Watching the Walmart Giants 5 "December 2019"

The distributor apparently woke up sooner than normal, so I got December's selections sooner than what's been the norm lately. 

Crisis on Infinite Earths Giant #1

• new story from Marv Wolfman & Marc Guggenheim, with art from Tom Derenick.  Right from the start it's clear this is a riff on the TV Arrowverse Crisis, same as:
• new story from Marv Wolfman & Marc Guggenheim, with art from Tom Grummett.
• reprint of Crisis #1
• reprint of Crisis #7 (death of Supergirl)

Now, some expanded thought.

The two new tales are actually pretty worthwhile to the whole Arrowverse Crisis experience.  The first gives a little more spotlight to Nash Wells/Pariah.  Nash is the latest multiverse variant of Harrison Wells in The Flash, the only Arrowverse series I've watched regularly (and soundly enjoyed).  Wells, in the first season, turned out to not even be Harrison Wells, but Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash, who'd taken over Wells' body.  All of the Wells variants are played by Tom Cavanagh, for whom I developed a deep affection when he was playing a bowling alley lawyer in Ed.  His quirky Wells turns have been just one of the many things I love about Flash.

The second expands on Jon Cryer's Lex Luthor, who has appeared in Supergirl.  Cryer is known for many things at this point, including Ducky, Two and a Half Men, and his appearance in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.  His Luthor is almost an apology for that one, and he plays the role quite effectively, complete with a distinct look for the character, which is easily distinguished by Grummett in the new story.

(It's great seeing Grummett working on a Superman comic again.  Ah, the '90s!)

I watched, quite eagerly, the first three TV installments of Crisis, between Supergirl, Batwoman, and Flash.  Naturally, I liked the Flash installment best, not just because of the fateful final run of John Wesley Shipp, but because the production values, as they usually are, were so much better.  I don't belong to the cult of Kevin Conroy (even though in the '90s I was a big fan of his Batman cartoon), so his appearance as the mock Dark Knight Returns Bruce Wayne did nothing for me.  I loved the Smallville coda!  Just perfect.  Arrowverse was riffing as much on Crisis as it was Avengers: Endgame and Justice League (complete with a hero resurrection).  Constantine played very well!  I realize the guy had his own series for a split second, but this portrayal works really well however it ends up onscreen.  I missed a few of the cameos for one reason or another, but it was pretty funny when spastic Kevin Smith cut off Robert Wuhl just as he was about to bash the Snyder movies.  Smooth!  It was nice that the CW sprang for the aftershow thing that's become a staple of cable genre shows, helped make it that much bigger a deal.

Can't wait for the final installments next month!

Superman Giant #1

• new story from Robert Venditti & Paul Pelletier.  It's a Parasite story, a villain I find particularly tiresome, but by the end of it Venditti has found something useful to say.  I always like seeing Pelletier art! 
• reprint of Supergirl #54 (2010)
• reprint of Action Comics #866 (2008, the start of Geoff Johns, Richard Donner & Gary Frank's excellent "Brainiac" arc)
• reprint of Superman #8 (2016, from Tomasi, Gleason & Mahnke)