From: mcollins@nyx.cs.du.edu (Killans - First And Last And Always)
Subject: Re: Marvel UK question
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Date: Fri, 9 Oct 92 15:20:45 GMT

In article <Bvs65n.HCF@cda.mrs.umn.edu> dardiswa@cda.mrs.umn.edu (Wayne A. Dardis 1500099) writes:
>I've just finished reading the Death's Head II limited series
>from last year or so and didn't think it was to bad, so i thought
>i'd check out the ongoing series starting soon.  My question
>concerns the other UK titles, are any of them any good?  I have
>this worry that they aren't because of the fact that everyone
>of them seems to have an x-person guest starring in them.  I know
>that they don't in the UK versions and it's only a ploy to get
>americans to buy the titles, but i still wonder if there are
>any good points to them.  I'd like to hear some opinions on them
>either here or by e-mail, it doesn't matter much to me.  Thanks.
>
IMHO, the best Marvel UK title to pick up is the first series of Knights of
Pendragon. It ran for 18 issues, and is probably the best thing Marvel have
done for a looong time.
The story combines superheroism, environmental themes and Arthurian Legend
skillfully to give excellent stories with some serious points thrown in 
along the way. It also features several established Marvel characters,
including Captain Britain, Dai Thomas, Union Jack and Albion.

After that, bearing in mind that I've only read the Brit versions in Overkill,
here's my opinions on the other stuff:

Hell's Angel: Probably my favourite - well written, with mystical, hi-tech 
and superhero elements thrown in. Suffers from trying to cram too much info
into too few pages, but with the US fluff pages, this may not be so much of
a problem.
The story concernes the daughter of one of the Mys-Tech (see below) scientist
being granted a ridiculous amount of power to stop Mys-Tech's evil ways, but
she has to be careful how she uses it.

KOP II: My second fave, but had I not loved the first series so much I
probably would be less keen on this. Basically a continuation of KOP, although
the environmental theme has been lost and the plots are getting a bit silly.
Also, I'm annoyed because we Brits are quite obviously missing some of the
plot developments - characters keep turning appearing and disappearing from
one issue to the next. Still, the feel of the first series is just about
there.

Motormouth: My third fave. Silly but a lot of fun. For some reason it reads
like a cross between the X-Men (circa 200-250) and Tharg's Future Shocks
(from 2000AD). This could lose it's novelty after a bit, though.
It's about a fast-talking Heavy Metal kid (called Harley Davis) who 'finds'
a pair of trainers with the power to to travel between dimensions.

Digitek: Nice art (painted), but it seems to be a poor man's cyberpunk.
It definitely has potential, though, and may improve once it gets going
(except it's a limited series, I believe, so it hasn't got long...)
The hero is a scientist from a rival corporation to Mys-Tech who get's
'absorbed' into a super-computer and transformed into Tron's big brother...

Warheads: My least favourite. Big Guns and weird SF setting-of-the-week.
2000AD do this sort of thing so much better.

All the titles are linked, in that they all involve the 'bad-guy- corporation
Mys-Tech, a company controlled by thousand-year-old occultists with an 
immortality deal with Mephisto which combines mysticism and hi-tech. Hell's
angel seems to contain most information about them, and seems to be a 'core'
title (although this may change, I don't know).

In my opinion, they're generally better than the majority of Marvel fluff,
with the reservations above, although the injections of US pages may
well change the feel of them. You could do worse than check them out.

Oh, and *definitely* try Knights Of Pendragon (first series)!

Mike
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