Watching the Walmart Giants 10 “April 2020, with Jim Lee!”

Apparently I hadn’t been to Walmart since the beginning of the month when I made the trek last weekend. I didn’t really expect new giants to have shipped, but they had! Including one that had received a fair amount of press, for these giants, because it features new Jim Lee art, which is:

Our Fighting Forces 100-Page Giant #1

• The first story is from Christopher Priest & Christopher Mooneyham, featuring the Unknown Soldier. I don’t read a lot of DC’s war comics, usually, but I at least knew about this character. As he’s prone to, Priest sells the hell out of the concept, making Unknown Soldier feel like a fresh and compelling concept. I’d read Priest’s Unknown Soldier monthly, easily!
• The second is from G.I. Joe legend Larry Hama with Mirko Colak, featuring military-era Kate Kane (Batwoman), a modern character who absolutely deserves all the attention she gets.
• The third is Jim Lee’s, with a script from Brad Meltzer based on a speech Barack Obama gave awarding Sal Giunta with the Medal of Honor. Lee spends most of it drawing Batman, but that’s because it’s clever enough to swerve the reader with a story of real heroism juxtaposed on a typical superhero adventure. Absolutely stunning.
• Then five reprints from the New 52’s Men of War, with the highlight coming in last from J.T. Krul & Scott Kolins, featuring a soldier post-war finding it difficult to get a job, eventually ending up in an interview where he’s upstaged by some former local football star...It’s incredible to think how poorly vets are treated, regardless of how you feel about the wars they’ve fought. They deserve a helluva lot more. Kolins, whose art can sometimes be a little weird, turns in some career-best material. This whole issue is outstanding.

Superman 100-Page Giant #3

• The first story is from Robert Venditti & Paul Pelletier, featuring Superman caught in the crossfire between Lex Luthor and Toyman, who’s trying to redeem his toy company after it’s been acquired by Luthor. Pelletier turns in sharp work, arguably the best I’ve ever seen from him, and he’s someone who’s been working in comics since the ‘90s!
• Reprint of Supergirl #56, featuring Bizarro.
• Reprint of Action Comics #868, part of Geoff Johns & Gary Frank’s excellent Brainiac arc.
• Reprint of Action Comics #0, the exceptional “Boy Who Stole Superman’s Cape,” which single-handedly makes a mockery of fans who dismissed Grant Morrison’s run in the New 52.

Titans 100-Page Giant #2

• New from Phil Hester & Scott Koblish, featuring a Titans team with Red Hood.
• New from Andrew Aydin & Juan Gedeon, featuring Beast Boy & Raven, and once again Red Hood, that’s about halfway to the storytelling style of Teen Titans Go!
• Reprint of Teen Titans #51, from 1977, featuring two teams of Titans, continuing where the last giant left off.
• Reprint of Starfire #2
• Reprint of Adventures of the Super Sons #2, which kind of emphasizes Tomasi really just wanted to have fun for a change.

Pandemic Comics #8 “Mark Waid and the Khunds Appear In These, But Not Together”

More comics from the Mile High mystery boxes...

The Justice Society Returns: National Comics #1
Here’s Mark Waid writing the Flash. No, not Wally West, Jay Garrick! But Waid actually gives more focus to the original Mister Terrific, whom he characterizes as...great at everything. I don’t know if it’s only in comics, but it’s really funny how in comics the idea of the renaissance man is such a cartoon, that not only are these people better at one thing than has ever been humanly achieved before, they’re better at a wide range of things. I don’t think comic book writers understand how this works. They really don’t understand how Olympic athletes perform, for instance. They seem to assume that because someone has reached the Olympics they’re absolutely flawless. Anyone who has ever watched the Olympics knows even the winners often show flaws, and a lot of reaching the gold medal is that the vast majority of the field has flubbed horribly. This is not to say that just anyone could beat them. It takes real talent, but real talent does not mean it comes without flaws...Anyway.

The Kingdom: Son of the Bat #1
Here’s Mark Waid again (he’ll come up again!), expanding on the version of this character that isn’t Damian Wayne. In this case, reconciling competing legacies pretty much by default goes in Damian’s favor. This one (will not dignify his terrible name) doesn’t even care to carry on the Batman legacy, and the story is basically about how ineffective he is at outthinking the end of the world. Which is of course something Batman does, uh, every other day (and twice on Sunday).

L.E.G.I.O.N. #32
I think this whole team concept was basically doing a present-day Legion of Super-Heroes. Stupid name all the same. If you’re going to have an acronym in the title, make sure...Okay, just don’t do a series with an acronym in the title. Basically, only S.H.I.E.L.D. gets a free pass with this (and really only because of the TV show, and the movies, has it ever actually gotten one).

L.E.G.I.O.N. #44
Anyway, I’m not spelling out any acronyms again. Ever! Pain in the ass, aside from everything else...Anyway, these issues feature some of the Khunds of which I speak in the title line of this blog entry. The Khunds are kind of like the Klingons at DC, a badass warrior species.

Legion of Super-Heroes #310 
Relationship drama. It’s hard to remember now, but the Legion was about as popular as the X-Men and the Teen Titans in the ‘80s. But they were building less real history, so there’s less to remember. Even “The Great Darkness Saga,” the team’s surprise Darkseid epic, seems to recede easily into the past. Er, future. Also: Khunds.

Lobo: Infanticide #4
Lobo battles his bastard kid! The artwork probably deliberately obscured the gruesome action. More importantly, I’m pretty sure this comic (cover-dated January 1993) is the first time I’ve seen ads heavily promoting the launch of the Vertigo line. I remember a TV spot from the general time period that promoted DC and Vertigo (took me years to have any clue what “Black Orchid” was about, and even now I’m not hugely sure; one of the big early Vertigo comics, but quickly got left behind).

Manhunter #33
This was the Starman of its era, but the acclaim didn’t stretch nearly as far, and it hasn’t received strong collection support. And this issue is perhaps too busy to let any if its material really land. But still impressive work.

Metamorpho #2
Honestly, I assumed some of the stuff I was reading in The Terrifics was created specifically for it, but apparently it’s all right there in these earlier Metamorpho adventures, so that was great to see. Rex Mason would be a much bigger deal, I think, if his superhero design weren’t so...weird. Also: Mark Waid wrote this, too!

The Next #1
At the time, DC seemed to have heavily invested in fantasy writer Tad Williams as a comics creator. Along with this he was also given Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis, and as it happened I read both and thoroughly enjoyed them. But Williams didn’t stick around long (unlike the epic lengths of his fantasy books), and I never did revisit his comics until now. What it read like this time was someone in the vein of Grant Morrison with far more interest in being weird, and no real grounding to support it. Which makes me glad the Tad Williams experiment didn’t pan out. And I only read one of his massive fantasy books, too. He’s someone else’s favorite writer, I guess.

Pandemic Comics #7 “Justice Leagues”

More comics from the Mile High mystery boxes! Apparently today is National Superhero Day? And apparently Marvel began it? Well, the comics I’ll be talking about, ah, were all published by DC. But the pandemic is teaching us the real superheroes probably have very different costumes than we previously imagined, and masks look very different, too.

Harley Quinn #1
Here’s the “newest comic in the mystery boxes,” from Rebirth, featuring the creative team from the previous series (Marvel’s Constant Reboot Engine sees this happen more frequently) offers a quick recap of relevant information, including Harley’s huge collection of sidekicks. And yet in the spotlight: Deadpool Red Tool.  This was a shiny Mile High variant cover, by the way.

Hawkgirl #54 
As far as I know, this is the only time Hawkgirl had her own book. Of course, it began as Hawkman (where it was written by Geoff Johns) and this issue features the return of Hawkman (probably?). But the good news is it’s from legends Walt Simonson and Howard Chaykin, which is a combination and a series that stood out for me back in 2006, but for some reason never actually read. So, another mystery box that finally addresses one of my comic book sins...

icandy #1
I think it’s the title. Yeah, the title. It’s a terrible title. The comic itself turns out to be pretty good (I mean, it’s written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning, the geek gods of that period), a concept that folds video games into a playable concept. I’m frankly shocked this hasn’t been done more, or more successfully. The last time I saw it was Heroes Reborn, which naturally was four seasons after the series was actually popular.

Ion #7 
A maxi-series starring Kyle Rayner post-Green Lantern: Rebirth (otherwise known as “Thanks, Torchbearer, you now get to join the Back-up Corps!), this is a fortuitous random issue, because it reunites Kyle with Radu, the coffee shop owner who was a signature element of Kyle’s early days as a Green Lantern. Ion was a concept they fobbed on Kyle as a consolation prize, before it was replaced by his becoming White Lantern, before he became, well, just another Green Lantern...At the time, I guess, I was still annoyed that “my Green Lantern” had been “kicked to the curb” (which happens to literally every Green Lantern not named Hal Jordan eventually), and so couldn’t properly appreciate Ion. Now it seems like correcting that amounts to another of my comic book sins...

Justice League America #61
The first appearance of Bloodwynd! And, ah, Dan Jurgens takes over the series! In hindsight, Weapons Master really doesn’t seem like that big a challenge. Prometheus was basically an upgraded version only a handful of years later, and even he quickly got turned into a chump. Lesson, villains? Don’t put all your eggs in a fancy gimmick giving you special weapons. Because the weapons can be, well, taken away...

Justice League Task Force #2
This particular Justice League series from the ‘90s will always be the most thankless. Literally its biggest claim to fame is an issue of “Knightfall: The Crusade,” with Crippled Bruce Wayne. This issue is kind of ironic in hindsight: Nightwing looks like a chump while desperately trying to prove he isn’t just a former Teen Titan and/or Batman’s sidekick. If Dan DiDio caught this issue, it might explain why he used to think Nightwing was superfluous...

JLA/WildC.A.T.s
This was a really nice surprise! From the Grant Morrison era, written by Morrison, and featuring Electric Superman (what a snapshot!), something I think I’ve read before, but I guess never really considered that significant. But it is a great little snapshot. But the name of Jim Lee’s big superhero team still sucks, at least as far as incorporating one of the most convoluted acronyms from a whole history of convoluted acronyms in comics...

JLA #79 
It’s always great to remember just how long and varied Doug Mahnke’s history at DC alone is (dude’s also the co-creator of The Mask!), and he’s as easy a talent to revisit for that reason alone as there’s ever been. His art, at least during his DC tenure, has been remarkably consistent, though endlessly adaptable...Hopefully will get a spotlight collection at some point.

Pandemic Comics #6 “Doc Savage to Green Arrow”

More comics from the Mile High mystery boxes...

Doc Savage #1
Here’s one of the Superman precursors (he even got a Fortress of Solitude first) in one of his later revivals (far as I know, still hasn’t had a movie). DC periodically trots him out (was last seen in the First Wave comics), but he seems particularly hard to translate for modern audiences. Technically, I guess, Alan Moore’s Tom Strong was a version of Doc Savage (though Tom Strong was also, technically, a version of Alan Moore’s Supreme, which was a version of Silver Age Superman...), so there’s that!

Doom Patrol #2
Here’s a concept DC trots out a little more frequently than Doc Savage, but never really seems to stick. The last time it did was Grant Morrison’s surreal take, although strangely later readers were only baffled that Young Animal’s revival thought it was a good act to reprise...This one’s from John Byrne, who’s magic to anything he touches. Which of course means the older he gets the less readers give a damn...

The Exinctuon Parade: War #1 (Avatar)
Here’s the Mile High variant cover comic thrown in as a bonus. Max Brooks, who wrote World War Z, is the son of Mel Brooks. Maybe you already knew that. Maybe I already knew that. But it’s a fact I was recently reminded of, and it’s still an interesting factoid. Anyway, this comic is ruined by Avatar’s typical hack artwork, alas, the kind someone hopes the coloring will obscure. But it never does.

Firestorm #27
Firestorm has always been a favorite of mine, but I never really read any Firestorm comics, much less enjoyed the hell out of them, until the brilliant post-Infinite Crisis run I hold up against the best of any superhero comics from that period. Would love some collection reprints.

The Flash #235 
I think I finally figured out why Mark Waid’s attempted reprise was so disappointing. He seemed to forget that Wally West was an excellent protagonist, that he had made Wally West a compelling protagonists. And while expanding the family eventually had...interesting ramifications, Waid seemed to be phoning it in. Gone was the spark that made everything so gloriously personal. In fact, Waid seemed to go out of his way to make these comics as impersonal as possible. I still don’t get it...

Fraction #4 
Part of the DC Focus imprint. That’s, uh, that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

Green Arrow #61
I think the letters column in this issue just about sums up everything that’s wrong today: “Every letter in the GREEN ARROW #55 letter column had to do with politics and answering another letter writer’s opinions...” wrote Charles D. Brown. You’d expect this in a Green Arrow comic (and this is another great argument for printing letters columns; the internet dies within days or maybe weeks of any given discussion). It becomes a problem when this is routine public discourse. This is relevant, compelling during, say, big historic eras like the American Revolution or the Civil War. Otherwise it’s a lot of counterproductive hot air...

Green Arrow #26
Here’s social crusader Oliver Queen confronting apparent President Luther stooge Jefferson Pierce, the once and future Black Lightning. They really need to collect major President Luther stories like this. It’s the major DC event of the first five years of the new millennium.

Pandemic Comics #5 “DC Comics...Presents!”

Here’s another batch from the Mile High mystery boxes:

Birds of Prey #96
Wow! Had no idea the series lasted so many issues. But, I was never a regular reader, even when the concept launched in the ‘90s. Of course, it finally became a movie (after being a TV series), earlier this year (if there’s been anything this year besides pandemic) (beginning to doubt that). Written by Gail Simone, writing just as if literally all her logic comes strait from comics, and art to match, impossibly uniform women, even Black Alice, a tormented teenager whose only distinguishing physical feature is her hairstyle. Otherwise the “impossibly perfect body” of her mean girls rival...is exactly the same one she has...

Black Condor #4
You know, the concept of Black Condor rejecting the idea of being a superhero might have been more convincing...if he didn’t dress exactly like a superhero...Otherwise, he’s a lost character I still wish were found.

The Comet #8
DC’s Impact Comics line, which this was a part of, circled back around some twenty years later as Red Circle, and then ended up at Archie Comics, where they began some sixty years earlier. The object lesson here perhaps is that DC and Marvel endured because they were able to persist against all adversity, and didn’t treat superheroes as a fad. There were and have been plenty of other publishers over the years doing superhero lines, but none of them have the longevity. Even Image somewhat rapidly abandoned superheroes, in the grand scheme. Spawn has pushed past three hundred issues, but mostly because it wants to continue, not out of anywhere near the demand there was in its heyday. Anyway, Mark Waid, here in 1992, the same year he took on writing chores in the pages of The Flash, supplies the dialogue.

Connor Hawke: Dragon’s Blood #4
After Oliver Queen died (ah, temporarily), his bastard son Connor Hawke took over as the Emerald Archer, and like Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern, it seemed to be a permanent role at the time. So Connor had his own comic for years, and yet because Green Arrow isn’t near the sales force Green Lantern is, which isn’t near the sales force Batman is, Connor has never even sniffed at another ongoing series. This one’s a mini-series, of course, resuming the sidekick continuity of the ‘90s and featuring Connor teaming up with Shado, a character who better survived the transition to the New 52 than he did...

DC Comics Presents: The Atom #1
After legendary editor Julius Schwartz passed away in 2004, DC put out these one-shots in tribute to him, asking modern comic book creators to take cracks at covers Schwartz had dreamed up in the Silver Age to spur on the creative juices of his writers. The wonderful thing about this particular one has less to do with the Schwartz tribute (an obituary by Alan Moore appears in the back of these issues, with a copyright notice indicating Moore’s ownership) and more the historic art pairing between two ‘90s Superman legends: Dan Jurgens and Jon Bogdanove. Jurgens of course is the writer/artist of Superman #75, while Bogdanove was the longtime artist of Superman: The Man of Steel. Seeing Jurgens inked by Bogdanove is truly surreal. At times it’s distinctly Jurgens, and at others distinctly Bogdanove. One of the greatest comic book discoveries I’ve made, folks.

DC Comics Presents: Superman #1
With this issue the standout is the lead story, as it’s written by Stan Lee, at that time a few years removed from Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating...various DC heroes, and a relative few years away from regularly creating new comics at publishers other than Marvel, and of course thousands of cameos in Marvel movies.

DC Nation #0
Fun to read this again, and by “this” I mean “Your Big Day” from Tom King and Clay Mann, the Joker-waits-for-the-wedding-invitation story that’s among the many best things King has ever written...

Pandemic Comics #4 “Twice the Two-Face!”

Here’s the next batch of conics from the Mile High mystery boxes: the Batman edition!

Detective Comics #580
Did you know there was actually a second Two-Face? Literally the most appropriate development in comics history, right? (Not as fun: an issue, or two [ahhh!] of puns on the number two.) And even funnier: Paul Sloane was the second imposter. His origin is kind of like the criminal version of Wally West’s. An actor, Sloane is portraying Harvey Dent in a production that goes horribly wrong at exactly the worst, or best, possible moment when some mook throws acid in Sloane’s face...Eventually of course Sloane goes on a crime spree, just like Dent before him, having copied all of Two-Face’s quirks...Sloane doubles Dent in every regard, including a wife waiting for him to recover and return to a normal life, and the possibility of plastic surgery being able to do just the trick, which of course works twice...(I would absolutely keep the second Two-Face in continuity. Too perfect.)

Detective Comics #581
Naturally I got these in separate boxes, but it’s the complete story. Are you wondering if a story published in 1987 has anything to say about Jason Todd’s time as Robin? Of course it does! Jason’s dad was murdered by Two-Face, so he spends most of it recklessly trying to exact payback, and Batman keeps stopping him. It’s basically exactly Batman Forever (with, Jason rather than Dick Grayson). But Jason seems pretty redeemable, and the whole story seems like an early attempt to reconcile the character to how he had been modified post-Crisis (originally he was quite indistinguishable from Dick), before, y’know, giving readers the option of, oh, killing him off a few years later. What’s really bizarre is how these comics look like they came from the ‘70s rather than ‘80s. It’s proof that Batman’s continuity (other than Jason) remained mostly untouched after the Crisis reboot, just as it would for the New 52 (one of the many pointless fan complaints about the New 52, as far as Morrison’s Batman and Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern were concerned). Funny enough, the letters columns in these issues are full of praise for Mike Barr (who wrote them) and his “Year Two,” which some said was “better” than Miller’s “Year One,” calling Barr’s work “a lot more fun to read.” And...history doesn’t really care about that, now does it?

Batman #433
Batman #433
Yes, two copies, one from each box. I didn’t really mind. It’s the only time anything doubled up, and given the Two-Face story, seemed more than appropriate to have happen with a Batman comic.  This is a silent issue, the first chapter in “The Many Deaths of Batman,” and it’s a solid success. Anyway, speaking of Jason Todd, this was published in 1989, and his death was still fresh in the minds of readers. One fan in the letter column writes simply, “I am very, very sad that you made Robin die. I have been crying for a whole day. Why did you make him die?...You don’t kill heroes, you save them! Please change your comic book!” (Letter writer was 8 at the time.)

Batman: Gotham Nights #4 
A Batman comic from the point of view of ordinary citizens who seem on the edge of very bad decisions, eventually converging in a moment where Batman essentially saves them in an intervention he didn’t even know he was making. Anyway, the great irony here is a 1992 letter column being saved by an early version of an internet message board (I included “internet” as “message board” itself is now as archaic as regular letters columns). So there’s that! By the end of DC’s use of letters columns at the turn of the century, it had in fact switched from traditional letters to electronic ones, with physical addresses replaced by email addresses. And today, the internet basically complains about every comic made. Yay progress!

Batman #498
This is the issue in which Bruce Wayne formally taps Jean Paul Valley to replace him as Batman, or as he would become known by fans: Azbats. “Knightfall” concludes two issues later with Azbats using his fancy clawed gloves to defeat Bane.

Batman #505 
Azbats is in the midst of deciding which of his predecessor’s methods are still useful (the letters columns are savvy enough to conclude that the whole point of Azbats is to prove that those methods are as relevant as ever, as is the man who employed them). He uses detective work to track down Abattoir, who becomes famous later by inadvertently dying at the hands (claws?) of Azbats.

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #26
I never really read Shadow of the Bat unless it was relevant to a crossover, which, like and since I followed the same policy with Legends of the Dark Knight, was probably my loss. This is a good issue, focusing on this era’s version of Clayface (which I had only read about previously, and Lady Clayface, and, apparently, Baby Clayface...! Tangled up in it somewhere is Abattoir, and a neat citizens-reaction to the events of the above issue.

Batman: Odyssey #2
One of the out-of-continuity mini-series Neal Adams has done in recent years (this one’s from a decade ago, and I believe marked his comeback). I had a chance to meet him at one of the area cons, but foolishly passed it up. But he’s as likely to be at another one, which if people are able to do mass events by the fall would make for an even more memorable occasion. This issue’s great. Adams has a casual, conversational familiarity with Batman that breezes through the issue, and his art, with modern coloring, has never looked better. I’ve seen some fans complaining that his sensibilities don’t belong in today’s comics, which is absurd. If you have a master of the medium still capable of delivering at this level, you cherish him. Period.

Pandemic Comics #3 “Worlds Collide”

As stated previously, I bought two mystery boxes from the pandemic miracle that is Mile High Comics. Here’s the first reading results:

52 #32
Ralph Dibney reaches China! Significant for two things: Nanda Parbat, which will have greater significance for the Montoya/Question arc, and the Great Ten, a Chinese team of “super functionaries” that would later star in a...nine issue series I still think is criminally underrated.

52 #42
Ralph Dibney finally confronts Felix Faust! I like how getting two issues of this series (still my favorite comic of all-time, finally supplanting “The Return of Barry Allen”) ended up featuring Ralph’s arc in both, the way it ends (better) than how it began (still my least favorite part of the series).

World War III #4
I spent too much time undervaluing this 52 spinoff, but a reread in collection form finally began to turn that around. Martian Manhunter is firmly in the spotlight this issue, and it doesn’t hurt, him being one of my favorite undervalued characters in comics.

Adventure Comics #4/507
Superboy-Prime! The infamous indestructible lead antagonist of Infinite Crisis in his own Blackest Night tie-in!

DC/Marvel: All Access #3
Robin & Jubilee are star-crossed lovers! Still arguably the most amusing thing to come out of the three DC/Marvel crossover comics from the ‘90s (the third was Unlimited Access, though I guess it turned out to be otherwise, but lots of observers are arguing for another round to rally comics post-pandemic).

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld #1
The character had a false-start revival during the New 52, but is staging another comeback as part of Wonder Comics. This was the ongoing series follow-up to her original mini-series, and annual. Honestly, I think if they named it anything but “Gemworld” the whole thing would work so much better. Maybe just give it an additional name?

Anima #0
At a previous point revisiting this series, I thought it was a lost gem (heh), and even tracked down a novel by one of the co-writers, but I found the results unreadable. Call it confirmation bias now, but I couldn’t get into this issue at all, this time.

Animal Man #42
Still weird to think it took so long to formally launch the Vertigo imprint, even though its formative titles were running for years already, including this one, famously begun by Grant Morrison. This issue: still branded “DC.” Also: follows the somewhat inexplicable trend, in my admitted small sampling, of not...really featuring...Animal Man? in his own series...

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #49
The last issue before the Tad Williams run I read at the time. People seem to forget what a mess DC had made of Aquaman (not in terms of quality but...just letting the dude exist) before Flashpoint. When he was formally revived during Brightest Day, it was probably one of the signal internal events that suggested, at least for DC itself, the need for the New 52 reboot. As far as Aquaman is concerned, the New 52 was indeed a smashing success. A decade after several rounds of agonized storytelling to untangle the lines, as it were, he’s standing as strong in comics, and movie! lore as he ever has.

Assassins #1
From the original Amalgam releases, combining Daredevil with Deathstroke (as Dare) and Catwoman with Elektra (as Catsai), pitting them against the Big Question (please tell me you can extrapolate that one), with glorious art from Scott McDaniel. By the way, Dare & Catsai are both women, and this was technically Amalgam’s response to the ‘90s “bad girls” craze (which would be completely inexplicable to modern observers) (even though it continues to this day, on a far smaller scale).

Astro City: Local Heroes #2
Being the most famous superhero, Superman has been copied a lot. Within Astro City lore alone, Kurt Busiek apparently couldn’t get enough with Samaritan alone. This issue features Atomicus, a blatant pastiche of the Silver Age Superman (ah, much like Alan Moore’s version of Supreme), which riffs on Lois Lane’s obsessive quest to prove Clark Kent is Superman’s secret identity, but with a more tragic ending. Aside from the fact that “Atomicus” is a terrible name, and his origin mirrors Captain Atom/Doctor Manhattan (which raises the question if Busiek thought Moore was riffing on Superman, too, or merely made the connection himself, as does the later Doomsday Clock), a good lost gem in Astro City lore.

The All New Atom #9 
Featuring Ryan Choi and writing by Gail Simone, which is more tolerable, for me, than average.

The Atom Special #1
Featuring Ray Palmer, and writing by Jeff Lemire, which is, for me, typically excellent.

The Authority #10
The team has literally taken over the US. And not being seen immediately as an evil coup d’etat. Yeah, not gonna buy that.

Pandemic Comics #2 “Mile High Comics”

The absolute legend to come out of the pandemic so far, for me, is Mile High Comics’ Chuck Rozanski. Chuck has been working nonstop, virtually alone, fulfilling mystery box orders for more than a month. He even worked Easter, saying since it was even quieter that day it made things easier. The mystery boxes are a variety of 5lb comics selections (Marvel, unsurprisingly, seems to be the most popular, with fancy swag to show for it, including free add-on collections, but I’m not a Marvel guy, so I can resist that sort of thing). I figured it was only right to order some of these, the DC assortments, and got them in yesterday. I’ll spend some of this quarantine time, in the coming days, reading them, and then blogging about them here.

I ended up getting eighty-odd comics. Here’s some of them:

• two issues of 52 (something I planned on rereading during this time anyway)
• DC/Marvel: All Access #3 (the follow-up to DC Versus Marvel)
• Assassins #1 (from the Amalgam Comics spin-off of DC Versus Marvel)
• two copies of Batman #433 (which is perfectly fine, I ordered two mystery boxes; a silent issue)
• DC Nation #0 (with the excellent Tom King/Clay Mann “Joker’s invitation to the wedding” story)
• The Extinction Parade:War #1 (which is the one title not published by DC; included because it features a Mile High variant cover)
• Harley Quinn #1 (from Rebirth; the newest comic in either set)
• Justice League America #61 (first issue of the Dan Jurgens run, which ought to also be the first appearance of Bloodwynd)
• JLA/WildC.A.T.s (not sure I’ve read this Grant Morrison-era JLA graphic novel yet, but either way another hugely welcome discovery in the selections)
• The Justice Society Returns! National Comics #1 (I don’t care if Mark Waid has seemingly turned his back on the Flash forever, he’ll always be the Flash guy to me; here he writes Jay Garrick)
• The Kingdom: Son of the Bat #1 (and the guy who wrote the masterpiece Kingdom Come, though Nightstar was infinitely better than the convoluted name he gave to the offspring of Bruce Wayne and Talia Head)
• Lobo: Infanticide #4 (Lobo was huge in the ‘90s! for a split second! and somehow has never had a significant resurgence. or a real attempt at one. bastiches!)
• The Next #1 (I was a big fan of this mini-series; will be interesting to revisit)
• Ronin #1 (this was the biggest get of the selections, something I’ve never read, a Frank Miller comic that used to be included in DC’s evergreens without fail)
• Seven Soldiers of Victory #1 (a significant Grant Morrison touchstone for me)
• Action Comics #662 (“At long last...the secret revealed!”)
• Adventures of Superman #500 (in the original polybag, of course...not gonna open this one)
• Superman Confidential #1 (the start of the classic Darwyn Cooke/Tim Sale Kryptonite arc)
• Vixen: Return of the Lion #1 (I always meant to read this G. Willow Wilson mini-series, back when I was one of her biggest fans thanks to Air)
• and many more!

Pandemic Comics #1 “A Fortuitous Midtown Order”

By sheer coincidence, just as the lockdowns were beginning, I had placed another order with Midtown Comics. A decade back I dug myself into a steep financial hole recklessly ordering comics every week through their website. Longtime readers of my blog (through its many names and locations) know I spent years putting together an annual listing of the fifty best comics I’d read. The Midtown addiction allowed me to expand it to a hundred one year. So it was a long time before I ordered from them again. The first time back it was to help complete my Stuart Immonen Superman collection (which was finally completed last year when I rectified one last oversight). Then last year I began an irregular comeback. This most recent order was deliberately patterned after the old days, when I’d comb the weekly release lists and see what looked interesting. In recent years my comics reading has been drastically limited. The only sequential reads I’ve done have been limited series. I gave up trying to catch Tom King’s Batman in every individual issue (though I’ve collected all the trades), even.

Well, anyway, these are, at the moment, not only some of the last new comics I personally have read, but that got to be released at all...

The Argus #1 (Action Lab)

I found the art to be kind of shoddy, but the familiar concept of time travel being filtered through a single person pulled from various points of his life is still a good one. Could absolutely be salvaged. Kirkman’s Walking Dead, after all, had a different tone and even different art at the beginning.

Billionaire Island #1 (Ahoy Comics)

The latest from Mark Russell is another biting satire skewering privilege. The end of the issue teases the badass who will help find some justice for victims who’ve been locked up. To be clear, involuntarily. Not because, y’know, of a pandemic.

Birthright #42 (Image)

Randomly checked in with the Josh Williamson epic fantasy. Would probably get more out of it with having read more than, oh, the first issue in an Image dollar reprint.

Daredevil #19 (Marvel) 

Checking back in with the excellent Chip Zdarsky run.

Doctor Tomorrow #1 (Valiant)

Valiant may have finally gotten a big screen adaptation (horribly timed though it turned out to be), but in the comics its boon period has officially ended. Would really love for another creative resurgence.

Far Sector #4 (DC’s Young Animal)

Another fine issue in this Green Lantern maxi-series. 

The Flash #123 (DC)

A facsimile edition of the famous “Flash of Two Worlds” issue, one of the truly legendary moments in superhero comics. It’s interesting to have finally read it. Just the recaps of Jay Garrick and Barry Allen’s origin stories, as they were told then, was interesting. 

Flash Forward #6 (DC)

The final issue of the mini-series saw Wally West take on a new destiny. Just had to read it.

The Flash #750 (DC)

One of several big anniversary comics DC was able to get in before all this happened (I was a little too soon for the Robin 80th anniversary celebration). Geoff Johns probably had the highlight. Real shame that Mark Waid seems to have totally rejected his DC past(s) at this point. Should have been a part of this.

Folklords #1 (Boom!)

This was a fourth printing or so (otherwise the series was up to its fourth issue, I think), another fine argument that Boom! may actually be the most consistently excellent alternative publisher of the past decade, still working with Matt Kindt, launching another excellent concept. It may have a lower profile than Image, Dark Horse, or IDW, but it’s consistently reinvented itself over the years and, hey, still boasts Grant Morrison’s Klaus on its release calendar, and is probably the only publisher that would do so.

King of Nowhere #1 (Boom!)

Here they are again. This one looks like it could’ve been published by Image, Dark Horse, or Vertigo, and that’s not something you can say for just any publisher. Was worth a look.

The Last God #5 (DC Black Label)

The shuttering of the Vertigo imprint didn’t mean its aesthetic was dead. This is clearly DC’s biggest bid for old school Vertigo in years. But ended up not being my cup of tea. High fantasy, as it turns out.

Omni #5 (H1)

Pretty annoyed that Devin K. Grayson, who launched the series, was still listed as a creator when, as of this issue, she’s not really an active member of the creative team anymore. Kind of felt like a bait-and-switch.

Plunge #1 (DC/Hill House)

The end of the Vertigo imprint came at the same time as an incredible flowering of new DC imprints, from the Sandman family to the Bendis line, and now Hill House, from Joe Hill (Stephen Kong’s kid). But what brought me here was the Stuart Immonen art. Immonen has once again elevated his game. After he went over to Marvel I thought he was allowing himself to lose what made him distinctive, but it led to, well, this. I love his Superman, always will, as it was, but of course, now I’d love to see him return, with this more detailed approach.

Skulldigger + Skeleton Boy #3 (Dark Horse)

The best thing Dark Horse has done post-Mind MGMT has been Jeff Lemire’s Black Hammer universe. At some point I want to read all of it. This latest installment is basically its Dark Knight Returns.

Stealth #1 (Image)

By far the best surprise in scanning through the releases was discovering Mike Costa had a new series. Costa is an all-time favorite thanks to his G.I. Joe/Cobra comics. In recent years he’s had a small resurgence at Marvel, so it’s nice to see him getting another crack, even if once again it’s someone else’s concept, in this instance Robert Kirkman’s. But, as Costa explains in a postscript, he’s more than capable of internalizing the idea. And he executes it perfectly.

Strange Adventures #1 (DC Black Label)

The latest from Tom King, starring Adam Strange, in Mister Miracle mode with Mitch Gerads and “Doc” Shaner. Love love love that Mister Terrific pops up at the end of the issue. Might be the breakthrough Michael Holt’s been waiting twenty years for...

Wolverine Through the Years (Marvel)

This was a freebie promo for the new ongoing series (which I decided to skip). There’s a code in it that I unscrambled: “Who is the Pale Girl?” Hopefully someone interesting!

Wonder Woman #750 (DC)

Could’ve read this for free at the library, but the pandemic shut those things down before I could get around to it. Ironically still open when I ordered this. Historically speaking, the first time Wonder Woman topped the sales chart. Also the soft launch for DC’s G5.

Watching the Walmart Giants 9 “March 2020”

Suddenly we might be in a much better position to sell Walmart comics to reluctant readers.

The options are narrowing. The funny thing is, so few readers have snatched up the Walmart giants up to this point, you have an excellent chance not only to find the most recent releases, but a generous selection of older ones. That means you can still find the Superman giants with the classic Tom Ming story you ignored, the Batman giants with the Brian Michael Bendis saga, and tons of other gems, like the two Crisis On Infinite Earths giants, or the various Mark Russell shorts.  Walmart’s an essential business. It ain’t going anywhere. Those comics aren’t going anywhere. Unless savvy readers finally show up.

Batman Giant #4

• The lead new story is another Mark Russell, riffing on the prisoner transport concept you might have seen in movies like The Dark Knight or S.W.A.T., with Harley Quinn thrown into the mix (why not?). Still interesting to see Russell play with more conventional narrative structures, rather than the social/political/economic satires he usually does.
• A new Nightwing tale featuring what’s probably the late artist Tom Lyle’s last work. Lyle worked on all three original Tim Drake/Robin mini-series, with a host of other accomplishments as well. He died last fall following complications from an aneurism. 
• A reprint of Batman #4, with Batman recounting a childhood investigation into the Court of Owls that convinced him it didn’t exist, and then his present investigation, which proves it does. Apparently as far as Scott Snyder is concerned, Batman was always a fairly lousy detective, which is really, really strange.
• A reprint of Detective Comics #856, continuing Batwoman’s original solo adventures.
• A reprint of Nightwing #4, in which Tim Seeley seemingly concludes Nightwing’s partnership with Raptor (Mr. “Better Than Batman”) as he contends with the international Parliament of Owls.