Astro City #25 (Vertigo)
Kurt
Busiek’s familiar act continues for another issue. It’s the kind of storytelling that perhaps
feels more impressive if you catch it when you’re younger, but begins to seem
regressive the more experience you have.
Interestingly, the only time readers have really revolted was when
Busiek was telling an extended Dark Age
tale that was the only time he was building on the Marvels method that inspired the whole thing, the sequel he never
got to write, which to my mind was perhaps the best Astro City ever got. Perhaps
most recommended to unsophisticated budding comic book writers who have no idea
how character storytelling works.
Detective Comics #14 (DC)
The John
Layman (Chew) era, little celebrated
at the time but an excellent Batman experience all the same (I get that
Snyder’s was sensational, but it wasn’t the only or even best example of the
New 52), with Poison Ivy in the spotlight.
Layman’s Batman is the analytical mind you’d expect in a title called Detective Comics, and he’s constantly
challenged by familiar foes in interesting ways. Perhaps best represented by the “Gothtopia”
arc that went unobserved as a crossover.
Also features early but typically sensational Jason Fabok art, before he
got the plush Justice League
assignment.
Blue Beetle #1 (DC)
From the
Rebirth era, which until now I’d never read.
In fact I skipped the New 52 series, too, and in both cases it’s
entirely down to simply not having the funds.
When the New 52 launched I’d just lost my job of five years and went
unemployed the rest of that year (then got a terrible job and then got a
slightly less terrible job that compensated for that slight increase by paying
far less and giving me far fewer hours…).
Anyway, both series were based on an excellent pre-Flashpoint series I did
read enthusiastically, spinning out of Infinite
Crisis, in which the legacy is passed on to Jaime Reyes in the form of a
magical alien scarab with a fairly unexplored link to the Green Lantern
Corps. In this Rebirth relaunch Jaime’s
friends from the first series are still present with the same witty banter, but
Ted Kord gets to be part of the narrative this time (remember: Ted famously was
murdered by Max Lord just prior to Infinite
Crisis; the best thing about the current Snyder act is the recent Dark
Multiverse one-shot that posits a scenario where Ted shot Max instead). At some point I’ll really have to catch up
with all this Blue Beetle material.
Firestorm: The Nuclear Men #6 (DC)
Another
series I was sorry to have to skip in the early New 52 was this one, as it, too,
was a follow-up to an excellent pre-Flashpoint
series I enjoyed immensely. So of course
I enjoyed this issue. Ronnie Raymond and
Jason Rusch apparently each have their own Firestorm bodies (one of the
familiar gimmicks of the concept is that Firestorm combines two people, with
one providing the body and the other becoming a mental sidekick). In this tale they’re confronted by the
Russian Firestorm, Pozhar. I’m still
pretty convinced that if handled correctly, Firestorm could handle a Geoff
Johns level renaissance.
The Flash #19 (DC)
Featuring
the tease for the debut of the New 52 Reverse-Flash. The issue features pretty much the bare
minimum input from Francis Manapul, who was responsible (with Brian Buccellato)
for the best Flash New 52 material, which itself also influenced much of the
current TV series.
Green Arrow #31 (DC)
From the
Rebirth era, in which DC finally figured out that Ollie ought to be allowed to
be awesome again, aligning more with what he was best known for, including
associations with Black Canary, Hal Jordan, and the Justice League, all of whom
prominently appear in the issue. I just
don’t get how the much-influential TV series never seemed to convince the
company, previously, that they should pay a little attention to the comic, help
it shine when not written by Jeff Lemire, misguidedly believing instead that
Green Arrow should be a younger punk.
This is a character defined by
being world weary! One of the main
beneficiaries of Rebirth.
Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #35 (DC)
The Robert
Venditti era continued in Rebirth with this series, which because I became
disinterested in his New 52 comics I never really made an attempt to get
into. This issue is mainly Venditti
deciding that Hal, John, Kyle & Guy are the Green Lantern equivalent of
wrestling’s Four Horsemen.
For…reasons. Although it ends on
a pretty amusing note, as Ganthet taunts the Controllers, by pointing out they
want to, well, control these Lanterns, which, certainly with Hal, has famously
been pretty impossible. The main
difference between Venditti and Geoff Johns, whom he succeeded, is that while
Johns tossed in a lot of bold new concepts, he did so in a manner that built on
existing ones. He seemed like a
fan. Venditti never really seemed to
understand any of it. He tossed in a lot
of bold new concepts, too, but without ever really seeming to understand that
there were existing ones. He never felt
like he connected with the material.
It’s just incredibly bizarre. Now
you’ve got Grant Morrison writing Green Lantern, and he admitted he was
reluctant to do so because he never understood the concept, and yet to read the
results is to see that he got past that.
A lot of readers are confused, they see nothing but 2001 AD, but I see storytelling that comes alive with possibility,
grounded in tradition. Charles Soule,
when he was writing Guy in Red Lanterns,
was much the same, and so too Ron Marz in the uncomfortable position of writing
Kyle ostensibly when the tradition had been exploded. Maybe not everyone will see it, but when you do see it, it’s hard to look past. That’s me and Venditti’s Green Lantern in a
nutshell. Ironically readers rejected
the New 52 era because that’s what they thought they saw everywhere. As far as I’m concerned, Venditti was ground
zero, if nothing else, of the perceived phenomenon.
Infinite Inc. #27 (DC)
Ah! Irony!
This is a whole issue dedicated to the Crisis on Infinite Earths effect, helpfully further spelled out in
the letters column, in which a reader bemoans the cruel dismantling of
continuity in the form of Huntress being “murdered” because she couldn’t exist
outside of her context (Batman and Catwoman being her parents ‘n’ all, on Earth
2). And this was a whole series about the offspring of the
Justice Society. So eventually,
Brainwave Jr. removes Fury’s memories of her parents (y’know, Wonder Woman and
Steve Trevor). Ironically, the
reconciliation of canon effectively obliterated the Infinity Inc. concept, and
Fury ended up a curious footnote, never to be revisited (at least as of now!),
a curious appearance or two in the pages of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman that feel the more elegiac the more you’re aware of her
publishing history. A version of
Huntress did return, eventually, an
independent one with no background ties to Batman or Catwoman, although in the
short-lived Birds of Prey TV series,
she did. Even better, this issue
features a pre-Spider-Man, pre-Spawn Todd McFarlane, whose work is
totally unrecognizable, if anything familiar to the Sandman style (just imagine!) with a few panels emphasizing shadow
on facial features but otherwise looking fairly generic…
Red Hood and the Outlaws #11 (DC)
The Rebirth
era, featuring Artemis & Bizarro, with the spotlight on Artemis (the Azrael
of Wonder Woman lore) as she squares off with an Amazon of a spin-off
tribe. Lobdell’s Red Hood comics are
another I want to catch up on at some point.
Suicide Squad #45 (DC)
From
Rebirth, this issue features an apparent attempt to revisit the exact concept
behind the team, as famously featured in the apparent infamous movie, villains
being recruited by Amanda Waller for missions where their lawful participation
will be disavowed, and if they go rogue the bomb in their heads goes boom. So I guess if you need a random issue to
remind you of all that, this one’s a good one to catch.
Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey #2 (DC)
The second
of three issues, the prestige format follow-up to the more famous
death-and-return saga, Dan Jurgens goes bold, explaining Doomsday’s origin! I’m glad this was the random issue I got,
because I’d never officially read any of it, but had heard of the origin
concept. In hindsight it’s somewhat
convoluted. A better version would be
something like Wolverine, a monster with a healing factor who constantly
evolves from the horrible deaths it endures, reviving on its own rather than
being constantly cloned. I mean, how
would a clone adapt to whatever happened to the previous body? It’s new material. Bad science, Dan. But typical Dan Jurgens art, which sadly lost
pretty much all of its impact and appeal after the sensational work of Superman #75, famously depicted entirely
in splash pages. No comic could ever
justify that format again, and Jurgens himself really had nowhere to go but
down. This issue also saddles us with
Cyborg Superman, who didn’t die in Superman #82, and so he just keeps
coming back. Geoff Johns later used him,
too, but I’ve never been convinced that it’s a concept worth revisiting. If he’s no longer pretending to be Superman,
what’s the point?
