7 Against Chaos -- Harlan Ellison

I've been reading Harlan Ellison's work for a long, long time, ever since his first story was published in Infinity way back in the 1950s.  For whatever reason, he was one of my favorite writers in those days when he was just starting out.  Maybe it was because his stories seemed to be everywhere, or maybe it was because something in them spoke to me. I have no idea at this late date.  Anyway, it's been a pleasure to follow his career for so long, and while I haven't read everything he's written, I've read a lot of it.  Naturally I couldn't resist picking up this new graphic novel.

7 Against Chaos seemed to me to be a throwback to the kind of action/adventure fiction of the '50s.  Something or someone is attacking Earth from the distant past.  It's up to a mysterious hooded figure, acting at the direction of he Crisis Computers, to gather his team of heroes to fight back.  The heroes are an odd and interesting assortment.  There's an insect man, Tantalus; Mourna, a large woman whose hands have been replaced by metal claws; Lady Ayleen, who has the power to be a sort of flamethrower; Urr, a robot; Hoorn, a man (and burglar) without a face; and Kenrus, a great but slightly odd scientist.  Naturally each of these heroes is at a critical moment when picked up for the mission, so those minor crises have to be resolved before they can move on to the larger one.

That's enough plot summary.  Let's just say that it's one adventure after another (with heroes dying along the way) until the final encounter with a deadly and scaly adversary occurs.  The ending has something to do with the paradox of changing history, and it seems to me that it points clearly to a sequel.  But maybe not.

Entertaining story, high adventure, dandy art.  I had a lot of fun with this one.