Marvel Masterworks: Killraven Vol. 1

This volume reprints the full run of this short-lived series from the '70s plus the graphic novel that attempted to complete the story from the early '80s. The Essential Killraven volume does pretty much the same thing, but in black and white and on poorer paper. This colour volume is far superior in production values, as you would expect. I have mixed feelings about many of the early stories. The basic premise has been well explained by another reviewer and it shares much of the dystopian gloom of comics and films of the cold war era, such as Kamandi, Planet of the Apes, Deathlok and others. The early issues are very ordinary in story and art (apart from half an issue by the brilliant Neal Adams) and the best issues are undoubtedly by Don McGregor and P. Craig Russell. McGregor takes his work seriously, perhaps a little too seriously at times, as some issues are rather over-written, with masses of rhetorical, philosophical captions (now a rather outdated technique). He also takes issues seriously, including racism ('Only the Computer Shows me any Respect'), the scorn directed at the disabled ('Arena Kill') etc. For my money, his latter stories (from #32-39) are excellent, some of the earlier ones are a little trite, with some truly dreadful dialogue. P. Craig Russell's artwork, on the other hand is almost universally gorgeous, the opening page of #28 is still jaw dropping and his beautiful, art nouveau inspired figures (KiIllraven is gorgeous enough to make even a straight man like me swoon) and landscapes are a joy. By the time we get to the final issue ('The morning after mourning prey') he's firing on all cylinders. Then..it all stopped, the series was cancelled and the Graphic Novel epilogue was never truly satisfactory (Just as Kirby's Fourth World was never really tidied up in his 'Hunger Dogs' GN). Nevertheless, this is still one of my favourite Marvel comics of this era, alongside Moench and Gulacy's Master of Kung Fu, Jim Starlin's Warlock, Wolfman and Colan's Tomb of Dracula, Englehart and Brunner's Dr Strange and Steve Gerber's Howard the Duck. Finally, KIllraven is reprinted in a format that matches these other classics.

During the 1970s Marvel published a number of post-apocalyptic comic books, not all set in the Marvel 616 universe we know. War of the Worlds (Killraven as it was titled for a few issues) was a true classic that was both prosaic and beautiful. This books brings together all of the issues published in Amazing Adventures (18 to 39 - not including the reprint issues) as well as the graphic-novel sequel. It's a beautiful book and a lovely addition to any collection, featuring the work of Don McGregor and P. Craig Russell. Agreeably, it is of its time and the mankini worn by Killraven certainly appears somewhat inappropriate to us today but the story and art convey a powerful sequel to HG Wells original tale and you may be surprised by the strength of the storylines and the character development that is evident.There is no denying that Don MCGregor was verbose and indeed there is a lot of text in there but it is not extraneous and the artwork is often some of the best ever seen in comics. (notwithstanding the jarring swap from the art of Neal Adams to Howard Chaykin in the first issue, and the relatively poor Herb Trimpe work).If you were lucky enough to be reading comics in the 70s then this will bring back many fond memories (not least of hunting down those elusive missing issues from the grockle shops) . If you weren't then do yourself a favour and pick up a copy now. It's still a great comic, even forty years on.

A great and well deserved reprint of an oft forgotten series. The premise is that the Martians returned to conquer Earth circa 2001 and the whole series is set in 2018/2019. Therefore, Killraven and his freemen set out to save the human race.Basically its not until Don Mcgregor and Craig Russell come on board that the series takes shape and perhaps being an overlooked and possibly low selling title they had more freedom to deliver the stories they wanted to show. Marvel had great non traditional hero titles in the 70s, such as Tomb of Dracula and Warlock and these were often the most innovative and compelling works out there. Amazing Adventures featuring Killraven deserves to be amongst those lauded books.

Favorite comic from the seventies.