Back Issue Bin 125 "Exit Stage Left, Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown, and other comics"

A clerk walked up to me and whispered into my ear, "You know, they're five for a dollar at the moment," and that's why I got a bunch of old comics recently.

Air #1 (Vertigo)
from October 2008

I still fondly remember getting into G. Willow Wilson's Air.  My interest at first was tentative, but then it became one of my favorite comics.  I still think it's Wilson's best comics work, which she doesn't seem to have been in too much of a rush to replicate, even after finding popular success years later with Ms. Marvel.  I've never added it to my graphic novel collection, though, so revisiting it was a long time coming, so it was great to find the first issue itself.  And I still enjoyed it.

Azrael #40 (DC)
from April 1998

I always find it funny to be reminded of comics I decided not to read, and there were some in the '90s that in retrospect really leave me scratching my head.  Even if I had no interest in Azrael itself, it's still strange to think there were rematches between the one-time Batman and Bane that didn't feel important enough to catch. About seven years back I read other encounters in the series between them (and maybe even this one?), so it was fun to do it again.  That the series lasted a hundred issues seems incomprehensible today, whether or not I was reading it myself.  But then, companies back then didn't have as itchy a trigger finger as they do now, constantly rebooting the big ones much less being patient with the smaller ones.  You can see how Azrael's lack of appearances in recent years would bode for any new attempt at a solo book.  The best of this issue is being reminded how long the original depiction of Bane managed to stick around, before subsequent generations screwed him up (well after the clownish version in Batman & Robin).  Thank goodness Christopher Nolan and Tom King came around!  This is a legitimately great character, with even greater potential still possible, which seems even more unlikely for a villain seemingly created just to provoke one of those endless '90s crises.

Batman and the Signal #3 (DC)
from June 2018

Duke Thomas was at one time pegged to be the next Robin, at least as far as fans expected, but eventually he assumed his own heroic identity, the Signal (Scott Snyder can be remarkably insular in his imaginative thought).  This was his first spotlight with the new handle.  Cully Hamner seems somehow less assured than usual on art, which was kind of strange.

DC Sampler (um, DC?)
from 1983

Ha!  A few years before Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC seemed pretty assured of its comics line.  This was a freebie they sent out with creative teams giving a small taste of what to expect from most of the titles at the time.  For flimsy reasons, it omits some pretty significant titles: Justice League of America, Green Lantern, and Camelot 3000 (one of the projects the company used to heavily promote alongside Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, and the slightly less forgotten Ronin).

Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles #5 (DC)
from July 2018

I've been talking about Mark Russell quite a bit here lately, and with good reason: He's struck me as one of the most significant creators to emerge in recent years, and in recent years, he's finally started cementing his reputation.  And for intents and purposes, that reputation begins with Exit Stage Left.

Using as its central conflict the familiar McCarthy Red Scare witch trials of the '50s, Russell reimagines a familiar Hanna-Barbera cartoon property as an allegory for the struggles of the LBGTQ community to find mainstream acceptance.  It was immediately picked up on by observers that Russell had struck upon a compelling concept.  I never had a chance to read it myself, having fallen into a black hole of sporadic comics reading at the time, and the later collection has been impossible to find in places other than the interwebs.  Now I think I may have to finally go that route, because more than Prez, more than Flintstones, it seems Exit Stage Left pushes Russell beyond the concept of social commentary into truly great writing, and finds him at his very best, just as the reports have had it.

The Red Scare is always going to be a fascinating concept in and of itself, what it was, what it provoked, and the general response to it, whether or not we learned anything from it, or might still have a chance to.  Clearly Russell believes it still has things to teach us, and as far as I'm concerned, he was absolutely right.  What emerges is at least the perception of an effect on society similar to the Nazis in Germany, which is an interpretation that history normally flattens into "naming names," something that seemingly only affected Hollywood.  DC itself has used the trials to explain what happened to the Justice Society after WWII, which the same flat interpretation.

Bottom line is, Russell created something that far exceeded a simple Hanna-Barbera nostalgia comic, into something that's valuable in a truly transcendent manner.  It should be a lot easier to find.

Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #1 (Marvel)
from 1988

What I really like discovering are comics I didn't even know existed but turn out to be far more interesting than such a fate suggests.  This is obviously one of those.

From the husband-and-wife writing team of Walt and Louise Simonson (the latter of which I'd really only previously seen in the pages of Superman: The Man of Steel) and featuring art from Jon J. Muth (whom I'd previously seen in Grant Morrison's Mystery Play), this seems like another of Marvel's inexplicably lost evergreens.  The biggest difference between Marvel and DC that I've seen is that where DC actively celebrates its best stories, Marvel is most content basking in its great legacy.  Even the X-Men have gradually lost their once-celebrated memory for their '80s heyday. 

And this is part of it, perhaps the best part of it.  Wolverine, the poster child for breakout '80s X-Men success, and Havok (you know, Cyclops' brother).  (Oh, wait, you probably don't.  Because Havok has a tiny legacy.)

The Simonsons spend part of the story recounting the then-recent Chernobyl disaster (as recently depicted in a much-celebrated TV mini-series, called Chernobyl).  That was itself fun to read, real history unfolding in the pages of a comic that subsequently has great historic value.

Of course, Muth's art is spectacular in and of itself.  I have no idea, without researching, why Muth didn't make a much bigger name for himself, but it's not for lack of breathtaking talent.

Of course, at its heart Meltdown is a buddy adventure, and Wolverine & Havok play well off each other, in a story that's far removed from typical superhero comics material.

Marvel obviously knew it was a worthwhile project at some point: it was published in the prestige format.  It would be nice for Marvel to remember at some point, so fans can, too.  But thanks to whatever idiot gave up a treasure like this so I could discover it.

Justice League United #16 (DC)
from February 2016

I got this as much to see where the series had gone as astonishment that it had actually lasted that long, because it melted pretty much into oblivion, and I was just interested to see an issue from that late in the game (really only a few months before Rebirth).

JSA Classified #25 (DC)
from June 2007

I loved that DC expanded its Legends of the Dark Knight concept for a number of titles, between this, the JLA (Classified) and Batman and Superman (both Confidential), giving the company some anthology platforms.  This issue has the spotlight on the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott.

Legends of the DC Universe #9 (DC)
from October 1998

This is another '90s series I'm surprised I mostly skipped completely over, and of course it's a precursor to what I was just talking about, with this issue revisiting the classic team-up of Green Lantern (in this instance, Hal Jordan) and Green Arrow, with a tale of how they first met.

Legion of Super-Heroes #88 (DC)
from January 1997

I'm really sure I didn't read this issue when it was originally published, even though 2019 Tony thought it was an immediate necessity, as it features Impulse on the cover, and obviously a guest appearance by him inside, which 1997 should have been far more interested in, as I was a big fan of Bart Allen, and have since begun considering Mark Waid's Impulse perhaps a better overall experience than his Flash, which was itself one of my favorite '90s comics.  And I was happy to discover, even at the late date of 2019, that Impulse still amuses me.  This was a great spotlight for the character.

Marvel Boy: The Plutonian #1 (Marvel)
from March 2010

I thought this was another great discovery.  And I mean, it's interesting, but...Not as much as Havok & Wolverine.  I demand a Havok & Wolverine movie.  Or TV mini-series!  Starring Jared Harris!  As, I don't know, Wolverine!

Millennium #2, 3, 4, 6 & 8 (DC)
from 1987

Yey gods...I had never read Millennium, one of the event comics DC did after the great success of Crisis on Infinite Earths, but was pretty familiar with the concept, the Manhunters story where various characters were revealed to be infiltrators of the nefarious robot predecessors to the Guardians' Green Lantern Corps.  Now I wish I still had never read Millennium, because it's...dreck.  A totally botched event comic.  By the end, it feels like one of DC's perennial excuses to try and introduce a new generation of superheroes.  And absolutely none of them made it past Millennium itself.  At least as far as I can tell.  I had never heard of any of them until I saw their would-be spectacular debuts in the final issue.  And even I, who pride myself in being able to see great potential where others usually can't, couldn't imagine rehabilitating.  Any of them...

Mister X #1 (Vortex)
from June 1984

Mister X: Razed #4 (Dark Horse)
from May 2015

I had a great affinity for Dean Motter's Mister X.  I didn't discover it in that first issue from 1984, but rather years later, in a reprint collection, when interest was just beginning to surface again, leading to the Dark Horse revivals.  I got into Dean Motter comics, including finally reading Terminal City, which Motter had done for DC, and became a pretty big fan.  But Mister X itself is a somewhat peculiar beast.  The whole concept is almost only a concept, in which a character who's never really anything but a background character in his own comic exists mostly for a backstory, in a comic that looks spectacularly designed, regardless of who's drawing it (the original wasn't even written or drawn by Motter).  Yet strangely, I remain attached to it, even as I grow detached from my original excitement.  Seems almost like a secret handshake for true comics aficionados.  One I'm proud to be a part of.

Primal Force #12 (DC)
from October 1995

DC made the curious decision to publish a lot of titles that would've fit nicely with the original Vertigo conceit (an offbeat look at superheroes) under the regular DC label, and I think a lot of great material got buried as a result.  It only occurred to me that Primal Force is a part of that strange distinction upon this latest revisiting.  I didn't read this one at the time, either, of course, but I discovered and devoured it years later, and am always happy to be reminded of it.  I wish more fans understood what it accomplished, too, so that DC could add it to the trade collections always in-print.

The Sandman #4 (DC) 
from September 1975

As you can see from its publication stamp above, not the Neil Gaiman comic!  (Which of course I didn't read in the '90s!)  This is the earlier one, which at least as of this issue featured Jack Kirby art!  And exclamation points!  After!  Every!  Utterance!  Interestingly, features an add for a DC line expansion that includes Warlord (who endures in random appearances to this day) and Claw (who resurfaced in Primal Force and...doesn't endure to this day).

Seaguy#2 (Vertigo)
from August 2004

A lie!  A vicious lie!  Some jerk slipped this cover onto an issue of Fables.  I didn't discover this until I had already brought it home.  Some customers would probably bring it back and demand satisfaction.  I am not one of those costumers.  Makes for a better write-up here, anyway.

Starman #30 (DC)
from May 1997

Of course I didn't read Starman in the '90s.  What were you thinking, even wondering?  But I like to revisit it every now and then. 

Titans #30 (DC)
from August 2001

Hard to think of any date immediately preceding 9/11 without thinking of 9/11 (even though, as time stamps in comics go, this was actually released probably in June 2001, well ahead of that day).  Anyway, as Roy Harper comics go, at this point he was pretty much exclusively associated with Cheshire, the Elektra to his Daredevil, and this tale actually pivots more accurately on Cheshire herself, as she awaits the verdict for a trial concerning her villainous ways.  And then Roy Harper dies in Heroes in Crisis, and all anyone can fixate on is what Tom King did to poor Wally West.  What about Roy, fans.  What about Roy?

Digitally Speaking...58 "Neil Gaiman's Eternals"

 

 

Okay, so I've been doing a pretty lousy job of talking through my comiXology library, but really it's because there hasn't been much to speak of.  I guess the material was kind of top-loaded or something.  But the good news is that very shortly I'll have finally read all of it, all the Submit stuff and the Image stuff that came in those massive bundles and everything else I got several years back.  What I'm talking about today, actually, is something I added recently because of that dwindling supply, something I'd read when it was originally released but hadn't thought that much about at the time, but having now reread it...

 

So yeah, I wish I'd read the whole thing.  I guess I wouldn't have appreciated it at the time, but at least I'd have read it.  I'm talking about Neil Gaiman's Eternals, a rare Marvel project from about a decade ago, when he was dabbling in comics again, figuring out where he might still fit in after having left the medium for a full-time career writing books.  Part of why I had a look at the freebie first issue comiXology had available was that I've now read the complete Sandman, and that's a great feeling in and of itself.  Part of it is that I've read a few issues of the comics adaption of American Gods, which is the Neil Gaiman book (along with its sequel Anansi Boys) that to date is my Neil Gaiman prose standout, and reading American Gods in any medium made me realize what Neil had done with it all over again, and so why not have a look at Eternals again, right?

 

I remember thinking, at the time, that Eternals didn't seem to live up to the reputation Neil had based on Sandman.  I don't know if it's Marvel's typical inability or lack of interest in keeping its back library visible, but Eternals seemed to blink in and out of existence.  It was Neil's version of a Jack Kirby concept that the King developed as his Marvel answer to his DC New Gods.  I thought that it was merely Marvel handing Neil something that seemed vaguely expansive in the Sandman sense, but that Neil didn't seem to have found as interesting as that, and so the result was easy to dismiss.

 

Well, I found it a great deal more interesting this time. It's a different story from Sandman, of course, although in a lot of ways you might consider the Eternals to be comparable to the Endless Ones.  I didn't really know much about the Endless Ones before actually reading Sandman, so I didn't know that.

 

But what really struck me was the art, from John Romita, Jr.  At the time he did Eternals, John was still very much a Marvel guy, and I was still very much a DC guy trying to figure out Marvel.  In fact, probably a large part of the reason I found it so easy to reject Eternals was because it was a Marvel project, and John was definitely a Marvel artist, whose style was something I'd never really tried to figure out.  Then I had a chance to associate it with something else, Mark Millar's Kick Ass, and still later, Superman, because John eventually became a DC guy. 

 

It's not because he became a DC guy that I suddenly started liking John's work.  I know plenty of DC readers who struggled a great deal with his Superman.  But it probably didn't hurt.  I know it was impossible to think of anything else when reading that issue of Eternals again.  All I could think was, I love this art!  And maybe that helped get me into the story, too.

 

Yeah, though, it's the combination of the plot, and my affinity for the writer and the artist.  I think that's a good equation for liking anything, really, what it is and who's responsible for it, and I guess whether they brought their best material to the table. 

 

Well, I guess at some point I will have to read the rest of it...

Quarter Bin #55 "Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography, plus Batman: Year Three, The Mighty Thor, and Young Men"

Comics featured in this column were not necessarily bought in an actual quarter bin.  This is a back issues feature.

Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography (DC)
From 1989

via eBay

One of my many hilarious embarrassing moments concerns my original, failed attempt to buy this prestige format one-shot.  It was just before I began reading comics regularly, and I had entered the shop I would frequent for the rest of the '90s.  They had several rows of boxes lined on the floor.  I totally misinterpreted the deal I was going to get.  I spent a long time going through each box.  I had a huge stack.  I thought I had enough money.  I did not.  To this day, The Unauthorized Biography's distinctive cover is my only memory of the comics I discovered that inglorious day.  I've always wanted to read it as a result.

(Apparently the cover mimics one for an autobiography Donald Trump had released at the time.)

Jump ahead twenty years, and the journey is now complete.  As it turns out, it's pretty good.  The story isn't really a straightforward biography so much as the journey a private investigator takes as he compiles his notes for one.  This was the era of Luthor as a ruthless businessman, and as such all the P.I.'s research turns up how he reached that point, from humble origins involving "obnoxiously mediocre" parents.

via iFanboy

Perhaps the most interesting element is actually Clark Kent's supporting role.  Our erstwhile Superman ends up a Jim Rockford type, accused of the murder because he had no other plausible reason for discovering the body of the murdered P.I. other than professional opportunism, or so the cops figure (if anyone ever made another stab at a Clark Kent-based TV series, his adventures as a reporter, not strictly in a romantic sense, would probably make for interesting material; although even as a comic book, I'm surprised this has never been done).

The writer is James Hudnall, who quickly backed away from mainstream comics and has thusly become fairly obscure, which is a shame if this material is at all indicative of his work.  The artist is Eduardo Barreto, who stuck around much longer.  

Batman #437 (DC)

From 1989

The cover declares, "Batman: Year 3" (Part 2 of 4), although it might more accurately be called "Robin: Year 1."  Everyone knows "Year One," the other notable Frank Miller story featuring Batman.  DC decided to keep the story alive by continuing into "Year 2" (featuring Batman as an established commodity) and "Year 3," which was written by Marv Wolfman, who in the midst of his Titans run certainly had come to know Dick Grayson well enough.  Besides the Robin origin, "Year 3" is also part of the "Death in the Family"/"Lonely Place of Dying" sequence, otherwise known as the death of Jason Todd (the second Robin) and the debut of Tim Drake (the third), so that interspersed with the flashback is a story set in the present at that time.

King-Size Thor #2 (Marvel)

Reprint from 1994, originally published 1966

 I picked this up mostly to have another look at the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby duo.  The featured story involves the (Marvel) Norse version of the games featured in The Iliad, which take a typical-for-that-time twist with bad guys (and Loki).  It's not what I was expecting.  Lee is filled to bursting with his usual hyperbolic dialogue, while Kirby is as Kirby does (it'd be little wonder to discover that he thought up the Inhumans and the New Gods thanks to working on material like this).  There are a couple other stories included.  Not worth mentioning beyond that.

Young Men #25 (Atlas, a.k.a. Marvel)

Reprint from 1994, originally published in 1954

Another vintage experience, featuring the Human Torch (original version), Namor the Submariner, and Captain America (combined, they were known as the Invaders) in separate tales.  It is what it is.  The Submariner tale was the most amusing one.  I have no idea why Marvel is so stingy with Namor comics these days.   

Reading Comics #119 "And neither one is Jack Kirby"

In the previous installment of this column, I argued about the sour turn the legacies of Alan Moore and Mark Waid are taking.  Now I'm going to continue by adding a third name to the mix: Jack Kirby.

What does Kirby have to do with Moore and Waid?  Everything.  He's everything that their careers have been missing.

Kirby was a dynamo who co-created a large majority of the comic book characters you know.  That includes basically the whole '60s Marvel landscape.  (Don't tell Stan Lee, though.  He's still convinced he's The Man.  As if that makes a difference to fans who know Kirby as The King.)

Kirby, I'm going to argue, was basically exactly like Moore and Waid.  To a certain extent.  He was a fanboy, too.  The difference is that he was already in the medium when it took off to its greatest heights.  Here I mean the creation of Superman.  As far as I'm concerned, Kirby ended up dedicating his whole career to understanding the Man of Steel.  Hence, Captain America.  What else is Steve Rogers but a regular guy who turned himself into Superman?

Again and again, Kirby would seek to conquer this obsession.  It became most prominent when he finally took control of his own destiny (as much as he could, anyway), working as both artist and writer.  I'm talking about the New Gods, of course.

What else are the New Gods but Kirby's vision of what it would be like to have a whole world of superheroes?  Or the ultimate what if? with Superman, whether in the form of Mister Miracle (the spawn of the good gods) or Orion (the spawn of the evil ones), both of whom still became iconic heroes in their own right?  In their own ways, Superman.  Exactly Superman.  And who is Darkseid but the ultimate villain, who debuted in the pages of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, and has since gone on to become arguably the most iconic and translatable foe in all of comics, going up against Superman himself on countless occasions?

The bulk of Kirby's legacy could very well be viewed in this context.  I've never seen other fans arguing this, but it seems kind of obvious when you think about it.  He really wanted to write Superman.  He basically never really did.  But he still did anyway.  And everything he touched was the better for it.

He got a lot of bad breaks.  Everything that Moore complains about, actually did happen, very blatantly, with no apologies, to Jack Kirby.  Alan Moore is no Jack Kirby.  Yes, there's no great treasure trove of accolades for Jack Kirby stories the way there is for Moore's work, no one stumbling all over themselves to make movies of his comics the way they do over Moore's (who complains bitterly each and every time, just because he can, apparently oblivious to the fact that history always remembers the repeated story best, with rare exceptions; Alan Moore, I'm sad to say, is no William Shakespeare, who incidentally also worked on repeated stories).  But Jack Kirby is still going to leave a far greater legacy than Alan Moore.

Because we're only starting to find it.  Did you notice how Argo, the movie that won the 2013 Best Picture at the Oscars, based some of its material on Kirby's work?  And not even work anyone had particularly even heard of.

That's the goal, if you work in comics.  It's not just to get your name in the credits, have a string of popular and critical successes.  Moore doesn't seem to understand that.  Waid doesn't seem to understand that.  But they long ago stopped considering themselves fans capable of adding to the canon.  They commentate all the time.  So did Kirby.  But he did so in ways Moore only approached in Watchmen, but so timidly he thinks it's a work that needs to be protected.  If Kirby had been so bashful, when he died in 1994 the only thing anyone would have said about him was "Comic Book Creator Who Jealously Guarded the Legacy of New Gods Passes Away."  And that's basically what's going to happen to Moore.  And to Waid.

Take a page from Jack Kirby, is what I'm saying.  Use that experience you had with Miracleman, with The Flash, with some of those other early, truly inspired works, and build on it.

Because years from now, people will still be talking about The King.  And rightly so.  What about you?

Reading Comics #74 "Making History"

AvX #12 (Marvel)
writer: Jason Aaron
artist: Adam Kubert
Avengers was the big event at the movies, but in the comics, Marvel's 2012 story belonged to Avengers vs. X-Men, which has finally come to a close.  A mass collaboration between the company's so-called architects) (Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman), it's also a sequel of sorts to the classic "Dark Phoenix Saga" (featured in X-Men: The Last Stand) as well as House of M, and this basically means that the X-Men finally got to figure out how to level the playing field again.  The Scarlet Witch famously declared, "No more mutants" in House of M, and her subsequent absence was one of the defining elements of Avengers lore for the past decade (she finally returned in Avengers: The Children's Crusade).  This caused a rapid decline and possible extinction for mutant kind until the appearance of the so-called mutant messiah Hope.  AvX spent a lot of its time having the company's two most famous teams duke it out, ostensibly over control of the Phoenix, which eventually took control of Cyclops, who let the power go to his head.  In this issue he's defeated and the Phoenix is drawn out from him, and it falls to Hope and Scarlet Witch to decide what to do with the entity.  It's awesome that someone finally decided to do something notable with Hope, much less the Phoenix, and maybe killing off Professor X (which happened last issue) will stick this time, and Cyclops can become the new Magneto, if subsequent writers can exercise some restraint (though the fact that Captain America and Iron Man are once again bosom buddies despite the events of Civil War does not bode well for such a long-lasting change).  No, I did not read every issue, but it was certainly worth following, and this concluding issue does track well.

Action Comics #13 (DC) 
writer: Grant Morrison
artist: Travel Foreman
This issue has a kind of curious crossover appeal.  Grant Morrison's own celebrated Vertigo story We3 is certainly relevant to the issue, as is the Futurama episode "Jurassic Bark."  Hopefully you know the one.  Basically this is Morrison's Krypto story, though a lot of it also involves Phantom Zone villains and the like.  A lot of what Morrison has done in his run on Action Comics is provide a clear template on all the most notable elements of Superman lore, with an updated aesthetic that removes all its cobwebs.  One of the recurring pieces throughout the run is a gradual introduction of Mxyzptlk, the imp with the impossible name (and it also must be conquered backwards!) who has served as one of the most curious foes in the canon.  If anyone can make him work now, it's Morrison.  Sholly Fisch, meanwhile, emphasizes Krypto in his typically consummate backup feature, which has been another highlight of these comics.

Artifacts #s 17 & 19 (Top Cow)
writer: Ron Marz
artist: Stjepan Sejic
Preparing a script for a Top Cow talent contest has made me aware of the fact that I don't have a lot of practical experience with actual Top Cow comics.  This is a little surprising, because Ron Marz has been writing for them for several years now.  I became familiar with him (and a fan of his work) thanks to his Kyle Rayner years on Green Lantern.  He's worked hard to shape a working mythology for Top Cow's artifacts, originally represented in Witchblade and The Darkness, the latter of which is featured in the first of these two issues as Jackie Estacado concludes a confrontation with Tom Judge, the signature character of this particular series, which follows other similar mystical devices to the ones that helped define Top Cow in the first place.  All told, there are thirteen of them.  Judge isn't really defined by his artifact, however, but by how he attempts to navigate them and their bearers.  He's an ex-priest who now works for the FBI.  Apparently Top Cow has gone into Fringe territory by exploring subtly different versions of its familiar characters via an alternate reality in which old relationships can begin anew, which is what the second issue helps demonstrate with characters familiar to Angelus fans.  It's all pretty readable even for someone not terribly familiar with such nuances.  It's fair to say Top Cow does have a functioning superhero legacy developing, and Marz continues to be a strong part of making it happen.

Batman #0 (DC)
writer: Scott Snyder
artist: Greg Capullo
The lead story features a harbinger of the "Death of the Family" arc that features the return of the Joker, but its best aspect is Bruce Wayne's early attempts to figure out how to make his Batman function.  That's all well and good (and familiar to fans of Christopher Nolan's cinematic vision), but the highlight of the issue is James Tynion IV's backup feature (it's worth noting that Tynion has just launched Talon, a spinoff from the Court of Owls epic that dominated the title and franchise during its first year in the New 52 era), which follows Jim Gordon's decision to switch on the Bat-signal to hopefully make the citizens of Gotham aware of its strange new protector.  All of Batman's eventual allies see it, and the genius of it is that could easily inspire a whole series, something totally new to the franchise, exploring Tim Drake, Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, and even Barbara Gordon before they don the costumes of Robin and Batgirl.  Drake's part of the story dominates it, and for a long-time fan of the character (who now appears in Teen Titans almost exclusively, but maintained one ongoing series or another from 1993 to 2011) it still manages to be a revelation, a truly fresh take.  He's a wunderkind, naturally, well before he wears a cape.  Jason is a tragic figure as always.  Dick tracks consistently, and is familiar to anyone who's been following Nightwing in the past year.  Who wouldn't want to read more of how Barbara first decided to be inspired more by the Dark Knight than her cop father?  Such a comic would be like Smallville reclaimed by its native land (a little more directly than Birthright).

Batwing #0 (DC)
writer: Judd Winick
artist: Marcus To
It's funny, because Judd Winick originally prided himself on launching Batwing without a traditional origin story...This is that story.  It's actually very familiar to what Lost did for six seasons.  David Zavimbi's journey to joining Batman Incorporated (through which he gets his nifty armor) is a uniquely African adventure (something I'm not sure Marvel's Black Panther has ever achieved).  Although I haven't read an issue of the series since its debut last fall, I've long considered Batwing to be one of the highlights of the New 52, something new, even if it's connected to something familiar.  Yet for all intents and purposes, Zavimbi lives in his own world, something Winick has appreciated.  He's exactly the kind of character the writer has always excelled developing.  Even if I only read sporadic issues, it's good knowing something like this exists, and this issue is as rewarding as I expected.

DC Universe Presents Kid Flash #12 (DC)
writer: Fabian Nicieza
artist: Jorge Jimenez
Like Tim Drake, Bart Allen has been playing in the New 52 sandbox, but almost exclusively in the pages of Teen Titans.  This is a rare opportunity to stretch his legs a little.  Nicieza proves an unexpectedly compelling chronicler of his hyperactive escapades.  Originally introduced by Mark Waid as a humorously immature speedster who grew up in virtual reality, Bart was shaped by Geoff Johns into Kid Flash nearly a decade ago in another Teen Titans.  Here the transformation truly seems complete.  No longer callow so much as cocksure, Bart Allen is still a remarkably unique character to read, as this issue proves.

DC Universe Presents #0 (DC)
writer: various
artist: various
The anthology series that has featured a number of different properties over the past year takes Zero Month as an opportunity to explore characters whose New 52 first wave titles were cancelled.  That means Dan DiDio and Keith Giffen, for instance, can have one more crack at O.M.A.C., though they take the opportunity to explore Brother Eye, the sentient satellite best known for wrecking havoc in Infinite Crisis.  James Robinson does for Mister Terrific more justice than his comic ever did, which is encouraging, since the character is due to play a role in Robinson's Earth 2.  The highlight for me, however, is the reunion of Great Ten collaborators Tony Bedard and Scott McDaniel, who present a tale of Deadman, whose adventures launched this title (which to me was disappointing at the time, because I thought the momentum the character built from Brightest Day and Flashpoint would have led to an ongoing series, which I would certainly not mind from Bedard and McDaniel...), teaching him a lesson in humility (well, several).

The Flash #0 (DC)
writer: Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato
artist: Francis Manapul
I haven't read an issue of The Flash since Geoff Johns left the title prior to the New 52 relaunch.  It's not because I no longer care for the character, but that I've been waiting for Manapul (who was artist in the Johns run) to find his legs.  The Flash has increasingly become a character defined more by his personal story than his adventures for me, and it seemed that Manapul was content to leave the stories at the adventure level.  I knew the minute Zero Month was announced that I would likely read my first Flash in a year.  Yes, this is an origin issue, retelling the new narrative of Barry Allen's life, how his mother was murdered and his father was blamed for it, and how Barry has been driven ever since to discover the truth.  Becoming the Flash is almost besides the fact.  If the quality of this sample is any indication, I may be reading more in the future.

Green Lantern #13 (DC)
writer: Geoff Johns
artist: Doug Mahnke
Very much like Batwing above, this new phase of Green Lantern is reading like Lost, as Simon Baz and the narrative of not just his emerging career as a ring-bearer but his life begins to take shape.  Baz seems to have stumbled into circumstances the US government can't help but confuse with terrorist activities, but he's far more troubled by what he's done to his beloved sister's husband.  There's also this ring and the two strange people (Sinestro and Hal Jordan) who broadcast rescue requests when it started to fully activate.  He adopts the distinctive mask when he realizes it would be expedient given his legal troubles.  Other than that, his is a story that's still very much unfolding.  So too is the "Rise of the Third Army" arc in which the Guardians of the Universe, founders of the Green Lantern Corps, who have devised something of an organic version of Star Trek's Borg.  And on the final page, Simon Baz is introduced to the Justice League...

Jack Kirby (Bluewater)
writer: John Judy
artist: Paul Cox
One of the founding father of the comic book, Jack Kirby co-created almost every major Marvel superhero, and became known as "The King," revered in the industry and by his peers.  This is his story.  It almost reads like a lost issue of Fred Van Lente's Comic Book Comics, but otherwise is a fairly standard Bluewater biography, skirting a lot of details and emphasizing anecdotes, which is a little disappointing for anyone who wanted a little more depth, but a good overview, even if it begins to heavily focus on the things that went wrong in his career rather than everything he achieved and has inspired.

Superman #0 (DC)
writer: Scott Lobdell
artist: Kenneth Rocafort
The company's reward for a couple of creators fans don't seem to have enjoyed as much, perhaps because they've previously collaborated on the divisive Red Hood and the Outlaws.  But the force of their magic is undeniable, and it's remarkable that they've been given a major character and title to work on next.  As compared to the Morrison-powered Action Comics, Superman has had a rocky course in the New 52.  This is its third major creative change in a year.  Tonally, Lobdell immediately marks himself as comparable to Morrison's inclinations, particularly in the opening pages of the issue, in which Superman's dad Jor-El picks up the familiar refrain of the character, the lone scientific genius capable of foreseeing the fate of Krypton.  Lobdell makes it seem fresh, and Jor-El vital.  It's the second time this column I'll suggest that a Zero Month story could easily support its own series.  It's a bright start to a bold new era.

Ultimate Comics The Ultimates #15 (Marvel)
writer: Sam Humphries
artist: Billy Tan
It's something of an irony that the year the Avengers movie inspired by the Ultimates comics coincides at a time when the Ultimates are at their least accessible.  The whole point of Marvel's Ultimate line was to make its characters more accessible.  In recent comics the United States has apparently splintered apart.  Last time I checked that hadn't happened in the real world.  Humphries makes up for this with the big bomb in the aftermath of a recall election for the presidency (several years late, but it still brings to mind the memorable California gubernatorial fiasco that gave us the Governator), Captain America taking the highest rank in the government he's served since WWII.  It's a pretty huge development that I had to check in on.  This is the issue where he wins the election (more hype is given to the following one, in which he takes office).  It's a good yarn as Humphries relates it.

Quarter Bin #29 "The Future is in the Past (sometimes)"

NEW GODS #7 (DC)
From August 1989:
The theme of this edition of Quarter Bin is pretty much spelled out in the subtitle; there's a lot of rich storytelling material waiting to be rediscovered in back issue bins, and as primary case-in-point we begin with Jack Kirby's perennial, in this iteration being co-written by comics historian Mark Evanier (no other name involved has immediate historic appeal). As with just about every other New Gods comic, much of the story in this issue reiterates the New Gods story, pivoting around Orion, spawn of Darkseid, raised by Highfather (the opposite is true of Mister Miracle). I begin to suspect that the problem this franchise constantly runs into is that the material isn’t inviting enough; either you already like it or you don’t, and probably won’t, either. It’s a problem of accessibility. This leads us to…

RETURN OF THE NEW GODS #13 (DC)
From August 1977:
A relaunch literally a few years after Kirby’s original Fourth World tales (spanning NEW GODS, FOREVER PEOPLE, and MISTER MIRACLE), this one features writing from Gerry Conway and an inexplicably redesigned Orion (looking a bit like Geo-Force, actually), and assumed that someone other than Kirby could make the franchise more reader-friendly. That may very well be the case yet, even if readers have since put up nearly-insurmountable barriers. John Byrne, at least in my experience, probably came to closest in a strictly canonical sense with JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD, while COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS, if read strictly as a Fourth World adventure, would probably do the trick, even if it has the actual FINAL CRISIS to compete with (and hey, it’s Grant Morrison, so a lot of readers assumed the end result was necessarily more significant in any respect than DC’s second weekly series, which I thought was criminally underrated to begin with). What the New Gods need (and what Morrison recognized, if apparently unsatisfactorily) is a strong connection to regular continuity (and again, even Kirby knew that, which was why he liked to sneak in connections to Superman, just not clearly enough; and this brings up another point, in that how awesome would it have been for the King to work on the Man of Steel directly?). Morrison’s answer was to bring Darkseid down to earth, grounding the signature figure of the Fourth World in a human frame. COUNTDOWN, meanwhile, embroiled a number of Earth-based characters in an adventure that ultimately led to the Fourth World, which to my mind is exactly what the franchise needs. If that connection had been more explicit, perhaps readers would have cared a little more. Anyway, RETURN OF THE NEW GODS was not the answer, obviously. There’s a bonus, though! If you possess a working time machine, you can find a handy way to be cast in 1978’s SUPERMAN (you will believe that Gene Hackman can pull off Lex Luthor), thanks to a contest printed in this issue!

ANIMA #0 (DC)
From October 1994:
Another veteran of the 1993 Bloodlines experiment (see also Quarter Bin #s 6 & 8, for Sparx and Argus), Anima was a teen punk enthusiast who became bonded with Animus, her own monster guardian (the 1990s were a great decade to feel nostalgic for the Captain Marvel dynamic of a surrogate character in some sort of partnership with a heroic figure; see also Prime and The Maxx) she could summon in times of need. Anima made a minor sensation and then disappeared completely, like most of the Bloodlines characters, briefly being considered part of DC’s teen line that included Superboy, Robin, Impulse, and Damage. The concept as outlined in this Zero Month issue probably would have fit her nicely in the Vertigo line of the time, except writers (and creators) Elizabeth Hand and Paul Witcover (and this may also help explain her fate, because, really, who?) probably failed to make it clear enough (the series, which had already run about half a dozen issues to this point, lasted about as many more). This is not to say Anima is actually worthless or hopelessly a product of its time. In fact, even considering how Hand and Witcover basically made it a period piece waiting to happen; only a few minor changes would be necessarily to drag it into the OWS era. Besides, comics could always use a few more female lead characters.

NEW TITANS ANNUAL #9 (DC)
From 1993:
The Bloodlines annual that introduced one of the few characters from the experiment to receive their own ongoing series, this was written, naturally, by Hand and Witcover, and follows the same basic outline as every other installment of the event: spinal fluid-sucking aliens unwittingly unlock powers in a random victim, and the resulting character either becomes a hero and helps the main characters or gets in their way. The New Titans were the latter-day New Teen Titans, getting long in the tooth from their Wolfman/Perez heyday but not yet decided on actually (or trying to) move on with their lives. The artwork doesn’t really do the Titans themselves any favors, nor Anima, but it does look good on the aliens, who could perhaps reappear one day, with a slightly more focused story and a more confident lead writer who could flesh them out a little, make them more distinctive…

SOVEREIGN SEVEN PLUS #1 (DC)
From February 1997:
Chris Claremont probably had the most precipitous fall in modern comics history, from writing the most popular comics of the 1980s (and a few years into the next decade) to be an afterthought whose new X-Men comics were completely overlooked a few years ago. That helps explain why everyone found his creator-owned DC work so easy to dismiss, even though I thought SOVEREIGN SEVEN to be some of the best comics I read during that time. The only problem I identify in hindsight is the same problem the New Gods have had for the past four decades, a problem of accessibility. He came up with a great concept, and a distinctive set of characters, but there was no real perspective in how the stories actually handled them. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. When a large audience is supposed to embrace it, the more deliberate the better (small audiences like insular worlds better), so that everyone has a chance to either latch onto a particular element and try and juggle all of it (again, large audiences are a diverse lot and more often than not are not actually united about the things they like about the one thing they all like). What’s so funny about this one-shot is that Claremont, who clearly would’ve liked to write him some Legion of Super-Heroes, approaches the Legion the way he should have the Sovereigns, with a very selective use from it, concentrating on Saturn Girl while his own team dances around her, with a soft focus on Network (without ever really explaining why readers should care as much about her as he does Saturn Girl). Having read SOVEREIGN SEVEN, I know that Claremont did spend a fair amount of time developing Network and lead character Cascade, and spent time showing how the other characters were unique, but what he failed to do was keep any of them apart long enough for readers to try investing themselves in any of them. That’s what truly makes Alan Moore’s WATCHMEN stand out from other superhero comics, in that he wrote about a team, but that team didn’t really hang out together during the series, and so Moore was able to write about the characters rather than the team, and readers have any number of narratives ready-made for easy consumption (even though the story as a whole assumes you can put all of it together). Then again, WATCHMEN was a twelve-issue maxi-series, and DC probably assumed, the same way that Claremont did, that SOVEREIGN SEVEN, being an ongoing series, wouldn’t have to follow the same rules. Pointedly, the New 52 uniformly puts character first. So, a couple of lessons: respect Claremont, let him write the Legion, and remember that character ought to trump most other elements in a story.

GREEN LANTERN CORPS QUARTERLY #2 (DC)
From September 1992:
Can you believe that there was a time when the Green Lantern franchise didn’t depend on Geoff Johns to carry a full slate of titles? When this issue was published, there was also GREEN LANTERN (the standard flagship) and GREEN LANTERN: MOSAIC, starring John Stewart, with the first Guy Gardner solo book on the horizon. It seems unbelievable now! It certainly was by 1994, when MOSAIC had been forgotten, QUARTERLY cancelled, WARRIOR (what GUY GARDNER transitioned into fairly quickly) barely acknowledging that Guy had once slung a green ring, and Kyle Rayner the last of the Corps (for a while). This one, then, is a great issue to stumble across; a sort of time capsule to what might have been an alternate version of the franchise’s fortunes, if only a few more issues here and there had been sold. The framing narrative is an incredibly unsubtle plug for MOSAIC (I myself have only ever read the first issue, which is something I’ve been trying to correct for the past few years now, but is difficult short of ordering from the Interweb to actually accomplish), a conversation between Hal Jordan and Stewart that catches the reader up on things the latter has been experiencing lately (and can it also be emphasized that Geoff Johns singlehandedly reintroduced Sinestro as an active participant in the Green Lantern saga after many years of near-neglect?) in his own book, leading into short stories involving Alan Scott (who had only recently returned to regular appearances in the pages of a short-lived Justice Society relaunch that as a result only helped remind readers who all those old-timers were who becomes victims of ZERO HOUR), G’Nort, and “The History of Sector 2814,” the plug on the cover that made me buy the issue in the first place. Yes, we get a tale of an 1800s American who becomes drafted into the Corps in the midst of a personal crisis, but I guess what I expected was a somewhat more literal history, detailing predecessors of Hal Jordan and Abin Sur, which leads me to one of my biggest points for this column: Star Wars fans have been accepting generic sci-fi drivel for years from creative minds other than George Lucas, badly filling in elements of the saga that don’t revolve around Anakin Skywalker, yet DC can’t be bothered to do a regular anthology of Green Lantern stories that look at all the interesting things that probably happened prior to the modern era? I mean, sure, we’ve had the sporadic Abin Sur tale, and Johns expanded on the Alan Moore prophecy of the Darkest Night, but there’s so much more that could be done, the first Green Lanterns, even so far back as the Manhunters, or simply fleshing out the rest of Sector 2814 (that’s one of my biggest beefs with the franchise, that sectors and their designations and representatives are mostly a crapshoot any writer can improvise at their will), at the very least. Anyway, Gerard Jones and M.D. Bright (one of my personal defining Green Lantern creative teams) provide the framing narrative, while other featured fellows include Roger Stern, Dusty Abell, Mark Waid (whose story is highly amusing, and together with IMPULSE just screams for Waid to write in this style more frequently), Ty Templeton, Doug Moench, and even Scott Lobdell.

Anyway, that’s it for this column!

Quarter Bin #14 "Genesis"

For some reason or another, I can no longer explain, but back in 1997, I originally only read the first and fourth chapters of the GENESIS crossover event. This was back when DC was doing annual crossover events that typically played out weekly in the main title, and spread into the ongoing series then being published during that month. I don’t think there’s a lot of respect going around for those events these days. Readers are more used to sprawling mini-series that play out over half a year and involve not just crossovers but spinoff mini-series, stuff like that, and there’s been plenty of backlash, because since CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS and SECRET WARS, there seems to have been an event, several events, every single year, and it’s always a struggle to keep up with, whether because of the sheer number of books or the basic cost.

Anyway, I’m not really going to talk about crossover events in general, but GENESIS specifically. Or rather:

GENESIS #s 1-4 (DC)
From October 1997.

These event books were typically assigned to some of the big-time creators, the ones who happened to be hot at that time, such as Dan Jurgens with ZERO HOUR (1994), Mark Waid’s UNDERWORLD UNLEASHED (1995) or Grant Morrison’s DC ONE MILLION (1998). John Byrne, who wrote GENESIS, had been a creative force since the 1980s, with THE MAN OF STEEL chief among his DC credentials. During this particular period, he was involved in WONDER WOMAN and JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD, both titles being mythology-rich, which was appropriate, given that GENESIS was itself another attempt to bring, well, Jack Kirby’s Fourth World back into relevance.

The whole reason why I’m talking about it today is not that it’s somehow relevant again (even Morrison couldn’t do that with the epic FINAL CRISIS) but because I was always bothered by the fact that I didn’t read the whole thing. Flashforward to a few years ago and a trip to Escape Velocity, then known as Bargain Comics, which at that time had a whole space devoted to displaying bagged collections of original-issue runs for famous story arcs. There it was, the whole set, all four issues, plus the original teaser preview.

Byrne, it should be noted, spares no such thing as subtlety with this one. That’s usually the kind of thing I go for, but big epic tales certainly have their attraction, too, and very few comics properties have that to quite the same degree as Kirby’s Fourth World, the only successful, original mythology to have ever been attempted, and come back to repeatedly, not because the publisher wanted to, but because fans continually demand it. Trouble is, few fans regularly support the Fourth World, which includes Darkseid, Orion, Mister Miracle, and Mother Boxes that “ping.”

You probably have to be familiar with a lot of it to make any sense of GENESIS, and even then the story’s remarkably light, probably one of the thinnest of its kind even from that era (in contrast, Neron juicing old villains with bigger powers really doesn’t seem that cheap an excuse). The short of the short of it is that there’s a “Godwave” that’s supposed to explain superpowers, and its contracting makes said powers all wonky for a little while, and then cause some changes around the DCU (a clever way to doing some spring, or in this case fall, cleaning). It makes sweeping generalizations that really don’t hold to much scrutiny, but then, it’s far more about the Fourth World than about any of the many superheroes it brings together (and even then, the available characters seem to be a thin lot, and they really don’t do all that much except react for four issues).

In that sense, it’s pretty disappointing, but for those who do care about the Fourth World (Highfather dies in the FOURTH WORLD book during the month, an event that is barely mentioned in GENESIS), it remains a pretty entertaining and noteworthy event, one that makes even less sense for modern readers than to those who experienced it upon release, and not just because the New Gods have lain dormant since FINAL CRISIS, but still worth the effort for anyone who might nonetheless be curious, an odd link in a chain that still has great potential.

Given another opportunity (since JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD really was better than GENESIS might suggest), I’d be more than happy if John Byrne were interesting in another visit.