Revolutionary War

Revolutionary War #1-8

by Andy Lanning, Alan Cowsill, Ronan Cliquet (Illustrator)

Marvel UK's greatest heroes come together for the first time in 20 years to face a threat that could destroy the world! A troubling vision in Darkmoor Castle portends the horrible truth: the sinister MyS-Tech organization has returned! When their magical cloning experiments are discovered, Dark Angel and the Knights of Pendragon have no choice but to return to action! Death's Head comes face to face with Death's Head II as they rally against MyS-Tech across time! The Supersoldiers take on MyS-Tech's army of Psycho Wraiths! And from beyond space and time, Motormouth, Killpower and the Warheads join the fight! Featuring Captain Britain, Pete Wisdom, Union Jack, Dai Thomas and a host of British heroes from Marvel UK's past, present and future! COLLECTING: Revolutionary War: Alpha 1, Revolutionary War: Dark Angel 1, Revolutionary War: Knight s Of Pendragon 1, Revolutionary War: Death's Head II 1, Revolutionary War: Supersoldiers 1, Revolutionary War: Motor-mouth 1, Revolutionary War: Warheads 1, Revolutionary War: Omega 1

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Fantasy, Fiction, Comic Book

32 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 2014

About the author

Andy Lanning is a British comic book writer and inker, known for his work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, and for his collaboration with Dan Abnett.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 1 out of 5]

I want to apologise to writers like Brian Bendis, Matt Fraction, Rick Remender, Jason Aaron and Jonathan Hickman whose event books I scoffed at for being piss-poor commercial crap - compared to Revolutionary War, your books look positively Shakespearean in quality!

Revolutionary War reunites Marvel UK characters that were apparently popular in the early to mid ‘90s. Then again this was a period in time where Rob Liefeld was the most popular comics creator and garbage like Spawn and Savage Dragon were all the rage so I guess comics readers back then were either bonkers or on drugs or both?

Ho hum. Evil dummies called Mys-Tech are returning to England to destroy it/take it over for Satan/whatever and it’s up to the British Marvel superheroes led by personality-free Captain Britain to stop them. That’s the only character whose name I can recall because the others that are introduced - and there are far, far too many tossed into this razor-thin story - are derivative of their American counterparts and instantly forgettable.

The story structure is: introduce a crap character with a caption box filled with their name and powers, have them fight “Psycho-Wraiths”, meet up with other crap characters, and repeat. It’s impossible to care about these characters or the generic story; in fact this book is basically unreadable! Andy Lanning is responsible for the majority of this mess but writers who should know better like Kieron Gillen and Rob Williams unfortunately contribute. Art-wise there’s a mish-mash of people but the art throughout is so rubbish it’s not worth noting.

Maybe Marvel UK fans who know these characters inside-out might get something out of this tedious nonsense but anyone else coming to this cold is going to leave baffled and bored in equal measure. Reading this it's easy to see why Captain Britain and co. are rarely seen in the Marvel universe - Revolutionary War, you are the worst Marvel event ever!

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

More in the 2 to 2.5 at times.

As someone who grew up with some of the Marvel UK heroes, I rather appreciate Marvel taking a look back to resurrect them and finish off their stories, which ended extremely abruptly. Just read the final Death's Head II and you know that series wasn't ending on a high note at all. It was pretty clear their best artists had left before a lot of the final issues as well, because a huge amount of the books suddenly had new "talent," and it was often some of the worse art Marvel UK produced. Marvel UK had some pretty decent comics for the time, but around 1993 they started creating all these new characters and new series that were just... well... sort of throw away characters. Like Gun Runner or Genetix and since they kept making these new heroes it felt like they weren't paying much attention to their established heroes. Dark Angel, for example, was an awesome character, but towards the end of her series things started to just get kind of stupid. Same with Death's Head II. Luckily, none of the heroes that were created at the tail end of the publishers life wound up in this series, the whole Plasmer arc was really quite goofy and didn't really need to be there.

Revolutionary War attempts to wrap up the stories of their most popular books like Motormouth and Killpower, Death's Head II, Warheads, Dark Angel, Knights of Pendragon, etc. In this 8 issue series each character basically gets their own book with the beginning and end issues starting and wrapping things up. The premise of the story is that Mys-Tech, the arch villains of the Marvel UK universe are trying to return. They've left seeds of power around the UK for them to tap into. A new breed of their psychowarriors is returning and are called the Psycho Wraiths. Now it's up to these old heroes to return and stop them once and for all.

Hopefully, this is the end of it. While I appreciate the sentiment, this series wound up being quite bad. In some ways I did like their idea of the age of the heroes having been out of the business for near 20 years like in real life. So we find ourselves with Motormouth a middle aged mom now that just wants to take care of her kids. Death's Head II has no real explanation, just appears out of nowhere from a portal. I was a pretty big Death's Head II fan as a kid and I was extremely disappointed in his comic. First they went with the original character design from the mini-series, rather than the newer design from the REST OF THE SERIES. Which, looked way better. Also, they had Death's Head II talking like the original Death's Head with him saying "yes?" at the end of everything. Death's Head II didn't talk this way and it was extremely out of character for him. I was pretty excited to see his return and was immediately disappointed. The rest of the character's issues were equally ho-hum. Nothing all that memorable, I'm sure I'll forget this eight issue series even happened within a few months of reading it. Motormouth's story was probably the better of them, but her art wasn't on the same level of the other issues for some reason. Which, I was excited to see her as well, because the original Motormouth issues were actually quite excellent. Dark Angel's story was actually fairly good, but the tangents it led to as the whole war progressed just went downhill. The rest are probably not worth mentioning.

If you grew up with Marvel UK and were a fan, other than the nostalgia, this series was pretty boring. Sure, it had some good ideas here and there, but the whole overarching aspect of this and how the characters wound up in the end wasn't that interesting. I don't know, Marvel has some pretty good writers in the modern times and this just didn't seem to cut it for me. I think these characters deserved better at the end of the day.

[Judah Radd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ummm... wtf was this?

Here’s a bunch of characters. Some of them you know, most of them you’re only vaguely aware of... but that’s ok because basically they all have the same personality; none at all.

Oh, by the way, the plot is super convoluted and there’s no good reason for that.

By the way... we’re going to fill most of the pages with mindless action, and it’s not going to be particularly well drawn.

Sad. This looked really cool. It’s a shame that it had about as much emotional substance as a half eaten can of pringles. Oh well. I guess I expected more from Andy Lanning and Kieron Gillen, but they can’t all be winners.

There is a cool panel of Union Jack riding a motorcycle, but it’s not cool enough to justify buying this book.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Marvel turns back the clock for this nostalgic look at their UK line of comics in this volume. Each chapter is a one-shot that deals with a former UK title, and how those characters have gotten along over the past few years of comic time. The Alpha issue brings back the old Mys-Tech group, drawing Captain Britain and Pete Wisdom into a war long thought over. Dark Angel showcases the techno-magician's history with Mephisto, and her desire to be free from the family debt. A band of former heroes reunite in Knights of Pendragon, battling a zombie King Arthur to save the soul of England. Past and present meet in the Death's Head II chapter; the original Death's Head is recruited to save his future self in the past from a third incarnation of the cybernetic bounty hunter. Washed up war heroes called the Super Soldiers get one last chance to serve their country from the Mys-Tech invasion, teenaged rebel Motormouth has become a responsible single mother, and the Warheads make a last-ditch assault in honor of fallen comrades. The volume concludes with Omega, as former powerhouse Killpower returns as leader of the enemy forces, trying to enact revenge for being left in a demonic limbo all this time. Andy Lanning and his team do a fair job of reintroducing forgotten heroes into a more violent and chaotic Marvel Universe. As a reader with only a glancing knowledge of the UK line, this collection was at its best when spotlighting the more prominent characters. Lovers of British Marvel will enjoy this Revolutionary War, but I will stick with my heroes across the pond in the United States.

[Silas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Dark Angel back when she was Hell's Angel in the 90s. It showed up in my comic shop, and I bought a few issues, but I was young then, and wasn't able to keep up with it. Still, I have fond memories of the character, and have enjoyed several other British Marvel characters, though I have always wondered why they don't show up elsewhere more often. I didn't recognize a few of these characters, and only knew a few others from Marvel trading cards (yeah, I was that young), but the book did a good job of getting me up to speed on the characters I didn't know as well. It did probably help that I knew about Mys-Tech already. I was surprised how recent this book was, given the flashes to the rest of the Marvel universe in the final issue, and that it had flown completely under my radar. I suppose this might not be for everyone, but I rather enjoyed it, myself.

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reprints Revolutionary War: Alpha #1, Revolutionary War: Dark Angel #1, Revolutionary War: Knights of Pendragon #1, Revolutionary War: Death’s Head II #1, Revolutionary War: Super Soldiers #1, Revolutionary War: Motormouth #1, Revolutionary War: Warheads #1, and Revolutionary War: Omega #1 (March 2014-May 2014). The Mys-Tech Board dealt with demons to win eternal life…and their push to keep the eternal life was stopped by the heroes of the United Kingdom. Years have passed since the battle and now it appears the Mys-Tech Board is back. With power growing and heroes being kidnapped, a team lead by Pete Wisdom is in a race against time to stop what could be a full scale invasion. Someone is behind the attacks…and the answer is someone Wisdom and the other heroes never suspected.

Written by Andy Lanning, Alan Cowsill, Kieron Gillen, Rob Williams, and Glenn Dakin, Revolutionary War is a Marvel Comics superhero event series that focuses on the Marvel UK heroes. With art by Rich Elson, Dietrich Smith, Will Sliney, Nick Roche, Brent Anderson, Tom Palmer, Ronan Cliquet, and Gary Erskine, the collection is a storyline running through six one-shots and bookended by an Alpha and Omega title.

The Marvel UK was a big push in the early 1990s when comic book titles exploded. Marvel had a ton of titles and a good chunk of those titles (for a time) were a series of new UK characters in their own books. Revolutionary War is an attempt to bring back some of those characters and largely feels like an effort in nostalgia.

The problem with Marvel UK was that it felt half-baked and this storyline also feels the same. Popular characters like Wolverine, the X-Men, and others made frequent appearances in the Marvel UK books, but the Marvel UK heroes rarely appeared in Marvel’s main books. I always felt it was weird and rather stupid. If someone like the Warheads showed up in Spider-Man or Dark Angel joined the Avengers for a few issues, it feels like the series would have had more legs. The Revolutionary War has the same problem. It felt like a non-series. One day, it was on the shelves. It just didn’t seem like it had a lot of fanfare and no lead up. With characters like Pete Wisdom, Captain Britain, and Union Jack involved, it feels like there could have been some smart cross promotion.

The other problem is that only people who read the Marvel UK series (twenty years before) would have any idea of what was going on…if then. I read a number of the Marvel UK titles more out of duty than love (I was a fan of Death’s Head II), and I didn’t understand half of what was occurring in the collection. For a new reader to try to read this, it would be a challenge…and a lot of the early 1990s readers might already be gone (plus, you get a lot of weird comic book time where they talk about the 1990s but no time seems to have passed).

Revolutionary War kind of wastes an opportunity. I feel that there is room for some of the characters to appear and be brought in to other team books. Revolutionary War should have been a culmination of appearances, cameos, and mini-storylines that would have built interest in the characters for new readers while reminding older readers of the past. Instead you have a lot of attempts to cram a lot of stories into a few issues…and everyone loses the war.

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stało się. Prawdopodobnie najgorszy event Marvel NOW! za mną. (okazuje się, że wydawnictwo ma niektóre eventy tak samo słabe jak te od DC's New 52...). Za pierwszym razem porzuciłem tytuł gdzieś w połowie, więc przeczytałem TO od początku, aby przypomnieć sobie pewne wątki. Do dzisiaj pieką mnie oczy...

Przepis na sukces? Wziąć sprawdzone postacie, jakie świętowały sukces w latach 90. XX wieku i dostosować je do aktualnych realiów. Jak się okazuje tak nie do końca, bowiem w złych proporcjach wyjdzie z tego tylko i wyłącznie zakalec. Kapitan Brytania. Poproszę. Union Jack. Dawajcie. Pete Wisdom. Jasne... Zaraz, zaraz. Kto to jest?

Z tym ten komiks ma wybitnie problem. Na przestrzeni ośmiu zeszytów występuje tu multum postaci, które jakoś trzeba wprowadzić, ale autorowi wychodzi to wybitnie miernie. Z wyjątkami, bo taka Dark Angel jest spoko, a każdą scenę kradnie... Mefisto. Od biedy polubiłem jeszcze Motormouth, ale reszta z Warheads na czele znaczą dla mnie tyle co ginące Psycho Wraiths. Bo z drugiej strony mamy antagonistów, tworzących niejaki Mys-Tech. Wrogowie uderzają szybko i skutecznie. Tyle, że co z tego, skoro herosi są w stanie wyjść z każdej opresji. No, prawie wszyscy.

Na plus mogę zaliczyć jeszcze kilka pomysłów i tekstów z finału, ale do tego trzeba przebrnąć przez nudne 170 stron. Tym bardziej, że w każdym zeszycie mamy ten sam schemat. Przedstawiamy pokrótce postać, pokazujemy jak się rozwinęła od czasów popularności i zaczyna się bitka. I tak kilka razy. Najgorzej, że te najbardziej postacie, albo szybko zostają wyeliminowani z gry, albo nie są odpowiednio wykorzystani.

Nieco szkoda, bo gdyby poświęcono tym postaciom więcej czasu, rozwinięto je, a nie od razu wrzucili wszystkich do jednego wora. Nie zdaje to sprawdzianu. W warstwie wizualnej nie ma fajerwerków, aczkolwiek jest to w miarę rzetelna. Reszta boli. 1.5/5. A jeszcze do tego Król Artur. W nieco innej formie. Bo to w końcu historia o angielskich herosach. Bo tak. Nieeee.

[Adrian J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

So... I love the 1990s Marvel UK characters. Not all of them make the cut (where's Genetix? :P). I did get a bit excited near the start when Shevaun Haldane had a dream about a girl made of some sort of living metal (I wondered if it might be Death Metal's half-mutant baby all grown up).

And then it let me down.

The issues written by Andy Lanning and Alan Cowsill are fine (but not spectacular), and the issue by Glenn Dakin is also OK. The issues by Kieron Gillen and Rob Williams are not good at all, which is a huge shame because other than Death's Head, the Supersoldiers are my favourite MUK characters.

The Supersoldiers get a raw deal, turned into a joke, as do the Knights of Pendragon. Its a big shame. Also, the book ends with Hauer being made the head of SHIELD's Europe Division, which doesn't exactly seem up his alley and has never been referenced since, so there we go.

The ending is very rushed and lacklustre. This should have been a bigger book and Gillen and Williams should have stayed away.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Os heróis britânicos da Marvel regressam, para combater uma invasão de andróides orgânicos da Mys-Tech, uma organização secreta de elites que venderam a alma em troca de poder, que se julgava extinta. O interessante nesta aventura não é a história em si, é o reviver, fugaz, de personagens exclusivos da Marvel UK. Nos anos 80, esta chancela da house of ideas atreveu-se a criar conteúdo totalmente britânico, e o resultado foram o tipo de super-heróis que se poderia esperar do retorcido humor inglês. O afundamento do mercado dos comics numa recessão pôs fim a essa experiência, embora alguns dos personagens tenham passado a fazer parte do alinhamento Marvel em títulos ligados aos X-Men. Estes heróis são bizarros, e há uma certa aragem anos 80 de coca misturada com london ale nesta história.

[Tim B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed seeing these characters together again. I wish the volume would have been longer to tell more of the backstory. Seeing Jackdaw again (briefly) was a nice touch. The only problem with Marvel UK stuff is that when it incorporates Captain Britain, he seems very depowered. This story really captures the imagination. Seeing Death’s Head and Death’s Head II together was a lot of fun also. All in all, a welcome story bringing some fun characters together to save the world.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't grow up reading Marvel UK titles but hoped with the creators involved this could be a really good read. Sadly, this was a hodgepodge of nonsense. First off, eight parts was way too long even though I flew through each chapter. I constantly felt like I skipped pages for as little sense it made. The books weren't cohesive and the book served no purpose. There was some very good art to salvage it to some point.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this book among the shelves of my local comic book store and remembering the Captain Briton comics of my youth - at one time I owned the first issue - I decided to buy it and catch up on the adventures of the noble captain and needless to say things have changed in the last 30 odd years. Seems the captain is no longer the sole protector of Englands' green and pleasant land. Now there is a whole host of British superheroes helping him and - even more enticing - a super secret government spy agency called MI-13 that oversees them all and this book brings us up to date with their stories in a series of one shot comics are loosely connected by an overall story arch that involves Captain Briton being kidnapped by a mercenary called Death Head II and the rest of the UK heroes trying to find him.

Although the book claims to be an attempt to tie up loose ends left over from a previous series it would be more accurate - IMO - to call it an introduction to the Marvel UK universe or maybe a re-launch for newbies like me. Each character is given his of her own one-shot comic and a brief history is given before the wider story arc take over and I must say they were doing some good work across the pond. Briton is the land that gave us the Hobbit and Narnia series and also produced the minds of writers like Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman not to mention new age mysticism, magical Ley lines, stone circles and druids and all these influences are evident in these brief tales and if you like these influences I don't think you'll be disappointed with this book despite the one-shot format. The book does become a little disjointed because of the format but that is countered with the wealth of strong characters with interesting backstories. Some may be familiar to American audiences because of crossover events of the past but this book focuses on their current worlds and introduces the reader to a new worlds within the Marvel universe. Among are Dark Angel - whose father sold her soul to the devil before she was even born to pay off his own debts and thus leave her a life of indentured servitude to the dark prince - quickly became one of my favorite characters and is one I'd be willing to follow through her various adventures. Colonel Liger - a former super soldier whose troop got sucked into the bowels of hell and now wonders the streets of London a drunken wreak - and Union Jack a badass patriot on a Triumph Motorcycle just looking for heads to bust are all memorable characters who show great potential and are given too brief an exposure in this format.

Also the English locales and language mixed with the dry, subtle humor the Brits are known for all add qualities not normally found stateside and was one of the main reasons I gave this book 4 stars despite the brief one-shot format. However the artwork took some getting use to. The images were all sharp and clean and the English settings well rendered but the characters were not well imagined. For some reason the men are all hulking, bulking behemoths the size of double-decker buses with too muscles upon muscles drawing in intense detail. They look more like absurdist freaks than noble heroes and that took some time for me to digest. Also, the villains left something to be desired. They're a series of different psycho-demons who look too much alike and are given no real motive except to search and destroy everyone and everything. The fact that they all look similar and are quickly dispatched by the heroes doesn't help. I can appreciate that the format doesn't allow the writers much space and that the heroes are the focus but I would have liked to see at least one of the baddies get more air time so that newbies like me can at least cheer when they get dispatched but as a whole I enjoyed this book. It was well done and had compelling characters I connected with and the English slant on an American art form adds a new textures to the world of comics. I consider this to be a gem I found hidden in the shelves of my local comic book store.

[Alex Sarll]

There are some wonderful moments, but overall this resurrection of the old Marvel UK characters is wildly uneven. Some details suggest it was all a bit last-minute (on the Motormouth issue, only the colourist credited on the cover was in fact represented in the contents), and sales were abysmal, but then among the problems with comics sales figures is that they are US only. Whereas this was aimed squarely at British men of a certain age for whom the mere appearance of Death's Head is cause for celebration, yes?

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A graphic novel using all the old Marvel UK superheroes. Some evil force is taking its revenge on the heroes of the UK, Captain Britain has been kidnapped and Wisdom is in charge of getting him back. You don't need prior knowledge of Marvel UK to understand and enjoy this, though I did find the Deaths Head story line slightly confusing. I thought that Motormouth has real potential for a series out of all of the heroes. A good read, that you would probably enjoy more if you were a fan of Marvel UK.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was curious what storyline would have to be cooked up bring such a disparate group of heroes together, and sadly it is a contrived one. Some of the heroes were fun to see "return" but others felt shoehorned in, and the story faltered a lot as it tried to explain to readers who these people were and tried to pull them into the central narrative. There were some moments that were enjoyable but overall it felt forced.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the heroes involved in this story -- Captain Britain, Death's Head, Dark Angel, Union Jack, and Motormouth -- but I have absolutely no idea what the heck this story was about. I just have no idea.

But the art was neat to look at.

It could have used more Meggan. Since it had, you know... none.

[Willow · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this would've been way better if I knew any of the characters other than Pete Wisdom and Captain Britain before reading it. I was also disappointed by the lack of

[Devero · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un tentativo di rilancio dei personaggi Marvel made in UK non particolarmente riuscito.
Ed è un peccato a mio parere, perché diversi di questi personaggi erano a sui tempo alquanto intriganti e le storie possibili sarebbero molte. Purtroppo il britannico Lanning non riesce nello scopo.

[Milo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long Live Marvel UK!

[Colin Parfitt · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is a very good reason why these are "forgotten" heroes of Marvel U.K.