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...
Never read any of those.
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