Catching Up On Some Recent Comics

Action Comics #12 (DC)
Grant Morrison rounds out the first year of the New 52 Action Comics by pitting Superman against Captain Comet, one of DC's cosmic superheroes, in an epic showdown.  Hey, it's the most relevant Comet's been in years!

Aquaman #11 (DC)
Geoff Johns continues the saga he may be only spending a little while longer on, if recent reports are to be believed.  Still, if it's true, he's still done far more to make Aquaman a vital character than anyone in the dozens of attempts over the years.  If nothing else, this will make an epic, massive collection, and be put right alongside Brightest Day, where Johns and Peter S. Tomasi previously worked on the character.

Atomic Robo and the Flying She-Devils of the Pacific #2 of 5 (Red 5)
A better issue than the previous one, filled with Brian Clevinger's trademark wit, and Robo's hapless reactions to the insanity around him.

Atomic Robo Presents Real Science Adventures #5 (Red 5)
The latest issue of this anthology series is highlighted by Robo's confrontation with the man who killed Nikola Tesla (in this comics iteration), who was the creator of Atomic Robo (in the comics).

Batman: Earth One - Special Preview Edition (DC)
Yes, I bought and reviewed the full graphic novel last month, but I thought it'd be fun to see what it might feel like as a monthly-installment-sized edition.  Yes, this only covers the first fifteen pages, but it really does have a different feel.  There's a bonus preview of Scott Snyder's New 52, but the provided content is practically impenetrable, and certainly doesn't sell the Court of Owls concept, even though that's the name of the collection the preview is hawking.

Batman Incorporated #3 (DC)
The horrific shooting in Aurora, CO, delayed release of this book, though not necessarily shipments.  Morrison brings back Matches Malone, Bruce Wayne's underworld alter ego, while we learn what's really going on with Damian, who has for now assumed the identity of Redbird (which was also the name of Tim Drake's Robin-mobile).

Batman and Robin #12 (DC)
Tomasi concludes his Terminus arc with a big bang, which is a little disappointing in that Terminus didn't quite receive enough time to develop as a villain.  Long story short, the series was better earlier this year.

Before Watchmen: Comedian #2 of 6 (DC)
I read elsewhere that Edward Blake's introduction to Vietnam seemed a little generic.  I guess I haven't saturated myself with enough Vietnam fiction, since I found it to be pretty fascinating.  On the one hand, the Comedian considers this battlefield to be just another battlefield.  On the other hand, this is a guy whose best friend was just assassinated.  He has a right to be a little cynical, have an impulse to let loose a little.  That's my perspective, anyway.  Brian Azzarello also provides a fascinating insight into the possible origins of the emerging drug culture we still live in today, playing along the same notes as the second issue of Silk Spectre. (If you need a little perspective on it, Before Watchmen is an unlikely but certainly welcome forum.)

Before Watchmen: Nite Owl #2 of 4 (DC)
Whatever else I might have had to say about this issue is kind of overshadowed by the recent passing of comics legend Joe Kubert, who inked this series over son Andy's art.  I'm not a historian of the craft, but I can certainly appreciate Kubert's huge legacy, and it's a shame that he had to die in the middle of his last great contribution.  As I said in my thoughts for the first issue, Joe's inking made a definite impact on Andy's art in this book, one that spoke to the generational nature of the project.  Where some people have only been able to view Before Watchman through the Alan Moore controversy, I've relished it as a chance to view comic books in their most pure and relevant form, something creators like Kurt Busiek and James Robinson have been trying to do ever since, well, Watchmen.  Comics have, for better or worse, come to be defined by superheroes and legacies, and that's something Before Watchmen fully embraced, what the original stories were all about, in fact.  And Joe Kubert had a huge role in developing that.  Sorry to see you go.

Before Watchmen: Ozymandias #2 of 6 (DC)
The genius of Before Watchmen can also be explained this way: we're finally going to see Ozymandias and Comedian on equal terms.  That's something the original stories surprisingly avoided.  At the end of this particular issue, we begin to see a rectification.

Creator-Owned Heroes #1 (Image)
Image has slowly become the go-to home for every conceivable comic book project, and while the founders envisioned a forum to create superheroes that would contend with the popularity of the books they left behind, the projects that've come along over the past decade have redefined the company as a catch-all for creators who would otherwise look for a place in small presses.  Which has in essence made Image a large small press.  Sometimes a book like The Walking Dead can happen, but that's very much the exception to the rule.  Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, regular writing partners who regularly work for the Big Two, join forces with Steve Niles (best known for his horror efforts) in launching a new anthology format, almost magazine-like offering, working on dream projects.  The problem is that the format short-changes those dreams.  To be frank, the examples in this debut issue don't feel like they were worth the effort.  But maybe they're better with commitment.

Demon Knights #12 (DC)
Paul Cornell may be writing this series for the trades.  I think that's the best thing to say about it.  I love Demon Knights, and I also wish it could be something more.  It's a rolling, sometimes rollicking adventure, but every time it seems like we're finally getting somewhere...it's the end of the issue.  So, Cornell may be writing for the trades.  This is not a complaint.

Earth 2 #4 (DC)
James Robinson continues his chronicle of the alternate Justice Society, in which everything old is new again. This now includes Al Pratt, the original Atom, who in this version of events is a soldier in the world army that sprang up in response to the Apokolips apocalypse.

Green Lantern #11 (DC)
Black Hand puts together a creepy family reunion and Sinestro brings Hal Jordan to his own personal Batcave, allowing us our first glimpse of the next Green Lantern.  Seriously, Geoff Johns could write this franchise forever.

National Comics: Eternity (DC)
The first of a series of one-shots reimagining various DC properties ("National Comics" is what the company was before it embraced the Detective in one of its flagship titles).  Jeff Lemire sees Kid Eternity basically as a Ghost Whisperer.  That's as much as there is to see here.

Peter Parker, Spider-Man #156.1 (Marvel)
I guess Marvel is releasing Point One issues of cancelled Spider-Man series to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the web-slinger.  This one is written by Roger Stern, a veteran I know best from 1990s Superman (but he's been around!).

RASL #15 (Cartoon)
The final issue of Jeff Smith's second comic book opus (his first being, of course, Bone), and finally an explanation for the title (an acronym for Romance at the Speed of Light, which was also the name of the third collection, and title of the eighth issue).  Things've boiled down to Rob's need to destroy the journals of Nikola Tesla (yes, the same dude as the comics creator of Atomic Robo) in order to save the universe, lest they be used to destroy it (which in fairness to Rob is a process that was already started across several alternate realities).  The big problem Rob gets to overcome in the finale is the revelation that Maya, the source of the eponymous tattoo and motivating factor in so many ways for Rob's journey throughout the series, is also his biggest threat.  He's been running the whole time toward this moment.  It's still disappointing that the series only lasted fifteen issues, but as Smith himself pointed out elsewhere, that still adds up to a lot of pages for any collection, and one way or another, this will sit proudly next to Bone on any discerning reader's shelf.  Perhaps like Demon Knights, it will read better and last longer in the memory in trade format.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #11 (DC)
Again, I have to say how different this series is from just about anything else, not just because of the distinctive art from Kenneth Rocafort, but because of Scott Lobdell's writing, which moves along at its own pace, a little like Grant Morrison's.  It is, then, any wonder that Lobdell and Rocafort have been tapped as the latest replacements in Superman?  Perhaps this will solve two issues.  This is a book that deserves to stand out, but it's also one that can be alienating (much like the heroes in the book themselves, who are all alienated), as has been proven since its launch last fall.  Perhaps more a little more convention will help readers discover how awesome it is.  This issue, by the way, features some familiar and unfamilar backstory for Koriand'r, better known as Stargirl.  Apparently she has some Farscape in her.

Batman: Earth One

writer: Geoff Johns
artist: Gary Frank

The idea of the the Earth One graphic novels is to present updated origins for iconic characters, so that hopefully new readers will have something they can easily understand.  Two years ago J. Michael Straczynski presented Superman: Earth One, and is on the verge of releasing a second volume.  Marvel has since launched Season One graphic novels that have borrowed the concept, which is funny, because its Ultimate line was the originator of the concept (though having since become an entirely separate ongoing continuity now more than a decade old), which DC tried to match with its All Star line, also featuring Superman and Batman.

I think Batman: Earth One may be a better representation of the concept.  Combining certain elements of Christopher Nolan's cinematic Dark Knight (including character profiles for Alfred and Lucius Fox) with a revised version of the classic origin story, it's a more successful attempt to match the kind of thing movies and TV shows have been doing for decades, presenting a version of a known comics property without any of the baggage decades of comics have dropped on it.

Part of what will energize existing fans is that Batman: Earth One comes from Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, two superstar creators who've done this sort of thing before but have arguably reached the most important phase of their collaboration, a graphic novel that tackles the most successful comic book creation of all-time. Retelling Batman's origin is not exactly a fresh concept, but finding a way to make it relevant again, especially in the pages of a comic book, is.  The last time this was done was Frank Miller's "Year One," a companion piece to his famed Dark Knight Returns, which explored a more vulnerable Bruce Wayne trying to find his way.  Johns chooses a similar approach, but combines it with the approach Jeph Loeb took in The Long Halloween, with a direct challenge from a new understanding of the status quo as it existed in Gotham City before the rise of Batman.

A vision of corrupt Gotham is not exactly new, but framing it in the way Johns does is.  One of the key alterations is with Bruce Wayne's mother, who has become a member of the Arkham family, known for her work with the mentally ill (her previous maiden name was Kane, as in Bob Kane, the creator of Batman).  Thomas Wayne's money and legacy is also firmly rooted in his profession as a doctor (something that amusingly comes up with Bruce's later visit to Lucius Fox, which as already noted otherwise sticks to the Nolan template).  The manor that for so many decades has served as one of the most famous aspects of Batman lore is abandoned, a legacy of the Arkham family everyone would sooner forget.

It is not so great a spoiler to say that Oswald Cobblepot, the Penguin, is the villain of this piece, and the long-tenured mayor of Gotham, whose personal corruption informs much of what the city has become, including the cynical detective James Gordon, who gains an unlikely partner in Harvey Bullock, a svelte Hollywood personality looking for a shot at redemption by visiting a place he's only seen in recreation on a reality show he used to host.  Together, they try to figure out what the deal is with this Batman who crashes Cobblepot's party, looking for answers from a cop who was at the scene of his parents' murders, still unsolved ten years later.

Batman is still learning his craft, and Alfred is a reluctant tutor, who doesn't believe Bruce Wayne is ready to assume a reckless quest suggested to him by a visit to a mausoleum festooned with bats.  Alfred, by the way, is an old army friend of Thomas Wayne's, who becomes Bruce's legal guardian, but introduces himself as butler when he doesn't have the heart to reveal the truth to a wounded boy looking for a sense of normalcy.  In the brisk 144 pages of this adventure, a lot of details are glossed over, but none of the heart is missing.  Much of it is a mystery worthy of a TV detective, and the Penguin will be recognizable to anyone who saw Batman Returns but wished it had been less Gothic.  You will recognize this Batman, but will be thrilled to follow him along this adventure, which could easily be mistaken for the first time you've ever read him.

Trust me, you'll want more.