Penultimate reporting on the Mile High mystery box comics:
Infinite Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre #2
The Crispus Allen version of the Spectre had as dramatic an introduction as possible, Allen’s arc beginning in the pages of Gotham Central where he existed alongside another character named Jim Corrigan (no, not the boy genius!), which led many readers to believe they knew exactly what would eventually happen. But then Corrigan murdered Allen, and Allen became the new host of the Spectre. In hindsight, this angle might’ve had longer legs had Allen accompanied his other colleague from Gotham Central, Renee Montoya, into the pages of 52. But then a lot of other things might’ve turned out differently. So maybe Crispus Allen was always destined for the reboot turnover scrap heap...Then again, so was Montoya. Spirit of Vengeance, where art thou???
Star Trek #1
From 1984, in the wake of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, following that exact continuity, the way the old Star Wars comics at Marvel used to try and guess what was relevant to do between films. Here it’s imagined that in a world without Spock, Kirk just kind of continues on without him. Oh, sure, he struggles with the idea, but...Anyway, like those Star Wars comics, these are tales somewhat instantly negated by the next movie, as Search for Spock would make clear...Mike Barr, the writer, points out in an essay that this is technically the first time Star Trek actually happened without Spock. And while later there would be a lot of Star Trek without Spock, it never seemed to work out the way everyone imagined it in those early years. The TV reboot in the ‘70s that was going to end up repurposed as The Motion Picture, which of course heavily featured Spock. Even his death didn’t prevent Spock from soldiering on! Which is to say, Barr indeed wrote history.
Stormwatch: Team Achilles #9
Couldn’t manage to read more than a few panels, alas.
Action Comics #662
In hindsight it shouldn’t have been so surprising for the Superman writers concluding they literally had to kill the Man of Steel to prevent him from getting married too soon (in case you didn’t know, that was always their story for why Doomsday happened, because Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was just getting started on TV, although ironically everyone loved it until they got married) (then the wedding was ruined anyway)...This is the big issue where Superman finally reveals his secret identity to Lois (who had just gotten engaged to Clark)...and most of the issue is spent dithering over the Silver Banshee. Although also historically interesting as it deals with the aftermath of Lex Luthor’s death, setting up his heir, no doubt quickly revealed to be his “son,” who ended up being revealed as his clone. (Lex died as a result of Kryptonite poisoning, of all the delicious ironies.)
Adventures of Superman #500
Polybagged, and will remain so, even if it’s never worth anything again. This was both the beginning of “Reign of the Supermen,” and the road to Superman’s return, as he spends the issue in the afterlife, talking with Pa Kent, who’s had a heart attack. (I know it’s as traditional in continuity as the reverse, but I prefer Pa, and Ma, alive versus dead. It’s the Lois & Clark fan in me. I love those three-way phone calls!)
Action Comics #849
(Between #662 and this, we’re talking 1991 and 2007, by the way!) I’m just gonna ignore the issue itself, a somewhat misguided effort to talk about matters of faith in relation to Superman. The back page features Peter J. Tomasi announcing that he’s leaving editing duties behind and commencing a full-time career as a writer. Here we are in 2020, and it was a very good decision, Pete!
Superman Confidential #1
Darwyn Cooke & Tim Sale begin “Kryptonite,” a Year One Superman tale that’s really easy to see in the vein of Sale & Jeph Loeb’s collaborations, as of course it features Sale on art and Cooke very much writing the Loeb style. I’m frankly mystified that it’s not one of DC’s evergreens.
Swamp Thing #93
From 1990 and writer Doug Wheeler (in the letters column most of the readers are reacting to his recent acquisition of the job, and reflecting on his famous predecessors, like that chap Alan Moore). Anyway, this was a fun issue, and the source of the title to this post, the moops trying to expose the legendary “Swamp Man,” one of them wondering if the results won’t be famous in that fabled far-off future of 2020, which made it funny to read in 2020...Since, outside of the Charles Soule New 52 comics I’ve never really made a habit of reading Swamp Thing, it’s always nice to be reminded that things like Alec’s speaking pattern and even orange word bubbles have long been part of the mythos. And maybe I ought to read more of them.
Showing posts with label Peter J. Tomasi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter J. Tomasi. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Reading Comics 224 "King is King, and Morrison's Green Lantern, and Orlando's Wonder Woman"
Batman Secret Files #1 (DC)
Back in the day the Secret Files comics were more or less updates of the old Who's Who files, and they were more or less excuses to hype upcoming events in a particular series or family of books. They also contained short stories and other throwaway materials like diagrams and timelines, all of it fun little celebratory stuff. But in the final analysis, you could probably skip them. Some readers complained when they saw this updated take, which includes...nothing but storytelling. Why even call it Secret Files? But if I may...repurposing a title is perfectly fine, especially in an era that really doesn't have any other space for the kind of stories that appear in it. It's like a one-shot Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, or Batman: Confidential.
The lead is written by Tom King. It can be interpreted as a cheap way to get Batman thinking about the past, or as another way King ruminates on the cumulative toll being of Batman. Then a bunch of new creators have a shot at exploring Gotham, and that's pretty awesome. Ram V and Jorge Fornes set the tone nicely with a Brubakeresque tale of a cop who was caught in the crossfire of Scarecrow's latest caper, and can't shake the effects of his fear gas. Cheryl Lynn Eaton and Elena Casagrande offer fairly similar material, although they have a lot more space for Batman, and leave a lot more ambiguity to the aftereffects of a girl on the street being forced to defend herself with a gun. Jordie Bellaire and Jill Thompson help Batman spend time with himself, waiting to find out what Man-Bat's up to, and for someone like Batman that's almost as bad as confronting Man-Bat right away...Finally, Tom Taylor and Brad Walker revisit Dark Night: Metal's take on Detective Chimp as Batman acknowledges his skills and they try to help a former Riddler goon. It's a great collection of stories and showcase for these creators. Anyone who's begun to wonder whether King's the only creator outside of Detective Comics DC's willing to entertain in Batman comics should definitely check it out.
Batman #59 (DC)
After we learned that the Batwedding didn't happen thanks to Bane's manipulations, it was only a matter of time before Batman once again clashed with one of his most famous foes. This issue, solicited as part of Batman's unlikely team-up with the Penguin, is really all about Bane driving a wedge between Batman and Commissioner Gordon by pretending to be a vegetative inmate of Arkham, and even allowing the ruse to reach the point where Batman himself questions his conclusions. In the long run this will prove a highly crucial issue. Mikel Janin's art has apparently reached an evolution, meanwhile. He's begun taking on a more stylized approach as opposed to his cleaner look previously.
Green Lanterns #57 (DC)
The final issue of the series, Dan Jurgens completes a short run with another look at Cyborg Superman and whether or not his threat will ever be concluded, this time in the context of what he famously did during "Reign of the Supermen" to Coast City, and what effect that had on Hal Jordan. But the series ends with Jessica Cruz deciding to once and for all leave her comfort zone, and Earth!
The Green Lantern #1 (DC)
It's here! Grant Morrison is now writing the adventures of Hal Jordan! And of course, once again, he's managed to approach his subject as no one else has before! After more than a decade of storytelling dominated by the big ideas of Geoff Johns, Morrison grounds Hal back in a more personal context. In interviews he's described it as putting the focus on the effect Hal's life as Green Lantern has on him, which is something previous decades used to do all the time, how he went through a whole series of civilian jobs because he couldn't hold anything of them and have a power ring's responsibilities at the same time. And also the mundane oddities of being a space cop! Liam Sharp (I hate the composition of the cover image, which was available in poster form at the new location of Comics & Stuff, which I declined to accept on that basis, even though it would've otherwise been a great thing to celebrate on a wall) is great in the interiors, bringing a bright new vividness to Green Lantern. All I can say is, wow! Never expected this to happen, but am very, very pleased that it has, and that Morrison is clearly bringing all his celebrated wild imagination to it!
Heroes in Crisis #2 (DC)
A lot of fans have obsessed over the fact that Wally West died in the first issue. I just don't know how to make sense of that. Wally just returned. He's been gone for years! But...he just returned! You really think he can't, I don't know, do that again? Really? But we live in outrage culture these days. You really would think we'd never seen anything at all before.
Anyway, the idea of Booster Gold and Harley Quinn on the run, suspected of the massacre at Sanctuary, it's great, and it's a totally new story, and Booster and Harley are great choices as leads. Booster hasn't truly been relevant since 52 (anyone with even a fleeting grasp of my favorite comics knows how much I love 52, of which you can find an annotated commentary right here at Thought Bubble Comics). It's also crazy to think, and also funny that DC's event comics have slowed down so much, that since she became a significant corner of the DCU during the New 52 era, Harley has never been in this position before. This is acknowledging the changing landscape. This is helping legitimize Harley. I get that there's a certain style of Harley storytelling that's been the standard over the years, but allowing her to be seen in different ways, in more dramatic ways, in an important step in solidifying Harley's legacy.
Mister Miracle #12 (DC)
The end of King's epic mini-series (I also picked up a Director's Cut of the first issue, a rereading of which helped me understand this final issue) makes clear that the story was always about Scott Free coming to grips with life, basically, as a war veteran. It joins Omega Men and Sheriff of Babylon as a trilogy of King's experiences from the Iraq War, and as such an essential artifact of the modern era, in and outside of comics. Some readers, for any number of reasons, are just not going to be able to appreciate that. Fine. Good for them. Some of them are going to continue to look toward The Vision as King's definitive work, and Mister Miracle as a poor attempt to duplicate it for DC. A lot of them only discovered King through Vision. Having first encountered him as a solo creative voice in Omega Men, Vision for me was actually jarring, a slowed down version of what I already knew, impactful but at a scale that seemed small in comparison. Over the years I've come to appreciate Vision more, and have of course read a lot more King, and if anything, Mister Miracle helps put it in greater context. This is what he's been doing in the pages of Batman for three years. Just imagine if he'd done only twelve issues!
Nightwing #53 (DC)
What I liked about this latest installment of the amnesia saga was the cop who attempts to fill the Nightwing void. It's become a full-blown tradition for impostor Nightwings to pop up!
Adventures of the Super Sons #1-3 (DC)
With the dawn of Bendis Superman, Pete Tomasi was forced to vacate his space, and take his Superboy along with him, and also Robin, who he'd been bringing along since the last time he was asked to move on. This time he leaves with a huge parting gift! One grand adventure with Jon and Damian, and I think that's exactly the spirit of how he decided to approach this next generation World's Finest from the start. And just like that, his Superman has officially acquired its final context, just in case anyone was still wondering.
Wonder Woman #51-52 (DC)
I've spent a lot of time at the library over the past year reading comics. Most of them have been collected editions, but this particular branch also has a somewhat extensive collection of solo issues for Superman and Wonder Woman, which apparently began at the very end of the New 52, so that's how I ended up reading the majority of Tomasi's Superman, and how I eventually first read these two comics. The first was the one I definitely wanted to own. Steve Orlando's run is going to be more of a sprint, sandwiched between James Robinson and G. Willow Wilson, but as far as I'm concerned? It's going to loom large.
#51 is great issue. It's a one-shot in which Diana makes a series of trips across many years to visit a villain she randomly came across in someone else's story. It's a redemption arc, as the villain struggles to find peace with what happened, and Diana's insistence on the visits. It's a perfect encapsulation of what makes Diana different. You can't really picture Batman doing this, and for all the Superman stories that have been created over the years, I'm fairly certain he's never done it, either. Anyway, it was instantly one of my favorite comics of the year, and the reread confirmed that.
#52 is the start of an arc, and it features a new female Aztek, a character who debuted in the '90s, written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, who eventually joined Morrison's JLA. Kind of instantly became obscure, especially for having been a Justice Leaguer in an era where it was once again composed almost exclusively of all-stars. But Aztek was always a great concept, and Orlando instantly grasps it. He also brings in Artemis, who was recently part of Red Hood and the Outlaws, but who also comes from the '90s, the lesser known Wonder Woman replacement from a time when all the big characters were being replaced. It feels like a big Wonder Woman story in ways that rarely happen, and it's also kind of a comic book version of the allies she assembles in the blockbuster movie. Orlando's Wonder Woman will definitely be a collection I will add to my collection.
The Wrong Earth #3 (Ahoy)
Ahoy Comics launched to some amount of buzz in part thanks to landing a Grant Morrison prose backup feature. The company's whole thing seems to be another of those "we're bringing comics back to how you remember them!" deals. But these aren't comics as I want to read this. The Wrong Earth reads like a shallow parody. Nuff said.
Uncanny X-Men #1 (Marvel)
I haven't particularly cared about the X-Men since the Hope saga ended. Of course I've never been a dedicated reader. Still haven't even read Morrison's complete New X-Men! So to say I've been part of the legion (heh) of observers who've been wondering if the X-Men were ever going to be relevant again, it doesn't carry the same weight as fans who've spent more time with them. But I wanted to see what this latest effort was going to be like. I like Bishop being right there on the cover. Ever since I came across him in the '90s I've always thought this was a character with at least equal potential as Cable. Both of them were time-traveling mutants from dystopic futures, but Cable always hogged the spotlight. A number of creators working in converging narratives come together to explain the latest mutant crisis, another drug threatening to take their abilities away. But this time as a vaccine, that will prevent new mutants from ever knowing they were ever even mutants.
Now, this has a ton of storytelling potential. A lot of fans accused Marvel in recent years of trying to replace the X-Men with the Inhumans, whose major recent story was the roving Terrigan mists that randomly created new Inhumans. But this is something very different. This isn't people being scared that they're going to be victimized. This is a new twist on the familiar narrative of denying mutants a future. There's apparently going to be another Age of Apocalypse style event following the "X-Men Disassembled" arc, and Marvel fans, who complain about everything Marvel does these days (we're a long, lone way off from the old Marvel zombies days, which conveniently now exist in cinematic form), are complaining that Marvel is just piling event after event. But I suspect there's method to this madness, and I'd like to keep tabs on it.
Back in the day the Secret Files comics were more or less updates of the old Who's Who files, and they were more or less excuses to hype upcoming events in a particular series or family of books. They also contained short stories and other throwaway materials like diagrams and timelines, all of it fun little celebratory stuff. But in the final analysis, you could probably skip them. Some readers complained when they saw this updated take, which includes...nothing but storytelling. Why even call it Secret Files? But if I may...repurposing a title is perfectly fine, especially in an era that really doesn't have any other space for the kind of stories that appear in it. It's like a one-shot Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, or Batman: Confidential.
The lead is written by Tom King. It can be interpreted as a cheap way to get Batman thinking about the past, or as another way King ruminates on the cumulative toll being of Batman. Then a bunch of new creators have a shot at exploring Gotham, and that's pretty awesome. Ram V and Jorge Fornes set the tone nicely with a Brubakeresque tale of a cop who was caught in the crossfire of Scarecrow's latest caper, and can't shake the effects of his fear gas. Cheryl Lynn Eaton and Elena Casagrande offer fairly similar material, although they have a lot more space for Batman, and leave a lot more ambiguity to the aftereffects of a girl on the street being forced to defend herself with a gun. Jordie Bellaire and Jill Thompson help Batman spend time with himself, waiting to find out what Man-Bat's up to, and for someone like Batman that's almost as bad as confronting Man-Bat right away...Finally, Tom Taylor and Brad Walker revisit Dark Night: Metal's take on Detective Chimp as Batman acknowledges his skills and they try to help a former Riddler goon. It's a great collection of stories and showcase for these creators. Anyone who's begun to wonder whether King's the only creator outside of Detective Comics DC's willing to entertain in Batman comics should definitely check it out.
Batman #59 (DC)
After we learned that the Batwedding didn't happen thanks to Bane's manipulations, it was only a matter of time before Batman once again clashed with one of his most famous foes. This issue, solicited as part of Batman's unlikely team-up with the Penguin, is really all about Bane driving a wedge between Batman and Commissioner Gordon by pretending to be a vegetative inmate of Arkham, and even allowing the ruse to reach the point where Batman himself questions his conclusions. In the long run this will prove a highly crucial issue. Mikel Janin's art has apparently reached an evolution, meanwhile. He's begun taking on a more stylized approach as opposed to his cleaner look previously.
Green Lanterns #57 (DC)
The final issue of the series, Dan Jurgens completes a short run with another look at Cyborg Superman and whether or not his threat will ever be concluded, this time in the context of what he famously did during "Reign of the Supermen" to Coast City, and what effect that had on Hal Jordan. But the series ends with Jessica Cruz deciding to once and for all leave her comfort zone, and Earth!
The Green Lantern #1 (DC)
It's here! Grant Morrison is now writing the adventures of Hal Jordan! And of course, once again, he's managed to approach his subject as no one else has before! After more than a decade of storytelling dominated by the big ideas of Geoff Johns, Morrison grounds Hal back in a more personal context. In interviews he's described it as putting the focus on the effect Hal's life as Green Lantern has on him, which is something previous decades used to do all the time, how he went through a whole series of civilian jobs because he couldn't hold anything of them and have a power ring's responsibilities at the same time. And also the mundane oddities of being a space cop! Liam Sharp (I hate the composition of the cover image, which was available in poster form at the new location of Comics & Stuff, which I declined to accept on that basis, even though it would've otherwise been a great thing to celebrate on a wall) is great in the interiors, bringing a bright new vividness to Green Lantern. All I can say is, wow! Never expected this to happen, but am very, very pleased that it has, and that Morrison is clearly bringing all his celebrated wild imagination to it!
Heroes in Crisis #2 (DC)
A lot of fans have obsessed over the fact that Wally West died in the first issue. I just don't know how to make sense of that. Wally just returned. He's been gone for years! But...he just returned! You really think he can't, I don't know, do that again? Really? But we live in outrage culture these days. You really would think we'd never seen anything at all before.
Anyway, the idea of Booster Gold and Harley Quinn on the run, suspected of the massacre at Sanctuary, it's great, and it's a totally new story, and Booster and Harley are great choices as leads. Booster hasn't truly been relevant since 52 (anyone with even a fleeting grasp of my favorite comics knows how much I love 52, of which you can find an annotated commentary right here at Thought Bubble Comics). It's also crazy to think, and also funny that DC's event comics have slowed down so much, that since she became a significant corner of the DCU during the New 52 era, Harley has never been in this position before. This is acknowledging the changing landscape. This is helping legitimize Harley. I get that there's a certain style of Harley storytelling that's been the standard over the years, but allowing her to be seen in different ways, in more dramatic ways, in an important step in solidifying Harley's legacy.
The end of King's epic mini-series (I also picked up a Director's Cut of the first issue, a rereading of which helped me understand this final issue) makes clear that the story was always about Scott Free coming to grips with life, basically, as a war veteran. It joins Omega Men and Sheriff of Babylon as a trilogy of King's experiences from the Iraq War, and as such an essential artifact of the modern era, in and outside of comics. Some readers, for any number of reasons, are just not going to be able to appreciate that. Fine. Good for them. Some of them are going to continue to look toward The Vision as King's definitive work, and Mister Miracle as a poor attempt to duplicate it for DC. A lot of them only discovered King through Vision. Having first encountered him as a solo creative voice in Omega Men, Vision for me was actually jarring, a slowed down version of what I already knew, impactful but at a scale that seemed small in comparison. Over the years I've come to appreciate Vision more, and have of course read a lot more King, and if anything, Mister Miracle helps put it in greater context. This is what he's been doing in the pages of Batman for three years. Just imagine if he'd done only twelve issues!
Nightwing #53 (DC)
What I liked about this latest installment of the amnesia saga was the cop who attempts to fill the Nightwing void. It's become a full-blown tradition for impostor Nightwings to pop up!
Adventures of the Super Sons #1-3 (DC)
With the dawn of Bendis Superman, Pete Tomasi was forced to vacate his space, and take his Superboy along with him, and also Robin, who he'd been bringing along since the last time he was asked to move on. This time he leaves with a huge parting gift! One grand adventure with Jon and Damian, and I think that's exactly the spirit of how he decided to approach this next generation World's Finest from the start. And just like that, his Superman has officially acquired its final context, just in case anyone was still wondering.
Wonder Woman #51-52 (DC)
I've spent a lot of time at the library over the past year reading comics. Most of them have been collected editions, but this particular branch also has a somewhat extensive collection of solo issues for Superman and Wonder Woman, which apparently began at the very end of the New 52, so that's how I ended up reading the majority of Tomasi's Superman, and how I eventually first read these two comics. The first was the one I definitely wanted to own. Steve Orlando's run is going to be more of a sprint, sandwiched between James Robinson and G. Willow Wilson, but as far as I'm concerned? It's going to loom large.
#51 is great issue. It's a one-shot in which Diana makes a series of trips across many years to visit a villain she randomly came across in someone else's story. It's a redemption arc, as the villain struggles to find peace with what happened, and Diana's insistence on the visits. It's a perfect encapsulation of what makes Diana different. You can't really picture Batman doing this, and for all the Superman stories that have been created over the years, I'm fairly certain he's never done it, either. Anyway, it was instantly one of my favorite comics of the year, and the reread confirmed that.
#52 is the start of an arc, and it features a new female Aztek, a character who debuted in the '90s, written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, who eventually joined Morrison's JLA. Kind of instantly became obscure, especially for having been a Justice Leaguer in an era where it was once again composed almost exclusively of all-stars. But Aztek was always a great concept, and Orlando instantly grasps it. He also brings in Artemis, who was recently part of Red Hood and the Outlaws, but who also comes from the '90s, the lesser known Wonder Woman replacement from a time when all the big characters were being replaced. It feels like a big Wonder Woman story in ways that rarely happen, and it's also kind of a comic book version of the allies she assembles in the blockbuster movie. Orlando's Wonder Woman will definitely be a collection I will add to my collection.
The Wrong Earth #3 (Ahoy)
Ahoy Comics launched to some amount of buzz in part thanks to landing a Grant Morrison prose backup feature. The company's whole thing seems to be another of those "we're bringing comics back to how you remember them!" deals. But these aren't comics as I want to read this. The Wrong Earth reads like a shallow parody. Nuff said.
Uncanny X-Men #1 (Marvel)
I haven't particularly cared about the X-Men since the Hope saga ended. Of course I've never been a dedicated reader. Still haven't even read Morrison's complete New X-Men! So to say I've been part of the legion (heh) of observers who've been wondering if the X-Men were ever going to be relevant again, it doesn't carry the same weight as fans who've spent more time with them. But I wanted to see what this latest effort was going to be like. I like Bishop being right there on the cover. Ever since I came across him in the '90s I've always thought this was a character with at least equal potential as Cable. Both of them were time-traveling mutants from dystopic futures, but Cable always hogged the spotlight. A number of creators working in converging narratives come together to explain the latest mutant crisis, another drug threatening to take their abilities away. But this time as a vaccine, that will prevent new mutants from ever knowing they were ever even mutants.
Now, this has a ton of storytelling potential. A lot of fans accused Marvel in recent years of trying to replace the X-Men with the Inhumans, whose major recent story was the roving Terrigan mists that randomly created new Inhumans. But this is something very different. This isn't people being scared that they're going to be victimized. This is a new twist on the familiar narrative of denying mutants a future. There's apparently going to be another Age of Apocalypse style event following the "X-Men Disassembled" arc, and Marvel fans, who complain about everything Marvel does these days (we're a long, lone way off from the old Marvel zombies days, which conveniently now exist in cinematic form), are complaining that Marvel is just piling event after event. But I suspect there's method to this madness, and I'd like to keep tabs on it.
Monday, September 18, 2017
Reading Comics 215 "Azrael, Negative Flash, Super Sons, Manapul's farewell"
Checking in with a few Rebirth titles...
Detective Comics #960 (DC)
Tynion's work in this series has been well-received, and with good reason. Finally given a chance to prove he can succeed, on his own, in a Batman title, he's done it. Here he gets to handle Azrael's reintroduction, and in those scenes he's quite artful.
The Flash #28 (DC)
I think Josh Williamson's been doing a Flash renaissance in this run. I like the idea of complicating Barry Allen's usual tardiness with a reason other than heroics, because of a twist to his speed. Seems like something Mark Waid would've done. That's as high a compliment as I can give.
Super Sons #7 (DC)
This is the first issue of the series I've managed to catch, but I think Tomasi has absolutely made good on the concept. If anything, it seems more natural than his and Gleason's Superman. Even if the Teen Titans take up considerable real estate in the issue, clearly Jon and Damian are the stars. Actually, the only thing capable of rivaling their appeal is the shock at seeing Jorge Jimenez's art, which clearly has evolved since I last saw it in Earth 2: Society. In a good way!
Trinity #11 (DC)
This was Francis Manapul's final issue as writer/artist of the series, and it's sad to see him go. Although, whatever's going on with the art, he seems to have lost the essence of what that aspect of his output so distinctive, and that was kind of sad to see, too.
Detective Comics #960 (DC)
Tynion's work in this series has been well-received, and with good reason. Finally given a chance to prove he can succeed, on his own, in a Batman title, he's done it. Here he gets to handle Azrael's reintroduction, and in those scenes he's quite artful.
The Flash #28 (DC)
I think Josh Williamson's been doing a Flash renaissance in this run. I like the idea of complicating Barry Allen's usual tardiness with a reason other than heroics, because of a twist to his speed. Seems like something Mark Waid would've done. That's as high a compliment as I can give.
Super Sons #7 (DC)
This is the first issue of the series I've managed to catch, but I think Tomasi has absolutely made good on the concept. If anything, it seems more natural than his and Gleason's Superman. Even if the Teen Titans take up considerable real estate in the issue, clearly Jon and Damian are the stars. Actually, the only thing capable of rivaling their appeal is the shock at seeing Jorge Jimenez's art, which clearly has evolved since I last saw it in Earth 2: Society. In a good way!
Trinity #11 (DC)
This was Francis Manapul's final issue as writer/artist of the series, and it's sad to see him go. Although, whatever's going on with the art, he seems to have lost the essence of what that aspect of his output so distinctive, and that was kind of sad to see, too.
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Reading Comics 192 "DC Rebirth Week Five, Astro City"
Covered this edition: Astro City #35, Batman #2, Green Lanterns #2, Justice League: Rebirth #1, and Superman #2.
Astro City #35 (Vertigo)
Kurt Busiek's pocket superhero universe, which literally resides entirely within the boundaries of Astro City, has long been fascinating. It's one of those self-contained concepts that could easily satiate a given reader's interest in superhero comics, whether they're jaded older readers, or younger ones who aren't particularly interested in tracking down multiple titles to try and catch up with something they've just discovered. The series has been around, in one incarnation or another, for twenty years, and was clearly inspired by Busiek's interest in following up on his Marvels success, where he was able to look at the full portrait of a given superhero landscape and provide nuanced insight into it. His Astro City work rotates from character to character. This particular issues features Jack-in-the-Box, a costumed vigilante with an outlandish gimmick but who Busiek otherwise presents pretty straightforwardly, getting at the heart of the character's human struggles, which in this case mean the legacy the grandson of the original Jack feels increasingly as a burden he can never live up to, with his father and uncle having carried it on but a reckless decision in his youth cost him his chance to do the same. Jack-in-the-Box joins the league of black superheroes who sport all-covering masks, so that you wouldn't know his race otherwise, but the comic spends probably more time with the mask off of any given Jack than necessarily caring about his costumed exploits, treating that as more a McGuffin than anything. There's a letters column page featuring the letter of the month (a rarity in a DC title of any extraction these days), and also a preview of Paul Dini's Dark Night: A True Batman Story, which details his experiences recovering from a mugging, and that's part of the reason I bought this comic, because I've seen plenty of hype for the graphic novel, but none of the interior. But it's always worth checking in with Astro City.
Batman #2 (DC)
Tom King's era continues as Batman introduces Jim Gordon to Gotham and Gotham Girl, the superpowered new heroes who are eager to lend a hand in the ongoing war on crime. It's Batman's sense of mortality that permeates the issue, however, the lingering aftereffects of his near-sacrifice in trying to prevent a fatal plane crash last issue. It's King's grasp of character that strikes this material as fresh. At one point Alfred explains to Duke Thomas how a young Bruce Wayne became disenchanted when Alfred made a prudent judgment call. For someone like Bruce, there's no such thing as prudence. He doesn't have the patience for something like that. The current Bruce abandons a lady mid-dance when he spots the Bat-signal in the sky, and the woman is positively baffled. You can imagine how it plays out just by the way it's depicted: Bruce doesn't want to attend function; he reluctantly agrees, puts on his best game face; is positively overjoyed when he gets to go back to work. For him, it doesn't even matter what other people are expecting. That's Batman in a nutshell. He lives by his own rules. It's great when a writer like King comes along and knows the psychology that well. For those looking for something a little easier to digest, there's the young hero Gotham discovering for himself Batman's classic disappearing act, or Gordon wondering how on earth a mask doesn't become uncomfortable in this line of work (casually sidestepping Scott Snyder's depiction of Commissioner Batman)...
Green Lanterns #2 (DC)
Sam Humphries keeps hitting all the right notes. His depictions of Simon Baz and especially Jessica Cruz as novice Lanterns is the perfect way to explain all over again what the Green Lantern concept is all about, and how it can be a little hard to comprehend. Jessica is so neurotic that Simon's confidence makes him seem like a veteran, even though it's just his different personality that's creating the effect, because he's just as lost as she is. Returning the Red Lanterns to the role of the villain is also a good move. Readers don't particularly need to know that in their late ongoing series, they became sympathetic heroes. The idea of them existing to help people cope with powerlessness further underscores Jessica's feelings of inadequacy. Just good stuff, and very, very good to see for a reader who hasn't had a lot of Green Lantern he found worth reading lately.
Justice League: Rebirth #1 (DC)
The Bryan Hitch era, as the headlining act of the franchise, begins as he brings the "new" Superman back into the fold, showcasing what a significant difference Superman makes both by his absence and presence. That's something few writers have done, for whatever reason, but Hitch dives right at it, not so much at the cost of every other member, all DC icons in their own right, but in the role of leadership, which Superman embodies not so much because he takes charge but because he's capable of identifying what needs to be done, by example. The whole issue makes the case for the team in general, as necessary guardians in the turbulent reality DC presents. It does its job.
Superman #2 (DC)
I can't say too often how brilliant I think it was for DC to let Pete Tomasi and Patrick Gleason recontextualize their Batman & Robin work in the Rebirth era. This was a dynamite team working in the shadow of Scott Snyder's work. If readers sometimes wondered why Tomasi and Gleason were putting their previous charges into outsize adventures not typically associated with them in the modern era, it's completely justified with their new ones. The young Jonathan has found an intriguing accomplice in Kathy, the figurative girl next door (insofar as adjacent farms can call have such things). She's like his Lana Lang, knowing his secret and not being interested in anything else but the boy he otherwise is. She and her grandfather lug Jon back home after he falls from a tree, which gives him a concussion. His parents are necessarily alarmed, especially Clark. It's a little odd seeing Lois as anything but a reporter (she writes fiction now; I don't know if it was a slip-up, but she gets a piece of mail under her given name, and it's not addressed, even though the family has been living under assumed names since emerging from Convergence into this reality). Anyway, the big news occurs at the end of the issue, in which the Eradicator makes his New 52/Rebirth debut (coincidentally, I've just finished reading some of his original appearances). But I love this series so much, already. Seeing father and son, in the early pages, engaged in a rescue operation, and then disarming a monster, is everything Tomasi and Gleason couldn't do before, and everything I'd hoped they'd do in Superman. For me, with just work like this, and King's Batman, and Humphries' Green Lanterns, the Rebirth era has already proven its worth, to a remarkable degree.
Astro City #35 (Vertigo)
Kurt Busiek's pocket superhero universe, which literally resides entirely within the boundaries of Astro City, has long been fascinating. It's one of those self-contained concepts that could easily satiate a given reader's interest in superhero comics, whether they're jaded older readers, or younger ones who aren't particularly interested in tracking down multiple titles to try and catch up with something they've just discovered. The series has been around, in one incarnation or another, for twenty years, and was clearly inspired by Busiek's interest in following up on his Marvels success, where he was able to look at the full portrait of a given superhero landscape and provide nuanced insight into it. His Astro City work rotates from character to character. This particular issues features Jack-in-the-Box, a costumed vigilante with an outlandish gimmick but who Busiek otherwise presents pretty straightforwardly, getting at the heart of the character's human struggles, which in this case mean the legacy the grandson of the original Jack feels increasingly as a burden he can never live up to, with his father and uncle having carried it on but a reckless decision in his youth cost him his chance to do the same. Jack-in-the-Box joins the league of black superheroes who sport all-covering masks, so that you wouldn't know his race otherwise, but the comic spends probably more time with the mask off of any given Jack than necessarily caring about his costumed exploits, treating that as more a McGuffin than anything. There's a letters column page featuring the letter of the month (a rarity in a DC title of any extraction these days), and also a preview of Paul Dini's Dark Night: A True Batman Story, which details his experiences recovering from a mugging, and that's part of the reason I bought this comic, because I've seen plenty of hype for the graphic novel, but none of the interior. But it's always worth checking in with Astro City.
Batman #2 (DC)
Tom King's era continues as Batman introduces Jim Gordon to Gotham and Gotham Girl, the superpowered new heroes who are eager to lend a hand in the ongoing war on crime. It's Batman's sense of mortality that permeates the issue, however, the lingering aftereffects of his near-sacrifice in trying to prevent a fatal plane crash last issue. It's King's grasp of character that strikes this material as fresh. At one point Alfred explains to Duke Thomas how a young Bruce Wayne became disenchanted when Alfred made a prudent judgment call. For someone like Bruce, there's no such thing as prudence. He doesn't have the patience for something like that. The current Bruce abandons a lady mid-dance when he spots the Bat-signal in the sky, and the woman is positively baffled. You can imagine how it plays out just by the way it's depicted: Bruce doesn't want to attend function; he reluctantly agrees, puts on his best game face; is positively overjoyed when he gets to go back to work. For him, it doesn't even matter what other people are expecting. That's Batman in a nutshell. He lives by his own rules. It's great when a writer like King comes along and knows the psychology that well. For those looking for something a little easier to digest, there's the young hero Gotham discovering for himself Batman's classic disappearing act, or Gordon wondering how on earth a mask doesn't become uncomfortable in this line of work (casually sidestepping Scott Snyder's depiction of Commissioner Batman)...
Green Lanterns #2 (DC)
Sam Humphries keeps hitting all the right notes. His depictions of Simon Baz and especially Jessica Cruz as novice Lanterns is the perfect way to explain all over again what the Green Lantern concept is all about, and how it can be a little hard to comprehend. Jessica is so neurotic that Simon's confidence makes him seem like a veteran, even though it's just his different personality that's creating the effect, because he's just as lost as she is. Returning the Red Lanterns to the role of the villain is also a good move. Readers don't particularly need to know that in their late ongoing series, they became sympathetic heroes. The idea of them existing to help people cope with powerlessness further underscores Jessica's feelings of inadequacy. Just good stuff, and very, very good to see for a reader who hasn't had a lot of Green Lantern he found worth reading lately.
Justice League: Rebirth #1 (DC)
The Bryan Hitch era, as the headlining act of the franchise, begins as he brings the "new" Superman back into the fold, showcasing what a significant difference Superman makes both by his absence and presence. That's something few writers have done, for whatever reason, but Hitch dives right at it, not so much at the cost of every other member, all DC icons in their own right, but in the role of leadership, which Superman embodies not so much because he takes charge but because he's capable of identifying what needs to be done, by example. The whole issue makes the case for the team in general, as necessary guardians in the turbulent reality DC presents. It does its job.
Superman #2 (DC)
I can't say too often how brilliant I think it was for DC to let Pete Tomasi and Patrick Gleason recontextualize their Batman & Robin work in the Rebirth era. This was a dynamite team working in the shadow of Scott Snyder's work. If readers sometimes wondered why Tomasi and Gleason were putting their previous charges into outsize adventures not typically associated with them in the modern era, it's completely justified with their new ones. The young Jonathan has found an intriguing accomplice in Kathy, the figurative girl next door (insofar as adjacent farms can call have such things). She's like his Lana Lang, knowing his secret and not being interested in anything else but the boy he otherwise is. She and her grandfather lug Jon back home after he falls from a tree, which gives him a concussion. His parents are necessarily alarmed, especially Clark. It's a little odd seeing Lois as anything but a reporter (she writes fiction now; I don't know if it was a slip-up, but she gets a piece of mail under her given name, and it's not addressed, even though the family has been living under assumed names since emerging from Convergence into this reality). Anyway, the big news occurs at the end of the issue, in which the Eradicator makes his New 52/Rebirth debut (coincidentally, I've just finished reading some of his original appearances). But I love this series so much, already. Seeing father and son, in the early pages, engaged in a rescue operation, and then disarming a monster, is everything Tomasi and Gleason couldn't do before, and everything I'd hoped they'd do in Superman. For me, with just work like this, and King's Batman, and Humphries' Green Lanterns, the Rebirth era has already proven its worth, to a remarkable degree.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Reading Comics 190 "DC Rebirth Week 3, 4001 AD, DKR: The Last Crusade, Dept. H, and catching up with Secret Wars"
4001 AD #1 (Valiant)
Valiant's latest event series takes a look at the future courtesy of the ever-resourceful Matt Kindt, imagining the tyranny of New Japan and the rise of a new Rai to challenge it. Once again Valiant has proven that its unique superhero vision, the first comprehensive ongoing revision of the 21st century, has incredible legs, where just about anything's possible, and it nearly always seems completely plausible, not to mention remarkably cohesive. It's not like others haven't tried, but it helps to have talent like Kindt and Jeff Lemire leading the charge.
Batman #1 (DC)
Tom King's first regular issue of the series once again demonstrates his remarkably analytical mind, as Batman and Duke Thomas pull back the curtain on what it takes to pull off the impossible. Of course, it's also Batman doing so at the expense of his own life, in yet another layer of King showing that Batman isn't like other superheroes. When an out-of-control plane threatens to crash in Gotham City, he can't just fly in and guide it safely down. No, for someone like Batman, it takes considerably more effort. If this were the movies, you might expect something like this from the show-stopping exploits in the Mission: Impossible series. Few writers would be bold enough to expose Batman's limits in this way. King is merely setting himself up for that moment you though you'd never see: some other hero calling Gotham his home, someone who can fly, who represents everything Batman can never be. This ain't no Superman. Is King preparing to White Martian us? Time will tell...
The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade (DC)
This prequel to the original Dark Knight Returns depicts the circumstances in which Batman originally retires. It's in effect his last statement on Robin, the Boy Wonder, too. In the Dark Knight universe, Frank Miller offered up his judgment quite effectively: Dick Grayson goes insane. Yet there was also, before "A Death in the Family," a dead Robin to account for. The Last Crusade is a rephrasing of "A Death in the Family," actually, the Joker once again being responsible for the death of Jason Todd, under the same circumstances, the second Robin increasingly demonstrating that he isn't mentally prepared for Batman's crusade. And yet, unlike "A Death in the Family" and its follow-up, "A Lonely Place of Dying," Miller (along with co-writer Brian Azzarello, around so Miller can't go wildly out of control again) has determined that the problem isn't Jason's attitude, but Batman's notion of having a kid sidekick in the first place.
This was what he was getting around to explaining in All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, I think, and as I'd hoped, The Last Crusade is the finishing statement we'll probably never get from the earlier project. All Star Batman became a joke among readers for its brutish portrayal of the Dark Knight, a true maniac who was difficult to root for, in a story featuring Dick Grayson's initiation into crime-fighting. Miller never conceded that it was a good thing. Comics fans never really picked up on that, and they probably still won't with The Last Crusade, even though by this point his conclusions are unmistakable. The Batman of this story is aging, and his body is fast betraying him. He reveals that he hoped Robin would prove to be his successor. On the second try, he's proven brutally wrong. You can only duplicate so much of what created Batman.
It's an incredibly bold statement. I think the whole concept of the Dark Knight stories is creating a reality where Batman exists in a finite world, where he can't escape consequences. This can never exist in the ongoing comics, because fans will always clamor to see old favorites return, and creators will always be there to help them in that goal. In Miller's reckoning, Batman is human, and as such is completely fallible, and bad things happen as a result of his actions, whether to himself, to those around him, or in the world around him, not because of anything he does, but because that's just a fact of life.
As a summation, The Last Crusade may be the most crucial element of the most important Batman story ever told.
Dept. H #2 (Dark Horse)
Matt Kindt again, in his creative follow-up to Mind MGMT, his innovative look at the spy world. Dept. H seems to be an unrelated story, but Kindt is once again handling writing and art chores, so the look is the same, and so is the storytelling. In this second issue, someone has died, and someone else, burdened with a perfect memory, realizes that it could only have been murder. Clearly, Kindt continues to have the mind on the mind, and this continues to be a good thing.
Green Arrow #1 (DC)
I tended to skip Green Arrow in the New 52, but figured I'd give the guy another shot in the Rebirth era. Not only is Black Canary back in the picture, but so is Oliver Queen's moral compass. At his best, Green Arrow will always be the Batman whose inner Bruce Wayne dominates his goals more than his crime-fighting. This is one of those rich guy characters whose transformation into a superhero made him socially conscious for the first time in his life. This issue does a good job of bringing that back into focus.
Green Lanterns #1 (DC)
Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz don't play well together. They have conflicting mindsets, and as rookies, they both have plenty to prove. That rounds out to good Green Lantern storytelling, as we learn more of what makes Baz stand out (we now have him deemed the bearer of Emerald Sight), which is an important distinction for all these human Green Lanterns, as the new Red Lantern threat continues to unfold. I'm so glad DC is letting this franchise return to its recent Geoff Johns roots.
Secret Wars #9 (Marvel)
Flashing back to the last Marvel event, and its ending, we find Jonathan Hickman closing out the book on his Fantastic Four adventures, imagining the last conflict between Dr. Doom and Reed Richards. Doom had found himself in possession of ultimate power, and decides Richards is, once and for all, jealous of him, because he could never do as good as Doom. Someone decides to put that to the test, and so the Marvel landscape is reshaped (to its current state), and Richards retires from the superhero game to act as a kind of gatekeeper (thus allowing Marvel to remove the Fantastic Four from its lineup). Hickman was always a big game hunter, and I guess it was appropriate that he wound up telling the biggest Fantastic Four story ever, so we'd see what that finally looked like.
Superman #1 (DC)
Tomasi and Gleason reprise their Batman and Robin act, this time on the grand stage. Once again, a DC icon has a son struggling with his place in the world, and once again, Tomasi and Gleason are ready to knock it out of the park. I couldn't be happier for them. The story starts out pretty heavily focused on Superman, but then we meet his son Jonathan, who is struggling with his new powers. This was something Tomasi and Gleason touched on in Batman and Robin, when Damian briefly gained superpowers in the wake of his resurrection. It's one thing to have an indomitable youth on your hands. It's another when it's Superman's son. All these years, whenever someone wanted to tell a story about the young Superman, it was always the exception, and then more often than not something glossed over until he hit puberty and, in some continuities, became Superboy. This is the first time we'll see it play out in an ongoing capacity. Framed as Superman's son, this is an intriguing opportunity, and again, Tomasi and Gleason are well up to the task. They know when they need to provide dialogue, and when the story speaks for itself. Anyway, I'm hugely, hugely glad this is happening, no matter how long it lasts.
Titans: Rebirth #1 (DC)
The return of Wally West continues, as he reconnects with his oldest friends, the original Teen Titans, in a series of encounters that prove all over again how personal these DC stories are to these characters, and how they can connect on an emotional level with fans, too.
Valiant's latest event series takes a look at the future courtesy of the ever-resourceful Matt Kindt, imagining the tyranny of New Japan and the rise of a new Rai to challenge it. Once again Valiant has proven that its unique superhero vision, the first comprehensive ongoing revision of the 21st century, has incredible legs, where just about anything's possible, and it nearly always seems completely plausible, not to mention remarkably cohesive. It's not like others haven't tried, but it helps to have talent like Kindt and Jeff Lemire leading the charge.
Batman #1 (DC)
Tom King's first regular issue of the series once again demonstrates his remarkably analytical mind, as Batman and Duke Thomas pull back the curtain on what it takes to pull off the impossible. Of course, it's also Batman doing so at the expense of his own life, in yet another layer of King showing that Batman isn't like other superheroes. When an out-of-control plane threatens to crash in Gotham City, he can't just fly in and guide it safely down. No, for someone like Batman, it takes considerably more effort. If this were the movies, you might expect something like this from the show-stopping exploits in the Mission: Impossible series. Few writers would be bold enough to expose Batman's limits in this way. King is merely setting himself up for that moment you though you'd never see: some other hero calling Gotham his home, someone who can fly, who represents everything Batman can never be. This ain't no Superman. Is King preparing to White Martian us? Time will tell...
The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade (DC)
This prequel to the original Dark Knight Returns depicts the circumstances in which Batman originally retires. It's in effect his last statement on Robin, the Boy Wonder, too. In the Dark Knight universe, Frank Miller offered up his judgment quite effectively: Dick Grayson goes insane. Yet there was also, before "A Death in the Family," a dead Robin to account for. The Last Crusade is a rephrasing of "A Death in the Family," actually, the Joker once again being responsible for the death of Jason Todd, under the same circumstances, the second Robin increasingly demonstrating that he isn't mentally prepared for Batman's crusade. And yet, unlike "A Death in the Family" and its follow-up, "A Lonely Place of Dying," Miller (along with co-writer Brian Azzarello, around so Miller can't go wildly out of control again) has determined that the problem isn't Jason's attitude, but Batman's notion of having a kid sidekick in the first place.
This was what he was getting around to explaining in All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, I think, and as I'd hoped, The Last Crusade is the finishing statement we'll probably never get from the earlier project. All Star Batman became a joke among readers for its brutish portrayal of the Dark Knight, a true maniac who was difficult to root for, in a story featuring Dick Grayson's initiation into crime-fighting. Miller never conceded that it was a good thing. Comics fans never really picked up on that, and they probably still won't with The Last Crusade, even though by this point his conclusions are unmistakable. The Batman of this story is aging, and his body is fast betraying him. He reveals that he hoped Robin would prove to be his successor. On the second try, he's proven brutally wrong. You can only duplicate so much of what created Batman.
It's an incredibly bold statement. I think the whole concept of the Dark Knight stories is creating a reality where Batman exists in a finite world, where he can't escape consequences. This can never exist in the ongoing comics, because fans will always clamor to see old favorites return, and creators will always be there to help them in that goal. In Miller's reckoning, Batman is human, and as such is completely fallible, and bad things happen as a result of his actions, whether to himself, to those around him, or in the world around him, not because of anything he does, but because that's just a fact of life.
As a summation, The Last Crusade may be the most crucial element of the most important Batman story ever told.
Dept. H #2 (Dark Horse)
Matt Kindt again, in his creative follow-up to Mind MGMT, his innovative look at the spy world. Dept. H seems to be an unrelated story, but Kindt is once again handling writing and art chores, so the look is the same, and so is the storytelling. In this second issue, someone has died, and someone else, burdened with a perfect memory, realizes that it could only have been murder. Clearly, Kindt continues to have the mind on the mind, and this continues to be a good thing.
Green Arrow #1 (DC)
I tended to skip Green Arrow in the New 52, but figured I'd give the guy another shot in the Rebirth era. Not only is Black Canary back in the picture, but so is Oliver Queen's moral compass. At his best, Green Arrow will always be the Batman whose inner Bruce Wayne dominates his goals more than his crime-fighting. This is one of those rich guy characters whose transformation into a superhero made him socially conscious for the first time in his life. This issue does a good job of bringing that back into focus.
Green Lanterns #1 (DC)
Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz don't play well together. They have conflicting mindsets, and as rookies, they both have plenty to prove. That rounds out to good Green Lantern storytelling, as we learn more of what makes Baz stand out (we now have him deemed the bearer of Emerald Sight), which is an important distinction for all these human Green Lanterns, as the new Red Lantern threat continues to unfold. I'm so glad DC is letting this franchise return to its recent Geoff Johns roots.
Secret Wars #9 (Marvel)
Flashing back to the last Marvel event, and its ending, we find Jonathan Hickman closing out the book on his Fantastic Four adventures, imagining the last conflict between Dr. Doom and Reed Richards. Doom had found himself in possession of ultimate power, and decides Richards is, once and for all, jealous of him, because he could never do as good as Doom. Someone decides to put that to the test, and so the Marvel landscape is reshaped (to its current state), and Richards retires from the superhero game to act as a kind of gatekeeper (thus allowing Marvel to remove the Fantastic Four from its lineup). Hickman was always a big game hunter, and I guess it was appropriate that he wound up telling the biggest Fantastic Four story ever, so we'd see what that finally looked like.
Superman #1 (DC)
Tomasi and Gleason reprise their Batman and Robin act, this time on the grand stage. Once again, a DC icon has a son struggling with his place in the world, and once again, Tomasi and Gleason are ready to knock it out of the park. I couldn't be happier for them. The story starts out pretty heavily focused on Superman, but then we meet his son Jonathan, who is struggling with his new powers. This was something Tomasi and Gleason touched on in Batman and Robin, when Damian briefly gained superpowers in the wake of his resurrection. It's one thing to have an indomitable youth on your hands. It's another when it's Superman's son. All these years, whenever someone wanted to tell a story about the young Superman, it was always the exception, and then more often than not something glossed over until he hit puberty and, in some continuities, became Superboy. This is the first time we'll see it play out in an ongoing capacity. Framed as Superman's son, this is an intriguing opportunity, and again, Tomasi and Gleason are well up to the task. They know when they need to provide dialogue, and when the story speaks for itself. Anyway, I'm hugely, hugely glad this is happening, no matter how long it lasts.
Titans: Rebirth #1 (DC)
The return of Wally West continues, as he reconnects with his oldest friends, the original Teen Titans, in a series of encounters that prove all over again how personal these DC stories are to these characters, and how they can connect on an emotional level with fans, too.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Superman: Rebirth #1 (DC)
I've made few bones about how much I loved Tomasi and Gleason's Batman & Robin. As far as I was concerned, it was the definitive Batman of the New 52 era. This went against the grain, for fans obsessed with Snyder's work. I never cared. I didn't overlook Gleason's follow-up in Robin: Son of Batman, either. And neither did DC. Because now Patrick Gleason is joining Peter J. Tomasi as co-writer in a more high-profile project. Namely, Superman.
This launch issue features the art of Doug Mahnke (always a stand-out), but the series will feature Gleason pulling double duty as co-writer and artist. For now, you can forget about the fact that the series will feature Tomasi and Gleason creating father-and-son comics again, because this one's all about the father, and bridging a few gaps.
The Convergence Superman, last featured in the pages of Superman: Lois & Clark and Tomasi's Superman #52, is the '90s Superman in his next logical incarnation: as a father. The post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman reboot saw the Man of Steel finally get married to Lois Lane. The big thing that never happened was the happy couple rounding out their family with a child. The soft post-millennium reboot that preceded the New 52 broke off from the continuity that had guided the '90s, effectively postponing if not outright removing that possibility from ever happening. Then Convergence happened, and the '90s Superman returned. In Superman: Lois & Clark, he adopted a black costume variant not unlike the one he sported in the wake of his return from death at the hands of Doomsday.
Tomasi and Gleason don't go over all of that, but they acknowledge the Doomsday event, something that for all intents and purposes didn't exist in the New 52 (fans tend to ignore that Grant Morrison alluded to it in his Action Comics run), and how the Convergence Superman is forced to reveal himself more than ever before on a world he's tried to stay out of the way of in deference to its Superman.
If that sounds complicated, it really isn't, and Tomasi and Gleason explain it probably better than I could.
The issue is all about how the old Superman must decide to take up his replacement's mantle, more or less. It's the ongoing series that will delve into his parental adventures. Which is just as well. If I made it sound complicated, it's because it really did need to be explained.
The problem with a lot of the New 52 Superman stories is that the continuity was frequently getting in the way, even though the results were supposed to be exactly the opposite. I mean, that was the whole point of the New 52. But a series of creative teams meant continuity was an issue. So having a backup Superman, with a backstory rich enough but also suddenly streamlined (you won't have to worry about everything that came before) means a Superman who will once again be easy to follow.
And if that's not good enough, Tomasi and Gleason will be doing what they do best: stories about family. Really, that's what's always made Superman great.
This launch issue features the art of Doug Mahnke (always a stand-out), but the series will feature Gleason pulling double duty as co-writer and artist. For now, you can forget about the fact that the series will feature Tomasi and Gleason creating father-and-son comics again, because this one's all about the father, and bridging a few gaps.
The Convergence Superman, last featured in the pages of Superman: Lois & Clark and Tomasi's Superman #52, is the '90s Superman in his next logical incarnation: as a father. The post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman reboot saw the Man of Steel finally get married to Lois Lane. The big thing that never happened was the happy couple rounding out their family with a child. The soft post-millennium reboot that preceded the New 52 broke off from the continuity that had guided the '90s, effectively postponing if not outright removing that possibility from ever happening. Then Convergence happened, and the '90s Superman returned. In Superman: Lois & Clark, he adopted a black costume variant not unlike the one he sported in the wake of his return from death at the hands of Doomsday.
Tomasi and Gleason don't go over all of that, but they acknowledge the Doomsday event, something that for all intents and purposes didn't exist in the New 52 (fans tend to ignore that Grant Morrison alluded to it in his Action Comics run), and how the Convergence Superman is forced to reveal himself more than ever before on a world he's tried to stay out of the way of in deference to its Superman.
If that sounds complicated, it really isn't, and Tomasi and Gleason explain it probably better than I could.
The issue is all about how the old Superman must decide to take up his replacement's mantle, more or less. It's the ongoing series that will delve into his parental adventures. Which is just as well. If I made it sound complicated, it's because it really did need to be explained.
The problem with a lot of the New 52 Superman stories is that the continuity was frequently getting in the way, even though the results were supposed to be exactly the opposite. I mean, that was the whole point of the New 52. But a series of creative teams meant continuity was an issue. So having a backup Superman, with a backstory rich enough but also suddenly streamlined (you won't have to worry about everything that came before) means a Superman who will once again be easy to follow.
And if that's not good enough, Tomasi and Gleason will be doing what they do best: stories about family. Really, that's what's always made Superman great.
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Superman #52 (DC)
I haven't been following the complete "Final Days of Superman," the Peter J. Tomasi epic that rounds out, as much as any other story, the New 52 era. The conclusion speaks for itself, however, so I'm not too worried.
In it, Superman is confronted by a doppelganger it takes everything he has to defeat. Quite literally. This issue counts as the official second death of Superman.
This is as clear a metaphor of the New 52 era as there could possibly be. Grant Morrison helped launch it with the second Action Comics #1, presenting a new vision of Superman. A series of writers within the pages of Superman itself attempted to keep up, and none of them, and indeed including Morrison himself, proved to produce that definitive New 52 Superman in quite the manner fans found with Scott Snyder's Batman.
So it's only fitting that, out of Convergence emerged a third Superman to contend with in this issue. Technically, he's been running around the pages of Lois & Clark, but for all intents and purposes (because, I believe, he'll be the star of Tomasi and Patrick Gleason's Rebirth-era Superman), this is his debut, in this epic clash of Supermen.
The solar flare power Geoff Johns introduced, and which has been driving Superman comics ever since, becomes a crucial element in how Tomasi concludes his epic. The would-be Superman, Denny Swan (a name that combines Denny O'Neil and Curt Swan, two iconic DC creators), has now superseded Ulysses, another would-be Superman Johns introduced and previously featured in "Final Days of Superman," can only be defeated by this new power. Which, because of circumstances, will prove deadly, should Superman use it again.
Of course he does. And the Convergence Superman chooses this opportunity to finally reveal himself to the world. It's kind of perfect.
Helping pull all this off is Mikel Janin, whose work was fascinating within the pages of Grayson, and so it's great to see him given such an opportunity to truly let his work shine. He absolutely nails it. This is some of the best Superman art in ages. He'll next be seen in the pages of Tom King's Batman. Couldn't be happier for him.
With that, in a way, Tomasi closes the book on the New 52.
In it, Superman is confronted by a doppelganger it takes everything he has to defeat. Quite literally. This issue counts as the official second death of Superman.
This is as clear a metaphor of the New 52 era as there could possibly be. Grant Morrison helped launch it with the second Action Comics #1, presenting a new vision of Superman. A series of writers within the pages of Superman itself attempted to keep up, and none of them, and indeed including Morrison himself, proved to produce that definitive New 52 Superman in quite the manner fans found with Scott Snyder's Batman.
So it's only fitting that, out of Convergence emerged a third Superman to contend with in this issue. Technically, he's been running around the pages of Lois & Clark, but for all intents and purposes (because, I believe, he'll be the star of Tomasi and Patrick Gleason's Rebirth-era Superman), this is his debut, in this epic clash of Supermen.
The solar flare power Geoff Johns introduced, and which has been driving Superman comics ever since, becomes a crucial element in how Tomasi concludes his epic. The would-be Superman, Denny Swan (a name that combines Denny O'Neil and Curt Swan, two iconic DC creators), has now superseded Ulysses, another would-be Superman Johns introduced and previously featured in "Final Days of Superman," can only be defeated by this new power. Which, because of circumstances, will prove deadly, should Superman use it again.
Of course he does. And the Convergence Superman chooses this opportunity to finally reveal himself to the world. It's kind of perfect.
Helping pull all this off is Mikel Janin, whose work was fascinating within the pages of Grayson, and so it's great to see him given such an opportunity to truly let his work shine. He absolutely nails it. This is some of the best Superman art in ages. He'll next be seen in the pages of Tom King's Batman. Couldn't be happier for him.
With that, in a way, Tomasi closes the book on the New 52.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Quarter Bin 75 "Some old, some new"
This is a back issue feature. The title is not always literal.
Recently I dipped back into the same comics pack source I hit a few weeks back, and came up with some stuff I'd already read, and some new stuff, too (hence, the title). But let's just dive in, shall we?
Detective Comics #1 (DC)
From 2011.
These packs featured some reprints geared toward the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. You can tell, because the reprints have ads for the movie littered throughout them. I'm glad this was one of the reprints, because it's a reminder that Tony Daniel was still writing Batman at the start of the New 52. He's one of the many artists DC has helped transition into writing. He was Grant Morrison's artist from "Batman, R.I.P.," which led to him writing Batman before the New 52 relaunch. He brought the same stuff to Detective Comics, including the character responsible for the Joker's grizzly new look ("look ma! no skin on my face!"). But fans by that point hopped on the Scott Snyder bandwagon (Snyder had been writing Detective Comics, so it was a flip flop that worked extremely well for one of them). Daniel's work on Batman is by no means lousy. But I guess it couldn't compete with Snyder's. Like Snyder, he was keenly interested in creating new villains. But again, I guess Snyder just did it better.
Batman Eternal #2 (DC)
From June 2014.
The weekly series Snyder and sidekick James Tynion IV launched featured some good storytelling, although perhaps it failed to be considered as iconic because its storytelling was less precise (I mean, like Geoff Johns on Green Lantern before him, Snyder managed to make a crossover arc of every story). This second issue features Jim Gordon in trouble with the law. The oddest thing is that Eternal really had nothing to do with Snyder's work in Batman itself. They existed as two separate entities, and weaved visions that really had nothing to do with each other. Eternal was a gimme to the fans, and Batman was busy making new ones. I guess it makes sense...
Batman #41 (DC)
From August 2015.
Featuring the debut of Commissioner Batman, this was among the most recent issues included in the packs. It still strikes me that Snyder basically parodied the whole "Knight Quest"/"Reign of the Supermen"/Doctor Spider-Man concept. He knew from the start that fans wouldn't really buy Gordon as Batman, and yet went with it anyway. Took real guts. But by this point, he literally could get away with anything, and he knew it.
Batman: Arkham Knight #1 (DC)
From 2015.
Based on the series of video games, this is part of a series of mini-series that weave a story around them (like the following title). Peter J. Tomasi, at his best, is among the best. But he's not always at his best. Sometimes, he's merely functional. That's what he is in this.
Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Two Annual #1 (DC)
From December 2014.
Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Three #1 (DC)
From December 2014.
These are based on a fighting game, but the reality they pose might as well come from Batman's fever dream in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. They posit a Superman gone wildly out of control, attempting to bring order to Earth as a despot. The best story in these issues features Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Sinestro, in a dynamic that's reminiscent of how Geoff Johns depicted them. Also featured: Detective Chimp. But not nearly enough of him!
Justice League #1 (DC)
From 2011.
This reprint features the beginning of Geoff Johns' seminal introduction of the team at the start of the New 52 era. I've been an eager champion of this from the beginning, but it was fun to read it again (and incidentally, this is the fourth time I've purchased this story; one time was in the collection). After rereading Frank Miller and Jim Lee's All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder recently, it was fun to see how Johns and Lee did a variation on the Batman/Green Lantern confrontation, and how it, and its relation to Miller and Lee's work, helped set the tone of the series. Some really great stuff.
Justice League of America #1 (DC)
From August 2015.
I read this issue when it was originally released. Reading it again was to find it better than I remembered. I mean, I liked it then, too, but to read it from a time when I know Bryan Hitch will be handling the DC Rebirth Justice League is to know the title will be in good hands. So that was good to find out.
Superman #32 (DC)
From 2014.
The start of the Johns/Romita era is an exceptional as I remember it. Johns was truly at the top of his Superman game in this run, and he was no slouch the last time. The Ulysses character apparently plays a role in Tomasi's "Super League" arc that's helping to round out the New 52 era. He's basically Johns' new Superboy Prime. That's good, too.
Action Comics #36 (DC)
From January 2015.
Greg Pak's Superman just doesn't do it for me. Although I love Superman sporting a beard.
Superman/Wonder Woman #1 (DC)
From December 2013.
I became such a fanboy of Charles Soule's at that time, it's fun revisiting some of that time. I thought the concept of this relationship was one of the genius moves of the New 52, but I guess it was something DC was just as quick to shut down, because the "Truth" arc wasn't especially kind to it. Doomsday was a busy monster at that time, too. Since I didn't read further issues of this story, or the complete "Doomed," I only know so much of what the monster was up to. I don't even know if the arcs were related! Oh well...Oh further note is the course of journeyman artist...Tony Daniel! He ended up bouncing from project to project. But at least DC kept finding work for him!
Superman Unchained #1 (DC)
From August 2013.
It's funny, because ads for Man of Steel can be found in this issue, and so I guess everything comes full circle. Snyder and Lee, reporting for duty. But I'm not sure what either accomplished with this project. Certainly there's evidence of more important work elsewhere in this edition of Quarter Bin...
Recently I dipped back into the same comics pack source I hit a few weeks back, and came up with some stuff I'd already read, and some new stuff, too (hence, the title). But let's just dive in, shall we?
Detective Comics #1 (DC)
From 2011.
These packs featured some reprints geared toward the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. You can tell, because the reprints have ads for the movie littered throughout them. I'm glad this was one of the reprints, because it's a reminder that Tony Daniel was still writing Batman at the start of the New 52. He's one of the many artists DC has helped transition into writing. He was Grant Morrison's artist from "Batman, R.I.P.," which led to him writing Batman before the New 52 relaunch. He brought the same stuff to Detective Comics, including the character responsible for the Joker's grizzly new look ("look ma! no skin on my face!"). But fans by that point hopped on the Scott Snyder bandwagon (Snyder had been writing Detective Comics, so it was a flip flop that worked extremely well for one of them). Daniel's work on Batman is by no means lousy. But I guess it couldn't compete with Snyder's. Like Snyder, he was keenly interested in creating new villains. But again, I guess Snyder just did it better.
Batman Eternal #2 (DC)
From June 2014.
The weekly series Snyder and sidekick James Tynion IV launched featured some good storytelling, although perhaps it failed to be considered as iconic because its storytelling was less precise (I mean, like Geoff Johns on Green Lantern before him, Snyder managed to make a crossover arc of every story). This second issue features Jim Gordon in trouble with the law. The oddest thing is that Eternal really had nothing to do with Snyder's work in Batman itself. They existed as two separate entities, and weaved visions that really had nothing to do with each other. Eternal was a gimme to the fans, and Batman was busy making new ones. I guess it makes sense...
Batman #41 (DC)
From August 2015.
Featuring the debut of Commissioner Batman, this was among the most recent issues included in the packs. It still strikes me that Snyder basically parodied the whole "Knight Quest"/"Reign of the Supermen"/Doctor Spider-Man concept. He knew from the start that fans wouldn't really buy Gordon as Batman, and yet went with it anyway. Took real guts. But by this point, he literally could get away with anything, and he knew it.
Batman: Arkham Knight #1 (DC)
From 2015.
Based on the series of video games, this is part of a series of mini-series that weave a story around them (like the following title). Peter J. Tomasi, at his best, is among the best. But he's not always at his best. Sometimes, he's merely functional. That's what he is in this.
Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Two Annual #1 (DC)
From December 2014.
Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Three #1 (DC)
From December 2014.
These are based on a fighting game, but the reality they pose might as well come from Batman's fever dream in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. They posit a Superman gone wildly out of control, attempting to bring order to Earth as a despot. The best story in these issues features Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Sinestro, in a dynamic that's reminiscent of how Geoff Johns depicted them. Also featured: Detective Chimp. But not nearly enough of him!
Justice League #1 (DC)
From 2011.
This reprint features the beginning of Geoff Johns' seminal introduction of the team at the start of the New 52 era. I've been an eager champion of this from the beginning, but it was fun to read it again (and incidentally, this is the fourth time I've purchased this story; one time was in the collection). After rereading Frank Miller and Jim Lee's All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder recently, it was fun to see how Johns and Lee did a variation on the Batman/Green Lantern confrontation, and how it, and its relation to Miller and Lee's work, helped set the tone of the series. Some really great stuff.
Justice League of America #1 (DC)
From August 2015.
I read this issue when it was originally released. Reading it again was to find it better than I remembered. I mean, I liked it then, too, but to read it from a time when I know Bryan Hitch will be handling the DC Rebirth Justice League is to know the title will be in good hands. So that was good to find out.
Superman #32 (DC)
From 2014.
The start of the Johns/Romita era is an exceptional as I remember it. Johns was truly at the top of his Superman game in this run, and he was no slouch the last time. The Ulysses character apparently plays a role in Tomasi's "Super League" arc that's helping to round out the New 52 era. He's basically Johns' new Superboy Prime. That's good, too.
Action Comics #36 (DC)
From January 2015.
Greg Pak's Superman just doesn't do it for me. Although I love Superman sporting a beard.
Superman/Wonder Woman #1 (DC)
From December 2013.
I became such a fanboy of Charles Soule's at that time, it's fun revisiting some of that time. I thought the concept of this relationship was one of the genius moves of the New 52, but I guess it was something DC was just as quick to shut down, because the "Truth" arc wasn't especially kind to it. Doomsday was a busy monster at that time, too. Since I didn't read further issues of this story, or the complete "Doomed," I only know so much of what the monster was up to. I don't even know if the arcs were related! Oh well...Oh further note is the course of journeyman artist...Tony Daniel! He ended up bouncing from project to project. But at least DC kept finding work for him!
Superman Unchained #1 (DC)
From August 2013.
It's funny, because ads for Man of Steel can be found in this issue, and so I guess everything comes full circle. Snyder and Lee, reporting for duty. But I'm not sure what either accomplished with this project. Certainly there's evidence of more important work elsewhere in this edition of Quarter Bin...
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Quarter Bin 68 "Grant Morrison, etc."
This is a back issue feature, which features all these this edition: The Filth #6, Green Lantern (1990) #1 and 46, Green Lantern Corps #38, The Helmet of Fate: Zauriel #1, The Invisibles #6, Justice League America #74, JLA Classified #45, JSA #81, Legion of Super-Heroes #0, Marvels #1, The Mighty #1, Millennium #5, Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere #3, Starman #46, Adventures of Superman Annual #5, All Star Superman #1 and 5, Sweet Tooth #13, Tangent: Superman's Reign #12, Wisdom #1, and New X-Men #149.
The Filth #6 (Vertigo)
From 2002.
I have previously owned the entire Filth collection. When I purged a vast amount of my things two years ago, this and Supergods didn't survive, despite my professed great admiration for Grant Morrison. There are limits to everything. When I originally read the complete Filth, I was in a different place. I was still in the midst of figuring out what exactly it was I liked about Morrison. Turns out, I like it best when he's not trying so hard to be weird. Stuff like this and his current Nameless are definitely Morrison trying hard to be weird. And the thing about Filth is even when I reread this particular issue, I had some thoughts about what helped make it seem less like Morrison trying hard to be weird, but now I've forgotten. So again I'll walk away from it and not wonder whether I'm missing something crucial. I guess it's supposed to be social commentary, and not necessarily about, well, filth, and maybe how some people really do try too hard. And so maybe Morrison took on Filth in full irony. I think I read once that it is or was his personal favorite, and at one point I described it myself as possibly the Invisibles experience condensed...Still, obviously personally, I've backed off from it, and I think Morrison has done a lot of stuff since then that's far superior, not just Joe the Barbarian and Annihilator, but...I mean, even Seven Soldiers is in some ways Filth repackaged. Made better. Moving on...
Green Lantern #1 (DC)
From 1990.
It seems odd to think today that Hal Jordan ever had a problem being the headlining Green Lantern act. I mean, other than everyone who wants the cinematic Green Lantern to be John Stewart (mostly because of the animated Justice League adventures where he was). And yet there was a considerable period where Green Lantern had in fact been retitled Green Lantern Corps, and this particular reboot was all about Hal taking back the spotlight. It was also the debut of the white temple look, which Geoff Johns later retconned as the first indication of Parallax taking control. The Hal in this issue is drawn directly from the Green Lantern/Green Arrow era. I mean, Hal was regularly depicted as bucking authority and reluctant to be a good little Green Lantern, which was the whole reason Guy Gardner and John Stewart had rings to begin with, but this was making it not just a phase, but a defining part of his character. Sticking around, being Green Lantern, and still fretting about all that. And this was the beginning of the modern era, too. The franchise was in fact about to begin. Guy and John both got their own ongoing series before long, and they were in this issue to assert their continuing presence from the start. And to think, fifty issues in and everything would change...
Green Lantern #46 (DC)
From 1993.
I don't know who decided to begin a new Green Lantern on the heels of Superman's big death-and-return saga, but they were a genius. How often does that happen, linking one such event to another, however tangentially? Mongul and Cyborg Superman incidentally destroy Coast City at the end of "Reign of the Supermen," which is Hal's city, and it drops him off the deep end. In this issue, it looks like he might be able to get over it. He gets his revenge on Mongul, he's the one who gets to defeat the other major villain of the big Superman climax. And it still ends up resulting in "Emerald Twilight," the end of Green Lantern as it had existed as a property since the dawn of the Silver Age...and yeah, eventually, Hal's big redemption and the return of everything, supersized...But at this point, the next issue is the last Green Lantern/Green Arrow team-up (in its original combination; strangely even upon Hal's return it's never happened again). To me, this moment has always stood as about as iconic as "Emerald Twilight" itself. The original Green Lantern trade collections of that time never included it. There were separate "Emerald Twilight" and "New Dawn" (the start of the Kyle Rayner era), and then "Emerald Twilight"/"New Dawn" collections. And this major component of the story was left out. Every time. I don't know, did the "Reign of the Supermen" collections include it?
Green Lantern Corps #38 (DC)
From 2009.
This is from the Tomasi/Gleason era that kicked off the series, the best non-Johns Green Lantern comics from that time, and enhanced in hindsight by their later collaboration in Batman and Robin, which was a definite amplification of their efforts. So good, in fact, that I tend to forget what their GLC was actually like, other than the distinctive presence of Soranik Natu (this issue she tries to erase her just as distinctive face tattoo because it's a constant reminder of her father...Sinestro). The Guardians are ramping up to going totally insane, executing bad guys, with the Corps somehow having a problem with that. But it's that cover that is the best thing about the issue. Not totally relevant to the contents, but it's strong Pat Gleason all the same, before Gleason truly came into his own (again, Batman and Robin). It's not my favorite cover from this selection of back issues, however. We'll get to that.
The Helmet of Fate: Zauriel #1 (DC)
From 2007)
This was a part of the late Steve Gerber's last big project, an attempted reboot of Doctor Fate. Gerber's legacy will arguably always be Howard the Duck, which luckily these days once again means a good thing. I read the complete Helmet of Fate at the time of its original publication, so it was good to revisit. Zauriel was one of the less obscure characters featured in this kind of condensed Seven Soldiers (the issue recaps every other encounter to that point, which was actually the last before the intended big payoff). Zauriel was a Grant Morrison creation from the pages of JLA, a literal angel, a surrogate Hawkman (several reboot attempts from that period had soured that particular character, who would need a dramatic comeback within Geoff Johns' JSA in order to become relevant again), and his story is ably recapped in the issue as well. He got a new incarnation in the New 52 in the pages of Phantom Stranger, but it's not quite the same.
The Invisibles #6 (Vertigo)
From 1994.
You know what's ironic? Every time I randomly come across a back issue of Invisibles, it's always from the Say You Want a Revolution collection, the first volume of the series. And that's awful, in a way, because Say You Want includes the most of what I've read from one of Grant Morrison's early seminal works. And darn it if I don't want to read something else from it!
Maybe there's a message in that?
In the meantime, I'll instead talk here about the On the Ledge feature in the back of the issue, the Vertigo press page that speaks about the Paradox Press experiment, which today is known, if for anything at all, for Road to Perdition, which later became a Tom Hanks movie. But this hype feature also references Jerome Charyn in Paradox Press's stable of writers. Years later, Charyn became a favorite writer of mine, and it amused me to learn that he sometimes dabbles in comics, and apparently, so I learned here, he was in fact part of the Paradox Press experiment. The result was published in 1995, Family Man. I will read that at some point.
Justice League America #74 (DC)
From 1993.
This issue is the reason there are fans who think Bloodwynd was in fact Martian Manhunter all along. That's because at the end of the issue, that's exactly what it seems like. Apparently all those fans never read the next issue, which explains what's really going on (maybe comics just shouldn't try and confuse readers so often...). Bloodwynd's always been a favorite of mine. He's the Dan Jurgens creation not named Booster Gold, and for my mine, infinitely more fascinating. And yet he's got a scant publishing history, and it was Grant Morrison himself who explained why in the pages of Supergods, calling him a example of the worst the '90s had to offer. But then Morrison himself dragged Bloodwynd back into comics in the pages of The Multiversity.
And you want to know the saddest thing about Bloodwynd? This is his only spotlight cover, and you can't even see his face! Okay, that's a total lie. That face is splashed across Justice League America #88. But still! I've said all along, he's a great character. Time to help everyone else realize that, I say.
JLA Classified #45 (DC)
From 2007.
Speaking of Martian Manhunter, this is my favorite cover from this selection, and it was instantly one of my favorites at the time of its original publication, too. The contents are pretty good, part of the "Ghosts of Mars" arc that was part of the foundation of the character becoming one of my all-times favorites. The material at that time was the strongest in the character's history. And it's absolutely, so far as I'm concerned, the basis for the new ongoing series.
JSA #81 (DC)
From 2005.
This is pretty far into Geoff Johns' JSA, but I figure if it's before the Justice Society of America reboot (where I read every issue), but it's a good issue to randomly read because it puts Stargirl, Courtney Whitmore, in the spotlight, who was also the first character Johns ever wrote for DC, in the pages of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. The issue, in fact, delves deeply into Stargirl's world, so it's almost a complete reprise/update of the prior series, so all around it's a nice one to have chosen (there were several others available), if not randomly sampling one of Johns' formative arcs (I've done that; it's not as easy to be satisfied that way) then to definitely catch it at its best.
Legion of Super-Heroes #0 (DC)
From 1994.
One of my ambitions is to own the complete Stuart Immonen Superman. I'd planned to chronicle the run here at Comics Reader, but I don't have that kind of readership, alas. Anyway, Immonen made his mark at DC, originally, within the pages of Legion, and he was suited to that in the original clean look he had at this time in his career, before he talked himself, or allowed others to talk him, into a busier look. I sampled the Legion books (including Legionnaires) a lot during that time, and I'm certain now that I had this in my collection (until an earlier purge than the one referenced above), so I had already begun appreciating Immonen before I realized it. But I didn't stick around Legion, so I in fact officially discovered Immonen in the pages of Superman comics. Just so you don't wonder, I don't intend to track down the complete Immonen Legion, too...
Marvels #1 (Marvel)
From 1993.
One of the most famous comics of the '90s, this was also the epitome of Marvel's self-mythologizing, not just a character, but its entire line, the fictional version of Stan Lee, as it were. I've always wanted to read it. The first issue, it turns out, is not wildly impressive. Photographer Phil Sheldon is a wimpy lead character, not exactly the Norman McCay of Kingdom Come. Devised to be an everyman observing Marvel's giants from street level, Phil Sheldon is instead a Jimmy Olsen/Peter Parker who otherwise has nothing interesting going for him, just a random romance. Yes, there are three other issues to the story, but I'm not as interested, now, to read the rest of the story. The depictions of Namor, the Human Torch, and Captain America are a mixed bag. The Human Torch is easily the superhero who comes off best. But if later superheroes are treated more like Namor, who blows up the realism of the approach, it kind of ruins the concept. And anyway, it was as much if not more so the art of Alex Ross that made Marvels such a sensation.
Curiously, Marvels, other than the stories of mini-series of Jeph Loeb (incredibly, Captain America: White is finally, finally on the publishing schedule, with a September debut, after the preview released in...2008), remains the lone example of Marvel taking an actual sober approach to superheroes. Other than random issues of Ed Brubaker's Captain America, further examples just don't exist. And that's why I'm a DC guy.
The Mighty #1 (DC)
From 2009.
Until Batman and Robin, this was my first indication that Peter Tomasi would be a truly exceptional writer. The Mighty is one of those rare creator-owned projects published under the DC banner (Chris Claremont's Sovereign Seven was another...and I can't think of a third), and it's also one of the best alternate Superman stories ever told. Curiously, at the time there was considerable competition. Mark Waid's Irredeemable was one, and The Life and Times of Savior 28, from J.M. DeMatteis, was the other. Yet The Mighty jumped out from the pack. There was talk of a movie adaptation. IDW later put out the trade collection. Turns out from this revisit, it really stands up. So next time I have an opportunity to pick up the complete collection, I just might...
Millennium #5 (DC)
From 1987.
This was the Manhunters event, the third big DC crossover event after Crisis On Infinite Earths and Legends. But as I now realize, maybe it was also an attempt to capitalize on the New Age guru sensation, because that's what's going on in this particular issue, and it confuses me, otherwise, a great deal, to see that going on in the middle of a big DC crossover event. And so even though it's the big Manhunters event that helped establish them, I've probably read about all I need to from it, I really have. Because it's baffling. I guess I perhaps should have known how confusing it was, because I already knew Millennium featured the big Manhunters story as a story of infiltration. Which otherwise, conceptually, makes little sense in Manhunters context.
Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere #3 (Vertigo)
From 2005.
As the title suggests, this is a Neil Gaiman story, actually an adaption of his first novel, the career shift that helped establish him as a cultural phenomenon. Comic books fans will always consider Gaiman's legacy unquestionably to be Sandman, but readers at large, and movie audiences, wouldn't know him unless he'd made the transition to prose. It wasn't until American Gods, arguably, that he had his true breakthrough. I remember when Neverwhere was released. I never got around to reading it myself, so I figured sampling the comic book adaption might give me an idea what it was like. And I guess it's really obvious that Gaiman hadn't yet shaken himself out of the comic book mode, because if this issue of this adaptation is any indication, he wasn't quite ready yet. It's too busy, too unfocused. The main character becomes lost in the shuffle. In Sandman, the main character was always lost in the shuffle, and in that context, it made absolute sense. But Gaiman eventually figured out that in books, the rules are different. Unless you've got something to say creatively. With Neverwhere, I don't think he did.
Starman #46 (DC)
From 1998.
Starman is another thing I want to read in total at some point, ideally catching up with the rest of the omnibus collections (I've read the fifth volume) because James Robinson provides extensive commentaries in those. I picked this issue at random because it was a "Times Past" issue, so there was no chance of catching a story midstream, and because "Times Past," as well as the "Conversations with David" issues, was one of the best things about the series, the reasoning behind which is actually explain in this issue's letters column. Although of note is acknowledging original artist Tony Harris's departure from the series. He later collaborated with Brian K. Vaughan on Ex Machina, and Robinson managed to muscle his way through the rest of the series even though it got progressively less fun as, well, time passed. Because this issue also acknowledges the death of original editor and DC icon Archie Goodwin, who was also the reason the series happened at all. So this was an excellent random issue to sample.
Adventures of Superman Annual #5 (DC)
From 1993.
From the Bloodlines event that attempted to present an entire new generation of superheroes, perhaps rightly criticized, so I later discovered, as trying desperately to cash in on the budding Image phenomenon. But I found a bunch of characters I loved from it, including Sparx, who would go on to costar in Superboy and the Ravers, one of my all-time favorite comic books. What's fascinating about Sparx, and was hardly capitalized on outside of this debut, is that she comes from a whole family of metahumans, who apparently needed to activate their powers (presumably no two alike). Donna Carol "D.C." Force somewhat rashly, along with the dubious consent of her Uncle Harry, chooses the alien parasites going around activating new superheroes during Bloodlines. Also in this issue is Superboy, and this is actually at the end of the "Reign of the Supermen," literally, apparently taking place just before the final battle with Cyborg Superman.
But as much as I love Sparx, the most amusing thing in this issue is an add for Zero Hour way, way in advance. I mean, Superboy didn't even have his own series yet, and Superboy #8 was released the month every DC title started interacting with the event. Moving on...
All Star Superman #1 and 5 (DC)
From 2006.
Wait, they sold me a FCBD release? Unscrupulous merchants! Actually, that's pretty common in the back issue trade, alas. Anyway, this is what is commonly considered one of Grant Morrison's definite works. And I liked it just fine at the time (in the annual QB50s, it went from 12 to 37 to 17 from 2006-2008, always playing second-fiddle to Geoff Johns' Action Comics, among other material).
What strikes me about it now, especially All Star Superman #5, which ties in with what I'll be talking about a few comics later (the last one, in fact, to assure you that this is not an infinite list of nonsense), is how Morrison handles the villain, who in this case is Lex Luthor. The whole idea behind All Star Superman was to create an iconic, and perhaps to say definitive, version of the Superman mythos. Which makes this Lex Luthor all the more interesting. This Lex is strictly interested in his Superman obsession because he sees himself as a world-conqueror Superman has blocked from fulfilling his ambitions. I'm not sure how I should feel about that. I like nuanced characters. I love Geoff Johns' Lex Luthor in the pages of Justice League. This is not that Lex. He's in fact about as brilliant as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan's eponymous villain, with clear holes in his logic and not nearly as threatening as he seems. Which is to say, all bark and no bite. Where Morrison's Superman is meant to be exactly the all-powerful Superman that everyone has always the character is and therefore completely unrelatable...his Lex is in fact all but the exact opposite.
Which is actually kind of fascinating, when you think about it...I've never reread the complete All Star Superman. That could be interesting.
It's also worth noting that the issue also features a promo section for a WildStorm reboot, the one that Morrison was supposed to be a significant part of, writing both WildCATs and The Authority. I know Keith Giffen ended up writing the latter almost immediately. The WildCATs experiment was even more brief. I didn't even remember about that one. There was also a Garth Ennis Midnighter series. Which surprisingly didn't really catch on. You'd think it would somehow be completely natural. But this was pretty much the end of WildStorm, so maybe the whole thing fizzling out isn't so surprising after all.
Sweet Tooth #13 (Vertigo)
From 2010.
This was one of Jeff Lemire's early signature works, along with the earlier Essex County. I remember when it launched, and it was impossible for me to think of it as anything other than the comic featuring the boy with the antlers. I never read it. Later, I finally did come to appreciate Lemire's brilliance (Descender), so I figured I'd finally sample Sweet Tooth. Turns out it's pretty interesting. Not having gotten into it originally, I really had no idea what the boy was doing having those antlers. Turns out it's a little like the second season of Dark Angel, a TV series I happen to love a great deal. I don't know if Lemire had Dark Angel in mind, or The Island of Dr. Moreau, or something else I don't currently know about. Either way, I guess this is to say, I really ought to read more Lemire.
Tangent: Superman's Reign #12 (DC)
From 2009.
Convergence brought back a lot of old concepts and eras, and I was happy to see Tangent Comics among them. This was an idea from the '90s that sought to recapture the feel of the dawn of the Silver Age (and, I guess, Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating...) by taking familiar names and reimagining them. I loved it. When it was revisited in the pages of Tangent: Superman's Reign, I loved it all over again, even though there was a significant attempt to broaden the appeal by bringing in the more familiar versions to sort everything out. Since the writer is Dan Jurgens, it features somewhat blunt storytelling, not exactly what you might have seen out of Tangent Superman in the pages of Convergence: The Flash (if you even knew clue one about Tangent Superman to begin with). I don't remember reading the conclusion to the mini-series originally. Although I didn't really miss much, other than the sacrifice of Tangent Batman. #sadpanda
Wisdom #1 (Marvel)
From 2006.
Paul Cornell's Captain Britain and MI13 was one of the series that made me a fan of Marvel (the other was Incredible Hercules) for a few years, just something with a vibe I'd never seen from the company before. It made me an immediate fan of Cornell, who I was happy to later read within the pages of Action Comics and Knight & Squire, not to mention Saucer Country. Then he went back to things more British-centric, like Doctor Who. Wisdom, as in Pete Wisdom, was Captain Britain's predecessor, with a sterling reputation but otherwise something I knew nothing about. I assumed it was a story about Pete Wisdom. But as it turns out, it's basically as deliberate a predecessor to Captain Britain as you can get, the exact same approach with only a variation of the cast of characters. So I guess I didn't miss anything wildly different. The other notable thing about Wisdom is artist Trevor Hairsine, whom I later enjoyed in the pages of Divinity. That's worth noting about Wisdom.
New X-Men #149 (Marvel)
From 2003.
And now we've reached the end. While discussing The Filth, I discussed that I have a more complicated history with Grant Morrison than it can sometimes seem. While discussing All Star Superman I was able to get into a little of how I don't necessarily always agree with his creative choices even when I don't find them particularly weird.
And here's where I concede a point to Marvel. Maybe they weren't wrong to retcon Morrison's X-Men run. This issue is late in the run and is just after Xorn, the mutant healer, was revealed to be Magneto all along. Morrison's Magneto is little different from Morrison's Lex Luthor. They're both evil. End of story. In fact, as of this issue Magneto has all but won. Like he does in Final Crisis, which is far different context but also wildly unpopular with fans, Morrison writes a story in which the bad guy manages to win. Whereas the story in comics never really advances, the X-Men in particular have tended to be stagnant (except when House of M forced them to advance to a more ludicrous point than even Morrison managed), so to see New X-Men reach a point like this must have been disconcerting to Marvel, not because Morrison revealed Xorn to be someone else all along, regardless of who that was, but because of what happened next.
Morrison's last X-Men arc was "Here Comes Tomorrow," his version of "Days of Future Past," presenting an outcome fraught with mutants everywhere. Yes, the mutants "win," but at great cost. This is the opposite of what he'd done with JLA, the model by which he'd been brought in with great fanfare. Except Morrison always goes for what he sees as the big picture, and his big picture is just about bigger than anyone's except maybe Geoff Johns. So having him do X-Men was probably a mistake to begin with, if Marvel wanted something more safe than it turned out to be.
And putting all that aside, back to Tony level, yes I had become a fan of Grant Morrison through JLA, like a lot of other fans, but when I had to break from comics at the start of the millennium, I found it difficult to get back into him, once I started reading again. I remember seeing New X-Men on the stands when I started wading back in 2004, and although I knew what was going on, I didn't want to read it. Even when Morrison helped kick off JLA Classified, I skipped that, too. I only came back with Seven Soldiers, and then in a very big way. Once I understood that Morrison's scope was bigger than anyone else's, at the time, I gave him the time of day. And I've rarely been disappointed since.
From 2002.
I have previously owned the entire Filth collection. When I purged a vast amount of my things two years ago, this and Supergods didn't survive, despite my professed great admiration for Grant Morrison. There are limits to everything. When I originally read the complete Filth, I was in a different place. I was still in the midst of figuring out what exactly it was I liked about Morrison. Turns out, I like it best when he's not trying so hard to be weird. Stuff like this and his current Nameless are definitely Morrison trying hard to be weird. And the thing about Filth is even when I reread this particular issue, I had some thoughts about what helped make it seem less like Morrison trying hard to be weird, but now I've forgotten. So again I'll walk away from it and not wonder whether I'm missing something crucial. I guess it's supposed to be social commentary, and not necessarily about, well, filth, and maybe how some people really do try too hard. And so maybe Morrison took on Filth in full irony. I think I read once that it is or was his personal favorite, and at one point I described it myself as possibly the Invisibles experience condensed...Still, obviously personally, I've backed off from it, and I think Morrison has done a lot of stuff since then that's far superior, not just Joe the Barbarian and Annihilator, but...I mean, even Seven Soldiers is in some ways Filth repackaged. Made better. Moving on...
From 1990.
It seems odd to think today that Hal Jordan ever had a problem being the headlining Green Lantern act. I mean, other than everyone who wants the cinematic Green Lantern to be John Stewart (mostly because of the animated Justice League adventures where he was). And yet there was a considerable period where Green Lantern had in fact been retitled Green Lantern Corps, and this particular reboot was all about Hal taking back the spotlight. It was also the debut of the white temple look, which Geoff Johns later retconned as the first indication of Parallax taking control. The Hal in this issue is drawn directly from the Green Lantern/Green Arrow era. I mean, Hal was regularly depicted as bucking authority and reluctant to be a good little Green Lantern, which was the whole reason Guy Gardner and John Stewart had rings to begin with, but this was making it not just a phase, but a defining part of his character. Sticking around, being Green Lantern, and still fretting about all that. And this was the beginning of the modern era, too. The franchise was in fact about to begin. Guy and John both got their own ongoing series before long, and they were in this issue to assert their continuing presence from the start. And to think, fifty issues in and everything would change...
From 1993.
I don't know who decided to begin a new Green Lantern on the heels of Superman's big death-and-return saga, but they were a genius. How often does that happen, linking one such event to another, however tangentially? Mongul and Cyborg Superman incidentally destroy Coast City at the end of "Reign of the Supermen," which is Hal's city, and it drops him off the deep end. In this issue, it looks like he might be able to get over it. He gets his revenge on Mongul, he's the one who gets to defeat the other major villain of the big Superman climax. And it still ends up resulting in "Emerald Twilight," the end of Green Lantern as it had existed as a property since the dawn of the Silver Age...and yeah, eventually, Hal's big redemption and the return of everything, supersized...But at this point, the next issue is the last Green Lantern/Green Arrow team-up (in its original combination; strangely even upon Hal's return it's never happened again). To me, this moment has always stood as about as iconic as "Emerald Twilight" itself. The original Green Lantern trade collections of that time never included it. There were separate "Emerald Twilight" and "New Dawn" (the start of the Kyle Rayner era), and then "Emerald Twilight"/"New Dawn" collections. And this major component of the story was left out. Every time. I don't know, did the "Reign of the Supermen" collections include it?
From 2009.
This is from the Tomasi/Gleason era that kicked off the series, the best non-Johns Green Lantern comics from that time, and enhanced in hindsight by their later collaboration in Batman and Robin, which was a definite amplification of their efforts. So good, in fact, that I tend to forget what their GLC was actually like, other than the distinctive presence of Soranik Natu (this issue she tries to erase her just as distinctive face tattoo because it's a constant reminder of her father...Sinestro). The Guardians are ramping up to going totally insane, executing bad guys, with the Corps somehow having a problem with that. But it's that cover that is the best thing about the issue. Not totally relevant to the contents, but it's strong Pat Gleason all the same, before Gleason truly came into his own (again, Batman and Robin). It's not my favorite cover from this selection of back issues, however. We'll get to that.
From 2007)
This was a part of the late Steve Gerber's last big project, an attempted reboot of Doctor Fate. Gerber's legacy will arguably always be Howard the Duck, which luckily these days once again means a good thing. I read the complete Helmet of Fate at the time of its original publication, so it was good to revisit. Zauriel was one of the less obscure characters featured in this kind of condensed Seven Soldiers (the issue recaps every other encounter to that point, which was actually the last before the intended big payoff). Zauriel was a Grant Morrison creation from the pages of JLA, a literal angel, a surrogate Hawkman (several reboot attempts from that period had soured that particular character, who would need a dramatic comeback within Geoff Johns' JSA in order to become relevant again), and his story is ably recapped in the issue as well. He got a new incarnation in the New 52 in the pages of Phantom Stranger, but it's not quite the same.
From 1994.
You know what's ironic? Every time I randomly come across a back issue of Invisibles, it's always from the Say You Want a Revolution collection, the first volume of the series. And that's awful, in a way, because Say You Want includes the most of what I've read from one of Grant Morrison's early seminal works. And darn it if I don't want to read something else from it!
Maybe there's a message in that?
In the meantime, I'll instead talk here about the On the Ledge feature in the back of the issue, the Vertigo press page that speaks about the Paradox Press experiment, which today is known, if for anything at all, for Road to Perdition, which later became a Tom Hanks movie. But this hype feature also references Jerome Charyn in Paradox Press's stable of writers. Years later, Charyn became a favorite writer of mine, and it amused me to learn that he sometimes dabbles in comics, and apparently, so I learned here, he was in fact part of the Paradox Press experiment. The result was published in 1995, Family Man. I will read that at some point.
From 1993.
This issue is the reason there are fans who think Bloodwynd was in fact Martian Manhunter all along. That's because at the end of the issue, that's exactly what it seems like. Apparently all those fans never read the next issue, which explains what's really going on (maybe comics just shouldn't try and confuse readers so often...). Bloodwynd's always been a favorite of mine. He's the Dan Jurgens creation not named Booster Gold, and for my mine, infinitely more fascinating. And yet he's got a scant publishing history, and it was Grant Morrison himself who explained why in the pages of Supergods, calling him a example of the worst the '90s had to offer. But then Morrison himself dragged Bloodwynd back into comics in the pages of The Multiversity.
And you want to know the saddest thing about Bloodwynd? This is his only spotlight cover, and you can't even see his face! Okay, that's a total lie. That face is splashed across Justice League America #88. But still! I've said all along, he's a great character. Time to help everyone else realize that, I say.
JLA Classified #45 (DC)
From 2007.
Speaking of Martian Manhunter, this is my favorite cover from this selection, and it was instantly one of my favorites at the time of its original publication, too. The contents are pretty good, part of the "Ghosts of Mars" arc that was part of the foundation of the character becoming one of my all-times favorites. The material at that time was the strongest in the character's history. And it's absolutely, so far as I'm concerned, the basis for the new ongoing series.
From 2005.
This is pretty far into Geoff Johns' JSA, but I figure if it's before the Justice Society of America reboot (where I read every issue), but it's a good issue to randomly read because it puts Stargirl, Courtney Whitmore, in the spotlight, who was also the first character Johns ever wrote for DC, in the pages of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. The issue, in fact, delves deeply into Stargirl's world, so it's almost a complete reprise/update of the prior series, so all around it's a nice one to have chosen (there were several others available), if not randomly sampling one of Johns' formative arcs (I've done that; it's not as easy to be satisfied that way) then to definitely catch it at its best.
From 1994.
One of my ambitions is to own the complete Stuart Immonen Superman. I'd planned to chronicle the run here at Comics Reader, but I don't have that kind of readership, alas. Anyway, Immonen made his mark at DC, originally, within the pages of Legion, and he was suited to that in the original clean look he had at this time in his career, before he talked himself, or allowed others to talk him, into a busier look. I sampled the Legion books (including Legionnaires) a lot during that time, and I'm certain now that I had this in my collection (until an earlier purge than the one referenced above), so I had already begun appreciating Immonen before I realized it. But I didn't stick around Legion, so I in fact officially discovered Immonen in the pages of Superman comics. Just so you don't wonder, I don't intend to track down the complete Immonen Legion, too...
From 1993.
One of the most famous comics of the '90s, this was also the epitome of Marvel's self-mythologizing, not just a character, but its entire line, the fictional version of Stan Lee, as it were. I've always wanted to read it. The first issue, it turns out, is not wildly impressive. Photographer Phil Sheldon is a wimpy lead character, not exactly the Norman McCay of Kingdom Come. Devised to be an everyman observing Marvel's giants from street level, Phil Sheldon is instead a Jimmy Olsen/Peter Parker who otherwise has nothing interesting going for him, just a random romance. Yes, there are three other issues to the story, but I'm not as interested, now, to read the rest of the story. The depictions of Namor, the Human Torch, and Captain America are a mixed bag. The Human Torch is easily the superhero who comes off best. But if later superheroes are treated more like Namor, who blows up the realism of the approach, it kind of ruins the concept. And anyway, it was as much if not more so the art of Alex Ross that made Marvels such a sensation.
Curiously, Marvels, other than the stories of mini-series of Jeph Loeb (incredibly, Captain America: White is finally, finally on the publishing schedule, with a September debut, after the preview released in...2008), remains the lone example of Marvel taking an actual sober approach to superheroes. Other than random issues of Ed Brubaker's Captain America, further examples just don't exist. And that's why I'm a DC guy.
From 2009.
Until Batman and Robin, this was my first indication that Peter Tomasi would be a truly exceptional writer. The Mighty is one of those rare creator-owned projects published under the DC banner (Chris Claremont's Sovereign Seven was another...and I can't think of a third), and it's also one of the best alternate Superman stories ever told. Curiously, at the time there was considerable competition. Mark Waid's Irredeemable was one, and The Life and Times of Savior 28, from J.M. DeMatteis, was the other. Yet The Mighty jumped out from the pack. There was talk of a movie adaptation. IDW later put out the trade collection. Turns out from this revisit, it really stands up. So next time I have an opportunity to pick up the complete collection, I just might...
From 1987.
This was the Manhunters event, the third big DC crossover event after Crisis On Infinite Earths and Legends. But as I now realize, maybe it was also an attempt to capitalize on the New Age guru sensation, because that's what's going on in this particular issue, and it confuses me, otherwise, a great deal, to see that going on in the middle of a big DC crossover event. And so even though it's the big Manhunters event that helped establish them, I've probably read about all I need to from it, I really have. Because it's baffling. I guess I perhaps should have known how confusing it was, because I already knew Millennium featured the big Manhunters story as a story of infiltration. Which otherwise, conceptually, makes little sense in Manhunters context.
From 2005.
As the title suggests, this is a Neil Gaiman story, actually an adaption of his first novel, the career shift that helped establish him as a cultural phenomenon. Comic books fans will always consider Gaiman's legacy unquestionably to be Sandman, but readers at large, and movie audiences, wouldn't know him unless he'd made the transition to prose. It wasn't until American Gods, arguably, that he had his true breakthrough. I remember when Neverwhere was released. I never got around to reading it myself, so I figured sampling the comic book adaption might give me an idea what it was like. And I guess it's really obvious that Gaiman hadn't yet shaken himself out of the comic book mode, because if this issue of this adaptation is any indication, he wasn't quite ready yet. It's too busy, too unfocused. The main character becomes lost in the shuffle. In Sandman, the main character was always lost in the shuffle, and in that context, it made absolute sense. But Gaiman eventually figured out that in books, the rules are different. Unless you've got something to say creatively. With Neverwhere, I don't think he did.
From 1998.
Starman is another thing I want to read in total at some point, ideally catching up with the rest of the omnibus collections (I've read the fifth volume) because James Robinson provides extensive commentaries in those. I picked this issue at random because it was a "Times Past" issue, so there was no chance of catching a story midstream, and because "Times Past," as well as the "Conversations with David" issues, was one of the best things about the series, the reasoning behind which is actually explain in this issue's letters column. Although of note is acknowledging original artist Tony Harris's departure from the series. He later collaborated with Brian K. Vaughan on Ex Machina, and Robinson managed to muscle his way through the rest of the series even though it got progressively less fun as, well, time passed. Because this issue also acknowledges the death of original editor and DC icon Archie Goodwin, who was also the reason the series happened at all. So this was an excellent random issue to sample.
From 1993.
From the Bloodlines event that attempted to present an entire new generation of superheroes, perhaps rightly criticized, so I later discovered, as trying desperately to cash in on the budding Image phenomenon. But I found a bunch of characters I loved from it, including Sparx, who would go on to costar in Superboy and the Ravers, one of my all-time favorite comic books. What's fascinating about Sparx, and was hardly capitalized on outside of this debut, is that she comes from a whole family of metahumans, who apparently needed to activate their powers (presumably no two alike). Donna Carol "D.C." Force somewhat rashly, along with the dubious consent of her Uncle Harry, chooses the alien parasites going around activating new superheroes during Bloodlines. Also in this issue is Superboy, and this is actually at the end of the "Reign of the Supermen," literally, apparently taking place just before the final battle with Cyborg Superman.
But as much as I love Sparx, the most amusing thing in this issue is an add for Zero Hour way, way in advance. I mean, Superboy didn't even have his own series yet, and Superboy #8 was released the month every DC title started interacting with the event. Moving on...
From 2006.
Wait, they sold me a FCBD release? Unscrupulous merchants! Actually, that's pretty common in the back issue trade, alas. Anyway, this is what is commonly considered one of Grant Morrison's definite works. And I liked it just fine at the time (in the annual QB50s, it went from 12 to 37 to 17 from 2006-2008, always playing second-fiddle to Geoff Johns' Action Comics, among other material).
What strikes me about it now, especially All Star Superman #5, which ties in with what I'll be talking about a few comics later (the last one, in fact, to assure you that this is not an infinite list of nonsense), is how Morrison handles the villain, who in this case is Lex Luthor. The whole idea behind All Star Superman was to create an iconic, and perhaps to say definitive, version of the Superman mythos. Which makes this Lex Luthor all the more interesting. This Lex is strictly interested in his Superman obsession because he sees himself as a world-conqueror Superman has blocked from fulfilling his ambitions. I'm not sure how I should feel about that. I like nuanced characters. I love Geoff Johns' Lex Luthor in the pages of Justice League. This is not that Lex. He's in fact about as brilliant as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan's eponymous villain, with clear holes in his logic and not nearly as threatening as he seems. Which is to say, all bark and no bite. Where Morrison's Superman is meant to be exactly the all-powerful Superman that everyone has always the character is and therefore completely unrelatable...his Lex is in fact all but the exact opposite.
Which is actually kind of fascinating, when you think about it...I've never reread the complete All Star Superman. That could be interesting.
It's also worth noting that the issue also features a promo section for a WildStorm reboot, the one that Morrison was supposed to be a significant part of, writing both WildCATs and The Authority. I know Keith Giffen ended up writing the latter almost immediately. The WildCATs experiment was even more brief. I didn't even remember about that one. There was also a Garth Ennis Midnighter series. Which surprisingly didn't really catch on. You'd think it would somehow be completely natural. But this was pretty much the end of WildStorm, so maybe the whole thing fizzling out isn't so surprising after all.
From 2010.
This was one of Jeff Lemire's early signature works, along with the earlier Essex County. I remember when it launched, and it was impossible for me to think of it as anything other than the comic featuring the boy with the antlers. I never read it. Later, I finally did come to appreciate Lemire's brilliance (Descender), so I figured I'd finally sample Sweet Tooth. Turns out it's pretty interesting. Not having gotten into it originally, I really had no idea what the boy was doing having those antlers. Turns out it's a little like the second season of Dark Angel, a TV series I happen to love a great deal. I don't know if Lemire had Dark Angel in mind, or The Island of Dr. Moreau, or something else I don't currently know about. Either way, I guess this is to say, I really ought to read more Lemire.
From 2009.
Convergence brought back a lot of old concepts and eras, and I was happy to see Tangent Comics among them. This was an idea from the '90s that sought to recapture the feel of the dawn of the Silver Age (and, I guess, Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating...) by taking familiar names and reimagining them. I loved it. When it was revisited in the pages of Tangent: Superman's Reign, I loved it all over again, even though there was a significant attempt to broaden the appeal by bringing in the more familiar versions to sort everything out. Since the writer is Dan Jurgens, it features somewhat blunt storytelling, not exactly what you might have seen out of Tangent Superman in the pages of Convergence: The Flash (if you even knew clue one about Tangent Superman to begin with). I don't remember reading the conclusion to the mini-series originally. Although I didn't really miss much, other than the sacrifice of Tangent Batman. #sadpanda
From 2006.
Paul Cornell's Captain Britain and MI13 was one of the series that made me a fan of Marvel (the other was Incredible Hercules) for a few years, just something with a vibe I'd never seen from the company before. It made me an immediate fan of Cornell, who I was happy to later read within the pages of Action Comics and Knight & Squire, not to mention Saucer Country. Then he went back to things more British-centric, like Doctor Who. Wisdom, as in Pete Wisdom, was Captain Britain's predecessor, with a sterling reputation but otherwise something I knew nothing about. I assumed it was a story about Pete Wisdom. But as it turns out, it's basically as deliberate a predecessor to Captain Britain as you can get, the exact same approach with only a variation of the cast of characters. So I guess I didn't miss anything wildly different. The other notable thing about Wisdom is artist Trevor Hairsine, whom I later enjoyed in the pages of Divinity. That's worth noting about Wisdom.
From 2003.
And now we've reached the end. While discussing The Filth, I discussed that I have a more complicated history with Grant Morrison than it can sometimes seem. While discussing All Star Superman I was able to get into a little of how I don't necessarily always agree with his creative choices even when I don't find them particularly weird.
And here's where I concede a point to Marvel. Maybe they weren't wrong to retcon Morrison's X-Men run. This issue is late in the run and is just after Xorn, the mutant healer, was revealed to be Magneto all along. Morrison's Magneto is little different from Morrison's Lex Luthor. They're both evil. End of story. In fact, as of this issue Magneto has all but won. Like he does in Final Crisis, which is far different context but also wildly unpopular with fans, Morrison writes a story in which the bad guy manages to win. Whereas the story in comics never really advances, the X-Men in particular have tended to be stagnant (except when House of M forced them to advance to a more ludicrous point than even Morrison managed), so to see New X-Men reach a point like this must have been disconcerting to Marvel, not because Morrison revealed Xorn to be someone else all along, regardless of who that was, but because of what happened next.
Morrison's last X-Men arc was "Here Comes Tomorrow," his version of "Days of Future Past," presenting an outcome fraught with mutants everywhere. Yes, the mutants "win," but at great cost. This is the opposite of what he'd done with JLA, the model by which he'd been brought in with great fanfare. Except Morrison always goes for what he sees as the big picture, and his big picture is just about bigger than anyone's except maybe Geoff Johns. So having him do X-Men was probably a mistake to begin with, if Marvel wanted something more safe than it turned out to be.
And putting all that aside, back to Tony level, yes I had become a fan of Grant Morrison through JLA, like a lot of other fans, but when I had to break from comics at the start of the millennium, I found it difficult to get back into him, once I started reading again. I remember seeing New X-Men on the stands when I started wading back in 2004, and although I knew what was going on, I didn't want to read it. Even when Morrison helped kick off JLA Classified, I skipped that, too. I only came back with Seven Soldiers, and then in a very big way. Once I understood that Morrison's scope was bigger than anyone else's, at the time, I gave him the time of day. And I've rarely been disappointed since.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Batman and Robin #40, Annual #3 (DC)
artist: Patrick Gleason (#40), Juan Jose Ryp (#3)
Perfect final page, Tomasi. This is an unusual farewell, spread across two unrelated comics, with the perfect ending coming without his signature collaborator and in a story that otherwise is complete throwaway material. But still, he absolutely nails it.
The final issue of the series itself, with Patrick Gleason, who will soon launch Robin, Son of Batman as writer/artist, concludes the grand arc of Damian's return, which surprisingly came complete with superpowers, which proved to be less than permanent. And they go out with a bang, and for once Batman pulls one over on his son, an appropriate moment in an arc that saw him desperately defy death itself, when he felt most powerless.
The final two pages of this final issue are perfect, too, by the way. Batman is smiling.
The annual is "just" a Batman and Robin adventure. This might be the only time in the whole run (which actually began pre-New 52, so there are those issues to consider as well, which technically negates this statement) where this happens. But putting that aside, there's that final page, and apropos of nothing in the actual issue, it speaks volume for the run.
Damian's presence in Batman's life has filled a massive void, a true family that he hasn't had since the death of his parents, which has always been reflected in the pearls spilling from the necklace Martha Wayne wears on that fateful night. In one of the best characters moments, in a run full of them, Damian went to a great deal of trouble to reclaim one of those pearls for his father.
It may go without saying, even on an artistic level, having Batman and Robin focusing on a nocturnal phenomenon is evocative on a different and complementary level.
And this goes without saying too: Peter Tomasi will be greatly missed in Damian, and Batman's, adventures.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Reading Comics 151 "Wonder Woman"
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| via DC Comics |
In the pages of Superman/Wonder Woman, Peter Tomasi is acknowledging that the Amazon was indeed a crucial element of Kingdom Come, which can sometimes be overlooked. You may have heard that Magog, who was once called Mark Waid and Alex Ross's answer to Marvel's Cable, has made his New 52 debut.
Tomasi has introduced a revelation concerning the character. Even if he started as Cable, he always had the potential, equally, to be that character who bridges the gap between Superman and Wonder Woman. That was always in the design, too. Perhaps now, that's all you'll see?
The commentators I've read have been less than impressed with Tomasi and Doug Mahnke's run so far, and they were even less impressed with seeing Magog enter the picture. For me, both continue to excel. Tomasi borrows elements of the classic Magog origin as Waid outlined it in The Kingdom but updates it for the all-important starting point of the New 52, the opening arc of Justice League. Skeptics wonder why the young David Reid would fixate on Superman and Wonder Woman when clearly there were many other future Leaguers involved, but Superman is always the most prominent hero, and Wonder Woman in this continuity was making her spectacular debut in Man's World.
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| via DC Comics |
The commentators I've read have been less than impressed with Tomasi and Doug Mahnke's run so far, and they were even less impressed with seeing Magog enter the picture. For me, both continue to excel. Tomasi borrows elements of the classic Magog origin as Waid outlined it in The Kingdom but updates it for the all-important starting point of the New 52, the opening arc of Justice League. Skeptics wonder why the young David Reid would fixate on Superman and Wonder Woman when clearly there were many other future Leaguers involved, but Superman is always the most prominent hero, and Wonder Woman in this continuity was making her spectacular debut in Man's World.
So much for that.
In Wonder Woman, the Finches have been receiving an equally dubious response, for the most part, but the critics are warming a little.
It probably doesn't hurt that they're starting to make it their own, and joining the company-wide re-introduction of long-absent characters. In this instance, Donna Troy. The former Wonder Girl has been brought in to replace Diana as ruler of the Amazons. Diana, meanwhile, is struggling with the idea of being the God of War, the biggest ripple of the Azzarello years. It was noted early on that Meredith Finch didn't seem completely familiar with how the outgoing writer ended things, but as brilliant as Brian Azzarello was, he also stuck Wonder Woman into a pocket. Finch and husband David Finch are expanding it. Batman and Superman appear in the issue just as if this were right alongside Justice League and Superman/Wonder Woman, which of course it is. David Finch as always does excellent work, the opposite in style of outgoing Cliff Chiang. Meredith, new to the game, proves surprisingly adept.
All this and Gal Gadot as the first film version of Wonder Woman, coming up next year...
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