Featured this edition: Grant Morrison's 18 Days #12, Batgirl & the Birds of Prey: Rebirth #1, Batman #3, Green Lanterns #3, The Hellblazer: Rebirth #1, Justice League #1, Letter 44 #26, Superman #3, and Tokyo Ghost #8.
Grant Morrison's 18 Days #12 (Graphic India)
Morrison's Avatarex #1 shipped last week, and hopefully I'll be seeing a copy in a couple weeks. Although I lost track of reading Graphic India's vision of his Indian superwar epic a while ago, I always thought it was well worth reading, and so I checked in again for this issue, which details Bhima's further experiences, from his great familial devotion to a momentum moment for him in the fighting. This project's being executed with pitch-perfect precision.
Batgirl and the Birds of Prey: Rebirth #1 (DC)
The Birds of Prey was conceived during the '90s, and has been maintained in some fashion ever since. It's a girls-only team (still unique in comics, but not with Ghostbusters). This issue features Batgirl Barbara Gordon's biography at the forefront, but also gives nods to Black Canary's DCYou band exploits and Helena Bertinelli's Grayson spy work, and how the team only reluctantly gets back together. It was a good introduction.
Batman #3 (DC)
Tom King's Dark Knight continues, as we learn the secret origin of the superpowered heroes who have lately been lending him a hand: Hank and Claire Clover. Hank was saved by Batman years ago, when he was a kid. King cleverly stages this origin so that the unsuspecting reader might think he's seeing Bruce Wayne's fateful Crime Alley nightmare all over again, but then the story continues and we find out what's really going on. As always, King is in full command of the psychological beats, including those provided by villains Hugo Strange (always, ah, somewhat strangely overlooked in Batman lore) and Psycho Pirate.
Green Lanterns #3 (DC)
Simon Baz spends more time in the spotlight this issue, including a killer sequence with Red Lantern soldier Bleez, who is the latest recipient of Baz's ability to unlock his power ring's most surprising abilities, ones rarely experienced by other bearers. He'll need all the help he can get, because partner Jessica Cruz has just been overtaken by the rage seed...
The Hellblazer: Rebirth #1 (DC)
John Constantine is that unique DC character, in that he's a genuine antihero, which unlike his Marvel counterparts (say, the Punisher) doesn't mean that he goes around shooting people, but that he makes unorthodox moral decisions, possibly because of his ties to Hell (hence, the returning traditional name to his adventures). Since his return to DC proper (after being a headlining Vertigo act since the brand's creation two decades ago) during Brightest Day five years ago, fans have been skeptical that Constantine can properly function in the relatively sanitized DC superhero landscape (for comparison, imagine if Neil Gaiman had had to make Sandman permanently co-exist with the likes of Dr. Destiny and Martian Manhunter, both of whom made early appearances in the series, but who seem hard to reconcile with Gaiman's later creative pursuits). I've never really been a Constantine reader, so I welcomed this chance to have a look. For what it's worth, I do think, at least in this issue of this iteration, he works perfectly well. It's like the Demon Etrigan (who had a Garth Ennis-penned series in the '90s, that gave birth to one of Ennis's signature creations, Hitman), but without the Demon as the lead, if that makes any sense.
Justice League #1 (DC)
The first issue of the series, like its New 52 Geoff Johns predecessor, has Wonder Woman on the brain, which I love. Tony Daniel on art (he helped launch Superman/Wonder Woman, which is all kinds of natural for this latest Daniel project) is as always a thing of beauty. I love how the whole issue is about mobilizing the team.
Letter 44 #26 (Oni)
I'd previously sampled this Charles Soule series, but didn't really get the hang of what's going on in it, so I'm glad that I've finally read another issue. This is a story about the end of the world, and all the odd decisions people are going to make if the involved players include aliens, U.S. presidents, a team of scientists, and messianic collaborators. Actually, I came out of this issue being very impressed. But then, I was already a fan of Soule, so I'm doubly glad I can now say I like Letter 44, too.
Superman #3 (DC)
Having witnessed the thunderbolt that was Jorge Jimenez's work in the early issues of Earth 2: Society, I'm so happy to be seeing more of his art, in this Tomasi/Gleason series and in the forthcoming Super-Sons, which in some ways this issue helps set up, as we see Jon Kent light up for the first time. The sequence of events that provoke this (a new vision of the Eradicator that offers some fascinating new wrinkles to established character mythology; Krypto) is breathtaking in ways I hoped this series would be.
Tokyo Ghost #8 (Image)
Rick Remender has joined Mark Millar in the select group of modern writers who have been able to establish a viable brand around their names, and a large net of titles to populate it. This Remender project envisions a dystopic future directly culled from our own, in which addiction to digital content has literally sucked the life out of everyone, leaving the population susceptible to corrupting influences. Fortunately, there's a hero in the eponymous Ghost capable of stepping in to stem the tide. This issue turned out to be a perfect one to sample, involving the Ghost's tragic baskstory, and the man she's tried valiantly through the years to protect, despite increasing odds against her. But the reason I wanted a look was because of the Sean Gordon Murphy art. I've been a fan of Murphy's since Joe the Barbarian, his seminal work with Grant Morrison, as well as his personal creative vision, Punk Rock Jesus. He's also collaborated with Scott Snyder (The Wake) in recent years, as well as Millar (Chrononauts). I never get tired of his art.
Showing posts with label Tony Daniel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tony Daniel. Show all posts
Monday, July 25, 2016
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Quarter Bin 83 "Sandman, Shattered Image, Shockrockets, and Skrull Kill Krew..."
Yes, it would be safe to assume that these particular comics were, in fact, bought in a literal quarter bin.
Sandman #39 (Vertigo)
From July 1992.
This is the last issue in the Annotated Sandman Vol. 2 so at some point in the next year, hopefully, I'll be reading and talking about it again. (And just as hopefully, I will eventually collect and read the third and forth volumes in this version of the series.) It features Marco Polo in a dream sequence (naturally), the young boy version of the famous explorer, so we get a peak at his less-publicized origins traveling with his dad. Also present, G.K. Chesterton, naturally. This is a classic example of what made Sandman so great, how Neil Gaiman could do just about anything he wanted and it made perfect thematic sense. This is the epitome of comic book storytelling.
Shattered Image #1 (Image)
From August 1996.
This Image version of the superhero crossover event is a hot mess, even though it's written by some fairly well-established and well-respected creators, Kurt Busiek and Barbara Kesel. I can only imagine they felt pressured to present the Image version, which at that time, still only a handful of years after the company's infamous founding, was still infused with the arrogance of attempting to ignore everything that made superhero comics great, and just try and be cool and hope (as it was for a while) that was good enough. Still, it's interesting to remember that Tony Daniel made his name in this period, and that he's probably the creator whose work evolved the most, and most positively, in the past twenty years. Busiek has been doing Astro City all this time, and it's been increasingly less relevant ever since, which is not to say anything about the quality, but that it's a shame that of the major superheroes created at Image in those early years who're still operating, that one big attempt at true respectability has become so easy to ignore. Then again, maybe it's because he is still working at it. After Marvels, Busiek became known for his interest in defining the tradition of the superhero. I wonder if anyone still believes he's interested in that.
Shockrockets #6 (Gorilla)
From October 2000.
Speaking of Busiek, Shockrockets was kind of his take on the Rogue Squadron pilots from Star Wars, but set in near-future Earth. For me, it was always more notable as one of Stuart Immonen's first big projects post-Superman. Between this and his early Legion of Super-Heroes, his later Star Wars, and his current Empress, Immonen may have established himself as a go-to sci-fi artist, which I find pretty interesting, because yeah, I still think of him for his '90s Superman. Which Immonen obliquely references in Gorilla promotional material from the issue: "My ideas, drawings, and designs are not only met with approval but I feel valued and appreciated as a person!" I have to admit, the end of his Superman run had DC take him off art (by that time he'd become a writer/artist, which he's never again been) but also had Mark Millar punch up his scripts by providing dialogue. And then he was somewhat obviously asked to move aside so that a new generation could take over, or otherwise made the decision himself. Which is sad, because I still think he's never gotten the respect he deserves for his Superman work. Also included is a preview of Busiek and Immonen's Superstar graphic novel, which was actually pretty great.
Skrull Kill Krew #2, 5 (Marvel)
From October 1995, January 1996.
This was a Grant Morrison project I'd long wanted to see, as it was one of his earliest Marvel projects. Teamed up with then-frequent collaborator Mark Millar, I found the concept to be kind of a Marvel version of Morrison's Invisibles, his first widely-known creation. The second issue features a heavy Pulp Fiction vibe, in which the character of Ryder closely matches up with Samuel L. Jackson's Jules in his speech patterns (no epic biblical quote, alas, at least not in this issue). I wonder if that's how people really viewed Pulp Fiction, in the guise of the character Jules (which wouldn't be a terrible thing, but it isolates the experience far too much), or how they viewed United Kingdom creators, the punk Vertigo impression that took years to shake and was in part inspired, naturally, by Morrison's Invisibles. (Clearly Gaiman's Sandman didn't have punk so much as Goth in mind, while spiritual predecessor Alan Moore had horror as his guiding Swamp Thing principle.) Morrison eventually distanced himself, for the most part, from this style, somewhat dramatically in his major superhero debut with JLA nearly a year later, but I wonder if Millar kept it in mind longer. Certainly, he became enamored with the concept of the mini-series, a style he works in almost exclusively these days.
Sandman #39 (Vertigo)
From July 1992.
This is the last issue in the Annotated Sandman Vol. 2 so at some point in the next year, hopefully, I'll be reading and talking about it again. (And just as hopefully, I will eventually collect and read the third and forth volumes in this version of the series.) It features Marco Polo in a dream sequence (naturally), the young boy version of the famous explorer, so we get a peak at his less-publicized origins traveling with his dad. Also present, G.K. Chesterton, naturally. This is a classic example of what made Sandman so great, how Neil Gaiman could do just about anything he wanted and it made perfect thematic sense. This is the epitome of comic book storytelling.
Shattered Image #1 (Image)
From August 1996.
This Image version of the superhero crossover event is a hot mess, even though it's written by some fairly well-established and well-respected creators, Kurt Busiek and Barbara Kesel. I can only imagine they felt pressured to present the Image version, which at that time, still only a handful of years after the company's infamous founding, was still infused with the arrogance of attempting to ignore everything that made superhero comics great, and just try and be cool and hope (as it was for a while) that was good enough. Still, it's interesting to remember that Tony Daniel made his name in this period, and that he's probably the creator whose work evolved the most, and most positively, in the past twenty years. Busiek has been doing Astro City all this time, and it's been increasingly less relevant ever since, which is not to say anything about the quality, but that it's a shame that of the major superheroes created at Image in those early years who're still operating, that one big attempt at true respectability has become so easy to ignore. Then again, maybe it's because he is still working at it. After Marvels, Busiek became known for his interest in defining the tradition of the superhero. I wonder if anyone still believes he's interested in that.
Shockrockets #6 (Gorilla)
From October 2000.
Speaking of Busiek, Shockrockets was kind of his take on the Rogue Squadron pilots from Star Wars, but set in near-future Earth. For me, it was always more notable as one of Stuart Immonen's first big projects post-Superman. Between this and his early Legion of Super-Heroes, his later Star Wars, and his current Empress, Immonen may have established himself as a go-to sci-fi artist, which I find pretty interesting, because yeah, I still think of him for his '90s Superman. Which Immonen obliquely references in Gorilla promotional material from the issue: "My ideas, drawings, and designs are not only met with approval but I feel valued and appreciated as a person!" I have to admit, the end of his Superman run had DC take him off art (by that time he'd become a writer/artist, which he's never again been) but also had Mark Millar punch up his scripts by providing dialogue. And then he was somewhat obviously asked to move aside so that a new generation could take over, or otherwise made the decision himself. Which is sad, because I still think he's never gotten the respect he deserves for his Superman work. Also included is a preview of Busiek and Immonen's Superstar graphic novel, which was actually pretty great.
Skrull Kill Krew #2, 5 (Marvel)
From October 1995, January 1996.
This was a Grant Morrison project I'd long wanted to see, as it was one of his earliest Marvel projects. Teamed up with then-frequent collaborator Mark Millar, I found the concept to be kind of a Marvel version of Morrison's Invisibles, his first widely-known creation. The second issue features a heavy Pulp Fiction vibe, in which the character of Ryder closely matches up with Samuel L. Jackson's Jules in his speech patterns (no epic biblical quote, alas, at least not in this issue). I wonder if that's how people really viewed Pulp Fiction, in the guise of the character Jules (which wouldn't be a terrible thing, but it isolates the experience far too much), or how they viewed United Kingdom creators, the punk Vertigo impression that took years to shake and was in part inspired, naturally, by Morrison's Invisibles. (Clearly Gaiman's Sandman didn't have punk so much as Goth in mind, while spiritual predecessor Alan Moore had horror as his guiding Swamp Thing principle.) Morrison eventually distanced himself, for the most part, from this style, somewhat dramatically in his major superhero debut with JLA nearly a year later, but I wonder if Millar kept it in mind longer. Certainly, he became enamored with the concept of the mini-series, a style he works in almost exclusively these days.
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...
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Reading Comics #133 "Bull Moose Bargains"
As you may recall, I was enjoying bargain grab bags from local entertainment franchise Bull Moose, until I learned they weren't doing them anymore. But they didn't stop carrying comics outright (but I haven't gotten a chance to check in a few weeks, so I don't know what the prospects look like now). Instead they started sticking their discounted comics in one of those old-fashioned spinning racks, so I now had the opportunity to select exactly what I wanted (from the available titles, of course). Some of them were the same 2013 leftovers I'd find in some of the grab bags, and some of them were new releases (did they know???), all of them marked at fifty cents. For the first of two trips in this new configuration to date, I scooped up nine titles. And those were:
Astro City #10 (Vertigo)
When this series was relaunched last year, I was part of the I-don't-know-how-large contingent of fans who was happy to see it return. The last time the title was in print it was the extended Dark Age arc, which apparently bothered long-term readers, but was at least a version of something creator Kurt Busiek had been intending to do ever since Marvels (twenty years ago). I've never read Marvels, a giant love letter to (as you may have guess) Marvel history which quickly became known as painter Alex Ross's breakout project (some argue best work, but I hold that for Kingdom Come, which is the one he clearly drew on for the later Earth X comics). Ross has done every Astro City cover since it launched in 1995 (so! Busiek wasted little time!), and Brent Anderson has been the interior artist. This is a hardcore nostalgia comic in the Alan Moore tradition, with Busiek versions of pretty much every major superhero. Did it really take this long for him to get around to a Winged Victory spotlight? Winged Victory, you understand, is his Wonder Woman. The story takes off of the Infinite Crisis era of controversy surrounding DC's Amazon taking the life of Maxwell Lord. In fairness to Busiek, he does craft his pastiches into fairly distinctive variations, so that you don't necessarily have to be thinking WonderWomanWonderWomanWonderWoman while reading this issue (if you so choose). It's a Winged Victory story, even if you know how Busiek reached this point. All that being said, I cooled on the whole thing pretty quickly. I keep wanting him to grab the brass ring, go for the gusto, but Busiek is determined to take a relaxed pace. These are comics for Silver Age fans (early Silver Age, the lens of what would follow refracted through the 1950s). Originally Astro City was one of the most acclaimed comics around, but even other readers don't seem as excited about it these days. Good to have it around again, though.
Kick-Ass 3 #8 (Icon)
The big surprise was this conclusion to the Kick-Ass saga, begun in 2008. I read the early issues, but lost track of it along the way, after it became a movie phenomenon I inexplicably still haven't seen (despite active interests in the careers of both Jim Carrey, featured in the second one, and Chloe Grace Moretz, whose whole career happened thanks to Hit-Girl). It might have to do with the fact that the writer is Mark Millar, and for a time I kind of soured on him, not so much because of anything he'd done, but because of things Grant Morrison said. Morrison and Millar used to be bosom buddies, but they had a creative falling-out, and Morrison subsequently expressed the kind of opinions about his former friend that, well, Alan Moore routinely spouts about Morrison himself. (Guys! Guys! Can't we all just get along?) Comics Reader readers know I've recently turned the corner on Millar thanks to Starlight, so I was more than ready to read how he ended Kick-Ass. It seems to be exactly the way it should have, and that's fine. The art of John Romita, Jr. remains integral to the whole experience. Romita moved on to Superman with Geoff Johns immediately after concluding this saga, and of course I'm definitely there for that experience. In this sudden Millar- and Romita-heavy season for my comics experience, it was fitting to catch their mutual landmark as it happened.
The New 52: Futures End #10 (DC)
Contrary to my own expectations, Futures End still hasn't become a new version of my beloved 52 experience. I'm still keeping tabs on it (the Masked Superman was recently revealed to be Shazam, if you wanted to know), and of course September this year is a whole month dedicated to the event otherwise chronicled in the weekly series, with DC's line decked out in special issues looking at the futures of their stars. Masked Superman Before He Was Unmasked has encounter with Lois Lane this issue, which is otherwise highlighted by (Big) Barda being asked to suit up again. Undeniably awesome moment. Barda is the Wonder Woman of the New Gods. Come to think of it, I have no idea why there haven't been more Barda/Wonder Woman stories. Somebody fix that, please?
Saga #21 (Image)
On the opposite side of my recent Astro City experience is Saga. I lost track of both series over the course of the last year, but returning to Saga was to remember how much I love it. In the current comics, Brian K. Vaughan is finally putting the spotlight on the Robot Kingdom. Prince Robot IV (such a deceptively simple, awesome name; I'm a man of uncomplicated pleasures sometimes) has had a baby, and that baby has been kidnapped by a disgruntled Robot Kingdom janitor. Alana and Marko are still in the thick of their soap opera (call it what it is) otherwise. I'm once again addicted.
Superman/Wonder Woman #6 (DC)
I don't know if you remember, but I was wild about this series when it launched. I thought it was a brilliant idea, long-in-coming for Wonder Woman to get a second ongoing series of any form (and now she has a third, thanks to the digital-first Sensation Comics), and it also happened to have part of the early comic crush I've developed over Charles Soule (who unfortunately has recently signed an exclusive contract with...Marvel). This issue is one of the periodic General Zod stories DC loves to do, these inspired by the Man of Steel version Michael Shannon embodied more than Terrence Stamp in Superman II (but there have been lots of versions over the years). Zod is presented as a formidable foe. In fact, Superman/Wonder Woman in general seems to love thrusting its love birds in epic battles they can only hope to survive (although of course they will), valuing their link as warriors, a bond only they can truly experience together (which is the whole point of the relationship). The art is from Tony Daniel, whom I've greatly admired since his "Batman R.I.P." days, and whose work continues to evolve. He may epitomize what some fans have called the "New 52 house style," which basically folds around Jim Lee's work. For a brief moment it seemed as if Daniel had in fact begun to pattern himself pretty directly on Lee, but as I said, this issue is proof that he's still in flux. This is a good thing. I still have great hope for his career. Given the right project, his budding interests as a writer-artist could cement a real legacy. Next project in that regard is the forthcoming Deathstroke relaunch (which I will be rooting for, obviously).
Trinity of Sin: Pandora #2 (DC)
Ever since it became clear that the New 52 was launching with the secret lynchpin of a new character (who looks like part of the WildStorm legacy that officially became a part of DC canon at that time), I began rooting for Pandora to become an important, lasting creation. This is a work in progress. When she got her own book last year, I was rooting for that, too, but kept looking for a way in after I missed the launch. Well, now I've finally read an issue, just in time for a forthcoming relaunch where the character and her Trinity of Sin cohorts (Phantom Stranger, Question) fold in together under the single, unspecified banner (it could certainly be worse!). I think this is a good thing. A character like Pandora kind of needs context. She was built for context. Unless someone literally spends a year or more exploring her own story, sending Pandora on random adventures will do her no favors at all. This issue is a tie-in with "Trinity War," a Justice League crossover event that was supposed to be a big deal but kind of wasn't, a culmination of everything the New 52 was meant to accomplish to that point. (Failure? There are fans who've wanted the New 52 to be a failure from the start. Is this how fans were after Crisis On Infinite Earths? I hope not!) The strongest element of the issue is its use of Vandal Savage. Someone other than Ray Fawkes might have really played that up. Fawkes is one of the writers who've benefited from the revised creative landscape DC has sought to establishment, and he's one I really haven't formed an impression of, so I hope this isn't completely indicative of his work. I'd like to see better.
Wolverine #4 (Marvel)
Ah, Paul Cornell. He's one of those writers who became an instant favor a few years back, and I became a loyal reader for a good long while. But I wonder if he hasn't lost the thread of what interested him in writing comics along the way. He's also known for his work with Doctor Who, and as an author. And also for not really sticking around any one comic book project for long. Maybe that's why I stopped trying to keep track, or found I didn't care when he started on Wolverine. I kept almost checking out the run, but never quite doing it. He's the writer who set up the Death of Wolverine event that...Charles Soule is finishing. So I finally checked it out. And...I really don't think I've missed anything. Sorry, Paul. Doesn't seem to be among your best. When Cornell is at his best he's among the best. So that's why I've been disappointed.
Wonder Woman #23 (DC)
If I hadn't gotten so horribly behind, I'd've been a loyal fan of the whole Brian Azzarello/Cliff Chiang run on this series, which is about to end. It's brilliant, easily one of the best things that's ever happened to Wonder Woman, and for one of the biggest characters in comics. This issue is part of the First Born arc. First Born is a new villain to the mythos, part of the September 2013 Villains Month one-shot line-up and everything. The one thing that can be held against the Azzarello Wonder Woman is that it feels completely disconnected from the rest of the DC landscape (which, I'm convinced, is half the reason Superman/Wonder Woman happened), and why First Born didn't at all become a household name. I mean, H'El over in the Scott Lobdell Superman comics from around the same time had a better shot. Wonder Woman from this era will become known for its particular context. To read one issue is to read any issue, in some respects. It's all one continuous story. (Although I will be contradicting this gross simplification next time I talk about it, which is another tie-in to how Superman/Wonder Woman happened.) This is a good thing. I'm already hoping for a Azzarello/Chiang reprise somewhere down the line, an epic mini-series or even crossover event. Hey, I can dream!
All-New X-Men #24 (Marvel)
This is another series I was once completely hot on but cooled over as time wore on. This is the Brian Michael Bendis/Stuart Immonen series that spun out of AvX and famously sports the gimmick of having the original, youthful X-Men time-displaced to the present. I'm about as all over the place with Bendis as I am with a handful of other creators. He's kind of the Marvel equivalent, for me, of Scott Snyder in some respects. When I love his work, I think he's brilliant. But he's not always engaged in ways I think benefit what he's doing. This issue is all about how he's reached that point again. I thought the time-displaced heroes would be gone by now. I really have no idea why they're still around. In the early issues, All-New X-Men seemed primed to introduce a whole new generation of mutant heroes. I don't know if I've simply missed that whole development, or if it's been abandoned, delayed, whatever. That's what I think the series ought to be doing. And as always, I want Immonen to be doing work that's far less busy. He's the pen-and-ink version of Alex Ross at his best. At Marvel he's simply never been given a chance to express that side of his work. Maybe he's fine with that. But for me, the same with Bendis, I'm...disappointed. Bendis and Immonen could indeed be a dynamite combination. But not this way. Anyway, "The Trial of Jean Grey Part 5 of 6." Blah blah blah, "Dark Phoenix Saga," I-can't-believe-we-didn't-remain-innocent-forever, forcing an unnecessary Guardians of the Galaxy connection. (I never really got why the X-Men ever had to have anything to do with space. Basically the complete opposite of what makes them relevant.)
Next time, fewer comics. That's all I can promise...
Astro City #10 (Vertigo)
When this series was relaunched last year, I was part of the I-don't-know-how-large contingent of fans who was happy to see it return. The last time the title was in print it was the extended Dark Age arc, which apparently bothered long-term readers, but was at least a version of something creator Kurt Busiek had been intending to do ever since Marvels (twenty years ago). I've never read Marvels, a giant love letter to (as you may have guess) Marvel history which quickly became known as painter Alex Ross's breakout project (some argue best work, but I hold that for Kingdom Come, which is the one he clearly drew on for the later Earth X comics). Ross has done every Astro City cover since it launched in 1995 (so! Busiek wasted little time!), and Brent Anderson has been the interior artist. This is a hardcore nostalgia comic in the Alan Moore tradition, with Busiek versions of pretty much every major superhero. Did it really take this long for him to get around to a Winged Victory spotlight? Winged Victory, you understand, is his Wonder Woman. The story takes off of the Infinite Crisis era of controversy surrounding DC's Amazon taking the life of Maxwell Lord. In fairness to Busiek, he does craft his pastiches into fairly distinctive variations, so that you don't necessarily have to be thinking WonderWomanWonderWomanWonderWoman while reading this issue (if you so choose). It's a Winged Victory story, even if you know how Busiek reached this point. All that being said, I cooled on the whole thing pretty quickly. I keep wanting him to grab the brass ring, go for the gusto, but Busiek is determined to take a relaxed pace. These are comics for Silver Age fans (early Silver Age, the lens of what would follow refracted through the 1950s). Originally Astro City was one of the most acclaimed comics around, but even other readers don't seem as excited about it these days. Good to have it around again, though.
Kick-Ass 3 #8 (Icon)
The big surprise was this conclusion to the Kick-Ass saga, begun in 2008. I read the early issues, but lost track of it along the way, after it became a movie phenomenon I inexplicably still haven't seen (despite active interests in the careers of both Jim Carrey, featured in the second one, and Chloe Grace Moretz, whose whole career happened thanks to Hit-Girl). It might have to do with the fact that the writer is Mark Millar, and for a time I kind of soured on him, not so much because of anything he'd done, but because of things Grant Morrison said. Morrison and Millar used to be bosom buddies, but they had a creative falling-out, and Morrison subsequently expressed the kind of opinions about his former friend that, well, Alan Moore routinely spouts about Morrison himself. (Guys! Guys! Can't we all just get along?) Comics Reader readers know I've recently turned the corner on Millar thanks to Starlight, so I was more than ready to read how he ended Kick-Ass. It seems to be exactly the way it should have, and that's fine. The art of John Romita, Jr. remains integral to the whole experience. Romita moved on to Superman with Geoff Johns immediately after concluding this saga, and of course I'm definitely there for that experience. In this sudden Millar- and Romita-heavy season for my comics experience, it was fitting to catch their mutual landmark as it happened.
The New 52: Futures End #10 (DC)
Contrary to my own expectations, Futures End still hasn't become a new version of my beloved 52 experience. I'm still keeping tabs on it (the Masked Superman was recently revealed to be Shazam, if you wanted to know), and of course September this year is a whole month dedicated to the event otherwise chronicled in the weekly series, with DC's line decked out in special issues looking at the futures of their stars. Masked Superman Before He Was Unmasked has encounter with Lois Lane this issue, which is otherwise highlighted by (Big) Barda being asked to suit up again. Undeniably awesome moment. Barda is the Wonder Woman of the New Gods. Come to think of it, I have no idea why there haven't been more Barda/Wonder Woman stories. Somebody fix that, please?
Saga #21 (Image)
On the opposite side of my recent Astro City experience is Saga. I lost track of both series over the course of the last year, but returning to Saga was to remember how much I love it. In the current comics, Brian K. Vaughan is finally putting the spotlight on the Robot Kingdom. Prince Robot IV (such a deceptively simple, awesome name; I'm a man of uncomplicated pleasures sometimes) has had a baby, and that baby has been kidnapped by a disgruntled Robot Kingdom janitor. Alana and Marko are still in the thick of their soap opera (call it what it is) otherwise. I'm once again addicted.
Superman/Wonder Woman #6 (DC)
I don't know if you remember, but I was wild about this series when it launched. I thought it was a brilliant idea, long-in-coming for Wonder Woman to get a second ongoing series of any form (and now she has a third, thanks to the digital-first Sensation Comics), and it also happened to have part of the early comic crush I've developed over Charles Soule (who unfortunately has recently signed an exclusive contract with...Marvel). This issue is one of the periodic General Zod stories DC loves to do, these inspired by the Man of Steel version Michael Shannon embodied more than Terrence Stamp in Superman II (but there have been lots of versions over the years). Zod is presented as a formidable foe. In fact, Superman/Wonder Woman in general seems to love thrusting its love birds in epic battles they can only hope to survive (although of course they will), valuing their link as warriors, a bond only they can truly experience together (which is the whole point of the relationship). The art is from Tony Daniel, whom I've greatly admired since his "Batman R.I.P." days, and whose work continues to evolve. He may epitomize what some fans have called the "New 52 house style," which basically folds around Jim Lee's work. For a brief moment it seemed as if Daniel had in fact begun to pattern himself pretty directly on Lee, but as I said, this issue is proof that he's still in flux. This is a good thing. I still have great hope for his career. Given the right project, his budding interests as a writer-artist could cement a real legacy. Next project in that regard is the forthcoming Deathstroke relaunch (which I will be rooting for, obviously).
Trinity of Sin: Pandora #2 (DC)
Ever since it became clear that the New 52 was launching with the secret lynchpin of a new character (who looks like part of the WildStorm legacy that officially became a part of DC canon at that time), I began rooting for Pandora to become an important, lasting creation. This is a work in progress. When she got her own book last year, I was rooting for that, too, but kept looking for a way in after I missed the launch. Well, now I've finally read an issue, just in time for a forthcoming relaunch where the character and her Trinity of Sin cohorts (Phantom Stranger, Question) fold in together under the single, unspecified banner (it could certainly be worse!). I think this is a good thing. A character like Pandora kind of needs context. She was built for context. Unless someone literally spends a year or more exploring her own story, sending Pandora on random adventures will do her no favors at all. This issue is a tie-in with "Trinity War," a Justice League crossover event that was supposed to be a big deal but kind of wasn't, a culmination of everything the New 52 was meant to accomplish to that point. (Failure? There are fans who've wanted the New 52 to be a failure from the start. Is this how fans were after Crisis On Infinite Earths? I hope not!) The strongest element of the issue is its use of Vandal Savage. Someone other than Ray Fawkes might have really played that up. Fawkes is one of the writers who've benefited from the revised creative landscape DC has sought to establishment, and he's one I really haven't formed an impression of, so I hope this isn't completely indicative of his work. I'd like to see better.
Wolverine #4 (Marvel)
Ah, Paul Cornell. He's one of those writers who became an instant favor a few years back, and I became a loyal reader for a good long while. But I wonder if he hasn't lost the thread of what interested him in writing comics along the way. He's also known for his work with Doctor Who, and as an author. And also for not really sticking around any one comic book project for long. Maybe that's why I stopped trying to keep track, or found I didn't care when he started on Wolverine. I kept almost checking out the run, but never quite doing it. He's the writer who set up the Death of Wolverine event that...Charles Soule is finishing. So I finally checked it out. And...I really don't think I've missed anything. Sorry, Paul. Doesn't seem to be among your best. When Cornell is at his best he's among the best. So that's why I've been disappointed.
Wonder Woman #23 (DC)
If I hadn't gotten so horribly behind, I'd've been a loyal fan of the whole Brian Azzarello/Cliff Chiang run on this series, which is about to end. It's brilliant, easily one of the best things that's ever happened to Wonder Woman, and for one of the biggest characters in comics. This issue is part of the First Born arc. First Born is a new villain to the mythos, part of the September 2013 Villains Month one-shot line-up and everything. The one thing that can be held against the Azzarello Wonder Woman is that it feels completely disconnected from the rest of the DC landscape (which, I'm convinced, is half the reason Superman/Wonder Woman happened), and why First Born didn't at all become a household name. I mean, H'El over in the Scott Lobdell Superman comics from around the same time had a better shot. Wonder Woman from this era will become known for its particular context. To read one issue is to read any issue, in some respects. It's all one continuous story. (Although I will be contradicting this gross simplification next time I talk about it, which is another tie-in to how Superman/Wonder Woman happened.) This is a good thing. I'm already hoping for a Azzarello/Chiang reprise somewhere down the line, an epic mini-series or even crossover event. Hey, I can dream!
All-New X-Men #24 (Marvel)
This is another series I was once completely hot on but cooled over as time wore on. This is the Brian Michael Bendis/Stuart Immonen series that spun out of AvX and famously sports the gimmick of having the original, youthful X-Men time-displaced to the present. I'm about as all over the place with Bendis as I am with a handful of other creators. He's kind of the Marvel equivalent, for me, of Scott Snyder in some respects. When I love his work, I think he's brilliant. But he's not always engaged in ways I think benefit what he's doing. This issue is all about how he's reached that point again. I thought the time-displaced heroes would be gone by now. I really have no idea why they're still around. In the early issues, All-New X-Men seemed primed to introduce a whole new generation of mutant heroes. I don't know if I've simply missed that whole development, or if it's been abandoned, delayed, whatever. That's what I think the series ought to be doing. And as always, I want Immonen to be doing work that's far less busy. He's the pen-and-ink version of Alex Ross at his best. At Marvel he's simply never been given a chance to express that side of his work. Maybe he's fine with that. But for me, the same with Bendis, I'm...disappointed. Bendis and Immonen could indeed be a dynamite combination. But not this way. Anyway, "The Trial of Jean Grey Part 5 of 6." Blah blah blah, "Dark Phoenix Saga," I-can't-believe-we-didn't-remain-innocent-forever, forcing an unnecessary Guardians of the Galaxy connection. (I never really got why the X-Men ever had to have anything to do with space. Basically the complete opposite of what makes them relevant.)
Next time, fewer comics. That's all I can promise...
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Digitally Speaking...#5 "Batman"
Batman #13 (DC)
From 2012. This is Scott Snyder's introduction to the "Death of the Family" arc. And surprise to say, but it's kind of shockingly bad. Not bad as in it's written or drawn poorly, but conceptually it's so poorly executed that it's surprising something like this would be the start of a major story arc for a major character in a major company. Internet critics say that sort of thing all the time. I was following a blogger who trashed just about every issue of AvX that way, and that was an event written by Marvel's top creators. I've ragged on Snyder in the past. I know he's supposed to be the best Batman writer in years. I even recently came to his defense in terms of the conclusion to this very arc and what he might have planned for some grand greater scheme. But in terms at least of this issue, out of all the "Death of the Family" issues I've read, it's easily the worst.
It begins randomly, Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock talking about omens, and then the next page taking all the steam out of the conversation, and then transitioning to Gordon's smoking habit, and then the Joker randomly appears, and then Batman arrives, and then we have a recap of an apparently aborted story Tony Daniel began at the start of the New 52 in the pages of Detective Comics, the one that got the Joker's face peeled off in the first place. Snyder never really convincingly explains any of that, but it's okay, because it's the creepy Joker. Then the Joker becomes all methodical, copying the events of the first time he ever struck Gotham, which becomes a pastiche on how the character operates in Tim Burton's Batman. And finally we reach the Joker and Batman, and the real story is teased.
Honestly, I have no idea why Snyder had to be so obtuse about it. Damian mocks the whole thing right from the start. Maybe that's why Grant Morrison realized he had to go, because he's a barometer. Unlike how Snyder attempts to present Joker, it's really Damian who cuts every situation down to what it really is. So it's no wonder that the best "Death of the Family" issue came from Batman and Robin.
It's certainly not this issue. Definitely not. I have no idea what Snyder was thinking. He's not really that bad a writer. To start a major arc like this, though...When Kyle Higgins started at DC, he was paired with Snyder for the Gates of Gotham mini-series. But now I'm thinking it's Snyder who needs a co-writer. There's no great shame in this. Geoff Johns had co-writers, too. Snyder had one when American Vampire began (some dude named Stephen King). He needs someone to help formulate stories better. He's apparently reached the point where editors can't approach him that way (although the buzz in Negative DC Talk is that all the writers who've abruptly departed the New 52 have done so because of meddling editors), but seriously, reading this issue alone? Any objective analysis begs for Snyder to get a little help.
That's all he needs really. He has a lot of good instincts. He also has a lot of bad ones. Comics are ripe with this kind of talent. Ed Brubaker, for example. Brian Michael Bendis. Even Mark Waid. Fans like to lump Morrison in with them, Johns too. I put Brubaker in with that lot because the best and really only good stuff he did with Captain America involved the Winter Soldier arc. He got his reward with a whole movie based on that work. Bendis is an undeniable talent, but he suffers from an acute case of verbal diarrhea that constantly gets in the way of telling real, actual stories (then again, sometimes maybe that's the point). Waid is his own worst enemy. He's literally a comics savant, but all his best instincts are usually stymied by his nervous need to rebel. I don't include Morrison or Johns because it's really a matter of creative differences. Whereas with Snyder, he can't formulate a story completely. At a certain point, he just throws out whatever he's got. He's at a point in his career where most people don't care. But in the long run, it'll absolutely matter.
And this issue is proof of that.
Batman 101
This compilation is a primer comiXology has that at once serves to provide a checklist for a few noteworthy stories from throughout Batman's publication history, as well as provide previews for all the original New 52 series (plus some vintage covers to round out the set). As far as the preview pages go, they certainly illuminate the original worth of those series. Scott Snyder's Batman starts out as promising as most Scott Snyder series. He's usually good at setting a mood (the above example notwithstanding). He also helps set the tone for most of the other entries, dominated as they are by caption narration (which as a rule I love in comics). Tony Daniel's Detective Comics comes off extremely well. At the time, Tony was more or less being demoted. After serving as artist during pivotal Grant Morrison issues, he'd become primary writer/artist on Batman. When the New 52 began, he was shifted to the secondary Batman title. I'd hoped he'd stick around for a while, but he was one of the earliest disappointments in that regard. Since being booted from Detective Comics, he's bounced from Superman to Justice League to Superman/Wonder Woman. I'd prefer the guy have some permanent home. There's also Peter Tomasi's Batman and Robin, which kicks off a more visual story (which is only fitting, given he's working with ideal collaborator Patrick Gleason). If these few pages intrigue you, know that there's much more interesting material that follows. David Finch's Batman: The Dark Knight, a title I never had much faith in, reads about as well as any other in these opening pages. I guess this one's my bad. Kyle Higgins' Nightwing doesn't come off as well as it could. I read a lot of the early issues, and it was pretty good stuff, but here it's surprisingly incoherent. (Maybe Snyder and Higgins ought to stick together more often?) Gail Simone's Batgirl might presumably be in the same ballpark as Tomasi's relatively feet-first introduction, but as I have far less faith in Simone than Tomasi, I never found out where she went with it. Judd Winick's Catwoman is a highlight, but then Winick is far better than most fans care to admit. Which might explain why his role was so tiny in the New 52, because the stupid fans never admitted as awesome he is. The only real quibble here is why Catwoman has by default become Sexy Catwoman for the past twenty years. I mean, I know there was the Jim Balent era in the '90s, but then by default every female character in the '90s was presented that way. It was more the inexplicable fetish version from the early '00s that decided because she wears latex Catwoman must be Sexy Catwoman, her zipper apparently never able to find the top of her costume (and more often than not, finding it incredibly easy to find the bottom). Winick is also responsible for the similarly impressive Batwing. This incredibly long paragraph ends by wondering why the hell J.H. Williams' long-anticipated Batwoman ended up becoming one of the earliest lost titles of the New 52. Seriously. Sure, it's still being published (and now written by Manhunter mystic Marc Andreyko), but you'd hardly know it. What's up with that? It's enough to make me have to read it myself. And people, I can't read everything I want to anymore. I learned the hard way. But it looks like I'll have to make another exception...
Batman: Black & White - A Black and White World (DC)
From 1996. This is an excerpt from Batman: Black & White #2, from an innovative anthology series DC recently revived. "A Black and White World" is written by Neil Gaiman, which pretty much by default makes in the best story featured in today's column. The story more than earns the distinction, and in classic Gaiman fashion, deconstructing the world of Batman so that he and the Joker are filming their own roles in a movie straight out of a comic book script (or perhaps are simply aware that they are characters in a comic book). The funny thing is, Grant Morrison has had them participate in similar conversations, so it wouldn't be so much of a stretch to assume that between encounters, Batman really does visit Joker at Arkham Asylum and they talk exactly like this, the Joker especially, just as if it's all a game. It's enough to wish Gaiman would write more Batman (he also wrote "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?", a coda to Morrison's "Batman R.I.P." arc), and especially more Joker. This few pages is more insightful to the dynamic between the two than everything Snyder did in "Death of the Family" (besides my supposition as to his ultimate, as-yet-unrevealed purpose), especially in the above opening issue. But that's Neil Gaiman for you.
From 2012. This is Scott Snyder's introduction to the "Death of the Family" arc. And surprise to say, but it's kind of shockingly bad. Not bad as in it's written or drawn poorly, but conceptually it's so poorly executed that it's surprising something like this would be the start of a major story arc for a major character in a major company. Internet critics say that sort of thing all the time. I was following a blogger who trashed just about every issue of AvX that way, and that was an event written by Marvel's top creators. I've ragged on Snyder in the past. I know he's supposed to be the best Batman writer in years. I even recently came to his defense in terms of the conclusion to this very arc and what he might have planned for some grand greater scheme. But in terms at least of this issue, out of all the "Death of the Family" issues I've read, it's easily the worst.
It begins randomly, Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock talking about omens, and then the next page taking all the steam out of the conversation, and then transitioning to Gordon's smoking habit, and then the Joker randomly appears, and then Batman arrives, and then we have a recap of an apparently aborted story Tony Daniel began at the start of the New 52 in the pages of Detective Comics, the one that got the Joker's face peeled off in the first place. Snyder never really convincingly explains any of that, but it's okay, because it's the creepy Joker. Then the Joker becomes all methodical, copying the events of the first time he ever struck Gotham, which becomes a pastiche on how the character operates in Tim Burton's Batman. And finally we reach the Joker and Batman, and the real story is teased.
Honestly, I have no idea why Snyder had to be so obtuse about it. Damian mocks the whole thing right from the start. Maybe that's why Grant Morrison realized he had to go, because he's a barometer. Unlike how Snyder attempts to present Joker, it's really Damian who cuts every situation down to what it really is. So it's no wonder that the best "Death of the Family" issue came from Batman and Robin.
It's certainly not this issue. Definitely not. I have no idea what Snyder was thinking. He's not really that bad a writer. To start a major arc like this, though...When Kyle Higgins started at DC, he was paired with Snyder for the Gates of Gotham mini-series. But now I'm thinking it's Snyder who needs a co-writer. There's no great shame in this. Geoff Johns had co-writers, too. Snyder had one when American Vampire began (some dude named Stephen King). He needs someone to help formulate stories better. He's apparently reached the point where editors can't approach him that way (although the buzz in Negative DC Talk is that all the writers who've abruptly departed the New 52 have done so because of meddling editors), but seriously, reading this issue alone? Any objective analysis begs for Snyder to get a little help.
That's all he needs really. He has a lot of good instincts. He also has a lot of bad ones. Comics are ripe with this kind of talent. Ed Brubaker, for example. Brian Michael Bendis. Even Mark Waid. Fans like to lump Morrison in with them, Johns too. I put Brubaker in with that lot because the best and really only good stuff he did with Captain America involved the Winter Soldier arc. He got his reward with a whole movie based on that work. Bendis is an undeniable talent, but he suffers from an acute case of verbal diarrhea that constantly gets in the way of telling real, actual stories (then again, sometimes maybe that's the point). Waid is his own worst enemy. He's literally a comics savant, but all his best instincts are usually stymied by his nervous need to rebel. I don't include Morrison or Johns because it's really a matter of creative differences. Whereas with Snyder, he can't formulate a story completely. At a certain point, he just throws out whatever he's got. He's at a point in his career where most people don't care. But in the long run, it'll absolutely matter.
And this issue is proof of that.
Batman 101
This compilation is a primer comiXology has that at once serves to provide a checklist for a few noteworthy stories from throughout Batman's publication history, as well as provide previews for all the original New 52 series (plus some vintage covers to round out the set). As far as the preview pages go, they certainly illuminate the original worth of those series. Scott Snyder's Batman starts out as promising as most Scott Snyder series. He's usually good at setting a mood (the above example notwithstanding). He also helps set the tone for most of the other entries, dominated as they are by caption narration (which as a rule I love in comics). Tony Daniel's Detective Comics comes off extremely well. At the time, Tony was more or less being demoted. After serving as artist during pivotal Grant Morrison issues, he'd become primary writer/artist on Batman. When the New 52 began, he was shifted to the secondary Batman title. I'd hoped he'd stick around for a while, but he was one of the earliest disappointments in that regard. Since being booted from Detective Comics, he's bounced from Superman to Justice League to Superman/Wonder Woman. I'd prefer the guy have some permanent home. There's also Peter Tomasi's Batman and Robin, which kicks off a more visual story (which is only fitting, given he's working with ideal collaborator Patrick Gleason). If these few pages intrigue you, know that there's much more interesting material that follows. David Finch's Batman: The Dark Knight, a title I never had much faith in, reads about as well as any other in these opening pages. I guess this one's my bad. Kyle Higgins' Nightwing doesn't come off as well as it could. I read a lot of the early issues, and it was pretty good stuff, but here it's surprisingly incoherent. (Maybe Snyder and Higgins ought to stick together more often?) Gail Simone's Batgirl might presumably be in the same ballpark as Tomasi's relatively feet-first introduction, but as I have far less faith in Simone than Tomasi, I never found out where she went with it. Judd Winick's Catwoman is a highlight, but then Winick is far better than most fans care to admit. Which might explain why his role was so tiny in the New 52, because the stupid fans never admitted as awesome he is. The only real quibble here is why Catwoman has by default become Sexy Catwoman for the past twenty years. I mean, I know there was the Jim Balent era in the '90s, but then by default every female character in the '90s was presented that way. It was more the inexplicable fetish version from the early '00s that decided because she wears latex Catwoman must be Sexy Catwoman, her zipper apparently never able to find the top of her costume (and more often than not, finding it incredibly easy to find the bottom). Winick is also responsible for the similarly impressive Batwing. This incredibly long paragraph ends by wondering why the hell J.H. Williams' long-anticipated Batwoman ended up becoming one of the earliest lost titles of the New 52. Seriously. Sure, it's still being published (and now written by Manhunter mystic Marc Andreyko), but you'd hardly know it. What's up with that? It's enough to make me have to read it myself. And people, I can't read everything I want to anymore. I learned the hard way. But it looks like I'll have to make another exception...
Batman: Black & White - A Black and White World (DC)
From 1996. This is an excerpt from Batman: Black & White #2, from an innovative anthology series DC recently revived. "A Black and White World" is written by Neil Gaiman, which pretty much by default makes in the best story featured in today's column. The story more than earns the distinction, and in classic Gaiman fashion, deconstructing the world of Batman so that he and the Joker are filming their own roles in a movie straight out of a comic book script (or perhaps are simply aware that they are characters in a comic book). The funny thing is, Grant Morrison has had them participate in similar conversations, so it wouldn't be so much of a stretch to assume that between encounters, Batman really does visit Joker at Arkham Asylum and they talk exactly like this, the Joker especially, just as if it's all a game. It's enough to wish Gaiman would write more Batman (he also wrote "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?", a coda to Morrison's "Batman R.I.P." arc), and especially more Joker. This few pages is more insightful to the dynamic between the two than everything Snyder did in "Death of the Family" (besides my supposition as to his ultimate, as-yet-unrevealed purpose), especially in the above opening issue. But that's Neil Gaiman for you.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Superman/Wonder Woman #1 (DC)
(via dccomics.com)
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Tony Daniel
Part of me still can't believe this comic book actually exists. It counts as a second ongoing Wonder Woman series. You know how incredibly rare that is? You'd have to go back to the very beginning to see that happen previously, with a bunch of titles you wouldn't even recognize. None of them became Action Comics, in other words, or Detective Comics. Batman and Superman have long had entire families of lines out the wazoo. Wonder Woman? She's the third in DC's Big Three, mostly because she's the most recognizable female hero in that or any other publisher's history. She earned her stripes. But rarely has she been popular enough or significant enough in a storytelling way to warrant something like this.
Of course, it's all because of the kiss. The Kiss, from Justice League #12, orchestrated by Geoff Johns. There are plenty of precedents to this moment (read this), but The Kiss was the start of a whole new, completely in-continuity relationship. It sets an entirely new standard.
I've been arguing all along that Geoff Johns had been shaping Justice League into as much of a second Wonder Woman series as possible (much the way he later shifted it as such into an Aquaman one with the "Throne of Atlantis" event). This was the culmination point, and this series is the big payoff. Superman and Batman have now, with this year's launch of Batman/Superman, had several ongoing series spotlight their unique dynamic, and so this is a way of continuing that trend, but in a whole new way. A lot of it is motivated by how Superman is being presented these days. I'll get to that. But it's also motivated by a new desire to elevate Wonder Woman to her proper place.
The New 52 launch gave DC a chance to rededicate itself to this task from the start. Wonder Woman has had a number of defining creative runs in her day (I will always point new readers in the direction of Greg Rucka's, for the record), but sometimes it seems as if she's the subject of a ridiculous game of hot potato. No one can seem to spend enough time with her to really create an impact. Did you know she had her own "Doomsday"/"Knightfall"/"Emerald Twilight"/"Terminal Velocity" event in the '90s? It was called "The Contest." She was temporarily replaced, just like every other DC icon. As far as the significance of Wonder Woman lore goes, hers was probably the most thematically sound of all those stories. But you don't really know much about it, do you? The character of Artemis almost became a permanent member of her supporting cast because of it. Almost.
Something Johns has tried to do recently is bring back the significance of Steve Trevor, basically the Lois Lane/Carol Ferris of the Wonder Woman world. And like Lois, Steve's been frustrated romantically in this new era. Because Wonder Woman's got a brand-new bag.
Aside from developments in Justice League, however, she's also been the subject of a new approach to her obligatory solo series. At the hands of Brian Azzarello, Wonder Woman has taken on a character all its own, totally unique in DC's line-up, its Hawkeye before Marvel had Hawkeye, the indy flavor with one of the most mainstream characters around. And Azzarello has been humming along, building a new template, a new foundation for taking Wonder Woman seriously. In the years ahead this achievement will only grow in significance. But the problem is, it's not Wonder Woman as you would expect, not the outsized, traditional take that the rest of the DC series are geared toward, not the iconic approach.
Just what is the iconic approach to Wonder Woman? I'm arguing that until now, it just plain didn't exist. She existed as a placeholder until someone figured it out. Johns effected a Year One arc in the early issues of Justice League, explaining who she was and how she came to enter Man's World, and why it would be so natural for her to enter a romance with Superman.
Because, really, who else can understand the Man of Steel other than the Amazonian princess who is as close to his kind of existence as he has ever known, and even gotten to experience things he could only dream of, knowing her own people, being born into a role rather than assuming it?
A lot of what Wonder Woman is in comics today, in Justice League and now Superman/Wonder Woman, is the subtle repositioning of Superman that DC has been working toward for several years now, which this year's Man of Steel movie experience perfectly exemplifies.
It used to be that DC was scared of letting Superman be Superman. He was too powerful, his critics said, too unrelatable. So his humanity was played up. His vulnerabilities. The perfect love of his life always assumed to be plucky human reporter Lois Lane, someone he could share the dual nature of his existence.
And yet. And yet creators like Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison (who himself elevated Lois to more equal footing within the pages of All Star Superman) finally said enough was enough. Superman should be allowed to be himself again. Be as powerful as he was always meant to be, that shining beacon in the sky, the example for which humans were meant to strive (messianic messages or otherwise). And a Superman of this kind, far from wanting to be more like a regular guy, feels incredibly alienated. That's how you make him approachable. All those Marvel characters who take this story so literally, they just never get it. It's not enough to say you're just as pathetic as everyone else. You need to know why they feel as pathetic as you.
That's Man of Steel in a nutshell, by the way, all of Clark Kent's insecurities as he slowly realizes that he was always Superman. And that hardly makes his journey any easier.
And so what do you get for the man who has everything? Someone who understands him. Someone very much like, well, Wonder Woman.
And so we finally have a series like this. We get Charles Soule writing the Superman perspective as its been repositioned, clarified, made iconic all over again. And Wonder Woman. We see, for the first time, how complementary they really are. We get Wonder Woman the warrior, who can rib Superman for his improvisational fighting techniques. She knows how to handle herself physically. Not because of her powers, but her prowess. And so she's pitted immediately against Doomsday, the dude who brought Superman to an end, once.
They compete. Superman and Wonder Woman act in concert, in crises that evoke their contrasting styles, how only they can truly understand what it's like to be in these kinds of situations. It's all so brilliant, exactly what it needed to be.
The art from Tony Daniel, as with everything else Tony has done, rises to the occasion. His style continues to evolve, become more and more evocative. I thought it was bad for his career when Tony was abruptly removed from the Detective Comics relaunch. But this project is far, far more significant.
If more readers can begin to understand the significance of all this, Superman/Wonder Woman could become one of the bestselling comics of this or any other age. I think it deserves to be already.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Justice League #14 (DC)
writer: Geoff Johns
artist: Tony Daniel
I've been saying it so long I guess it's still surprising that I seem to be unique in saying it. And this issue only makes it so much more obvious: Geoff Johns has basically been using Justice League to write his first Wonder Woman series.
This issue is all about Diana's relationship and conflict with Cheetah, who has long been a signature element of her rogues gallery. And yet even moreso than Aquaman, Wonder Woman's enemies aren't quite as well-known to comic book fans as, say, Batman or Spider-Man's (Geoff himself is the reason Sinestro has been elevated to such ongoing prominence for Green Lantern). If you don't know anything at all about Cheetah, then you'll find out everything you need to know, as well as how she fits in with Geoff's depiction of Wonder Woman so far in Justice League.
The Amazing Amazon has her own ongoing series, of course, under the auspices of Brian Azzarello, which at the moment operates very much like an indy comic. Incredibly, Wonder Woman has never had two concurrent ongoing series in the modern era, whereas Batman and Superman have never had to settle for just one, and even Green Lantern has enjoyed more than one era of having several (and so has the Flash). She's one of the Big Three at DC mainly because she's long been the most prominent female superhero in comics, yet she doesn't have that same immediacy as her counterparts. She's never had a movie, although she did have a successful TV series (from which Lynda Carter remains famous), and several attempts have been made recently to do so again.
Most of what I'm saying here is that Geoff is basically doing more in Justice League to elevate Wonder Woman than has been done for any reasonably sustained effort in decades. There have certainly been respected creators (George Perez, John Byrne, Greg Rucka, Gail Simone) who have worked on her over the years, but not once has she been buzzed about to the same degree as Batman or Superman. Her "Doomsday"/"Knightfall" saga was called "The Contest." Remember that? Remember Artemis?
The story fans will remember from recent months is that Wonder Woman and Superman are pursuing a romantic relationship. Just like Justice League as a whole it's significance by association. But it's still a start. And then to have a whole issue devoted to her is still more significant. It's something to build on. Chances are Geoff has much more to say about this. Anytime he spends time on a character, the character is usually the better for it. And sometimes when he spends time on a character in a team book, he ends up writing them in their own book.
(Here's hoping!)
The other thing of note is that the art is from Tony Daniel, who in recent years has made his name working on Batman, but has recently been expanding his repertoire. I've described his work as reminiscent of Jim Lee in the past, so it's only appropriate that he works in a title where Lee left a big mark (well, again, after Batman). Yet lately Daniel's work seems to have evolved to another level. It may be the inkers or Daniel himself or the colorists or a combination of all three, but certainly in this issue he looks all the more vivid.
Chapter 7 of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's "Shazam" is also featured, with an emphasis on Black Adam's emerging interest in Billy Batson's activities, which at the moment is still figuring out what it means to be a kid in an adult's body, and how best to exploit it, ably abetted by Freddy Freeman (who in previous continuity becomes powered himself and inducted into the Shazam family). Black Adam is a favorite of mine, but I suspect the story will have to progress a little more for him to really express himself, because the Black Adam I know is definitely known for expressing himself.
artist: Tony Daniel
(via dccomics.com)
I've been saying it so long I guess it's still surprising that I seem to be unique in saying it. And this issue only makes it so much more obvious: Geoff Johns has basically been using Justice League to write his first Wonder Woman series.
This issue is all about Diana's relationship and conflict with Cheetah, who has long been a signature element of her rogues gallery. And yet even moreso than Aquaman, Wonder Woman's enemies aren't quite as well-known to comic book fans as, say, Batman or Spider-Man's (Geoff himself is the reason Sinestro has been elevated to such ongoing prominence for Green Lantern). If you don't know anything at all about Cheetah, then you'll find out everything you need to know, as well as how she fits in with Geoff's depiction of Wonder Woman so far in Justice League.
The Amazing Amazon has her own ongoing series, of course, under the auspices of Brian Azzarello, which at the moment operates very much like an indy comic. Incredibly, Wonder Woman has never had two concurrent ongoing series in the modern era, whereas Batman and Superman have never had to settle for just one, and even Green Lantern has enjoyed more than one era of having several (and so has the Flash). She's one of the Big Three at DC mainly because she's long been the most prominent female superhero in comics, yet she doesn't have that same immediacy as her counterparts. She's never had a movie, although she did have a successful TV series (from which Lynda Carter remains famous), and several attempts have been made recently to do so again.
Most of what I'm saying here is that Geoff is basically doing more in Justice League to elevate Wonder Woman than has been done for any reasonably sustained effort in decades. There have certainly been respected creators (George Perez, John Byrne, Greg Rucka, Gail Simone) who have worked on her over the years, but not once has she been buzzed about to the same degree as Batman or Superman. Her "Doomsday"/"Knightfall" saga was called "The Contest." Remember that? Remember Artemis?
The story fans will remember from recent months is that Wonder Woman and Superman are pursuing a romantic relationship. Just like Justice League as a whole it's significance by association. But it's still a start. And then to have a whole issue devoted to her is still more significant. It's something to build on. Chances are Geoff has much more to say about this. Anytime he spends time on a character, the character is usually the better for it. And sometimes when he spends time on a character in a team book, he ends up writing them in their own book.
(Here's hoping!)
The other thing of note is that the art is from Tony Daniel, who in recent years has made his name working on Batman, but has recently been expanding his repertoire. I've described his work as reminiscent of Jim Lee in the past, so it's only appropriate that he works in a title where Lee left a big mark (well, again, after Batman). Yet lately Daniel's work seems to have evolved to another level. It may be the inkers or Daniel himself or the colorists or a combination of all three, but certainly in this issue he looks all the more vivid.
Chapter 7 of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's "Shazam" is also featured, with an emphasis on Black Adam's emerging interest in Billy Batson's activities, which at the moment is still figuring out what it means to be a kid in an adult's body, and how best to exploit it, ably abetted by Freddy Freeman (who in previous continuity becomes powered himself and inducted into the Shazam family). Black Adam is a favorite of mine, but I suspect the story will have to progress a little more for him to really express himself, because the Black Adam I know is definitely known for expressing himself.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Justice League #13 (DC)
writer: Geoff Johns
artist: Tony Daniel
I've been saying for some time now that Geoff Johns has more or less used Justice League as his first experience writing a Wonder Woman series, and recent issues have only made that more obvious. In the preceding issue the most notable thing everyone's favorite Amazon did was kiss Superman, and as a lot of people made a big deal about it, I'd say it was notable indeed.
Yet other issues went to great lengths to explain how another of her relationships, with Steve Trevor, affected the whole team and indeed series, which has continuing consequences with the forthcoming Justice League of America series.
With this issue, Wonder Woman's importance to the series can no longer be overlooked. Perhaps Johns has been working toward this moment deliberately, as 2013 will feature the "Trinity War" event that features not only Wonder Woman but also Superman and Batman. Over in her own book, Brian Azzarello has been going for a more mythic approach (which I will be having another look at once the New Gods hit in the near future), but here she's grounded in the real world, struggling to find her way, which is exactly what this issue is all about, how she feels responsible for the creation of one of her most famous foes, Cheetah.
If having one of her signature villains be featured in Justice League isn't evidence enough of what I'm arguing here, then I don't know what to say. If you've ever wondered if you could find Wonder Woman compelling but had never found a reason before, Geoff Johns has your back.
Tony Daniel, meanwhile, has the front covered beautifully. In the past I've compared his work to Jim Lee, who just completed his run in the series, especially Daniel's Batman, which he carried over from "Batman R.I.P." to the initial peeling of the Joker's face in Detective Comics #1 at the start of the New 52. His style seems to have undergone another evolution, though. It looks fantastic in the issue.
Also included is a preview of Justice League of America, by the way.
artist: Tony Daniel
I've been saying for some time now that Geoff Johns has more or less used Justice League as his first experience writing a Wonder Woman series, and recent issues have only made that more obvious. In the preceding issue the most notable thing everyone's favorite Amazon did was kiss Superman, and as a lot of people made a big deal about it, I'd say it was notable indeed.
Yet other issues went to great lengths to explain how another of her relationships, with Steve Trevor, affected the whole team and indeed series, which has continuing consequences with the forthcoming Justice League of America series.
With this issue, Wonder Woman's importance to the series can no longer be overlooked. Perhaps Johns has been working toward this moment deliberately, as 2013 will feature the "Trinity War" event that features not only Wonder Woman but also Superman and Batman. Over in her own book, Brian Azzarello has been going for a more mythic approach (which I will be having another look at once the New Gods hit in the near future), but here she's grounded in the real world, struggling to find her way, which is exactly what this issue is all about, how she feels responsible for the creation of one of her most famous foes, Cheetah.
If having one of her signature villains be featured in Justice League isn't evidence enough of what I'm arguing here, then I don't know what to say. If you've ever wondered if you could find Wonder Woman compelling but had never found a reason before, Geoff Johns has your back.
Tony Daniel, meanwhile, has the front covered beautifully. In the past I've compared his work to Jim Lee, who just completed his run in the series, especially Daniel's Batman, which he carried over from "Batman R.I.P." to the initial peeling of the Joker's face in Detective Comics #1 at the start of the New 52. His style seems to have undergone another evolution, though. It looks fantastic in the issue.
Also included is a preview of Justice League of America, by the way.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Gone in a flash...!
The biggest news for me personally in recent weeks was that Borders, the company I’ve worked for over the past five years, has gone into liquidation. In a matter of months, it’ll have passed into history. There’re any number of things I could say about this, but for the purposes of this particular column, I’ll limit myself to comics experience I was able to enjoy during that time. Perhaps most notably, I found myself increasingly in charge of a small corner of the comics retail experience, quite by accident.
I began working for the company in the fall of 2006, opening a new store in Burlington, MA. At first, I as just another employee, and since this was the first time I had ever worked in a bookstore, it took time for me to establish a role for myself, to become comfortable. Some of my earliest contact with the comics in the store were the regular supply of new issues we received in our magazine shipments. I took care to manage these as best I could, but I also enjoyed reading them on breaks, which was a marvelously unique experience (I can’t imagine the wicked temptation working in an actual comics shop might kindle).
At some point, when it became necessary to reorganize certain areas that had gotten wildly out of order, I realized I could take control of the graphic novel collection, too. I became quite interested in this. I started reading a lot of those, too, some like DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and WATCHMEN that I was naturally aware of but had never actually experienced before.
Within about a year, I transferred to a different Borders after moving to Colorado Springs. Things were different here. The graphic novels hadn’t been maintained in any serious manner for some time, and I didn’t feel qualified to correct this right away. In time, however, I had enough support, the right moves were made, and I was finally able to bring them back under control. It was a greater revelation. The new order was perhaps a greater order than I’d accomplished in my other store, and I began to take greater pains to keep it so. I became, essentially, a guardian to the graphic novel collection, sometimes zealously so. The comics kept coming in with magazines, and at some point, I became sole guardian, as it were, of the magazines (somewhat more officially, it should be noted), and so was able to maintain the available issues at my leisure.
Retail can be a funny beast, sometimes completely unaware of the difference between supply and demand. Space was a constant issue, with the graphic novels. I had to innovate in order to find space for all of them. I began appropriating more and more display areas, all around the general area where comics were ordinarily be found. I became a fanatic. I didn’t exactly foster readers, but I at least made it easy for anyone to know what I thought might be worth checking out. It was fun. The displays continued to grow, and it became somewhat ridiculous (within reason). I had virtually turned a whole section of the bookstore into a comics shop. (If only I had real power! Or loyal customers!)
Anyway, then Borders went into bankruptcy, and for some reason or another couldn’t avoid liquidation. So there ends that.
Earlier this year, I had a fortuitously-timed employee appreciation discount when THE FLASH OMNIBUS BY GEOFF JOHNS VOLUME ONE was released. You may know this particular ditty comes at a fairly hefty price, oversized hardcover that it is, collecting more than a dozen comics. The period of 2000-2001, as readers of this blog may remember, was notable in my comics experience in that I was not, as such, reading comics, so Geoff’s run came at a time when I couldn’t really appreciate it. I was still high on all the work Mark Waid had done (even though his last story, involving Cobalt Blue in “Chain Lightning,” seemed to fall on deaf ears), and couldn’t imagine anyone else capturing the world of the Scarlet Speedster quite so vividly. I kept track of comics during my time away, though, and heard all these amazing things about what Johns was doing, and in 2004, when I was segueing back in, his FLASH comics were among the first things I read, even though I didn’t make an effort to be very expansive about it. Even by 2005, when I was officially back, I didn’t seem all that interested in following his efforts too closely.
Let me just step aside for a moment and note for the record that Geoff worked on THE FLASH for five years. This is incredibly unusual. Waid had about six years of interrupted time (by Mark Millar and Grant Morrison) on the title, and worked in conjunction with Brian Augustyn for some of that. Unlike his work on JSA, which he spent shared some of the work with James Robinson, Johns wrote THE FLASH on his own. It was his first big assignment after STARS AND S.T.R.I.P.E., the book that ushered Geoff’s comics career.
He’s been writing Green Lantern since 2005, and has so thoroughly revolutionized that character and the franchise around him that Hollywood finally took the gamble that a wide audience might actually be out there for a property even comics fans have only moderately cared about (for the most part). Geoff’s work in this regard is exactly comparable to what Mark Waid did with The Flash.
So what exactly did Johns did with the same character? THE FLASH OMNIBUS is a clear indication that he had no intention of replicating Waid’s work. He de-emphasized the mythology of the Speed Force and Wally West’s considerable family of speedsters (though in Geoff’s own TEEN TITANS reboot Bart Allen receives a remarkable upgrade that no other writer has been able to capitalize on, with the possible exception of Marc Guggenheim), and instead found a way to represent the reality of life for someone whose main attribute is the ability to run really fast. In effect, now that Waid had matured Wally, Geoff was able to push him into his own confident adventures.
In another departure from Waid’s impulses, Johns chose to bring villains squarely back into the fold, new ones, figures who were familiar from stories that predated Waid in the same series, but most notably the Rogues, characters who had been famous foes of Barry Allen, the second Flash, but who had basically remained dormant for decades. Geoff infused Captain Cold, Weather Wizard, Mirror Master, and others with a considerable of amount of depth that exploded their possibilities, something clear from the very beginning, though he himself wouldn’t fully realize the potential of all this for a few years. For an outsider, it seemed like he was losing himself in everything but his main character. In reality, Geoff understood better than anyone the potential of what he was writing.
A lot of commentators like to say that he prefers to resurrect old ideas at the expense of newer ones, that he’s guilty of submerging the future of comics in a fanboy’s fantasy that forever chains it to the past, limiting the potential for new readers. He brings back Barry Allen after a few decades, reversing one of comics’ seemingly permanent and perfect deaths, and forgets completely about Wally. Where’s the sense in that? The fact is (the Flash Fact), Geoff understands Barry as a character, and has done more with a few stories than most writers working for years will ever accomplish with other characters, realizing the heart of their potential. He found a narrative, a singular voice, for Barry, that had been overlooked before, wasn’t even possible given the style of storytelling when Barry was last in action. If you’ve got that, why worry about anything else?
As I attempted to do, prematurely, a few months back, I bought some comics from Borders, from the last rounds that will ever be delivered, and so will round out this week with my thoughts on those:
THE FLASH #12 (DC)
Cover date July 2011.
Somewhat appropriately enough, the final issue of the current FLASH series, with Johns at the helm, leading directly into FLASHPOINT, the first time the franchise has carried a major crossover event. With details having emerged about the “New 52,” we now know that Geoff has technically ended his run with The Flash, once again, at least for now, which is something of a disappointment, but it can’t be said that he hasn’t devoted a significant amount of his career with one Scarlet Speedster or another. I spent five years working for Borders, and Geoff spent five years writing Wally West. I know how that time passed for me. I can only imagine what it’s like to write a single series for that length of time.
GREEN LANTERN #66 (DC)
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #60 (DC)
Cover date July 2011.
I made a conscious effort to refrain from reading or collecting any of the “War of the Green Lanterns” comics in recent months, knowing that if I read any of them, I will probably want to read all of them, and since I’m “not” reading comics these days, I wanted to wait until the eventual collection to read this latest epic. Well, this was a good enough excuse to break that rule. As far as I can tell, it’s a more than appropriate arc to finish on (at least to the “New 52” fresh start), and works extremely well with GREEN LANTERN AND PHILOSOPHY, a book that was released in conjunction with the new movie, and which deals at some length with the work Geoff has been doing in developing the core concepts of the franchise.
BATMAN #711 (DC)
Cover date August 2011.
I’ve heard some people refer to Tony Daniel as a hack writer. Those who have been following this blog know that I think otherwise. I’m extremely glad that he’ll have the chance to continuing creating Batman stories in DETECTIVE COMICS come September. He has all the potential to succeed Grant Morrison as the next architect of the Dark Knight.
TEEN TITANS #91 (DC)
Cover date March 2011.
Okay, so I didn’t always notice when a series stopped shipping. Toward the end, we received fewer and fewer new comics. I liked to maintain as full a rack as possible, and so that’s why this book stuck around for so long. Which is just as well, because it becomes my only real experience with J.T. Krul’s Titans, which famously integrated Damian as a member. A fairly decent experience, overall, but not really on par with Geoff’s, or Marv Wolfman’s. There is, however, a nice moment where Bart Allen remembers the death Marc Guggenheim was editorially directed to end his run with, which is a nice touch, given what I’ve written earlier.
SPIDER-GIRL #4 (Marvel)
From April 2011.
Along with “One Moment in Time,” “Grim Hunt” was an excellent representation of a mature Spider-Man, so I kept this particular comic around since it was basically a follow-up I kept hoping customers would snatch up. They never did, obviously, but that just allowed me to, finally.
FANTASTIC FOUR: THE LAST STAND (Marvel)
This one was only shipped a few weeks back, and is a repackaging of #s 574 and 587-588 of the series recently replaced by FF, including the famous conclusion to “Three,” and therefore the infamous death of Johnny Storm. I wrote about that particular issue a few months back, and my opinion of its individual worth remains basically the same (the lack of emphasis on Johnny is baffling, except to say that his death was somehow a completely natural outcome of the story, at least in Jonathan Hickman’s eyes). The difference is that this special edition puts the whole thing into a far better context. The Fantastic Four were always something of a Marvel indulgence, a willingness to believe that it somehow made sense that these four characters really did make sense as superheroes, and not just as a makeshift family. Reed Richards, even in the movies, is portrayed as a little too singularly motivated by his pursuit of science for this to completely jive, so the forging of the Future Foundation and a complete break with its origins is actually something of a genius move on the part of Hickman. If other writers actually maintain and expand on the idea, it might even make sense! So I was glad to have had the opportunity to buy this one, certainly.
The fate of Borders, in the end, simply adds a new wrinkle into the continuing evolution of my comics experience. But things are always changing…
I began working for the company in the fall of 2006, opening a new store in Burlington, MA. At first, I as just another employee, and since this was the first time I had ever worked in a bookstore, it took time for me to establish a role for myself, to become comfortable. Some of my earliest contact with the comics in the store were the regular supply of new issues we received in our magazine shipments. I took care to manage these as best I could, but I also enjoyed reading them on breaks, which was a marvelously unique experience (I can’t imagine the wicked temptation working in an actual comics shop might kindle).
At some point, when it became necessary to reorganize certain areas that had gotten wildly out of order, I realized I could take control of the graphic novel collection, too. I became quite interested in this. I started reading a lot of those, too, some like DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and WATCHMEN that I was naturally aware of but had never actually experienced before.
Within about a year, I transferred to a different Borders after moving to Colorado Springs. Things were different here. The graphic novels hadn’t been maintained in any serious manner for some time, and I didn’t feel qualified to correct this right away. In time, however, I had enough support, the right moves were made, and I was finally able to bring them back under control. It was a greater revelation. The new order was perhaps a greater order than I’d accomplished in my other store, and I began to take greater pains to keep it so. I became, essentially, a guardian to the graphic novel collection, sometimes zealously so. The comics kept coming in with magazines, and at some point, I became sole guardian, as it were, of the magazines (somewhat more officially, it should be noted), and so was able to maintain the available issues at my leisure.
Retail can be a funny beast, sometimes completely unaware of the difference between supply and demand. Space was a constant issue, with the graphic novels. I had to innovate in order to find space for all of them. I began appropriating more and more display areas, all around the general area where comics were ordinarily be found. I became a fanatic. I didn’t exactly foster readers, but I at least made it easy for anyone to know what I thought might be worth checking out. It was fun. The displays continued to grow, and it became somewhat ridiculous (within reason). I had virtually turned a whole section of the bookstore into a comics shop. (If only I had real power! Or loyal customers!)
Anyway, then Borders went into bankruptcy, and for some reason or another couldn’t avoid liquidation. So there ends that.
Earlier this year, I had a fortuitously-timed employee appreciation discount when THE FLASH OMNIBUS BY GEOFF JOHNS VOLUME ONE was released. You may know this particular ditty comes at a fairly hefty price, oversized hardcover that it is, collecting more than a dozen comics. The period of 2000-2001, as readers of this blog may remember, was notable in my comics experience in that I was not, as such, reading comics, so Geoff’s run came at a time when I couldn’t really appreciate it. I was still high on all the work Mark Waid had done (even though his last story, involving Cobalt Blue in “Chain Lightning,” seemed to fall on deaf ears), and couldn’t imagine anyone else capturing the world of the Scarlet Speedster quite so vividly. I kept track of comics during my time away, though, and heard all these amazing things about what Johns was doing, and in 2004, when I was segueing back in, his FLASH comics were among the first things I read, even though I didn’t make an effort to be very expansive about it. Even by 2005, when I was officially back, I didn’t seem all that interested in following his efforts too closely.
Let me just step aside for a moment and note for the record that Geoff worked on THE FLASH for five years. This is incredibly unusual. Waid had about six years of interrupted time (by Mark Millar and Grant Morrison) on the title, and worked in conjunction with Brian Augustyn for some of that. Unlike his work on JSA, which he spent shared some of the work with James Robinson, Johns wrote THE FLASH on his own. It was his first big assignment after STARS AND S.T.R.I.P.E., the book that ushered Geoff’s comics career.
He’s been writing Green Lantern since 2005, and has so thoroughly revolutionized that character and the franchise around him that Hollywood finally took the gamble that a wide audience might actually be out there for a property even comics fans have only moderately cared about (for the most part). Geoff’s work in this regard is exactly comparable to what Mark Waid did with The Flash.
So what exactly did Johns did with the same character? THE FLASH OMNIBUS is a clear indication that he had no intention of replicating Waid’s work. He de-emphasized the mythology of the Speed Force and Wally West’s considerable family of speedsters (though in Geoff’s own TEEN TITANS reboot Bart Allen receives a remarkable upgrade that no other writer has been able to capitalize on, with the possible exception of Marc Guggenheim), and instead found a way to represent the reality of life for someone whose main attribute is the ability to run really fast. In effect, now that Waid had matured Wally, Geoff was able to push him into his own confident adventures.
In another departure from Waid’s impulses, Johns chose to bring villains squarely back into the fold, new ones, figures who were familiar from stories that predated Waid in the same series, but most notably the Rogues, characters who had been famous foes of Barry Allen, the second Flash, but who had basically remained dormant for decades. Geoff infused Captain Cold, Weather Wizard, Mirror Master, and others with a considerable of amount of depth that exploded their possibilities, something clear from the very beginning, though he himself wouldn’t fully realize the potential of all this for a few years. For an outsider, it seemed like he was losing himself in everything but his main character. In reality, Geoff understood better than anyone the potential of what he was writing.
A lot of commentators like to say that he prefers to resurrect old ideas at the expense of newer ones, that he’s guilty of submerging the future of comics in a fanboy’s fantasy that forever chains it to the past, limiting the potential for new readers. He brings back Barry Allen after a few decades, reversing one of comics’ seemingly permanent and perfect deaths, and forgets completely about Wally. Where’s the sense in that? The fact is (the Flash Fact), Geoff understands Barry as a character, and has done more with a few stories than most writers working for years will ever accomplish with other characters, realizing the heart of their potential. He found a narrative, a singular voice, for Barry, that had been overlooked before, wasn’t even possible given the style of storytelling when Barry was last in action. If you’ve got that, why worry about anything else?
As I attempted to do, prematurely, a few months back, I bought some comics from Borders, from the last rounds that will ever be delivered, and so will round out this week with my thoughts on those:
THE FLASH #12 (DC)
Cover date July 2011.
Somewhat appropriately enough, the final issue of the current FLASH series, with Johns at the helm, leading directly into FLASHPOINT, the first time the franchise has carried a major crossover event. With details having emerged about the “New 52,” we now know that Geoff has technically ended his run with The Flash, once again, at least for now, which is something of a disappointment, but it can’t be said that he hasn’t devoted a significant amount of his career with one Scarlet Speedster or another. I spent five years working for Borders, and Geoff spent five years writing Wally West. I know how that time passed for me. I can only imagine what it’s like to write a single series for that length of time.
GREEN LANTERN #66 (DC)
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #60 (DC)
Cover date July 2011.
I made a conscious effort to refrain from reading or collecting any of the “War of the Green Lanterns” comics in recent months, knowing that if I read any of them, I will probably want to read all of them, and since I’m “not” reading comics these days, I wanted to wait until the eventual collection to read this latest epic. Well, this was a good enough excuse to break that rule. As far as I can tell, it’s a more than appropriate arc to finish on (at least to the “New 52” fresh start), and works extremely well with GREEN LANTERN AND PHILOSOPHY, a book that was released in conjunction with the new movie, and which deals at some length with the work Geoff has been doing in developing the core concepts of the franchise.
BATMAN #711 (DC)
Cover date August 2011.
I’ve heard some people refer to Tony Daniel as a hack writer. Those who have been following this blog know that I think otherwise. I’m extremely glad that he’ll have the chance to continuing creating Batman stories in DETECTIVE COMICS come September. He has all the potential to succeed Grant Morrison as the next architect of the Dark Knight.
TEEN TITANS #91 (DC)
Cover date March 2011.
Okay, so I didn’t always notice when a series stopped shipping. Toward the end, we received fewer and fewer new comics. I liked to maintain as full a rack as possible, and so that’s why this book stuck around for so long. Which is just as well, because it becomes my only real experience with J.T. Krul’s Titans, which famously integrated Damian as a member. A fairly decent experience, overall, but not really on par with Geoff’s, or Marv Wolfman’s. There is, however, a nice moment where Bart Allen remembers the death Marc Guggenheim was editorially directed to end his run with, which is a nice touch, given what I’ve written earlier.
SPIDER-GIRL #4 (Marvel)
From April 2011.
Along with “One Moment in Time,” “Grim Hunt” was an excellent representation of a mature Spider-Man, so I kept this particular comic around since it was basically a follow-up I kept hoping customers would snatch up. They never did, obviously, but that just allowed me to, finally.
FANTASTIC FOUR: THE LAST STAND (Marvel)
This one was only shipped a few weeks back, and is a repackaging of #s 574 and 587-588 of the series recently replaced by FF, including the famous conclusion to “Three,” and therefore the infamous death of Johnny Storm. I wrote about that particular issue a few months back, and my opinion of its individual worth remains basically the same (the lack of emphasis on Johnny is baffling, except to say that his death was somehow a completely natural outcome of the story, at least in Jonathan Hickman’s eyes). The difference is that this special edition puts the whole thing into a far better context. The Fantastic Four were always something of a Marvel indulgence, a willingness to believe that it somehow made sense that these four characters really did make sense as superheroes, and not just as a makeshift family. Reed Richards, even in the movies, is portrayed as a little too singularly motivated by his pursuit of science for this to completely jive, so the forging of the Future Foundation and a complete break with its origins is actually something of a genius move on the part of Hickman. If other writers actually maintain and expand on the idea, it might even make sense! So I was glad to have had the opportunity to buy this one, certainly.
The fate of Borders, in the end, simply adds a new wrinkle into the continuing evolution of my comics experience. But things are always changing…
Thursday, April 28, 2011
To Trade or Not to Trade...?
Okay, so that’s a fairly silly question. Let’s put an end to that debate. Many fans have, through the years, wondered if it’s, shall we say, nobler to read their comics via single issues, the regular release scheduled typified by your average Wednesday shelf jockey, or trade and/or hardcover collections, when you can read entire story arcs at your convenience. You can do both. That’s my conclusion.
But sometimes, and not when you’re hypnotized into making that trip or that order, reading beat by beat, drove by drove of comics, you wonder if you’re not somehow missing out, when you read the collection over the issue, that it’s somehow less special, less privileged. I have that kind of thought at the moment over Grant Morrison and his BATMAN, INC. run. As you know, I have quit my regular reading habits, to alleviate monetary strains, so I no longer read comics with the regularity I once did (or twice, depending how good your memory is). But once an addict, always the impulse to relapse. Fortunately, in this case we’re only talking about comics, so I think I can once and again indulge in the occasional comics purchase, and that’s the topic this week, jumbled as it is with other thoughts, including, yes, whether or not it’s just as well to wait for the collection. For instance, I will likely read Stuart Immonen’s latest major offering, FEAR ITSELF, as a collection. I didn’t mention it last week because it didn’t really fit in with the tone of the rest of what I had to say (that and I had temporarily forgotten about it), but it’s still pretty awesome that Marvel thinks he’s important enough to give him some truly significant work.
I’m content with the knowledge that there will be collections of all that FLASHPOINT material that has me salivating (I’m more interested in the side projects than the event itself, which is somewhat unusual, but those projects actually seem to be something of the point this time), and probably the Green Lantern one-shots that will accompany the movie, which I will otherwise not have a reasonable chance to reading without breaking my new code. I will, if all goes to plan, however, make a trip to Escape Velocity for Free Comic Book day next week. That’s an allowable exception. As are random trips and purchases such as will be covered in this column.
One of the painful results of that code, of the decision that broke the habit three months ago, was to give up BATMAN, INC., which had only just begun. Morrison was demonstrating a fresh perspective, a more carefree one than he’d exhibited in almost anything else I’ve read from him, except maybe JOE THE BARBARIAN (but more on that a tad later). Grant Morrison collections, are one of the few guarantees to be considered instant in-stock material, however, at the bookstore where I work, so that has been one of my sources for solace, whenever I wish I were still in the thick of it. Strangely, though, I’ve made the transition fairly painlessly. For someone who spent 2005-2010 made weekly trips to a comic book store or receiving orders in the mail, you’d think there’d be more separation anxiety, but there really hasn’t been. That isn’t to say that I received, like some smug jerk, that I was finally “grown up,” “matured” and realized I didn’t need comics anymore, but that not reading comics every week did not exactly turn out to be the end of the world. For one thing, I’ve been writing at Comics Reader during this time, so I’ve had at least one excuse to continue thinking about them, and while that doesn’t seem like much (especially if you consider just how many comics I used to read), I have a reason and that seems like enough. I’ve also been creating a database of all the comics I own, and sometimes, keeping up with the memories is enough, too. (It’s not like I don’t have any comics to read.)
I also have the fact that I will be writing future columns for Comics Reader based around collections, including a series on Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN, which I will be reading for the first time, and so you will have hopefully fresh thoughts on one of the medium’s touchstones, and so will I, to look forward to. There are others, and of course, new collections from new comics.
Speaking of Grant Morrison, JOE THE BARBARIAN comes up again later in this column when I talk about the comics that interrupted the exile, but I can’t help but wonder again, as I have when reading other issues of this book, if this might not be one of the better arguments that some comics really are made almost directly for collection. I suspect it reads better as a whole, and almost wish I had actually waited for collection. But now that I own all the individual issues, do I really need that collection? That’s the kind of thorny issue that still remains in this debate.
But giving up comics entirely? Well, that’s just crazy talk. Some of the following comics come from Escape Velocity in downtown Colorado Springs, and a few others from the aforementioned bookstore, when it seemed as if it was never longer going to be receiving new comics, so I thought I was going to be commemorating, not just enjoying, a fond memory. Anyhoo:
BATMAN, INC. #3-4 (DC)
Morrison takes Bruce Wayne to Argentina in his continuing quest to find recruits for the Batman family, and finds more and more intrigue, as only Morrison can, with a broader spectrum of possibility than most creators consider in a whole career (I’m not here referring to Stan Lee, who never saw a gimmick he didn’t want to appropriate for himself). That’s what’s typified Grant’s whole run with the Dark Knight, either focusing on the iconic, or seeing what can be done, with that same stance, with the least likely tangential characters. Morrison is the only writer who truly seems to be enjoying himself, on a continual basis, discovering at every turn that comics aren’t a challenge, but an opportunity. These two issues, glad as I was to find them both, are not the complete story. Hence, all that brooding over collections earlier.
COMIC BOOK COMICS #5 (Evil Twin)
Very pleased that this one was available, since the book itself was one of my proudest placeholders in my Midtown pull list, which, I think, didn’t publish a single issue the whole year-and-half I had that account. No matter! This issue, the penultimate in a study of comics history from Fred Van Lente, explores the various thorny monetary matters that can arise from the medium, some of which I was familiar with, others I wasn’t, but all amusing detailed, as Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey have been doing since ACTION PHILOSOPHERS (but more on that later).
JOE THE BARBARIAN #8 (Vertigo)
The much-delayed conclusion from Morrison and Sean Murphy is exactly what you might have expected, and with a few surprises, and is just as appropriately magical as the rest of the book has been. Like an animated movie with all the cookie cutter elements left on the floor, JOE may end up being a significant element of Grant Morrison’s legacy, unexpected, given that Grant is as well known for his subversive impulses as his icon-busting/embellishing. If you want a version of the Morrison archetype that won’t deeply unsettle you or change everything you thought you knew, JOE THE BARBARIAN is the book for you. It quietly explores epic storytelling with an authentic emotional core, almost like a streamlined BONE (to keep that comic alive at Comics Reader).
BATMAN #707 (DC)
Tony Daniel concludes his sequel to “The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul” (as I like to view it), confounding students of Sensei and letting Dick Grayson win the day without a lot of help from Peacock and I-Ching (when I’m not sure that could have been said, at least by Peacock, earlier). I still stand by Daniel’s work as a successor to the work of Morrison, Loeb, and Miller. It makes me wonder what an epic story would look like, if he truly cut loose, once he feels completely at home as a creator.
THE FLASH #9 (DC)
The kind of issue Geoff Johns only does very occasionally with Hal Jordan over in GREEN LANTERN (and I hope is more frequent here), a more character-based interlude with Barry, clearly in anticipation of FLASHPOINT (hello Hot Pursuit/Barry Allen!).
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #57 (DC)
Tony Bedard rounds out his Weaponer arc. Maybe it’s just me, but I really didn’t see it coming, when Sinestro actually convinces the Weaponer to join his corps. Nice bit of continuity, this whole arc, which has only affirmed my interest in Bedard, one of the least-heralded but probably best writers in comics today.
All this DC talk makes it seem like I’m sliding back into partisan mode. I intended to pick up some more Hickman FF (both the final issue of the previous series, and the first of the book literally called FF), but I decided to pass. I remember that I wrote about “Three” as if Hickman would be jumping ship right after, and even now, knowing what he did next with the franchise, I wonder if there’s much point. Oh, and hey, Steve Rogers is going to be Captain America again! I just expect more from Hickman, who did such unusual, subversive work with Image. But I am still interested in the new “Big Time” Spider-Man comics. I’ll be reading some of those collections, definitely.
But this whole column should still be considered an exception!
But sometimes, and not when you’re hypnotized into making that trip or that order, reading beat by beat, drove by drove of comics, you wonder if you’re not somehow missing out, when you read the collection over the issue, that it’s somehow less special, less privileged. I have that kind of thought at the moment over Grant Morrison and his BATMAN, INC. run. As you know, I have quit my regular reading habits, to alleviate monetary strains, so I no longer read comics with the regularity I once did (or twice, depending how good your memory is). But once an addict, always the impulse to relapse. Fortunately, in this case we’re only talking about comics, so I think I can once and again indulge in the occasional comics purchase, and that’s the topic this week, jumbled as it is with other thoughts, including, yes, whether or not it’s just as well to wait for the collection. For instance, I will likely read Stuart Immonen’s latest major offering, FEAR ITSELF, as a collection. I didn’t mention it last week because it didn’t really fit in with the tone of the rest of what I had to say (that and I had temporarily forgotten about it), but it’s still pretty awesome that Marvel thinks he’s important enough to give him some truly significant work.
I’m content with the knowledge that there will be collections of all that FLASHPOINT material that has me salivating (I’m more interested in the side projects than the event itself, which is somewhat unusual, but those projects actually seem to be something of the point this time), and probably the Green Lantern one-shots that will accompany the movie, which I will otherwise not have a reasonable chance to reading without breaking my new code. I will, if all goes to plan, however, make a trip to Escape Velocity for Free Comic Book day next week. That’s an allowable exception. As are random trips and purchases such as will be covered in this column.
One of the painful results of that code, of the decision that broke the habit three months ago, was to give up BATMAN, INC., which had only just begun. Morrison was demonstrating a fresh perspective, a more carefree one than he’d exhibited in almost anything else I’ve read from him, except maybe JOE THE BARBARIAN (but more on that a tad later). Grant Morrison collections, are one of the few guarantees to be considered instant in-stock material, however, at the bookstore where I work, so that has been one of my sources for solace, whenever I wish I were still in the thick of it. Strangely, though, I’ve made the transition fairly painlessly. For someone who spent 2005-2010 made weekly trips to a comic book store or receiving orders in the mail, you’d think there’d be more separation anxiety, but there really hasn’t been. That isn’t to say that I received, like some smug jerk, that I was finally “grown up,” “matured” and realized I didn’t need comics anymore, but that not reading comics every week did not exactly turn out to be the end of the world. For one thing, I’ve been writing at Comics Reader during this time, so I’ve had at least one excuse to continue thinking about them, and while that doesn’t seem like much (especially if you consider just how many comics I used to read), I have a reason and that seems like enough. I’ve also been creating a database of all the comics I own, and sometimes, keeping up with the memories is enough, too. (It’s not like I don’t have any comics to read.)
I also have the fact that I will be writing future columns for Comics Reader based around collections, including a series on Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN, which I will be reading for the first time, and so you will have hopefully fresh thoughts on one of the medium’s touchstones, and so will I, to look forward to. There are others, and of course, new collections from new comics.
Speaking of Grant Morrison, JOE THE BARBARIAN comes up again later in this column when I talk about the comics that interrupted the exile, but I can’t help but wonder again, as I have when reading other issues of this book, if this might not be one of the better arguments that some comics really are made almost directly for collection. I suspect it reads better as a whole, and almost wish I had actually waited for collection. But now that I own all the individual issues, do I really need that collection? That’s the kind of thorny issue that still remains in this debate.
But giving up comics entirely? Well, that’s just crazy talk. Some of the following comics come from Escape Velocity in downtown Colorado Springs, and a few others from the aforementioned bookstore, when it seemed as if it was never longer going to be receiving new comics, so I thought I was going to be commemorating, not just enjoying, a fond memory. Anyhoo:
BATMAN, INC. #3-4 (DC)
Morrison takes Bruce Wayne to Argentina in his continuing quest to find recruits for the Batman family, and finds more and more intrigue, as only Morrison can, with a broader spectrum of possibility than most creators consider in a whole career (I’m not here referring to Stan Lee, who never saw a gimmick he didn’t want to appropriate for himself). That’s what’s typified Grant’s whole run with the Dark Knight, either focusing on the iconic, or seeing what can be done, with that same stance, with the least likely tangential characters. Morrison is the only writer who truly seems to be enjoying himself, on a continual basis, discovering at every turn that comics aren’t a challenge, but an opportunity. These two issues, glad as I was to find them both, are not the complete story. Hence, all that brooding over collections earlier.
COMIC BOOK COMICS #5 (Evil Twin)
Very pleased that this one was available, since the book itself was one of my proudest placeholders in my Midtown pull list, which, I think, didn’t publish a single issue the whole year-and-half I had that account. No matter! This issue, the penultimate in a study of comics history from Fred Van Lente, explores the various thorny monetary matters that can arise from the medium, some of which I was familiar with, others I wasn’t, but all amusing detailed, as Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey have been doing since ACTION PHILOSOPHERS (but more on that later).
JOE THE BARBARIAN #8 (Vertigo)
The much-delayed conclusion from Morrison and Sean Murphy is exactly what you might have expected, and with a few surprises, and is just as appropriately magical as the rest of the book has been. Like an animated movie with all the cookie cutter elements left on the floor, JOE may end up being a significant element of Grant Morrison’s legacy, unexpected, given that Grant is as well known for his subversive impulses as his icon-busting/embellishing. If you want a version of the Morrison archetype that won’t deeply unsettle you or change everything you thought you knew, JOE THE BARBARIAN is the book for you. It quietly explores epic storytelling with an authentic emotional core, almost like a streamlined BONE (to keep that comic alive at Comics Reader).
BATMAN #707 (DC)
Tony Daniel concludes his sequel to “The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul” (as I like to view it), confounding students of Sensei and letting Dick Grayson win the day without a lot of help from Peacock and I-Ching (when I’m not sure that could have been said, at least by Peacock, earlier). I still stand by Daniel’s work as a successor to the work of Morrison, Loeb, and Miller. It makes me wonder what an epic story would look like, if he truly cut loose, once he feels completely at home as a creator.
THE FLASH #9 (DC)
The kind of issue Geoff Johns only does very occasionally with Hal Jordan over in GREEN LANTERN (and I hope is more frequent here), a more character-based interlude with Barry, clearly in anticipation of FLASHPOINT (hello Hot Pursuit/Barry Allen!).
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #57 (DC)
Tony Bedard rounds out his Weaponer arc. Maybe it’s just me, but I really didn’t see it coming, when Sinestro actually convinces the Weaponer to join his corps. Nice bit of continuity, this whole arc, which has only affirmed my interest in Bedard, one of the least-heralded but probably best writers in comics today.
All this DC talk makes it seem like I’m sliding back into partisan mode. I intended to pick up some more Hickman FF (both the final issue of the previous series, and the first of the book literally called FF), but I decided to pass. I remember that I wrote about “Three” as if Hickman would be jumping ship right after, and even now, knowing what he did next with the franchise, I wonder if there’s much point. Oh, and hey, Steve Rogers is going to be Captain America again! I just expect more from Hickman, who did such unusual, subversive work with Image. But I am still interested in the new “Big Time” Spider-Man comics. I’ll be reading some of those collections, definitely.
But this whole column should still be considered an exception!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Batman without Grant Morrison
For some people, I guess, this isn’t a problem. They think of Grant Morrison, and they think of that crazy writer who can’t even begin to be coherent to them, the one with wild ideas (and maybe predilections) who is best avoided or ignored all together. He’s the comics master who has never quite managed to join the ranks of Frank Miller and Alan Moore, from whose generation he comes. Where Miller and Moore have numerous iconic projects to their credit that fans are able to point to, Morrison alone among the three is still incredibly active…but without the same credit line. You can say ALL STAR SUPERMAN, maybe, or THE INVISIBLES, or even point to ANIMAL MAN, DOOM PATROL, ARKHAM ASYLUM, JLA. All these are famous Grant Morrison projects, and there are others worth mentioning, too, along the same lines, but they don’t really help or hinder my point, and that would be, Morrison tends to be a little harder to grasp than Miller or Moore. He hasn’t found the project that beyond a doubt can be called a classic, someone everyone can at least claim to love. He’s the consummate and ultimate comic book writer, will perhaps one day become the patron saint or even god of that forsaken clan. He’s perhaps too good.
His most concerted effort for the last half decade has been with Batman, and perhaps, here, he might find that missing piece of the puzzle. God knows he’s been working at it. Ed Brubaker is the only other creator who has been making the same kind of effort, or at least comparable. Brubaker, of course, has been doing it with Captain America, a project I followed for a while, but Brubaker is no Grant Morrison. He has the focus, but he doesn’t, ultimately, have the inspiration. His one idea was the return of Bucky Barnes, and now that Bucky is Captain America, it’ll be anyone’s guess if the writer who ultimately succeeds him will respect anything that he’s done, sort of like Ron Marz and Kyle Rayner. I would actually argue that the longer Brubaker stays on CAPTAIN AMERICA, the more his weakens his legacy. He needs someone else to prove writing Bucky is possible. The problem with writing Captain America at all has always been that it’s difficult to prove that Cap is actually an interesting character. Interesting idea, sure, and many writers have proven that, but as a character, there just isn’t that much to work with, and Brubaker has proven that much repeatedly.
No, what Grant Morrison has done with Batman is different. The way others wrote Batman, at their best, was always in some separate, sometimes alternate, continuity. Miller achieved it with YEAR ONE and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, of course. Loeb did THE LONG HALLOWEEN. Moore did KILLING JOKE. Morrison himself did ARKHAM ASYLUM. But now he’s done a whole series of stories, his own “Knightfall” saga in “R.I.P.” being the most obvious of them, but he’s also taken the idea of Bruce Wayne having a son and actually made it work. Damian is like Bucky Barnes done in 3D. Lots of other writers have thrown themselves over wet sidewalks just for a chance to write Damian. Dan Jurgens wrote Damian, and Dan is the version of Alex Ross that can actually write. Morrison has advanced and articulated the continuing legacy of Batman so that he no longer seems like a static concept but something that actually seems worthy of the hype.
Recently, of course, he finished a time-spanning saga that saw Bruce Wayne come back, but in such a way that didn’t totally through away everything that had been done in his absence, expanding it and evolving Bruce one step further, and that story is only just beginning. That’s what Grant Morrison has done with Batman. He’s completely owned the concept.
The funny thing is, unlike Brubaker, he hasn’t monopolized it. This isn’t to say that other writers haven’t been allowed to write a little Captain America here and there. There was an excellent CAPTAIN AMERICA: PATRIOT from the underappreciated Karl Kesel recently, for instance, but it was a throwback tale that didn’t even involve Bucky, much less Steve Rogers (so yes, there is now a rich legacy that could really be exploited by a Mark Waid, given the right and ongoing opportunity). Geoff Johns sort of goofed in an unintentional Brubaker fashion when he was writing ACTION COMICS. He created such an expansive version of Superman that no one DC was at the time employing to write the same character and/or family could compete with him (except, of course Morrison, on ALL STAR SUPERMAN). Kurt Busiek suffered in comparison. Greg Rucka and James Robinson stumbled all over themselves trying to finish what he started. So it’s a good thing, in some sense, that Brubaker has maintained his monopoly. It preserves the mystique, in one sense, and prevents any immediate need for comparisons. But I hate to be the poor sap who follows him, unless they are equally inspired by a singular and extended vision.
It just isn’t that way with Morrison, even though it seems like, more than any other example, it really should be. Okay, it was in the beginning. I like Paul Dini, love him for helping give us the animated Batman, but his DETECTIVE COMICS could never truly compete. It wasn’t until after “R.I.P,” when Morrison opened the table to other writers, that it truly became evident, what he was doing. He literally made it possible to consider Batman, one of the most established characters in modern fiction, a tabula rasa.
Instead of detailing how exactly that evolved, let’s skip to the present. Now, as we all know, Dick Grayson took on the cowl (for the second time, after his prior attempt in “The Prodigal,” a storyline that followed the whole “Knightfall” saga), and as was nothing like Bucky becoming Captain America and staying so even after Steve Rogers returned (any scholarly account of the parallels between Brubaker and Morrison’s writing would not favor Brubaker), kept it even after Bruce Wayne returned. So currently, you can read any number of Batman books and they might star either Dick or Bruce under the cowl. The book actually called BATMAN is currently being managed by Tony Daniel, a creator who first came to prominence as an artist working alongside Morrison , but who has since taken on the dual assignment and begun writing as well. He’s one of a handful of creators capable of doing so (Phil Hester and Stuart Immonen are two others, but they rarely do both at the same time), and he’s kept the book a bestseller since beginning the effort, to some initial surprise. But the real surprise is that he’s been doing so by continuing all sorts of legacies, none of them directly related to his work with Morrison, of all things. In fact, he owes more to Jeph Loeb (continuing the Falcone saga begun in THE LONG HALLOWEEN) and drawing artistic inspiration from Frank Miller and Jim Lee. The results are nothing short of astonishing, because Daniel would otherwise be a complete unknown, and to be doing this kind of work is unbelievable, and he hasn’t, beyond sales, gotten near enough credit for it.
It’s the only way he falls under the shadow of Grant Morrison, because otherwise, Tony Daniel has proven beyond a doubt that he’s as much a part of Batman’s continuing legend as Morrison, as crazy as that might sound. But you should be reading his BATMAN. Your future self will thank you.
Dini, by the way, is also still working on Batman, this time in BATMAN: STREETS OF GOTHAM, where he’s been continuing the legacy of Hush, along with Dustin Nguyen. It’s more work that deserves more recognition.
There’s also Scott Snyder, who burst onto the scene with the high profile AMERICAN VAMPIRE, but who recently inherited DETECTIVE COMICS. His first few issues prove that Dick Grayson is not as difficult a character to write as some writers have sometimes suggested. As a fan of Grayson and the Robin legacy in general, I couldn’t be more happy.
That’s some evidence, anyway, that there really is life for Batman outside of Grant Morrison. But yeah, Grant Morrison rocks.
Here’re some quick takes on comics from the period that inspired this week’s column:
BATMAN #705 (DC)
The Tony Daniel effort that introduced the Riddler’s daughter, Enigma, but also features other Daniel originals Peacock and I-Ching. Peacock’s characterization of Dick Grayson’s Batman is priceless.
AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE #4 (of 9) (Marvel)
I don’t really get why fans no longer seem to care about the Young Avengers, especially now that Allan Heinberg and Jimmy Cheung have finally returned to them. Heinberg gets to write the sequel to HOUSE OF M, and nobody cares? That’s what all that undiluted Bendis will get you.
WHAT IF? #200 (Marvel)
I’m a DC partisan if there ever was one. It’s not as if I haven’t given Marvel a lot of chances over the past five years, but the House of Ideas keeps finding ways to bungle them. Ironically, I have never really gotten into this particular idea, so I was happy to at least help celebrate this milestone. Poor Sentry finally gets to prove that he was at least a powerful character, if not a compelling one.
RED: EYES ONLY (WildStorm)
Cully Hamner throws his hat into the writer/artist arena with this prequel to the project he originally began with Warren Ellis, a little treat for those like me who loved the movie.
GREEN ARROW #7 (DC)
Okay, I may actually believe the hype surrounding J.T. Krul now. This comic was pretty awesome, and is exactly the kind of story Oliver Queen should be starring in. If Green Arrow is to walk around with a conceit like that, he might as well stumble into whole scenarios that can really exploit it, and having a whole forest and even one or two new supporting characters (who aren’t just sidekicks and/or love interests) is pretty awesome.
DETECTIVE COMICS #871-872 (DC)
Did a little creative catching up here, the first two Scott Snyder issues, where he syncs up with Dick Grayson and finds a unique way to explore the legacy of Batman’s war on crime to boot. Also features a Commissioner Gordon backup.
SUPERMAN/BATMAN #79 (DC)
Chris Roberson conjures some good juju by revisiting DC One Million, a Grant Morrison concept that I particularly enjoyed.
AZRAEL #15-16 (DC)
The “Killer of Saints” arc made this book immortal last year. Here, David Hine rounds out some of that story in anticipation of the upcoming cancellation. It’s too bad, but at least now there’s a useful legacy for the Azrael concept.
WEIRD WORLDS #1 (DC)
DC has been trying to do books with its space heroes for a while now, perhaps because Marvel has developed something of a cult around theirs. Well, this book actually has Lobo, so this time it will probably be worth sticking around for. Also, Kevin Maguire gives us Tanga, who looks like another troublemaker worth a thing or two.
STEEL #1 (DC)
I don’t know what DC has planned otherwise with “Reign of Doomsday,” but this appears to be the death of John Henry Irons, and I for one mourn the guy. This is a pretty worthy tribute to some of his forgotten history, making me wish all the more that he would’ve been a little more loved by fans, so there would be more stories to treasure.
STARMAN/CONGORILLA #1 (DC)
James Robinson, I don’t really know what he’s been doing in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, because I haven’t been reading. CRY FOR JUSTICE was a classic (until it turned into a vehicle to help relaunch Green Arrow, which in itself turned out to be a pretty good thing), and with the right characters, Robinson is golden (ah, no pun intended). Word is he’s working on another project that might be more up his alley. This one was like a cross between James Robinson “good” and James Robinson “meh.”
OZMA OF OZ #3 (of 8) (Marvel)
Love, love, love Shanower and Young on these adaptations.
IRREDEEMABLE # 21 (Boom!)
I like reading this book, but I can’t help but wonder if it wouldn’t be a little better a little more compressed. Still, consistently pretty interesting.
BRIGHTEST DAY # 17 (DC)
Somebody called this, and other weekly(ish) books that DC has done ADD comics. I would counter that anyone who can’t follow them suffers from their own attention disorders.
His most concerted effort for the last half decade has been with Batman, and perhaps, here, he might find that missing piece of the puzzle. God knows he’s been working at it. Ed Brubaker is the only other creator who has been making the same kind of effort, or at least comparable. Brubaker, of course, has been doing it with Captain America, a project I followed for a while, but Brubaker is no Grant Morrison. He has the focus, but he doesn’t, ultimately, have the inspiration. His one idea was the return of Bucky Barnes, and now that Bucky is Captain America, it’ll be anyone’s guess if the writer who ultimately succeeds him will respect anything that he’s done, sort of like Ron Marz and Kyle Rayner. I would actually argue that the longer Brubaker stays on CAPTAIN AMERICA, the more his weakens his legacy. He needs someone else to prove writing Bucky is possible. The problem with writing Captain America at all has always been that it’s difficult to prove that Cap is actually an interesting character. Interesting idea, sure, and many writers have proven that, but as a character, there just isn’t that much to work with, and Brubaker has proven that much repeatedly.
No, what Grant Morrison has done with Batman is different. The way others wrote Batman, at their best, was always in some separate, sometimes alternate, continuity. Miller achieved it with YEAR ONE and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, of course. Loeb did THE LONG HALLOWEEN. Moore did KILLING JOKE. Morrison himself did ARKHAM ASYLUM. But now he’s done a whole series of stories, his own “Knightfall” saga in “R.I.P.” being the most obvious of them, but he’s also taken the idea of Bruce Wayne having a son and actually made it work. Damian is like Bucky Barnes done in 3D. Lots of other writers have thrown themselves over wet sidewalks just for a chance to write Damian. Dan Jurgens wrote Damian, and Dan is the version of Alex Ross that can actually write. Morrison has advanced and articulated the continuing legacy of Batman so that he no longer seems like a static concept but something that actually seems worthy of the hype.
Recently, of course, he finished a time-spanning saga that saw Bruce Wayne come back, but in such a way that didn’t totally through away everything that had been done in his absence, expanding it and evolving Bruce one step further, and that story is only just beginning. That’s what Grant Morrison has done with Batman. He’s completely owned the concept.
The funny thing is, unlike Brubaker, he hasn’t monopolized it. This isn’t to say that other writers haven’t been allowed to write a little Captain America here and there. There was an excellent CAPTAIN AMERICA: PATRIOT from the underappreciated Karl Kesel recently, for instance, but it was a throwback tale that didn’t even involve Bucky, much less Steve Rogers (so yes, there is now a rich legacy that could really be exploited by a Mark Waid, given the right and ongoing opportunity). Geoff Johns sort of goofed in an unintentional Brubaker fashion when he was writing ACTION COMICS. He created such an expansive version of Superman that no one DC was at the time employing to write the same character and/or family could compete with him (except, of course Morrison, on ALL STAR SUPERMAN). Kurt Busiek suffered in comparison. Greg Rucka and James Robinson stumbled all over themselves trying to finish what he started. So it’s a good thing, in some sense, that Brubaker has maintained his monopoly. It preserves the mystique, in one sense, and prevents any immediate need for comparisons. But I hate to be the poor sap who follows him, unless they are equally inspired by a singular and extended vision.
It just isn’t that way with Morrison, even though it seems like, more than any other example, it really should be. Okay, it was in the beginning. I like Paul Dini, love him for helping give us the animated Batman, but his DETECTIVE COMICS could never truly compete. It wasn’t until after “R.I.P,” when Morrison opened the table to other writers, that it truly became evident, what he was doing. He literally made it possible to consider Batman, one of the most established characters in modern fiction, a tabula rasa.
Instead of detailing how exactly that evolved, let’s skip to the present. Now, as we all know, Dick Grayson took on the cowl (for the second time, after his prior attempt in “The Prodigal,” a storyline that followed the whole “Knightfall” saga), and as was nothing like Bucky becoming Captain America and staying so even after Steve Rogers returned (any scholarly account of the parallels between Brubaker and Morrison’s writing would not favor Brubaker), kept it even after Bruce Wayne returned. So currently, you can read any number of Batman books and they might star either Dick or Bruce under the cowl. The book actually called BATMAN is currently being managed by Tony Daniel, a creator who first came to prominence as an artist working alongside Morrison , but who has since taken on the dual assignment and begun writing as well. He’s one of a handful of creators capable of doing so (Phil Hester and Stuart Immonen are two others, but they rarely do both at the same time), and he’s kept the book a bestseller since beginning the effort, to some initial surprise. But the real surprise is that he’s been doing so by continuing all sorts of legacies, none of them directly related to his work with Morrison, of all things. In fact, he owes more to Jeph Loeb (continuing the Falcone saga begun in THE LONG HALLOWEEN) and drawing artistic inspiration from Frank Miller and Jim Lee. The results are nothing short of astonishing, because Daniel would otherwise be a complete unknown, and to be doing this kind of work is unbelievable, and he hasn’t, beyond sales, gotten near enough credit for it.
It’s the only way he falls under the shadow of Grant Morrison, because otherwise, Tony Daniel has proven beyond a doubt that he’s as much a part of Batman’s continuing legend as Morrison, as crazy as that might sound. But you should be reading his BATMAN. Your future self will thank you.
Dini, by the way, is also still working on Batman, this time in BATMAN: STREETS OF GOTHAM, where he’s been continuing the legacy of Hush, along with Dustin Nguyen. It’s more work that deserves more recognition.
There’s also Scott Snyder, who burst onto the scene with the high profile AMERICAN VAMPIRE, but who recently inherited DETECTIVE COMICS. His first few issues prove that Dick Grayson is not as difficult a character to write as some writers have sometimes suggested. As a fan of Grayson and the Robin legacy in general, I couldn’t be more happy.
That’s some evidence, anyway, that there really is life for Batman outside of Grant Morrison. But yeah, Grant Morrison rocks.
Here’re some quick takes on comics from the period that inspired this week’s column:
BATMAN #705 (DC)
The Tony Daniel effort that introduced the Riddler’s daughter, Enigma, but also features other Daniel originals Peacock and I-Ching. Peacock’s characterization of Dick Grayson’s Batman is priceless.
AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE #4 (of 9) (Marvel)
I don’t really get why fans no longer seem to care about the Young Avengers, especially now that Allan Heinberg and Jimmy Cheung have finally returned to them. Heinberg gets to write the sequel to HOUSE OF M, and nobody cares? That’s what all that undiluted Bendis will get you.
WHAT IF? #200 (Marvel)
I’m a DC partisan if there ever was one. It’s not as if I haven’t given Marvel a lot of chances over the past five years, but the House of Ideas keeps finding ways to bungle them. Ironically, I have never really gotten into this particular idea, so I was happy to at least help celebrate this milestone. Poor Sentry finally gets to prove that he was at least a powerful character, if not a compelling one.
RED: EYES ONLY (WildStorm)
Cully Hamner throws his hat into the writer/artist arena with this prequel to the project he originally began with Warren Ellis, a little treat for those like me who loved the movie.
GREEN ARROW #7 (DC)
Okay, I may actually believe the hype surrounding J.T. Krul now. This comic was pretty awesome, and is exactly the kind of story Oliver Queen should be starring in. If Green Arrow is to walk around with a conceit like that, he might as well stumble into whole scenarios that can really exploit it, and having a whole forest and even one or two new supporting characters (who aren’t just sidekicks and/or love interests) is pretty awesome.
DETECTIVE COMICS #871-872 (DC)
Did a little creative catching up here, the first two Scott Snyder issues, where he syncs up with Dick Grayson and finds a unique way to explore the legacy of Batman’s war on crime to boot. Also features a Commissioner Gordon backup.
SUPERMAN/BATMAN #79 (DC)
Chris Roberson conjures some good juju by revisiting DC One Million, a Grant Morrison concept that I particularly enjoyed.
AZRAEL #15-16 (DC)
The “Killer of Saints” arc made this book immortal last year. Here, David Hine rounds out some of that story in anticipation of the upcoming cancellation. It’s too bad, but at least now there’s a useful legacy for the Azrael concept.
WEIRD WORLDS #1 (DC)
DC has been trying to do books with its space heroes for a while now, perhaps because Marvel has developed something of a cult around theirs. Well, this book actually has Lobo, so this time it will probably be worth sticking around for. Also, Kevin Maguire gives us Tanga, who looks like another troublemaker worth a thing or two.
STEEL #1 (DC)
I don’t know what DC has planned otherwise with “Reign of Doomsday,” but this appears to be the death of John Henry Irons, and I for one mourn the guy. This is a pretty worthy tribute to some of his forgotten history, making me wish all the more that he would’ve been a little more loved by fans, so there would be more stories to treasure.
STARMAN/CONGORILLA #1 (DC)
James Robinson, I don’t really know what he’s been doing in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, because I haven’t been reading. CRY FOR JUSTICE was a classic (until it turned into a vehicle to help relaunch Green Arrow, which in itself turned out to be a pretty good thing), and with the right characters, Robinson is golden (ah, no pun intended). Word is he’s working on another project that might be more up his alley. This one was like a cross between James Robinson “good” and James Robinson “meh.”
OZMA OF OZ #3 (of 8) (Marvel)
Love, love, love Shanower and Young on these adaptations.
IRREDEEMABLE # 21 (Boom!)
I like reading this book, but I can’t help but wonder if it wouldn’t be a little better a little more compressed. Still, consistently pretty interesting.
BRIGHTEST DAY # 17 (DC)
Somebody called this, and other weekly(ish) books that DC has done ADD comics. I would counter that anyone who can’t follow them suffers from their own attention disorders.
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