Quarter Bin #60 "Binge-worthy V: Comics Frontiers"

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Free Special Edition Preview (Vertigo)
From 2012.

via Amazon

Working in a bookstore when Stieg Larsson's trilogy became a worldwide phenomenon made it all the more impossible to ignore, so when I finally read the books last month I was pleased to discover that I quite liked them.  I'd already seen David Fincher's adaptation of the first book, and read the graphic novel version of the second, so I was familiar with some of the variations before experiencing the originals.  It was nice to come across this preview of the first graphic novel, then.  I don't remember now if I'd caught it when it was originally released, because at any rate I don't have that copy anymore much less most of the comics I had at that time.  But I want to read the rest of it now, and I hope all the more that Vertigo will adapt the third book and complete its own version of the story, which has become a personal favorite.

Godland #16 (Image)

From 2007.

via comiXology

Since catching some of Tom Scioli's American Barbarian earlier this year I became all the more interested in his Godland, which is a version of Jack Kirby's New Gods.  It's interesting, but I think I'm more interested in American Barbarian.

Green Lantern #50 (DC)

From 1994.

via DC Wikia

Hal Jordan's story reaches a climax in the conclusion to "Emerald Twilight," as the fallout from "Reign of the Supermen" and the destruction of Coast City causes him to turn violently against the Guardians and attempt to take matters dramatically into his own hands, a vigilante with the most powerful weapon in the universe.  Jordan has always been depicted at odds with the Guardians, and he'd frequently left the Green Lantern Corps because of it.  As Geoff Johns later explained in Green Lantern: Rebirth, the fear entity Parallax used his greatest personal crisis as a means to unleash its own potential.  Jordan's story continued within the pages of Zero Hour, The Final Night, and Day of Judgment.  In the wake of these events, Kyle Rayner temporarily became the last of the Green Lanterns, which was the other act that dramatically revamped the scope of the franchise within the DC landscape.  Watching Jordan battle Sinestro will always be the greatest moment from the issue, however, the moment Sinestro returned as a significant element of the mythos, regardless of the outcome at that time.

Green Lantern #81 (DC)

From 1996.

via Comic Vine

The '90s were littered with nods to longtime fans, a development that may have clashed with all the new ones the decade tried to bring in and probably part of the reason it ended up failing in permanently enlarging readership.  Hal Jordan had just sacrificed himself in the conclusion to The Final Night, and this was an issue dedicated to his memorial.  Fans like to point to James Robinson's Starman as an attempt to make a generational statement, but Ron Marz and was doing that within the pages of Green Lantern before Jack Knight inherited the cosmic rod, and Mark Waid had been doing that with Wally West in The Flash before Jordan had even heard of the Cyborg Superman.  It's funny to remember how angry fans were to what happened to Jordan, but he was constantly popping up and actually became far more relevant because of all that work.  In a span of a few years he became more important than his first three decades had managed, with the exception of the "Hard Traveling Heroes" arc.

Green Lantern #119 (DC)

From 1999.

via DC Wikia

After his transformation into the Spectre, Jordan even had a whole series as the Spirit of Vengeance, but of course had to try out his new role within the pages of Green Lantern.  This was an issue I hadn't read previously.  Jordan sports, in human form, the same bomber jacket Geoff Johns would keep him in all the time.  In fact, this issue might even be considered a soft reboot for an era that hadn't been relevant to the characters for years.  It's very interesting to see that.

Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters #6 (Icon)

From 2007.

via Comic Vine

Kirby nostalgia is something that never goes out of fashion in comics, where his legacy is still up for contention.  Since Marvel refuses to back away from its Stan Lee-heavy approach, it's up to everyone else and whatever scraps Kirby left behind to do the job.  Galactic Bounty Hunters is just one of the many obscure projects that attempt to fill that void.  One of the participants is Karl Kesel, who notably infused much of his long run on Superboy, including a version of Kamandi, with Kirby's ideas.  Kesel rarely gets enough respect for the work he's done.  It's not surprising to see him so closely linked to Kirby.  Hopefully he won't be entirely lost in the shuffle.  DC keeps making efforts, and clearly Dan DiDio is a big devotee.  Maybe he ought to bring Kesel back to give a helping hand.

JLA Eighty-Page Giant #3 (DC)

From 2000. 

DC Wikia

After Grant Morrison's run that relaunched the team, I confess to have skipped out on pretty much everything that followed in the pages of JLA.  This one-shot provides a king-size story that revisits the era.  It's definitely not Morrison's JLA but it was certainly worth a look.

JSA #67 (DC)

From 2005.

via DC Wikia

As you might see on the cover, this ties in with Identity Crisis, but for me it's another glimpse into the whole Geoff Johns run, which I didn't follow regularly until the Justice Society of America relaunch.  A lot of the issue reflects on and interacts with Identity Crisis developments, but by the end spins off in its own direction with a different story entirely featuring a villain who probably wouldn't have been on the radar if Johns were working then the way he works now, or at least he probably would have handled the story differently.  Per Degaton certainly doesn't have the same resonance that Black Adam ended up having.