A Blog from across the Atlantic

Greetings! Well, as regular visitors will have doubtless noticed, I've been a little absent since around about the release of Captain Britain & MI:13 #1. Well, right now I've taken this a step further and actually quit the UK for a while. Don't worry, it's only for a fortnight. And everybody needs a holiday. Some time away from work, from the norm, even from this little obsession of mine... Right?

Oh, I so wish I could...

But, no.

By now you'll probably have noticed the photo (Please forgive its slightly fuzzy quality and my own attire - they're having somewhat of a heatwave here in New Jersey, with temperatures up to 100 degrees F, a couple of days back. It's no sleeves, or die - and damn the British stiff upper lip ;) ). It seems that even half the world away I cannot escape from Marvel UK...



In my hands I have a copy of #13 of Warheads, found in an aging comics rack in a bookstore on the Boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey. I suppose this should not be SO surprising. The Bargain Bin is, quite honestly, where you are most likely to find the majority of Marvel UK's 90s titles. But this seems to be the way it works with me. I wasn't looking for the damned issues. I wasn't even looking for a Comic Book store, yet. There I was, just minding my own business, and all of a sudden ot was THERE! Facing me, at the top of the rack, almost as if somebody had put it there, with the intention of grabbing my attention.

My girlfriend groaned when I told her I'd found it. She expected SOME comic book focus on this trip (We're in the States, after all!) but was probably hoping for a little more warning... ;)

To the unitiated Warheads was one of the longest running titles of the early 90s Marvel Uk imprint. I haven't, as of yet, given it much of a mention on this blog - although that shouldn't be read as being indicative of anything quality wise. It was actually pretty good.

The Warheads basically are a highly armed group of scavengers, who loot technology and weapons from their travels across space, time and thedimension. When the book began they were doing this for MYS-TECH, the occult-centric corporation of bad guys who were at the centre of so many of Marvel UK titles of this period. That changed later on, but certainly for the most part that's who these guys are - kinda like Pirates who loot other worlds via wormholes.

This issue, from the tail end of the run, is scripted by Ian Rimmer and Craig Huston and pencilled by Stuart Jennett, and it's a pretty simple, straight-forward, stand-alone issue. As with most of the Warheads stories we are guided through by Leona - who started off as a new-recruit at the beginning of the series. Her first person perspective is part of what made the series flow so well.

The issue delivers us a shoot-out in a swamp, the busting of a few alien skulls, a new recruit losing an arm, and several moments of Col Liger's inappropriate relationship with his gun - Clementine (Seriously, didn't anybody else think that weird voice-activated flirting was a little creepy?). It's actually not at all bad, especially for the 50c I spent on it!

So there you go! Even on the other side of the Atlantic Marvel UK stalks me. It'll get you too...