Pandemic Comics #11 “Some of the World’s Finest”

Here’s the last batch of Mile High mystery box comics:

The New Teen Titans #10
I think the ‘80s Titans has some shenanigans occurring with the title of their series, since this isn’t the beginning of the run; I suppose ordinary research would confirm, but the launch title seems to have become Tales of the Teen Titans...Anyway, Wolfman’s writing but the artist is Garcia Lopez (a great favorite among some partisans), rather than Perez (who in 1985 was no doubt deeply immersed in Crisis On Infinite Earths). This issue deals with a number of characters who sort of remained in that era, sort of pivoting around Jericho but not really being about him (Jericho was mute, so it figures, although he was used really well in the second season of Titans).

Titans #15
Not really featuring the team so much as a spotlight for Tempest (the erstwhile Aqualad), detailing his circumstances as they were circa Blackest Night.

Tomorrow Stories #2
An anthology series from Alan Moore’s America’s Best Comics. I get that there are a lot of Alan Moore partisans out there (he’s the guy who legitimized superheroes for the mainstream, after all), but I’m not really one of them, and it’s material like this that showcases what his base-level engagement in the medium is. The last tale features characters huddling in slums, braving the fallout of superhero nostalgia ruining everything. Most of what he says, thinks, and does is a product of Alan Moore’s nostalgia. He seems to honestly think only Alan Moore was capable of saying, thinking, or doing anything relevant, that he existed, in essence, in a post-superhero medium, and that it’s only misguided fans and/or creators who believe otherwise. Doctor Manhattan is the only superpowered hero in Watchmen mostly to represent ambivalence and futility in the modern world. Yay Alan Moore...

The Twilight Experiment #2
From Palmiotti & Gray.

Vigilante #2
This update of the character had a ton of potential, a superhero who talks with a psychiatrist, but Bruce Jones, at least in this issue, spends half the time taking it seriously and half as if he’s doing a parody. I was pretty invested in Jones as a creator. He took over Nightwing “One Year Later,” one of the few stories to feature interactions between Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, and before that he was writing Incredible Hulk in the vein of the TV series, something that caught on years later as Immortal Hulk, freeing the character from what Peter David had done for years, which was basically any and everything, the basic template creators at Image were riffing on in endless facsimiles. Anyway, this Vigilante, for context, is like the Daredevil who goes to confession. I like the idea of superheroes seeking outlets like that, it grounds them in ways that aren’t as forced as...the majority of Marvel’s hamfisted techniques. The psychiatrist is basically being held hostage by Vigilante, too, but you can see the potential in the scenario, how it could have led to a regular partnership. Even Batman never consulted psychiatrists, and he’s got the craziest villains in comics (except maybe Green Goblin).

Vixen: Return of the Lion #1
Seeing someone like G. Willow Wilson transition from something like Air to Ms. Marvel, I always wanted to understand how that was possible. This is another strong indication, as it turns out. Wilson’s Vixen was a member of the Meltzer-era Justice League, and at least as far as this issue is concerned, she treats her more famous teammates much as Kamala Khan does...anyone she meets in her early adventures: by geeking out. Vixen has an ethnic background, which she returns to, an African nation of some generic extraction, where the story quickly falls into the later New 52 trap of immediately introducing a villain who takes the hero by surprise (literally every first issue of a New 52 series ended this way). I really wish comic book writers (and blockbuster filmmakers) weren’t so consistently lazy about this: Hero gets defeated! Hero rallies!

World’s Finest #1-2
I was really hoping these were the only issues of the prestige format series, but of course there turned out to be three. Anyway, “World’s Finest” was the term, and title of the series, when Batman and Superman used to team up (now it’s...Superman/Batman, or the daring alternative...Batman/Superman), and this was a later tribute from comics masters Dave Gibbons and Steve Rude. For large swathes of the first issue, Gibbons allows Rude’s brilliant art do all the storytelling. Only a portion of it retells the origins, though Rude cleverly juxtaposes the bullet of the gun with the rocketing spaceship.

What’s better is that Gibbons seems to be the first and only writer to see how well Bruce Wayne could potentially clean up what ails Metropolis, and Clark Kent could do the same in Gotham. And that’s frankly astonishing, not only that someone figured that out but that no attempt has been made to even create surrogates. There’s no crusading journalist in Gotham (Vicki Vale doesn’t count, and certainly not Knox!). There’s no counterpoint to Lex Luthor. And these things really ought to exist!

This is a story set before they became the World’s Finest, and in these issues go well out of their way to avoid actively collaborating (i.e. fight together), and that’s another great feature. If I were DC this is another easy evergreen candidate. There are surprisingly few of the two together.

Young Justice: Sins of Youth - JLA Jr.
Read this recently from a back issue bargain bin, much as the kind all these mystery box comics likely came from. Thankfully I found a few really great reads in them.

Definitely worth the price of admission. Thanks again, Chuck & Mile High!

Quarter Bin 112 "Teen Titans Turning Points"

Tales of the Teen Titans #59, 78 (DC)
The New Titans #71 (DC)
Teen Titans #16 (DC)
from November 1985, June 1987, November 1990, November 2004

Each of these issues kind of encapsulates a turning point for the Teen Titans, so that was pretty neat.  Tales #59 is a reprint of their first adventure under Marv Wolfman and George Perez, the start of a wildly popular run that rivaled the X-Men in the '80s.  Tales #78, meanwhile, features the team apparently splitting up.  New Titans #71, as you can tell from the cover, is an anniversary celebration.  Teen Titans #16 kind of once again reintegrates Superboy into Legion lore (long complicated history, there).

I don't think the Wolfman/Perez run ages particularly well.  I've read "The Judas Contract," and that did age well, but a lot of the soap opera elements that made the run so popular don't work as well today.  Reading Geoff Johns' Teen Titans again is always interesting, because that was one of the runs where he cut his teeth, that and JSA, as DC's resident continuity guy, which is funny because his Titans drastically revamped characters like Superboy [insert classic anecdote about the letter here] and Kid Flash while also giving the team its first successful run in more than a decade.

New Titans #71 also has the distinction of having Tom Grummett art.  Grummett went on to be a Superman artist, and in that way helped introduce the modern Superboy.  By 1990, apparently, his style was already set, so there was no trouble recognizing his work.

It's kind of amazing that Wolfman thought in the '80s that a Titans movie was imminent, which is far more humbling in 2017 than Stan Lee hyping a Spider-Man movie in the '90s.  But that's one of the many reasons to read back issues, to see what people were thinking back in the day...

Quarter Bin #63 "Binge-worthy VIII: Superstars"

Superstar: As Seen On TV (Image)
From 2001.

via eBay

This is now the best thing I've read from Kurt Busiek.  Busiek made his name on Marvels, the project also known for launching Alex Ross's career, and later as the creator of the sprawling Astro City, relaunched last year by DC.  I've often found that Busiek is best read as a nostalgia writer, though, hesitant to do anything that would break away from his image.  Superstar is a departure.  It was an early millennium attempt from comic book creators in general to do something new.  The lead character is a superhero whose worst enemy is also technically his biggest supporter: his own father.  That's a dynamic that is itself a fresh concept, but the greater concept around that one is one that was actually years ahead of its time: Superstar was made for our social media age, as his power levels are literally fueled by public support.  It's shocking that this was a one-shot deal, and that apparently no one has thought to revisit it (aside from an expanded IDW re-release three years ago).  The main draw for me, though, was artist Stuart Immonen, who at the time was transitioning away from his then-career defining monthly commitment to Superman and embarking on the course that has led to the altered style he's employed at Marvel for years now.  This is pure Immonen goodness, what might be considered now a what-if scenario if he and Busiek had expanded on the concept.  That would've been nice...

Tales of the Unexpected #8 (DC)

From 2007.

via DCU Reviews

The lead in this mini-series was the Crispus Allen version of the Spectre, but I picked up this issue because of the back-up featuring Dr. 13, an obscure occult detective recently somewhat featured in Trinity of Sin, and the reason I was interested was because the creative team for the story was Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang, who recently concluded a three-year arc on the New 52 Wonder Woman.  It's interesting to see how Chiang's art evolved from then to now (positively, which is something I'm still struggling to say about Immonen), from a more cartoony look to...at least a more streamlined version of that look.  The story itself is pretty good, too.  Grant Morrison fans will probably love how it ends.  Maybe it's because I was not necessarily aware of Dr. 13 until recently, but I was surprised to learn that the character of Traci 13, whom I first noticed in the pages of the original Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle series, is in fact Dr. 13's daughter.  Yeah, it seems kind of obvious now...

The New Teen Titans #12 (DC)

From 1981.

via comiXology

New Teen Titans was one of the hottest comics of the '80s, and its legacy still looms large.  My first exposure was a random back issue I found in an antique store, New Teen Titans #39, in which Dick Grayson officially quits his Robin persona; the debuts of Cyborg, Starfire, and the whole "Judas Contract" saga are elements that will always keep the Wolfman/Perez era relevant for fans.  Last year I read a volume collecting the first handful of issues.  This latest random selection was not nearly as lucky as the previous one, however.  I know there are plenty of good Donna Troy stories, but this isn't one of them.

Tom Strong #36 (ABC)

From 2006.

via iTunes

Turns out this is the final Tim Strong story from Alan Moore.  Tom was a kind of pulp hero that was also Moore's quasi-extension of his Supreme work, which was a quasi-extension of the Silver Age Superman (woo!); the headlining act of the America's Best Comics imprint that Moore walked away from once WildStorm was acquired by DC, a company Moore no longer had any interest in working for (despite having made virtually his whole reputation there, with Saga of Swamp Thing, Batman: the Killing Joke, Watchmen, and other projects).  Tom remains in print, however, thanks to original artist Chris Sprouse.  Moore's finale is strong even for those like me who have read very little Tom Strong.  It wraps up his story, explaining certain elements of the mythology, and is arguably a much stronger read than "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow."  If you're curious about the character, you could do worse than to start with Tom "At the End of the World."

Wanted #4 (Top Cow)

From 2004.

via comiXology

Wanted is the project that helped Mark Millar launch his MillarWorld, a unique distinction he's given his work since after having become Hollywood's third favorite comic book writer after Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman.  Wanted was very loosely adapted into a major motion picture, and of course there have been two Kick-Ass movies, and now Kingsmen: The Secret Service.  The movie version of Wanted had James McAvoy run around Angelina Jolie as assassins.  The original comic involves a whole world of supervillains.  I'm convinced Millar originally conceived of this as a DC project, and after DC opted for Brad Meltzer's Identity Crisis Millar revised his idea as a standalone concept.  Who knows?  He'd already helped make history with The Ultimates, and would do so again with Civil War, but my favorite Millar mainstream effort remains "Old Man Logan."  The Wanted artist is J.G. Jones, who would later illustrate boldly the covers of 52, plus the interiors for the majority of Final Crisis.