Tini Howard

Bloody hell this is good. Maybe it's because I'm also a mutant who was made to feel unwanted and unwelcome in the UK very recently, but yeah, Captain Britain fighting for a Britain that is not defined by hatred, bigotry, rampant nationalism and xenophobia hits hard.

I don't know for sure that Tini Howard is speaking to the nastiness of a post-Brexit "TERF island", but I can't imagine she's making these statements and these plots in 2021/2022 by accident. And I love her for it.

Because Betsy show more is fighting for the Britain I love. The one I moved halfway around the world to be a part of. And the one I watched slowly slip away and turn to hate and fear of me and mine. I wish I still had the hope irl that Howard has given me in the pages of Excalibur that things can change, that the UK can overcome this and that the country is more than its hateful leaders and vocal bigots. Where's the Captain Britain of Earth-1218 when we need her? show less

What do I say about this other than AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH GAY SCREAMING

*coughs* ok, now that that's out of my system... This is an incredible story. Tini Howard's Excalibur was one of my faves of the Krakoan era, and this doesn't disappoint as a follow-up. The team is fantastic, the story is well told, beautifully drawn and paced, and so much fun to read. Highly recommended to anyone deep in the Destiny of X looking for a great segue into Otherworld for an old fashioned magical quest!

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

In the 2010s, the original Death's Head has experienced a bit of a resurgence at Marvel; one assumes this is because the 1980s kids who grew up on him are now in positions of creative authority themselves. This volume collects Death's Head's first self-titled comic series since the 1980s, which was a four-issue miniseries by Tini Howard and Kei Zama from 2019 where the original Death's Head meets the Young Avengers and the show more new Death's Head V. It was collected under the title "Clone Drive" by Panini, along with a reprint of Death's Head vol. 1 #1.

Death's Head may have been killed off and absorbed into Death's Head II back in the 1990s, but he's still alive and well here. My understanding—such as it is—is that this is because originally Death's Head died in comics set in 2020. Back in the 1990s, Marvel UK's 2020-set comics were supposed to be the "real" future of the Marvel universe... but now we're up to 2020, so they're clearly an alternate timeline, and thus Death's Head died in this alternate timeline, but not in the real timeline, meaning he is alive and well and carrying on as normal. Evelyn Necker of AIM was responsible for the original Death's Head's death, and Clone Drive gives us the Evelyn Necker of "our" reality, who has become obsessed with finding and creating different versions of Death's Head.

So anyway, this was pretty enjoyable. Death's Head is a fun character, but he is difficult to get right as a lead character; even his creator Simon Furman has struggled with that. What made Death's Head enjoyable in Transformers was the sense that he's outside it all, kind of. The Transformers may invest great significance in the was between Autobots and Decepticons, in their battles against Unicron, in the time-travelling antics of Galvatron... but Death's Head doesn't care about any of that, he just wants to get paid. But also Death's Head is at his best when he's a bit put-upon, when things get away from him and don't go as planned. So he's a great foil, but it's hard to make him a main character because how can you give your lead a vibe that what's going on around him doesn't actually matter? Furman occasionally managed this with the original Death's Head series; my favorite issue of this is the one where he gets involved in some guy's squabble over a treasure map with his wife, and it's clear Death's Head doesn't give a shit about any of this backstory or even who lives and who dies, he just wants the money.

Writer Tini Howard recreates that vibe here by combining Death's Head with the Young Avengers. Flung back in time from the future era of the original Guardians of the Galaxy (the 31st century), Death's Head takes refuge in the apartment of Wiccan and Hulkling. They are having relationship drama... and Death's Head just does not care at all. He just wants to get back to the future and stay alive. The teen angst of the Young Avengers is the perfect counterpart to Death's Head, because it's very clear he doesn't want to know about any of it, but they keep trying to explain it to him, and it keeps having an effect on him whether he likes it or not... plus, here's Death's Head V with his own existential angst!

Howard is a fun writer, and does fun stuff with the characters here; in addition to Hulkling and Wiccan, we also get Hawkeye, who was my favorite in the original Young Avengers run. There's good jokes and good angst and good twists. Artist Kei Zama, appropriately enough, got her start on Transformers, and she's adept here with human and robot alike, capturing Death's Head expressiveness. There are some neat layouts.

If there's a fault here, it's that I think the series wants the reader to care about the Hulkling/Wiccan drama more than I actually do. I'd rather be like Death's Head and be a bit above it all! The series ends with new, potentially set-ups for both Death's Head (with Evelyn Necker) and Death's Head V (with Hulkling and Wiccan). Alas, though, I don't think either character has had any subsequent appearances; specifically, Hulkling and Wiccan have returned but without any indication that "Vee" is still living with them.

My Panini trade paperback has an introduction by Brady Webb, which gives background on Death's Head that unfortunately repeats the apocryphal, untrue story about Death's Head's supposed original appearance in "High Noon Tex."

Death's Head and Marvel UK: « Previous in sequence | Next in sequence » show less

The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling have lost a couple advertisers and need some cash, so their director Sam signs them up for a wrestling festival a few hours away. After some shenanigans on their travels, the troupe arrives to find out that the organizers didn’t want to have two female wrestling acts, so instead of wrestling each other, GLOW will be wrestling the Star Primas. They’re unchoreographed and don’t do costumes or gimmicks or rehearsals, so the two groups struggle to work show more together.

This is a very fun collection, and the 4 issues are well-structured. It takes place approximately after season 1 of the TV show (or maybe during?) which was a little awkward since it was published after season 3, but it was nice to see my TV friends again anyway. The story feels pretty juvenile considering it’s a continuation of a TV show that begins with a full-frontal sex scene, but that seems to correlate with the direction of the show as well. I’m disappointed there seems to be another series but I can't find it anywhere.

The art is perfect - it takes a particular kind of skill to draw comic book characters that are real, recognizable people, and Templer does a fantastic job. show less