (Stan) Lee, (Jack) Kirby, (Todd) McFarlane and others. Every archetypal superhero in the known comics world is revealed within the pages of fast-paced action and snappy dialogue.  Chance Fortune comes across as a real character and the technology backing the world is fun.

Comics fans will readily make comparisons to the X-Men’s Danger Room as the school tests the teams.  But it’s that familiarity that really brings the book home.  Creating the world in your head is a snap. Readers will no doubt be imagining what would happen if they had superpowers and got to go to the school.

The book is a quick, fun read for the younger crowd, and a trip down nostalgia lane for the older superhero wannabes out in the audience. For those who enjoyed the recent movie, Sky High, Chance Fortune and the Outlaws offers another opportunity to witness a budding superhero in action.  

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I discovered Robert A. Heinlein back in sixth grade.  It was 1969 (which makes me old, I guess).  Luckily for me, the book I found was Rocket Ship Galileo, which – coincidentally – was Heinlein’s first published novel.  That book, as well as most of the author’s, are dated these days, but I still pick them up and read them with that same sense of wonder that sent an eleven-year old reader looking for a bigger world than the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and even Tom Swift, Jr. offered.

Rocket Ship Galileo offered machine-gun toting Nazis on the moon.  That threat had still loomed in the world when Heinlein authored the book, and it wasn’t too far gone from what I remembered. I went on to enjoy Citizen of the Galaxy, Starship Troopers (made into a movie with computer programming that Heinlein would perhaps have never conceived), Between Planets, Red Planet, and a couple dozen others.  I was in heaven.  Heinlein was writing the world I thought I’d be living in by now.

Lately I came across a Heinlein book I hadn’t read:  The Door Into Summer.  I settled in for a treat, a return to a boyhood I remember fondly.  In the book, Dan Davis is an engineer in the futuristic world of 1970 (Heinlein actually wrote this novel in 1957, so he was writing near-future fiction).  After designing a whole line-up of automatons that clean up around the house, Dan goes into business with a friend of his and establishes a company called Hired Girl.  His next big project is Flexible Frank, an automaton that can do all the things humans do.

Unfortunately, Dan and his business partner have a falling-out over a conniving woman named Belle who manages to take lock, stock and barrel everything that’s not tied down.  After an angry confrontation, Dan is injected with a zombie drug and taken down to be put into Cold Sleep, a cryogenic chamber and awakens 30 years later in the year of 2000.

After waking up, Dan finds he loves the world of the future but misses his friends, in particular his cat, Pete, and almost-niece Frederika.  The future holds marvels Dan has never dreamed of, but it also holds a really strange past for him, one that he doesn’t remember and feels certain he never lived through — until he finds out that time travel exists.

According to documents he researches, he evidently invented several other automatons back in 1970.  The problem is that, although Dan had been dreaming them up, he’d never put them to paper.  The patents on the devices are in his name.  He can’t believe what he’s reading and can’t figure out what’s going on – until he finds out that time travel had also been invented by 2000. Armed with his new knowledge, Dan lays siege to the past, going back in an effort to preserve his own life and protect his friends.  And to take care of his cat, Pete.

As always, a Heinlein story — especially from the early years — goes down smooth.  Never a missed note.  I felt like Dan was one of those guys I’ve known all my life or would have no problem meeting.  The discussion of the possibilities of time travel had come up in several stories during the 1950s, but Heinlein’s unraveling of the special problems inherent in being able to do such a thing are fresh and presented in a way everyone can understand.

I liked Dan’s cat, Pete, and was actually upset when I figured out the cat was dead in the past.  The Heinlein philosophy is present on every page, including a scene set on a nude resort (something that Heinlein really put into his fiction in his later years).

One thing that kept jarring me throughout the novel was the fact that Dan was going to build a voice-activated typewriter.  In the year 2000.  But that’s forgiveable.  No one knew how big a change the PC was going to make.  (Take a look at these reviews and the format they’re coming to you on!)  Even though Heinlein was off on his future history and didn’t know how much personal computers were going to change things, his forward thinking in social and economic areas were and are cutting edge.  He also stayed true to the science. The Door Into Summer is a fantastic read for old-time SF readers, but may draw the younger set in as well.  Heinlein stays true to the world as he knew it, and puts us face-to-face with the hero, turning Dan into an old friend almost at once.  That was one of the best things about Heinlein’s early work.