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...