Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves are both award winning writers.  They also both rose to prominence outside the novel arena.  Gaiman scripted the Sandman comic series that lasted 75 issues plus specials.  Since that time he’s gone on to script many other things, including novels, television shows, short stories, movie scripts, and continued working in the comics arena.  His work for Marvel Comics to create the 1602 universe when heroes similar to the present-day Spiderman, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, etc rose at 300 years ago has rightfully garnered a lot of attention.  He also helped flesh out the mythos of the comics industry’s best-selling title, Spawn.

Michael Reaves has written many television cartoon scripts, including Batman the Animated Series, Ghostbusters, and others. He’s also written short stories and novels.

According to the notes in the latest book they have out together, INTERWORLD, they got the idea for the book about ten years ago. Reaves joined Gaiman at his house and they sat down and wrote the book together. The idea had originally started out as a pitch for the television people. Since they had trouble explaining the concept to television executives, they came up with the idea of writing a short novel about it. Even after the novels written, television wasn’t prepared to make a series. Last year, the manuscript was given fresh life when it was shown around to some prospective publishers. Almost immediately, the book was greenlit for publication.

I enjoy a lot of Neil Gaiman’s work. His comics are great, his short stories haunt, and his novels are generally burst out loud laughing or truly epic. Sometimes both.

I’ve read some of Reaves’s books, but I’m not as familiar with his work. He seems to create some interesting worlds and some interesting characters.

When I heard about InterWorld, the premise sounded truly exciting. Imagine a boy, Joey Harker, who could literally run into several of his alternate selves on parallel worlds. I figured immediately that the book had kind of a Sliders or Marvel Comics Exiles feel. I had a lot of hopes for the book.

After getting the book in the mail today, I sat down and read it.  It’s an easy read.  The prose just sails right along.  And the story is simple.  In fact, it’s a little too simple compared to what I was expecting.  Granted that the book was written with a nine to twelve year old audience in mind, there was a lot of concentration on the architecture of the nothingness that stretched between the worlds.  And not enough focus on real character development or even a plot.  Both of those turn out simple as well.

I know the juvenile crowd will probably appreciate that, but this is the same market that has been reading Harry Potter books that were 1000 pages long with convoluted and heavily articulated plots. Still, this is Gaiman and there are flashes of brilliance as well as true emotion throughout.  When he talks about his teacher Dimas, he sounds so true I couldn’t help but wonder if Gaiman or Reaves really had a teacher like that.  The “class assignments” were terrific, and found myself wishing for more of those.

The book moves at high speed once it gets up and going, which is really very quickly.  However Joey tends to be left on his own through much of the book.  He always seems to be leaving people behind and not making any true and lasting friendships for a long time.  In fact, the story was depressing there for awhile because everybody he met seem to die.  Including himself.

Overall, I was pretty happy with the book. I wish there had been more. But it felt like an interesting cross between a Heinlein juvenile, an early Andre Norton adventure, and Roger Zelazny’s Amber series. InterWorld is a quick read with plenty of zip and provides a host of ideas with lots of action.

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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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A few years ago, Spider-Man fought an incredible being who called himself Morlun, who was supposed to be an Ancient and a drinker of souls. More to the point, Morlun feasted on the souls of people who chose animals as their “spirit totem.” He wanted Spider-Man because of his connection to the spider spirit. 

The original story became one of the most intense arcs in the Spider-Man comics at the time, and it rebooted the character’s origins to a degree.  Spider-Man defeated Morlun with help, but now the rest of the Ancients, a sister and two brothers, are out for revenge. And maybe a midnight snack. 

After being assigned a temporary basketball coaching job with a troublesome star athlete (which I personally wish could have taken on a slightly larger role in the novel), Peter Parker (Spider-Man) arrives home to find more trouble: his wife MJ has taken on an acting job but now has to drive to get there. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have a driver’s license (what native New Yorker does?) and just failed the tests. Peter tells her he’ll help her, then jumps into patrol as Spider-Man. He immediately gets jumped by Felcity Hardy, an old girlfriend who goes by the name The Black Cat. 

Black Cat tells Spider-Man that he’s being lured to his doom by the Rhino on a rampage. But, being a hero, Peter has no choice but to go — and nearly gets feasted on. Together, Spider-Man and the Black Cat have to figure out how to defeat the trio of Ancients without losing their lives in the process. 

Jim Butcher is the best-selling author of the Dresden Files, featuring wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden. A television show is being filmed now. He’s also the author of the Codex Alera fantasy series. 

Butcher hits some really nice licks with this book, capturing the humbleness and golly-gee of Peter Parker in his first-person narrative. Throwing the Black Cat into the mix with Peter and his wife MJ for a romantic triange of sorts was an especially nice touch, a romp down memory lane for old-time comics fans. 

The Rhino, always one of Spider-Man’s more simple yet complex villains, is played brilliantly in the book.  He comes across as very human and possessing more self-awareness than he ever did in the comics.  The exchanges of dialogue, the exploration of back story provided in The Darkest Hours is fantastic, demonstrating that all too often the line separating a hero and a villain is very thin. 

There are even a couple cameos with Dr. Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme (as well as an astonishing reveal about Wong, Dr. Strange’s majordomo, and the final punch of the novel featuring Wong is an all-out hoot that will leave readers rolling in the aisles). 

The pacing is frenetic, filled with the trademark quips as well as lots of dialogue among the characters, and surprising twists and turns of the plot that keep a reader moving along. Although these are comic book characters, they come across as surprisingly human on Butcher’s pages. While on a camping trip with my wife and my youngest son, I wanted some light reading, something I could pick up and lay down while we were at the lake.  But Butcher kept me nailed to the pages of the book and I finished it far too soon. 

The Darkest Hours is a solid Spider-Man novel, a great adventure read, and the very thing a comic geek or someone interested in Spider-Man through the movie venue needs to pack along to the beach. Harry Dresden fans will probably also enjoy this sideline jaunt Butcher takes through the Marvel Comics Universe.