Watching the Walmart Giants 11 “May 2020...Probably?”

I’ve been to Walmart sparingly recently, so I haven’t really been able to keep close tabs on the giants, especially since, at least at my local store they stupidly have the aisle with them along a self checkout with a conveyer belt, so...it’s harder than ever to peruse, especially with social distancing. So I assume these giants came out last month? But I got them this weekend. It doesn’t matter. The giants backlog only expands. They started stuffing them in the Marvel box, and to have room for more Marvel there’s...a second Marvel box now. And the giants I picked up were still sort of shoved up against the side of the displays, until I came along and fixed it. Anyway...

Batman Giant #5

• New story from Mark Russell & Ryan Benjamin, featuring Killer Moth, a villain that dates back to 1951 and was actually created by Batman (co)creator Bill Finger. That’s a lot of history and...very little to show for it. Except in Russell’s hands he kind of finally gets his due. In this version, he’s presented as “seasoned when Batman was just getting started out,” which is great. And now he’s looking to retire. It’s another bold step for Russell into mainlining his instincts, seeing how he can fit himself into traditional superhero comic narratives.
• New story from Russell & Christopher Mooneyham featuring “an” origin of the Joker, this one using the now-familiar trope of his prior existence as a failed standup comic.
• Reprint of Batman #5, continuing “Court of Owls,” which I’m increasingly convinced landed so well because Capullo’s art subconsciously triggered memories of Frank Miller, and Snyder’s instant dive into crisis did the same.
• Reprint of Detective Comics #857, finishing out “Batwoman: Elegy.” Ruby Rose recently exited the TV show, which apparently is going to create a new Batwoman to replace Kate Kane. I don’t watch the show, but I see no real problem with that solution. Even leaves the door open should Rose ever choose to return, which might be the point.
• Reprint of Nightwing #7, continuing the Raptor arc. Apparently the dude’s secret origin is that he’s basically Snape. Cool cool.

Swamp Thing Giant #5

New material from Russell, Phil Hester, reprints. 

Part of the publishing changes DC has been making, besides the controversial split from the single comics distributor of the past quarter century, was taking giants original material and adding it to the digital-first lineup. The giants themselves, at a reduced capacity, should continue shipping to Walmart. Should anyone be interested, I will continue checking in as long as they’re available. I offloaded a ton of them to a coworker’s kids just before Easter, stuff I maybe should never have bought in the first place, considering how much, or little, I cared to read the material, which is a large part of why I have been getting fewer of them recently. They take up a lot of space! And I don’t purchase the new comics boxes I need fast enough for just the traditional comics that pile up, never mind these things! So it was win-win.

Watching the Walmart Giants 10 “April 2020, with Jim Lee!”

Apparently I hadn’t been to Walmart since the beginning of the month when I made the trek last weekend. I didn’t really expect new giants to have shipped, but they had! Including one that had received a fair amount of press, for these giants, because it features new Jim Lee art, which is:

Our Fighting Forces 100-Page Giant #1

• The first story is from Christopher Priest & Christopher Mooneyham, featuring the Unknown Soldier. I don’t read a lot of DC’s war comics, usually, but I at least knew about this character. As he’s prone to, Priest sells the hell out of the concept, making Unknown Soldier feel like a fresh and compelling concept. I’d read Priest’s Unknown Soldier monthly, easily!
• The second is from G.I. Joe legend Larry Hama with Mirko Colak, featuring military-era Kate Kane (Batwoman), a modern character who absolutely deserves all the attention she gets.
• The third is Jim Lee’s, with a script from Brad Meltzer based on a speech Barack Obama gave awarding Sal Giunta with the Medal of Honor. Lee spends most of it drawing Batman, but that’s because it’s clever enough to swerve the reader with a story of real heroism juxtaposed on a typical superhero adventure. Absolutely stunning.
• Then five reprints from the New 52’s Men of War, with the highlight coming in last from J.T. Krul & Scott Kolins, featuring a soldier post-war finding it difficult to get a job, eventually ending up in an interview where he’s upstaged by some former local football star...It’s incredible to think how poorly vets are treated, regardless of how you feel about the wars they’ve fought. They deserve a helluva lot more. Kolins, whose art can sometimes be a little weird, turns in some career-best material. This whole issue is outstanding.

Superman 100-Page Giant #3

• The first story is from Robert Venditti & Paul Pelletier, featuring Superman caught in the crossfire between Lex Luthor and Toyman, who’s trying to redeem his toy company after it’s been acquired by Luthor. Pelletier turns in sharp work, arguably the best I’ve ever seen from him, and he’s someone who’s been working in comics since the ‘90s!
• Reprint of Supergirl #56, featuring Bizarro.
• Reprint of Action Comics #868, part of Geoff Johns & Gary Frank’s excellent Brainiac arc.
• Reprint of Action Comics #0, the exceptional “Boy Who Stole Superman’s Cape,” which single-handedly makes a mockery of fans who dismissed Grant Morrison’s run in the New 52.

Titans 100-Page Giant #2

• New from Phil Hester & Scott Koblish, featuring a Titans team with Red Hood.
• New from Andrew Aydin & Juan Gedeon, featuring Beast Boy & Raven, and once again Red Hood, that’s about halfway to the storytelling style of Teen Titans Go!
• Reprint of Teen Titans #51, from 1977, featuring two teams of Titans, continuing where the last giant left off.
• Reprint of Starfire #2
• Reprint of Adventures of the Super Sons #2, which kind of emphasizes Tomasi really just wanted to have fun for a change.

Watching the Walmart Giants 9 “March 2020”

Suddenly we might be in a much better position to sell Walmart comics to reluctant readers.

The options are narrowing. The funny thing is, so few readers have snatched up the Walmart giants up to this point, you have an excellent chance not only to find the most recent releases, but a generous selection of older ones. That means you can still find the Superman giants with the classic Tom Ming story you ignored, the Batman giants with the Brian Michael Bendis saga, and tons of other gems, like the two Crisis On Infinite Earths giants, or the various Mark Russell shorts.  Walmart’s an essential business. It ain’t going anywhere. Those comics aren’t going anywhere. Unless savvy readers finally show up.

Batman Giant #4

• The lead new story is another Mark Russell, riffing on the prisoner transport concept you might have seen in movies like The Dark Knight or S.W.A.T., with Harley Quinn thrown into the mix (why not?). Still interesting to see Russell play with more conventional narrative structures, rather than the social/political/economic satires he usually does.
• A new Nightwing tale featuring what’s probably the late artist Tom Lyle’s last work. Lyle worked on all three original Tim Drake/Robin mini-series, with a host of other accomplishments as well. He died last fall following complications from an aneurism. 
• A reprint of Batman #4, with Batman recounting a childhood investigation into the Court of Owls that convinced him it didn’t exist, and then his present investigation, which proves it does. Apparently as far as Scott Snyder is concerned, Batman was always a fairly lousy detective, which is really, really strange.
• A reprint of Detective Comics #856, continuing Batwoman’s original solo adventures.
• A reprint of Nightwing #4, in which Tim Seeley seemingly concludes Nightwing’s partnership with Raptor (Mr. “Better Than Batman”) as he contends with the international Parliament of Owls.

Sunday Marvel Sunday "Tony Stark: Iron Man #12"

Tony Stark: Iron Man #12

Wow, that was a lot more difficult than it should have been.

I'm talking about finding an image of the cover on Google, which turns out to be a Walmart-exclusive variant (I found one with the title logo in blue, but apparently only Walmart had it in, y'know, Iron Man colors).

It should be noted that all these Sunday Marvel Sunday comics were originally obtained via Walmart three-packs.

Anyway.

Marvel continues to know what the hell to do with Iron Man.  Perversely, the company seems committed to screwing with the character in every way possible.  This has been going on in ridiculous fashion since the '90s, when Tony Stark was, inexplicably, a teenager for a while.  This was okay, in the '90s, if it was Ray Palmer, because even in the '90s Ray Palmer (the teenage thing was thanks to Zero Hour, in case you were wondering, and was featured in Dan Jurgens' Teen Titans) was not really a significant character (he had his heyday in the '70s, I think, in a partnership with Hawkman).  This is not to say The Atom is not a great character.  But very few writers seem interested in him.  I mean, even Ant-Man, with one of the worst publication histories of any major character, now has his own movies.  Ray Palmer in the Arrowverse is basically Iron Man, with shrinking powers.  Played by Superman.

Okay.  I kind of got sidetracked.  Anyway, this rant about how ridiculous Iron Man comics have been of course ties in with the fact that Iron Man has literally been the most significant superhero of the past decade, because of, y'know, the MCU.  And Marvel figured it was okay to exploit this opportunity.  To continue making terrible Iron Man comics.

Iron Man's dad, in the comics, isn't even Howard Stark, by the way.  Multiple writers affirmed that some convoluted adoption nonsense was the new status quo.  And Tony died.  And came back.  And died.  And as of this comic?  Is kind of dead.  And alive.  At the same time. 

Somehow the idea that Tony's a tech genius has gotten widely out of control.  In comics, being a tech genius is futurism, not smartphones.  Tony operates on such an advanced level (and yet, as with his armor, still doesn't...technically share it with everyday peons. despite running a massive business. somehow) he beggars all imagination. 

Part of this is superhero comics as they now exist, almost totally divorced from the real world.  This issue, by the way, is a tie-in with War of the Realms, just another cosmic story in adventures that no longer have anything to do with problems any of us is likely to ever experience outside of, well, a comic book, or another MCU flick.  It's particularly egregious when Marvel does it because this is supposed to be the company that's painfully reflective of everyday struggles.  And yeah, by token references to Tony's alcoholic past, it is.  Pretty much.  His new body has the same history as his old body (just don't even ask). 

Never mind that Marvel is once again replacing Tony as Iron Man, by the way.  Forget that DC may have just fired Dan DiDio because it had second thoughts about a Marvel-like attempt to line-wide replace the icons, again. 

Forget that this was a golden opportunity, with Tony's death in the movies, to remind any interested fans, that Tony's adventures continue well past Robert Downey, Jr. in the comics.  Maybe.  Probably.  Sometimes.  Unless they can help it.

Anyway, it doesn't matter who's writing Iron Man.  Bendis did it for a while, and he actually was kind of more interested in Doctor Doom.  Or Mary Jane.  Or Riri Williams.  This issue it's Gail Simone, the writer most likely to not really conceive of anything outside of comic book logic.  Unless it offends her.  And gives her a career. 

Anyway, I'm noticing that Thought Bubble Comics really only has a readership of one these days (thanks, Pat!), so it really doesn't matter what I say.  Some of these are going to be rants, and some are actually going to have nice things to say about Marvel.  But most of them will be rants.  Coming at you weekly!

Watching the Walmart Giants 8 "February 2020"

Just when I thought I was out...Recently on Facebook there've been announcements about releases and I've been reading and contributing to the comments section.  Seems fans are finally discovering these things exist, and are happy about it.  And the giants keep finding ways to interest me, even though I'm becoming a little jaded (King/Bendis Withdrawal Syndrome).

Ah!  Before I go any further, let me just acknowledge the news that Dan DiDio, erstwhile longtime Publisher at DC, has been fired.  Apparently he was ruffling too many editorial feathers recently.  But speculation is only beginning.  It's suspected that the "G5" initiative, which hasn't even happened yet, might be responsible.  Anyway, sad to see him go. 

From Beyond the Unknown Giant #1

• New story from Dave Wielgosz and Kenneth Rocafort (!!) featuring Green Lantern Hal Jordan being given an object lesson in paying attention to Earth at the expense of his duties to Sector 2814 (to be fair, very little has been done by any writer to expand the idea of the whole sector, which if given an opportunity would probably be one of my priorities).  Love to see Rocafort doing work in these giants, a huge coup (although I'd also love for him to get a big new assignment).
• New story from Tom Sniegoski and Eric Gapstur featuring Kamandi.  Excellent story with a robot butler sort of upstaging Kamandi.  Sniegoski is another welcome presence in these giants, familiar from work relating to Jeff Smith's Bone.
• New story from Dan Jurgens featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes, in a fine spotlight.
• Reprint of DC Comics Presents #3 (from 1974!!) featuring Superman and Adam Strange (cover feature).
• Reprint of The Brave and the Bold #113 (from 1978!!) featuring Batman and the Metal Men.
• Reprint from Green Lantern Annual #3 (written by Alan Moore, from 1987!!). 

These giants are finally pushing well past 2003 (I think the previous earliest reprint point).  The collection ads have also gotten an upgrade.  Tom King is finally being put in the spotlight (the giants were slow to acknowledge even his Batman), with one page featuring Mister Miracle, Heroes in Crisis, Grayson and Omega Men (though a misprint identifies it as Batman Vol. 1: I Am Gotham), plus a Batman/Catwoman page spotlighting an 80th anniversary, plus King's Batman Vol. 6: Bride or Burglar?, Batman Vol. 7: The Wedding, and Batman/Catwoman: The Wedding Album.  There are also ads featuring the work of Jack Kirby and Darwyn Cooke, among others, plus Tomasi/Gleason's Batman & Robin.

Titans Giant #1

• New story from Phil Hester (always great to see new work from him) and Scott Koblish (and Tom Grummett), featuring the adult Titans.
• New story from Marc Guggenheim (big giants favorite at the moment) and Steve Pugh featuring Raven.
• Reprint from Teen Titans #50 (from 1977) featuring the expanded old school Titans.
• Reprint from Starfire #1.
• Reprint of Adventures of the Super Sons #1.

Watching the Walmart Giants 7 "Crisis On Infinite Earths Giant #2"

Pretty sure this was shipped to Walmart in January, but I only caught it last weekend:

Crisis On Infinite Earths Giant #2

• New from Marv Wolfman, Marc Guggenheim & Tom Derenick, continuing a story from the previous issue, in which Felicity Smoak somewhat obnoxiously (it seems to be my word of the day) tries to petition for her needs to be greater than anyone else's as she mourns the death of Oliver Queen and demands he be brought back.  Probably intended to be read before the final two installments of the Arrowverse Crisis, but I guess it doesn't hurt to read it after.  Featuring an appearance (advertised on the cover) from the Green Lantern Corps, led by Sinestro (will be interesting if the forthcoming TV series will follow such continuity).
• New from Wolfman, Guggenheim & Tom Grummett, likewise continuing a story from the previous issue, featuring Lex Luthor(s).  Still great to see Grummett doing Superman art again, and if anything, he seems more comfortable this time, and as if he never missed a beat (I like when there's continuity in an artist's work, especially if they have arrived at a definitive style, over long periods of time).
• Reprint of Crisis #8, as represented by the cover of the Giant, featuring the death of Barry Allen.
• Reprint of Crisis #11, which in this reading, at least for me, seems much more weirdly to anticipate Geoff Johns' Infinite Crisis than I remember.
• Reprint of DCU: Legacies #6, which is like an Astro City take on Crisis.

I'm still kicking myself for missing the crucial moment in the Arrowverse Crisis Arrow installment in which Grant Gustin's Flash meets DCEU Ezra Miller's Flash, by far the coolest cameo of the whole thing, and by far the most unexpected.  As I'm writing this, Birds of Prey just underperformed in its opening weekend, but hopefully DC movies (such as, yes, Miller's Flash) aren't much affected by it.  (Tonight will also reveal how many, if any, Oscars Joker wins.)  I loved pieces of Arrowverse Crisis quite a bit.  Biggest win of these crossovers almost by default, and a fun way to celebrate the screen legacy of DC superheroes. 

Watching the Walmart Giants 6 "January 2020"

I honestly don't know how much longer I'll be checking in with these things.  A lot of what drove me initially was the original content, in extended arcs, from Tom King and Brian Michael Bendis, and the recent selections have suggested that DC just isn't interested in pursuing the equivalent at least in the immediate future.  Some of this is because of reader apathy, not only in seeking out, like I did, the original releases, but the repackaged material released directly to comic book stores.  And I think that's really down to readers just not expecting that DC would've provided substantial material, even from King or Bendis, which I vehemently disagree with, having read the material myself.  King's Superman was exactly on par with his best, and was my favorite comics material published last year by far.

Still, we have some solace.  As I've been talking about recently, the recent releases do have Mark Russell.  But his material is episodic.  I don't know if there are plans for this to change, or if in fact DC abandoned the idea of serialized original content entirely, possibly because of the bad press one of King's entries received (ironically, some of the only press the Walmart Giants received aside from announcements for line revisions).

Ironically, I'm about to talk about another piece, from Russell, that did just that, too.

Batman Giant #3

• New story from Mark Russell and Ryan Benjamin, featuring Bruce Wayne becoming entangled in a scheme to entrap Wayne's upper crust colleagues, who are caught in some of their seedier deals.  The original solicits suggested it would be another Joker story, like Russell's previous Giant tale, but Joker is more a supporting act in this one, while Batman is caught up attempting to play a game of entrapment against these colleagues from both angles, in and out of costume.  The ending is a tad ambiguous.  One panel suggests Batman might actually be shredding some evidence that could be used against him, after it's been revealed that his colleagues routinely launder their dirty money through Wayne Enterprises.  Either way, it's a nice bit of storytelling, a worthy examination of how complicit Batman might actually be in the very crimes he's committed to fighting, simply because his secret identity is billionaire Bruce Wayne.  (If it were Ollie Queen, he'd attempt giving up his wealth, but surprisingly that's never really been considered with Batman.)
• New story from Frank Tieri and Scott Eaton featuring Two-Face's obsession with his lucky coin, which sort of hinges on his awareness of how it cripples him and still deciding to blame Batman for his ill-luck.
• Reprint of Batman #3 from Snyder, Capullo, and the New 52.
• Reprint of Detective Comics #855 featuring Kate Kane's early solo Batwoman adventures.
• Reprint of Nightwing #3 from Rebirth, featuring Batgirl and Raptor, the eponymous "Better Than Batman" of the arc, attempting to give Dick a better mentor figure.  But turns out he's kind of, well, a dick.

Birds of Prey Giant #1
I begin to suspect that the new wave of giants are going to be a lot of first issues without a second issue, except for a select few.

• New story from Gail Simone and Inaki Miranda featuring the team.
• New story from Robert Venditti and Isaac Goodhart featuring Harley Quinn (in case you were in any doubt that this giant was geared toward readers anticipating the upcoming movie).  I'm not really a Harley fan, but this one does a decent job of spotlighting her motives.
• New story from John Layman and Cully Hamner (a solid duo right there) featuring Huntress outlining her familiar personal crusade.  Would be somewhat easier to understand if she were, as she was on Earth 2, still the daughter of Batman and Catwoman.  Here she struggles to stand out, though she had a good running start in the '90s.
• Reprint of Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #14 from Rebirth.  There's an ad for the collections from the original '90s comics, but it's surprising they didn't actually reprint from them.
• Reprint of Black Canary #9, the New 52 series featuring Dinah as a bloody rock god.  I was always curious if it was actually worth reading more, but I'm still undecided after this.
• Reprint from New Talent Showcase, with an artist who probably should not have been showcased.

Watching the Walmart Giants 5 "December 2019"

The distributor apparently woke up sooner than normal, so I got December's selections sooner than what's been the norm lately. 

Crisis on Infinite Earths Giant #1

• new story from Marv Wolfman & Marc Guggenheim, with art from Tom Derenick.  Right from the start it's clear this is a riff on the TV Arrowverse Crisis, same as:
• new story from Marv Wolfman & Marc Guggenheim, with art from Tom Grummett.
• reprint of Crisis #1
• reprint of Crisis #7 (death of Supergirl)

Now, some expanded thought.

The two new tales are actually pretty worthwhile to the whole Arrowverse Crisis experience.  The first gives a little more spotlight to Nash Wells/Pariah.  Nash is the latest multiverse variant of Harrison Wells in The Flash, the only Arrowverse series I've watched regularly (and soundly enjoyed).  Wells, in the first season, turned out to not even be Harrison Wells, but Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash, who'd taken over Wells' body.  All of the Wells variants are played by Tom Cavanagh, for whom I developed a deep affection when he was playing a bowling alley lawyer in Ed.  His quirky Wells turns have been just one of the many things I love about Flash.

The second expands on Jon Cryer's Lex Luthor, who has appeared in Supergirl.  Cryer is known for many things at this point, including Ducky, Two and a Half Men, and his appearance in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.  His Luthor is almost an apology for that one, and he plays the role quite effectively, complete with a distinct look for the character, which is easily distinguished by Grummett in the new story.

(It's great seeing Grummett working on a Superman comic again.  Ah, the '90s!)

I watched, quite eagerly, the first three TV installments of Crisis, between Supergirl, Batwoman, and Flash.  Naturally, I liked the Flash installment best, not just because of the fateful final run of John Wesley Shipp, but because the production values, as they usually are, were so much better.  I don't belong to the cult of Kevin Conroy (even though in the '90s I was a big fan of his Batman cartoon), so his appearance as the mock Dark Knight Returns Bruce Wayne did nothing for me.  I loved the Smallville coda!  Just perfect.  Arrowverse was riffing as much on Crisis as it was Avengers: Endgame and Justice League (complete with a hero resurrection).  Constantine played very well!  I realize the guy had his own series for a split second, but this portrayal works really well however it ends up onscreen.  I missed a few of the cameos for one reason or another, but it was pretty funny when spastic Kevin Smith cut off Robert Wuhl just as he was about to bash the Snyder movies.  Smooth!  It was nice that the CW sprang for the aftershow thing that's become a staple of cable genre shows, helped make it that much bigger a deal.

Can't wait for the final installments next month!

Superman Giant #1

• new story from Robert Venditti & Paul Pelletier.  It's a Parasite story, a villain I find particularly tiresome, but by the end of it Venditti has found something useful to say.  I always like seeing Pelletier art! 
• reprint of Supergirl #54 (2010)
• reprint of Action Comics #866 (2008, the start of Geoff Johns, Richard Donner & Gary Frank's excellent "Brainiac" arc)
• reprint of Superman #8 (2016, from Tomasi, Gleason & Mahnke)

Watching the Walmart Giants 4 "November 2019"

I see that there's very little interest in finding out what's in these things, but I'll continue plugging away anyway.  It's the internet!  Nobody cares!  Until they do!  Passionately!

And to compound things, my closest Walmart didn't seem to actually get any of the November releases, but I happened to be across town and visited the other one, and that's how I got these:

Batman Giant #2

• New from Michael Grey & Ryan Benjamin, featuring Poison Ivy.  Best appreciated for the Ryan Benjamin art.
• New from Andrea Shea & Neil Edwards, featuring the Signal (Duke Thomas).  I love that Signal gets a spotlight, which is basically only his second ever (after the three-issue mini-series), following Duke's earlier incarnation as a quasi-Boy Wonder in We Are Robin. 
• Batman #2 from the New 52 Snyder era.  Coincidentally I recently got a copy of the first collection in that run, Court of Owls, marking the first time I've read the complete opening arc.  I wasn't overly impressed.
• Detective Comics #854, featuring the continuation of the first extended Batwoman spotlight.
• Nightwing #2 from Rebirth, featuring the continued Raptor arc (as referenced in the title of the later collected edition, Better Than Batman, naturally).

Batwoman/Supergirl: World's Finest Giant #1

• New from Margaret Stohl & Laura Braga, featuring the first team-up of the duo.  Since I haven't actually read a lot of Batwoman comics, this was my introduction to her twin sister & archnemesis Alice (a sort of Lisbeth Salander vibe going on there, or Data/Lore, if you're a Star Trek fan).
• New from Sanya Anwar & Giant favorite Chad Hardin, featuring Batwoman.  It's great to see Hardin in a new context, and he's a complete natural, probably a better overall experience.
• New from Andrea Shea & Mike Norton, featuring Supergirl, trading heavily on the Supergirl TV show continuity.  I don't know if the comics have been doing that, too (I guess I don't read a lot of Supergirl comics, either...), but clearly this particular giant is being directed at fans of the TV shows, anyway, so it makes sense.
• Batwoman: Rebirth #1
• Supergirl: Rebirth #1
• Batwoman #0, the series that began just before the New 52, but experienced enough delays that it sort of was drafted into the New 52.  It's sort of amazing to think that the character has now had three spotlight runs (thanks to linewide relaunches), all of which are being reflected in these giants.  She's clearly the most successful and lasting element of my much-beloved 52, and that's nice to see. 

Watching the Walmart Giants 3 "October 2019"

Now, the title of this feature is obviously becoming an anachronism (and it was from the moment I decided on it), since these giants are going to begin appearing in the direct market (comic book shops), but I will continue to pick them up at Walmart.  October's releases were late in my local store, and I guess the release schedule has changed, with apparently a bimonthly scheduled in effect, which means three titles I didn't see last month finally appeared this month, and the final installment of Superman Giant, and King & Kubert's arc.

So here's what I'm talking about:

Aquaman Giant #1

• Original story from Steve Orlando & Daniel Sampere featuring Aquaman battling Black Manta.  Somewhat standard material here, though Orlando introduces the "tether of Amphitrite," and possibly the concept of the mermazons, which alone was worth reading.
• Original story from Marv Wolfman & Pop Mhan featuring Aquaman battling an organization called Scorpio (unrelated to the pseudo Bond villain from The Simpsons, probably, and thus featuring far fewer hammocks).
• Prologue to "Throne of Atlantis" from Aquaman #14 by Geoff Johns.
• Mera: Queen of Atlantis #1.
• Teen Titans #14, featuring the new Aqualad.

DC Super Hero Girls Giant #1

• Original story from Amanda Deibert & Erich Owen.
• Original story from Amy Wolfram & Agnes Garbowska.
• Excerpts from Hits and Myths, Summer Olympus, and Past Times at Super Hero High.

I originally wasn't going to get this one, but I figured I could later give it to my niece. 

Superman Giant #16

• "Up in the Sky, Part 12" from Tom King and Andy Kubert, the conclusion, featuring Superman and the little girl on their eventual journey home, depicted as a conversation they have along the way.  It may not be the flashiest installment of the epic tale (which, as I think I've emphasized previously, has become another of King's many, many highlights for me), but it's a nice way to ground the Man of Steel, as the story has done all along, in his more human qualities, even as he's constantly asked to use his superhuman skills.  This is a far trickier task than it seems, and King has just provided a master class.
• Superman/Batman #50, featuring the improbably team-up of Jor-El and Thomas Wayne (it works, although I wish more of the story focused on them and less on the present-day and extraneous Justice League activities).
• A Superboy tale from Superman80-Page Giant 2011.
• The Terrifics Annual #1, featauring a Tom Strong tale but more importantly a Java flashback written by Mark Russell.  You may remember me talking about Russell's work in the September giants.  He seems to have effortlessly refuted me in advance, because this one's a wonderful narrative that somewhat knowingly takes a note from Russell's own Flintstones but imbues real poignancy in its observations.  It's the best thing I've read from him, personally, since my original impressions of him in Prez. 

This was also the final issue. 

Teen Titans Go! Giant #1

• Original story from Sholly Fish & Marcelo DiChiara featuring Tamaranian hiccups.
• Original story from Ivan Cohen & Sarah Leuver.
• Reprints from Teen Titans Go! and Teen Titans Go! Digital, featuring far more art from Jorge Corona (whom I previously encountered in the pages of We Are Robin) than I expected.

Reading Comics 234 "Mark Russell's Giants"

Reading through the rest of the September Walmart giants this morning, I reached the Mark Russell material from Swamp Thing Giant #1 and Villains Giant #1, and...

Look, I loved discovering Russell in the pages of Prez.  Prez was a wicked political satire.  Russell slowly developed a favorable reputation among fans thanks to his Flintstones, which was less about the classic cartoon and more social satire.  He scored again with Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles.  I've still yet to read any of Snagglepuss Chronicles.  Despite my increased misgivings about being a full-on fan of Russell, I'd still like to.  Recently he's begun branching more into the mainstream, although noting he's the writer of the first-ever Wonder Twins comic may not seem to help make that case.

At any rate, I initially viewed discovering him in the latest round of Walmart giants as another sign of DC's increasing trust in his career.  You don't have to have a career trending upward to get into these pages, but I figured Russell was this round's version of including Brian Michael Bendis and Tom King in the last round. 

And maybe that's still the case, but unlike what I thought of Bendis and King's work, I wasn't overly thrilled with Russell's.

In Swamp Thing Giant #1, Russell writes one of several new features with Swamp Thing himself (a perennial favorite of DC's when considering TV adaptations, although I guess the most recent one was cancelled after a single season; I think the idea would work much better as a movie).  His involves Swamp Thing agonizing over his place in the world, and periodically purging all his negative thoughts into a kind of "beet" he discards.  Then along comes an evil agricultural conglomerate that's been choking the environment in the name of profit.  Swamp Thing turns to an old friend to find answers about what's happening.  The old friend turns out to have betrayed him.  But the joke ends up on her, because she unwittingly eats one of his poison "beets" and ends up paralyzed and buried alive.  The company gets ahold of the poison "beets," too.  And Swamp Thing is basically none the wiser about what's happened.

In Villains Giant #1, Russell writes a Joker story in which he uses viral marketing to trick people into performing outrageous stunts in order to win free money to cover healthcare costs because although Gotham has finally been cleaned up, the budget has to cut healthcare in order to fund the expanded prison system.  And then the solution the city reaches to end Joker's latest reign of terror, ingeniously free of any overt criminal intent, is to reinstate the healthcare budget...this time at the cost of funds intended for higher education.

My problem with both stories is Russell's cynical conclusions, and asking the reader to accept them with characters of higher and higher profile.  Imagine him writing Batman directly with this approach.  It would become less about the character and more about Russell's conclusions, and that's the problem.  This sort of thing works when you're handling minor or obscure characters, but less so when the reader theoretically actually cares about the ones being used.  And it exposes Russell's narrative limitations.  He doesn't really tell stories at all, it can sometimes seem, but a threadbare account of what you read on social media. 

Infamously or not, but Russell's attempted launch for the last wave of Vertigo comics, Second Coming, was cancelled by DC before it ever saw print.  I can begin to understand the company's trepidation.  (It was later picked up by another publisher.)  Russell made his name lampooning the Bible in God Is Disappointed In You and Apocrypha Now, neither of which is actually well-known even now.  The idea that nothing is sacred to Russell is hardly a new phenomenon, then, but he might have finally found territory he couldn't, or couldn't any longer, cross, at least with a major publisher with an increased profile. 

(It's sort of what Alan Moore discovered, too, but that's a different story.)

I have no idea what Russell's future with DC looks like.  Does he eventually get a truly significant assignment?  Does he learn how to really tell a story?  Time will tell...

Reading Comics 233 "Superman Giant #15"

Having now read Superman Giant #15, I actually ended up getting another copy so I can hopefully include it among the stuff I'm bringing to my sister's wedding in December, which will hopefully include most of my family (I already know my oldest brother won't be able to make it), including my two nephews based in Maine.  I had already planned on giving them duplicate copies of other Walmart giants I'd gotten, but this one's an opportunity to give them something truly special.

The penultimate (eleventh) installment of Tom King and Andy Kubert's "Up in the Sky" is yet another excellent example from the pair of Superman's unwillingness to give up (as is the whole story) despite unrelenting odds.  In a lot of ways, this is the conclusion of the story (he even finally finds the girl he went into space to save).

Among the other material is a reprint of a Lex Luthor story from 2018's Beach Blanket Bad Guys Special.  Without having read it, I initially thought it would be a throwaway story, but it's actually really excellent, from writer Jeff Loveness and David Williams.  In it, Lex's car has broken down on the side of the road (this version of the character seems inspired by Elon Musk), and a kindly stranger stops to help.  (No, it's not Superman.)  Lex of course rants about Superman in his traditional fashion, as the embodiment of everything that prevents someone from reaching their full potential.  The kindly stranger, though, gives Lex a different impression, of Superman's selfless heroism, and even a portrait of just another guy with regular problems, who'll stop and share s chat and even a burrito with you. 

You'd probably expect at this point for Loveness to have Lex at least consider changing his tune about Superman, but the great thing he does is pivot away from Lex, and just let regular joe, and Superman, end the story.  We glimpse Lex, but he's no longer really relevant.  It's a great bit of storytelling.

Between them, King's and Loveness's takes on what being Superman means encompass not only his abilities but his humanity.  They're a perfect way to explain the character.  Which makes the comic itself a great way to introduce the character. 

I really hope my nephews can make it.  I know I want to see them again, but it would also be nice to be able to give them some interesting gifts.

Watching the Walmart Giants 2 "September 2019"

This month saw the latest revision of the Walmart DC 100-Page Giants line.  I haven't had a chance to read them yet (and it's worth noting that my store apparently wasn't carrying the Aquman, Teen Titans Go or Super Hero Girls Giants), but I figured it was worth outlining the contents:

Batman Giant #1

• A new story from Michael Grey & Ryan Benjamin featuring Clayface.
• A new story from Steve Orlando & Tom Mandrake featuring Batwoman.
• Batman #1 from the New 52 (Snyder & Capullo).
• Detective Comics #23.2 from the New 52 featuring Matt Kindt's brilliant Harley Quinn origin.
• Nightwing #1 from Rebirth.

The Flash Giant #1

• A new story from Gail Simone & Clayton Henry.
• A new story from Jeff Parker & Miguel Mendonca.
• The Flash #13 from the New 52 (still featuring the sweet art of Francis Manapul.
• Green Arrow: Rebirth #1.
• Blue Beetle #1 from 2006, the first of several ongoing series featuring the Jaime Reyes version of the character  Still ashamed to admit I stopped reading after this series ended.

Ghosts Giant #1

• A new story from Dan Jurgens & Scott Eaton featuring the Spectre.
• A new story from Keith Giffen & Priscilla Petraites featuring Gentleman Ghost.
• A new story from John Layman & Andy Clarke featuring John Constantine.
• Various shorts from Cursed Comics Cavalcade, DC House of Horror, DCU Halloween Special 2010, and Justice League #35.

Superman Giant #15

• The penultimate chapter of Tom King & Andy Kubert's twelve-part "Up in the Sky" series.
• Superman/Batman Annual #2.
• Beach Blanket Bad Guys, featuring Lex Luthor.
• The Terrifics Annual #1 featuring new writer Gene Luen Yang.

Swamp Thing Giant #1

• A new story from Mark Russell (!) & Marco Santucci featuring Swamp Thing.
• A new story from Andrew Constant & Tom Mandrake.
• Swamp Thing #1, the 2016 miniseries from Len Wein & Kelley Jones.
• The Hellblazer #1 from Rebirth.
• Zatanna #1, a Paul Dini miniseries from 2010.

Villains Giant #1

• A new story from Mark Russell (!) & Victor Bogdanovic featuring Batman and Joker.  Russell's involvement in these things is a further example of DC's expansion of his visibility, and a good thing, in my mind, in establishing him as a future lead writer for the company.
• A new story from Tom Taylor & Daniel Sampere featuring Deathstroke.  Taylor's profile has risen considerably thanks to DCeased, so his presence in these things is also a sign of confidence from the company.
• A new story from Gail Simone & Priscilla Petraites featuring Harley Quinn.
• Justice League #23.1 featuring the New 52 version of Darkseid's origin from Greg Pak.
• The Flash #8 from the New 52, featuring the origin of the Reverse-Flash.
• Secret Origins #10 featuring Poison Ivy.

Wonder Woman Giant #1

• A new story from Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti & Inaki Miranda featuring Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn.  (Knew Conner & Palmiotti would turn up somewhere.)
• Wonder Woman #2 from Rebirth, the Year One arc.
• Green Lantern #29, skipping the Sinestro Corps War to "Secret Origin."
• Sword of Sorcery #0 from the New 52 featuring Amethyst.

Reading Comics 231 "Midtown Comics"

I had a bad habit of spending money I didn’t have, a decade ago, ordering comics from Midtown.  When I placed my most recent order, it was money I did have, so it was a fine thing to revisit the old habit.  Here’s what I got:

Doomsday Clock #11 (DC)

The penultimate issue, leading to the much-anticipated encounter between Superman and Doctor Manhattan, lays out what exactly Geoff Johns was doing all along, including finally explaining what Saturn Girl has been doing in the Rebirth era (somewhat ironically, for her).  This is probably some of the best stuff Johns has ever written.

The Green Lantern #11 (DC)

Back when I was at my blogging height, I collected a number of blogs I thought would be worth reading on a regular basis, but more often than not I was wrong.  One of them is a comics blog that has continued to review new comics every week, and…I just don’t give a wit about the guy’s opinions.  He seems positively allergic to any real ambition in comics.  So: he doesn’t like Grant Morrison’s Green Lantern.  I think you have to be an idiot not to like a Morrison comic, especially when he’s obviously applying himself and having a great old time.  And he’s clearly doing exactly that in this comic.  And in this issue alone, he does what no one since Geoff Johns has really been able to nail and that’s introduce another forgotten element of Green Lantern lore, and it doesn’t hurt that he deliberately draws on Don Quixote to do it (this has sort of been my Year of Don Quixote).  Anyway, while I don’t love everything Grant Morrison has ever done, this whole run is going to sit very proudly alongside my collection of his works.

Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #1 (DC)

Wow.  So, Brian Michael Bendis, folks.  The dude has been a tireless creative dynamo since coming to work for DC, not just with the creator-owned material he either brought with him or began, but the stuff he’s been imagining with familiar characters, and everything fans expected him to do, he just keeps coming up with curveballs.  This comic, for instance, actually centers on Rose & Thorn, a concept I came across in ‘90s Superman comics, but which Bendis makes his own, brilliantly.  Now I want to read a comic based on her, forget about the returning Legion!  But I’ll take the Legion, too, because I’m pretty convinced that if anyone can pull off a relevant new Legion, it’s Bendis.  I’ve never enjoyed him as much as I am now.  I haven’t always been a fan, per say, but I’ve enjoyed him in the past.  But he’s operating on an entirely new level now.  It’s, dare I say, amazing…

Section Zero #6 (Image)

Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett are basically reprising their old Superboy comics, which to my mind is a very good thing, with this one.  I bought the Stuart Immonen variant cover, naturally.

Spawn #300 (Image)

I’m pretty sure the creator-owned landmark Spawn is matching this issue and passing with the next one is Cerebus, which was much-celebrated in times past but much-criticized today.  Now, given that there’re 300 issues of Spawn to be accounted for and maybe the first few years that most fans are actually going to remember, someone had the bright idea to reboot back to the continuity, basically, of those early years for this occasion.  It’s only just occurred to me that Spawn as a concept seems to have copy-and-posted almost directly from Venom, as far as being a symbiotic costume thing.  Todd McFarlane explains how he came up with the character in the ‘70s, obviously before Venom or the black Spider-Man costume ever existed, but I wonder how much of what ended up being Spawn was envisioned back in the day and how much when McFarlane went off to help found Image on the back of all the money he and his fellow pirate artists were making at the time.  In fact, reading (or sort of reading) those Demon Etrigan comics from Forbidden Geek sort of put Spawn further in perspective: He’s sort of exactly Venom, but envisioned by DC. 

Star Trek: Discovery – Aftermath #1 (IDW)

I’m a fan of the series itself, so I didn’t mind revisiting it in comics form, and this comic is a good way to do so, and even harkens back to the best of IDW’s Star Trek comics.

Superman: Up in the Sky #3 (DC)

This is the comic book store reprint series of the Walmart Superman Giant material from Tom King and Andy Kubert, which I thought I’d get at least one issue of, calculating (correctly, as it happily turned out), that this one would feature the “controversial” installment featuring the many deaths of Lois Lane.  And rereading this material was as equally pleasurable as the first time, as I hoped, so that was also good to see.

Watching the Walmart Giants 1 "August 2019"

I guess it was time to make it official.  Nobody really seems to be putting an emphasis on these things, so at a time when they're finally going to be available outside Walmart, the stuff I've been reading from Walmart since June 2018...I'm just going to make as regular a feature here as I've been blogging these days.   Hopefully once a month, right?

The Walmart DC Giants began fourteen months ago.  There was a revision of the lineup earlier this year, and there'll be another one next month.  I haven't been getting all the titles every month, but I tend to get the first issue of each new title (so, certainly check back in next month for an expanded edition).

Anyway, without further ado:

Batman Giant #14
The final issue of this particular volume also features the final installment of what's being officially reprinted as Batman: Universe from Brian Michael Bendis and Nick Derington.  Picking up the story from last month, Vandal Savage has erased Batman from existence!  But not Bruce Wayne!  The funny thing about the whole arc, and certainly this final installment, is how the famous master of decompression, Brian Bendis, has actually delivered compressed storytelling, and quite capably, thank you very much.  We join Bruce as he's already hunting Savage all over again.  Alfred, on his coms link as always, observes, "I wish I understood this compulsion, Master Wayne."  To which Bruce responds, naturally, "Me, too, Alfred."  And he finds Savage, and the white ring that in this tale is the first Green Lantern ring (Volthoom begs to differ! but who really cares?), and of course Batman wins.  The whole thing has been a fun little wild ride, and a terrific spotlight for...Nick Derington, actually.  Derington was previously best known for his Young Animal Doom Patrol, but I suspect his profile is going to rise considerably after this.

The issue also features reprints of Paul Dini's Detective Comics #834, which reconciles Batman with Zatanna post-Identity Crisis; Nightwing #14 (circa the New 52), and Batgirl #0, which is Gail Simone's origin story, which ironically for Simone ends with a nod to Batman: The Killing Joke.

Flash Giant #7
I've never been a big fan of Simone.  I should've been interested in reading Flash Giant regularly, but Simone was writing the lead new material.  This is the conclusion to her tale, too.  Long story short, it did not leave me wondering if I missed anything good.  Weird twist: Simone has one of the Rogues working alongside Flash, but it's not Captain Cold (or even Piper), but rather Weather Wizard, for whatever reason.  It at least further suggests that it might be time to revisit the Rogues as potential allies rather than foes. 

The issue also includes Adam Strange: Planet Heist #7 & 8 (to finish the story in this final issue) and Justice League #21 (circa the New 52), which was the final installment of what had until this issue been a back-up Shazam feature, an update for the character that later directly informed this year's Shazam movie (which is actually pretty good; Darla rocks!).  The movie deleted Black Adam and substituted Sivana in an expanded role in his place, but otherwise the ending remains much the same.  I figure Black Adam is being saved for another film appearance, assuming Dwayne Johnson ever actually plays him.  Guaranteed to have more audience appeal for a sequel if he's in that...

Superman Giant #14
No, Tom King is not in this one.  Apparently to accommodate whatever unexplained reasons for repeated delays his story has met in these pages, this is the only title that will not be rebooted next month.  That's all I know for now.  Anyway, replacing Superman: Up in the Sky this month is once again a one-off from Steve Orlando, which is not as interesting as his previous one. 

Also featured are reprints of a story from Green Lantern Secret Files and Origins 2005 featuring Darwyn Cooke illustrating Geoff Johns; Superman/Batman #19, which again features the new Supergirl from that era, which in the credits confusingly uses Steel's logo in a bad printing job for "Girl of Steel;" and The Terrifics #14, from earlier this year, the last issue written by Jeff Lemire.

Titans #7
With all due respect to Dan Jurgens, but I've barely been interested in his Teen Titans stories from these things (which is odd, because I loved his Teen Titans comics from the '90s), and didn't read this installment. 

Also featured: Teen Titans #14 (Geoff Johns era); Superman #38, which features the Super Sons, Damian Wayne and Jon Kent, whose Super Sons series was regularly included in the title, with this issue part of a crossover arc; and Sideways #13, the final issue of the series, which like the series itself far better than lack of fan interest suggested.  In fact, that's the only reason I bought this Giant, so I could catch the final issue.

But it came with a bonus!  A complete listing of the new line-up:

• Batman Giant
• Flash Giant
• Swamp Thing Giant
• Wonder Woman Giant
• Aquaman Giant
• DC Ghosts Giant
• DC Villains Giant
• Teen Titans Go! Giant
• DC Super Hero Girls Giant

And of course, Superman Giant, regardless of whenever, if ever, it gets renumbered.  As my mom used to say, your guess is as good as mine.

Turtlepop! #4 "Tom King Pulled From Superman Giant???"

Drunk on tequila and lust for world conquest.

THOUGHT BUBBLE COMICS: Is it true that we're apparently breaking a world exclusive?
TURTLE: Insofar as nobody chatters about the Walmart 100-Page Giants?  Yes.

THOUGHT BUBBLE READER: So when you performed a search, you came up with the same results?
TURTLE: Are we circling around to explaining what we're talking about?  I hope so.  This format is weird.  And used too infrequently.  Apparently the last one was in 2017.  Also, yes.

THOUGHT BUBBLE READER: Okay, so to quit burying the lead, I just picked up the latest issue of Superman 100-Page Giant, #11, at Walmart, and discovered that Tom King's serialized "Up in the Sky" wasn't in it.  What's up with that?
TURTLE: Can only speculate, dude.  Walmart and/or DC might've decided that the controversial "Lois Lane died a million times" installment was too much bad publicity.

THOUGHT BUBBLE COMICS: But will King's story get to be completed?
TURTLE: Maybe?  DC's releasing a version of it in comics shop beginning in July.

THOUGHT BUBBLE COMICS: Basically you don't know?
TURTLE: ...Basically I don't know.

THOUGHT BUBBLE COMICS: Crazy that one of the hottest commodities in comics is writing something that nobody is chattering about?
TURTLE: Totes crazy, dude.

THOUGHT BUBBLE COMICS: Weren't you originally designed to be crazy sarcastic?
TURTLE: Yes, Steve Orlando writes the comic replacing King in Superman 100-Page Giant #11.

THOUGHT BUBBLE COMICS: That has nothing to do with what I asked.
TURTLE: It was still relevant.

THOUGHT BUBBLE COMICS: True.  Thoughts?
TURTLE: Steve's become a favorite of mine, so I guess I'm happy, if anyone has to unexpectedly replace King, in the middle of a story (a great story), it might as well be Steve Orlando.

THOUGHT BUBBLE COMICS: Is it true that Andy Kubert accidentally shot the inker and that's why the King comic didn't get published?
TURTLE: This has taken a strange turn.

THOUGHT BUBBLE COMICS: Can you just answer the question?
TURTLE: Yes.

THOUGHT BUBBLE COMICS: Yes, as in, "Yes, Andy Kubert shot the inker," or "Yes, I will answer the question?
TURTLE: Yes.

THOUGHT BUBBLE COMICS: Helpful as always, Turtle!  Thanks for stopping by!
TURTLE: My pleasure! 

Reading Comics 225 "Grass of Parnassus, Superman 100 Page Giant #7"

Grass of Parnassus

This is a new webcomic that made me use Instagram for one of the first times ever.  The hook, for me, is Stuart Immonen, working once again alongside wife Kathryn Immonen (realized when I was composing this and adding labels that she didn't have one yet).  Stuart's one of my all-time favorite comics creators, so it's always fun to see what he's up to. 

Grass appears to be an attempt at a kind of slice-of-life-in-the-future.  Readers seem a little baffled as to what exactly is going on, but it seems pretty straightforward to me. The Immonens have an excellent track record (I haven't read all of their work, but Russian Olive to Red King and Moving Pictures are fantastic).  Here's a compilation of Stuart's best-regarded work.  As much as I love Stuart's art, and his collaborations with Kathryn as writer, I really wish he got back into writing; his Superman comics, as artist and writer, have yet to be rediscovered, but they should be.

Superman Giant #7

I'd be remiss if I didn't chime in on this one.  Apparently these Walmart 100-page giants finally made the news for something other than merely existing.  This was last month's edition (I just scooped up this month's full slate, which included the first revamp and expansion of the line, but haven't had a chance to read it yet).  When I read it I thought it was just another typically intricate narrative from Tom King (my favorite among all active writers in the medium, easily), but...

So the story is this: Superman, on a desperate quest to rescue a young girl kidnapped by aliens, places an extreme-long-distance call, deep in space, to Lois back on Earth.  The whole process is tedious and slow, and on top of that Lois seems to take forever to answer.  Superman spends the time imagining all kinds of worst case scenarios, Lois dying horrible deaths from any of the many emergencies Superman's usually there to prevent.

Sounds fairly normal, doesn't it?  I mean, Superman's been saving Lois Lane from certain death since the very beginning.  It's one of the most recognizable tropes in all of superhero storytelling.  Lois actively puts herself in danger all the time as an intrepid reporter.  You'd think no one could possibly object to a story that just sort of points all that out.

But...

Well, people are always kind of outraged about one thing or another.  It only seems that outrage dominates public discourse more than ever before.  Right?  Anyway.  The outrage this time is that this was a comic that featured Lois dying.  Repeatedly.

This was a reported case of a mother being shocked at what her kid was being exposed to.  Big surprise, right?  Story of comic books right there.  Mom buys these Walmart comics every month, never imagining that there was anything to object to, until she takes a gander and...

So you can't really help that sort of thing.  King is no stranger to provoking readers, of course.  He's been doing that since seemingly killing off Kyle Rayner in the Omega Men preview, and he's made an ongoing spectacle of Batman with regular intervals of similar acts, shocking readers who should have possibly seen it all before.  He did it again with Heroes in Crisis (if I get around to it, I'd love to talk more about that one, especially how #5 lets the cat out of the bag, assuming readers were aware that there was a cat, and a bag, and that you could've anticipated that from the very beginning, without really harming the story, because it's all about how masterfully King commands the page, as always).

What I love about all this is that it does put the focus on the content rather than the existence of these giants, and hopefully will get more readers checking them out. 

Reading Comics 223 "The DC Walmart 100-Page Giants, Month 5"

So I've continued buying DC's Walmart-exclusive (although someone...smuggled? them in, as I guess you should expect, to one of the comic cons I went to this fall) 100-page giants.  I've caught every issue of the Superman giants, most of the Batman, and started buying the Teen Titans giants again.  Haven't really gotten back into Justice League after the first issue.

World's Greatest Super-Heroes Holiday Special
The second holiday special, after the Halloween one, is Christmas-centric.  The lead, original story is from Scott Lobdell and features the Flash and his Rogues.  The real highlight of this particular giant is, however, is a reprint from two years ago, "Good Boy," a Batman Annual #1 reprint written by Tom King, his origin of Ace the Bathound, who starts out as a dog used by the Joker.  Batman brings him home, not knowing what else to do, and Alfred spends the next four months taming him, exhibiting his infinite Pennyworth patience.  The sequence, of course, ends on Christmas, with Batman noting wryly that Alfred didn't get him anything this year.  One of King's great characterizations has been Alfred; it'd be great for an extended look at some point, although if this is the closest we get it'll still rank among the highlights of the run.

The other highlight is from Superman #64, originally published in 1991, as you can tell a little less than a year before "Doomsday."  The writer is Dan Jurgens, but the artist is Butch Guice (as he was later known; here he's still known as Jackson Guice), who was later one of the key "triangle era" artists, best known for his Action Comics Eradicator "Reign of the Supermen" arc.  The Guice in this issue is wonderfully moody (even if the inking could be updated to freshen it up), full of shadows, a marked contrast to his later work and not the kind of art you typically associate with Superman.

There's also a Supergirl tale that's similar to Jurgens' tale about answering mail and humanity; a Harley Quinn; and a Green Lanterns, Rebirth era tale featuring Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz.  Honestly, when that run began I was hugely excited for Baz and Cruz to step into the spotlight, but over time I've grown tired of the storytelling that leaned so heavily on their core insecurities, which of course this tale does, too. 

Batman 100-Page Comic Giant #5
The lead is the third installment of Brian Michael Bendis and Nick Derington's all-new tale, which this issue finally reveals as featuring Vandal Savage as the big bad, after spotlighting an atypically muddled Riddler as Batman and eventually Green Arrow, too, trying to figure out his latest scheme.  Bendis is clearly having a ball (a lot of DC fans expected him to jump into writing Batman, not Superman, when his jump from Marvel was first announced), while Derington has helped keep things lively, too.  I was trying to remember where I knew Derington from, and figured out it was the Young Animal Doom Patrol, famously much-delayed in recent issues.  Hopefully his collaborating with Bendis means Derington is gaining DC's confidence as one of its elite artists.

As has appeared in previous issues, the three reprint comics that round out the Batman giants are the "Hush" arc, plus the New 52 Nightwing and Harley Quinn.  I was initially a fan of Kyle Higgins' Nightwing, but I find myself glossing over the material in the giants, and I have no real interest in Harley Quinn.  "Hush" remains brilliant, although in hindsight it certainly seems obvious that Jeph Loeb's fixation on the previously-nonexistent childhood pal of Bruce Wayne, Tommy Elliot, is a dead giveaway that he was the mystery villain all along.  The Jim Lee art equally remains spectacular.  Honestly I think Lee's DC work will become his lasting legacy.

Superman 100-Page Comic Giant #5
But I'm really here to once again gush over Tom King.  Like Bendis, he's now on the third installment of his giants tale, which features Superman's search for a little girl, and the increasingly desperate lengths he will go to in order to find her.

This issue features his most desperate moment so far in the tale.  It's a kind of update on the classic Superman/Muhammad Ali boxing match from the '70s, only this time it's not Ali he's fighting, but an alien named Mighto.  That cover image is from artist Andy Kubert, who unlike his brother Adam has stuck with DC since they jumped, like Bendis, unexpectedly from Marvel, ten years back.  Until now Andy had mostly been associated with Batman material, but he's proving equally adept, and perhaps, ideally suited, to Superman, and this issue, as it for King's tale, might be the highlight of his DC work to date.  It's really something you ought to go out of your way to track down and read for yourself.

As really only the classic "Doomsday" arc had done previously, the story is all about Superman's incredible endurance, his ability to absorb punishment.  This is superhero comics storytelling usually reserved for Spider-Man (which always seemed fairly beside the point to me, other than Marvel's penchant for tortured characters), and seems counterintuitive for someone like Superman, who's usually thought of as overpowered to the point where an artificial weakness (kryptonite) had to be invented along the way.  But Superman is best understood not by his powers but by his force of will, his humanity, and as such, King has rightly illustrated what putting him in a fight ought to look like.  He takes an incredible pounding, apparently past his ability to endure, and yet he refuses to stay down. 

When you think of DC going out on a limb with something like these Walmart giants, you don't really expect them to throw away exceptional material like this, much less have talent the caliber and prestige of Tom King, Brian Bendis or Andy Kubert.  And yet these are bold decisions that are truly paying off, as these guys are massively delivering, and this installment proves beyond any doubt that truly great material is making its way into the giants. 

Reprints include Green Lantern (the original Geoff Johns series), Superman/Batman (someone at DC no doubt finds it deliciously amusing to look back at President Luthor in the Trump era), and The Terrifics, which continues to prove, well, terrific.  I hope Jeff Lemire can keep it going for a long time.  It's at long last, perhaps, his DC breakthrough, and quite possibly Mister Terrific himself in his breakthrough moment.

Teen Titans 100-Page Comic Giant #5
Dan Jurgens, at his most generic, is about the level of what you'd expect from the idea of Walmart-exclusive storytelling.  This is not to say that Jurgens can't rise well above that perception, but he seems uninterested in what I've read, and why I haven't read all of the Teen Titans giants.

But the reprint material is well worth the price of admission.  Johns' Teen Titans is being serialized (last issue included the classic moment where Bart Allen officially reinvented himself as Kid Flash).  I'd never really read it before; this introductory arc is kind of funny in hindsight, as Johns is clearly presenting a version of his later Reverse-Flash as a villain merely attempting to make the hero better, an idea that reached its zenith in Flashpoint.  There's also Super Sons, which I likewise haven't previously had a lot of experience actually reading. I think Pete Tomasi is better suited to writing this than he was Superman.  And then there's Sideways, which on a superficial level was always interpreted as the New Age of Heroes DC version of Spider-Man, but honestly, like the New 52 Doctor Fate before it is kind of more the DC version of the Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel.  And in two more issues I'll finally get to read the first appearance of the Seven Soldiers of Victory in the series.  But I'll probably have to track down the annual separately to enjoy Morrison playing in that sandbox again...

Reading Comics 222 "Nightwing, Halloween ComicFest, Walmart 3-Pack Residuals"

Been lousy keeping up Thought Bubble Comics, I know, I know...

Halloween ComicFest 2018
Here's another free comics event, one I haven't really participated in as enthusiastically as, well, Free Comic Book Day, mostly because, well FCBD is a legit phenomenon and this isn't.  It's just an excuse for some free comics!  Not that there's a problem with that sort of thing, right?  Of course, participating publishers also have a kind of themed mandate with this one where they don't on FCBD.  As such, it was far harder, and conversely far easier, to make selections.  I ended up with just two, DC/Vertigo's John Constantine: Hellblazer special edition and Marvel's Thor: Road to War of the Realms.  I wasn't really interested in anything else (not even anything particularly relevant to snag for my three-year-old niece, alas), though I hemmed and hawed, because free comics, yo. 

Obviously DC was most interested in selling the Vertigo brand itself, and Constantine is as reliable a selling point, as signature an element, as Vertigo ever had, sort of the last crayon in the box by the end, absorbed into DC proper eventually but never really feeling at home there.  I mean, the whole concept was built for the original Vertigo mandate of the creepy fringe elements.  I never really got into the character, mostly because he seemed to be used mostly as an excuse, a vehicle, more than for whatever he specifically brought to the table, or that his fans were not particularly vocal about his selling points.  I mean, the concept, which became a Keanu Reeves movie at one point, and then a short-lived TV series and then featured player in another show.  This issue was written by Neil Gaiman, who does Neil Gaiman at his most vague.  What always made Gaiman's instincts work so well in the pages of Sandman was that it was always grounded in real human pathos.  There's an attempt made in the story, but Constantine is inherently uninterested in what's most interesting in Gaiman's best material.  And I'm not really much of a horror for horror's sake kind of reader.  So anyway, still haven't figured out the guy's appeal, or waiting for a writer like Lemire, in the pages of I, Vampire, to figure out how to draw him out of his shell.  What he needs is other characters to consistently react against. 

The Thor issue was part of Jason Aaron's sprawling run, apparently somewhere near the beginning (third out of twelve volumes helpfully spelled out in the back pages).  What's most annoying about Thor as a character, to me, is that he's so often, certainly in Aaron's hands, entirely limited to Asgardian business.  It's like Aquaman only concerned with Atlantis court intrigue.  You need to remember that this is a character who will thrive best as a fish out of water, not forever thrust in alienating context.

Anyway...

Batman #57
Tom King's latest successful outrage magnet was hobbling Nightwing (more on that in a moment) in the midst of a mini-arc with the KGBeast.  I was perfectly okay with this for any number of reasons.  One is that he previously made a very early career mark with the Beast in the pages of his seminal Grayson: Futures End, which of course featured Nightwing, years before King wrote an issue of Batman.  Another is that this arc instantly further elevates the Beast's credibility by placing him, basically, at the same level as Bane, who in King's hands has finally reached his full "Knightfall" potential.  And as he has so often demonstrated, King used this moment for another excellent character study.

But let's move on to...

Nightwing # 50-51
Between Ben Percy and Scott Lobdell, this is the start of a bold new era for Dick Grayson.  Another bold new era.  This is a character who has defined bold new eras in DC. Fans like to slake their need for nerd outrage by claiming Dan DiDio has long had it ought for Nightwing, but...the results?  They kind of suggest the character has blossomed as never before under DiDio's watch.  Whether it was in the pages of the New 52 Nightwing, where he was consistently presented as relevant to Scott Snyder's Batman, which never happened in the long-running first Nightwing ongoing (which went on for a hundred and fifty issues, no less), or the bold new era of his exposed secret identity, which led to the spy adventures of Grayson, which by the way introduced readers to Tom King, the character has had it good.  For a character almost as old as DC itself, who went from a kid sidekick to growing up and claiming his own identity, who had his own team built around him, these have all been milestone events not just for Nightwing but DC and superhero comics in general.

So quit complaining already.

This time it's "merely" a story where he's temporarily forgotten all about having ever been Nightwing, Robin, any of that.  As if that's going to last.  In the meantime, there are going to be entirely new Dick Grayson stories.  That's always a good thing.  Too often, Nightwing stories are most worried about distinguishing him from Batman.  And just as often, a new creative team becomes obsessed with returning the character to his roots.  Somehow Kyle Higgins was the first one to do so as literally as taking him back to Haly's Circus. 

Which means letting him experience something that's not comparing him to Batman or harking back to some previous era (which is not to say material that's done this hasn't been very good) or setting him up in some new territory...This is, once again, a great time to be a fan of Nightwing.  That's the bottom line here, folks.  And Percy and Lobdell in these issues prove they're capable of making it interesting, and good reading. 

Walmart 3-Packs
Ah!  So I've continued reading the latest DC gifts to Wallyworld, the 100-page giants, and while I wish I'd been talking about the King and Bendis tales now unfolding in them here, it's always fun to revisit the 3-packs that still haven't sold out and were trotted out when the giants' display boxes went up.  So I started buying them again, of course, because someone has to...

Batman #1, 25, 34 - These are all from the New 52, and were fun to read.  I was never the biggest fan of Scott Snyder's much-acclaimed and -read run, but I appreciated what it was doing.  And the funny thing is, I always seem to enjoy reading it, too.  The twenty-fifth was a "Zero Year" issue, while the thirty-fourth was written by Gerry Duggan, who later took his talents to Marvel (where the state of its zombies is such that they have no idea Duggan is a great talent they ought to be appreciating).  It's a great issue.

Batman Eternal #1 - The start, all over again, of the weekly series that sort of allowed Snyder (and a host of collaborators) to play in the established sandbox a little more than he allowed himself in the main series.  I'm still surprised that there's so little appreciation for the results. 

Green Lantern Corps #34 - John Stewart is still trying to deal with the fact that he let a planet die in Cosmic Odyssey.  It's just one of those late-80s things that has a longer shelf life than necessary.  But it also gives Kyle Rayner-era villain Fatality more stories, and weaves into the complicated nature of the expanded spectrum.  Good GL mythology snapshot (for an issue with a "selfie variant cover," ironically or not).

Trinity of Sin: Pandora - Futures End
Pandora is that signature New 52 character who kind of helped lead the charge of disappointment for fans, who ultimately found her underwhelming despite a massive amount of hype.  But the funny thing is, and I'm pretty sure I've now read this issue through the acquisition of several copies enough times for it to finally sink in, that the fate of the New 52 era is spelled out, how it always seemed destined to lead to DC Rebirth.  Because as far as this issue is concerned, apparently that was always the purpose of Pandora.  Never mind how Geoff Johns later had Doctor Manhattan unceremoniously obliterate her, a kind of symbolic gesture on the whole New 52 era.  Or maybe even that was intentional.  Most fans are never going to care.  But Pandora deserves a better fate.

Reading Comics 219 "DC's 100-Page Comic Giants"

Teen Titans 100-Page Comic Giant #1

News dropped suddenly that DC was publishing four titles of these things, exclusive to Walmart, replacing the three-packs they were putting together for a few years, and I couldn't have been happier.  Besides Teen Titans there's also Justice League of America and Batman, plus Superman, which I have also checked out, below.  These are mostly reprint editions, featuring material from the early millennium, New 52, and Rebirth eras, at least so far, plus lead stories of new material which in later months will feature work from Brian Michael Bendis and Tom King, so DC is definitely taking this project seriously.

The Titans are a team I've followed somewhat loosely throughout my comics experience.  My first one was a battered copy of The New Teen Titans #39, where Dick Grayson and Wally West walk away from the team (in Dick's case in advance of adopting his new Nightwing persona during "The Judas Contract").  I read Dan Jurgens' complete run from the '90s.

That turns out to be relevant for the new story in this issue, because Jurgens is once again the writer.  The lineup is more or less the classic one, insofar as there's Robin, Beast Boy, Starfire and Raven.  No clear indication which Robin, but the costume is classic Tim Drake.  I'm still baffled that there hasn't been a push for a live action Titans movie, but there's a TV version coming up, plus a movie version of the spastic cartoon coming up. 

The first reprint in the issue is Teen Titans #1 from 2003 via Geoff Johns, in which he finally gets to explore a concept he first breached in a famous letter that got published in the waning days of the '90s Superboy comic.  He uses the book as a way to reorient all the characters, streamlining them.  The core of the team had already teamed up in Young Justice, but the approach is totally different.  Peter David's comic was basically a DC version of the teen comics other companies were doing in the '90s, rather than the version DC itself did throughout the decade.  Johns used his Titans as a pilot program for his wider efforts later, expanding on things he was doing with the Justice Society.  Wonder Girl arguably got the biggest push.  Previous to Johns she was almost more of a cosplay superhero, even wearing a wig, for whatever reason, to achieve her blonde look; Johns keeps that hair full-time. 

Next up is a reprint of Super Sons #1, which is the first time I've had a look at it.  Peter Tomasi continues his Damian Wayne experience, this time with added Jon Kent, with Jorge Jimenez on art.  I don't think it works as well, outside of Superman, the adventures of the all-new and all-different Robin and Superboy, but these are fun characters, defining new ones of the modern era, so it's always worth having them in the spotlight.

Finally there's a reprint of Sideways #1, part of the recent Age of Heroes artist-first push, most of which are versions of Marvel characters.  Sideways is a kind of Spider-Man, visually and as far as his being a high school student trying to fit in.  I've been a fan of Kenneth Rocafort since Red Hood and the Outlaws, so I'm glad to see his work get a spotlight like this.  At least as this issue goes, Sideways actually spends more time as plain old Derek James, and Rocafort absolutely sells him that way.  His work looks better that way!  I hope DC recognizes this and finds, I don't know, a Vertigo project for him in the future.

Superman 100-Page Comic Giant #1

The lead new material from Jimmy Palmiotti (who seems to have been contracted to do a lot of the new material in these things) begs the suggestion: if the DCEU wanted a solid new direction for Henry Cavill's Superman, foregoing supervillains and merely having him confront one of those classic apocalyptic weather scenarios would probably sell him really well.  Here he confronts a slew of tornados in middle America.

The next segment is a reprint of Jeph Loeb's classic Superman/Batman #1, an update of the old World's Finest comics with the stars directly in the title, which DC has revisited a few times since, sometimes with Wonder Woman substituting (which was a nice development).  President Luthor!  Bet both DC and Marvel are kicking themselves that they already did their stories like that before Trump.

Then Green Lantern #1 from 2003, the series that followed Green Lantern: Rebirth, in which Geoff Johns works to redeem Hal Jordan.  Ironically few fans seem to realize how common it is for Jordan to need redemption, which works well for his cinematic future, should DCEU ever consider going in that direction.  It's still shocking to think how far Johns truly got to push Jordan.  If it had played out just a few years later, maybe the movie would've had more momentum behind it.  Or maybe just accelerate the Sinestro arc into that first movie.  Would've made a more obvious parallel plot.

Finally, The Terrifics #1, another Age of Heroes launch, this one a Fantastic Four pastiche, featuring a stretchy dude, a smart dude, a weird-looking dude, and a lady who can become transparent.  Some variations there, but pretty clear prototypes being followed.  Jeff Lemire has been one of the most fascinating writers of the modern era, and this is an excellent new showcase for him, hopefully one that will garner him wider acclaim.  Also another chance for Mister Terrific to shine, plus welcome new opportunities for Metamorpho and Plastic Man, plus the new Phantom Girl.

I certainly look forward to more!