Reading Comics 234 "Mark Russell's Giants"

Reading through the rest of the September Walmart giants this morning, I reached the Mark Russell material from Swamp Thing Giant #1 and Villains Giant #1, and...

Look, I loved discovering Russell in the pages of Prez.  Prez was a wicked political satire.  Russell slowly developed a favorable reputation among fans thanks to his Flintstones, which was less about the classic cartoon and more social satire.  He scored again with Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles.  I've still yet to read any of Snagglepuss Chronicles.  Despite my increased misgivings about being a full-on fan of Russell, I'd still like to.  Recently he's begun branching more into the mainstream, although noting he's the writer of the first-ever Wonder Twins comic may not seem to help make that case.

At any rate, I initially viewed discovering him in the latest round of Walmart giants as another sign of DC's increasing trust in his career.  You don't have to have a career trending upward to get into these pages, but I figured Russell was this round's version of including Brian Michael Bendis and Tom King in the last round. 

And maybe that's still the case, but unlike what I thought of Bendis and King's work, I wasn't overly thrilled with Russell's.

In Swamp Thing Giant #1, Russell writes one of several new features with Swamp Thing himself (a perennial favorite of DC's when considering TV adaptations, although I guess the most recent one was cancelled after a single season; I think the idea would work much better as a movie).  His involves Swamp Thing agonizing over his place in the world, and periodically purging all his negative thoughts into a kind of "beet" he discards.  Then along comes an evil agricultural conglomerate that's been choking the environment in the name of profit.  Swamp Thing turns to an old friend to find answers about what's happening.  The old friend turns out to have betrayed him.  But the joke ends up on her, because she unwittingly eats one of his poison "beets" and ends up paralyzed and buried alive.  The company gets ahold of the poison "beets," too.  And Swamp Thing is basically none the wiser about what's happened.

In Villains Giant #1, Russell writes a Joker story in which he uses viral marketing to trick people into performing outrageous stunts in order to win free money to cover healthcare costs because although Gotham has finally been cleaned up, the budget has to cut healthcare in order to fund the expanded prison system.  And then the solution the city reaches to end Joker's latest reign of terror, ingeniously free of any overt criminal intent, is to reinstate the healthcare budget...this time at the cost of funds intended for higher education.

My problem with both stories is Russell's cynical conclusions, and asking the reader to accept them with characters of higher and higher profile.  Imagine him writing Batman directly with this approach.  It would become less about the character and more about Russell's conclusions, and that's the problem.  This sort of thing works when you're handling minor or obscure characters, but less so when the reader theoretically actually cares about the ones being used.  And it exposes Russell's narrative limitations.  He doesn't really tell stories at all, it can sometimes seem, but a threadbare account of what you read on social media. 

Infamously or not, but Russell's attempted launch for the last wave of Vertigo comics, Second Coming, was cancelled by DC before it ever saw print.  I can begin to understand the company's trepidation.  (It was later picked up by another publisher.)  Russell made his name lampooning the Bible in God Is Disappointed In You and Apocrypha Now, neither of which is actually well-known even now.  The idea that nothing is sacred to Russell is hardly a new phenomenon, then, but he might have finally found territory he couldn't, or couldn't any longer, cross, at least with a major publisher with an increased profile. 

(It's sort of what Alan Moore discovered, too, but that's a different story.)

I have no idea what Russell's future with DC looks like.  Does he eventually get a truly significant assignment?  Does he learn how to really tell a story?  Time will tell...

Reading Comics 233 "Superman Giant #15"

Having now read Superman Giant #15, I actually ended up getting another copy so I can hopefully include it among the stuff I'm bringing to my sister's wedding in December, which will hopefully include most of my family (I already know my oldest brother won't be able to make it), including my two nephews based in Maine.  I had already planned on giving them duplicate copies of other Walmart giants I'd gotten, but this one's an opportunity to give them something truly special.

The penultimate (eleventh) installment of Tom King and Andy Kubert's "Up in the Sky" is yet another excellent example from the pair of Superman's unwillingness to give up (as is the whole story) despite unrelenting odds.  In a lot of ways, this is the conclusion of the story (he even finally finds the girl he went into space to save).

Among the other material is a reprint of a Lex Luthor story from 2018's Beach Blanket Bad Guys Special.  Without having read it, I initially thought it would be a throwaway story, but it's actually really excellent, from writer Jeff Loveness and David Williams.  In it, Lex's car has broken down on the side of the road (this version of the character seems inspired by Elon Musk), and a kindly stranger stops to help.  (No, it's not Superman.)  Lex of course rants about Superman in his traditional fashion, as the embodiment of everything that prevents someone from reaching their full potential.  The kindly stranger, though, gives Lex a different impression, of Superman's selfless heroism, and even a portrait of just another guy with regular problems, who'll stop and share s chat and even a burrito with you. 

You'd probably expect at this point for Loveness to have Lex at least consider changing his tune about Superman, but the great thing he does is pivot away from Lex, and just let regular joe, and Superman, end the story.  We glimpse Lex, but he's no longer really relevant.  It's a great bit of storytelling.

Between them, King's and Loveness's takes on what being Superman means encompass not only his abilities but his humanity.  They're a perfect way to explain the character.  Which makes the comic itself a great way to introduce the character. 

I really hope my nephews can make it.  I know I want to see them again, but it would also be nice to be able to give them some interesting gifts.

Reading Comics 232 "Titans Season One"

I finally caught up with the first season of Titans from late last year.  It was pretty great.  Titans is one of those online streaming series, in this instance available via DC Universe.  This release method probably explains why the "f" word is spoken roughly every other line of dialogue (I wasn't overly bothered by it).

Eleven episodes explain how Dick Grayson (Robin), Rachel Roth (Raven), Kory Anders (Starfire) and Gar Logan (Beast Boy) end up becoming a team.  The arc is similar to the first season of Heroes, following each character as their journeys converge, with a central problem being Rachel's powers and where they come from (her dad, the demon Trigan), and Kory's mysterious past, not to mention her powers.  Most of it, though, is following Dick as he reconciles life post-Batman.  He's become concerned about his increasingly violent tendencies, believing that he's become too much like the Dark Knight, so he's gone off on his own.  We meet him as a detective in Detroit, where he meets Rachel after she's been brought in following the mysterious death of the woman who turns out to be her foster mother.  She's being hunted by agents of a shadowy conspiracy, and Dick turns out to be her best option for safety and sympathy, though at first Dick is reluctant to commit.  Kory has amnesia, but feels she's better than the circumstances in which she finds herself, and eventually she joins up with Dick and Rachel, and is the first person who really seems to understand the latter.  They find shelter with Gar's family, the Doom Patrol, but then strike out on their own, hoping to find Rachel's birth mother, who turns out to be secretly in cahoots with Trigon.  Then Kory gets her memory back and briefly tries to kill Rachel, but eventually realizes that Trigon's the real problem.  The season actually ends on a cliffhanger, Trigon left undefeated.

Part of the journey also incorporates tangents with Hawk & Dove, who in this iteration have no superpowers but are rather vigilantes inspired by Batman and Robin.  Dove was an old flame of Dick's, but now is committed to Hawk, and both are anticipating retiring from the superhero game.  Dick also reunites with Donna Troy, who likewise has stepped away from her role as Wonder Girl, and unexpectedly meets Jason Todd, who has inherited the role of Robin since Dick left Gotham.  Honestly, this is probably the best material of the season, with Donna Troy and Dove providing standout performances from Conor Leslie (Donna Troy) and Minka Kelly (Dove).  Alan Ritchson's Hawk is likewise inspired acting.

The show's depiction of Batman (never seen directly) is significantly less sympathetic than other depictions, which makes things all the more interesting.  The focus on Robin, meanwhile, is the character's biggest live action spotlight ever, putting the focus almost totally on him even in a team setting (the season's final episode depicts Trigon's efforts to traumatize him by giving him a perfect life and then viciously taking it away), which trumps his appearances in the later Burton/Schumacher films, in which he has prominent roles.  This version effectively exists on his own and is not reliant on Batman to explain his significance. 

The second season has already gotten underway, so I look forward to catching it later (likely on home video, like I did with this one).

Watching the Walmart Giants 2 "September 2019"

This month saw the latest revision of the Walmart DC 100-Page Giants line.  I haven't had a chance to read them yet (and it's worth noting that my store apparently wasn't carrying the Aquman, Teen Titans Go or Super Hero Girls Giants), but I figured it was worth outlining the contents:

Batman Giant #1

• A new story from Michael Grey & Ryan Benjamin featuring Clayface.
• A new story from Steve Orlando & Tom Mandrake featuring Batwoman.
• Batman #1 from the New 52 (Snyder & Capullo).
• Detective Comics #23.2 from the New 52 featuring Matt Kindt's brilliant Harley Quinn origin.
• Nightwing #1 from Rebirth.

The Flash Giant #1

• A new story from Gail Simone & Clayton Henry.
• A new story from Jeff Parker & Miguel Mendonca.
• The Flash #13 from the New 52 (still featuring the sweet art of Francis Manapul.
• Green Arrow: Rebirth #1.
• Blue Beetle #1 from 2006, the first of several ongoing series featuring the Jaime Reyes version of the character  Still ashamed to admit I stopped reading after this series ended.

Ghosts Giant #1

• A new story from Dan Jurgens & Scott Eaton featuring the Spectre.
• A new story from Keith Giffen & Priscilla Petraites featuring Gentleman Ghost.
• A new story from John Layman & Andy Clarke featuring John Constantine.
• Various shorts from Cursed Comics Cavalcade, DC House of Horror, DCU Halloween Special 2010, and Justice League #35.

Superman Giant #15

• The penultimate chapter of Tom King & Andy Kubert's twelve-part "Up in the Sky" series.
• Superman/Batman Annual #2.
• Beach Blanket Bad Guys, featuring Lex Luthor.
• The Terrifics Annual #1 featuring new writer Gene Luen Yang.

Swamp Thing Giant #1

• A new story from Mark Russell (!) & Marco Santucci featuring Swamp Thing.
• A new story from Andrew Constant & Tom Mandrake.
• Swamp Thing #1, the 2016 miniseries from Len Wein & Kelley Jones.
• The Hellblazer #1 from Rebirth.
• Zatanna #1, a Paul Dini miniseries from 2010.

Villains Giant #1

• A new story from Mark Russell (!) & Victor Bogdanovic featuring Batman and Joker.  Russell's involvement in these things is a further example of DC's expansion of his visibility, and a good thing, in my mind, in establishing him as a future lead writer for the company.
• A new story from Tom Taylor & Daniel Sampere featuring Deathstroke.  Taylor's profile has risen considerably thanks to DCeased, so his presence in these things is also a sign of confidence from the company.
• A new story from Gail Simone & Priscilla Petraites featuring Harley Quinn.
• Justice League #23.1 featuring the New 52 version of Darkseid's origin from Greg Pak.
• The Flash #8 from the New 52, featuring the origin of the Reverse-Flash.
• Secret Origins #10 featuring Poison Ivy.

Wonder Woman Giant #1

• A new story from Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti & Inaki Miranda featuring Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn.  (Knew Conner & Palmiotti would turn up somewhere.)
• Wonder Woman #2 from Rebirth, the Year One arc.
• Green Lantern #29, skipping the Sinestro Corps War to "Secret Origin."
• Sword of Sorcery #0 from the New 52 featuring Amethyst.

Reading Comics 231 "Midtown Comics"

I had a bad habit of spending money I didn’t have, a decade ago, ordering comics from Midtown.  When I placed my most recent order, it was money I did have, so it was a fine thing to revisit the old habit.  Here’s what I got:

Doomsday Clock #11 (DC)

The penultimate issue, leading to the much-anticipated encounter between Superman and Doctor Manhattan, lays out what exactly Geoff Johns was doing all along, including finally explaining what Saturn Girl has been doing in the Rebirth era (somewhat ironically, for her).  This is probably some of the best stuff Johns has ever written.

The Green Lantern #11 (DC)

Back when I was at my blogging height, I collected a number of blogs I thought would be worth reading on a regular basis, but more often than not I was wrong.  One of them is a comics blog that has continued to review new comics every week, and…I just don’t give a wit about the guy’s opinions.  He seems positively allergic to any real ambition in comics.  So: he doesn’t like Grant Morrison’s Green Lantern.  I think you have to be an idiot not to like a Morrison comic, especially when he’s obviously applying himself and having a great old time.  And he’s clearly doing exactly that in this comic.  And in this issue alone, he does what no one since Geoff Johns has really been able to nail and that’s introduce another forgotten element of Green Lantern lore, and it doesn’t hurt that he deliberately draws on Don Quixote to do it (this has sort of been my Year of Don Quixote).  Anyway, while I don’t love everything Grant Morrison has ever done, this whole run is going to sit very proudly alongside my collection of his works.

Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1 (DC)

Wow.  So, Brian Michael Bendis, folks.  The dude has been a tireless creative dynamo since coming to work for DC, not just with the creator-owned material he either brought with him or began, but the stuff he’s been imagining with familiar characters, and everything fans expected him to do, he just keeps coming up with curveballs.  This comic, for instance, actually centers on Rose & Thorn, a concept I came across in ‘90s Superman comics, but which Bendis makes his own, brilliantly.  Now I want to read a comic based on her, forget about the returning Legion!  But I’ll take the Legion, too, because I’m pretty convinced that if anyone can pull off a relevant new Legion, it’s Bendis.  I’ve never enjoyed him as much as I am now.  I haven’t always been a fan, per say, but I’ve enjoyed him in the past.  But he’s operating on an entirely new level now.  It’s, dare I say, amazing…

Section Zero #6 (Image)

Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett are basically reprising their old Superboy comics, which to my mind is a very good thing, with this one.  I bought the Stuart Immonen variant cover, naturally.

Spawn #300 (Image)

I’m pretty sure the creator-owned landmark Spawn is matching this issue and passing with the next one is Cerebus, which was much-celebrated in times past but much-criticized today.  Now, given that there’re 300 issues of Spawn to be accounted for and maybe the first few years that most fans are actually going to remember, someone had the bright idea to reboot back to the continuity, basically, of those early years for this occasion.  It’s only just occurred to me that Spawn as a concept seems to have copy-and-posted almost directly from Venom, as far as being a symbiotic costume thing.  Todd McFarlane explains how he came up with the character in the ‘70s, obviously before Venom or the black Spider-Man costume ever existed, but I wonder how much of what ended up being Spawn was envisioned back in the day and how much when McFarlane went off to help found Image on the back of all the money he and his fellow pirate artists were making at the time.  In fact, reading (or sort of reading) those Demon Etrigan comics from Forbidden Geek sort of put Spawn further in perspective: He’s sort of exactly Venom, but envisioned by DC. 

Star Trek: Discovery – Aftermath #1 (IDW)

I’m a fan of the series itself, so I didn’t mind revisiting it in comics form, and this comic is a good way to do so, and even harkens back to the best of IDW’s Star Trek comics.

Superman: Up in the Sky #3 (DC)

This is the comic book store reprint series of the Walmart Superman Giant material from Tom King and Andy Kubert, which I thought I’d get at least one issue of, calculating (correctly, as it happily turned out), that this one would feature the “controversial” installment featuring the many deaths of Lois Lane.  And rereading this material was as equally pleasurable as the first time, as I hoped, so that was also good to see.

Reading Comics 230 "First Forbidden Geek Mystery Box"

Recently I delved back into the crate phenomenon, the mystery box thing that’s become a whole cottage industry, even finding its way into Walmart and Target (plus kids toys! of course!), with Forbidden Geek.  At the moment, I’m officially a subscriber, so I will be getting a new box every month.  I got my first one recently.  I opted for a bonus pack of comics, which apparently, unlike the more official set, don’t come with bags and boards (which is fine by me), and those will be the first batch I write about:

Black Science #1 (Image)

This was the Image Firsts $1 reprint edition of the Rick Remender series.  Remender became one of those one-man creative industries (Fraction, Lemire, Millar) that’s been happening in recent years, and as the trend has been, helped make his name at the Big Two.  Black Science, as it turns out, is sort of his creator-owned version of Fantastic Four, not in the way Image was doing this sort of thing at the beginning, shamelessly and little creative spark, but the full-blown modern imaginative revamp.  So that was nice to see.

The Demon #37 (DC)

It’s funny that Forbidden Geek ended up sending me two issues of The Demon, and only a few issues apart.  But the results, for me, ended up being pretty much the same.  This was an era in which DC was still trying to hold onto the early Vertigo vibe of using familiar characters in a more edgy manner (which itself was an impulse from the horror comics of the ‘70s, where the Vertigo instinct originated, not from the British Invasion, as is popularly assumed).  But a little more on this in the second batch.

Infinity Inc. #12 (DC)

One of my earliest comics was actually an issue of All-Star Squadron, which was sort of an Earth 2 Justice Society.  Infinity Inc. is a spin-off featuring the offspring of the original guard, which in Earth 2 continuity means Batman is included (in that continuity he not only actually married Catwoman but died) and his daughter is the Huntress (which is where, basically, that version of the character depicted in the short-lived Birds of Prey TV series came from).  It’s funny to read a version of Jade and Obsidian who aren’t automatically associated with Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott, because later, when they were absorbed into DC proper, they’re accepted as his kids.  There’s also Fury, Wonder Woman’s daughter.  I had an idea once of making that part of continuity again.  Just imagine…!

Uncanny Inhumans #7 (Marvel)

Marvel fans became maniacally opposed to the whole idea of the Inhumans once they decided Marvel was trying to use them to replace the X-Men in a bid to devalue the mutant property until the movies could be brought into the studio fold.  In the end, it doesn’t really matter if that was the intention or not (the X-Men did get acquired, and the fans were so happy they gleefully decided the last Fox movie, Dark Phoenix, was a bomb before they ever saw it), they missed out on a lot of great comics.  (Forget about appearances in Agents of SHIELD or an aborted show of their own.)  And Charles Soule was the biggest loser.  Here was a major writing talent given what seemed like a plush assignment: a major title with a big push.  So it’s always funny to read Soule’s comics and enjoy them so much and imagine fans seething at the very thought of them existing, regardless of the actual quality. 

Kingpin #1 (Marvel)

Speaking of irrational hatred for Inhumans, this comic spun out of Civil War II, an excellent event comic that not only cleverly revolved around them, but was written by Brian Michael Bendis when Marvel fans apparently suddenly decided he didn’t matter anymore (the joke turned out to be on them).  Charles Soule later used Wilson Fisk as a kind of Trump stand-in when he wrote Daredevil, but here he’s in his classic role, apparently returning to his old New York haunts after adventures on the west coast (West Coast Kingpin), in one of those crime comics that some fans like so much.

Leave It to Chance #6 (Image)

James Robinson, at the time basking in the critical success of Starman, was also writing a creator-owned comic, which I never got around to reading, although its name was familiar enough to me.  Maybe I would’ve enjoyed it more, then (although I didn’t get into Starman then, either), but now it just reads like a generic all-ages kind of comic. 

Mae #1 (Dark Horse)

Gene Ha signs all his covers as, “ha!” which along with his actual artwork tends to help identify his work.  This was an attempt to draw and write his own work.  But not all artists can write, too, and I think, as far as I’m concerned, Gene Ha is one of those. 

Sisters of Mercy #2 (Maximum Press)

Maximum was one of several attempts by Rob Liefeld for a spin-off company from his early Image days.  All of them were basically the same (probably the best material was published when he had dubbed the company Awesome, which is pretty appropriate), and none particularly permanent, obviously, since Liefeld seems to be somewhat allergic to commitment.  As far as Sisters of Mercy is concerned, that was probably a good thing.  This was apparently its second and last issue with Maximum, but I don’t know how or why it had even one.  Basically one of the many, many “bad girl” comics of the ‘90s, gratuitously featuring women in as little costuming as possible (in this issue, with strategic covering, one girl is nude for…reasons).  But the art is terrible.  Forget the writing.  Writing in this era of Image(ish) comics was notoriously weak.  But the whole point of the Image era was extreme emphasis on art (to the point where Image had defined a whole style of art, the most exaggerated figures, male and female, imaginable).  So to feature bad art….?  Again, why was this even accepted by Liefeld to begin with?

The Adventures of Superman #484 (DC)

Happily, I had far less of a problem with the art in this comic, as it’s early Tom Grummett, about a year before “Death of Superman” made this Superman era famous, before Grummett fell upon his signature work with the new Superboy.  Funny enough, it’s tough to identify Grummett as artist, since he hadn’t yet streamlined his style, so it’s really just the few appearances of Superman before he sticks a ridiculous contraption onto his head, created by Emil Hamilton (a defining supporting character from the era who later made an appearance in Man of Steel), that leads to a forgotten Superman crossover event called “Blackout.”  Grummett didn’t get to contribute the cover; that honor went to Jerry Ordway, who is otherwise the writer of the issue.

Weirdworld #2 (Marvel)

I honestly don’t know who came up with the idea first at this point, but I always perceived it as Marvel shamelessly jumping on something DC was doing at the time: DC’s Convergence event led to a series of comics that revisited various eras, and then Marvel’s Secret Wars…led to a series of comics that revisited various eras (or more accurately, famous storylines).  DC’s was an excuse to use fill-in creators while it moved offices from New York to California, and its nostalgia comics lasted two months.  Marvel’s ran longer.  Anyway, Secret Wars was basically Jonathan Hickman’s big blow-off to his Fantastic Four saga, with Doctor Doom getting his big triumph and remaking the world in his image, so theoretically its spin-off features that Doom reality in some way (although my favorite was the Charles Soule version of a Civil War follow-up that could easily be enjoyed for its own merits).  Weirdworld was written by Jason Aaron.  I have no particular knowledge of whatever it was supposed to be drawing on, but it’s another instance where post-Scalped Aaron has never really clicked with me.  Although, in the final pages Crystar, the Crystal Warrior, shows up. I had a Crystar action figure as a kid.  So there’s that.

Before I jump into the second batch, here’s an excerpt from an editorial written by Dick Giordano found within the pages of Infinity Inc. #12, originally published in 1984 (which also features an ad for “DC Universe: Crisis On Infinite Earths"):

“I take some series proposal scripts from my bulging portfolio and settle back to read.  I read two…and they’re mind-bogglers!  I rarely find two proposals a month that are interesting enough to consider publishing.  To find two in the same morning that I like so much is a rare bonanza […] The first is a proposal from Alan Moore, Swamp Thing scripter, for a maxi-series starring the super-heroes we recently obtained from Charlton.  The idea is gutsy, grittily realistic, and explores aspects of the super-hero never really dealt with before.  Unfortunately, I can’t really consider it for the Charlton heroes.  For one thing, certain aspects of the plotline do things with and to these characters that would make it difficult for us to use some, if not all, of them after the series was over.  Secondly, I’d already made plans, now pretty far along, to publish Charlton heroes in tandem with some current and past DC favorites in a weekly comic book format.  I like the idea so much, though, that I’m going to suggest that Alan create new characters for this maxi-series (in place of the Charlton heroes) and tell his story! … It’s a wonderful concept!  (Note: since this was written, Alan has enthusiastically agreed with my scheme and is hard at work.  Dave Gibbons is slated to illustrate.  With luck, it will be a 1985 release tentatively titled “Watchman.”)  Incidentally, Alan is a pleasure.  His scripts are liberally dotted with asides, bits of humor, relevant background information, and clever insights into his feelings about pivotal sequences or events that make it easy for the artist(s) to share his vision.  Alan Moore is one of the more creative writers in comics.  The ideas fairly bubble forth from his fertile imagination, and I am delighted that at least some of his unbelievable production will be for DC Comics.  The other series proposal is no less exciting.  It’s the outline for book #1 of a proposed 48-page, deluxe-format limited series.  We’ve talked about this idea and the talks excited me, but nowhere near the excitement engendered by the script.  It is written by Frank Miller.  And I love it!  And I can’t say much more until Mr. Miller puts his John Hancock on a contract.  I can say that it is a very special story about one of the most popular super-heroes ever!”

Ah, you may’ve heard of the comics that resulted.

Anyway, here’s the stuff Forbidden Geek included in the official mystery box (aside from a Kid Flash, by way of the Flash TV series, Funko statue and a softcover copy of Teen Titans Earth One Vol. 1, which coincidentally I finally read for the first time earlier this year):

Ame-Comi Girls #6 (DC)

The name of the comic is somewhat unnecessarily convoluted, but it’s basically an all-girls comic and actually a pretty good read.   

All-Star Batman #4 (DC)

Scott Snyder continued writing Batman comics in the early days of Tom King’s Batman, but they weren’t treated with as much fanfare as his New 52 run.  Two-Face (who, if the series did continue Snyder’s New 52 comics, was technically probably actually dead, at least as far as Tomasi & Gleason’s Batman & Robin was concerned) is the villain.  John Romita Jr., whose work has never been as embraced by DC fans as it was at Marvel or Kick-Ass, is on art.

Batman Eternal #11 (DC)

This was a series that frequently showed up in the Walmart mystery packs, so it was amusing to find in this collection, too, but at least there was far greater variety otherwise.  This issue spotlights Stephanie Brown, one of my favorite supporting characters from Batman comics.

Booster Gold #26 (DC)

Ted Kord!  Him and Elongated Man still seem to have been buried in the post-Flashpoint comics, but at least Ted gets to show up now and then.  He got a new incarnation in the New 52 (who never really went anywhere), at least.  This Blackest Night tie-in zombie appearance is pre-Flashpoint.  It’s still funny to think that Booster Gold, despite getting as big a spotlight as he ever had in 52, ended up back in obscurity despite this relatively long-running spotlight, which theoretically led to the Legends of Tomorrow TV show, which…decided, inexplicably, not to feature him.  For…reasons.

The Demon #42 (DC)

Oh, here’s Demon again!  But this time, it’s from Garth Ennis and John McCrea.  I was never an Ennis guy.  He’s sort of Alan Moore if he never had a Silver Age fetish, just a guy who wrote superhero comics because at the time it was the best way to make a name for himself, who later wrote The Boys as if to prove how much he hated them, despite not understanding them a single wit.  (But I guess that’s generally why you hate something.)  But Demon, amazingly, reads exactly the same under Ennis as Alan Grant in the previous issue.  I hate when letterers use cursive.  It’s virtually impossible to read.  Yet both issues feature angels speaking in cursive (like Thor, the special lettering is supposed to help them stand out as Not Human).  And I just gave up trying to care.  The Demon Etrigan famously speaks in rhymes, which is fun to read in a limited capacity, but incredibly difficult to care about reading for longer stretches.  So I don’t know why there was an audience who put up with it for so long.  But not so hard to figure out why he hasn’t carried a series since.

Fate #8 (DC)

This was one of the series that debuted during DC’s original Zero Month, following the Zero Hour soft reboot.  And some of the series launched at that time looked like shameless Image rip-offs (looking at you, Manhunter), but it also seemed to be another attempt by DC to reintegrate the original Vertigo vibe back into the fold.  Fate is one such example, as it turns out.  (Starman, meanwhile, seemed to lead directly to what Vertigo became later.)  This was a reinvention of Doctor Fate to make him more edgy (the ‘90s were big on “edgy”), but with more credible creative results than its short run may have suggested.  I think part of it was that the whole Vertigo phenomenon was misunderstood from the start, that it diverged from its roots so rapidly that any attempt to replicate them have invariably met with, at best, fan apathy, including the more recent Young Animal imprint.  Part of that was because Sandman, which actually had some superhero connections early on, so dramatically departed from them that fans no longer thought of superheroes as relevant to the idea, so any further attempts to present superheroes in a more complex manner seemed to be asking too much. 

Green Arrow Annual #6 (DC)

Part of the “Eclipso: The Darkness Within” crossover from the 1992 annuals, this issue eventually puts the spotlight on Black Canary, but also features a guest appearance from Batman.  I have a particular nostalgia for these annuals, since they were happening just as I was beginning to read comics regularly for the first time.  Given the opportunity, I’d probably collect them in the same fashion as I have been with the theme months from the New 52, which were tremendous creative successes too little celebrated (or not at all) by fans. 

Justice League #23 (DC)

Ah, but which version of the title?  The Rebirth era, the first series from the Rebirth era…The League is probably the worst example within DC of endless reboots, which at Marvel happens to every series just about every six months or so.  And it’s funny that beginning with the New 52, any title attempting to supplement the main series is even more prone to a short shelf life…Anyway, the post-Johns League has been particularly hard hit.  This issue, featuring a cover with characters not even featured in the issue, much less the one in the spotlight, revolves around Green Lantern Jessica Cruz, which like all Jessica Cruz tales revolves around her inability to avoid fear (funny, for a Green Lantern).  I liked the act in the pages of Green Lanterns, as it and she were paired with Simon Baz, but to have it once again being the only defining quality worth writing about…Anyway, it’s clear why DC once again rebooted the series this time, since the concept was spiraling the drain until Scott Snyder revisited the widescreen concept from the old Grant Morrison days.  (Of course, I think, as with most Snyder stories, he attempts to go too big too soon too often…)

Legion of Super-Heroes #291 (DC)

It’s forgotten today, but the New Teen Titans and the X-Men had a rival in popular during the ‘80s with the Legion, and this issue, luckily enough for me, comes from its most famous story arc, “The Great Darkness Saga,” which until this I’d never actually read anything from (alas, unlike the Titans and X-Men, reprints haven’t been anymore kind to the Legion than fan memory).  This second installment makes it clear that the villain of the arc was kept hidden early on, but: Darkseid.  And since it’s a Legion story, everyone’s worried about who’s going to be elected next leader of the team. 

Northlanders #1 (Vertigo)

From Brian Wood.  I’m not a Brian Wood guy.  This is his Viking comic.  The write-up for the concept was more interesting than what I skimmed in the comic itself.

Swamp Thing #3 (DC)

Scott Snyder’s series from the New 52, y’know, the one fans didn’t really care about, ultimately, even though they remained gaga over Snyder’s Batman.  I got into the series later when it was being written by Charles Soule (part of how I became such a fan of his), but never got around to reading Snyder’s run.  The Walmart Swamp Thing Giant was serializing it, but I wasn’t interested in reading that particular giant regularly.  So it was interesting to read a little more.  I think Snyder actually did more relevant character work here than with Batman.  But what do I know?

Until the next box…