Reading Comics 221 "Tampa Comic Con 2018"

This past Saturday I attended my first ever comic con, packed to the gills with geeky goodness.  I picked up a few comics and a bunch of collections (but I haven't gotten around to transposing any of my Goodreads collections reviews here, even though that's been a goal for a few years now).  Here's some thoughts!

The Couch Preview
A typical sketchy-art indy book featuring a twist on superheroes: the lead is actually a psychiatrist whose career is flatlining when he suddenly finds himself with an unexpected new clientele: Wrecking Ball and the Ultra Squad. 

Invincible Iron Man #600 (Marvel)
The last-forever-for-now Brian Michael Bendis Marvel comic!  I've been trying to track down a copy for a little while now, so it was great to find one in one of the vendors' discount bins.  The story wraps up "The Search for Tony Stark," and explains what happened to him, and how he used that to also revive Jim Rhodes.  Marvel also decided to stick with the whole adoption concept another writer introduced a few years back, and Bendis gives us a look at the birth parents.  We see Riri Williams joining a team that also includes Miles Morales, destined to be one of Bendis's lasting contributions to Marvel lore, and his epic Ultimate Spider-Man run.  He skirts the whole idea of Doctor Doom running around as Iron Man recently.  He spends a lot of time with the A.I. Tony ruminating on the nature of his existence, which might as well be considered allegorical for Bendis reflecting on his big transition.  In lieu of one final signature letters/hype column and/or farewell essay, he gives readers some photographs of important behind-the-scene moments from about the last ten years of his Marvel tenure.  It was worth having a look at.

Jupiter's Legacy 2 #4, 5 (Image)
The final issues of the second (technically fourth, if you include the two Jupiter's Circle series with a different artist) volume of Mark Millar and Frank Quitely's bid for a grand superhero generational statement.  It's sometimes hard to separate the hype from the emerging legacy of a Millar comic.  All I know is Quitely feels constrained compared to stuff I've seen him do with Grant Morrison (their Multiversity: Pax Americana is my favorite collaboration between them).  I do like the emphasis on generations, though by "generational," earlier, I was talking about a generation-defining comic like Watchmen. 

Kamandi Challenge #9 (DC)
Tom King's issue in the grand concept of new creators every issue for a year, with each new team finishing whatever cliffhanger the one before it left them.  I'm not sure if King's goal here was to do that or comment on the existential nature of the concept.  Not sure it's one of his better comics, but certainly interesting, as King always is.

Millarworld New Talent Annual 2017 (Image)
Two years running I entered this contest and lost, and it's always interesting to see the script that beat me.  (Two years running I'm not impressed).  The highlights from the results this time are more plentiful than the previous one.  The Empress story (that's the one I entered this time) features great art from Luana Vecchio, with watercolor coloring that helps it additionally stand out.  Simon James' Superior script is pretty great.  Martin Renard's Super Crooks script is pretty clever.  The whole Huck package, writing from Stephanie Cooke and art from Jake Elphick, sells the concept pretty well.  I'm glad I was able to catch a copy of this finally, too.

Nibiru and the Legend of the Anunnaki #1, 2 (Fat Cat)
This is exactly the sort of thing you hope to find at a convention, especially one with name creators (I went to one in Colorado Springs, much smaller, with a bunch of local talent).  Neal Adams was there, and Fabien Nicieza ("creator of Deadpool," his table said, with the only official line of all the creators), and Scott Lobdell!  But the one I stopped at was Pat Broderick's.  The Pat Broderick who spoke to me was actually his wife.  Pat Broderick the classic Marvel/DC artist didn't really do much talking and/or interacting in general, which was fine.  The Pat Broderick who was his wife was very, very eager to talk, constantly hyping Nibiru even after I'd said I would buy it, and even after I bought it!  That's exactly the kind of help you want at something like this!  The comic itself features landscape formatting inside and...fairly atrocious editing.  The art can be a little rough, too.  Still, I appreciated having a look and supporting a guy who's been in the business a long time and sometimes not had the easiest time staying in.  Apparently he's a Tampa local and has had some professional jobs around town, too.  I figured Nibiru was his bid to get back into comics, in the thoroughly modern sense (the project was launched via Kickstarter, naturally).  The storytelling is very much in the Prince Valiant vein. Two issues in and it's basically still setup, though the action picks up with naked men fighting each other in the second issue.  The Pat Broderick who was his wife assured me the third issue was publishing soon, and I've seen art from the next few issues.  These two were published in 2016. 

Scout Comics Presents #1 (Scout Comics)
For a small publisher, there's a lot of excellent art and even decent storytelling on display in the previews included.  The least successful concept is actually Stabbity Rabbit, which had its own table at the con, separate from the one where I picked this up, which is too bad, because something called Stabbity Rabbit sounds like it really ought to be awesome. 

Back Issue Bin 123 "Copra, Green Lantern, Milk Wars, and others"

The Brave and the Bold #23 (DC)
(from July 2009)

Dan Jurgens writes a fairly standard Dan Jurgens tale featuring his signature creation Booster Gold as well as Magog, from the time Magog wasn't just a signature Kingdom Come creation but rather a part of the ongoing DC landscape thanks to Geoff Johns' Justice Society of America and even, briefly, his own ongoing comic.  I don't think Jurgens was ever going to be someone who could sell Magog properly.  He could pull off Cyborg Superman, but Magog requires more subtlety.  I'm glad Jurgens got a full-fledged career renaissance in the pages of Rebirth's Action Comics, but Jurgens circa 2009 was a long ways away from feeling relevant again.

Copra #13
(from April 2014)

A pastiche on John Ostrander's classic Suicide Squad, Michel Fiffe's Copra is something I've long wanted to have a look at, and thanks to this random issue appearing on the eclectic shelves of Comics & Stuff, I finally have.  And it was worth the wait.  This issue features Fiffe's Deadshot analog in a classic revenge saga spotlight.  It seems that after the series hit 31 issues, Fiffe moved on to other projects.  No idea if that's it or if he's just taking a break.

Countdown Arena #1 (DC)
(from February 2008)

I read the Countdown weekly comic itself back in the day, but I skipped over some of the side projects like Arena, which now seems like it foreshadowed not only Marvel's similarly-named Avengers Arena but DC's own Convergence event.  Anyway, I picked this up because of the typically sweet Scott McDaniel art.  I never get tired of it, never understand why he's since faded into comics oblivion.  Hopefully he gets to emerge at some point

Green Lantern #11-16 (DC)
(from June 2006-February 2007)

I wasn't instantly a fan of Geoff Johns' Green Lantern.  When Rebirth began I was just getting back into comics after a near half-decade lapse, and I still thought of Johns in relation to some of the Marvel work he'd done that desperately sought attention.  I ended up liking Rebirth itself well enough, but I didn't feel motivated to dive into the subsequent ongoing series.  I caught up with it about a year into its run, and liked what I saw.  This is a reunion with that material, in which Hal Jordan reunites with some of the Green Lanterns he steamrolled in "Emerald Twilight," and they still hold a grudge despite magically surviving the rampage.  Now they're all trying to survive the Manhunters and their new master, the Cyborg Superman!  At some point I'll own the complete Johns Green Lantern run in collected edition form.

Hawkman #18 (DC)
(from October 2003)

Like his later Aquaman, Johns had a brief run on Hawkman, spinning out from the pages of one of his long runs, Justice Society, and it's something I like to catch glimpses of every now and then, when I come across it.  This issue is Johns doing the Hawkman version of Gaiman's Sandman.  Shocking that this isn't done more often. 

Justice League Canada #5 (DC)
(from December 2014)

I picked this up because I thought it featured Lemire's take on the Legion of Super-Heroes, as he's recently launched another Black Hammer spinoff features a Legion analog (The Quantum Age), but it's not.  Funny that there've been so many secondary League title launches in recent years, increasingly hard to keep them all straight, and that among them was this short-lived Canadian team.

Kingsman: The Red Diamond #6 (Image)
(from February 2018)

As a frequent contributor to the MillarWorld forums, I'm not actually a frequent reader of Mark Millar.  I've read a fraction of his output over the years, but I've liked some of it ("Old Man Logan," Starlight, Empress) quite a bit.  Kingsman is his version of James Bond, and Red Diamond the first time he's let a professional writer (Rob Williams) play in his sandbox, just the kickoff to a bold new era, perhaps thanks to his Netflix deal.  Williams holds pretty close to the Millar formula, as it turns out.  If you didn't know it wasn't Millar himself writing the comic, you probably wouldn't even guess.

Manhunter #27 (DC)
(from March 2007)

I'm pretty surprised that DC hasn't tried to revive Kate Spencer's Manhunter since her original comics, perhaps because Marc Andreyko has de facto creator rights to her?  I don't know.  Either way, in this issue Spencer's role as lawyer reaches its zenith as she defends Wonder Woman circa the second most famous DC neck-snapping, the Infinite Crisis death of Maxwell Lord.  The cover evokes Lord's murder of Ted Kord.

Mother Panic/Batman #1
Doom Patrol/Justice League of America #1 (Young Animal)
(from April 2018)

Part of the "Milk Wars" Young Animal event that featured familiar DC characters (notably Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman), not to mention Frank Quitely doing a cover version of his own art.  I guess I don't really get why Young Animal hasn't caught on.  I don't know if there's a cult-level appreciation I just haven't heard about or if the disappointment over Doom Patrol's erratic publishing schedule, or that Gerard Way heavily expected readers to be familiar with and fans of Grant Morrison's '90s run, or...Just another of the peculiarities of modern times, subverting expectations every step of the way...Anyway, Mother Panic finally meets Batman!  And Robotman figures out whether he's merely a comic book character who thinks he's Robotman!  Probably!

Mister Terrific #2 (DC)
(from December 2011)

One of the things I'll always credit the New 52 with, right from the start, was giving Michael Holt his first ongoing series.  To my mind, Holt was a signature creation of the early millennium, and I always want to see the dude find the breakout success he deserves.  In a lot of ways, he's the new Martian Manhunter.  Anyway, to my shame this is the first time I've read past the first issue of the New 52 series.  Granted, at the time I didn't have a lot of money to spend so I had to make a lot of brutal choices (thankfully I had enough to discover Tomasi and Gleason's brilliant Batman & Robin).  I didn't know what to make of the first issue, so I quickly gave up on the series.  If I'd read the second issue, I would've gotten a much better idea, it seems, and a much better impression of the series...

Teen Titans #100 (DC)
(from October 2011)

Just before the New 52 era, it seems, was this milestone issue of the popular Johns relaunch of the team.  I had to remind myself that Superboy was officially back a few years earlier, and star of his brief second ongoing series (third if you count Superboy and the Ravers, which I definitely do!), ahead of a New 52 reimagining. 

X-Nation 2099 #2 (Marvel)
(from April 1996)

One of my key memories of the '90s scene was this abortive 2099 version of Generation X, coming at the end of the initial push for Marvel's look at a century in the future, since collapsed mostly into the line's Spider-Man, Miguel O'Hara.  I remember the quick creator collapse in X-Nation itself, how Humberto Ramos provided the art for the first two issues and then left, back to DC (he'd eventually wind up back at Marvel), and subsequent issues wobbled wildly out of control.  It was mostly the Ramos art, it seems in hindsight, that I loved so much about the early issues.  I tried reading this again more than twenty years later (apparently I forgot who the writer was, Tom Peyer, convincing myself it was Mark Waid, mostly because Ramos and Waid made such beautiful magic together in the pages of Impulse), and the art was all I could still bring myself to follow.  Anyway, I was amused in later years to reacquaint myself with the exact details of what happened creatively.  Ben Raab and Terry Kavanagh took over writing chores, while none other than Ed McGuinness helped round out the art in the final issue (#6).  I remember being hugely disappointed with the series after Ramos and Peyer (apparently) departed, and only enjoying the series again with #6.  The art finally looked like Marvel cared about the series again, and I can see why.  It'd probably be interesting to revisit that issue...

Reading Comics 220 "Spotlight Nation...and a sort of Batwedding"

Picked up one of Marvel's Free Spotlight comics with Dan Slott's Fantastic Four on the cover, with four pages from this month's relaunch.  There's been a lot of talk that Marvel took the FF off the board as a bargaining chip (seems to have worked) to get the movie rights back, dating back to Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars, where Reed Richards and Doctor Doom had their most epic showdown to date.  Since then Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm have appeared in various team books.  And of course it's Johnny and Ben who appear in these preview pages.

There's also Gerry Duggan offering a look at Infinity Wars, which apparently will feature an Infinity Watch of heroes and villains protecting the various Infinity Gems.  Clearly calculated as an event to follow on the heels of Avengers: Infinity War at the movies.  Then there's Extermination, another X-Men event; a page detailing various Miracleman collections, including a Neil Gaiman volume called The Golden Age perhaps in the hope more material will eventually follow; various other one-and-two-page ads, including for Charles Soule's Return of Wolverine featuring the infamous new flaming claws; four pages of Cullen Bunn's Asgardians of the Galaxy, which is another cue from the movies, borrowing elements from Thor: Ragnarok; and finally four from Kelly Thompson's West Coast Avengers, which features both Hawkeyes and land sharks that do not try and pretend to be delivering things.

DC Nation #0 (DC)

Besides looks at Brian Michael Bendis's Superman and Scott Snyder's Justice League, this quarter-priced special released just before Free Comic Book Day this year featured a wicked Joker story from Tom King in anticipation of the Batwedding, in which the Clown Prince breaks into someone's home and he waits there, along with the poor guy, for an invitation.  It's as perfect a representation of Joker's twisted logic and sense of humor as I've ever seen.  A lot of fans swear by Alan Moore's Killing Joke, but I think that one speaks more to Moore's proclivities than it does Joker's.  King's Joker had a great spotlight in "War of Jokes and Riddles," in which he tries to figure out why nothing seems funny to him anymore, before realizing that Batman gives him bold new context, a challenge that will never get old.  Here he's just free to terrorize the poor guy, using his singular logic.

Batman #50 (DC)

The main event, though, the issue that promised the actual Batwedding, angered a lot of fans because the wedding...doesn't happen.  Instead, it proves an elaborate setup to the events of "I Am Bane," the earlier arc where Batman prevented Bane from attaining his Psycho-Pirate happy ending.  Holly Robinson, who has proven so crucial to King's Catwoman, turns out to be a stooge of Bane, and whispers in Catwoman's ear doubt about what a happy ending would do to Batman.  So the issue is instead really another caption character study of Batman and Catwoman's perspectives.  No one has done that sort of thing as well as King since Jeph Loeb's early Superman/Batman. 

Eternity #2, 4 (Valiant)

I went back and read #3, which I'd caught earlier, too, and that turned out to be a good idea, because it reads better in context, obviously, and is just a pleasure to read again in general.  Eternity is the fourth volume of Matt Kindt's brilliant Divinity suite, in which Kindt reimagines the idea of the omnipotent hero previously featured in Moore's Watchmen under the guise of Dr. Manhattan, this time as a Russian cosmonaut and his colleagues, one of whom became his wife and the other a foe, while he inspired a fanatic who has proven far more troublesome than he could've possibly imagined.  Eternity was pitched as beyond imagination, so its ending is apropos, the true consequences of Abram Adams's transformation far more wild than anything he discovers from the world that changed him forever.  Hopefully there's a fifth volume of this stuff.  The ending of this one certainly suggests that the story continues, anyway...

The Flash #50 (DC)

Josh Williamson continues his Rebirth buildup of previous lore by concluding the "Flash War" fight between Barry Allen and Wally West amicably and bringing back the classic Bart Allen in his classic Impulse costume.  Howard Porter's career renaissance continues, and that's great to see from a reader who well-remembers his JLA heyday.